Artists' rankings

2016 has been a year I really enjoyed musically, so I'm going well beyond the usual top ten and listing everything that entertained, moved or inspired me a great deal to listen to.

In all likelihood this isn't the freshest or newest thing you can hear in electronic music right now, but that doesn't matter: the atmospheres are cool, and there are some excellent vocal lines that make the tracks memorable and hummable.

On this record you can really hear how well they play, and with what drive! It's a band that's very uncool to namedrop these days, but for anyone interested in music rather than trends and shallow, up-to-date aesthetics, these songs know how to win you over. In a big way.

I've never been a fan of his, and saying so obviously borders on heresy, but I can't help it: aside from a handful of his all-time great songs, of clear and blazing beauty, much of his catalogue never really grabbed me, even though his greatness is undeniably palpable regardless. On this record, though — maybe because of the band that plays on it, a truly remarkable jazz ensemble — I find a sonic dimension and an intensity that suit me much better. And, needless to say, the sinister presence of death sadly helps lend the whole thing an annihilating depth.

Here's a run of songs that all hit the mark. Josh Homme's presence is so obvious that here and there you get the feeling you're listening to Queens Of The Stone Age, which makes the record as a whole feel wonderfully well-defined and enjoyable. The band, in any case, plays like a dream.

I'm a total fan of his. So I'll avoid dwelling on it too long. I just want to say that records with this kind of intensity are probably a rarity these days. Some of his vocal performances here are literally spine-chilling. "I Need You" above all.

I really like American rap. I don't know anything about YG, other than that he's from the bay-area and that I liked his record a lot. Light and fun despite being gangsta rap, it's dominated by two or three samples per track, so not exactly bursting with invention, but it works well with the melodic lines of his vocals, and it has the flavor of Seventies funk. So much so that the experts call it G-Funk.

More rap, this time from Brooklyn. If YG entertained me, here we're in full-on fun territory. They seem like pretty stoned characters, I'd say a lot of ganja and a kindred attitude, also somewhat psychedelic. I find the timbres of the three vocalists hilarious, one of whom sounds like he's arrived from another planet, somewhere between parody and playful madness.

A comeback after 18 years. Very cool, very hip hip-hop. Plenty of collaborations, from Kendrick Lamar to Anderson.Paak and Kanye West, and many others. And a ton of style, straight-A-student style. Gorgeous samples backed by excellent live playing, and infectious, hummable vocals.

A strong Sufjan Stevens-like atmosphere is immediately apparent on first listen, and I discover he's been listening to him a lot in recent months. It's a thoroughly pleasant and graceful record, inspired, in excellent taste. If you like Sufjan Stevens, I'd recommend discovering "Una somma di piccole cose": there's nothing on this record that falls remotely short.

Radiohead have become — go figure — a band some people feel they should snub, and on this very site I've seen a 4, a 4.5, and two 5s given to their latest work by some contributors: that strikes me as ridiculous. The record, of course, is instead quite beautiful and classy, in its own way more rock and warmer than its predecessors, with a good 80% of the material at the highest level.

His now near-monotone voice, almost devoid of melody, still retains the deeply dark qualities of that timbre, which manages to draw you in over musical backdrops more seductive than usual. The warmth of these songs comes across as sensual, which is astonishing given that he was well aware death was near… Alongside David Bowie, another exit staged with composed and astonishing dignity.

One thing in particular draws me in: every song on this record runs on just one or two ideas and the barest, most stripped-down instrumentation, often with almost no rhythm at all. And yet it's all deeply fascinating and engaging. I couldn't care less about r'n'b as a rule, but here it goes somewhere else entirely, I'd say, and it's in the intimacy and reserve of these compositions that I find its real distinguishing mark. 

An album that got roughed up almost everywhere in the world. I find it thoroughly enjoyable, especially in terms of sound, which is the closest to the Neil Young I hold dear to my heart. Here and there it recalls "Hawks and Doves", where the acoustic guitars have that unmistakable warmth that belongs only to him and his special fingers. Played in an almost hurried way yet with tremendous feeling, as can obviously happen with seasoned, top-notch musicians.