Top 10 Best Albums of 2015
Another good year in music is (almost) gone. I wish I could say it was an excellent year in music but I can't. I mean, there were pretty goods records in 2015 but none of them really stood off like Yeezus in 2013 or Transgender Dysphoria Blues and RTJ2 in 2014. Given this homogeneity, I've had a really good time thinking about and making this list because it was hard to select only 10 records, many missed making the cut. This is my Top 10 Albums right now but maybe in a month I would change two or three records and put Myrkur's M or Publicist U.K's Forgive Yourself or Riverside's Love, Fear and the Time Machine or Tenement's Predatory Headlights... Like last year's list I'll update the "reality" of the albums.
Anyway, enjoy and tell us your Top 10!
Also check out our Top 25 Best Songs of the year here and here!
10) Millencolin - True Brew
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Genre: Punk Rock
Reality: 6.7/10
New Reality: 8.1/10
Wow, looking now I realize how this album has grown on me. Millencolin's last great album was Pennybridge Pioneers released fifteen years ago. In the meantime the Swedish band released three decent records, the last one in 2008. So it's been a while without a new album by Millencolin. Why am I writing all this? Because I think taking this time out was really good for the band. In True Brew they sound refreshed and vital which is hard to sound for a 23 year old band. The maturity gained with the age can be noticed in tracks like "Sense & Sensibility" and "Wall of Doubts" while the well-known sentimentalism and positivity of the band can be heard in "True Brew" and "Something I Would Die For". In the end, this is a great punk rock record because there's nothing false or fake about it, Nikola Sarcevic really means every word he sings.
Standout Tracks: "Bring Me Home", "True Brew" and "Something I Would Die For"
9) Turnstile - Non Stop Feeling
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Genre: Hardcore Punk/Groove Metal/Punk Metal/Rap Metal
Reality: 7.8/10
New Reality: 8.3/10
In last year's list I included Angel Du$t's A.D. an album with total running time of 14 minutes. For this year I pick one with 27 minutes, which is an improvement. Turnstile might sound at first listen a band stucked in the past, determined to sound like 80's and 90's American Hardcore bands. Thankfully, they're much more than that, of course hardcore is the main influence of these Baltimore kids, but you can also find equal influences of Rage Against the Machine, Helmet and a little of Prong. There are some relatively calm tunes like "Blue by You" sung with clean vocals and the instrumental "Love Lasso", other tracks have great backing vocals while vocalist Brendan Yates is screaming like hell. The groove of the album is amazing, from the first track to the last I just can't stop moving the very least my head.
8) Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Surf
Release Date: May 29, 2015
Genre: Alternative Hip Hop/Alternative R&B
Reality: 7.9/10
New Reality: 8.4/10
This album is a mess, a beautiful mess of genres and influences. There's a little bit of psychedelia in "Miracles" and "Pass the Vibes", there's rap in "Wanna be Cool" and "Rememory", there's R&B in "Familiar" and "Go", there is trumpet (of course) and much more, this is the most ecletic collective ever (you probably know by now that this is not a Chance the Rapper's album). However there's one thing in common in all the songs: they're all packed with optimism and union, everything sounds radiant and bright. This album is a testimony of this generation of young, talented artists.
7) Grimes - Art Angels
Release Date: November 6, 2015
Genre: Indie Electronic/Alternative Dance
Reality: 7.6/10
New Reality: 8.6/10
Follow-ups to great albums are always hard but not for Grimes. After the amazing Visions, Claire Boucher managed to make an album as amazing as its predecessor but very different from it. In Art Angels, Grimes let all her pop influences impact her own music. Hooky songs like "California", "Art Angels" and "Flesh Without Blood" sound like k-pop, while songs like "SCREAM" "Life in the Vivid Dream" and "World Princess part II" carry the weirdness typical of Grimes but add new elements to her music like the greater use of guitars. With Art Angels, Claire Boucher shows that she's not afraid of changes and confirms herself as one of the driving forces of today's music.
Genre: Alternative Rock/Indie Rock
Reality: 7.9/10
New Reality: 8.7/10
Guitar/bass/drum trio, smart, thoughtful and fun lyrics (see "Elevator Operator" and "Depreston"), female singer with an amazing Australian accent (see the whole album), calm (see "Kim's Caravan") and noisy (see "Pedestrian at Best") moments and guitar-friend music (see the whole album). This is a fabulous rock & roll album influenced by 90's alternative rock made in 2015 by this Australian girl who plays guitar without a pick most of the time. It amazes me to think that this is just her debut album, can't wait to see/hear her in a couple years.
Reality: 8.2/10
New Reality: 8.8/10
This band is a pleasant surprise. In their second full length they managed to make music influenced by folk, indie rock and 70's psychedelic rock. Singer and leader of the band Andrew Carroll is an accomplished songwritter and his beautiful voice makes a one-of-a-kind pair with Jessi Williams' female vocals. Many songs in "Chasing White Light" reflects about life and death, but in the end, there is a hopeful message in it which makes listening to this album a rewarding and uplifiting experience. "Running" is one the most beautiful songs of this year.When Andrew sings "When time is through with me, I hope to be with you, my love." in the closing acapella track "Echo" you can't help but choke up a little bit. The Lonely Wild is another artist that I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.
Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Reality: 8.2/10
New Reality: 8.9/10
This album shouldn't fall in the hands of depressed people, it contains some of the most haunting musics I've heard in a while. Many people accuse Ghost Bath of being a Deafheaven clone, even Deafheaven's members think so. The similar genre, the similar album titles ("Sunbather" and "Moonlover") and even the similar music titles ("Dream House" and "Happyhouse" ) sure can raise some suspicions. I do think Ghost Bath owes Deafheaven to a certain extent, but they took everything including musicianship to a next level. To this day the exact lineup of the band is unknown, the members of the band are identified as Nameless (is that Ghost??) and only this year in an interview they revealed that they're not actually from China, but from North Dakota. They are really strange dudes. Let's start with the album cover of Moonlover, it is just beautifully disturbing, hands down the best album cover of 2015. Talking about music now, to experience this record you must isolate yourself from the world and listen to it without interruptions. The album begins and ends with the same haunting melody, the guitars play the melody in the opening track while in the last track "Death and the Maiden" you only hear a haunting kind of whistle chanting the same melody in the last minutes. The screaming vocals carry basically suffering, it feels like you're listening to somebody agonizing next to you. On the otherside, the guitars are the center of the music, they carry a ton of feelings in this record: pain, isolation, desperation, hope and even happiness. When "Golden Numbers", the first long track of the album, ends after 9 minutes with only a piano playing, you feel mentally exhausted but there is still 5 songs to go. This isn't an ordinary album at all.
3) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Release Date: March 16, 2015
Genre: Rap/Jazz/Soul/Alternative Hip Hop
Reality: 8.4/10
New Reality: 9.0/10
What I said about Grimes applies to Kendrick too, the follow-up album to Good Kid M.A.A.D City was surrounded by great expectations and it managed to exceed them. To Pimp a Butterfly is much more than just music, it's a complex piece of art that portrays the 21st century society. To view this album as just a rap/hip hop album is a terrible mistake, this album embraces almost every style of black music: soul, funk, jazz, R&B, and rap/hip hop. I find it hard to put into words everything that goes on in this record. To Pimp a Butterfly is an album that deserves all your attention each time you listen to. With all that said, why isn't this record the first one on this list? I think time itself will put this album in a special place in music history, something that numbers one and two won't experience. In other words, Kendrick's album will get better with time given its complexity, the others also will but in a much smaller proportion. Let's put it this way: To Pimp a Butterfly is potentially the best album of 2015.
PS: Even if you're some kind of soulless, heartless person that doesn't like this album or Kendrick Lamar at all, you should listen to the last track "Mortal Man" that contains a 'talk' between Kendrick and 2Pac.
Standout Tracks: "Wesley's Theory", "King Kuta" and "The Black the Berrier"
2) Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Release Date: July 28, 2015
Genre: Rock'n'Roll/Punk Rock/Garage Rock
Reality: 8.7/10
New Reality: 9.1/10
How I envy the old times when rock operas were the pinnacles of music. Every band needed to make one to assert their musical skills, narcissists personalities or to be the best band in the world. Regardless of the motivation, many rock operas were impressive works of art and creativity (The Wall, Quadrophenia, The Lambs Lies Down on Broadway, the list goes on and on...by the way, that would make a nice Top Five). Sadly, rock operas are getting rarer, Green Day's American Idiot and Fucked Up's David Comes to Life come to mind right now and that's it. No, that's not. The Most Lamentable Tragedy is everything you could expect from a rock opera. A great and complex story, a typical rock & roll band accompanied by strings, pianos and other instruments, grandious rock/punk/garage rock music, 29 songs divided in five acts, all that in 93 minutes. And the most important thing: a central figure which is a tortured man confronting his own demons in every song. That man is personified by Patrick Stickles, the singer/songwritter of Titus Andronicus. It's safe to say that Stickles is one of the best and most confessional songwritter out there. I hope this album inspires others bands to write (or try writing, at least) ambitious music like the ones in this record. Finally, just to be fair, Titus Andronicus is the kind of band from whom you would expect an album like The Most Lamentable Tragedy. Since day one, these New Jersey guys are pushing their musical boundaries. I can't wait for their next step (typical never-satisfied fan sentence).
Standout Tracks: "I Lost My Mind"(track five),"Fired Up" and "Fatal Flaw"
1) Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Genre: Roots Rock/Country Rock
Reality: 8.6/10
New Reality: 9.3/10
This albums comes as the biggest surprise of the year. Before All Your Favorite Bands, Dawes' discography consisted of three good but irregular albums, with few excellent moments like "When My Time Comes", "A Little Bit of Everything" and "Something in Common". This missing regularity was successfully achieved in All Your Favorite Bands. More than regular, here all songs are fantastic. The brilliant production of the album perfectly captures the essence of the band that is a well oiled-machine. Drums and bass are sometimes the only instruments conducting the song along with Taylor's gentle voice. Speaking of Taylor, his guitar solos are as beautiful as simple and always well-placed. And that's not all, his poetic lyrics about the frugality of life and love, sometimes full of melancholy and nostalgia are also a standout in the album. I could go on talking (catch the reference?) about the gospel-style female vocals in "I Can't Think About It Now", about the catchy chorus of the title track or about the tasty pianos' and Hammond organs' parts that are all around the record but I'll just stop here so you can go and (re)listen to this gorgeous album.
Standout Tracks: "Things Happen", "I Can't Think About It Now" and "Right on Time"
Anyway, enjoy and tell us your Top 10!
Also check out our Top 25 Best Songs of the year here and here!
10) Millencolin - True Brew
Release Date: April 28, 2015
Genre: Punk Rock
Reality: 6.7/10
New Reality: 8.1/10
Wow, looking now I realize how this album has grown on me. Millencolin's last great album was Pennybridge Pioneers released fifteen years ago. In the meantime the Swedish band released three decent records, the last one in 2008. So it's been a while without a new album by Millencolin. Why am I writing all this? Because I think taking this time out was really good for the band. In True Brew they sound refreshed and vital which is hard to sound for a 23 year old band. The maturity gained with the age can be noticed in tracks like "Sense & Sensibility" and "Wall of Doubts" while the well-known sentimentalism and positivity of the band can be heard in "True Brew" and "Something I Would Die For". In the end, this is a great punk rock record because there's nothing false or fake about it, Nikola Sarcevic really means every word he sings.
9) Turnstile - Non Stop Feeling
Release Date: January 13, 2015
Genre: Hardcore Punk/Groove Metal/Punk Metal/Rap Metal
Reality: 7.8/10
New Reality: 8.3/10
In last year's list I included Angel Du$t's A.D. an album with total running time of 14 minutes. For this year I pick one with 27 minutes, which is an improvement. Turnstile might sound at first listen a band stucked in the past, determined to sound like 80's and 90's American Hardcore bands. Thankfully, they're much more than that, of course hardcore is the main influence of these Baltimore kids, but you can also find equal influences of Rage Against the Machine, Helmet and a little of Prong. There are some relatively calm tunes like "Blue by You" sung with clean vocals and the instrumental "Love Lasso", other tracks have great backing vocals while vocalist Brendan Yates is screaming like hell. The groove of the album is amazing, from the first track to the last I just can't stop moving the very least my head.
Standout Tracks: "Gravity", "Drop" and "Bring It Back"
8) Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Surf
Release Date: May 29, 2015
Genre: Alternative Hip Hop/Alternative R&B
Reality: 7.9/10
New Reality: 8.4/10
This album is a mess, a beautiful mess of genres and influences. There's a little bit of psychedelia in "Miracles" and "Pass the Vibes", there's rap in "Wanna be Cool" and "Rememory", there's R&B in "Familiar" and "Go", there is trumpet (of course) and much more, this is the most ecletic collective ever (you probably know by now that this is not a Chance the Rapper's album). However there's one thing in common in all the songs: they're all packed with optimism and union, everything sounds radiant and bright. This album is a testimony of this generation of young, talented artists.
Standout Tracks: "Familiar", Sunday Candy" and "Pass the Vibes"
7) Grimes - Art Angels
Release Date: November 6, 2015
Genre: Indie Electronic/Alternative Dance
Reality: 7.6/10
New Reality: 8.6/10
Follow-ups to great albums are always hard but not for Grimes. After the amazing Visions, Claire Boucher managed to make an album as amazing as its predecessor but very different from it. In Art Angels, Grimes let all her pop influences impact her own music. Hooky songs like "California", "Art Angels" and "Flesh Without Blood" sound like k-pop, while songs like "SCREAM" "Life in the Vivid Dream" and "World Princess part II" carry the weirdness typical of Grimes but add new elements to her music like the greater use of guitars. With Art Angels, Claire Boucher shows that she's not afraid of changes and confirms herself as one of the driving forces of today's music.
Standout Tracks: "California", Flesh Without Blood" and "Art Angels"
6) Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
Release Date: March 23, 2015Genre: Alternative Rock/Indie Rock
Reality: 7.9/10
New Reality: 8.7/10
Guitar/bass/drum trio, smart, thoughtful and fun lyrics (see "Elevator Operator" and "Depreston"), female singer with an amazing Australian accent (see the whole album), calm (see "Kim's Caravan") and noisy (see "Pedestrian at Best") moments and guitar-friend music (see the whole album). This is a fabulous rock & roll album influenced by 90's alternative rock made in 2015 by this Australian girl who plays guitar without a pick most of the time. It amazes me to think that this is just her debut album, can't wait to see/hear her in a couple years.
Standout Tracks: "Elevator Operator", "Depreston" and "Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go to the Party"
5) The Lonely Wild - Chasing White Light
Release Date: October 2, 2015
Genre: Indie FolkReality: 8.2/10
New Reality: 8.8/10
This band is a pleasant surprise. In their second full length they managed to make music influenced by folk, indie rock and 70's psychedelic rock. Singer and leader of the band Andrew Carroll is an accomplished songwritter and his beautiful voice makes a one-of-a-kind pair with Jessi Williams' female vocals. Many songs in "Chasing White Light" reflects about life and death, but in the end, there is a hopeful message in it which makes listening to this album a rewarding and uplifiting experience. "Running" is one the most beautiful songs of this year.When Andrew sings "When time is through with me, I hope to be with you, my love." in the closing acapella track "Echo" you can't help but choke up a little bit. The Lonely Wild is another artist that I look forward to seeing what the future holds for them.
Standout Tracks: "Scar", "Running" and "Into Their Mouths"
4) Ghost Bath - Moonlover
Release Date: March 13, 2015Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal
Reality: 8.2/10
New Reality: 8.9/10
This album shouldn't fall in the hands of depressed people, it contains some of the most haunting musics I've heard in a while. Many people accuse Ghost Bath of being a Deafheaven clone, even Deafheaven's members think so. The similar genre, the similar album titles ("Sunbather" and "Moonlover") and even the similar music titles ("Dream House" and "Happyhouse" ) sure can raise some suspicions. I do think Ghost Bath owes Deafheaven to a certain extent, but they took everything including musicianship to a next level. To this day the exact lineup of the band is unknown, the members of the band are identified as Nameless (is that Ghost??) and only this year in an interview they revealed that they're not actually from China, but from North Dakota. They are really strange dudes. Let's start with the album cover of Moonlover, it is just beautifully disturbing, hands down the best album cover of 2015. Talking about music now, to experience this record you must isolate yourself from the world and listen to it without interruptions. The album begins and ends with the same haunting melody, the guitars play the melody in the opening track while in the last track "Death and the Maiden" you only hear a haunting kind of whistle chanting the same melody in the last minutes. The screaming vocals carry basically suffering, it feels like you're listening to somebody agonizing next to you. On the otherside, the guitars are the center of the music, they carry a ton of feelings in this record: pain, isolation, desperation, hope and even happiness. When "Golden Numbers", the first long track of the album, ends after 9 minutes with only a piano playing, you feel mentally exhausted but there is still 5 songs to go. This isn't an ordinary album at all.
Standout Tracks: "Golden Numbers", "The Silver Flower pt. 2" and "Death and the Maiden"
3) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Release Date: March 16, 2015
Genre: Rap/Jazz/Soul/Alternative Hip Hop
Reality: 8.4/10
New Reality: 9.0/10
What I said about Grimes applies to Kendrick too, the follow-up album to Good Kid M.A.A.D City was surrounded by great expectations and it managed to exceed them. To Pimp a Butterfly is much more than just music, it's a complex piece of art that portrays the 21st century society. To view this album as just a rap/hip hop album is a terrible mistake, this album embraces almost every style of black music: soul, funk, jazz, R&B, and rap/hip hop. I find it hard to put into words everything that goes on in this record. To Pimp a Butterfly is an album that deserves all your attention each time you listen to. With all that said, why isn't this record the first one on this list? I think time itself will put this album in a special place in music history, something that numbers one and two won't experience. In other words, Kendrick's album will get better with time given its complexity, the others also will but in a much smaller proportion. Let's put it this way: To Pimp a Butterfly is potentially the best album of 2015.
PS: Even if you're some kind of soulless, heartless person that doesn't like this album or Kendrick Lamar at all, you should listen to the last track "Mortal Man" that contains a 'talk' between Kendrick and 2Pac.
2) Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Release Date: July 28, 2015
Genre: Rock'n'Roll/Punk Rock/Garage Rock
Reality: 8.7/10
New Reality: 9.1/10
How I envy the old times when rock operas were the pinnacles of music. Every band needed to make one to assert their musical skills, narcissists personalities or to be the best band in the world. Regardless of the motivation, many rock operas were impressive works of art and creativity (The Wall, Quadrophenia, The Lambs Lies Down on Broadway, the list goes on and on...by the way, that would make a nice Top Five). Sadly, rock operas are getting rarer, Green Day's American Idiot and Fucked Up's David Comes to Life come to mind right now and that's it. No, that's not. The Most Lamentable Tragedy is everything you could expect from a rock opera. A great and complex story, a typical rock & roll band accompanied by strings, pianos and other instruments, grandious rock/punk/garage rock music, 29 songs divided in five acts, all that in 93 minutes. And the most important thing: a central figure which is a tortured man confronting his own demons in every song. That man is personified by Patrick Stickles, the singer/songwritter of Titus Andronicus. It's safe to say that Stickles is one of the best and most confessional songwritter out there. I hope this album inspires others bands to write (or try writing, at least) ambitious music like the ones in this record. Finally, just to be fair, Titus Andronicus is the kind of band from whom you would expect an album like The Most Lamentable Tragedy. Since day one, these New Jersey guys are pushing their musical boundaries. I can't wait for their next step (typical never-satisfied fan sentence).
1) Dawes - All Your Favorite Bands
Release Date: June 2, 2015
Genre: Roots Rock/Country Rock
Reality: 8.6/10
New Reality: 9.3/10
This albums comes as the biggest surprise of the year. Before All Your Favorite Bands, Dawes' discography consisted of three good but irregular albums, with few excellent moments like "When My Time Comes", "A Little Bit of Everything" and "Something in Common". This missing regularity was successfully achieved in All Your Favorite Bands. More than regular, here all songs are fantastic. The brilliant production of the album perfectly captures the essence of the band that is a well oiled-machine. Drums and bass are sometimes the only instruments conducting the song along with Taylor's gentle voice. Speaking of Taylor, his guitar solos are as beautiful as simple and always well-placed. And that's not all, his poetic lyrics about the frugality of life and love, sometimes full of melancholy and nostalgia are also a standout in the album. I could go on talking (catch the reference?) about the gospel-style female vocals in "I Can't Think About It Now", about the catchy chorus of the title track or about the tasty pianos' and Hammond organs' parts that are all around the record but I'll just stop here so you can go and (re)listen to this gorgeous album.
Standout Tracks: "Things Happen", "I Can't Think About It Now" and "Right on Time"
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