GirlsAloudFan
Blue Crack Addict
Oh come the fucking fuck on, man. Did you see the name of the person who had the Miley album on their list?
How you could be baffled by that is what's truly baffling.
B&C's 2015 Albums of the Year AKA The One Time A Year Peef Uses Math
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- Start date
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Oh come the fucking fuck on, man. Did you see the name of the person who had the Miley album on their list?
How you could be baffled by that is what's truly baffling.
GirlsAloudFan
Blue Crack Addict
In the immortal words of Colin Greenwood:
"You have not been paying attention."
"You have not been paying attention."
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
So in a nutshell, what you're saying is:
1. Tillman is a dick and plays into that, so if you don't like it, listen to another album.
2. Folk is always boring, so another boring folk album isn't worth complaining about.
As a fan of folk music, the latter is not a valid point at all IMO, so let's agree to disagree. In fact, I wouldn't even say this album is boring. His musical arrangements and instrumental choices sound like they belong on an album from half a century ago (outside of True Affection) and it clashes with the modern concerns and outlook of the music, but it's on purpose. It's novel and I see what he's doing, but it's strained. There are also very few melodies I can bring to mind when the album ends, which is a fairly important aspect of good folk music.
So OK, the album isn't specifically about Emma, but damn if it doesn't set a path for that relationship. Strange Encounter creates a context for Tillman's growing interest in a steady relationship (not having unfamiliar women die in his apartment). Holy Shit absolutely does come back to the topic of love by the end, albeit in the abstract. The Ideal Husband exists in the same universe as Strange Encounter, with a narrator that's firmly stuck in the present showing us his past lifestyle which he hopes doesn't catch up with him. The last verse seems to be part of the main storyline.
Virtually every track on the album sketches out in greater detail the personality of Tillman so the listener can think to themselves, "who would want to settle down with this fuck?" That's the point. We get a lot of stray thoughts and observations, but they serve the same unified purpose in the end. Which is great on paper, but he's more actively abrasive here than on Fear Fun and while that was certainly the goal, I don't care for it. It wouldn't be an issue if more of the melodies stuck with me, but they don't. I find Strange Encounter endlessly interesting to talk about (it's one of my favorites on the album), but I can't remember how it goes off the top of my head.
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iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
I guess I'm as ready as I'm going to be.
1. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (15 points)
2. Bjork: Vulnicura (13)
3. Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars (12)
4. Beach House: Depression Cherry (11)
5. Vince Staples: Summertime '06 (10)
6. Destroyer: Poison Season (8)
7. Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (7)
8. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (7)
9. EL VY: Return to the Moon (5)
10. Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (5)
11. Grimes: Art Angels (2)
12. The Dead Weather: Dodge & Burn (2)
13. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (1)
14. Neon Indian: VEGA INTL. Night School (1)
15. Wavves & Cloud Nothings: No Life for Me (1)
And some comments and such, spoilered for length and for those who don't care:
1. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell (15 points)
2. Bjork: Vulnicura (13)
3. Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars (12)
4. Beach House: Depression Cherry (11)
5. Vince Staples: Summertime '06 (10)
6. Destroyer: Poison Season (8)
7. Deerhunter: Fading Frontier (7)
8. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly (7)
9. EL VY: Return to the Moon (5)
10. Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness (5)
11. Grimes: Art Angels (2)
12. The Dead Weather: Dodge & Burn (2)
13. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (1)
14. Neon Indian: VEGA INTL. Night School (1)
15. Wavves & Cloud Nothings: No Life for Me (1)
And some comments and such, spoilered for length and for those who don't care:
1. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell
Few if any albums I have heard lay the soul of the artist as bare as Carrie & Lowell. The story is well-known at this point, so I'll focus on the execution: there is not a single wasted moment on the entire album, a lean 43 minutes that impeccably balances gentle acoustics with ghostly ambiance. The hushed vocals replicate a journey through the narrator's mind, a voyeuristic look into memories both genuine and manipulated through grief, drugs, fatigue, and any other number of demons put baldly on display. Yet somehow among these harrowing themes are some of Sufjan's most infectious melodies, something like the end of "Should Have Known Better" serving as a brief flash of hope amid a larger sea of despair. The bravest and best moment on the album comes at the very end: "Blue Bucket of Gold," a track that could have been a saccharine collection of Hallmark statements about a mother's love always being with you instead takes the form of a naked plea for companionship. There are no tidy answers to be found here, no catharsis or revelation of self-empowerment. It is the rare album whose challenge to the listener is rewarded many times over; the true piece of art that inspires perspective on one's own life. Carrie & Lowell is an accomplishment in every sense of the term and one of the finest albums in recent memory.
2. Bjork: Vulnicura
Vulnicura set the stage for a year of intensely personal musical statements and remained a standard-bearer throughout the whole of 2015. After two grandiose and arguably overblown projects in Volta and Biophilia, Vulnicura dissects a long-term relationship with both surgical precision and clear-eyed reflection. The production is a star here, balancing orchestral tapestries with industrial electronics while allowing ample space for Bjork, always a singular voice, to tell her stories on her own terms. "History of Touches" is as emotive a song as 2015 has to offer, a naked confession of waking in the middle of the night and focusing on the final moments spent next to someone who for years was at the center of your life. The trick is that it's not played for pity, but rather as an elegy for something that brought a lot of good among the pain. Such maturity lifts Vulnicura far beyond the confines of your typical break-up album and into the realm of pathos we all can appreciate in some form.
3. Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars
"Slow-burner" is a term probably overused in discussing music, but Thank Your Lucky Stars fits the bill. Even more languid and nocturnal than usual for the band, Stars benefits from more layers than any other Beach House album, minor distortions and slightly off-kilter chord changes revealing themselves with every listen. There's a sleight of hand here in that, although no one song jumps out as exceptionally catchy, I find myself often waking up with them in my head. Victoria, as divine as ever, seems slightly disaffected across the album, her sublime vocals hanging in the background so that arguably her best batch of lyrics require the listener to strain a bit in order to grasp them. "She's So Lovely" is the key to the album, never quite giving away if said loveliness is a source of admiration or disdain. Beach House might be looking into the void here, but fortunately for us they are crafting beauty even from that darkness.
4. Beach House: Depression Cherry
Yes, I am a Beach House fanboy. Depression Cherry takes an ever-so-slight backseat to Thank Your Lucky Stars on account of being less consistent. The highs, though, are higher, the majestic "Sparks" and ephemeral "Bluebird" among their best-ever songs. The latter is most indicative of the album's aesthetic; the production gives it a distant feeling, almost like a satellite transmission struggling to come through a radio, the song grounded only by a simple but oddly memorable drum machine loop. And despite several critical protests to the contrary, there is a good bit of innovation here as well, as in the choir on "Days of Candy," the fierce distortion on the guitar work in "Sparks," and the spoken-word bits on "PPP." Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars collectively prove that Beach House is working as a model of consistency and delicacy of craft that few bands can match.
5. Vince Staples: Summertime '06
Such was the shadow cast over the hip-hop landscape by Kendrick Lamar this year that I only even heard of Vince Staples a few weeks ago. But damn if this guy isn't a prodigy, and an unapologetic one at that. The look at Black urban life here is unsanitized, a portrait of a young man taking up a gang-banger life on account not of ill intent but raw necessity. Whereas Kendrick's album took a more macro view of the problems facing the African-American community, Staples is intensely focused on the day-to-day dynamics and the street attitude that develops as a means of survival. The industrial production on a track like "Norf Norf" makes the precariousness of daily life palpable, just as the frantic beats on "Jump off the Roof" capture a sense of temporary euphoria and invincibility from whatever triumphs one can find. Lean and muscular even at twenty tracks, Summertime '06 is a shot of adrenaline with ideas to spare. I'm looking forward to what Staples does next.
6. Destroyer: Poison Season
Unjustly overlooked both on this forum and in the wider music world, Poison Season displays Mr Bejar in all of his curve-throwing, beat-poet glory. The pop sensibilities of Kaputt are still here, just more layered and expansive. Whereas Kaputt had a wonderful but somewhat one-note trick up its sleeve in the Weather Report-style sax, Poison Season is a masterclass in balance, from the jazz inflections on "Archer on the Beach" to the multi-suite "Bangkok," the latter one of the best songs Tom Waits never wrote. The lyrics are inscrutable as they so often are on a Destroyer record, but the mood of a tired, maybe fading optimism works well alongside the instrumentation. People should be giving this one a hell of a lot more credit.
7. Deerhunter: Fading Frontier
What a hell of a run Deerhunter is on. "Snakeskin" is about as apt a title as a lead single could have, weaving and agile with an irresistible groove - and who would ever have expected to say that after the claustrophobic atmospherics of Halcyon Digest or the searing garage rock of Monomania? Elsewhere, we get some straight-up indie pop gems in "Living My Life" and "Breaker" as well as a spaced-out Gary Numan homage in "Ad Astra." It's not a weighty album, but it is a lean, consistently strong collection of tracks.
8. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly
Deftly merging political vision and personal reflection, Kendrick arguably captured the spirit of African American disaffection more profoundly than anyone in music (or larger media) this year. The brilliance is in the record's ability to will that disaffection into something positive: individual pride extrapolated as a rallying cry for a wider Black consciousness and activism, perhaps captured best in the seething "The Blacker the Berry" but also in quieter, meditative tracks like "How Much a Dollar Cost." The "interview" with Tupac that concludes the album is one of the most inventive moments of the year in its execution but also in its search for a community voice, a role Kendrick seems oddly hesitant to assume despite the big-picture nature of the album as a whole. That battle between ambition and anxiety gives the album an authenticity that is perhaps its greatest strength.
9. EL VY: Return to the Moon
Half Matt Berninger doing some pop experiments, half brooding National-esque vignettes. Still a great collection of infectious and endlessly-quotable songs. Here Matt is inhabiting some past selves - the Ohio kid searching for his identity, the 20-something looking for a new social scene, the rocker feeling cocky on his first foreign tour - and doing so with humor and a fair bit of self-deprecation. This is all familiar ground, but across the album he shows he has the vocal range to work with sunnier (the title track) and raunchier ("I'm the Man to Be") instrumentation than we might initially have thought, boding well for wherever his main band goes next.
10. Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness
Julia Holter's earlier work was beguiling for me: thoroughly impressive but also difficult to love for reasons I can't quite articulate. On Have You in My Wilderness, though, all the pieces have fallen into place. It feels simultaneously of a bygone era, like some 60s jazz lounge or a black-and-white film soundtrack, and very much of the moment. Songs like "Lucette Stranded on the Island" and the stunning "Vazquez" have a whimsical atmosphere, poppy despite (what feels like) classicist instrumentation, defying any kind of easy categorization. It's the kind of album that can please you on a surface level or as an immersive experience - an accomplishment indeed.
11. Grimes: Art Angels
The AV Club headed its review of Art Angels with "Grimes brings the horror to the dance floor," which is probably the best and most succinct encapsulation of this album one could write. There is a sense of dread running through these otherwise effervescent tracks, but it's more of a dread Grimes is instilling in those who would dare stand in the way of her seismic ambitions than any fear on her part. Inconsistency is a minor issue here, but the sense of ease in fantastic songs like "Flesh without Blood," "Kill v Maim," and "Realiti" suggests that in the near future she is going to put together a masterpiece.
12. The Dead Weather: Dodge & Burn
This is what I have been waiting for from a Jack White project: something with the muscle and playful menace that made the White Stripes one of the best bands of their generation. Alison Mosshart is the perfect inhabitant for these feral songs and sentiments, and as though she wasn't sexy enough to begin with, we get to see her in full-on chanteuse mode in "Impossible Winner" as a cap to the album. Good, dirty fun here of the type you don't see too often anymore.
13. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear
A love story for the cynical, forlorn, and wandering, delivered with the flair we have come to expect from the esteemed Mr Tillman. The man's eye for the minor bullshit that pervades our lives and the macro costs associated with it are peerless, as in such misadventures as "The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment," but his wider view on finding companionship amid endless distractions is just as important: the song "Holy Shit" alone speaks more truth in four minutes than most albums did across their entire runtime this year. Misty still has a tendency to emphasize a clever turn of phrase at the expense of the song itself, but the high points on Honeybear more than compensate for it and make it one of the more consistently thoughtful albums of the year.
14. Neon Indian: VEGA INTL. Night School
The chillwave tag will probably always follow Alan Palomo despite VEGA INTL being anything but sedate - rather it's a funked-out raver with energy to spare. "Annie" was quite possibly the jam of the summer, an insistent groove underpinning a sweltering 80s atmosphere. Vega might run a bit short on ideas in the second half, but the high points are among the highest of the year.
15. Wavves & Cloud Nothings: No Life for Me
In only a shade over twenty minutes, Nathan Williams and Dylan Baldi rampage through an impressive collection of rough-hewn garage rock. The format helps to minimize the less charming tendencies of the two main bands (especially the aimless jams of Cloud Nothings) and maximize the hooks. This one flew under the radar but is well worth a listen.
Honorable Mentions:
Empress Of: Me
Earl Sweatshirt: I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
Songs of the Year:
Sufjan Stevens, "Blue Bucket of Gold"
Beach House, "Sparks"
Destroyer, "Archer on the Beach"
EL VY, "Return to the Moon"
Best Coast, "California Nights"
Father John Misty, "Chateau Lobby #4"
Neon Indian, "Annie"
Lower Dens, "To Die in LA"
Small Black, "Boys Life"
Bibio, "Petals"
Deerhunter, "Ad Astra"
Grimes, "Flesh Without Blood"
Chvrches, "Never Ending Circles"
Kurt Vile, "Pretty Pimpin"
Julia Holter, "Vazquez"
Tame Impala, "The Less I Know the Better"
Beck, "Dreams"
Empress Of, "Standard"
Viet Cong, "Silhouettes"
Kendrick Lamar, "How Much a Dollar Cost"
Vince Staples, "Norf Norf"
Superlatives:
Best album title: Earl Sweatshirt, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Best album cover: Desaparecidos, Payola
Best vinyl edition: The Dead Weather, Dodge & Burn vault edition
Best new album from old-timers: Wire, Wire
Late-year release no one talked about but should have: jennylee, Right On!
My best discovery from years past: Yo La Tengo, Painful
Most disappointing album: Modest Mouse, Strangers to Ourselves
Most unnecessary victory lap: David Gilmour, Rattle That Lock
Album with the most recycled ideas: Panda Bear, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
Album most in need of an editor: Kamasi Washington, The Epic
Most average album: Wavves, V
Few if any albums I have heard lay the soul of the artist as bare as Carrie & Lowell. The story is well-known at this point, so I'll focus on the execution: there is not a single wasted moment on the entire album, a lean 43 minutes that impeccably balances gentle acoustics with ghostly ambiance. The hushed vocals replicate a journey through the narrator's mind, a voyeuristic look into memories both genuine and manipulated through grief, drugs, fatigue, and any other number of demons put baldly on display. Yet somehow among these harrowing themes are some of Sufjan's most infectious melodies, something like the end of "Should Have Known Better" serving as a brief flash of hope amid a larger sea of despair. The bravest and best moment on the album comes at the very end: "Blue Bucket of Gold," a track that could have been a saccharine collection of Hallmark statements about a mother's love always being with you instead takes the form of a naked plea for companionship. There are no tidy answers to be found here, no catharsis or revelation of self-empowerment. It is the rare album whose challenge to the listener is rewarded many times over; the true piece of art that inspires perspective on one's own life. Carrie & Lowell is an accomplishment in every sense of the term and one of the finest albums in recent memory.
2. Bjork: Vulnicura
Vulnicura set the stage for a year of intensely personal musical statements and remained a standard-bearer throughout the whole of 2015. After two grandiose and arguably overblown projects in Volta and Biophilia, Vulnicura dissects a long-term relationship with both surgical precision and clear-eyed reflection. The production is a star here, balancing orchestral tapestries with industrial electronics while allowing ample space for Bjork, always a singular voice, to tell her stories on her own terms. "History of Touches" is as emotive a song as 2015 has to offer, a naked confession of waking in the middle of the night and focusing on the final moments spent next to someone who for years was at the center of your life. The trick is that it's not played for pity, but rather as an elegy for something that brought a lot of good among the pain. Such maturity lifts Vulnicura far beyond the confines of your typical break-up album and into the realm of pathos we all can appreciate in some form.
3. Beach House: Thank Your Lucky Stars
"Slow-burner" is a term probably overused in discussing music, but Thank Your Lucky Stars fits the bill. Even more languid and nocturnal than usual for the band, Stars benefits from more layers than any other Beach House album, minor distortions and slightly off-kilter chord changes revealing themselves with every listen. There's a sleight of hand here in that, although no one song jumps out as exceptionally catchy, I find myself often waking up with them in my head. Victoria, as divine as ever, seems slightly disaffected across the album, her sublime vocals hanging in the background so that arguably her best batch of lyrics require the listener to strain a bit in order to grasp them. "She's So Lovely" is the key to the album, never quite giving away if said loveliness is a source of admiration or disdain. Beach House might be looking into the void here, but fortunately for us they are crafting beauty even from that darkness.
4. Beach House: Depression Cherry
Yes, I am a Beach House fanboy. Depression Cherry takes an ever-so-slight backseat to Thank Your Lucky Stars on account of being less consistent. The highs, though, are higher, the majestic "Sparks" and ephemeral "Bluebird" among their best-ever songs. The latter is most indicative of the album's aesthetic; the production gives it a distant feeling, almost like a satellite transmission struggling to come through a radio, the song grounded only by a simple but oddly memorable drum machine loop. And despite several critical protests to the contrary, there is a good bit of innovation here as well, as in the choir on "Days of Candy," the fierce distortion on the guitar work in "Sparks," and the spoken-word bits on "PPP." Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars collectively prove that Beach House is working as a model of consistency and delicacy of craft that few bands can match.
5. Vince Staples: Summertime '06
Such was the shadow cast over the hip-hop landscape by Kendrick Lamar this year that I only even heard of Vince Staples a few weeks ago. But damn if this guy isn't a prodigy, and an unapologetic one at that. The look at Black urban life here is unsanitized, a portrait of a young man taking up a gang-banger life on account not of ill intent but raw necessity. Whereas Kendrick's album took a more macro view of the problems facing the African-American community, Staples is intensely focused on the day-to-day dynamics and the street attitude that develops as a means of survival. The industrial production on a track like "Norf Norf" makes the precariousness of daily life palpable, just as the frantic beats on "Jump off the Roof" capture a sense of temporary euphoria and invincibility from whatever triumphs one can find. Lean and muscular even at twenty tracks, Summertime '06 is a shot of adrenaline with ideas to spare. I'm looking forward to what Staples does next.
6. Destroyer: Poison Season
Unjustly overlooked both on this forum and in the wider music world, Poison Season displays Mr Bejar in all of his curve-throwing, beat-poet glory. The pop sensibilities of Kaputt are still here, just more layered and expansive. Whereas Kaputt had a wonderful but somewhat one-note trick up its sleeve in the Weather Report-style sax, Poison Season is a masterclass in balance, from the jazz inflections on "Archer on the Beach" to the multi-suite "Bangkok," the latter one of the best songs Tom Waits never wrote. The lyrics are inscrutable as they so often are on a Destroyer record, but the mood of a tired, maybe fading optimism works well alongside the instrumentation. People should be giving this one a hell of a lot more credit.
7. Deerhunter: Fading Frontier
What a hell of a run Deerhunter is on. "Snakeskin" is about as apt a title as a lead single could have, weaving and agile with an irresistible groove - and who would ever have expected to say that after the claustrophobic atmospherics of Halcyon Digest or the searing garage rock of Monomania? Elsewhere, we get some straight-up indie pop gems in "Living My Life" and "Breaker" as well as a spaced-out Gary Numan homage in "Ad Astra." It's not a weighty album, but it is a lean, consistently strong collection of tracks.
8. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly
Deftly merging political vision and personal reflection, Kendrick arguably captured the spirit of African American disaffection more profoundly than anyone in music (or larger media) this year. The brilliance is in the record's ability to will that disaffection into something positive: individual pride extrapolated as a rallying cry for a wider Black consciousness and activism, perhaps captured best in the seething "The Blacker the Berry" but also in quieter, meditative tracks like "How Much a Dollar Cost." The "interview" with Tupac that concludes the album is one of the most inventive moments of the year in its execution but also in its search for a community voice, a role Kendrick seems oddly hesitant to assume despite the big-picture nature of the album as a whole. That battle between ambition and anxiety gives the album an authenticity that is perhaps its greatest strength.
9. EL VY: Return to the Moon
Half Matt Berninger doing some pop experiments, half brooding National-esque vignettes. Still a great collection of infectious and endlessly-quotable songs. Here Matt is inhabiting some past selves - the Ohio kid searching for his identity, the 20-something looking for a new social scene, the rocker feeling cocky on his first foreign tour - and doing so with humor and a fair bit of self-deprecation. This is all familiar ground, but across the album he shows he has the vocal range to work with sunnier (the title track) and raunchier ("I'm the Man to Be") instrumentation than we might initially have thought, boding well for wherever his main band goes next.
10. Julia Holter: Have You in My Wilderness
Julia Holter's earlier work was beguiling for me: thoroughly impressive but also difficult to love for reasons I can't quite articulate. On Have You in My Wilderness, though, all the pieces have fallen into place. It feels simultaneously of a bygone era, like some 60s jazz lounge or a black-and-white film soundtrack, and very much of the moment. Songs like "Lucette Stranded on the Island" and the stunning "Vazquez" have a whimsical atmosphere, poppy despite (what feels like) classicist instrumentation, defying any kind of easy categorization. It's the kind of album that can please you on a surface level or as an immersive experience - an accomplishment indeed.
11. Grimes: Art Angels
The AV Club headed its review of Art Angels with "Grimes brings the horror to the dance floor," which is probably the best and most succinct encapsulation of this album one could write. There is a sense of dread running through these otherwise effervescent tracks, but it's more of a dread Grimes is instilling in those who would dare stand in the way of her seismic ambitions than any fear on her part. Inconsistency is a minor issue here, but the sense of ease in fantastic songs like "Flesh without Blood," "Kill v Maim," and "Realiti" suggests that in the near future she is going to put together a masterpiece.
12. The Dead Weather: Dodge & Burn
This is what I have been waiting for from a Jack White project: something with the muscle and playful menace that made the White Stripes one of the best bands of their generation. Alison Mosshart is the perfect inhabitant for these feral songs and sentiments, and as though she wasn't sexy enough to begin with, we get to see her in full-on chanteuse mode in "Impossible Winner" as a cap to the album. Good, dirty fun here of the type you don't see too often anymore.
13. Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear
A love story for the cynical, forlorn, and wandering, delivered with the flair we have come to expect from the esteemed Mr Tillman. The man's eye for the minor bullshit that pervades our lives and the macro costs associated with it are peerless, as in such misadventures as "The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment," but his wider view on finding companionship amid endless distractions is just as important: the song "Holy Shit" alone speaks more truth in four minutes than most albums did across their entire runtime this year. Misty still has a tendency to emphasize a clever turn of phrase at the expense of the song itself, but the high points on Honeybear more than compensate for it and make it one of the more consistently thoughtful albums of the year.
14. Neon Indian: VEGA INTL. Night School
The chillwave tag will probably always follow Alan Palomo despite VEGA INTL being anything but sedate - rather it's a funked-out raver with energy to spare. "Annie" was quite possibly the jam of the summer, an insistent groove underpinning a sweltering 80s atmosphere. Vega might run a bit short on ideas in the second half, but the high points are among the highest of the year.
15. Wavves & Cloud Nothings: No Life for Me
In only a shade over twenty minutes, Nathan Williams and Dylan Baldi rampage through an impressive collection of rough-hewn garage rock. The format helps to minimize the less charming tendencies of the two main bands (especially the aimless jams of Cloud Nothings) and maximize the hooks. This one flew under the radar but is well worth a listen.
Honorable Mentions:
Empress Of: Me
Earl Sweatshirt: I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Kurt Vile: B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
Songs of the Year:
Sufjan Stevens, "Blue Bucket of Gold"
Beach House, "Sparks"
Destroyer, "Archer on the Beach"
EL VY, "Return to the Moon"
Best Coast, "California Nights"
Father John Misty, "Chateau Lobby #4"
Neon Indian, "Annie"
Lower Dens, "To Die in LA"
Small Black, "Boys Life"
Bibio, "Petals"
Deerhunter, "Ad Astra"
Grimes, "Flesh Without Blood"
Chvrches, "Never Ending Circles"
Kurt Vile, "Pretty Pimpin"
Julia Holter, "Vazquez"
Tame Impala, "The Less I Know the Better"
Beck, "Dreams"
Empress Of, "Standard"
Viet Cong, "Silhouettes"
Kendrick Lamar, "How Much a Dollar Cost"
Vince Staples, "Norf Norf"
Superlatives:
Best album title: Earl Sweatshirt, I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Best album cover: Desaparecidos, Payola
Best vinyl edition: The Dead Weather, Dodge & Burn vault edition
Best new album from old-timers: Wire, Wire
Late-year release no one talked about but should have: jennylee, Right On!
My best discovery from years past: Yo La Tengo, Painful
Most disappointing album: Modest Mouse, Strangers to Ourselves
Most unnecessary victory lap: David Gilmour, Rattle That Lock
Album with the most recycled ideas: Panda Bear, Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
Album most in need of an editor: Kamasi Washington, The Epic
Most average album: Wavves, V
Last edited:
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
I can't say enough positive things about Julia Holter and her new album. She's also cute as hell.
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I think you guys made me subscribe to KEXP youtube channel so that i wont be too out of touch with indie bands.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
I don't expect fans of folks to agree with me on that, I just found the idea of criticizing his folk for sounding like folk odd. I guess that's not what you meant there.
I don't mean that you should love him because he's self-aware, I meant that I read your post and Axver's and it seemed like you were both saying, "This guy thinks he's hot shit but he's actually an asshole!" Which seemed like a hilarious misreading to me.
I also don't understand the melodic criticism, because I find his melodies endlessly catchy, Strange Encounter being one of his best. Really the only thing that he does a decent amount of that bothers me is when he relies too much on the "ohhhh ohhhh" type of singing, which he does a lot of on True Affection and Smiling and Astride Me (not coincidentally my two least favorite songs on the album).
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
do you guys know any indie/alt rock bands with shreddy guitars? or technical instrumentation?
bono_212
Blue Crack Distributor
I hate Kendrick's alien voice as much as the next person, but I don't know how anyone could NOT enjoy those beats.
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
I'm not sure how anyone defines shreddy guitars anymore but The War on Drugs has great guitar parts.
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
shreddy guitar playing mostly means something form people like Eddie Van Halen or Steve Vai. I just wanna hear alt. rock's take of these fast, technical guitar playing.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
Actually, I think the album sounds pretty different from a lot of the folk that's out there right now. Julien Baker, Ryley Walker, Laura Marling, Jessica Pratt, all of that is very 70s throwback (Nick Drake, Van Morrison, etc.) and Tillman seems to actually be going further back in time.
And yeah, not sure about his J Tillman work (need to look back into that), but he's had a sardonic wit from the beginning. Now it's just being emphasized because it's part of the album's concept. I definitely don't think he's suddenly discovered a new side to his personality and is beating us over the head with it.
LemonMelon
More 5G Than Man
You like Mastodon?
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
I haven't really gotten into them though I like their early things. like leviathan.
Love reading your short capsules, iYup. Thanks for posting that.
Having listened to Julien Baker a couple more times this week, I'm disappointed I didn't find a place for her in my top-15 (she was a honorable mention). I really like that album.
Another folk album that was very underrated this year: Joan Shelley's Over and Even. I only got it a few months ago due to a recommendation from my record store. They didn't have the Julia Holter album and suggested this one instead, even though the only thing they have in common seems to be the female leads. But I go back to it very often still.
Having listened to Julien Baker a couple more times this week, I'm disappointed I didn't find a place for her in my top-15 (she was a honorable mention). I really like that album.
Another folk album that was very underrated this year: Joan Shelley's Over and Even. I only got it a few months ago due to a recommendation from my record store. They didn't have the Julia Holter album and suggested this one instead, even though the only thing they have in common seems to be the female leads. But I go back to it very often still.
martha
Blue Crack Supplier
Mack_Again
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
thanx people, i will start from mastodon and purling hiss
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
I'd like to take iYup's superlative "Album Most in Need of an Editor" and expand it to "Artist Most in Need of an Editor" so that I can give it to Kurt Vile. The guy is an interesting lyricist and a damn good guitar player who hops onto interesting chord progressions ... before proceeding to play them for way too long of a time. Everything NSW used to say about LCD Soundsystem (incorrectly) is appropriate when breaking down nearly any Kurt Vile song.
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Kurt Vile is great background music. That probably sounds like an insult, but I don't mean it that way; his guitar playing is just really pleasant, for lack of a better term.
GirlsAloudFan
Blue Crack Addict
Man, it came out soooooo early in the year that I completely forgot to add The Decemberists' album to my list. It would have been in my top 15 for sure. Damn. Good album. Just a really consistent, smart, and enjoyable band with a strong lead performer.
I think Meloy has only improved as a lead singer over time.
I think Meloy has only improved as a lead singer over time.
OK I totally should have got around to the Mgla album sooner. It's not going to make my top fifteen, but damn this is some quality black metal.
Yes, this is how I spend the evening of Christmas Day. tr00 kvlt, etc.
Edit: holy shit, the start of VI is the most blatant ripoff of the intro of "Deep" by Anathema.
Yes, this is how I spend the evening of Christmas Day. tr00 kvlt, etc.
Edit: holy shit, the start of VI is the most blatant ripoff of the intro of "Deep" by Anathema.
I agree, it's an enjoyable record. Philomena is a pretty good song, I almost had it in my top-15.
cobl04
45:33
Eh, that was probably the biggest disappointment of the year for me. I loved The King is Dead. Breezy but still delivered on the things I like most about their sound. The new one - aside from Make You Better, which is fantastic - is a massive drag. Modest Mouse's new one wasn't a great deal better. Neither were ~bad~, per se, just a bit ordinary.
On FJM, I see where LM is coming from. I'd have sided with Peef in the past re: Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt but then I watched that Over/Under that he did with his wife on Pitchfork and he didn't let her get a single word in. I still like the dude an awful lot, he's funny as hell, but I have the same problem with Honeybear as I did with Fear Fun - about a quarter of the songs are fucking awesome, another quarter is great, another quarter is boring songs that are just saved by funny lyrics and the other quarter being just plain boring. That's an oversimplification but I'm surprised to see so much love for a song like Strange Encounter, that's a huge yawn.
I'd like to see people post their FJM Rushmores, actually, then we might get an idea of how different we all are on him: True Affection / Hollywood Forever / Sally Hatchet / Ideal Husband, with a big apology to Smiling and Astride Me.
iYup - thanks again for sharing the paragraphs, I enjoy those a lot more than just seeing lists. Really must make the time to give Summertime 06 a good listen.
Kurt Vile - I only have the last two albums. Wakin on a Pretty Daze was in my top five of that year I'm sure and I still listen to it quite regularly. I was very excited for the new one and was quite disappointed in how boring it was. I didn't like the "needs an edit" criticisms for Pretty Daze because I really felt it earned its hour-plus runtime, the long songs like the title track, Too Hard and Goldtone were my three fav songs from the album. The new one definitely needed an edit. Several songs, particularly in the back half, that just ambled on needlessly, and weren't really pretty enough imo to justify it.
On FJM, I see where LM is coming from. I'd have sided with Peef in the past re: Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apt but then I watched that Over/Under that he did with his wife on Pitchfork and he didn't let her get a single word in. I still like the dude an awful lot, he's funny as hell, but I have the same problem with Honeybear as I did with Fear Fun - about a quarter of the songs are fucking awesome, another quarter is great, another quarter is boring songs that are just saved by funny lyrics and the other quarter being just plain boring. That's an oversimplification but I'm surprised to see so much love for a song like Strange Encounter, that's a huge yawn.
I'd like to see people post their FJM Rushmores, actually, then we might get an idea of how different we all are on him: True Affection / Hollywood Forever / Sally Hatchet / Ideal Husband, with a big apology to Smiling and Astride Me.
iYup - thanks again for sharing the paragraphs, I enjoy those a lot more than just seeing lists. Really must make the time to give Summertime 06 a good listen.
Kurt Vile - I only have the last two albums. Wakin on a Pretty Daze was in my top five of that year I'm sure and I still listen to it quite regularly. I was very excited for the new one and was quite disappointed in how boring it was. I didn't like the "needs an edit" criticisms for Pretty Daze because I really felt it earned its hour-plus runtime, the long songs like the title track, Too Hard and Goldtone were my three fav songs from the album. The new one definitely needed an edit. Several songs, particularly in the back half, that just ambled on needlessly, and weren't really pretty enough imo to justify it.
cobl04
45:33
Also re iYup's list: 10000000% agreed on Poison Season, I love it. Not a touch on Kaputt imo but it will be top 10 for me. No idea where you're getting the idea Bangkok could be a Tom Waits song though...?
And Vega INTL will absolutely be on my list. That album is a fucking banger and should be getting a lot more love everywhere. Easily my fav Neon Indian release.
And Vega INTL will absolutely be on my list. That album is a fucking banger and should be getting a lot more love everywhere. Easily my fav Neon Indian release.
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
Something about the lyrics and the lounge-style piano at the center remind me of albums like Blue Valentine and Foreign Affairs. That's a bit before he went into full-on debauchery mode on Small Change.
cobl04
45:33
I figured that would be the era you'd pick due to the piano, but geez I think that's a huge stretch Surely the first time Destroyer has been compared with Tom Waits.
Surely the first time Destroyer has been compared with Tom Waits.
Joey788
Refugee
Finally got my list done. First the number count for the thread, then my write-ups.
1. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit And Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (15)
What an incredible album. It's rare that an artist's debut is so fully realized. Every song here had something that grabbed my attention, whether it was a turn of phrase, Barnett's shredding or just melodies that get trapped in your head. Some of my favorite lyricists of recent years have been those who use their wit to get to the core of a character. Gareth Campesinos is a master at this, but Barnett does it to humorous and devastating effect in equal measure. Everyone talks about the storytelling in Depreston, which is incredible, but she seems to put the same effort into the quick numbers like Aqua Profunda! I haven't listened to any other album more this year.
Favorite Songs: Pedestrian at Best, Depreston, Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party
Best Moments: That line about Sim City in Elevator Operator, the guitar solo in Kim's Caravan, that swirling guitar noise that kicks off Dead Fox
2. Florence and the Machine: How Big How Blue How Beautiful (15)
After Ceremonials, I was left disappointed with Florence. That album lost much of the attitude and variety I got when listening to Lungs. But I think HBHBHB is her best album yet. I love how much What Kind of Man rocks, the R.E.M. jangle in Ship to Wreck and the groove of Delilah. Plus, while Florence still shows off her pipes, I like that she draws back for subtle, restrained performances on a few tracks like St. Jude as well.
Favorite Songs: What Kind of Man, How Big How Blue How Beautiful
Best Moments: The glorious horn-driven ending to the title track, the strings on Queen of Peace, the chorus of Mother
3. Sleater-Kinney: No Cities To Love (12)
While I've enjoyed some Sleater-Kinney in the past, No Cities To Love really got me into them. This may be the best band reunion album ever released. I know Sleater-Kinney said it was a hiatus in 2005, but it really felt like a split in the intervening years. This is an explosive comeback, tightly wound into 10 furious songs. I can't think of one filler track on this record and it's quickly risen in my ranking for the band's discography.
Favorite Songs: Bury Our Friends, A New Wave
Best Moments: The way the opening riff of Price Tag weaves its way throughout the whole track, the harmonies on the title track, the grungy guitar riff that kicks off No Anthems
4. Steven Wilson: Hand. Cannot. Erase. (10)
This is Steven Wilson's best release since Insurgentes. This album does what Wilson does best, by combining his various influences and interests into songs that range from prog-epics to pop-rock songs. Even though this is a concept album, the themes aren't heavy-handed in the lyrics, instead relying on relatable lyrics and memorable segments, such as those found on the lovely title track. There's hardly any guitar noodling or flute interludes on this record and the only song that veers close to The Raven, Ancestral, is better than nearly everything on that previous effort. I hope next year's EP gives us something similar and Wilson keeps his gift for melody at the forefront of his work from now on.
Favorite Songs: Hand Cannot Erase, Home Invasion
Best Moments: The funky 70s keyboard in 3 Years Older and Regret #9, Ninet Tayeb's vocal take on Routine, the echoing guitar pattern that closes Happy Returns
5. Grimes: Art Angels (10)
While I enjoyed Visions, I thought it had a few good songs and a lot of alright filler tunes. I was expecting something similar from Grimes this year, but I was blown away by the quality of this album. Besides the poor inclusion of Scream (a universal opinion it seems), every other song offers something to enjoy, with a few out-and-out classics. The run from Flesh Without Blood through Artangels is utterly fantastic. It really feels like Grimes came out with both arms swinging after all the bullshit she dealt with over the last couple of years. She's somehow made an album that's stranger and more accessible than her previous work. Either way, it's definitely her best release so far.
Favorite Songs: Flesh Without Blood, Kill v Maim
Best Moments: The growl in Kill v Maim, the violin in Venus Fly that's reminiscent of Legend of Zelda, everything about REALiTi
6. The Decemberists: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (7)
I'm not a huge Decemberists fan. I often feel their cleverness can too often slide into pretentiousness, with obtuse characters and needlessly complex vocabulary. I liked The Hazards of Love, but I think the simplicity of this year's release makes it a true standout. While Colin Meloy's lyrical tendencies are still here, they seems to be closer tied to real emotions than any work they've done before. I can empathize and identify with what he's saying for the first time. Combine that with some of the most melodic work the band's ever done and you have a winner.
Favorite Songs: Cavalry Captain, Make You Better
Best Moments: The slow build-up of The Singer Addresses His Audience, the Irish tavern vibe of Better Not Wake The Baby, the back-and-forth vocals in Anti-Summersong
7. Torres: Sprinter (7)
Over the course of the beautifully raw, wrenching Sprinter, Torres screams her lungs out on Strange Hellos, smirks her way through Cowboy Guilt and embraces denial on Ferris Wheel. All three of these emotions fit her incredibly well. This is a dark, but captivating album.When my dad and I saw her opening for Garbage, he said she has a Neil Young vibe. I didn't see it at first, but that raw, emotional nakedness, combined with her guitar skills makes it a pretty apt comparison.
Favorite Songs: Strange Hellos, Sprinter
Best Moments: Torres' shredded screams at the end of Strange Hellos, the harrowing vocals that build on each other during Son You Are No Island
8. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper: After (5)
Like her debut, Ripely Pine, Lady Lamb's gift for melody, her odd and sticky lyrics and her conversational voice are intriguing throughout nearly every song. Her homemade, casual approach, combined with her off-kilter way with words and melodies, make her one of the most original voices to come out of this decade. After isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly an album that sounds as strong and mysterious the first time and 10th time you listen to it.
Favorite Songs: Billions of Eyes, Milk Duds
Best Moments: Vena Cava's switch-up from solo to full band and back, the way Violet Clementine combines a bluegrass guitar with the bass' dancefloor groove
9. Laura Marling: Short Movie (5)
Short Movie is an expressive, impressive addition to Marling's body of work. I love the mixture of electric and acoustic guitars and how she uses both to full effect on this album. You have the electrifying False Hope, the door slam of Don't Let Me Bring You Down and the dusty Howl. She's as brilliant as ever.
Favorite Songs: False Hope, Strange
Best Moments: The verse about Hurricane Sandy on False Hope, the guitar picking on I Feel Your Love
10. Wolf Alice: My Love is Cool (4)
I love how Wolf Alice can effortlessly switch up their style from one track to the next. Going from the serene Turn to Dust to the highway rock of Bros to the heavy reverb-laden riffs of Your Loves Whore shouldn't work at all. But Wolf Alice expresses such grace and confidence that it does. Best band debut of the year.
Favorite Songs: Moaning Lisa Smile, Fluffy
11. Foals: What Went Down (4)
12. SOAK: Before We Forgot How To Dream (3)
13. Silversun Pickups: Better Nature (2)
14. Wax Idols: American Tragic (1)
15. Chelsea Wolfe: Abyss (1)
Honorable Mentions
Blur: The Magic Whip
Guy Garvey: Courting The Squall
Marriages: Salome
Julien Baker: Sprained Ankle
Idgy Dean: Ominous Harminus
Baroness: Purple
Braids: Deep in the Iris
Best EP of the Year: Olga Bell's Incitation
Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Metric's synthpop album
Worst album of the Year: Tie between Muse and Coldplay
Most anticipated of 2016: PJ Harvey
1. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit And Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (15)
What an incredible album. It's rare that an artist's debut is so fully realized. Every song here had something that grabbed my attention, whether it was a turn of phrase, Barnett's shredding or just melodies that get trapped in your head. Some of my favorite lyricists of recent years have been those who use their wit to get to the core of a character. Gareth Campesinos is a master at this, but Barnett does it to humorous and devastating effect in equal measure. Everyone talks about the storytelling in Depreston, which is incredible, but she seems to put the same effort into the quick numbers like Aqua Profunda! I haven't listened to any other album more this year.
Favorite Songs: Pedestrian at Best, Depreston, Nobody Really Cares If You Don't Go To The Party
Best Moments: That line about Sim City in Elevator Operator, the guitar solo in Kim's Caravan, that swirling guitar noise that kicks off Dead Fox
2. Florence and the Machine: How Big How Blue How Beautiful (15)
After Ceremonials, I was left disappointed with Florence. That album lost much of the attitude and variety I got when listening to Lungs. But I think HBHBHB is her best album yet. I love how much What Kind of Man rocks, the R.E.M. jangle in Ship to Wreck and the groove of Delilah. Plus, while Florence still shows off her pipes, I like that she draws back for subtle, restrained performances on a few tracks like St. Jude as well.
Favorite Songs: What Kind of Man, How Big How Blue How Beautiful
Best Moments: The glorious horn-driven ending to the title track, the strings on Queen of Peace, the chorus of Mother
3. Sleater-Kinney: No Cities To Love (12)
While I've enjoyed some Sleater-Kinney in the past, No Cities To Love really got me into them. This may be the best band reunion album ever released. I know Sleater-Kinney said it was a hiatus in 2005, but it really felt like a split in the intervening years. This is an explosive comeback, tightly wound into 10 furious songs. I can't think of one filler track on this record and it's quickly risen in my ranking for the band's discography.
Favorite Songs: Bury Our Friends, A New Wave
Best Moments: The way the opening riff of Price Tag weaves its way throughout the whole track, the harmonies on the title track, the grungy guitar riff that kicks off No Anthems
4. Steven Wilson: Hand. Cannot. Erase. (10)
This is Steven Wilson's best release since Insurgentes. This album does what Wilson does best, by combining his various influences and interests into songs that range from prog-epics to pop-rock songs. Even though this is a concept album, the themes aren't heavy-handed in the lyrics, instead relying on relatable lyrics and memorable segments, such as those found on the lovely title track. There's hardly any guitar noodling or flute interludes on this record and the only song that veers close to The Raven, Ancestral, is better than nearly everything on that previous effort. I hope next year's EP gives us something similar and Wilson keeps his gift for melody at the forefront of his work from now on.
Favorite Songs: Hand Cannot Erase, Home Invasion
Best Moments: The funky 70s keyboard in 3 Years Older and Regret #9, Ninet Tayeb's vocal take on Routine, the echoing guitar pattern that closes Happy Returns
5. Grimes: Art Angels (10)
While I enjoyed Visions, I thought it had a few good songs and a lot of alright filler tunes. I was expecting something similar from Grimes this year, but I was blown away by the quality of this album. Besides the poor inclusion of Scream (a universal opinion it seems), every other song offers something to enjoy, with a few out-and-out classics. The run from Flesh Without Blood through Artangels is utterly fantastic. It really feels like Grimes came out with both arms swinging after all the bullshit she dealt with over the last couple of years. She's somehow made an album that's stranger and more accessible than her previous work. Either way, it's definitely her best release so far.
Favorite Songs: Flesh Without Blood, Kill v Maim
Best Moments: The growl in Kill v Maim, the violin in Venus Fly that's reminiscent of Legend of Zelda, everything about REALiTi
6. The Decemberists: What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (7)
I'm not a huge Decemberists fan. I often feel their cleverness can too often slide into pretentiousness, with obtuse characters and needlessly complex vocabulary. I liked The Hazards of Love, but I think the simplicity of this year's release makes it a true standout. While Colin Meloy's lyrical tendencies are still here, they seems to be closer tied to real emotions than any work they've done before. I can empathize and identify with what he's saying for the first time. Combine that with some of the most melodic work the band's ever done and you have a winner.
Favorite Songs: Cavalry Captain, Make You Better
Best Moments: The slow build-up of The Singer Addresses His Audience, the Irish tavern vibe of Better Not Wake The Baby, the back-and-forth vocals in Anti-Summersong
7. Torres: Sprinter (7)
Over the course of the beautifully raw, wrenching Sprinter, Torres screams her lungs out on Strange Hellos, smirks her way through Cowboy Guilt and embraces denial on Ferris Wheel. All three of these emotions fit her incredibly well. This is a dark, but captivating album.When my dad and I saw her opening for Garbage, he said she has a Neil Young vibe. I didn't see it at first, but that raw, emotional nakedness, combined with her guitar skills makes it a pretty apt comparison.
Favorite Songs: Strange Hellos, Sprinter
Best Moments: Torres' shredded screams at the end of Strange Hellos, the harrowing vocals that build on each other during Son You Are No Island
8. Lady Lamb the Beekeeper: After (5)
Like her debut, Ripely Pine, Lady Lamb's gift for melody, her odd and sticky lyrics and her conversational voice are intriguing throughout nearly every song. Her homemade, casual approach, combined with her off-kilter way with words and melodies, make her one of the most original voices to come out of this decade. After isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly an album that sounds as strong and mysterious the first time and 10th time you listen to it.
Favorite Songs: Billions of Eyes, Milk Duds
Best Moments: Vena Cava's switch-up from solo to full band and back, the way Violet Clementine combines a bluegrass guitar with the bass' dancefloor groove
9. Laura Marling: Short Movie (5)
Short Movie is an expressive, impressive addition to Marling's body of work. I love the mixture of electric and acoustic guitars and how she uses both to full effect on this album. You have the electrifying False Hope, the door slam of Don't Let Me Bring You Down and the dusty Howl. She's as brilliant as ever.
Favorite Songs: False Hope, Strange
Best Moments: The verse about Hurricane Sandy on False Hope, the guitar picking on I Feel Your Love
10. Wolf Alice: My Love is Cool (4)
I love how Wolf Alice can effortlessly switch up their style from one track to the next. Going from the serene Turn to Dust to the highway rock of Bros to the heavy reverb-laden riffs of Your Loves Whore shouldn't work at all. But Wolf Alice expresses such grace and confidence that it does. Best band debut of the year.
Favorite Songs: Moaning Lisa Smile, Fluffy
11. Foals: What Went Down (4)
12. SOAK: Before We Forgot How To Dream (3)
13. Silversun Pickups: Better Nature (2)
14. Wax Idols: American Tragic (1)
15. Chelsea Wolfe: Abyss (1)
Honorable Mentions
Blur: The Magic Whip
Guy Garvey: Courting The Squall
Marriages: Salome
Julien Baker: Sprained Ankle
Idgy Dean: Ominous Harminus
Baroness: Purple
Braids: Deep in the Iris
Best EP of the Year: Olga Bell's Incitation
Biggest Disappointment of the Year: Metric's synthpop album
Worst album of the Year: Tie between Muse and Coldplay
Most anticipated of 2016: PJ Harvey
PhilsFan
Blue Crack Addict
1. Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear (15 points)
Certain lyricists make me want to become a singer/songwriter whenever I am listening to them, and Josh Tillman is one of them. He's a revelation as a frontman in concert, but he manages to put forth a lot of the drama, humorous or otherwise, through his songs on the album. Father John Misty is not a persona as much as it is just an excuse for him to be honest with himself about his inconsistent feelings about both the world and himself. At times he's full of himself, at times self-effacing, at times terrified that it's all destined to go to shit. Few lyricists are better at describing those anxieties in such a coherent and funny way.
2. Grimes - Art Angels (14 points)
I think this would be my number one album of the year if it was not for the awful "Scream." Everything after that is nearly perfect, and I was blown away because I was not really a fan of Oblivion. Her new direction puts her firmly in my alley of music. Everyone's had praise for "Flesh without Blood," "Kill V Maim," the title track, and "Realiti," but other songs like "Easily," "Pin," and "Butterfly" are just as strong. It's just an excellent record and one that I feel I will keep coming back to.
3. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (11 points)
Like its sister album, this one has a stronger second half than first half. That said, "All Your Yeahs" and "One Thing" are incredible songs, the latter possibly on the Mount Rushmore of great Beach House tracks. The lyrical content and slightly larger diversity of sounds on this album pushes it ahead of Depression Cherry, but both albums are great additions to the band's discography.
4. Tame Impala - Currents (10 points)
For a band that could easily get jam-bandy, their sound continues to be tight and pushes the songs forward at just the right pace. Probably a more consistent album than "Lonerism," which is impressive.
5. Chvrches - Every Open Eye (9 points)
It's a more consistent effort than their debut, and "Never Ending Circles" and "Playing Dead" are highs that come damn close to reaching those found on the first album. The songs also translate very well in the live setting.
6. Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (9 points)
This is one I didn't get to until very late in the year, but I'm glad I did, because it's terrific. There are so many rock bands, both today and over the past decade, that have tried to nail the sound Wolf Alice does here. That means that at the end of the day it just matters who has the strongest songs, and Wolf Alice has put together some great ones on here. "Freazy" in particular is a melody that has been sticking with me recently.
7. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle (7 points)
This sounds like an album I would hate: a sparse record with almost no percussion and little more than a guitar, written by a woman younger than I am. It would imply But the songwriting is strong and the vocals and lyrics are just incredible. The pain here is real and relatable, whether it's pain you yourself have experienced or pain you've witnessed in those close to you.
8. Beach House - Depression Cherry (6 points)
Maybe a little more consistent than Thank Your Lucky Stars but without the highs. Still, "PPP" is an all-time great Beach House track, and "Levitation" is an excellent opener.
9. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (6 points)
A very personal album, one that's had a lot written about it. "Fourth of July" is just not the type of track you hear on many albums.
10. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (5 points)
Another one that has been written about ad nauseum. It's a personal album, but so many of his experiences speak for his generation that it's an inevitably political one as well, and it's great to see that a hip hop album this strong is getting celebrated the way it is.
11. Julia Holter - Have You in My Wilderness (2 points)
Just a beautiful album, the first of hers that I have listened to. "Betsy on the Roof" in particular stands out to me. She also branches out into really cool experiments like the jazzy "Vasquez." Another one where I'm intrigued into digging into the back catalogue.
12. EL VY - Return to the Moon (2 points)
It seems throwaway at first listen, especially because the production at times is too polished, but there are some great songs here. The first half of the album in particular is one of the best stretches of the year, in particular the stretch from "I'm the Man to Be" to "Need a Friend."
13. Purity Ring - Another Eternity (2 points)
I've become a fan of music that combines elements of electronic and pop music, as you can probably gather from my list. And this album has strong songs that combine both.
14. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (1 point)
Her delivery reminds of Gareth Campesinos, which suits the lyrical content. It's a good debut and has me interested in what comes next.
15. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp (1 point)
One of those albums that probably would have been relegated to the honorable mentions had I not gotten the opportunity to see her perform them live. I had not heard any previous Waxahatchee records before this, but now I'm inclined to dig back through the discography thanks to this one.
Honorable Mentions
Destroyer - Poison Season
It was always going to be hard to match Kaputt, and he didn't do it, but it's still a solid album even if it doesn't have the absolutely terrific songs its predecessor did.
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
I was unfortunately unable to see them live in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. Had I seen the songs live it might have opened the album up more for me and seen it get ranked here.
My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall
I think I would have a really difficult time telling their different albums apart. But they're always solid.
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Surprised me because I only knew her previous big hit and nothing else. Good pop album.
Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
There's a good album here if Vile just hired an editor. It's long where it doesn't need to be. His songwriting would shine more if he cut the redundancies.
Certain lyricists make me want to become a singer/songwriter whenever I am listening to them, and Josh Tillman is one of them. He's a revelation as a frontman in concert, but he manages to put forth a lot of the drama, humorous or otherwise, through his songs on the album. Father John Misty is not a persona as much as it is just an excuse for him to be honest with himself about his inconsistent feelings about both the world and himself. At times he's full of himself, at times self-effacing, at times terrified that it's all destined to go to shit. Few lyricists are better at describing those anxieties in such a coherent and funny way.
2. Grimes - Art Angels (14 points)
I think this would be my number one album of the year if it was not for the awful "Scream." Everything after that is nearly perfect, and I was blown away because I was not really a fan of Oblivion. Her new direction puts her firmly in my alley of music. Everyone's had praise for "Flesh without Blood," "Kill V Maim," the title track, and "Realiti," but other songs like "Easily," "Pin," and "Butterfly" are just as strong. It's just an excellent record and one that I feel I will keep coming back to.
3. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (11 points)
Like its sister album, this one has a stronger second half than first half. That said, "All Your Yeahs" and "One Thing" are incredible songs, the latter possibly on the Mount Rushmore of great Beach House tracks. The lyrical content and slightly larger diversity of sounds on this album pushes it ahead of Depression Cherry, but both albums are great additions to the band's discography.
4. Tame Impala - Currents (10 points)
For a band that could easily get jam-bandy, their sound continues to be tight and pushes the songs forward at just the right pace. Probably a more consistent album than "Lonerism," which is impressive.
5. Chvrches - Every Open Eye (9 points)
It's a more consistent effort than their debut, and "Never Ending Circles" and "Playing Dead" are highs that come damn close to reaching those found on the first album. The songs also translate very well in the live setting.
6. Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (9 points)
This is one I didn't get to until very late in the year, but I'm glad I did, because it's terrific. There are so many rock bands, both today and over the past decade, that have tried to nail the sound Wolf Alice does here. That means that at the end of the day it just matters who has the strongest songs, and Wolf Alice has put together some great ones on here. "Freazy" in particular is a melody that has been sticking with me recently.
7. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle (7 points)
This sounds like an album I would hate: a sparse record with almost no percussion and little more than a guitar, written by a woman younger than I am. It would imply But the songwriting is strong and the vocals and lyrics are just incredible. The pain here is real and relatable, whether it's pain you yourself have experienced or pain you've witnessed in those close to you.
8. Beach House - Depression Cherry (6 points)
Maybe a little more consistent than Thank Your Lucky Stars but without the highs. Still, "PPP" is an all-time great Beach House track, and "Levitation" is an excellent opener.
9. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (6 points)
A very personal album, one that's had a lot written about it. "Fourth of July" is just not the type of track you hear on many albums.
10. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (5 points)
Another one that has been written about ad nauseum. It's a personal album, but so many of his experiences speak for his generation that it's an inevitably political one as well, and it's great to see that a hip hop album this strong is getting celebrated the way it is.
11. Julia Holter - Have You in My Wilderness (2 points)
Just a beautiful album, the first of hers that I have listened to. "Betsy on the Roof" in particular stands out to me. She also branches out into really cool experiments like the jazzy "Vasquez." Another one where I'm intrigued into digging into the back catalogue.
12. EL VY - Return to the Moon (2 points)
It seems throwaway at first listen, especially because the production at times is too polished, but there are some great songs here. The first half of the album in particular is one of the best stretches of the year, in particular the stretch from "I'm the Man to Be" to "Need a Friend."
13. Purity Ring - Another Eternity (2 points)
I've become a fan of music that combines elements of electronic and pop music, as you can probably gather from my list. And this album has strong songs that combine both.
14. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (1 point)
Her delivery reminds of Gareth Campesinos, which suits the lyrical content. It's a good debut and has me interested in what comes next.
15. Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp (1 point)
One of those albums that probably would have been relegated to the honorable mentions had I not gotten the opportunity to see her perform them live. I had not heard any previous Waxahatchee records before this, but now I'm inclined to dig back through the discography thanks to this one.
Honorable Mentions
Destroyer - Poison Season
It was always going to be hard to match Kaputt, and he didn't do it, but it's still a solid album even if it doesn't have the absolutely terrific songs its predecessor did.
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
I was unfortunately unable to see them live in Philadelphia a few weeks ago. Had I seen the songs live it might have opened the album up more for me and seen it get ranked here.
My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall
I think I would have a really difficult time telling their different albums apart. But they're always solid.
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Surprised me because I only knew her previous big hit and nothing else. Good pop album.
Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
There's a good album here if Vile just hired an editor. It's long where it doesn't need to be. His songwriting would shine more if he cut the redundancies.
lazarus
Blue Crack Supplier
iron yuppie
ONE love, blood, life
PFan interesting that we ranked the two Beach House albums in a similar manner but for different reasons.
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