The Nicsperiment’s Top Nine Albums of 2016

About a million music albums were released in 2016. I heard maybe a couple hundred of those. Out of that, here are my favorite nine, in an attempted briefer fashion than previous years. 9. The Algorithm — Brute ForceAfter three albums, I’m ready to say it: Rémi Gallego is a genius. His unique instrumental blend

The Nicsperiment’s Top Nine Songs of 2016 (Not Found on Albums in the Nicsperiment’s Top Nine Albums of the Year)

Brace yourself: I’m about to say a bunch of really controversial stuff, like In Utero isn’t Nirvana’s best album, that I like the idea of David Bowie more than the actual David Bowie, and that politics don’t matter and can neither ruin nor improve your life, except when George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton signed

Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

5/10 It’s been almost five years since I’ve visited Pitchfork.com, and I’m not sure if it’s even still a thing. I’ve written a lot of negative things about Pitchfork in the past, and I believed and still believe all of them. I guess at the end of the day, Pitchfork is a business (if it’s

PFR- Disappear

8/10 I feel like in many ways, the reputation of PFR’s Disappear is doomed. I’ve lately read several articles lamenting the lack of backing veteran Christian artists are finding in their latter years (here’s a great one!). For one, Christian music is a niche genre. Then there’s the fact that some people de-convert and don’t

PFR — The Late Great PFR

7/10 Greatest Hits albums are a relic of the pre-digital past. Now you can just stream however many songs you want by any band for basically free. However, in the 90’s, people would be way more likely to give a greatest hits album a chance…especially if it included additional content. 90’s mainstream Christian rock band,

PFR — Them

5/10 Aw, man. There’s a reason that PFR’s greatest hits album, released just a few years after their first swansong, Them, only includes two of Them‘s songs.Do you come to PFR for the sweet, Beatles-esque harmonies? They are few and far between on Them. They are replaced by vocal effects and strings. Maybe there were

Phantom

PFR — Great Lengths

8/10 90’s Mainstream Christian Rock wunderkinds, PFR, are back with their third album, Great Lengths, Beatles influence on their sleeves. The opening title-track starts with strings, and a tumble of cascading waterfalls of harmonies that continues throughout the album. While they might have been “mainstream,” and seemingly able to write a radio-ballad at will, PFR

PFR — Goldie’s Last Day

7/10 Let’s jump right into this:90’s Christian rock band, PFR, may have attracted few non-Christian listeners, but they garnered respect in the overall music community. The trio had serious musical chops, and the two vocalists’ harmonies were often compared to those of the Beatles…so much so that they were tagged for a secular Beatles tribute

Peter Gabriel — Us

7/10 1986’s So is the peak of Peter Gabriel’s career. Once you’re at the peak, the only way to go isn’t actually down–you could also just stay at the peak. Unfortunately, at least in my opinion, since So, Gabriel’s music has trended downward. This is clear before even the halfway point of So’s six-years-later follow-up,