10. Ray LaMontagne ‘Ouroboros’ 

Produced by Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Ray LaMontagne’s sixth album is a ‘70s-style throwback to the astral prog-rock of Pink Floyd’s best work. “Ouroboros” is a toker’s opus, an expansive head-trip deep into a world much less tense than our own. The album is meticulously crafted, a slowly swaying melding of piano, guitar and effects, with LaMontagne’s voice floating above like a distant dream. “Ouroboros” is made for late nights, great headphones and allowing the real world to fade into oblivion for a while, where it belongs.

9. Bob Mould ‘Patch the Sky’ 

Veteran alt-rocker Bob Mould’s latest release is perhaps his tightest since 1992’s landmark album with Sugar, “Copper Blue.” As with Sugar, Mould fronts a blistering power trio that bashes out his tunes with explosive firepower. The vocals are down in the mix, the melodies seeping through a stinging barrage of guitars and a ferocious rhythm section. “Voices in My Head” is the standout cut, but there are no weak links. Lean, mean and sparked with the same fervor that made Hüsker Dü such an influential band, “Patch the Sky” is the latest in Mould’s long string of essential recordings.

8. Pet Shop Boys ‘SUPER’

It seems apt that 30 years since “West End Girls” topped the charts, Pet Shop Boys would deliver one of the finest albums of their career. “SUPER” exhibits Neil Tennant’s whip-smart lyrics spiked with his usual dry wit, and Chris Lowe’s electronic wizardry is as inventive and exciting as ever. “SUPER” mixes retro ‘90s grooves with ultra-modern dancefloor bangers. The highlight is “Twenty-Something,” a piercing commentary on the millennial generation’s restless anxiety over the pressures of trying to keep up with the expectations of an increasingly cynical world beholden to money, status and technology. “SUPER” is smart, edgy, and irrefutable evidence that great pop music has no age limit.

7. Suede ‘Night Thoughts’

The veteran British rockers’ second album since their long hiatus is as good as anything they’ve done, on par with their 1994 masterpiece “Dog Man Star.” Suede has always brought a sense of dark theatricality to their work, but with “Night Thoughts” they up the ante with a full string section bolstering their brooding, cinematic rock. “Night Thoughts” is a work of ambitious grandeur, Brett Anderson’s expressive vocals soaring above a jagged and melancholy foundation.

6. Avalanches ‘Wildflower’

It took 16 years, but the Australian electro-mindbenders Avalanches finally released the follow-up to their classic “Since I Left You” this year. Like their debut, “Wildflower” is a dizzying swirl of samples and electronic effects that whiz in, out and around the listener’s consciousness like lights flashing through a smoky herbal haze. Highlights include the trippy aural excursions “Subway,” “Colours” and the sublime “Sunshine,” a dazzling ray of light that reminds us why we loved Avalanches so much in the first place.

5. Beyoncé ‘Lemonade’

“Lemonade” is a bold and relentlessly innovative fusion of modern R&B/pop with undercurrents of classic soul and gospel slashed with elements spun from a wildly diverse musical palette. Decades from now when listeners point to music that most sharply reflect the turbulent times in which we now exist, “Lemonade” will be at the top of that list. It’s a deeply personal journey that chronicles a complex relationship riven by distrust, rage and anxiety that is echoed in the context of an America roiled by blazing social upheaval.

4. Lucinda Williams ‘The Ghosts of Highway 20’

Interstate 20 stretches from Conway, S.C., to Kent, Texas, running through most of the South. It is indeed a trail through a vast and haunted land wrought by a dark and bloody history, and Lucinda Williams draws on those ghosts for her second two-CD masterpiece in a row, “The Ghosts of Highway 20.” Following 2014’s extraordinary “Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone,” Williams continues in the same vein with many of the same musicians, including guitar great Bill Frisell. The production is spare and the raw swamp-rock vibe places the listener right alongside the Highway itself. Williams’ writing is masterful and her ability to convey genuine emotion and vulnerability in her well-worn, beautifully rugged voice brings these songs to powerful life.

3.  Frank Ocean ‘Blond’

The eagerly awaited follow-up to Frank Ocean’s stellar debut “Channel Orange,” “Blond” doesn’t disappoint. Ocean’s slow-burning, oddly structured compositions fall between the cracks of any traditionally definable genre. “Blond” is built on fragmented dreams, an intimate night of mind travel that’s languid and shrouded in smoke, mellow and contemplative but also immediate and potent. Ocean’s hypnotic tone poems wander in unexpected directions, looping a kaleidoscope of samples and vocal effects with complete disregard for the confining lines of standard pop, R&B or hip-hop. It’s an uncompromising step forward for a gifted artist who will surely continue to surprise.

2.  Radiohead ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’

“A Moon Shaped Pool” is Radiohead’s most lushly beautiful and deeply personal album, on par with their very best work. “Burn the Witch,” with its tense paranoia and gripping col legno battuto strings that build to a feverish climax, captures the mood of 2016 as well as any other song this year. “Daydreaming” is a soul-wrenching reverie on the end of a long relationship, which is the overarching thread that ties the album together. It closes with the melancholy “True Love Waits,” Thom Yorke’s forlorn vocal gliding over the sparse electronic accompaniment, pleading, “Don’t leave … just don’t leave.” It seems a futile gesture. “A Moon Shaped Pool” is an album of subtle melodies and intricate arrangements that unfurl majestically, another glistening gem in Radiohead’s already peerless body of work.

1.  David Bowie ‘Blackstar’

David Bowie released “Blackstar” on his 69th birthday, and it was immediately hailed as a bold modern classic. It was only two days later, as the world learned of Bowie’s shocking death, that the full context and profound meaning of “Blackstar” became infinitely more clear. Keeping his terminal cancer secret, Bowie and longtime producer Tony Visconti worked with ace jazz musicians that provide a tight and sophisticated canvas for a spacey trip through the chilling final mythologies and expressions of a dying man. “Lazarus,” with its ragged, breathless vocals and wrenching lyrics, remains a painful listen. The grief is still raw. It’s staggering to contemplate the determination and artistic vision that David Bowie possessed to create one last towering masterpiece as those last months and weeks ticked away. He closes with “I Can’t Give Everything Away,” a rueful acknowledgement of what we’ve always known: through his five-decade career, his many personas and an endless inventory of classic songs, we’ve never known exactly where the real David Jones is lurking. The truth is that every album is a facet of a man with many faces. In all its glorious darkness, “Blackstar” is the last puzzle piece, the image complete, the ending to an extraordinary journey finally revealed.