SPIN's 25 Best Pop Albums of 2015

SPIN's 25 Best Pop Albums of 2015

Original Source →

23.

Holychild - The Shape of Brat Pop to Come
June 2, 2015
Critic Score
75
4 reviews

22.

Melanie Martinez - Cry Baby
August 14, 2015
Critic Score
63
3 reviews

At Cry Baby’s core, the singer unfurls a series of saccharine nursery rhymes that are truly, deeply unsettling. It rattles you with a painted smile.

21.

Madonna - Rebel Heart
March 10, 2015
Critic Score
66
33 reviews

Even in the record's clunkier moments, it's gratifying to hear Madonna leaning defiantly (and gleefully) into what many would consider to be the less savory elements of her personality. 

19.

Marina & the Diamonds - Froot
March 13, 2015
Critic Score
73
21 reviews
Is the payoff immediate? No, but that’s what makes Marina such an interesting character in the pop landscape. Her work asks for work back, just like life does. You get from it what you give. You ain’t got her number and you can’t pin her down.

18.

Years & Years - Communion
July 10, 2015
Critic Score
63
17 reviews

Someday soon Years & Years could be worthy of the “Worship” that all of Communion religious allusions cheekily point toward. That’s what communion is for. Try again. Perfect yourself. Take and eat.

17.

Ryn Weaver - The Fool
June 16, 2015
Critic Score
62
13 reviews

Her confidently unsteady voice has a refreshing energy, serving as a cohesive, quivering throughline for her intentionally nomadic debut, The Fool.

16.

Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect
May 18, 2015
Critic Score
70
27 reviews

The Desired Effect succeeds more often than not, goosed by the possibility that its gleaming, Ariel Rechtshaid-produced surfaces might attract radio programmers besotted with Avicii.

15.

Justin Bieber - Purpose
November 13, 2015
Critic Score
64
28 reviews

By giving us the best album of his career, and subsequently re-ascending to Top 40’s mountaintop, Bieber’s answered his own question: In pop music, it’s never too late to say you’re sorry.

14.

Selena Gomez - Revival
October 9, 2015
Critic Score
68
8 reviews

At its high points, Revival is marked by this lush, sphinx-like readiness: as if, after a decade and a half of being nonstop front and center, Gomez has finally figured out what it means to center herself.

13.

Ellie Goulding - Delirium
November 6, 2015
Critic Score
64
23 reviews

With the release of third LP, Delirium, a self-confessed “big pop album,” Ellie’s coming into the proverbial net, low on ballads and armed with 16 bangers to pelt at fans and peers alike.

12.

Fifth Harmony - Reflection
February 3, 2015
Critic Score
75
5 reviews

Reflection often sounds like a Frankenstein’s monster of borrowed samples, phrases, themes, and sounds, but the stitches never show.

10.

Kate Boy - One
November 6, 2015
Critic Score
70
6 reviews

9.

Tove Styrke - Kiddo
June 8, 2015
Critic Score
78
3 reviews
American pop stars can keep mixing up verb tenses; it leaves more room for Tove Styrke to establish her matriarchy.

8.

Seinabo Sey - Pretend
October 23, 2015
Critic Score
69
8 reviews

7.

CHVRCHΞS - Every Open Eye
September 25, 2015
Critic Score
76
39 reviews
CHVRCHES aim for nothing less than maximum forward impact at all times.

6.

Jason Derulo - Everything Is 4
June 2, 2015
Critic Score
63
7 reviews

Fourth-grade, retrograde, retro-pop even, pining quietly for the simpler time when pop albums were variety packs aimed at both Keith Urban and Stevie Wonder fans, Jason Derulo doesn’t pretend to be anything he’s not.

5.

Grimes - Art Angels
November 6, 2015
Critic Score
84
36 reviews

It’s a triumph of Grimes as gloriously and unapologetically DIY producer, a pop singer politically and emotionally invested in your knowing that she made this all on her own — as if anything workshopped with a team of songwriters could sound so bracing and unpredictable.

4.

Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION
August 21, 2015
Critic Score
78
26 reviews

E•MO•TION is 2015’s Pop Album for Non-Pop People ... It’s definitely a bid for the middle while Jepsen’s chartmates Beyoncé and Lady Gaga bleed the edges. 

3.

SOPHIE - PRODUCT
November 27, 2015
Critic Score
77
25 reviews

To say that PRODUCT leaves you wanting more is an understatement, beginning and ending with EDM you can’t dance to, building and toppling all kinds of aural Legos in between.

2.

Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
September 18, 2015
Critic Score
75
38 reviews

Many of the 14 tracks meander like scenes in a Sophia Coppola film, all variations on depression and scenic pans of sparkling cities and desert expanses.

1.

Shamir - Ratchet
May 19, 2015
Critic Score
75
29 reviews
It’s an incredible album strewn with highlights obvious and sneaky, the rare debut that holds up the weight of its backstory, with the added brassiness of assuring us that’s just him on the regular.
Original Source: http://www.spin.com/2015/12/25-best-pop-albums-2015-list/
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