2015 was a fantastic year for music. This list is nowhere near exhaustive, but highlights five of my favorite records of the year.
1. Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens
This one shouldn’t surprise anyone. It’s no doubt at the top of many end-of-year lists, but that’s for good reason. Stevens created his most powerful record yet with Carrie & Lowell. Treading the same ground as the legendary whisper-quiet singer/songwriter Elliott Smith, Stevens works through the tragedy of his mother’s death. Perhaps even more tragic is the fact that Steven’s mother abandoned the family when he was a baby. This record is full of raw emotion and pure realness.
2. Peripheral Vision - Turnover
One of the year’s trends was pop punk and emo bands changing genre’s entirely. Turnover was perhaps the most successful at this with their album Peripheral Vision. The band left behind their traditional pop punk sound for indie dream pop that would fit nicely alongside bands like DIIV and Real Estate. Both the guitar and vocal melodies are spot on and make for some of the catchiest tunes of the year. Emotional, gorgeous and memorable.
3. I Love You Honeybear - Father John Misty
Father John Misty has become a favorite in my music collection. His debut album Fear Fun perfectly blended indie folk with country tinged instrumentation a la The Band. I Love You Honeybear took this sound to even wilder places. While this album serves as a love letter to singer J. TIllman’s wife, it’s difficult to discern whether the album is a love letter or hate mail to the city of Los Angeles, where the TIllmans abide.
4. Holding Hands With Jamie - Girl Band
It would have been easy to assume this band’s moniker to be literal since 2015 saw the rise of female-composed indie rock such as Girlpool and Hop Along, however this post-punk outfit took the irony route with their name. Girl Band are fairly new to the scene, having only released a handful of EP’s and singles over the past few years. Holding Hands With Jamie is loud, off-kilter and utterly unique. Rather than resting on the established sounds of Post Punk from yesteryear, the band takes the genre in new directions, mixing uber-distorted guitars with equally distorted synths.
5. Coming Home - Leon Bridges
I am definitely no expert on R&B and soul music, but I know quality music when I hear it. Just last year, Dallas, Texas native Leon Bridges was playing Open Mic nights and shows at coffee shops, and now he has a Grammy nomination. The young musician channels the likes of legends such as James Brown. His booming voice sounds as if it comes from an older soul. Bridges’ songwriting is on point and pretty much every track would have smashed in 1965. This young gun shows the power of skilled musicianship and heartfelt lyrics.
