Features
The Top 50 Albums Of 2016
The LPs that made a mark this year
10 Youandewan 'There Is No Right Time' (Aus Music/Simple)
The absorbing nuances of this fuzzy debut from the Yorkshire producer made it a late entry into our 10 best of the year.
9 James Blake 'The Colour In Anything' (Polydor)
In a world of snackable content, Blake's music takes time. But we were more than happy to give ourselves over to this exquisitely produced record time and again.
8 Jessy Lanza 'Oh No' (Hyperdub)
Lanza's second took off very much where her first left off, but added an assuredness, and in 'It Means I Love You', created the perfect intersection of pop and footwork.
7 Floorplan 'Victorious' (EPM Music/M-Plant)
Filter disco, jacking house and gospel; the calling cards of Floorplan's second album were obvious, but the panache in the delivery was something else.
6 Anohni 'Hopelessness' (Rough Trade)
The Anthony And The Johnsons vocalist teamed with HudMo and Oneohtrix Point Never for an album gargantuan in scope, power and ambition, yet intensely personal too.
5 Omar-S 'The Best' (FXHE)
In the hands of a lesser talent, calling your album 'The Best' might scream bravado. But listen to this masterclass in deep and poignant house and it's hard to argue.
4 The Avalanches 'Wildflower' (XL Recordings)
The Avalanches' second album was as charmingly shambolic as the 16-year recording process - but when it shone, it sounded like all you summers came at once.
3 Skepta 'Konnichiwa' (Boy Better Know)
If 2015 was frime's renaissance, 2016 delivered on that promise. And much of that was down to this Mercury prize-winning tour-de-force from one of the genre's original players.
2 Kornel Kovacs 'The Bells' (Studio Barnhus)
What's in the water in Stockholm? Nobody makes classy disco-infused house like the Swedes, and Kornel made the house album none of us could stop listening to in 2016.
1 Kaytranada '99.9%' (XL Recordings)
Kaytranada has been a respected producer and rfemixer for a hot minute, and in 2016 he more than proved he could cut it across a whole album. Kaytra's warm and hazy productions draw on classic boom-bap hip hop, but never descend into nostalgic parody. And on 99% he assembled a breathtaking list of collaborators and seriously upped his songwriting game. If this is the Canadian operating at 99 per cent, we can't until he gets to 100.
