It’s December which means for music fans, it’s AOTY (album of the year) season. The time of year when many major music publications and fans on the internet create lists of the “best” new music. Being the influential music city it is, New Orleans often finds a mention or two among these lists. This year, multiple New Orleans artists appeared again and again in many best album lists.
Dance punks, Special Interest, nature punks Hurray for the Riff Raff and folk artist Leyla McCalla brought home the gold this year with multiple mentions in several important lists.
Special Interest released their third album, Endure, early in November, mixing glam, punk, disco and techno elements. Lyrically, the album covers topics like service industry woes, police violence, queer rebellion and perhaps most profoundly, the 41-year solitary confinement of Black Panther activist Herman Wallace and his connection to New Orleans.
Pitchfork ranked Endure at #4 on their AOTY list, with other publications making it into the top 25 for lists from the New York Times: Jon Caramanica, The Quietus and Loud & Quiet.
St. Roch darlings, Hurray for the Riff Raff earned high regard for their eighth studio album, Life On Earth. It’s a folksy release, often sounding more like Bruce Springsteen or Woody Guthrie rather than the heavy guitars and pounding drums of punk. Lead vocalist Alynda Segarra sings of climate change, train-hopping, hardcore matinees and her experience as an immigrant encountering ICE.
Life On Earth ranked #7 on NPR: Ann Power’s list and in the middle of several top 50 lists from publications like Paste, PopMatters, Mojo Magazine, Trebles, Uncut and AllMusic.
Leyla McCalla, who has adopted New Orleans as her base of operations, also saw several mentions for her album Breaking The Thermometer. It explores her Haitian heritage, the truth about democracy and the marginalization allowed on Haitian people and more generally people of color. She delivers performance art of the highest caliber thanks to her virtuosity as a classically trained chamber artist incorporating Afro-Caribbean rhythm to tell a larger story.
Breaking the Thermometer ranked #8 on NPR: Ann Power’s list and in the top 50 for PopMatters and Mojo.
In addition to these other albums, Tommy McLain’s I Ran Down Every Dream was ranked number #5 by NPR’s Ann Power.
Coinciding with the several Grammy nominations earned by local artists this year, New Orleans and Louisiana continue to find exposure and cultural exports from its deep and diverse music community.
