Top ten albums of 2015

I printed my 2014 “best of” blog for my less computer literate relatives to read. It was 6 pages. 6 pages people! I strongly suspect that many people in my life, old and new, wish I was a little less verbose, at least sometimes. So I’m going to go all Ernest Hemingway and see if I can keep this one short. Don’t say I never give y’all anything.

 

The special characteristic of 2015 (every year seems to have one, mostly because we do love to force labels onto arbitrary calendar year divisions) appears to be a lot of music hanging around the “very good” mark. By this I mean very thin tails on the bell curve – not a huge amount of rubbish (thank goodness, given I acquired some 88 records released in 2015) but not a large number of truly exceptional records either. (Hmm a bit of long sentence that, plus the bit in parenthesis – sorry Ernest I’ve buggered it up already.) Nevertheless I have cobbled together something resembling a top ten. Neither the narrowing down nor the ranking were all that easy – I would suggest not reading too much into the ranking; indeed many albums could be subbed for others e.g. Lana Del Rey’s Honeymoon could easily swap out for Petal’s Shame, at least in the “music what has a female singer” category.

Over 2015 a lot of great artists made a lot of great music, but many suffered from a lack of a large or worthy incremental improvement over previous efforts. Examples include:

• Christian Scott’s Stretch Music (so named after the genre Scott reckons he invented – jazz with rock elements has been done before, but rarely better than on his previous record)
• Deafheaven’s New Bermuda (still screamy and heavy, but they get a bit cheesy in places, and the vocals could do with being a little lower pitched)
• Between the Buried and Me’s Coma Ecliptic (I have often described them as a heavy Dream Theater, and this album seems to epitomise that
• Coheed and Cambria’s The Color Before the Sun (a very solid effort actually)
• Refused’s Freedom (not in the same league as the masterpiece The Shape Of Punk To Come, but quirky enough to help them stand out)
•  Caspian’s Dust and Disquiet (a serviceable slice of post-rock, nothing astonishing)
• Envy’s Atheist Cornea (a bit Envy-by-numbers, not that that’s a bad thing)
• Mogwai’s Rave Tapes (very very derivative (of themselves) in places, but there’s still no such thing as a bad Mogwai album)
• Rolo Tomassi’s Grievances (unsurprising in being brilliant, as all the previous albums have been – very consistent high performers, these guys)

Very good records (including those where I am less irrationally annoyed about previous work being better) include:

• Scandanavian ensemble Jaga Jazzist’s Starfire
• Scandanavian saxophonist Marius Neset’s Pinball
• not Scandanavian (Brummie) Shabaka Hutchings’ inspired drums, tenor sax, tuba, and drums quartet Sons of Kemet’s Lest We Forget What We Came To Do
• Ben Bridwell & Iron and Wine’s Sing Into My Mouth – Sam Beam yet to do anything less than lovely
• Jean-Michel Jarre’s Electronica Vol 1: The Time Machine – packed with more collaborators than a Tony Bennett Duets album
• Joss Stone’s reggae-tinged Water for Your Soul, her best effort in a long while
• Mutoid Man’s Bleeder – Cave In / Converge supergroup does exactly what it says on the tin. Very well indeed
• Destroyer’s Poison Season and Surfjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell – it seems that I’m capable of stomaching more subtle and nuanced music in my old age – can’t be screaming saxophones or vocals all the time, I suppose. Great lyrics in the latter too, if you like that sort of thing
• Puscifer’s Money Shot shows, like Conditions of my Parole did before it, that the debut Puscifer record was but a blip in the quality of Maynard James Keenan’s recorded output
• Retox’ Beneath California – some great heavy stuff from a band that includes one of the chaps from The Locust
• Roots Manuva’s Bleeds is a good as everyone tells you it is. Perhaps less beautiful than his previous work, though
• Slayer’s Repentless surprisingly fine for an album this late on in their career, and one without their guitarist Jeff Hanneman RIP. Better than Iron Maiden’s a-bit-long The Book of Souls, I thought
• Lionel Loueke’s GAIA – incredible jazz guitar trio. Not wanky at all. Well perhaps a little. Features a great cover of How Deep Is Your Love? (the second oddest-but awesome cover of the year – see #3 in the top ten, if we ever get there)
• Suns of the Tundra are up there for one of the most underrated bands ever (especially given how well big brother Tool have done), with something around a mere 600 likes on facebook, but the epic and beautiful Bones of Brave Ships does admittedly come across as the soundtrack that it is

Just a couple of (thousand) words about some disappointments, then it’ll be the main event and then we can all go home:

• Parkway Drive’s Ire did nothing for me (especially disappointing after previous album Atlas – see, you really can’t win with people like me can you?). I found August Burns Red’s Found In Far Away Places far superior Australian metalcore
• At one point I thought trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire the modern Miles Davis. Christian Scott has taken that mantle and AA’s The Imagined Saviour Is Far Easier To Paint does nothing to change that
• Adele’s 25 does diddly squat to disprove the notion that her instrument is far better than her songs. 21 had a fair number of belters, 25 has only a few
• Portico (nee Quartet) used to make music that was tear-jerkingly gorgeous. Now they’re an Alt-J rip-off/collaboration (which is fine in itself, but what’s the point?)
• I wanted to love Bjork’s Vulcinura, I really did. As anyone who has spent more than 90 seconds with me can testify, she is one of my favourite artists, but I couldn’t get a foothold with this record
• Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree, mainly) is a certifiable musical genius, responsible for some truly incredible stuff, but he’s never made a record that was good from start to finish (the first Blackfield record aside, perhaps) and Hand. Cannot. Erase., moments of brilliance aside, is not inconsistent with that theme

And with that we shall desist with the procrastination. Once more unto the breach dear readers.

10) 36 Crazyfists – Time and Trauma

The 6^th (major label) record from the Alaskan metallers, and the third on the trot with the word “and” in the middle of the title. I think they’ve enough to stay the right side of guilty pleasure (for example, the final track on Collisions and Castaways, Waterhaul II, has one of the best blends of clean and screamed vocals I’ve ever heard anywhere), the songs are as catchy as you like, and frontman Brock Lindow’s voice can be easily picked out of the metal crowd.

Check-out: Swing the Noose, Gathering Bones

9) Oddisee – The Good Fight

No-one should trust my assessment of hip-hop, except maybe people with even less experience of the genre than I have. I only tried Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly once and only made it halfway through before I prematurely decided it’s not my thing. Given it has Kamasi Washington on saxophone (see #5 below) on it I probably need to give it another go. Washington Wunderkind Oddisee however, seems to do whatever it is I love about hip hop when I love it. I love his lyrics, his voice, his delivery, his beats, and his band. He deserves to be big. Can’t Jay-Z take him under his wing or something?

Check out: That’s Love, A List of Withouts

8) Sumac – The Deal

The second big thing to come out of Isis (the band, people, the band), following Palms with Chino Moreno. This has a certain groove and rawness that post-metal hasn’t had in a while (yes Isis’ final record and Cult of Luna’s latest very much included).

Check out: Thorn in the Lion’s Paw, Hollow King

7) Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon

She took me a long time to warm to, but right now I will happily speak up for LDR. What I previously found repetitive I now find hypnotic, what I previously found mumbley I now find appropriately and pleasantly restrained, what I previously found a beautiful melody….oh wait, that’s the same. Del Rey is a little bit “different” and yes of course that’s “different” in the mainstream pop sense but I’m OK with it. She’s responsible for some remarkable songs, arrangements, lyrics, and moments.

Check out: Salvatore, Swan Song

6) Lamb of God – VII: Sturm und Drang

A thrilling comeback (from frontman Randy Blythe nearly going to prison for pushing over and killing a fan onstage at a gig in the Czech Republic, not from a lengthy hiatus) album from the groove metal heirs of Pantera. Riffs, grooves and double bass-drum aplenty, plus a knock-out cameo from Deftones’ Chino Moreno, and a very good one from The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato.

Check out: Still Echoes, Embers

5) Kamasi Washington – The Epic

Warning: the title is not ironic. 3 CDs, 3 hours, 17 tracks. Not all of it pushes the boundaries of jazz, not all of it works, but overall it’s a mighty piece of work. There’s plenty of variation on there – sometimes saxophonist Washington (who featured on Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly, by the way) plays quite freely, sometimes he plays a pretty Claire de Lune, sometimes he’s joined by some vocalists. Quite rightly featured on many critics’ jazz albums of the year lists, and I think a deserved feature of mine.

Check out: Oh gosh I don’t know, any of it. All of it (at least once)

4) Chon – Grow

Techy mathcore fine-tuned to perfection. Think This Town Needs Guns or Maps & Atlases, but with not an inch of spare fat. Mostly instrumental, but none the worse for it. 

Check out: Story, Perfect Pillow

3) Ibrahim Maalouf – Red and Black Light

The wonderful French-Lebanese trumpeter released two albums in 2015. Kalthoum was a reinterpretation of an old song in several movements, with a particularly good final section, but it’s Maalouf’s other record that really does it for me. Despite everything I’ve said before, nothing hugely surprising here, but just executed too sublimely that it’s impossible to ignore. Maalouf’s jazz is tight, melodic, smooth, and effortless – his songs and his soloing alike. As a trumpeter I think I prefer Christian Scott for his unrestrained passion, but Maalouf is a smoother and more consistent virtuoso. And his Beyonce cover is a gorgeous revelation.

Check out: Elephant’s Tooth, Run The World (Girls)

2) Dutch Uncles – O Shudder

The very definition of left-field, this one. An obscure support band at a Garbage gig, namechecked by Shirley Manson for the androgyny of the vocals, I’ve come to think this Manchester group are the heirs to Depeche Mode. I don’t know if I appreciate this 80s synth dark pop throwback because this is the year I discovered DM’s classic Violator, but oh my word this stuff is right on the money. Some true beauty lies within.

Check out: Decided Knowledge, Tidal Weight

1) Jose James – Yesterday I Had The Blues

2015 was the centenary of the birth of the one and only Eleanora Fagan a.k.a. Billie Holiday. For her voice or her history or for goodness-knows-what-reason she beats Ella and Sarah as my favourite jazz singer, just so you know. Because other people that do stuff are as lazy and unimaginative as I am (I mean, top ten lists, come on!) 2015 saw John Szwed’s biography, Cassandra Wilson’s tribute album Coming Forth By Day, and countless special gigs up and down and around the world. Yes, at 12, Wilson’s album has three more tracks, but James’ is simply sublime. Someone in a youtube comment described his voice as weak, but one man’s weak is another’s (this one’s) effortless, velvety, shimmering, and live especially, extraordinary. His band are no slouches either. This wonderful record is the worth the price of admission for the mesmerising rendition of Body and Soul alone.

PS: I finally found out how James’ name is pronounced. It’s Hose-A James, apparently. So there you go. Merry Christmas everybody.

Check out: Body and Soul, Strange Fruit

Gosh darn it, I’ve somehow made it to the fourth page. Please take a top-20 2015 playlist as an olive branch:

https://open.spotify.com/user/angesthebull/playlist/3mbZz1mJrKDzrDdyLMNhvt

spotify:user:angesthebull:playlist:3mbZz1mJrKDzrDdyLMNhvt

• Ibrahim Maalouf – Run The World (Girls)
• Jose James – Body And Soul
• Adele – Million Years Ago
• Andreya Triana – It’s Not Over
• Ben Bridwell & Iron and Wine – God Knows (You Gotta Give To Get)
• Chon – Perfect Pillow
• Coheed and Cambria – Here To Mars
• Deafheaven – Gifts For The Earth
• Florence and The Machine – Queen Of Peace
• Jakob – Emergent
• Lamb of God (feat. Chino Moreno) – Embers
• Mutoid Man – Bridgeburner
• Lana Del Rey – Salvatore
• Destroyer – Forces From Above
• Oddisee – That’s Love
• Refused – Elektra
• Lionel Loueke – How Deep Is Your Love?
• Sun Kil Moon – This Is My First Day and I’m Indian And I Work At A Gas Station
• 36 Crazyfists – Swing The Noose
• Dutch Uncles – Decided Knowledge