A Round of Sound

Well that was one helluva year of music, now wasn’t it? Coming off an uninspiring 2014, I had high hopes for 2015, and boy did it deliver. Having said that, I do think this year’s list is going to be, well, boring. My top 10 is pretty much chalk from what you’ve been seeing on other lists (though the order may differ), as opposed to last year which was so weak that it allowed some not necessarily universally acclaimed albums to find their way up my rankings. I do think this is my strongest top 25 to date, and am probably more excited to share the #11-#25 albums since there may be some stuff in there that shakes things up a little bit (and in other year’s probably would’ve cracked my top 10 in many cases.)

For 2015, the theme or trend I kept noticing over and over again was the impact of female artists. As the year when on, I was blown away how many of my favorite albums were from female singer/songwriters, female groups, or female fronted bands. It’s very good to have this variety in music, no doubt, and while these were great albums in their own right, many of them became so much more thanks to the voices of female empowerment basically calling bull-shit on the double standards and many social norms in our male dominated society. I found it inspiring, and I think you’ll see that reflected as I unveil my rankings over the next few days. As always, I like to start off by listing the albums eligible.

This past year I purchased, in some form, 88 albums, 82 of which are eligible. I do not include EPs, reissues, soundtracks, live albums, holiday Albums, or b-side/rarity type releases as eligible for my list, and this year 6 of my purchases were EPs. As always, there’s plenty of albums that I never got around to procuring, so yes, there’s going to be very worthy albums that don’t make my list. So if you have a question as to why your favorite album isn’t on my list, well it’s because I either didn’t get it, or just plain didn’t care for it as much as you, simple as that. After the jump, you can see the list of all albums I purchased, in order of release date. Also, over to the right, you can see the schedule over the next few days as I continue the countdown.

Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

Belle and Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance

Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love

Viet Cong – Viet Cong

Björk – Vulnicura

The Decemberists – What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

Petite Noir – The King of Anxiety*

Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass

The Twerps – Range Anxiety

The Dodos – Individ

Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs

Mourn – Mourn

Elvis Perkins – I Aubade

Purity Ring – Another Eternity

Of Montreal – Aureate Gloom

Matthew E. White – Fresh Blood

Will Butler – Policy

Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly

Twin Shadow – Eclipse

Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves

Chastity Belt – Time To Go Home

Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

Laura Marling – Short Movie

Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress

Lower Dens – Escape From Evil

Death Cab For Cutie – Kintsugi

Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp

The Mountain Goats – Beat the Champ

Built To Spill – Untethered Moon

Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer

Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color

Passion Pit – Kindred

Nao – February 15*

Braids – Deep In The Iris

Mew – +-

Torres – Sprinter

Turnover – Peripheral Vision

Metz – II

My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall

Hop Along – Painted Shut

Kamasi Washington – The Epic

The Tallest Man On Earth – Dark Bird Is Home

Shamir – Ratchet

Faith No More – Sol Invictus

David Bazan – Bazan Monthly: Volume 2*

Jamie XX – In Colour

Girlpool – Before The World Was Big

Sun Kil Moon – Universal Themes

Sharon Van Etten – I Don’t Want To Let You Down*

Desaparecidos – Payola

Thundercat – The Beyond / Where The Giants Roam*

Refused – Freedom

Wilco – Star Wars

Tame Impala – Currents

Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free

White Reaper – White Reaper Does It Again

Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy

Wavves + Cloud Nothings – No Lie For Me

Royal Headache – High

Beach House – Depression Cherry

Destroyer – Poison Season

FIDLAR – Too

Craig Finn – Faith In The Future

Beirut – No No No

Metric – Pagans In Vegas

Chvrches – Every Open Eye

The World is a Beautiful Place and I am No Longer Afraid to Die – Harmlessness

Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness

Youth Lagoon – Savage Hills Ballroom

George Clanton – 100% Electronica

Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin down…

Disclosure – Caracal

Deafheaven – New Bermuda

Autre Ne Veut – Age of Transparency

Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect

Kelela – Hallucinogen*

Deerhunter – Fading Frontier

Majical Cloudz – Are You Alone?

Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars

Maritime – Magnetic Bodies / Maps of Bones

Joanna Newsom – Divers

Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle

Car Seat Headrest – Teens of Style

Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us

EL VY – Return To The Moon

Grimes – Art Angels

*Not Eligible

This entry was posted on Monday, January 4th, 2016 at 1:15 pm and is filed under All, Music, Top Albums of 2015. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.