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.
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