Your favorite music from 2015

Here's the earlier thread that closed, by the way:
Best New Album of 2015, so far...

As usual, you don't have to do a big list all at once. I just post stuff as I listen to it.

I also don't like to require that people stick to albums. Post singles if you like, EPs, compilations--whatever. Just limit it to stuff released in 2015.

 

21 Savage - The Slaughter Tape

 

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Vince Staples - Summertime 06
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
Shinobu - 10 Thermidor
No Joy - More Faithful
Holly Herndon - Platform
Earl Sweatshirt - ...I Don’t Go Outside
The Internet - Ego Death
CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye
Craig Finn - Faith in the Future
Future - DS2
Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Shopping - Why Choose

This was a really great year with a ton of standout releases. A lot of these are also my favorites of the decade.

 

Couple I've enjoyed
The Caulden Road-Reflexion EP
Tamaryn-Cranekiss
Metroland-Re-Design EP
Marsheaux-A Broken Frame
Jael-Shuffle The Cards
Enya-Dark Sky Island
Angels & Agony-Monument
Blue October-Things We Do At Night (Live Set)
Lovers Electric-Strangers
Nightjacket-Eternal Phase EP

 

Turnover - Peripheral Vision (summed up my life in 2015)
Grimes - Art Angels
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Teenage Bottlerocket - Tales From Wyoming (R.I.P. Brandon Carlisle)
Fidlar - Too
The Story So Far - The Story So Far
Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
Madonna - Rebel Heart
The Maine - American Candy
Purity Ring - Another Eternity
Marina and the Diamonds - Froot
Beach House - Depression Cherry

 

Here are my favorites from 2015:

Bjork | Vulnicura
Noel Gallagher | Chasing Yesterday
Death Cab for Cutie | Kintsugi
Sufjan Stevens | Carrie & Lowell
Florence + the Machine | How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Wilco | Star Wars
Beach House | Depression Cherry
Jewel | Picking Up the Pieces
Keith Richards | Crosseyed Heart
Sara Bareilles | What's Inside: Songs from Waitress
Adele | 25



Big year for me. I got married in 2015. The Jewel album was the soundtrack to that whole wedding period for me. I also really connected with a large portion of the Adele 25 album, which was all about growing up and becoming an adult (versus 21 being essentially a breakup album). Adele and I are the same age and it hit me at just the right time. I prefer it as an album to 21.

 

This was the year I concentrated on building my Half Man Half Biscuit collection, often at hugely inflated prices. Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance was probably my favourite new record of the year and Divers by Joanna Newsom the biggest disappointment (it’s a decent enough album but after Ys and Have One On Me, I was expecting more).

Short Movie by Laura Marling and Let’s Hear It For The Dogs by the Proclaimers were other favourites in a year when I didn’t buy much new music.

 

Tame Impala - Currents
Great work!

 

Off the top of my head

The Great Pretenders - Mini Mansions
FFS - FFS (Sparks + Franz Ferdinand amalgamation)
Junun - Shye Ben Tzur with the Rajasthan Express and Jonny Greenwood
The Epic - Kamasi Washington
Art Angels - Grimes

 

Brian Wilson - No Pier Pressure

I don't understand why it was so poorly recieved. Except for a cheesy take on dance pop with "Runaway Dancer" (which sounds better live, and was ok for an experiment anyyway), I think it is a pretty good collection of songs. I've played it frequently

 

I thought Wilco's Star Wars was very good, in spite of many being disappointed in it.
Cold Chisel Released Perfect Crime and that was also very good, even though the boys are getting on in years.
Chris Stapleton The Traveller
Flying Colors Second Flight. I haven't actually got the album but the bluray concert is excellent. The Highlight for me was Colder Months which segues into Peaceful Harbor. Not everybody's cup of tea, but I reckon it's great. It's nice when a bunch of guys like Steve Morse, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, Mike Portnoy and a guy I didn't know of previously, Casey McPherson, can get together and be creative without banging their heads against each other.
If you have patience to sit through the ballad that Casey sings solo (which I think is excellent), it gradually morphs into Peaceful Harbor with a great key modulation and the band joining in. Anyway for anyone interested.


NB: this isn't from the bluray, but it is the same segue

 

Two I haven't seen mentioned yet:

Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer

 

Second-best year of the '10s, other than 2010. My own favorites are:

Grimes, "Art Angels": outrageously successful intersection of experimentation and pure, unabashed pop, like David Bowie's "Scary Monsters" for the '10s

Kamasi Washington, "The Epic": so good it got me into contemporary jazz, unbelievably consistently outstanding over all three hours of it

Waxahatchee, "Ivy Tripp": half singer-songwiter, half rock-and-roll, two atmospheric tracks at the start and finish to bookend it, and it's all excellent

Beach House, "Depression Cherry": exquisite, it feels like every note was carefully put in place; band has the best body of work in the '10s and this underrated one rivals "Teen Dream"

Kendrick Lamar, "To Pimp a Butterfly": most arresting rap and hip-hop album I heard this decade, best of the three big Kendrick albums

Coldplay, "A Head Full of Dreams": finding lively and exciting things at the borderline of rock and chart pop

 

I forgot this was 2015. Very solid reunion record. They still sound so good singing together.

 

Widowspeak - All Yours
Girlpool - Before the World was Big
Palehound - Dryfood
Salad Boys - Metalmania
HopAlong - Painted Shut
Ought - Sun Coming Down
Built to Spill - Untethered Moon
Nap Eyes - Whine of the Mystic

 

Serpent Power 2015 Skeleton Key Records

an excellent neo psych album from the UK
not to be confused with the 60s California group

 

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
This is one of my favorite albums of all time and easily one of the best I've ever heard. The concept, rapping lyrics, production and everything else create a profound and immersive listen unlike anything else I've heard.

Ghost - Meliora
This is another personal favorite and is easily one of my favorite metal albums. The songwriting strikes a perfect balance of catchy and sinister, and the layered production makes the whole thing feel very grand without compromising heaviness.

Tame Impala - Currents
I love the way Tame Impala blends indie psychedelic pop, synth-pop, and electronic music on this album. The production is on par with the likes of Alan Parsons and Daft Punk and the songwriting ranges from solid to instant-classic.

Kamasi Washington - The Epic
I like jazz and all, but it usually doesn't keep my interest all that well. That is not the case for this album, and it lasts nearly three hours. It's aptly named not only because of its length, but because of the grandiose ambition that nearly every track has.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard - Paper Mâché Dream Balloon, Quarters!
As they often do, King Gizzard released two very different albums in 2015. Quarters! found them expanding their psychedelic sound from noisy garage rock to longer, spacier territory, whereas on Paper Mâché Dream Balloon they played woodwind-laced psychedelic folk pop.

 

Blur - The Magic Whip
The Internet - Ego Death
Tyler, The Creator - Cherry Bomb
Noel Gallagher - Chasing Yesterday
Mac DeMarco - Another One

 

Spector - Moth Boys: Still one of my all time favorites, I hope they follow it up someday.

 

2015 gave us some fine music. Here are the albums I rate at 5/5:

Zervas & Pepper - Abtract Heart

Spock's Beard - The Oblivion Particle

Magic Pie - King For A Day

Leo Sayer - The Restless Years

China Sky - II

Alan Doyle - So Let's Go

Hayseed Dixie - Hair Down To My Grass

Biters - Electric Blood

Blitzen Trapper - All Across This Land

Dawes - All Your Favourite Bands

The Sheepdogs - Future Nostalgia

Cutting Crew - Add To Favourites

 

I can’t believe I forgot Cherry Bomb

 

Def leppard....Def Leppard

 

2015 was a year I really enjoyed. Carly Rae Jepsen released E•MO•TION which is quite possibly my favorite album of the decade. I am really surprised I am not tired of it yet, given the number of times I have given this record a spin. A lot of other great music was released as well.

Purity Ring - Another Eternity
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil
Matt and Kim - New Glow
Eels - Live at the Royal Albert Hall
Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color
Major Lazer - Peace Is the Mission
Ninja Sex Party - Attitude City
Metric - Pagans in Vegas
Chvrches - Every Open Eye
The Dead Weather - Dodge and Burn
Selena Gomez - Revival
Alessia Cara - Know-It-All
Ryan Adams - 1989
Viet Cong - Viet Cong