2016 Power Rankings

Albums

The top albums of 2016, as ranked by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	ALBUM	GENRE	POWER INDEX
1	Bear's Den	Red Earth & Pouring Rain	Folk-Rock	91.4
2	Bon Iver	22, A Million	Art Pop	88.5
3	RY X	Dawn	Ambient Folk	85.4
4	Frank Ocean	Blonde	Alternative R&B	84.5
5	Bruno Mars	24K Magic	Pop	84.2
6	Jarryd James	High	Electro-R&B	81.6
7	Radiohead	A Moon Shaped Pool	Art Rock	81.4
	Beyoncé	Lemonade	Pop	81.4
	Shearwater	Jet Plane & Oxbow	Indie Rock	81.4
	Flock Of Dimes	If You See Me, Say Yes	Dream Pop	81.4
11	Solange	A Seat At The Table	Neo-Soul	81.3
12	HONNE	Warm On A Cold Night	Electro-R&B	81.2
13	Folly & The Hunter	Awake	Folk-Rock	79.7
14	Frightened Rabbit	Painting Of A Panic Attack	Indie Rock	78.8
15	Palace	So Long Forever	Indie Rock	78.2
	Lucius	Good Grief	Indie Pop	78.2
	Joseph	I'm Alone, No You're Not	Folk-Pop	78.2
18	OWEL	Dear Me	Post-Rock	78.1
	Tegan And Sara	Love You To Death	Electropop	78.1
20	D.D Dumbo	Utopia Defeated	Progressive Indie	78.0
	Roosevelt	Roosevelt	Alternative Dance	78.0
	Daughter	Not To Disappear	Dream Pop	78.0
	The Hotelier	Goodness	Post-Emo	78.0
	Glass Animals	How To Be A Human Being	Art Pop	78.0
25	The Range	Potential	IDM	77.9
	Foreign Fields	Take Cover	Ambient Folk	77.9
	Midnight Faces	Heavenly Bodies	Indie Rock	77.9
	Empire Of The Sun	Two Vines	Electropop	77.9
29	Ariana Grande	Dangerous Woman	Pop	76.8
30	Jack Garratt	Phase	Electro-R&B	76.7
31	The Weeknd	Starboy	Pop	76.5
32	Highasakite	Camp Echo	Indie Electronic	76.2
33	Local Natives	Sunlit Youth	Indie Rock	75.5
34	Chance The Rapper	Coloring Book	Alternative Rap	75.2
35	ZHU	Generationwhy	Electro House	75.0
	Tinashe	Nightride	Urban	75.0
37	OneRepublic	Oh My My	Pop/Rock	74.6
	The 1975	I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It	Indie Pop/Rock	74.6
39	Cubicolor	Brainsugar	Post-Rock	74.5
40	dvsn	SEPT 5TH	Alternative R&B	74.4
41	Phoria	Volition	Art Pop	73.8
	Francis And The Lights	Farewell, Starlite!	Art Pop	73.8
	Tycho	Epoch	Chillwave	73.8
	Agnes Obel	Citizen Of Glass	Ambient Folk	73.8
	Equador	Bones Of Man	Indie Electronic	73.8
46	James Blake	The Colour In Anything	Electro-R&B	73.7
47	DNCE	DNCE	Pop	73.6
	Streets Of Laredo	Wild	Alt-Country	73.6
	Leagues	Alone Together	Indie Pop/Rock	73.6
50	Jóhann Jóhannsson	Orphée	Modern Classical	73.5

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The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.

EPs

The top EPs of 2016, as ranked by the committee of one.

RANK	ARTIST	EP	GENRE	POWER INDEX
1	Westerman	Harvard	Folk Singer	89.7
2	Private Island	Sunbreak	Indie Rock	87.2
	Day Wave	Hard To Read	Dream Pop	87.2
	The Chainsmokers	Collage	Pop	87.2
5	Jadu Heart	Wanderflower	Electro-R&B	85.4
6	Sivik	Winter Collection	Pop	81.3
	Tom Misch	Reverie	Indie Electronic	81.3
8	The Japanese House	Swim Against The Tide	Shimmer Pop	80.3
9	Gang Of Youths	Let Me Be Clear	Indie Rock	79.9
	Yoste	Far Away	Shimmer Pop	79.9
	Jadu Heart	Ezra's Garden	Electro-R&B	79.9
12	JMR	Ritual	Electro-R&B	79.4
13	BASECAMP	In Stone	Electro-R&B	78.6
	Xavier Omär & Sango	Hours Spent Loving You	Alternative R&B	78.6
15	Glades	This Is What It's Like	Shimmer Pop	78.5
16	Vince Staples	Prima Donna	Alternative Rap	72.1
	Colouring	Symmetry	Shimmer Pop	72.1
18	HANA	HANA	Shimmer Pop	71.7
	Lloyd	Tru	Urban	71.7
	Petit Biscuit	Petit Biscuit	Chillwave	71.7
21	SG Lewis	Yours	Electro-R&B	71.2
22	TOTEM	Picture Perfect	Pop	70.5
	CRUISR	All Over	Indie Pop/Rock	70.5
24	LANY	kinda	Shimmer Pop	70.3
25	Astrid S	Astrid S	Pop	70.2

SCROLL →

Spotify Apple Music

The Fine Print

The aFIREintheattic Power Index formula is top secret… but here’s a frivolous hint since we like you: It’s sort of like a logarithmic function on the weighted mean of the committee’s song ratings, which is then standardized-ish and scaled from 0 to 100. Talk nerdy to me.
All songs on an album or EP are rated and contribute to its Power Index. As a result, releases that are cohesive and consistently good, with fewer filler tracks, will invariably score higher than those with only a handful of great songs and a bunch of throwaways. Here, a release cannot be greater than the sum of its parts. For rankings that take that phenomenon into account, look to the aFIREintheattic Awards at the end of each year.
Note that EPs can tend toward higher scores than albums because sometimes an EP is a precursor to a full album and that album will contain the songs from the EP but with the addition of filler tracks that drag the Power Index score down.
Albums with a Power Index of 80 or higher and EPs with a Power Index of 70 or higher are a solid bet for a top 10 finish. The two highest scoring albums of all-time are Radiohead’s Kid A at 100.0 and OK Computer at 99.9 and the highest scoring EPs are Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s Winter at 96.7 and James Bay’s The Dark Of The Morning at 94.7. And we’ll be forthright: they probably always will be.
If a release is in the power rankings but is not in the playlist above, it’s not available on Spotify. The playlist is made up of the most popular song from each album in order based on its current power ranking.