FasterLouder's 30 Best Albums of 2016 So Far

FasterLouder's 30 Best Albums of 2016 So Far

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30.

PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project
April 15, 2016
Critic Score
77
47 reviews

Harvey would suggest that passivity wreaks nothing but death and destruction. But, in this particular case, the result is something like a clarion call.

29.

The Kills - Ash & Ice
June 3, 2016
Critic Score
67
27 reviews

27.

Death Grips - Bottomless Pit
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
80
12 reviews

Bottomless Pit is possessed, and songs like ‘Eh’ and ‘Three Bedrooms In A Bad Neighbourhood’ are as vital as anything the group has yet released.

26.

Ngaiire - Blastoma
June 10, 2016
Critic Score
85
2 reviews

25.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu
January 15, 2016
Critic Score
81
19 reviews

Marked by a reverence for the rich history of black American music, Malibu is a love letter to the giants on whose shoulders he stands.

24.

James Blake - The Colour in Anything
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
79
34 reviews

The Colour in Anything is a work of restless invention, standing as Blake’s most creative collection to date.

23.

Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
77
41 reviews

Occasionally, Homme, Fertita, and Helders impress, but more often than not, Iggy’s sidemen are unremarkable, which only serves to highlight how commanding the rock n’ roll singer still is at age 68.

22.

The Jezabels - Synthia
February 12, 2016
Critic Score
82
6 reviews

21.

The Last Shadow Puppets - Everything You've Come to Expect
April 1, 2016
Critic Score
70
29 reviews

Everything You’ve Come to Expect is stylish, self-satisfied, smug, sleazy, cocky and confident. It is completely over the top and that’s just where these boys want to be.

20.

Mitski - Puberty 2
June 17, 2016
Critic Score
85
30 reviews

Puberty 2 captures the sense of frustration, resignation and self-awareness that can only come from years of grappling with emotional demons: now, she holds her vulnerability with confidence, in anthemic and improbably striking songs, for all to see.

19.

Flume - Skin
May 27, 2016
Critic Score
71
13 reviews

18.

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

As much a house record as it is a hip-hop record, 99.9% often defies classification, but never abandons its skew-whiff take on contemporary dance music.

17.

Drake - Views
April 29, 2016
Critic Score
67
36 reviews

16.

No Zu - Afterlife
February 5, 2016
Critic Score
80
1 review
The group traffic with a certain pagan zeal, a force which allows those who wield it to turn any discotheque into a sadomasochist pleasure-dome. Because – council regulations notwithstanding – isn’t that what every nightclub really aspires to be?

15.

Tegan and Sara - Love You to Death
June 3, 2016
Critic Score
79
33 reviews

The overarching feeling here is confidence – the result of a band that threw themselves off a cliff and found a net hanging just below.

14.

February 14, 2016
Critic Score
77
36 reviews

If The Life of Pablo is about anything, it’s about the absurdity of being Kanye West.

13.

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

Hopelessness is a response to the raging debate around diversity; it’s a shot across the bow to steadfast conservatives and ambivalent progressives alike. Anohni doesn’t just seek visibility – she demands it.

11.

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

10.

Violent Soho - WACO
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
70
1 review
It’s a Violent Soho album and a real good one.

9.

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

Although Coloring Book isn’t a disappointment necessarily, but there are no giant leaps forward here, nothing to fully justify the wait. Chance has crystallised his aesthetic, but one hopes that on his next release he adds another chapter to the volume, rather than revising the text again.

8.

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

There are tiny blips in momentum, but for the most part Adore Life is a pummelling statement.

7.

Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.
March 4, 2016
Critic Score
84
32 reviews

untitled’s 34 minutes are so crammed with ideas that they almost need to be read like poetry, with annotations, to be fully appreciated.

5.

Deftones - Gore
April 8, 2016
Critic Score
77
31 reviews

4.

The Drones - Feelin Kinda Free
March 18, 2016
Critic Score
75
7 reviews
There are still guitars, bass, drums, and keyboards, but they’re scrambled by technology and recast as free-flowing passages of cryptic texture. Yet the new approach proves surprisingly accessible, despite The Drones’ continued passion for abrasion.

3.

Beyoncé - Lemonade
April 23, 2016
Critic Score
90
38 reviews
Only days after Prince’s death, Beyoncé gives us a thousand reasons to be optimistic.

1.

Camp Cope - Camp Cope
April 22, 2016
Critic Score
74
2 reviews
Original Source: http://fasterlouder.junkee.com/we-rank-the-30-best-albums-of-2016-so-far/863977
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