Clicky Clicky's Belated Top Albums of 2016 (Jay Edition)

So yeah: Hi! It's been a couple months, a couple very busy months during which we were, frankly, quite uncertain that our schedule was ever going to permit a meaningful return to the blog. But we hate not closing a loop. And while we continue to harbor doubts about the long-term prospects for what we've been internally calling "the URL version" of Clicky Clicky (as opposed to the Facebook version), we feel it would be unfair to not give our favorite records of 2016 their due, even if we already did a quick list for Facebook. So leaving our wavering commitment to populating the URL with well-considered words aside, let's round up the best the year-gone-by had to offer.

A quick glance down the list reveals some of the usual suspects -- the great KoomDogg himself chides us about our predilection for placing the mighty Johnny Foreigner at number one each year they do a full-length, and any Lubec release tends to rate high -- but also some new names. This is as it should be. Were it not for those new names we'd grow pretty disinterested in following music as closely as we do. How many articles and books can one read about The Doors, Pink Floyd, even The Clash, after all? We suppose the answer to that question is however many we've already read, but more germane to the point is how exhilarating we found the music of the new and new-to-us respectively Strange Passage and Real Numbers, for example, this year. Legends, veterans, and relative veterans such as David Bowie, Lambchop and Hallelujah The Hills all more than acquitted themselves with releases that are still -- STILL -- in heavy rotation at CCHQ (well, perhaps less so now that The XX's new joint is out).

Before we leave you to digest our thoughts on our 10 favorites below, we'd like to note that it was trying year and one in which we valued music more than ever. Our need for peace and relaxation in the face of substantial work stress made things like Spotify's Steve Reich radio station, or custom stations based on Erik Satie's Gymnopédies or the Lilys oeuvre, reliable, comforting ways to experience music. The bigger message, we suppose, and one that we'd like all readers to take to heart as we work through the new American Political Reality, is that music is there for us. It is always there. Cherish it, and it will be everything you need it to be. Now we'll shut up. Here's the best shit from last year. If you want even more detail, we first revealed our 2016 year-end album picks during a December taping of the podcast tour de force Completely Conspicuous, and the three links below will take you to the three episodes featuring my conversation with podcast proprietor Jay Kumar, the aforementioned KoomDogg.

Completely Conspicuous 452 / Completely Conspicuous 453 / Completely Conspicuous 454

01. Johnny Foreigner -- Mono No Aware -- Alcopop!/Lame-O
There is an astonishing amount of detail packed into its briskly paced 35 minutes, yet Mono No Aware succeeds in every direction. There are the blitzkrieging singles and should-be singles that are Johnny Foreigner's stock-in-trade, such as the brilliant rager "If You Can't Be Honest, Be Awesome" and fiery "The X and the O," respectively. Other successes are perhaps more subtle but substantially more exciting. Even 10 years on the band continues to best itself in terms of songcraft, adding progressive flair to a genre which -- let's be honest -- too often gets to coast on the right chords, the correct pedals. The brightly burning centerpiece of the record is the wild, vivid and deconstructed anthem "Our Lifestyles Incandescent," whose verses feature thrilling vocal arrangements structured around the voice of Chicago polymath Nnamdi Ogbonnaya. [full review].



02. Lambchop -- FLOTUS -- Merge
Sublime.



03. Real Numbers -- Wordless Wonder -- Slumberland
The jangle commandos' new C86-indebted collection, Wordless Wonder, is thronged with instant classics touting big melodies, scritchy guitars and maximum pep. Opener "Frank Infatuation" is timeless, and makes for an auspicious start to this high-quality release. The tune is all fuzzy strums, plunky bass, and surfy leads, delivered at a carefree, upbeat tempo, and, sure, there's a formula at work, but when the formula is this fun and well-executed, no ones cares. If you dig "Frank Infatuation" -- and it is undeniable -- make sure to check out this earlier version Real Numbers released as a digital single in 2014. Wordless Wonder's barn-storming "Just So Far Away" is even more potent, hitting hard with a chorus first before blitzkrieging through short verses and right back to the chorus again. The album truly is all killer and no filler. [Hotness blurb]



04. Frankie Cosmos -- Next Thing -- Bayonet Records
Entrancing.



05. Lubec -- Cosmic Debt -- Disposable America
The true surprise of Cosmic Debt is not that it expands Lubec's already expansive view of guitar pop, not its beauty, sophistication or ready appeal, but rather that the whipsmart threesome does so many new things despite the record's smaller scale. [full review]



06. David Bowie -- Blackstar -- Columbia Records
Stunning.



07. Preoccupations -- Preoccupations -- Jagjaguwar
On its new eponymous sophomore set the band takes another unpredictable stylistic swerve, possibly in response to widespread criticism concerning the cultural insensitivity of its previous name. The rebrand provided a renewed opportunity for the foursome to reconsider its practice, and Preoccupations capitalized strongly by injecting Preoccupations with a dash of New Wave exuberance and structure that reveals another shade of the dark and classic post-punk sound it has explored since 2008. [full review]



08. Hallelujah The Hills -- A Band Is Something To Figure Out -- Discrete Pageantry
Given the band passed its 10th birthday late last year, we suppose there's a reasonable expectation Hallelujah The Hills should know what it is doing at this point. But that does not dull the dazzle and delight of the smart and agile A Band Is Something To Figure Out, which song-for-song is the band's best outing to date. Its 11 tunes cast fronter Ryan Walsh's engaging studies of the quirks of our shared reality -- the weird truths in plain sight that we can't or won't see -- within rock frameworks that reliably stretch to accommodate subversive, irreverent impulses. [full review]



09. Strange Passage -- Shine And Scatter EP -- Self-released
Shine And Scatter echoes the melodic, guitar-centered sound of the turn-of-the-'90s UK with surprising competence and confidence. Indeed, the short set's four songs echo The House of Love and the early RIDE EPs, and -- more contemporaneously -- are startlingly reminiscent of the massively underrated and short-lived aughts combo The Boyfriends. While there is a thread of shoegaze shot through Strange Passage's alluring brand of guitar pop, and Boston continues to have a strong share of contemporary 'gaze practitioners, Strange Passage's music still feels somewhat delightfully off-trend. [Hotness blurb]



10. Cold Pumas -- The Hanging Valley -- Faux Discx
File under Post-Punk Pleasures. The set includes nine new tracks; based on two fetching preview tunes, the group remains faithful to its favored motorik rhythms and wistful bummer-pop. Leading preview single "A Change of Course" is strikingly more dense and melodic than what we've come to expect from the band; it takes the two-chord pull formula of earlier tunes such as "Sherry Island" and compacts it to fit a sub-three-minute pop framework that echoes the more shoegazey side of early Deerhunter. It may very well be the best thing the Brighton combo has released (to date). Second single "Fugue States" stretches into a longer runtime, and employs open, ringing chords alongside a rambling, Ian Curtis-styled deadpan that reminds listeners that Cold Pumas know their classic gloomy post-punk inside and out. [Hotness blurb]

Today's Hotness: Alex G, Basement, Camera Shy

>> Philadelphia's Alex Giannascoli is a young man at a threshold. That he is a young man is not entirely why people are interested in him, although his growing profile as a purveyor of fine lo-fi indie pop is informed by a certain ordinariness, which we don't use pejoratively in the least. He's the boy-in-the-dorm-room-next-door, in a sense. The earnest, enigmatic wunderkind known to music fans as Alex G has seen his low-key pop project go from cult fave to, well, an even bigger cult fave in what feels like a matter of months. The recent release of his first-ever vinyl full-length, the wistful, mysterious DSU, has precipitated a gradual unveiling of the soft-spoken musician. Not unlike Frankie Cosmos' Greta Kline, Mr. Giannascoli toiled in obscurity for years creating an extensive catalog to little fanfare -- until recently. His singular songcraft, however, increasingly spurred significant word-of-mouth, and even endorsements from now-label mates Elvis Depressedly and Ricky Eat Acid, as well as a curious boomlet of exploratory profiles including an excellent one from Jersey Beat. As a result, Alex G seems positioned to break out in spite of himself, if not into a wider consciousness in the indie rock world, then certainly into notoriety among lo-fi adherents. Not unlike the songs he pens, Giannascoli comes across like a passive, hyper-aware dude and other recent sit-downs with Impose and The Fader reinforce this, painting him as a talented, if unsure millennial. While he's tagged with comparisons to Phil Elvrum's The Microphones and Mount Eerie, Alex G's homespun indie-pop -- typically recorded with little more than a computer and a duct-taped microphone -- resonates with a singular domesticity and intimacy, despite occasionally inscrutable lyrics. DSU is available now on vinyl and as a free download via Orchid Tapes right here; you can stream it via the Bandcamp embed below. Alex G is touring this summer, and is presently slated to perform at Roggies in Brighton in August -- that date may or may not get moved given the venues's current shutdown. Query a counterculture enthusiast. -- Dillon Riley



>> One thing we can all agree on is that a number of bands signed to the venerable Boston indie label Run For Cover have a very loose understanding of the term "hiatus." This week saw the release of Scranton-based punk collective Tigers Jaw's Charmer, a record that came to fruition in spite of (or perhaps because of) a significant lineup change and subsequent hiatus notice (it also happens to be the band's strongest work to date). In the fall of 2012, Ipswich, England-based post-hardcore heroes Basement countenanced a similar inflection point, and elected to put the band on ice in favor of school and work endeavors. Earlier this year, however, Basement surprised fans by announcing reunion shows in the states, Australia and Japan. The dates sold out quickly, proving that fans continue to carry a torch for the band. In tandem with these shows, the wuintet has announced the arrival of its first new material since 2012's Colourmeinkindness in the form of a three-song EP entitled Further Sky. The first, and likely only, preview tune from the EP is the stunning and pretty "Summer's Colour," wherein the band slightly subdues its heavy guitar attack in favor of a denser chug more characteristic of the space-rock vibe of unsung '90s heroes Failure. Britpop fans will be delighted to learn the new short set also includes a cover of the Pulp classic "Animal Nitrate." Preorder Further Sky via Run For Cover right here. Basement will perform at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Mass. in late August. It's a killer lineup including RFC affiliates Pity Sex and Superheaven, as well as the mighty Ovlov, and the show -- as well as all of the rest of the US dates, apparently -- is already very, very sold out. Stream "Summer's Colour" via the embed below and kick yourself repeatedly. -- Dillon Riley



>> In other RFC news, Jack-O-Lantern, the debut EP from the upstart dream-pop combo Camera Shy, is slated for release next week. The act features current Whirr/Nothing/Death Of Lovers guitarist Nick Basset alongside former Whirr vocalist Alexandra Morte. The duo takes a decidedly more delicate, candied approach to the dream pop template than that of the related acts: in the context of Camera Shy finds Mr. Bassett sticks mostly to acoustic strums with the occasional bright and clean electric guitar noodling, and Ms. Morte's vocals are up-front and unmarred. Unsurprisingly, Camera Shy is widely considered to be Bassett's most accessible project yet, and while we feel the huge melodies found on Whirr's debut Pipe Dreams were very appealing and fairly conventional (albeit loud), we understand the sentiment. If Camera Shy ever decide to play some shows its music will likely be delivered well under the sonic pain threshold, which will feel sort of novel in contrast to the work of Bassett's present "day-job" band Nothing. Two gentle and sunny preview tracks, "Spin Me" and "Come Around" can be streamed via the Soundcloud embeds below. Preorder Jack-O-Lantern on Halloween-themed vinyl -- obviously -- from Run For Cover right here. -- Dillon Riley

Today's Hotness: Frankie Cosmos, The New Mendicants, Beach Volleyball

>> The hype surrounding NYC-based combo Frankie Cosmos belies the cloistered, personal vibe of their music -- proof positive, we suppose, that great songwriting finds its audience. The quartet, which is fronted by Greta Kline and includes among its number Aaron Maine of Porches., trades in the kind of plainly stated, lo-fi pop that lives and dies on personality. It's music that emphasizes unadorned, in-your-ear moments -- such as those that characterized Velvet Underground's third album -- as opposed to the blunt grandiosity and electronic immersion found more widely in today's underground. Frankie Cosmos' "Birthday Song" is a sweet, minute-and-a-half pop confection that recalls a certain stripe of indie pop that has not pinged the mainstream for years. The tune's biggest moments arrive at the end of each of the verses, when the drums shift into a half-time beat -- a trick borrowed from the metal and hardcore bands of our youth, perhaps, but it's very effective here, where Ms. Kline's vocals seem to get dragged down with a sadness that matches her year-closing observations and angst toward a changing world. Kline's wistfulness here is perfect and fresh for a band that hails from the Big Apple in 2014. With the success of Hospitality and now Frankie Cosmos, we're holding out hope for a full-blown indie pop renaissance emanating from New York City. "Birthday Song" is the second preview tune from the forthcoming collection Zentropy, a set of songs that is the first featuring a full-band iteration of Frankie Cosmos. Zentropy will be released as an LP by the Exploding In Sound-affiliated label Double Double Whammy March 4. The first 250 copies of the collection carried a screen-printed B-side and appear to have already sold out; another 200 pieces are pressed to white vinyl, and you can pre-order it right here. And although we do not know details and haven't yet cracked it open ourselves, fans would do well to note that Frankie Cosmos has issued what seems to be an even newer collection of recordings called Donutes, that can be snatched via Pukekos for free right here. Stream "Birthday Song" via the Soundcloud embed below. -- Edward Charlton



>> If this -- along with last year's Black Hearted Brother album -- is any indication of the way things are rolling, yesterday's indie pop and shoegaze pioneers are finding plenty of fresh inspiration in new trios that embrace collective legacies, adaptability and excitement. Here we are referring, of course, to Into The Lime, the tremendous new collection from The New Mendicants, a threesome comprising Joe Pernice (The Pernice Brothers), Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), and Mike Belisky (The Sadies). The set finds all three principles fluidly rotating duties while creating vibrant, cohesive work. With each successive track, it seems the band challenges itself again and again to create classic, harmony-laden pop in the vein of British Invasion bands such as The Hollies, Peter and Gordon, The Beatles pre-Revolver, and (more recently) XTC. Songs such as "Cruel Annette," "If You Only Knew Her," "High On The Skyline," and "A Very Sorry Christmas" all balance rich vocals that the light acoustic strumming, organ, and other period touches feel like the only extra weight the compositions could handle. The balance of the record emphasizes electric guitar, echoing at times Mr. Blake's Teenage Fanclub (with "Shouting Match") while coming as close to that classic band's power-pop euphoria as any combo in recent memory. Into The Lime, like BHB's Stars Are Our Home, so impressively balances the individual strengths of each band member that one can nearly cherry-pick them from any three-second clip form any song. Even so, the enthusiasm, songcraft and performances are so tight and fluid that it is hard to overstate the pop smarts at work. Perhaps the most telling gauge of success is this one: The New Mendicants on Into The Lime work free of whatever the confines of Teenage Fanclub, The Sadies or The Pernice Brothers might be, yet the disc feels like a welcome addition to any of their discographies. Buy the set from Ashmont Records right here, and stream the now seasonally inappropriate "A Very Sorry Christmas" via the Soundcloud embed below, and watch a beautiful and spare live iteration of "Follow You Down" right here. -- Edward Charlton



>> When we last tracked the arc of London shoegaze luminaries Beach Volleyball here last fall, we made sure to remark on the irony of their name, given the windswept, downcast vibe of the act's music. Now we are confronted with a second realization -- namely, that Beach Volleyball does classic, American-style shoegaze better than most American acts in the game. We're not the only ones taking a second look at the combo, as Oakland, Calif. and Berlin-based label Spiralchords announced late last month that it will reissue Beach Volleyball's full-length debut Broadcast later in February. The first teaser track from the collection this time around is "Contack," and it is a stunner. The short piece (short in shoegaze terms, anyway) is knotted and tense, and confidently arrays a driving group of chords. These bristle with texture, between the deep bass and droning, bending high notes, and the rhythm guitar's serrated tone applies an element of knife-fighting menace to the proceedings. Alex Smith's saddened drawl slips amid the textures, adding just the right pathos, contrasting against the noise rock danger and rolling drum beats. Closing with an ambient outro, the tune turns more contemplative as it slowly fades into greyscale. "Power Cuts," another pre-released tune (although, technically, all of them were "pre-released" last August), is similarly strong, and showcases again the driving snare and undulating bass of the rhythm section. These songs suggest a darker take on the early '90s, Isn't Anything-inspired rock of Americans all Lilys, She, Sir, Lorelei and The Swirlies -- bands unafraid to revel in mystery while staying true to their indie roots. Broadcast will be re-released digitally Feb. 28. Stream "Contack" below; it's not presently clear whether there will be a pre-order for the set, but keep watch at the Spiralchords Facebook page for additional release information. -- Edward Charlton