The 405's 30 Best Albums of 2015

The 405's 30 Best Albums of 2015

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30.

July 17, 2015
Critic Score
80
8 reviews

29.

March 29, 2015
Critic Score
77
2 reviews

28.

PWR BTTM - Ugly Cherries
September 18, 2015
Critic Score
83
8 reviews

26.

June 30, 2015
Critic Score
84
23 reviews

Vince Staples sharply illustrates a realistic and first-hand portrayal of gang life in LBC without any romanticized commercial appeal or taking on a highbrow discourse to its rationale.

25.

GABI - Sympathy
April 7, 2015
Critic Score
83
3 reviews

24.

July 17, 2015
Critic Score
78
19 reviews

DS2 just happens to be the soundtrack for the current manifesto - a modern testament to the scumbags, addicts, street bureaucrats, rap fans and nightlife culture. Because we’re all just as flawed.

23.

May 19, 2015
Critic Score
75
29 reviews

Ratchet is instantly likeable and oh so infectious. A great pop album through and through, there's enough here to keep you dancing all through the summer.

22.

September 11, 2015
Critic Score
79
10 reviews

There's an immediacy and energy to the album's pop stylings that eluded much of her previous work; it's gregarious and loud, adorned with sonically adventurous flourishes but not at all bothered with dream-pop's obfuscatory soundscapes.

21.

August 28, 2015
Critic Score
71
26 reviews

As a cohesive album, Beauty Behind The Madness showcases artistic growth and sonic progression through danceable pop deliveries like 'In The Night' and grand acoustics like 'Shameless'.

20.

February 12, 2015
Critic Score
76
30 reviews

IYRTITL is the work of a perfectionist curator, a restless star, a man who has reached the top and now looks over the precipice in a double-effort to repel competition and contemplate his hard-earned, often-perilous position.

19.

August 7, 2015
Critic Score
79
30 reviews

Serving as more than just the nostalgic release that many expected it to be, Compton carries Dr. Dre back into spotlight from the boardroom on his own terms, with his own verification.

17.

November 13, 2015
Critic Score
73
11 reviews

16.

November 20, 2015
Critic Score
77
24 reviews

The amount of detail and the flow of Mutant is truly staggering; there are tracks that seem to take you down through secret passages to the next track, while you can still hear the sounds of the previous track fading away in the room above you.

15.

October 23, 2015
Critic Score
89
43 reviews
This is an album that is constantly unfolding over its themes, so the only option remaining is that of acceptance of her ingenuity. If you want to make it easy, you can acknowledge the density and move on. If you want to understand the core of the record, you'll have plenty of details to work through for what now seems like forever.

14.

May 29, 2015
Critic Score
82
18 reviews
The highly anticipated collaborative album debut, spontaneously unleashed for free on iTunes, is elevated and progressive throughout the 16-track opus, which fuses an anomaly of jazz, rap and R&B layers into a sort of audial Interstellar, free of rules or restrictions.

13.

November 20, 2015
Critic Score
74
43 reviews

25 is a saviour record for a quarter life crisis, a sing-a-long for one of life's most difficult stages. While one of the world's most talented voices questions her purpose, her past and her future, may we feel a little more comforted while we do the same.

12.

October 16, 2015
Critic Score
78
23 reviews
While many will still dismiss them for being unexciting, there will be many people out there that forge a strong connection with their music; people who need this album to make them feel comfort, to make them feel companionship, to help them accept themselves and, ultimately, to make them feel less alone.

11.

September 25, 2015
Critic Score
88
37 reviews
In all, Holter has made an album about blissful, hypnotic escape in many forms, and in listening to it and engaging with it, you'll be overwhelmed by these feelings too.

10.

October 16, 2015
Critic Score
76
23 reviews

Not one sound is out of place, not one track over or under stays its welcome. Every element that made Neon Indian such a joy through the first two albums has been polished and improved upon to make a record that truly must be heard.

9.

November 6, 2015
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

Visions put Grimes on the map as pop's pure misfit but Art Angels secured her tangible place as the genre's most unconventional star. For those that doubted, she's done that thing she does, but better. More defined.

8.

June 9, 2015
Critic Score
79
27 reviews

Apocalypse, girl deals in big ideas about life and society but does so in a way that that feels intimate and personal.

7.

March 31, 2015
Critic Score
91
47 reviews

As long as Stevens continues to pursue the unanswerable and chase down myths and ghosts, he'll continue to make incredible music. Carrie & Lowell is just the latest in a long line of unimpeachable achievements.

5.

September 18, 2015
Critic Score
78
11 reviews

A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons is the most multifaceted and masterful contemporary feminist rap album of recent memory.

4.

November 13, 2015
Critic Score
78
32 reviews
The result is a mesmerizing and constantly rewarding masterpiece that may be the magnum opus of one of our generations most creative and forward-thinking musicians.

3.

January 20, 2015
Critic Score
85
41 reviews

Björk has never compromised her sound to anyone, and Vulnicura is a stark reminder of that.

1.

March 15, 2015
Critic Score
95
45 reviews
Proving that he'll keep us guessing for years to come, Kendrick has truly solidified his place in rap history with this album.
Original Source: http://www.thefourohfive.com/music/article/the-30-best-albums-of-2015-143
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