The Top 10 Albums of 2016

The albums that pushed me through this year of intensity and loss, of dread and motivation. The music out there in the world is always a sign of our great potential for beauty, harmony, understanding, and hope. For me, these are the albums of 2016, in no particular order:

• A Tribe Called Quest, We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service

• Kate Tempest, Let Them Eat Chaos

• Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool

• Beyoncé, Lemonade

• Conor Oberst, Ruminations

• Thao & The Get Down Stay Down, A Man Alive

• David Bowie, Blackstar

• Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam, I Had A Dream That You Were Mine

• Common, Black America Again

• Blood Orange, Freetown Sound

I’ve always known Beyoncé is really something special. But until this year, nothing she’s done has really spoken to me. Then she released “Formation.” And the Earth stood still. Also, special shoutout to that new Beck song “WOW.” Still can’t believe how amazing it is. Finally, I discovered Valerie June this year. Can’t wait for January 27, 2017.

Running lists of things

Things I’m really bored of:

• Designs w/ pizza in them

• The word “awesome” used to describe the kinds of things a particular designer or company makes

• Urgent deadlines

• Sloppy dev teams

• Being asked to talk, meet up, or put together a proposal for someone and never hearing back

• Pretty much all TV commercials

• Working too much

Things I’m really stoked on:

• Community-focused design projects

• People running for local office

• My go-to dev team

• The First Day of Autumn

• Launching some projects that have been going on for a VERY long time

• Project Runway Season 15

• Vince Staples

• NOFX playing Omaha in November

• Affect Conf + PDX + OCT
  

The Top 10 Albums of 2015

These are the ones that left the biggest imprint. The albums that, when I look back on this year, I can feel them shake my being and alter the standard course of my day-to-day trajectory. Without further ado, in no particular order:

• Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly

• Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell

• Modest Mouse, Strangers to Ourselves

• Jamie xx, In Colour

• Young Fathers, White Men Are Black Men Too

• Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear

• Purity Ring, another eternity

• FKA Twigs, M3LL155X

• Doomtree, All Hands

• Desaparecidos, Payola

And if I could have 11, I’d include Wolf Alice, My Love Is Cool. But thems the breaks.

The Top 10 Albums of 2014

Here they are. The most beautiful, most interesting albums that have truly touched my soul and gotten me through a year of great joy, great sadness and much learning. In no particular order:

• The War on Drugs, Lost In The Dream

• Future Islands, Singles

• Jungle, Jungle

• TV on the Radio, Seeds

• The Rural Alberta Advantage, Mended with Gold

• Death From Above 1979, The Physical World

• Conor Oberst, Upside Down Mountain

• Lykke Li, I Never Learn

• Tycho, Awake

• Strand of Oaks, Heal

Notable mentions for the best songs not on this list include “Kingdom” by Common, “Black Out Days” by Phantogram and “Close Your Eyes (And Count to Fuck)” by Run The Jewels.