#Bestof2016 Top 50 Albums: Death, Loss & Hopelessness

The undeniably quality of ‘Blackstar‘ also gave a sense of popular music having peaked at the very beginning of the year. Luckily, 2016 has turned out to be a vintage year in which gender, racial and sexual diversity have also been recurrent themes, bringing a rich and eclectic sonic palette with them, albeit most of its standout moments shared that bleak outlook of the dramatic events occurring through it. Anonhi‘s electronic transformation was as astonishing as strong her exploration of yoday’s many causes for ‘Hopelessness‘; Nick Cave shared the pain of his son’s tragic loss in ‘Skeleton Key‘, the most devastating album we have heard since Lou Reed‘s ‘Magic And Loss‘ and PJ Harvery expanded the scope and ambition of `Let England Shake´ to several conflicting zones around the globe in ´The Hope Six Demolition Project.

Another of the year’s biggest surprises was Lambchop‘s return to form with an album infused in minimal electronica that refreshed Kurt Wagner‘s intimate Americana and brought him closer to the sounds of Bon Iver or James Blake, both also returning with excellent works.

As streaming finally surpassed digital downloads as the prevailing format, Urban music in both its R&B and hip-hop strands reigned supreme, with such a range of brand new and establishing talents on display that it felt like the only genre driving popular music forward. Leading the pack the Knowles sisters, Beyoncé and Solange. Their latest opuses’ cultural impact will be remembered for years to come. Beyoncé merged the boundaries of music, film and style in her second video album ‘Lemonade,’ whose streaming exclusive for her husband’s troubled platform TIDAL was not an obstacle for the collection to become one of the best selling of the year. Solange made a 70’s rooted, confesional soul album. And talking about soul no one shone brighter than Frank Ocean, who managed to break all ties with the industry and went his own way, finding and exploring his own voice in the process. The hip-hop world gave us the madness of King Kanye; the histrionics of Danny Brown and Kendrick Lamar confirming he is in a league of his own with an album of discarded tracks from the sessions of his latest masterpiece.

Two of the best newcomers of the year were also the most ubiquitous. Rapper Anderson.Paak impressed with his solo debut ‘Malibu‘; teamed up with Knxledge in the cool jazzy outfit NxWorries and found time to guest in every rap album worth its salt. In the electronica arena, the star-studded debut of Canadian producer Kaytranada, sharing also a big jazzy influence, provided the latest sound “du jour,” soundtrack of many a hipsters’ dance floor. The mixtape format jumped into the mainstream, with such renowned artists as Chance The Rapper; Kamaiyah or Young Thug, sticking to its immediacy without bothering to release “proper” albums.

The repeated attempts by a new generation of bands to revisit the 90’s guitar sounds on both sides of the Atlantic began timidly to produce notable results. The shadow of Pavement planed over Car Seat Headrest‘s sophomore effort ‘Teens Of Denial,’ whereas indie punk and britpop were the key ingredients in UK band Martha‘s invigorating second record. Both adding their personal takes to their original references, differentiating themselves from the legions of mere copycats the blogosphere has been pushing for years. Also on that front, Courtney Barnett’s enormous success last year has prompted the record industry to search for more young female rockers with first-timer Mitski and the more established Angel Olsen, being major beneficiaries of such growing interest.

2016 should have been declared the year of the not-so-difficult second album; with The Avalanches, who took decades to shape a worthy follow-up to their iconic debut, and self-described krautrock-psych-punk French band La Femme being prime examples. Other surprises were the consolidation of veteran US rockers Drive-By Truckers and singer/songwriter Cass McCombs who perhaps delivered the most accomplished albums of their respective careers; Thee Oh Sees carried on taking garage rock to new heights and the overlooked collaboration between three of the most singular female alt. songwriters Neko Case, k.d. Lang and Laura Veirs.