⇦ 1995

1997 ⇨

The Best Music of 1996

Here is a selection of the best albums and songs from 1996. Hall of Famers are highlighted in orange.

For a list of the top artists who made their debut recording in 1996, check out this list.

Albums (?)		Wikipedia
2Pac	All Eyez on Me	☆
A Tribe Called Quest	Beats, Rhymes and Life	☆
Aaliyah	One in a Million	☆
Aphex Twin	Richard D. James Album	☆
Beck	Odelay	☆
Belle & Sebastian	If You're Feeling Sinister	☆
Belle & Sebastian	Tigermilk	☆
Bowery Electric	Beat	☆
Burzum	Filosofem	☆
Cake	Fashion Nugget	☆
Celine Dion	Falling Into You	☆
Chris Isaak	Baja Sessions	☆
Counting Crows	Recovering the Satellites	☆
Dave Matthews Band	Crash	☆
De La Soul	Stakes Is High	☆
DJ Shadow	Endtroducing.....	☆
Eels	Beautiful Freak	☆
Fatboy Slim	Better Living Through Chemistry	☆
Fiona Apple	Tidal	☆
Fishmans	Long Season	☆
Fugees	The Score	☆
Jamiroquai	Travelling Without Moving	☆
Jay-Z	Reasonable Doubt	☆
Johnny Cash	American II: Unchained	☆
Korn	Life Is Peachy	☆
Lil' Kim	Hard Core	☆
Manic Street Preachers	Everything Must Go	☆
Marilyn Manson	Antichrist Superstar	☆
Matchbox Twenty	Yourself Or Someone Like You	☆
Maxwell	Maxwell's Urban Hang Suite	☆
Modest Mouse	This is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About	☆
Nas	It Was Written	☆
Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds	Murder Ballads	☆
Nine Inch Nails	Quake Soundtrack	☆
Orbital	In Sides	☆
Original Broadway Cast	Rent	☆
OutKast	ATLiens	☆
Paula Cole	This Fire	☆
Pearl Jam	No Code	☆
Phish	Billy Breathes	☆
R.E.M.	New Adventures in Hi-Fi	☆
Rage Against the Machine	Evil Empire	☆
Shawn Colvin	A Few Small Repairs	☆
Sheryl Crow	Sheryl Crow	☆
Sleater-Kinney	Call the Doctor	☆
Soundgarden	Down On The Upside	☆
Spice Girls	Spice	☆
Stereolab	Emperor Tomato Ketchup	☆
Stone Temple Pilots	Tiny Music....Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop	☆
Sublime	Sublime	☆
Suede	Coming Up	☆
Swans	Soundtracks for the Blind	☆
The Brian Jones Massacre	Take It from the Man!	☆
The Cardigans	First Band on the Moon	☆
The Cranberries	To the Faithful Departed	☆
The Misfits	Static Age	☆
The Roots	Illadelph Halflife	☆
The Wallflowers	Bringing Down the Horse	☆
Toni Braxton	Secrets	☆
Tool	Aenima	☆
Tori Amos	Boys For Pele	☆
Tortoise	Millions Now Living Will Never Die	☆
Trans-Siberian Orchestra	Christmas Eve and Other Stories	☆
Type O Negative	October Rust	☆
Various Artists	William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture	☆
Weezer	Pinkerton	☆
Weird Al Yankovic	Bad Hair Day	☆
Wilco	Being There	☆

---

Songs (?)		Wikipedia
2Pac feat. Dr. Dre	California Love (Remix)	☆
2Pac feat. K-Ci & Jo-Jo	How Do U Want It	☆
2Pac feat. Snoop Dogg	2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted	☆
A Tribe Called Quest feat. Faith Evans	Stressed Out	☆
Aaliyah	One in a Million	☆
Aaliyah	If Your Girl Only Knew	☆
Backstreet Boys	Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)	☆
Barry Adamson	Something Wicked This Way Comes	☆
Beck	Where It's At	☆
Beck	The New Pollution	☆
Beck	Devils Haircut	☆
Beck	Novacane	☆
Belle & Sebastian	Like Dylan in the Movies	☆
BLACKstreet feat. Dr. Dre	No Diggity	☆
Bone Thugs-N-Harmony	Tha Crossroads	☆
Busta Rhymes	Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check	☆
Butthole Surfers	Pepper	☆
Cake	The Distance	☆
Cake	I Will Survive	☆
Celine Dion	Because You Loved Me	☆
Celine Dion	It's All Coming Back to Me Now	☆
Counting Crows	A Long December	☆
Dave Matthews Band	Crash Into Me	☆
Dave Matthews Band	So Much to Say	☆
Dave Matthews Band	Too Much	☆
DJ Kool	Let Me Clear My Throat	☆
Donna Lewis	I Love You Always Forever	☆
Duncan Sheik	Barely Breathing	☆
En Vogue	Don't Let Go (Love)	☆
Eric Clapton	Change the World	☆
Erykah Badu	On and On	☆
Fiona Apple	Criminal	☆
Fugees	Killing Me Softly	☆
Fugees	Ready or Not	☆
George Michael	Fastlove	☆
Ghost Town DJ's	My Boo	☆
Gin Blossoms	Follow You Down	☆
Ginuwine	Pony	☆
Goldfinger	Here in Your Bedroom	☆
I Mother Earth	One More Astronaut	☆
Jamiroquai	Virtual Insanity	☆
Jamiroquai	Alright	☆
Johnny Cash	I've Been Everywhere	☆
Luscious Jackson	Naked Eye	☆
Manic Street Preachers	A Design For Life	☆
Marilyn Manson	The Beautiful People	☆
Mark Morrison	Return of the Mack	☆
Mark Snow	The X-Files	☆
Matchbox 20	Push	☆
Matchbox Twenty	3AM	☆
Maxwell	Ascension (Don't Ever Wonder)	☆
Metallica	Until It Sleeps	☆
Metallica	King Nothing	☆
Nada Surf	Popular	☆
Nas feat. Lauryn Hill	If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)	☆
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds feat. PJ Harvey	Henry Lee	☆
Orbital	Out There Somewhere Pts. 1 and 2	☆
Outkast	Elevators (Me & You)	☆
OutKast	Jazzy Belle	☆
OutKast	ATLiens	☆
Paula Cole	I Don't Want to Wait	☆
Paula Cole	Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?	☆
Phish	Free	☆
Primitive Radio Gods	Standing Outside a Broken Phone Booth with Money in My Hand	☆
Quad City DJ's	C'mon N' Ride It (The Train)	☆
R. Kelly	I Believe I Can Fly	☆
Rage Against the Machine	Bulls On Parade	☆
Republica	Ready to Go	☆
Robert Miles	Children	☆
Savage Garden	To the Moon and Back	☆
Sepultura	Roots Bloody Roots	☆
Shawn Colvin	Sunny Came Home	☆
Sheryl Crow	Everyday Is A Winding Road	☆
Sheryl Crow	If It Makes You Happy	☆
Sheryl Crow	A Change Would Do You Good	☆
Sneakerpimps	6 Underground	☆
Social Distortion	I Was Wrong	☆
Soundgarden	Pretty Noose	☆
Soundgarden	Blow Up The Outside World	☆
Soundgarden	Burden in My Hand	☆
Spice Girls	Wannabe	☆
Spice Girls	2 Become 1	☆
Spice Girls	Say You'll Be There	☆
Sublime	What I Got	☆
Sublime	Santeria	☆
Sublime	Wrong Way	☆
Sublime	Doin Time	☆
Suede	Beautiful Ones	☆
The Cardigans	Lovefool	☆
The Cranberries	Salvation	☆
The Prodigy	Firestarter	☆
The Prodigy	Breathe	☆
The Specials	Pressure Drop	☆
The Suicide Machines	S.O.S.	☆
The Verve Pipe	The Freshmen	☆
The Wonders	That Thing You Do!	☆
Toni Braxton	Un-Break My Heart	☆
Tonic	If You Could Only See	☆
Tool	Aenema	☆
Tool	Stinkfist	☆
Tool	Forty Six & 2	☆
Tori Amos	Professional Widow	☆
Trans-Siberian Orchestra	Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24	☆
Underworld	Born Slippy .NUXX	☆
Velvet Babies	Tears	☆
Wallflowers	One Headlight	☆
Wallflowers	6th Avenue Heartache	☆
Weezer	El Scorcho	☆
Weezer	The Good Life	☆
Weird Al Yankovic	Amish Paradise	☆
White Town	Your Woman	☆

⇦ 1995

1997 ⇨