Our Favorite Albums of 2015
It’s 2015. We’ve been doing this since 2009. That’s a long time. For our SEVENTH season of ranking our favorite albums, we enlisted an even bigger crew of music critics from within and around higher ed. Nineteen critics in all! 343 total albums ranked among everyone.
Over the coming days and weeks, I imagine you’ll get lists, #hottakes and other stories from folks sharing how 2015’s music affected them.
To get us started, here’s the overall list.
Just like last year, there are lots of ties when you have this much musical diversity and one person’s favorite album scoring high can change the entire complexion of the rankings.
Here’s how it works if you’re new: We rank our favorite albums from 1 through 50. Not everyone lists 50 albums. Some list 3. Some list 26. It doesn’t matter, but 50 is the cap. (Or else, someone like Ron would list 100+ albums…) The top scoring album on each list gets 50 points, the next 49 and so forth. We add up the scores from everyone and that’s how we generate the rankings.
Here’s the Top 25:
Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie And Lowell
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
Ryan Adams - 1989
CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye
Lord Huron - Strange Trails
Wilco - Star Wars
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Sleater-Kinney - No Cities To Love
Beach House—Depression Cherry
Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People
Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - Self-Titled
Leon Bridges - Coming Home
Tame Impala - Currents
Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color
Lower Dens - Escape From Evil
Pokey Laforge - Something in the Water
Florence + The Machine—How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Brandi Carlile—Firewatcher’s Daughter
Jamie xx - In Colour
Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Butch Walker - Afraid of Ghosts
Wolf Alice - Our Love Is Cool
Speedy Ortiz - Foil Deer
The Top 4 albums were only separated by 15 points between 1st and 4th. Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear took the top spot in the waning hours of calculating ballots, by just 4 points over Sufjan Stevens newest release Carrie and Lowell. What’s interesting about filling a group of this many disparate musical interests, is that even the “consensus” albums didn’t appear on half the ballots.
Sufjan Stevens (Carrie and Lowell) and Ryan Adams (1989) were the only two to appear on 9 ballots. Father John Misty appeared on 8 ballots. Six albums (all in the Top 10 overall) appeared on 7 ballots.
The rest of the Top 50 breaks down like this:
Grimes - Art Angels Purity Ring - another eternity Kurt Vile - B'lieve I’m Goin’ Down The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World Chris Stapleton - Traveller Of Monsters and Men - Beneath the Skin Deerhunter - Fading Frontier The Weepies—Sirens James Bay - Chaos and the Calm Adele - 25 Milo Greene - Control Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues Destroyer: Poison Season Dwight Yoakum - Second Hand Heart Glen Hansard—Didn’t He Ramble The Darkness - Last of Our Kind New Order - Music Complete Modest Mouse—Strangers to Ourselves Josh Ritter - Sermon on the Rocks Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp Ben Folds - So There Thundercat - The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam (EP) Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper Seth Avett + Jessica Lea Mayfield - Sing Elliott Smith Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle
Some other fun facts:
Highest ranked album, fewest ballots: Adele’s new album 25 came in at 35th on the overall list, but only appeared on two ballots. It was one of nine albums that cracked the Top 50 on the strength of just two ballots.
Lowest ranked albums, most ballots: Watkins Family Hour ranked #56 despite appearing on three lists. The only other album to fall in this category was My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall which registered at 73rd.
What about lowest score from the various albums and multiplied by the number of ballots: By doing this, we’re able to see how much people really liked a particular album by judging it by its worse score, rather than its best.
Under this scenario, Ryan Adams (1989) falls to 295th, which is kind of funny. Sleater-Kinney also gets booted out of the Top 20.
Meanwhile, it shows that Courtney Barnett was really well loved, Adele’s two fans (Jessica and Ravi) who ranked her #2 and #1 respectively get her into the Top 20 using this method giving our normally very hipster list some mainstream presence. (Be sure to ask Ravi about his love of Swedish psychedelic band Dungen, though.)
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit CHVRCHES - Every Open Eye Beach House—Depression Cherry Wilco - Star Wars Lord Huron - Strange Trails Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats - Self-Titled Father John Misty - I Love You Honeybear Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly Alabama Shakes - Sound and Color Tame Impala - Currents Florence + The Machine—How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People Butch Walker - Afraid of Ghosts Lower Dens - Escape From Evil Jamie xx - In Colour Wolf Alice - Our Love Is Cool The Decemberists - What A Terrible World, What A Beautiful World Purity Ring - another eternity Pokey Laforge - Something in the Water Grimes - Art Angels
Another year of favorite albums in the books! We’re grateful that you decided to stop by and join us. Thanks again to all of our reviewers and be on the lookout for their future posts on their musical 2015s. Happy New Year! Here’s towards another great year of music, health and happiness!
I contributed my list of favorites to this. D’Angelo & the Vanguard was released before this cutoff, unfortunately. Miguel was also very high on my list.
