2015 music/albums in review

[cestuneblague]

Aighty since 2015 is just about to be layed to rest I guess it's the right time to see what y'alls final thoughts, anaylsis, weird queries, how it compares to other years or just general musings about 2015 in music/albums.

And in many ways with this past year, it just feels really difficult to find an easy, succint description. The best way I can think of seems to be saying everything just felt very high/low- like at one point there seemed to be an album or small group of albums that generated mass amounts of excitement, and then after that died down everything got rather quiet, mostly just talking about various niche favorites, and then another album/albums all of a sudden again revved up the hype, and the cycle just kind of repeated itself throughout the year. There is no matching that moment in March when To Pimp a Butterfly dropped, when it seems like all discussion about other albums on BEA or pretty much any music-related forum/website ceased entirely and all attention went into that single release like a giant forcefield. It was definitely one of the more meomrable music events of the decade.

Otherwise, I donno, there didn't seem to be a whole lot of patterns when it came to personal favorite albums or the other's that got the most attention during 2015. I guess compared to 2014 (which I personally found a bit underwhelming as a whole), where I found a lot of new, interesting artists that put out promising if not really definitive, spectacular work, 2015 really seemed to have a lot of already established artists that put out extremely ambitious albums that exceeded already high expectations. I didn't find a whole lot of debuts or albums from newly discovered artists that I found really eye-opening (though there were definitely some at least hitherto unheard artists that put out some intriguing albums, including this Death and Vanilla Im listening to right now), but artists like of course Kendrick as well as Sufjan, Bjork, Grimes, Destroyer, Jenny Hval, Father John Misty, Blur's return, Colleen, Kurt Vile, Ashley Monroe, Susanne Sundfor some weird australian douche that goes by the moniker Jhereko- all exceptional releases that built on their already strong or very promising body of work, and even albums from artists like Jason Isbell, Julia Holter and Kacey Musgraves that I at least personally (perhaps it's just me) thought didn't quite compare to their brilliant preceeding releases, we're still very strong.

And I donno I guess in terms of genres/styles there didn't seem to be a single type that stood out as particulary dominant this year, I think in many ways it was a year that definitely valued all kinds of defiantely personal, idiosyncratic visions. Personally I thought it was a great year for Pop music- not exactly top 40 style, since a lot of the best in what can (perhaps in the eye of the individual beholder) can considered pop or not wasn't exactly chart-toppers, but I guess in that vein the likes of obv Art Angels and Emotion def were the biggest attention-getters (and deservedly so), but others like Froot, Kiddo, Perpetual Motion People and some songs of Cry-Baby and Honeymoon (although I really can't fucking stand Lana anymore) all showed promise of a more ambitious, self-styled direction that modern slightly-leftfield pop is taking- and even the more assembly-line-feel of releases like say Reflection were still pretty good too. Elsewhere, it was a very strong year for country, though not quite cage-rattling like 2013, and hip-hop, ambient, house, singer/songwriter and even some more pure guitar-rock bands all had a lot of really terrific releases scattered throughout the year. And always will beat this drum, it was one of the best year for solo female artists in recent memory.


So at the end, I donno, I feel like it's hard to do an easy description of 2015, it's a lot more interesting to hear everybody's individual take cause Im sure it will vary pretty wildly. I don't think 2015, at least based on what Ive heard so far, is my favorite year of the decade so far (that honor still goes to 2013), but still what a year nonetheless.


And I guess no guts, no glory the biggest personal dissapointments were the double wet-noodle slap of Beach House, No Cities to Love never clicked, I don't know what the fuck Zu was thinking with that weird time-warp release, Ryley Walker and San Fermin all of a sudden got really derivative and pointless, respectively, Currents, Short Movie and New Bermuda we're all fine but a considerable come-down from their previous releases, I guess Modest Mouse but I was kind of expecting that to be really inconsistient, and seriously what the fuck Ryan Adams. The best surprises we're US Girls coming from obscurity (I remember hearing Gem back in my early 2012 BEA days once and then never giving her a second listen) to release one beast of a record, again how so many of the already-established artists we're truly at the top of their game, and how we didn't get that surprise out-of-nowhere major album drop this month (perhaps a MBV style sneak-attack this january?). And I guess to negate a previous assertion the best newly discovered artists were Rabit, Hey Colossus, Floating Points, Tove Styrke, Katie Dey, aforementioned Death and Vanilla, Olivia Chaney, Ghostbath, a Grave with no Name and local ATX brood East Cameron Folkcore, my favorite Skinny-gleaned rec was a tie between Jefre-Cantu Ledesma and Aine O'dwyer, and worst album? I guess to get negative nelly on here probably a tie between the run-of-the-mill nausea of that Matt and Kim record I for some reason thought to spend time listening to, but I guess enjoyed the more earnest bombast of the really hyped and kind-of really bad... Badlands. And no I still have not made it through The Epic.


Here's hoping 2016 brings a lot of great releases too (and Donald Trump is not elected the 45th president of the United States

[Temporary33]

Why are there so many poll options?

[alelsupreme]

[Lowkey]

[cestuneblague]

It'll keep Alel happy for a long, long time

But seriously guys, I don't appreciate the vulgarity, as Im trying to get through my landmark 1000th album, mind you

[craola]

he said serious, but i can't tell if he's serious
_________________
follow me on the bandcamp.

[Pentagonal]

2015 was solid, for sure.

My record of the year was Half Lives by Aidan Baker. Essential rumination music. Also, there were great offerings from Arca, James Ferraro, Matana Roberts, Zs, Bjork, OPN, Helm, Stara Rzeka, Wrekmeister Harmonies, Sightings, John Wiese, and Lotic. I'm really looking forward to 2016, but then it seems like I stumble on plenty of gems every year.

[Tap]

Oh I'll have to check out that Baker, that's a lot of good stuff you're listing alongside it.

Regarding the OP, I'd agree that this year wasn't so much about bold striking debuts as it was about people really delivering on established promise. Except in my case I didn't really know about those people's debuts, so it wasn't established to me. So I think that means I'll probably learn about a bunch of compelling debuts from 2015 in 2017.

I dunno how to really sum up the year as a whole but I am getting a bunch of blurbs in my 2015 chart.

[SquishypuffDave]

There seem to have been an abundance of dark menacing experimental electronic releases this/last year, with M.E.S.H., Oneohtrix Point Never, Holly Herndon, Arca, Lotic, etc. Like they're all exploring the same sonic universe. Might just be the kind of thing I've been seeking out though?

[mickilennial]

An interesting year, for sure. Might be one of the best offerings of the 2010’s yet.

At the forefront we’ve had a lot of critical darlings alongside stuff that found their own followings as well as a middle ground between the two. I don’t think we have to talk much about the Sufjan Stevens or Kendrick Lamar records— we already have talked about those ones to death and are very much all aware of their impact both critically and commercially.

However I do not agree with the “in terms of genres/styles there didn't seem to be a single type that stood out as particularly dominant this year” statement at all. My answer to this would probably be “art pop” even though as a genre it's not exactly so easy to box in definition as generalized bits of “indie rock” or “hip-hop” (both of which I think had healthy years as well). I don’t think you’d disagree with me too much since you’ve mentioned some of the big toppers of art pop this year including Susanne Sundfør, Julia Holter, Jenny Hval, Bjork, and so forth. It’s hard to do an easy description of the 2010’s individually, I think. You cannot really confine any of the individual years as a “metal”, “pop”, or “indie” year considering we’ve had significant consistent and cohesive releases for a lot of the decade thus far. I can personally vouch for various genres throughout and if people really look into things I can promise they will think the same if they are open-minded and ambitious with their exploration.

As for me, I’ve liked a lot of releases this year fairly strongly and there were a lot of notable contenders worth mentions. A good handful of metal (both melodic and abrasive; progressive and atmospheric) was absolutely excellent and hip-hop had a lot of interesting looks outside of Kendrick. The Japanese Scene was also really interesting with new additions from Tricot, Chara, Daoko, ESNO, Kanon Wakeshima, Silent Siren, Seiko Oomori, Passepied, and Suiyoubi no Campanella. I know that’s a bit of a niche for many people in addition to a language barrier, but they really are worthwhile releases that I know plenty of people who lack the exposure would be interested in. Speaking of Eastern Asian, South Korea’s pop scene has exploded with consistent releases from The Wonder Girls, FX, and BoA. Worth a look for fans of contemporary dance pop opposed to Japan’s more art rock/pop releases of the same year.