Camiele’s 50 Favorite Albums of 2016

10. Jambinai – A Hermitage

I don’t even have the words to describe what happened the first time I heard Jambinai. From the moment I interviewed them, I was completely in love.Their sound is like waves crashing on stones on the shore—calamity, violent, bright, loud, tragic, beautifully human yet so close to the earth. I’m not even sure I can properly sum up just what it is about this album that spoke to me, but it grabbed at my heart and never let go. The pounding weight of it, the loudness, the moments of solitude and quiet. There was an energy to A Hermitage that pervaded every single nook and cranny of its digital mapping and branched out to hug a listener close to its bosom. Jambinai took everything that’s been welling up in Korea and mashed it together with the force of a typhoon. Just thinking about this album gets me excited!

You can listen to the album on Spotify and purchase it on iTunes.

9. Dean – 130 Mood: TRBL

Really what can one say about this dude? Anyone who followed along with my experiences at SXSW knows that the moment I saw this kid on stage I was his. Really, all the typical things I could say about him would do him an injustice. Whether you love or hate him vocally, there’s no denying there’s a certain level of brilliance to the way in which he composes his music and fits his melisma around the notes. After his performance in Austin, he literally blew up out of nowhere, but I wonder if people actually understood what it was they were being gifted here. This is a man who’s studied the depth and scope of R&B and reached inside its roots to bring us something truly unique.  It’s more than just an album of “bops,” as it were. This is an album that takes traditional sound and completely turns it on its head. I’d put him in the same league as Miguel or even in some small way Anderson—mellow grooves with a sinister twist and a voice that’s like liquid gold. 130 Mood: TRBL was really one of the most complete and surprisingly daring debuts to come out of Korea this year or in the last five.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

8. Ab Soul – Do What Thou Wilt.

From the pretty grit of DEAN to the lyrical genius of Ab Soul. Quite honestly, nobody’s touching him when it comes to bars, if for nothing else, just the sheer amount. He’s got a mind like a steel trap, this one, and a tongue that’s just as sharp. When my brother first played the album for me, I just sat there with a smile on my face and a giggle in my throat, because… HOW?! That pretty much sums up my experience with Do What Thou Wilt—HOW?! There are some artists you can’t help put sing their praises until the end of time. Ab Soul does that for me, but then stops me short because whatever words I may want to say have already been taken and manipulated to fit his end game. I honestly couldn’t do any type of justice to this man’s brilliance, so the best I can do is implore you, beg you to listen to this album and have your mind absolutely blown, shattered, and left sprinkled like dust on the breeze.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

7. KING – We Are King

*sigh* That’s pretty much all I can do when it comes to these ladies. I swear their voices give me so much life I feel as though I’ve been resurrected from a long sleep. I gave my heart to their cause with their 2011 EP The Story, and I haven’t turned back since. Not only do we get extended musical mixes of their singles, which are just layers and layers of unfiltered beauty, we get tracks like Red Eye that are so drenched in melody and easy vocals, Mister Chameleon, which is as playful as they are with their vocal and musical composition. There’s a constant ache in my soul from listening to their music. It does me no good to try to express the beauty they’ve placed in my heart. I can’t help but fall in love with every sound that pours from this album.

You can listen to and purchase the album on KING’s Bandcamp page listen to it on Tidal. You can purchase it on iTunes.

6. Frank Ocean – Endless

Frank Ocean is one of those artists that’s managed to become a pervasive part of pop culture whether he’s in the spotlight or not. Since his daring full-length debut channel ORANGE, he’s left people braying and fawning for another album. He’d hinted at its release quite a few times in the last few years, but then he dropped this piece of something outrageous on his website, a live stream of the album acting as the backdrop of him constructing a spiral staircase. With melodic pieces of sorcery and a tribute to the late Aaliyah (with her rendition of the Isley Brothers classic At Your Best (You Are Love)), many tout this to be the pinnacle of his creativity. Indeed, Endless (part one in what appears to be a series entitled Boys Don’t Cry) is a revelation in musicality on Ocean’s part. Whether you believe one part of this saga is better than the other, Endless was just setting me up for the emotional onslaught that was his latest release.

You can watch the visual album on iTunes (subscription required).

5. Anohni – Hopelessness

Nothing could’ve prepared me for Anohni, to be honest. Not only are her lyrics incredibly poignant, smart, and confronting, her imagery brazen, her voice… her voice! It was like the reincarnation of Nina Simone and Sara Vaughn in a white woman from Sussex. And that couldn’t have surprised me more if you’d slapped me in the face. But beyond the exterior, there’s always so much more to be gleaned from the internal, the beat of the heart and yearning of the soul. There’s a pulse to Hopelessness, a feeling of desperate need, for touch, for love, for someone to listen. Everything about it just sang to me and gave me pause for more than just the vocal delivery.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

4. Childish Gambino – “Awaken, My Love”

Okay… let’s just start by saying WHAT?! Childish Gambino sort of flew under my radar as an artist, I’ll readily admit. I’d heard one or two of his featuring tracks and sort of just didn’t pay him much attention after that. But after hearing much talk about lead single Me and Your Mama I decided I just had to see what the fuss was about. I’d always sort of had a passive interest in his music, but never enough to invest time. WHAT A FOOL I’VE BEEN!! When the first transition from the sultry New Birth-esque introduction to the booming Parliament Funkadelic madness happened, I was knocked all the way off my seat and onto the floor where I stayed for hours afterwards. Truly, “Awken, My Love” seemed to be a command for me to get my head out of the sand. It was like this album was sculpted just for me, because every ounce of everything I grew up with—funk, soul, Prince, Graham Central Station, Blood Sweat and Tears, everything!—was twisted within every song. I couldn’t have been more impressed and surprised if you’d said he actually wrote the album for my birthday.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

3. Anderson .Paak – Malibu

And this is where things get interesting. For many Anderson .Paak is the best thing to happen to 2016, and they wouldn’t be wrong, to be honest. His musicality… his voice… his groove… his everything. This man is a polished piece of refined sapphire with such a delicate balance between the sensual and the introspective. I can’t really say enough about just how brilliant a musician Anderson is, not without getting into full-out fangirl territory. Malibu is the culmination of years of experimentation and good, old-fashioned soul music, all wrapped up in a smokey, whiskey-laced tenor voice that just sends shivers up and down my spine. From the mellow sunrise of The Bird to the barely contained chaos of Heart Don’t Stand a Chance, then furrther to the lusty sizzle of Waterfall and Your Prime, truly there aren’t enough words I can use to praise the complete roller coaster this album was for me.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

2. Frank Ocean – Blond(e)

Then, of course, there’s Blond(e). Now, I know that most will say Endless bested this one, and in a lot of ways they’d be right. In terms of musical nuance, sheer creativity, and even the vocal arrangements, the former piece of music was just a stroke of sheer genius. But here’s the thing, no other album, not a single one, impacted me with the emotional spire that Blond(e) did. In the end, that’s what matters to me, how an album affects me, turns my soul, twists my heart and my very being into something different. I was transformed from first note to last of this album, and everything about it just sang to me. There are moments on this album when I knew, just knew I was going to weep. And that hasn’t happened to me since Jeff Buckley’s Grace. Tracks like Pink + White, Self Control, Nights, and most certainly Seigfried put a pain in my heart that I don’t think I’ve actually recovered from. Blond(e) is such a fantastic piece of moody blues, that you’d absolutely be lying to yourself if you said you didn’t feel something while listening to this album. Either that or you’re not paying attention—either out of spite for his lack of musical releases or just because you simply don’t want to open yourself up to that kind of heartache. There are times I can’t listen to this album for fear I won’t recover quick enough to start my day again. For better or worse, Frank Ocean has completely rearranged my stars and given me a new perspective on light and dark.

You can listen to the album on Spotify and purchase it on iTunes.

1. Solange – A Seat at the Table

Of course, there wasn’t an album that could really touch Solange’s A Seat at the Table this year. Scope, imagination, depth, brilliance. There was so much power in every single corner of this album. I’d do her an injustice if I tried to really describe what it is that touched so many people (though I gave it a shot with my review). In a word, this album is truly and unapologetically black. There was a decidedly Afrocentric bent to the very sound of the notes, the way in which each chord was sung and produced. From start to finish, A Seat at the Table was really just a perfect piece of music. There wasn’t a moment where I fell out, didn’t have a connection. Emotionally, historically, culturally, Solange hit on so many of my emotions, and so many of the emotions of everyone who bought this record. I don’t think I could’ve actually put any other album in the number one spot, not just because of it’s significant impact on 2016 as an entire year, but because my soul would be unsettled if I didn’t admit that the biggest part of my heart went to Solange and her regal collection of songs. Truly 2016’s biggest triumph.

You can listen to the album on Tidal and purchase it on iTunes.

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And that’s it. That’s my list. I encourage you to listen to and purchase all of these albums. They’re truly amazing and really made 2016 worth all the turmoil and pain.  As in years past, I know I missed SO much music. I’m trying to remedy that. But at least this year I had double what I did when I attempted a list like this in 2014. Who knows, maybe this year I’ll actually reach 100 albums. What were some of your favorite albums? Did any of them make it on to my list?