Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Year in Review 2016- Top 10 Albums Part 1 (The Just Misses & Let Downs)

Another great year is finishing up for @RockBodElec and we wouldn't be a proper music site if we didn't end the year with a "Best Of" list, so RtBE Presents the Best of 2016 Top Ten Albums: The Just Misses & Let Downs:


In the instance that RtBE has reviewed the album either on the site or somewhere else we will link to that review and just give a quick summation, just click on the name and title and you can read it. RtBE worked with the Glide Team to give input on the their Top 20 so expect some overlap.

Again the focus here is on full albums, not singles, but full releases you can slap on and listen all the way through. We know these are a dying breed, but it still is the way we consume music, no shuffle or singles for us.

Today we are going to focus on the "Just Misses" of our top 10 and unfortunately the "Let Downs" released this year. Obviously these are just our personal preferences, feel free to voice your opinion in the comments. Expect installment 2 (#10-6) soon, but for now click on the jump:
Just Misses:
Every year features a host of great albums and since we like the number 10 that's what we use. These albums are also really really solid; worthy of praise, your time, and hard earned cash.

When it comes to albums, 2016 felt a whole hell of a lot like 2011 for us on the site. That was the year where there a lot of GOOD albums but very few GREAT albums. This year the honorable mention list could have been 25-30 albums long and some of these could have slipped high into our top 10, there is not much separation this year and very few records stood out. There are 11 just misses below so you can treat the whole thing like a top 21 with very little difference in ranking. So without anymore words....

Honorable mentions for 2016, in no particular order:
This title says it all, huge energetic pop punk that is a blast. 


The first of a few old timers that are going to pop up on the Best of 2016 lists is Aaron Neville. An excellent sounding album and one that gives a bit of energy to Neville's catalog. This is also the first of three Daptone Records related releases on this list.

A pretty trippy disk that really impressed, we have been down on Claypool lately but the partnering with Sean Lennon, really was a winning combo. It also produced the best video of the year to these eyes... 

A very solid album, however we need to say this is the first reunion album that we haven't fallen in love with from one of our favorite all time groups. The theme for the year applies to one of our favorite bands. Good not great album.

This just beat out Brujeria for our favorite heavy album of the year. Both are again...good not truly great though. 

We lost a legend this year, and while more albums will probably come out from him this was a solid release of songs to cap things off.

Here's an elder stateswomen who put out a really funky disk, one full of joy and depth. The second of the Daptone related releases of the Just Misses.

Now to a band we never heard of until we got this album and it super impressed us. 

Another older artist who teamed with Daptone (who seem to be the real MVP's of 2016 releases) and put out a rock solid disk. His cover of Sabbath was a masterpiece.

A really solid debut disk from these noise rockers from the North West. 

RtBE are not sure what people want out of any new Pixie album, this disk is some solid rock and roll.

The Let Down's:
Now for the bad news...some albums that let RtBE down...we had high hopes for these...no dice. These are by no means the worst albums of the year, they are just from artists RtBE like/respect that went a different route which we didn't particularly care for.

There are always releases we don't like that others seem to, to each his own, but these are harder for us to swallow because these are artists we enjoy, love, or at least respect and they let us down with these releases:

Wow, a fucking disaster of an album. Kanye has stated this album "evolves" he has already released "new" versions of this? Sorry partner, you release an album, I listen to it, I review it. I don't give two shits about the personal stuff, Yeezus was an artistic statement (if flawed at least creatively so), Pablo is a fucking joke all around that I can not believe more people aren't laughing at. Seriously, if Joe Smith put out the exact same record, no one would listen to it.

God this album is dull. We love BoH but this album is a snooze fest. They still bring it live, but man we doubt we will go back and listen to this one often...maybe ever. 

We had high hopes for a reunion of a really fun and quirky band that we still love to go back and listen to. This newest offering let us down though and we haven't gone back to it since our review. 

Another band that we love, but man this was boring from the beginning, we over rated it with stars, just happy to have the LI based trio back. Unexpected return from the group and not much of return at that. 

This was more confusing than disappointing, but we felt we should put it here. The band returned to their first ever album and re-recorded and...that was it. No real enhancement, improvement, nothing. Seems just an odd release that is not worth listening to and kind of dilutes their back catalog.  

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