Music-Drop Magazine

Throughout 2016 Leonard Cohen was a constant person mentioned as “The next to die.” We heard it early in the year as the person who’ll follow Bowie, we heard it when his muse Marianne died, and we heard it when he told the press he was willing to die. Then out of nowhere he told the press Bob Dylan’s win of the Nobel Prize for Literature had given him reason to live, within weeks he released a album to great acclaim, and people talked of how great Leonard Cohen is. Then he died. Much like David Bowie he died in what could be described as a complete surprise, and just like Bowie his death took over the morbid media narrative, and just like Bowie his death elevated his album in the eyes of the public. Another common feature between Bowie’s Blackstar and Cohen’s You Want It Darker is that they both are aware of their mortality, and in almost each song you can feel how the artists’ mortality shaped it. The album artwork of the Fourteenth studio album of the Canadian...

As far as music goes I’m a pretty bias sort. I have my preferences and the music I listen to often is contained within those preferences. I like alternative rock with a lot of guitar, sometimes I try the new releases of artists I like (Typically critically acclaimed artists) but I am very dependent on publication’s tastes, and I do follow several reviewers who I know share my tastes. This sometimes means I don’t listen to some of the more obvious albums of a year so that’s why I’m doing this, to rectify my issue and listen to what could be considered representative of 2016’s sound. So I decided to look at 20 sources of the best album of the year, add them all up, do a little aggregate, and churn out a top 20. Then I want to listen to those 20 albums, give them my personal opinions while laying them out in a fashion that makes them easy for the reader/listener to access. Iggy Pop's best album since The Idiot just missed out on the top 20. The lists I chose wer...