Oh how fun it is to look ahead to the next slate of albums being released over the span of the ensuing calendar year. There's always so much excitement and intrigue, most of it completely irrational and unfounded but still brimming with enough wide-eyed optimism to overlook those little gaps in judgment. Of course, over the course of next year, a handful of the most hotly anticipated albums will likely spit right in our faces and prove that hope should just go slit its wrists and drown us all in the reddened sorrow of mediocrity that most musicians feel contractually bound to deliver nowadays. ...I mean...they'll be fine. Sorry, sometimes it's just easier to temper expectations straight out of the gate so that the eventual letdown is less punishing. Anyhow, there's quite a slate of releases lined up already that should prove to be, at the very least, moderately compelling in some form or another. (CAN YOU STAND THE HYPE?) Let's gander into our musical future for 2016...