“From an unspeakable event a remarkable record has come. One that sits amongst Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds’ best. Skeleton Tree is full of grief, but full of heart too” - musicOMH
The ADM Top 10 2016
The most acclaimed albums of the year: you can't argue with mathematics
Now everyone's had their say with the Best Albums of 2016
roundups, it's time to take stock of the cold hard facts of what
really were the most critically-acclaimed albums over the past 12
months.
The AnyDecentMusic top 10 of 2016 is the most reliable guide to
what earned the most extensive overall praise from reviewers. It's
the widest survey of worldwide critical opinion around, and you
can't argue with mathematics.
We have excluded from the rankings any albums with fewer than 10
reviews from our list of 50 sources from the UK, US, Canada,
Australia and Ireland, and the formula we apply to arrive at the
ADM rating takes the number of reviews into account.
Below, we give our analysis of what it all means.
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.92
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Skeleton Tree
"This is not an album for the rest of us; it's a reflex reaction
to a torment most people will thankfully never have to endure" -
NME
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.79
Leonard Cohen
You Want It Darker
"It would be wrong to think these nine tracks morbid or
depressing; Cohen's humanity shines throughout" - The Irish
Times
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.71
Beyonce
Lemonade
"It's a rare album that sounds this warm, this easy, this
melodic, this fierce, this startling, this unforgettable" -
Pretty Much Amazing
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.54
Solange
Seat at the Table
"A luscious, absorbing album - but if you're not its intended
audience, you'd better be ready for the questions it raises" -
The Arts Desk
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.53
Bon Iver
22, A Million
"A proud, bruised, tranquil gem" - Loud And
Quiet
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.45
Drive-By Truckers
American Band
"A troubling and sad view of the state of things in 2016 but
shining a much needed light on some of the ills of society" - The
Digital Fix
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.44
Angel Olsen
My Woman
"Oozes unhurried glamour and moments of sweeping grandeur" -
Consequence Of Sound
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.42
A Tribe Called Quest
We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your
Service
"A group who haven't made any music together since 1998 have
actually managed to make one of the best albums this year" -
State
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.40
Frank Ocean
Blonde
"Blonde has survived the media frenzy: it's a dignified,
down-tempo celebration of taking all the damn time you need to get
something done that's worth doing right" - The Skinny
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
8.37
Radiohead
A Moon Shaped Pool
"This is as compelling and coherent a collection as they have
ever made. It's a record that you can delve deep into and really
inhabit; everything's in its right place" - music
OMH
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
And the next 10
11. David Bowie - Blackstar
12. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide To
Earth
13. Emma Pollock - In Search Of Harperfield
14. Mitski - Puberty 2
15. Chance The Rapper - Coloring
Book
16. Kendrick Lamar - untitled
unmastered
17. The Dillinger Escape Plan -
Dissociation
18. Ian William Craig - Centres
19. Christine and the Queens -
Chaleur Humaine
20. Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - -
Know how you think you like something but you really don't?
Maybe you've convinced yourself using a blend of habit and
tradition that, towards the end of the year, you actually like to
eat brussel sprouts. Of course, you don't like them really. Nobody
does. You just think you do. You've attached a false sense of
conclusion to the end of year holiday period. You've force fed
significance to the last week of December, convincing yourself that
it signals change, and that things will be different, when in
reality it's just the Earth spinning around the Sun again. And
again. This reverence you've attached to the end of the year is
coating your tastebuds. It's convincing you that the stuff you like
now is the stuff you've always liked. It's a lie. You don't like
sprouts in March. It's okay though, it happens to everyone.
Anyway, on a completely unrelated note, let's compare our sources
end of year Poll of Polls with what they actually liked the rest of
the year.
David Bowie ran away with the ADM Poll of
Polls. And it was something of a foregone conclusion too.
If a source didn't name Blackstar their album of the year they
usually thought it was top 5. But in our chart, which bases purely
on how the sources actually reviewed the albums this year, Bowie
only places 11th. Is the fact that the album was mostly reviewed
before his death a factor? Probably. Art is shaped by context,
after all.
Looking at both charts the other way, Nick Cave
and his Bad Seeds top the ADM 2016 Chart with a
stunning 8.9 rating. A rating which places him third in our
All Time Chart. By the end of the year though, our
sources collectively only rated Skeleton Tree 8th. Weird.
Weirder still is the story of the ADM chart's second placed album.
Leonard Cohen's 8.8 rating wasn't quite enough to
beat Cave, but it was enough to place seventh on our All Time
chart. In the year-end Poll of Polls, however, Cohen only managed
14th.
It was Drive-By Truckers, though, who were
short-changed the most. Or short-changed the least. Wait, which one
is it? When you're short-changed it means you haven't been given
enough money back, so it means you have less now. Which makes it
feel like 'least' is right. It's probably 'most' though. Everyone
usually just says 'most' and it's fine. Let's go with 'most'.
It was Drive-By Truckers, though, who were short-changed the most.
Their eleventh album American Band got an 8.4 rating and sits up in
6th on the ADM chart. In the year-end Poll? 35th?
There's more of these stories. Sturgill Simpson's
album was the 12th highest rated album of the year and was
therefore named the 31st best album of the year. Emma
Pollock has the 13th highest rated album, but didn't place
at all of the Poll of Polls.
The gulf between what our sources liked all year round and what
they think they liked when sitting in a chair sipping mulled booze
can be exemplified by one album: The Life of Pablo, by
Kanye West. Based on what this time of year can do
to tastebuds, it's the 10th best album of the year. Based on it's
actual reviews, it's the 158th best album of the year.
Maybe all of this just means that you like things when you like
things, and that's okay. Or maybe this means that Kanye West is the
sprouts of music. If, in 2017, you find yourself craving brussel
sprouts before December, maybe then you'll know.