I love keeping track of my music favorites at the end of another year. It’s fun to look back on previous years and see what I was interested in, and be reminded of music that I might not have listened to in a while. In any case, here’s this year’s list.
Favorite Albums
- By far, my favorite (and most listened-to) album of the year was All Ashore by Punch Brothers. Elaine and I had the pleasure of seeing them in concert, and it was pretty unreal.
My favorite track is from the album is the title track:
- Swimming by Mac Miller crept up on me in the last month or so. I love its funk/R&B/hip-hop vibe. As my brother likes to say, rest in paradise MM.
This NPR Tiny Desk of his was what got me started on him:
- The Black Panther soundtrack (produced by Kendrick Lamar) was another favorite — particularly the pairing of “Bloody Water” with Anderson .Paak and “King’s Dead.” “Big Shot” was another great song off the album. I almost never like movie soundtracks, but this was a surprise.
- See You Around by I’m with Her was a big winner, especially “Overland”
- Another soundtrack: A Star is Born by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga. Probably also my favorite movie of the year.
- Good Thing by Leon Bridges, especially “Shy” and “Georgia to Texas.” I just picked this up on vinyl, and it sounds even better this way than it does anywhere else.
Favorite Songs
One of the things I like to do is remember songs (not necessarily off of my favorite albums). My favorite songs of the year:
- “This is America” by Childish Gambino
- “It’s Strange” by Louis the Child ft. K. Flay
- “Home” by Resonance
- “New Light” by John Mayer
- “The Man Who Has Everything” by Chance the Rapper. (Normally, I’d say the whole EP, but I wasn’t as impressed by the full effort. This song, however, captures the full Chance the Rapper slow-rap vibe that I love.)
- This was also the year that my YouTube musical listening got even weirder — I’ve moved from chillstep/chillhop for focusing to something called “vaporwave” weird and retro-futuristic, but I dig it. Here’s a sample:
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