Under the Radar's Top 100 Albums of 2016

Under the Radar's Top 100 Albums of 2016

Original Source →

100.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
78
17 reviews

On Treasure House, Cat's Eyes' vision is more focused, creating a charming record worth repeated listens as you drift through the imaginary films in your mind.

98.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
79
33 reviews

Love You's sticky problem is the same one that plagues all but the Thriller/Purple Rain-iest of pop records, and it's that everything that comes between the hits sounds like filler in comparison.

97.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
77
21 reviews
Gunn possesses a formidable knowledge of Americana, but plays like he's empowered by what's come before, rather than merely informed by it. Perhaps no one else currently working in this idiom can so successfully make the past feel like a stopover on a forward-looking route rather than a roadblock.

96.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
76
21 reviews

With Will, Barwick has once again created something only she could. It's a remarkable achievement—in whatever genre she decides to embrace.

95.

August 19, 2016
Critic Score
72
17 reviews

With many tracks played live in the studio with the Spacebomb crew, the result is a warm, inviting collection that showcases Slow Club's chemistry while drawing their strengths to the fore.

94.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
70
12 reviews

In the end, Fall Forever feels more like an exploratory step forward than a head-to-toe reinvention of the band; it will be even more interesting to see where they go from here.

93.

Weird Dreams - Luxury Alone
June 10, 2016
Critic Score
64
5 reviews

92.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
78
35 reviews
This is haunting; the black and blue shadows of a new territory

91.

August 12, 2016
Critic Score
66
28 reviews
It's better to burn out than it is to rust, so they say. Maybe, but it's starting to seem like you can grease the wheels with glitter and cruise on forever.

90.

June 10, 2016
Critic Score
73
21 reviews

89.

February 26, 2016
Critic Score
72
15 reviews

The four write their songs collaboratively and share vocals; the collective approach to making music has resulted in an incredibly cohesive album with 10 tracks that flow naturally from one to the next for 41 minutes.

88.

March 18, 2016
Critic Score
77
41 reviews

Post Pop Depression is very much a man trying to find the proper context for himself, his considerable legacy, and where his shape fits in the modern world, and perhaps sounding a little lost in the process. 

87.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
79
7 reviews

86.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
74
11 reviews

Simply placing a fuller smile over their songwriting, Teleman have created a sharp, smart pop record that—if there's any justice in this world—should bring them the wider attention they merit.

85.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
74
20 reviews

The incorporation of frontman Scott Hutchison's verses of cagey lament and realization into Dessner's poignant pop arrangements feels contrived rather than meant to be.

84.

February 5, 2016
Critic Score
75
26 reviews
There are more than a few high points to be sure, but the record lacks the inventive spark that we've come to expect from Field Music.

83.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
78
26 reviews

There is a stout cohesiveness that gives Preoccupations a feeling of completion and resolute artistic confidence and its reverberations mount with close and repeated listens.

82.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
80
28 reviews

80.

April 1, 2016
Critic Score
72
17 reviews

IV is a compelling rocker—and among the best of the larger Black Mountain Army collective's releases.

79.

July 1, 2016
Critic Score
71
30 reviews

Summer 08 is Metronomy stripped back and as a result plays to frontman Joseph Mount's strengths.

78.

April 8, 2016
Critic Score
75
17 reviews

Woods have never sounded more like a fully-functioning unit. Every single layer here swims together to create an unceasingly fluid song cycle of ebb-and-flow paranoia and pleasure.

77.

September 9, 2016
Critic Score
75
27 reviews

Teenage Fanclub sounds positively content, and even tranquil. It's not the worst fate for a group of rock lifers, but it doesn't make for the most compelling listening.

75.

September 9, 2016
Critic Score
75
31 reviews

Ten albums and more than 20 years into their career, Wilco are still making great music.

74.

Thomas Cohen - Bloom Forever
May 6, 2016
Critic Score
76
10 reviews

The album's charm is that it manages to deal with first-hand melancholy so eloquently and so affectingly without centering itself entirely around it. Bloom Forever, you can't help but feel, is Cohen's second record that will stick around for a very long time.

73.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
64
6 reviews

72.

Psychic Twin - Strange Diary
September 9, 2016
Critic Score
79
5 reviews

71.

September 23, 2016
Critic Score
75
32 reviews

The things the band does right on this album make it worth checking out, but hopefully next time around Warpaint will be able to keep the songwriting as consistently great throughout as the beginning and ending songs.

70.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
76
21 reviews

Far from retro, Jet Plane and Oxbow lives up to its Back to the Future billing.

69.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
81
38 reviews
Some tracks come across like impromptu recording sessions where ANOHNI worked through recently-penned material over production pieces messed around with just before she'd arrived at the studio. Still, there is enough in this unexpected assimilation of talents to hold intrigue.

68.

February 19, 2016
Critic Score
73
17 reviews

67.

September 30, 2016
Critic Score
82
25 reviews

Blood Bitch is her latest attempt to marry up the pretty and the grotesque. An open exploration of menstruation, the record uses her ceramic intone to startling effect,

66.

April 16, 2016
Critic Score
76
6 reviews

This is a terrific and ambitious mining of a rich creative world that returns with gold. 

64.

October 28, 2016
Critic Score
70
17 reviews

63.

November 4, 2016
Critic Score
81
27 reviews
It's all really cohesive, and while no tracks jump out as jarringly different, each one is filled with deliberateness and prettiness.

62.

Mass Gothic - Mass Gothic
February 5, 2016
Critic Score
62
7 reviews

61.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
74
26 reviews

60.

June 3, 2016
Critic Score
79
24 reviews

This is a debut record that focuses less on establishing identity and more on crafting its own picturesque little world. Light Upon the Lake hasn't a care in that world; it innocently rolls around some of the loveliest, sunniest country songs you're likely to hear all year.

59.

Jagwar Ma - Every Now & Then
October 14, 2016
Critic Score
70
13 reviews

As slick as this production is, the atmosphere on this record is sometimes hard to absorb beneath the constant rhythm, and the occasional moments when the music is allowed to slow down and breathe are refreshing.

58.

October 7, 2016
Critic Score
75
4 reviews

57.

January 15, 2016
Critic Score
81
19 reviews

56.

Luke Temple - A Hand Through the Cellar Door
November 11, 2016
Critic Score
78
3 reviews

55.

September 16, 2016
Critic Score
78
15 reviews

They've glacially been building to this, one of the most inventive, adventurous, and best rock records of 2016.

54.

April 15, 2016
Critic Score
77
47 reviews

The magic of The Hope Six Demolition Project is the glimmer of hope that in a war-torn, inequality-ridden, and ultimately unpleasant world, things might somehow change.

53.

May 6, 2016
Critic Score
79
34 reviews

In an era of 9-12 track albums, The Colour in Anything comes in at 17 songs and the amount invites you to explore and absorb at random, offering moods and tempos beyond just the ruminative and forlorn.

52.

January 22, 2016
Critic Score
74
12 reviews
Its strength is not in delivering an immediate shot of aural adrenaline but rather in creating a dark, dramatic mood.
Original Source: http://www.undertheradarmag.com/lists/under_the_radars_top_100_albums_of_2016/
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