Part 3 of the Facebook migration
Honorable Mentions
Dawes — All Your Favorite Bands
Dawes brings another solid album to the table with good songwriting and the best guitar work by Taylor so far. Unfortunately, the lyricism suffers from cheesy aphorisms which is what kept it out of the top 50.
Built to Spill — Untethered Moon
Much like All Your Favorite Bands, Untethered Moon comes with incredible guitar riffs and melodies, as you could expect from Built to Spill. I really loved this record when it first came out, but it became a little boring for me upon relistening.
Nickelus F — Trick Dice
Lil’ Ugly Mane/Shawn Kemp provides some incredible production (as always) on Trick Dice, however the rapping and lyricism doesn’t hold its end up. Nickelus F does have some good lines, but the majority of the time I kept waiting for another Lil’ Ugly Mane verse. Still, the production is good enough to keep me coming back from time to time.
Arca — Mutant
The Venezuelan producer’s second album is a bloodpumping and raw collection of work. It’s a very uncomfortable record to listen to, but you can feel the emotion and frustration put into every swirling note and pulsing synth. This album probably should be higher, but much like Sun Kil Moon’s Benji from 2014, I just can’t find myself listening to this often — it’s like trying to watch a marathon of Aronofsky films.
Sadistik + Kno — Phantom Limbs
Phantom Limbs would crack the top 50 if it were a full length album instead of an LP. Sadistik’s laid back rapping style and artfully technical flow match perfectly with Kno’s dreamlike production. I really hope that the two partner again in 2016 for an actual LP.
50. Blur — The Magic Whip
Blur’s first album in 12 years comes off as a Damon Albarn solo project more than a group effort, but this isn’t a bad thing. Albarn’s more ‘experimental’ ideas come across far stronger that anything Brit-Pop, and the songwriting and structure is more like Think Tank or 13 to compare it to anything the band has done in the past. Coxon does lend his voice however, with some truly great guitar work on tracks like ‘Lonesome Street’ or ‘Go Out.’
49. Lupe Fiasco — Tetsuo + Youth
All anyone needs to do to realize that Lupe is back is listen to the 9-minute ‘Mural.’ T&Y comes as a great return to form from the horrendous Lasers and Food & Liquor 2. Lupe focuses less on shoving his messages down your throat with a pulpit-style delivery, and opts for a more personal approach. The result is a much more balanced album that doesn’t overload itself with consciousness but rather deftly moves from political opinions to personal anecdotes and self evaluation.
48. Julien Baker — Sprained Ankle
Sprained Ankle is an indie songwriter’s exercise in minimalism. Baker’s arrangements are beautiful and sparse, relying on reverb soaked guitar and emotional vocals. The album itself is short, only 9 tracks, but often it’s what is implied or remains unsaid that drives the record forward. For example, the closing track, ‘Go Home,’ is a devastating song about needing comfort and forgiveness, which ends with a piano rendition of “In Christ Alone” with no vocals other than the white noise of a sermon in the background.
47. Vessels — Dilate
Vessels’ history as a post-rock band is immediately apparent on this record. Though they’ve eschewed the typical stylings of the genre in favor of electronic blips, the building crescendos and waves of sound are there. Each track churns with pulsing synths and almost tribal like drums — the ending of one track can only be described as the sounds of a drum circle — which peak with fury only to have the instruments peeled away one by one leaving you with a simple, consistent bass kick.
46. Skyzoo — Music for my Friends
Well crafted storytelling and classic rap throwbacks are the hallmark of Music for My Friends. The Brooklyn rapper has always been known for his lyricism, but at times it can come off as too cerebral, using too many words to say too little. That, thankfully, is not the case here, as these songs are a collection of stories of times with friends and family. The production is all classic as well, featuring east coast beats ala Primo and Dilla. Skyzoo has some great features on here as well: Black Thought, Jadakiss, Bilal, Christon Gray, etc. Music for My Friends is a comfortable record that’s just really bottom line fun to listen to.
45. The Amazing — Picture You
With Picture You, The Amazing deliver a wonderful album of psychedelia and 60s prog crunch. Most of the songs linger past the traditional 4 minute mark and wander off into Dazed and Confused or Pink Floyd-esque territory. Despite their homages to the greats, the Swedish trio does always manage to make the songs sound their own rather than just copycats of days past.
44. Jerusalem in my Heart — If He Dies, If If If If If If
Moumneh released two albums in 2014, this record and a self-titled collaboration with Montreal psychrockers Suuns. Both of the projects attempt to reconcile Arabian music with electronic and drone elements, but while the latter channels this energy into a psychedelic form, If He Dies… displays the Arabian buzuk at the forefront of its compositions. The sound of the buzuk lends itself surprisingly well to backdrops of synthesizer and winding otherworldly melodies, creating an album steeped in meditation — this is music to get lost in.
43. milo — So the Flies Don’t Come
Another great alt-rap album from Milo — probably his best yet. Kenny Segal does an amazing job here with production, incorporating elements from jazz and experimental electronica into his beats, and makes an excellent backdrop for Milo’s laidback delivery. Milo himself again kills lyrically and his references range anywhere from MF DOOM to Sliders to Wittgenstein to the Matrix (and that’s just in one song).
42. Jeff Rosenstock — We Cool?
We Cool? is a short 30 minute blast of raw post/pop-punk by a ska frontman turned solo rocker. Each track deals with growing older and still trying to hold onto the ideals of youth. It’s like a raw version of Big Sur with aggressive guitar and anthemic shouts which help keep things fun even if they’re all falling apart.
41. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma — A Year with 13 Moons
A Year With 13 Moons is a hauntingly beautiful ambient record. Jefre Cantu-Ledesma blends shoegaze elements with walls of static and noise. The album isn’t without its simplicity however (it is an ambient album after all), as it sounds less like the sound of apocalyptic bombs dropping and more like the silent, still world that’s left behind. There’s a lot of sadness in Cantu-Ledesma’s record, but he manages to find beauty in that stillness which is what makes A Year With 13 Moons so captivating.
40. Freddie Gibbs — Shadow of a Doubt
The human metronome known as Freddie Gibbs released one of my favorite hip hop albums of last year in Piñata, and thought this album isn’t quite on the same level, it still shows that Gibbs has been steadily improving since his ESGN and Str8 Killa No Filla days. Shadow of a Doubt not living up to Piñata is hardly Gibbs fault, as his flow and lyrics are as good as ever, but rather a testament to how magical it can be when Madlib gets passionate about a project. Shadow of a Doubt still feels like a much more cohesive project than anything else Gibbs has released on his own, and hopefully this is a sign of even better things to come.
39. Earl Sweatshirt — I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
Earl’s sophomore effort is his most personal to date. Almost the entire record was self-produced, an amazing feat considering these are some of the best instrumentals he’s rapped over, and the subject matter is very inward focused. Earl spits like he’s reading lines from his diary or performing some internal monologue. The record is short, only 30-minutes long, but extremely heavy when compared to 2013’s Doris. Each track plods along slowly but purposefully, allowing Earl to take his time and speak his mind deliberately. IDLS, IDGO gives Earl his most unique voice yet.
38. Jaga Jazzist — Starfire
The Norwegian experimental Jazz group returns this year with an effort that is pretty much more of the same. This isn’t a bad thing, however, as their records are always eclectic and entertaining. Starfire is full of movement. The shortest track is over 6 minutes long, but each song varies so much within its runtime. Tempo changes and sweeping instrumentation changes are commonplace on Starfire, and the whole thing constantly feels fresh even with only 5 tracks.
37. Jessica Pratt — On Your Own Love Again
If you like Nick Drake and his cluster chord sleepy melodies, you’ll love Jessica Pratt. On Your Own Love Again sounds like a throwback to the folk of the 1970s with her simplistic guitar playing and airy vocals. Pratt does some interesting things too — there are strange tape cuts or pitch shifts that come off like warped versions of 8-track tapes. These idiosyncrasies play well into her unique voice as well. Pratt’s vocals are beautiful, but her timbre tends to be warbly which lends her melodies an otherworldly quality.
36. Punch Brothers — The Phosphorescent Blues
Chris Thile and co. deliver another great ‘prog-grass’ album this year. To be honest, I find the Punch Brothers pretty fascinating for pushing forward a genre that seems to be in love with the past. The Phosphorescent Blues does a great job of taking the past (think Beach Boy-esque harmonies and country picking) and uniting them with modern lyricism and arrangement all about emphasizing 21st century problems of oversaturation and white noise.
35. Elder — Lore
Lore is a heavy metal album a la The Sword’s Warp Riders or Black Sabbath’s Paranoid. There are chewy guitar riffs that force you to nod your head, and Matt Couto’s drumsticks sound like tree trunks as the bang away. Elder is only a three piece band, but you would never expect that from listening to this record. It’s completely full of sound and bombastic heavy metal.
34. Tobias Jesso Jr. — Goon
On Goon, Tobias Jesso Jr. crafts 70s era pop songs with simplicity and emotion. The piano playing is simple because he’s only been playing for two years, and the emotion comes from his struggles and failures in L.A., something which he touches upon in the track ‘Hollywood.’ Both of these play to his strengths, however, and allow him to make a pop album that isn’t overdone or produced. Sure, it can be cliché at times, but the sentiment is genuine.
33. Young Thug — Barter 6
Young Thug dropped 3 mixtapes this year, featured on a Jamie xx single, and was in headlines most of the year for his beef with his idol, Lil’ Wayne. Despite all the press, Thugger remains enigmatic as ever, which is why Barter 6 is probably the most polarizing hip hop record of 2015 — this strange unknown quantity either causes people to write him off as just another mediocre part of the Atlanta codeine-rap scene or draws them in and fascinates them. Obviously, I belong to the latter. Barter 6 is the most cohesive of his releases this year. Characterized by his unique warbled voice and spaced out beats, Thugger takes you on a 51 minute journey through what seems like John Carpenter’s version of an Atlanta club.
32. Rudresh Mahanthappa — Bird Calls
The compositions on Bird Calls are not renditions of Charlie Parker tracks or even, as Mahanthappa says, a tribute to the Bird. Rather it’s an album done in the tradition of the legend. True, there are snippets of Parker’s work — a solo here or a chord progression there — but these aren’t the hearts of the work, just small nods. The heart of Bird Calls is being able to revere tradition while still incorporating it into a modern sound.
31. Vince Staples — Summertime ‘06
A self-proclaimed non-gangsta rapper, Vince Staples raps about his time in California in the vein of Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid M.A.A.D. City. Vince is slightly less poetic in his approach however, and tackles subject like gang violence and race relations with the blunt force of a sledgehammer. He’s not interested in being an emcee of consciousness, but he still cuts to the heart of complex issues like in the title track: “My teachers told me we was slaves/My Momma told me we was kings/I don’t know who to listen to.”
30. Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah — Stretch Music
In his newest album, Christian Scott incorporates both traditional African music and hip hop into his Jazz medleys. The record spends a lot of time outside of Jazz traditions. Not many of the tracks include true solos, but rather they’re arranged almost like post-rock pieces.
29. Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Style
Teens of Style is a great post-punk-meets-indie-rock album. Channeling some of the great indie rock of the 1990s, Will Toledo delivers some great songwriting. His tracks are rife with humor and an intelligent wit, while their lo-fi mastering lends a classic quality to the music.
28. Doomtree — All Hands
Doomtree brings it again this year with another record chock full of amazing rhymes and technical ability. The production on this album is some of the best they’ve ever had from Paper Tiger and Lazerbeak and pretty much every emcee delivers on every single song. With lyrical subjects ranging from a war on technology to finding your own happiness, this is the most diverse and complete Doomtree project yet.
27. Cloakroom — Further Out
Further Out is a shoegaze album for guys with beards and girls who like guys with beards. The Indiana trio trudges along slowly with fuzzy walls of guitar and melodic vocals sounding something like the cross between Loveless and the Drive-By Truckers. Maybe the most apt comparison would actually be to the 1990s shoegaze band Hum. Unironically, Hum’s guitarist, Matt Talbot, actually produced Further Out.
26. Med, Blu, + Madlib — Bad Neighbor
Blu and Madlib are two of my favorite personalities in hip hop. Both have a penchant for dizzy production with jazz samples and psychedelic shuffles, and this record is chock-full of both. Blu does some great rapping as well — his technical flow goes well with Madlib’s shifty beats. Unfortunately, two things on this album keep it from being as good as Madlib’s Pinata from last year — the mixing and MED. Both don’t overly ruin the album, but the mixing could be better if the vocals were more at the forefront, and sometimes MED’s verses seem out of place.
25. Colin Stetson + Sarah Neufeld
The easiest way to describe the collaboration between Colin Stetson & Sarah Neufeld would be to call it post-classical, but that wouldn’t quite cover the breadth of the album or its ambition. Both artists use their instruments to play different characters, telling stories with imagination and brilliance as they play off one another. There are primal moments here too, visceral meditations and drones that draw you in only to break and shift into some other voice, creating a beautiful contrast between deep foundation and blistering heights.
24. Deafheaven — New Bermuda
Deafheaven returns in 2015 with a more aggressive album than their breakout album, Sunbather. While Sunbather used its black metal foundations as a leaping point for genre mixing of shoegaze and post-rock, New Bermuda flips the equation. Metal and aggression is the forefront here with more straight up guitar riffs than before, and even a breakdown and a solo or two. That isn’t to say there aren’t softer moments, but they often come at the end of a track or as a segue-way into another thrashing piece of metal.
23. East India Youth — Culture of Volume
The title Culture of Volume seems like an ironic jab at modern pop music. William Doyle’s brand of pop has less to do with today’s top 40 brand and more with Brian Eno or David Bowie. His music isn’t interested in catching your ear with bubblegum melodies, but rather getting its point across, which it aims to do with poise rather than by turning his synthesizers up to 11. Indeed, at times Culture of Volume sounds like an electronic post-punk album, a challenge to the status-quo to relinquish authority to those who are worthy to wield it.
22. Stara Rzeka — Zamknęły się oczy ziemi
Polish musician Kuba Ziołek’s last album is an amazing amalgamation of genres. He weaves black metal, jazz, drone, and folk together to create a beautiful soundscape across two LPs. It’s easy to listen to this record and pretend that you’re in some dark, foggy forest lost to time.
21. Kenn Starr — Square One
Kenn Starr owes a lot to Kev Brown and crew. Not to say that his lyricism is not up to par or interesting, but the production of this album is what shines the brightest by far. Old school beats reminiscent of Slum Village are punctuated by Starr’s old school style of rapping, and both come together to create one of the best ‘throwback’ rap albums in recent memory.
20. Kurt Vile — b’lieve i’m goin down
After Kurt Vile’s departure from The War on Drugs, the two seemed to still be on the same page — shoegazy, reverb drenched rock — but had different ideas about how to accomplish it. However, Vile and Adam Granduciel have pulled completely away from each other in sound since. While Granduciel seems to have perfected the american roadtrip album, Vile has become more personal. This release, he’s stripped away the reverb guitar and replaced it with plucks on a banjo and intimate, self-deprecating lyrics.
19. Joey Bada$$ — B4.DA.$$
Joey’s debut LP has everything that fueled his popularity in the first place. The east coast beats are just as grimy and back alley sounding as his 1999 mixtape, and the young emcee’s lyricism is still on point with witty plays on words and incredible rhyme schemes: “I stand juxtaposed to all my pro’s/…See these foes biting the flows/they even jooks the pose.”
18. Oneohtrix Point Never — Garden of Delete
Gone are the laid back electronic blips that were content to be put on as almost background noise that quantified Daniel Lopatin’s previous releases. Instead, these synthesizers are angry and jagged, demanding attention aggressively. There are withdrawn and calm moments on this record, maybe a soft melody or a vocal snippet, but Lopatin quickly pulverizes these, twisting them until they no longer retain their original meaning. Such sentiment is not welcome on this record.
17. Bjork — Vulnicura
On her latest album, Bjork is more vulnerable than ever and more progressive than she’s been since 2001s Vespertine. This is in part to her production provided by Arca and the Haxan Cloak. The pair provide a smooth yet weighty backdrop for Bjork’s tortured lyrics and ghostly vocals. This is a record about loss, and listening feels like getting a glimpse into something too personal sometimes. Bjork sings as if she were a spirit looking over her own dead body — mournful and wounded.
16. Hop Along — Painted Shut
For an Indie fan, there’s a lot to like in Hop Along’s sophomore album — catchy guitar riffs, grooving drums, and pop-sensitive choruses, but Frances Quinlan’s vocals are the best thing to be excited about. Each note is sung with incredible emotion and passion. Her range is also incredible, not just in octaves, but also in timbre, going from a soft and controlled whisper to Joplin-esque cries. The beauty in Painted Shut comes from both Quinlan’s and the band’s abilities to move effortlessly between the small and huge.
15. Timbre — Sun & Moon
Sun & Moon is a two part LP: the first half, Sun, is prog-pop powered by harp while the second, Moon, is a vehicle for Timbre’s classical compositions and performance art. Timbre’s voice is haunting and her ear is deft at harmony, a powerful combination when paired with catchy hooks and infectious drum beats on Sun. Moon shows her impressive abilities in composition, and though it runs a little long, it ends with one of the best songs on the record.
14. billy woods — Today I Wrote Nothing
Ironically titled, Today I Wrote Nothing is full of Billy Woods’ signature rapping style. That is to say full of vocabulary with what seems like vague meaning until given closer inspection. The instrumentals on here are great as well and vary from sleepy and simplistic to shuddering and shaky.
13. Turnover — Peripheral Vision
Peripheral Vision sounds like a daydream wrapped in ringing guitar and 1990s emo — think American Football. Even though the music is melancholy, Turnover manages to keep things comfortable and nostalgic. Simplicity makes this record great, and even though it may not be groundbreaking, it is endearing.
12. Dawn Richard — Blackheart
While listening to Blackheart, I cannot fathom Dawn Richard ever being a part of something like Danity Kane. Rather than showcasing her voice through a series of top 40 tracks, Richard sings over calypso beats and glitchy R&B. This doesn’t stop her from showing emotion, in fact most of the songs on this record are brimming with sadness, frustration, and even cockiness. Her voice is incredible too. Richard always seems to know when to push herself and when to let the music take over — the latter makes up the beef of the album while the former takes it to soaring heights.
11. Platform — Holly Herndon
Listening to Platform is like gazing at a modernist painting — shattered and harsh but still reflective of humanity. Herndon uses samples so twisted and digitally manipulated that they can barely be recognized in order to attempt to answer the question: how do we hold onto humanity in a purely digital age? Platform suggests that we embrace technology as a way to further express our emotions rather than a wall of information we use to obscure them. Plus, the music itself is damn good.
10. Lil’ Ugly Mane — Third Side of Tape
I was honestly hoping that Travis Miller, aka Shawn Kemp aka Lil’ Ugly Mane, would drop his greatly anticipated final album ‘Oblivion Access’ this year. Instead what we got were a few singles and snippets and a compilation album called Third Side of Tape made up of a bunch of old recordings of his. I was pretty disappointed until I listened to it. Throughout the record, Miller explores many different genres — noise rock, drone, pop, hardcore, and his unique brand of Memphis hip hop to name a few — switching between them abruptly and with abandon throughout the near 20 minutes of each track. Third Side of Tape is definitely one of the most interesting and certainly the most eclectic record this year, even if it wasn’t the one I wanted.
9. Julia Holter — Have You In My Wilderness
Have You in My Wilderness is Julia Holter’s most accessible album thus far and consequently her best. Her lyrics and compositions seem to have finally found a middle ground between intelligent artistic expression and the soaring airy pop that typifies her sound. This record sounds more like a singer/songwriter album than her previous three, owing a lot to more personal and less abstract lyricism. There aren’t any mentions of ancient greek plays or obscure pop culture, but rather the songs evolve as stories in plain language.
8. New Order — Music Complete
Their first release without bassist Peter Hook, New Order’s Music Complete is a return to glory for the stalling band. This album calls back electrodance rock of their early 80s albums with even some disco thrown in — which they handle far better than Arcade Fire on last year’s Reflektor. It’s also more electronic than their last few releases, relying on digital instrumentation as a vessel for emotion rather than just a driving beat.
7. Vijay Iyer Trio — Break Stuff
On the liner notes of his record, Iyer says “a break in music is still music: a span of time in which to act.” The improvisation on this record reflects his statement. It’s more deconstructive than building towards something new, but his solos are still marked by purpose. The perfect example of this is the trio’s cover of Coltrane’s Countdown. The track is driven by a consistent yet driven percussion set by Marcus Gilmore and Vijay’s melodies and solos dissect Coltrane’s composition — it’s the same track, but each limb is presented as separate.
6. L’Orange + Jeremiah Jae — The Night Took Us In Like Family
Jeremiah Jae has been showing flashes of his talent ever since he signed with Brainfeeder in 2007, and this year he finally teamed up with a producer that does justice to his unique rapping style. The Night Took Us in Like Family is a film-noir style rap album with silky beats, film samples, and low-key rapping. Jae does a great job of toeing the line between paranoid and cocky, and L’Orange fills those spaces with smoky jazz samples. Philip Marlowe would be proud.
5. Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
There are two different types of Sufjan Stevens albums. The first falls into the category of his critically acclaimed albums Illinois and Age of Adz, and the other is the sleepy folk of Michigan or Seven Swans. Carrie and Lowell is the latter. Recorded in the wake of his mother’s death, C&L is Stevens simplifying his sound. He still uses many instruments, and even a choir, but the skeletons of these songs are based around a single instrument and his voice — all of the other sounds and effects serve as soothing waves in the background. Lyrically, Sufjan is devastating. He explores the concepts of loss and family with honesty and power. C&L is a somber affair but he does manage to show beauty in tragedy.
4. Jlin — Dark Energy
In her debut album, Gary, Indiana producer Jlin takes an entire genre of electronic music and turns it on its head. Chicago footwork is all about racing tempo and dance club numbers defined by tapping synthesizers and vocal samples. Dark Energy still contains these things, but Jlin filters them through the industrial world steel mill she works in. The vocal samples are mangled and shredded and the breakneck pace is more of a droning synthesized pulse that seems aggressive to the idea that someone would try and dance to it. Dark Energy is the dark side of footwork, playing much the same role that Gary plays to Chicago.
3. Destroyer — Poison Season
Dan Bejar has always been the smartest person in the room and he knows it. His music feels the same way at times, and it often seems like Bejar doesn’t really want to write music for anyone’s consumption but his own. Thankfully, these things end up being benefits on Poison Season. While his lyrics might be cerebral, he plays them off as witty. The music on this record is fantastic too, ranging from Bruce Springsteen to chamber pop.
2. Dr. Yen Lo — Days With Dr. Yen Lo
Dr. Yen Lo is the collaboration between Brooklyn rapper Ka and producer Preservation. This LP is presented as a few out of order vignettes about poverty, crime, and paranoia. It’s not something you can just throw on in the background either — Ka’s lyrics require dedicated listening and effort to decipher, and his laid-back monotone flow is not going to jump out at you without some patience. Preservation’s beats (if you can even call them that) aren’t doing any favors either as far as accessibility goes — they lack percussion almost completely and are built around winding minimalistic samples. All this comes together to create an atmosphere of gritty darkness and grimy, smoky streets populated only by the characters Ka plays.
- Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly
No other album seizes the national sentiment in 2015 quite like To Pimp a Butterfly. Kendrick Lamar’s concerns and discussions are rooted in cultural identity, but he explores this through songs on class warfare, nationalism, sexism, family, violence, civil disobedience, self-hatred, and his own life and expectations as a celebrity. The conclusions are not always pretty — Lamar seems to embrace that in songs like ‘Alright’ and ‘I,’ but that is his exact point. Critically, it seems like people want to paint Lamar’s position into a black or white corner (pun intended), however To Pimp a Butterfly instead suggests such a view is impossible. Instead, we should focus on treating each other like a community interested in holding each other up — tragic events of misguided violence should not make us more divisive, but rather bring us together as we mourn for those we’ve senselessly lost.
