Year-End Lists

Carl Wilson: The Best Albums of 2016, as published by Slate

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

Top 10, in alphabetical order

• Hopelessness
  ANOHNI
• Lemonade
  Beyoncé
• Blackstar
  David Bowie
• American Band
  Drive-By Truckers
• Away with You
  Mary Halvorson Octet
• Love Waves
  Veda Hille
• The Weight of These Wings
  Miranda Lambert
• Malibu
  Anderson .Paak
• A Mulher do Fim do Mundo
  Elza Soares
• Retribution
  Tanya Tagaq

Another 15, in alphabetical order

• That Makes Me Smart
  Anal Trump
• Teens of Denial
  Car Seat Headrest
• Coloring Book
  Chance The Rapper
• Big Day in a Small Town
  Brandy Clark
• You Want It Darker
  Leonard Cohen
• A Cosmic Rhythm with Each Stroke
  Vijay Iyer & Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith
• blackSUMMERS’night
  Maxwell
• Blond
  Frank Ocean
• My Woman
  Angel Olsen
• Post Pop Depression
  Iggy Pop
• Midwest Farmer’s Daughter
  Margo Price
• Arbina
  Noura Mint Seymali
• We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
  A Tribe Called Quest
• We Are the Halluci Nation
  A Tribe Called Red
• The Life of Pablo
  Kanye West

Pigeons & Planes: 50 Best Albums of 2016

[see also 2017 • 2015]

1. Blond
   Frank Ocean
2. Malibu
   Anderson .Paak
3. A Seat at the Table
   Solange
4. Coloring Book
   Chance The Rapper
5. Telefone
   Noname
6. The Life of Pablo
   Kanye West
7. Lemonade
   Beyoncé
8. Slime Season 3
   Young Thug
9. We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
   A Tribe Called Quest
10. Birds in the Trap Sing McKnight
    Travis Scott
11. Starboy
    The Weeknd
12. 99.9%
    KAYTRANADA
13. Savage Mode
    21 Savage & Metro Boomin
14. Anti
    Rihanna
15. Blank Face LP
    Schoolboy Q
16. 22, A Million
    Bon Iver
17. Atrocity Exhibition
    Danny Brown
18. Leave Me Alone
    Hinds
19. Yes Lawd!
    NxWorries
20. Freetown Sound
    Blood Orange
21. Big Baby D.R.A.M.
    D.R.A.M.
22. A Moon Shaped Pool
    Radiohead
23. Untitled Unmastered
    Kendrick Lamar
24. Lil Boat
    Lil Yachty
25. The Sun’s Tirade
    Isaiah Rashad
26. The Colour in Anything
    James Blake
27. Hotel Paranoia
    Jazz Cartier
28. Landlord
    Giggs
29. Nothing’s Real
    Shura
30. Welcome to GAZI
    A.CHAL
31. Still Brazy
    YG
32. My Woman
    Angel Olsen
33. Imperial
    Denzel Curry
34. Konnichiwa
    Skepta
35. A Good Night in the Ghetto
    Kamaiyah
36. Blackstar
    David Bowie
37. Stillness in Wonderland
    Little Simz
38. FREE 6LACK
    6LACK
39. American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story
    Kevin Abstract
40. Northern Lights
    Allan Kingdom
41. Shade Trees
    Trapo
42. Negus
    Kemba
43. Awaken, My Love!
    Childish Gambino
44. Bucket List Project
    Saba
45. Arcade
    Topaz Jones
46. Passion, Pain & Demon Slayin’
    Kid Cudi
47. Nat Love
    Kweku Collins
48. Farewell, Starlite!
    Francis and the Lights
49. Monda
    Cousin Stizz
50. Stoney
    Post Malone

David Orr: 10 Best Poetry Books of 2016, as published by The New York Times

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015]

• Night
  Etel Adnan
• A Pillow Book
  Suzanne Buffam
• Bestiary
  Donika Kelly
• The After Party
  Jana Prikryl
• Works & Days
  Bernadette Mayer
• Blue Laws

  Selected and Uncollected Poems, 1995-2015
  Kevin Young
• So Much Synth
  Brenda Shaughnessy
• All The Poems

  Stevie Smith
  Stevie Smith
• Blackacre
  Monica Youn
• Solarium
  Jordan Zandi

Keith Uhlich: 10 Best TV Shows of 2016, as posted by The BBC

1. The Girlfriend Experience
2. The X-Files
3. O.J.: Made in America
4. Black Mirror
5. BoJack Horseman
6. The Fall
7. Better Call Saul
8. Game of Thrones
9. And Then There Were None
10. The Americans

Alan Sepinwall: 21 Best TV Shows of 2016, as published by Uproxx

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017]

1. Horace and Pete
2. The Americans
3. O.J.: Made in America
3. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
4. BoJack Horseman
5. Rectify
6. Atlanta
7. Veep
8. Fleabag
9. Better Call Saul
10. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
11. Halt and Catch Fire
12. Orange is the New Black
13. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
14. Better Things
15. Girls
16. American Crime
17. Transparent
18. Catastrophe
19. Game of Thrones
20. Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Sarah Begley: Top 20 Books of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

Fiction

1. The Underground Railroad
   Colson Whitehead
2. Another Brooklyn
   Jacqueline Woodson
3. Commonwealth
   Ann Patchett
4. Homegoing
   Yaa Gyasi
5. All the Birds in the Sky
   Charlie Jane Anders
6. Imagine Me Gone
   Adam Haslett
7. Swing Time
   Zadie Smith
8. The Trespasser
   Tana French
9. My Name Is Lucy Barton
   Elizabeth Strout
10. Here I Am
    Jonathan Safran Foer

Nonfiction

1. March

   Book Three
   John Lewis, Andrew Aydin and Nate Powell
2. Hillbilly Elegy

   A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
   J.D. Vance
3. You’ll Grow Out of It
   Jessi Klein
4. Known and Strange Things

   Essays
   Teju Cole
5. Hidden Figures

   The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race
   Margot Lee Shetterly
6. Shirley Jackson

   A Rather Haunted Life
   Ruth Franklin
7. Lab Girl
   Hope Jahren
8. Kill ‘Em and Leave

   Searching for James Brown and the American Soul
   James McBride
9. The Constitution Today

   Timeless Lessons for the Issues of Our Era
   Akhil Reed Amar
10. Girls & Sex

    Navigating the Complicated New Landscape
    Peggy Orenstein

Daniel D’Addario: Top 10 TV Shows of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2018]

1. The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story
2. The Girlfriend Experience
3. The Americans
4. Late Night with Seth Meyers
5. Atlanta
6. O.J.: Made in America
7. Better Call Saul
8. Veep
9. Speechless
10. Love

Stephanie Zacharek: Top 20 Movies of 2016, as published by Time Magazine

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2014 • 2013]

1. Moonlight
   Barry Jenkins
2. Paterson
   Jim Jarmusch
3. Loving
   Jeff Nichols
4. Elle
   Paul Verhoeven
5. Silence
   Martin Scorsese
6. Manchester by the Sea
   Kenneth Lonergan
7. Tower
   Keith Maitland
8. La La Land
   Damien Chazelle
9. Everybody Wants Some!!
   Richard Linklater
10. The Shallows
    Jaume Collet-Serra

Honorable Mentions

• Things to Come
  Mia Hansen-Løve
• Toni Erdmann
  Maren Ade
• Certain Women
  Kelly Reichardt
• Hell or High Water
  David Mackenzie
• The Nice Guys
  Shane Black
• The Fits
  Anna Rose Holmer
• 20th Century Women
  Mike Mills
• Whiskey Tango Foxtrot
  Glenn Ficarra and John Requa
• Hidden Figures
  Theodore Melfi
• Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping
  Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone

Dennis Cooper: 23 Favorite Poetry Books of 2016 (“in no order”)

[see also 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

• Two Teenagers
  John Colasacco
• Overpour
  Jane Wong
• Safe Space
  Jos Charles
• The Song Of The Dead
  Pierre Reverdy
• Avant Gauze
  Christine Friedlander
• Commotion of the Birds

  New Poems
  John Ashbery
• Calamities
  Renee Gladman
• In the Empire of the Air

  The Poems of Donald Britton
  Donald Britton
• George Washington

  Poems
  Adam Fitzgerald
• Olio
  Tyehimba Jess
• Witch Hunt
  Juliet Escoria
• Cheer Up, Femme Fatal
  Kim Yideum
• Poem Without Suffering
  Josef Kaplan
• Certain Magical Acts
  Alice Notley
• Alien Weaving
  Will Alexander
• Night Sky With Exit Wounds
  Ocean Vuong
• The City Keeps

  Selected and New Poems 1966-2014
  John Godfrey
• Burn Book
  Felix Bernstein
• Come In Alone
  Anselm Berrigan
• Shorthand and Electric Language Stars
  Stephanie Gray
• Invisible Oligarchs
  Bill Berkson
• Marys of the Sea
  Joanna C Valente
• The Age of Reasons

  Uncollected Poems 1969–1982
  Ted Greenwald

Nicole Brenez: 5 Best Films of 2016, as submitted to the Sight & Sound Poll

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2015 • 2012]

• Blanche
  Marc Hurtado
• Bangkok Joyride
  Ing K
• Welcome to Madagascar
  Franssou Prenant
• I Will Pay for Your Story
  Lech Kowalski
• Hinterlands
  Scott Barley

This list contributes to:

• Sight & Sound Poll: Top 30 Films of 2016