2016 may have been a rough year, but Boston’s music community put out some truly fantastic material: strong female singers like Sadie Dupuis (of Speedy Ortiz) and Aubrey Haddard (of The New Review) released stellar solo debuts; local favorites Tall Heights, Lettuce, and You Won’t garnered national attention; and fresh faces Crumb, split/halves, and Nat Reed gave us even more reason to look forward to the new year. Below, listen to 30 songs our team selected as the best local tracks of 2016.
Note: Songs are listed in alphabetical order by artist.
Able Days – “Tall”
Au – “Tory”
Bent Shapes – “Intransitive Verbs”
Biscuits and Gravy – “Heartbreaker”
Covey – “Bows”
Crumb – “So Tired”
Dirty Bangs – “Sophisticated Feelings”
Grey Season – “Brother of Mine”
Honeysuckle – “Canary”
The Interlopers – “Elevation”
Kyle Thornton and the Co. – “Complicated Melody”
Lady Pills – “Make Out”
Lettuce – “The Love That You Left Behind”
Luhx – “No Rush”
The Max Tribe – “Sweet Reality”
Nat Reed – “In Your Love”
The New Review – “Goodbye Parties”
Noé – “Lady”
Julie Rhodes – “In Your Garden”
The Rare Occasions – “Future Proof”
Sad13 – “<2”
Somos – “Thorn in the Side”
split/halves – “Ephemera”
Speedy Ortiz – “Death Note”
Dietrich Strausse – “The Beast That Rolls Within”
Tall Heights – “River Wider”
Vitamin Sun – “Wicker Wings”
TW Walsh – “Fundamental Ground”
Walter Sickert and the Broken Toys – “Come Black Magic”
