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

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How so?

I don't think Divers is as amazing as Ys or Have One On Me, but there are still five or six songs on there that are really great. (esp. "Anecdotes", "Leaving The City", "You Will Not Take My Heart Alive")

I don't know, I just thought you were with me that she's unlistenable. There's a lot I hated back in the metalhead phase that I now quite like, but I still don't know what people see in her music.
 
I'm a Newsom detractor, or at least I was until Have One on Me. Her voice has improved quite a bit and I've found that I enjoy her newer work. Divers is a really nice record.

Ys and Milk Eyed Mender are a real turnoff for me because of her delivery, even as a fan of progressive folk.
 
I don't know, I just thought you were with me that she's unlistenable. There's a lot I hated back in the metalhead phase that I now quite like, but I still don't know what people see in her music.

She has this way of making something that's very complicated sound very simple which I find really entrancing. A song like "Sawdust and Diamonds" or "Soft As Chalk" sounds like a children's lullaby, but is often quite complicated, especially when considering what she's playing with what she's singing.

I also think she's a great lyricist in a way that goes over a lot of people's heads, (myself included!) and that she is completely unwilling to deviate from what she wants to do, despite whatever negative criticism she gets for having a weird voice. Her work is more rewarding every time I hear it because I understand a little more of what's she going for.
 
I'm a Newsom detractor, or at least I was until Have One on Me. Her voice has improved quite a bit and I've found that I enjoy her newer work. Divers is a really nice record.

Ys and Milk Eyed Mender are a real turnoff for me because of her delivery, even as a fan of progressive folk.

I'm not sure I could be bothered listening to an album as long as Have One on Me even if it were by somebody I like. I'd have to really fucking love a band's music to put up with a triple album.
 
2015 was the year of obnoxiously long albums, so I guess I'm getting used to it.

Unfortunately, that also means it was the year of obnoxiously long BAD albums, as Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven shows.
 
In its defense, it is ONLY two hours long. That said, it's still far too long - whenever I get a hankering to hear it, I just pull six to eight tracks at random and I'll typically get some really great stuff, and maybe a filler track or two.

An album an hour long is too long.

Unfortunately, that also means it was the year of obnoxiously long BAD albums, as Speedin Bullet 2 Heaven shows.

I can't believe you didn't give 15 points to Speedin' Bullet 2 Heaven in your list.
 
Below are my top 30 songs of 2015 (double the album total), with links to each. Click on the song and it will redirect you to the youtube page; I did it this way so I wouldn't overload the page with embedded video links. Going with alphabetical order because I can't rank these.

Alabama Shakes - Gimme All Your Love
A$AP Rocky - L$D
Beach House - Sparks
Benjamin Clementine - London
Bjork - Stonemilker
Blur - Thought I Was a Spaceman
Carly Rae Jepsen - Run Away with Me
Courtney Barnett - Depreston
Deerhunter - Living My Life
Destroyer - Dream Lover
Earl Sweatshirt - Solace
Floating Points - Silhouettes (I, II, & III)
Jamie xx - Loud Places
Kendrick Lamar - The Blacker the Berry
Kurt Vile - Pretty Pimpin
Lil Ugly Mane - Persistence
Lupe Fiasco - Murals
Majical Cloudz - Downtown
Miguel - Coffee
Modest Mouse - The Ground Walks, with Time in a Box
My Morning Jacket - Only Memories Remain
Sufjan Stevens - No Shade in the Shadow of the Cross
Susanne Sundfør - Delirious
Tame Impala - The Less I Know the Better
Torres - Strange Hellos
Travi$ Scott - Antidote
Tyler, The Creator (feat. Kanye West and Lil Wayne) - Smuckers
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Can't Keep Checking My Phone
Viet Cong - March of Progress
The Weeknd - Can't Feel My Face

As always, if you guys want any recommendations based on these songs, let me know.
 
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B&C's 2015 Albums of the Year AKA The One Time A Year Peef Uses Math

And now I see that they embedded on mobile but not on the desktop. Ugh. Sorry to make mobile scrolling a pain for this page.
 
I'd totally forgotten about those Modest Mouse and Lupe Fiasco tracks. Two fantastic tracks on albums that I didn't really return to. That always happens to me.

I love most of those songs you listed. I'm going to listen to the ones I haven't heard too, starting with London. I've been wanting to check out that album for a while.
 
Relistening to Lupe right now, while I finish up my list, and I am still so torn about it. It's WONDERFUL, but it's just so fucking long, it feels like a slog by the end, to get through.
 
Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (15)
Tame Impala - Currents (13)
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (13)
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (11)
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (11)
Grimes - Art Angels (9)
EL VY - Return To The Moon (9)
Sleater Kinney - No Cities To Love (5)
Beach House - Depression Cherry (5)
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (2)
Björk - Vulnicara (2)
Destroyer - Poison Season (2)
The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World (1)
Hot Chip - Why Make Sense? (1)
Pond - Man It Feels Like Space Again (1)
 
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Chvrches - Every Open Eye (12)

HEALTH - Death Magic (12)

Best Coast - California Nights (11)

JD McPherson - Let The Good Times Roll (11)

Purity Ring - Another Eternity (10)

Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool (10)

Beach House - Depression Cherry (9)

Duran Duran - Paper Gods (7)

Years & Years - Communion (5)

Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion (3)

Grimes - Art Angels (3)

Tame Impala - Currents (3)

The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World (2)

My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall (1)

Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. (1)
 
Might be able to contribute a list in the next couple of days. Was on holiday in Japan and managed to get around to listening to plenty of albums on the flight to and from, and on those wonderful bullet trains.




Sent from a barge floating through the docks of Dublin
 
My list, along with some of the initial reaction notes I wrote to myself after first listen. Enjoy learning that I write notes to myself as though I'm posting on a message board:

1) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly 15
>> Shit's fire…yo.

2) Wolf Alice My Love Is Cool 12
>> WOLF ALICE

3) Kamasi Washington - The Epic 10

4) My Morning Jacket - The Waterfall 9
>>Definitely a favorite of theirs. Hoo boy.

5) Twin Shadow - Eclipse 8
>>I'm just going to have to reserve myself to the fact that I adore stupidly bombastic music... A lot.

6) Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect 8
>> "This is, at the moment, my least favorite Killers released anything, and that includes Big Talk, but I don't think that's going to last….I think relistens will improve it…I hope…I mean…oh dear…

UPDATE: I won't erase the above, but I couldn't feel further from this now, definitely enjoy this. It's weak, but not THAT weak, and has much higher highs than I initially gave credit for."

7) Viet Cong - Viet Cong 7
>> It's like if Interpol and David Bowie had a baby that loved The Horrors. If there's a better album out this year, that would be fantastic news.

8) Westkust - Last Forever 6

9) Churches - Every Open Eye 6

10) Joanna Gruesome Peanut Butter 5
>> Listened to everything they released in a day, it's all so great. Exactly my alley, too.

11) Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs 4

12) Lupe Fiasco - Tetsuo & Youth 3
>>If this album had been about two or three tracks shorter, it would've been my number one for the year. The beats are great, the lyrics are pretty much phenomenal across the board. I anticipate this actually rising after a few more listens, as I grow more accustomed to its slightly unwieldy length.

13) Cheatahs - Mythologies 3

14) Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell 2
>>I guess thinking this sounds like Illinois isn't a good enough a critique, so it definitely needs a relisten.

15) Pinkshinyultrablast - Everything Else Matters 2
>> This is a go-to album for the year, it seriously just hits all of the right notes, but does have a few moments where I wish there was just a bit more. A few more stand-out tracks would be nice as well, but I intend to let this album grow for me a bit more.

Close but no cigar:
Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
Joey Bada$$ - B4.Da.$$
The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
Bjork - Vulnicura (honestly, I think if I'd had time to listen to this album more this year, it would've been in my top 15.)
Caliofrnia X - Nights in the Dark
The Dodos - Individ
John Carpenter - Lost Themes
Miami Horror - All Possible Futures
Mark Ronson - Uptown Special
Shamir - Ratchet
 
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