Best of 2016
Essential albums
It might not have been a vintage year for glad tidings, but what 2016 lacked in LOLs it just about made up for in quality albums. From Bowie’s final masterpiece to a powerful protest record by Anohni check out the year’s best music below.
The Top 10
- If the prospect of an album critiquing ecocide, surveillance culture, US defence policy and the brutality of drone warfare doesn’t sound like the most joyous way to spend 40 minutes, we urge you to put your preconceptions aside: this is a beautiful, powerful and inexplicably uplifting protest record. Written in collaboration with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never, Hopelessness is a far cry from the pastoral indie-folk of Anohni’s work with Antony and the Johnsons, and her previous collaborations with Hercules and Love Affair. And yet, the album’s elastic beats, doomy subs and euphoric synths prove the ideal vehicle for Anohni’s soulful melisma, and bring an added sense of urgency to her searing missives. Quite astonishingly brilliant.
- As one of the best-selling artists of all-time, Rihanna’s more than earned the right to call the shots in her own career. That’s precisely what she proceeds to do – arguably, for the first time – on this much-hyped follow-up to 2012’s Unapologetic. Unlike previous LPs, Anti finds Ri-Ri eschewing powerhouse pop songwriting teams and big-name EDM producers, and swapping chart bangers for more laid-back cuts. The Drake-starring, Patois-flecked single ‘Work’ is the most energetic thing here, closely followed by the loose hip hop swagger of SZA-duet ‘Consideration’. Add to that a surprise Tame Impala cover (‘Same ‘Ol Mistakes’), and a Prince-worthy slow jam (‘Love On The Brain’), and Anti winds up feeling more like a mixtape than it does a studio album-proper. Nevertheless, it’s also Rihanna’s most soulful and consistent record to date.
- Where a mutual affection for Warp Records has directed much of Radiohead’s output post-OK Computer, A Moon Shaped Pool finds Britain’s best band combining their love for experimental electronica with a set of influences that extend from Solid Air-era John Martyn to Erased Tapes-esque contemporary classical music. As a result, this relatively serene, frequently string-led, ninth LP often feels like the calm after the electrical storm that was The King Of Limbs. That it’s no less innovative or engaging is largely thanks to Johnny Greenwood’s intricate arrangements and producer Nigel Godrich’s deft use of layering, both of which really shine on songs like ‘The Numbers’, ‘Daydreaming’ and ‘Present Tense’. It’s a real treat to hear long-time live-favourite ‘True Love Waits’ finally committed to tape too.
- Rebutting reductive readings of her work, Angel Olsen recently explained, “I’m not trying to make a feminist statement with every single record, just because I’m a woman.” Her latest album invalidates any similar preconceptions in its exploration of complex situations and complicated feelings, exposing the universality in deeply personal experiences. Musically, My Woman as every bit as multifaceted – swinging between garage-pop (‘Shut Up Kiss Me’) and icy synthscapes (‘Intern’), warm Americana (‘Sister’) and stark piano ballads (‘Pops’) – and provides the ideal platform for Olsen’s spellbinding voice, which flips between tremulous and tender to full-throated and fearsome. An intimidatingly accomplished third set from an enduring talent.
- At 30 years of age, Anderson .Paak is a little older than most emerging stars. Indeed, the Californian songwriter has conducted his career at a purposely leisurely pace thus far, sharing a couple of mixtapes under his former alias, Breezy Lovejoy, and one Gilles Peterson-approved full-length prior to Malibu. This sophomore set validates every second spent pouring over every sonic detail. Aided by prolific beatmakers Madlib and 9th Wonder, .Paak wraps his syrupy drawl around meandering, jazz-infused bass-lines and trap-indebted 808s, effortlessly fusing fragments from the past and present to form one timeless whole. The result is melt-in-the-mouth neo soul which warrants comparisons to Stevie Wonder and Frank Ocean.
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Contains explicit contentThe rest of the best...
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The Visitor Kadhja Bonet 2016
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