Best Albums of the Year

The year in culture

- By Craig Jenkins

1. Beyoncé, Renaissance

Her seventh solo release is a multilevel achievement: an effortless excursion into half a dozen permutations of dance music, a seamless playlist, and a loud reminder that Black auteurs and their experiences are the soil from which the art form grew. It's equally a face-melting display of vocal excellence, full of flawless runs and perfectly placed harmonies. Every beat delivers a musicology lesson. And while its technical dexterity will be studied, so should Beyoncé's ease in honoring Black queer history while singing about heterosexual monogamy in marriage.

2. Vince Staples, Ramona Park Broke My Heart

An album that embraces regionality, diving into the musical and sociopolitical history of Southern California, it's a worthy scion of the gangsta-rap tradition. The writing is vivid and achingly tired but steadfast, never more so than on "When Sparks Fly," which anthropomorphizes a gun better than Nas's "I Gave You Power."

3. Bad Bunny, Un Verano Sin Ti

The Puerto Rican superstar keeps global streaming charts in a choke hold not just as an emissary of the intercontinental of reggaeton but as a prodigious writer of love songs and a restless musical aesthete. Here, he spends nearly two dozen tracks having fun, showing off, and drilling it into your head that he understands both the breadth of his intersecting audiences and the generations of developments that make his career possible.

4. The Smile, A Light for Attracting Attention