There has been a lot to process in 2016 from the deaths of the most beloved pop culture icons to the rise of a fundamentally different social and political American landscape. How do we make sense of where we've been, where we are, and where we're heading? As the news blasts screaming talking heads, as social media transforms into a vortex of hate, lies, and half-formed opinions—where can we find some sort of solace? No place, digitally or otherwise, feels comfortable.

I'd like to believe that it's by no coincidence that 2016 has been one of the best years for music in recent memory. Just when we needed a vacation from the noise or a reason to keep fighting, the greatest artists of our generation came through with masterpieces. We'll always remember 2016 as the year the world changed. And when we do, we'll remember this year was left more bearable and more beautiful thanks to Frank Ocean, Chance the Rapper, Beyoncé, Radiohead, and more. Here are the best albums of 2016.

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30. King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard —Nonagon Infinity

I have no idea what Nonagon Infinity means. It might not mean a damn thing. Likewise, I don't really know why songs on this album are titled things like "Robot Stop" and "Gamma Knife". Here's what I do know: This album is never-ending psych-rock greatness. And when I say never-ending, I mean that literally. This record is one entire loop. When you put on King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard, you enter one inescapable new dimension of riffs, solos, and alien-chanting vocals.

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29. White Lung — Paradise

Fuck this year. Sometimes all we need is a way to release the built-up frustration that comes from just a brief glance at the headlines. White Lung, thankfully, decided to put an album out this year that does a pretty fantastic job of capturing a feeling of stifling discontent.

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28. Sunflower Bean — Human Ceremony

Psych rock is in a good place right now. Sunflower Bean lands on the cool-New-York-chic end of the genre's spectrum. Fronted by bassist and singer Julia Cumming, the band touches on some of the great traditions of New York rock, from psych to metal to noise to garage. It's exactly what you would expect from artists who grew up on playlists of Sonic Youth and the Strokes.

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27. Joey Purp — iiiDrops

A colleague of Chance the Rapper's, Joey Purp is another young rapper unafraid to think big. Also like Chance, he has no interest in making people pay for his music. Available for free on Soundcloud, iiiDrops opens with Purp telling you "I'll show you how it feel to see a homicide."

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26. Parquet Courts — Human Performance

Most bands can hit a slump after a critically acclaimed early release, but Parquet Courts—like the band's grooves—has remained remarkably consistent. That isn't to say the band doesn't experiment; rather, they know the limits of their range and where they should push it.

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25. Drake — Views

While Drake mostly plays it safe on Views, the album has no doubt caught on, having broken every type of record that you can think of. Any one of these tracks will probably end up as this year's song of the summer. Though it will probably be the megahit "One Dance," I wish it was the brilliant and cheesy '80s-influenced ballad "Feel No Ways."

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24. Jamila Woods — HEAVEN

Also a collaborator with Chance the Rapper, Woods unsurprisingly offers her new album for free on Soundcloud—a trend that seems consistent with many of this year's most influential releases. Somehow HEAVEN simultaneously pushes the boundaries of experimental production while at the same time maintaining its share of palatable hooks.

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23. Twin Peaks — Down in Heaven

No one is having more fun playing music than Twin Peaks. Listen to the band's latest record—complete with hoots of joy and the lively atmosphere of making tunes with your friends—and you so clearly get that sense. And if you've ever seen Twin Peaks live, you know this band is in it for the sole purpose of throwing a big party. That's the most rock-and-roll thing I can think of.

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22. Charles Bradley — Changes

Bradley has an incredible story. If you watch or read any interview with the singer, you're immediately hit by his sincerity. He wants to help people, he wants to say things that matter, he wants to make the most of this gift he's been given late in his life. On Changes, this passion is obvious in every song, translated through his classic, road-hardened voice.

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21. Rihanna — Anti

Rihanna has no intentions of being anything we've come to expect from a pop star. She's not going to release safe music. She is not a role model for your kids. With Anti, she covers some insane ground: jazz, '80s-tinged pop, EDM, dancehall, and reggae. And in doing so, she's once again defied our expectations.

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20. Kendrick Lamar — untitled unmastered

How does one follow-up one of the most important hip-hop albums of the 2000s? If you're Kendrick Lamar, you do so by releasing a mostly-fusion-jazz album of b-side recordings from the first album's studio sessions. Lamar's b-sides from To Pimp a Butterfly are better than most rappers' a-sides.

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19. Frankie Cosmos — Next Thing

An endearing collection of soft-rock bedroom songs, Next Thing is a diary of sorts, made up of streams of thoughts—"You are bug bites on vacation / You find the sad in everything"—that are both innocent and insightful.

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18. Danny Brown — Atrocity Exhibition

From the opening sounds of Danny Brown's Atrocity Exhibition—that warbling out-of-pitch bend, the sound of junk getting thrown around, and his whining screech yelping "I'm sweating like I'm in a rave"—the rapper is basically begging you to unplug your speakers. And I wouldn't be surprised if many people did, or took to the streets in protest as if it were the rap equivalent of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring. And that's a shame, because this is the most challenging and fascinating rap album of 2016.

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17. Whitney — Light Upon the Lake

Like the fading light on a warm summer evening, the glow of Whitney's Light Upon the Lake is one you'll still be thinking about in the throes of winter. With grinning melodies, nostalgic guitar work, and horn sections that can be triumphant and emotional, this album is already the soundtrack to some of your fondest memories of the year.

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16. Mitski — Puberty 2

What does it mean to be an adult? Do we ever grow out of our childhood fears and anxieties, or do we simply get older and maintain all of the flaws we think will vanish? As Mitski's aptly named Puberty 2 demonstrates, you're not alone in being anxious about your own anxiety, and it's okay to be uncertain about adulthood.

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Gone are the days of the macho producer relying on heavy drops for cheap thrills. What catches listeners today in electronic music is subtlety. Such is the defining sound of producers like Jamie XX, Flume, and Kaytranada. Relying on a list of upcoming collaborators (including Anderson .Paak) Kaytranada's beats are based more in hip-hop and R&B than in traditional EDM.

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14. Anderson .Paak — Malibu

Effortlessly moving between soul, R&B, and hip-hop, Anderson .Paak is Southern California's strongest voice in the genre since Frank Ocean. Perhaps what's impressive is his versatility as a musician—.Paak raps, sings, and sometimes even plays drums alongside his band.

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13. Hamilton Leithauser / Rostam — I Had a Dream That You Were Mine

Independent from his longtime band, The Walkmen, Hamilton Leithauser has gotten the chance to step back and strip away much of the familiarity and pressure that comes with keeping a group going for 15 years. Teamed up with Vampire Weekend's Rostam Batmanglij, Leithauser can let his incredible songwriting take the focus of simple, bubbling songs.

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12. Bon Iver — 22, A Million

Somewhere in the late-2000s, hip-hop became infatuated with Bon Iver's sound. He became highly influential and a regular feature on hip-hop albums, most notably on Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. Since Justin Vernon released Bon Iver in 2011, his sound has become so ingrained in hip-hop to the point that one might mistake a track on Frank Ocean's Blonde to be Vernon's. Returning this year after a five-year break following 2011's Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Vernon has deconstructed his own sound, chopping it up and engineering it back together like a hip-hop artist creating a beat and only sampling himself. It gets to the heart of what makes a pop song and what a pop song could be.

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11. Solange Knowles — A Seat at the Table

Solange releases music at her own speed, and she has had eight years to write and record a new album. Having only released three albums, we've met her at distinct times as a young woman—at 17 years old, at 22 years old, and at 30 years old. The latest effort is A Seat at the Table, which gives a generous 21 tracks that are impressively focused for a work of that length. It's mature, it's ambitious, and it shows that during the last eight years she's never stopped listening or exploring other sounds.

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10. A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It from Here... Thank You 4 Your Service

So many farewell albums in 2016—some of them expected; some of them unexpected. But while many of these final bouts were filled with introspection, A Tribe Called Quest went out the way it began: Looking out the window and trying to make sense of the world.

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9. Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Denial

Will Toledo's music could never succeed on the radio. Like some prog-rock indie singer-songwriter, he writes tunes that are long, discursive, complex. He'll begin with a slow ballad, build into a mid-tempo groove and end with some all-out rock freakout. Toledo doesn't care about typical song construction, and he makes a strong case for why no one else should either.

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8. Angel Olsen — My Woman

"I don't care what the papers say… I just wanna be alive and make something real," Angel Olsen sings on "Intern," the opening song of My Woman. That's a simple outlook on life we didn't see much of in 2016. But it's an excellent attitude to have when changing your image: Focus on the art, and forget about everyone else. That's exactly what Angel Olsen did on her new album, which makes the work such an authentic and honest representation of the artist at this point in her life and career.

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7. David Bowie — Blackstar

This album will most certainly go down as one of the most chilling and beautiful musical farewells. Filled with musings on Bowie's own mortality, Blackstar was released two days before his death. It's a final statement so stunningly perfect that it couldn't have been made by anyone else.

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6. Blood Orange — Freetown Sound

An album of many voices that explores the ways in which individuals define their own identity, Freetown Sound somehow manages to feel very of-the-moment while at the same time harnessing the sound of '80s funk and R&B. Like D'Angelo's Black Messiah and Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly before it, Freetown Sound has become the soundtrack of a year defined by social injustice.

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5. Kanye West — The Life of Pablo

Is Kanye West a product of his own celebrity, or is his celebrity a product of Kanye West? Where does the man end and the brand begin? Is he a PR failure or a PR master? While haters try to bring him down, West continues to reaffirm his musical acumen with songs that define and guide the next few years of hip-hop. An obsessive and neurotic album that may or may not even be complete, The Life of Pablo gives listeners a glimpse into the mind of a genius.

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4. Beyoncé — Lemonade

No one else could have done what Beyoncé did this year: She created a fearless concept album supposedly about her husband's infidelity. She filled it with music that leapt over genre boundaries like they were cracks in the sidewalk. And she released it without any warning and to near-universal acclaim. The world completely fucking stopped when Lemonade dropped, and it still hasn't started spinning again. In the aftermath, Beyoncé has been endlessly dragged into political debates, become the topic of hot takes. People will talk about her, and she'll let it happen because she's above that—and because her music speaks for itself.

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3. Radiohead — A Moon Shaped Pool

You have to be in the right patient, attentive mood to play Radiohead's A Moon Shaped Pool. It's probably not one to put on at a party. But once you listen to the vivid production, nuanced melodies, and complex arrangements, you'll be endlessly rewarded. After all the ways these guys have revolutionized music in the decades, it feels like they've reached a singularity—like some alien race that has reached the peak level of human efficiency. Everything that has come to define each era of Radiohead—including Jonny Greenwood's stunning film scores and Thom Yorke's solo material—has influence somewhere. And through it all, Yorke's observations—though not overtly political as, say, Hail to the Thief—are as poignant as ever. " "Hey it's me / I just got off the train / A frightening place… faces are concrete grey," he sings on "Glass Eyes." Every one of us feels that way right now.

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2. Chance the Rapper — Coloring Book

In trying times, Chance the Rapper released the most optimistic album of the year, filled with honesty, confidence, and lush choir-and-horns compositions. This is the gospel-rap album Kanye never made. And what Chance does is back up his immense talent as a rapper, producer, and songwriter with equal ability as a performer. Live, he plays with a full group of musicians, acting as more of a bandleader than a rapper. Like his recorded product, his shows have life, they have a natural tempo and not a clinical locked-in feeling of a beat played from a laptop. That's part of what has helped Chance build such an incredible fanbase. He's organic, his entire operation as an artist—Chance is still not signed to a label—is a grassroots movement. This 23-year-old has shown even the most seasoned, professional musicians how to make it in this shapeshifting industry.

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1. Frank Ocean — Blonde

In a year that's so polarizing, so unstable, so angry and confused and miserable, Frank Ocean's Blonde was a calm escape from this incessant feeling of doom. But that doesn't mean his music was a distraction from our problems. Ocean addressed sexual identity, gender, race, loneliness, and drugs in a way that is both clear and confident. This was a crowded year for ideas and a crowded year for music. It was an easy year to have your voice drowned out. And instead of trying to shout over everyone else, Ocean kept his head down. He knew his album was beautiful. That's why he didn't try to dress it up with unnecessary production or guest features or even promotion. He knew the music could carry itself, and that's why he released it in his own, quiet way. That's why he didn't do interviews. That's why he chose to miss the Grammys. Blonde doesn't intend to be—or even sound like—a classic, yet the album, which has only been out since late August, already feels like an old friend.

Matt Miller Culture Editor Matt is the Culture Editor at Esquire where he covers music, movies, books, and TV—with an emphasis on all things Star Wars, Marvel, and Game of Thrones.

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