ILM's Top 77 Albums of 2016

I know we have a stats thread, but here's the clean and easy top 77 for future referece:

77 MARK BARROTT Sketches From an Island 2 (207 points, 8 votes)
76 GLENN BRANCA Symphony no. 13 (Hallucination City) For 100 Guitars (210 points, 6 votes, 1 first place vote)
75 TIM HECKER Love Streams (210 points, 7 votes)
74 EMMA RUTH RUNDLE Marked For Death (219 points, 7 votes)
73 MAREN MORRIS Hero (221 points, 7 votes)
72 PET SHOP BOYS Super (222 points, 7 votes)
71 ASTRONOID Air (222 points, 8 votes)
70 KISS DANIEL New Era (226 points, 6 votes)
69 BON IVER 22, A Million (230 points, 10 votes)
68 KRISTIN KONTROL X-Communicate (231 points, 9 votes)
67 STEVE HAUSCHILDT Strands (236 points, 8 votes)
66 JUNIOR BOYS Big Black Coat (241 points, 12 votes)
65 JUTE GYTE Perdurance (242 points, 7 votes, 3 first place votes)
64 MOODYMANN DJ-Kicks (248 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
63 TANYA TAGAQ Retribution (250 points, 8 votes)
62 KAYTRANADA 99.9% (251 points, 10 votes)
61 PARQUET COURTS Human Performance (255 points, 8 votes)

60 CASE/LANG/VEIRS case/lang/veirs (263 points, 10 votes)
59 JESSY LANZA Oh No (263 points, 11 votes)
58 KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH & SUZANNE CIANI Sunergy (264 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote)
57 BLOOD ORANGE Freetown Sound (265 points, 8 votes)
56 HANNAH PEEL Awake But Always Dreaming (272 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
55 WILL LONG/DJ SPRINKLES Long Trax (278 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
54 OMAR-S The Best! (280 points, 8 votes)
53 NOURA MINT SEYMALI Arbina (283 points, 8 votes, 1 first place vote)
52 CAVERN OF ANTI-MATTER Void Beats/Invocation Trex (308 points, 10 votes, 1 first place vote)
51 TWEET Charlene (314 points, 12 votes)
50 JENNY HVAL Blood Bitch (315 points, 10 votes, 2 first place votes)
49 ANDERSON .PAAK Malibu (316 points, 12 votes)
48 WEYES BLOOD Front Row Seat to Earth (318 points, 11 votes)
47 SKEPTA Konnichiwa (320 points, 14 votes)
46 BARTOSZ KRUCZYNSKI Baltic Beat (322 points, 9 votes, 2 first place votes)
45 THE RADIO DEPT. Running Out of Love (329 points, 13 votes)
44 BRANDY CLARK Big Day in a Small Town (342 points, 12 votes, 1 first place vote)
43 FRANK OCEAN Blonde (346 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
42 ESPERANZA SPALDING Emily's D+Evolution (361 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
41 SCHOOLBOY Q Blank Face (362 points, 11 votes, 2 first place votes)

40 WILLIAM TYLER Modern Country (364 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
39 UNDERWORLD Barbara, Barbara, We Face a Shining Future (365 points, 12 votes, 2 first place votes)
38 KANYE WEST The Life of Pablo (368 points, 13 votes)
37 PRINS THOMAS Principe Del Norte (385 points, 16 votes)
36 HORSE LORDS Interventions (388 points, 11 votes, 1 first place vote)
35 CARLY RAE JEPSEN E•MO•TION Side B (389 points, 15 votes)
34 ARIANA GRANDE Dangerous Woman (391 points, 12 votes)
33 NONAME Telefone (391 points, 16 votes)
32 AUTECHRE Elseq 1-5 (413 points, 14 votes)
31 DANNY BROWN Atrocity Exhibition (424 points, 16 votes, 1 first place vote)
30 CRYING Beyond the Fleeting Gales (426 points, 11 votes, 2 first place votes)
29 RIHANNA Anti (429 points, 17 votes)
28 RAE SREMMURD Sremmlife 2 (458 points, 14 votes)
27 KATIE GATELY Color (458 points, 16 votes, 3 first place votes)
26 KEVIN GATES Islah (459 points, 15 votes, 2 first place votes)
25 RÓISÍN MURPHY Take Her Up to Monto (465 points, 14 votes)
24 ORANSSI PAZUZU Värähtelijä (476 points, 15 votes, 4 first place votes)
23 BRITNEY SPEARS Glory (476 points, 16 votes)
22 LEONARD COHEN You Want It Darker (491 points, 19 votes)
21 KENDRICK LAMAR untitled unmastered. (496 points, 17 votes, 1 first place vote)

20 NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS Skeleton Tree (497 points, 16 votes)
19 SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS SVIIB (534 points, 18 votes)
18 MIRANDA LAMBERT The Weight of These Wings (543 points, 16 votes, 2 first place votes)
17 YOUNG THUG Jeffery (556 points, 18 votes, 2 first place votes)
16 MAXWELL blackSUMMERSnight (585 points, 19 votes, 1 first place vote)
15 ANGEL OLSEN My Woman (598 points, 16 votes, 3 first place votes)
14 MITSKI Puberty 2 (671 points, 20 votes, 1 first place vote)
13 THE AVALANCHES Wildflower (673 points, 21 votes)
12 CHANCE THE RAPPER Coloring Book (676 points, 23 votes, 3 first place votes)
11 ANOHNI Hopelessness (679 points, 22 votes, 2 first place votes)
10 SHURA Nothing's Real (820 points, 27 votes, 1 first place vote)
9 DAWN RICHARD Redemption (875 points, 30 votes, 1 first place vote)
8 KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH Ears (944 points, 28 votes, 3 first place votes)
7 THE 1975 I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (1,061 points, 29 votes, 4 first place votes)
6 RADIOHEAD A Moon Shaped Pool (1,099 points, 31 votes, 7 first place votes)
5 SOLANGE A Seat at the Table (1,104 points, 34 votes, 2 first place votes)
4 BEYONCÉ Lemonade (1,266 points, 35 votes, 5 first place votes)
3 DAVID BOWIE Blackstar (1,762 points, 51 vots, 5 first place votes)
2 A TRIBE CALLED QUEST We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service (1,795 points, 50 votes, 3 first place votes)
1 KING We Are KING (1,860 points, 58 votes, 4 first place votes)

Thanks! Now nobody should post after you, so that the list remains easy to find at the bottom of the thread.

Uh oh.

― r|t|c, Saturday, February 4, 2017 5:09 AM (sixteen hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brutal camron playing card burn

I don't understand downgrading the Tribe album in comparison to other albums released during the same year because they released 2-4 (depending on your opinion/tastes) albums better than the new one 20 years ago. Are you saying that the only way a Tribe album could and should win a listener's poll in 2016 is if they release the best album they've ever done?

― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), Friday, February 3, 2017 6:59 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I also just don't think the album was that amazing. I definitely heard at least 25 better than it last year. But yeah, releasing their best work would help. I don't see the point of giving people points just on legacy.

I don't see the point of giving people points just on legacy.

I don't either, and it's why I didn't vote for Cohen or Nick Cave or even SVIIB.

Tribe's album split my brain open, though.

It's ok... solid 7/10

vote on legacy because the wool is over your eyes for years, or people are ahead of their time, and the choice is to recognize them or toss yourself on the dustheap of history

tribe album was way good though

Re: Tuomas--somebidy should (& maybe it will be me) re-do the links on the List of Lists thread so that they are permalinked at that bolded results rundown right at the end, so that you don't have to go searching thru the whole thread just to see what placed where or w/e

Maybe people aren't giving points based on legacy?

seriously. i'd basically never heard tribe and this was an easy 10/10. other ppl's opinions eh

Like if Prince had released his 25th-best album at the start of this year and it had somehow ended up in the Top 10 then there might be a case there. But I think all the albums under discussion here have a very specific emotional resonance that clearly really hits people. I don't love all of them but I totally understand why people do, and DJP's post totally nails the resonance of the Tribe album in particular.

Like you have one artist articulating staring death in the face, and another one attempting to come to terms with the senseless death of his child - these are real, raw emotions that most of us have no real way into at this stage of our lives. It's the polar opposite of "oh Leonard Cohen's dead now, let's sling him a dutiful vote".

didn't the last two cohen albums place?

like its fun for flops to troll the deadguy vote & I support that 100% but I think it's more "leonard cohen made a dope album as usual"

yup

when Tribe announced the new album, I was ready to write it off. There were so many factors against it. Fact is, it's a brilliant and very contemporary album, and not at all what I would have expected from them at this point. Not a weak throwback or cash in of any sort, it feels like they've miraculously found a way to do something fresh and new while still maintaining their core identity.

Like I understand the 'in memoriam' aspect--and tbh I'd prob be comfortable calling Blackstar Bowie's fifth album too, so this probably applies to him too--but I'm kind of with rev here. If you're willing to concede that the ATCQ (or Bowie) is not even one of their 3 best albums but still think it's the best album of 2016 then really you're just throwing a megaton of shade on all the rest of new music that happened this year

brutal camron playing card burn

― lag∞n, Sunday, 5 February 2017 02:35 Bookmark

i know it sting but maybe take yr mind off it by reasoning how one could think of chance as updated tribe

xp to DAM: That does not follow logically. The Low End Theory, Midnight Marauders, and arguably People's… are counted among the best albums of all time across all genres. There is a gigantic amount of wiggle room between "one of the best albums ever recorded" and "one of the best albums of this specific year", particularly for a group that is consistently better than everyone around them for the vast majority of their career.

fwiw i've not been able to get 'the story' out of my head for the last few days

the equivalent tribe song has been 'enough', curiously

The best record of the year doesn't have the be that artists best record

Chorley won the Northern Premier League in 2014 but many people around the town say they couldn't hold a candle to the heroes of 1988. Still won the league though!

Well, I mean if DJP can make the math work and thinks that Tribe had reached a level where the only albums that could be used to measure are their past triumphs (or, like, TPAB) then cool

I still think saer just threw a bunch of shade on 'the league' (though maybe not a megaton)

I am not following your train of thought in that last post.

My entire point is that it is unreasonable to say that a new album by a legacy band shouldn't win a poll because they've released better albums in the past. You aren't comparing the current album to their back catalog; you're comparing it to the other albums that came out during its release year. The Tribe album is, to my ears, clearly superior to everything else I listened to, including the De La Soul album I specifically joined Kickstarter for. The Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders are among the greatest albums ever recorded; it doesn't make sense to me to say "well this new one is good but it's not better than stuff they did 20 years ago so I hope it doesn't win". It doesn't have to be better than stuff 20 years ago that ATCQ did; it has to be better than stuff people are doing now is. For me, it was. It's really not complicated.

Hey imagine if this ends up being KING's fifth best album.

if they keep up the rate at which they made this album, we'll find out in 25 years

TLET and MM are amazing, amazing albums. i kinda think 'we got it from here...' is possibly on par with them. idk i think the "legacy" acts of 2016 actually did some incredible work. not just ATCQ but bowie, cohen, underworld, moodymann if his DJ Kicks mix counts (considering its tenor and the year i think it counts as a strong artistic statement)...there probably some other artists i'm not thinking of right now.

Old fellas like William Bell and Aaron Neville also released great albums last year, but not "I'll just slide this in right next to their classics" albums.

The Tribe album is just kind of solid and competent (and sure contemporary, mostly bc it sounds like the people they've influenced) and not really exciting in any other way than "Tribe is back". People are wildly overrating it.

Many people released better and more exciting albums last year.

Bowie released far more albums than Tribe, so it's more difficult, unless Stereogum were to pay me, to rank it among his classics.

Whether Blackstar and We Got It From Here are good albums is a matter of opinion. I think they are.

Most of the time, I'm just "let people like what they want to" unless an artist (or their fanbase) really makes my skin crawl, at which point I derive great pleasure in telling people they're wrong. This doesn't seem to be the case with Rev and the Tribe album. Why shit on people for loving a record you admit is good?

Many people released better and more exciting albums last year.

That's fine that you think so. I disagree.

This didn't really occur to me when voting for Tribe but getting to the stage where a big bunch of people think a band's album released 25+ years since their debut is one of their best is another positive way to look at it. Rappers in their 40s being critically acclaimed like their equivalents in other genres commonly are is important right? Damn though I can't believe Killer Mike is only 5 years younger than Tip (who's also 1 year younger than the RZA and Jay)...

Thanks to you guys I'm now going to check out Weyes Blood in SF for Noise Pop in a couple weeks.

What I'm saying:

Per DJP,

Low End Theory/Midnight Marauders >> We Got It From Here >> all other music in 2016

Now either:

Low End Theory/Midnight Marauders >>>> all other music in 91/93

or

All other muisc in 91/93 >> all other music in 2016 (guesstimating how many pointers go here)

This is what I'm getting at. From the high praise he's giving LET/MM, I'm guessing he's arguing the former (tho I wouldn't actually even disagree with the katter personally now that I think about it)...regardless, I'm ready to be done with bedeviling him about his music tastes. My bad, completely!

all you pedants you must go

Music and cultural "taste" is backed up with correct arguments and facts, not "digging".

― Banaka™ (banaka), Thursday, 16 August 2012 01:09 (four years ago) Permalink

Most of the time, I'm just "let people like what they want to" unless an artist (or their fanbase) really makes my skin crawl, at which point I derive great pleasure in telling people they're wrong. This doesn't seem to be the case with Rev and the Tribe album. Why shit on people for loving a record you admit is good?

― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Monday, February 6, 2017 4:09 PM (three hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Eh, I think it my be my distrust of nostalgia doubling down on things I myself have nostalgia, which for ATCQ is v much the case. But also I chafe at the idea that a legacy act's contemporary update is praised above the younger and fresher artists pushing at the boundaries of rap, when really ATCQ are barely playing catch up. They released work before that revolutionized the genre, but does anyone think We Got It From Here... is going to do that? That's the standard I'm holding them up to because I know what they've done before. Idk, I feel like in some ways it's my own esteem for them that prevents me from accepting this album as worthy of its laurels.

if you're comparing two things, comparing one of them against a set of different things is a different type of comparison

like if Kojak was on tv now, it might be better than all the crime tv shows, but not better than all shows, because we have genres that didn't exist then, right

Don't be so condescending. I'm saying it doesn't stack up against old Tribe albums or what other people are doing currently. It's completely possible to fail on both those measures.

i know it sting but maybe take yr mind off it by reasoning how one could think of chance as updated tribe

― r|t|c, Sunday, February 5, 2017 6:49 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

its true tho, i dont expect we got it from here voters to understand

I just want to thank everyone who voted for Hannah Peel. This is a great, beautiful album.

Same here, surprised it doesn't seem to have got much attention elsewhere.

idk Do people really love the old Tribe albums because they "revolutionized the genre"? There was a hip hop album coming out every week or so in the early 90s that did that. I love them because they were dope as hell and re-listenable to the point that you didn't have to spend money on any other music for a month or so after they came out. But I guess if 17 year olds aren't citing WGITFH as inspiration in two years then it must have been a failure.

hehe, there is no questioning the logic of the Drugs A Money post - I like it

didn't like the new tribe too much, but looking at that all time top 10 ilx album poll albums list I found only one or two albums I really like, so I'm p sure I'm the one at fault here ;_;

that logic assumes that the transitive property applies to the space of music preference

I have a lot of misgivings about that last post tbh and I'm not really thrilled with my train of thought throughout this discussion, so I hope the other participants p much forgive me and permit a quick exit

I find Timmy Turner to be more interesting than any Migos song I've heard, btw