What 2016 Sounded Like

This year was a difficult one in the music world, with so the death of so many iconic artists — Prince, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen were some of the biggest stars we lost. But 2016 also marked a year of some interesting musical experiments, as well as some albums from artists we haven't heard from in a while.

NPR's Michel Martin sat down with NPR Music editor and reviewer Stephen Thompson to talk about what really impressed him in 2016. Hear their full conversation at the audio link; listen to some of Stephen's favorite songs from the year below.

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