Stephen Thompson's Top 10 Albums Of 2015

If 2015 has felt musically overstuffed, that's at least in part because the year's many highlights seem to spring from every musical direction. This is just one writer's list of favorites — fueled by a unique set of biases, personal circumstances, genre preferences, neuroses and disorders — and yet it's broad enough to include dreamy folk-pop ballads, a hip-hop opus, a wordy poet finding her inner megaphone, a young country singer's latest crop of mission statements, a veteran band that's transformed spare ingredients into a career highlight after a dozen albums and a minimalist punk duo whose abrasiveness cloaks bracing beauty.

It's been a year full of music that feels not only great, but necessary: These 10 albums plumb emotional depths, deliver powerful messages and, just when you need them most, soothe worried minds in a year when a bit of calm is a priceless commodity.