Music-Drop Magazine

If any event has come to dominate 2016 it might have been the death of David Bowie. It was emotionally impacting for millions and it set the tone to that on-going meme of “Fuck 2016.” It took me maybe 3 months to listen to Blackstar, not because I was necessarily emotionally distraught but I did love Bowie, I felt a connection to him which I shared with no other artist, as a child his shadow lay over my family and as an adult he came to represent individuality and outsider feeling, two things I personally connect to.  I’ve also been fortunate enough to interview his long-time producer Tony Visconti for my university paper which has only tightened my love towards Bowie. The cover was designed by Jonathan Barnbrook, who did all his covers since Heathen Due to all of that I didn’t want to listen to this album which was instantly dubbed his best since 1980's  Scary Monsters and perhaps even before that, and I wanted to hear it without the fact that this wou...

2016 was the year of Beyoncé more than any other music artist. It was the year where she became political, the year she got critical acclaim and the year she redefined the concept of a surprise album and the music video.  I’m not a fan of Beyoncé. Sure she’s released a fair few catchy pop songs that I’ve not minded and I’ve always appreciated that she has a good set of lungs, I also enjoyed her singing Etta James’ At Last at President Obama’s inauguration. I also didn't mind her sister Solange , but I’ve never been a fan of Beyoncé. Lemonade is an album I expected to hate, I expected to listen to it and think “why is this so well thought of?” then I’d complain until I bored even myself and then I’d never pick up the album again, that’s what I expected. The artwork for the sixth studio album of Beyonce released in April 2016.  Expectations though are made to be broken by Beyoncé. Because Lemonade is one of the best albums of the year, although I can’t ...

In contemporary R&B there’s no one who creates records with the same emotional depth as Frank Ocean, and his follow up to Channel Orange further pushes the notion that Ocean is one of the most interesting and enigmatic artists currently recording. Frank Ocean dominated 2016 from behind the scenes. His influence could be seen on the works of Beyoncé, Kanye or Rihanna and his own album Blonde created waves in an already R&B dominated industry. Channel Orange was a spectacular record, it was the perfect album for it’s genre, an odd comparison could be done by comparing it to Radiohead’s OK Computer, which was a perfect alternative rock album. The record was released in August 2016 and included guests like Andre 3000 and Beyonce.  Now, like Radiohead did with Kid A , Ocean has changed the game in a fell swoop of beeping sounds and emotional words, with significant undertones or politics and anthems for a maltreated young adult audience. Songs l...

If A Moon Shaped Pool were a part of the discography of most bands it’d be the highlight of their discography and it’d likely overshadow anything else they released. For Radiohead however it’s a album greater than their worst, but not greater than their best. Radiohead have had 3 game changing albums: OK Compute r changed the work of alternative rock away from the grunge-britpop scene that had been going since early in the decade. Kid A changed the word Art Rock from a insult of pretentiousness into a critical buzzword synonymous with change and the album also enabled rock with electronics to be both popular and critically acclaimed. Then there’s In Rainbows which was a masterpiece and challenged the music piracy and corporate controls with an innovate pay what you want system. A Moon Shaped Pool is the 5 th greatest Radiohead album, worse than the 3 mentioned and The Bends . The album however is great. The artwork of the ninth studio album of the British artist. ...

Colouring Book is the album whose acclaim confuses me the most. It isn’t infectious, it isn’t experimental and it doesn’t make me feel enriched by listening to it. So why is it so well regarded? I’m not Chance The Rapper’s target audience I’m not a Hip-Hop head, I don’t go out of my way to listen to mixtapes and I dislike it when religion flavours conversations to much, and Colouring Book is the most religious album I’ve heard in 2016. He’s a good rapper though and his style is likeable and I found a lot of his lyrical subject matter to be easily relatable but the thing is to often does the songwriting let down Chance’s rapping talents and too often do his good lyrics get overshadowed by larger more annoying lyrics. This is Chance's third mix tape. Maybe I’m just a cynic though, well that’s what several teachers have told me over my time in education at least. I disliked the happiness of the album, I thought it was too positive a album and I prefer a good...