Year-End Lists

Sasha Frere-Jones: 100 Favorite Albums of 2016. See his spreadsheet for color codes and tiers; we’ve separated anything highlighted with “fire engine red,” which means “an exceptional thing.” Otherwise, albums are listed chronologically.

exceptional

• David Bowie
  Blackstar
• Yves De Mey
  Drawn with Shadow Pens
• Rihanna
  Anti
• Kendrick Lamar
  Untitled Unmastered
• Emmy the Great
  Second Love
• Sunwatchers
  Sunwatchers
• Metá Metá
  MM3
• Beyoncé
  Lemonade
• Radiohead
  A Moon Shaped Pool
• Chance The Rapper
  Coloring Book
• Horse Lords
  Interventions
• Autechre
  elseq 1-5
• Abul Mogard
  Works
• Mitski
  Puberty 2
• Margaret Glaspy
  Emotions and Math
• 75 Dollar Bill
  Wood / Metal / Plastic / Pattern / Rhythm / Rock
• The Avalanches
  Wildflower
• Vince Staples
  Prima Donna
• Julius Eastman
  Femenine
• Helado Negro
  Private Energy
• Sleaford Mods
  T.C.R.
• A Tribe Called Quest
  We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
• Mika Vainio
  Mannerlaatta
• Air Cushion Finish
  Flink

stayed with me

• Roly Porter
  Third Law
• Wet
  Don’t You
• Meyers
  Negative Space (1981–2014)
• SUGAI KEN
  On the Quakefish
• Clark
  The Last Panthers
• Vijay Iyer & Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith
  A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
• Jan St. Werner
  Felder (Fiepblatter Catalogue #4)
• Lucy Dacus
  No Burden
• Tashi Dorji & Shane Parish
  Expecting
• Chris Abrahams
  Fluid to the Influence
• Tim Hecker
  Love Streams
• ROM
  Possible Mountain
• Cate Le Bon
  Crab Day
• Jochen Arbeit, Günter Schickert & Schneider TM
  ASS
• You’re Me
  Plant Cell Division
• Aesop Rock
  The Impossible Kid
• Driftmachine
  Colliding Contours
• Julianna Barwick
  Will
• Jim O’Rourke
  Steamroom 29
• Maren Morris
  Hero
• Xenia Rubinos
  Black Terry Cat
• Paul Simon
  Stranger to Stranger
• Boobs of DOOM
  (((WHITE NOISE)))
• Brandy Clark
  Big Day in a Small Town
• KAYTRANADA
  99.9%
• Swans
  The Glowing Man
• David Toop
  Entities Inertias Faint Beings
• Jeff Parker
  The New Breed
• Blood Orange
  Freetown Sound
• Noname
  Telefone
• M. Geddes Gengras
  Interior Architecture
• Unearth Noise
  Prayer and Resonance
• TOBACCO
  Sweatbox Dynasty
• Convextion
  2845
• Aethenor
  Hazel
• Isaiah Rashad
  The Sun’s Tirade
• Princess Nokia
  1992
• Daniel Lanois
  Goodbye to Language
• Jan Jelinek & Masayoshi Fujita
  Schaum
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds
  Skeleton Tree
• Biosphere
  Departed Glories
• Danny Brown
  Atrocity Exhibition
• Luisa Maita
  Fio da Memória
• Solange
  A Seat at the Table
• Innercity Ensemble
  III
• Monolake
  VLSI
• Hanno Leichtmann / Valerio Tricoli
  The Future of Discipline
• The Orb
  COW / Chill Out, World!
• Swet Shop Boys
  Cashmere
• Botany
  Deepak Verbera
• Kassem Mosse
  Disclosure
• Leonard Cohen
  You Want It Darker
• D.R.A.M.
  Big Baby D.R.A.M.
• Weyes Blood
  Front Row Seat to Earth
• Faka
  Bottoms Revenge
• Casino Versus Japan
  Frozen Geometry
• NxWorries
  Yes Lawd!
• Ricardo Villalobos & Oren Ambarchi
  Hubris Variation
• Jay Glass Dubs
  New Teeth for an Old Country
• Mantra Percussion
  Michael Gordon: Timber Remixed
• various artists
  Greek Composers of Electronic Music in Sci Fi Soundscapes
• Qasim Naqv
  Chronology
• Streiber
  The Whispering Awakening
• Hexa
  Factory Photographs
• Oren Ambarchi
  Hubris
• Willie Lane
  A Pine Tree Shilling’s Worth of Willie Lane
• Miranda Lambert
  The Weight of These Wings
• Radian
  On Dark Silent Off
• Mirko
  LP1
• Conrad Schnitzler & Pyrolator
  Con-Struct
• Pinkcourtesyphone
  Taking into Account Only a Portion of Your Emotions
• Mike Majkowski
  Swimming in Light
• Demdike Stare
  Wonderland
• Rob Noyes
  The Feudal Spirit
• Sendai
  Ground and Figure
• Cindytalk
  The Labyrinth of the Straight Line