Alright let's do this. I haven't completed my full list for RYM but I the content of the top fifteen is settled. What a year for music - allocating points for this was brutal. My original distribution added up to something like 130 and even then I felt like I was selling short the albums lower down the ranking. Definitely the best year for music in a while.
1. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool (15)
2. Purity Ring – Another Eternity (15)
3. Westkust – Last Forever (11)
4. Ethereal Shroud – They Became the Falling Ash (9)
5. The Chills – Silver Bullets (7)
6. Dorsal Fins – Mind Renovation (7)
7. Grimes – Art Angels (7)
8. Thrushes – Exposing Seas (7)
9. Neøv – Dominique (5)
10. Eternal Summers – Gold and Stone (5)
11. Chvrches – Every Open Eye (5)
12. Turnover – Peripheral Vision (3)
13. Shana Falana – Set Your Lightning Fire Free (2)
14. Marriages – Salome (1)
15. Ghost Bath – Moonlover (1)
I expect some of those will be well known to most of you, but a few comments on the more obscure ones: Dorsal Fins made some killer indie psychedelia; Eternal Summers and The Chills bring satisfying jangle; Westkust and Thrushes are very bright shoegaze stars; Turnover made an incredibly heartfelt and evocative Midwest emo album with an indie rock template; Neøv's brand of indie rock is wonderfully expansive; Marriages are labelled as post-rock and shoegaze on RYM but their dark and mysterious album isn't really either of those things; Shana Falana's dream pop draws equally on goth rock and sixties girl group; and although Ethereal Shroud have outdone Ghost Bath for best atmospheric black metal release, Ghost Bath have the winning song with the appropriately titled "Golden Number", sure to become a blackgaze classic.
Other categories?
Best releases from previous years that I did not hear until 2015 (oddly enough, all apart from #5 are EPs):
1. Flyying Colours - Flyying Colours
2. Hideous Towns - Hideous Towns
3. Bloodhounds on My Trail - Escape
4. Luna Ghost - Luna Ghost
5. Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic
Worst albums:
1. Muse - Drones
2. Muse - Drones
3. Muse - Drones
4. Muse - Drones
5. Muse - Drones
Fuck me what an atrocious and embarrassing album.
Disappointments:
1. Ascetic - Everything Is Becoming (this dull, ponderous effort is a poor follow-up to their killer post-punk/goth debut)
2. A Place to Bury Strangers - Transfixiation (I love these guys and expect much better; I don't feel as let down as I did on first listen but it's far away from their best and the vocals are poor)
3. Neon Indian - Vega Int'l Night School (apparently I'm the only person who thinks this has nothing on his first two albums, but at least it was fun live)
4. Ms Mr - How Does It Feel (cheesy and inconsistent)
5. Young Galaxy - Falsework (like APTBS, I expect great things and this simply fails to resonate like their previous material)
I could include some other albums here, but I'm really only counting established bands where I expected better. I'm hardly surprised Silversun Pickups weren't that exciting because the previous album was already a step down; I wasn't a big fan of Twerps or Royal Headache to begin with; and although the likes of Hop Along and Girlpool fell far short of the hype it's hard to call a band I'd never heard before a disappointment.
Best EPs:
1. Yumi Zouma - EP II
2. Communions - Communions
3. Flyying Colours - ROYGBIV
4. Eves the Behaviour - Eves the Behaviour
5. Deafcult - Deafcult
Best songs:
(This is copied from my RYM work in progress, in alphabetical order and only one song per artist; it was meant to be 20 but I accidentally entered 22 and I cannot be bothered removing any.)
Best Coast - "California Nights" (California Nights)
The Chills - "Underwater Wasteland" (Silver Bullets)
CHVRCHES - "Never Ending Circles" (Every Open Eye)
Dorsal Fins - "Monday Tuesday" (Mind Renovation)
Eternal Summers - "The Roses" (Gold and Stone)
Eves the Behavior - "Electrical" (Eves the Behavior)
Ghost Bath - "Golden Number" (Moonlover)
Grimes - "Flesh Without Blood" (Art Angels)
HEALTH - "Stonefist" (Death Magic)
Marriages - "Binge" (Salome)
NEØV - "Garden Road Sphere" (Dominique)
Purity Ring - "Flood on the Floor" (Another Eternity)
Saycet - "Mirages" (Mirage)
Shana Falana - "Heavenstay" (Set Your Lightning Fire Free)
Surf City - "One Too Many Things" (Jekyll Island)
Thrushes - "Katydid" (Exposing Seas)
Turnover - "Dizzy on the Comedown" (Peripheral Vision)
Voltaire Twins - "Goodnight, Spirit" (Milky Waves)
Westkust - "Easy" (Last Forever)
Wolf Alice - "Lisbon" (My Love Is Cool)
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - "I Can Be Afraid of Everything" (Harmlessness)
Yumi Zouma - "Song for Zoe and Gwen" (EP II)
1. Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool (15)
2. Purity Ring – Another Eternity (15)
3. Westkust – Last Forever (11)
4. Ethereal Shroud – They Became the Falling Ash (9)
5. The Chills – Silver Bullets (7)
6. Dorsal Fins – Mind Renovation (7)
7. Grimes – Art Angels (7)
8. Thrushes – Exposing Seas (7)
9. Neøv – Dominique (5)
10. Eternal Summers – Gold and Stone (5)
11. Chvrches – Every Open Eye (5)
12. Turnover – Peripheral Vision (3)
13. Shana Falana – Set Your Lightning Fire Free (2)
14. Marriages – Salome (1)
15. Ghost Bath – Moonlover (1)
I expect some of those will be well known to most of you, but a few comments on the more obscure ones: Dorsal Fins made some killer indie psychedelia; Eternal Summers and The Chills bring satisfying jangle; Westkust and Thrushes are very bright shoegaze stars; Turnover made an incredibly heartfelt and evocative Midwest emo album with an indie rock template; Neøv's brand of indie rock is wonderfully expansive; Marriages are labelled as post-rock and shoegaze on RYM but their dark and mysterious album isn't really either of those things; Shana Falana's dream pop draws equally on goth rock and sixties girl group; and although Ethereal Shroud have outdone Ghost Bath for best atmospheric black metal release, Ghost Bath have the winning song with the appropriately titled "Golden Number", sure to become a blackgaze classic.
Other categories?
Best releases from previous years that I did not hear until 2015 (oddly enough, all apart from #5 are EPs):
1. Flyying Colours - Flyying Colours
2. Hideous Towns - Hideous Towns
3. Bloodhounds on My Trail - Escape
4. Luna Ghost - Luna Ghost
5. Young Galaxy - Invisible Republic
Worst albums:
1. Muse - Drones
2. Muse - Drones
3. Muse - Drones
4. Muse - Drones
5. Muse - Drones
Fuck me what an atrocious and embarrassing album.
Disappointments:
1. Ascetic - Everything Is Becoming (this dull, ponderous effort is a poor follow-up to their killer post-punk/goth debut)
2. A Place to Bury Strangers - Transfixiation (I love these guys and expect much better; I don't feel as let down as I did on first listen but it's far away from their best and the vocals are poor)
3. Neon Indian - Vega Int'l Night School (apparently I'm the only person who thinks this has nothing on his first two albums, but at least it was fun live)
4. Ms Mr - How Does It Feel (cheesy and inconsistent)
5. Young Galaxy - Falsework (like APTBS, I expect great things and this simply fails to resonate like their previous material)
I could include some other albums here, but I'm really only counting established bands where I expected better. I'm hardly surprised Silversun Pickups weren't that exciting because the previous album was already a step down; I wasn't a big fan of Twerps or Royal Headache to begin with; and although the likes of Hop Along and Girlpool fell far short of the hype it's hard to call a band I'd never heard before a disappointment.
Best EPs:
1. Yumi Zouma - EP II
2. Communions - Communions
3. Flyying Colours - ROYGBIV
4. Eves the Behaviour - Eves the Behaviour
5. Deafcult - Deafcult
Best songs:
(This is copied from my RYM work in progress, in alphabetical order and only one song per artist; it was meant to be 20 but I accidentally entered 22 and I cannot be bothered removing any.)
Best Coast - "California Nights" (California Nights)
The Chills - "Underwater Wasteland" (Silver Bullets)
CHVRCHES - "Never Ending Circles" (Every Open Eye)
Dorsal Fins - "Monday Tuesday" (Mind Renovation)
Eternal Summers - "The Roses" (Gold and Stone)
Eves the Behavior - "Electrical" (Eves the Behavior)
Ghost Bath - "Golden Number" (Moonlover)
Grimes - "Flesh Without Blood" (Art Angels)
HEALTH - "Stonefist" (Death Magic)
Marriages - "Binge" (Salome)
NEØV - "Garden Road Sphere" (Dominique)
Purity Ring - "Flood on the Floor" (Another Eternity)
Saycet - "Mirages" (Mirage)
Shana Falana - "Heavenstay" (Set Your Lightning Fire Free)
Surf City - "One Too Many Things" (Jekyll Island)
Thrushes - "Katydid" (Exposing Seas)
Turnover - "Dizzy on the Comedown" (Peripheral Vision)
Voltaire Twins - "Goodnight, Spirit" (Milky Waves)
Westkust - "Easy" (Last Forever)
Wolf Alice - "Lisbon" (My Love Is Cool)
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - "I Can Be Afraid of Everything" (Harmlessness)
Yumi Zouma - "Song for Zoe and Gwen" (EP II)
