| #200 - 166 | | #165 - 131 | | #130 - 101 | | #100 -71 | | #70 - 41 | | #40 - 21 | | #20 - 1 |
| All 200 Songs |
100. Mitski “Once More To See You”
Mitski and Angel Olsen (more Mitski tho) have brought the mid-2010s its eagerly anticipated Tori resurgence. Mitski's recent output sounds like the shit that would have been on Lilith Fair had the festival existed in 1992. In that sense, this sounds way more specifically '90s-retro than any of the vaguely '90s sounding Big Muff guitar bands of the past 5 years. 99. Nails “You Will Never Be One Of Us”
Not never.
98. Weaves “Shithole”
97. Chance The Rapper “All Night”
We never realized Chance is essentially idolized all throughout Chicago, probably more now than any other current rapper. Kanye is global; even back when he felt the most localized, his global ubiquity made true localization seem impossible. Chief Keef always felt localized when profiled in Vice docs and the like, but 2013 was a while ago, and he hasn't truly regained momentum since then. Like many current rappers, Chance is still unsigned and reps locally more than not. Plus, his "Best New Artist" Grammy has brought him one step closer to "beloved" territory - a very exclusive club of extremely famous rappers that include Lauryn Hill, Outkast and a few others. (Kanye is not a beloved rapper. His eligibility disappeared a while ago.) 2017 is Chance's moment, and "All Night" - despite its anti-club anti-label anti-blog subject matter - has been one of Chicago's hottest club bangers of the past year. We've only heard it on NYC's Hot 97 once, but it's a megahit in Chicago, perhaps a sign that a new era of regional hits may be on its way.96. Bruno Mars “24K Magic”
We once awarded Bruno Mars with our Worst Song Of The Year back in 2011 for "The Lazy Song." And now look at him. All grown up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqyT8IEBkvY
95. Skatebored "Cowboy"
This one refreshes. We know it was intended as a throwaway one-off (featuring members of Jackal Onasis, Ian Sweet and Stove messing around with pro-tools), but "Cowboy" felt like it accidentally captured something very specific about last summer. The band name Skatebored suggests a slacker/stoner approach, and the e-drums give it a uniquely hazy, rave quality, but with way more happy strands of weed than ecstasy pills.94. YG f/ Kamaiyah & Drake “Why You Always Hatin’”
Doghug.com is for haters only.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkVS79y4p4Y
93. Pinback “Thought Experiment”
Quietly appearing smack in the center of a comp release, this stray track may have gone unnoticed even for Pinback superfans. It's probably a new song and not a throwaway from 2012 or earlier, yet sounding more quintessentially Pinback than almost anything they've released since Autumn Of The Seraphs. When Mom asks "What does Pinback sound like?" you can feel okay playing her this song. Welcome back Rob Crow.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbw1LXpBZAc
92. Peaer “I.H.S.Y.A.”
91. Rihanna “Close To You”
Close to Yoohoo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHdQ3dgLgK4
90. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats "Remember Tomorrow"
Their only 2016 song was a 7-minute Iron Maiden cover from the b-side of "Pusher Man." Bands are more likely to appear in our list when they only release one song per year, and it seems like Uncle Acid is good at this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sE_eoY6LyN4
89. Margaret Glaspy “Emotions and Math”
88. Wilco "If I Ever Was a Child"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9WyJMgz9dw
87. Chance The Rapper “No Problem”
Chance's chorus over Brasstracks' production are prepping the world for widespread College Dropout-era nostalgia scheduled for 2021. (Stuff that sounds like "Through The Wire" or Cam'Ron's "Down and Out.") "No Problem" charted decently thanks to Chance's star-power but could have performed just as well (or better) in 2004.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Nrdqp4kHE
86. Brujeria “Viva Presidente Trump!”
After nearly 25 years of existence, SoCal's finest Spanish-language grindcore band was finally mentioned on prominent music blogs in 2016 thanks to a single they released with the word "Trump" in the title. Go figure. Before instant fact checking was a normal thing, we were skeptical of the kids on the playground who told us that Faith No More's Billy Gould was the bass player for Brujeria throughout the '90s. (To be fair, these were the same kids who started the rumor that Kurt Cobain consumed 4000 calorie breakfasts every day.) However, Wikipedia now confirms it: Billy Gould is responsible for the deeply heavy ass-kicking bass line in the intro of "Mantando Gueros '97" from the Gummo soundtrack CD. '90s grindcore and deathmetal are the true '90s nostalgia bands.85. YG “Who Shot Me?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgEDgAWvS6c
84. Jake Tobin “Around”
On September 4, 5 & 6 of 2016, OSR Tapes - the label run by Blanche Blanche Blanche's Zach Phillips - released somewhere between 15 and 20 albums, including releases from Flaming Dragons Of Middle Earth and at least one Chris Weisman reissue. These now take up about 1/3rd of the available distro on their Bandcamp page and are the final tapes that will ever be released by OSR. Jake Tobin's Accidentally On Purpose was one of these, an album that might have otherwise slipped under our radar had it not been for Jake's tenure as bassist during Surface To Air Missive's U.S. tour last November. (Their set included "Around" and an original called "Distance" from their keyboard player's project DISGUISEworks.) The instrumentation and production on the studio version of "Around" resemble early Zappa or Beefhart, but not in the same way those names might suggest. Sure, it has the "wacky carnival" atmosphere, but it's almost strangely smooth and relaxing. Super chill; very pop-minded.
83. Stove "Tiny Gaze"
Krautrock mini-epic.
82. Potty Mouth “Smash Hit”
New subgenre proposal: "Po-Pro" which means "Post-Prozac," or modern loud rock which descends from jaded Gen X like Billy Corgan, Nina Gordon, Scott Lucas (mostly angry songwriters from Chicago). Potty Mouth kinda owns Po-Pro.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHarafMUSak
81. Weezer “King of the World”
It's time for another exciting edition of "Riffin' on Weezer." *canned applause* (No joke. We're extremely qualified for a weekly talk show where we only discuss Weezer things. Podcast CEOs: Our starting pay rates are very reasonable.) Weezer's 2011-2016 era wasn't so bad compared to the devastatingly grating 2004-2010 era. "King Of The World" could have been a decent Maladroit follow-up single. (A lot of people really love "Beverly Hills" for some reason even though it's just kinda okay. "King Of The World" is objectively better.) // Not sure what else to discuss, but we do enjoy this picture of Weezer (minus Rivers and Pat Wilson) accepting an award for "Buddy Holly" at the VMAs in 1995. (We wrote about the '95 VMAs about a year ago and determined it was one of the 2 highlights of that broadcast.)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PItvsrYJe1w
80. Deerhoof "Model Behavior"
"Model Behavior" sort of reminds us of the music from an insanely difficult 1989 Nintendo game called The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer. An 8-bit soundcloud version of "Model Behavior" might not sound all that different.
79. Gucci Mane “1st Day Out Tha Feds”
In 1970, John Lennon wrote, recorded, mixed and mastered "Instant Karma!" with Phil Spector over the course of a single day (January 27th). Its 7-inch was released on vinyl 10 days later, February 6th. It reached #3 on the US charts, went platinum by the year's end, has appeared in Nike commercials and is considered among his most revered hit songs. The events surrounding "1st Day Out Tha Feds" covered even more extreme circumstances. The session for this song began one hour after Gucci Mane was released from 32 months behind bars. Released the following day, the song famously received 900,000 streams within its first 12 hours of release. While this context certainly generates a level of excitement, the song is not a trap banger. Mike Will's production effectively captures Gucci's introspection, reflection and urgency. If the prefix "post-" typically implies "a reaction to ___," it might make sense to label "1st Day Out Tha Feds" as the launch of "post-trap" and the debut of a clear-headed post-prison Gucci publicly expelling all desire to associate with "downright evil" trap life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu13Mmfxctc
78. DNCE “Cake By The Ocean”
There are fewer charting hits now than at any point since the '60s. Placing blame on playlisting is slowly making more and more sense, as Billboard's own "Hot 100" Spotify playlist contains streams that count toward their own chart results. (How is this not a problem again?) And with so few of those charting hits resembling anything that could be described as "fun," it's incredible that wedding bands and bar bands can still add current charting songs that feel reasonably multi-generational to their repertoires. A few weeks ago at a town fair, we heard a cover band begin their set with "24k Magic" and "Cake By The Ocean" (followed by "Rude," "Locked Out Of Heaven," "Uptown Funk" and 3 hours of '70s/'80s covers). Even Mr. Garrison was feeling DNCE this year. Keep the party alive.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNjZ8I8qZ5c
77. A Tribe Called Quest “Solid Wall of Sound”
Is this the first time Elton John and Busta Rhymes were on the same song? We should Google this, but we'd rather leave the question open for now.At his peak, Busta was among the goofiest, most off-center hit-makers of the moment, and we loved him for it. We cracked up the first time we heard "Woo-Haa!" in '96. And even when he took a shot at sex-jams like "What's It Gonna Be?" in '99, they still fit his refreshingly bizarre aesthetic. This was not the same Busta Rhymes from 2011 whose contribution to Chris Brown's "Look At Me Now" was probably the most overrated hiphop verse of that year. In "Look At Me Now," he approached his verse under a superficial "legacy" niche, throwing away the inventiveness that made him so special in favor of painfully uninspired "fast" rapping. Funkmaster Flex took the bait, to say the least, since it was the most overplayed 60-second song-fragment on Hot 97 for at least six months (often played 3 or 4 times in a row).
Now five years later, Busta sticks to a similar "boring and fast" approach. But in "Solid Wall Of Sound," the presence of Tribe encourages unusual hints of quiet, meditative soulfulness, a strange combination which technically fits into the "inventive as fuck" category. All the song's elements seamlessly blend, including Sir Elton John who adds the official stamp of approval to the "Bennie and the Jets" sample with his own guest verse. We didn't even realize it was him, figuring it was some modern R&B crooner who sort of resembled Elton John's voice.
76. Surface To Air Missive “Please No More”
What's the significance of the recorder?#1 4th Grade. Many schools force their students to learn the recorder in 4th grade. Also back in the '90s, when all of the world's school children were playing "My Country Tis Of Thee" on the recorder, someone swapped out Yoko Ono's sheet music with a different version that included the brown note which made the entire world shit itself.
#2 Frequently used in classic rock to imply a renaissance-themed overtone, the recorder appears prominently in songs like "Ruby Tuesday," "The Fool On The Hill," Simon & Garfunkel's "El Condor Pasa," Jethro Tull's "Mother Goose" and Yes's "Your Move / I've Seen All Good People." It also appears in a distorted and chaotic manner in the outro of Jimi Hendrix's "If 6 Was 9," but arguably its most famous pop usage is in Jimmy Buffet's white-people-gettin-turnt anthem "Margaritaville."
While many (not all, but many) young musicians tend to immerse themselves in classic rock early within their musical discovery, it's interesting that so few (if any) prominent indie bands have championed the recorder prior to Surface To Air Missive. It's possible that recorder appears on some Beirut songs (since their instrumentation is wild enough to include a sousaphone player). But Surface To Air Missive are surely the first modern band to formulate a concept album around this unusual rock instrument, with "Please No More" among its most tasteful and prominent usage.
75. Nocturnal Habits "Good Grief"
Our coveted "Best Band Worst Logo" award goes out to none other than Nocturnal Habits, the long awaited reunion of 2/3's of Unwound. Their first single "Good Grief" sounds like AP Calculus or studying for the SATs. Not necessarily mathy, but college-y for sure. And we LIKE that the logo sucks. It adds character. It's a good thing. Are there any '90s reunions that haven't happened yet? Probably not. We saw that Cap'n Jazz might have announced some dates the other day. But besides them, Unwound might have been the last one. RIP Coachella.
74. Lil B "I Was Born Poor"
The most important Twitter moment of 2016 was obviously Lil B's lifting of the curse last June. Within 12 months, Kevin Durant was awarded the NBA Finals MVP. NOT A COINCIDENCE. Do not fuck with the BasedGod. The saddest aspect of the curse lifting is that now we will probably never get to witness Kevin Durant and Lil B going head-to-head in what would have been the greatest one-on-one basketball game of the century.We're marginally fascinated with the concept of NBA Players releasing hiphop mixtapes, and we're sorry to report that Kevin Durant's is NOT fire. All emojis associated with KD's rap career would not include any 🔥🔥 or 💯💯 but rather probably a generous helping of 😭😭😭 and 👎👎👎.
The most infamous NBA rapper of all time is probably Shaquille O'Neal, who scored a handful of charting hits circa 1996 including collaborations with Warren G, Phife Dawg and Biggy. Our favorite Shaq song is probably "Biological Didn't Bother," a blatant rip-off of Tupac's "Dear Mama."
Going into the future, it might not be in Lil B's best interests to spark any beef with Iman Shumpert, the current shooting guard from the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is our pick for probably the most 🔥💯🔥💯🔥💯 current NBA rapper. Shumpert is a man who can shoot AND rap. So many potential paths. He has quite a career ahead of him, and already can boast mega-jams like "Anarchy" and "21 Shump Street." Clearly, Lil B has chosen his battles wisely. The BasedGod has spoken.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GHFwOXwKdY
73. Radiohead "Burn The Witch"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k
72. Wormed “Eukaryotic Hex Swarm”
The word "Wormed" keeps reminding us of the word "Marooned," which is also the title of what we thought at the time (age 12) was the most disturbing season 1 episode of Ren & Stimpy or any of the more warped Commander Höek and Cadet Stimpy adventures, like the one when their molecules began to dissipate throughout the atmosphere. We want to believe that John K. is a Wormed fan. We really do.71. Tweet f/ Missy Elliott “Somebody Else Will”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pN17ZnBX1c
| Follow "LIT AF 2016" on Spotify |
| #200 - 166 | | #165 - 131 | | #130 - 101 | | #100 -71 | | #70 - 41 | | #40 - 21 | | #20 - 1 |
| All 200 Songs |
We're proud of ourselves for figuring out how to do that "O" with the line through it. Not sure who MØ is, but their name is very hard to type on a traditional US keyboard. Annoyingly catchy chorus becomes less grating after the rest of the song reveals itself. Hiring Eric to do their videos was a very good move. 
Cars drive by at night. Headlights slowly work their way across the walls. There's a lot of subtle texture to sort through on Leapling's Vacant Page LP, all of it anchored by careful, delicate restraint. The most immediate tracks - including stand-out "Flesh Meadows" - bordered on the quieter moments from Radiohead's My Iron Lung EP.
White Pony sped up to 45rpms. Word up to drummer Theo Hartlett for such a ferocious performance. We badly wanted to tie this with "Scuttlebutt" from Theo's other 2015 project Spook The Herd, but unfortunately we had to pass due to a certain band closely associated with this website who appears on the B-Side of their split. (We'll embed it below and throw it in the Spotify playlist anyway. Let this be our little secret.)
Less bleeps and bloops than usual. Perhaps this is an indication of what to expect from Radiohead's next record, although it needs a lot more Colin Greenwood. TURN UP THE BASS. [Edit: Can't believe we missed an opportunity to tie in their cover of 
Fun anecdote time: People might not remember this so well, but it was kinda difficult to locate Failure CDs way back in 1997/1998. We special-ordered Magnified from Sam Goody one summer. And then every two weeks we returned and asked them what was taking so long. Months later, we finally got an upsetting phonecall telling us the CD was out of print. It was rough times. Eventually, college started right around the advent of Scour Exchange and Napster. And the rest is history.
We didn't realize it at the time, but Weezer's last album was actually ok enough for us to consider updating our nerdy fanfic 
We promise this was a coincidence, but Felicia also just happens to be one half of Gemma. (See above.) The title track from their As Ever LP arrives abruptly with odd hiccups and sci-fi patches, anchored by a calming Wurlitzer and a classic '60s-style vocal melody reminiscent of Smokey Robinson's best A-sides.
Hardcore fans knew this already, but their bassist John Stirratt (one of the 2 OG's along with Jeff Tweedy) has been responsible for Wilco's signature octave-vox. By all accounts, this guy should be considered "the secret weapon" - or their Michael Anthony, if a Van Halen comparison might suffice. Somebody send this man a beer.
These are tied up because some people think they sound suspiciously similar. Drake's loop of "Why Can't We Live Together" was one of the more inspired choices for any of 2015's actual hits. The original version of "Cha Cha" sampled Koji Kondo's "Star Theme" from Super Mario World for SNES (which was a slowed down version of the 3-second loop played when Mario collects the invincible-star in the original SMB). Perhaps some cease-and-desist action went down, since the sample was changed prior to its availability on legal streaming services. (Granted, this new less-interesting version does actually sound like "Hotline Bling.")
At long last, the Hot Mix finally gets down with some Palm, the 4-piece from Philly who are responsible for the most hypnotic rock album of 2015. Is it "rock" though? Despite their gtr/gtr/bass/drums/vox instrumentation, few (if any) of its songs adhere to traditional rock structure, instead immersed in unpredictable experimentation and loose theme-and-variations not unlike 20th-century classical composers. One of the most engaging live acts of the moment.
This is the opening 17-minute track from the most absurdly chaotic blackmetal album since Mortician's late '90s stuff. (It's actually more insane than that Agoraphobic Nosebleed record from the late 2000s.) 
The drums, sax and vocal parts do not coincide or flow with any specific key (except for the female vocalist, who sounds sorta lined up with the bass). What puts it over the top is the sarcastically absurd dissonance between the guitar and the bass. A giant, depressed fuck-you rage. There's nothing positive about this world at all. It's just chaos, and our lives contain no meaning whatsoever. There's no point of attempting to blend in the traditional sense. We wonder if any commentary on gentrification is intended here. 
Fun fact: It's not a Portishead sample, but rather both jams sampled "Ike's Rap II" by Issac Hayes. The more you know. For your health.
A few of these finger-pick solos sound like Nels Cline is pulling the guitar strings right off the fretboard. Or like Jerry pulling out Tom's whisker. *yoink*
Our Top 2 "drug sequence jams of the year," or "jams for The Dude from The Big Lebowski while floating in outer space." And here come the rainbows. The sun is shining. It's Woodstock 1969. We're so happy Gunk returned after their brief hiatus, and super unexpectedly. Our verbatim reaction was shouting "THERE'S A NEW GUNK???!" seconds after the message dropped in our inbox. (The message was "Greetings, RANCH just released Gunk by GUNK.") And we're equally pumped that we still have no idea what Dungen is singing about. Passing a tab of acid from one foreign tongue to the other. 
On Chibimoon, Grass Is Green continues banging out their specific brand of cathartic progressive-hardcore, carefully selecting more bizarre guitar patches, chords and rhythms seldom heard elsewhere (possibly all invented by the band themselves) making it sound like they've got some serious demons to battle. "Tongue In Cheek" is probably our favorite example from their 2011 material, although we're damn good and ready for GIG to take it a step further on Ronson, their forthcoming LP set for release early next year. 
We fucked up last week by waiting until just now to check out Radiohead’s new single which has been out for 10 days or something.. So we haven't really given enough digestion time for either song. We’ve decided to impulsively include “The Daily Mail” after only discovering it a few hours ago (just to be on the safe side) for three reasons: #1 Cool song, #2 Shockingly discernible lyrics, and #3 It sounds like it could’ve been on Amnesiac. Perhaps this single was purposely released late in the year to suggest more traditional rock upon their next LP?? 
With its James Brown samples and Q-Tip’s production assistance, “That’s My Bitch” is the most accessible song from Watch The Throne, although not necessarily the most radio-friendly. Funk-beats (unfortunately) have no place on current hiphop stations (which is the exact reason why it SHOULD be a single... Another huge opportunity lost due to shit marketing...). Kanye gets to brag (what else is new) about enjoying life among the 1%: “I paid for them titties, get your own.” “My dick worth money.” Gross. No one wants to hear about your Kanye-wang. Keep it in your shorts next time.
We gave Katy B’s On A Mission a shot for being a "critics favorite." “Movement” won us over pretty quickly since it's the one that sounded most like Kylie Minogue (and because we LOVE handclaps). It's definitely a solid full-length thanks to super-slick production and Katy's knack for vocal hooks, although we disagree with it's tag as a “dubstep” record. More like "2-step," a genre we haven't heard nearly as much since the early-2000’s.
More super-dark-sounding hiphop... Love love love. We’re lost for a decent critique this time around (unless we discuss the hot chick in the video which would be cheap), so instead we’d like to say how happy it’s made us that Beavis And Butthead called 3Oh!3 “asswipes.” God, it’s about time they really ripped on someone, and if anyone deserved it, it’s 3Oh!3. In a way, this is the moment of B&B’s return that we’ve truly been waiting for... Back to Curren$y, we're not sure if Weekend at Burnie's or whatever it's called was a mixtape or an official release... It kind of doesn't matter, we're just filling space so the picture fits n stuff..
We finally learned one fun fact about Pet Milk, which is they're from Philadelphia. We knew zero fun facts last year when "Cherry Outline" placed at #56. Improvements are fun. Their 2nd EP includes more jangle-guitar, more pop elements, and higher production value, and we're hoping for more new shit from them in 2012. Also we now love 2 bands with the word "Milk" in their name (along with Milk Music). 
#MoreHandclaps! The stream of quick guitar riffs in this song sort of help it to sound like the younger distant cousin of Pinback's “From Nothing To Nowhere” (probably our favorite song from 2007). We’re considering this a REALLY good sign for next year... (Rob Crow LP’s always show up less than a year before Pinback records... Plus they released two 7-inches in 2011. Get ready.) Also you should follow Rob on twitter.
Our most sincere congratulations goes out to Tyler The Creator who wrote on twitter “I Ate Out Jill Scott” at least twice in 2011. We’re hoping it’s true. This song reminds us of the badass smooth jams that get played on WBLS (Today’s R&B and Classic Soul) out of New York. For some reason this is the most irresistible “soul” track we’ve heard in years (probably because it resembles late-70’s/early-80’s grocery store jams).
Quicksand reunion? Let’s hope that’s coming. In the meantime, we’ll take Rival Schools, who unexpectedly owned the fuck out of their 2nd LP after a 10 year hiatus. Except not THAT unexpected since curveballs are a normal thing these days... The artists who we most anticipate usually don’t release the best albums anymore. Who would’ve suspected Rival Schools? Not us. “Choose Your Adventure” kinda sounds like if Muse decided to tone down on the theatrics and start kicking serious ass. (The bass somewhat resembles “Supermassive Black Hole,” but in a good way.)