Skip to footer

More gems from a breathtaking year in music

2016 has been one of the best years in memory for the variety and quality of music produced. Top releases include Childish Gambino's 'Awaken, My Love!' and Xenia Rubinos's 'Black Terry Cat.'

|
Glassnotemusic.com
  • By John Kehe

2016 has been a very weird year in so many ways, but it’s been one of the best in memory for the breathtaking variety and quality of music produced in the past 12 months. Since our space for music reviews is limited, I present a baker’s dozen of worthy releases that “shoulda been contendahs” for inclusion.

Perhaps the funkiest retro/modern album in years comes from a multitalented artist with the out-there name of Childish Gambino. “Awaken, My Love!” simply has to be heard. Go ahead, I’ll wait ...

Fellow funkster Anderson .Paak proudly represents the flowering Los Angeles R&B scene with his latest album “Malibu.”(Caution – it’s rated R.) 

Xenia Rubinos’s “Black Terry Cat” is an irresistible mash of funk, hip-hop, Caribbean, and jazz. And that voice! It’s a supernatural wonder. Another one of the best voices of the year emanates from British songstress Laura Mvula with her stirring, grandiose “The Dreaming Room.” A world away, three Israeli sisters collectively known as A-WA deliver up a world music delight with “Habib Galbi” (“Love of My Heart”), which doubles as a slammin’ dance-floor smash.

Country music is getting harder and harder to keep in a box, and that’s a good thing. Maren Morris channels more Johnny Cash than June on her excellent and defiant “Hero.” And 23-year-old Parker Millsap is a young country bottle rocket with an old soul, as heard on his album “The Very Last Day.”

Protest songs are on the rise, and leading the charge is steely-eyed winner “American Band,” by Americana veterans Drive-By Truckers. Kingsley Flood’s “Another Other” is, in the band’s words, “an exploration of identity and race and class” with travel guide/lead singer Naseem Khuri.

It was back to the roots for the Rolling Stones with “Blue & Lonesome” and the septuagenarians sound positively reborn. Rocking DIY newcomers Big Thief, with the album “Masterpiece”; Pinegrove with “Cardinal”; and Car Seat Headrest with “Teens of Denial” all contribute mightily to the sterling cache of great music this year.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to More gems from a breathtaking year in music
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Music/2016/1220/More-gems-from-a-breathtaking-year-in-music
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe