OK, everybody relax. It’s finally here. These are the best albums I heard in 2016. They’re in no particular order.

Endless Light
O’Brother

Genre: Alternative
Sounds like: Pan-seared Mogwai served on a bed of Black Map with a side of Muse
Standout tracks: Your Move, Deconstruct, Complicated End Times
Sample lyric: “I saw the end of time, I saw the water churning, and all was purified, destroyed, and remade.”

 

Breakin’ Point
Peter, Bjorn and John

Genre: Pop/Rock
Sounds Like: If Abba was a Monkees cover band from the 80s
Standout Tracks: Dominos, What You Talking About?, Breakin’ Point
Sample lyric: “We fall like dominos (a chain reaction), you and me everybody goes (like dominos)”

Magma
Gojira

Genre: Metal
Sounds Like: A metal band that can also write songs
Standout Tracks: The Shooting Star, Stranded, Magma
Sample lyric: “The cure is somewhere in the silence, but I’m crushed by the noise inside”

 

The Violent Sleep of Reason
Meshuggah

Genre: Meshuggah
Sounds Like: Multidimensional plate tectonics
Standout Tracks:  By the Ton, Nostrum
Sample lyric: “Empty promises of healing, Profit aptly buried in the lies, An industry rapt with avarice, Medicating blind, Its acolytes”

This is Acting
Sia

Genre: Pop
Sounds like: Expertly crafted pop music with zero fucks given
Standout tracks: Bird Set Free, Unstoppable, House on Fire
Sample lyric: “Oh, but there’s a scream inside that we all try to hide, We hold on so tight, we cannot deny, Eats us alive, oh it eats us alive”

 

Trágame Tierra
Big Black Delta

Genre: IDM/Experimental
Sounds like: The soundtrack to a weird dream I had where I time traveled back to 1986.
Standout tracks: Kid Icarus, Steer the Canyon
Sample lyric: “You keep bringing me up, just to break me down”

The Uncanny Valley
Perturbator

Genre: Electronic
Sounds like: An AI programmed to listen to John Carpenter became self aware and released an album
Standout tracks: She Moves Like a Knife, Diabolus Ex Machina
Sample lyric: N/A

 

Nonagon Infinity
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

Genre: Alternative
Sounds like: An infinitely looping psychedelic, garage rock animated GIF
Standout tracks: Robot Stop, Big Fig Wasp, Wah Wah
Sample lyric: “I’m up here for the weirdo swarm, I’m the door when you come for more”

 

Monolith of Phobos
The Claypool Lennon Delirium

Genre: Alternative
Sounds like: Les Claypool and Sean Lennon on shrooms
Standout tracks: The Cricket and the Genie, Ohmerica
Sample lyric: “And the Genie said, “I’m the Patron Saint of Prescription Drugs, So remember when you need a hug, Just close your eyes and give your bottle a rub…rub…”

 

Amen & Goodbye
Yeasayer

Genre: Alternative
Sounds like: Experimental psych pop from the future
Standout tracks: I Am Chemistry, Silly Me, Gerson’s Whistle
Sample lyric: “It’s a gas, a sarin for high tea, a C4H10FO2P puts you on your knees”

 

Get to Heaven
Everything Everything

Genre: Alternative
Sounds like: Electro-prog-pop
Standout tracks: To the Blade, Distant Past, Blast Doors
Sample lyric: “Down in my beast heart, I build an empire, whenever I’m blind I, open my wild eye”