Rolling Stone's Top 50 Albums of 2016

Car Seat Headrest at Pitchfork Festival 2016
Car Seat Headrest (who is #4 on RS list) at Pitchfork Fest (photo by Ben Stas)

Rolling Stone has dropped their top 50 albums of 2016 list, and as always it’s got your handful of eye-rolling established vets, but also some newer indie breakouts. You’ve got rap (Young Thug, Danny Brown, Chance the Rapper, Kanye West), indie rock (Car Seat Headrest, Bon Iver, Mitski, LVL Up, Angel Olsen), country (Margo Price and Sturgill Simpson), pop (Beyonce and Rihanna), and of course RS’s usual focus on older acts (Rolling Stones, The Monkees, Elton John, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, Metallica), not to mention Bowie and Leonard Cohen.

You can read their commentary here and check out the full list below.

Rolling Stone – 50 Best Albums of 2016
50. Death Grips, ‘Bottomless Pit’
49. Dawes, ‘We’re All Gonna Die’
48. Esperanza Spalding, ‘Emily’s D+Evolution’
47. Kyle Dixon & Michael Stein, ‘Stranger Things, Volume One and Two’
46. Norah Jones, ‘Day Breaks’
45. Iggy Pop, ‘Post Pop Depression’
44. The Monkees, ‘Good Times!’
43. Future, ‘Evol’
42. Drake, ‘Views’
41. Wilco, ‘Schmilco’
40. Maxwell, ‘blackSUMMERS’night’
39. Elton John, ‘Wonderful Crazy Night’
38. Tove Lo, ‘Lady Wood’
37. Bonnie Raitt, ‘Dig In Deep’
36. Metallica, ‘Hardwired… to Self-Destruct’
35. Anohni, ‘Hopelessness’
34. Angel Olsen, ‘My Woman’
33. Sting, ’57th & 9th’
32. Alicia Keys, ‘Here’
31. White Lung, ‘Paradise’
30. A Tribe Called Quest, ‘We Got It From Here… Thank You 4 Your Service’
29. Mudcrutch, ‘Mudcrutch 2’
28. Blood Orange, ‘Freetown Sound’
27. Brandy Clark, ‘Big Day in a Small Town’
26. Sturgill Simpson, ‘A Sailor’s Guide to Earth’
25. Rihanna, ‘Anti’
24. Drive-By Truckers, ‘American Band’
23. Mitski, ‘Puberty 2′
22. Bon Iver, ’22, A Million’
21. Margo Price, ‘Midwest Farmer’s Daughter’
20. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, ‘Skeleton Tree’
19. Danny Brown, ‘Atrocity Exhibition’
18. The 1975, ‘I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It’
17. Parquet Courts, ‘Human Performance’
16. Miranda Lambert, ‘The Weight of These Wings’
15. Lvl Up, ‘Return to Love’
14. Green Day, ‘Revolution Radio’
13. Maren Morris, ‘Hero’
12. Paul Simon, ‘Stranger to Stranger’
11. Solange, ‘A Seat at the Table’
10. Young Thug, ‘Jeffery’
9. Leonard Cohen, ‘You Want It Darker’
8. Kanye West, ‘The Life of Pablo’
7. Rolling Stones, ‘Blue & Lonesome’
6. Radiohead, ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’
5. Frank Ocean, ‘Blonde’
4. Car Seat Headrest, ‘Teens of Denial’
3. Chance the Rapper, ‘Coloring Book’
2. David Bowie, ‘Blackstar’
1. Beyoncé, ‘Lemonade’