Favorite Songs of 2016

15. "Good as Hell" - Lizzo







14. "In Care of 8675309" - Lamchop







13. "Drunk Driver/Killer Whale" - Car Seat Headrest







12. "We The People" - A Tribe Called Quest







11. "R.E.D. Ft. Yasiin Bey, Narcy, and Black Bear" - A Tribe Called Red







10. "Dark Water" - DiCaprio





9. "You Want it Darker" - Leonard Cohen







8. "Cranes in the Sky" - Solange







7. "A 1000 Times" - Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam







6. "Ultralight Beam" - Kanye West

5. "I Have Been to the Mountain" - Kevin Morby







4. "Lazarus" - David Bowie







3. "Finish Line/Drown" - Chance the Rapper







2. "The Numbers" - Radiohead







1. "Formation" - Beyoncé

Favorite Albums of 2016

10. Dex Romweber - Carrboro

Dex's best work in recent years. His full range of abilities are on display here.

9. A Tribe Called Red - We are the Halluci-Nation

Indigenous EDM you should be listening to.

8. Noname - Telefone

Chance's best and frequent guest artist finally has a mixtape of her own, and it's everything I hoped it would be.

7. Beyoncé - Lemonade

A call to arms if I've heard one, using personal struggles to speak to broader issues in society.

6. A Tribe Called Quest - We Got it From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

What could have been a decent nostalgia trip was actually something pretty remarkable and couldn't have come at more pertinent time.

5. Blood Orange - Freetown Sound

Sonic, rich, timeless, genre-bending.

4. David Bowie - Blackstar

Normally it's difficult for me to deal with the posthumous works of artists -- it's hard to tell how much of my feelings for the album is on the work itself or the events surrounding the artist But to see a person have so much creative control around his very death is transcendent, and Bowie really created something special here.

3. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book

The gospel album Kanye thought he made.

2. Kevin Morby - Singing Saw

This is an artist I can't believe I just discovered this past year. More traditional and organic than most on this list, but no less current.

1. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool

A rich, gorgeous, personal album. Less conspiracy theories, more vulnerability. Thom Yorke sounds better when he's (somewhat) less paranoid.