Let the debating begin.

How do we whittle an entire year of music down to just 20 albums? When we look back at 2015, what’s the album we’ll remember? Who created the biggest moment? What made the most impact in our culture and others?

From political standouts to opuses stacked with hits, we ranked what we feel are the 20 albums that were the most enjoyable, the most impactful and those that made the best statement, based on a criteria that includes creativity, authenticity to the culture, popularity, timelessness, lyrical quality, melody and production quality. No single facet of the criteria determined any of these albums’ placement on our list.

We’re presenting the 20 albums we feel defined 2015. There are absolutely numerous records that hurt us to leave off—and we’re 100 percent positive you’ll let us hear about it.

Enough with the small talk, let’s get into it.