As the film award season draws to a close with the Golden Globes – with no more shows until the Academy unveils its awards in early February – music lovers get their chance to gleefully speculate over the year’s artistic culminations.

The nominees for Album of the Year, however, are under intense scrutiny; little wonder, as the Recording Academy tends to choose an album with an immense impact.

If this tradition consists, Beyonce’s tour-de-force, Lemonade, would be the clear winner by a large gulp. The R&B mogul dropped her visual album without warning on HBO, eliminating all anticipation for the season premiere of Game of Thrones. This album, however, is Carter’s magnum opus; she deviates completely from her invigorating hip-hop and pop fusion to an astounding range of genres.

From the Jamaican reggae of Hold Up to the ultimate empowerment anthem for black women, “Formation,” goddess-like Beyonce sheds her “Queen B” persona to unveil her musical versatility. She features an equally impressive musical set of artists on Lemonade, most notably Kendrick Lamar. Lemonade sees Beyonce’s celebration and pride as a woman of color and reestablishes her status as an unparalleled visionary, all while shredding husband Jay-Z to pieces.

However, another queen may turn the spotlight towards her at the Grammys; Adele commands the stage with her soulful voice in the melancholic 25. While her previous album 21—the 2011 Album of the Year—held anthems of heartbreak, sorrow, and self-evaluation, 25 evokes nostalgia.

When the album dropped, it became the fastest-selling album of the 21st century, and people soon grew attuned to the four chords signaling the beginning of its now-acclaimed single, “Hello.” Fans would need to search hard for the anguished Adele in 19 and 21; 25 marks a healing rebirth for the singer, where she serenades in reminiscence solely with an acoustic guitar in “Million Years Ago” and experiments with the trip-hop beats of “Water Under the Bridge.” The greatest transformation resides in “Send My Love to Your New Lover,” where Adele sings to an upbeat—yes, upbeat—and pop-inspired tune, suspending her sorrowful ballads. The hopeful atmosphere displays a clear change that listeners never anticipated but sang praises of after hearing the singer’s maturation.

The female titanesses clash and quake with their powerful voices, but the Recording Academy may surprise critics by awarding the title to Drake’s album, Views. Though critics panned it with stinging commentary—‘lukewarm’ and ‘playing it safe’ among the opinions—the album stayed on top of Billboard’s Top 100 for thirteen consecutive weeks. Drake’s abrasive anecdotes and his mix of rapping with singing still stand as steady as ever, a definite delight to all of his fans.

Drake openly challenges his opponents with quaking beats that shake speakers (“Still Here”) while acknowledging to his humble, heartbreaking beginnings in Toronto (“Weston Road Flows”). Though the music highlights the genuine backstories of the rapper, Drake entices his listeners with a hypnotic, hyper-reality retelling. And the album’s most heard single, “Hotline Bling,” resounded with listeners through heavy dancehall themes and emotional hurt, even whilst the artist admonishes an unseen ex-girlfriend. Views may seem, at first glance, a bemoaning of a precious ex, but the caustic humor and sensual bridges really indicate a masterful linkable of R&B and rap above all else.

Justin Bieber also returns to the stage after a two-year hiatus with his reflective Purpose, a public statement regarding his previous misdemeanors and his rocky relationship with Selena Gomez.  The album received mixed reviews, but critics collectively agreed that the compilation stands out as Bieber’s best music yet, praising its elements of tropical house, dance-pop, and dancehall.

Each song develops into vulnerable apology for his turbulent behavior and steadfast claim to improve upon such habits; Bieber reveals an introspective and honest tone, heard most prominently in the echoic “What Do You Mean,” and delivers an atmospheric synth and intimacy in “I’ll Show You.” Purpose acts as a coming-of-age project that reveals greater confidence of artistry, leaving behind artificial, breathy love ballads for genuinely regretful vulnerability in a praiseworthy journey of artistic growth. Bieber successfully reinvents himself with his new album and absolves his past follies with a delightful comeback to everyone’s surprise.

Yet a newcomer to pop music—an alt-country artist—may steal the limelight from everyone with his Sailor’s Guide to Earth. Sturgill Simpson offers listeners a kaleidoscopic journey with foggy AM ballads (“Oh Sarah”) and psychedelic tributes to Kurt Cobain (“In Bloom”); it’s almost hard to believe that he shares a genre with other country artists, who tend to draw from a fixed set of influences and sounds. However, Simpson does use Southern motifs, as heard in the Southern rock ballad “Keep It Between the Lines.”  Shrill guitars, sly fiddles, and boisterous trumpets are prominently featured. Simpson displays immense musical adaptability and vocal range, an anomaly in country singers, and leaves the orbit of country music entirely for an passionate, indescribable album of his own.

As for Ridge’s view upon these competitors, Anjini Mathur ‘18 offers her opinion: “I think it’s going to be an extremely close call, some very talented musicians had some truly stellar and influential work this year and if I were the person to choose, I really don’t know which one I’d pick! Music is about the meaning and the power behind each song, and every single one of those albums goes above and beyond with sharing a part of the artist’s life, spreading their message to everyone who listens.”

Indeed, this particular race for Best Album exceeds the ordinary, given the amount of talent on the nominee table. But judging from the picks, it seems that the Recording Academy favored themes of growth, transition, and development this year. Justin Bieber’s Purpose reflects his growth, Adele’s 25 features healing ballads, and Beyoncé captures her empowering transformations in Lemonade. However, the versatility of the nominees also seems to have captured voters’ hearts: Beyoncé stuns in a range of genres, Sturgill Simpson soars past the boundaries of alt- country, and Bieber showcases a more mature vocal range.