Nextbop’s Best Jazz Albums of 2019
It was an amazing year for jazz music. The genre is constantly evolving and pushing the limits of creativity. Jazz musicians have a real talent for drawing inspiration from other …
Best Of Lists
Nextbop’s Favorite Everything Else Albums of 2018
As one of our most exciting times of year (which we refer to as the Season of Lists), the Nextbop staff relishes the end of the year to declare our …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2018
As one of our most exciting times of year (which we refer to as the Season of Lists), the Nextbop staff relishes the end of the year to declare our …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2017
We have a small, volunteer staff here at Nextbop. Folks who read us here contribute work, adding to the collective of voices that we so cherish here and giving additional …
Nextbop’s Favorite Non-Jazz Albums of 2017
The Nextbop favorite non-jazz list is always a fascinating beast because it exemplifies the widest interests of the staff. It frequently doesn’t coalesce around many of the same ideas. There …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2016
There’s no universal theme or overall consensus in jazz this year. No overblown hype machine, no clamoring for a seemingly agreed upon savior, no important trendsetting bucking of past conventions …
Nextbop’s Favorite Non-Jazz Albums of 2016
It was difficult to find engagement in this year’s music. This was a year of loss, of disappointment, of scattershot feelings and even moreso scattershot expression. This isn’t to say …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2015
I’m not quite sure what more I could say here about jazz in 2015. There may not have been some overarching narrative that guided how art was made and released. …
Nextbop’s Favorite Non-Jazz Albums of 2015
I like that we make this list every year. No, it’s not as well read as our other posts. It doesn’t exactly fit what we do. But I like the …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Releases of 2014
We don’t like to say “best” around here. We’re limited people with limited knowledge, fans with a platform. There’s no way we have heard everything released this year or are …
Nextbop’s Favorite Everything Else Releases of 2014
Like any good lover of music, our tastes at Nextbop are wide. Some overlap, some shape others in regard to genre, but there’s a lot of music released this year …
Our Favorites of 2014 So Far
As we have reached a little bit past the halfway point of the year, it’s about that time to look back on some of the releases of 2014 and highlight …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2013, #9-1
As we reach the end of another season of year-end lists, I still find it just as difficult to find some thread to move through this year as when I …
Nextbop’s Favorite Jazz Albums of 2013, #20-12
One major reason why I so enjoy this time at the end of the year is not only to reassess what this past year has looked like musically, not only …
Nextbop’s Favorite Everything Else Albums of 2013, #10-1
I spent quite a while looking through our staff list to find some sort of theme for the music we liked this year, but try as I might, there was …
Nextbop’s Favorite Everything Else Albums of 2013, #18-12
The Everything Else lists don’t get nearly as much web traffic as our jazz lists do. Of course, this makes sense– this is a jazz and fringe jazz website. People …
The Best Jazz Albums of 2012: #10-1
By the circumstances of our calendar, we culturally use the transition into the new year as a time to reflect. We reflect on how we have grown as people, about …
The Best Jazz Albums of 2012: #25*-11
This has been a particularly strong year for music. I feel like I’ve been saying it more and more but do you remember how you felt at the beginning of …
The Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2012: #10*-1
To be honest, these are the top ten non-jazz albums as voted by our staff, but since ties are a habit with this year’s lists, we’re going to start things …
The Best Non-Jazz Albums of 2012: #25*-11
I’ve always loved the collective of voices we have here at Nextbop. This international group of talents has always been a sort of inspiration to me, shining a light on …
Nextbop’s Best Everything Else Albums of 2011
I knew this list was going to be interesting. We’ve got a pretty diverse staff of writers with different sorts of taste. As diverse as our jazz list is for …
Nextbop’s Best Jazz Albums of 2011
I was recently asked to define what trend ran through jazz in the past year and I found I couldn’t think of anything definitive about that other than the fact …
Best Jazz Albums of 2010 by Nextbop.com
It was rather difficult putting together a list of the best jazz albums of 2010. Unlike our list of non-jazz albums, there didn’t seem to be a massive sense of …
Nextbop’s Best of Everything Else of 2010
In order for this site to be what it is, we listen to a wide variety of music. That’s just how music is lately, we find strength in our diversity. …