"If music is the lens through which we view the rest of the world," we wrote on Tuesday, "then it's possible that some positivity can still be extracted from the pulp of 2016." The reasoning: Skepta had just won Britain's prestigious Mercury Prize and now, unexpectedly, Katytranada had fought off Carly Rae Jepsen and Grimes for Canada's Polaris Prize. Once-marginalized styles of music were being recognized in a world that once seemed impossibly distant.There's no point in pretending that this compensates for a year that, otherwise, has torn us all to shreds; in my 25 years on this planet, I've never heard so many people tell me, quite seriously, while making lots of eye-contact, that they're considering moving to the goddamned woods. But Robert Christgau was saying similar things in this week's Expert Witness. Reviewing M.I.A.'s AIM, he wrote that "Nothing has made me happier in this horrendous moment[…] Fuck you if you think it's "lightweight" or "confusing" or "aimless" or "ho-hum."That much is important. "She intends to enjoy herself however bad the shit gets, and so should we," he concluded. It's not escapism and it's sure as hell not wilful detachment, but it might be all we've got. Following his Polaris win, Kaytranada dropped a new mixtape "for the fans;" Bruce Springsteen, still tearing it up three hours at a time, preparing to release what I expect will be a wonderful memoir—the man was built for this as much as anything—released an engrossing retrospective; Ty Dolla $ign and Mick Jenkins both released full-length albums of ingenuity and subtlety; T.I. squared up to the world around him and rapped what he said he was compelled to.So yeah, however bad this shit gets. We've picked out 11 new projects below that we think you should listen to.Lead image via Kaytranada on Facebook.Follow Noisey onTwitter.
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