Best Albums of 2016

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Explore the best albums of 2016, based on over 2 million album rankings across 61,000 charts. Last updated: 3 hours ago

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2016 year summaryThe best artists of 2016 were Radiohead, David Bowie, Frank Ocean, Car Seat Headrest, Danny Brown, Nick Cave, Bon Iver, Kanye West, Beyoncé and A Tribe Called Quest.

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A Moon Shaped Pool

Radiohead

"AMSP is an album that "makes sense" in Radiohead discography at this point of their career, it's the "maturity chapter". It sounds like a lesson at the end of a parable: after 100 stories of cybernetic monsters under the bed, it's time to get naked and deal with a more human melancholy. Then AMSP..." Reply

Kalos | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 21

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

1,481 charts

Rank Score:

14,517

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"Putting it mildly, it is extremely difficult to comment an album after his composer has just died so unexpectedly. However I don't personally think that his death will influence our judging over this piece of art, since it IS part of his project itself. 'Blackstar' wouldn't have even existed with..." Reply

Socipluco | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 18

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

1,363 charts

Rank Score:

12,232

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

86 (1,684 votes)

Comments:

154

Blond

Frank Ocean

"Blonde is brilliant. That might even be the extent to which I can give my thoughts on this album. That is all. It is just a brilliant album. Ocean takes us on an emotional, dreamy adventure into his own world, and introduces us to a new class of music. The sound of Blonde is experimental without ..." Reply

DeusExMackia | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 9

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

990 charts

Rank Score:

12,008

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

83 (1,131 votes)

Comments:

Teens Of Denial

Car Seat Headrest

"got the recalled version on vinyl but couldn't bring myself to open the precious. so I bought another one so that I could have my sealed recalled copy and listen to it too. but I can't bring myself to open this one either.... ?????? ....my preciouses...." Reply

- jackbrown8786 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 5

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

764 charts

Rank Score:

6,807

Rank in 2016:

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Average Rating:

Comments:

"I'm only one listen in but this is easily Danny's best. I love XXX but there are a few duds on that album, this is all killer no filler. His flow is as crazy as always and on tracks like Ain't It Funny he's spitting faster than I've ever heard him. His rhymes are as interesting and clever as ever..." Reply

babyBlueSedan | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 4

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

649 charts

Rank Score:

5,231

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

314

Average Rating:

83 (728 votes)

Comments:

Skeleton Tree

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

"More death? Fuck’s sake. This time we’re dealing with Nick Cave’s grief after the loss of his son, and it’s heartrending. The usual swagger and bombast in his voice has gone, and we’re left listening to him breathe sharply in between tears. I’ll admit I haven’t seen the documentary that went alon..." Reply

- stereo_mike | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 5

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

704 charts

Rank Score:

4,467

Rank in 2016:

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Average Rating:

Comments:

"Some wonderful moments, some not so. The more melodic and accessible the songs, the better. Still, it is a brave record and it doesn't out stay it's welcome and I'm sure it has yet to fully hit me yet. A challenging album, which I hope will reward me with a great record, but I'm not quite there y..." Reply

- garycottier | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 8

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

611 charts

Rank Score:

4,254

Rank in 2016:

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Average Rating:

Comments:

"What a lot of you have to understand about this album is that Ye is describing his current lifestyle in a stream of consciousness fashion, and I understand that it comes off as disconnected and all over the place. You only have to go as far as the title of the album to explain why everything is s...""What a lot of you have to understand about this album is that Ye is describing his current lifestyle in a stream of consciousness fashion, and I understand that it comes off as disconnected and all over the place. You only have to go as far as the title of the album to explain why everything is so jumbled. This album is Kanye's life, a life that is interesting, crude, beautiful, and everchanging. He is somewhat crazy, but also a genious. Each song alone can be considered amazing, but all together is confusing and disjointed. Kanye is balancing a lot of things in his life as well as in his mind, and the changing thoughts of insanity, strange fantasies(such as the Taylor or asshole line that everyone is shaming), family and god are constantly circling in his brain. These ideas can be somewhat arranged properly with the original 3 Act structure of the tracklist, but certain lines within songs are still randomly placed. I think kanye intentionally took that original order, and mixed it up in an order that still connected musically in some sense, but not thematically. Other posts have also talked about how this keeps the listener interested when the songs are not connected or similar against each other, to create a contrast. This contrast can be seen as a strength once you have listened to the album multiple times. Kanye's life and this album are both a beautiful and disgusting mess, deal with it or dont listen. The title also references Pablo.... multiple pablos. The pablo references in 'No More Parties in LA' include the art of pablo picasso (working on shoes), the fame of pablo escobar (on the news), and the slave role of steriotypical mexican house workers (I do not take credit for figuring this out). This explains that kanye feels many things, including creativity, fame and feeling trapped/ enslaved. It could also be a reference to the bible(I forget specifically who it could refer to but someone mentioned this somewhere). The point is that all of these meanings show that kanye cannot make a fluid concept album at this point in his life. His life is scattered, an extraordinary mess. He cant seem to control all these versions of himself at once, and the album seems to jump back and fourth between muliple personalities that kanye feels inside of himself. If you feel like an amazing song is ruined by a crude lyric, this just explains how kanye has beautiful and amazing things to show off, but also explains that he is compulsive and needs to release certain opinions in spurts of anger. I dont know if any of what I have said makes much sense, and I could probably keep talking about just this one aspect of the album for a lot longer. My overall idea is that the imperfections of these songs and the links between them are reflections of kanye's imperfect and unstable life. He is trying to love his family, but has extreme hate towards others. He is trying to be faithful, but loves to sin. He is trying to make a beautiful gospel album, but cant help but make it a shocking spectacle of unecessary comments. But thats how his life exists, and that's how life exists in general. Life isnt cohesive; its random and sometimes impossible to deal with. Thoughts can be sensational, and horrible ones can intrude. Because of all this, this is "the album of the life" as kanye proclaims. And life isn't a perfect piece of art, so this album shouldnt be either. And if all of this is intentional (which I believe it could be based on the ingenious of kanye in the past), then I consider this album a masterpiece on that basis alone." Reply

- osocool | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 8

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

604 charts

Rank Score:

3,899

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

Average Rating:

Comments:

"I've never been that interested in Beyonce before, but when I hear James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, Father John Misty, Ezra Koenig and Jack White were all working on the same album I'd listen to it if the lead singer had tongue twice the size of their mouth and sang in Aramaic. If there was ever a Be..." Reply

andy_hunter | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 15

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

565 charts

Rank Score:

3,799

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

443

Average Rating:

77 (669 votes)

Comments:

10.

We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

A Tribe Called Quest

"Do I dare to say that this is their best album yet" Reply

tgarritsen | Helpful? (Log in to vote) · 6

Year of Release:

2016

Appears in:

581 charts

Rank Score:

3,502

Rank in 2016:

Rank in 2010s:

Overall Rank:

488

Average Rating:

82 (578 votes)

Comments:

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Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100

Best Albums of 2016 composition

Artist	Albums	%

Various Artists	9	1%
David Bowie	3	0%
The Rolling Stones	3	0%
Neil Young	2	0%
Oh Sees	2	0%
King Crimson	2	0%
Young Thug	2	0%
Show all

Country	Albums	%

	451	45%
	178	18%
	52	5%
	50	5%
	37	4%
	31	3%
	25	3%
Show all

Compilation?	Albums	%
No	978	98%
Yes	22	2%

Live?	Albums	%
No	978	98%
Yes	22	2%

Soundtrack?	Albums	%
No	989	99%
Yes	11	1%

Best Albums of 2016 chart changes

Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month
Up 5 from 94th to 89th Ultimate Care II by Matmos
Up 2 from 96th to 94th I Had A Dream That You Were Mine by Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam
Up 2 from 93rd to 91st Front Row Seat To Earth by Weyes Blood

Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month
Down 5 from 91st to 96th Do Hollywood by The Lemon Twigs
Down 3 from 90th to 93rd The Dream Is Over by PUP
Down 2 from 46th to 48th Emily's D+Evolution by Esperanza Spalding

New entries New entries in top 100 since last month
Up 1 from 101st to 100th Dystopia by Megadeth

Leavers Leavers from top 100 since last month
Down 28 from 99th to 127th Here by Teenage Fanclub

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