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If one defining thread ran through 2016's best albums, it was an air of mystery: a sense of myth, otherworldliness, storytelling ambition or multimedia wizardry.

It was a great year for lyricists, says All Songs Considered host Bob Boilen. His favorite albums of the year are proof of that richness.

Songs Of Disappearance is an entire album of calls from endangered Australian birds. Last month, it briefly perched at No. 3 on the country's top 50 albums chart – ahead of Taylor Swift.

2017 was a year of chronic whiplash, not only for the ceaseless horror show of news headlines, but for the overwhelming number of great albums and songs that were released.

Live on YouTube, Bob Boilen and Raina Douris watched their favorites entries to the 2020 Contest and discussed what made them stand out from the thousands we saw this year.

The Alt.Latino and El Tiny host shares his favorite records of the year, including jazz musicians from across Latin America as well as vocalists inspired by folk, rock and pop whose work defies genre.

The NPR Music editor and All Songs Considered contributor shares her favorite albums of the year, including one that feels like a survival guide to the apocalypse.

Compiling a Top 10 list for Folk Alley is difficult because it wears so many different musical hats. Each hour, the music stream from WKSU presents more than just the typical folksinger, so care was taken to create an all-encompassing list of great songs. The songwriter still prevailed, though — probably because there are so many of them.

These tunes from 2011 each exemplify how great singers and great songs fit together. Hear music featuring vocalists like Kurt Elling, Eliane Elias and Norah Jones.

Fractured grooves got the noise kids dancing and we went heavy on deconstructing tape loops in 2012.