The Skinny Top 50 Albums of 2016

The Skinny Top 50 Albums of 2016

Original Source →

50.

January 15, 2016
Critic Score
74
41 reviews

Not to Disappear is shattering throughout: a brooding sound board, crackling guitars, unsettling beats and Tonra buried in there somewhere, documenting unspeakable hurt, graphic and unfiltered.

48.

De Rosa - Weem
January 22, 2016
Critic Score
75
4 reviews

47.

February 26, 2016
Critic Score
79
12 reviews
Now in his early 40s, Mason sounds like an artist finally finding his creative stride.

46.

Law Holt - City
August 26, 2016
Critic Score
80
3 reviews

45.

October 21, 2016
Critic Score
76
25 reviews
Like its predecessor, this is a record you’ll want to spend endless nights with.

43.

October 28, 2016
Critic Score
77
21 reviews

Peppered with catchy choruses and heroic riffs, and with sing-along moments galore, it's much fuller, better rounded and more complete than 2014's Honeyblood.

42.

Shield Patterns - Mirror Breathing
September 2, 2016
Critic Score
100
1 review

41.

September 9, 2016
Critic Score
75
27 reviews

An unremarkable final quarter means Here’s not quite as strong an overall statement as Shadows or Man-made, with Connected to Life making an oddly sombre closer for what’s otherwise such an optimistic record.

40.

May 27, 2016
Critic Score
78
20 reviews

Good Luck and Do Your Best is imbued with shiny-eyed, open-hearted optimism, and built with all the sensitivity and care that we’ve come to expect from anything Gold Panda touches.

39.

Parra for Cuva & Senoy - Darwīš
May 27, 2016
Critic Score
65
1 review

38.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
79
24 reviews

Light Upon The Lake is a transient pleasure – but a vivid one while it lasts.

37.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
74
20 reviews
Despite the line-up changes, shifts in location and personal life traumas that have been played out on successive records over the past decade, the core and essence of the band remain the same, and it’s still as brilliant as it has ever been.

36.

August 26, 2016
Critic Score
74
19 reviews

How to Be a Human Being is arguably yet more effervescent than its predecessor.

33.

January 8, 2016
Critic Score
76
29 reviews

Leave Me Alone is crunchy, sticky and massively more-ish; there's nothing better than when long anticipated records turn out to be super, super great.

32.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
76
21 reviews

Will is a deeply dramatic showcase throughout – Barwick's vision might have its foundation in traditional forms but the way in which she deconstructs and rebuilds is a distinctly renegade act.

31.

August 5, 2016
Critic Score
73
33 reviews

Certainly a contender for the most electronic of their canon, Boy King is perhaps also their most compact and claustrophobic release since 2011’s Smother.

30.

September 27, 2016
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

Hard rhymes, hard beats and a metallic self-scrutiny see Danny Brown make astute decisions, and reap all that he deserves.

26.

April 1, 2016
Critic Score
74
19 reviews

For all her DIY charms, Next Thing continues to give credence to the view that the home studio environment might not quite meet the requirements of a songwriter blessed with such precocious talent.

24.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
80
44 reviews

With fearless approach and razor sharp delivery, Adore Life is so bruisingly intimate that it feels like a surgical hand taking grasp of your gut. When Savages speak, you listen.

23.

February 14, 2016
Critic Score
77
36 reviews

West wants everything, equally we expect everything, so the result is exhilarating in its instability. The Life Of Pablo is bursting at the seams with ideas and talking points.

20.

February 12, 2016
Critic Score
78
9 reviews

19.

July 8, 2016
Critic Score
79
23 reviews
As far as poppy coming of age records go, there’s not a lot to separate Shura from the pack on initial spins. Like most teenage neuroses, scratch beyond the surface and you’ll find there’s much more going on than first seems apparent.

15.

June 17, 2016
Critic Score
85
30 reviews

Featuring crunchy guitars, squeals of feedback and masterful melodicism, comparisons to Pinkerton are inevitable, but there's more nuance and maturity at work here.

13.

April 1, 2016
Critic Score
78
16 reviews

Lost Time is such an enjoyable half-hour you’ll barely worry about favourites. Melody, thy name be Tacocat.

11.

May 8, 2016
Critic Score
87
49 reviews

It’s the soundtrack to our most outlandish dreams, perhaps the exit music to the unmade film of our most romantic lives. If you're still to discover Radiohead, listen to this, for it's the perfect way in.

10.

April 23, 2016
Critic Score
90
38 reviews

9.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
81
37 reviews

Human Performance might have sacrificed the band's rickety immediacy, but they compensate with wise, grass-stalk chewing authority and grubby, plentiful hooks.

8.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
81
38 reviews

7.

January 8, 2016
Critic Score
86
45 reviews

Bowie has always been an artist who reframes his own past – the liberal use here of his beloved saxophone a case in point – and whilst the lyrical trails are necessarily opaque, the arrangements don’t rely on vogue to foster the narrative (as perhaps was the case with much of his 1990s output).

6.

September 9, 2016
Critic Score
91
40 reviews

Never hesitant to reach into the depths of himself and his times, this is his deepest journey yet, his own katabasis and nekyia – Cave's journey to the underworld to speak with the dead.

5.

September 2, 2016
Critic Score
86
39 reviews
The voice – that pure, craggy vibrato – is bold and beautiful, and on her fourth and (by some distance) best album, it finds the showcase it needs and deserves.

4.

January 15, 2016
Critic Score
81
19 reviews

3.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
87
48 reviews

1.

August 20, 2016
Critic Score
86
42 reviews
It's a dignified, down-tempo celebration of taking all the damn time you need to get something done that's worth doing right.
Original Source: http://www.theskinny.co.uk/music/opinion/albums-of-the-year/top-50-albums-of-2016
Comments
Sign in to comment
No one has said anything yet.
Connect with AOTY
Like Us
Follow Us

February Playlist