albums 2015

1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

There was no other choice and you know it. It's also hard to really touch on it without saying what's already been said. But I do think that this album stands out moreso than any other modern album as one that can be dubbed an instant classic. Timing helps in that regard as in a similar manner to RTJ2 & Black Messiah, this album came out right when it was needed. This is a monumentally ambitious album, both in terms of themes & composition, with the former proving a continuation of the themes of "good kid, m.A.A.d City" but packing in so much more with it, as it proves to be an album about togetherness, about endurance, about integrity. All things that the turmoils of life can get in the way of. I think what the album excels at so strongly in that regard is that it doesn't just rattle off easy answers and pretend they're viable, the last track even ends on a cliffhanger where 2Pac disappears before he can finish his 'interview'. The music is absolutely important too, with the album drawing in influences of the past. Everything is so tightly wound together as well, with the long running poem throughout the album finding a way to segue most of the tracks along the way. I don't like to use the term perfect, but I'm pretty sure it's been a long time since I've heard an album quite this good.

2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

This is the cliche #2 album pick but I really couldn't pick anything else to go there. It's not exactly like this is easily listening material either, as it's largely very real documentation of the life of Sufjan's late mother, and how she left him when he was young and he has to come to terms with the death of a close, and yet so distant family member. I get my own conflicting feelings too when this so nearly hit the top 10 here, but was blocked off by the only album this year I liked more.

3. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear

A nice surprise for me this year has been the huge adoration, or really even attention that Father John Misty has gotten this time around. I loved "Fear Fun" of course and now I think this album is just as good. It's an album about love, that doesn't bog itself down with the cheesiness associated with it, or if it does, it's with a wink and a nod. It feels like an exercise in making people talk high praise of songs with such ridiculous titles, and I can believe it because that is so totally something that he'd do. But he mixes it up by making sure to be persistently entertaining along the way. I may not be able to say I meant the woman of my dreams at the store one day, but I can definitely get along with being mad at someone for misusing the word 'literally'.

4. CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye

By the slimmest of margins this is my favourite pop album of the year. Mainly because they does the impressive task of refining their previous work and getting together an album that DOESN'T trail off instantly once you hit the back end. Sure there's not quite a "Gun" or "The Mother We Share" here, but it's just wall to wall massive tunes and a heck of a lot of fun.

5. Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION

This was kind of a revelation wasn't it? I'm one of the few people for whom "Call Me Maybe" doesn't quite click on a melodic level so I can't really get behind the mass love for it, but this album never fails to hit that spot instead. The only downside to it is that by so abruptly shifting her demographics, this album turned out to be a bit of a commercial failure, which is obviously a bit disheartening. I think it does a really great job of having all its tracks carve out their own individual identity, and it hits a particularly great stride in the middle. Perhaps that's what it feels like to be taken to the feeling.

6. Jamie xx - In Colour

Thanks to a competition, this is the only album this year I own a physical copy of! Handily it's a great album too. Jamie xx has of course been making music on the side about as long as The xx have made music, but only just now has he put together a full album and it's totally been worth the wait. In saying that, I can get if someone well versed in the UK rave scene might be a bit underwhelmed by it, but track by track this just hits the spot for me. Also Young Thug does glorious work.

7. Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love

This was a bit of a surprise to me as I'd never taken much more than a passing interest in UMO before this album. But this album really hit the spot for me as one of the most fun to listen to of the year. It's also been an album I've had trouble articulating my feelings about, short of just blurting out all my favourite lyrics to blurt out. HereLiesMusic perhaps can speak on my behalf in this instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWSe4GXLcTs

8. Beach House - Depression Cherry

In a cruel misfortune, Beach House chose to forgo their usual 'album every 2 years' schedule and make me wait a whole 3 years to get a follow up to "Bloom". They made things interesting right from the get go with lead single "Sparks" sounding quite unlike anything they'd ever done, veering much more into the shoegaze end of the spectrum. It turned out to be a misnomer but that is ok, because the album, like all their other albums, is still great. They never cease to impress me with just how beautiful their tunes can be, and some of their best to date are on full display here.

9. Susanne Sundfør - Ten Love Songs

This album kind of slipped past my radar until "Accelerate" was released as a single and it was so amazing I had to hear more. The rest of the album is actually great too. Susanne's voice is so captivating on every track, and the music is so thoroughly accomplished throughout. It's still very new to me and for the time being I just can't get enough.

10. Neon Indian - Vega Intl. Night School

You did it reddit! Neon Indian of course came up big in the chillwave phase a few years ago but then didn't really have anywhere to go with that as the public kind of moved on, so he did the natural thing and tried something different. This album feels like a lovechild of "Since I Left You" and "It's Album Time" and that is the highest of compliments from me. Flowing nicely from track to track but still making sure to elevate with those glorious highs, just listen to "Slumlord" and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

11. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars

The best present of 2015 was the fact that Beach House put out not one but two albums! Handily too, they both occupy very distinct places in their catalogue, with "Thank You Lucky Stars" being a return to the sort of sparse nature of their debut. But of course, they've honed their craft a lot since then, so you get an even better set of tunes this time around, even if it's really hard to shake the feeling that a lot of it is probably outtakes from "Depression Cherry".

12. Django Django - Born Under Saturn

Found this album to be a bit underrated this year, few were as instantly gratifying as this one as it turned out the lead single was far from the best it had to offer. Basically every track manages to fit in a catchy hook enough so to easily tide me over the full length. It's rare that I find an album that I genuinely like every song on, and this is one of those.

13. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love

Sleater-Kinney stopped putting out albums before I started caring enough about music to maybe know who they were, so they were only a name to me before their 2015 comeback. That didn't stop me from being instantly won over with an album that few from 2015 can match the kickassitude of, and yes that's now a word. This is an album that just sounds remarkably angry right from the opener "Price Tag" and particularly on highlight "Bury Our Friends". If and when I go back to explore their back catalogue, it'll be this album to thank that I ever bothered.

14. Gang of Youths - The Positions

Here's a weird sight, a debut album from a rock band crashes into the ARIA charts in the top 5! And of course, it may be a debut album but it's remarkably accomplished in its own right. An album about grief that manages to be a pretty fun way to spend an hour. You couldn't convince me that there's a more satisfying choice of song to land #100 in the upcoming Hottest 100 than "Radioface", a song that takes its cue from the classic "Khe Sanh" in having such an instantly recognisable chorus of glory, which is only actually shoved into the last minute of the song.

15. Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool

It's hard to get going nowadays as a new rock band. Just because there's so much rock music out there to satisfy that a lot of people just aren't looking for the next big thing, and if they are, they'll want some sort of rehash of a successful formula, which is why we had Wolfmother and err Jet. Wolf Alice kind of do the same thing, just with a more modern target in mind with mid '90s grunge. I'm not actually a big fan of the era myself as I find too often, the desire to be loud overshadows writing tunes. Really I'm not quite sure Wolf Alice have quite hit their top stride yet, but when they do deliver, it goes down a treat. Really what appealed to me in the first place is their atypical approach to songwriting, the hook to their most popular song doesn't even have words in it! And then you have songs like "Bros" which justify it all by so thoroughly capturing the mood of the era it's portraying. It's a song that I really only appreciate more and more over the years.

16. Hermitude - Dark Night Sweet Light

Hermitude are good at shapeshifting. It's easy to forget that they've been around for a decade and a half now, and constantly shifting style to surprisingly increasing success. Their last album "HyperParadise" was more in the line of instrumental hip-hop, and it was great! "Dark Night Sweet Light" is all about the bangers instead, and it delivers in stride. There's hardly a dud on it in fact, and it's absolutely one of the best to hit the #1 spot this year.

17. Tame Impala - Currents

As you might know, I've been somewhat critical of Tame Impala this year, pretty much just for the simple fact that this album is no "Lonerism". Yes, "Let It Happen" is brilliant, but I think that's making people overlook the fact that the rest of the album just doesn't hit that same stride, and that the lyrics (as meme-able as they are) can be embarrassing at times. If you can look past that though, it is still a solid collection of tunes, but I think everyone wanted this to be amazing and it's just not quite that.

18. Jamie Woon - Making Time

As you might know, Jamie Woon hit the moderate time in 2011 with his debut album getting a big push from the BBC, and it hosting the quality single "Night Air". I never really explored much more of his music then, and he dropped off my radar afterwards. That is until I heard "Sharpness" on the radio and loved it, and fortunately that was not long before the album release which I listened to and instantly was drawn in by as well. I mean basically it's "Sharpness" and a lot of similar tracks that aren't quite as good, but you could do worse than that description.

19. The Internet - Ego Death

This would be the first time I put an Odd Future related project in one of my lists that isn't Frank Ocean. And just like Frank Ocean, The Internet sets itself apart by being nothing like you'd expect from that association. Rather, this is a collection of slow grooves & sparce tracks. I think what works best for me is how effective Syd the Kyd's voice is, on more than one occasion I've had to stop what I'm doing to find out what I'm hearing on the radio and it's been this.

20. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness

I haven't listened to all of her albums yet, but Julia Holter generally occupies a rather niche art pop style that doesn't really offer a casual listener much in the way of approaching it. That changed with this, her 4th album, something made abundantly clear from the minute I first played the album and realised track 1 had been all over the radio. That's not even a track that does a lot for me, rather it's the rest of the beautifully arranged & performed tracks after it. If you think it's too much of a downer hearing about someone being marooned, you can get solace in highlight "Everytime Boots" which to me is so bouncy that it belongs on a Banjo game soundtrack almost.

21. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

As far as Australian artists go, since Tame Impala's success seems so pre-ordained, this really has felt like Courtney's year. Of course, she's been around for a while ago, slowly winning me over as I get past the baffled phase that I think a lot of people went through (or still are). In an album format, you get perhaps her most polished tracks yet, which could be seen as a bad thing, but it doesn't get in the way of the clever lyrics & storytelling.

22. Mini Mansions - The Great Pretenders

I think the only reason I heard this album is because they did a song with Alex Turner. Which is probably an obvious association as this is a side project of QOTSA's bassist. And to be fair, "Vertigo" is a great radio single from this year. I had no idea what to expect from the rest of the album and what I got was a lovely bit of tightly locked psych pop. They're so indebted to the '60s here that they even got Brian Wilson in on a track.

23. Foals - What Went Down

I accept that my Foals opinions are not the norm. A lot of people love the math rock of their debut but it's never quite done it for me. Rather I found that they got better with each album, culminating in the great "Holy Fire" in 2013. "What Went Down" is a bit of a step down from it, but still stands up for itself. If you want to give it the edge, lead single "What Went Down" is an improved "Inhaler", and the radio friendly 2nd single "Mountain At My Gates" is an improved "My Number".

24. Joey Bada$$ - B4.DA.$$

I was introduced to Joey Bada$$ several years ago when he was like the youngest rapper in the game. Come 2015 and he finally has a debut album under his belt, not just holding the best title of the year, but tunes to match. It's kind of a '90s throwback in some senses, with the boom-bap energy in line with old school Wu-Tang (who are also wonderfully quoted & interpolated on "Paper Trail$"), and of course the great single "No. 99" which is surely indebted to ATCQ's "Scenario". It's also possibly the first time in 3 years that anyone has referenced Joseph Kony, so it has that going for it.

25. Drake - If You're Reading This It's Too Late

Parroting theneedledrop here but this is honestly the first project from Drake that I've enjoyed from start to finish. Maybe it runs just a little long but I find from track to track that it gives exactly what you're after from Drake. For songs that never touched the airwaves, "Energy" & "Know Yourself" felt inescapable, just as much as the even bigger hits he'd get later in the year.