In a lengthy post on Instagram, triple j Music Director Richard Kingsmill has claimed that 2016 “didn’t deliver a perfect album.”

Putting aside the fact that musical taste is subjective and perfection is impossible to quantify, Kingsmill made a number of interesting points, including the fact that the station featured more Australian albums than ever before – singling out D.D. Dumbo’s Utopia Defeated (which won the J Award for Best Australian Album) as being “as close to perfect”.

Kingsmill named Frank Ocean’s Blonde as his favourite album of the year, comparing it favourably to Kanye’s ‘The Life Of Pablo’, writing, “Whereas Kanye lost me lyrically with The Life Of Pablo, I found Frank’s crazed lyrical juxtapositions intriguing and inclusive. I still don’t really know what he’s talking about half the time, but I’m having a good time in his world. I don’t feel alienated at all.”

He ends on a nice note, writing, “In a year when we were hit with so much bad news, antagonism and intolerance, who can criticize anyone for picking an album that simply makes them feel good about the world.”

Read the entire post, below.

Truth be told, 2016 didn’t deliver a perfect album. Not that I heard anyway. There were a lot of good records, some great. But none that were perfect. There were a stack of Australian albums this year. We featured more Australian albums on triple j in 2016 than we have in any year I can remember. The one Australian album that got as close to perfect for me was D.D Dumbo. It had a vision, cohesion and a strong purpose – you could tell there were certain distinct sounds and an overall mood he wanted to carry through all the songs. It was so unlike any other Australian album this year. So that’s why I rated it pretty highly in my top 10. But in the end, Frank Ocean came out on top for me. Like Chance The Rapper and Anderson .Paak, I just love those voices that echo the past, but are so singular in the scene today that you immediately know who they are. I found those three voices so magnetic this year. Initially I was disappointed in Blonde. After months and months of speculation about when it was coming, and then staring online for hours and hours at a warehouse space waiting for something to happen, to then wade through the half-baked Endless visual album, I was starting to wonder whether it was all worth it. I felt flat and over it by the time I listened to Blonde. I picked out the immediate highlights (‘Solo’/’Pink + White’/’Nights’), and almost discarded the rest. But soon, I found myself exploring the ones that took a little longer to warm to (‘Nikes’/’Ivy’/’White Ferrari’). And that started breathing new life into the album for me. Whereas Kanye lost me lyrically with The Life Of Pablo, I found Frank’s crazed lyrical juxtapositions intriguing and inclusive. I still don’t really know what he’s talking about half the time, but I’m having a good time in his world. I don’t feel alienated at all. And in a year when we were hit with so much bad news, antagonism and intolerance, who can criticize anyone for picking an album that simply makes them feel good about the world. Read more in my blog via the bio link…

A photo posted by Richard Kingsmill (@triplejtheking) on Dec 19, 2016 at 7:29pm PST

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