Another year, another year end list! 2015 was another great year for music. We’d like to share with you our favourites of the year!
We had two ground rules for staff on this:
-Staff aren’t allowed to list Neptoon label releases. Obviously we love them, otherwise we wouldn’t have put them out!
-No listing anything from your own label (meaning Tim can’t list anything from Kingfisher Bluez, Ryan can’t list anything from Hockey Dad Records, etc), or your own band. If they do we will mock and ridicule them (and we encourage you to do the same next time you see them!).
Ben
Brothers Collateral – CVIII
Dead Ghosts – Love and Death and All The Rest
Fuzz – II
Jeff The Brotherhood – Global Chakra Rhythms
Kamasi Washington – The Epic
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
Sacri Monti – S/T
Sumac – The Deal
Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated At Last
Wand – Golem
Windhand – Grief’s Infernal Flower
Josh
Institute – Catharsis
Sleaford Mods – Key Markets
Pack – S/T
Destruction Unit – Negative Feedback Resistor
Diat – Positive Energy
Lie – Consent
Shopping – Why Choose
Cold Beat – Into The Air
Rose McDowall – Cut With The Cake Knife
Fashionism – Quit Looking At The Time & Smash The State (<<<JOSH’S BAND…I mean they’re great….BUT WHAT A CHEATER!!! )
Peter
Devo – Hardcore live (Feb 2015)
Dylan – Shadows In The Night (Feb 2015)
Bjork – Vulnicura (March 2015)
Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit… (March 2015)
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (March 2015)
Dear Rouge -Black To Gold (March 2015)
Blur – The Magic Whip (April 2015)
Wolf Alice – My Love is Cool (June 2015)
Led Zeppelin -Coda reissue (July 2015)
Chvrches – Open Every Eye (Sept 2015)
Rob
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Paper Mâché Dream Balloon
Father John Misty – I Love You Honeybear
Dungen – Allas Sak
Dion – Live At The Bitter End
The Zombies – Still Got That Hunger
Ben Rogers – The Bloodred Yonder
The Sloths – Back From The Grave
The Sonics – This Is The Sonics
Joanna Newsom – Divers
Ryan
Valet – Nature
Freak Heat Waves – Bonnie’s State of Mind (RYAN YOU CHEATER, YOU RELEASED THIS!!!)
Charles Cohen – Brother I Prove You Wrong
Fountain – 2
Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete
Colleen – Captain of None
Sleaford Mods – Key Markets
Twerps – Range Anxiety
Destroyer – Poison Season
Sean McCann – Ten Impressions for Piano & Strings
Sky
1. Alden Penner – Canada in Space
2. Björk – Vulnicura
3. Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power in the Blood
4. FFs – FFs
5. Frog Eyes – Pickpockets Locket
6. Godspeed! You Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distresses
7. J-Live – How Much is Water?
8. Mt. Eerie – Sauna
9. Panda Bear – Panda Bear vs The Grim Reaper
10. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lowell
Tim
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lowell
The most heartbreaking beautiful record of 2015. Came at just the right time for me, and I’m very happy it did.
Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
Releasing this as a paid “mixtape” instead of an album proper was a confusing move from the 6god, who’s actual best record sounds harder than ever before, broadening his comfort zone in a big way.
Fetty Wap – Fetty Wap
As much as I loved getting sucked into the universe of Wu-Tang, (and later, Odd Future) I’ve loved getting to know Fetty, Monty and the Remy Boyz 1738 Zoo Wap crew. The record comprised of only choruses endless and indecipherable NJ hood slang has a beating heart in Fetty’s universal likability and undeniable ear for hooks. My most listened to album of the year by far.
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
A heavy slab of g-funk meets p-funk from surely the weirdest rapper yet to achieve mainstream critical and commercial success. Hard to fault such a big record with such a singular vision. What’s the yams???
Sleaford Mods – Key Markets
Best band out of Nottz keeps it on point with more of the punk/hip hop/spoken word hybrid that slowly won them legions of fans over the last 8 years as a recording project. This time we’re treated to the minor addition of somewhat sung vocals on a couple of songs. Hey, not bad!
CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye
New poppiest record from an already poppy band. It’s great! I like this. Their interviews are so serious I guess I didn’t expect the record to be so fun.
Future – DS2
I can’t help but love a genuine pop auteur like Future. He’s like a 2015 Morrissey. His music is dense and introspective, his lyrics self-reflective and morose.
Belle & Sebastian – Girls In Peacetime Want To Dance
Newest record from the best band out of Glasgow, consistently one of the best cities for music since B&S emerged as sadness laureates in 1996. This time we’ve got some serious dancing vibes, St Etienne style. Really lovely.
Father John Misty – I Love You Honeybear
Didn’t expect to enjoy this record so much- but I did! The official bearded mascot for Netflix original “Master Of None”, Father John Misty’s debaucherous alter-ego takes a ‘Fear and Loathing’ style trip through interzone to his eventual domestic bliss. The winking separation between singer and narrator sometimes tiring, this record is great because of the specific world it inhabits.
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die – Harmlessness
Heroes of the so-called-emo so-called-revival, TWIABP’s newest LP is their best yet. This record went big and didn’t become post-rock, and that’s good news!
