I expect my final list to look rather different, but at the moment:
1. Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind (I wasn't sure about the new direction at first but the album really grew on me. Another good album from them)
2. Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (Really liked their first album and this one is probably better)
3. Tame Impala - Currents (Not as good as Lonerism but I liked the synthy shift on this album a lot more than I thought I would)
4. Adele - 25 (Another great album from her, not as good as 21 but I could see it rising on the list as I give it more time to sink in)
5. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (One of my favorite modern bands, time will tell how this one ranks beside their others)
6. Imagine Dragons - Smoke & Mirrors (Not as good as Night Visions, some good songs though)
7. Bjork - Vulnicura (Her best in a while)
8. Death Cab for Cutie - Kintsugi (A big surprise! Much better than Codes & Keys)
9. Awolnation - Run (Solid album)
10. Muse - Drones (Not bad, I still listen to Muse sorry guys)
1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (I'm boring.)
2. U.S. Girls - Half Free
3. Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, Girl
4. Stara Rzeka - Zamknฤลy Siฤ Oczy Ziemi
5. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness
6. Owiny Sigoma Band - Nyanza
7. Busdriver - Thumbs
8. Annabel (lee) - By The Sea... And Other Solitary Places
9. Katie Von Schleicher - Bleaksploitation
10. M.E.S.H. - Piteous Gate
SONGS
1. Julia Holter - Sea Calls Me Home
2. FKA twigs - In Time
3. Jenny Hval - Heaven
4. Grimes - REALiTi (Demo)
5. Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker The Berry
6. U.S. Girls - Damn That Valley
7. Dave DK - We Mix At Six
8. Katie Von Schleicher - Everything Ending
9. Owiny Sigoma Band - I Made You / You Made Me
10. Port St. Willow - Ordinary Pleasure
1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
3. Ashley Monroe - The Blade
4. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
5. Grimes - Art Angels
6. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think...
7. Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear
8. Laura Marling - Short Movie
9. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material
10. Chris Stapleton - Traveller
Tetsuo & Youth from Lupe Fiasco is also deserving, just behind Stapleton for 10th.
1) Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp a Butterfly
2) Kamasi Washington- The Epic
3) Best Coast- California Nights
4) Tame Impala- Currents
5) Sufjan Stevens- Carrie & Lowell
6) Beware of Darkness- Sanctuary Season
7) Sleater-Kinney- No Cities to Love ๐ My Morning Jacket- The Waterfall
9) Deerhunter- Fading Frontier
10) Lana Del Rey- Honeymoon
cestuneblagueOtana, but No HitoProfile Straight Outta Ballard
My Top ten is incredibly boring this year, which is kind of great and kind of underwhelming at the same time. Weird. Anyways for now:
1) Carrie & Lowell- Sufjan Stevens
2) Art Angels- Grimes
3) To Pimp a Butterfly- Kendrick Lamar
4) Apocalypse, Girl- Jenny Hval
5) Half Free- US Girls
6) E-MO-TION- Carly Ray Jepsen
7) Divers- Joanna Newsom
๐ Abyss- Chelsea Wolfe
9) Sprinter- Torres
10) Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit- Courtney Barnett
and Deep Yearn always gets a special mention (in my heart)
And for favorite songs Fourth of July towers above everything, possibly one of the best things Ive ever heard. Here are my favorite happy happy pop songs of the year:
Courtney Barnett- Kim's Caravan
Grimes- Realiti (Album Version)
Jenny Hval- Holy Land
Torres- The Exchange
Jherbearthekangarooshagger- Mammal
Christine and the Queens- Tilted
Soko- Who Wears the Pants?
US Girls- Window Shades
Marina and the Diamonds- Im a Ruin
Susanne Sundfor- Memorial
Carly Ray Jepsen- LA Hallucinations
Melanie Martinez- Soap
Charli XCX- Famous
Tove Styrke- Even If Im Loud it doesn't mean Im talking to you
Colleen Green- Deeper than Love
Maddie & Tea- No Place Like You
Torres- A Proper Polish Welcome
Kurt Vile- Wild Imagination
Metro Thuggin- Free Gucci
Ashley Monroe- From Time to Time
Chelsea Wolfe- After the Fall
TheeSatisfaction- Nature's Candy
Julia Holter- Betsy on the Roof
Miguel- NWA
Houndmouth- Sedona
Death in Rome- What is Love
Cigarettes After Sex- Affection
Jazmine Sullivan- Redemption
Fifth Harmony- Like Mariah (love you Jherry Bear)
1 bill Ryder jones - west kirby county primary
2 scorzayzee - aeon: peace to the puzzle
3 panopticon - autumn eternal
4 oddisee - the good fight
5 deafheaven - new Bermuda
6 sleaford mods - key markets
7 The Greg foat group the dancers at the end of time
8 sufjan stevens - carrie and Lowell
9 ghostface & badbadnotgood - sour soul
10 get the blessing - astronautilus
Currents by Tame Impala
In a move that shocked many who enjoyed their neo-psychedelia oeuvre, Tame Impala decided to infuse some disco and 80s synthpop into their latest album, producing an LP with plenty of singalong standouts, haters be damned.
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Vulnicura by Bjรถrk
A deeply personal tale about divorce and the disintegration of her nuclear family accompanied by some of the darkest and most stark production of her career. Bjรถrk conveys the anguish experienced during this under-discussed topic in a way that brought her a level of acclaim she had not experienced in a decade.
8.
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Me by Empress Of
This year's underground electropop album you haven't listened to (yet!), Empress Of's latest album chronicles Lorely Rodriguez's realization that instead of relying on being with another to be happy, you can find contentment within yourself.
7.
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Escape From Evil by Lower Dens
This pop-rock foray marks a triumphant change of sonic course for Lower Dens in a year full of people looking to switch things up. Lower Dens have discussed problems associated with love in society in a way that encompassed a broad range cultural and historical points-of-reference from around the world.
6.
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VEGA INTL. Night School by Neon Indian
With an album that sounds like the electro-funk soundtrack to a zany 2030 remake of Jackie Brown, Neon Indian shows just how far he has come since his days as a major player in chillwave. VEGA INTL. Night School is The Avalanches, early Daft Punk and Ariel Pink having a threesome.
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Art Angels by Grimes
This album confirms Grimes' position as a a force to be reckoned with in the 2010s music scene. Only she could incorporate multiple Pitchfork diss-tracks, rap verses about post-coital dissatisfaction (in Mandarin) and a song written from the perspective of a genderfluid, time-travelling vampire version of Michael Corleone (!) into a coherent piece that is her most fun, most pop album to date.
4.
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New Bermuda by Deafheaven
People who dismiss New Bermuda as a metal album for hipsters are (a) correct and (b) risking missing out on one of the most breathtaking albums of the year. Less of an imposing wall of sound than Sunbather, Deafheaven's latest album has discrete ebbs and flows which makes this black metal-shoegaze hybrid a rollercoaster of episodic emotional experiences.
3.
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Natalie Prass by Natalie Prass
An album produced on a shoestring budget that was in the works since 2009 and had it's release delayed by the unexpected success of another album released on her record label, Natalie Prass was still able to shine brightly in the 2015 music landscape. It appears that good old-fashioned concepts like heartfelt love-songs and luscious horn and string arrangements will never not be in vogue.
2.
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Garden Of Delete by Oneohtrix Point Never
It's very hard to describe Oneohtrix Point Never albums. Garden of Delete marries staples Daniel Lopatin staples clipped vocal samples and frigid, disconnected fragments of music and sound with a kitschier outlook than his previous releases to make an album that feels relentlessly engaging and thoroughly fresh each time one listens to it.
1.
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In Colour by Jamie xx
Here it is. My pick for the best album of 2015. I'm going start things off with an excerpt of a quote, by the Revolution909 of six months ago, describing some of my initial thoughts regarding this dance classic:
"Every track is just perfectly and meticulously arranged in a way that is reminiscent of Four Tet and Caribou. There are the dance sensibilities of the likes of Jon Hopkins and Disclosure. All topped off with universal yet emotive lyrics and themes expressed within the songs, similar to more mainstream artists like Avicii, Calvin Harris..."
On a sappy personal level, I can say that this is one of those albums, along with the likes of The Electric Lady by Janelle Monรกe and Nonfiction by The Range that make me cry upon listening to it. I appreciate how the album is mixed so flawlessly as to allow a smooth progression through of In Colour's tracks. I enjoy the judicious employment of some soulful vocal samples sprinkled throughout the album. I can empathize with the sense of emotional distance and loneliness expressed in Stranger in a Room and Loud Places. I chuckle at the shout-out to Ireland in Gosh, the opening track. I love how the opening beats in The Rest Is Noise make me feel likes it's 4am in the morning in a rave on the outskirts of London, even though I'm far too square for that sort of thing.
This debut solo album from Jamie xx is less of a reinvention of the proverbial dance music wheel and more of a testament to the joys of an album that blends pop sensibilities into dance music. This album can be used as an answer to the question "what did great electronic music sound like during the 2010s?". This is the album that I will share with my little sister when I try and get her into listening to electronic music.
1. "Saturns Pattern" Paul Weller
Tasteful, imaginative, great guitar parts, sonic ideas galore, impeccable songwriting. Wow! Paul Weller is truely one of the great and most creative British musicians alive today.
90/100
2. "The Magic Whip" Blur
The improbable return. And what's more, it's as brilliant as ever: quirky, inventive, inspired. Blur are back!
90/100
3. "Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit" Courtney Barnett
Exciting rock'n'roll, brilliant songs, great, deadpan delivery. Oozes talent and attitude.
85/100
4. "Chasing Yesterday" Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
The Chief stepping out of the shadow of his former band... Well done.
85/100
5. "FFS" FFS
Who said collaborations don't work? An intelligent, tuneful, catchy, danceable gem of a pop album, the result of a collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks.
85/100
6. "Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance" Belle & Sebastian
One could talk about a return to form had they not been so consistently good throughout their career. That magic touch again. And again. Great pop music.
85/100
7. "Hollow Meadows" Richard Hawley
That Richard Hawley magic again...
85/100
8. "Have You In My Wilderness" Julia Holter
85/100
9. "How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful" Florence And The Machine
80/100
10. "Hypnophobia" Jacco Gardner
80/100
Jimmy DreadOld skool like Happy ShopperModeratorProfile 555 Dub Street
Might as well play along for what it's worth (there's still 3 weeks to go after all). So, in reverse order, natch...
10. Songs Of Paapieye by SK Kakraba
9. Divers by Joanna Newsom
8. Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
7. Architect by C Duncan
6. Have You In My Wilderness by Julia Holter
5. To Where The Wild Things Are by Death & Vanilla
4. Allas Sak by Dungen
As I said when I first heard it, to these ears the best dub LP of the last 30 years. Jahtari knob twiddler and all-round genius makes what essentially is a chiptune dancehall beast of a record. Reminds me a bit of the incidental music you used to get when your Commodore 64 tape was loading. Except a zillion times better to skank to.
It's no secret that I adore Noah's stuff, both solo and with the AC lot. But in a year where I lost my Mum to cancer this LP has affected me emotionally as well as massaged my ears through the hurt. Saw him do the majority of the tracks a couple of months before Mum passed in Brixton - little was I to know that it would be the last gig I'd ever see whilst she was still around. The man can do no wrong - to me he's the most consistent songwriting force of the 21st century.
It was one night in Plug (RIP) that BEAroom lurker Pedestrian decided to drop what was essentially half of this record (the whole album clocks in around 20 minutes). When I first heard it, I laughed. It was ridiculous, especially tracks like 'I Used To Be A Cheesepuff'. Then I listened again. And again. Then tried to buy it and it was going for stupid money. Then it got repressed. And I snapped it up. Then played it to the Mrs and she was very angry and told me to turn it off. It sounds like Devo on a treadmill set to a speed even Usain Bolt would have trouble keeping up with. It's childish, idiotic and far too bloody exciting. I chuffing love it.
This will definitely change once I've delved into all my favourite sources once they decide to publish their end-of-years lists... expect at least 12.52% more twee to appear once I've filled my ears with Skittles. _________________ 'Reggae' & t'ing Folk 'n Stuff SHAMELESS RECORD DEALER PLUG
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