I listened to 140 albums this year. Some were instant standouts, while others were quickly displaced. My top album still surprises me because I strongly dislike country music. And yet, Sturgill Simpson's "A Sailor's Guide to Earth" instantly grabbed my top spot and kept it.
My other top albums are an odd mix of pop, alt-rock, alt-country, neo-classical, post-rock, and post-punk.
Here follows my (surprising) top 20 albums of 2016: