Review by: Will O’Connor’20
Disclaimer: These albums are albums listened to in 2016, these may not actually be albums released in 2016.
5. Young Chasers – Circa Waves – [itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/young-chasers/id1018516137?uo=4″ title=”Young_Chasers”]
This is the new Brtish band’s first album and it’s great. This whole album just makes you think of happy times. The suns shining, you’re on vacation with no worries and you’ve got this album playing through your headphones. This is what I picture of what it feels to be stress free. “Get Away” and “T-Shirt Weather” are summer anthems that will make you listen to them endlessly on repeat. This album is very professional and has very catchy guitar riffs to go along with the catchy melodies.
4. The Balcony – Catfish and the Bottlemen – [itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-balcony/id923672211?uo=4″ title=””]
This band is an alternative rock band that nobody can hate. The lead singer Van McCann has one of the coolest voices that I’ve heard recently. It’s edgy and not like a normal choir boy voice. This makes songs like “Fallout”, “Rango”, and “Pacifier” so catchy. They’re just songs you just want to listen to over and over again. The heaviness of the instruments back up his voice making their music badass and catchy.
3. 22, A Million – Bon Iver – [itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/22-a-million/id1141107722?uo=4″ title=”22_A_Million”]
Bon Iver is legit. Today’s music can feel unoriginal and every alternative band or artist sound the same, but Bon Iver is a different story. No one sounds like him. The way he uses technology on his voice and the way he mixes his harmonies is so different from everyone else. On top of that his song titles are weird and cool. One of the coolest songs in this album is “33 ‘God’.” It has so many different harmonies and is very catchy.
2. Only By The Night – Kings Of Leon – [itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/only-by-the-night/id289072736?uo=4″ title=”Only_By_the_Night”]
Kings Of Leon’s Grammy award winning album just simply pumps you up. This album is more rock driven than any of their other albums and there’s not one song on here that makes you think “What were they thinking?” It features head bangers like “[itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/crawl-single/id286439626?uo=4″ text=”Crawl” text=”Crawl”]” and “Notion” that features the best half time beat I’ve ever heard and really gets the song going. The sounds that they use on the guitars just makes the album that much better, and my favorite on the album, “17” is different from all the other on the project, featuring Christmas like bells making it very original for a Rock n’ Roll album.
1. Aha Shake Heart Break – Kings Of Leon – [itunes link=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/aha-shake-heartbreak/id303079200?uo=4″ title=”Aha_Shake_Heartbreak”]
This is Kings Of Leon’s second album and it’s sick. Sick is subjective though. To me sick is all about style and how dramatically different something is from all of the mainstream things we see today. If I use the word sick in music, to me it means that it is nothing like what I’ve heard before. This whole album is rock like I’ve never heard it before. Yes the lyrics are basic but people like basic and thats why I like this album. Caleb writes about what every Rock n’ Roll band writes about but what makes it different is the music behind it. What makes this album good are the drums especially in “Slow Night, So Long”, the sound of the guitars that gives a twangy feel in almost every song, and if you listen to “Taper Jean Girl”, it’s just straight up catchy. On top of all that, the whole album just flows together and feels like one whole song. No wonder the album is just 35 minutes long. It’s just one long, fantastic banger that’s sick.