Though it was released right at the end of 2013, Beyoncé's self-titled album loomed large over this year. Discussing the album's longevity, Stephen Thompson says, "The Beyoncé record really stuck with people, and it certainly stuck with me. 'XO' is this perfectly soaring, romantic, beautiful, slightly fatalistic pop song of the variety that is like catnip to me."

Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett's Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas was another exceptional 2013 record that made its way into conversation this year (thanks to a physical re-release in April). Bob Boilen eagerly anticipates Barnett's upcoming releases, insisting that "2015 is gonna be [her] year."

All four hosts agree that St. Vincent's tour for her self-titled album was one of the best — if not the best — live performances of the year. It helps, Ann Powers says, that "she put on a show based around some of the absolute best music that came out this year. Many people feel [St. Vincent] is the album of the year."

Stephen Thompson describes Sylvan Esso's music as "beautiful electropop with gorgeous lyrics." "Coffee," he says, is "the song that gets under everyone's skin."

Sun Kil Moon's Benji is one of the most lyrically intriguing albums of the year (and one of the most depressing, too). As Robin Hilton puts it, "In just about every track on that album, someone dies. He spares no one — toddlers die, teenagers die, the elderly die. In 'Carissa,' it's the most unexpected way to go in what's otherwise the most mundane way possible."

According to Ann Powers, Small Town Heroes is Hurray For The Riff Raff's most fully realized album yet. On the song "The Body Electric," Ann says vocalist Alynda Lee Segarra "takes on the entire history of the murder ballad and makes a feminist intervention, reclaiming it for women."

Bob Boilen wonders whether or not Beck's Morning Phase would have been received differently had it come out closer to the end of the year. He says the album is "Surprisingly wonderful. A sleepy, beautiful record, though not very energetic."

2014 was full of releases from mid- and late-career artists, from Robert Plant to TV on the Radio. Ann Powers calls Joe Henry's 13th album "A meditation on unmarriage, on life and death, on all the big issues. It's enriched by his incredible literary knowledge. There's a song that references Melville, a song that references Alice Munro. I can sink into this album for days and weeks on end."

The multifaceted lyrics in Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music continue to intrigue Robin Hilton. "That voice — I think, like a lot of fans and music reviewers who dissected this record, I was always searching for meanings. Some of these songs seem very metaphysical and very high concept. He said during his Tiny Desk Concert they're all really just about doing drugs and drinking — but he's enjoyed reading all the reviews."

Bob Boilen was puzzled when he first heard Familiars, the new record by The Antlers, which came out in June. "It's not the guitar-based sound we're so used to from The Antlers," he says. After a few listens, though, he says, "Songs that seemed cheesy turned into absolute beauty. I fell in love with the record and listened to it all year long."

British electronic artist FKA Twigs made a huge impact with her debut album, LP1, which came out in August. "She makes this incredibly sultry, sexy, really erotic electronic music," Ann Powers says. "Her voice is seductive, but it's also completely conscious. There's a beautiful forthrightness which I believe is part of young women using electronic music to express something they haven't been able to in the past with pop music."

Stephen Thompson calls Alvvays' self-titled album "A fizzy, fun, beachy pop record." Ann Powers calls Alvvays the most "Stephen Thompson" band she's ever heard.

"I cannot tell you how many times I have wept openly listening to this song," says Robin Hilton of Chris Staples' "Dark Side of the Moon," from the album American Soft. "Being a father, having a son — the lyrics are so crushingly beautiful to me. I've listened to this record a lot this year. It's been a close companion."

Bob Boilen calls Luluc's Passerby his favorite album of the year. "They make the most beautiful music. It's just gorgeous," he says.

"This album is all around great," says Ann Powers of the sequel to the 2013 collaboration between rappers Killer Mike and El-P. "It has battle rhymes, amazing production, fantastic individual lines, great storytelling — it's kind of spooky. You could just fall into this record for months, I think."

Bob Boilen enjoys Scottish experimental hip-hop group Young Fathers' inventive lyrics, calling the band's music "sonically and texturally rich."

If you're judging simply on sales, Taylor Swift's 1989 was among the very biggest albums of the year, even though it didn't come out until the end of October. "It's the pop juggernaut of 2014. We're gonna be hearing about it endlessly," Stephen Thompson says. "Taylor Swift has undergone this pretty remarkable transformation: One of the biggest country stars in the world is now one of the biggest pop stars in the world."

Weezer's Everything Will Be Alright in the End is Robin Hilton's album of the year. "They won some of their fans back," he says. "They hit the reset button and really found their voice on it. It's a record that's partly an apology to their fans, partly a kiss-off letter, and partially a remembrance of the way things were and the way things can be."