Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
We’re back with another installment of our Best of the year episodes with our Essential Music of 2016 picks!
So why was this music Essential? These albums and songs acted as the soundtrack of our lives this year and brought us joy, helped us through pain, gave us life, empowered us and sometimes even made us cry. This is the music that fed our souls and we are thrilled to share it with you.
There’s no question that artists we’ve loved for years, like A Tribe Called Quest, Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Sia and David Bowie continued to provide music that is as relevant and vital in 2016 as it was decades earlier. But our minds were also blown (and our hearts tugged) by a younger generation of music artists — from Solange’s honest and inspiring A Seat at the Table, to Frank Ocean’s heady and heartfelt Endless and Blonde, to Blood Orange’s introspective opus, Freetown Sounds.
We also shine a light on some of the great songs of the year including works by Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Rationale, Kamasi Washington, James Blake, One Republic and Miguel.
And this list would not be complete without Sean rejoicing one more time for the Hamilton original cast album.
Links:
Amita recommends reading this behind the scenes article on the making of Sia’s This is Acting album.
Here is the emotional Gwen Stefani video for Used to Love You that Amita connected with.
Sean loves this duet between legends Judy Garland and Barbra Streisand and would love to see Beyonce and Adele recreate this incredible collaboration.
Amita and Sean both believe Solange created two of the most gorgeous videos of the year: Cranes in the Sky and Don’t Touch My Hair.
Then, we discuss the album that was a tiny light amidst the gloom – A Tribe Called Quest’s new release, We got it from Here… Thank You 4 Your service. We review the album, talk about Tribe’s place in the Hip Hop canon, rate favorite tracks and celebrate their triumphant performance on Saturday Night Live. We also talk about highlights from what we think will go down as one of the most important episodes in SNL history thanks to Kate McKinnon’s incredible cold open performance and Dave Chappelle’s brilliant turn as host.
We also preview the highly anticipated Hamilton Mixtape, a collection of re-recordings of the songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hit musical, Hamilton. Sean is a Hamilton obsessive (remember the House of Hyperbole?) and Amita has yet to see the musical or listen to the cast album. Listen to hear their reviews from two very different perspectives.
We’re also excited to bring you the first in our Producer to Producer series in which we interview a producer about their latest work. We launch the series with Joel Bach, co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning series,