Our Favorite Moments from the Best Albums of 2016

If you found yourself slipping on some headphones and sliding out of reality more than ever this year, you’re not alone: In the toxic bummer-barrage that was 2016, music was more essential than ever—not just as a distraction or antidote, but also as a conduit for our ever-mounting frustrations and anxieties. Thankfully, the past 12 months added up to a remarkable year for new albums, whether you were pumping your fists to Beyoncé's independence-declaring Lemonade, nodding your head to Pinegrove's Americana-anthem collection Cardinal, or wrapping your brain around Chance the Rapper's quick-witted, big-hearted verses on Coloring Book. These were records full of small moments—sometimes a hook, sometimes a stray lyric—that we skipped back to and replayed over and over again, looking for a predictable bit of bliss in an overwhelmingly unstable time. Here are just some of those fantastic albums from 2016, isolated to the exact moments we knew we'd found another keeper.