Brace yourselves! Album countdowns are coming… except that we’ve decided not to rate albums this year. Because music is as diverse and personal as our lovely Editors, we’ve decided to look to them to find out what 2016’s best albums are. After a year of crafting playlists to make you laugh, cry, sing, dance, sleep (and potentially get laid), we’ve asked them which artist helped them pull through 2016.
Here’s their selection and it’s divine. We’ve put all the albums together in a playlist so you don’t have to.
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Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker: In a way, Leonard Cohen has been writing the same story for decades - from his critically acclaimed collections of poetry, to his two wonderful novels, to the amazing songs that drew from influences as diverse as Hank Williams Sr., to The Weavers, the common theme in many of these works was the ability to see that "there is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in". You Want It Darker, his final album, was created in the same defiant burst of creativity that characterized Curtis Mayfield's New World Order and the great final album from David Bowie, Blackstar, and we are all beneficiaries of the powerful creative drive and artistic landmarks that these great artists have left us.
Rick Banales (US Editor)
