Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Albums of 2016 (so far)

Entertainment Weekly's 25 Best Albums of 2016 (so far)

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24.

Hinds - Leave Me Alone
January 8, 2016
Critic Score
76
29 reviews

23.

Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
May 20, 2016
Critic Score
82
30 reviews

22.

Chairlift - Moth
January 22, 2016
Critic Score
74
26 reviews

The Brooklyn-based duo ... continue to make experimental-leaning synth-pop that serves as a showcase for Polachek’s lithe and operatic pipes—one of the most unique in pop today.

21.

Gallant - Ology
April 6, 2016
Critic Score
74
8 reviews

19.

Låpsley - Long Way Home
March 4, 2016
Critic Score
74
21 reviews

The British songwriter marries dark, club-kid influences from her nights spent at Liverpool venues with crunching heartache on 12 lush songs that morph and twist her voice into various iterations.

18.

Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros
March 4, 2016
Critic Score
76
10 reviews

Ouroboros is a perfect throwback to the lost art of the album-length format.

17.

ZAYN - Mind of Mine
March 25, 2016
Critic Score
65
24 reviews

He doesn’t sound particularly interested in pushing pop’s boundaries or dissecting the vagaries of his own fame. Instead, he tends to keep his lyrical focus exactly where you’d expect any 23-year-old’s to be.

16.

Savages - Adore Life
January 22, 2016
Critic Score
80
44 reviews

It’s dark subject matter, sure, but also irrefutably compelling. And Savages rhythm section helps amp up the urgency,

15.

KAYTRANADA - 99.9%
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
80
27 reviews

14.

Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
May 13, 2016
Critic Score
86
27 reviews

Though it doesn’t eclipse the LSD-inspired brilliance of Acid Rap, Coloring Book affirms Chance’s place as one of hip-hop’s most promising — and most uplifting — young stars.

13.

St. Lucia - Matter
January 29, 2016
Critic Score
64
8 reviews

It’s a durable, malleable passport to hedonism—loud when you want it to be, just funky enough, capable of holding up to headphone scrutiny.

12.

James Blake - The Colour in Anything
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
79
34 reviews
If this is what modern soul music sounds like in 2016, consider James Blake the genre’s sharpest visionary.

11.

Gwen Stefani - This Is What The Truth Feels Like
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
57
21 reviews

She wears her girlishness on her own terms, and here it feels truer—and sounds stronger—­than it has in years.

10.

February 14, 2016
Critic Score
77
36 reviews

A right-now snapshot of a restless, neurotic artist’s ever-evolving psyche. Like the man himself, the album is emotional, explosive, unpredictable, and undeniably thrilling.

9.

Parquet Courts - Human Performance
April 8, 2016
Critic Score
81
37 reviews

Nearly every cut on Human Performance ... finds Parquet Courts exploring fresh sounds and reaching new heights in the process.

7.

ANOHNI - Hopelessness
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
81
38 reviews

6.

Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth
April 15, 2016
Critic Score
85
23 reviews
Overall, the album is strikingly intimate. At times, it feels like you’ve somehow found yourself in the singer’s hallway, listening as he coos lullabies to his child in a nursery.

5.

School of Seven Bells - SVIIB
February 26, 2016
Critic Score
80
27 reviews

It’s a fully-realized vision of the dreamy shoegaze-pop they’d sought to prefect for years. How heartbreaking to know such a once-in-a-lifetime creative partnership has been silenced.

4.

Rihanna - ANTI
January 27, 2016
Critic Score
70
38 reviews

Anti proves Rihanna should play by her own rules more often.

3.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
May 8, 2016
Critic Score
87
49 reviews

By nature, Radiohead albums will always be somewhat epic, but this one is more consistently grandiose than any of the band’s releases since 2000’s masterpiece Kid A.

2.

David Bowie - ★ [Blackstar]
January 8, 2016
Critic Score
86
45 reviews
It’s the kind of album that works beautifully as a physical experience – an all-senses headphone surrender to the sound of an artist who is older and almost definitely wiser but still fantastically, singularly himself.

1.

Beyoncé - Lemonade
April 23, 2016
Critic Score
90
38 reviews
If you want to spend your time speculating, cool—that’s your deal. But Beyoncé’s not thinking about that. She’s too busy putting out her boldest, most ambitious, best album to date. Middle fingers up.
Original Source: http://www.ew.com/article/2016/05/26/25-best-albums-2016-so-far
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