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100% Hits: Best of 2016
Ah, the compilation album: a crucial barometer of annual
taste and a postmortem to the year in pop.
100% Hits
and
its ilk have obvious uses: all the barbecues imminent with
all this warm weather have their soundtrack right here.
But CD compilations feel oddly anachronistic in an age
when an algorithm can make a new compilation for you
every week for every mood. Instead,
100% Hits
is more
interesting in what it says about pop’s evolution. Where a
few years ago rushing crescendos and sweaty house- and
dubstep-driven pop songs reigned, this year the flavour is
staccato guitar melodies and steel drums – tropical house
sounds that conjure dramatic beach parties and carefree
days, a kind of nirvana for youth. Rihanna blazed this trail
years ago and some of these elements were present
during David Guetta’s command, but the difference now
is the amount of space they’re given. The last few years
of pop have been a blaring cacophony chasing ever louder
peaks, but this year it went the opposite way, stripping
the production back to its most effective components and
allowing silence to sharpen the edges. Sadly, Macklemore
lingers like a retired meme, but outliers like Flume’s
Justified
-era Timberlake throwback and Lisa Mitchell’s
moodier takes keep
100% Hits
interesting.
(
100% Hits: Best of 2016
is out now via Warner)
Jake Cleland
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