Summer 2016 was a genuinely great time for music — and the last decade has only confirmed it. Beyoncé released what many consider her magnum opus, Chance the Rapper changed the rules of how an album could exist in the world and a wave of indie, worship and singer-songwriter talent was quietly putting out some of their best work. It was the kind of summer with a real soundtrack, and a lot of that music has stuck around in the best possible way. Here are 10 songs from that summer that still hold up.
10. “All We Ever Knew” – The Head and the Heart
After three years of silence, this landed in the first week of June 2016 and immediately sounded like something that had always existed. The band had scattered after Let’s Be Still — one member took up flying planes and kung fu in China, another drove a camper off the grid into the Canadian Rockies — and this is what they came back with: stomping, wide open, built on a la-la-la hook designed for 8,000 people in a field to sing back at you. It went to No. 1 on Adult Alternative and eventually went platinum, which almost never happens to a band this earnest. Ten years later it still sounds like people deciding to try again — which is a much harder thing to write well than heartbreak.
9. “Burn the Witch” – Radiohead
Radiohead dropped A Moon Shaped Pool in May 2016 with almost no warning and “Burn the Witch” was the first thing the world heard — strings sawing urgently, Thom Yorke singing something ominous over a stop-motion video straight out of a fever dream. For a song that felt so specifically anxious about 2016, it has somehow become more relevant with every passing year. A trick only Radiohead can pull off.
8. “O Come to the Altar” – Elevation Worship
Elevation Worship had a massive 2016, and “O Come to the Altar” is the song that crystallized why. It’s an invitation rather than a declaration, which gives it a warmth that a lot of worship music misses. The build from verse to chorus feels genuinely earned, and the bridge has the kind of staying power that gets lodged in your head for days — which, depending on your perspective, is either a feature or a bug.
7. “Something to Believe In” – Young the Giant
Young the Giant started teasing material from Home of the Strange during the summer of 2016, and “Something to Believe In” was a sign of how personal and politically aware the record was going to be. Frontman Sameer Gadhia’s vocals have never sounded more urgent, and the production hits that sweet spot between indie rock accessibility and genuine ambition. The album wouldn’t arrive until fall, but the song made the wait feel worth it.
6. “Love and War” – Fleurie
If you watched any TV in 2016, you heard “Love and War” even if you didn’t know you did — it was licensed everywhere, because it fit everywhere. Fleurie’s Love and War is cinematic in the most literal sense: half of it ended up in TV. There’s a cathedral quality to this song, all soaring vocals and strings that swell at exactly the right moment. It holds up because it was never really about a specific moment — it was always bigger than that.
5. “Surprise Yourself” – Jack Garratt
The British multi-instrumentalist’s debut Phase had critics tripping over themselves early in 2016, and “Surprise Yourself” is the easy entry point into why. It builds slowly, then absolutely detonates. Garratt has a gift for making songs that feel both intimate and enormous at the same time, and this one pulls off that trick better than almost anything else on the album.
4. “Weight in Gold” – Gallant
Gallant’s debut Ology came out in March 2016 and introduced the world to one of the more singular voices of that era. “Weight in Gold” had been circulating since 2015 but summer 2016 was when it really landed — that falsetto, those swirling electronics, the sense of someone barely holding it together in the most beautiful way possible. It’s the kind of song that makes a long drive feel cinematic.
3. “What a Beautiful Name” – Hillsong Worship
Released on Let There Be Light in 2016, this quietly became one of the most-sung worship songs of the decade. It doesn’t reach for grandeur through volume or production tricks — it earns it through simplicity, with a melody that opens up like a hymn and lyrics that actually say something. If you’ve been in a church at any point in the last 10 years, you’ve sung this. There’s a reason it never left the setlist.
2. “Freedom” – Beyoncé ft. Kendrick Lamar
Lemonade dropped in April 2016 and this was the track that left you genuinely wrecked. Beyoncé and Kendrick trading bars over a gospel-infused beat that sounds like the ground shaking — it’s the rare collaboration where both artists feel elevated by the other. This song played at the Olympics, at memorials, at rallies. It was built for big moments and it keeps showing up at them.
1. “Blessings” – Chance the Rapper
Coloring Book came out in May 2016 and it felt like a gift no one asked for but everyone needed. “Blessings” was the mission statement — brassy, gospel-laden and joyful, with Jamila Woods along for the ride. It’s the kind of song that makes you feel something. Ten years later it still sounds like a celebration, which is either a testament to Chance’s songwriting or proof that we’ll always need music that sounds like confetti.
