The ultimate, definitive Best Albums Of 2016
The last batch of votes are in so we can now proclaim the AnyDecentMusic definitive summary of the Best Albums Of 2016 lists.
We've compiled the rankings from all those magazines, newspapers
and websites among our sources which publish their albums of the
year. The end result is a comprehensive reflection of the critical
favourites of the year. It's the ultimate, definitive "Best of the
Best Albums of 2016" chart.
So here's the rundown of the top 50 albums of the year as seen
by music reviewers in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Ireland and
New Zealand.
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- 1876 David Bowie Blackstar
- 1506 Beyonce
Lemonade
- 1448 Radiohead A Moon
Shaped Pool
- 1402 Frank Ocean Blonde
- 1165 Solange Seat At The
Table
- 1117 Angel Olsen My Woman
- 1076
Bon
Iver
22, A Million
- 1071 Nick Cave And The Bad
Seeds
Skeleton Tree
- 1058
Anohni
Hopelessness
- 951 Kanye West The
Life Of Pablo
- 899 A Tribe Called
Quest We
Got It From Here...
- 877 Chance The
Rapper Coloring
Book
- 858 Danny Brown
Atrocity Exhibition
- 823 Leonard Cohen You
Want It Darker
- 721 Mitski
Puberty 2
- 703 Car Seat Headrest Teens
of Denial
- 626 Jenny Hval Blood
Bitch
- 620 Blood Orange Freetown
Sound
- 558 Anderson .Paak
Malibu
- 488 Skepta Konnichiwa
- 467 Rihanna
ANTI
- 459 The 1975 I Like It When
You Sleep...
- 430
Kaytranada
99.9%
- 426 Kendrick
Lamar untitled
unmastered
- 426 The
Avalanches
Wildflower
- 375 Christine and the
Queens Chaleur Humaine
- 373
Parquet
Courts Human
Performance
-
359
Savages
Adore Life
- 346
Whitney
Light Upon The Lake
-
345
Margo
Price Midwest Farmer's
Daughter
- 339
Sturgill
Simpson
A Sailor's Guid
- 320
Michael
Kiwanuka
Love &
Hate
- 306
James
Blake The Colour in
Anything
-
297
Iggy
Pop Post
Pop Depression
-
293
Drive-By
Truckers American
Band
- 275
Anna
Meredith
Varmints
- 253
Young
Thug
Jeffery
- 248
PJ
Harvey The Hope Six Demolition
Project
- 223
Hamilton Leithauser +
Rostam I Had A
Dream...
- 221
Pinegrove
Cardina
- 214 Kate
Tempest Let Them Eat
Chaos
- 198
Lambchop
FLOTUS
- 194
Nicolas Jaar
Sirens
- 189
King We
Are King
- 187 Jessy Lanza Oh No
- 182 Preoccupations
Preoccupations
- 181 Paul Simon
Stranger to Stranger
- 174 Glass Animals How to Be a Human
Being
- 171 case/lang/veirs
case/lang/veirs
- 163 Let's Eat Grandma I,
Gemini
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Last year, our all time highest rated album ended up top of the
ADM Poll of Polls. Surprise! It's unlikely another release will
ever beat the 9.3 rating Kendrick Lamar received
for To Pimp A Butterfly, so our sources awarded it with the title
of Best Album of 2015.
Even though you'd be forgiven for feeling like David
Bowie's award this year was a similar foregone conclusion,
you'd also be wrong. Don't worry about being wrong though, we just
said we'd forgive you.
Bowie's convincing victory in the end of year Best Ofs is
without doubt an impressive achievement. Firstly, Blackstar was
released all the way back in January. The 8th to be exact. That's
ages ago. And if you think the album is getting special treatment
from the end of year decision makers because of Bowie's untimely
death, remember: it was 2016. This isn't even the only time that
happened.
Since we began collating this award, only twice has an album
released in the first quarter gone on to be considered the Best Of
the year by our sources. That was 2009 and 2011. Can anyone guess
what albums that wou-actually, let's not get carried away.
Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion and
PJ Harvey's Let England Shake were both considered
the Best Album Of The Year despite their early-year release. And
now Bowie too. Recency bias be damned.
The rest of the Top 10 also makes interesting reading.
Beyonce and Solange show that
Knowles really is power by taking two spots in the top 5, while
Nick Cave languishes in 8th despite an ADM average
rating of 8.9. Radiohead also managed to buck a
trend to become the only band in a Top 10 dominated by solo
artists.
Taking a step back, it was not a great year for newcomers.
Anohni's Hopelessness in 9th place is technically
a debut for the artist under a new moniker, and
Kaytranada's 99.9% is technically his first studio
release after a number of mix-tapes; it'd be unfair to classify
either of those artists as a newcomer. You have to look as deep as
Christine and the Queens in 27th to find a "proper
new" artist.
So what does this mean? Well, a quick glance at the top shows
that this was the year for well-established artists taking stock
and putting out thoughtful, detailed and soulful albums. And
critics being more than happy to reward such musings at the end of
the year. No matter when the album was released.
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SEE 2009 RESULTS HERE
SEE 2010 RESULTS
HERE
SEE 2011 RESULTS HERE
SEE 2012 RESULTS
HERE
SEE 2013 RESULTS
HERE
SEE 2014 RESULTS
HERE
SEE 2015 RESULTS
HERE
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SOURCES: American
Songwriter, AV Club, All Music, Beardfood, Clash (40-21),
Consequence Of Sound, Crack, The Digital Fix, Digital Spy, Drowned
In Sound, Earbuddy, Exclaim, Faster Louder, GigSoup, God Is In The
TV, The Guardian, The Independent, The Irish Times, The Line Of
Best Fit, Mojo, The Observer, Q, The Quietus, NME, Loud &
Quiet, musicOMH, No Ripcord, NOW, Paste, Pitchfork, Pop Matters,
Pretty Much Amazing, Resident Advisor, Rolling Stone, The Skinny,
Slant, Spin, Tiny Mixed Tapes, Uncut, The 405.
(50pts are awarded to the album named No.1, 49pts to the No.2 and
so on. If any of our sources don't post a numerical list then all
available points are shared equally)
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