Top albums and songs of 2015
Another year, another whack of newly discovered tunes and new music from old favourites. As usual, this is not a definitive list but just what I really liked out of the few hundred bits and pieces I came across over the year.
I’ll start with the albums (see top 10 tracks via youtube at the bottom of the post). This year was an easy Top 20 and a fine mixture of folk, retro-indie, electronica, noise, classical and distortion.
Best Coast was my #1, but here are all 20 in no particular order:
Tamaryn – Cranekiss
Cocteau Twins meets Curve and swirling guitars
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Soley – Ask the Deep and out-takes EP Don’t ever listen
Icelandic lo-fi indie electronica.
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Julien Baker – Sprained ankle
Raw and cathartic collection from 19 year old singer-songwriter
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Sexwitch – Sexwitch
Sexwitch is Toy and Natasha Khan from Bat for Lashes
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Zefur Wolves – Zefur Wolves
From Wales with a Super Furry Animals connection
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
The Go! Team – The scene between
An outreach program for bedroom-core DIY artists
Listen on Deezer or buy in iTunes
Tess Parks & Anton Newcombe – I declare nothing
40 minutes of scorching vocals and sweltering refrains, ambling rhythms and elated rhapsody.
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Remembering Mountains: Unheard songs by Karen Dalton
Sharon Van Etten, Lucinda Williams, Isobel Campell, Juila Holter…
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Susanne Sundfor – Ten love songs
Sometimes dark theatrical, sometimes pure pop
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Sharon Van Etten – I don’t want to let you down EP
Heartbreak accompaniment
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Rachel Grimes – The clearing
Founding member of seminal neoclassical chamber trio Rachel’s
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
A place to bury strangers – Transfixiation
Channeling JAMC & BRMC
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Nite Fields – Depersonalisation
Early 4AD nod and a welcome bit of gloom
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Lower Dens – Escape from evil
Uncomfortable situations, both lyrical and musical
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Django Django – Born under Saturn
…lineage of late ’60s, early ’70s pop weirdos, but they listen like modernist samplers and crate diggers
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Chelsea Wolfe- Abyss
“human frailty, intimacy, quiet passion, anxiety, and deep longing.”
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Best Coast – California nights
heavy-ish, filled with hooks, somewhere between “fast enough to dance” and “slow enough to sigh to while looking out of a window.”
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
True Detective 2 – Soundtrack
Lera Lynn, Handsome Family, Nick Cave, Father John Misty, Leonard Cohen
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Godspeed you! black emperor – Asunder, sweet and other distress
Listen to it on headphones, while staring out a window and losing yourself in your thoughts, and you will feel things.
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Emika – Klavirini
simple classical piano heightened by delayed keys and long attacks
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Re-issues and Compilations worthy of a mention:
Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee & Friends: Next Cut! Dub Plates, Rare Singles
Vintage dub. Deep and reverb heavy
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock ‘n’ Roll
Johnny Cash, Elvis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jackie Breston, Howlin Wolf
Bought the 2CD collection off eMusic. Not on Deezer or iTunes
Ork Records: New York, New York
Alex Chilton, Richard Hell, Television, Erasers, Chris Stamey
Listen on Deezer or buy on iTunes
Disappointments of 2015 (or albums that should have been top but weren’t):
Wolf Alice – My love is cool (excluding Giant Peach which is great)
Sleater-Kinney – No cities to love
Foals – What went down (excluding the title track which is amazing)
New Order – Music complete
These are my top 15 tracks outside of the top albums:
Star Horse – Wherever you
Branko – Let me go (Feat. Nonku Phiri)
The Weeknd – The Hills
Viet Cong – Silhouettes
Ultimate Painting – Ocean
Jamie XX – Gosh
Panda Bear – Mr Noah
Iron & Wine and Ben Bridwell – Bulletproof soul
Horsebeach – Let you down
Big Grams – Fell in the sun
Alex G – Salt
Dilly Dally – Desire
Pumarosa – Priestess
Hudson Mohawke – Ryderz
Khruangbin – White gloves
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