Year in Review: The Best Albums of 2016

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Morgan Hotston 
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Album: Joanne
Artist: Lady Gaga
Label: Interscope
Released: October 21

I was immediately intrigued about Joanne when I found out that Kevin Parker of Tame Impala had a large role in the album’s production.

After Lady Gaga made a jazz record with Tony Bennett, I knew that her sound would drastically change from her pop roots of the past. With Americana, Folk, and Country influences, I genuinely enjoy this album and I think it marks a very mature part in her career.

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Album: Lemonade
Artist: Beyoncé
Label: Parkwood/Columbia
Released: April 23

This album delivers hit after hit after hit. With surprising collaborations with Jack White and James Blake, this album spans across all genres and makes it work.

It’s intense and hard hitting at times, but it was executed perfectly through the videos released with each song where the creative vision was very strong.

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Album: A/B
Artist: Kaleo
Label: Elektra/Atlantic 
Released: June 10

Kaleo delivered huge on their second album. It’s got qualities that command and qualities that soothe, all while maintaining their edge.

What I love about Kaleo is that they embrace being Icelandic and feed off of that for their live videos. From performing inside a volcano to on a floating glacier, they turn their country into one of the best settings for live music recordings I’ve ever seen.

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Album: Skin 
Artist: Flume
Label: Mom + Pop
Released: May 27

Flume continues to reinvent himself with every new release. He pushes what he can achieve sonically, and has collaborated with artists like Beck, Tove Lo, AlunaGeorge, and Little Dragon to maintain such diversity in his body of work.

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Album: The Altar
Artist: BANKS
Label: Harvest 
Released: September 30

The Altar was one of the releases I was most looking forward to this year. Banks attained new levels of vulnerability with this record, and it shows through the content of her videos.

She plays with many tools in the recording process that really bring out the power, dominance, and on the other hand, delicacies, in her voice.