Halfway through the year, 2016 is already a vintage year for the album, with many of music’s big-hitters releasing their new works on the world. The year started in a devastatingly bittersweet way, with a brilliant new David Bowie album released just two days before he died of cancer. Then came Rihanna’s ‘Anti’, which began a trend of long-awaited albums dropping – see Chance the Rapper and Skepta, whose much-touted (and equally ace) records also arrived this year. After the surprise release of ‘Anti’, Beyoncé and Radiohead followed suit, respectively releasing ‘Lemonade’ and ‘A Moon Shaped Pool with no forewarning. Iggy Pop, too, surprised us all by teaming up with Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme and Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders for the glorious, swaggering ‘Post Pop Depression’. And among those big hitters, we were obsessed with lesser-known New York rockers Sunflower Bean, Texan songwriter Kevin Morby and Vancouver punks White Lung. All amazing, all released in 2016. And there’s still time for more.
Rihanna, ‘Anti’
Released: 28 January We said: “‘Anti’ is the sort of album that, if you keep listening, will shift favourite tracks and keep revealing new charms. It’s not quite the revelatory departure we might have hoped for, and has the rich but unfocused feel of something worked on perhaps too long with obsessive fervour, but it’s also subtle and interesting; an intriguing soundtrack to an era of change.”
Sunflower Bean, ‘Human Ceremony’
Released: 5 February: We said: “On debut album ‘Human Ceremony’, they fuse Led Zeppelin’s raunchy riffs with the blissful mid-’80s indie of Felt, the best bits of ’80s alt-pop (The Cure) and krautrock (Neu!) and, in front-duo Julia Cumming and Nick Kivlen, have the kind of boy-girl chemistry last seen in the White Stripes.”
Kanye West, ‘The Life Of Pablo’
Released: 14 February We said: “Dangerous, sparse, surreal, disjointed, hyper-realistic, cokey and constantly second-guessing its audience, it’s a carnival of self-portrait that accurately depicts the psychic confusion of its author simply by being, itself, slightly confused.”
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Låpsley, ‘Long Way Home’
Released: 4 March. We said: “At 47 minutes, ‘Long Way Home’ may seem lengthy for a debut, but it feels cohesive without boxing Låpsley into a limited sound. With ’80s-style drum fills, epic choruses and up-tempo disco coexisting so comfortably, album two already feels like a tantalising prospect.”
The Last Shadow Puppets, ‘Everything You’ve Come To Expect’
Released 1 April We said: “These days, Turner and Kane are a far cry from the doe-eyed 22-year-olds who made ‘The Age Of The Understatement’, but as a partnership they continue to provoke intriguing responses from each other, with Kane upping his game significantly from his last solo record and Turner seemingly less inclined to couch himself in irony.”
Radiohead, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’
Released: 8 May We said: “Lead single ‘Burn The Witch’ is a bit of a red herring, a classic slice of Radiohead scaremongering with cellists wielding their bows like pitchforks. Mostly, the glistening strings and spectral choirs serve to bring a luxuriant vagueness to these proceedings. More inviting than 2011’s ‘The King Of Limbs’ but unlikely to trouble the compilers of ‘Drivetime Hits 17’, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’ is strange, shimmering and uncertain.”
Chance the Rapper, ‘Coloring Book’
Released: 12 May We said: “”The gospel vibe shimmers through ‘Summer Friends’, as Chance compassionately deals with Chicago’s gang violence problem, while ‘Blessings’ makes for a very modern hymn (“Ain’t no blood on my money/Ain’t no Twitter in heaven”) and ‘Same Drugs’ is perhaps the prettiest song about ditching hallucinogens that’s ever been laid to tape.”
