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 |
