The Best Albums of 2016
Four of 2016's big year-end lists crowned four different albums, so the deciding vote was always going to be yours. NME ran 27 November, Rolling Stone by 29 November, Pitchfork 13 December and Pazz & Jop 25 January 2017, read to 50th to match the other three. Every list counts toward a record unless the record reached the list's country (Britain for NME, America otherwise) after publication and the list skipped it; entries give the tally. A record first released anywhere in 2016 needs half or more of its counting lists naming it, one at minimum; three or four lists mean the upper tier, fewer mean the lower, with your votes ordering each. Mixtapes, sold or free, count as albums; live sets, EPs, soundtracks, reissues and compilations (records mostly of recordings cut for other projects) don't, costing one passer, Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly demos, untitled unmastered. Each link is Spotify's earliest copy of the version current when these lists appeared, chosen by track count and titles, never the printed date; entries name what their copy adds or alters.
Beyoncé — Lemonade (2016) is #1 on “The Best Albums of 2016”.
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Beyoncé — Lemonade (2016)
Five poems by Warsan Shire are adapted in the accompanying film, the sessions moved from the Record Plant in Los Angeles to forty-five days in Paris hotel studios, and Rolling Stone's first, Pazz & Jop's second, Pitchfork's third and NME's 11th put it on four of the four lists that count for it. Daddy Lessons is track six, and Spotify's copy also holds the original demo of Sorry, which the 2016 release did not.
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Chance the Rapper — Coloring Book (2016)
Chance rented out a whole Chicago studio for most of March and April 2016, with mattresses in every room. Apple Music had it from 13 May and the other services from 27 May, and it was the first album to chart on the Billboard 200 on streams alone. Billed as a mixtape, it is on four of the four lists that count for it (Rolling Stone third, Pazz & Jop fourth, Pitchfork sixth, NME ninth). Same Drugs is track six.
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David Bowie — Blackstar (2016)
Bowie and Tony Visconti produced it at the Magic Shop and Human Worldwide in New York in 2015, with Donny McCaslin on saxophone, and Visconti said the aim was "to avoid rock'n'roll". Released on his 69th birthday, two days before he died, it was Pazz & Jop's first, Rolling Stone's second, Pitchfork's fourth and NME's sixth, four of the four lists that count for it. Girl Loves Me is the fifth of seven.
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Frank Ocean — Blonde (2016)
Sessions ran from 2013 into 2016 at Electric Lady in New York, Abbey Road in London and Henson in Los Angeles. André 3000 raps on Solo (Reprise), Jonny Greenwood is credited with the string arrangement on Seigfried, and four of the four lists that count for it place the record, Pitchfork second, Rolling Stone fifth, Pazz & Jop sixth and NME tenth. Futura Free ends on an interview between Ocean and his brother Ryan, recorded when Ryan was eleven.
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Kanye West — The Life of Pablo (2016)
Tidal streamed the first version on 14 February 2016, and West kept revising it: Famous on 13 March, Wolves on 16 March, at least twelve tracks on 30 March. On 14 June he added Saint Pablo, with Sampha, and that twenty-track version, current when all four lists ran and carried by Spotify, is on four of the four lists that count for it: NME second, Pitchfork fifth, Rolling Stone eighth, Pazz & Jop tenth.
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Solange — A Seat at the Table (2016)
Solange's producer credits run from Dave Longstreth and Sampha to Q-Tip and Questlove. Pitchfork's number one and on four of the four lists that count for it, with Pazz & Jop's fifth, Rolling Stone's 11th and a 41st from NME making up the rest, it opens with the 1:41 Rise before Weary, the second track.
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Radiohead — A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
Its songs run in alphabetical order, Burn the Witch first, and Jonny Greenwood said they kept that sequence because it worked. Burn the Witch goes back to the Kid A sessions in 2000. Nigel Godrich produced, the band spent three weeks of 2015 at La Fabrique in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, and the result has four of the four lists that count for it: Rolling Stone sixth, Pazz & Jop seventh, Pitchfork tenth, NME 22nd.
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A Tribe Called Quest — We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service (2016)
Q-Tip recorded it at AbLab, his home studio in New Jersey, from November 2015 to October 2016, and Phife Dawg flew in for sessions while on dialysis three times a week until his death on 22 March 2016; Phife chose the title, and the record took three of the four lists that count for it (Pazz & Jop third, Pitchfork seventh, Rolling Stone 30th), The Space Program opening its sixteen tracks.
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Leonard Cohen — You Want It Darker (2016)
Spinal fractures kept Cohen from a studio, so his son Adam produced it in Cohen's living room in Los Angeles, with cantor Gideon Zelermyer and the Shaar Hashomayim choir from his childhood synagogue. It came out on 21 October 2016, seventeen days before he died, and Pazz & Jop eighth, Rolling Stone ninth and Pitchfork 17th place it on three of the four lists that count for it. Alison Krauss sings backing vocals on Steer Your Way.
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Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Denial (2016)
Steve Fisk produced it at Soundhouse in Seattle, and its twelve tracks run past seventy minutes, The Ballad of the Costa Concordia alone taking 11:30. Will Toledo has called it a bildungsroman, drawing on Frank Sinatra's life and Ernest Becker's book The Denial of Death, and four of the four lists that count for it rank it: Rolling Stone fourth, Pazz & Jop ninth, Pitchfork 24th, NME 45th.
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Danny Brown — Atrocity Exhibition (2016)
Fool's Gold and Warp brought it out three days early, and Kendrick Lamar, Ab-Soul and Earl Sweatshirt share Really Doe with Brown. When It Rain samples Delia Derbyshire's Pot Au Feu, the sleeve is a circuit-bent portrait, and Pitchfork 11th, NME 16th, Rolling Stone 19th and Pazz & Jop 20th add up to four of the four lists that count for it.
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Angel Olsen — My Woman (2016)
Olsen co-produced it with Justin Raisen at Vox Studios in Los Angeles, and Pops closes it straight after Woman. Ninth for Pitchfork, 12th in Pazz & Jop, 13th at NME and 34th at Rolling Stone, it holds four of the four lists that count for it, and by her account Intern, the opener, began as a sarcastic experiment.
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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds — Skeleton Tree (2016)
Recording started at Retreat in Brighton in late 2014, moved to La Frette in France in autumn 2015 and ended at Air in London, Cave, Warren Ellis and Nick Launay producing; Arthur Cave died in July 2015, partway through. Andrew Dominik's film One More Time with Feeling opened the day before release, and Pazz & Jop (14th), Pitchfork (15th), Rolling Stone (20th) and NME (24th) make four of the four lists that count for it, Distant Sky the seventh track.
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Rihanna — ANTI (2016)
Samsung paid for a million free downloads on 28 January 2016, before sales opened, and Roy Nachum's cover carries a braille poem by Chloe Mitchell. Westlake in Los Angeles hosted most of the 2013 to 2015 sessions, and Dido shares a writing credit on Never Ending because its melody resembles her Thank You, while Pazz & Jop 13th, Pitchfork 19th, Rolling Stone 25th and NME 40th make it four of the four lists that count for it.
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Bon Iver — 22, A Million (2016)
Justin Vernon made it at April Base, his studio in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and titled the songs in numbers and symbols, 22 (OVER S∞∞N) first among them. Samples include Mahalia Jackson and Stevie Nicks, and Chris Messina designed a harmonizer for the band; Pitchfork 12th, Pazz & Jop 18th, Rolling Stone 22nd and NME 50th give it four of the four lists that count for it, and 00000 Million closes it.
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ANOHNI — Hopelessness (2016)
Her debut as ANOHNI was produced with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. Naomi Campbell stars in the video for Drone Bomb Me, and CocoRosie add vocals to Violent Men. A Mercury shortlist place followed, and Pitchfork's eighth, Pazz & Jop's 22nd, Rolling Stone's 35th and NME's 43rd make four of the four lists that count for it.
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Anderson .Paak — Malibu (2016)
Madlib, 9th Wonder, Hi-Tek, DJ Khalil and Kaytranada are among its producers, and before it Paak had put out music as Breezy Lovejoy. Come Down samples Hatikvah, Israel's national anthem, and Pazz & Jop 11th, Pitchfork 13th and NME 21st make three of the four lists that count for it, Rolling Stone's fifty being the one that passed.
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The 1975 — I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016)
At 71 characters its title set the record for a Billboard 200 number one; Britain's chart had it at number one as well. NME made it album of the year, and with Rolling Stone 18th and Pazz & Jop 21st that is three of the four lists that count for it; Somebody Else, tenth of the seventeen, sits between The Ballad Of Me And My Brain and Loving Someone.
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Mitski — Puberty 2 (2016)
Acme Studios in Westchester, New York, is where Patrick Hyland produced it, in about two weeks, and it drew a 15th from Pazz & Jop, an 18th from Pitchfork and a 23rd from Rolling Stone, three of the four lists that count for it, NME the exception. Happy opens the eleven Spotify carries, the standard sequence, while the Japanese CD had two bonus tracks.
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Blood Orange — Freetown Sound (2016)
Domino released it on 28 June 2016, three days ahead of the announced 1 July date, with Debbie Harry, Carly Rae Jepsen and Nelly Furtado among the guests. Hadron Collider, the Furtado duet, first surfaced in December 2015 on a cassette sold at Apollo Theater shows, and placings of 14th from Pitchfork, 19th from Pazz & Jop and 28th from Rolling Stone give the album three of the four lists that count for it.
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KAYTRANADA — 99.9% (2016)
It started as an EP called So Bad and grew into the album that won that year's Polaris Music Prize, with Anderson .Paak, Syd, Craig David and BadBadNotGood among the guests; BadBadNotGood cut about fifteen tracks with him and two made it. NME's fifth, Pitchfork's 25th and Pazz & Jop's 29th give it three of the four lists that count for it, and GOT IT GOOD is third.
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Parquet Courts — Human Performance (2016)
The band lived at Dreamland in Hurley, New York, while making it, Jeff Tweedy adds guitar to Dust and Keep It Even, and the record drew a 17th from Rolling Stone, a 26th from Pitchfork and a 31st from Pazz & Jop, three of the four lists that count for it. Spotify's fourteen open with Already Dead, which Wikipedia lists separately, after the original thirteen.
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Iggy Pop — Post Pop Depression (2016)
It began with a text from Iggy Pop asking Josh Homme to write together, and they recorded it in secret between January and March 2015 at Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree and Pink Duck in Burbank; Gardenia is the second of its nine tracks, and an eighth from NME, a 27th from Pazz & Jop and a 45th from Rolling Stone make three of the four lists that count for it.
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Margo Price — Midwest Farmer's Daughter (2016)
Alex Muñoz and Matt Ross-Spang produced it, and Wikipedia records its number ten entry on Top Country Albums as a first for a solo woman's debut with no earlier Hot Country Songs entry. Since You Put Me Down is the fourth track, and Rolling Stone's 21st, Pazz & Jop's 26th and NME's 33rd add up to three of the four lists that count for it.
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Whitney — Light Upon the Lake (2016)
Julien Ehrlich and Max Kakacek came out of Smith Westerns, wrote these songs through a Chicago winter, then recorded with Jonathan Rado at his home in the San Fernando Valley, sleeping in tents in his backyard; Pitchfork 31st, Pazz & Jop 37th and NME 42nd put it on three of the four lists that count for it, and No Woman opens the ten.
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Esperanza Spalding — Emily's D+Evolution (2016)
Emily is Esperanza Spalding's middle name and the alter ego she sings through here, and Tony Visconti co-produced. It topped the US jazz albums chart and collected Pitchfork's 30th, Pazz & Jop's 36th and Rolling Stone's 48th, three of the four lists that count for it. Good Lava opens the standard twelve, and Spotify leaves off the two deluxe bonus tracks.
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The Rolling Stones — Blue & Lonesome (2016)
Twelve blues covers, cut at British Grove in London over three days in December 2015, with Eric Clapton playing on Everybody Knows About My Good Thing and I Can't Quit You Baby. Its 2 December 2016 release fell after NME's list had run, so NME drops out of its count, while Rolling Stone, publishing before the record was out, ranked it seventh anyway. Together with Pazz & Jop's 30th, that is two of the three lists that count for it.
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Sturgill Simpson — A Sailor's Guide to Earth (2016)
Oh Sarah first appeared in 2011, on the album by his earlier band, Sunday Valley. Sessions ran across three studios, the Butcher Shoppe in Nashville, Atlantic in New York and CaVa in Glasgow, and the Billboard 200 had it at number three. Dougie Wilkinson plays the bagpipes on Call to Arms, the closer, and Pazz & Jop's 16th with Rolling Stone's 26th puts the record on two of the four lists that count for it.
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Miranda Lambert — The Weight of These Wings (2016)
Lambert recorded it at the Casino in Nashville across 2015 and 2016, and it came out on 18 November 2016, before any of the four lists ran. It climbed to number three on the Billboard 200 and topped the country albums chart, and with Rolling Stone 16th and Pazz & Jop 23rd it holds two of the four lists that count for it. The songwriter Luke Dick found the core line of Highway Vagabond while waiting at a deli.
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Drive-By Truckers — American Band (2016)
Patterson Hood wrote six songs and Mike Cooley five, and David Barbe produced the summer 2016 sessions. Ramon Casiano is about the 1931 killing of a fifteen-year-old by Harlon Carter, later an NRA leader, and Danny Clinch's cover photograph of a flag at half-mast replaced the band's usual Wes Freed paintings, and Pazz & Jop's 17th with Rolling Stone's 24th make two of the four lists that count for it.
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Maren Morris — HERO (2016)
Morris co-produced it with busbee, and all five songs from the EP she had self-released on Spotify in 2015 carried over. My Church took the Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance, the album's Billboard 200 peak was five, and Rolling Stone 13th plus Pazz & Jop 28th put it on two of the four lists that count for it.
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Noname — Telefone (2016)
Announced in 2012, Noname's debut mixtape arrived four years later as a free download. Cam O'bi and Phoelix were executive producers, with Saba and Monte Booker also producing, and two Airbnb rentals in Los Angeles served as makeshift studios. Pitchfork 27th and Pazz & Jop 35th make two of the four lists that count for it, and Yesterday opens the ten, which run 33 minutes.
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Young Thug — JEFFERY (2016)
300 and Atlantic sold it as a mixtape, and Alessandro Trincone designed the light blue dress on the cover. A tenth place at Rolling Stone and a 21st at Pitchfork put it on two of the four lists that count for it, while Pazz & Jop had it 54th, past the fifty counted here. Harambe is seventh. Spotify's tenth track, Pick Up The Phone, is the bonus, released in June as the lead single.
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YG — Still Brazy (2016)
Apple Music streamed it from 14 June 2016 and sales followed on 17 June, with Terrace Martin and Swish among the producers. On FDT, with Nipsey Hussle, censored verses were replaced for the album after YG said the government had contacted his label. Pitchfork's 22nd and Pazz & Jop's 43rd mean two of the four lists that count for it, and although Spotify titles the carrier Still Brazy (Deluxe), its seventeen tracks match the standard listing.
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Maxwell — blackSUMMERS'night (2016)
Hod David was Maxwell's main collaborator on this record, the second part of a planned trilogy after BLACKsummers'night in 2009, and Lake By the Ocean took Best R&B Song at the Grammys. Pitchfork 33rd and Rolling Stone 40th give it two of the four lists that count for it, with Pazz & Jop's 52nd outside the fifty counted; Spotify adds the year to the title, and Night, the closer, lasts 23 seconds.
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Drake — Views (2016)
Apple Music and iTunes had it to themselves from 29 April 2016, with other stores and streaming services following over the next two weeks. The cover puts Drake on top of the CN Tower, and the tower's own account confirmed the photoshop. Thirteen non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200 followed, and NME 17th with Rolling Stone 42nd make two of the four lists that count for it. Weston Road Flows is sixth of the twenty, which end with Hotline Bling.
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Green Day — Revolution Radio (2016)
Green Day recorded it at OTIS in Oakland. Still Breathing gives co-writing credits to the Struts' songwriters because its melody resembles their 2013 song Could Have Been Me. Spotify's twelve leave out the live Letterbomb that the Japanese edition added, and Rolling Stone's 14th with NME's 39th make two of the four lists that count for it.
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Paul Simon — Stranger to Stranger (2016)
Simon moved sessions to Montclair State University in 2013 to use Harry Partch's chromelodeon and cloud-chamber bowls, with Roy Halee co-producing and three tracks made alongside the Italian electronic artist Clap! Clap! Britain's chart put it at the top, and Rolling Stone 12th and Pazz & Jop 44th make two of the four lists that count for it; The Clock, an instrumental, was first written for a John Patrick Shanley play.
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Brandy Clark — Big Day in a Small Town (2016)
Two of its songs had been recorded by others first, Homecoming Queen by Sheryl Crow and Three Kids No Husband by Lori McKenna, and Jay Joyce produced it. Kacey Musgraves sings harmony on Daughter, and the Grammys nominated the record in the country album category, while Rolling Stone (27th) and Pazz & Jop (33rd) mean two of the four lists that count for it.
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White Lung — Paradise (2016)
Lars Stalfors, who produced the Canadian punk band's Domino album, is credited as a co-writer on all ten tracks; it has NME 19th and Rolling Stone 31st, two of the four lists that count for it, while Pazz & Jop's fifty and Pitchfork's both skipped it. Kiss Me When I Bleed comes fourth, and the 2:11 title song closes the record.
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Jenny Hval — Blood Bitch (2016)
Hval co-produced it with the noise musician Lasse Marhaug for Sacred Bones, and Wikipedia calls it a concept album investigating blood, tied to a time-travelling vampire named Orlando, a figure inspired by Virginia Woolf's novel. Conceptual Romance draws on Chris Kraus's I Love Dick, and Pitchfork 23rd with Pazz & Jop 40th put the record on two of the four lists that count for it.
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Michael Kiwanuka — Love & Hate (2016)
Danger Mouse, Inflo and Paul Butler produced it across seven studios, among them RAK in London and Chale Abbey on the Isle of Wight, and it topped the UK albums chart. Cold Little Heart opens it at 9:57 and became the opening theme of HBO's Big Little Lies, and NME 23rd plus Pazz & Jop 48th make two of the four lists that count for it.
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KING — We Are KING (2016)
The trio of Paris and Amber Strother and Anita Bias recorded it independently, with Paris producing. Three songs from their 2011 EP The Story return as extended mixes, which Spotify's titles name. A Grammy nomination came in the urban contemporary album category, and Pitchfork 37th and Pazz & Jop 39th make two of the four lists that count for it. The Right One leads off.
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Savages — Adore Life (2016)
RAK Studios in London hosted the April 2015 sessions, with Johnny Hostile producing. It gave Savages a second Mercury nomination in a row, after Silence Yourself, and Pazz & Jop 32nd and NME 46th put it on two of the four lists that count for it, with Rolling Stone and Pitchfork not naming it. The Answer starts the ten.
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ScHoolboy Q — Blank Face LP (2016)
ScHoolboy Q first called it Ghost Face, after Ghostface Killah, then dropped the title, and the beat for By Any Means was an unused Kendrick Lamar instrumental he found on his own computer; the Billboard 200 peak was number two, and Pitchfork 38th with Pazz & Jop 46th give it two of the four lists that count for it, across seventeen tracks and 72 minutes.
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Jamila Woods — HEAVN (2016)
Jamila Woods's debut runs twenty tracks, with Chance the Rapper on LSD and Saba on Emerald Street; she in turn sings on Blessings on Chance's Coloring Book. Blk Girl Soldier is the ninth track, after the third of its interludes, and a 36th from Pitchfork and a 49th from Pazz & Jop give the record two of the four lists that count for it.
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Kevin Gates — Islah (2016)
Gates said he named it after his daughter, and it reached second place on the Billboard 200. 2 Phones was his first top-40 hit on the Hot 100, and Pazz & Jop's 42nd with Pitchfork's 44th means two of the four lists that count for it. Spotify carries the deluxe, whose last two tracks, Jam and Excuse Me, follow the standard fifteen.
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Childish Gambino — "Awaken, My Love!" (2016)
Glassnote released it on 2 December 2016, after Rolling Stone and NME had published, which leaves Pazz & Jop and Pitchfork as the two lists that count for it, and Pazz & Jop's 38th makes it one of the two. Donald Glover produced it with Ludwig Göransson, the cover nods to Funkadelic's Maggot Brain, and Riot samples their Good to Your Earhole. Redbone later won a Grammy in the traditional R&B performance category.
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