My favorite albums of 2020 traveled a wide emotional range, hitting all the high and low notes I needed to hear in a remarkable, taxing year. As a listener, and a writer, it's hard to know how much credit to give these albums — many of which were initiated well before 2020 — for touching the times. But context is context. These artists wrote the songs I needed to hear over the past 12 months and, given the quality of their work, these songs will no doubt provide a suitable soundtrack for whatever the next 12 months — and the 12 months after that — throw our way. Here are this year's standouts and superlatives: