1)Everything Everything - Get to Heaven
2)Swim Deep - Mothers
3)Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
4)Kamasi Washington - The Epic
5)Death Grips - The Powers That B
6)Lil Ugly Mane - Third Side of Tape
7)Vince Staples - Summertime '06
8)The Vaccines - English Graffiti
9)Nicole Sabouné - Miman
10)Lao Che - Dzieciom

I think I will post this here instead of my journal so I can keep working on other reviews.

10. Wavves - V

9. Albert Hammond Jr - Momentary Masters

8. Tyler the Creator - Cherry Bomb

7. Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color

6. Faith No More - Sol Invictus

5. Death Grips - The Powers that B

4. Wavves and Cloud Nothings - No Life for Me

3. Between the Buried and Me - Coma Ecliptic

2. Tame Impala - Currents

1. Ghost - Meliora

no number 8?

how's the cloud nothings tracks on their split with Wavves?

couldn't care for the latter so didn't get the release.

Totally missed that mistake. I fixed it above.

The question you pose to me is slightly confusing. Could you elaborate?

It's more of a colab than a split, and even then it sounds kida like a darker iteration of Wavves early lo-fi stuff. There's not much variety to it, but it's great. Doesn't sound like either artist too much really, I'd try it out if you like cloud Nothings though.

^^^^

Oh I get it that is what he was asking.

It truly is one of the best surprises of the year for me. I had no idea it was even coming out until I think March, and even then it came out in late June with no warning.

Yeah it was quite a low-key thing. I was definitely expecting/hoping more of a King of the Beach meets Attack on Memory thing but what actually came out wasn't too bad either.

I've noticed an extreme lack of Viet Cong in this thread as well.

Here's my list for now...
Not ordered of course.

Edit: KEN mode's Success is my favorite from this year.

METZ- II
Ceremony- L Shaped Man
Viet Cong- S/T
Stabbed in Back- Dasvydinia
Cave State- 7 Inch (my bad, that was last year. Flesh Wounds- In the Mouth then.)
Wavves x Cloud Nothings- No Life For Me
Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp a Butterfly
Sleater Kinney- No Cities to Love
Dang! Records- A Fat Comp: Tribute to Fat Wreck Chords
Title Fight- Hyperview

I loved Trash Masquerade too, thanks for that Deadchannel

Other honorable mentions: Torche's Restarter, High on Fire's Lumineferous, Thee Oh Sees' Manipulator Defeated at Last, Wavves' IV, Atlas Losing Grip's Currents, The Pop Group's Citizen Zombie, KEN mode's Success (actually probably my favorite now that I think about it), and The World Is' Harmlessness.

Both of those records are fantastic. King of the Beach being my favorite Wavves album. Attack on Memory same deal.

Would you believe me if I said Viet Cong wasn't that good? I thought the album was slightly overrated when it first came out. Even now it still is lacking in a lot of places for me. I didn't think it was bad. Just not end of the year list material.

Part of it being on mine is I've probably listened to only a handful of albums from this year. That said, I'm sure there's better post-punk than Ceremony's new one and VC, but I never looked into it enough. By any means, their all still stellar albums.

May I recommend The Pop Group's new record. An interesting come back record from some post-punk heavy weights. If I had 25 spaces for albums on this thread it would make top 20.

Oh, right I forgot that came out this year. I'll go add that real quick actually, thanks. There was a new Gang of Four record too but I haven't listened to anything off it.

The new The Pop Group record: 8/10
The new Gang of Four record: 0/a steamy pile of Rosie O'Donnell's ****

^^^

I didn't want to mention the Gang of Four record because I was afraid of that kind of response. It was actually pretty terrible.

I heard it was good, I guess I heard wrong then. I'll go ahead and scratch that off my to-do list now.

^^^

Oh please do not let my own opinion stop you. We obviously have differing opinions on the Viet Cong record, so why not the Gang of Four record?

It's probably gonna be a while before I hear it anyways. I'll definitely get around to it at some point.

So far these lists have been pretty similar. The same hip hop, rock, metal, post punk and indie pop albums have all been listed throughout the news outlets and this forum. I really want one out of the blue list that makes me question my very existence. (Or at least my music choice for this year.)

Mine has a few that weren't mentioned by anyone else. KEN mode is amazing and I'm ashamed to have forgotten about Success when I first wrote the list. Definitely my favorite from 2015. If you aren't familiar, they sound a lot like Shellac meets Acid Bath.

I have already got all of the albums listed so far that I have not given a listen to. KEN mode will be one of them. I wasn't talking about your list. I was just getting the point across that a lot of the lists so far have been very similar, mine included. All of the critically acclaimed hip hop records this year were pretty meh to me at least, and they seem to make up the bulk of this years. I thought Death Grips and Tyler the Creator did nice jobs in handing down some excellent alternative hip hop. A lot of the albums though on your list however seem to avoid the general trap of being pressured into liking what is popular. You could make a case of that with my list, but I do not see a lot of the albums on my list hitting others.

In no particular order :

Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Paul Weller - Saturn Patterns
Poison Idea - Confuse & Conquer
Braids - Deep In The Iris
BC Camplight - How To Die In The North
Violent Arrest - Life Inside The Western Bloc (the cd version with bonus tracks)
Blur - The Magic Whip
Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People

Well it's a Top 9 but I've been busy listening to older music I guess.

Alright, a tentative list, not in any specific order like many others.

Billy Woods - Today, I Wrote Nothing
Six Organs of Admittance - Hexadic
Kronos Quartet - Sunrise of the Planetary Dream Collector
The Residents - Shadowland
Zu - Cortar Todo
John Coltrane - Offering: Live at Temple University
Oren Ambarchi & Jim O'Rourke - Behold
Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter Three: River Run Thee
Peter Brotzmann, Keiji Haino, & Jim O'Rourke - Two City Blues 2
Ramleh - Circular Time

I think it's been a really fecking great year for music.

Yeah most of the lists near the beginning share a lot of albums, after that mpt so much though.

The Residents released an album?! I had no idea. I'll have to check the Brotzmann one out too. That Coltrane album is brill, was contemplating putting it on but decided against live albums in the end.

I'll throw out ten honorable mentions in no order for top ten of 2015. Just thought I would do this to expand my list a bit.

10. Beach Slang - The Things We Do To Find People Like Us

9. Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect

8. The Pop Group - Citizen Zombie

7. Coheed and Cambria - The Color Before the Sun

6. Grimes - Art Angels

5. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete

4. Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Going Down

3. New Order - Music Complete

2. Iron Maiden - The Book of Souls

1. The Vaccines - English Graffiti

c'mon man, the Beach Slang record was a massive disappointment.

Two great EP's last year but the most monotonous uninspired pile of repetitive mediocrity this year. It made me sad.

^^^

I am sorry you feel that way. I hope you gave it more than one listen.

2015 was a quiet year, but my top 10 would be as follows...

1. St Germain - St Germain 2LP 180g

This is a strong #1. The record is a refreshing and expert blend of electronic, downtempo, deep house, folk, and African rhythms and has a creative marketing concept to match.

2. Max Richter - From Sleep 2LP clear vinyl - Richter's 8-hour ambient sleep concert distilled to work on an LP for us stubborn materialists.

3. Sigur Rós - ( ) 2LP+CD reissue

Finally an affordable copy of this outstanding milestone of post-rock.

4. Soul Coughing - Ruby Vroom 2LP 180g (first-ever vinyl issue) - released against M Doughty's wishes, but it's okay because he's kind of an ******* since he went clean. Any SC fan will tell you Ruby Vroom captures the band at their very best.

5. Soul Coughing - Irresistible Bliss 180g
6. Soul Coughing - El Oso Ltd, 180g

because why not have it all?

7. Public Service Broadcasting - The Race For Space Ltd, Clear vinyl - Another delightful album of J. Willgoose, Esq. and Wrigglesworth's krautrock-inspired theme music for found recordings of the British Film Institute.

8. John Carpenter - Lost Themes

The soundtrack to an awesome late-80s sci-fi horror that never was. This record is pure time travel.

9. The Orb - Moonbuilding 2703 AD Ltd. 3LP + CD ed.

Not their best, but hell - it's the ****ing Orb. We'll take anything from Dr Alex Paterson!

10 ?????? We've got just under a month... someone release something already.

several.

believe me, I wanted to like it. But there's only so much you can hear about them being 'just kids' and enjoying a drink without worrying about tomorrow.

Maybe I enjoyed it so much because I have been avoiding there kind of music for a while now. It all came down to the fact that I need to here about people just being kids every now and then to keep me going through the genre.

Maybe it will grow on you, or maybe not, or maybe it wont matter at all.

Your wish is my command *rubs genie hands together*

Anteater's Favorite 31 Records Of 2015

Its... Its... Its...

Just what I wanted, a bunch of albums I never even listened to and apparently really need to listen to because of awesome descriptions, and also this sentence is getting really long and I have no idea how to stop.

I wish I had magical genie powers.

Don't we all my son...don't we all.

I'm also surprised by the lack of variety in a lot of the lists I've seen so far in this thread. Remind me a lot of the lists I see NPR or NME compile. Which is fine and all if those are your primary sources of finding new stuff, but you run into a trap where hired website staff are putting records on pedestals that they were paid to review in the first place. And all those sites tend to overlook a lot of great stuff in other genres, particularly when it comes to metal or pop stuff that doesn't conform to the typical indie pop-rock aesthetic.

I am probably being a total hypocrite for saying such a thing due to my own list. But I spend a lot of time looking through end of year lists to find anything that I missed. I have generally listened to everything being advertised as the best this year. With a few exceptions. More notably, yours, innerspaceboys, Tristan Geoffs, Frownlands.

Some more honourable mentions

The Body/Thou - You, Whom I Have Always Hated
Soul crushingly dense sludge.

Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Great vocals with dark instrumentation.

Swans - The Gate (live)
****ing Swans live.

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - A Year With 13 Moons
Ambient/drone.

Alio Die & Lorenzo Montana - Holographic Codex
Electronic drone ambient stuff once again. These guys have a pretty unique approach imo.

Debashish Bhattacharya - Slide Guitar Ragas From Dusk Till Dawn
Indian classical music infused with Western slide guitar. Brilliant stuff that stays true to the original ragas.

DJ Khalab - Eunoto EP
Sudanese (I'm guessing) inspired hip hop.

Liturgy - The Ark Work
Medieval sounding metal/electronica/experimental thing going on here.

Uneven Eleven - Live at Cafe Oto
Free improvisation with Guy Segers of Univers Zero, Charles Hayward of This Heat, and Kawabata Makoto from Acid Mothers Temple.

Maurizio Bianchi - Untitled 1980/Untitled 2013
Ambient noise stuff.

We can all be a bit hypocritical at times, but I still wouldn't take any list seriously that puts Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly at #1 arbitrarily. Not because it isn't a decent record, but because I just don't see anyone revisiting it on a regular basis nor compulsively jamming it back to back with people they know. Same thing applies the D'Angelo album: they seem more like albums that people are are acclaiming because everyone and their grandma is prodding them to do so as opposed to genuinely loving them. The relevancy of these albums culturally shouldn't make people forget that there needs to be a real hook or motif beyond their stories to last beyond the moment.

^^^

I actually thought To Pimp A Butterfly was fantastic. I thought a lot of records this year were fantastic. I generally do not read reviews of records until after I have listened to them. Then I read the reviews to see if I am going with or against the grain. I do see the COS, NME, Pitchfork, records all getting put on end of the year lists like you said though even though no one really is talking about those records on a day to day basis.

This has been a helluva competitive year for music. If I had more of a Top 100 or something I think Lamar would make it, but there's too many gems that didn't get a $2 million advertising budget that must be brought to light. :wave:

I haven't listened to all the albums yet.

I know Compton, Documentary 2 (I'll lump both albums together), I Don't Like ****, I don't Go Outside, That new Pusha T album, and the new Yelawolf album are all ones on my list that I haven't heard yet. That in mind my list that I have been thinking about since September.


5. Ho99o9-Dead Bodies In The Lake Mixtape.

http://www.faygoluvers.net/v5/wp-con...n-the-lake.jpg

This mixtape came out of nowhere and I love it. Ho99o9 is an experimental hip hop group that fuses industrial sounds with horror punk rock and raps along with it. They have not released one bad project so far, even though their projects are a bit short. This mixtape is their biggest project so far with 10 songs on it. They definitely used a bit more of their punk rock influences with this. I just can't seem to get enough of this group. Favorite song from that album would have to be Death Kult Deciples (999 Anthem).



4. Tech N9ne-Special Effects

https://s3.amazonaws.com/hiphopdx-pr...fectsHiRes.jpg

If I had to name a favorite rapper it'd probably be Tech N9ne. Good thing I don't have to though. Of all 17 albums Tech N9ne has put out I've loved all but 3 of them. Those three being Celsius, The Gates Mixed Plate and the new Strangeulation II he just released last month. This album did not fail to impress me and still gets it's fair share of play throughs. I love how diverse the songs can be. He goes from darker sounding theatrical songs to heavy alternative metal to the psychedelic rock to club rap to dubstep and etc. My favorite song from the album would have to be Shroud.



3. Twiztid-The Darkness

https://moshpitsandmovies.files.word...0/401894_1.jpg

Twiztid just seems to get better and better. They went from primitive rhymes with corn ball ICP sounding lyrics to beasts that could stand toe to toe with the giants of today. And this album, although not as good as their new template for a great Twiztid album Abominationz, shows that they don't plan on stopping their new found growth spurt in music. It sounded like they tried to showcase the different styles they have touched with this album ranging from the grungy rock sound on Back To Hell to the old school horror hip-hop sound they had back in the House Of Krazees days with Seance. My favorite song would have to be Down Here.



2. Kendrick Lamar-To Pimp A Butterfly

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...Available.jpeg

Ohhhh, Kendrick Lamar. This mother ****er right here. This goddamn genius. This little slice hip hop heaven with god butter spread all across it to form an angelic taste of pure nirvana better than the best orgasm you have had times ten. Maybe over exaggerating a bit, but I love this guy. Ever since I came across his music, which is a bit late compared to most but none the less. One of my favorite rappers out right now. Definitely on his way into legend status in my book. Too new to be there, but lets face it, he's going there. His new album was absolutely wonderful. It was a perfect commentary on what he is going through right now as an black person from the slums who has made something of himself during this time period where we are trying to erase the last remnants of racism. He talks about how artists go broke because they spend their money like maniacs rather than invest it into their future. He talks about how his fame and fortune brings this guilt inside of him because while he lives this life he still has friends and family that struggle from where he came. He talks about self loathing and self love. He talks about abusing his fame to using it responsibly. He tries to empower his race while scrutinizing it. The self contradicting look into Kendrick Lamar's mind is what really makes this album human and relate-able. The Yams are the power that be!!!! My favorite song is Blacker The Berry.



1. Lupe Fiasco-Tetsou & Youth

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...L._SL1425_.jpg

Everything that everybody has ever claimed Kendrick Lamar to be, Lupe Fiasco was X5 about a decade earlier. I love Lupe. This album was in every way an artistic masterpiece. This is an album that you have to study and pick apart. It's an album designed to make you think, riddled with double meanings and completely genius word play like Lupe is known for. I liked every single song from this album, every damn song. I had to put this at number one because it came out at the beginning of the year and I still listen to it way more than any other album that came out this year. Every time I listen to it, I find something new to like about it. Mural was the perfect example of the lyrical genius that Lupe is. Prisoner 1 & 2 told a very great story about how 1st prisoner is the one in prison while the 2nd prisoner is the prison guard who beats down the first prisoner while trying to find reasons to keep the 1st prisoner locked up out of jealousy because while he gets released the guard is still stuck at the prison. So many great songs on this release, it's hard to choose a favorite, so I'll just link Body Of Work.

I do. That's how I based my list, on what albums I listened to the most. For a long time I was listening to TPAB back to front a lot. I have played it back to front for 3 people too.