I always like to wait until the actual year is over before creating my annual mixtape, mostly because I think it's dumb to review something that isn't completed yet. This is also why I post my annual mixtape track listing about 3 weeks after anyone would actually care, but I like it so here we are.
I don't know if it was because I was paying more attention this year, but I thought 2015 was a pretty darn good year for music, so much so in fact that I actually created two ancillary lists for Dance Music and Cover songs (I'll be posting those later) One big difference this year is that as far as top 40 pop goes, it was a pretty down year for me. Justin Bieber came back, Fetty Wap and Silento happened, and people still like Drake for some reason. I still can't decide if Trap Queen or Hotline Bling is the bigger crime against humanity, but if anyone has a deep need to punish me for some reason, a Drake/Fetty Wap concert would be my personal version of hell. Anyway, let's talk about music I liked before I fall into a rage spiral. This is the internet after all and civility matters.
My top 10 albums of 2015 (except for #1, order is pretty arbitrary)
1. Nightwish - Endless Forms, Most Beautiful: My favorite female vocalist joined my favorite metal band and they made a concept album about science and evolution, complete with a 24 min opus with nature sounds and narration by Richard freaking Dawkins. I also got to see them in concert and it was amazing!
2. Meghan Trainor - Title: this was probably the most played album in my household this year. Delightful pop goodness
3. The Decemberists - What a Terrible world, What a Beautiful World: Everything I love about this band was condensed into this one album. Special shout out to "Philomena" for being one of those songs you hum along to for a long time before you realize just how dirty it is.
4. Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats: This self titled debut album is fantastic throwback blues and R&B with a modern twist
5. Leon Bridges - Coming Home: Speaking of throwbacks, Leon Bridges may be the closest my generation will ever get to a voice like Sam Cooke
6. Adele - 25: This one took me a few listens, but I'm starting to think it could be her best work yet.
7. The Arcs - Yours, Dreamily: If the Black Keys took more downers and listened to a lot of early rock and roll, this is what I think you'd get.
8. Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful: Florence made a new album, it was awesome, what more do you need from me?
9. Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material: Kacey continues to write clever, usually playful country songs for people who don't like country.
10. Chris Stapleton - Traveller: Don't let the Country label fool you, this is a bluesy, southern rock gem.
Honorable Mention: Various Artists - We Love Disney: Pop stars covering Disney songs shouldn't be as enjoyable as this is. Most of the Artists really put their own spin on the songs and it feels like something they did for fun first, paycheck second.
OFFICIAL 2015 MIXTAPE
1. I NEED NEVER GET OLD - NATHANIEL RATELIFF & THE NIGHT SWEATS: A pulsing drum beat and guitar riff slowly build to reveal the horn section and the classic R&B vocals
2. SMOOTH SAILIN' - LEON BRIDGES: while track one has a rough, aggressive style, this song is smooth as silk, and the saxophone solos make up for everything the 1980s eighties did to that instrument.
3. LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL - JD MCPHERSON: Sticking with the classic theme, this songs feels like it time warped out of the 50s. If you don't feel like dancing when you hear it, I can't be friends with you.
4. VELVET DITCH - THE ARCS: This is one of those songs that feels like it belongs in a Quentin Tarantino Movie, it wears it references on it's sleeve but still stays it's own thing. If you needed to make a song that stole inspiration from about 5 different decades while still being cohesive, this is what I would play for you.
5. GIMMEE ALL YOUR LOVE - ALABAMA SHAKES: What if Led Zeppelin wrote a song that was sung by a female with a bluesy powerhouse of a voice that can rival the raw emotion of Robert Plant? If you like to intermix your soft moments with blasts of pure emotion, this is for you.
6. TENNESSEE WHISKEY - CHRIS STAPLETON: This ballad is a soulful blues gem. The guy may write more country hits than I can shake a stick at, but his vocal approach reminds me much more of a Stevie Ray Vaughan, but better.
7. RIVER LEA - ADELE: Adele is back! And her best song hasn't even been released as a single yet! Quick, enjoy it before it gets used in every commercial for TV dramas trying to make you think their show is deep and mysterious.
8. WHAT KIND OF MAN - FLORENCE + THE MACHINE: I had a hard time picking my favorite Florence song this year, but in the end, the energy change one minute in is too much fun to deny. Every time I hear it, I want to crank my car stereo and floor the accelerator...
9. I LIKE IT HEAVY - HALESTORM: ....Which is good because this song is built for going 80 on the freeway. They also get the award for most quintessential rock n' roll lyric of the year "Hallelujah Mother****** Take Me to Church!!!" Come for the hard rock, stay for the beautiful a capella solo at the end.
10. NOT MY TIME - SPECTRA 2015 SINGERS: I know absolutely nothing about this group, and given their name, I'm so scared they're from some reality competition or something, but I really, really like this song.* I'm a sucker for a driving beat and a singable vocal with random Indian influences and weird chanting. *Update: I looked it up and it's a Canadian Song for Cancer Survivors and proceeds went to charity, all good things.
11. BETTER NOT WAKE THE BABY - THE DECEMBERISTS: Like I said, I'm a sucker for a song with a driving, stomping feel that I can sing along too.
12. RUN LIKE THE RIVER - VINTAGE TROUBLE: driving beat, check. singable chorus with gospel choir, check. classic blues rock, check. Rip off Led Zeppelin in a riff solo? I will allow it.
13. FEEL RIGHT - MARK RONSON ft. MYSTIKAL: This is what I imagine it feels like to be Samuel L. Jackson almost everyday. Also, whenever I hear Mystikal's voice, I can only picture WWE wrestler/comedic genius/national treasure R Truth.
14. BROKE - JASON DERULO, KEITH URBAN, STEVIE WONDER: This song shouldn't work given the people involved, but it turns out that when you drop a beat behind a country guitar and Stevie's harmonica and add Jason's capable R&B voice, it really works. It also helps that a hip-hop harmonica breakdown is on my list of favorite things ever.
15. WALKASHAME - MEGHAN TRAINOR: Another homage to the early days of rock n roll and pop. I'm starting to sense a theme here. It's almost like I grew up listening to oldies or something... thanks mom and dad!
16. BISCUITS - KACEY MUSGRAVES: If the essence of the serenity prayer was a bouncy country sing along, it would sound like this.
17. RIDE THAT LIGHTNING - CHRIS HADFIELD: foot stomping beat, sing along chorus, now with handclaps and boogie woogie piano!!!
18. THE EVERLASTING MUSE - BELLE & SEBASTIAN: This was one of those songs that you don't expect much from at first. It begins like the background music in a Disaronno commercial, until the song makes a left turn into a Gypsy wedding or something, and then shifts back and forth between the two styles. It's quirky and weird and I love it.
19. ALPENGLOW - NIGHTWISH: Time for a heavy metal break, but with an orchestra and Floor Jansen's gorgeous vocals.
20. NEARLY FORGOT MY BROKEN HEART - CHRIS CORNELL: The best singer from the grunge era made a mostly acoustic record this year, and the result was my favorite work of his in about 20 years.
21. 1,2,3,4 - ALAN DOYLE ft. ED ROBERTSON: What? You didn't think I would find an Irish Pub rock song and NOT put it on this list did you? Foot stomps and sing alongs, it's almost all I want out of life.
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