A few more thoughts before getting down to the list. I doubt there will be few surprises, since most of the records have already featured countless times in more well-read lists than this one. There is no pretense about picking the more obscure releases (although see my Honourable Mentions). However, I will try to justify my selections, and I hope that this will provide an interesting slant for some readers. Enjoy at your leisure!
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10. Low - Ones And Sixes
First up in my top ten is what seems like the 20th record by Low. I've followed Low for a long time, and it's a real testament to the band that they've been able to produce such a strong album after so many years and so many solid records without changing anything major. Don't get me wrong, for all the plaudits I've never considered Low amongst the upper echelons of my favourite artists - their mid-2000s output didn't click with me much, and while I liked the odd song from 2011's C'mon and thought 2013's The Invisible Way was a return to form, they haven't pulled up any trees for quite some time. Ones And Sixes takes all the classic Low ingredients but brings with it a renewed directness and urgency that is utterly invigorating. For this reason I think it comes close to surpassing both their debut record, I Could Live In Hope (1994), and the more accessible Things We Lost In The Fire (2001). What's more it gets better, track by track, from the building power of opener 'Gentle' to its closing moments.
9. Dungen - Allas Sak
Like Low, Dungen have been around for some time, and it feels like almost as long since they produced a truly great record - with 2004's Ta Det Lugnt still regarded as the defining moment by many. I'm ashamed to say that I came close to leaving their previous two releases in a charity bin on the eve of this release - two records that had disappointed because I wanted another Ta Det Lugnt and was unable to appreciate them on their own merits - that is until I heard this. Allas Sak is a real breath of fresh air. While its charms aren't obvious unless you're a died in the wool fan of late 60s and early 70s psychedelia (I'm not), I found there to be real substance here - also keeping in mind that I don't understand a word of the band's native Swedish. The first track to hook me was the instrumental 'Flickor Och Pojkar', before I came to appreciate the gorgeous 'En Gang Om Aret', by which time the entire record had me under its spell.
8. Julia Holter - Have You In My Wilderness
I had high hopes of this album, and despite initial disappointment, here it is sitting pretty in eighth place. Let's get the negatives out of the way first - I found the pacing of the album to be awkward at first, with the longer and slower tracks dissipating the record's momentum, and I also thought a couple of tracks were needlessly irritating, notably the 'uh-oh' ridden 'Betsy On The Roof'. However, these discomforts quickly faded after repeated listens, with every track sounding better and better. While I still prefer 2012's Ekstasis, the sheer quality and subtlety of this record are too great to for it to be excluded from my top ten, and 'Night Song' must be one of the best tracks I've heard all year.
7. Jessica Pratt - On Your Own Love Again
I had not heard of Jessica Pratt at the beginning of the year, but the discovery of On Your Own Love Again forced me to track down her debut album very shortly afterwards. Listening to her latest release, it is hard to come to terms with the fact that the album came out in 2015 and not 1975 - the record would almost make more sense as a long lost masterpiece that's only just come to light. At slightly over 31 minutes, this album is a tightly packed and carefully-crafted gem. While Pratt's lyrics and voice paint her as a kind of gentle and fey outsider, the tracks are far more confident and self-assured than on her 2013 self-titled debut. Songs like 'Game That I Play', and the closing pair, 'Back, Baby' and 'On Your Own Love Again' ooze class, and suggest much to look forward to in the future.
6. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden Of Delete
As a long-time fan of OPN, aside from the excellent Replica (2011), I've always been most disposed towards his first trio of albums reissued on the Rifts compilation (2007-09), which are essentially essays in Tangerine Dream-esque synthesizer music. Since then he's reinvented his sound on each successive release, and GOD is no exception. This time there is a kind of distorted pop music mentality at the heart of the album, subject to the usual OPN barrage of weird electronic effects and juxtapositions. This all works surprisingly well - the result is at once a record that is OPN's most accessible as well as his most bizarre. While some of his albums have left me cold (2010's Returnal) or mostly lukewarm (2013's R Plus Seven), this one is oddly alluring from start to finish.
5. Holly Herndon - Platform
Staying with electronic music, Holly Herndon's Platform manages to edge into my final five of 2015. There are many stylistic similarities between this album and the last three or so by Oneohtrix Point Never, but I prefer this one for its sonic clarity, its use of vocals and vocal effects, and its underlying message - all exemplified on one of my favourite songs, 'Unequal'. While thoroughly innovative and enjoyable, in different places this record also inspires contemplation and evokes sadness, which for me raise it above most of the other releases I've heard this year. Although many will find the music simply too weird and disjointed to give this record a proper chance, Platform is easily more accessible than Herndon's debut Movement (2012), and deserves serious attention.
4. Beach House - Depression Cherry / Thank Your Lucky Stars
No doubt cynics will see this as a ruse to include an extra album in my top ten... So let me first make something of a defence. In the first place, I genuinely feel that both records deserved top ten status on their individual merits. Secondly, I'm mindful of other bands who have managed to release two albums simultaneously and have them lumped together in end-of-year lists. Lastly, and most importantly, I'm intrigued by the idea of re-writing history and wondering how these albums would have been received if they had been released together, and not a few weeks apart. Obvious parallels would then include Deerhunter's Microcastle/Weird Era Cont., M83's Hurry Up We're Dreaming, and even Joanna Newsom's Have One On Me. Putting the boot on the other foot, while these are all excellent double (or triple) albums, had they been released on single discs I can't help wonder if their fanfare would have been a lot more muted - all three of them have weaker moments that tend to be dwarfed by their sheer size as artistic statements. Likewise, I also wonder that if Beach House had put these two out as a double album, the collected content would have been far better received... Anyway, in my eyes 2015 was a great year for Beach House. They have managed to follow-up two stellar albums in Teen Dream and Bloom with another two in the space of a year that more than adequately complement their repertoire. Good music does not have to be innovating all the time.
3. Tame Impala - Currents
Unlike the apparent majority for whom Lonerism represents Tame Impala at their peak, I can confidently state that Currents is my preferred album by the Antipodean
2. Björk - Vulnicura
Second place in my top ten goes to another break-up record, this time documenting a divorce, and one seemingly from the perspective of someone witnessing their world and family fall apart around them. As one might expect, such an album is harrowing at times, and in this case the songs are presented in order of events as they took place. If Tame Impala's Currents is a celebration of breaking out of the cage of an unhappy relationship, Vulnicura deals with the anger, deep loss, and mourning of a once-cherished partnership. This is without doubt the best Björk album since Medúlla and possibly even Vespertine, which was my personal favourite. As a bonus, Björk also released Vulnicura Strings, which is effectively the same album re-ordered and stripped down to vocals and the string-section. While this second release lacks the same impact as the original, for a handful of tracks their rawness is enhanced by this simpler treatment, so it is well worth checking out if you liked the main release.
1. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
As I write this I'm conscious of a recent article that humorously predicted what kinds of things a person's number one album of 2015 said about them. Since Carrie & Lowell deals with the death of Sufjan Steven's less than ideal mother (at least in some key areas of parenting, like not abandoning your child in a shop), surely this record can only be held in such esteem if someone else had the same feelings and experiences relating to their own (dead) mother?! Not at all. Carrie & Lowell is the number one record of 2015 for me, not in this case through some kind of shared experience, but rather because of Sufjan's innate ability to communicate the depth of his own feelings in a highly affective manner. Listening to Carrie & Lowell is a positively cathartic experience, ultimately evoking an overwhelming optimism in the face of confronting inherently personal human frailties and weaknesses. While 'Fourth Of July' reminds us repeatedly that 'we're all gonna die', in the context of the album this comes as a call to make the most of the time that we have, rather than give in to despair.
I hope you enjoyed the music of 2015 as much as me. Wishing everyone a Happy New Year, and see you soon with more posts in 2016!
