The Best Southern Albums 2016

December 6, 2016 8:42 AM

"So, if 2016 left you feeling crappy, you can turn to our music for solace and inspiration. We hope you find both inside this list, and we expect you will." (SL Bitter Southerner)
posted by mandolin conspiracy (23 comments total)

Teens of Denial is the best record I've heard this decade, the kid just has it.

The new Angel Olsen confuses me, her last album is 10/10 brilliant but to me this new one is crap, even her voice sounds weird, I keep listening waiting to hear what I am missing but always end up going back to Fire.
posted by Cosine at 8:55 AM on December 6, 2016

I had the opposite reaction, Cosine: her last album seemed a little too much like murder ballads as recorded for Matador Records in 2002, but this one clicked for me in a way that one didn't. It reminds me a lot of Big Star's Third for some reason (her voice? The way the album ricochets between uncomfortable intimacy and rafter-raising rock? The use of reverb contrasted with the spare arrangements? My own grief over getting into Big Star after Chilton died?), and the 1950s rock thing she has going on really works for me.

I have some quibbles with the ranking--Charles Bradley should be higher and Jim James off the list--but the selections are overall solid.
posted by pxe2000 at 9:02 AM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have some quibbles with the ranking--Charles Bradley should be higher

Seconded. I only heard him because of Luke Cage (and briefly being confused about whether James Brown was still dead), but he's fantastic.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 9:08 AM on December 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

Very fun list.

Here's an abridged version of my year-end list...call it the Best Southern-Sounding Albums of 2016 (because I can't be bothered to check if they're all Southern and maybe Texas should be included, maybe not).

Top Tier (A-Z Order): angel olsen, brandy clark, hayes carll, lera lynn, lydia loveless, margo price

Second Tier: aubrie sellers, brent cobb, butch walker, caleb caudle, john paul white, maren morris, parker millsap, randy rogers band, robert ellis, wayne hancock
posted by saintjoe at 9:15 AM on December 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

On American Band by Drive-By Truckers:

I played “What It Means” for Dr. Joycelyn Wilson, an honest-to-god professor of hip-hop who will write that column periodically for us. She heard these lyrics: “If you say it wasn't racial when they shot him in his tracks / Well, I guess that means that you ain't black, it means that you ain't black / I mean, Barack Obama won and you can choose where to eat / But you don't see too many white kids lying bleeding on the street.” Joyce said, “I’m going to teach that in my class next semester.” I replied, “But it isn’t hip-hop.” She replied, “Yes, it is.”

It's interesting to hear this take from an outside source given that the band has cited Kendrick Lamar as someone they've been listening to - here's a 2015 article from Patterson Hood (who wrote "What It Means") about To Pimp A Butterfly.

I was going to do a post on this album although there's already one about my favourite song on it, "Ramon Casiano". (Ramon was murdered in Texas in 1931 by someone who would become a future NRA bigwig.) This article is a good dive into the album.
posted by Homeboy Trouble at 9:28 AM on December 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yeah, I'm not sure how Hayes Carll's Lovers and Leavers is not on this list. It would be top 5 for me. It's a lot slower and moody than past albums that had more foot-stomper barroom songs on it, but it's a great album. I enjoyed Southern Family and BJ Barnham's solo effort, but Carll's album we better than both.

I also liked Charles Bradley. I'm really enjoying this southern 50-60s/soul/motown/R&B thingy going on with old man Charles Bradley and young master Leon Bridges. Can't wait to see if Bridges can follow up on Coming Home in 2017--it's my most anticipated album in a long time (though I have no idea what the ETA is for it).
posted by dios at 9:38 AM on December 6, 2016

Teens of Denial is the best record I've heard this decade, the kid just has it.

I still prefer 2015's Teens of Style, which I'd put right at the top of that year's list, but the new one has grown on me a lot. (I actually think it would be vastly improved if they jettisoned the 2nd track "Vincent", a 7-minute bore-fest that brings the entire album's momentum to a screeching halt.)
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:16 AM on December 6, 2016

Atom: Both are 10/10 for me, see him live if you can.
posted by Cosine at 10:41 AM on December 6, 2016

I guess I really need to give the new DBT a try. I haven't really enjoyed much they've done since Brighter Than Creation's Dark, though I continued to admire them as people and as live performers.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:47 AM on December 6, 2016

I guess I really need to give the new DBT a try. I haven't really enjoyed much they've done since Brighter Than Creation's Dark, though I continued to admire them as people and as live performers.

You can watch them play it live for NPR. They talk about a bunch of the songs and it's a really tight set. It's my favorite album of the year by far and it sounds a lot more like their older stuff than their last couple of albums.
posted by martinX's bellbottoms at 10:56 AM on December 6, 2016

I was going to do a post on this album although there's already one about my favourite song on it, "Ramon Casiano". (Ramon was murdered in Texas in 1931 by someone who would become a future NRA bigwig.) This article is a good dive into the album.

Thanks for that. Just started listening to the album this morning on my way into work, and was wondering what the background was.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:35 AM on December 6, 2016

American Band is amazing. I need to pay more attention to Lucinda Williams and Carrie Rodriguez. A lot of new names to check out.
posted by PMdixon at 11:50 AM on December 6, 2016

I bought that Lucinda Williams record - it is indeed good. It has Bill Frisell on it, even.
posted by thelonius at 11:53 AM on December 6, 2016

Very happy to see Jet Plane and Oxbow on this list. Probably my favourite album of 2016. I feel compelled to repeat Pale Kings at least twice every time I hear it.
posted by HillbillyInBC at 12:12 PM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

Man, this reminds me of why I love the US so much and am so sorry to see the state it's in now.

.
posted by signal at 12:42 PM on December 6, 2016 [5 favorites]

Got my Drive By Truckers tickets for the Paradiso in March. Totally stoked.
posted by humboldt32 at 2:36 PM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

This is the video that made me a Charles Bradley fan.
posted by ob1quixote at 3:07 PM on December 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

is there... nobody covering the Southern/Louisiana blues, rock, funk, and jam scene at TBS? there's so much white Nashville on that list that it makes my head spin
posted by runt at 5:08 PM on December 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

is there... nobody covering the Southern/Louisiana blues, rock, funk, and jam scene at TBS? there's so much white Nashville on that list that it makes my head spin

I think that is an unfair shot at TBS to imply it has a "white Nashville" focus. 1/4 of this list is minorities. 18 of the 25 artists are not Nashville recording artists (and the fact that Nashville, one of the largest recording capitals of the country, has 7 artists on this list working out of it ought not make anyone's head spin). Here is the list from last year which was compromised almost half of minority recording artists, with the top 2 positions that year going to Alabama Shakes and Leon Bridges (who should have been #1).

#23 Charles Bradley (Brooklyn)
#21 William Bell (ATL)
#20 Donald Glover (LA)
#9 Carrie Rodriguez (Austin)
#3 Beyonce (NY?)
#2 Solange (NOLA)

Of course, music preferences are subjective. Chuck Reece, who runs TBS, obviously is more into roots/folk/americana music than he is in club music, trap scenes, or perhaps Nola funk. But, from what I have read at that site, he does seem to be a decent guy who is open-minded. I encourage you to read the About section of TBS to get a sense of the kind of guy he is. He isn't some Confederate flag waving Nashville-worshipping Bro-country fan (I'm not suggesting you are implying that). Rather, he seems like a guy who has a lot of pride in the diversity of the South.
posted by dios at 9:31 AM on December 7, 2016 [3 favorites]

sure. I read TBS. I have friends who were published in TBS specifically so that folks could see that the South was far more representative than the norm

I'm just surprised that there's just little to no blues rock or Louisiana funk on there. I'm not even talking about the massive trap scene we have here in Atlanta that gets a small nod nor am I talking about the Afropunk scene that's elevating a lot of non-mainstream black artists that have existed at the periphery here. I'm talking about people making music in the tradition from which all of the white roots/folk/americana music that makes up 7/25 of those artists on that list and how none of the folks making music in those traditions seem to be featured at all

it seems like a fairly glaring blindspot not just in the 'are we making up our diversity quota' vein but also purely from a musical standpoint. you give a nod to ever country western white person singing about cis gay rights (and one who is using the #BLM brand as cultural capital) but blues doesn't get a mention? it's a good attempt but I think it can be a lot better
posted by runt at 5:16 PM on December 7, 2016 [1 favorite]

hey runt, thanks for that. and sad as it is, it fits with the narrative at the intersectionality of race/class (i mean check out bitter southerner, they are very lgbtq/race *aware* but not class aware). can you recommend some things to listen to?
posted by yonation at 5:43 AM on December 8, 2016

it's not really my base of expertise which is why I was hoping for more from TBS. I do know that The Blind Boys of Alabama just released an expanded version of Go Tell it on a Mountain (with a few new songs!) that'll play a significant part in my holiday rotation again

my music nerd friend tells me that there's also been a pretty exciting compilation of Washington Phillips's works, an early 20th century gospel singer and inventor-of-instruments. beyond that, I was just hoping for some deep dives into scenes that don't get a lot of national recognition. I know there's a music reporter and a half for every artist in Nashville right now but other scenes like Athens, GA, New Orleans, Birmingham, they all get hat tips but such spotty coverage. I'd love to see a piece by someone traveling along the Mississippi Blues Trail to see what kind of revival music was happening along the route, for ex. I know there's people out there who have a lot invested in that musical culture
posted by runt at 9:00 AM on December 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

runt: (with a few new songs yt !)

Oooh. Including "Amazing Grace" arranged as "House of the Rising Sun."

Nice. Thanks!
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 6:57 PM on December 11, 2016