B&C's 2015 Albums of the Year AKA The One Time A Year Peef Uses Math

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I find it interesting that Courtney Barnett is turning up all over the critics' lists but barely at all here. Personally I never found her to be remotely as clever as a lot of people were claiming.

I think you are correct about Barnett. I really hate how year end lists tend to all start looking alike. I just wonder, do they all think, "if i don't include that one album/song (that i secretly think sucks) will all the other list makers think i'm lame?" eh.

My taste doesn't match up with about 98% of what i see 'listed' out there. I'm lucky if i can go through a list of 50 best songs and get 1 that is a contender for my best 15 songs of the year.

just my ramble, carry on.
 
My girlfriend can't stand Courtney Barnett. I love her, but it's much easier to enjoy an artist when you don't buy into all that external crap. I've just always really liked her music :shrug: I've never walked around espousing her clever wit and proclaiming her to be a saviour of slacker rock or something. I just know that when I hear Anonymous Club my heart warms and melts, when I hear Avant Gardener I feel happy, comforted and energised and when I hear Depreston I hear warm, Paul Kelly-style Australiana and I smile.
 
My girlfriend can't stand Courtney Barnett. I love her, but it's much easier to enjoy an artist when you don't buy into all that external crap. I've just always really liked her music :shrug: I've never walked around espousing her clever wit and proclaiming her to be a saviour of slacker rock or something. I just know that when I hear Anonymous Club my heart warms and melts, when I hear Avant Gardener I feel happy, comforted and energised and when I hear Depreston I hear warm, Paul Kelly-style Australiana and I smile.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, i think she's good, but just not really my cup of tea, that I really was hoping she would be. I do think she is talented and definitely has some clever moments. And would listen to her any day over 12 minute drone, noise-rock, gregorian chant-death metal bullshit that Pitchfork et. al. likes to include.
 
ok i didn't even understand how math works here, but here it goes:

1 A Heart Is A Monster — Failure (15)
2 Purple — Baroness (15)
3 Oneohtrix Point Never — Garden Of Never (14)
4 Neon Indian — Vega Int'l Night School (12)
5 Torche — Restarter (10)
6 Fuzz — II (8)
7 Tame Impala — Current (7)
8 El Vy — Return To The Moon (5)
9 Carly Rae Jepsen — Emotion (4)
10 Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp A Butterfly (3)
11 CHVRCHES — Every Open Eye (2)
12 Wilco — Star Wars (2)
13 Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds — Chasing Yesterday (1)
14 Adele — 25 (1)
15 Grimes — Art Angels (1)

revised the whole thing, didn't manipulate the order.
 
I think you are correct about Barnett. I really hate how year end lists tend to all start looking alike. I just wonder, do they all think, "if i don't include that one album/song (that i secretly think sucks) will all the other list makers think i'm lame?" eh.

My taste doesn't match up with about 98% of what i see 'listed' out there. I'm lucky if i can go through a list of 50 best songs and get 1 that is a contender for my best 15 songs of the year.

just my ramble, carry on.
Now I'm very curious to see your list.
 
Now I'm very curious to see your list.

I must admit, I am limited in my ability to listen through many full albums, but I've probably listened to 20 or so, and have "listened through" a couple dozen more.
My taste resides more on the indie-rock, indie-pop, folk, Americana, some electro, some straight rock, still a sucker for some 90's alt sounds.

I don't do instrumentals. I don't do metal. and rap is not often on my radar, except for some 'grime' type stuff. If someone make a song longer than 6 minutes, it better be fucking fantastic. I prefer my songs to be 3 to 4.5 minutes and have some hooks and melody. And i am a sucker for slower songs that really capture me. 4th of July by Sufjan Stevens was a song that just grabbed me and left me speechless this year. (somewhat fueled by personal circumstances).

Anyway, the album list will be difficult for me, but here are my top songs (so far) I think i'm pretty complete. I should probably start a top 15 songs thread really. In Alphabetical order

BEC SANDRIDGE - In The Fog, In The Flame
Colleen Green - Whatever I Want
DRALMS - Shook
EL VY - No Time to Crank the Sun
Everything Everything - Zero Pharaoh
Foals - Mountain At My Gates
Julien Baker - Something
KidWave - Honey
Lord Huron - Love Like Ghosts
My Morning Jacket - Hillside Song
Pine Grove - Angelina
Ryan Adams - Out Of The Woods
Sjowgren - Seventeen
Sufjan Stevens - Fourth of July
The Helio Sequence - Red Shifting
The Vaccines - Dream Lover
Wild Ones - Dim the Lights
Father John Misty - True Affection

Maybe not quite as highbrow as some, but i enjoy em.
 
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Also, if anyone here who has some suggestions that might fit the bill of my particular flavor of music, please feel free to send them my way. I'm still listening and looking to add or replace ones on my current list. thanks
 
Ok, since i put my songs on, I broke down and finally did the 15 albums before I got buried with criticism

1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell - 15
2. Foals - What Went Down - 14
3. FJM - I love You Honeybear - 13
4. Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color - 12
5. Dralms - Shook - 11
6. The Helio Sequence - The Helio Sequence - 10
7. EL VY - Return to the Moon - 9
8. Lord Huron - Strange Trails - 8
9. Everything, Everything - Get to Heaven - 7
10. Grimes - Art Angels - 6
11. Churches - Every Open Eye - 5
12. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free - 4
13. Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool - 3
14. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm goin Down - 2
15. Destroyer - Poison Season - 1

There ya go
 
Covers suck, though. He didn't write the song. He did nothing really. Just figured out the chords and sung it. Kinda bullshit imo.

I will give you that. I am a big Adams fan, but probably will be the first to get kicked off the list as i find other good stuff.

For example, i just re-discovered Future People by Alabama Shakes. DAMN, that's a killer song. And while i love the Father John Misty Album as a whole, I have a hard time picking an extraordinarily strong song for my best of... Same with Churches and Grimes...

Thanks for the comment really :up:
 
Ok, since i put my songs on, I broke down and finally did the 15 albums before I got buried with criticism

1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell - 15
2. Foals - What Went Down - 14
3. FJM - I love You Honeybear - 13
4. Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color - 12
5. Dralms - Shook - 11
6. The Helio Sequence - The Helio Sequence - 10
7. EL VY - Return to the Moon - 9
8. Lord Huron - Strange Trails - 8
9. Everything, Everything - Get to Heaven - 7
10. Grimes - Art Angels - 6
11. Churches - Every Open Eye - 5
12. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free - 4
13. Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool - 3
14. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm goin Down - 2
15. Destroyer - Poison Season - 1

There ya go
That adds up to 120, it needs to add up to 100.
 
ok, Think i got it this time. :doh::huh:

1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell - 13
2. Foals - What Went Down - 11
3. FJM - I love You Honeybear - 10
4. Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color - 10
5. Dralms - Shook - 9
6. The Helio Sequence - The Helio Sequence - 8
7. EL VY - Return to the Moon - 8
8. Lord Huron - Strange Trails - 7
9. Everything, Everything - Get to Heaven - 7
10. Grimes - Art Angels - 5
11. Churches - Every Open Eye - 4
12. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free - 3
13. Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool - 2
14. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm goin Down - 2
15. Destroyer - Poison Season - 1
 
My albums of the year:

01 - CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye - 13
02 - The Helio Sequence - The Helio Sequence - 11
03 - Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful - 10
04 - Best Coast - California Nights - 10
05 - Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect - 10
06 - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday - 10
07 - Foals - What Went Down - 10
08 - Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION - 8
09 - Metric - Pagans in Vegas - 6
10 - Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams - 4
11 - Adele - 25 - 3
12 - Madonna - Rebel Heart - 2
13 - Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color - 1
14 - Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls - 1
15 - Imagine Dragons - Smoke + Mirrors - 1

Honorable mentions:
Viet Cong - Viet Cong
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves
AWOLNATION - Run
Muse - Drones
Hot Chip - Why Make Sense?
Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Wilco - Star Wars
Keith Richards - Crosseyed Heart
Bon Jovi - Burning Bridges
Rob Thomas - The Great Unknown
Bryan Adams - Get Up
Def Leppard - Def Leppard
New Order - Music Complete
Elle King - Love Stuff
Enya - Dark Sky Island
 
The 50 Best Albums of 2015

This is an interesting list. It's quite different to most other lists out there and it seems to focus heavily on electronic music. Most electronic albums I listened to this year were quite underwhelming so hopefully I can find some good stuff on there.

The only albums I really enjoyed, excluding the more accessible electronic albums like Caracal and In Colour, were Platform and Eleania and they didn't make my top 15. Garden of Delete is getting loads of praise but I've never really 'gotten' Oneohtrix Point Never. I always enjoy his albums to a certain extent but I never want to listen to them again. The same goes for Arca. Perhaps they're just not melodic enough for me. On the other hand I love the experimental side of Autechre so I don't understand why I can't get into them.
 
My albums of the year:

01 - CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye - 13
02 - The Helio Sequence - The Helio Sequence - 11
03 - Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful - 10
04 - Best Coast - California Nights - 10
05 - Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect - 10
06 - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday - 10
07 - Foals - What Went Down - 10
08 - Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION - 8
09 - Metric - Pagans in Vegas - 6
10 - Coldplay - A Head Full of Dreams - 4
11 - Adele - 25 - 3
12 - Madonna - Rebel Heart - 2
13 - Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color - 1
14 - Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls - 1
15 - Imagine Dragons - Smoke + Mirrors - 1

Honorable mentions:
Viet Cong - Viet Cong
Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves
AWOLNATION - Run
Muse - Drones
Hot Chip - Why Make Sense?
Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Wilco - Star Wars
Keith Richards - Crosseyed Heart
Bon Jovi - Burning Bridges
Rob Thomas - The Great Unknown
Bryan Adams - Get Up
Def Leppard - Def Leppard
New Order - Music Complete
Elle King - Love Stuff
Enya - Dark Sky Island


Not big on the Honorable's but great main list!
 
:up: Good discussion in here, guys. This is what the thread's for.

I was about to listen to The Dear Hunter's new one but discovered they're a bunch of pretentious twits and have a 6 album story arc going. Decided not to Cobbler this one.
 
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