BY ROLLING STONE | DECEMBER 15TH, 2016 9:00:AM EST
2016 was seemingly hardwired to self-destruct, as Metallica sang on their furious 10th album – and music stared down the chaos. It was a year of explicitly political R&B molotovs, (Beyoncé, Solange), hip-hop that heals (REMI, A Tribe Called Quest), fist-raised rock (Green Day, Violent Soho) and one especially striking Australian rap album (A.B. Original). Powerful and unique personalities like David Bowie and Leonard Cohen had the powerful and unique ability to say goodbye with album-length farewells. Anohni sang about the environmental apocalypse over a dance beat. But of course there was also no shortage of messy pop stars, indie rock diarists and proudly indulgent rappers happy to simply let their pens and personalities explode. Here's the year's best.
50. Melody Pool, 'Deep Dark Savage Heart'
49. The Griswolds, 'High Times For Low Lives'
48. Deftones, 'Gore'
47. Violent Soho, 'WACO'
46. Norah Jones, 'Day Breaks'
45. Iggy Pop, 'Post Pop Depression'
44. The Monkees, 'Good Times'
43. Michael Kiwanuka, 'Love & Hate'
42. Drake, 'Views'
Every release from Drake is a love letter to his hometown of Toronto, but Views rises above as a true ode to the city's diversity and its lasting impact on the artist he is today.
41. Wilco, 'Shmilco'
40. Ceres, 'Drag It Down On You'
39. Dustin Tebbutt, 'First Light'
38. Tove Lo, 'Lady Wood'
37. Modern Baseball, 'Holy Ghost'
36. Metallica, 'Hardwired... to Self-Destruct'
35. Anohni, 'Hopelessness'
34. Angel Olsen, 'My Woman'
33. Montaigne, 'Glorious Heights'
32. Alicia Keys, 'Here'
On her most political album to date, Alicia Keys sings from the perspective of a black everywoman with undiminished optimism. Her true victory, however, is identifying and empathising with others, and finding hope that the world, despite all its problems, is changing for the better.
31. White Lung, 'Paradise'
30. A Tribe Called Quest, 'We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service'
29. Letlive, 'If I'm The Devil'
28. Blood Orange, 'Freetown Sound'
27. Camp Cope, 'Camp Cope'
26. Sturgill Simpson, 'A Sailor's Guide to Earth'
25. Rihanna, 'Anti'
Pop's top singles artist shows she's awesome with albums too, exploring psych-funk on her own cloud-blowing terms.
24. Hellions, 'Opera Oblivia'
23. Mitski, 'Puberty 2'
22. Bon Iver, '22, a Million'
21. Gawurra, 'Ratja Yaliyali'
20. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, 'Skeleton Tree'
19. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, 'Nonagon Infinity'
18. REMI, 'Divas & Demons'
17. Parquet Courts, 'Human Performance'
16. Julia Jacklin, 'Don't Let the Kids Win'
15. LVL UP, 'Return to Love'
14. Green Day, 'Revolution Radio'
13. Olympia, 'Self Talk'
12. Paul Simon, 'Stranger to Stranger'
11. Solange, 'A Seat at the Table'
A neo-soul statement as graceful as it is unsettling. After years of trying different genres, Bey*oncé's sis landed on a smooth-flowing minimal R&B that comes with hard-hitting lyrics about pain, power and modern black womanhood.
10. A.B. Original, 'Reclaim Australia'
9. Leonard Cohen, 'You Want It Darker'
8. Kanye West, 'The Life of Pablo'
7. The Rolling Stones, 'Blue & Lonesome'
6. Radiohead, 'A Moon Shaped Pool'
5. Frank Ocean, 'Blonde'
It took four years to construct this quietly audacious follow-up to Ocean's breakout R&B game-changer, Channel Orange. That care came through in the music. Blonde is a tripped-out marvel of smouldering, elusive digital-age psychedelia. Dreamlike and hushed, as influenced by Brian Eno as by Beyoncé, these songs are drowned in memories that keep threatening to slip away: childhood, love, that time you took acid and got your Jagger on. Chasing a freedom that's always temporary – musical, emotional, sexual – was the idea, as on "White Ferrari", where Ocean rewrites the Beatles' "Here, There and Everywhere" to recapture a teenage joyride, or "Pink + White", a fleeting, string-bathed vision of late-summer bliss. Nothing on Blonde is easy to pin down. Tracks slip from outer space to church, from thoughts of Trayvon Martin to blunt lover-man brags, from his mind to your desires – opening room for every listener to slip inside.
4. Car Seat Headrest, 'Teens of Denial'
3. D.D Dumbo, 'Utopia Defeated'
2. David Bowie, 'Blackstar'
1. Beyoncé, 'Lemonade'
Beyoncé shut everyone else down this year with a soul-on-fire masterpiece, testifying about love, rage and betrayal that felt all too true in the America of 2016. The queen delivered a confessional, genre-devouring suite that's larger than life yet still heartbreakingly intimate, because it doubles as her portrait of a nation in flames. She dropped Lemonade as a Saturday-night surprise after her HBO special, moving in on every strain of American music from country ("Daddy Lessons") to blues metal ("Don't Hurt Yourself") to post-punk-gone-*Vegas dancehall ("Hold Up") to feminist hip-hop windshield-smashing ("Sorry"). Even with "All Night" as an ambiguous resolution, it's a whole album of hurt, which is why it especially* hit home after the election. Beyoncé explores what it's like to get sold out by a lover – or a nation – that fooled you into feeling safe. The question of whether* she's singing about Jay Z is moot because – unfortunately – it turned out to be about all of us.
- See more at:
http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/pos...albums-of-2016
By Christopher R. Weingarten, Jon Dolan, Jon Freeman, Brittany Spanos, Joseph Hudak, Mosi Reeves, Kory Grow, Keith Harris, Richard Gehr, Maura Johnston, Patrick Doyle, Joe Levy, Andy Greene, Rob Sheffield, Rod Yates and Jonny Nail.