The Best Albums of 1996
The rankings behind this list split down the middle over 1996's best album, so the vote sets every position. Pazz & Jop's critics went first, with a top forty on 25 February 1997; Slant followed on 25 April 2017, uDiscover on 22 July 2021, Consequence on 21 September 2026. None could rank a record not yet out; each appeared once 1996 was over and takes in all twelve months, hence each entry's count out of four. Any two of the four naming it will do for a studio album first out anywhere in 1996: no soundtracks, live sets or remix sets, and no EPs, reissues, compilations or archival albums finished years earlier. An act gets one slot, held by whichever record more rankings name, none on a tie. That gate carries the weight. Three or four mentions mean the upper band, every other admitted album the lower. Links point at the oldest edition Spotify holds, identified by track counts and titles, printed date ignored, and items spell out any gap from the 1996 release in count, tags or missing tracks.
Fugees — The Score (1996) is #1 on “The Best Albums of 1996”.
- 1
Fugees — The Score (1996)
None of the four rankings leaves it out, and none puts it lower than tenth. The Fugees recorded it from June to November 1995 in the Booga Basement, a studio they set up in Wyclef Jean's uncle's basement. Ready or Not samples Enya, uncredited at first, and according to Wikipedia she was ready to sue until she learned the Fugees weren't gangsta rappers. Seventeen tracks, counting the four bonus cuts most versions carried.
Open in Spotify - 2
DJ Shadow — Endtroducing..... (1996)
Second on Slant and at Consequence, fourth in Pazz & Jop and fifth at uDiscover, so all four rankings carry it. Wikipedia reports that Guinness World Records cited it as "the first album created entirely from samples". Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt comes second. Spotify counts sixteen where the 1996 CD counted thirteen, because each Transmission interlude gets its own number, and it tags two titles Medley; nothing is added and the sequence matches the CD.
Open in Spotify - 3
OutKast — ATLiens (1996)
uDiscover has it second and Consequence third, and with Slant's eighth that makes three of four, as it missed the Pazz & Jop top forty. OutKast wrote around thirty-five songs and kept fourteen, and the inner booklet unfolds into a twenty-four-page comic in which the duo defend positive music against a villain named Nosamulli. Two Dope Boyz (In a Cadillac) is track two, and the fifteenth and last is a remix that the original listing already had.
Open in Spotify - 4
Beck — Odelay (1996)
Every ranking of the four names it, and the 1996 Pazz & Jop poll gave it 1,134 points on 110 critics' ballots. Devils Haircut starts the thirteen tracks, and Ramshackle, which came out of earlier sessions with Tom Rothrock and Rob Schnapf, closes them. The credits run through five studios, four around Los Angeles and one in Arcata, and carry six producer credits, Beck's among them.
Open in Spotify - 5
Weezer — Pinkerton (1996)
Three of four count it, all three of them the retrospectives, and its best showing is fifth, at Slant. A day before release, Pinkerton's Inc. got a restraining order over the name, and a judge then let the record out, ruling that holding it back would hurt Geffen more. El Scorcho sits seventh of ten, and the cover is Hiroshige's woodblock print of night snow at Kanbara.
Open in Spotify - 6
Stereolab — Emperor Tomato Ketchup (1996)
The sleeve design is modelled on the cover of a 1964 LP of Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra, and its three of four rankings are Pazz & Jop at seven, uDiscover at 29 and Consequence at 28. Percolator began as a cover of the Godz' ABC for a tribute record, until four looped notes from it turned into a song of their own. Metronomic Underground opens the album at 7:54.
Open in Spotify - 7
Sleater-Kinney — Call the Doctor (1996)
Pazz & Jop's critics put it third, Consequence twenty-sixth and uDiscover thirty-first, so three of four. Sleater-Kinney wrote it in three weeks and recorded it in four days, twelve songs in thirty minutes with no bass player, since two guitars sounded right to them. I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone is the seventh. Drummer Laura MacFarlane left soon after, when her visa ran out.
Open in Spotify - 8
Fiona Apple — Tidal (1996)
Fiona Apple was eighteen when it came out on 23 July 1996, and Wikipedia says the producer, Andrew Slater, at first doubted she had written the songs herself. Sleep to Dream is the first of the ten and Criminal the fourth, on a record Slant, Consequence and uDiscover put seventh, eighth and ninth, three of four, with the Pazz & Jop forty the one that passed.
Open in Spotify - 9
The Roots — Illadelph Halflife (1996)
Each of its three rankings out of four has it in the thirties: 30th at uDiscover, 33rd in Pazz & Jop, 35th at Consequence. Some pressings number the opener 34, running on from the 33 tracks of the Roots' two earlier albums, while Spotify numbers its twenty from one. What They Do is eighth. Wikipedia records that the multitracks used to mix it were lost in the 2008 fire on the Universal back lot and the 1996 master was unaffected.
Open in Spotify - 10
Maxwell — Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite (1996)
Its three of four run from 13th at uDiscover through 20th in Pazz & Jop to 38th at Consequence, for a record cut across four New York studios and one in Chicago and issued by Columbia on 2 April 1996. Sumthin' Sumthin' rides a pocket bass line. The linked edition's Suite Theme stops at 6:00, so it leaves out what the CD hid after a silence: 1:41 of Til the Cops Come Knockin' as an instrumental.
Open in Spotify - 11
R.E.M. — New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996)
Eleventh in Pazz & Jop and in the low thirties at uDiscover and at Consequence, a three-of-four record that began, in large part, as eight-track recordings from the band's 1995 tour, a method Wikipedia says they borrowed from Radiohead's work on The Bends. Patti Smith sings on E-Bow The Letter. Europe got it on 9 September 1996, America a day later.
Open in Spotify - 12
Rage Against the Machine — Evil Empire (1996)
The cover reworks a painting of Crimebuster, a comic hero of the 1940s and '50s, and the boy on it is Ari Meisel, at eleven. The title is Ronald Reagan's name for the Soviet Union, and the record holds three of four rankings, Consequence's sixth place among them, with uDiscover at 21 and Pazz & Jop at 29. Bulls On Parade is track two of eleven, with Brendan O'Brien at the desk for all of it.
Open in Spotify - 13
The Olivia Tremor Control — Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle (1996)
Twenty-seven tracks, ten in a row belonging to the Green Typewriters suite, with The Opera House first, and Consequence, uDiscover and Pazz & Jop rank it 12th, 25th and 37th for three of four. The sessions were at Pet Sounds in Denver, with Robert Schneider producing. Early CDs came with a second disc, Explanation II, meant to be played in sync with this one for quadraphonic sound; the link carries the album alone, and Spotify dates it 2004.
Open in Spotify - 14
Sublime — Sublime (1996)
Santeria is sixth of seventeen on a record uDiscover ranks 11th, Consequence 20th and Pazz & Jop 34th, three placings from the four. Bradley Nowell died of a heroin overdose in May 1996, two months before MCA released this on 30 July. Production was split between Paul Leary and David Kahne, Kahne taking What I Got, which Wikipedia traces to Half Pint's Loving.
Open in Spotify - 15
JAY-Z — Reasonable Doubt (1996)
Slant's ten and the Pazz & Jop forty leave it off, so the count is two of four, and the two that include it, uDiscover and Consequence, each put it at the head of their lists. Ski and Clark Kent made rival beats for Politics As Usual, and Ski's was used because he got it to Jay-Z first. Regrets closed the fourteen-track original. Spotify's carrier runs fifteen, adding the reissue's Can I Live II with Memphis Bleek.
Open in Spotify - 16
Belle and Sebastian — If You're Feeling Sinister (1996)
Five days to record at CaVa in Glasgow, and three to mix. Jeepster accepted the band's terms, among them no singles and no press. Stuart Murdoch shot the cover, a photograph of his friend Ciara MacLaverty, and Slant (4th) and uDiscover (8th) are the two of four that rank it. Like Dylan in the Movies is track four of ten, on a record out 18 November 1996.
Open in Spotify - 17
2Pac — All Eyez on Me (1996)
Death Row put it out on 13 February 1996, seven months before his death, from sessions that ran between October and December 1995. Life Goes On is track nine, between Heartz Of Men and Only God Can Judge Me, on a double album with two mentions from the four, uDiscover's fourth place and Consequence's thirteenth. Wikipedia calls it "the first ever double-full-length hip-hop solo studio album released for mass consumption globally".
Open in Spotify - 18
Aphex Twin — Richard D. James Album (1996)
Richard D. James composed it on a Macintosh, which by Wikipedia's account took longer than his earlier albums had, and a pair of the four rankings carry it, Slant at nine and Consequence at 25. Britain got ten tracks in 32:51, and the American CD appended the Girl/Boy EP for fifteen; the link is the British ten, with Girl/Boy Song ninth. Carn Marth and Logan Rock Witch borrow Cornish place names.
Open in Spotify - 19
Wilco — Being There (1996)
It was Jay Bennett's first Wilco album and Max Johnston's last, and two rankings out of four count it, Pazz & Jop in 14th place and Consequence in 40th. It takes its title from the 1979 film, and it carries two versions of one song, Outtasite (Outta Mind) on the first disc and Outta Mind (Outta Sight) on the second.
Open in Spotify - 20
Tool — Ænima (1996)
Fifteen tracks across 77:18, Forty Six & 2 the fifth, and just two of four rankings on board: Consequence at four, uDiscover at seventeen. Justin Chancellor's first Tool album, after he replaced Paul D'Amour on bass the year before. The North American CD came in a lenticular case whose picture animated as you tilted it.
Open in Spotify - 21
Dr. Octagon — Dr. Octagonecologyst (1996)
Kool Keith plays Dr. Octagon, a time-travelling extraterrestrial gynecologist, over Dan the Automator's production, and it appears in two of four rankings, twelfth at uDiscover and fifteenth at Consequence. The link is Spotify's Dr Octagon (International Version), nineteen tracks in the order of the 1996 Bulk and Mo' Wax pressing, with Blue Flowers eighth, but its closing Waiting List runs 10:07 where the 1996 one, hidden halfsharkalligatorhalfman included, ran 11:35.
Open in Spotify - 22
Nas — It Was Written (1996)
The Message comes straight after the intro, Lauryn Hill sings on the closer, If I Ruled the World, and the album collects two of four mentions, 22nd at uDiscover and 32nd at Consequence. Nas brought in the Trackmasters, then known for mainstream hits, and the album introduces the Firm, with AZ, Cormega and Foxy Brown, on Affirmative Action.
Open in Spotify - 23
Tricky — Pre-Millennium Tension (1996)
Vent opens it in 3:04, and Lyrics Of Fury, track nine, is Eric B. & Rakim's song redone. Tricky is the sole producer, and it draws two of the four, a ninth place in Pazz & Jop and a fifteenth at uDiscover. Island's release date was 11 November 1996, seven days before If You're Feeling Sinister.
Open in Spotify - 24
Tortoise — Millions Now Living Will Never Die (1996)
Glass Museum follows the long opener and runs 5:27; uDiscover, at 19, and Consequence, at 42, account for its two of four, and neither Slant nor the Pazz & Jop forty has it. Six tracks, 42:56, cut between June and September 1995 at two Chicago studios, Idful and Soma, and out on 30 January 1996.
Open in Spotify - 25
Ani DiFranco — Dilate (1996)
Untouchable Face is track one, Amazing Grace lasts over seven minutes, and the tally is two of four, Slant in sixth place and Pazz & Jop in twenty-second. DiFranco was her own producer, and Righteous Babe, the label she founded, issued it on 21 May 1996, with the eleven tracks recorded that winter. Wikipedia calls it her highest-selling and most critically acclaimed record.
Open in Spotify - 26
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Murder Ballads (1996)
Mute issued it on 5 February 1996, and the four rankings give it two mentions, from Consequence, twenty-seventh, and uDiscover, thirty-seventh. Nick Cave has said O'Malley's Bar, fourteen and a half minutes long, was the first song written for it, back during the Henry's Dream sessions. PJ Harvey sings on Henry Lee and on the Dylan cover Death Is Not The End.
Open in Spotify - 27
Swans — Soundtracks for the Blind (1996)
Michael Gira set out in 1995 to make it the band's definitive final statement, assembling it by looping, reversing, cross-fading and layering, and Wikipedia's infobox dates the recordings 1981 to 1996. Two discs, Silver and Copper, twenty-six tracks over 141 minutes, with The Sound fourteenth, and a count of two from four: Consequence 10th, uDiscover 44th. The link prints 22 October 1996, a week ahead of the 29 October release date Wikipedia gives.
Open in Spotify - 28
Neutral Milk Hotel — On Avery Island (1996)
Neutral Milk Hotel was still Jeff Mangum alone, recording with Robert Schneider from February to May 1995. Merge put it out in America on 26 March 1996, and Wikipedia says it "sold around 5,000 copies, which Merge considered a success." Song Against Sex comes first, a thirteen-minute drone last, and Consequence at 19 plus Pazz & Jop at 35 make two of four; the link is the American twelve, not Britain's fourteen.
Open in Spotify - 29
Ghostface Killah — Ironman (1996)
RZA produced every track but Fish, credited to True Master, and Wildflower is second; Consequence placed it 23rd and uDiscover 33rd, the pair, out of four, that list it. The 1996 pressing ran seventeen tracks, but Wikipedia has The Soul Controller pulled from pressings in 2001 because its samples were never cleared, and Spotify's carrier runs sixteen without it. The 25th Anniversary id reaches seventeen with a remix of All That I Got Is You, not by restoring it.
Open in Spotify - 30
Tori Amos — Boys for Pele (1996)
Recorded partly in a church in County Wicklow, with harpsichord and clavichord beside the piano, and produced by Amos herself, it has two of four rankings, uDiscover at 18 and Consequence at 46. The link keeps the original eighteen in order, with Hey Jupiter ninth, but track twelve is Talula (The Tornado Mix), which replaced the album version on later pressings, and Spotify tags Mr. Zebra as Live.
Open in Spotify - 31
Gillian Welch — Revival (1996)
Pazz & Jop twenty-third and Consequence fifty-eighth make two of four rankings for a record first sold on 9 April 1996. James Burton plays guitar and National steel, and the credits list an Optigan, the old optical-disc organ, played by David Rawlings and by the producer. Tear My Stillhouse Down, eighth of ten, has Gillian Welch as its sole writer.
Open in Spotify - 32
Underworld — Second Toughest in the Infants (1996)
Per Wikipedia, Sappy's Curry, Pearl's Girl and Born Slippy were all named after greyhounds, and the two rankings of four that list the album put it 14th (uDiscover) and 57th (Consequence). Eight tracks over 73 minutes, opening with a suite longer than sixteen minutes, and Rowla is the fourth. Born Slippy .NUXX isn't among them; it went onto a bonus disc for the reissue once the single took off.
Open in Spotify - 33
Sheryl Crow — Sheryl Crow (1996)
She produced it herself, and Walmart refused to stock it over Love Is a Good Thing, a song about children shot with guns bought at the chain. If It Makes You Happy is track five of thirteen, and two of the four count the album, Slant tenth and Pazz & Jop twenty-sixth. Spotify prints 1 January 1996, nearly nine months before A&M's real release date.
Open in Spotify - 34
Cat Power — What Would the Community Think (1996)
Twelve tracks, out on 10 September 1996, and on two of four rankings, 26th at uDiscover and 31st at Consequence. Her first record for Matador, made in February 1996 at Easley in Memphis, with Steve Shelley producing and playing drums. Nude As the News became the first Cat Power song with an official video, in 1997.
Open in Spotify - 35
Foxy Brown — Ill Na Na (1996)
Def Jam signed her at seventeen, and most of the production is the Trackmasters', with Blackstreet, Method Man and Jay-Z among the guests. Get Me Home, the lead single, is track four of thirteen on a record out 19 November 1996, and the album's two of four come from uDiscover at 34 and Consequence at 48.
Open in Spotify - 36
Tony! Toni! Toné! — House of Music (1996)
uDiscover's 43rd place and Pazz & Jop's 30th make up its two of four; the fourteen tracks, the interlude included, match the 1996 CD, with Annie May ninth. The band's fourth studio album and its last, tracked between September 1995 and September 1996 in studios around San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles and Sacramento; they split soon after its release.
Open in Spotify - 37
Cibo Matto — Viva! La Woman (1996)
The Candy Man is the Willy Wonka song, and Wikipedia notes the booklet prints no lyrics for it and that every Willy Wonka in the words becomes the candy man. Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake shared the production credit with Cibo Matto. It reached shops through Warner Bros. on 16 January 1996, Spotify lists the hidden closer as an eleventh track tagged Hidden Track, and two rankings of four include the album, Pazz & Jop at 27 and uDiscover at 36.
Open in Spotify - 38
Soundgarden — Down on the Upside (1996)
The band split in April 1997; of the four rankings, Pazz & Jop (25th) and uDiscover (39th) are the two that name the record. Kim Thayil and Chris Cornell clashed over how far to move away from heavy riffs, and the band produced it with Adam Kasper rather than an outside producer. Sixteen tracks, cut at Studio Litho and Bad Animals, two Seattle rooms, with Burden In My Hand seventh.
Open in Spotify - 39
Manic Street Preachers — Everything Must Go (1996)
Mike Hedges ran the sessions at his château in Normandy, whose mixing desk came from Abbey Road. Kevin Carter is about the South African photographer of that name, on the 20 May 1996 record that Consequence ranks 44th and uDiscover 47th, two of the four.
Open in Spotify - 40
The Cardigans — First Band on the Moon (1996)
It was cut at Tambourine Studios in Malmö with Tore Johansson producing, and two of four rankings list it, uDiscover at 28 and Consequence at 50. Black Sabbath runs through it: Iron Man is a cover, and Heartbreaker opens and closes quoting the song Black Sabbath. Spotify's carrier has the original eleven, though it labels track seven Lovefool as a Radio Edit.
Open in Spotify - 41
Stone Temple Pilots — Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop (1996)
Atlantic dated it 26 March 1996, and it turns up on half the four rankings, 42nd at uDiscover and 47th at Consequence. Press Play, the opener, is an 81-second instrumental on Rhodes piano. Brendan O'Brien was behind the board at Westerly Ranch in Santa Ynez, where the band lived during the sessions.
Open in Spotify
How this list was ranked
Readers rank this list by voting items up and down. Items are ordered by reader votes.
