Feature / Music / Year End 2016
2016: A Year In Review

January 16, 2017

2016: A Year In Review
2016: A Year In Review

Our favorite grower albums of the past year

There's so much new music -- for everyone, not just those of us lucky to be drowing in overflowing inboxes that beg us to listen to the stuff. It's hard to sit down and listen to it all.

One of the best parts about music, and any artform, is its lasting impression. The way its affects changes and grows along with you as a person.

In an era of plenty, not every record that doesn't make an instant impact gets a second or third spin. It's a sad truth, but we at Scene Point Blank have a few that favorites that really grew on us over the past year.

  1. James Blake

    The Colour in Anything

    James Blake's follow up to the Mercury prize winning Overgrown is a record that upon first listening, seems overlong and a little self-pitying, but over time Blake reveals much about himself and the album takes on new life as a record about hope and happiness. 

  2. Shallow Cuts

    Empty Beach Town

    I've been a longtime fan of the members' other bands, but Shallow Cuts felt on first listen like a more melodic version with less nuance to set it apart. A wrong impression, quite frankly, as what comes through on Empty Beach Town is more about that overwritten stuff "between the lines." This record is about heart.

List in no particular order.

- Loren

Anthrax photo courtesy of http://anthrax.com.

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— words by the SPB team • January 16, 2017

Main photo by David Wilson.

2016: A Year In Review
2016: A Year In Review

Pages in this feature

  1. Opening page
  2. Five albums I missed in 2016
  3. Our favorite grower albums of the past year
  4. The Best Hip-Hop of 2016
  5. Top 5 UK Metal Records
  6. Worst Cover Art Of 2016

Series: Year End 2016

Our annual round-up of the best music of the year 2016.

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