What is it about year-end albums lists that drives people to actually loathe music? Is it the numbing sameness of the lists? Is it the arrogance of declaring something “best” in a field as vast and impossible to traverse as popular music? Is it the reduction of art to sport or (worse) math? The answers, of course, are “yes,” “yes,” and “yes.” For my own list, I’d like to preface with some context: The only redeeming aspect of music list-making season is spotlighting albums that people might have missed earlier in the year. On my list, you’ll surely see albums that you’re familiar with, but hopefully you’ll also make a discovery or two that will brighten your day in these dark times. Also: I don’t claim that these are the best albums, only my favorite albums of 2016. Perhaps this distinction will strike some as “nitpicky” or “purely semantic” or “flat-out weaselly.” But trust me: I’ve been doing this for a while, and I know that approximately one minute after this list posts, I’ll find five records that I like more than anything I’ve included here. And, while that’s always bad for my lists, it’s great for me, because I like discovering good stuff that I didn’t already know about, no matter the calendar year or my professional deadlines. My point is, every list is just a snapshot of whatever the list-maker was able to put in his ears during the assigned period. Anyone claiming to be more definitive than that is either kidding themselves or a liar. If you truly expect any list to accurately sum up the totality of the art produced in a calendar year, you are setting yourself up for outrage. If, however, you approach a list in the spirit it was created — as a celebration of good art — then the exercise suddenly becomes way more fun than looking at a list of records ought to be. Anyway, here’s what I liked. OUTSIDE OF THE TOP 10 (50-26)

When you make a list, sometimes the albums in the lower reaches end up sounding better a year later, because you haven’t worn them out as much. So, it’s possible that my favorite album of 2016 five years from now could very well be one of these albums. (My bet is on Sat. Nite Duets’ Air Guitar, a slacker’s survey of indie-rock history that didn’t get nearly enough attention this year, or The Dirty Nil’s “Higher Power,” which spawned one of my favorite songs of 2016, “Zombie Eyed,” which reminds me a little of Lit’s “My Own Worst Enemy.”)

50. Hurry, Guided Meditation

49. Culture Abuse, Peach

48. Metallica, Hardwired … To Self-Destruct

47. Parquet Courts, Human Perfomance

46. Black Mountain, IV

45. Andy Schauf, The Party

44. Miranda Lambert, The Weight of These Wings

43. Austin Lucas, Between the Moon and the Midwest

42. Chris Robinson Brotherhood, Any Way You Love, We Know How You Feel

41. Kevin Morby, Singing Saw

40. Sat. Nite Duets, Air Guitar

39. Carter Tanton, Jettison the Valley

38. Nap Eyes, Thought Rock Fish Scale

37. The 1975, i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it

36. The Dirty Nil, Higher Power

35. The Hotelier, Goodness

34. DIIV, Is This The Are

33. A Tribe Called Quest, We Got It From Here … Thank You For Your Service

32. William Tyler, Modern Country

31. David Bowie, Blackstar

30. Lucy Dacus, No Burden

29. Wilco, Schmilco

28. Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool

27. Pkew Pkew Pkew, Pkew Pkew Pkew

26. Leonard Cohen, You Want It Darker MY ALMOST TOP TEN (Nos. 11-25)

These albums were all very close to making my top 10. At various points, many of them actually were in my top 10. It’s possible that if I posted this list one week from today, a few might re-appear in my top 10. Ultimately, lists are fluid and arbitrary, but also an effective way to tell people about good albums. So, please take note of all of these titles! 25. Modern Baseball, Holy Ghost

24. Beach Slang, A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings

23. Frank Ocean, Blonde

22. Joyce Manor, Cody

21. Bon Iver, 22, A Million

20. Cass McCombs, Mangy Love

19. The Claypool Lennon Delirium, Monolith of Phobos

18. Steve Gunn, Eyes on the Lines

17. Cymbals Eat Guitars, Pretty Years

16. Sturgill Simpson, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

15. Conor Oberst, Ruminations

14. Hard Working Americans, Rest in Chaos

13. Michael Kiwanaka, Love and Hate

12. Angel Olsen, My Woman

11. Pup, The Dream Is Over MY TOP TEN

In order for an album to make my top 10, it had to fulfill one requirement: I had to be obsessed with it for at least one week this year. That means I wanted to listen to nothing else, or talk about any other album with friends, during a particular period of my life in 2016. So, for me, these are the albums that marked time in the past 12 months. I’ll forever associate them with 2016, though I also expect to get more out of them in the years ahead. 10. Ryley Walker, Golden Sings That Have Been Sung

Part of a bumper group of young, cerebral 21st century guitar heroes that also includes Steve Gunn and William Tyler, Chicago’s Ryley Walker is less concerned with showing off than exploring the symphonic possibilities of layering mellifluous guitar licks in a bed of melacholic bass lines, restless drums, and exploratory keyboards. Live, Walker ventures into Deadhead territory, but on record, his songs are as carefully composed as early ’70s masterworks by Van Morrison and Tim Buckley. 9. BadBadNotGood, IV

The long shadow of 2015’s defining LP, Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, was felt this year mostly via the protest sentiments that permeated records by everyone from Beyonce to Drive-By Truckers. The jazzy hip-hop torch was also carried by Toronto quartet BadBadNotGood, whose atmospheric instrumentals and insinuating psych-soul songs epitomize what Stereolab referred to in the ’90s as “bachelor pad music.” 8. Anderson .Paak, Malibu

2016 was year of big, audacious albums in which major pop stars aspired to make serious artistic statements. Many of those records were easy to admire, though not always so easy to listen to. Too often, the media narrative simply overwhelmed the songs. The joy of Malibu, the second studio album by budding pop auteur Anderson .Paak, is how accessible and pleasurable the record is even as it embraces a heady R&B sprawl. Few artists worked harder this year — .Paak appeared on songs by Chance the Rapper, Schoolboy Q, and Mac Miller, and put out a second full-length record, Yes Lawd!, with his side project NxWorries. But on Malibu .Paak makes hard work sound breezy. 7. Jeff Rosenstock, Worry

A punk-rock lifer who looks like an IT guy gone to seed, Jeff Rosenstock channeled everyman angst in an age of political apocalypse better than just about anyone this year on Worry, a 17-song epic in which getting right with yourself is the first step toward changing the world. Even when Rosenstock is preoccupied with the inside-baseball worries of a touring musician — like in the industry-skewering “Festival Song” — he takes a refreshing stand against the greed, self-interest, and overall awfulness of modern American life. Musically, Rosenstock practices the ecumenical sermon he preaches, leavening his relentless basement-punk pummeling with Beatlesque power-pop and slinky ska grooves. Yes, this is a record so open-hearted that even ska is welcome, so check your prejudices at the door, snobs.