Here are the highlights from my year in music, in vaguely chronological order.

Sleater-Kinney
My whole year revolved around Sleater-Kinney’s words and guitars. It started in late 2014, as their joyously designed vinyl boxset, Start Together, waited on the porch for me to return from vacation. That box contained a lot of surprises, none more exciting than the unlabeled 7-inch which turned out to be a Sleater-Kinney song I’d never heard before. (I had been in Yosemite, with no access to the internet, so I was spoiler-free.) Two months later there was an incredible new Sleater-Kinney record on my turntable, and three months later I saw the band in person for the first time in almost 15 years and the first of three times in 2015. Those live shows were incredible for a lot of reasons, but I have to single out Corin Tucker’s voice as the most compelling part of their charisma. Each show recalled one of my favorite lyrics from No Cities to Love (from “New Wave”): “Let’s destroy a room with this love.” If you haven’t been bulldozed by Sleater-Kinney in person, you haven’t fully experienced this band’s destructive power. Meanwhile, Carrie Brownstein released Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl, her memoir, which contains some of the best sentences I read this year and reveals a lot about the philosophy at the heart of the band’s integrity. They’ve never been afraid of “taking perfectly normal songs and making them hard to listen to.” Or rather, they were scared, but they did it anyway.

Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop Music)
Lou Reed is back and he’s a 28-year-old from Australia with a wicked sense of humor and a killer back-up group.

Kamasi Washington, The Epic (Brainfeeder)
It’s almost unfair; this is a triple album of jazz augmented by a blistering imagination. The first track is called “Change of the Guard” and that’s what this is. Whatever modern jazz you’ve been listening to for the last 10 years, forget it. This is a line in the sand and Kamasi has left everyone in the dust.

Freddie Gibbs at Pitchfork Music Festival
Years ago, Gibbs stormed the Pitchfork Festival side-stage with a chip on his shoulder and something to prove. This time, a couple thousand 17-year-old white kids were chanting his name as he took to the main stage, backed by the legendary Madlib. Before he even started, he did something he never would have the first time around: he smiled.

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Surf (self-released)
It’s kinda-sorta the new Chance the Rapper album, but he’s just part of the band. This is optimistic, hip-hop-funk-gospel-new-jack-southside experimentation, and celebration music. The band closed out the Pitchfork Music Festival this year and it was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

Four Tet, Morning/Evening (Text Records)
Two tracks: “Morning Side” and “Evening Side.” This is useful music. The “Morning Side,” with its earthy Indian vocals, is invigorating, maintaining a gentle optimism throughout, just right for coffee and yoga to start the day. The “Evening Side” embraces dark blue tones and sharp-edged sounds, suitable mainly for an evening of deep reading, alone at home or maybe dining at a trendy sushi joint. Closer listening reveals the technical brilliance of Hebdan’s looping manipulations, but there’s just as much pleasure to be yielded by simply using the album as directed.

Thundercat
Thundercat (Stephen Bruner) hasn’t been everywhere, but he’s certainly been in a few of the most significant sessions of the past two years, sharing the studio with Erykah Badu, Flying Lotus, Herbie Hancock, Kamasi Washington, and, most importantly, with Kendrick Lamar for To Pimp a Butterfly. Thundercat’s signature sound is part of the DNA of that album, but it’s his sensibility that transformed it. Do a little Googling and you can read about Thundercat blowing Kendrick’s mind with 1970s Miles Davis records. Most every track on Cat’s last LP, Apocalypse, seemed ready for a verse from Kendrick, but that would have absurd before To Pimp a Butterfly was released. Being a part of that album was such huge moment that it’s hard to tell if it brought more attention to Thundercat’s own release or if it completely overshadowed it. Either way, it’s mesmerizing to hear what a song can be when it completely adheres to Bruner’s vision. On the EP Beyond/Where the Giants Roam, Bruner again demonstrates his ability to blend unmatched technical ability with an organic, lived-in feel. Every melody is unexpected and every groove is deeply satisfying. And yes, some of those famous friends (FlyLo, Hancock, Washington) return the favor and make an appearance or two. It’s a bold move halfway through “Lone Wolf and Cub,” the track featuring the most guests, when he decides to fly solo. This time, Thundercat knows whose show it is.

Floating Points, Elaenia (Luaka Bop)
This is the kind of record for which new genres are named. Right now we’re just calling artists like this “producers,” since pure sonic manipulation is as much (or more) a part of their work as rhythm, melody, and harmony. I don’t actually know what Sam Shepherd’s influences are, but here are a few things I hear in this instrumental album: Steve Reich, Aphex Twin, Pink Floyd, and In a Silent Way. I also hear Kieran Hebdan (a.k.a. Four Tet), and that’s who first turned me onto the album (through his Instagram posts about it).

Patti Smith at M Train Book Tour in Ann Arbor, Michigan
At the Michigan stop of her M Train book tour, Patti Smith gave fans what they expected, chiding fans for their terrible questions and being generally cranky about the whole thing. But when she brought out her kids, the punk rock matron turned into any other Midwestern mother who just wants a hug from her 20-something daughter.

Hamilton: Original Broadway Cast Recording (Atlantic Records)
Yes, it’s the hip-hop-and-history musical that Mom and Dad know about from 60 Minutes. That fact that it exists is no surprise to those paying attention to such things. The fact that it’s taken the world by storm like no Broadway show since Rent is astonishing. But don’t be a snob about it; the music is fantastic, and the concepts it’s bringing to the mainstream are even more significant. You can’t afford to see it, so get the record and rap along until it tours the world.

Joanna Newsom, Divers (Drag City Records)
Divers is the densest work Newsom has yet released. The album comes with a packet of photographs backed with the lyrics, but the images are little help. Digging through this collection of artifacts is made more mysterious by all the new sounds she’s added to her palette. You could just sit back and listen, but as always her tender voice begs for care. It’s not easy listening, it’s archaeology.

Kneebody and Daedelus, Kneedelus (Brainfeeder)
Brainfeeder, known largely for the genre-bending exercises of Flying Lotus and Thundercat, got a lot of attention for their jazz releases this year. Kamasi Washington grabbed the well-deserved spotlight, but this late-November collaboration between DJ/producer/inventor Daedelus and eclectic L.A. jazz band Kneebody deserves its own list of accolades. It showcases the range of everyone involved, layering skittering drum machines under wild sax solos, blending Eastern chord changes with cool jazz trumpet lines, and adding atmosphere to everything. The record never sounds like just a collection of tunes, there’s always something more peculiar at work. I think we might call it fusion. Do we still hate that word?

Aesop Rock & Homeboy Sandman, Lice EP (Stones Throw Records)
Nothing like old friends to bring out the best in someone. Aesop Rock and his new buddy Homeboy Sandman revealed this online EP via Twitter in November. It’s hot. The Sandman has always been a guy who seems like he needs to have more fun, and as Ace Rock has taken on more of the producing of his own albums, his rapping has felt more and more constrained. For these five short tracks, though, both dudes let loose. “Katz” is a classic list-diss, packed full of ridiculous thoughts. (“Katzhad better save me a jelly-filled. Katz had better greet me with the theme song from Benny Hill.” “Environmental Studies” suits both lyricists’ styles perfectly. Aesop sounds especially relaxed, probably thanks to the production of Blockhead, one of his longtime collaborators. It’s not the best work either of these high-vocab rappers have recently produced, but those two tracks are among the most immediately satisfying music we’ve heard from them in the last five years.

John Williams’ Score for Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Williams outdid himself, and listening to the score, you can tell he liked this one better, too.