NPR Music: Best 50 Albums of 2016
[see also 2019, 2018, 2017, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011]
- Solange — A Seat at the Table
- Beyoncé — Lemonade
- David Bowie — Blackstar
- Frank Ocean — Blond
- Bon Iver — 22, A Million
- Barbara Hannigan, Andris Nelsons & Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra — H. Abrahamsen: Let Me Tell You
- Anderson .Paak — Malibu
- Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Denial
- Miranda Lambert — The Weight of These Wings
- Chance The Rapper — Coloring Book
- Xenia Rubinos — Black Terry Cat
- Rihanna — Anti
- KAYTRANADA — 99.9%
- Drive-By Truckers — American Band
- Radiohead — A Moon Shaped Pool
- Carrie Rodriguez — Lola
- A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
- Laura Mvula — The Dreaming Room
- James Bobick, Marnie Breckenridge, Cherry Duke, John Kelly, Michael Marcotte, Newspeak, Alan Pierson, Peter Tantsits & Lauren Worsham — David T. Little: Dog Days
- Margo Price — Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
- The 1975 — I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It
- Noname — Telefone
- A-Wa — Habib Galbi
- Young Thug — Jeffery
- Angel Olsen — My Woman
- Noura Mint Seymali — Arbina
- Jamila Woods — HEAVN
- Esperanza Spalding — Emily’s D+Evolution
- Mitski — Puberty 2
- Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith — EARS
- Big Thief — Masterpiece
- ANOHNI — Hopelessness
- Logan Richardson — Shift
- Lori McKenna — The Bird & the Rifle
- Pavel Kolesnikov — Chopin: Mazurkas
- Maren Morris — Hero
- René Marie — Sound of Red
- Pinegrove — Cardinal
- Tweet — Charlene
- Aaron Lee Tasjan — Silver Tears
- Carl Gari & Abdullah Miniawy — Darraje
- Pure Disgust — Pure Disgust
- Parker Millsap — The Very Last Day
- New York Philharmonic & Alan Gilbert — Christopher Rouse: Odna Zhizn, Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 and Prospero’s Rooms
- Mal Devisa — Kiid
- Steven Julien — Fallen
- Y La Bamba — Ojos Del Sol
- Domo Genesis — Genesis
- Sturgill Simpson — A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
- Catherine Russell — Harlem on My Mind