My Favorite Albums of 2015

2015 has been a great year for music scene, in the early year we had the new album from Icelandic singer Bjork, indie pop band The Decemberist and Belle and Sebastian, folk singer Bob Dylan and the most critical acclaim album from Kendrick Lamar. Several comeback albums from 90’s band such as Blur, Built To Spill and Sleater-Kinney. In the end of 2015 we had the new album from New Order, Deafheaven and Joanna Newsom. 2015 was brimmed with lots of brilliant album but I had 15 favorite albums that successfully gained my attention.
 

15. Godspeed You! Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress

        Label                  : Constellation Records

        Genre                 : Post-Rock

        Release Date    : March 31, 2015 

Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress is the fifth album from Canadian post-rock band. It’s roughly 40 minutes divided into 4 tracks, probably the shortest album they’ve ever made. Everytime I listen to this album, I feel like the earth will break down, the world will end, all the people will gather into one place and ready to be resurrected.

Favorite Tracks : Piss Crowns Are Trebled, Peasantry or “Light! Inside of Light!  

14. Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon

 Label                   : Arts & Crafts

        Genre                 : Indie Rock, Folk

        Release Date    : March 17, 2015

Listening to Tobias reminds me of Randy Newman, early John Lennon solo career, Elton John, Bob Dylan and Nick Drake. The songs mostly speak up about romantic love-unrequited love, quite straightforward. Hollywood recalls the way Elton John played piano and Without You sounds a lil bit like Imagine from John Lennon.

Favorite Tracks : How Could You Babe, Without You, Hollywood  

13. EL VY – Return To The Moon

 Label                  : 4AD

        Genre                 : Indie Rock

        Release Date    : October 30, 2015

EL VY is a side project from Matt Berninger (The National) and Brent Knopf (Ramona Falls). It is quite difficult to define the album. There are various sounds exist, unlike the national, you will never find a melancholy rock sound in this album. RTTM is groovy and funky as you may listen to Paul Is Alive or Return To The Moon, the tracks that reveal Matt Berninger tries to embark disco-dance rock. The new sound from Berninger-Knopf is compatible with amusing-sarcastic lyrics they’ve created. I’m peaceful cause my dick’s in sunlight held up by kites (I’m The Man To Be) or I just need a friend to guard the door (Need A Friend).

  Favorite Tracks : Return To The Moon, Need A Friend, I’m The Man To Be 
  

12. Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper

 Label                  : Domino Records

        Genre                 : Psychedelic Pop, Electronic Psychedelic

        Release Date    : January 9, 2015

Noah Lennox always surprises me with his peculiar sound project. PBMTGR possesses beautiful vocal harmonies and catchy electronic rhythms. It’s so dark-futuristic sounds. Well, mostly in this album, Noah emphasizes how frightening is death.

Favorite Tracks : Mr Noah, Boys Latin, Lonely Wanderer 
 
11. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

 

 Label                  : Sub Pop

 Genre                 : Folk

 Release Date    : February 9, 2015

I Love You, Honeybear is the perfect package for unusual love songs. It’s sweet, beautiful melodies allure me to get more into J.Tillman’s songs. This ex-Fleet Foxes member describes more his personal life about love and heartache, oh, I just love the kind of woman who can walk over a man (The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apt.) and Let me show you how figure I can give you true affection (True Affection). Bored in The USA illustrates how depressing is USA, it’s miserable, even if he adds “laughter backsound” to reduce the sadness but still, irony but genuinely fascinating and great. 

Favorite Tracks : I Love You Honeybear, Chateau Lobby #4 (in C For Two Virgins), The Night Josh Tillman Come To Our Apartment, Nothing Good Ever Happens At The Goddamn Thirsty Crow, I Went To The Store One Day  

 

10. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love

 Label                  : Sub Pop

        Genre                 : Punk Rock

        Release Date    : January 20, 2015

We have myriad riot grrrl band in 90’s and it’s not Bikini Kill, Bratmobile or Heavens To Betsy that obtain attention this year, it’s Sleater-Kinney. After 9 years, they come back with superb and brilliant album. Seems like in 9 years, they took the time to re-charge and finally bring us a magnificent album. In this album, they prove that they are still powerful and ready to show how women play rock shall be. Still concerning political issues as typical of riot grrrl movement, Corin Tucker and friends highlight working class issues in Price Tag, how the world see this problem in A New Wave and how the “labour” reacts to this case in Surface Envy.

  Favorite Tracks : A New Wave, No Cities To Love, Surface Envy, Hey Darling  

9. Built To Spill – Untethered Moon

 Label                  : Warner Bros

        Genre                 : Indie Rock

        Release Date    : April 18, 2015

It’s been 6 years since the last album There Is No Enemy released in 2009, seems like Built To Spill devoted innumerable endeavor to embody their eighth album. This American band returns to their classic sound, as you listen to the entire tracks, you probably feel nostalgic to their past albums in 90’s. Time flies, they get older and somehow they just don’t know where to go or what to do in their age. Living Zoo and When I’m Blind reveal how directionless is their life, Never Be The Same is a lamentation from Doug Martsch and friends of being old.

 Favorite Tracks : Living Zoo, Never Be The Same, Horizon To Cliff, Same Other Song 

8. Blur – The Magic Whip

 Label                  : Parlophone 

        Genre                 : Britpop, Alt-Rock

        Release Date    : April 27, 2015

90’s era is over and Blur no longer has a rival to prove that they are the greatest Britpop band. This is the most appealing album from Blur. The Magic Whip is unique and peculiar like hearing Everyday Robots and Gorillaz blended together. This comeback album after 12 years waiting successfully satisfies Blur’s massive fans expectation. Thought I Was A Spaceman is one of the essential tracks and reminds me of Bowie’s Space Oddity and Life On Mars. On the contrary, Go Out sounds like a typical Blur song. In addition, I personally rejoice to hear such as lovely-sunny love song from Blur in Ong Ong.

 Favorite Tracks : Ong Ong, Lonesome Street, My Terracotta Heart, There Are Too Many Of Us.  

7. Laura Marling – Short Movie

 Label                  : Virgin

        Genre                 : Folk

        Release Date    : March 23, 2015

Marling’s trademarks is her acoustic guitar but in her fifth album she embarks to play electric guitars as you can hear in False Hope and Gurdjieff’s Daughter. Being 25 yo in this year seems like she’s trying to address serious issue, for instance, feminism in Warrior. On the other hand, she is still looking for a lover to spend the rest of her life with in How Can I but it’s not Laura Marling without skeptical love song, being successful with New Romantic in 2007, I Feel Your Love pops up as Marling skeptical thought of love in this album. 

Favorite Tracks : Gurdjieff’s Daughter, Short Movie, Easy 

6. King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard - Paper Mache Dream Balloon

 Label                  : Flightless

        Genre                 : Psychedelic Pop-Rock, Folk, Jazz

        Release Date    : November 13, 2015

Listening to Paper Mache Dream Balloon is like you are in the village herding a cattle and listening to 60’s music. This splendid maneuver from King Gizzard brings you into more acoustic and harmonica tune, so, do not expect to hear a “psychedelic dark melody or electric instruments sounds” of them in this album (Well, Trapdoor and The Bitter Boogie may sound a little bit dark). So far, they turn into funky jazz in the first track Sense and folk-country in Bone and Dirt. All you can hear in this album is groovy-catchy melody with terrific lyrics from them.

Favorite Tracks : N.G.R.I (Bloodstain), Paper Mache Dream Balloon, Sense, Bone, Dirt  

5. Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy

 Label                  : Merge Records

        Genre                 : Punk Rock, Indie rock

        Release Date    : July 28, 2015

Have you ever thought about rock opera? When bands nowadays stuck with the conventional way to illustrate their musical skills in album, this punk rock band from New Jersey emerges with “epic-opera-rock-album”. 29 tracks in 93 minutes divided into 5 Acts with 4-8 songs in every acts. Patrick Stickless still keep the powerful and energetic sound of 70’s punk in this album and Dimed Out sounds like God Save The Queen + White Riot and yet obviously will be the anthem of today’s punk scene.

 Favorite Tracks : Dimed Out, I Lost My Mind, Lookalike, Mr. E. Mann, No Future Part IV: No Future Triumphant  

4. The Cribs – For All My Sisters

 Label                  : Arts & Crafts

        Genre                 : Indie Rock, Garage Rock

        Release Date    : March 23, 2015

The latest album from jarman brothers is the poppiest album they’ve ever made since “Men’s Need, Women’s Need, Whatever” released in 2007. This album expresses the mature side of jarman with a lot of emotions and conveys personal (aftermath of Ryan-Kate Nash break up) life with sentimental lyrics (Burning For No One, Different Angle). If you are expecting the old cribs with their distinctive sound as garage rock band and a stomping vocal from Ryan as they did in their 2nd album (The New Fellas) and single of You’re Gonna Lose Us, you will not find those things in this album. However, so far I profess Pink Snow is the masterpiece song from all the songs they’ve ever composed and luckily exists in this album, the beautiful guitar playing and ryan’s voice resulting the greatest garage-rock-ballad song. Overall, this sixth album from them sounds catchy as hell as you listen to You Were Always The One (first album), I’m A Realist (third album) mix up with Chi-Town (fifth album).

Favorite Tracks : Different Angle, Burning For No One, An Ivory Hand, Summer of Chances, Diamond Girl 

3. Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp

 Label                  : Merge Records and Wichita Recordings

        Genre                 : Indie Rock

        Release Date    : April 7, 2015

This third studio album by Katie Crutchfield under the name of “Waxahatchee” is arduous to explain what this album really means. Compared to the previous album “Cerulean Salt”, yes, it is popper and more mature. This time Katie has to encounter “quarter-life crisis” and convey it through the songs. This album reveals love, brokenhearted, curiosity, anger, disappointment and aimlessness with exquisite-complicated-sarcastic-detailed lyrics accompanied perfectly by mostly acoustic guitar sound except for Breathless,as the first and the only song full of keyboards playing and yet it’s fascinating to hear “The Vaselines” sounds in The Dirt. 

Favorite Tracks : La Loose, The Dirt, Under A Rock, Air, Grey Hair 
  

2. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

 Label                  : Mom & Pop, Marathon Artists, Milk!

        Genre                : Indie Rock, Punk Rock

        Release Date    : March 20, 2015

Don’t stop listening I’m not finished yet, I’m not fishing for your compliments, as the released of her debut album, Barnett obtained a lot of compliments and you won’t stop listening to this album as you get into, this Australian singer’s first album is genuinely idiosyncratic. Sounds like 90’s rock, clever lyrics about social life while most people never realize or even consider about it. Barnett tries to describe how depressing is Preston through Depreston or persuade us how to be “a good driver” since more people die on the road that they do in the ocean through Dead Fox.No wonder people concede that she is the female version of Kurt Cobain.

Favorite Tracks : Pedestrian At Best, Dead Fox, Debbie Downer, Elevator Operator, Depreston  

1. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness

 Label                  : Domino Records

        Genre                : Dream pop, Baroque Pop

        Release Date    : September 25, 2015

As the title of the album, Holter combines several sounds of nature and the exotic part of world to reflect the “wilderness” in this album. Sea Calls Me Home and Lucette Stranded On The Island are the strongest proofs. This fourth album from her, Holter attempts to convey her “personal feeling” through her opening song Feel You with the ethereal keyboards sound played by her and yielding a ballad-dreamy-catchy tune. Since she had released her debut album, people claimed that she had a typical-Kate Bush-sound and Everytime Boots is the evidence that this American singer-songwriter is the next generation of Kate Bush. After all, I shall say this is a pretentious and enticing album.

Favorite Tracks : Feel You, Sea Calls Me Home, Everytime Boots, Silhouette, Betsy On The Roof

So,what's your favorite album of 2015?