Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2015

Consequence of Sound's Top 50 Albums of 2015

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50.

October 23, 2015
Critic Score
89
43 reviews

The album winds up feeling like the first in Newsom’s catalog that won’t be considered a classic, but it’s proof that a sturdy, thought-provoking, and rewarding record doesn’t necessarily need to stand next to her past work to find its own greatness.

49.

White Reaper - White Reaper Does It Again
July 17, 2015
Critic Score
74
15 reviews

Few acts ever manage to bottle up that crude energy on record — sorry, Palma Violets — and yet White Reaper Does It Again brims with spit and sweat.

48.

Angel Haze - Back to the Woods
September 14, 2015
Critic Score
79
5 reviews

47.

October 16, 2015
Critic Score
78
23 reviews

With Are You Alone?, Devon Welsh and Majical Cloudz find a way to exist within that gray, to thrive in it, to acknowledge the mortality and the chaos and the gray, and reach out a hand.

46.

September 4, 2015
Critic Score
73
27 reviews

Despite a penchant for excess, FIDLAR never fully commits to one extreme, and the most interesting parts of Too come when the band struggles to contextualize the royal mess that is their lives.

45.

May 26, 2015
Critic Score
74
30 reviews

While this record certainly echoes the who’s who of designer brands name-dropped on Long.Live.ASAP, A.L.L.A is Rocky’s “locked in the studio with a sheet of acid” record.

44.

May 5, 2015
Critic Score
82
15 reviews

In short, the band has range, and Painted Shut is often rewarding musically.

43.

May 12, 2015
Critic Score
80
11 reviews
Whether you’re walking the streets with a broken heart or raging in a cramped studio apartment, whether you lean more toward dense, abrasive power electronics or dark, airy ambience, Fernow sees where you’re coming from.

42.

June 23, 2015
Critic Score
78
22 reviews

The quartet’s debut album, Feels Like, is simultaneously youthful and weary, its bubblegum melodies punctured by Bognanno’s stark lyrics and abraded voice.

41.

June 2, 2015
Critic Score
77
39 reviews

With HBHBHB, Welch has added a considerable amount of feeling to her catalog, and it should go down as one of the year’s most well-crafted personal statements.

40.

July 17, 2015
Critic Score
78
19 reviews

DS2 is his strongest campaign yet, and it’s the first time a new Future album has met all expectations.

39.

March 24, 2015
Critic Score
84
44 reviews
Barnett clearly doesn’t always take herself or her surroundings seriously, but that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have serious things to say about both.

38.

September 25, 2015
Critic Score
77
35 reviews

It should come as no surprise that follow-up b’lieve i’m goin down… finds Vile continuing to self-deprecate, amble, and sigh, despite the new tier of success. Neither should it be a surprise that all those qualities remain entirely charming.

37.

July 17, 2015
Critic Score
69
29 reviews

The precise beauty of their production work, specifically the refusal to dump gratuitous instruments into the mix, places Magnifique at the top of Ratatat’s catalogue. Stroud and Mast let guitars beat at the album’s heart, and their balance of bubbly and peaceful elements ushers a return too fluid to ignore.

36.

April 21, 2015
Critic Score
79
35 reviews

The tinted and tightly paced sophomore effort Sound & Color is an alluring musical rainbow that sets Alabama Shakes apart from niche throwbacks.

35.

October 16, 2015
Critic Score
79
40 reviews

At nine songs and just over 36 minutes, Fading Frontier is a filler-free opus of experimental rock splendor that never lags and always intrigues. It’s pretty sharp for a noise or garage rock album with sleek bass lines and vibrant electronic add-ons. 

34.

November 20, 2015
Critic Score
77
24 reviews

The relative sparseness of melody makes Mutant slipperier than much of Arca’s older work, but the way he’s able to use texture and rhythm as his primary tools of progression is worth the patience it asks of us.

33.

June 2, 2015
Critic Score
72
30 reviews

It might be one of the most in-the-moment albums ever made, as if Kozelek vomited words about everything that’s gone on his life since Benji right as it was all happening, kicked the ass of a few chords until they fit around the lyrics, called over Steve Shelley to lay down some drums, then cut it all to tape.

32.

May 26, 2015
Critic Score
79
30 reviews
By deconstructing traditional geometries of desire, they’ve made their most fully realized album yet.

30.

July 16, 2015
Critic Score
79
30 reviews
After tearing off the bow and ripping through the wrapping paper, fans are left with the shaggiest, leanest, and most exploratory Wilco record in years.

29.

May 19, 2015
Critic Score
79
29 reviews

Platform is continuously emotive, although it never quite tops the peak of “Chorus”.

28.

February 12, 2015
Critic Score
76
30 reviews

If You’re Reading concentrates the anger pocketed within NWTS’ moodiness. The result is more thrilling.

27.

April 28, 2015
Critic Score
73
20 reviews

The specificity in the lyrics and the clarity of Standell-Preston’s voice gives the album an immediate human pull. Beneath that initial glitter, though, Braids have stockpiled a wealth of complexities like puzzles for us to untangle.

26.

May 29, 2015
Critic Score
82
18 reviews
It’s existential in places, sure, but it’s still a smile-widening celebration of an album rooted in bright, soulful instrumentation and refreshing optimism.

25.

September 25, 2015
Critic Score
76
33 reviews

Because it’s loaded with guests, there’s a transparent curatorial awareness to Music Complete, one that’s surprisingly engaging and effective.

24.

August 21, 2015
Critic Score
78
26 reviews

Emotion rolls out banger after banger, all while sustaining a remarkable level of complexity and compassion for everyone in Jepsen’s solar system.

23.

March 17, 2015
Critic Score
79
26 reviews

Jesso writes with fragility at the forefront. The fact that he doesn’t realize how pure his songwriting is makes it that much better.

21.

October 2, 2015
Critic Score
79
24 reviews

Its audacity and stylistic shifts may have resulted in an album that’s not quite as much like coming home as Sunbather, but it shows a genuine and fascinating maturation in a band that deserves to remain in the spotlight for all the right reasons.

20.

March 3, 2015
Critic Score
79
13 reviews

Lady Lamb is a novelty in the flesh. It’s only Spaltro’s second time trying out the loftiness of a studio album, but After pushes her to refine and redesign with grace.

19.

January 27, 2015
Critic Score
83
24 reviews

One of the most fully realized and confident debuts in recent memory, Natalie Prass is an expertly sequenced and executed work that transforms decades of American music tradition into something relevant to the 21st century.

18.

February 10, 2015
Critic Score
68
10 reviews

Despite some of the fuzz and purposefully lo-fi studio tricks, they let the songs speak for themselves. As A Flourish and a Spoil proves, that’s all they need.

17.

Windhand - Grief's Infernal Flower
September 18, 2015
Critic Score
78
9 reviews

Expectations were exceedingly high for Grief’s Infernal Flower, and Windhand delivered a minor masterpiece and the best doom metal album of the year.

16.

January 20, 2015
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

Vulnicura is smooth and whole, even as its singer lies shattered.

15.

February 24, 2015
Critic Score
74
28 reviews
He understands that attention spans can be short, and if you want to get a message across, you’d better make the beat infectious.

13.

October 9, 2015
Critic Score
80
21 reviews

Intellect highlights the band’s strengths, with Casey’s melodies punching through some of the sturdiest rock and roll arrangements since The National emerged with Alligator and Boxer.

12.

May 5, 2015
Critic Score
79
25 reviews
Life has grown more complicated than running to or running from, and as Torres, Scott is better equipped than ever to shed light on the details.

11.

February 10, 2015
Critic Score
87
42 reviews

Over its 45 beautiful but tortured minutes, I Love You, Honeybear weaves a complicated narrative of love gained at the expense of the individual.

10.

June 30, 2015
Critic Score
84
23 reviews
Parsing generations of pain can be difficult and unwieldy, but Staples’ vision makes his whole history feel present all at once.

9.

July 28, 2015
Critic Score
79
33 reviews
This is music that wants to be read as a text, and deserves to be. The fact that it comes to us in an era of smartphones and shortening attention spans only serves to underscore its audacity.

8.

January 20, 2015
Critic Score
89
46 reviews

Sleater-Kinney are sick of the rules as they stand, but they don’t just want to break the rules; they want to make new ones. They could only do that by coming back together to reintroduce their own perspective and fight their own battle.

7.

December 15, 2014
Critic Score
92
31 reviews

An artist of uncompromising power and originality, he has proven that he will not, cannot conform to the expectations of the music industry, his adoring fans, or anyone else. He is a delicate, impulsive genius of rare distinction, and this defiant streak is essential to the character of his music.

6.

June 1, 2015
Critic Score
83
45 reviews

Each song grows richer the more you explore its open space. Its minimalism breathes buckets of color. After one listen or 10, In Colour reflects brightly, a phenomenally poised and universally approachable solo debut.

5.

July 17, 2015
Critic Score
83
49 reviews

Currents is all about the wide lens. It’s not the landscape worth falling in love with, but the way Parker gives us a tour. Let it happen, and it will carry you off somewhere much further away than you realized was worth visiting.

4.

November 13, 2015
Critic Score
78
32 reviews
It’s OPN’s most emotional work to date and also his most ridiculous. Its tragedy is bound up with its humor; its sublimity comes from the places where it feels the most broken.

3.

November 6, 2015
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

After Visions, the only thing Grimes could do was to grow as big as the landscape around her. Here’s her mountain.

2.

March 31, 2015
Critic Score
91
47 reviews

Carrie & Lowell isn’t a return to the tentative woodsy footprints of 2004’s Seven Swans. It’s an album hollowed by grief, as expansive as Adz but without the verve.

1.

March 15, 2015
Critic Score
95
45 reviews
While the album is a lyrical landmark above all, there’s no missing that it’s a rich body of work all around.
Original Source: http://consequenceofsound.net/2015/12/top-50-albums-of-2015/
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