AllMusic's Best of 2016

AllMusic's Best of 2016

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November 11, 2016
Critic Score
87
32 reviews

This is no nostalgia trip or callous comeback. It's a giant exclamation point on the end of a brilliant career. It's also a tribute to the everyman genius of Phife, a widescreen look at the record-making skills of Q-Tip, and most importantly, it's a pure, undiluted, joyous thrill to have the Tribe back and still sounding this vital.

October 21, 2016
Critic Score
78
11 reviews

Obel's penchant for pairing elements of Elizabethan choral polyphony with millennial angst, not to mention her liberal use of spinet and celeste, would seem pedantic in less skilled hands, but there isn't a single moment on the quietly stunning Citizen of Glass that doesn't feel authentic.

Amos Lee - Spirit
August 19, 2016
Critic Score
80
2 reviews

January 15, 2016
Critic Score
81
19 reviews
Throughout, he's a (stoned) common man making the best of his consequences, yet he has an otherworldly quality, like he has been beamed down to mine the L.A. County sewer system and Pacific Ocean floor for cosmic slop.

April 22, 2016
Critic Score
80
13 reviews

It's a soundtrack for a sort of lovers' lane -- a moonlit path made treacherous by tar pits and sinkholes.

September 2, 2016
Critic Score
86
39 reviews

While some tracks will surprise established fans, to say that My Woman is a departure or style swap for Olsen doesn't really take into account the album as a whole. The elements that are new here play out like a means to an end for a songwriter with a tale to tell, one chock-full of raw emotions.

Astronoid - Air
June 10, 2016
Critic Score
90
1 review

Air is not the sound of one serenely floating in space. It's the manifestation of the intensity, anxiety, and pure elation that comes during blast-off, as the rockets blare and the spaceship rumbles and the body is propelled into the unknown.

Aubrie Sellers - New City Blues
January 29, 2016
Critic Score
75
2 reviews

April 23, 2016
Critic Score
90
38 reviews

Romantic conflict is nothing new for her, but there is a degree of concentration and specificity, and an apparent disregard for appealing to commercial radio that makes Lemonade a distinct addition to her catalog.

May 20, 2016
Critic Score
82
30 reviews

Rock history teaches us you can't will a masterpiece into existence, but with Car Seat Headrest's Teens of Denial, Will Toledo has created something like a novel after previously offering us short stories, and it's a piece of rough-hewn brilliance.

May 13, 2016
Critic Score
86
27 reviews
It's a joy to hear all this zeal from a rapper operating at the top of his game.

April 1, 2016
Critic Score
77
23 reviews

Changes shows Bradley still has plenty of new ground to explore at the age of 68.

September 27, 2016
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

Atrocity Exhibition is Danny Brown at his least diluted, almost unrelentingly grim and completely engrossing.

January 8, 2016
Critic Score
86
45 reviews

This comfort with the now is the most striking thing about Blackstar: it is the sound of a restless artist feeling utterly at ease not only within his own skin but within his own time.

Donny McCaslin - Beyond Now
October 14, 2016
Critic Score
76
4 reviews

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
86
17 reviews

American Band is an op-ed column with guitars, and it presents a message well worth hearing, both as politics and as music.

March 4, 2016
Critic Score
84
15 reviews
While Spalding never sounds anything less than original on the album, part of the beauty here is in recognizing her inspirations and reveling in how she has made them her own.

March 18, 2016
Critic Score
77
41 reviews

Pop has suggested that Post Pop Depression may be his last album, and if that's true, it wraps up his career with a strong and atypical work.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
73
5 reviews

On Orphée, Jóhannsson expresses the need to let some things and people go to let new ones in with remarkable nuance, as well as the affecting beauty fans have come to know and love.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
82
25 reviews

Sounds and concepts flow into each other as potently as blood itself on Blood Bitch, a bewitching album from an artist at the peak of her powers.

May 13, 2016
Critic Score
78
29 reviews
She and Greenspan refract techno-pop in their own way while binding additional forms of electronic post-disco that cross four decades, from boogie to juke.

April 1, 2016
Critic Score
79
7 reviews

Focused without sounding rigid or confined, Ears is imaginative and alive.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
80
27 reviews
The assortment of vocalists -- rappers, singers, and a few who pull double duty -- naturally results in a diverse set of perspectives, most of which regard love and relationships of short- and long-term natures. Combined with beats seemingly tailored for each voice, the album could have resembled a disorderly production showcase, yet Celestin applies his experience as a deeply knowledgeable selector to stitch it all together with few obvious seams.

March 4, 2016
Critic Score
84
32 reviews

untitled unmastered. is no mere offcut dump. It's as vital as anything else its maker has released.

April 29, 2016
Critic Score
82
18 reviews

King Gizzard's inventive sound, giant hooks, and hard-as-titanium playing make Nonagon Infinity not only their best album yet, but maybe the best psych-metal-jazz-prog album ever.

May 13, 2016
Critic Score
78
13 reviews

It's blood, booze, and sweat-soaked concrete floors, high five-worthy rock & roll that takes itself just seriously enough to be flat-out legit, but never forgets that inclusiveness is the metal community's most vital commodity -- the band has its own brand of beer.

August 12, 2016
Critic Score
85
8 reviews

While the show itself is clear about its influences, its soundtrack manages to do this too, while ultimately culminating as an in-depth and invigorating piece of atmospheric electronic music.

October 21, 2016
Critic Score
89
32 reviews

You Want It Darker is a hell of a record.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
80
3 reviews

By drawing upon so many cross-currents, Hero belongs to the digital era but it's the songs -- smart, sharp, and hooky -- that make this a great modern pop album, regardless of genre.

March 25, 2016
Critic Score
83
13 reviews

This tension between the head and heart, between the country and the city, is what fuels Midwest Farmer's Daughter, placing it on a warm, hazy plane that feels simultaneously sophisticated and down-home.

November 18, 2016
Critic Score
83
11 reviews

By radically shifting her sound, she winds up focusing attention on her songwriting and musicality: it may have mainstream songs, but The Weight of These Wings isn't produced like a country-pop album, so it demands attention and rewards close listening.

June 17, 2016
Critic Score
85
30 reviews
A visceral work that shares the immediacy of classic punk and confessional singer/songwriter fare at once, Puberty 2 takes listeners behind closed doors with the kind of no-holds-barred lyrics that are likely to leave a lasting impression.

September 9, 2016
Critic Score
91
40 reviews

Even by Cave's dour standards, Skeleton Tree is a tough listen, but it's also a powerful and revealing one, and a singular work from a one-of-a-kind artist.

July 8, 2016
Critic Score
76
9 reviews
Most of all, just be glad these guys all quit their musical day jobs and formed Omni, because they made one heck of a good post-punk-pop album together.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
82
28 reviews

Where the specter of 9/11 hung heavily over Surprise, Simon seems at peace on Stranger to Stranger, acknowledging the twilight yet not running toward it because there's so much to experience in the moment. He's choosing to push forward, not look back, and the results are invigorating.

May 8, 2016
Critic Score
87
49 reviews
For the first time Radiohead feels comfortable in their own skin.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
80
44 reviews

A striking second album, the different perspectives Adore Life bring to Savages' music make them sound more vital than ever.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
88
30 reviews
Their restrained ornamentation and moderate tempos are perfectly suited for Knowles, an undervalued vocalist who never aims to bring the house down yet fills each note with purposeful emotion.

April 15, 2016
Critic Score
85
23 reviews

It's an old-fashioned concept album, one that tells a story -- it's a letter to his newborn son, telling him how to become a man -- and is dressed in garish art suited to the side of a Chevy van.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
79
33 reviews

Their honesty and intelligence shine through at all times, and they take the sublime parts of the modern pop landscape, while giving no time to the ridiculous. Like Heartthrob, this is pop music that is all heart all the time, and for that, the sisters deserve every accolade that comes their way.

February 5, 2016
Critic Score
81
11 reviews

We Are King is all about plush, impeccable grooves and spine-tingling harmonies. It's without fault.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
80
15 reviews
The sprawl of motion, texture, and color is reined in by immense, emotive lyricism and dynamic group interplay, making this musical "letter" to his vanishing nation well worth repeated listening.
Original Source: http://www.allmusic.com/year-in-review/2016/allmusic-best-of-2016
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