Features
The Top 50 Albums Of 2016
The LPs that made a mark this year
The album hasn’t traditionally been an intrinsically dance-orientated format. It’s a form of music rooted in two-track 12”s made for club use only. But as the scene continues to grow and subgenres began to fuse together, a longer-running collection of tracks has increasingly taken up position as a prominent outlet to release music.
This year has seen futuristic electronica producers team up with an art pop vocalist, grime continue its ascent to the peak of popularity, records that blend contemporary r’n’b with bass and footwork, a one-time dubstep poster boy continue on his path of leftfield pop, and a whole host of producers turn in clubby efforts that make sense in a long playing format, taking the opportunity to experiment with their approach and push their sound into uncharted territory. We’ve also shouted out some of the finest hip hop and r’n’b to land over the past 12 months. Our 50 favourite albums of 2016 are listed below.
Listen to a Spotify playlist featuring the top tracks from each album here.
50 Mutated Forms 'Holograms' (Spearhead)
49 Shadow Child 'Connected' (Food Music)
48 Powell 'Sport' (XL)
47 Kowton 'Utility' (Livity Sound)
46 Sei A 'Space In Your Mind' (Aus Music)
45 Tiger & Woods 'On The Green Again' (T&W Records)
44 Lone 'Levitate' (R&S)
43 Illum Sphere 'Glass' (Ninja Tune)
42 Eli Escobar 'Happiness' (Classic)
41 Leon Vynehall 'Rojus' (Running Back)
40 Cristoph '8-Track' (Knee Deep In Sound)
39 Dom & Roland 'Last Refuge Of A Scoundrel' (Metalheadz)
38 Babyfather 'BBF Hosted By DJ Escrow' (Hyperdub)
37 Doms & Deykers 'Evidence' (From A Good Source. 3024)
36 Skee Mask 'Shred' (Ilian Tape)
35 Sasha 'Scene Delete' (Latenighttales)
34 Tornado Wallace 'Lonely Planet' (Running Back)
33 Gaika 'Security' (Mixpak)
32 Baauer 'Aa' (Luckyme Records)
31 Tee Mango 'Imperfections Vol 1' (Millionhands BL)
30 Justice 'Woman' (Ed Banger Records)
29 Eric Prydz 'Opus' (Astral Werks)
28 Tuff City Kids 'Adoldesscent' (Permanent Vacation)
27 Boys Noize 'Mayday' (Boys Noize Records)
26 Roman Flugel 'All The Right Noises' (Dial Records)
25 LSB 'Content' (Soul:R)
24 Tiga 'No Fantasy Required' (Counter Records)
23 Bwana 'Capsule's Pride' (Luckyme)
22 Pangaea 'In Drum Play' (Hessle Audio)
21 Audion 'Alpha' (!K7 Records)
20 Kanye West 'The Life Of Pablo' (Def Jam Records)
19 Noisia 'Outer Edges' (Vision)
18 Cassy 'Donna' (Aus Music)
17 Frank Ocean 'Blonde' (Boys Don't Cry)
16 Anderson .Paak 'Malibu' (Steel Wool Records)
15 Mandar 'Mandar' (Oscillat)
14 Machinedrum 'Human Energy' (Ninja Tune)
13 Moomin 'A Minor Thought' (Smallville Records)
12 Dusky 'Outer' (Polydor Records)
11 Marquis Hawkes 'Social Housing' (Houndstooth)
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.
