HULLABALOO // Favorite Songs of 2016
2016 has been a big year.
I finally found a natural deodorant that works for me, for instance. There’s also been some other, really terrible stuff – some of it deeply personal, some widely televised – and a lot of timely, wrenching music to help us through it.
Words often fail when trying to describe the connection I feel to my favorite songs and I find myself using too many of them to compensate for the inadequacy of language in the face of raw love. The result is neither articulate nor especially enjoyable.
This year I saved us all the trouble and limited myself to 17 syllables per song.
Disclaimers: I’m not super good at following rules and the rigid structure of haiku poetry (5 syllables / 7 syllables / 5 syllables) is not *always* adhered to here. Take it up with my English teacher.
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Big Thief // Paul
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depthless velvet like
whiskey at 2am and
certain types of anguish
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Frank Ocean // Nights
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because we’re people
in different stages of not
knowing each other.
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Bon Iver – 8 (circle)
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too hot too small there’s
static on the line again
so close to the sun
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Gallant // Episode
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soaring falsetto
in direct proportion to
the world’s heaviness
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Francis And The Lights //
May I Have This Dance
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high into low like
icarus, like sisyphus
like sun to starlite
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Hiss Golden Messenger //
Heart Like a Levee
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i still don’t know what
a levee is but i’m
pretty sure it can break
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Maren Morris // How It’s Done
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a long time coming–
the sound of new nashville &
the touch of a hand
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The Season / Carry Me // Anderson .Paak
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this song is about
love and mothers, fear and
yearning and Jordans
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D.D Dumbo // Walrus
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did you know that
primordial soup is an
onomatopoeia?
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Bibi Bourelly // Fool
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poor little fuck bois
foolish enough to mess with
bibi bourelly
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Body Clocks // Dusk
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hello little song
i’ve been brooding for you
since darkside disbanded
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Ali Beletic // Stone Fox
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written in burnt rubber,
you can almost smell the fumes
in the desert wind
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Les Gordon – Atlas
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she’s the tune living
in a flutter and speaking
only altitudes
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Katy Goodman & Greta Morgan // Ever Fallen In Love
(The Buzzcocks cover)
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love is like the god
damned terminator.
might as well sing about it.
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Jean Tonique feat. DiRTY RADiO // Lit Up
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is it too late to
admit that i still don’t know
wtf lit means
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Jesse Boykins III // Mean Girls feat. Nico Segal & J* Davey
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we need more sad boys
with safety pins in their ears
who play the trumpet
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DJ Shadow feat. Run The Jewels // Nobody Speak
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rtj3 like
killer mike patron saint of
come the fuck at me
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Kaleo // All The Pretty Girls
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every year needs its
skinny love but to what god do
we owe so many
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Sango feat. Xavier Omar // The Motive Used To Be The Melody
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kissed softly all of the
parts i don’t always love like
for instance, all of me
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Bishop Briggs // River
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you can hear how much
bigger she can get and that’s
really saying something
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Imarhan // Imarhan
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what “world music” they
laugh – yes tell us more about
your fucking boxes
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Coldplay // Hymn For The Weekend (Ash Remix)
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only remix ever
to make me wonder if coldplay
might be my favorite band
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The Boxer Rebellion // Weapon
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this song goes out to
all the real ones making
sure i hear the music
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Sasha // View2
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huhnfvphlifluh. huhnphli
pheh. huhfhifleh. huhnfvphlifleh.
hahfliphleh. hunhphlih.
//
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James Vincent McMorrow // Evil
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you don’t think coping
is the finish line until
it starts running away
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Roosevelt // Fever
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ever wondered what
cosmic purpose the eighties served?
well, this is it.
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Manast LL’ // Sookah
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cold, like lips blue, like
there’s hardly any air left
to write songs about
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Dawn Richard // Love Under Lights
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spun sugar bass line
warm, electrically sweet, and
made to melt away
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The Geek x Vrv // Origami
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just an average
tuesday night at low end theory
losing all my shit
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Frankie Cosmos // Fool
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you drove me home and
i never even texted
but i hope you’re well.
//
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Whitney // No Woman
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sometimes you don’t need
to reinvent the wheel to
make a good thing great
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Weval // Years To Build
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“about the journey”
he says knowingly, as if
he is not afraid
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Bon Iver // 715 – CR∑∑KS
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carefully watch the
negative space for flickers
of something bigger
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dvsn // The Line
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i believe in love
songs because they never ask
me to say it back
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Islands // No Milk No Sugar
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nothing about this
album cover doesn’t make
me think about sex
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Jim James // Here In Spirit
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there’s a moment that
almost approaches dubstep.
i really love that.
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Beyoncé // Sorry
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“BOY BYE.” and we meant it.
clear eyes and clean tears running
down the female spine
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Gordi // So Here We Are
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can’t stop crying
because god forbid you might
forget to be sad
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Songhoy Blues // Sekou Oumarou (Timbuktu Remix)
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try to tell me that
music doesn’t save lives. no,
seriously just try
//
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Vince Staples // Prima Donna
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vince raps like it’s a
thing he’d stop doing if he
could but he can’t so
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How To Dress Well // Can’t You Tell
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dear men this is what
is meant by pleasure centric
are you taking notes
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Childish Gambino // Redbone
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twenty sixteen was
the year childish gave us a
soul album amen
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Parcels // Anotherclock
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for when there’s no time
for anything more than the
sexiest whisper
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Topaz Jones // Howlin’ To The Moon
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“hey u wanna come
over tonite n have sex
just as friends tho k?”
//
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Gap Dream // Greater Find
