
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Lorde, Melodrama
Melodrama’s marvelous too-muchness won me over with the first single and never let up. At its core there’s a great singer-songwriter record, one person’s interior life sketched in vivid, shocking shades. Because it’s a big pop album, those specifics need to add up to something universal—and in this, too, Lorde delivers. “Writer in the Dark” might be uniquely relatable for bookish, easily bruised types (and how!), but “Homemade Dynamite” and “The Louvre” and “Supercut” speak to anyone who’s ever been high on their own supply, emotionally. She makes her graceless nights feel like yours. That’s in the writing, but it’s also in Lorde’s vocal presence, which often sounded tentative or ironic on her debut, and sounds so wide-awake now. She races through these songs with such verve that you want to run to keep up, from “I’ll be your quiet afternoon crush” to “Oh, how fast the evening passes” and back. I can’t wait to hear the music she makes when she’s 30 and jaded.
TOP 25
- Lorde, Melodrama (Republic)
- Grizzly Bear, Painted Ruins (RCA)
- Kendrick Lamar, DAMN. (Top Dawg/Aftermath/Interscope)
- Jlin, Black Origami (Planet Mu)
- Japanese Breakfast, Soft Sounds From Another Planet (Dead Oceans)
- Jay-Z, 4:44 (Roc Nation)
- Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Lotta Sea Lice (Matador/Milk!)
- Stef Chura, Messes (Urinal Cake)
- Jen Cloher, Jen Cloher (Milk!)
- Harry Styles, Harry Styles (Erskine/Columbia)
- Perfume Genius, No Shape (Matador)
- The National, Sleep Well Beast (4AD)
- Chicano Batman, Freedom is Free (ATO)
- Alvvays, Antisocialites (Polyvinyl)
- Daniele Luppi and Parquet Courts, Milano (30th Century/Columbia)
- Palm, Shadow Expert (Carpark)
- Phoenix, Ti Amo (Loyauté/Glassnote)
- Jeff Tweedy, Together At Last (dBpm)
- Migos, Culture (300/Atlantic)
- Broken Social Scene, Hug of Thunder (Arts & Crafts)
- Charlotte Gainsbourg, Rest (Because/Atlantic)
- Kehlani, SweetSexySavage (TSNMI/Atlantic)
- Palehound, A Place I’ll Always Go (Polyvinyl)
- Charli XCX, Number 1 Angel / Pop 2 (Asylum)
- Drake, More Life (OVO/Cash Money/Republic)
HONORABLE MENTIONS (A-Z)
Alex G, Björk, David Crosby, Gord Downie, Downtown Boys, Gabriel Garzón-Montano, Sharon Jones, Kamaiyah, Lomelda, Laura Marling, Oddisee, Priests, Queens of the Stone Age, Rapsody, Sam Smith, Spoon, Syd, SZA, The War on Drugs, Wiki
ALSO PRETTY GOOD, SURE
Anything you love that was not included on this list
BASS LINE OF THE YEAR
“Bad Liar” via “Psycho Killer”
PIANO PART OF THE YEAR
“Green Light” pre-chorus
BEST MUSIC WRITING IN A BOOK (FICTION)
The scene in Elif Batuman’s The Idiot where they’re at a bar and “Linger” by the Cranberries is playing
BEST MUSIC WRITING IN A BOOK (NON-FICTION)
Rob Sheffield, Dreaming the Beatles
