Favorite Albums Of The Year ? - 2015 edition

[noiseredux]

normally I wait until the actual end of the year to make these kinds of lists, but I really tapped myself out on new music this year, and am able to confidentially whittle down a list of the 10 albums I'd consider my favorites while knowing that I'm really burned out on hearing anything else new right now.

Here we go...


1. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
As much as a fan of Kendrick Lamar as I am, and as much as I really tried, I was never able to enjoy To Pimp A Butterfly the way I did Good Kid Maad City or Section 80. However the big takeaway I got from that album was the introduction of an entire jazz scene I was missing on the West Coast. Chief among these musicians was Kamasi Washington, a member of the Young Jazz Giants who released the literally Epic 3-disc album I've placed at #1 here. Over the course of three hours Washington delivers a bold solo debut that runs the gamut on everything from 60's Coltrane to gospel to Charlie Brown-era Geraldi Trio to soul... it's as much free jazz at is soul jazz as it is R&B and choir music. But trying to define any of it is worthless. The Epic is feelgood music. Perhaps the greatest jazz album of the 2010's.

2. Vince Staples - Summer '06
Last year Vince really surprised me with his major label debut - a brief but solid EP. This year he's stretched out his proper debut into a double album. And not a word or moment is wasted. Summer '06 is a brilliant narrative that follows a lineage of recent West Coast insta-classics like Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid Maad City and YG's My Krazy Life. While Lamar told the story of the good kid, and YG was the Devil on his shoulder, Staples comes off as the wallflower. Omniscient, he's part of the story the same was the furniture is in the room he's describing. His writing is sharp, vivid and poignant. His delivery is so understated that lines will knock the wind out of you.

3. A$AP Rocky - At Long Last A$AP
It's been a long strange trip. After waiting two years (which is like a decade in hip hop), Rocky delivered the follow-up to his major label debut. And for the most part is sounds NOTHING like its predecessor, all while sounding totally Rocky. Considering it was released as a total surprise soon after the death of A$AP Yams, there's an odd feeling of rush or panic that hovers over the record. Knowing what a perfectionist Rocky is, this gives the album a weird feeling - as if something he'd been laboring over for years suddenly had an urgency to be completed. The result is a mish-mash of soulfulness ("Holy Ghost") and psychedelic singalongs ("L$D") and straight Three Six throwbacks ("LPFJ2") and whatever else Rocky felt like recording. It's like a mixtape with a major label budget. And it's going to rub some ears the wrong way if they come in expecting Long Live A$AP Part 2. But the open-minded will realize that this is just another in what is likely to be long string of surprising and and excellent albums from Rocky.

4. Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful
So the guy who built a reputation for a string of mixtapes by a rapper sounding like Ghostface rapping about food has finally made a major label album. And I'm not sure where all the money went, cuz it sounds like a rapper who sounds like Ghostface rapping about food. But that's good. Mr. Wonderful is far from a serious album. Heck, at times it feels like it's intent on self-sabotage. Yet the IDGAF attitude serves the project well. And at the end of the day, I found myself coming back to this one more often than BOTH albums that Ghostface himself released this year.

5. Ryan Adams - 1989
There should be nothing shocking here. I love Ryan Adams. I'm a Taylor Swift fan. Ryan Adams re-recorded Taylor Swift's entire 1989 album. And... it's fantastic. This was a cool year for Adams. Instead of a proper album, he delivered this cover album along with a a live album a few months prior. These sort of archival releases make for a nice diversion to new NEW material while reminding why he's such a great performer. There's a lot of folks out there who I'm sure write Swift off as throw-away pop. But Adams does a good job reminding everyone that she gets the props she gets because she deserves them. These are great songs, and Adams handles them with the utmost sincerity.

6. Miles Davis - Miles Davis At Newport 1955-1975
This latest installment in the Davis Bootleg Series proves that there's still plenty more material in the archives that needs to be released. This 4-CD set chronicles 20 years of Newport Jazz Festival performances with shifts from bands and genres that will make your head spin. Many periods of Davis' work is included here starting with a humble all-star jam that probably highlights Monk more than Davis through his jazz fusion bands in the 70's. Just an excellent set for those interested in a history lesson in the evolution of a brilliant career.

7. The Weeknd - Beauty Behind The Madness
The Weeknd's first four albums always felt to me like I should like them more than I did. I knew they were good. I knew they were unique. I knew he was talented as hell. But none of them held my attention all that much. And then he started rolling out a string of new singles starting with his contribution to the 50 Shades Of Gray soundtrack. It was a solid track. A post "Drunk In Love" slow number that got a ton of radio play. But then not to typecast himself he also dropped the super upbeat 80's Michael Jackson-sounding "I Can't Feel Myself," and for good measure the horrific and super vulgar "The Hills" which completed a trilogy of disparate and awesome singles that raised the album to one of my most anticipated of the year. The final result isn't perfect but it is in my opinion the best Weeknd album to date. One that finally highlights everything that made him so blog-worthy to begin with.

8. The Alchemist & Oh No - Welcome To Los Santos
This pseduo-soundtrack to the 2015 PC port of Grand Theft Auto V is an awesome mess of hip hop, electropop, reggae and everything else these two producers could toss into the blender. While I played said game, I kept my car's radio constantly tuned in to this station, so in many ways this album became the definitive soundtrack to not only GTA5, but this weird little world that I spent hours exploring. Welcome To Los Santos is a melting pot of genres and voices that holds up just fine in the real world however.

9. The Robert Glasper Trio - Covered
Another jazz musician I discovered this year thanks to To Pimp A Butterfly. Between projects, Glasper decided to get his trio together and record an intimate live album that takes some of his more experimental tracks, along with productions he's done with others and strips them down into an organic trio recording. It is immediately lovely. It's also quite soulful. There's nothing overly compelling here - which is not a dig in any way. Instead, it is a consistently good and pretty album that serves as an easy to overlook, but totally worth hearing chill out record.

10. Joey Bada$$ - B4DA$$
Joey's been a time-machine for a while now, so it comes as no surprise that his major label debut would sound like it was recorded in 1995 even though it sees the light of day in 2015. This is one of those records for purists who maintain that 'all the hip hop coming out nowadays sounds the same' or who pine for a simpler time we call The Golden Age.

[aaron]

Enforcer - From Beyond
Torche - Restarter
Ryan Adams - 1989
Ben Folds - So There
Into Another - Omens
Fight Amp - Constantly Off
Bitter End - Illusions of Dominance
Mutoid Man - Bleeder
Ghost - Meliora
Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls
Caspian - Dust and Disquiet
Envy - Atheist's Cornea
Birds in Row - Personal War
Shai Hulud - Just Can't Hate Enough EP
Post Malone - "White Iverson"



Artists that should not have released albums in 2015 by artists I used to love/respect:
Refused
Nuclear Assault
The Crown
Slayer
Danzig
Earth Crisis
Vision of Disorder

[Sano]

Armin van Buuren - A State Of Trance at Ushuaia, Ibiza 2015

[BoneSnapDeez]

Artists that should not have released albums in 2015 by artists I used to love/respect:
Refused
Nuclear Assault
The Crown
Slayer
Danzig
Earth Crisis
Vision of Disorder

[noiseredux]

Refused made a new album? Weird.

[aaron]

Refused made a new album? Weird.

yeah, they kicked John Brannstrom out, and he was the dude who wrote all the good music. they were lined up to get some award from the Swedish government, and Brannstrom wasn't about it because there were some weird for-profit motivations behind the award and Brannstrom is punk as fuck. so they kicked him out. Refused is a shell of the band they used to be. the new lyrics are all about "self-discovery" instead of the raging anti-capitalist, anarcho-punk shit they used to write about.

also Dennis Lxyzen just wants to be in a popular band. listen to T(I)NC or Invasionen and that becomes really apparent.

[TSTR]

Here's some of my favorite synthy things from this year:

London Lazers - Escape
Kyoto Dragon - Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi
Robert Parker - Money Talks
2814 - 新しい日の誕生
Zombi - Shape Shift

Also I put out three releases this year! Go me!

[marurun]

I am a sad human who has not consumed any new music this year. I deserve all the scorn you can muster.

[EllertMichael]

Into Another - Omens - Far and away my most anticipated release, and it did not disappoint. Loved these guys for as long as I can remember.

Fuzz - Fuzz II I rarely buy records without checking them out first, but I had heard the 1st Fuzz album on youtube and dug it, so when I saw this was a new release on sale, I figured why not? I wasn't even through the A side of the 1st lp before I was frantically buying tickets to their upcoming Boston show (which was awesome!) Seriously, I wish I had a video of me listening to this for the first time so I could laugh at myself jamming out in front of my record player.

Camera Shy - s/t The chick who used to sing for Whirr made a record with Nick who is still in Whirr, and it's real simple feel-good cutesy wonderfullness. I think their tagline for the record was something along the lines of "music to make out to."

Tame Impala - Currents Love Kevin's early guitar rock, but I can absolutely respect what he's done with this record, and it record sounds great fidelity-wise. I've used this album in the past to "show off" my record player to friends checking it out for the first time.

Dungen - Allas Sak I had tickets to see these guys at a small club in Boston and unfortunately missed it due to traveling to D.C. for work. My girlfriend took her friend so the tickets didn't go to waste and she brought me back their new album, limited to 500 on red vinyl. It sounds great. I found out about these guys years ago when someone described the early Tame Impala EP as "a mix of Dungen and Olivia Tremor Control." Right away I new I had to seek these guys out. Swedish psychedelic progressive rock. These guys rule.

Stove - Is Stupider I saw this band called Ovlov (that's Volvo spelled backwards) open for Polaris in CT a few years ago and they were pretty sweet. Very Dinosaur Jr-influenced. After the show, the singer Steve came up to me and complimented my Black Sabbath t-shirt, and I complimented his shirt that had the Kodama Tree Spirits from Princess Mononoke. I joined their facebook page and ordered their album, and like a month later they broke up. Well, Steve just put this new album out under the moniker "Stove" and it's very much in the same vein - probably would've been the new Ovlov album.

Wavves - V I have a weird soft spot for these guys. This album is kinda a step backwards, IMO, but again, for some reason I let this band "get away" with some things that maybe I wouldn't let others off the hook for so easily...

Wavves x Cloud Nothings - No Life For Me (Still waiting for this to hit my mailbox due to delayed pressing nonsense ) https://wavvesxcloudnothings.bandcamp.com/ This is more inline with what I wanted from Wavves as a followup to Afraid of Heights - going back to a more lo-fi lazy smoked out surf-punk sound with song lengths hovering around the 2 minute mark. I haven't dug into Cloud Nothings too much, but I probably should because what I have heard touches upon sounds I'm a sucker for

Blur - Magic Whip A heady record that doesn't necessarily grab you at first listen, perhaps in part due to the disjointed way it was recorded - in an inspired instrumental session in Hong Kong and then pieced together by Graham Coxon over the next few years then handing over the "songs" to Damon to write and record lyrics to. Blur > Oasis

Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again Hauntingly original folk from a woman who somehow time traveled from 1960's San Francisco to now and brought her albums with her. I really loved her self titled record from a few years back so I was looking forward to this one. Still bummed out I missed her show when she came through Boston...

Mount Eerie - Sauna I like it when Phil makes album that *could* be Microphones albums, even if he calls them Mount Eerie albums. I really want to rip this dude off and start a band that just sounds entirely like "boat" (from this album) or "i want to be cold" (from the Glow pt. 2)

of Montreal - Aureate Gloom Kevin Barnes is losing his mind... and I'm reaping all the benefits

Electric Light Orchestra - Alone in the Universe Jeff Lynne Forever.

Artists that should not have released albums in 2015 by artists I used to love/respect:
Vision of Disorder

1000% agree.

[noiseredux]

Blur - Magic Whip A heady record that doesn't necessarily grab you at first listen, perhaps in part due to the disjointed way it was recorded - in an inspired instrumental session in Hong Kong and then pieced together by Graham Coxon over the next few years then handing over the "songs" to Damon to write and record lyrics to. Blur > Oasis

yeah this was good for sure. I'm a long time Blur fan. And I did like it a lot. It didn't land in my Top list, but it got lots of play.

Mount Eerie - Sauna I like it when Phil makes album that *could* be Microphones albums, even if he calls them Mount Eerie albums. I really want to rip this dude off and start a band that just sounds entirely like "boat" (from this album) or "i want to be cold" (from the Glow pt. 2)

Good call! I love love love The Microphones/Mount Eerie. And this album was great.

My fav album is probably It Was Hot, We Stayed In The Water. Brilliant record. The cover of Eric's Trip's "Sand" is OMG. And I loved his live album (still Microphones) that premiered "Great Ghosts." And the Songs Islands compilation... "Lantern" stands out. I'm sorry I'm just rambling now. But yeah, Mt Eerie is a band that I look forward to hearing new albums from each year.

OH! I have one of the hand-painted copies of the Blood LP btw.