Fluxblog
December 6th, 2016 8:35pm

2016 Survey Mix


2016

Here’s the 2016 survey, featuring 222 songs from across several genres from the past year. Unlike the 1980s survey mixes, this is not really about giving a historically accurate picture of the year in music – while I think this is representative of 2016, it’s a lot more personal and subjective. This is the most hip-hop/R&B-centric survey I’ve ever made, and there’s also a lot of pretty obscure stuff that I’ve found through my indispensable Bandcamp feed. I hope you find a lot of new things to like in this survey, and come away feeling that despite the fact that music media is increasingly focused on a handful of celebrity artists at the expense of anything else, this has actually been a pretty solid year for music.

Here is a version of this mix as a Spotify playlist for your convenience. It is a bit less listenable without my edits, and is missing 22 songs which aren’t available on streaming services.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Car Seat Headrest “1937 State Park” / Danny Brown “Dance in the Water” / Beyoncé “Hold Up” / Xenia Rubinos “Lonely Lover” / A Tribe Called Quest “Dis Generation” / Kendrick Lamar “Untitled 06 (06.30.2014)” / Chance the Rapper featuring Lil Wayne and 2 Chains “No Problem” / Sleigh Bells “Rule Number One” / Mac Miller featuring Anderson Paak “Dang!” / Ari Lennox “Night Drive” / Case/Lang/Veirs “Honey and Smoke” / Okkervil River “Mary On A Wave” / Radiohead “Tinker Tailor Soldier Sailor Rich Man Poor Man Beggar Man Thief” / Bat for Lashes “Never Forgive the Angels” / Margaret Glaspy “You and I” / The Scary Jokes “Catabolic Seed” / Noname “Diddy Bop” / 30/70 “Local Knowledge” / Jamila Woods “Breadcrumbs” / Joey Purp featuring Chance the Rapper “Girls @“ / Maxwell “III” / Leapling “Alabaster Snow” / Lucy Dacus “Direct Address” / Speedy Ortiz “Emma O” / Rihanna “Love On the Brain”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Anderson Paak “The Bird” / No Panty “Singin’ My Song” / The Avalanches “Harmony” / Andrew Bird “Truth Lies Low” / Bibio “Town & Country” / Cass McCombs “Opposite House” / Zayn “It’s You” / Corinne Bailey Rae “Been to the Moon” / Angelic Milk “Rebel Black” / Lou E “What Do You Do It For?” / Lil Yachty “Good Day” / Big Baby D.R.A.M. “Cash Machine” / Twice “Cheer Up” / Thao and the Get Down Stay Down “Fool Forever” / Miya Folick “Pet Body” / Mannequin Pussy “Romantic” / Kvelertak “1985” / Jay Som “I Think You’re Alright” / Frankie Cosmos “I’m 20” / The Range “Superimpose” / Negative Gemini “Don’t Worry ‘Bout the Fuck I’m Doing” / Sales “Ivy” / Lady Gaga “A-YO” / Beck “Wow” / The Weeknd featuring Daft Punk “Starboy” / A$AP Ferg featuring Skrillex and Crystal Caines “Hungry Ham” / J. Cole “False Prophets (Be Like This)” / Lance Skiiwalker “Lovers Lane”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

DJ Shadow featuring Run the Jewels “Nobody Speak” / Childish Gambino “Have Some Love” / Frank Ocean “Pink + White” / NxWorries “What More Can I Say” / Yung Bae “As Sweet As My Baby” / De La Soul featuring Estelle and Pete Rock “Memory of… (Us)” / Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam “Rough Going (I Won’t Let Up)” / Thee Oh Sees “The Axis” / Hinds “Fat Calmed Kiddos” / Whitney “No Matter Where We Go” / Slow Club “Give Me Some Peace” / White Lung “Demented” / Melkbelly “Elk Mountain” / No Joy “XO (Adam’s Getting Married)” / Underworld “Motorhome” / Animal Collective “Vertical” / Cavern of Anti-Matter “Melody In High Feedback Tones” / Luísa Maita “Fio da Memória” / Flume featuring Vince Staples and Kucka “Smoke and Retribution” / Bullion “Never Is the Change” / Justin Timberlake “Can’t Stop the Feeling” / DNCE “Cake by the Ocean” / The 1975 “Love Me” / Twenty One Pilots “Heathens” / Lake Street Dive “I Don’t Care About You” / Bruno Mars “Perm” / BJ the Chicago Kid featuring Kendrick Lamar “The New Cupid”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

Kanye West featuring Chance the Rapper “Ultralight Beam” / Pusha T “HGTV Freestyle” / Run the Jewels “Talk to Me” / Saba featuring Noname “Church/Liquor Store” / Solange “Cranes in the Sky” / Field Music “The Noisy Days Are Over” / A Giant Dog “Sex & Drugs” / Angel Olsen “Shut Up Kiss Me” / Mitski “Once More to See You” / Ariana Grande “Moonlight” / Esperanza Spalding “Unconditional Love” / Snoh Aalegra “In Your River” / James Blake “Radio Silence” / Anohni “Execution” / Jessy Lanza “It Means I Love You” / EXO “Monster” / Max Wonders “Utopia” / Gaby Moreno “Pale Bright Lights” / Quilt “Hissing My Plea” / Kip McGrath “Clock Hands” / Pinegrove “Old Friends” / Amy O “Canteen” / Katie Dey “Fear O’ the Light” / Drugdealer “Suddenly” / of Montreal “It’s Different for Girls” / Kevin Abstract “Empty” / Massive Attack featuring Tricky and 3D “Take It There” / Tim Hecker “Castrati Stack”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

David Bowie “Blackstar” / Vince Staples featuring Kilo Kish “Loco” / Young Thug “Future Swag” / Lil Uzi Vert “Canadian Goose” / Anchorsong “Oriental Suite” / Nicolas Jaar “No” / Motion Graphics “Lense” / Skepta “Lyrics” / YG featuring Nipsey Hussle “FDT” / Fudge “Young Vet” / Kate Tempest “Ketamine for Breakfast” / Tricky “Diving Away” / Blood Orange “Best to You” / Weyes Blood “Do You Need My Love” / Little Scream “Dark Dance” / Kaytranada featuring AlunaGeorge and Goldlink “Together” / Mome “Super Hot Days” / DJ Paypal “No One Else” / Kiiara “Gold” / BTS “Blood, Sweat, and Tears” / DJ Snake featuring Justin Bieber “Let Me Love You” / The Chainsmokers featuring Halsey “Closer” / 21 Savage & Metro Boomin “No Heart” / Future featuring The Weeknd “Low Life” / Relaen “Twines”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Wilco “Normal American Kids” / Miranda Lambert “Highway Vagabond” / Maren Morris “Drunk Girls Don’t Cry” / Basia Bulat “Long Goodbye” / Against Me! “12:03” / Fascinations Grand Chorus “Welcome” / Magic Potion “Cheddar Lane” / AJJ “American Garbage” / Ratboys “Not Again” / Pip Blom “Truth” / Sunflower Bean “Come On” / Ty Segall “Emotional Mugger/Leopard Priestess” / The Orielles “Jobin” / Wire “Internal Exile” / PJ Harvey “The Community of Hope” / Purling Hiss “Fever” / Japanese Breakfast “Everybody Wants to Love You” / Salami Rose Joe Louis “I Miss You So” / Desiigner featuring Kanye West “Timmy Turner (Remix)” / A$AP Mob featuring A$AP Rocky and Skepta “Put That On My Set” / Ka “That Cold and Lonely” / BADBADNOTGOOD “Speaking Gently” / Bas featuring Cozz “Dopamine” / Kamaiyah “How Does It Feel?” / Drake “One Dance” / Sampa the Great “2 4” / Rae Sremmurd featuring Gucci Mane “Black Beatles” / Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds “Rings of Saturn” / Andy Stott “Butterflies” / Jenny Hval “Conceptual Romance” / Leonard Cohen “If I Didn’t Have Your Love” / Alexis Taylor “Crying in the Chapel”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

The Game “The Juice” / John Legend featuring Chance the Rapper “Penthouse Floor” / Ab-Soul featuring Da$h “Huey Knew” / The Kills “Whirling Eye” / Wolf Parade “Floating World” / Half Waif “Nest” / Isaiah Rashad “Brenda” / Schoolboy Q featuring Lance Skiiiwalker “Kno Ya Wrong” / DJ Khaled featuring Drake “For Free” / Twista featuring Jeremih “Next to You” / Britney Spears “Private Show” / Teen “All About Us” / Margo Price “Hurtin’ (On the Bottle)” / Nada Surf “Rushing” / Modern Baseball “Everyday” / Field Mouse “The Mirror” / Sheer Mag “Can’t Stop Fighting” / G.L.O.S.S. “Trans Day of Revenge” / Twist “Can’t Wait” / Monomyth “Re: Lease Life (Place 2 Go)” / The Frightnrs “Nothing More to Say” / The Rolling Stones “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” / Julia Jacklin “Leadlight” / Eleanor Friedberger “Because I Asked You” / Michael Kiwanuka “The Final Frame” / Divine Council featuring Andre 3000 and $ilk Money “Decemba (Remix)” / PARTYNEXTDOOR “Not Nice”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Sia “Cheap Thrills” / Colleen Green “U Coulda Been An A” / Crying “There Was A Door” / Guided by Voices “Kid On A Ladder” / Paul Simon “Wristband” / The Lonely Island featuring Adam Levine “I’m So Humble” / Aminé “Caroline” / DJ Quik & Problem featuring The Game and Candace Boyd “Rosecrans” / Little Shalimar featuring Bun B, Killer Mike, and Cuz Lightyear “Savage Habits” / Uffe “As Long As It Lasts” / 79.5 “ooo” / OddCouple featuring Joey Purp “Visions” / Kool Keith featuring MF Doom “Super Hero” / Heavy Heart “Teenage Witch” / Electric Six “Lee Did This To Me” / Duck “Lip On The Floor” / Really Big Pinecone “Everybody Needs Friends” / Nap Eyes “Mixer” / Norah Jones “Day Breaks” / Kevin Morby “I Have Been to the Mountain” / Conor Oberst “Till St. Dymphna Kicks Us Out” / Lady Wray “Smilin’” / Tennis “Ladies Don’t Play Guitar” / Tinashe “Company” / Zay Hilfigerrr & Zayion McCall “Juju On That Beat (TZ Anthem)” / Wild Beasts “Alpha Female” / Justice “Fire” / Dr. Something “Companion” / Bon Iver “21 M◊◊N WATER” / Burial “Young Death”

RSS Feed for this post6 Responses.
  1. david says:

    Pretty pumped about getting into this. I am tasked with DJing a holiday party, this might save my life. Thanks for putting this together. Also props to bandcamp! Defined my 2016 listening as well.

  2. Paul Wright says:

    thanks – much appreciate the effort involved. I’ve been working back through the decade – now to catch up.
    Being old its hard to keep up. You help a lot. Thanks again.

  3. Ian says:

    “Let’s Lurk” by 67 should’ve occupied your token British Rap spot instead of Skepta. No one outside of Shoreditch listens to him. I could understand you not being up on Drill, but not having any songs from Elysia Crampton or Roly Porter’s albums seems like a glaring omission, especially since you included a track of Andy Stott’s album.

  4. Matthew says:

    I can’t know everything, Ian.

  5. Moni says:

    I look forward to this ever year. Thank you so much for doing these!!

  6. Steve says:

    What Moni said. Every. Single. Year.


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