Best Albums of 2016
Explore the best albums of 2016, based on over 2 million album rankings across 60,000 charts
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Last updated: 5 hours ago
"To the people saying the rating is inflated: To Pimp A Butterfly was the same way. This is a natural process. When a popular album comes out, the first people to listen to it and rate it are fans. Of course they'll rate it higher than the average person. And since there are a lot of fans of these..." Reply
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
14,574
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"I just noticed that the broken down star says 'Bowie'." Reply
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Hayden | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +25 votes (25 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,329
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Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"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
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DeusExMackia | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
12,135
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Average Rating:
Comments:
"This is the type of music I think of when I think Matador Records. Will Toledo's musings on youthful, millenial abandon and anxiety fit perfectly between the tender pop cuts of Yo La Tengo and the batshit crazy, face-melting rock of Guided by Voices. And yet, with all these influences at his disp..." Reply
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,856
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Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"can someone explain to me why this isnt in the top 10 yet?" Reply
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Hattori300 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +9 votes (9 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,348
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Average Rating:
Comments:
"In a year of incredible music, this is the heart-stopping, devastating high point." Reply
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,480
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
"A few times in, and Im still in a bit of a hung-jury bewilderment. While I think it's certainly an interesting foray into the increasingly trendy world of folk-y-tronica and in many ways an expected and more organic than not next step for Vernon, I think it at times focuses a bit too much on the ..." Reply
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cestuneblague | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +4 votes (4 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,231
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Comments:
8.
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"How can you rate this before it comes out? The version yesterday wasn't complete and even if it was, it was a livestream of music being played over an arena sound system, not exactly the best audio quality." Reply
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,890
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
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andy_hunter | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +14 votes (15 helpful | 1 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,820
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Average Rating:
Comments:
"Like a visit from an old friend - Q-Tip sounds so familiar, & Busta on so many tracks made me feel like a hip-hop fan from the 90s again. This album wasn't just for nostalgia, TCQ showed that they still have a few tricks up their sleeve." Reply
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junodog4 | Helpful? (Log in to vote) | +3 votes (3 helpful | 0 unhelpful)
A maximum of 5 top-voted qualifying comments are selected for each album. To provide the best experience for visitors, comments are excluded if they refer to data corrections, contain excessive profanity, are written in all caps, are non-English, are too short, consist of conversations between users, or contain lists of best tracks etc.
Year of Release:
2016
Appears in:
Rank Score:
3,468
Rank in 2016:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 1,000. Page 1 of 100
Best Albums of 2016 composition
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
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| Various Artists | 9 | 1% | |
| David Bowie | 3 | 0% | |
| The Rolling Stones | 3 | 0% | |
| Clipping. | 2 | 0% | |
| Neil Young | 2 | 0% | |
| Oh Sees | 2 | 0% | |
| King Crimson | 2 | 0% | |
| Show all | |||
| Country | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
 |
451 | 45% | |
 |
179 | 18% | |
 |
52 | 5% | |
 |
50 | 5% | |
 |
38 | 4% | |
 |
31 | 3% | |
 |
25 | 3% | |
| Show all | |||
Best Albums of 2016 chart changes
| Biggest climbers Biggest climbers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Up 17 from 96th to 79th |
Up 12 from 112th to 100th |
Up 6 from 68th to 62nd |
| Biggest fallers Biggest fallers in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Down 7 from 87th to 94th |
Down 6 from 64th to 70th |
Down 5 from 61st to 66th |
| New entries New entries in top 100 since last month |
|---|
Up 3 from 101st to 98th |
Up 5 from 104th to 99th |
Up 12 from 112th to 100th |
| Leavers Leavers from top 100 since last month |
|---|
Down 8 from 94th to 102nd |
Down 4 from 99th to 103rd |
Down 5 from 100th to 105th |
Popular
Charts
