1. Skeleton Tree by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds



2. Trick by Jamie T



3. Foreverland by the Divine Comedy



4. Junk by M83



5. Teens of Denial by Car Seat Headrest



6. Everything You've Come to Expect by the Last Shadow Puppets



7. Hamburg Demonstrations by Peter Doherty



8. A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead



9. My Woman by Angel Olsen



10. Night Thoughts by Suede

It ain't over yet. You never know who's gonna surprise release these days. So I'm gonna wait for Jan 1st.

I wish Beck would. I thought for sure he would have a new album out by year's end.

Yes. It's strange he put out two singles in quite a time span and no album in sight.

He had an album scheduled for October, but I guess that didn't work out.

There was never an official announcement just rumours I think.

Oh, I just remember it being on the metacritic Future albums page, which is usually pretty accurate.

1. Hard Wired... to Self-Destruct - Metallica
2. Bad Vibrations - A Day to Remember
3. Aggressive - Beartooth
4. Gore - Deftones
5. Dystopia - Megadeth
6. The North Corridor - Chevelle
7. Brotherhood of the Snake - Testament
8. California - blink-182
9. Seal the Deal & Let's Boogie - Volbeat
10. Maximalism - Amaranthe

Great top 2. I still need to listen to Beartooth. California is meh, though "Bored to Death" is a song of the year contender.

beyonce

I need to get M83's Junk.

Honorable Mentions:

Magma - Gojira
For All Kings - Anthrax

Junk is a pretty good album so far. "Do it, Try it" and "Solitude" are awesome. "For the Kids" drags, and is annoying, though.

"Road Blaster" rocks.

Beartooth album is pretty great. I'll post my list next week. Still waiting on any last minute contenders like Cage the Elephant last year.

Run the Jewels 3 ended up being the last-minute surprise-release addition to the year's roster.

Yep. There's one every year.

I don't bother with rap/hip-hop much so that doesn't matter to me.

Not to mention the new NIN EP that came out. Best last week for music of any year.

That's because you're racist.

Sure thing.

1. Mitski Puberty 2

It's definitely my favorite album of the year. The clear standout and the epicenter of the album is Your Best American Girl (probably my favorite single of the year also). It's simultaneously empowering and heartbreaking. If I could, I'd be your little spoon and kiss your fingers forever more. is the first line of the song and also describes the album perfectly. It's about love, losing people, not fitting in, making mistakes and boatload of other stuff. Such a great discovery in 2016 for me.



2. Angel Olsen My Woman

Females hit it out of the ballpark in 2016. Shut Up Kiss Me is an instant classic and the rest of the album is pretty much up there too.



3. Frank Ocean Blond

A long wait, but definitely worth it. Ivy has become one of my favorite Frank Ocean songs. I do wish the album was titled Boys Don't Cry. It's for sure a more apt name considering the songs on it.



4. Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool

At this point I don't think Radiohead can ever do a bad album. As the years (albums) go by it seems like Radiohead are getting away from rock and into an ethereal soundscape. So it makes sense the album is capped by True Love Waits that finally got a proper studio version and it's every bit as good as you would expect it to be.



5. Róisín Murphy Take Her Up to Monto

An album that acts as a younger sister to last year's Hairless Toys (which makes sense as they come from the same studio sessions). It continues Róisín's explorations in pop sounds. It's just as imaginative and unpredictable but more cohesive this time around. And I'm glad that after an 8 year hiatus she has become really productive. She announced another album this year and I'm looking forward to it a lot. She probably will never release another Overpowered (which I'm still baffled why it never became a huge pop mainstream hit as it was basically one of the earliest examples of what mainstream pop has turned into today) but even these curveballs she's throwing are just as much exciting.



6. Porches Pool (+Water EP)

One of this year's more underrated albums (as I don't see it mentioned in any year end lists I've seen). It's got a cool, breezy laidback synth vibe that instantly makes you like it. And the Water EP (which is a collection of demo's from Pool songs) showcase how good these songs are even in early basic form (nearly synth free compared to the final product).



7. Frankie Cosmos Next Thing

It's hard to see band members selling their merch by themselves these days. Frankie Cosmos is one of those bands and I'm glad I had a chance to buy this vinyl straight from their hands. And I'm also glad that they told that our small crowd was really intense and came back on stage 3 times (the last time Greta came on stage alone because they played all Frankie Cosmos songs and so she decided to play one of her own songs). "Always leave them wanting more." is one of the more famous sayings all over the world and that is completely true in this case. Every song here is short, sweet and completely on point. And you just want more, more, more, more... This might actually be the cutest album of the year.



8. Crystal Castles Amnesty (I)

I feel that no matter how good or bad this album ended up being, the reviews would be mediocre at best. And that's just what happened. And it's a shame that the whole Alice drama (which is what most reviews center upon and not the actual music) overshadowed what's probably their most accessible album yet. For me, (III) remains their best album, but Amnesty (I) is up there. The band has continued their path of morphing their sound into more polished mainstream electronic music, but it's still very much a CC album. I never associated Alice as CC as most people have, so I'm not bothered by her leaving the band. Personally I think Ethan has been more graceful about the whole thing and just continued making music and it seems that after all he was the rightful CC torch bearer.



9. Preoccupations Preoccupations

In case of Viet Kong, the name change came due to the controversy. But I'm still not sure how in the hell they've come up with Preoccupations. Whatever the reason may be the important thing is that the follow up to their debut album is just as good.



10. Whitney Light Upon the Lake

I wasn't too crazy about the vocal when I first heard this album, but there are tons of melodic earworms that just won't let you get away from this album.




11. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam I Had a Dream That You Were Mine

12. Car Seat Headrest Teens of Denial

13. Bon Iver 22, A Million

14. The Jezabels Synthia

15. David Bowie Blackstar

16. PJ Harvey The Hope Six Demolition Project

17. Blood Orange Freetown Sound

18. Tegan and Sara Love You to Death

19. ANOHNI Hopelessness

20. M83 Junk



Special Mention Christine and the Queens Chaleur humaine



While technically a 2014 album it has finally been released in US this year with some changed track list (some new songs and some old ones rerecorded in English) and showed up in some year end lists. I feel like putting it on the list would be a slight cheat as this album is not new for me, but it would definitely be in the top 10. Anyway, I'm using this opportunity just to mention it.

Nice list. I agree completely re: Crystal Castles.

I need to listen to the Whitney album.

Yeah. I need to check out some from your list. Especially TLSP. I love AM and I never even bothered to listen to any of the two TLSP albums and I really don't know why.

1. In Our Bones by Against The Current
2. The Life of Pablo by Kanye West
3. Hardwired To Self-Destruct by Metallica
4. Give A Glimpse of What Yer Not by Dinosaur Jr.
5. Hero by Maren Morris
6. Emotional Mugger by Ty Segall
7. RTJ3 by Run The Jewels
8. Blank Face LP by Schoolboy Q
9. Emotion Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen
10. Coloring Book by Chance The Rapper

11. Potential by The Range
12. Painkillers by Brian Fallon
13. Bad Vibrations by A Day To Remember
14. Afraid Of Heights by Billy Talent
15. Aggresive by Beartooth
16. The Getaway by Red Hot Chili Peppers
17. The White Album by Weezer
18. Revolution Radio by Green Day
19. Bloodsweat by Plague Vendor
20. Eternally Even by Jim James

21. Simple Forms by The Naked and Famous
22. Misadventures by Pierce The Veil
23. By Default by Band of Skulls
24. Imarhan by Imarhan
25. Tidal Wave by Taking Back Sunday
26. Woman by Justice
27. Red Friday by YG
28. Ash & Ice by The Kills
29. Prima Donna by Vince Staples
30. Huntr by Huntr