Best of 2015

[Silent Alarm]

What are our favourite tracks, albums, or if you're an absolute tool, EPs and cassettes of 2015? Jesus... felt like a twat even mentioning that last one...

What things have made your playlists or habits? What forms your idea of 2015 and what do you think will make you remember this year in ten? That last one is how I usually dictate what's good.

Yeah, go on. Let's time-capsule this thread.

 

[Silent Alarm]

This year, I'm just going to write about things as I think about them. No list as of yet. Just thoughts.

First up...

Jamie xx - In Colour

What's better than good times? What's more meaningful than a pocket with no jingle, but going to those dancing places? How will you think back on things that were? Everything that's good will come back to you one day in the brightest colours.

I first loved Jamie xx's In Colour across Europe. I remember going back through London en route from Edinburgh to Amsterdam in a bus, and wishing for nothing else but the thing to get bogged and us to have to stay even one more night there. The end of Gosh, where the sample talks about Prague and Belgium, was like some sort of calling card – I could pick this up, "man," hear it everywhere and establish a connection between every place and any place I'd never even sometimes considered going. I heard The Rest Is Noise on my last city in England proper, saying goodbye to my first travelling mate proper, and I was trying to place where I knew this song from... felt a dick for not realising... to this day I don't think any other song could've summed up the melancholy of it better than this (even though Chet Faker over the hostel speaker reminded me of my girlfriend and home, I never liked him).

This album is all about the now and the next 10 years and the last couple. I always thought nostalgia was the most meaningful of human feelings because it doesn't have a tense. And it doesn't really have a place. It comes from nowhere and feels not like much else. And it's easy to want to make music that sounds like this, any art that feels like this, but it's harder to execute it. You hear the sirens and the smashes in this album and **** knows what it sounds like – being drunk at 16, meeting a girl, or your first time abroad... it hints at these things. That's why this album is so revered and why it'll be something you think back on later.

And as for a song called Good Times... the irony is this soundtracked, sometimes, the total opposite – loneliness that sometimes hits your whole chest cavern or something. But then it does soundtrack the good times in Shoreditch and sh-... I won't say any more – you can fill in the blanks.

 

[james Dean]

Kendrick Lamar - TPAB
Tame Impala - Currents
A$AP Rocky - At Long Last A$AP
and Grimes - Art Angels
are the only albums I liked in full

Also really enjoyed FKA Twigs' Ep, Jamie XX's album and Sufjan Stevens

P.S Your review of Jamie XX looks like it would be ripped straight from Pitchork

 

[Severe]

P.S Your review of Jamie XX looks like it would be ripped straight from Pitchork

Is that a good or bad thing?

 

[james Dean]

Is that a good or bad thing?

Their reviews are 5x the necessary length, usually bloated with strange anecdotes or analogies. Also their critics look way too much for things that aren't even there

 

[Severe]

Their reviews are 5x the necessary length, usually bloated with strange anecdotes or analogies. Also their critics look way too much for things that aren't even there

Oh. I think I've only read a few interviews by them.

 

[Kakkle]

Nothing wrong with cassette. Check out the label 1080p. Some of the best music this year has come out on that label.

 

[Severe]

Nothing wrong with cassette. Check out the label 1080p. Some of the best music this year has come out on that label.

Personally I don't like the format...at least compared to others in terms of quality. But do you actually use it and enjoy it, or do you use it as a bit of a souvenir?

 

[mellowyellow]

Steven Wilson. Hand Cannot Erase.
Failure The Heart Is a Monster.
The Neal Morse Band The Grand Experiment.
Olafur Arnalds The Chopin Project

 

[Kakkle]

Personally I don't like the format...at least compared to others in terms of quality. But do you actually use it and enjoy it, or do you use it as a bit of a souvenir?

Yeah I use it a lot. I have a little tape portable SONY tape deck which has a great quality sound. A lot of my favourite labels put out a lot of cassettes this year, 1080p, 100% Silk, Beer On The Rug, Sun Ark, Bathetic, Awesome Tapes From Africa, etc. A cheap way to support some of your favourite artists.

 

[Richard Cranium]

a1 since day one:
k.dot

i really, really, really, really, really, really like you:
kamasi, sufjan, vince, bjork, twigs

all day:
miguel, earl, nosaj thing, grimes, thundercat, battles, nao, panda bear, knxwledge

pedestrian at best:
jamie xx, donnie trumpet, sleater-kinney, d'angelo (if p4k can put him on their 2015 list then i can too)

lovin you is complicated (aka albums i didn't really, really like from artists i do):
deerhunter, tame, oneohtrix

should listen to but havent got around to yet cos spotify made me lazy:
courtney, destroyer, arca, julia holter, deafheaven, kurt vile, beach house

not listening to out of principle because im so sick of hipsters riding his dick all the time:
drake

not listening to out of principle because he sucks:
young thug

thank you and good night.

 

[SA HAWK]

Sleater - Kinney - No Cities To Love
Faith No More - Sol Invictus
Ghost - Meloria
Iron Maiden - The Book Of Souls
Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday

 

[katana]

I always thought nostalgia was the most meaningful of human feelings because it doesn't have a tense.

lol what a turn of phrase.

 

[Halloween Jack]

Some of my faves this year *

Marlon Williams by Marlon Williams. Loved this guy before he was on that TV show. Great voice

Marks to Prove It, the Maccabees

Porridge and Hotsauce by You Am I. Great to see a band I've loved since about age 16 still putting out a top album. Not as good as Hi Fi Way or Hourly Daily, but still a good listen

High by Royal Headache. Sounds like the Buzzcocks, and that's a good thing

b'lieve I'm Goin down, Kurt Vile.

I love you, Honeybear, Father John Misty

Melbourne, Florida by Dick Diver. Just a great little Aussie band.

* some of these may actually be 2014 albums, I can't remember.

Edi: shit, how could I forget Blank Realm with Illegals in Heaven. This is a real beauty!

 

[JimDocker]

That was a bit tricky SA. Starting a new thread. I will just re post this here.

My favourite albums for 2015. In some kind of order.

Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
The Delines - Scenic Sessions
The Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Los Lobos – Gates of Gold
Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - The Traveling Kind
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Sharon Van Etten - I Don't Want To Let You Down
Tame Impala - Currents
Aaron Diehl – Space, Time Continuum
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Beach House -Depression Cherry
The Bad Plus & Joshua Redman - The Bad Plus Joshua Redman
Marcus Miller – Afrodeezia
Linda Ortega – Faded Gloryville
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard - Django & Jimmie
Cecile McLorin Salvant – For One To Love
Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn
The Necks – Vertigo

All in all, a great year for music.

 

[Severe]

That was a bit tricky SA. Starting a new thread. I will just re post this here.

My favourite albums for 2015. In some kind of order.

Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
The Delines - Scenic Sessions
The Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Los Lobos – Gates of Gold
Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - The Traveling Kind
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
Laura Marling - Short Movie
Sharon Van Etten - I Don't Want To Let You Down
Tame Impala - Currents
Aaron Diehl – Space, Time Continuum
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Beach House -Depression Cherry
The Bad Plus & Joshua Redman - The Bad Plus Joshua Redman
Marcus Miller – Afrodeezia
Linda Ortega – Faded Gloryville
Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard - Django & Jimmie
Cecile McLorin Salvant – For One To Love
Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow Is My Turn
The Necks – Vertigo

All in all, a great year for music.

You're a good music listener. Dedicated to supporting artists, and actually buying albums and going to shows. Thumbs up. I wish I wasn't so jaded.

 

[Severe]

GY!BE released an album this year so I guess that would be number one. I also liked Title Fight and Beach House.

 

[JimDocker]

You're a good music listener. Dedicated to supporting artists, and actually buying albums and going to shows. Thumbs up. I wish I wasn't so jaded.

Thanks. I have felt a bit cynical and jaded before about the state of music, but realized that there is always great music around, you just have to find it.
I am lucky enough to be able to afford to go to gigs and buy albums. I also have a wife that is very passionate about music so I am supported in my passion.

 

[IAMDASH]

Song of the Year…

 

[BILC]

Tame Impala - Currents
The Ocean Party - Light Weight
Grimes - Art Angels
Jamie xx - In Colour
Foals - What Went Down
CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye
Bad//Dreems - Dogs At Bay

 

[BluesMan]

Whats everyone's 'find' of the year? Maybe its a band that has previously released music you didnt know about but have popped up with an album this year and you're like 'shit yeah!'

For me, it's Best Coast. Love the new album and had go back and listen to their previous stuff. I admit I like this album the most but a good find non the less.

 

[IAMDASH]

Whats everyone's 'find' of the year? Maybe its a band that has previously released music you didnt know about but have popped up with an album this year and you're like 'shit yeah!'

For me, it's Best Coast. Love the new album and had go back and listen to their previous stuff. I admit I like this album the most but a good find non the less.

For me two artists stand out here.

The Peep Tempel & Courtney Barnett. They provide some re-enforcement that Australian Music can still be great.

I have also been delving into a lot of instrumental surf bands and found some fantastic music among them.

 

[Richard Cranium]

This is actually not a bad piece. And spot on about TPAB.

http://flavorwire.com/553256/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2015

Adele — 25
Suburbanites who buy one CD a year and have no use for The Spotify.

D’Angelo and the Vanguard — Black Messiah
Music journalists who made their best-of-2014 lists too early.

Grimes — Art Angels
People who really enjoyed 2012.

Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz
Wayne Coyne.

 

[Big Fresh]

1. Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
3. Paul de Jong - IF
4. Christopher Owens - Chrissybaby Forever
5. Joanna Newsom - Divers
6. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
7. Andrew Bird - Echolocations: Canyon
8. Ghost Culture - Ghost Culture
9. Neon Indian - Vega Intl Night School
10. Soko - My Dreams Dictate My Reality

 

[Severe]

This is actually not a bad piece. And spot on about TPAB.

http://flavorwire.com/553256/stereotyping-you-by-your-favorite-album-of-2015

Adele — 25
Suburbanites who buy one CD a year and have no use for The Spotify.

D’Angelo and the Vanguard — Black Messiah
Music journalists who made their best-of-2014 lists too early.

Grimes — Art Angels
People who really enjoyed 2012.

Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz
Wayne Coyne.

So judgmental and obvious.