There is no Album of the Year (even if Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” is as great as everyone insists!). But there are albums that belong on best of the year lists because they need more love, more attention, more celebration, more listens. These are five of those LPs.

“Songs for the Lost World,” The Cure

The glowing press around the Cure’s first album in 16 years (and its best in double that amount of time) centers on it being a cohesive, gloomy, dreamy statement in the vein of “Disintegration.” It’s actually more sonically cohesive than “Disintegration” — long drones full of keyboard and guitar washes spiked with both dark and uplifting melodies straight out of the late ’80s and early ’90s. Lyrically it flows from one loss to the next (dead relatives, a broken spirit, a world on fire). It is crushing, relentless. And yet it makes Cure fans old and new so very happy because it’s that magnificent. Oh, and because it heralds a previously unthinkable renaissance for one of the world’s greatest bands.

“Tigers Blood,” Waxahatchee

Waxahatchee’s Katie Crutchfield has been a great songwriter since the noisy, wonderful “Out of the Storm” in 2015. With “Tigers Blood,” great doesn’t cover it. Crutchfield has entered the rarefied class rounded out by Neko Case, Bruce Springsteen, and Lucinda Williams. Folk rock and indie rock. Americana and alternative. Moody, broken, and just plain sad and flat-out triumphant. Front to back, it’s a sublime record. But listen to one song to sell you on its heft and glory and resignation: “Burns Out at Midnight” and her call of, “We might get tangled up, I got nothing to say/It don’t make a difference/I might turn up the heat, it’s getting late/And my fire burns out at midnight.”

“Good Together,” Lake Street Dive

The ex-Boston band hasn’t lost a step since lineup shuffles brought singer-songwriter-keyboardist Akie Bermiss and guitarist James Cornelison into the fold. In many ways, the group is tighter: see a title track that could be the Jackson 5 at its “I Want You Back” best. Actually, the whole first side bumps with soulful, funky, stomping Top 40, even when the lyrics are more introspective than triumphant. The flip side bumps too, but Lake Street Dive shows its depth as it slows down. In “Seats at the Bar,” the band has written the world’s first great love song about skipping sitting at a two top. “Twenty Five” presents a lost relationship not as tragedy but as happy memory. The album closes with “Set Sail (Prometheus & Eros),” an epic duet like something that could end an arty blockbuster musical.

“Love Your Mind,” Twisted Pine

What started as a (kinda) traditional bluegrass band in our city’s Americana scene is now one of the most sonically diverse acts out there. The group can still get down at a hoedown — see barnburner “After Midnight (Nothing Good Happens).” But “Love Your Mind” has the almost reggae bounce “Stop/Start” and the Latin jazz and bossa nova-touched “Funky People.” It has Motown and Stax soul vibes with “Chanel Perfume” and a classic country & western tune in “Knockout Roses.” Twisted Pine has left genre behind. Hopefully the band never looks back.

“No Obligation,” The Linda Lindas

Teen rage is real. And it is justified — have you taken a look at what’s happening out there? The Linda Lindas rage with complete fury and glory (check the hardcore of the title track and the shout of “I don’t owe you/You don’t own me/You don’t owe them/They don’t own you”). But this band isn’t stuck in one gear. There’s hardcore, pop punk, indie pop, noise rock, and all kinds of clatter and melody. The oldest member is 20, youngest is 14. This is just album two. Can’t wait for LPs three through 17.

Robert Smith of The Cure. (Photo Sam Rockman)
Lake Street Dive. (Photo Shervin Lainez)