The Los Angeles Times’ music team is diverse — sometimes even argumentative — in its opinions. But one artist united almost all of us this year: Beyoncé. What follows is the 10 favorite records from each contributor to the music section.
Chris Barton, Times staff writer
1. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). What if Beyoncé wrote a record as sprawling as her ambitions? What if it chronicled (real or imagined) marital strife? What if she made a rock song? What if she wrote a protest anthem? In a year best remembered for all we lost, “Lemonade” gave us so much.
2. David Bowie “Blackstar” (Columbia).
3. Radiohead “A Moon Shaped Pool” (XL).
4. A Tribe Called Quest “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service” (Epic).
5. Lucy Dacus “No Burden” (Matador).
6. Xenia Rubinos “Black Terry Cat” (Anti-).
7. Laura Mvula “The Dreaming Room” (RCA).
8. Anderson .Paak “Malibu” (Empire/OBE/Steel Wool/Art Club).
9. Drive-By Truckers “American Band” (ATO).
10. Nicolas Jaar “Sirens” (Other People).
August Brown, Times staff writer
1. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). Undisputed. The album we’ll turn to when everything gets worse. And then again when it someday gets better.
2. YG “Still Brazy” (Def Jam).
3. Skepta “Konnichiwa” (Boy Better Know).
4. Nicolas Jaar “Sirens” (Other People).
5. 21 Savage/Metro Boomin “Savage Mode” (Slaughter Gang).
6. Blood Orange “Freetown Sound” (Domino).
7. Anohni “Hopelessness” (Secretly Canadian).
8. Omar S “The Best” (Fxhe).
9. Conor Oberst “Ruminations” (Nonesuch).
10. Rihanna “Anti“ (Westbury Road Entertainment / Roc Nation). Dark, hazy, moody, trippy, and yet, undeniably pop.
Gerrick D. Kennedy, Times staff writer
1. Solange “A Seat at the Table” (Saint/Columbia). A meditation on being black in America, Solange’s first full-length project in eight years was an exploration of identity, empowerment, rage, grief and healing that was exquisite, cathartic and especially urgent.
2. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). “Lemonade” was the rallying cry heard around the world that put the tribulations of a union through the lens of black womanhood. Whether or not Beyoncé's famous marriage was the inspiration is secondary to its brilliance as a deeply experimental multimedia presentation boasting her most incendiary work.
3. Chance the Rapper “Coloring Book” (self-released).
4. Anderson .Paak “Malibu” (Empire/OBE/Steel Wool/Art Club).
5. Rihanna “Anti” (Westbury Road Entertainment/Roc Nation). The biggest hitmaker of a generation unleashed her most understated offering, and it was well worth the unusually long wait (by Rihanna standards). Warm, adventurous, intimate and heavy on mood setting, “Anti” is a punch — even if it was slower to hit the senses.
6. Frank Ocean “Blonde”/“Endless” (Boys Don’t Cry).
7. Nao “For All We Know” (Little Tokyo Recordings).
8. Dvsn “Sept. 5th” (OVO Sound/Warner Bros.).
9. D∆WN “Redemption” (Our Dawn/Local Action).
10. Kamaiyah “A Good Night in the Ghetto” (self-released).
Randy Lewis, Times staff writer
1. Paul Simon “Stranger to Stranger” (Concord).
2. Sturgill Simpson “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” (Atlantic).
3. Leonard Cohen “You Want It Darker” (Columbia).
4. Allen Toussaint “American Tunes” (Nonesuch).
5. Neil Young “Peace Trail” (Reprise).
6. Parker Millsap “The Very Last Day” (Okra Homa/Thirty Tigers).
7. Brandy Clark “Big Day in a Small Town” (Warner Bros.).
8. Margo Price “Midwest Farmer’s Daughter” (Third Man).
9. Rolling Stones “Blue & Lonesome” (Rolling Stones).
10. Mike Eldred Trio “Baptist Town” (Great Western).
Todd Martens, pop music editor
1. Chance the Rapper “Coloring Book” (self-released).
2. Jamila Woods “HEAVN” (Closes Sessions).
3. Savages “Adore Life” (Matador Records).
4. Frank Ocean “Blond” (Boys Don’t Cry).
5. Solange “A Seat At the Table” (Columbia). Pair it with Jamila Woods, as the singers have similar goals on their 2016 works, but Solange does it with a more assertive groove and more biting lyrics. R&B weariness and exhaustion gradually coalesces into outright dissent. Listen.
6. Drive-By Truckers “American Band” (ATO).
7. PJ Harvey “The Hope Six Demolition Project” (Island).
8. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). It feels like a protest album — and there are certainly protest songs — but “Lemonade’s” true gift is how it manages to place domestic strife into a global context. This is modern, genre-hopping R&B, but Beyoncé bends it to her will and turns the most personal of songs into a soundtrack for the resistance.
9. Wilco “Schmilco” (Dbpm Records).
10. Angel Olsen “My Woman” (Jagjaguwar).
Randall Roberts, Times staff writer
1. David Bowie "Blackstar" (Columbia).
2. Danny Brown "Atrocity Exhibition" (Warp).
3. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). So many words have been written about this album that to spend mere sentences praising its virtues seems a little pointless. Listen to the darn record for a lesson in how an artist makes commercial pop music that punches with the fury of an experimental album.
4. A Tribe Called Quest "We Got It from Here … Thank You 4 Your Service" (Epic).
5. Anohni "Hopelessness" (Secretly Canadian).
6. William Tyler "Modern Country" (Merge Records).
7. Lambchop “FLOTUS” (Merge Records).
8. Angel Olsen "My Woman" (Jagjaguwar).
9. Chance the Rapper "Coloring Book" (self-released).
10. The Double "Dawn of the Double" (In the Red).
Mikael Wood, pop music critic
1. Beyoncé “Lemonade” (Parkwood/Columbia). Idolatry isn’t the reason — or isn’t the only reason — that Beyoncé scored more Grammy nominations this month than anyone else: With songs that pull assuredly from pop, soul, rock, country and gospel, “Lemonade” fits into each of the many genres its many listeners might want it to. Yet the album’s real genius is how it uses that musical breadth to tell a personal story of brutal (if perhaps fictional) specificity: the breakdown of a marriage as experienced by a woman determined not to be played.
2. Maren Morris “Hero” (Columbia Nashville).
3. Kanye West “The Life of Pablo” (Def Jam). Has he said he’s done tweaking it? Or did we just decide it’s finished? On an album in large part about the continuous renegotiation of celebrity, West’s protracted fiddling with his music (following its appearance on the streaming service Tidal) felt at least as important as the music itself. Which isn’t to discount the pure sonic achievement of a track such as the gorgeous, gospel-inspired opener, “Ultralight Beam.”
4. Chance the Rapper, “Coloring Book” (self-released).
5. The 1975 “I Like It When You Sleep for You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware of It” (Interscope).
6. David Bowie “Blackstar” (ISO/Columbia).
7. Prince “HitNRun Phase Two” (NRG).
8. Britney Spears “Glory” (RCA). Years after she seemed to stop taking any pleasure in being a pop star, Spears somehow found renewal in Las Vegas, which gave this surprising comeback album a needed boost of style and attitude. Listen.
9. A Tribe Called Quest “We Got It From Here … Thank You 4 Your Service” (Epic).
10. Shawn Mendes “Illuminate” (Island).
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whatevs he's prolly 75 
