This was a rich, rich year of incredible releases, from captivating debuts to old influencers reclaiming their crown and everything between. My personal listening habit this year gently shifted from hiphop to ambient and modern classical musicians but also kept searching for that new metal album that would bring surprises to a genre that sometimes seems so rusted in time and space. Maybe it’s because of this year turning out so dramatically on the political world front that I tend to navigate to either more dramatic music or music that helps me elevate above the average day of life on our little blue planet. Who knows… Who cares! It’s good music and that’s what counts! From number one down:
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Algiers – The Underside of Power
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Ryuichi Sakamoto – Async
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Rafael Anton Irisarri – The Shameless Years
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P.O.S. – Chill, dummy
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Amenra – Mass VI
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Hauschka – What if
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Arca – Arca
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Xiu Xiu – Forget
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Sampha – Process
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Emel Mathlouthi – Ensen
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Valgeir Sigurosson – DISSONANCE
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END – From the Unforgiving Arms of God
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SZA – Ctrl
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Perfume Genius – No Shape
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Ben Frost – The Centre Cannot Hold
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Aldous Harding – Party
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Circuit des Yeux – Reaching for Indigo
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Bing & Ruth – No Home of the Mind
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Blanck Mass – World Eater
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Ex Eye – Ex Eye
- Lawrence English – Cruel Optimism
- Jeff T Byrd – Lamb Alley
- Norihito Suda – Sunshine
- Alder & Ash – Psalms for the Sunder/Clutched in the Max of the Word
- Ziúr – U Feel Anything
- Raven – The Night is Dark, The Night is Silent, The Night is Bright, The Night is Loud
- Syd – Fin
- Shabazz Palaces – Quazarz
- Laura Marling – Semper Femina
- Rapsody – Laila’s Wisdom
- Kelela – Take Me Apart
- Sevdaliza – Ison
- Nine Inch Nails – Add Violence EP
- Björk – Utopia
- Kendrick Lamar – DAMN
- Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid
- Chelsea Wolfe – Hiss Spun
- GAS – Narkopop
- MC Eiht – Which Way Iz West
- A Year in the Country – Undercurrents