SOUND BITES

It's that time again, where we rest up after another long year but take a beat to peek into the crystal ball and wonder about the things to come. So, for the fourth year, let's throw down swami style! In terms of success rate, last year wasn't so great; of the 13 artists I gave greater than a 50% chance of releasing albums, only 7½ did (Incubus only made good on the first half of their promised double EP). The under 50% category was much better, correctly predicting 11 of 12 would not release records (only Baroness managed to do so, and at pretty much the last possible moment by releasing Purple on December 18). That said, here's hoping for better luck on the upper categories this year, as these are all artists I'd really like an album from in 2016. Let's go!

For as dry as the last couple months of 2015 were, I'd have expected to be looking at a slew of exciting releases to ring in 2016. As it stands, though, not a lot has been confirmed as of yet. Still, what the release schedule is lacking in certainty is more than made up for in its possibilities for the coming twelve months. Before we head into the murky waters of speculation, let's check out some of 2016's sure things:

H ea d i ng i nt o B a r o ness' f ou rth a lb u m, I h a d c e rt ai n e xp e ct a t io ns f o r th e s o ngwr i t i ng a nd e x e c u t io n; a ft e r all, Y e ll o w/Gr ee n w a s my r u nn e r- u p f o r A lb u m o f th e Y ea r i n 2012, a spr a wl i ng a nd m a j e st i c p ai r o f pl a tt e rs th a t s a w th e b a nd t u rn a c o rn e r styl i st i c a lly a nd br ea k fr ee o f a ny c o nstr ai nts th a t m a y h a v e b ee n pl a c e d u p o n th e m a s a m e t a l a ct. H a pp i ly, P u rpl e s ee s B a r o n e ss i mpr o v e o n wh a t th e y w e r e d oi ng o n Y e ll o w/Gr ee n i n a lm o st e v e ry w a y. I t a v oi ds p o t e nt ia l f a t i g ue by str ea ml i n i ng th e r e c o rd t o ei ght s o ngs pr o p e r a nd a sh o rt i nstr u m e nt a l, c u tt i ng th e r u nn i ng t i m e by o v e r a h a lf h ou r a nd th e r e by l ea v i ng l e ss r oo m f o r f i ll e r (l i k e i t o r n o t, Y e ll o w/Gr ee n d i d h a v e...

Before we get around to handing out awards, I wanted to take a minute to say how much I appreciate you reading this. As a project I work on in my free time and without compensation, it's sometimes difficult for me to find the ambition required to generate content for Sound Bites; however, knowing there are people like you who like to stop by from time to time, I know the effort is that much more worth it. When this site launched a little over four years ago, I never would have guessed that it would ever amass 40,000 pageviews, much less so soon. With your support, though, it recently did just that; while numbers like this likely don't mean much to the bigger sites that pay people to churn out posts, it's damn sure a big deal to me. So thanks again for making Sound Bites a rousing personal success for me, and I hope I can continue to keep you all entertained and informed for many years to come. Okay, enough mushy talk, let's crown some champs!

To understand what it is that makes me the staunch music lover I am today, one needs look no further than a list of past Album of the Year winners. Through the years, my life has been not just enhanced by my favourite records, but indeed shaped by them to a certain extent. A great song can get me revved up or emotional, but a great album is capable of so much more. The best albums are more than the sum of their parts, creating a story or journey for our hearts and minds to explore. Through these records, we can apply our personal experiences to those of the creators and, in turn, create a new experience that's ours and ours alone. Winning an Album of the Year award from me has never changed the lives of any recipient, and the artists' Wikipedia pages will never list it as a credential. Still, I feel it's an important thing to do, as it marks another year of my life and credits the album that, more than others released that year, helped me through it. Just for fun, I...

Rather than space these out and repost most of the videos from my Song of the Year nominees, I thought it best to condense the following five categories into one post and take it on faith that you know how to find a song without the video being embedded directly next to it. Also, a reminder that next Monday (December 14) is the day I make my Album of the Year nominees, so be sure to come back then and find out which ten records made it to my final proving grounds in 2015. Without further ado, presenting nominees in the following categories: