Your “Best Albums Released in 2016”

Music Albums
1

The year is almost over, and most of the websites and magazines have already published their top lists. Would be nice to share our own top picks of the year here, so how about a thread for our personal favourites of 2016?

As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one rule: all albums must have been released in 2016.

Personally, I always struggle with end of year Top 10 lists, as I find these much too narrow and confining, changing from day to day (which, to me, should not be the purpose of an end of year list). That’s why I suggest a Top 20. But hey, I’m new here and not yet familiar with the general consensus and moral musical codes😉, so feel free to suggest otherwise. Meanwhile… Here’s my own Top 20 of 2016:

  1. Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros
  2. Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
  3. Van Morrison - It’s Too Late to Stop Now, Vols. II, III & IV
  4. Lucinda Williams - The Ghosts of Highway 20
  5. Beth Hart - Fire on the Floor
  6. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
  7. Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome
  8. Iggy Pop - Post Pop Depression
  9. David Bowie - Blackstar
  10. Sturgill Simpson - A Sailor’s Guide to Earth
  11. Jarlath Henderson - Hearts Broken, Heads Turned
  12. Red Hot Chili Peppers - The Getaway
  13. Allen Toussaint - American Tunes
  14. Tord Gustavsen - What Was Said
  15. Van Morrison - Keep Me Singing
  16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
  17. Bob Dylan - Fallen Angels
  18. Charles Bradley - Changes
  19. Drive-By Truckers - American Band
  20. Van Der Graaf Generator - Do Not Disturb

In a Top 25, I think I might just sneak in Paul Simon, Norah Jones and a few others, but that way I could go on forever expanding the list. A Top 20 allows for just enough flexibility, while still forcing me to make choices. So I’ll leave it at that.

Looking forward to reading your lists! (And learn, and perhaps still change mine a bit😉)

Cheers, Koen

2 Likes
2

These are the 2016 releases I listened to most: Albums/Focus/2016, Sorted by Most Played (with some adjustments due to CDs in the car and someone trashing his Roon database and History during the year …)

  1. Hollywood Spritz - Mistura Pura
  2. Max Jury - Max Jury
  3. Thieves - Tracy McNeil & The Good Life
  4. Tag Einz Tag Zwei - F.S. Blumm & Nils Frahm
  5. Love is a Dog - Tinpan Orange
  6. The Ship - Brian Eno
  7. Field: Complete Nocturnes - Elizabeth Joy Roe
  8. Nonagon Infinity - King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard
  9. Black Star - David Bowie
  10. This Dangerous Age - Yolanda Ingley II
  11. Everybody’s Begging - Deborah Conway & Willy Ziegler
  12. Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
  13. Blue and Lonesome - The Rolling Stones
  14. Rain Crow - Tony Joe White
  15. Citizen of Glass - Agnes Obel
  16. Writing of Blues and Yellows - Billie Marten
  17. Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind - King Crimson
  18. Seven Sonnets & a Song - Paul Kelly
  19. Beulah - John Paul White
  20. Digital Zodiac - Dorsal Fins
3

Probably missed a few, but here you go:

  1. Nik Bärtsch’s Mobile – Continuum
  2. Keith Jarrett – A Multitude of Angels
  3. Darcy James Argue – Real Enemies
  4. Jan Swerts – Schaduwland
  5. Wolfgang Muthspiel – Rising Grace
  6. Tigran Hamasyan – Atmosphères
  7. Phronesis – Parallax
  8. Neil Cowley Trio – Spacebound Apes
  9. Ólafur Arnalds – Island Songs
  10. Jóhann Jóhannsson – Orphée
  11. Jakob Bro – Streams
  12. David Hellbock – Into the Mystic
  13. Grégory Privat Trio – Family Tree
  14. Frank Kimbrough – Solstice
  15. Wolfert Brederode Trio – Black Ice
  16. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Skeleton Tree
  17. Lambchop – The Hustle
  18. Hiromi - Spark
  19. The Bad Plus – It’s Hard
  20. Avishai Cohen – Into the Silence
3 Likes
4

Not a whole list here like the others:

Carrie Newcomer - A Slender Thread (Stockfisch)
Nora Jones - Day Breaks
Bill Evans - Some Other Time
Mary Chapin Carpenter - The Things that we are made of
Bill Charlap Trio - Notes From New York

Each has its own merits let it be sound quality, or quality of the songs.

5

Oh indeed, Field’s Nocturnes by Elizabeth Joy Roe! Excellent choice, completely forgot about it. Eno’s “The Ship” I haven’t been able to listen yet, will pick this up now, thanks! :smile:

6

Darn, I should’ve put those two in my list! But then again, then it would have to be at least a Top 25, if not a Top 50… :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

Picked this up but still didn’t have a chance to really listen to it. Anyway, also an ECM lover I guess? :grin:

7

Indeed also a fine jazz album!:blush:

8

Childish Gambino - Awaken My Love
Frank Ocean - Blonde

9

In no order:

Black Mountain - IV
Heron Oblivion - Heron Oblivion
Tindersticks - The Waiting Room
Suede - Night Thoughts
The Coral - Distance Inbetween
Ray LaMontagne - Ouroboros
Damien Jurado - Visions Of Us On The Land
Savages - Adore Life
Ed Harcourt - Furnaces
Andrew Bird - Are You Serious
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
Mark Kozelek - Mark Kozelek Sings Standards
The Low Anthem - eyeland
case/lang/veirs - case/lang/viers
Kishi Bashi - Sonderlust
Bon Iver - 22, A Million
Regina Spektor - Remember Us To Life
Mono - Requiem For Hell
Wolf People - Ruins
Crippled Black Phoenix - Bronze

10

I think we should try and limit to a Top5 only. It’s hard to do but it makes you really think about it.

11

PGG was released in 2013. In Colour was 2015. Washed Out was 2011.

:smiley:

12

ah…OK…didn’t read the header that they should be only 2016 releases…I’ll fix.

But they are getting the most plays in 2016 here still :grin:

13

I’ll go for a top 10

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

14

This is what I listen to lately.

Works from Nikolaus Harnoncourt
Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker
Van Morrison - Keep Me Singing
Bob Dylan - Fallen Angels
Norah Jones - Day Breaks

15

@ncpl do you think it might help if I change the topic header, e.g. to “Best Releases of 2016”, or is this unnecessary?

16

I agree as I took it as more of a what have I been playing in 2016.

17

@ncpl haha, thanks Nick, I was just about to change the topic title, but you were faster than me! :smile:

18

Tricky – it’s been a very good year for releases I think.

As I’ve only been a Roon user for a month or so I don’t have the luxury of organising my albums by most played - but here’s a stab at my most played 2016 releases - starting with the most obvious and ending with a couple of compilation/reissues:

David Bowie - Blackstar

Beyoncé - Lemonade

Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition

Adia Victoria - Beyond The Bloodhounds

Lambchop - FLOTUS

Blood Orange - Freetown Sounds

Angel Olsen - My Woman

Steven James Adams - Old Magick

Weyes Blood - Front Row Seat to Earth

BadBadNotGood - IV

Nao - For All We Know

Kevin Morby - Singing Saw

DVSN - Sept 5th

Anohni - Hopelessness

Nicolas Jaar - Sirens

Karl Blau - Introducing Karl Blau

Jarlath Henderson - Hearts Broken, Heads Turned

Still Life - Young Magic

David Bowie - Who Can I Be Now? (Compilation / Reissue)

The Aggrovators - Dubbing at King Tubby’s (Compilation / Reissue)

1 Like
19

A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It from Here… Thank You 4 Your Service
Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Steven Wilson - 4.5
David Bowie - Blackstar

20

Banks & Steelz - Anything but Words
Last Shadow puppets - Everything you’ve come to expect