150 Albums: The Best Of 2015, Roughly Ranked
1 - 15
Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit [Mom + Pop]
Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Surf [self-released]
Fabiano do Nascimento, Dança Dos Tempos [Now Again Records]
Mbongwana Star, From Kinshasa [World Circuit]
Ran Blake, Ghost Tones [a-side records]
Young Fathers, White Men Are Black Men Too [Big Dada]
Sleaford Mods, Key Markets [Harbinger Sound]
Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden Of Delete [Warp]
Lionel Loueke, Gaia [Blue Note]
Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free [Southeastern Records]
Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth, Epicenter [Clean Feed Records]
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba, Ba Power [Glitterbeat]
Heems, Eat Pray Thug [Greedhead / Megaforce]
James Brandon Lewis, Days of FreeMan [OKeh]
Rudresh Mahanthappa, Bird Calls [ACT]
16 - 30
Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly [Interscope / Aftermath / Top Dawg]
Yo La Tengo, Stuff Like That There [Matador]
Terakaft, Alone/Tenere [Out Here]
Henry Threadgill Zooid, In For A Penny, In For A Pound [Pi]
Jack DeJohnette, Made in Chicago [ECM]
Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts, Manhattan [Rough Trade]
Nozinja, Nozinja Lodge [Warp]
Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast Recording [Hamilton Uptown LLC / Atlantic]
Noah Preminger, Pivot: Live at the 55 Bar [Noah Preminger]
Albert “Tootie” Heath, Philadelphia Beat [Sunnyside]
Robert Forster, Songs To Play [Tapete Records]
Aphex Twin, Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments pt2 [Warp]
Makaya McCraven, In The Moment [International Anthem]
Vijay Iyer Trio, Break Stuff [ECM]
Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood [EMI]
31 - 45
Grimes, Art Angels [4AD]
Girlpool, Before The World Was Big [Wichita]
Ty Segall, Ty Rex [Goner Records]
Jamie XX, In Colour [Young Turks]
Sleater-Kinney, No Cities To Love [Sub Pop]
The Paranoid Style, Rock and Roll Just Can’t Recall [Worldwide Battle]
Jon Lundbom and Big Five Chord, Jeremiah [Hot Cup]
Mary Halvorson, Meltframe [Firehouse 12]
Protoje, Ancient Future [Indiggnation Collective/Overstand]
The Mantles, All Odds End [Slumberland Records]
Rob Mazurek/Exploding Star Orchestra, Galactic Parables Vol. 1 [Cuneiform]
Badbadnotgood & Ghostface Killah, Sour Soul [Lex Records]
Noonday Underground, Body Parts For Modern Art [Stubbie Records]
Carter Tutti Void, f(x) [Industrial Records]
Girl Band, The Early Years [Rough Trade]
46 - 60
Tim Berne’s Snakeoil, You’ve Been Watching Me [ECM]
Natural Information Society & Bitchin Bajas, Autoimaginary [Drag City]
White Out wi/ Nels Cline, Accidental Sky [Northern Spy]
X___X, Albert Ayler’s Ghosts Live At The Yellow Ghetto [Smog Veil Records]
Death Grips, The Powers That B [Harvest/Third Worlds]
Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance, Synovial Joints [Pi Recordings]
The Internet, Ego Death [Odd Future]
Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Intents And Purposes [Enja]
Barry Altschul’s 3Dom Factor, Tales of the Unforeseen [TUM]
Talib Kweli & 9th Wonder, Indie 500 [Jamla/Javotti Media]
James McMurtry, Complicated Game [Complicated Game]
Jason Derulo, Everything Is 4 [Warner Bros.]
Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Sounding Lines [Honest Jon’s]
Erykah Badu, But You Caint Use My Phone [self-released]
Hop Along, Painted Shut [Saddle Creek]
61 - 75
Ashley Monroe, The Blade [Warner Brothers]
Kirk Knuffke, Arms & Hands [Royal Potato Family]
Mike Reed’s People Places & Things, A New Kind of Dance [482 Music]
The Chills, Silver Bullets [Fire Records]
Miguel, Wildheart [RCA]
Carly Rae Jepsen, E*MO*TION [Interscope]
Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife [Eardruma/Interscope]
Shye Ben Tzur, Jonny Greenwood and the The Rajasthan Express, Junun [Nonesuch]
Föllakzoid, III [Sacred Bones]
Idrissa Soumaoro, Djitoumou [Lusafrica]
Aram Bajakian, There Were Flowers Also in Hell [Sanasar]
Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material [Mercury Nashville]
Shamir, Ratchet [XL]
Earl Sweatshirt, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside [Tan Cressida/Columbia]
Harry Allen, Something About Jobim [Stunt/Sundance]
76 - 90
Deerhunter, Fading Frontier [4AD]
Major Lazer, Peace Is The Mission [Mad Decent]
Allen Lowe, In The Diaspora Of The Diaspora: We Will Gather When We Gather [Constant Sorrow]
William Parker/Raining On The Moon, Great Spirit [AUM Fidelity]
Joanna Gruesome, Peanut Butter [Slumberland]
Vince Staples, Summetime ’06 [Def Jam]
Mostly Other People Do the Killing, Mauch Chunk [Hot Cup]
Tomeka Reid, Tomeka Reid Quartet [Thirsty Ear]
Wreckless Eric, amERICa [Fire Records]
Brian Ellis Group, Escondido Sessions [El Paraiso]
Le1f, Riot Boi [Terrible Records]
Action Bronson, Mr. Wonderful [Atlantic/Vice]
Nils Frahm, Solo [Erased Tapes]
Willie Phoenix & The Soul Underground, Captain Psychedelic [Eastman Studios]
Future, DS2 [Epic/Freebandz Entertainment]
91 - 105
Crayon Pop, FM [Sony]
Roscoe Mitchell Quartet, Celebrating Fred Anderson [Nessa]
Pete Rock, Petestrumentals 2 [Mello Music]
STS & RJD2, STS x RJD2 [RJ’s Electrical Connections]
Pokey Lefarge, Something in the Water [Rounder]
Sheer Agony, Masterpiece [Couple Skate]
Quantic, Quantic Presents The Western Transient: A New Constellation [Tru Thoughts]
Gal Costa, Estratosférica [Sony]
The Necks, Vertigo [Northern Spy]
Maddie & Tae, Start Here [Republic Nashville]
Dej Loaf, #AndSeeThatsTheThing [Columbia]
Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late [Cash Money]
Mac McCaughan, Non-Believers [Merge]
Carlos Henriquez, Bronx Pyramid [Blue Engine]
Omar Souleyman, Bahdeni Nami [Monkeytown Records]
106 - 120
MED/Blu/Madlib, Bad Neighbor [BangYaHead]
Willie Nelson / Merle Haggard, Django And Jimmie [Sony/Legacy]
Christian Scott, Stretch Music: Introducing Elena Pinderhughes [Ropeadope]
Blundetto, World Of [Heavenly Sweetness]
Debashish Bhattacharya, Slide Guitar Ragas From Dusk Till Dawn [Riverboat]
Jimi Tenor/Tenors Of Kalma, Electric Willow [Yellowbird]
Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra, Cuba: The Conversation Continues (Motema Music]
EEK, Kahraba [Nashazphone/Cargo]
Alborosie Meets King Jammy, Dub Of Thrones [VP Music Group]
A Place To Bury Strangers, Transfixiation [Dead Oceans]
Hypercolor, Hypercolor [Tzadik]
Bob Dylan, Shadows In The Night [Columbia]
Mavis Staples, Your Good Fortune [Anti-/Epitaph]
Hieroglyphic Being & J.I.T.U. Ahn-Sahm-Buhl, We Are Not The First [Rvng Int’l]
Matthew Shipp Trio, The Conduct of Jazz [Thirsty Ear]
121 - 135
Junglepussy, Pregnant With Success [self-released]
Songhoy Blues, Music In Exile [Transgressive Records]
Leny Andrade and Roni Ben-Hur, Alegria de Vivire [Motema]
Boogarins, Manual [Other Music]
Karina Buhr, Selvática [ybmusic]
Battles, La Di Da Di [Warp]
Thomas Clausen, Blue Rain [Stunt Records]
The Weeknd, Beauty Behind The Madness [Republic Records]
The Mountain Goats, Beat The Champ [Merge]
Charlie Haden & Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Tokyo Adagio [Impulse]
Scientist, The Dub Album They Didn’t Want You To Hear! [Jah Life]
Dimitri From Paris, Salsoul Mastermix [Octave Lab]
Tal National, Zoy Zoy [Fat Cat]
Joe Lovano & Dave Douglas, Sound Prints: Live at Monterey Jazz Festival [Blue Note]
136 - 150
Low Cut Connie, Hi Honey [Contender Records]
Nat Birchall, Invocations [Jazzman]
Marilyn Crispell/Gerry Hemingway, Table of Changes [Intakt]
Gangbé Brass Band, Go Slow To Lagos [Buda Musique]
Dexter Story, Wondem [Soundway]
Four Tet, Morning/Evening [Text Records]
Destruction Unit, Negative Feedback Resistor [Sacred Bones Records]
DRKWAV, The Purge [Royal Potato Family]
John Zorn, Simulacrum [Tzadik]
Patrick Higgins, Bachanalia [Telegraph Harp]
Verbal Kent, Anesthesia [Mello Music Group]
Built To Spill, Untethered Moon [Warner Bros.]
Susan Alcorn, Soledad [Relative Pitch]
Bruce Brubaker, Glass Piano [Infiné]
The Sorcerers, The Sorcerers [ATA Records]
– Same rules as last time. I listened to [and sometimes even reviewed] many new releases in 2015, and these are the ones I’d return to and heartily recommend. Plenty are missing, but then again, who can keep up, really? Not “best” so much as “favorites”. A jumping off point. Another good year.
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