ask a guy who likes fat chicks

95. Lil Uzi Vert, “XO Tour Llif3” 94. Amadou and Mariam, “Bofou Safou” 93. The Flying Stars of Brooklyn NY, “My God Has a Telephone” 92. Rhiannon Giddens, “At the Purchaser's Option” 91. Superchunk, “What a Time to Be Alive” 90. Playboi Carti feat. Lil Uzi Vert, “wokeuplikethis*” 89. Miguel, “Pineapple Skies” 88. Gfriend, “Fingertip” 87. THEY., “U-Rite” 86. Pale Waves, “Television Romance” 85. NCT 127, “Cherry Bomb” 84. Tay-K, “The Race” 83. Demi Lovato, “Sorry Not Sorry” 82. The Dandy Warhols, “Thick Girls Knock Me Out (Richard Starkey)” 81. Ralfy the Plug, “Pimp, Pimp, Pimp” 80. Gogol Bordello, “Saboteur Blues” 79. Hey Violet, “Guys My Age” 78. Taylor Swift, “Look What You Made Me Do” 77. Dua Lipa, “Begging” 76. Astrid S, “Such a Boy” 75. St. Vincent, “Los Ageless” 74. A. Savage, “Eyeballs” 73. Seventeen, “Don’t Wanna Cry” 72. Rhiannon Giddens, “Better Get It Right the First Time” 71. Young Thug feat. Future, “Relationship” 70. Carly Pearce, “Hide the Wine” 69. SOPHIE, “It’s Okay to Cry” 68. Charlotte Gainsbourg, “Deadly Valentine” 67. Michete, “Miss Shitty” 66. PSY, “I Luv It” 65. Lil Uzi Vert feat. Pharrell, “Neon Guts” 64. Kesha, “Godzilla” 63. Japandroids, “North East South West” 62. MC Jhowzinho e MC Kadinho, “Habilidade” 61. DPR LIVE, “Laputa” 60. Halsey, “100 Letters” 59. Cardi B, “Bodak Yellow” 58. Honey Dijon feat. Cakes da Killa, “Catch the Beat” 57. Deerhoof, “I Will Spite Survive” 56. Thomas Rhett, “Leave Right Now” 55. Alvvays, “In Undertow” 54. Kesha, “Woman” 53. Superorganism, “Something for Your M.I.N.D.” 52. At the Drive-In, “Pendulum in a Peasant Dress” 51. Halsey feat. Lauren Jaregui, “Strangers”

50. DJ Chap, “Esc” 49. The Blow, “The Woman You Want Her to Be” 48. Everything Is Recorded feat. Sampha, “Close But Not Quite” 47. Carly Rae Jepsen, “Cut to the Feeling” 46. SOPHIE, “Ponyboy” 45. Nadia Rose, “Big Woman” 44. Kesha, “Learn to Let Go” 43. Khalid, “Young, Dumb & Broke” 42. Fever Ray, “This Country” 41. Tune-Yards, “ABC 123”

40. J Balvin and Willy Williams feat. Beyoncé, “Mi Gente” 39. Brockhampton, “JUNKY” 38. GOT7, “Never Ever” 37. Haley Georgia, “Becky” 36. Lindsey Buckingham/Christine McVie, “In My World” 35. Pissed Jeans, “The Bar Is Low” 34. Charli XCX feat. Dorian Electra and Mykki Blanco, “Femmebot” 33. Fever Ray, “To the Moon and Back” 32. Mr. Eazi feat. Tekno, BkChatLDN, Odunsi, Temi, Eddie Kadie and Oyemykke, “Short Skirt” 31. The Killers, “The Man”

30. Princess Nokia, “Tomboy” 29. Melisa Whiskey, “Sweetest Cake” 28. Miley Cyrus, “Malibu” 27. Twice, “Knock Knock” 26. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, “Cumberland Gap” 25. Hey Violet, “This Is Me Breaking Up With You” 24. Bhad Bhabie, “I Got It” 23. Akdong Musician, “Dinosaur” 22. Hey Violet, “Fuqboi” 21. Anti-Flag, “Racists”

20. Sun-EL Musician feat. Samthing Soweto, “Akanamali” 19. Hamell on Trial, “Not Aretha’s Respect (Cops)” 18. Young M.A., “Walk” 17. DJ Meatman, “No God” 16. Kesha feat. Eagles of Death Metal, “Let ‘Em Talk” 15. Selena Gomez, “Bad Liar” 14. Maddie Ross, “You’re Still My Sugar” 13. Becky Warren, “Stay Calm, Get Low” 12. Charli XCX, “Boys” 11. Miguel feat. Kali Uchis, “Caramelo Duro”

93. Oddisee, The Iceberg Yes, “I’m from Black America it’s just another year,” but also “let me show you how to persevere” (“NNGE,” “Hold It Back”)

92. Craig Finn, We All Want the Same Things

Empathy for grieving misfits who outlived their nicknames and still have unfinished business roughly the size of a baseball (“God in Chicago,” “Preludes”)

91. Part Chimp, IV

More tuneful than Melvins and Girl Band combined (“Mapoleon,” “Namekuj”)

90. Daniele Luppi & Parquet Courts, Milano

For the dreaded “soundtrack-rock,” a fair amount of it sounds like Pylon (“Talisa,” “Memphis Blues Again”)

89. Haram, بس اربحت- خسرت - When You Have Won, You Have Lost

Who better to inveigh against “American Police” than a riffy Lebanese-American who was forced to deal with Catholic school (“Who Am I, Who Are You?” “Your President, Not a President”)

88. Lee Ranaldo, Electric Trim

He’s gotten out of spoken word alive enough times that we can allow one honest-to-God pretentious record (“Uncle Skeleton,” “Circular Right as Rain”)

87. Brad Paisley, Love and War

Less fun than kissing a man named Heather (“Go to Bed Early,” “Last Time for Everything,” “Drive of Shame”)

86. Young Thug, Beautiful Thugger Girls

Melodies that shake out to half the transcendent pop gift we’ve been promised for too long, and half merely better than usual, but the real benchmark is zero mushmouthing (“Relationship,” “Do U Love Me,” “You Said”)

85. Priests, Nothing Feels Natural

Neither their previous rage nor their present tunes can compare to Katie Alice Greer’s ownership of the stage; here’s hoping she brings it to the Capitol steps (“JJ,” “No Big Bang”)

84. Homeboy Sandman, Veins

Hard to tell if the fame song is ironic (“A’s, J’s & L’s,” “Bamboo,” “Clarity”)

83. Aesop Rock and Homeboy Sandman, Triple Fat Lice [EP]

Even the fatophobic song is funky but nothing forgives Sand not voting (“Pins and Needles,” “Pizza and Burgers”)

82. Arto Lindsay, Cuidado Madame

At long last the unambitious lover’s no-wave has sex with, well, the sex (“Tangles,” “Grain by Grain”)

81. Thurst, Cut to the Chafe

The right kind of bored DIY grunge even if “Where are your parents?” is not something you ask a grown woman who does camming (“Raw Is Real,” “Distance”)

80. Katie Ellen, Cowgirl Blues

28 minutes of hasn’t-mellowed to vie with Katie Crutchfield, who’d never write the line “I’m sick of fucking in our bed” (“Houses Into Homes,” “Proposal”)

79. G Perico, All Blue

Beats rarely get in the way of his bark (“Power,” “Get My Staccs”)

78. Rancid, Trouble Maker

How many folk-punks literally bite from “Ring of Fire” — and how many make their catchiest record 25 years in (“Ghost of a Chance,” “Make It Out Alive,” “An Intimate Close Up of a Street Punk Troublemaker”)

77. Kano, Made in the Manor

The prettiest grime album (“A Roadman’s Hymn,” “New Banger”)

76. Body Count, Bloodlust

Maybe TV gave Ice-T enough of a sabbatical that he remembers what it sounds like to rage again, more than you can say for Chuck D or Tom Morello (“No Lives Matter,” “Black Hoodie”)

75. Kitty, Miami Garden Club Knows the club culture of which she speaks, while the Chainsmokers don’t observe much past their oft-measured dicks (“Mass Text Booty Call,” “Drink Tickets”)

74. Counterparts, You're Not You Anymore

Screamo math-metal with economy and harmonic surprises (“Arms Like Teeth,” “Rope”)

73. The Frightnrs, More to Say Versions

Missed “Dispute” last year unfortunately, but their late singer (and their piano hooks) are better honored by these dubs (“Dispute [Version],” “More to Say [Version]”)

72. Bash and Pop, Anything Could Happen

The first three anthems could carry a lot of an album, and they do (“Anything Could Happen,” “Not This Time,” “On the Rocks”)

71. Awa Poulo, Warali A bowed, one-string violin called a soku makes this Malian blues resemble something else, like say, James Blood Ulmer’s Odyssey (“Mido Yirima,” “Dimo Yaou Tata”)

70. Gogol Bordello, Seekers and Finders

Seeking Gypsy Punks: Underdog World Strike, finding Super Taranta! (“Saboteur Blues,” “Did It All”)

69. Elder, Reflections of a Floating World

Sprawling R.E.M. black metal to Deafheaven’s U2 (“The Falling Veil,” “Staving Off the Truth”)

68. Starlito and Don Trip, Step Brothers Three

“We represent for all real niggas ‘cause there’s a shortage” (“Fortune,” “3rd 2nd Chance”)

67. The Paranoid Style, Underworld U.S.A. [EP]

Harder to follow but so’s Washington (“I Believe U Believe U Can Fly,” “Dominoes in Drag”)

66. Pere Ubu, 20 Years in a Montana Missile Silo The old punks experiment with defeat, and just holding their loves close (“Toe to Toe,” “Cold Sweat”)

65. Pink, Beautiful Trauma

She’ll never hit (or swing) as hard as “Praying” but her gospel song sure beats Kesha’s (“I Am Here,” “Where We Go”)

64. Run the Jewels, RTJ3

Put Killer Mike in charge of the DNC: “They could barely even see the dog / They don’t see the size of the fight” (“Everybody Stay Calm,” “Hey Kids [Bumaye],” “Down”)

63. Orchestra Baobab, Tribute to Ndiouga Dieng

Connecting with these guys for the first time means I should probably go back (“Fayinkounko,” “Foulo”)

62. At the Drive-In, In•Ter A•Li•A

Brace yourself my darling — despite 17 years and far too much Mars Volta between Relationship of Command and the next best thing, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez’s labyrinthine fretwork helps the verses arrive at massive choruses reliably hooked to Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s garbled cuckoo-clock-on-railroad-tracks impressionism (“Governed by Contagions,” “Pendulum in a Peasant Dress”)

61. Fat Tony, MacGregor Park

Rapper-about-town knows about late-night food, legal weed, and easy tunes (“Drive-Thru,” “MacGregor Park”)

60. Spoon, Hot Thoughts

Shoots its wad (literally — “Hot Thoughts,” “Do I Have to Talk You Into It,” “First Caress”) too soon without much reciprocation, but who mistook Britt Daniel for a pleasure provider (“Do I Have to Talk You Into It,” “First Caress,” “Hot Thoughts”)

59. Lil Uzi Vert, Luv Is Rage 2

Sings better than Marilyn Manson, writes more consistently than Hayley Williams, and opens himself up to accordion, “cougars,” and not one but two more synthpop shuffles than most emo sulkers (“Neon Guts,” “Two®,” “For Real")

58. Swet Shop Boys, Sufi La [EP]

As loose and fun as Big Sean but also as deeply untranscendent as Big Sean (“Birding,” “Thas My Girl”)

57. Algiers, The Underside of Power

More church, less state (“Cry of the Martyrs,” “Cleveland”)

56. Hamell on Trial, Tackle Box

Melania gets off easier than Ann Coulter but he’s still too obsessed with drawing boobies on the Statue of Liberty to keep his targets straight for more than a jaw-dropping rant at a time (“Not Aretha’s Respect [Cops],” “Mouthy B”)

55. Girlpool, Powerplant

Making small big is an accomplishment in a time when most DIY is content to stay small (“Corner Store,” “123,” “Soup”)

54. The Feelies, In Between

Quite possibly their most shrewdly hooky album, though with the vocals so evaporated we were never left to wonder before now how much the singing mattered (“Flag Days,”  “Gone, Gone, Gone”)

53. Various Artists, Battle Hymns

Janet Weiss and Sam Coomes rally the troops and if it’s not enough that the Thermals’ drummer, Boss Hog, and Stephen Malkmus all transcend themselves, well, what have you done for them lately (Love Always, “We Won’t Go Back,” Mac McCaughan, “Happy New Year [Prince Can’t Die Again],” Quasi, “Ballad of Donald Duck & Elmer Fudd”)

52. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, French Press [EP]

A drive tenser and warmer than the Feelies or Clap Your Hands Say Yeah with vocals you sometimes wish would match (“French Press,” “Dig Up”)

51. Vince Staples, Big Fish Theory

Sane people make fun messes too (“Yeah Right,” “Party People”)

50. Amber Coffman, City of No Reply

If she wants fame so bad, why’s he the one with a credit on that Riri/Macca/Yeezy song I just reminded you of (“All to Myself” “Under the Sun”)

49. Big Thief, Capacity

We could’ve guessed Adrianne Lenker would write prettier but subtler was a surprise, sort of (“Shark Smile,” “Capacity”)

48. Khalid, American Teen

A thoughtful, placid glance at what the new normal could’ve been: a Nice Guy of color worrying tunefully aloud like a Frank Ocean that never fully acclimated to cocaine for breakfast (“Young, Dumb and Broke,” “Keep Me”)

47. Lil Yachty, Teenage Emotions

Don Van Vliet was more melodic, Calvin Johnson wasn’t (“Better,” “DN Freestyle”)

46. Hurray for the Riff Raff, The Navigator

Too beautifully produced to truly evoke the fight for one’s home, a mantle taken up by the words, and on the big finish, the performance (“Rican Beach,” “Pa’lante”)

45. Charli XCX, Pop 2

If only she hooked up with PC Music three years ago (“Femmebot,” “Out of My Head,” “Lucky”)

44. A. Savage, Thawing Dawn

When punks hurt this much, their solo albums are usually far less elegant (“Eyeballs,” “What Do I Do?”)

43. Alex Lahey, I Love You Like a Brother I can speak to the experience of taking care of yourself far less when you take care of your songs this much (“Every Day’s the Weekend,” “I Love You Like a Brother”) 42. Maddie Ross/blushh, Split [EP] Sum 41-covering queer popstar-next-door divides Colleen Green by Katy Perry for a better party guest than either (“Scotty Doesn’t Know,” “Hometown”)

41. Various Artists, American Epic: The Collection

Think this is what the MAGA folks meant? (Bascom Lamar Lunsford, “I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground,” Charlie Poole & The North Carolina Ramblers, “If the River Was Whiskey”)

40. Rapsody, Laila’s Wisdom

Too real for a Pitchfork review (“Black & Ugly,” “Chrome [Like Oooh]”)

39. Charly Bliss, Guppy

Like Yuck and Speedy Ortiz, they transcend such profound influences as the Josie and the Pussycats soundtrack (“Percolator,” “Westermarck”)

38. Brockhampton, Saturation III

With their musicality now deepening by the month, maybe they’ll recruit a woman (“Alaska,” “Boogie”)

37. Slowdive, Slowdive

They’ve got that glassy-glacial thing down better than when they made Pygmalion but they still wrote songs once and only once (“Don’t Know Why,” “Everyone Knows”)

36. Margo Price, All American Made

Never tops its opening trifecta but damned if it doesn’t try (“Don’t Say It,” “Weakness”)

35. Four Tet, New Energy

At this point it’s not to celebrate how few peers he has but to lament how few peers he has (“La Trance,” “Two Thousand and Seventeen”)

34. Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.

Finally one of these generational-icon types throws his old-fan-new-haters a bone so we get Real Raps significantly blockier and less full-bodied than his once-in-a-generation stuff — beats jazz Bowie, though (“DNA,” “Love”)

33. The National, Sleep Well Beast

Sick of toiling away in grower purgatory, they try to expedite the process with glitches and one whole raveup (“The System Only Dreams in Total Darkness,” “Turtleneck,” “Nobody Else Will Be There”) 32. Low Cut Connie, Dirty Pictures (Part 1)

They’ve never rocked like this before — “Revolution Rock ‘n Roll,” “Dirty Water,” “Death & Destruction” — but more importantly, Prince would’ve appreciated the ballad about herpes and conjunctivitis (“Montreal,” “Controversy,” “Dirty Water,” “Revolution Rock ‘n Roll”)

31. Fever Ray, Plunge

“This country makes it hard to fuck” and other real-time dystopian journaling (“To the Moon and Back,” “This Country”)

30. Emperor X, Oversleepers International

At last exploiting the emo potential of his whine, and all the organic Billy Bragg acoustic thrash that comes with — at least someone did a classic Mountain Goats record this year (“Wasted on the Senate Floor,” “God Save Coastal Debris”)

29. DJ Meatman, God in Three Trax [EP] Eleven minutes of godless juke for your crummy existence (“No God,” “Fuck God”) 28. Cloud Nothings, Life Without Sound

Shyly embracing the slickness available to riffs bigger than his shrimpy body contains the chest voice to envelop (“Modern Act,” “Things Are Right With You,” “Darkened Rings”)

27. Higher Brothers, Black Cab Their hiccups, accents, rhyme schemes, even beats are as sonically generous as Migos’, so root for a takeover once they master a sound of their own (“Isabellae,” “Made in China”) 26. Chuck Berry, Chuck

A few more classics for the road, and allegedly his best album, how about that? (“Big Boys,” “¾ Time [Enchiladas]”)

25. St. Vincent, MASSEDUCTION Kisses off former beaus with more confidence and efficiency than Lorde and Taylor because her only true love, not counting the city, is herself (“Los Ageless,” “Sugarboy,” “Pills”)

24. Drake, More Life

So convincingly in pursuit of its own soul that you may even believe he’s forgiven the woman who borrowed his car in pursuit of Kotex (“Madiba Riddim,” “Lose You,” “Blem”)

23. Becky Warren, War Surplus

Knows more about love during wartime than, you know, James Murphy (“Stay Calm, Get Low,” “Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time,” “Dive Bar Sweetheart”)

22. The xx, I See You

Meet the shyest entrants onto Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list (“A Violent Noise,” “Dangerous,” “Replica”)

21. Dawn Oberg, Nothing Rhymes With Orange [EP]

Gently, humorously, articulately chiding a country that deserves worse (“Nothing Rhymes with Orange,” “Information Is Your Friend”)

20. Arcade Fire, Everything Now Turns out kitsch tightens their awkward groove, turns out Win Butler’s pretty funny (“Chemistry,” “Peter Pan”)

19. Kehlani, SweetSexySavage

Brisk, garden-variety pop at its most eager-to-please, whether transmuting an 11-year-old Akon smash for Spanish guitar or beckoning herself via glockenspiel to take her own advice (“Advice,” “Undercover,” “In My Feelings,” “Distraction”)

18. Daddy Issues, Deep Dream

The pounding heft that their fellow ‘90s power-chord revivalists lack, closer to L7 (“Boring Girls,” “Boys of Summer,” “Mosquito Bite”)

17. Aminé, Good for You

The jubilance of early Chance without the self-imposed burden of competing with early Kanye and plenty more room to be cute (“Spice Girl,” “Hero,” “Caroline”)

16. Waxahatchee, Out in the Storm

Her arena guitars are as big as Best Coast’s, and harmonizing with her sister(s), so are the vocals, though you may lose track of which “oooh-ooh” hook you’re on (“8 Ball,” “Never Been Wrong,” “No Question”)

15. Angaleena Presley, Wrangled

Good morning to everyone except Yelawolf and Sturgill Simpson (“Mama I Tried,” “Wrangled”)

14. Zeal and Ardor, Devil Is Fine

Brockhampton got the attention but music inspired by the webforum dare could be the next frontier, also a good god is a dead one (“Blood in the River,” “Sacrilegium II”)

13. The Knife, Live at Terminal 5

The most riveting and rousing piece of body-politic performance art of the year, surrounded by a fearsome canon that stands up to remixes and Terminal 5, and they treat it as such (“Collective Body Possum,” “Without You My Life Would Be Boring”)

12. Shitkid, EP 2 [EP]

Unsexy Eiffel Towers (“Sugar Town,” “Fat-Mad-N-Gone”) 11. Migos, Culture

One-trick ponies don’t all become AC/DC but loving cellulite helps (“Big on Big,” “All Ass,” “T-Shirt”)

10. Fred Thomas, Changer

An original: a pop-punk distillation of Lee Ranaldo’s spoken word and Craig Finn’s explosively joyful scene reportage, with a little twist of homemade Boards of Canada, who doesn’t make you hang on every word but makes you feel like you should (“Open Letter to Forever,” “Reactionary,” “Mallwalkers”)

9. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, The Nashville Sound

The white working class — who can employ them? (“Cumberland Gap,” “Hope the High Road,” “White Man’s World”)

8. Sarah Shook and the Disarmers, Sidelong

If an enormous-lunged dive-bar diva with a capital-D drummer’s gonna put one too many eggs in the devil’s basket she might as well be queer (“Dwight Yoakam,” “Fuck Up”)

7. N*E*R*D, NO_ONE EVER REALLY DIES

In which Pharrell, always a good if sophomorish human being, patches up the cracks in A-list pop with bullet-speed BPMs and wall-sabotaging vengeance, plus a special bonus use for Ed Sheeran (“Deep Down Body Thurst,” “Rollinem 7’s,” “Don’t Don’t Do It,” “Lemon”)

6. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Talk Tight [EP]

Not the Go-Betweens, not Parquet Courts, they’re a sobered-up, wearied-out Libertines with a penchant for harmonized guitar hooks, and if you don’t see the big deal you’re not old enough (“Heard You’re Moving,” “Tender Is the Neck”)

5. Syd, FIN

Just what renaissance-R&B needed: a rigorous tunesmith unpretentious enough to stay in the shallow end (“Know,” “Shake ‘Em Off,” “Over”)

4. The New Pornographers, Whiteout Conditions

Grinding even harder into the same synth-motorik fashion as last time, Carl Newman drafts his “Fake Empire” 11 times, and you can bet his harmonic-melodic intricacies gain clarity with his (finally) angry and felt lyrics (“This Is the World of the Theater,” “Play Money,” “Darling Shade”)

3. The Magnetic Fields, 50 Song Memoir

Good enough that it begs the question of whether 69 Love Songs could’ve done it with one Eeyore-esque singer, and there wasn’t a funnier album this year — maybe not even a more touching one (“Weird Diseases,” “Me and Fred and Dave and Ted,” “Rock’n’Roll Will Ruin Your Life,” “The Day I Finally…,” “Judy Garland”)

2. JAY-Z, 4:44

No rap album has ever had more to say about money — and to put it mildly that’s saying something (“The Story of O.J.,” “Family Feud,” “Smile”)

1. Jens Lekman, Life Will See You Now

I don’t know if 2016 was the worst year of my life or not. Anyone who’s seen me on social media knows I hated it. Hated every minute of it. Hated everything about it. We’re not better off for anything that happened this year, and all of us have something to learn from our behavior, especially me. For the little it’s worth, I loved more albums that came out this year than any other since I’ve been a walking, squawking pain in the ass, and had neither the spleen nor the wherewithal to make fun of, like, Nick Cave. So here’s what I loved.

81. Vic Mensa, There’s Alot Going On [EP]

Good Chicago kid slowly building one of the most disjunct modern rap discographies this side of Young Thug isn’t too close to Rahm Emanuel to call him out

80. Pylon, Live

Great band who want to be remembered for their live show instead bestow the yee-haw “Party Zone” upon us to go with the classic LPs

79. White Lung, Paradise

You know she’s an old-school punk because she feels chained to her tempo, but no one matches Mish Barber-Way’s hunger

78. Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman, Lice Two: Still Buggin' [EP]

Lightning doesn’t strike twice, but Aes still “clobbers the chronically obtuse” by pointing out we’re “watching alphas grow up into bronies” and the Boy Sand, well, whew: “I want a dimepiece that smells as good as McDonald’s fry grease that isn’t always criticizing my beats”

77. PJ Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project

Even geniuses have to do their research

76. Dawn Richard, Redemption

R&B’s premier binaural explorer teleports from club to club without breaking a stride or fluking a standalone song

75. Open Mike Eagle & Paul White, Hella Personal Film Festival

A plea for old normalcy under his breath, beats riveting enough to battle the new one

74. Fruit Bats, Absolute Loser

Shins guitarist continues to elude Destroyer and Father John Misty fans despite his warmer brand of high-retro craftsmanship

73. Kvelertak, Nattesferd

Couldn’t all be rainbow metal like “1985,” but language barrier notwithstanding it’s catchier than Songs for the Deaf

72. Gucci Mane, Everybody Looking

Scared-straight workaholic at peace with his M’s

71. Jamila Woods, HEAVN

Exemplary talent reel from a blk girl soldier and Incubus fan

70. Ukandanz, Awo

“Ethiopian crunch music” — no really, the drummer could audition for Gorguts, and frankly, so should the saxophonist

69. PUP, The Dream Is Over

Just enough interesting guitar hooks and masturbation-interruptus jokes to make them stand out from every other Bamboozle band that wants to kill each other on tour

68. Michete, Cool Tricks 2

Can’t replace the audacity of the debut but songwriting’s a classic substitute

67. Eola, Dang

How to Dress Well ain’t got no soul

66. Mike Doughty, The Heart Watches While the Brain Burns

Guy’s been a tunesmith long enough without a distortion pedal but at 46 he figured it couldn’t hurt

65. ScHoolboy Q, Blank Face LP

His idea of gangsta revival takes time out for the Digital Underground-funked “Big Body” and, with his incongruent Black Hippy mate, some salient “Black THougHts” — that part, that part, that part, that part

64. Crystal Castles, Amnesty (I)

Figures that their tighest collection would be their most soulless, and (wink) glassiest

63. Blood Orange, Freetown Sound

Dev Hynes knows other singers lend gravitas to his influential ‘80s R&B remembrances, as does the gravitas itself

62. G.L.O.S.S., Trans Day of Revenge [EP]

Heart-rending, gut-wrenching seven-minute going-away party for a budding star’s fury over sound

61. Yoni & Geti, Testarossa

As the young Wolf recognizes his whine has been co-opted by the incel armada, he backs comfortably into a second-banana role harmonizing with one of our greatest MCs and saves said rapper from his frustrated indie-pop side career

60. Aphex Twin, Cheetah [EP]

After toiling away a good decade on acid 303s that he wasn’t even rumored to have built himself, he finally makes minimalism his own

59. Colleen Green, Colleen Green [EP]

Green no longer meaning weed but the most impersonal and infallible Weezer album

58. Beyoncé, Lemonade

See the movie

57. Saul Williams, Martyr Loser King

His preoccupation with hackers seemed as retro as his At the Drive-In quote and ‘90s rapdustrial until November, and don’t even start me on the album title

56. Oranssi Pazuzu, Värähtelijä

Or “Orange demon,” if you’re looking to name your acid-spiked Halloween punch

55. Tweet, Charlene

Tranquility from a bird who tweets more soundly than the president-elect

54. Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife 2 [Deluxe Edition]

Not all their girls wait until night to get high, but they probably all do yoga

53. Moor Mother, Fetish Bones

I warned you about neoliberalism bro!!!! I told you dog!

52. Youssou N'Dour, Senegaal Rekk [EP]

His post-Set solo LPs have rarely approached Étoile de Dakar’s slippery joyous fury (or catchiness) until now — “Song Daan!” — and check out that synth bass the Akon fan throws on “Begg Na Leen”

51. Tinashe, Nightride

Like so many promising R&B 23-year-olds before her, she weathers label jeopardy and underperforming advance singles along an unyielding tightrope of smartly deepening groovatures

50. P.S. Eliot, 2007-2011

Another great, easily reducible band forced to share space with their own demos

49. Weezer, Weezer [The White Album]

Can’t prove that Rivers is synesthetic but in 16 years of alleged decline his “color” albums have yet to steer us wrong, and starting with Red (and fatherhood) they’ve even shown glimpses of a human being

48. Jeremih, Late Nights: Europe

R&B has too many oddball legends to keep up with, unless you can think of any other reason why this cause celebré as of last December would find his best record absent from year-ends (or maybe keeping up with oddball legends isn’t a sustainable fandom model)

47. Kendrick Lamar, untitled unmastered.

Section.80 on the Sunset Strip

46. Tanya Tagaq, Retribution

A guttural soundscape for every fleeting 2016 thought, such as “If men experienced hell on earth they wouldn’t possibly perpetrate it on women, who know it when they see it” and “Anyway here’s a racist article”

45. GFOTY, Call Him a Doctor [EP]

Stereogum correctly awarded it the best PC Music release of the year before I knew it existed, which shows you how they and especially she have fallen, but while PC Music Volume Two overcorrected for her tone-deaf joke with srsnss, the collective’s own postmodern Tony Clifton brings the disruption on this 20-minute flop, even rocks out

44. Huerco S., For Those of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have)

Ascent and descent are overrated in a genre that’s supposed to help you sit still

43. Frank Ocean, Blonde

“You have to buy the pitch for me to tell you [what happens next],” is what David Lynch told ABC when he pitched Mulholland Dr. as a series — except Frank’s got bought

42. Drive-By Truckers, American Band

American bands tend to have more rising and falling action, but few bands’ actions mean more than this one’s words

41. Wire, Nocturnal Koreans

Just like in 1977 and 2002, their best album in some time has no real explanation for itself, which we’ll take over men explaining the title tune

40. Mitski, Puberty 2

Doesn’t parse insanely better than the capital-E emo guys but she’s twistier and worldlier and works better under a deadline

39. Death Grips, Bottomless Pit

They’d take over the world if they’d only they put together that the bad people being given good ideas tend to be dudes testiculating on the “fuck you in half” spectrum

38. Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter

Cheat on the real thing with a good copycat and you get the best Loretta that Jack White’s been involved with

37. Alicia Keys, HERE

Uncool excellence from a makeup-free mystic recommended to people who consider Carly Rae Jepsen an underdog

36. Crying, Beyond the Fleeting Gales

No surprise that Rush and Van Halen fans are twee dorks but who knew they loved melody

35. Wussy, Forever Sounds

Pretty sure songs last longer but w/e

34. Anderson .Paak, Malibu

One of those guys who can do it all; they’ve sure mellowed out huh

33. Joey Purp, iiiDrops

He adds bottom to Chance’s block party, the kicks of “Girls@” and multiple horn loops and squeals of the lecherous “Photobooth” imparting a little bad-boy in the enjoyable sense for a time when that usually comes to mean ignorance 

32. Maren Morris, Hero

She’s more crass about wanting to be rich than Taylor or Kacey ever were, an advantage for cowpop that wasn’t shined with spit

31. Deap Vally, Femejism

“Your love is up to you” — and it’s deap, too

30. Esperanza Spalding, Emily's D+Evolution

She’s too smart to try and untangle jazz for pop listeners so instead she resolves prog like a Rubik’s cube

29. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, A Man Alive I’m all for Merrill Garbus slowly making every artist sound like tUnE-yArDs one at a time for the riffs and basslines alone — can’t make a normie weird can you

28. Vince Staples, Prima Donna [EP]

Perfect holiday gift for that person in your life who repeats “Sometimes I feel like giving up” 16 times, a.k.a. all of them

27. The Julie Ruin, Hit Reset

Some musicians do know more than their critics — that’s why she put more into her Hillary campaign than the Dems did

26. Solange, A Seat at the Table

Muted not silent, calm not peaceful, subtle not vaporous — the troubled grace of a 30-year-old “little sister” people will be misinterpreting well into her 50s

25. The Paranoid Style, Rolling Disclosure

It’s time for a band named after “The Paranoid Style in American Politics” even if the audience for “Someone’s in the kitchen with Dinah, oh fuck” largely doesn’t overlap with Pitchfork’s

24. Tegan and Sara, Love You to Death

Jenny Lewis and fucking Haim did the opener more eloquently, but treat them and their Alphaville synths like your boyfriend and they’ll love you to death

23. Brandy Clark, Big Day in a Small Town

For an out lesbian in a genre that ain’t rife with ‘em, she sure sings a lot of the same tropes as straight women before her — hits the mark more often though

22. Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Denial

Don’t call them a jam band; ordinary big-dreaming Midwest depressive just doesn’t want his songs to end

21. Britney Spears, Glory [Deluxe Edition]

Her softest and sweetest album still swings and twangs and bites down before the French-whispered Fin

20. Homeboy Sandman, Kindness for Weakness

Smugger than the average Drake fan, so it’s a good thing he’s smarter too

19. The Coathangers, Nosebleed Weekend

Rowdy-disciplined tight-loose punk for a world where women are chastised for not being perfect and too perfect at once

18. Young Thug, JEFFERY

Like the album cover of the year that you can’t hang on the wall, this is pop so fluid it never hardens — just don’t tell that to the reggae smash

17. Sad13, Slugger

The virgin you picked over her is no longer a virgin, and you better rim her ass good

16. Kanye West, The Life of Pablo

“Imagine a mirror / Bigger than the room it was placed in / Imagine a wish / For a future that cannot hold my wish,” — The Beautiful South, 1997

15. Elza Soares, A Mulher do Fim do Mundo (The Woman of the End of the World)

Psych, every woman is at the end of the world! — but a 79-year-old forced to marry her rapist at age 12 and bear his child, the first of five including one that died — is a good nominee to scream “Pra fuder! Pra fuder!” for all of ‘em

14. Anna Wise, The Feminine: Act I [EP]

Her waist is sure to decrease as her wage increases, but she’s the rare pop heir who may yet do something about that for the next batch

13. Lori McKenna, The Bird and the Rifle

In case “peanut butter on everything” didn’t convince the few people who’d heard of her that she was the Song of the Year nominee writer next door in 2004, how about a Modern Family-inspired title tune?

12. Sheer Mag, III [EP]

Most conscientious glam band of all-time, the best frontperson in rock, and the riffs are still the highlight

11. M.I.A., AIM

The freedun to make dumb bird puns is a road seldom traveled by the multitude (of women because it ends their major-label deals and streak of BNMs)

10. Eric Prydz, Opus

Carping on the inutility of EDM “albums” doesn’t feel like the point any more than counting the number of Beyoncé country songs from where I’m sitting-not-dancing in the uncultured apartment I ate up 2.5 hours of before-and-after-the-drop, Kraftwerk-and-beyond bliss in all year, not to mention the office and the car; if it’s rockist to praise an insider for circumventing a gatekeeper-heavy subculture to succeed on every other genre’s longform terms, well, I’ve preferred FL Studio to Ableton since I was too young to dance in public

9. The Goon Sax, Up to Anything

In a world where Reddit-clogging MGTOW show up fully armed to your local pizza hang because they Saw Something Somewhere, it’s a relief to remember that not all sweaty-handed, I-want-people-to-think-about-me teen awkwardness is channeled into nerdy misogyny or prolix emo (hey, they’re not always the same thing); so what if they’re queer and/or a woman? As Trump is sworn in I’ll take any self-awareness (and laughs) I can get

8. Chance the Rapper, Coloring Book

Never a rapper whose voice I’ve lost myself in or even quoted at length, Chance is nonetheless rap’s reigning melody dork who doesn’t just sing but arranges his richly uninhibited tunes for full choirs and Lil Yachty; I care less about his Apple -sponsored “mixtape” success than his dedication to making “Keep Ya Head Up” a career philosophy, and let’s face it: he’s more effective artistically than Tupac ever was

7. Sleigh Bells, Jessica Rabbit

No one sounds like them, none of their albums sound like each other, and in six years Alexis Krauss has progressed from cooing to howling, from mouthpiece to equal, while Derek Miller’s arrangements have matured from enlivening two-lyric tantrums into rock’s most daring: prog interludes, clanging Girls Generation maximalism, Oneohtrix Point Never’s sequenced grindcore and Pat Benatar/Annie Lennox arena ballads

6. Konono N°1/Batida, Konono N°1 Meets Batida

Warmhearted, pinging, rustic-metallic repetition helped me through a year when a record as reliable as this one could be taken for granted but little else can — in nine-, eight-, 11-minute increments we wander these infinite thumb-piano rounds and chants, like “Bom Dia”’s harmonious duet with 808 cowbells, there for our existential healing and bodily vibration to the very last wall-reverberating rattle 

5. Vektor, Terminal Redux

The constancy of sharkskin riffage — one dazzling construction at high altitude after another when they can’t possibly defragment that same barbed-wire phrase again — recalls the ceaseless propulsion and minimalist invention of Steve Reich’s classic Music for 18 Musicians except it’s 17 minutes longer and breaks just once, for medieval folk-gospel (six minutes away from the finish!)

4. Rihanna, Anti [Deluxe Edition]

In which America’s most prolific and hard-won hitmaker pulls a janet. or Beyoncé not by eschewing concision or espousing a storyline but prioritizing a labyrinthine accent, a towering voice, and the sharpest, most cornucopian hooks of her (and Tame Impala’s) career

3. Parquet Courts, Human Performance

Whatever white indie-rock’s old business used to mean, they do it better than anyone since the Dismemberment Plan, whose surprising arrangements, plainspoken love laments and refusal to ignore their privileged surroundings (in this case, the police state and gentrification) they echo, while actually inserting themselves into the sonics of not just The Velvet Undergound and Beefheart but flutes and congas and country and a Rage Against the Machine goof they’ve already outsourced to Bun B like true Texans

2. Kevin Gates, Islah [Deluxe Edition]

Even his non-apology is filled with heart — a heart he replenishes with booty, family, and hooks, piles of each; in the Year of the Irresponsible Male he captivated rather than disappointed me by struggling earnestly to balance booty, family, and hooks without a single misbegotten tune (yes, tune) in an hour of 17 — is it crass to mention he went platinum with no features

1. A Tribe Called Quest, We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service

Angry Angles, Angry Angles

Yes, Jay Reatard still has five great, frenetic leftovers among the first six tracks and three among the last five — so what if one’s a future Watch Me Fall highlight

ANOHNI, Hopelessness

She’s been exploding her crystal guts for years, but not with Daniel Lopatin’s calcified splatter to match, and no indie-rocker more prominent has taken aim at drone warfare (or Obama, in the standout track)

BJ the Chicago Kid, In My Mind

Getting somewhere in a “woman’s world,” also the problem

Big Thief, Masterpiece

Saddle Creek revivalists have a few jams, which is a few more than Neva Dinova or Now It’s Overhead

The Body, No One Deserves Happiness

Title of the year, in a good year for titles and a bad year for anything else

Danny Brown, Atrocity Exhibition

The words a blur, the music unlike anything else (faves include the bike horn and the Breaking Bad theme), his weakest album (yes, incl. The Hybrid) averages out to something occasionally as gripping as advertised

Burial, Young Death [EP]

Not what we needed/just what we needed

Cobalt, Slow Forever

“Beast Whip,” “Elephant Graveyard,”… if it seems like Tool never lumbered through such bangers it’s because they didn’t

Cousin Stizz, DONDA

Exponentially more hooks than Suffolk County, yet there’s something unformed about this guy, or maybe the 2015-2016 bar keeps getting higher as he catches up

CupkakKe, Cum Cake

She’s the rapper 2016 needed, but more importantly, she’ll be the rapper 2017-2025 needs and next time the sound and vision will match torpedos like “I cut niggas off from me like umbilical cords”

Lucy Dacus, No Burden Four fantastic songs in a row, and then the rest, which is as good an unknown’s debut as you’re gonna get Robbie Fulks, Upland Stories An attention span to parse the sparse is so 2015, we’re in a nuclear arms race now Margaret Glaspy, Emotions and Math

I hear more Joanna Newsom than Sadie Dupuis in her judiciously deployed squeak-growl, which maybe explains why it didn’t grab me

El Guincho, Hiperasia

One problem with 2016 electronic is how hard it is to tell the stuff that sounds like nothing else from the stuff that sounds like everything else

Horse Lords, Interventions

The first and best representation of their Group Doueh-flavored Beefheart repeats until you can’t stand it anymore, and the more tolerable cuts don’t have the same burn The Hotelier, Goodness

Only the front cover comes anywhere near My Thing, though the kinda-country song is close, and there are other nicely built temples to male spirituality on this austere masterpiece-by-acclamation between the dead spots

Into It. Over It., Standards

My old schoolmate Evan Weiss could be counted on for production and playing (especially drumming) of a higher caliber than anyone he tours with, but not necessarily another “Contractual Obligation” — if he ever forces himself to adhere to pop strictures we’ll get the promised standards

Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION Side B

Overcorrective critics have gotten her wrong since Kiss did everything right, but we can meet E•MO•TION’s steelier B-sides in the middle, including the Madonna opener

Kamaiyah, A Good Night in the Ghetto

Replaying the openers, why didn’t I remember how tuneful she was? Until 16 monotone tracks go by, most inferior to YG’s “Why You Always Hatin?” and I’m not a YG fan

KING, We Are KING

Not your brother’s Quiet Storm-sampling chillwave, this is the authentic stuff: homemade, organic, artisanal, you know — and it beats DIIV

Miranda Lambert, The Weight of These Wings

If she only had a brain (just kidding, but “Tin Man,” really) Leland Sundries, Music for Outcasts #notallpublicists

Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, This Unruly Mess I've Made

Just because he’s not as good as you want him to be doesn’t mean he’s as bad as you want him to be either

Bob Mould, Patch the Sky

First good album under his own name only 27 years since he started, and worse, for no particular reason — though I’m sure Jon Wurster helped

Youssou N'Dour, Africa Rekk

Could’ve added the lovely, 2:20 harmonica opener to the great EP painlessly, but he’s still as sharply rendered rhythmically here as he’s been in years

Pinegrove, Cardinal

You’d have to have your head up your ass to not know emo-country was a thing already but now American Football stans can overrate the Weakerthans and undervalue Clem Snide too

Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool

Their best-produced album since Kid A counts for something when they deploy Jonny’s rickety There Will Be Blood magic on the only true song; the other “True” song had rhythm back in 2001

Dawn Richard, Infrared [EP]

“Honest” is more songful than anything on the album proper but less sound-ful

Jeff Rosenstock, WORRY. I have no previous history with the DIY ska/core legend or his proto-pay-what-you-want business model, sounds like a swell guy though, who’s gotten his songwriting together with his financial anxiety just in time, and the token ska/core tracks sound great

Ty Segall, Emotional Mugger

Some concrete riffs to go with the carbon monoxide, some respectable Beatles (“Squealer Two”) to pair with the voice

Shura, Nothing’s Real

In the grand tradition of Charli XCX and Chairlift, she’s got a hit (“What’s It Gonna Be” or two (“Tongue Tied”) on her hands, and not enough else — but she made both without the simp from Athlete so maybe there’s something here

Paul Simon, Stranger to Stranger

You’re surprised the guy who gave Death Cab and Vampire Weekend their fondness for overdetailed sharing made a Postal Service record?

Vic Spencer & Chris Crack, Who the Fuck Is Chris Spencer?

Piñata of the year award for ugly-addictive team-up goes to

Swet Shop Boys, Cashmere

Scary stories that lose something in translation between tag-teaming that never tripped him up before he got sober

Touche Amore, Stage Four

More crudely produced and ordinarily played than, say, Into It. Over It., though the melodies stay on target — finale’s even got a drop of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” — through hoarse ugliness vocally and mortally

Yuck, Stranger Things

SONGS

20. Charli XCX feat. Hannah Diamond, “Paradise” 19. GØGGS, “Glendale Junkyard” 18. Big Thief, “Masterpiece” 17. Zedd feat. Kesha, “True Colors” 16. Panic! At the Disco, “L.A. Devotee” 15. Lucy Dacus, “I Don't Wanna Be Funny Anymore” 14. Kwesta feat. Casper Nyovest, “Ngud’” 13. Open Mike Eagle and Paul White, “Smiling (Quirky Race Doc)” 12. The Hotelier, “Two Deliverances” 11. Meghan Trainor, “NO”

10. Fifth Harmony, “Work from Home” 9. G.L.O.S.S., “Give Violence a Chance” 8. Tacocat, “The Internet” 7. Anna Wise, “BitchSlut” 6. Kvelertak, “1985” 5. Mitski, “Your Best American Girl” 4. Homeboy Sandman, “Talking (Bleep)” 3. The 1975, “UGH!” 2. Kevin Gates, “Kno One” 1. Sleigh Bells, “Rule Number One”

ALBUMS

45. Vic Spencer & Chris Crack, Who the Fuck Is Chris Spencer 44. ANOHNI, Hopelessness 43. Dawn Richard, Infrared [EP] 42. Michete, Cool Tricks 2 41. KING, We Are KING

40. Bombino, Azel 39. Margo Price, Midwest Farmer’s Daughter 38. White Lung, Paradise 37. Ty Segall, Emotional Mugger 36. Pylon, Live 35. Angry Angles, Angry Angles 34. Beyoncé, Lemonade 33. Ukandanz, Awo 32. Thao and the Get Down Stay Down, A Man Alive 31. Fruit Bats, Absolute Loser

30. Open Mike Eagle & Paul White, Hella Personal Film Festival 29. G.L.O.S.S., Trans Day of Revenge 28. Colleen Green, Colleen Green [EP] 27. Kvelertak, Nattesferd 26. Saul Williams, Martyr Loser King 25. Anna Wise, The Feminine: Act I [EP] 24. ORANSSI PAZUZU, Värähtelijä 23. PJ Harvey, The Hope Six Demolition Project 22. Weezer, Weezer 21. Esperanza Spalding, Emily's D+Evolution

20. The Julie Ruin, Hit Reset 19. Wussy, Forever Sounds 18. Brandy Clark, Big Day in a Small Town 17. Kendrick Lamar, untitled unmastered. 16. The Coathangers, Nosebleed Weekend 15. Death Grips, Bottomless Pit 14. Mitski, Puberty 2 13. Kanye West, The Life of Pablo 12. Wire, Nocturnal Koreans 11. Homeboy Sandman, Kindness for Weakness