Image credit: Johdrew Flickr
It's that time of year again! Instead of pre-empting the list with a rambling post about my year in music, or what music has meant in 2015 etc, I've decided to just make a couple of short and sweet points about this list.
1) These albums are ranked purely based on how many times I've revisited/ wanted to go back to these albums, for whatever reason. They're the ones I've gotten the most enjoyment and emotion from and have had on repeat throughout the year, even 10 or 11 months down the line.
2) There's no Young Thug, Julia Holter or Deafheaven in this list.
3) The albums listed below in the "Honourable mentions" section are all records which I've really enjoyed and think are good to great, but for whatever reason I haven't given them the time they deserve. Given more time with some of these records, I'm sure I could have made a top 20 or top 25 album list.
Honourable Mentions:
A$AP Rocky- At.Long.Last.A$AP.
Carly Rae Jepson- Emotion
Coheed and Cambria- The Colour Before The Sun
Father John Misty- I Love You, Honeybear
Foals- What Went Down
Iron Maiden- The Book of Souls
Jay Rock- 90059
Jlin- Dark Energy
Palm Reader- Beside The Ones We Love
Roots Manuva- Bleeds
Spectres- Dying
TesseracT- Polaris
So, without further ado, read my guide to the top 15 albums that have thrilled me most this year. As ever, a huge thank you to those who continue to support this blog! All kind words are received very warmly indeed and I'll buy you all a beer at some point.
15. Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp A Butterfly
How Kendrick Lamar would follow 2012's 'Good Kid M.A.A.D. City', considered by many to be a modern classic, was a burning question right from the very second that album finished. It should never have been doubted though; sprawling, forward thinking and culturally vital is what Lamar does best, and although 'To Pimp A Butterfly' didn't possess as much replay value for this listener as his previous full-lengths, it was certainly all of those things. It speaks volumes, in a number of different ways, that Barack Obama chose 'How Much a Dollar Cost' as his favourite song of the year.
14. Chelsea Wolfe- Abyss
Los Angeles singer- songwriter Chelsea Wolfe has always enjoyed a sort of cult crossover appeal, championed by both blogosphere hipsters and the Heavy metal press simultaneously. Her darkest, heaviest but also most diverse work to date, 'Abyss' is a sometimes nightmarish, often beautiful and always atmospheric ode to loss, heartbreak and depression, her vision as a writer and composer marks her out as an entity that thinly traverses the line between Earthy and other-worldly.
13. High On Fire- Luminiferous
In perhaps the way that everybody hoped it would, 'Luminiferous' made good on the notion of perfecting the art they were going for 'De Vermis Mysteriis'. Although Matt Pike's post-Sleep trio have always been consistent in the realms of crushing heaviness, bleak historical story-telling and churning out hulking grooves and riffs, 'Luminiferous' contains some of the most melodic, memorable and fist-clenching songs they've written to date. From the glorious anthemic quality of the likes of 'The Sunless Years' (a contender for Metal track of the year for my money) to the unbridled thrash fury of 'Slave The Hive' to the shimmering, thick balladry of 'The Cave', this is High On Fire's most wholesome album thus far.
12. Everything Everything- Get To Heaven
For a band who have always seemed to be almost TOO intelligent (or too pretentious, depending on who you ask) for their own good, it's an absolute joy to be able to include Manchester art-poppers Everything Everything's third full-length in this list. A bleak, often disturbing and strange narrative based on the idea that the world is truly going to shit, 'Get To Heaven' is a sigh of disgruntlement, a morose observational on-looker as world politics enters a prominently strange, disorientating time. But compositionally it sees the band take a huge step forward as well. This is undeniably their most accessible work to date (both 'Distant Past' and 'Regret' made it on to the Radio 1 A playlist), but their unashamed forays into indulgent weirdness are present and correct without detracting anything from most of these songs. The staggeringly beautiful 'No Reptiles' is probably their finest moment to date.
11. RP Boo- Fingers, Bank Pads and Shoe Prints
Footwork can claim to be one of the only genres in recent times that has become a VICTIM of hyperbolic media coverage, and so much of that is down to juke pioneer RP Boo, a notion carried out whole-heartedly and beautifully across the 13 tracks of his 'Fingers...'. Aggressive, disjointed and eerie yet consistently danceable and banging, it's almost the perfect amalgamation of the odd exterior but soulful core of this Chicago music movement. Though it's a multi-faceted genre for sure, 'Fingers...''s confrontational, cocksure joy is certainly a cornerstone in the genres evolution.
10. FKA Twigs- M3LL155A
Many times has Twigs' visionary and near re-invention of modern r'n'b been praised glowingly by this writer, and although it only stands as a five track EP, 'M3LL155A' is another cog in the masterfully oiled machine. As socially conscious, courageous and self-indulgent as ever, Twigs' ruminations on femininity, sex and culture over a distinctly odd set of productions felt almost dystopian, like a siren looking down upon the Earth post-apocalypse and pin-pointing the reasons for the fall and rising above it while being personal and distant enough to the wider picture to really be remorseful. The 16-minute video that accompanied it's official release is as appropriate a visual brother as any.
9. Cult Leader- Lightless Walk
Though Deathwish Inc.'s roster is by no means lacking in savage Hardcore/sludge crossover bleakness, Cult Leader's debut full-length 'Lightless Walk' is the most terrifying, destructive and remorseless "no light at the end of the tunnel" record to emerge from that label this year. An unrelenting, disgustingly precise exercise in sheer brutality, it's nails on the blackboard like appetite for un-appeasable darkness is commendable alone for that. To show that they are far from one-trick ponies though they've included the doom-laden, Neurosis-esque closing partnership of 'How Deep it Runs' and the 7-minute title track which, if they don't add any hope to the equation, they certainly add another dimension to the record's soul.
8. Faith No More- Sol Invictus
Perhaps one of the most triumphant occurances and realisations in 2015 was that comebacks and re-unions don't always half to be half-arsed or anything to do with a pay check. In the case of Mike Patton's iconic alt-metal originators Faith No More it felt like they'd never been away. There are so many facets, layers and glorious things about 'Sol Invictus', but perhaps the real thing to be celebrated is just how vital, fresh and un-rivaled in the realm of weird, untouchably unique social, political and ambiguous story telling they are. The word genius is used far too often these days, but it's impossible to listen to the likes of 'Separation Anxiety', 'Cone of Shame' or 'Matador' and no be prompted in the direction of that word.
7. Algiers- Algiers
Speaking further of innovation with addictive tunes, very few albums this year melded together two genres as seamlessly and naturally as post-punk/soul trio Algiers. Tinged with industrial brutality, almost endlessly dark story telling and eerie poeticisms, the band's self-titled full-length was as refreshing a statement of intent as they come. It quite often seems like we don't have a band in 2015 who are totally unafraid of stepping into their wider societal debate, and in a mirror image of true post-punk embodiment, Algiers took it upon themselves as a duty to be an artful, disturbing representative of metaphorical disillusionment, particularly on the rattling 'When You Fall'.
6. Kuedo- Assertion of a Surrounding Presence
Beamed from UK electronic music hero Jamie Teasdale under his Kuedo guise like a hologram depiction from a distant planet, the 7-track 'Assertion of a Surrounding Presence' was the most life-affirming, daunting and near-spiritual electronica release of the year. It felt like the encompassing of an entire alien world, where political borders don't exist and dystopian, futuristic life-forms live in a dog-eat-dog world immersed in surveillance, inequality and a "survival of the fittest" style society. It's a testament to Teasdale's ability that across a span of 7-tracks he manages to make a crisp and thought-provoking *ahem* assertion.
5. Black Breath- Slaves Beyond Death
A bit like Kendrick Lamar, Black Breath were a band who had the weight of expectation thrust upon them after 2012's 'Sentenced To Life', one of the best Metal records of the last few years. The rather more muted response to 'Slaves Beyond Death', which takes the band's hard-as-nails, blisteringly heavy thrash-meets-hardcore-meets-sludge aesthetic and extends it to a slightly longer, more mid-paced but altogether darker and more horrible place, was somewhat to be expected then. But despite all of that, this was certainly Black Breath's most consistent, coherent and macabre work to date, and although it did very little re-inventing of the wheel, it's an album that proves that if you're great at something, the smallest amount of innovation can go a thrillingly long way.
4. My Disco- Severe
Australian experimental rock trio My Disco's latest full-length was perhaps the most aptly titled album of the year. 'Severe', 9 tracks of arty, gruelling, spacious noise rock distinctly more subterranean in terms of down-tuned sound and style than their previous full-length (2011's 'Little Joy') 'Severe' was an absolute masterclass in the kind of repetition as resonant with a band like Swans as it is with much modern techno and dance music. The space between the brutal sequences on the likes of 'King Sound' are Grade A examples of how less is so often more, and there's a sort of spiritual entity lurking behind the eyes of this record that propels it forward with more momentum and understanding than probably any other record on this list.
3. Uncommon Nasa- Halfway
New York MC Uncommon Nasa has been slowly building his reputation as one of the most esoteric and diverse rappers in the game over the past few years, and 'Halfway' is his strongest, most personal and arguably most well-thought out work to date. Centralising around Nasa's awareness of his own mortality and various notions of life and death and the meaning of both, it's a deep, textured and conscious record in terms of both Nasa's rhymes and Black Tokyo's stellar production. It's the kind of hip-hop record that is very hard to do justice to with just mere words, so have a read of my interview with Nasa for Bearded Gent Music here to get a far better insight from the man himself. Essentially though, it has proven to be the most entertaining, energetic and thought-provoking hip-hop album of the year for me.
2. Leviathan- Scar Sighted
So much of music fandom and writing is based around an evaluation of the musicians personal attributes and values. In the case of Leviathan, sole member Wrest's tortured and violent past is likely to be enough to prevent some from ever listening to his music. If any fans of Black Metal are that way inclined though it's a mighty shame, because removed from everything else, 'Scar Sighted' is THE extreme music masterpiece of the year. As fans will have come to expect, it's an unbelievably depressive, grim, horrible, nightmarish and torturous piece of work, but there's so much a sense of musical talent and conviction as well as *whisper it* melody here that it transcends words just how unbelievably well crafted this record is. It's not like it's entirely innovative or a particularly new sound, certainly not for Leviathan at least, but it's destructive, soulless macabre music and it's very most wholesome, exhilarating and beautiful.
1. Sufjan Stevens- Carrie & Lowell
Having never really known much about Sufjan Stevens music before the hype surrounding this album struck enough of a chord for me to actually go and listen to it, I was almost convinced I wouldn't like it. None of Stevens' tracks which I'd heard previously had stuck with me particularly, and, to my shame, I'd kind of written him off as one of those Elliot Smith types. Though that comparison isn't totally unfair, 'Carrie & Lowell' is the most blisteringly heartfelt, crushed, sad record of the year, and in turn also the most beautiful, resonant and brilliant. Informed by the recent death of his mother, who he reportedly didn't enjoy a particularly fruitful relationship with, Sufjan's 7th full-length is powerful enough to make one feel it's sensitivity and vulnerability seep through every pour in a way that's direct but employs a carefully offered amount of pathos which feels the album with space, emotion and suspense. Though for the most part it is just Sufjan with a guitar and some electronics, the elegance with which he plays and informs the dynamics is mesmerising. And the fact that he performs the whole thing with a shudder emanating from his chest and sometimes sounds like he's holding back tears is a demarkation of making an album this personal.
Top 15 Albums Of The Year
1. Sufjan Stevens- Carrie & Lowell
2. Leviathan- Scar Sighted
3. Uncommon Nasa- Halfway
4. My Disco- Severe
5. Black Breath- Slaves Beyond Death
6. Kuedo- Assertion of a Surrounding Presence
7. Algiers- Algiers
8. Faith No More- Sol Invictus
9. Cult Leader- Lightless Walk
10. FKA Twigs- M3LL155A
11. RP Boo- Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints
12. Everything Everything- Get To Heaven
13. High On Fire- Luminiferous
14. Chelsea Wolfe- Abyss
15. Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp A Butterfly
You can listen to all of my top 15 albums of the year (save for Kuedo) via the Spotify playlist here.
