10. Kanye West, The Life of Pablo
Kanye West is the complicated, creative, and genius messiah of our generation. Every iteration of West’s career pushes him one step forward, working off his last creation to bring something new. With The Life of Pablo, West takes the visceral energy he wove on Yeezus and stitches in his old self through classic soul and gospel melodies and samples. This updated Kanye West continues his no holds bar attitude with rhymes riddling his past: his feud with Taylor Swift, his pink polo days, the jealousy of Ray J, etc. He reflects on it, churns it, and continues to come on top as the most powerful man in hip hop. If you miss the old Kanye, you’re not listening deep enough.
–Christine Varriale
9. Solange, A Seat at the Table
A Seat at the Table conveys the sort of power its title suggests. A quiet lean in, listening, watching, “Pass the wine, please. Yes, I was invited to the party.”
Listening to Solange guide this album seems a lot like sitting down beside her, asking questions and, between sips, getting answers that inform about black female identity. To lightly pitter patter-ing beats, Solange does this through a personal narrative that builds from the roots out. She wrote much of the album at the starting line of her family’s lineage: New Iberia, Louisiana. Stories and seeds of wisdom from her parents anchor the album with unforgettable authenticity and gratitude for elders who tell their stories in hopes that we’ll be a graceful kind of angry in the future. See the transition between “Interlude: Dad is Mad” into “Mad” to hear exactly this.
Aside from “Cranes In the Sky” possibly being the most chill-inducing song of 2016, the entirety of Seat is a testament to soft strength. Solange is so certain of herself here. Whispering can be just as loud as shouting, given that all true daring comes from within.
–Becca DeGregorio
8. LVL UP, Return to Love
Return to Love marks LVL UP’s third album release as well as their debut through the infamous Sub Pop Records. The album’s first track, “Hidden Driver,” starts off with a bang, immediately reacquainting all their fans with the warm, lo-fi pop sound that first made up the lovable SUNY Purchase originating band.
While LVL UP has seamlessly maintained their style in the two years since releasing Hoodwink’d, it is no question that Return to Love is a huge step forward for the band. Lyricists Mike Caridi, Dave Benton and Nick Corbo cultivate introspective songs that are more conceptual than any of their predecessors. Incorporating themes of love, spirituality, and inspiration, Return to Love attempts to process feelings rather than simply shout them at some unknown, angsty void. In fact on the fifth track “Pain,” Caridi delicately references Elliott Smith’s “Roman Candle” singing, “I want to hurt him, winter glow silence surrounding. I will watch from my window, painting reveries of his pain.”
However, the band’s newfound success is not only limited to patient lyricism, but new production methods as well. Throughout the album LVL UP plays with different accompanying sounds ranging from more acoustic driven instrumentation heard on track eight’s “Cut from the Vine,” to more elaborate synthesizers that especially shine through on the album’s final track, a seven minute ballad of sorts, “Naked in the River with the Creator.” This eloquently ties all of the above elements together making Return to Love an album that will not be forgotten.
–Ethan Hoffman-Sadka
7. Blood Orange, Freetown Sound
British composer Dev Hynes is no stranger to speaking up. He lives in a world in which he has to. That said, Hynes’s third album as Blood Orange fell under the shade of events proving its relevance. It dropped days after the Baltimore police officer Caesar Goodson Jr., who in April 2015 drove the van in which Freddie Gray was fatally injured, was deemed not guilty of all charges. There were more trials on other cases. There were inconsistencies. There were widened divides. There was Orlando. There was Brexit, and there would be much, much more.
Of the musical statements reflecting back on any and all this in 2016, Freetown Sound stated the most. Clocking in at almost an hour, the album is Hynes’s most sonically and editorially interesting composition to date, bursting with familiar noises of 80s-inspired funk and completely new sounds and techniques for telling the crucial story of being black yesterday, today and tomorrow. Woven together by the words of Ta-Nehisi Coates, audio pulled from the 1994 documentary Black is…Black Ain’t and other archived contributions, perhaps the most arresting moment of the entire album hits in the first song when Atlanta-based Ashlee Haze delivers an excerpt from her poem “For Colored Girls (The Missy Elliot Poem).” Saxophone builds beneath her testament and fades as she ends the opening track: “I will tell you that right now there are a million black girls just waiting to see someone who looks like them.”
If there isn’t an official canon for “21st Century Albums Reminding Us To Take Responsibility For The Path of History,” let’s declare one…and nestle Freetown Sound up against Kendrick’s To Pimp a Butterfly while we’re at it.
–Becca DeGregorio
6. IAN SWEET, Shapeshifter*
This album marked a huge “shift” for the formerly-Boston-now-sort-of-Brooklyn-based trio. The group made two big announcements prior to the release of Shapeshifter; first, that they would no longer be called IAN but IAN SWEET, and second, that they had signed to Sub Pop subsidiary Hardly Art, the label home to like-minded artists: Tacocat, Colleen Green, and Chastity Belt. What I love about this album is the depth and candor of lead singer Jilian Medford’s lyrics throughout. Her sickly-sweet soprano hiccups through high-pitch songs yoked with nostalgia for Michael Jordan, Nickelodeon, and skaters.
–Jenny Usovicz
5. Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book
Entering 2016 with practically nuclear hype, the still-unsigned Chance the Rapper delivered mightily with his third project, Coloring Book, a triumphant and singular work that deserves a lot more credit than its “mixtape” tag might suggest.
Where Chance used his psychedelic experiences as a lens to explore cultural issues on 2013’s exemplary Acid Rap, the focus on Coloring Book is squarely on how his religion informs his life and career. Through 14 tracks, his faith is radiant, his wide-eyed exuberance makes borderline over-positive lines pop beautifully, and his sing-songy flow has improved greatly over the last three years, presenting a polished and original voice throughout.
The gospel-influenced production, meanwhile, is a natural fit. While Chance’s band The Social Network hold down excellent, horn-centric instrumentation, tracks from up-and-comers like Lido (“Angels”, “Same Drugs”), Brasstracks (“No Problem”), and Chance’s top influence Kanye West (“All We Got”) make for single-worthy highlights. He also managed to lock down pretty much every feature under the sun, nabbing everyone from 2 Chainz to Future to T-Pain in fun cameos that never distract from the overall vision of the project.
Cementing his legacy as the biggest unsigned artist we’ve yet seen as well as one of the most important young voices in hip-hop, Chance also achieved a rare feat: he put together an explicitly Christian album that’s just as accessible and enjoyable for non-Christians alike.
–George Greenstreet
4. Angel Olsen, My Woman
This year, Angel Olsen majorly deviated from the pared down, folk tunes she’s known for– and it was amazing. On her 2016 effort, My Woman, Olsen fuses her signature bravado and all-consuming crescendos with the nostalgic sounds of ’60s rock. Previous works like 2012’s Half Way Home and 2014’s Burn Your Fire For No Witness hinted at the fuller sound that’s evoked in her latest album, but nothing could’ve prepared us for the sheer femme power and confidence that Olsen produced on My Woman.
With singles like “Intern” and “Shut Up, Kiss Me,” the St. Louis artist proves her independence, while knowing she shouldn’t have to. If you’re yearning for mesmerizing music created and inspired by strong women, Angel Olsen’s got you covered.
–Jackie Swisshelm
3. Mal Devisa, Kiid*
In a year made of awkward conversations, missteps, good news, bad news, fake news, heat and noise, Mal Devisa managed to cut through with a tiny flame of her own. Quietly on fire, Kiid is an album to grow close to despite all the places it sprints between: soft bass behind dynamic singing or heavy beats behind direct rapping. Kiid has the focus we all possessed when we “were little”. Tunnel vision on heartbreak as well as confidence, Mal Devisa is a self-described “lovesick woman,” a “dominatrix when the bass hits,” a full choir and yet, every listen through this album feels just as much about you, the listener.
Simply put, Kiid deserves simpler sentences than these. It’s a hug or at least a pat on the back for growing up and getting on. Each word speaks to feelings hosted in our stupid, tired, little bodies and because of this, tells the following truth: “You are solid gold.”
–Becca DeGregorio
2. Frank Ocean, Blonde
With album credits that read off like a musical dream team, it’s hard not to expect anything else but to be filled with glee and excitement when this new album got added to iTunes. That is the very last thing that we really wanted; we wanted Frank Ocean. Yes, the Frank that disappeared for four years after fulfilling our deepest musical wishes with Chanel Orange.
After teasing us with song snippets, movie soundtrack appearances, Frank Ocean’s new release became a performative art piece in itself. The wait, the heartbreak, the misleading rumors, the deception, and the stairways: he made us literally beg for a new album. It all seemed to be a part of this elaborative experience that a seemingly rejuvenated Ocean was ready to share with us, and he delivered. Blonde is jam packed with exactly what we expected, which is beyond anything that we expected. His honesty, his innocence in admitting his guilt, his decorative story telling laced with lush vocals, and the backing production we’ve never heard before came together to build something we feel like we’ve known our entire lives. That’s what Frank Ocean does: he brings out legends who have been MIA longer than him, like Andre 3000, for “Solo (Reprise),” because why wouldn’t he. He makes Beyoncé sing his back up vocals on “Pink & White,” and had us make guesses about the unnamed vocalist for a couple months simply because he can. Frank Ocean has returned, bearing his intimacies, growing pains, and all the things we love, and are learning to love about him, to show us why he’s worth the wait. This is why Blonde easily is one of the top albums of 2016, at least to us.
–Cliff Notez
1. Mitski, Puberty 2
Puberty 2 is this moment in time. Happiness will be followed by resignation; we will once again have to clean. We will become numb to the immense pain the world causes us, only to be reminded of it when fireworks go off. We don’t know how we’re going to pay rent.
The 10 songs that make up Mitski’s masterpiece of an album confront life as someone in their mid-twenties. The songs are intimate and personal, while being universal at the same time. “Your Best American Girl,” the literal and figurative centerpiece of the record, is about trying to be someone you’re not and knowing that it can’t or won’t work out. In “My Body Is Made of Crushed Little Stars,” Mitski sings, “I better ace that interview / I should tell them that I’m not afraid to die / I better ace that interview.”
Musically, the songs are diverse: the sparse fingerpicking of finale “A Burning Hill” contrasts with the clattering opener “Happy.” Beyond that, these songs stand out among Mitski’s contemporaries; they take risks where other artists might play it safe. It is a technical as much as it is a lyrical achievement.
The singular voice and artistic vision of Mitski’s Puberty 2 makes it Allston Pudding’s album of the year.
–Jeremy Stanley