South Albums Of The Year 2015
2015, like every other year if you care to dig a little, has been a great year for new music. We've been lucky enough to put a load of great shows at the shop for free - starting the year with The Bohicas, followed by East India Youth, The Scarletts, Asylums, Fraser A. Gorman, John Doran (The Quietus), Martin Newell (The Cleaners From Venus), Muertos, Ultimate Painting, Velvet Morning, Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Baio (Vampire Weekend), with Howard Eynon playing on Saturday and a few great ones lined up for next year already.
Album of the year lists can always be contentious (one mans ceiling is another mans floor, and all that), so to be clear, this is not us telling you what are the best albums of the year, but the ones we've enjoyed. Some you'll know back to front, some you may not have heard yet.
Hopefully, if nothing else, this list will prompt you to check out something you may have missed. Another thing worth mentioning, these albums were picked purely because we like them, there's no outside influences (big sellers or records we want to shift, hasn't even been considered. However, by coincidence, some of these have been big sellers, but there are some we haven't sold one copy of, hopefully that'll change now)
Our album of the year, Father John Misty, has been my album of the year since it was released. Loved his last record, but this is a real step up, an album I'll still be listening to in years to come. It's funny, heartbreaking, cynical, romantic, it's just great.
I love all of the records in this list, but I should point out putting albums in an order is an odd thing to do. Other that the top few, it's hard to order them. Number 50 (Thee Oh Sees) can be rightly annoyed that they're not at number 11, but an order had to be done and, again, we're not suggesting one is better than another, but this is a record shop and we enjoy lists.
So, here it is. Let us know your albums of the year in the comments below
1. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear (BUY)
2. Ultimate Painting – Green Lanes (BUY)
3. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (BUY)
4. Bill Ryder-Jones – West Kirby County Primary (BUY)
5. Kamasi Washington – The Epic (BUY)
6. Shannon & The Clams – Gone By The Dawn (BUY)
7. Fraser A. Gorman – Slow Gum (BUY)
8. East India Youth – Culture Of Volume (BUY)
9. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (BUY)
10. Ezra Furman – Perpetual Motion People (BUY)
11. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard – Quarters (BUY)
12. Laura Marling – Short Movie (BUY)
13. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love (BUY)
14. Wilco - Star Wars (BUY)
15. Tobias Jesso Jr - Goon (BUY)
16. Four Tet – Morning/Evening (BUY)
17. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (BUY)
18. Colleen – Captain Of None (BUY)
19. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (BUY)
20. Deafheaven – New Bermuda (BUY)
21. Calamity Horse – A Boat Can Go Lost (BUY)
22. Walls – Urals (BUY)
23. Death & Vanilla – To Where The Wild Things Are (BUY)
24. Eric Chenaux - Skullsplitter (BUY)
25. Matthew E White – Fresh Blood (BUY)
26. Beach House - Thank Your Lucky Stars (BUY)
27. Jamie xx – In Colour (BUY)
28. King Khan & BBQ Show – Bad News Boys (BUY)
29. D'Angelo – Black Messiah (BUY)
30. Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect (BUY)
31. Jim O'Rourke – Simple Songs (BUY)
32. Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv (BUY)
33. It Hugs Back – Slow Wave (BUY)
34. Sun Kil Moon – Universal Themes (BUY)
35. Joey Badass – B4.Da.$$ (BUY)
36. Sleater Kinney – No Cities To Love (BUY)
37. Viet Cong – Viet Cong (BUY)
38. Diane Coffee – Everybody’s A Good Dog (BUY)
39. Jib Kidder – Teaspoon To The Ocean (BUY)
40. Ghostface Killah & Badbadnotgood – Sour Soul (BUY)
41. Dick Diver – Melbourne, Florida (BUY)
42. Will Butler - Policy (BUY)
43. Mac Demarco – Another One (BUY)
44. La Luz – Weirdo Shrine (BUY)
45. Godspeed You Black Emperor – Asunder, Sweet And Other Distress (BUY)
46. Destroyer – Poison Season (BUY)
47. Invisible Astro Healing Rhythm Quartet - 2 (BUY)
48. Young Fathers – White Men Are Black Men Too (BUY)
49. Mbongwana Star – From Kinshasa (BUY)
50. Thee Oh Sees – Mutilator Defeated At Last (BUY)
paul mcdonald
what no Kurt Vile??
Tim K
Nice list. Great to see Colleen in there. I bought Richard Thompson’s “Still” from South for a bit of in car listened on our drive down to France in the summer. Really enjoyed that album too. Maybe it could be 51
Dean
Firstly, a big thanks for taking the time and effort for simply being an excellent record shop in Southend. From many moons ago one of the highlights of the year was the Xmas NME albums of the year, although as far as I am concerned the NME stopped being important once they went colour. I still love a best of list and this is no exception. As I race towards fifty I realise there are more things I have not heard to those that I have. Surprised not to see John Grant, Sleaford Mods, The Maccabees or New Order in your list. Keep on keepin on !