As June turns to July and summer enters full swing, we're taking a chance to look back on what's been an insane year not just for music, but for surprise music. In the span of less than three weeks, Beyoncé, Drake, James Blake, Radiohead and Chance the Rapper all dropped hugely anticipated albums whose release dates were hinted at mere days before their release. There have been pleasant surprises aplenty, too: a painterly masterwork by a California soul singer, an album of Toronto pop-punk anthems, a debut record from a veteran UK composer, an '80s horror film-referencing death metal opus and a gorgeous, jazzy swansong from a culture legend.
We couldn't cut it down to just 25 records, and why should we, when there were riches beyond? And so, without further ado: Exclaim!'s Top 27 Albums of 2016 So Far.
Click next to read through the albums one by one, or use the list below to skip ahead to your favourites.
Exclaim!'s Top 27 Albums of 2016 So Far:
27. dvsn
Sept. 5
(OVO Sound)
Sept. 5th, numerically known as 9/05, is symbolic of the undeniable talent that's come out of the area code just outside of Toronto for the past five years — obviously, none more so than singer/production duo dvsn.
The cohesive, ambient sound that cradles Sept. 5th shouldn't come as a surprise; lead vocalist Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 have been making music together for roughly 15 years prior to signing with the OVO Sound imprint.
All whispered melodies, echoing falsettos and throbbing bass lines, Sept. 5th contains mature odes to love ("With Me"), heartbreak ("Sept. 5") and affection ("Too Deep"), but also strong insecurities that keep reappearing throughout the album. Although there are highs and lows in relationships, "Angela" serves as a metaphor for dvsn's one true love — the city of Toronto. Sept 5th bares its soul for her.
Erin Lowers
26. Gold Panda
Good Luck and Do Your Best
(City Slang)
While many of his electronic music contemporaries are obsessing over "end-times and very cold, kind of harsh or modern sounds," enigmatic UK beatsmith Gold Panda made a statement just by playing it positive.
His third LP, titled Good Luck and Do Your Best after a phrase uttered to him while on vacation in Japan, is an even prettier, more pastoral take on the kind of ambient minimal techno listeners have come to expect from the producer. The languid, koto-driven "I Am Real Punk" is perhaps the best micro-example of what Gold Panda does at length here: weave rich, gorgeous tapestries out of just two or three golden threads.
Stephen Carlick
25. Aborted
Retrogore
(Century Media)
Belgian death metal masters Aborted never disappoint, but they've particularly been on a rampage since 2012, when they reignited their sound with the blood-soaked bludgeoning of Global Flatline. Sven de Caluwé and company continued the grind-infused brutality with 2014's The Necrotic Manifesto, and they've done it yet again with this year's Retrogore. Their ninth album since their 1995 inception, Retrogore is a tribute to '80s horror movies, which is a fitting theme for their pulverizing speed and intense, unrelenting blast beats.
A fury of savage, groove-filled riffs pervades the release and is especially captivating on highlight tracks "Whoremageddon," "Termination Redux" and "Divine Impediment." As well as littering the album with creepy sound clips, Retrogore also features some of the best of the best when it comes to guest vocalists: Cattle Decapitation's Travis Ryan, Benighted's Julien Truchan and Origin's Jason Keyser. Retrogore is arguably Aborted's best work to date, and with a solid catalogue spanning their 20-plus-year career, that's quite an impressive feat.
Denise Falzon
24. Car Seat Headrest
Teens of Denial
(Matador)
Will Toledo might not be the musical hero we deserve, but he's the one that we've been blessed with. His band Car Seat Headrest bring together the prolificacy of Robert Pollard, the lyrical sharpness of vintage Pavement, the vocal style of Beck and the glorious fuzzy guitars of indie rock's heyday — and the results are pretty damned wonderful.
Teens of Denial is the project's first proper post-Bandcamp album, and is the perfect culmination of everything that came before it. Toledo already has a dozen albums under his belt, so it isn't really a surprise that this is such an accomplished record, but now that he's working with a full band, there's sense of a breadth to accompany its length. Toledo spins yarns of angst, cynicism and disaffection with a sense of self-awareness that keeps you guessing whether he's on the outside looking in or vice-versa. Teens of Denial is funny, smart and incredibly catchy.
Michael Edwards
23. BJ the Chicago Kid
In My Mind
(Motown)
It's been a banner year for Chicago musicians: Chance the Rapper, Kanye West and Bryan James Sledge. BJ might be the least prominent of those three kings, but he's no less capable of producing monumental work, as he's proven in 2016. In My Mind exists at the crossroads of forward-thinking hip-hop, layered soul and gospel tradition.
"Church" mustered those sentiments harmoniously, "Resume" turned a curriculum vitae into something NSFW and "Wait Til the Morning" proved that an uptempo ballad can make us empathize with a scoundrel. That notion of church, divisive to many, is the bedrock of In My Mind, reaching its zenith on the Old Testament tale "Jeremiah," but what BJ is really evangelizing is the idea of devotion and calling, in many ways more effectively than those collecting tithes. With him the humility of a working session musician, BJ delivered one of the breakout albums of 2016.
Michael J. Warren
22. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
A Man Alive
(Ribbon Music)
The trajectory of Thao Nguyen's career seems divine. Everything fell into place for A Man Alive, her fourth album at the helm of the Get Down Stay Down. Although she hasn't yet received the same acclaim as peers like St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs, this album splits the difference between their finest work. Merrill Garbus helped produce Thao's 2011 collaborative full-length with Mirah, but her distinctive tUnE-yArDs freak-folk feel is blessedly more present on A Man Alive.
The album's sound is quirky, bubbling over with odd joyousness that's tempered by the frustrations and protests of daily life. "Nobody Dies" and "Fool Forever" carve deep impressions on the psyche, while her ode to survivors of sexual assault, "Meticulous Bird," remains incredibly potent in the aftermath of the Dr. Luke and Jian Ghomeshi cases. That she can convey her messages in a style as unusual and infectiously vibrant as Odelay-era Beck makes A Man Alive a future classic.
Alan Ranta
21. Magrudergrind
II
(Relapse Records)
On the brash, blistering punk end of the grindcore spectrum, Washington, DC's Magrudergrind fall somewhere between Rotten Sound and Insect Warfare on the scale of auditory violence. They are direct yet creative, murderously hostile but disarmingly thoughtful in their execution, and their latest full-length, II, marries their intelligence with their bloodlust perfectly.
For something so brief and brutal, II is remarkably well composed, and is a balanced and creatively laid out grindcore record with just enough variance in pacing and riff structure to keep you hungry and engaged. It works best to take the entire record as a whole, and experience it as a titanic slab of ugliness.
Natalie Zina Walschots
20. Whitney
Light Upon the Lake
(Secretly Canadian)
Some have crowned Chance the Rapper's "No Problem" the Song of the Summer, but it's only a song of the summer — the big city, sweltering feel-good kind. Fellow Chicagoans Whitney have mastered another strain — bright 'n' breezy, blissed-out folk-rock.
Building on but breaking apart from the last year's Laurel Canyon resurrection, Light Upon the Lake's cottage country title is apt: the delicate guitar and dusty strings of "No Woman" could play as a Western hero ambles into the sunset, while "No Matter Where We Go" rolls the windows down and sets a new standard for drunk in love, run-away-with-me tunes. All that beautiful, stop-and-smell-the-flowers spirit is distilled on "Follow," a meandering sway that builds to an ear-to-ear grinning sing-along, all swirling six-string and horns blasting pure sunshine.
Matt Williams
19. White Lung
Paradise
(Domino)
If the first thing you heard from White Lung's Paradise was the death-driven, ballad-esque "Belong" — easily among the year's best songs — you might wonder if one of Canada's most exciting punk bands had gone a bit soft. Pfft.
Paradise may sound bigger and have more hooks than the band's previous work, but it's still a ferocious, blisteringly paced record. White Lung's whirlwind energy is simply more focused this time around: Anne-Marie Vassiliou's drumming remains as forceful as ever on tracks like "I Beg You" and "Sister"; guitarist Kenneth William holds Paradise's soundscapes together, adding colour to his riffs to the point where some could be easily mistaken for keyboard parts; and at the eye of the band's storm remains Mish Barber-Way, her beautiful vocal tone ready to transform into a beast whenever the whirlwind kicks up.
Ryan McNutt
18. ANOHNI
HOPELESSNESS
(Secretly Canadian)
ANOHNI, formerly of Antony and the Johnsons, has written one of the most magnificent records of the year with HOPELESSNESS. In larger than life pop songs that detail the pressing issues of our time, such as drone warfare and climate change, ANOHNI articulates the emotions of despair and helplessness today's world can often elicit.
Her infectious melodies, coupled with production by the likes of Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never, juxtapose the album's lyrics, provide the spoonful of sugar for the medicine here, as these are issues many might rather not face. Thankfully, ANOHNI is unafraid to highlight the crises in our world, and she does so in a way that will draw in even the most casual fan of pop music.
Anna Alger
17. Anna Meredith
Varmints
(Moshi Moshi)
You're excused if the name Anna Meredith doesn't ring a bell; the Scottish composer has spent the better part of her career exploring the depths of classical music. (She was previously the composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.) But Meredith's curiosity got the better of her, and over the last few years, she's been exploring music outside of her wheelhouse.
For her debut album, Meredith envisioned pop music with a fresh and audacious perspective, using her classically trained ability to traverse electronic music's boundless format for a continuous series of left turns. With Varmints, Meredith designed a pop album for the avant-garde set, and vice-versa, easily one of the most unique albums we've heard this year.
Cam Lindsay
16. The Range
Potential
(Domino)
Making a record that hinges on sampling to create something new is nothing out of the ordinary, but Brooklyn-based producer the Range (a.k.a. James Hinton) transcended that simple concept with his second LP, Potential; Hinton used a specific set of search terms to plumb the depths of YouTube for videos of amateur vocalists, which he then sampled alongside his own top-notch production.
The samples that he found don't just add colour to his compositions, but emotional depth as well. These vocal snippets, looped and processed as they may be, drive the record through a series of moods, from uplifting to urgent. Potential is a testament to electronic music's capacity for emotional power, human feeling and sense of connection; if Hinton's production doesn't strike an emotional chord, his vocal collaborators surely will.
Calum Slingerland
15. Modern Baseball
Holy Ghost
(Run for Cover)
With third full-length Modern Baseball found their feet. Assured, confident and more mature, Holy Ghost is a record that retained the band's ability to write a hook that will burrow into your brain while also showcasing how far they've grown as songwriters.
Taking a cue from Outkast, Holy Ghost finds vocalist/guitarists Jake Ewald and Brendan Lukens each contributing their own side to the album, allowing them to delve further into their own psyches to provide a more honest and open approach to their songwriting. Dealing with loss, religion and mental health issues, Holy Ghost is an emotional record from a band figuring out how to grow up on the road — and man, it's a great one.
Conor Mackie
14. Kendrick Lamar
untitled unmastered.
( TDE/Aftermath/Universal)
It's not uncommon for an artist to have a repository of unfinished demos, but very few can casually release them at a moment's notice and turn the entire world on its ear. Even when he's not trying, Kendrick Lamar can't help but produce some of the best material of 2016.
Featuring the same gutsy, experimental fusion of jazz, funk, poetry and hip-hop, untitled unmastered. is a raw, intimate glimpse into the creative process that birthed 2015's masterful To Pimp a Butterfly. He's already cemented his place in hip-hop as one of the greatest contributors of his time, but untitled is another testament to just how dedicated Lamar is to his craft. Just as a man's character is judged by what he does when nobody is looking, an artist's integrity is measured by how much soul he pours into creations the world was never supposed to witness — and untitled unmastered. has soul gushing from every pore.
A. Harmony
13. Jean-Michel Blais
Il
(Arts & Crafts)
A revelatory release from someone who had to be convinced to even release an album, Il finds Quebecois pianist Jean-Michel Blais offering up one of the most delightful and intimate records of 2016.
While the piano is the composer's main instrument, the incidental sounds that sneak into his self-recorded debut likewise contribute to its preciousness: there's the airy, weather-like whirr and selected tiny voices that stretch across opening number "Hasselblad 4," an audio snapshot of a day wherein local children were making the most of the urban outdoors while Blais created another realm within his apartment.
The various movements of Il — from the contemplative spaciousness of its title track, to the ambient glaze holding together "Nostos," to the playful pace of "Budapest — have neo-classical fans crying out for more from the minimalist composer.
Gregory Adams
12. Drake
VIEWS
(OVO Sound)
VIEWS, Drake's long-anticipated follow-up to Nothing Was the Same is a sprawling, 82-minute love letter to Toronto that takes us once more through the rapper's intimate stream of consciousness. The album, produced in large part by longtime confidant Noah '40' Shebib, is filled with the same slow-burning, smouldering and sultry hip-hop that skyrocketed Drake to fame.
And yet, it finds new ground, too. Though it received mixed reviews upon its release, VIEWS is Drake's most ambitious record to date, and the highs here — the timpani rolls on "Keep the Family Close," the dancehall thump of "One Dance" — find the 6 God expanding his sonic palette to include styles yet untouched in his oeuvre. That it's also the rapper's most successful album on the charts yet speaks to his power both as a tastemaker and artist.
Dylan Barnabe
11. James Blake
The Colour in Anything
(Universal)
For a breakup record, James Blake's The Colour in Anything is 76 minutes of dreamy bliss. On his soul-laden third album, the electronic crooner experiments with an abundance of vocal effects, trap-inspired drums and sub-bass moans that blow the bottom end out of his previous LPs.
Blake retains his sonic signature here, moody and spacious, but he keeps things captivating by adding more subtly danceable gems ("Timeless"), guest writing from Frank Ocean and the drumless yet urgent "Meet You in the Maze." Blake's intimate and vulnerable The Colour in Anything is something different, an album that fit snugly in the tradition of great songwriters while still blazing a trail forward.
Danielle Subject
10. PUP
The Dream Is Over
(Royal Mountain Records)
PUP know how to make a bad time sound good. From touring frustration to fights with your significant other, The Dream Is Over takes what could amount to a really shitty year and turns it into a ripping punk record. The whole band is on point here, from Stefan Babcock's vocals (I'm a big fan of the way he says "vomit") to the pure, gnarly guitar sound.
PUP's second record also brings more dynamic to their sound, from the nightmare horror of "The Coast" to the reckless jackassery of "My Life Is Over and I Couldn't Be Happier." For all its rawness, the album ends on a rather poignant moment with album closer "Pine Point," a reflective coda to the rest of the album. On The Dream Is Over, PUP embrace failure to create a beautiful, bone-breaking, puke-riddled masterpiece.
Corey Henderson
9. Andy Shauf
The Party
(Arts & Crafts)
Saskatchewan musician Andy Shauf's third LP, The Party, features sprightly, complex melodies in the vein of Elliott Smith intertwined with Harry Nilsson's orchestral sprawl. It's an easy listen that reveals plenty of depth beneath the surface.
The Party is a loose concept album showcasing a series of vignettes within a single party, from the mundane (the existential dread that comes with showing up early) to the absurd (a partygoer taking a drag from a cigarette and then dropping dead). Shauf's soft voice provides a narrator both playful and heartfelt, and his lyrics capture the beauty and pain of human interaction.
The record also showcases Shauf's confident ear for colourful arrangements: he's able to incorporate more clarinet than anyone would ever expect to find on a folk record, let alone enjoy. Lush, vivid and intimate, The Party is everything your typical party isn't.
Matt Bobkin
8. Kanye West
The Life of Pablo
(G.O.O.D.)
If he was a lesser artist, Kanye West would have been entirely eclipsed by his ego at this point; he's the most divisive figure in modern music, and every time he says something it turns into an Internet meme. With The Life of Pablo, however, he proved that he's still one of the most vital and vibrant artists around.
The album bristles with heavenly gospel, classic soul samples and futuristic beats, and its very existence is an act of art — we never know when Kanye will update the album with a new song or a swapped-out verse, a move as fascinating as it is frustrating. This is a God dream.
Josiah Hughes
7. Sturgill Simpson
A Sailor's Guide to Earth
(Warner)
Perhaps the most eccentric breakthrough act in the recent history of country music, Sturgill Simpson fairly demands a close ear and an open mind from traditionalists and new country fans alike. But if you're up for it, on A Sailor's Guide to Earth, his bravura third album, your careful attention will be rewarded again and again.
A concept record loosely based on an itinerant sailor's letters home to his wife and son from overseas, Simpson massages classic country music tropes into new shapes. Though many will emphasize the startling STAX-meets-Elvis cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" that ends the first side as proof of Simpson's range and talent, don't neglect the ingeniously playful travelogue of "Sea Stories," the plaintive "Oh Sarah" or the soulful mega-groove of "Welcome to Earth" and "Keep It Between the Lines." This is, simply, some of the best music of the year.
Stuart Henderson
6. Anderson .Paak
Malibu
( Steel Wool/OBE/Art Club/EMPIRE)
The second studio album by genre eschewer Anderson .Paak should rightly be called a breakthrough.
A brisk mix of soul, jazz, hip-hop and R&B, the Cali artist got his just due on Dr. Dre's 2015 project Compton, and has parlayed that momentum into one of the year's best, most ambitious full-length efforts. Owing much to classic hip-hop and soul artists — he carries more than a passing sonic connection to neo-soul singer Bilal — .Paak mines black funk, boom-bap and rock to faultless effect on Malibu.
As a recording artist, .Paak revels in dynamic flows and abstractions, making even a record as substantial as this feel breezy.
Ryan B. Patrick
5. Beyoncé
Lemonade
(Parkwood/Columbia)
Since the surprise release of Beyoncé's 2013 self-titled album, artists have been tripping over themselves to pull off a similar stunt with a fraction of the grace and style of Queen B. And rather than going for an easy repeat of that on her next record, Beyoncé instead reinvented once again what it means to "pull a Beyoncé."
In the case of Lemonade, she doesn't just offer listeners glimpses into her world, she uses the album's 12 tracks as an explicit assertion of self. She spits searing accusations of infidelity at her husband, delves into her family's past, finds forgiveness, seeks reconciliation, and — culminating with the lead single and closing track "Formation" — declares a new kind of black female empowerment.
The record's gripping narrative, powerful personal and political statements and disregard for conventional genre boundaries easily make Lemonade Beyoncé's best work to date.
Sarah Murphy
4. Radiohead
A Moon Shaped Pool
(XL)
Radiohead have long been known for their doom and gloom, and past albums have cryptically addressed social alienation, political paranoia and technological encroachment. On A Moon Shaped Pool, the celebrated English art-rockers find a new focus for their misery: romantic loss.
Thom Yorke's lyric sheets here are riddled with some of his most plaintive lines ever, from "Desert Island Disk" and its mumbling coos that "Different types of love are possible" to "Identikit" and its pained crescendo of "Broken hearts make it rain." Lines like these are complemented by devastatingly beautiful arrangements; the band's synth-driven experimentation is toned down, replaced instead by delicately tinkling pianos and swooning orchestral strings.
It's as lovely as it is sorrowful, meaning that A Moon Shaped Pool's heartbreak is comforting rather than emotionally draining.
Alex Hudson
3. David Bowie
Blackstar
(Sony)
There are two versions of Blackstar: the album we heard before we knew David Bowie was dying, and the one we experienced after his death. Much like the cover of his 25th LP, which transformed when exposed to sunlight, the music on Blackstar changed significantly when placed in the context of a swansong.
Co-produced with longtime studio partner Tony Visconti, these seven tracks were recorded by Bowie as a parting gift; he was aware that cancer would take his life soon. But what was the message Bowie was trying to leave to his fans? The fact that Blackstar sounds different from anything he'd recorded before — an album that pushes the limits of art rock; that's built around sparse saxophone and even sparser melodies; that spoke about life and about death as if they were interchangeable — says that Bowie was both ready and not quite ready to go. He needed to tell us all that he wasn't quite done evolving, on this realm and wherever the next one takes him.
Daniel Sylvester
2. Kaytranada
99.9%
(XL)
Its title suggests that Kaytranada's debut album remains unfinished, but 99.9% feels about as definitive a statement as we hoped to hear from the Montreal producer. His strength comes from an ability to absorb sounds — hip-hop, R&B, electronic — and filter them through his own sonic worldview, spitting out tracks buoyed by an ineffable sense of familiarity.
While the instrumentals are the record's backbone, his collaborations with other artists are where the producer's talent really shines. BADBADNOTGOOD, Syd (from the Internet) and even Craig David all possess unique artistic voices, yet Kaytranada allows their talents to come to the forefront without overshadowing his own artistic intentions. Neither side dominates, and the songs — and the album as a whole — are stronger for it.
The work of a singular mind pulling disparate sounds into his own orbit, 99.9% is a grand statement that nevertheless feels like the tip of the iceberg of Kaytranada's capabilities.
Ian Gormely
1. Chance the Rapper
Coloring Book
(Independent)
A rose pushing through concrete; a rainbow post-flood; a glimmering hour of hope and love born of a city besieged with gun violence. Chance the Rapper's near-perfection on Coloring Book makes 2015's incredible Surf look like practice, and confirms the 23-year-old Chicagoan to be what we hoped for after tripping off his breakthrough Acid Rap for three years: He's a leader of the now school, a new/old Kanye for millennials in search of substance and seen-it-all souls hunting for a fresh, strong voice.
A gospel rap "mixtape" written, produced and released by a first-year dad on his own terms, the good Book seamlessly pulls 2 Chainz, Kirk Franklin, Future, Francis & the Lights, Young Thug, Jeremih, Kanye West and more all into one congregation, yet one never feels as if anyone other than Chance is conducting mass.
This the focused, fully realized LP you wanted to soak into after hearing Chance steal the spotlight (accept the torch?) from Mr. West on "Ultralight Beam."
The self-proclaimed "blueprint for a real man" had himself a growth spurt. A steel drum flourish here ("Angles"), a hot Jay Electronica 16 there ("How Great"), a tour around the roller rink with Justin Bieber — Chance went and made us smile through pain and figured out how to make God raps not preachy. Seems like the ideal year for the Grammys to invite stream-only releases to the award show, doesn't it?
Because no, Chancelor: You're not the only one who still cares about mixtapes.
Luke Fox
We couldn't cut it down to just 25 records, and why should we, when there were riches beyond? And so, without further ado: Exclaim!'s Top 27 Albums of 2016 So Far.
Click next to read through the albums one by one, or use the list below to skip ahead to your favourites.
Exclaim!'s Top 27 Albums of 2016 So Far:
- 1. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
- 2. Kaytranada - 99.9%
- 3. David Bowie - Blackstar
- 4. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
- 5. Beyoncé - Lemonade
- 6. Anderson .Paak - Malibu
- 7. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor's Guide to Earth
- 8. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
- 9. Andy Shauf - The Party
- 10. PUP - The Dream Is Over
- 11. James Blake - The Colour in Anything
- 12. Drake - VIEWS
- 13. Jean-Michel Blais - Il
- 14. Kendrick Lamar - untitled unmastered.
- 15. Modern Baseball - Holy Ghost
- 16. The Range - Potential
- 17. Anna Meredith - Varmints
- 18. ANOHNI - HOPELESSNESS
- 19. White Lung - Paradise
- 20. Whitney - Light Upon the Lake
- 21. Magrudergrind - II
- 22. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down - A Man Alive
- 23. BJ the Chicago Kid - In My Mind
- 24. Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Denial
- 25. Aborted - Retrogore
- 26. Gold Panda - Good Luck and Do Your Best
- 27. dvsn - Sept. 5
27. dvsn
Sept. 5
(OVO Sound)
Sept. 5th, numerically known as 9/05, is symbolic of the undeniable talent that's come out of the area code just outside of Toronto for the past five years — obviously, none more so than singer/production duo dvsn.
The cohesive, ambient sound that cradles Sept. 5th shouldn't come as a surprise; lead vocalist Daniel Daley and producer Nineteen85 have been making music together for roughly 15 years prior to signing with the OVO Sound imprint.
All whispered melodies, echoing falsettos and throbbing bass lines, Sept. 5th contains mature odes to love ("With Me"), heartbreak ("Sept. 5") and affection ("Too Deep"), but also strong insecurities that keep reappearing throughout the album. Although there are highs and lows in relationships, "Angela" serves as a metaphor for dvsn's one true love — the city of Toronto. Sept 5th bares its soul for her.
Erin Lowers
26. Gold Panda
Good Luck and Do Your Best
(City Slang)
While many of his electronic music contemporaries are obsessing over "end-times and very cold, kind of harsh or modern sounds," enigmatic UK beatsmith Gold Panda made a statement just by playing it positive.
His third LP, titled Good Luck and Do Your Best after a phrase uttered to him while on vacation in Japan, is an even prettier, more pastoral take on the kind of ambient minimal techno listeners have come to expect from the producer. The languid, koto-driven "I Am Real Punk" is perhaps the best micro-example of what Gold Panda does at length here: weave rich, gorgeous tapestries out of just two or three golden threads.
Stephen Carlick
25. Aborted
Retrogore
(Century Media)
Belgian death metal masters Aborted never disappoint, but they've particularly been on a rampage since 2012, when they reignited their sound with the blood-soaked bludgeoning of Global Flatline. Sven de Caluwé and company continued the grind-infused brutality with 2014's The Necrotic Manifesto, and they've done it yet again with this year's Retrogore. Their ninth album since their 1995 inception, Retrogore is a tribute to '80s horror movies, which is a fitting theme for their pulverizing speed and intense, unrelenting blast beats.
A fury of savage, groove-filled riffs pervades the release and is especially captivating on highlight tracks "Whoremageddon," "Termination Redux" and "Divine Impediment." As well as littering the album with creepy sound clips, Retrogore also features some of the best of the best when it comes to guest vocalists: Cattle Decapitation's Travis Ryan, Benighted's Julien Truchan and Origin's Jason Keyser. Retrogore is arguably Aborted's best work to date, and with a solid catalogue spanning their 20-plus-year career, that's quite an impressive feat.
Denise Falzon
24. Car Seat Headrest
Teens of Denial
(Matador)
Will Toledo might not be the musical hero we deserve, but he's the one that we've been blessed with. His band Car Seat Headrest bring together the prolificacy of Robert Pollard, the lyrical sharpness of vintage Pavement, the vocal style of Beck and the glorious fuzzy guitars of indie rock's heyday — and the results are pretty damned wonderful.
Teens of Denial is the project's first proper post-Bandcamp album, and is the perfect culmination of everything that came before it. Toledo already has a dozen albums under his belt, so it isn't really a surprise that this is such an accomplished record, but now that he's working with a full band, there's sense of a breadth to accompany its length. Toledo spins yarns of angst, cynicism and disaffection with a sense of self-awareness that keeps you guessing whether he's on the outside looking in or vice-versa. Teens of Denial is funny, smart and incredibly catchy.
Michael Edwards
23. BJ the Chicago Kid
In My Mind
(Motown)
It's been a banner year for Chicago musicians: Chance the Rapper, Kanye West and Bryan James Sledge. BJ might be the least prominent of those three kings, but he's no less capable of producing monumental work, as he's proven in 2016. In My Mind exists at the crossroads of forward-thinking hip-hop, layered soul and gospel tradition.
"Church" mustered those sentiments harmoniously, "Resume" turned a curriculum vitae into something NSFW and "Wait Til the Morning" proved that an uptempo ballad can make us empathize with a scoundrel. That notion of church, divisive to many, is the bedrock of In My Mind, reaching its zenith on the Old Testament tale "Jeremiah," but what BJ is really evangelizing is the idea of devotion and calling, in many ways more effectively than those collecting tithes. With him the humility of a working session musician, BJ delivered one of the breakout albums of 2016.
Michael J. Warren
22. Thao & the Get Down Stay Down
A Man Alive
(Ribbon Music)
The trajectory of Thao Nguyen's career seems divine. Everything fell into place for A Man Alive, her fourth album at the helm of the Get Down Stay Down. Although she hasn't yet received the same acclaim as peers like St. Vincent and tUnE-yArDs, this album splits the difference between their finest work. Merrill Garbus helped produce Thao's 2011 collaborative full-length with Mirah, but her distinctive tUnE-yArDs freak-folk feel is blessedly more present on A Man Alive.
The album's sound is quirky, bubbling over with odd joyousness that's tempered by the frustrations and protests of daily life. "Nobody Dies" and "Fool Forever" carve deep impressions on the psyche, while her ode to survivors of sexual assault, "Meticulous Bird," remains incredibly potent in the aftermath of the Dr. Luke and Jian Ghomeshi cases. That she can convey her messages in a style as unusual and infectiously vibrant as Odelay-era Beck makes A Man Alive a future classic.
Alan Ranta
21. Magrudergrind
II
(Relapse Records)
On the brash, blistering punk end of the grindcore spectrum, Washington, DC's Magrudergrind fall somewhere between Rotten Sound and Insect Warfare on the scale of auditory violence. They are direct yet creative, murderously hostile but disarmingly thoughtful in their execution, and their latest full-length, II, marries their intelligence with their bloodlust perfectly.
For something so brief and brutal, II is remarkably well composed, and is a balanced and creatively laid out grindcore record with just enough variance in pacing and riff structure to keep you hungry and engaged. It works best to take the entire record as a whole, and experience it as a titanic slab of ugliness.
Natalie Zina Walschots
20. Whitney
Light Upon the Lake
(Secretly Canadian)
Some have crowned Chance the Rapper's "No Problem" the Song of the Summer, but it's only a song of the summer — the big city, sweltering feel-good kind. Fellow Chicagoans Whitney have mastered another strain — bright 'n' breezy, blissed-out folk-rock.
Building on but breaking apart from the last year's Laurel Canyon resurrection, Light Upon the Lake's cottage country title is apt: the delicate guitar and dusty strings of "No Woman" could play as a Western hero ambles into the sunset, while "No Matter Where We Go" rolls the windows down and sets a new standard for drunk in love, run-away-with-me tunes. All that beautiful, stop-and-smell-the-flowers spirit is distilled on "Follow," a meandering sway that builds to an ear-to-ear grinning sing-along, all swirling six-string and horns blasting pure sunshine.
Matt Williams
19. White Lung
Paradise
(Domino)
If the first thing you heard from White Lung's Paradise was the death-driven, ballad-esque "Belong" — easily among the year's best songs — you might wonder if one of Canada's most exciting punk bands had gone a bit soft. Pfft.
Paradise may sound bigger and have more hooks than the band's previous work, but it's still a ferocious, blisteringly paced record. White Lung's whirlwind energy is simply more focused this time around: Anne-Marie Vassiliou's drumming remains as forceful as ever on tracks like "I Beg You" and "Sister"; guitarist Kenneth William holds Paradise's soundscapes together, adding colour to his riffs to the point where some could be easily mistaken for keyboard parts; and at the eye of the band's storm remains Mish Barber-Way, her beautiful vocal tone ready to transform into a beast whenever the whirlwind kicks up.
Ryan McNutt
18. ANOHNI
HOPELESSNESS
(Secretly Canadian)
ANOHNI, formerly of Antony and the Johnsons, has written one of the most magnificent records of the year with HOPELESSNESS. In larger than life pop songs that detail the pressing issues of our time, such as drone warfare and climate change, ANOHNI articulates the emotions of despair and helplessness today's world can often elicit.
Her infectious melodies, coupled with production by the likes of Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never, juxtapose the album's lyrics, provide the spoonful of sugar for the medicine here, as these are issues many might rather not face. Thankfully, ANOHNI is unafraid to highlight the crises in our world, and she does so in a way that will draw in even the most casual fan of pop music.
Anna Alger
17. Anna Meredith
Varmints
(Moshi Moshi)
You're excused if the name Anna Meredith doesn't ring a bell; the Scottish composer has spent the better part of her career exploring the depths of classical music. (She was previously the composer-in-residence with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.) But Meredith's curiosity got the better of her, and over the last few years, she's been exploring music outside of her wheelhouse.
For her debut album, Meredith envisioned pop music with a fresh and audacious perspective, using her classically trained ability to traverse electronic music's boundless format for a continuous series of left turns. With Varmints, Meredith designed a pop album for the avant-garde set, and vice-versa, easily one of the most unique albums we've heard this year.
Cam Lindsay
16. The Range
Potential
(Domino)
Making a record that hinges on sampling to create something new is nothing out of the ordinary, but Brooklyn-based producer the Range (a.k.a. James Hinton) transcended that simple concept with his second LP, Potential; Hinton used a specific set of search terms to plumb the depths of YouTube for videos of amateur vocalists, which he then sampled alongside his own top-notch production.
The samples that he found don't just add colour to his compositions, but emotional depth as well. These vocal snippets, looped and processed as they may be, drive the record through a series of moods, from uplifting to urgent. Potential is a testament to electronic music's capacity for emotional power, human feeling and sense of connection; if Hinton's production doesn't strike an emotional chord, his vocal collaborators surely will.
Calum Slingerland
15. Modern Baseball
Holy Ghost
(Run for Cover)
With third full-length Modern Baseball found their feet. Assured, confident and more mature, Holy Ghost is a record that retained the band's ability to write a hook that will burrow into your brain while also showcasing how far they've grown as songwriters.
Taking a cue from Outkast, Holy Ghost finds vocalist/guitarists Jake Ewald and Brendan Lukens each contributing their own side to the album, allowing them to delve further into their own psyches to provide a more honest and open approach to their songwriting. Dealing with loss, religion and mental health issues, Holy Ghost is an emotional record from a band figuring out how to grow up on the road — and man, it's a great one.
Conor Mackie
14. Kendrick Lamar
untitled unmastered.
( TDE/Aftermath/Universal)
It's not uncommon for an artist to have a repository of unfinished demos, but very few can casually release them at a moment's notice and turn the entire world on its ear. Even when he's not trying, Kendrick Lamar can't help but produce some of the best material of 2016.
Featuring the same gutsy, experimental fusion of jazz, funk, poetry and hip-hop, untitled unmastered. is a raw, intimate glimpse into the creative process that birthed 2015's masterful To Pimp a Butterfly. He's already cemented his place in hip-hop as one of the greatest contributors of his time, but untitled is another testament to just how dedicated Lamar is to his craft. Just as a man's character is judged by what he does when nobody is looking, an artist's integrity is measured by how much soul he pours into creations the world was never supposed to witness — and untitled unmastered. has soul gushing from every pore.
A. Harmony
13. Jean-Michel Blais
Il
(Arts & Crafts)
A revelatory release from someone who had to be convinced to even release an album, Il finds Quebecois pianist Jean-Michel Blais offering up one of the most delightful and intimate records of 2016.
While the piano is the composer's main instrument, the incidental sounds that sneak into his self-recorded debut likewise contribute to its preciousness: there's the airy, weather-like whirr and selected tiny voices that stretch across opening number "Hasselblad 4," an audio snapshot of a day wherein local children were making the most of the urban outdoors while Blais created another realm within his apartment.
The various movements of Il — from the contemplative spaciousness of its title track, to the ambient glaze holding together "Nostos," to the playful pace of "Budapest — have neo-classical fans crying out for more from the minimalist composer.
Gregory Adams
12. Drake
VIEWS
(OVO Sound)
VIEWS, Drake's long-anticipated follow-up to Nothing Was the Same is a sprawling, 82-minute love letter to Toronto that takes us once more through the rapper's intimate stream of consciousness. The album, produced in large part by longtime confidant Noah '40' Shebib, is filled with the same slow-burning, smouldering and sultry hip-hop that skyrocketed Drake to fame.
And yet, it finds new ground, too. Though it received mixed reviews upon its release, VIEWS is Drake's most ambitious record to date, and the highs here — the timpani rolls on "Keep the Family Close," the dancehall thump of "One Dance" — find the 6 God expanding his sonic palette to include styles yet untouched in his oeuvre. That it's also the rapper's most successful album on the charts yet speaks to his power both as a tastemaker and artist.
Dylan Barnabe
11. James Blake
The Colour in Anything
(Universal)
For a breakup record, James Blake's The Colour in Anything is 76 minutes of dreamy bliss. On his soul-laden third album, the electronic crooner experiments with an abundance of vocal effects, trap-inspired drums and sub-bass moans that blow the bottom end out of his previous LPs.
Blake retains his sonic signature here, moody and spacious, but he keeps things captivating by adding more subtly danceable gems ("Timeless"), guest writing from Frank Ocean and the drumless yet urgent "Meet You in the Maze." Blake's intimate and vulnerable The Colour in Anything is something different, an album that fit snugly in the tradition of great songwriters while still blazing a trail forward.
Danielle Subject
10. PUP
The Dream Is Over
(Royal Mountain Records)
PUP know how to make a bad time sound good. From touring frustration to fights with your significant other, The Dream Is Over takes what could amount to a really shitty year and turns it into a ripping punk record. The whole band is on point here, from Stefan Babcock's vocals (I'm a big fan of the way he says "vomit") to the pure, gnarly guitar sound.
PUP's second record also brings more dynamic to their sound, from the nightmare horror of "The Coast" to the reckless jackassery of "My Life Is Over and I Couldn't Be Happier." For all its rawness, the album ends on a rather poignant moment with album closer "Pine Point," a reflective coda to the rest of the album. On The Dream Is Over, PUP embrace failure to create a beautiful, bone-breaking, puke-riddled masterpiece.
Corey Henderson
9. Andy Shauf
The Party
(Arts & Crafts)
Saskatchewan musician Andy Shauf's third LP, The Party, features sprightly, complex melodies in the vein of Elliott Smith intertwined with Harry Nilsson's orchestral sprawl. It's an easy listen that reveals plenty of depth beneath the surface.
The Party is a loose concept album showcasing a series of vignettes within a single party, from the mundane (the existential dread that comes with showing up early) to the absurd (a partygoer taking a drag from a cigarette and then dropping dead). Shauf's soft voice provides a narrator both playful and heartfelt, and his lyrics capture the beauty and pain of human interaction.
The record also showcases Shauf's confident ear for colourful arrangements: he's able to incorporate more clarinet than anyone would ever expect to find on a folk record, let alone enjoy. Lush, vivid and intimate, The Party is everything your typical party isn't.
Matt Bobkin
8. Kanye West
The Life of Pablo
(G.O.O.D.)
If he was a lesser artist, Kanye West would have been entirely eclipsed by his ego at this point; he's the most divisive figure in modern music, and every time he says something it turns into an Internet meme. With The Life of Pablo, however, he proved that he's still one of the most vital and vibrant artists around.
The album bristles with heavenly gospel, classic soul samples and futuristic beats, and its very existence is an act of art — we never know when Kanye will update the album with a new song or a swapped-out verse, a move as fascinating as it is frustrating. This is a God dream.
Josiah Hughes
7. Sturgill Simpson
A Sailor's Guide to Earth
(Warner)
Perhaps the most eccentric breakthrough act in the recent history of country music, Sturgill Simpson fairly demands a close ear and an open mind from traditionalists and new country fans alike. But if you're up for it, on A Sailor's Guide to Earth, his bravura third album, your careful attention will be rewarded again and again.
A concept record loosely based on an itinerant sailor's letters home to his wife and son from overseas, Simpson massages classic country music tropes into new shapes. Though many will emphasize the startling STAX-meets-Elvis cover of Nirvana's "In Bloom" that ends the first side as proof of Simpson's range and talent, don't neglect the ingeniously playful travelogue of "Sea Stories," the plaintive "Oh Sarah" or the soulful mega-groove of "Welcome to Earth" and "Keep It Between the Lines." This is, simply, some of the best music of the year.
Stuart Henderson
6. Anderson .Paak
Malibu
( Steel Wool/OBE/Art Club/EMPIRE)
The second studio album by genre eschewer Anderson .Paak should rightly be called a breakthrough.
A brisk mix of soul, jazz, hip-hop and R&B, the Cali artist got his just due on Dr. Dre's 2015 project Compton, and has parlayed that momentum into one of the year's best, most ambitious full-length efforts. Owing much to classic hip-hop and soul artists — he carries more than a passing sonic connection to neo-soul singer Bilal — .Paak mines black funk, boom-bap and rock to faultless effect on Malibu.
As a recording artist, .Paak revels in dynamic flows and abstractions, making even a record as substantial as this feel breezy.
Ryan B. Patrick
5. Beyoncé
Lemonade
(Parkwood/Columbia)
Since the surprise release of Beyoncé's 2013 self-titled album, artists have been tripping over themselves to pull off a similar stunt with a fraction of the grace and style of Queen B. And rather than going for an easy repeat of that on her next record, Beyoncé instead reinvented once again what it means to "pull a Beyoncé."
In the case of Lemonade, she doesn't just offer listeners glimpses into her world, she uses the album's 12 tracks as an explicit assertion of self. She spits searing accusations of infidelity at her husband, delves into her family's past, finds forgiveness, seeks reconciliation, and — culminating with the lead single and closing track "Formation" — declares a new kind of black female empowerment.
The record's gripping narrative, powerful personal and political statements and disregard for conventional genre boundaries easily make Lemonade Beyoncé's best work to date.
Sarah Murphy
4. Radiohead
A Moon Shaped Pool
(XL)
Radiohead have long been known for their doom and gloom, and past albums have cryptically addressed social alienation, political paranoia and technological encroachment. On A Moon Shaped Pool, the celebrated English art-rockers find a new focus for their misery: romantic loss.
Thom Yorke's lyric sheets here are riddled with some of his most plaintive lines ever, from "Desert Island Disk" and its mumbling coos that "Different types of love are possible" to "Identikit" and its pained crescendo of "Broken hearts make it rain." Lines like these are complemented by devastatingly beautiful arrangements; the band's synth-driven experimentation is toned down, replaced instead by delicately tinkling pianos and swooning orchestral strings.
It's as lovely as it is sorrowful, meaning that A Moon Shaped Pool's heartbreak is comforting rather than emotionally draining.
Alex Hudson
3. David Bowie
Blackstar
(Sony)
There are two versions of Blackstar: the album we heard before we knew David Bowie was dying, and the one we experienced after his death. Much like the cover of his 25th LP, which transformed when exposed to sunlight, the music on Blackstar changed significantly when placed in the context of a swansong.
Co-produced with longtime studio partner Tony Visconti, these seven tracks were recorded by Bowie as a parting gift; he was aware that cancer would take his life soon. But what was the message Bowie was trying to leave to his fans? The fact that Blackstar sounds different from anything he'd recorded before — an album that pushes the limits of art rock; that's built around sparse saxophone and even sparser melodies; that spoke about life and about death as if they were interchangeable — says that Bowie was both ready and not quite ready to go. He needed to tell us all that he wasn't quite done evolving, on this realm and wherever the next one takes him.
Daniel Sylvester
2. Kaytranada
99.9%
(XL)
Its title suggests that Kaytranada's debut album remains unfinished, but 99.9% feels about as definitive a statement as we hoped to hear from the Montreal producer. His strength comes from an ability to absorb sounds — hip-hop, R&B, electronic — and filter them through his own sonic worldview, spitting out tracks buoyed by an ineffable sense of familiarity.
While the instrumentals are the record's backbone, his collaborations with other artists are where the producer's talent really shines. BADBADNOTGOOD, Syd (from the Internet) and even Craig David all possess unique artistic voices, yet Kaytranada allows their talents to come to the forefront without overshadowing his own artistic intentions. Neither side dominates, and the songs — and the album as a whole — are stronger for it.
The work of a singular mind pulling disparate sounds into his own orbit, 99.9% is a grand statement that nevertheless feels like the tip of the iceberg of Kaytranada's capabilities.
Ian Gormely
1. Chance the Rapper
Coloring Book
(Independent)
A rose pushing through concrete; a rainbow post-flood; a glimmering hour of hope and love born of a city besieged with gun violence. Chance the Rapper's near-perfection on Coloring Book makes 2015's incredible Surf look like practice, and confirms the 23-year-old Chicagoan to be what we hoped for after tripping off his breakthrough Acid Rap for three years: He's a leader of the now school, a new/old Kanye for millennials in search of substance and seen-it-all souls hunting for a fresh, strong voice.
A gospel rap "mixtape" written, produced and released by a first-year dad on his own terms, the good Book seamlessly pulls 2 Chainz, Kirk Franklin, Future, Francis & the Lights, Young Thug, Jeremih, Kanye West and more all into one congregation, yet one never feels as if anyone other than Chance is conducting mass.
This the focused, fully realized LP you wanted to soak into after hearing Chance steal the spotlight (accept the torch?) from Mr. West on "Ultralight Beam."
The self-proclaimed "blueprint for a real man" had himself a growth spurt. A steel drum flourish here ("Angles"), a hot Jay Electronica 16 there ("How Great"), a tour around the roller rink with Justin Bieber — Chance went and made us smile through pain and figured out how to make God raps not preachy. Seems like the ideal year for the Grammys to invite stream-only releases to the award show, doesn't it?
Because no, Chancelor: You're not the only one who still cares about mixtapes.
Luke Fox
