This year artists working within the orbit of the unstable category "roots music" got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and challenged the rules of established scenes and forms.

This year artists working within the orbit of the unstable category "roots music" got personal even as they explored complex cultural lineages and challenged the rules of established scenes and forms.

NPR's pop critic and correspondent shares her favorite albums of this year.

Drawing from her new album Breaking the Thermometer, Leyla McCalla and her band explore the weight of memory in songs deeply immersed in the rhythms, sounds and history of Haiti.