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Mark Peters

Album reviewer Mark Peters has spent the year listening to the best – and worst – releases from around the globe. Here are his top 10 albums of the year, in no particular order.


David Bowie
Blackstar
Bowie was always one step ahead of the game, even at his time of death, and Blackstar was his final transformation and the most fitting legacy for an unrivalled musical genius. A chilling goodbye.
The year in music: deaths of rock legends are a pivotal moment, as a generation of musical elders turn to face the final curtain


Fat White Family
Songs for Our Mothers
Described as “the most unpleasant album of this year”, the second effort from scuzzball hooligans Fat White Family was a glorious mix of provocative punk and dark grooves that walked the fine line between chaos and control.


Radiohead
A Moon Shaped Pool
After eight albums with wildly different personalities, Radiohead’s ninth proved to be their most personal and transparently beautiful to date. Elegantly haunting, the album is another monumental milestone in their wondrous career.


Wild Beasts
Boy King
Embracing a more primal energy, Boy King saw the art-pop rockers shift from slinky to saucy with an album of beastly late-night sexiness.


A Tribe Called Quest
Thank You 4 For Your Service
On their first album since 1998’s The Love Movement, ATCQ tackle social and political themes that are very much of our times, while the beats and rhymes hark back to the glory days of the legendary hip hop crew without ever sounding dated or derivative.
The six best Hong Kong gigs of 2016


Savages
Adore Life
The visceral and seductive Adore Life, an album about “every kind of love”, cemented the post-punk Savages as one the most exciting and essential rock bands of the past few years.


Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Skeleton Tree
Partially written and recorded after the death of Nick Cave’s teenaged son, Skeleton Tree bore a haunting weight of grief and personal struggle, and proved to be a raw and emotional piece of art like no other.


James Blake
The Colour in Anything
The follow-up to 2013’s Mercury-nominated Overgrown saw electronic producer and songwriter James Blake deliver an album of introspection textured with melancholy and positivity, obviously representing a more mature and happier period of his life.


Michael Kiwanuka
Love & Hate
The second album from London-based singer-songwriter Michael Kiwanuka was the sound of an artist truly finding his voice. A modern-day soul classic.


Leonard Cohen
You Want It Darker
Cohen’s words never seemed as powerful as on You Want It Darker, a stunning masterpiece and a true testament to his inimitable vision. Much like Bowie’s Blackstar, it’s another farewell album that resonates even stronger after the death of its creator.


Adele’s new album release leak: everything you need to know – video

Rock group Marmozets’ new album is a riotous and rowdy triumph

Miley Cyrus delivers generic sixth album devoid of personality

Morningside by Fazerdaze, an intimate, dreamy debut album

Greatest hits: album reviews

The top 10 albums of 2016, from the late lamented David Bowie and Leonard Cohen to Radiohead and Savages

Mark Peters selects the best music from 2016.

Culture

Music

Lists

Farewell collections from two musical geniuses, haunting work from Radiohead and Nick Cave, and melancholia from James Blake contrast with the energy of Savages, Fat White Family and Wild Beasts


Farewell collections from two musical geniuses, haunting work from Radiohead and Nick Cave, and melancholia from James Blake contrast with energy of Savages, Fat White Family and Wild Beasts
