1 Have You In My Wilderness – Julia Holter (2015)
2 Anti – Rihanna (2016)
3 Who is William Onyeabor? – William Onyeabor (2013/1970s)
4 Horizon Unlimited – Lijadu Sisters (1979)
5 Pool – Porches (2016)
6 Who Me? – Juan Wauters (2015)
7 My Woman – Angel Olsen (2016)
8 Bryter Layter – Nick Drake (1970)
9 Lemonade – Beyonce (2016)
10 Leave Me Alone – Hinds (2016)
(not in order)
Shaka Bundu – Penny Penny (2013 Reissue)
London Calling – The Clash (1979)
Por Vida – Kali Uchis (2015)
For All We Know – Nao (2016)
Thank Your Lucky Stars – Beach House (2015)
Amparo – Maria Usbeck (2015)
Notes...
(1) Have You In My Wilderness is a literal masterpiece - so nothing was going to beat that out. (2) Anti grows on me more and more with every listen - but I cannot for the life of me get into 'Woo', which is honestly the reason it didn't clutch that no.1 slot. Please please please do yourself a favor and check out (3) William Onyeabor and/or (4) the Lijadu Sisters if you do not know their work! Amazing music coming out of Nigeria in the 1970s. I was pretty sure for the first half of the year that (5) Pool would be my no. 1 album, but I just kind of fell out of it. I loved (6) Juan Wauters so much this summer! (7) My Woman is quite good - I think I'm still a bigger fan of Burn Your Fire For No Witness - but that also has to do with the fact that I was really in the same mental state as Angel was when that album came out. I really leaned on (8) Nick Drake this year to just calm me down. (9) Lemonade was such a game changer, but didn't really have much replay value for me - I think because simply listening to the album really pales in comparison to watching it. And then I loved (10) Hinds full album, but don't have a lot to say about it!