2016 Survey Mix

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”