Top 10 Albums of 2016

1. "Lemonade," Beyoncé

Beyoncé dropped her explosive sixth album and second visual album, “Lemonade,” this year. The work was accompanied by an hour-long HBO film featuring poetry from Warsan Shire. A concept album, “Lemonade” tells a story of infidelity, revenge, and forgiveness, laced with powerful moments of feminism—black feminism in particular. Though typically categorized as an R&B album, the music at times roams the genres of jazz, funk, country, and pop: Jack White, The Weeknd, James Blake, and Kendrick Lamar are featured on several tracks. The album’s extensive lyrical references to marital drama also caused a storm of infidelity rumors for Beyoncé’s husband, Jay Z. —Rebecca H. Dolan

By Courtesy of GOOD Music

2. "The Life of Pablo," Kanye West

Controversy aside (“Famous,” anyone?), Kanye West’s seventh album might strike some as unpolished, even incoherent. But consider the record’s masterful arrangement fused with West’s fiery cadence and biting, unabashedly self-aware humor, and “The Life of Pablo” proves to be a work of inventive execution and staggering emotion. Here, West radiates when most vulnerable: “FML,” for instance, is a raw confession—one punctuated with thoughtful pauses and moody sampling from British post-punk unit Section 25’s “Hit”—about his relationship revealing some “layers to [his] soul.” “Pablo” is ultimately pure Yeezy, often offensive but also ingenious and provocative. —Ha D.H. Le

By Courtesy of Boys Don't Cry

3. "Blonde," Frank Ocean

If you weren't convinced after hearing “Channel Orange” that we owe Frank Ocean the world, then you had better be after listening to “Blonde,” the feverishly anticipated follow-up to Ocean’s critically lauded, genre-bending studio debut. More James Blake than James Brown, laden with a vulnerability intimate in its delivery but grandiose in its vision, “Blonde”—an exercise in defiance of both social and musical convention—sweeps away all preconceived notions of what it means to be an R&B artist and presents Ocean at his open-hearted best.—Victoria Lin

By Courtesy of Westbury Road

4. "Anti," Rihanna

Pop queen Rihanna released “Anti,” her eighth album, early this year. The Barbadian singer-executive produced her own work in collaboration with DJ Mustard, Timbaland, Jeff Bhasker, and other acclaimed artists. Breaking away from her established pop style, “Anti” includes strong dancehall and soul influences. Drake is featured on lead single “Work,” which makes use of Jamaican patois, and Rihanna gives nods to ’80s rock on “Kiss It Better” and ’60s soul on “Higher.” Much of the album’s material may deal with Rihanna’s own failed romances, perhaps lyrically alluding to Travis Scott in “Woo” and Chris Brown in “Love on the Brain.”—Rebecca H. Dolan

By Courtesy of CASH MONEY RECORDS

5. "Views," Drake

Drake reeled from from a devil-may-care 2015—the dark, swaggering “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”; the spontaneous collaboration on “What a Time to Be Alive”; the Meek Mill beef—into a fourth studio album, “Views,” in turns tender, laconic, joyful, and paranoid. With its raw adrenaline polished away and a colder, more jaded CN Tower’s view, the impression was of a newly hardened Drake persona; despite the chill, though, the album’s tracks dominated charts all summer ’16 and beyond. “Y’all showed me that nothing’s guaranteed,” Drake raps broodingly on “Pop Style,” but the persistence of “Views” in our memory certainly seems to be. —Emily Zhao

By Courtesy of AFTERMATH ENTERTAINMENT

6. "untitled unmastered," Kendrick Lamar

Each song is titled “untitled,” adorned with its track number (lest the listener cannot count), and a cryptographic date (perhaps a recording date, the date of a moment of racial tension in the United States, or a string of eight random numbers). “untitled unmastered” is the least complete (cohesive and comprehensible are equally apt adjectives) album in Kendrick Lamar’s oeuvre. Yes, random and untamed—Lamar still produces a paean to the psychological effects of inhabiting a world that is neither pre-racial nor post-racial over West Coast synths and samples of Motown funk. Precisely through its ungainly demeanor, “untitled” allows for a disarranged journey into one of rap’s most masterful, unmastered minds. —Aziz B. Yakub

By Courtesy of Saint and Columbia Records

7. "A Seat at the Table," Solange Knowles

Solange Knowles’s third solo album, “A Seat at the Table,” offers polished, gorgeous ruminations on her experience as a black woman, drawn deep from her family’s roots and the rich tradition of black music. The album melds R&B, soul, and funk to create a richly textured whole that maintains a strong sense of unity, despite its variegated musical heritage. Highlights include the album’s opener, “Rise,” a crooning, delicately jazzy testament to the act of enduring, as well as single “Cranes in the Sky,” which balances a relaxed airiness with lyrics that evince a deep desire for escape. —Adriano O. Iqbal

By Courtesy of Jagjaguwar

8. "22, A Million," Bon Iver

Bon Iver’s melodically experimental, unapologetically arrhythmic “22, A Million” marks a sharp musical departure from both the lush chamber pop of his 2011 Grammy-winning effort, “Bon Iver,” and the raw folky yearning of its 2007 predecessor, “For Emma, Forever Ago.” Between the warbling autotune of “715 (Creeks)” and the jarring instrumental distortion of “10 (Death Breast),” it all seems like it might be enough to deter a casual listener—but Justin Vernon’s trademark layered falsetto stitches the record together with the thinnest of threads to form an evocative, remarkably accessible whole. —Victoria Lin

By Courtesy of Columbia Records

9. "Blackstar," David Bowie

David Bowie released his 25th studio album two days before his death, proving that even when he dies, he dies cooler than the rest of us. “Blackstar” is a fusion of wild jazz and surrealist theater, a pretty heavy work that might not be easily likable for the casual listener. Like most great Bowie albums, it is full of subtexts, complex melodies, and otherworldly images. The title track exhibits Bowie’s eclectic musical genius as he blends his signature narrative songwriting with the beautiful saxophone solo from Donny McCaslin. It also sets up an enigmatic, melancholic atmosphere that continues through to other great tracks such as “‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore” and “I Can’t Give Everything Away.” —Tianxing V. Lan

By Courtesy of XL Recordings

9. "A Moon Shaped Pool," Radiohead

Thom Yorke and company may be approaching 50, but they clearly do not intend to rest on their laurels. From the contemplative and personal “True Love Waits” to the familiarly neurotic “Identikit,” Radiohead’s ninth album, “A Moon Shaped Pool,” finds them at their most eclectic and perfect. The lead single and opener, “Burn the Witch,” featuring Yorke’s trademark spooky falsetto over a thundering string section, became an immediate Radiohead classic upon release. Its lyrics, a terrifying imitation of right-wing frenzy, seem incredibly timely—even if their first draft, like those of several tracks, were written more than a decade ago, perhaps a testament to the staying power of one of the millennium’s greatest acts. —Trevor J. Levin