Best Albums of 2015

Albums from Kip Moore, Maddie and Tae and Eric Church make this Best Albums of 2015 list, but No. 1 goes to a less-celebrated artist. He's less-celebrated outside of Nashville, at least. The country music community considered this man's debut solo effort to be an instant classic and the rest of the world learned why in a big way last November.

As is the case each year, some of the best albums of 2015 didn't drop until fall, including projects from Chris Young, Thomas Rhett and Carrie Underwood. See if any of those made our list of the year's top albums, and share your opinion on the best of the year in the comments section below.

Only albums released in 2015 are eligible. Staff opinion, reader input, sales figures and critical acclaim are all taken into account when deciding this list. As more albums are released, the Best Albums of 2015 list will be updated.