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Zak Bickel / Katie Martin / Paul Spella … The Best Albums of 2016
Our critic’s top picks in a year of ingenious releases
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Chris Pizzello / AP Bob Dylan’s Subversively Humble Nobel Speech
He didn’t attend the ceremony, but he did make a statement about the difference between making art and analyzing it.
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HBO The Secret to Westworld’s Success Is in Its Music
The HBO drama’s newly released soundtrack is a memory-teasing good time.
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Evan Agostini / AP The Hamilton Mixtape, a Love Letter to a Love Story
Turning the hit musical into a pop album highlights the romance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs.
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D. Darr The Re-Flowering: Charles Lloyd's Second Golden Age
The jazz saxophonist went from 1960s pop stardom to years of self-imposed exile, but he’s now producing some of the best music of his career.
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Richard Harbus / AP An Updated Company for an Era of Single Women
A new production of the 1970 Stephen Sondheim musical switches the gender of its main character from male to female, making an old show sharply relevant.
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Rich Fury / Invision / AP A Podcast of Their Own for Women in Music
The singer-songwriter Laura Marling explores the intersection of gender and creativity in her innovative series Reversal of the Muse.
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Luke McGregor / Reuters Leonard Cohen, Judaism's Bard
Throughout his career, the singer’s heritage and faith suffused his music.
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Craig Lassig / AP Track of the Day: ‘Here In Spirit’ by Jim James
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NBC A Tribe Called Quest and the Shadow of Trump
Anxiety, grief, and disunity get an airing—and a small antidote—on the hip-hop act’s remarkable final album.
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Eloy Alonso / Reuters Leonard Cohen’s Dark Wisdom
The late singer’s unflinching worldview resonates especially in the week of his death.
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Track of the Day: ‘The Sidewinder’
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Charles Sykes / AP The Gloriously Hammy Potential of The Hamilton Mixtape
Kelly Clarkson’s “It’s Quiet Uptown” and The Roots’ “My Shot” bask in schmaltz, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
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Chris Pizzello / AP The Stickiest Hit of 2016 Is Appropriately Depressed
Why the Chainsmokers’ “Closer” has spent 11 weeks at No. 1
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Netflix Max Richter’s Soundtrack to Dystopia
The British composer describes how he creates scores for film and television projects like The Leftovers, Black Mirror, and Morgan.
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Arthur Mola / AP Drake’s Ill-Conceived Digs at Mental Illness
By ridiculing Kid Cudi’s substance use and depression, he proves how much guts his rival had in fighting stigmas.
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Sony Music The Deadly Certainty of Leonard Cohen
You Want It Darker gravely and beautifully accepts God and mortality.
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Mark Peterson / Corbis Tupac, Pearl Jam, Depeche Mode Among the Rock Hall of Fame Nominees
Guitar rock, rap, and electronic music will compete for induction again.
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Erez Avissar / Customs The Charged Protest of the Swet Shop Boys
The debut album by the rap group uses satire to voice anxieties about racism, prejudice, and cultural appropriation.
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Kevin Lamarque / Reuters Track of the Day: 'Tangled Up in Blue' by Bob Dylan
