From now until Dec. 30, music editor Gabe Vodicka will reveal his top 10 (non-local) albums of 2015, and news editor Blake Aued (along with his 17-month-old daughter, Iris) will review each selection in response.

2. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly

Gabe: No other album got heads bobbing, nor academics (and think-piecers) scribbling, as furiously in 2015. To Pimp a Butterfly was undebatably the record of the year as far as the cultural and political zeitgeist was concerned, and the most musically adventurous hip hop release, to boot. Lamar's dense, on-the-nose flow occasionally threatened to collapse under his album's thematic weight, but his band countered with flashes of loose, jazz-tinted brilliance.

Blake: I think more was written about this record than any other record this year. What am I even supposed to say about it? It's genius, although I sometimes wish it didn't feel so much like school. 

Iris: Yeah, there's no way I'm playing this for her, sorry. I have enough problems not cussing in front of her without bringing Kendrick Lamar into the equation.