Favorite Releases of 2015

EDIT: 
My Top Ten across all genres.
Justin Bieber - Purpose
Chastity Belt - Time to Go Home
American Wrestlers - American Wrestlers
Romantic States - Romantic States
Placebo - MTV Unplugged
Wildhoney - Sleep Through It
Low - Ones and Sixes
Faith No More - Sol Invictus
Dilly Dally - Sore
Blacksage - Basement Vows

It is that time of year, list time!  I know at least a few people on here love lists.   All in all, I thought it was an excellent year for music of all varieties, from pop to noise. 

I am going to break mine up into a few small lists.  All my lists are in the order of the accompanying mix that I made for each.  I might edit this later and write a sentence or two on why I liked each one, but do not have the time right now and was going to do that for my blog later anyway.

My 10 favorite Electronic Releases of 2015. 
https://www.mixcloud.com/killsaly/dragged-to-hell-favorite-electronic-albums-of-2015/
This one had a nice mixture of artists that I have been into since the 90s, and some new favorites of the last few years.

AFX - orphaned deejay selek 2006-2008
Luke Vibert - Bizarster
Leftfield - Alternative Light Source
Gurl Crush - Serenity Calling…
Venetian Snares - Thank You For Your Consideration
Force Publique - Bloom
Autre Ne Veut - Age of Transparency
SPC ECO - Dark Matter
Container - LP
GEMS - Kill the One You Love

lists, make me upset.  but here's my list, anyway.

marilyn manson  pale emperor

Bjork  vulnicura

Madonna  rebel heart

prodigy    day is my enemy

sufjan  stevens  carrie and Lowell

hot chip    why make sense

faith no more    sol invictus

Shamir  ratchet

neil young    the monsanto years

tame impala  currents

omar souleyman  Bahdeni Nami

Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique    love is free

beach house  depression cherry

I really dug that Manson album, but need to listen to it more.  I have FNM on another different list.

I listened to a TON of thrash metal in 2015, but most of it was made in the 80s, 90s, and earlier this century.  But I did still manage to listen to quite a few current metal bands, and these were my favorites.

My top 10 Favorite Heavy/Metal Releases:
https://www.mixcloud.com/killsaly/dragged-to-hell-favorite-heavymetal-albums-of-2015/
Noisem - Blossoming Decay
Genocide Pact - Forged Through Domination
Cult Leader - Lightless Walk
Corrections House - How to Carry a Whip
Kowloon Walled City - Grievences
Fight Amp - Constantly Off
Kylesa - Exhausting Fire
The Body and Thou - You, Whom I Have Always Hated
Locrian - Infinite Dissolution
Liturgy - the Ark Work

From indie pop, to shoegaze, to experimental, to feminist punk; Baltimore had a solid 2015.  I look forward to seeing what others have enjoyed. 

My 10 Favorite Baltimore releases:
https://www.mixcloud.com/killsaly/dragged-to-hell-2015-baltimore-mix/
Romantic States - Romantic States
Sweepstakes - Tongues Out
Holy Ghost Party - Bayou Music
Blacksage - Basement Vows
Expert Alterations - You Can't Always Be Liked
Natural Velvet - She Is Me
Wildhoney - Sleep Through It
Thrushes - Exposing Seas
War on Women - War On Women
Dope Body - Kunk

1) Charlatans – Modern Nature (beautifully-recorded, superb songs, totally underrated…the one LP I'm not tired of listening to yet)
2) Best Coast – California Nights
3) Wire – Wire
4) Eagles of Death Metal – Zipper Down
5) Peaches – Rub
6) Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
7) Marilyn Manson – The Pale Emperor
8 ) Nicolas Godin – Contrepoint
9) Gaz Coombes – Matador

Honorable mention: Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi (far from great, but the good songs are great)

Biggest disappointment: Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (probably their first outright clunker…I hate it when bands get bored with their sound and then lose everything that's special about them in the first place. The songwriting also suffered too.)

Best reissue: Air – The Virgin Suicides (the live LP alone was worth getting)

Wow, I was going to start this thread today but you beat me to it.

Can we all agree to keep your list at a maximum of 10? After that, most people's eyes start glazing over. Save your list of 50 for your email to your pretend significant other. :D

Here's my top 10, in order:

1. Jason Isbell, Something More than Free
2. Ashley Monroe, The Blade
3. Drive By Truckers, It's Great to Be Alive
4. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
5. New Order, Music Complete
6. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
7. Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass
8. Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
9. Ryan Adams, 1989
10. Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, Django and Jimmy

bearman wrote:
Biggest disappointment: Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (probably their first outright clunker…I hate it when bands get bored with their sound and then lose everything that's special about them in the first place. The songwriting also suffered too.)

I agree about it being a huge disappointment and they got bored with their sound but are we not counting Storytelling as a clunker?

bearman wrote:
Best reissue: Air – The Virgin Suicides (the live LP alone was worth getting)

100% concur. Honorable mention to the Promise Ring first three LP reissues.

killsaly wrote:
Autre Ne Veut - Age of Transparency

Space wrote:
7. Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass

Two of the most under talked-about LPs of year. Great.

Carlos wrote:

bearman wrote:
Biggest disappointment: Belle and Sebastian – Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance (probably their first outright clunker…I hate it when bands get bored with their sound and then lose everything that's special about them in the first place. The songwriting also suffered too.)

I agree about it being a huge disappointment and they got bored with their sound but are we not counting Storytelling as a clunker?

bearman wrote:
Best reissue: Air – The Virgin Suicides (the live LP alone was worth getting)

100% concur. Honorable mention to the Promise Ring first three LP reissues.

I never understood the hate for Storytelling and for Fold Your Hands Child. I think there are some solid tunes on both of them. I look at Storytelling as more like a score than an actual LP worth of album material. It could have made totally solid EP/mini-LP worth of material with some editing. FYHCYWLAP is actually the most underrated B&S record.

bearman wrote:
I never understood the hate for Storytelling and for Fold Your Hands Child. I think there are some solid tunes on both of them. I look at Storytelling as more like a score than an actual LP worth of album material. It could have made totally solid EP/mini-LP worth of material with some editing. FYHCYWLAP is actually the most underrated B&S record.

I give FYHC a pass because it has three of their absolute best songs: Woman's Realm, The Model, and Family Tree. That said, I have to admit half of that album's tracks I would never want to hear again. So I can maybe meet you half way on that LP.

Storytelling, I haven't listened to a track on that in YEARS. Definite clunker status in my book.

Everything Everything ? Get to Heaven
Capsule ? Wave Runner
Grimes ? Art Angels
Erykah Badu ? Buy You Cain?t Use My Phone
Vince Staples ? Summertime?06
The Prodigy ? The Day is My Enemy
Protomartyr - The Agent Intellect
Metz ? II
Cemetary ? Wind & Shadows
Kendrick Lamar ? To Pimp a Butterfly

I'd say this is my list, roughly in order. My biggest issue/challenge was the fact that I listened to Kpop more than any other genre this year, but I was usually listening to my 160 song (and counting) mix. So individual albums didn't really pop out as much. That said, some of them did and I'll probably make a top 10 Kpop albums list that will be of interest to approximately no one.

Space wrote:
Can we all agree to keep your list at a maximum of 10? After that, most people's eyes start glazing over. Save your list of 50 for your email to your pretend significant other. :D

No.

How about you do not post about your wife or child anymore?  Thanks!

I am breaking mine up into small, genre-specific lists.  If you do not want to read them, then do not have to read them.

killsaly wrote:
How about you do not post about your wife or child anymore?  Thanks!

Of all the things Rhett posts about that no one likes, I don't think his wife or child makes the top three.

Carlos wrote:

killsaly wrote:
How about you do not post about your wife or child anymore?  Thanks!

Of all the things Rhett posts about that no one likes, I don't think his wife or child makes the top three.

TAN: spinoff thread for our top 10 lists about Rhett topics we never want to hear again!?

killsaly wrote:

Space wrote:
Can we all agree to keep your list at a maximum of 10? After that, most people's eyes start glazing over. Save your list of 50 for your email to your pretend significant other. :D

No.

How about you do not post about your wife or child anymore?  Thanks!

I am breaking mine up into small, genre-specific lists.  If you do not want to read them, then do not have to read them.

What about what I said do you object to?
If you make a list of 50 albums, it becomes more of an exhaustive list of everything you liked, rather than a list of favorites. Am I wrong?

Relaxer wrote:the fact that I listened to Kpop more than any other genre this year, but I was usually listening to my 160 song (and counting) mix.

Don't you know that Kpop causes cancer and gets you profiled by the NSA

Space wrote:
If you make a list of 50 albums, it becomes more of an exhaustive list of everything you liked, rather than a list of favorites. Am I wrong?

There are no rules in this thread.  I LIKED way more than 50 releases in 2015.  About 200 actually.

So yes, you are wrong. 

Do you see SPIN just list 10 albums on their year end list?  Consequence of Sound?  Pitchfork?  No.

And before you say, "those are organizations, you are but a man"; I run a music blog, so why would I not have a comprehensive list of my favorite music of the year?

If you do not want to read my 10 Favorite hip-hop list or my 20 favorite everything else list, then skip my next post…

Space wrote:
If you make a list of 50 albums, it becomes more of an exhaustive list of everything you liked, rather than a list of favorites. Am I wrong?

I agree with you, actually. The difference, however, is I will just jump to ~#10 on Killsaly's list instead of complaining he had the audacity to list > 10.

killsaly wrote:

Space wrote:
If you make a list of 50 albums, it becomes more of an exhaustive list of everything you liked, rather than a list of favorites. Am I wrong?

There are no rules in this thread.  I LIKED way more than 50 releases in 2015.  About 200 actually.

So yes, you are wrong. 

Do you see SPIN just list 10 albums on their year end list?  Consequence of Sound?  Pitchfork?  No.

And before you say, "those are organizations, you are but a man"; I run a music blog, so why would I not have a comprehensive list of my favorite music of the year?

If you do not want to read my 10 Favorite hip-hop list or my 20 favorite everything else list, then skip my next post…

Of course there are no rules, you can dominate this thread just like you dominate every other music related thread. I would think that people visiting your blog are visiting because of you specifically and might be more keen on reading your exhaustive list. Whereas here it seems it's more of a democracy where people indulge strangers and aquaintences by politely reading their lists.

So I am politely breaking them up into small lists.