20. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo 
Kanye’s messiest album by far coincides with his messiest year, and while “Ultralight Beam” is by far the album’s highlight, it’s “FML,” maybe Kanye’s most vulnerable recorded moment. Kanye is usually imagined as an egocentric workhorse getting high on his own product, but for a few tracks on The Life of Pablo he lets us take a peek at something a little realer. This can almost make the bloat, think “Highlights” or “Wolves,” seem farcical, but the album is defined by its jarring contrasts. And it’ll be the first Kanye album that’s doomed to be changed to us by what more we learn about the man behind it. – Joey Daniewicz
19. Mitski – Puberty 2
Mitski’s critical ascension into the spotlight has been a befuddling, but truly deserved, journey to watch unfold. With bitingly honest lyrics that juxtapose disarmingly sweet vocals, she’s become of the years greatest indie darlings. Songs such as “Your Best American Girl” and “Happy” in particular shine a light on the messages she’s trying to convey while never sacrificing the tonality she’s managed to build for herself. She’s delicately ferocious, fearless in her lyricism but sultry in her delivery, making her a true enigma for the independent music scene. – Allyson Johnson
18. Angel Olsen – My Woman
In the two years that followed her critically-acclaimed breakout Burn Your Fire For No Witness, Angel Olsen expands her palette beyond the introverted, lo-fi notes of Strange Cacti and Halfway Home – merging styles of shimmery, synth-pop and folk-rock on the arguably seminal My Woman. With re-playable tracks like “Shut Up Kiss Me” and “Never Be Mine” , the very themes that permeates along the edges has as much to do with “the complicated mess of being a woman” as it does the everyday pressures of having to show up and be seen in less glamorous arenas of work, family, friendships, and bitter romances. It’s one of the most evocative and down-right legit records of the year. – Jennifer Baugh
17. Swet Shop Boys – Cashmere
Himanshu “Heems” Suri has created some amazing stuff since, but he hasn’t sounded truly elated for a project since Das Racist broke up. Heems joins Riz “MC Riz” Ahmed (yeah, the movie star) as they crack wise about a world that they see as getting bleaker and bleaker for brown people. On opener T5, they’re not just thinking of Trump, they’re thinking of Palestine. The project exudes creative energy and the pair meshes great, with Riz adding a bit of edge to Heems’ class clown. – Joey Daniewicz
16. The Weeknd – Starboy
After blowing up into stardom with Beauty Behind the Madness, The Weeknd returned to the pop scene with the appropriately titled Starboy. With the first single featuring Daft Punk, The Weeknd continues to prove that he can make certain pop conventions into his own with his unique vocal flair and infectious sound. This a sleek and more controlled album from The Weeknd; while it’s not full of brilliance, there are enough sparks of it throughout Starboy. – Gabrielle Bondi
15. Bruno Mars – 24k Magic
24k Magic continues to build on the successes of “Uptown Funk” – offering a more refined, cohesive, and infectiously suave exploration through past decades of funk, hip-hop, and R&B. With all the swagger of that 2014 hit single, Mars treats his fans with an even funkier and more lively dance-party kickback reminiscent of ’90s R&B boy groups like Shai and New Edition particularly on tracks like “Finesse” and “Straight Up & Down”. While some may argue that Mars has yet to adopt a less caricatured, more sonically innovative hold on such jams (for those who feel this way, you certainly have a point), the vibe of 24K Magic feels too earnest to overly-criticize, to be honest – providing glimmers of future hits that most assuredly is soon to come. – Jennifer Baugh
14. David Bowie – Blackstar
The final album of one of the greatest and most fascinating artists in any medium from the last 50 years is a stunning and emotional document on mortality. All the while, Bowie is characteristically breaking new ground, and reinvents himself sonically one last time with a post-modern jazz record that seems ahead of its time and incomparable to anything else in music this year. By crafting his impending death into a work of art, Bowie has turned in his final masterpiece in a career full of them. – Ryan Gibbs
13. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool
A Moon Shaped Pool is the closest that Radiohead has ever come to recording a break-up album, as the lyrics of several songs are heavily inspired by Thom Yorke’s split with his long-time partner Dr. Rachel Owen, who died of cancer earlier this month. References to the end of the relationship appearing on nearly every track and even seem to inform the recording of the two-decade old “True Love Waits”. Musically, the album contains several hallmarks that Radiohead fans have come to expect from their albums post Kid A: haunting ballads, electronic experimentalism, a propulsive single in “Burn the Witch” and a handful of guitar songs that keep the “But Where Are the Guitars?” crowd happy. A Moon Shaped Pool another strong entry in the discography of alternative music’s most acclaimed band, and one that the fans die-hards will happily revisit for years to come – Ryan Gibbs
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12. Blood Orange – Freetown Sound
Despite how many other voices he brings to the fore, particularly in his use of women vocalists to confront themes of femininity, Freetown Sound constantly sounds like a deeply personal project, and it’s overflowing with ideas to the point that we seem to be in Dev Hynes’ head. His production, which has been featured on Solange Knowles and Sky Ferreira albums, steals the show, lifting his hooks into a place that feels comfortably cerebral. Hynes has said that writing Cupid Deluxe was like making a mix for someone else and Freetown Sound was like creating one for himself, and his work greatly benefits from this look inward. – Joey Daniewicz
11. The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It
On their second album, The 1975 left behind the heart-on-their-sleeve indie rock of their debut album behind to take listeners on a journey into alternative music’s past. I Like It When You Sleep… feels like a guided tour through bands and genres that were almost completely eradicated from the airwaves of modern rock radio once Nirvana hit big: the cool-and-collected dance-rock of INXS and Big Audio Dynamite, the sophisti-pop of Prefab Sprout and Level 42, and the left-field pop of The Escape Club and Information Society Matty Healy and co. not only act as curators, but breathe new life into these styles by updating them for the 21st century. Stellar tracks like “The Sound” and “Somebody Else” sound thoroughly contemporary while being greatly informed and indebted by these influences. The album is a brilliant collection of songs that recontextualizes the band as one the best songsmiths in guitar pop. If they’re our new Scritti Polliti, they’ve definitely put in the work to get there. – Ryan Gibbs
50-41 | 40-31 | 30-21 | 20-11 | 10-1
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