The ten best songs of 2016

With no pretense of being exhaustive, and without claiming to represent the whole of our editorial staff's rankings, we thought we'd let you listen, through a Top10 each, to the playlists that best capture each of our own "musical year." The songs that stood out within a certain genre, the signature songs of breakthrough artists or of the great confirmations - or, more simply, the songs that meant something to us who listened to them.

Gabriele Benzing

Ten songs for...

Whoever would like to see if people really cry

– "Okkervil River R.I.P.", Okkervil River –

Whoever means business, or at least tries to

– “Are You Serious”, Andrew Bird –

Whoever isn't afraid of the pitfalls of the conditional tense

– “Love On The Conditional”, Laish –

Whoever doesn't want to turn off the alarm clock

– “Wake Up To This”, King Creosote –

Those who call things by their name

– “Humbug Mountain Song”, Fruit Bats –

Who stole the sunglasses from “They Live”

– “Until It Goes”, John Congleton & The Nighty Nite –

Who would like to be Frank Lloyd Wright

– “Mamah Borthwick (A Sketch)”, Conor Oberst –

Those who never learned the C chord progression

– “The Guitar Player”, David Simard –

Those who walked into the polling booth to vote no. And walked out with a pierced heart

– “Fuck The Government, I Love You”, The Burning Hell –

Those who aren't ready yet

– “Traveling Light”, Leonard Cohen –

Giuliano Delli Paoli

It was a funereal year for popular music, marked by the passing of countless musicians, starting with the incomparable White Duke, who exited the stage while unveiling the wonderful, melancholy "Blackstar". The touching "Lazarus" moved so many of us, to the point of tears.

Fortunately, 2016 also brought plenty of smiles, delivering several confirmations, like those of James Blake and Blood Orange. Then there are masterpieces like "Modern Holocaust" (the only track on my playlist missing from Spotify, which you can listen to via the YouTube link attached to the title), found on the magnificent "Karabin" by the outstanding Polish artist Maria Peszek; there's the divine Solange, who has finally reached her full maturity, and the talented Kate Tempest. Also worth mentioning is the magnificent lightness of a song like "Hazy Shades" by Thomas Cohen, the scratchy, enveloping crescendo of a track like "Love & Hate" by Michael Kiwanuka, the electro trip-hop of London's Haelos, and the welcome, timeless return of the collective La Femme.

Claudio Fabretti

Stefano Ferreri

Fabio Guastalla 

Vassilios Karagiannis

This was a year devoted to total heterogeneity: diversity is the keyword, whether in terms of style, context, genre, culture, or nation. This is a playlist with no fixed reference points, for an uncertain, confused year, a seething magma still struggling to take shape, despite the emergence of multiple trends, especially in the post-club sphere. It's a scattershot selection of songs that accompanied me through this strange 2016, marked by enormous losses and by the emergence of remarkable talents, with no need to point to or showcase any particular way of listening.

On January 10th we lost David Bowie. The startling “Tis Is A Pity She Was A Whore” symbolically opens my 2016 playlist, alongside two other highly anticipated names, P.J. Harvey and Radiohead. Three tracks that represent a sound that has by now become “classic”, but never predictable. The second part of the compilation is devoted to alt-rock energy, with the guitar explosions of Savages, the melancholy-streaked shoegaze of Nothing and the wave assaults of Preoccupations. The third part focuses on the elaborate contaminations crafted by Suuns, Heliocentrics and Cavern Of Anti-Matters, responsible for three of the most accomplished records of these twelve months. As a closer, I chose the soft, hippie-lysergic ride that serves as the epilogue to the fourth album by Black Mountain. I didn't want to neglect, though, the dream-pop of Daughter, the ethno-psych drift of Goat, the return to post-hardcore of Men, the modern dancefloor sounds of Underworld, the hyper-colorful pop of Primal Scream and the cinematic paths of Tindersticks. All artists left out of the top ten only because this year turned out to be extraordinarily rich in beautiful, intriguing releases.

Alessandro Mattedi

We'll remember 2016 as an extremely unlucky year, with the loss of the Thin White Duke on the rock side, and of an electronic music legend like David Mancuso on the other. Still, it was a year packed with music and with hugely anticipated comebacks like Radiohead, Massive Attack, American Football and The Avalanches. The exceptional debut from our favorite little duo Lost Under Heaven. Editors, Mogwai and Slowdive coming together for the first time as Minor Victories. Warp reconfirming itself as the cornerstone electronic label, with Mark Pritchard, Bibio and new signing Lorenzo Senni and his pointillistic music.

There was also a return to that strain of techno that shows no leniency toward the listener, leaving little room for empathy, sometimes even for the dancefloor itself, through a return to acid and industrial origins: "Daydream" by I Hate Models, in this sense, is a track that really won everyone over, even those not particularly versed in techno. Yet another record from Moderat, which, as far as I'm concerned, is their best-functioning one yet, with more tracks that stick in your head; the legacy of Dream Catalogue with Immune and its track that sounds like Burial in Wonderland. But above all, this was the year of Amnesia Scanner and their idea of upending the rules of 4/4 to shed light on a new era of post-club electronic music.

Michele Palozzo

Lorenzo Righetto

Looking back, 2016 feels very much like the year of the periphery. Just as in cities, the periphery increasingly finds a sense of community distinct and different from its center of gravity, even while remaining more tightly connected to it than before. Yet today Iceland is producing soul records with top-notch instrumental textures and sound. Sweden is teaching lessons in artistic inspiration to its ailing American godfathers. Australia is doing the best job of interpreting the trends and revivals at the forefront globally. Then there's Canada, an inexhaustible forge of artists with a distinctly oblique personality. Curiously, what came out of there were mostly major confirmations rather than explosive debuts. 2016 was the year of nuance: while for rock the 1990s remain the guiding star, on the singer-songwriter front traditional/minimalist folk has definitively lost its appeal, in favor of more elaborate orchestrations, eclectic songs, a style that recalls the pop-rock and soul contaminations of the Seventies (for those who didn't dive straight into electronic music).

Roberto Rizzo

Federico Romagnoli

For the first two, unavailable on Spotify, a YouTube link is attached to the title. The rest are listed in alphabetical order.

ゲスの極み乙女。(Gesu no Kiwami Otome) – 勝手な青春劇 (Katte na seishun geki)

Japan. A progressive pop masterpiece from Enon Kawatani's band. It has yet to find a home on an album due to the group's temporary hiatus.

Maria Peszek – Modern Holocaust

Poland. An apocalyptic lyric about the current surge of the far right, set against Michał Król's electronic art pop backdrop.

2814 – Before The Rain

Great Britain. A cosmic whirlpool that ranks among the most beautiful ambient tracks ever recorded.

Leonard Cohen – It Seemed The Better Way

Canada. As in the single “You Want It Darker”, gregorian-tinged choirs find their place here.

Los Fabulosos Cadillacs – No era para vos

Argentina. Indie rock muscle and progressive flourishes mark the band's return after seven years of silence.

Damir Imamović’s Sevdah Takht – Lijepa Zejno

Bosnia. Noir-tinged jazz-folk from an artist who's rewriting the rules of traditional Balkan music.

Metafive – Musical Chairs

Japan. Taken from the recent EP “Metahalf”. An art pop supergroup featuring names like Leo Imai, Yukihiro Takahashi and Cornelius.

ミツメ (Mitsume) – あこがれ (Akogare)

Japan. Ever more relaxed, Mitsume craft a perfect song, all liquid guitars and pulsing bass.

Solange – Don’t Wish Me Well

United States. Perhaps the tensest track on her acclaimed album, a manifesto for a new kind of soul.

Years & Years – Meteorite

Great Britain. The soundtrack to a forgettable little film, this is an irresistible dance-pop gem.

Gioele Sforza

In a 2016 full of tragic farewells, unexpected comebacks and unpredictable surprises, I want to mention a handful of songs that kept me company through the vast sea of doubts and anxieties of this strange, and in its own way epic, year. I'll comment on a few of them, leaving the rest to the listener's ear.

 Solange – Cranes In The Sky

For how it manages to abstract pain and accept it as an essential, ineluctable part of life. You can try travelling the world, squandering your money, throwing yourself into all sorts of activities, from reading to sex, but that unease, that existential sadness, remains. How such a bitter reality can give birth to a gem of such rare beauty is a miracle that Solange manages to set with disarming lightness and simplicity.

 The Weeknd – Starboy

With its sinuous, hypnotic crescendo, "Starboy" is perhaps the best mainstream pop of this year. Sounds and atmospheres fit together perfectly in the classic outpouring of lascivious thoughts that The Weeknd, here at his most 'stellar', has been getting us used to for some time now.

 Glass Animals – Youth

The story of a mother wishing her now grown-up son a bright, rosy future out there in the world. Touching in its own way, even if seasoned with good-natured irony, it's been one of the liveliest and most colourful tracks in a year full of shadows.

 Rae Sremmurd – Black Beatles

Made famous by the mannequin challenge, "Black Beatles" seems to live exactly in that frozen, suspended universe of its viral videos. Its sci-fi backbone, the hook that lodges in your head after just a few notes, and its cursed atmosphere make it one of the most memorable hip-hop tracks of recent years.

 Damir Imamovic's Sevdah Tahkt – Sarajevo

A feverish Balkan rhythm that strikes unexpected chords, with its absurd insistence of gypsy violins and an enveloping melody with an Oriental flavour.

 Jenny Hval – Conceptual Romance

A cryptic, philosophical gem that captured well the uncertain, contradictory existentialism of this deeply confused era.

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05/11/2025