The Top 15 Albums of 2016 - Part 2 (The Top 6)

If you missed part 1, you can access it HERE

Continuing on! Here are my top 6 records of 2016. As always, remember the Doug Rules:
No Live
No Best Of
No Comps

6 – Jimmy Eat World - Integrity Blues

Family men now
No longer in the Middle
Rocking once again



5 – Into It Over It - Standards

After two great ones
Evan delivers Standards
It's even better



4 – Nothing – Tired Of Tomorrow

Shoegaze and voice haze
Dominic writes his opus
No sophomore jinx here

(side note, I did a full review of this record which can be found HERE)



3 – Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool

From Creep until this
And everything in between
Pure bliss and brilliance



2 – Bob Mould – Patch The Sky

One from the top spot
Record is no less awesome
Formidable year



1 – Pinegrove - Cardinal

Four words reserved for
The very best of the tippy top:
It Is Near Perfect

The TOP 15 Albums of 2016 .... Part 1

I have been in agony...

This year has been great for music. Not great....TREMENDOUS for new music. And I have listened and fretted and listened more and fretted more. Why??
1) I committed to myself that I would rank a top X records every year since I started this in 2013. Seems easy enough....right? But...
2) There are SO many good records, I did not know what the cutoff number would be for a ranking....and then once I did....
3) I still had to RANK them and my goodness it was difficult. Any one of the top 4 has sat at #1 on some variation of this list, multiple times. Once I hit enter, I am sure I will want to change it again! And it's not as if 5-15 were easy to figure out either! So...ok....got the SORTA KINDA ranking done...publish right? Nope...
4) I am suffering through writers block! It happens to me from time to time, and this year, just happened at the WRONG time. I tried to go the short video route, but honestly, I looked goofy, so I scrapped that idea. And then, thanks to my brother's inventive Christmas Card message this year, the idea of short, haikus for each record seemed imminently conceivable! And thus, the list is finally ready to go!

So, here is the bottom of the top 15 list, with the top 6 to be published tomorrow. As always, normal rules apply
No Live
No Best Of
No Comps

Enjoy!

14 - The Hotelier - Goodness

A small band from Mass
Pornographic album cover
Goodness it is great




13 – Paul Simon - Stranger to Stranger

Do not let Wristband
Be the song in which you judge
Record as a whole




12 - Green Day – Revolution Radio / Blink 182 – California

Two Bands, One Genre
Comebacks both, but close to same
Had to be a tie






11 – Dinosaur Jr – Give a Glimpse of What Yer Not

Mascis and the boys
Continue on the journey
Acclaimed second act




10 – Teenage Fanclub – Here

Still Going Very Strong
Twenty Five years since Concept
Sounds like yesterday




9 – Bon Iver – 22 a Million

Vernon back to Bon
Falsetto his very best friend
Almost made top 5




8 – Gaz Coombes – Matador

Going by US date
Released last year in UK
Don’t care, it’s my list




7 – American Football – LP2

17 between
LP1 and LP2
Breathtaking emo