The Chronicle’s guide to notable new albums from the year.

Rock

Thao & the Get Down Stay Down, “Temple” (Ribbon Music)

In 2016, the already distinguished career of Thao Nguyen took an incredible turn on the album “A Man Alive.” The Oakland indie folk singer-songwriter had turned within to confront the role that her absentee father played in shaping her pain and existence, in music that was both vulnerable and fantastic. Now on “Temple,” Nguyen digs deeper into her own identity as a queer Vietnamese American woman, and how going to Vietnam for the first time in 2015 (with her mother who hadn’t been back in 43 years since fleeing the war-torn country) helped her find herself.

The journey is beautifully captured in the short documentary“Nobody Dies,”and she spares no imagery of her mother’s migration when she asks on the album’s title track, “Why would a million dare sink in the sea?” On “Marauders,” her voice ranges like a slide whistle as she emotionally presents her partner with the realization that she’d been denying difficult parts of herself, but won’t any longer. What began for Nguyen over a decade ago has become visceral, spiritual and vital music that is evocative of American diversity.

Hip-hop

Mozzy, “Beyond Bulletproof” (Mozzy Records/Empire)

If you had to find a pitfall to Mozzy’s illustrious rise, it’s that being from Sacramento has made people reluctant to group him with the hip-hop stars of the Bay Area. But the rapper’s influence, prowess and vast library of albums and mixtapes resonate deeply and undeniably within the region’s hip-hop scene. Throughout his dozens of releases, none showcases his versatility quite like the monumental “Beyond Bulletproof.” Tracks like “Body Count” and “Bulletproofly” show that he can write a hook with the best of them, and “The Homies Wanna Know” has flashes of impassioned stories from the streets. There’s a California vibrancy to the album’s accompanying production, touching on the G-funk feel of Mozzy’s new home in Los Angeles and the music of his fallen friend, Nipsey Hussle. This is an album released in the spirit of independent hip-hop that the Bay Area cultivated and the world embraced.

Warning: The following music video contains explicit language.

Latino

La Doña, “Algo Nuevo” (self-released)

It’s one thing to wax on the obvious gentrification of San Francisco’s historically Latino neighborhoods. But it’s another thing to be born and raised in one of those neighborhoods and make music with the passion and sentiments that have been swarming inside your soul in the years since.

La Doña, a musician born and raised in Bernal Heights, broke through this year with her debut album that celebrates the unique culture of her upbringing. She came up playing trumpet with her musical family, and the horn emphatically punctuates the reggaeton thump of “Cuando Se Van,” as she spiritedly sings, “De donde vienen y cuando se van?”(“他们是从哪里来的,当它们勒aving?”) She’s a necessary voice amid San Francisco’s funky and twisted new reality, when those who have been keepers of our culture for decades are often left in the shadows of what the city is becoming.

Jazz

Ambrose Akinmusire, “on the tender spot of every calloused moment” (Blue Note)

The Berkeley High School grad lived in both Los Angeles and New York City while he spent more than a decade touring the globe as part of the Blue Note Records roster. But by 2016, the world-class trumpeter wanted to return to his native Oakland to create in a place that first inspired his art.

Now on his fifth LP,Akinmusirepowerfully reflects on his growth and experience as a bandleader and as a Black artist in America. He shines on the weighty blues of “Yessss” and scorches alongside Richmond drummer Justin Brown on “Moon (the return amplifies the unity).” Nominated for a Grammy this year, the album makes an impactful jazz statement without its auteur ever speaking a word.

Electronic

Xyla, “Ways” (Leaving Records)

Xyla went to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2013 to study French horn performance but eventually found her calling as an electronic producer. Her classically trained ear hasn’t escaped her on the spellbinding “Ways,” an album that fluidly binds warm ambient sounds with Chicago footwork rhythms and R&B sensibility. Tracks like “Now” and “Feel” evoke lovelorn emotions with the thick Ocean Beach air lingering overhead. The album can feel both ethereal and punishing, making you succumb to it the way potent dance music should. Sometimes finding what you were meant to create isn’t straightforward, but the grace of Xyla’s productions indicates that perhaps it’s better that way.

Live

Metallica & the San Francisco Symphony, “S&M2” (Blackened)

Twenty years after the release of the groundbreaking “S&M” collaboration betweenMetallicaand the San Francisco Symphony, the odd couple inaugurated San Francisco’sChase Centerin triumphant fashion with their performance of its sequel, “S&M2.” The 22-song live album was released in August, and it captures a moment in time when pre-pandemic San Francisco was at its ebullient peak. The many layers of “The Call of Ktulu,” the newfangled classicism of “Nothing Else Matters” and Symphony conductor Michael Tilson Thomas’ exuberant introduction of Alexander Mosolov’s Soviet futurist masterpiece “The Iron Foundry, Opus 19” illustrate the transcendent power of rock ‘n’ roll.