10. Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style (Matador Records)<\/strong> 9. Young Thug, Barter 6 (300 Entertainment)<\/strong> 8. Grimes, Art Angels (4AD)<\/strong> 7. Janet Jackson, Unbreakable (Rhythm Nation)<\/strong> 6. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear (Sub Pop Records)<\/strong> 5. Dick Diver, Melbourne, Florida (Chapter Music\/Trouble in Mind)<\/strong> 4. Kendrick Lamar,\u00a0 To Pimp a Butterfly (Interscope Records)<\/strong> 3. Salad Boys, Metalmania (Trouble in Mind)<\/strong> 2. Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion (Interscope Records)<\/strong> 1. Vince Staples, Summertime \u201906 (Def Jam Recordings)<\/strong> 20. Jeremih, Late Nights (Def Jam Recordings) Top 10 Albums 10. Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style (Matador Records) Given the dearth of rock records on this year’s list, it’s easy to assume we need more guys like 22 year-old Will Toledo in our lives. Teens of Style is a spark of an album, like Is This It?, On the Mouth, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2479],"tags":[1541,1545,1194,1546,1514,1547,1057,1434,1544,1548],"class_list":["post-4162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-best-of-the-year","tag-car-seat-headrest","tag-carly-rae-jepsen","tag-dick-diver","tag-father-john-misty","tag-grimes","tag-janet-jackson","tag-kendrick-lamar","tag-salad-boys","tag-vince-staples","tag-young-thug"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nGiven the dearth of rock records on this year’s list, it’s easy to assume we need more guys like 22 year-old Will Toledo in our lives. Teens of Style<\/i> is a spark of an album, like Is This It?<\/i>, On the Mouth<\/i>, or Slanted and Enchanted<\/i>. It has an immediacy so profound you know you\u2019ll start it over even before it ends. Toledo has amassed a lifetime of work in just a half-decade, and with Teens<\/i>, he\u2019s sorted out the best. It\u2019s thick with hooks and Beach Boys\u2013on-Adderol harmonies and is completely earnest, even embarrassingly so, when it needs to be. Not flawless, but that\u2019s part of the charm.<\/p>\n
\nWhen I started compiling a fun list of singles from the year, I found a noticeable trend: Young Thug, the Atlanta-based hip-hop shapeshifter, was featured on about half. He\u2019s the Bob Pollard of rap, capable of creating his own language and writing songs in sigils and illustrations. My high school students loved him about 16 months ago, when he was just a \u201cStoner.\u201d Now, they\u2019ve turned their back on him and moved on. Is he too esoteric or absurd to survive in any of the new outre formats hip-hop has adopted? That he\u2019s indefinable makes Barter 6<\/i> all the better. It\u2019s the cool condensation of his negative chi changing into a vaporous mix of mythical language and infectious, barely there, in sonic baubles. This feels like the portal to Thug\u2019s next level.<\/p>\n
\nClaire Boucher herself has used \u201cA.D.D.\u201d to describe the music of Grimes. Thus, it\u2019s been hard for her not to flit between the many post-modern genres that fuel her subconscious. Art Angels<\/i>, then, is a statement that declares her universe is of her own design. She doesn\u2019t quite fit anywhere, and she is autonomous to the nth degree. Between K-Pop excursions, avant hip-hop beats, weirdo folk interludes, maximalist pop, and electric guitars, the album represents her artistic vision as euphoric amalgam of styles without borders. Where before Grimes bore a slight redundancy or an ephemeral flimsiness, Art Angels<\/i> posits the young songwriter as terrestrial, confident, and unafraid to bend the limits of pop music to her liking. Art Angels<\/i> is a blueprint to where music is headed, like it or not.<\/p>\n
\nSurprisingly, Janet Jackson has never written a song along the lines of Aretha Franklin\u2019s \u201cRespect,\u201d and she will eternally be the second most adored Jackson of the empire. Which is a shame, because in 2015, when the world did not expect much from Ms. Jackson, she released Unbreakable<\/i>, an album brimming with apex-quality Janet in its deep cuts and grooves. A big component in the revival is the impeccable production from Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, the all-star team behind her big records, Control<\/i> and Rhythm Nation 1814<\/i>. Not only do they provide a bit of nostalgia, but push Janet along into some new territory that still sounds uniquely Janet. That it\u2019s showing up on many year-end lists is proof that, in a industry devoid of MTV and the mechanisms that brought Janet to power, she\u2019s still capable of making a record that\u2019s relevant.<\/p>\n
\nFile under this year\u2019s post-collegiate folkie crooner who is actually as good as the hype. I can recite most of this like dive-bar poetry or something I\u2019d text to an ex.<\/p>\n
\nPapas Fritas and Gorky\u2019s Zygotic Mynci references will only make sense to those who were college radio deejays in the mid-90s, but they\u2019re apt when listening to Dick Diver’s third album, the languid and beautiful Melbourne, Florida<\/i>. Previously, the band dabbled in standard Aussie pop (two years ago Calendar Days<\/i> was a winner in that category), but quirk and majesty propel these songs to another level entirely. From folk that veers towards Steely Dan (\u201cPrivate Number\u201d) to The Fall\u2013meets-Tall Dwarfs pounce of \u201cBeat Me Up,\u201d the LP never quite sits still stylistically, yet there\u2019s nothing but style in these simple compositions.<\/p>\n
\nNot much left for me to say. I think Kendrick\u2019s opus (for now) is an essential text, as dense and enlightening as Fear of a Black Planet<\/i> and perhaps more important these days. I taught this in an English class, so I suppose it\u2019s the Faulkner novel of the 2015 hip-hop renaissance.<\/p>\n
\nThat the Salad Boys are everything a classic New Zealand trio should sound like is almost a detriment to the transcendent songs that comprise Metalmania<\/i>. They hail from Christchurch, back up the legendary David Kilgour when touring the homeland, and pack enough bittersweet, wandering guitar jangle into their music that they may as well be the second coming of The Clean. But somewhere a sense of modernity jars them to their senses, and the riffs get sharp, purposefully melodic, and urgent\u2014all qualities that run counter to their brethren. Metalmania<\/i> is not merely homage, it\u2019s the natural evolution of \u201cTally Ho\u201d to how these NZ kids think it should sound in 2015.<\/p>\n
\nThe iTunes don\u2019t lie. Emotion<\/i> is, according to stats, the album I listened to the most in 2015. There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure; it\u2019s a sparkling pop gem. Supposedly Jepsen recorded upwards of 40 songs in the making of Emotion<\/i>, cut it down to 18, and put 12 on the proper album. It\u2019s perhaps the first pop album of the new millennium that demands a boxset down the road. The album stands at the crossroads of the wide spectrum of glossy mega-pop\u2014Quarterflash, Duran Duran, Max Martin, Blood Orange\u2014where nostalgia and innovation collide.<\/p>\n
\nIn a year that I\u2019m tempted to call the new golden age of hip-hop, Vince Staples trumps Kendrick. The message might be construed as lesser, but the visceral impact, both thematically and sonically, is hands down more poignant and innovative. In a year when \u201cCompton\u201d is the hashtag, Staples makes his Crip-tainted narratives vital. But it\u2019s not gang- or squad-centric; it\u2019s ex-shooter, ex-Crip. It\u2019s something CNN (still) doesn\u2019t talk about. It\u2019s still happening and Staples nailed it to wax. This album is like one of those warped bass cassettes from \u201987 or Death Certificate<\/i> from the bottom of a well or the future without Future or pop when revolutionary nihilism reigns.<\/p>\nThe Next 10<\/h4>\n
\n19. EZTV, Calling Out (Captured Tracks)
\n18. Dawn Richard, Blackheart (Our Dawn Entertainment)
\n17. Tobias Jesso Jr, Goon (Arts & Crafts)
\n16. Bj\u00f6rk, Vulnicura (One Little Indian Records)
\n15. Jamie XX, In Colour (Young Turks)
\n14. Ultimate Painting, Green Lanes (Trouble in Mind)
\n13. Empress Of, Me (Terrible Records)
\n12. Deerhunter, Fading Frontier (4AD)
\n11. Kamasi Washinton, The Epic (Brainfeeder)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"