Music-Drop Magazine

Rihanna, the Barbadian singer, is not somebody who I thought held particular acclaim with critics, so to discover she had placed an album highly in a lot of top 10/20 best albums of 2016 was interesting; it was almost enough to make me happy to listen to the album, almost. I have biases against Rihanna, I’ve never liked a thing she’s done, I’ve always seen her as superfluous to music and I’ve been pretty convinced she’s only popular because of her looks. So listening to Anti I had to overcome these biases, after all this was a highly placed album on some well-regarded lists. However I failed, I simply didn’t feel much for this album. The album cover of Rihanna's 8th studio album. The highs of the album aren’t bad, songs like Kiss It Better, Desperado and Woo were all perfectly good songs, I couldn’t even complain about them, but the rest of the album drags itself miles behind these three songs. The pop hits of 2016 like Work were pitiful and I couldn’...

As far as music goes I’m a pretty bias sort. I have my preferences and the music I listen to often is contained within those preferences. I like alternative rock with a lot of guitar, sometimes I try the new releases of artists I like (Typically critically acclaimed artists) but I am very dependent on publication’s tastes, and I do follow several reviewers who I know share my tastes. This sometimes means I don’t listen to some of the more obvious albums of a year so that’s why I’m doing this, to rectify my issue and listen to what could be considered representative of 2016’s sound. So I decided to look at 20 sources of the best album of the year, add them all up, do a little aggregate, and churn out a top 20. Then I want to listen to those 20 albums, give them my personal opinions while laying them out in a fashion that makes them easy for the reader/listener to access. Iggy Pop's best album since The Idiot just missed out on the top 20. The lists I chose wer...