My Top Albums of each of the last 5 Years
I will admit it, I only started actually purchasing my music as of 5 years ago. Before then it was either pirated or from my brothers and although I’m glad that kept my horizons wide, there is a certain satisfaction i now get from making my own library. So, to celebrate this 5th year of my growing collection of self-bought music, here is a list of the best album of each of the last 5 years (so, 1 per year).
Big Boi - Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
2010 was a fantastic year for music. I’d even go so far as saying it was the favourite year, music wise, of my life. Gems that just missed out include Vampire Weekend’s “Contra”, Tame Impala’s “Innerspeaker”, LCD Soundsystem’s “This is Happening” and Two Door Cinema’s “Tourist History”, amongst a host of others. However, Big Boi wins out with his incredible comeback and solo debut album. This album is and will forever remain one of my favourites of all time. Highlights such as The Train Part II and Back Up plan shone amongst a whole record full of the former OutKast man’s genius and produce what is a surprisingly well formed hip-hop album. I had no idea what to expect and so was pleasantly surprised to hear incredibly catchy beats along with André’s unmistakable flow. Truly my favourite Album of 2010.
Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
After the joy of 2010, 2011 was a bit of a cool off. While it was by no means a dry year, it doesn't even compare to the previous for me. This isn't to say I didn't greatly enjoy some of it’s offerings though. Kendrick Lamar’s “Section.80″ and Royce Da 5'9"s “Success Is Certain” gave me my Hip-Hop fix of 2011 and it was lovely to have The Street’s Mike Skinner back with his intriguing “Computers and Blues.” Ghostpoet wins out here though for creating a truly enjoyable and chilled album in “Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam”. Full of your everyday in the lyrics, it was a nice change of pace from 2010 and remains a favourite of mine to this day. Not rap and not quite Hip-Hop, it’s fairly difficult for me to place this album, but songs such as the brilliant “Floating” made a beauty of an album well worth listening to.
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
2012 was a quiet one. Honestly my least favourite of these last five years, I struggled to enjoy a lot of the new releases. Howler’s “America Give Up” and Hot Chip’s brilliant “In Our Heads” prevented it being a complete whitewash, but the true genius was in Frank Ocean’s debut album. For me it was a chilled out album with the odd serious moment but I loved it’s atmosphere and abundance of dark themes along with quite contrasting music. The clash felt strangely right and I greatly enjoyed the ride. “Super Rich Kids” and “Crack Rock” stood out for me this time with their relaxed vibe and generally the album has very few weak moments. This one is probably my most listened to album of the last five years, and for good reason.
If 2012 was a bit of a decline, 2013 was a true return to form for music releases. It was chock full of brilliant albums including, but not limited to, DJ Rashad’s “Double Cup”, Ducktails’ “The Flower Lane” and James Blake’s “Overgrown”. Disclosure take this year though with their incredible debut “Settle”. I truly consider this to be a masterpiece of electronic music, with their great blend of house and garage that forms a top sound. I'm hesitant to pick out individual tracks because the whole thing is brilliant from start to end, but i will give a special mention to “Grab Her” for it’s catchy rhythm, thumping beat and general bouncy feel. If you haven’t listened to this album, I urge you to try it. I promise you won’t regret it.
Fred V & Grafix - Recognise
I’ll keep it short for this year. Ashamedly, I completely took my eyes off releases for 2014 due to a variety of reasons that I won’t mention here. However, I still want to highlight “Recognise”. I consider this a triumph of an album within what I find to be a generally stale (although admittedly still enjoyable) genre. This is full of well constructed tracks with the usual hype beats and Fred V & Grafix’s unique blend of liquid bass that I find to stand out amongst a lot of other similar artists. In particular, “Major Happy” carved a hole out in my heart and became one of my favourite D&B tracks of all time easily. So, despite my lack of knowledge of the year, I still feel safe in putting this album out there as my favourite.
Now this was a tricky one. 2015 has been my busiest year of the five purchase wise and I have had to skip some albums I would have surely enjoyed as a result. In what I believe the be the best year since 2010, we have seen a great number of brilliant records released. New releases from A$AP Rocky, The Chemical Brothers, Disclosure, Earl Sweatshirt, Hot Chip, Lupe Fiasco and many more graced us with their presence, blocking out the grey cloud of disappointment that was “Compton”. Despite releasing fairly early in the year, “In Colour” remains my favourite of the year, quite a feat considering how much I loved Tame Impala’s “Currents” more recently. Jamie broke out to release a debut solo album this year and by god it’s good. It is wonderfully built and full of atmosphere and continues to give me tingles every time I hear it. From the beginning with Gosh and Sleep Sound I could tell he had easily matched and surpassed his earlier non-solo work. I could go on but honestly I can’t do it any justice with my lacklustre album descriptions so I will just urge you to go and listen. DO ET.
