The 50 Best Albums of 2015

Man...I don't know. This was a strange year. It feels like there were a whole lot of "good" to "very good" albums released, but very few "great" to "amazing" ones. The bands or artists who had good momentum leading into their third or fourth albums, seemed to rise to the challenge to make some great records. Some elders showed they could still hold their own, making better than expected records. Then there were some new kids who made some positive noise, and it will be interesting over the next couple years to see what they do with it.

For my part, I started the year once again hoping to focus my listening, by not throwing the net so wide. I listen to less music than some people, but more music than most people. I have become increasingly adept at hearing something quickly and knowing if it is going to work out for me, and moving along. That is not to say some albums don't grow on me in due course, but more than in previous years, there were so many albums this year that my ears thought were cool for a good time...just not a long time. Hence why this fun little project sees us back at a Top 50 this year versus a Top 100. 

Generally speaking, I feel comfortable that my sequencing and ranking methodology up to 50 with any pop culture list, works well and mostly without too much bias or outside influence. After 50, it can get a bit dodgy. So the fact that I really only truly liked about 70 albums this year, made it tricky to get down to 50, but pretty easy to stay inside 100. 

As always, melody, harmony, song craft, attention to detail and listenability generally make these albums winners for me. I could have thrown in a few metal and hip-hop albums I liked in 2015 I suppose, but it would have been disingenuous and only served the purpose of optically balancing the list. Plain and simple, I like well put together songs. They can be guitar songs or synth songs. They can be fuzzy, heavy, or jangly. They can be dreamy, gothy, mathy, quirky or bouncy. 

All I really ever want to hear from an album, are a bunch songs where somewhere cared, someone was honest, and someone gave something a try.

	Artist	Title
50	Ghost Culture	Ghost Culture
49	Metz	II
48	Protomartyr	The Agent Intellect
47	Local H	Hey Killer
46	The Cribs	For All My Sisters
45	Mercury Rev	The Light In You
44	Gaz Coombes	Matador
43	Dave Gahan & Soulsavers	Angels and Ghosts
42	Grimes	Art Angels
41	The Charlatans	Modern Nature
40	New Order	Music Complete
39	PINS	Wild Nights
38	Battles	La Di Da Di
37	Sleater-Kinney	No Cities To Love
36	Godspeed You! Black Emperor	Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress
35	Susanne Sundfor	Ten Love Songs
34	Built To Spill	Untethered Moon
33	Peace	Happy People
32	Low	Ones and Sixes
31	Swervedriver	I Wasn't Born to Love You
30	Veruca Salt	Ghost Notes
29	Tuxedo	Tuxedo
28	Little Boots	Working Girl
27	Blur	The Magic Whip
26	Young Galaxy	Falsework
25	Beach House	Depression Cherry
24	Surfer Blood	1000 Palms
23	Beach House	Thank Your Lucky Stars
22	Yukon Blonde	On Blonde
21	The Libertines	Anthems For Doomed...
20	Wolf Alice	My Love Is Cool
19	Errors	Lease Of Life
18	Kurt Vile	b'lieve i'm goin down...
17	Telekinesis	Ad infinitum
16	Dan Deacon	Gliss Riffer
15	Foals	What Went Down
14	Viet Cong	Viet Cong
13	The Dears	Times Infinity - Volume One
12	Crocodiles	Boys
11	Girls Names	Arms Around A Vision
10	Bjork	Vulnicura
9	Panda Bear	Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
8	Dutch Uncles	O Shudder
7	Tame Impala	Currents
6	Hot Chip	Why Make Sense?
5	Ceremony	The L-Shaped Man
4	EZTV	Calling Out
3	Lower Dens	Escape From Evil
2	Everything Everything	Get To Heaven
1	Mikal Cronin	MCIII