AllMusic 2016 Year in Review
Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums
Indie pop and indie rock made strong showings this year, highlighted by albums from Teenage Fanclub, Parquet Courts and Bon Iver.
The beguiling Berlin-based Dane's third album is her most ambitious to date.
Tinny synth pop and portraits of failure combine with striking, moving results on the Seekae member's fascinating solo debut.
Debut album by a talented Dutch Stereolab fan who started saving money to make it when she was just a kid.
The indie crooner premieres synths and a five-piece backing band on parts of LP four, which follows the emotional stages of an ill-fated relationship.
The third Bon Iver album is a fractured, electronically altered future folk album that's beautiful and strange at once.
The 70-minute song cycle about one confused teenager is a bold, witty, affecting step forward for songwriter/frontman Will Toledo.
The duo's vivid second album borrows from a wide range of influences, including their own evocative score for The Duke of Burgundy.
Strong second album of scrappy, but still melodic, jangle pop from the Australian trio.
The Australian art-pop auteur introduces a unique vision on his vibrant and ambitious debut.
An exhilarating slacker rock masterpiece rife with skewed humor, hair metal bombast, and heartfelt passion.
Less psychedelic trickery and more of a folk-rock jangle on Tuttle's second album, but the songs are just as good, maybe even better.
A lustrous and heartbreaking home movie of a record that makes aging, death, and melancholy feel positively vital.
Featuring Anika's enigmatic vocals, the band's largely improvised debut is a thrilling mix of dub, Krautrock, post-punk, and avant-garde electronics.
Dreamy and intricate, Jenn Wasner delivers a warmly introspective and lovingly crafted debut.
As enchanting and candid as her debut, the prolific lo-fi songwriter's second studio LP finds her transitioning into her twenties.
The Peace & Truce of Future of the Left
Despite its title, the band's fifth album is one of their most uncompromising.
Hamilton / Hamilton Leithauser / Rostam
I Had a Dream That You Were Mine
Members from two celebrated indie rock bands use their nostalgic flair to create an album steeped in dreams and memories.
Combining vintage metal and 21st century particle physics, these epic songs capture the visceral thrill of discovery.
Driving Excitement and the Pleasure of Ownership
Excellent debut from the London sextet sounding like a lo-fi Free Design brought up on noisy, C-86-style indie pop.
Combining vampire and menstrual imagery with avant synth-pop, Hval's fourth album is equally scary, sexy, raw, and sophisticated.
The Arizona emo-rock stalwarts modernize their sound with shimmering production, indie rock flair, and refreshing experimental flourishes.
The former Young People singer's solo debut is a stunning blend of old and new, and sophistication and emotion.
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard
The ever-evolving psychedelic tricksters deliver their fiercest album yet, influenced by early heavy metal and made to be played continuously.
A warmly crafted guitar pop gem with beguiling hooks and an unshowy appeal.
On her gutsy and affecting fourth LP and Dead Oceans debut, the indie rocker addresses a crisis of belonging.
Melissa Guion's Kranky debut is an impressive, wide-ranging collection of spacious yet propulsive dream pop tunes.
Sun-filled second album, and first for Sub Pop, from the bedroom psych wizard.
Brainy, hooky, and energetic blend of Postcard pop, angular post-punk, and scrappy D.I.Y. punk by ex-members of Deerhunter and Carnivores.
The band's third album is its cleanest, most focused yet, without skimping on art rock hooks and off-kilter melodies.
Wild and frenetic sophomore release from the New Orleans hardcore punk quartet that adds heft to their breakneck aggression.
On their second album, the Russian shoegazers further expand the sound established on their impressive 2015 debut.
A massive dose of articulate rage from this Philadelphia-based prog-punk duo; loud, hard, and brutally intelligent.
The Canadian indie rockers adopt a new name and a more accessible sound that's still full of rough, oddly moving beauty.
Jangling indie pop done in the classic C-86 style by energetic young Minnesota-based band.
The electronic dream pop duo's fourth and final album is a wrenching conclusion and vital tribute at once.
The band's politically charged, '80s-inspired ninth studio album invokes names like Tears for Fears, Talk Talk, and Peter Gabriel.
The duo borrow some Top 40 gloss, delivering some of their most pointedly catchy music in the process.
Ex-Candy Claws members collaborate with Drums and Apples in Stereo members on their peacefully majestic dream pop debut.
The Scottish guitar pop outfit return with an album of warm, poetic beauty and folk-inflected lyricism.
With Merrill Garbus producing, the band's fourth LP leaves behind any remnants of quirky indie folk for passion- and flare-invigorated indie rock.
Act V: Hymns with the Devil in Confessional
The stunning, penultimate installment in Casey Crescenzo's genre-blurring orchestral indie-prog saga.
Simultaneously homey and fabulous, Home on Native Land introduces country, folk, and pedal steel-driven Canadiana into the band's lexicon.
Another raging album, their 16th, laced as usual with lacerating solos, but now with two drummers and a spot of Krautrock jamming.
The Austin-based darkwave trio take their sound in a heavier direction, resulting in their best and most ambitious work yet.
Detroit garage punks Tyvek return to In the Red Records with their most socially conscious album yet, Origin of What.
The Vancouver outfit finds a perfect balance of pop hooks and defiant, feminist punk rage on its fourth album.
Polished production and exciting new directions mark the California indie rock band's third effort as their most exciting and fun album to date.
Detroit's art-pop enigmas deliver another stunner with their beautifully honed third album.