American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums of 2016

American Songwriter's Top 50 Albums of 2016

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50.

May 13, 2016
Critic Score
73
24 reviews

48.

Brothers Osborne - Pawn Shop
January 15, 2016
Critic Score
80
2 reviews

46.

June 24, 2016
Critic Score
70
12 reviews

On Life In The Dark, the Felice Brothers continue their decade-plus quest of chronicling our crooked national pathologies with quirky humor, slacker indifference and guarded folkie optimism.

45.

August 20, 2016
Critic Score
86
42 reviews

This is music that fascinates on first listen but requires multiple spins for its complexities and idiosyncrasies to take hold.

44.

February 12, 2016
Critic Score
78
9 reviews

43.

Amanda Shires - My Piece of Land
September 16, 2016
Critic Score
76
3 reviews

42.

October 14, 2016
Critic Score
74
31 reviews

Oberst’s naked presentation and generally obtuse concepts feel genuine and are worth mulling over for a deeper understanding of his expressive and largely enticing thoughts.

41.

Lera Lynn - Resistor
April 29, 2016
Critic Score
77
3 reviews

40.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
80
3 reviews

39.

September 23, 2016
Critic Score
75
32 reviews

35.

May 8, 2016
Critic Score
87
49 reviews

For a long time now, Radiohead has been achieving mesmerizing results by blazing the trail for synthetic sounds in rock and roll. But it’s the humanity, oh, the humanity, that makes A Moon Shaped Pool so moving.

34.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
80
44 reviews

33.

August 26, 2016
Critic Score
78
22 reviews

This is shrewd, layered music that demands the songs be mulled over and scrutinized; even if that may not provide answers to questions McCombs poses.

32.

Kelsey Waldon - I've Got a Way
August 12, 2016
Critic Score
80
1 review

31.

November 4, 2016
Critic Score
81
27 reviews

FLOTUS fits surprisingly neatly into Lambchop’s catalog, capturing what makes this band so special and hinting at new directions it might take in its next two decades.

30.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
76
21 reviews

Shape Shift With Me, with its provocative title and explicit, non PC cover art no major label would approve, continues the band’s string of powerfully uncompromising but surprisingly tuneful albums that make you think, but only if you’re not busy thrashing in the mosh pit.

29.

Brian Fallon - Painkillers
March 11, 2016
Critic Score
74
15 reviews

Painkillers quickly veers off from that attention-grabber, dials down the intensity of the music, and lets Fallon tread through settings more reflective and restrained.

27.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
70
5 reviews

26.

August 19, 2016
Critic Score
77
14 reviews

Melodies take longer to reveal themselves and choruses don’t have the natural hooks Loveless has crafted before. Which just means you’ll need to spend additional time exploring the songs, mulling them over, absorbing the lyrics and letting their more elusive charms sink in.

25.

February 26, 2016
Critic Score
81
16 reviews

Dig In Deep is another distinguished and near perfect entry into a classy, bulging catalog that has seen few missteps.

23.

April 23, 2016
Critic Score
90
38 reviews

22.

Robert Ellis - Robert Ellis
June 3, 2016
Critic Score
75
6 reviews

20.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

Carrying over the momentum from his last excellent release, 2011’s So Beautiful Or So What, this disc features Simon at his most restless, in terms of both his questioning lyrics and his search for the right sound, and that restlessness pays off for the listener in endlessly fascinating ways.

18.

October 28, 2016
Critic Score
79
7 reviews

14.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
87
48 reviews
Though the methods might be unconventional, the emotions expressed are still riveting.

13.

May 20, 2016
Critic Score
77
8 reviews

7.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
86
17 reviews

Taken as a whole, American Band is the group’s most thematically coherent work since their pinnacle of Jason Isbell-assisted records in the early 2000s.

6.

January 8, 2016
Critic Score
86
45 reviews
Lyrically, Bowie it at his best here when he dives fully into off-kilter impressionism and ponders the uncertain present and apocalyptic future.

5.

June 17, 2016
Critic Score
81
29 reviews
This collaboration works not just on a vocal level, as the women share lead and backing chores, but on a conceptual one as well since their occasionally offbeat Americana sensibilities also dovetail perfectly.

2.

July 15, 2016
Critic Score
82
25 reviews

It’s intimate and sprawling, personal and universal, affectionate and daring. It’s also not background music. Sit down in front of your largest speakers, turn up the volume, push play, close your eyes and let Michael Kiwanuka’s Love & Hate envelope your senses while taking you on a journey to the sonic expanses of your mind.

1.

September 2, 2016
Critic Score
86
39 reviews

Individually, all of the songs are strong, self-contained bits of cleverly written and emotionally gripping indie rock ... Olsen has always been a compelling songwriter, but more than ever she showcases a range evident in just how versatile that songwriting is.

Original Source: http://americansongwriter.com/2016/12/top-50-albums-2016/
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