My Top 20 Albums of 2016 (Part 1)

Honorable Mentions and #11–15

It’s that time of the year once again! 2016 marks Year 5 of my annual Top Albums of the Year list, and I can’t wait to roll this one out and hopefully encourage you guys to check out the best/my favorite releases of the past calendar year. This has been a very strong year, but most notably for the R&B and hip-hop worlds, with all kinds of new sounds, new personalities, and new concepts revealing themselves at every turn. This was also the first year I’ve done a list like this that I didn’t already know by December what my #1 album was going to be. This year I had a very very hard time parsing through these records and ranking them: Every time I had to knock one of them out of contention a little part of me died inside. Ultimately though, I came to my decisions, and I can’t wait to see what kind of discussion I can get from my takes on this year’s best music.

My format is going to be fairly simple. My #1–15 records will each receive their own brief individual profile detailing the record itself and why I think it’s great/why I think it’s important/why I enjoyed it so much. My methodology for picking the order of this list was about 75% critical analysis and 25% my own personal opinion and enjoyment of each record, so make sure you keep that in mind as I go through: This is just my opinion after all. #16–20 will be listed as unranked honorable mentions, divided into two tiers. So without further ado, allow me to begin with my 20 Top Albums of the year 2016.

Honorable Mentions Tier 3 (Ineligible)

So I lied a little bit. There are actually going to be 21 albums on this list, but my #21 is an EP that I enjoyed very much and thought was a great addition to the year’s music. However, as an EP and not a full-length album, I don’t consider it eligible for this list. Despite that, I still wanted to give recognition to Untitled Unmastered, by Kendrick Lamar.

Following up his magnum opus and the consensus #1 (including me) album of 2015, To Pimp A Butterfly, King Kendrick returned to the music scene with a number of unreleased cuts from that record, some of which had been performed on various late night and awards shows without titles or fanfare. True to the title of the album, none of the tracks on this release received true titles, all being called simply “Untitled (insert number here)” On this EP Kendrick continues into his sublime political and abstract jazz-driven style of world-beating rap music that absolutely dominated the musical world in full-album form last year. There is a lot here to enjoy, from abstract free jazz jams to more structured but incredibly firey and biting rap tracks in which Kendrick can truly display his prowess for lyricism and dialogue. Highly recommend this EP, but as a short-form record, I cannot include it on my list.

Blockbusters: Untitled 3; Untitled 8

Lacklusters: Untitled 7

Honorable Mentions Tier 2 (Fun but Flawed)

Consider these two records to be my #19 and #20 for the year but in no particular order. One of these record I enjoyed listening to immensely but recognize that has some issues that prevent it from receiving serious consideration. The other is a record that I find has brilliant songwriting, lyricism, and ideas, but is extremely hindered by very subpar production value to the point at which I question whether or not it was mixed through a pair of dollar-store earbuds.

The former of those two records is Starboy, by The Weeknd. Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd has been on the R&B scene for some time, but after his breakout hit record of last year, Beauty Behind The Madness, he is coming through with a pop-R&B fusion record that provides some of the best jams of the year, focusing on Abel coming to terms with his new lifestyle as a successful artist. There are songs on this record that I will be spinning on repeat and putting on playlists for years to come; however, the record runs long and contains a bit too much filler for serious consideration. If Abel had cut about 3 or 4 tracks from this record and concentrated on his more compelling material here, I would think of this record much more highly. That being said, there are songs on here that I vibe really hard, with excellent production and melodies to go with them, and I won’t deny him his recognition for making some extremely enjoyable tunes that bring the R&B and pop worlds together in a beautiful way.

Blockbusters: Starboy; Reminder; I Feel It Coming

Lacklusters: Stargirl Interlude; All I Know

The other record falling into this tier is Coloring Book, by Chance The Rapper. I am on record as a huge fan of Chance’s work. His mixtape Acid Rap was one of my top 5 records of 2013, and his lyricism, sincerity, and songwriting prowess are among the best in the hip-hop world today. He’s also from Chicago and reps this city more than any other member of the hip-hop community, so I’ve got nothing but love for this guy. This record also includes what I’m accustomed to expecting from him, which is fantastic lyricism, stellar arrangements, and great musical ideas all over the map. It also features some extremely compelling gospel hooks to go along with it. However, the production value of this album is truly abysmal. Many a time have I been listening to the new Chance and then switched over to a different artist, and every time I can’t help but notice just how much better other releases sound as a whole. The mixing on this record is muddled and dirty, with poor volume control to go with it. There are a few songs on this record with guest producers, and those tracks are easily the best on the record, showing off all of Chance’s great skills without bogging it down in poorly mixed drums and horn sections. My advice to Chance: Keep doing what you’re doing, your ideas are incredible and your mind is a beautiful thing: But please find new producers for the next record.

Blockbusters: Same Drugs; Angels; Smoke Break

Lacklusters: All We Got; All Night

Honorable Mentions Tier 1 (Just Missed The Cut)

Consider these three records to be my #16–18 of the year in no particular order. These records by all means could have made the list but just didn’t quite manage to catch my attention or wow me in the same way that the rest of the albums on this list did. Sometimes you just want to include more albums than a nice square number will let you. Anyway, here are my last three albums left off of the Top 15.

The first of these “last three out” is The Colour In Anything, by James Blake. James Blake is a British artist who specializes in his own personal brand of electronic dreamscape music, with his own deeply soulful and inflective voice as the hammer behind his clouds of synthesized atmosphere. His record from this year makes for a very progressive step for Blake as an artist. Still painting in his signature deep blues and grays, Blake unleashes a torrent of tonal melancholy that can seemingly summon rainclouds anywhere you may be, but with a more developed fervor than ever before. With multiple high-profile collaborators such as Frank Ocean, Rick Rubin, and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, this record is a deep and lengthy dive into the world of atmospheric wonder. The record starts to drag a bit towards the end, and can tend to bore at times to the wrong audience, but listen closely enough and you will find all the nuance in this record that you could ever need.

Blockbusters: Radio Silence; Love Me In Whatever Way; The Colour In Anything

Lacklusters: I Need A Forest Fire; My Willing Heart

The second record in this tier is a similarly depressed and atmospheric venture, but in a very different vein than James Blake’s electronic haze. Skeleton Tree, by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds is large in scope but small in filler. Cave, the Australian auteur of post-rock sadness, is a master of using negative space to maximum effect, and this record is no exception at all. Cave’s voice is all at once atonal and melodic; expressionless and emotive. The music that he uses to back up his musings on the concepts of loneliness, dreary life, and even just his more abstract and impressionistic word paintings, are beautiful and haunting, orchestrated and sweeping. Nick Cave has always dealt with death in his music, but never before this record has he had to confront it so directly: shortly before the recording sessions of Skeleton Tree, one of Cave’s 15-year old twin sons was killed after accidentally falling from a cliff near their home. Cave’s mourning hangs over this record like a spectre, and sometimes tragedy begets the greatest of art.

Blockbusters: Girl In Amber; Anthrocene; Skeleton Tree

Lacklusters: I Need You

The last album in this “just missed” tier is unlike the other two entirely. This record, IV, by BADBADNOTGOOD, is an R&B/jazz/hip-hop fusion record that showcases the creative impulses and musical abilities of perhaps the most talented jazz performers currently on the scene, a quartet of white boys from Toronto, Canada. As the title implies, this is the fourth record from this group, and their third record, similarly titled III, was one of my favorite records of its year. On their new work however, BBNG moves away from their hip-hop roots a bit and strays more into a loungey R&B vibe, featuring more retrograde instrumentation and throwback sensibilities than their exceedingly modern prior releases. However, just because their sound is taken back in time a little bit does not mean for a second that their contemporary instincts are at all muted. This record is quintessentially present-day, and this group’s ability to bring jazz music to the modern audience again and again never ceases to amaze.

Blackbusters: And That, Too.; Time Moves Slowly; Chompy’s Paradise

Lacklusters: IV; Confessions Pt. II

That does it for my honorable mentions, my #16–21 records of the year 2016. Now let’s get to the main event: The Top 15. Each of the top 15 will get their own brief profile, and I highly recommend every single one of these records to anyone who wants to explore some new music. Check them out, I hope you enjoy my thoughts, and here we go.

#15: My Woman, Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen used to be a folk singer. If there was any illusion of that remaining, this album put it to rest. Gifted with a very singular and instantly recognizable voice to go with her powerful songwriting talents, Olsen channels her best work yet into her 2016 release, which dives directly into the world of classic rock sounds with some more dreamy material included. The record is very clearly delineated into an A side and B side, with the A side of the album serving as Olsen’s more rock and pop-driven side, featuring bright guitars, driving backbeats, and lighter themes of hope and love. The B side delves into slower and more introspective material, with much lengthier songs and more in-depth songwriting and arrangement. Neither side is better than the other, only different, which makes for a very balanced and nuanced record as a whole. At times the material can run together, as songs may not display a large amount of variety from each other. However, regardless of that, the songwriting and lyricism displayed by Olsen on this record, as well as some killer arranging, make for a very interesting listen any day of the week.

Blockbusters: Intern; Shut Up Kiss Me; Sister

Lacklusters: Not Gonna Kill You

#14: Light Upon The Lake, Whitney

Born from the high-quality rock bands Unknown Mortal Orchestra and The Smith Westerns, the Chicago-based Whitney came out with their debut album this year, a sun-soaked mixture of soft folk-rock and soul that only runs about 30 minutes in length, but never fails to provide an excellent shot of brevity and gorgeous, lighthearted guitar, string, and horn arrangements at every turn. The songs featured on this record walk the fine line between excessively generic and sincerely earnest to perfection: They could be about whatever you want them to be about, but they never seem to miss the mark or aim too wide. The instrumentation and production on this record is humble, crisp, and fresh-sounding at all times, keeping a joyous bounce to it at most times, occasionally delving into a melancholy feel to keep things interesting. Although this record is a short collection of short songs, the arrangements and songwriting will keep you coming back for more over and over again, and serves as one of the better warm-weather listens of the year. If this album has a flaw, it lies it its superfluous and short nature, but ultimately I just can’t bring myself to care. The music is just too good.

Blockbusters: The Falls; Golden Days; No Matter Where We Go

Lacklusters: N/A

#13: Bottomless Pit, Death Grips

The Sacramento industrial hip-hop/punk/metal/techno/whatever the hell else they were feeling like experimenting with that day trio Death Grips has been a staple of my lists over the past years. Their 2012 record The Money Store was my favorite record of that year, and last year their long-awaited double album The Powers That B cracked my top 5. This year’s record is not as good as either of those two excellent works, but it does not fail to advance the sound of the group ever further while providing some seriously compelling, if, as always, extremely abrasive, songs and hooks. With Zach Hill and Andy Morin providing the punishing and unforgiving backings to the cryptic and stream-of-consciousness screams of frontman MC Ride, Death Grips once again has released one of the most forward-thinking records of the year. Their sound has evolved a lot over time, incorporating more blistering guitars and innovations in production technique to go along with their loud and glitchy apocalyptic soundwaves and furious beats.

This album provides perhaps the widest variety of sounds that the group has ever worked with, from straight up grindcore on the opening track “Giving Bad People Good Ideas”, to a thrash metal-like song structure on “Bubbles Buried In This Jungle”, to the much more danceable glitch hop of “Eh”. When walking into this album, expect nothing but pure Death Grips: that is to say abrasive, not at all accessible, and extremely loud and profane. This is not for the faint of heart, but can also prove to be extremely rewarding for the more adventurous types.

Blockbusters: Bubbles Buried In This Jungle; Three Bedrooms In A Good Neighborhood; Ring A Bell

Lacklusters: Trash

(Disclaimer: I had the opportunity to see these guys live in concert at Riot Fest this year and the experience was incredible. I don’t believe that it changed my opinion of this album at all, but just so you know.)

#12: Post Pop Depression, Iggy Pop

The notorious punk rocker and provocateur Iggy Pop returned to the mainstream with a new record this year, written and recorded in secrecy with Queens of the Stone Age frontman and present-day rock omipresence Josh Homme. As a result of his collaboration with Homme, this record, from the beginning of Track 1, bears some very striking similarities to the last Queens of the Stone Age record, …Like Clockwork. Luckily for Iggy, that was a great album, and so is this. With Homme’s neo-goth and minor key aesthetics mixed with the post-punk and iconoclastic ideals of Iggy Pop, this record proves to be exactly what the title would suggest; a highbrow garage rock record with major attitude.

The instrumentation on this record marches slowly forth like a funeral procession, and the lyrics, sex and death-obsessed to an extent, match the tone to a T. Iggy’s vocal performance on the record is sultry and heartfelt while still maintaining the icy veneer of punk sensibility that he has always had since the early days of The Stooges. Portions of the record are also performed in Iggy’s signature rhythmic spoken-word style, also often heard in the works of artists like Lou Reed. It fits perfectly. The arrangements on songs like “Gardenia” and “German Days” are quintessentially Homme; vascillating between full-bore and encompassing guitar reverb and extremely erratically rhythmic riffs. Ultimately, this record serves as a statement from both Homme and Iggy Pop himself. For the former, that the relics of the past are as useful now as they have ever been. For the man whose name appears on this record though? He wants to make sure that we know he’s not going down without one hell of a fight.

Blockbusters: Gardenia; German Days; Paraguay

Lacklusters: Vulture

#11: 99.9%, Kaytranada

Louis Kevin Celestin, known as Kaytranada, is a Montreal-based Haitian-Canadian DJ that began his career simply posting his remixes and various other projects on his Soundcloud account. Now, in 2016, he has a Polaris Prize-winning debut album and collaborative partnerships with countless artists like Vic Mensa, Anderson .Paak, AlunaGeorge, BADBADNOTGOOD, and many others. His debut album is best described as alternative R&B, a mix between R&B, soul, hip-hop, and EDM music that is all tied together by world influences originating from his Haitian background.

This record is easily the most rhythmically compelling release of the year, featuring sublime production, a series of various percussionists, and enough polyrhythms to make John Coltrane cry. Oh, and his between-song transitions are top-notch as well. With a series of excellent vocal features, pitch-perfect song craft, and extremely high production value, this album manages to not only be incredibly danceable and a pleasant listen, but also extremely layered, and betrays very impressive depth at a closer listen. Kaytranada is not afraid to make some incredibly catchy beats while also putting on display his knowledge of international flavor and musical complexity unmatched by the vast majority of EDM artists and members of the DJ community, and because of that, we got a damn fun record out of it.

Blockbusters: Got It Good; Weight Off; Glowed Up; Breakdance Lesson N.1

Lacklusters: Despite The Weather

That does it for Part 1 of my Top 20 Albums of 2016 list! I’ll be back with the second half of the list before the year’s end. Feel free to hit me up with your thoughts at any given time, I always love getting in discussion about contemporary music with any and all comers. Let me know what your favorites of the year have been, try to make your guesses at my Top 10, tell me what you agree and disagree with me on, and stay tuned for my top albums of the year in review.