Paste's 25 Best Albums of 2015 (So Far)

Paste's 25 Best Albums of 2015 (So Far)

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25.

Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment - Surf
May 29, 2015
Critic Score
82
18 reviews

Surf is an album that further pushes modern hip hop into bold new frontiers.

24.

The Lowest Pair - The Sacred Heart Sessions
February 24, 2015
Critic Score
85
1 review

With their bare-bones instrumentation and country-inspired, heartstring-tugging narratives, The Lowest Pair might be one of the best under-the-radar Americana duos today.

23.

Madisen Ward & The Mama Bear - Skeleton Crew
May 19, 2015
Critic Score
70
2 reviews

22.

The Lone Bellow - Then Came The Morning
January 27, 2015
Critic Score
69
5 reviews

Most of Then Came the Morning shows a confident band stepping more fully into a compelling sound.

21.

Tobias Jesso Jr. - Goon
March 17, 2015
Critic Score
79
26 reviews

Goon is mostly excellent slow songs about heartbreak, about the fear of failure, about losing your direction and hoping to find it. 

20.

Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
April 21, 2015
Critic Score
78
28 reviews

Foil Deer never seems out of focus. Dupuis’ voice as a songwriter is growing more captivating with every release, her songs’ direction streamlined without growing predictable.

18.

Braids - Deep in the Iris
April 28, 2015
Critic Score
73
20 reviews
This is the album that finally cements Braids’ role within Montreal’s accomplished indie artists and Raphaelle Standell-Preston as one of the most uniquely artistic forces in music today.

17.

Jamie xx - In Colour
June 1, 2015
Critic Score
83
45 reviews

16.

Guantanamo Baywatch - Darling... It's Too Late
May 12, 2015
Critic Score
66
3 reviews

If you’ve been searching for your perfect summer soundtrack for 2015, you may look no further.

15.

JD McPherson - Let the Good Times Roll
February 10, 2015
Critic Score
79
8 reviews

Rock ’n’ roll has a knack for brute force, but these songs are never less than nimble, always full of electricity and a steady barometer of unfailing good taste.

14.

Florence + The Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
June 2, 2015
Critic Score
77
39 reviews

The 11 songs on Beautiful resonate in a deeper way by varying the sonic palette and focusing her words inward.

13.

Twerps - Range Anxiety
January 27, 2015
Critic Score
71
18 reviews

Range Anxiety is a great guitar record for people who love the guitar but not in the way that Guitar Center people love the guitar.

12.

Natalie Prass - Natalie Prass
January 27, 2015
Critic Score
83
24 reviews
It is the debut of a songwriter not struggling to find a voice, but fully formed and confident as all hell.

11.

The Decemberists - What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
January 20, 2015
Critic Score
73
35 reviews
While an overarching theme is largely absent on this album, it’s instead filled with 14 stand-alone folk-pop songs that show their fluency in a multitude of pop genres and styles.

10.

Dwight Yoakam - Second Hand Heart
April 14, 2015
Critic Score
83
8 reviews

Even if Yoakam is still using his songs to sift through the wreckage of broken relationships’ past, he’s doing it with a still-blazing fire in his belly and a huge grin barely hidden underneath his Stetson.

9.

Hop Along - Painted Shut
May 5, 2015
Critic Score
82
15 reviews

Although Hop Along’s lyrical content can be heavy at times, Painted Shut’s tracks are well-balanced between catchy indie pop with an edge and more discordant fare.

8.

Leon Bridges - Coming Home
June 23, 2015
Critic Score
76
23 reviews

Coming Home, however unintentionally, represents the spiritual cleansing and soulful healing we need right now. It’s the sound of an era where civil rights seemed so desperate, but progress also felt in reach.

7.

The Mountain Goats - Beat the Champ
April 7, 2015
Critic Score
74
23 reviews

It’s an artistic success as a literary exercise, and as a wrestling fan it’s hugely gratifying to see a serious artist that I’ve enjoyed for decades take wrestling seriously.

6.

Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color
April 21, 2015
Critic Score
79
35 reviews

Sound & Color is a daring and deliberate record, and its greatest success stems from the band’s complete defiance with its choices.

5.

Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love
January 20, 2015
Critic Score
89
46 reviews
In just 10 songs and a little over 30 minutes, Sleater-Kinney does so much more than revive an old band. They craft an argument for having improved in its absence.

4.

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
March 31, 2015
Critic Score
91
47 reviews

Carrie & Lowell is a demonstration of why Stevens sings songs, of why we listen to songs: to feel less alone, to make sense of the things that are hardest to make sense of. Hopefully it proves as rewarding to the singer as it is for his audience.

3.

Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
March 24, 2015
Critic Score
84
44 reviews

By channeling her anxiety into wonderful, shaggy, relatable and supremely catchy songs, she’s made Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit one of the most compulsively listenable albums to come out so far this year.

1.

Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
February 10, 2015
Critic Score
87
42 reviews

Honeybear thrives on the knife’s edge of that enigmatic split personality, as he attempts to reconcile the love-swept optimist with the world-weary wise-ass.

Original Source: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2015/07/the-25-best-albums-of-2015-so-far.html
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