Re: Albums of 2015
Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 2:16 am
Pretty good year for me too overall.
Sleater-Kinney's "No Cities" and The Decemberists' "What a Beautiful World" were a great kickoff to the year -- two bands that had checked out for a while returning with vital-sounding, songful albums that rank among their finest.
Bob Dylan's "Shadows in the Night" may well be my favorite release of the year so far -- a career cliche (late-period songwriter doing a "standards" album), but a vision fully realized nonetheless, with some of Dylan's best singing in ages (and as most big-time Dylan fans will probably tell you, it's the singing way more than the songwriting that keeps you coming back for seconds, thirds, thousandths).
Knopfler's "Tracker" is a customarily classy selection of songs from one of the best (and most unfortunately underrated) contemporary folk songwriters in the business. "Basil" is probably my favorite song I've heard so far this year.
Kendrick's "To Pimp a Butterfly" isn't without its moments of indulgence, and I find his coy vocal tics on "For Free?" extremely grating. But about 85% of it really does feel like the transcendent, visionary hip-hop that all the critics are saying it is. There are other albums that I've liked better this year, but none that have felt so vital to this moment in time.
Vijay Iyer's "Break Stuff" is 70 minutes of fractured, shapeshifting piano trio jazz that challenges conventional rules of harmony, rhythm, and structure. It's more strictly cerebral than its brilliant predecessor (2012's "Accelerando") and therefore less immediately pleasurable, but it's also the sort of record you hear dozens of new things in every time you listen closely.
Sufjan's "Carrie and Lowell" is heartbreaking -- raw emotion brought to life by vivid geographical and psychological detail (though I could have done without the part about him masturbating). This is the kind of music I like best from him -- I always felt like he was in a bit over his head with all the orchestration on some of his previous albums.
Calexico's "Edge of the Sun" finally shapes their grab-bag of Tex-Mex and various American musical influences into the pop it always threatened to be. Joey Burns's honest, unpretentious voice is one of my favorites in all of music -- little is explicitly remarkable about it except for its total freedom from affect, which is rarer than one would think. He's one of those "sing the phone book" guys for me.
The Tallest Man album was disappointing for me -- when Dylan plugged in, his songs got wilder to match the volume. Weirdly, adding ensemble arrangements makes TMOE's songs feel way less "electric," and for some reason really seem to highlight how annoying his voice is.
I heard the Courtney Barnett song about organic vegetables on our local "alternative" station. My wife thought I was kidding when I said I liked it.
Sleater-Kinney's "No Cities" and The Decemberists' "What a Beautiful World" were a great kickoff to the year -- two bands that had checked out for a while returning with vital-sounding, songful albums that rank among their finest.
Bob Dylan's "Shadows in the Night" may well be my favorite release of the year so far -- a career cliche (late-period songwriter doing a "standards" album), but a vision fully realized nonetheless, with some of Dylan's best singing in ages (and as most big-time Dylan fans will probably tell you, it's the singing way more than the songwriting that keeps you coming back for seconds, thirds, thousandths).
Knopfler's "Tracker" is a customarily classy selection of songs from one of the best (and most unfortunately underrated) contemporary folk songwriters in the business. "Basil" is probably my favorite song I've heard so far this year.
Kendrick's "To Pimp a Butterfly" isn't without its moments of indulgence, and I find his coy vocal tics on "For Free?" extremely grating. But about 85% of it really does feel like the transcendent, visionary hip-hop that all the critics are saying it is. There are other albums that I've liked better this year, but none that have felt so vital to this moment in time.
Vijay Iyer's "Break Stuff" is 70 minutes of fractured, shapeshifting piano trio jazz that challenges conventional rules of harmony, rhythm, and structure. It's more strictly cerebral than its brilliant predecessor (2012's "Accelerando") and therefore less immediately pleasurable, but it's also the sort of record you hear dozens of new things in every time you listen closely.
Sufjan's "Carrie and Lowell" is heartbreaking -- raw emotion brought to life by vivid geographical and psychological detail (though I could have done without the part about him masturbating). This is the kind of music I like best from him -- I always felt like he was in a bit over his head with all the orchestration on some of his previous albums.
Calexico's "Edge of the Sun" finally shapes their grab-bag of Tex-Mex and various American musical influences into the pop it always threatened to be. Joey Burns's honest, unpretentious voice is one of my favorites in all of music -- little is explicitly remarkable about it except for its total freedom from affect, which is rarer than one would think. He's one of those "sing the phone book" guys for me.
The Tallest Man album was disappointing for me -- when Dylan plugged in, his songs got wilder to match the volume. Weirdly, adding ensemble arrangements makes TMOE's songs feel way less "electric," and for some reason really seem to highlight how annoying his voice is.
I heard the Courtney Barnett song about organic vegetables on our local "alternative" station. My wife thought I was kidding when I said I liked it.
