Favorite Albums
01 Nils FrahmâââSolo (minus âWalls)
If you walked into our apartment at any point this year, there was an 87% chance this record was playing.
02 Daniel JohnsâââTalk
A rare return to form from a musical genius.
03 Nicolas JaarâââNymphs III
Another musical genius, writing his own script, and building life-saving atmospheres of sound like no-oneâs business.
04 Kendrick LamarâââTo Pimp A Butterfly
Maaaaaaan. The sound of really going for it.
05 Sufjan StevensâââCarrie & Lowell
Oof.
Spirit of my silenceÂ
I can hear youÂ
But Iâm afraid to be near you
And I donât know where to begin
06 Tame ImpalaâââCurrents
Indispensable, imaginative, magical record.
07 Jamie XXâââIn Color
Summertime. The colour of those three months.
08 Nils FrahmâââNymphs IV
As above.
09 Carly Rae JepsenâââEmotion
> 1989.
10 DrakeâââIf Youâre Reading This Itâs Too Late
âKanye knows he is no longer the most popular man in rap.Â
âCurrently that spot is taken,â West says.Â
âLetâs be honest he got last summer.âÂ
Who?Â
âYou know. Thereâs only one person.âÂ
Drake?Â
âYeah. He got last summer. And Iâd never given it up till last summer.âÂ
Now heâs thinking about taking it back.Â
âItâs a real question for me. Do I want to?â
â Here.
Favorite Tracks
01 Nicolas JaarâââSwim
From my email to Tebs:
âI slept on the new Jaar EPs for months. And then it was the middle of the night and the baby wasnât sleeping and I was like, I need something to take my mind away. Swim runs 13+ minutes. Itâs Aphex Twin, itâs Amnesiac, but itâs also completely Jaar. Heâs so young, and so confident musically. Iâll go wherever he takes me.â
02 Daniel JohnsâââFaithless: Best song on one of the best albums.
03 DâAngeloâââReally Love: The high point of a classic.
04 DrakeâââWednesday Night Interlude: Feels. True feels.
05 Susanne SundforâââFade Away: Just couldnât stop listening to this.
06 Carly Rae JepsenâââAll That: I could have picked four or five songs, but this is the best.
07 Miley CyrusâââAdore You: My brother sent me this. I missed it completely. But it didnât miss me.
08 Anderson PaakâââOff The Ground: Probably my favourite new talent this year.
09 Courtney BarnettâââDepreston: I know every single detail of this song.
10 Lidoâââ06:59 AM: Just frantic highs.
Most Played Song:
For the second year in a row, itâs Nils Frahm.
His album âSoloâ minus the track âWallsâ was on constant repeat all year.
It was my wake up album for months.
We played it when the baby was being born, and then it was all we listened to through those first few weeks of his life.
Itâs quiet enough not to wake or disturb the baby, but itâs also beautifulâââit shifts the mood of a room.
An Old Album I Discovered/Rediscovered This Year:
The TourĂ©-Raichel Collective released The Tel Aviv Session in 2012, but I didnât discover it until this year.
The music is a collaboration between Vieux Farka Touré (son of Ali Farka Touré) and Israeli singer Idan Raichel.
Itâs in that vein of Buena Vista Social Clubââââaccessible worldâ musicâââbut itâs deeper than that. âAzawadeâ is my favourite example, but the whole album stands up.
Musical Highlights
Listening to âBeach Babyâ right after my son was born, at 4am in the low light of the birth room. Unforgettable to create human life.
The saxophone on Paul Kellyâs âYou Can Put Your Shoes Under My Bedâ.
The upbeat joy of Classix and T-Pain collaborating.
The first time I listened end to end to âTo Pimp A Butterflyâ.
From the WSJ:
âSpace Exploration Technology Corp. executed an impressive return to flight Monday by flawlessly launching an upgraded variant of its Falcon 9 rocket and then maneuvering a big part back to earth for a pinpoint, precedent-setting landing.
⊠Once the spent first stage plummeted toward earth, used its thrusters to steadily slow and then touched down verticallyâââsurrounded by a huge plume of exhaust ...
The gentle landing, after several failed attempts to return an identical section of the booster to a barge, marked the first time any large rocket has managed a controlled recovery after delivering a payload into orbit.â
I feel like Kendrick went SpaceX on âTo Pimp A Butterflyâ. And he landed it.
Jon Waltzâ charming âAnnaâ.
Listening end to end to âgood kid, m.A.A.d cityâ on July 4th weekend.
Banksâ vocal majesty on âBetterâ
Listening to âIf Youâre Reading This Itâs Too Lateâ at 4am at The W in Austin, and hearing âNow and Foreverâ for the first time.
Playing basketball on New Yearâs Day with Kanyeâs âOnly Oneâ on repeat.
The snares on âBe Thankful For What Youâve Gotâ.
Listening to âLive Foreverâ while reading this Noel Gallagher interview.
Watching the baby well up with emotion the first time he heard Adele.
This clip:
Discovering âThe Japanese Houseâ.
Discovering Jason Isbell.
The guitar solo on âImpossible Germanyâ.
Matt Corby, finally, with some new music.
The stunning, heartbreaking Szymon album.
The final scene of David Simonâs âShow Me A Heroâ. Actually, all the Springsteen in âShow Me A Heroâ.
The cultural moment of âHotline Blingâ.
Better than all that Bieber tropical-pop, the gyrating âWizkidâ.
Thundercat, and the Song Exploder that went along with it.
Everything Anderson Paak did this year.
It being Futureâs year.
The lanky sweetness of Tobias Jesso Jr.
And Cameron AG.
Vince Staplesâ line in the sand:
âMy Loveâ.
My December 5 playlist. Naveenâs 201511 Playlist:
Jamie XX with THE song of the summer.
Jahkoy beating out Jeremih, Trey Songz, and Miguel as my favourite new RnB this year.
Despite the hype, the best Bieber song was âIâll Show Youâ.
The-Dream with a return to form.
âWhite Iversonâ, the third best song of the summer.
Sorry Iâm not sorry for playing âMiami 2 Ibizaâ a lot on my headphones at work.
âOne Too Many Morningsâ, probably the best song I heard all year.
Did I mention Anderson Paak?
And finally, discovering Daniel Wilson.
Musical Lowlights
Another brick from Coldplay.
Another brick from My Morning Jacket.
Majical Cloudz not quite bringing it on his follow-up.
Kendrick bringing it, and making you realise that no-one else really is right now. Especially Big Sean.
Waiting all this time for Detox, only to work out that Dre is such a bad dude that you canât morally justify listening to the album.
Disclosureâs pancake sophomore effort.
Ryan Adamâs â1989â.
Music taste in the internet age
Lastly, I want to refer back to what I wrote last year, which is now more real than ever:
âThe people with real taste are the ones who are best at finding stuff to listen to that they genuinely love for a long time.
Thatâs the superior gauge of someoneâs taste. How much joy they manage to extract from music. How much they bump their quality of life through music.
Good taste in music matters because it makes your life better.
Building up the ability to find songs you love (aka taste) is something you have to work at. You have to be clear about what you like, fast at identifying it when you hear it, good and patient at unearthing it and proactive in fostering new sources of it.
You can get a better measure of someoneâs musical taste by knowing:
how many songs they find per year to love
how much they love each of those songs
how many times they can listen to that song before their love for it expires.
Musical Taste = Found Songs Ă Love Per Song Ă Listens Before Love Expires
Taste requires effort. You canât just sit back and hope all those great songs fall in your lap. You could be listening to the radio for 3 hours straight and not hear a single song you love.
You need to really get out there and find things if you want to have taste.
Thinking differently about taste is important because the list of bands you like doesnât matter. What does matter is how much music improves your life.
If you want music to make your life better, itâs best to ignore what people say you should like and just focus on finding as many songs as possible that you can love for the longest time.
Thatâs the taste that counts.â