Last time, 1973 revealed a rich seam of top albums and singles but didn’t quite show the strength in depth to make the top half, landing in 24th place so far. This time, it’s time to channel our inner James Acasters as we assess the music of the year 2016
A reminder of the premise of the thread
After a period of posting and reminiscing, Polls will be posted to rate the music of the year out of ten (based on the albums, singles, gigs, whatever that stand out for you that year) and voting for your favourite of the nominated albums and songs.
Everyone can nominate one album and one song from the year which will then be collated into side-polls which will be open for a few days - please make it clear when you post a nomination for the poll (as opposed to when just posting about songs and albums you like, which are very welcome).
Leaderboard
| Rank | Year | Rating | Top Album | Top Song |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1994 | 9.46 | Portishead - Dummy | Beastie Boys - Sabotage |
| 2 | 1991 | 8.98 | Slint - Spiderland | Massive Attack - Unfinished Sympathy |
| 3 | 1988 | 8.93 | Pixies - Surfer Rosa | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - The Mercy Street |
| 4 | 1968 | 8.67 | Van Morrison - Astral Weeks | Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman |
| 5 | 1997 | 8.6 | Radiohead - OK Computer | The Beta Band - Dry The Rain |
| 6 | 1967 | 8.48 | Love - Forever Changes | Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Some Velvet Morning |
| 7 | 1995 | 8.45 | Radiohead - The Bends | The Smashing Pumpkins - 1975 |
| 8 | 1977 | 8.41 | Kraftwerk - Trans-Europe Express | Donna Summer - I Feel Love |
| 9 | 1969 | 8.35 | The Velvet Underground | The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog |
| 10 | 1998 | 8.3 | Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children | Massive Attack – Teardrop |
| 11 | 2013 | 8.29 | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push the Sky Away | Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Jubilee Street |
| 11 | 1992 | 8.29 | Pavement - Slanted & Enchanted | Pulp - Babies |
| 13 | 2019 | 8.14 | Self Esteem - Compliments Please | Big Thief - Not |
| 14 | 2007 | 8.13 | LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver / Radiohead - In Rainbows | LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends / M.I.A. - Paper Planes |
| 14 | 1975 | 8.13 | Neil Young - Tonight’s the Night / Bob Dylan - Blood on the Tracks | Neil Young and Crazy Horse - Cortez the Killer |
| 16 | 2004 | 8.1 | Madvillain - Madvillainy / Arcade Fire - Funeral | The Walkmen - The Rat |
| 16 | 2001 | 8.1 | The Strokes - Is This It | Roots Manuva - Witness (1 Hope) / Mogwai - My Father My King |
| 18 | 2002 | 8.06 | Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights | LCD Soundsystem - Losing My Edge |
| 18 | 1981 | 8.06 | The Cure - Faith | New Order - Ceremony |
| 20 | 1979 | 7.96 | Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures | Joy Division - Transmission |
| 21 | 1982 | 7.76 | The Cure - Pornography / Kate Bush - The Dreaming | The Associates - Party Fears Two |
| 22 | 2014 | 7.69 | FKA Twigs - LP1 | FKA Twigs - Two Weeks |
| 23 | 2010 | 7.66 | Kanye West - MBDTF / Joanna Newsom - Have One One Me / Beach House - Teen Dream | Robyn - Dancing On My Own |
| 24 | 1973 | 7.64 | Stevie Wonder - Innervisions | Iggy & The Stooges - Search & Destroy |
| 25 | 1970 | 7.61 | Neil Young - After the Goldrush | Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up |
| 26 | 1972 | 7.53 | Can - Ebe Gamyasi | Stevie Wonder - Superstition |
| 27 | 1976 | 7.47 | David Bowie - Station to Station | Bob Dylan - Hurricane |
| 27 | 1990 | 7.47 | Sonic Youth - Goo | The Cure - Pictures of You |
| 29 | 2015 | 7.44 | Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell | Sufjan Stevens - No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross |
| 30 | 1986 | 7.42 | Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring | New Order - Bizarre Love Triangle |
| 31 | 2005 | 7.39 | Sufjan Stevens - Illinois | Amerie - 1 Thing |
| 32 | 1965 | 7.38 | The Beatles - Rubber Soul | Frank Wilson - Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) |
| 33 | 2017 | 7.36 | Protomartyr - Relatives in Descent | Kendrick Lamar - Humble |
| 34 | 1987 | 7.32 | Sonic Youth - Sister | The Cure - Just Like Heaven |
| 35 | 1999 | 7.3 | Mogwai - Come On Die Young | Björk - All Is Full Of Love |
| 36 | 2006 | 7.28 | J Dilla - Donuts | TV on the Radio - Wolf Like Me |
| 37 | 1983 | 7.26 | REM - Murmur | Robert Wyatt - Shipbuilding |
| 38 | 2009 | 7.1 | Fever Ray - Fever Ray | Animal Collective - My Girls |
| 39 | 1974 | 6.95 | Neil Young - On The Beach | Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson - The Bottle |
| 40 | 2011 | 6.88 | PJ Harvey - Let England Shake | Low - Especially Me |
| 41 | 1963 | 6.57 | Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan | The Ronettes -Be My Baby |
| 42 | 1985 | 6.53 | Tom Waits - Rain Dogs | Prince and the Revolution - Raspberry Beret |
| 43 | 1962 | 6 | Howlin’ Wolf - Howlin’ Wolf | Dick Dale - Misirlou |
| 44 | 1961 | 5.16 | John Coltrane - My Favourite Things | Roy Orbison - Crying |
2016 was, in so many respects, a really bleak year; Donald Trump won a US presidential election mired with alleged interference from Russian state hackers, England and Wales voted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union in the Brexit referendum, the Zika virus epidemic began in Brazil, a state of emergency was declared in Flint, Michigan following the city’s water source having been changed to the Flint River two years earlier, leading to lead poisoning in an unprecedented public health crisis and terrorist attacks struck Burkina Faso hotel, Brussels airport, Istanbul airport, France’s Bastille Day celebrations and Berlin’s christmas market.
In a year where celebrity deaths seemed to be unusually frequent, we said goodbye to Muhammad Ali, Prince, David Bowie, Fidel Castro, Leonard Cohen, Harper Lee, Alan Rickman, George Michael, Carrie Fisher, Paul Daniels, Terry Wogan, Ronnie Corbett, Zaha Hadid, Boutros Boutros Ghali, Victoria Wood, Gene Wilder, Caroline Aherne and Nancy Reagan.
But how good was the music?
There will be a week or two to nominate one album and/or one song which will then go into polls along with a number rating poll for year overall out of 10, which will close a few days later. Please state when something you share is a nomination so I can catch it for the poll, but feel free to share as much as you wish during the thread!
Some lists for inspiration:
https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2016/
https://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=2016
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/ratings/6-highest-rated/2016/1
https://www.albumoftheyear.org/list/summary/2016/
The 50 Best Albums of 2016 | Pitchfork
The best albums of 2016: the full list | Music | The Guardian
RA Poll: Top 20 albums of 2016 · Feature ⟋ RA
https://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/single/2016/
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9981-the-100-best-songs-of-2016/
Nominations will be tallied here as the week goes on:
Album Nominations
Song Nominations
