In addition to Odds and Ends, I will be sharing my 20 favorite albums at the end of each quarter. This will conclude with “Fall 2014” in December, in which I share my 50 favorites of the year. So far, it’s been mostly rap and electronic music with a side of folk. This column is not representative of what the entire staff thinks, as there are some highly rated albums that other writers regarded that I simply don’t. Because this is not December and my opinions are subject to change as the year goes on, these albums are listed in alphabetical order. At the bottom I listed honorable mentions, which are a mix of albums that just missed the cut and albums I enjoyed, but are less familiar with than what I expound on.
The Best Albums of Winter 2015:
Björk – Vulnicura [One Litte Indian]
Icelandic legend Bjork’s latest is a grower. The whispers of Bjork + Arca + The Haxan Cloak have dissipated into a wonderfully dense breakup album that serves is closer to the sound of her classic period than her anything she has released in the last decade. The longer tracks make Bjork harder to reach on her island, but the journey is worth persistent listening.
Dawn Richard – Blackheart [Our Dawn Entertainment]
In January, former Danity Kane and Dirty Money vocalist Dawn Richard released an album that topped the respective peaks of Beyonce, Janelle Monae, and Aaliyah. The kicker is that it’s not even the best album she was credited as a lead artist on (that distinction would go to Diddy-Dirty Money’s 2010 album Last Train To Paris). The alternative-R&B tag is one that, while sophisticated, isn’t the right bogus label to use here. This is artpop with a capital ARTPOP–the synth freak outs and slow burners just make it longer to properly grasp than, say, last year’s St. Vincent album. To call Dawn Richard a late bloomer is insulting, but such rewarding left turns don’t come very often in an artist’s thirties.
Drake – If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late [Cash Money]
You can’t deny the wave at this point. To boot, Drake has released what may be his best album on what may be B-sides of what’s about to come. Didn’t all of these songs make the billboard at some point? Visceral music often gets a bad rap, but Aubrey Graham wins for giving us over an hour of it without trying too hard. He doesn’t need to at this point because he knows he’s the shit. I mean, somebody has to hold that title.
Earl Sweatshirt – I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside [Columbia]
Yes, his label messed this one up and it’s a shame that they did. Amidst the big names in rap (Death Grips?) that were dropping music in March, Earl Sweatshirt’s brilliant sophomore album seems to be swept under the rug. And yes, this does not manage the magic of the awkward Doris, but Earl continues to dazzle on the microphone and he’s a better producer than he gets credit for. This will be the best album everybody forgets they didn’t like this year.
Father – Who’s Gonna Get Fucked First? [Awful]
The kids understand that slut shaming is lame. This makes sense considering Father’s latest is the most sexually charged album since Yeezus. It’s not a concept album about sadomasochism, which is why Father goes out of his way not to throw stones in his glass house. Nope, it’s just the album Rome Fortune wishes he could make.
Heems – Eat Pray Thug [Megaforce]
A rap album about being South Asian in post-9/11 Queens is just what the perspective in hip-hop doctor ordered. The unfortunately titled album is some of the most standout work from a funny man who ain’t no joke. At its most bleak, Eat Pray Thug is a vivid reminder that we’re actually living in the dystopian future. This is still a guy who will call a song “Jawn Cage”, which means that whatever jokes are had here are wry and to be understood on his own terms. But if you’re here for the laughs, than you’re missing the point.
Jefre Cantu-Ledesma – A Year With 13 Moons [Mexican Summer]
The latest album from Tarantel’s Jefre Cantu-Ledesma is a companion peace to 2010’s Love Is A Stream. The ambient-noise-gaze-klfdlkhsdfalkhadf tag ascribed to the Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s genre hopping distracts from an album that contains some of the most immersive pop moments you will hear all year. It’s what Kid Cudi’s Satellite Flight: The Journey To Mother Moon would sound like if he knew what he was doing.
Jlin – Dark Energy [Planet Mu]
Dark Energy is the realizing of “Erotic Heat”, the now legendary Bangs and Works Vol. 2 track. Not everyone who takes over a V/A compilation fully realized full-length. Without leaning on samples, Dark Energy is the footwork album that effectively reinvents the wheel. It’s music that comes from a place of punishing darkness, lending a brooding disposition to a genre predicated on gaudy dance moves.
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly [Interscope]
-So are we really going to let Kendrick get away with writing an 80-minute love letter to Tupac after the Internet mercilessly clowned J. Cole for penning “Let Nas Down”? Hell yes. Jermaine Cole has surely had some highs in his career, but nothing close to the third verse on “Hood Politics”. As lame as hip hop’s game of thrones is (you know, the part where fans debate J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and Drake on the Internet), Kendrick channeled his rage regarding other rappers sitting in his throne into the feel good hit of the spring. It’s a red herring, though, as To Pimp A Butterfly gets as dark as it is black. He goes to a dark place and comes back. It’s good kid, m.A.A.d. city with shorter skits and slightly less pandering to the radio.
Lady Lamb – After [Mom & Pop]
In 2013, Aly Spaltro’s quirky debut Ripely Pine was as just as indebted to Vashti Bunyan (or Linda Perhacs, more likely) as anything from the Animal Collective camp pre-2006. Now she’s back with subject matter that’s typical of a young adult songwriter and it’s a refreshing turn. After and Ripely Pine read like two distinct chapters in the book of an artist poised to make a huge artistic breakthrough.
Levon Vincent – Levon Vincent [Novel Sound]
We finally have an album from New York deep house producer Levon Vincent and it’s a 4xLP behemoth. The brooding house deconstruction is more suited to night runs than the club; this is rather varied fare. It’s a welcome look from one of the preeminent politically minded voices in techno.
Lupe Fiasco – Tetsuo & Youth [Atlantic]
You’re damn right Lupe Fiasco. There’s no reason to mansplain Lupe Fiasco’s heady conceptual layering because that Lupe’s brain in rare form is arguably more important than getting to the bottom of it. More relieving is that Lupe is free from a major label deal that derailed his career after Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool.
Of Montreal – Aureate Gloom [Polyvinyl]
We needed a rock album here, right? Kevin Barnes gets the nod for essentially updating 2004’s Satanic Panic In The Attic. He may be too old for his glam rock obsession to give way to more Prince pastiche, so we’ve got a run of safe albums to look forward to from the band after this. But Aureate Gloom, like their previous release, is a keeper.
Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper [Domino]
Person Pitch this is not, but it is the first AC-related project this decade to fully live up to the shadow cast by 2009’s mega-classic Merriweather Post Pavilion. It’s a spiritual successor in a way to. Where Merriweather Post Pavilion was the band finally becoming adults and coping with the responsibilities that come with it, Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper is Noah Lennox’s middle-age album. Lo and behold, he manages to get the point across without devolving into the hospice patient levels of crass that we know and love from Mark Kozelek. Avey Tare’s latest is closer in that direction with two phenomenal songs to boot. But it’s Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper that breathes the quiet air of satisfaction minus the complacency of its predecessor, Tomboy.
Rae Sremmurd – SremmLife [Interscope]
Mike WiLL Made It’s Mississippi merrymakers are the last year’s embodiment of rap that’s fun and serves its purpose. In the lead up to this release, I was skeptical of an entire album from the duo until I heard “Unlock The Swag”. Everything they touch is fire. Comparing these kids to Travis Porter is fair, but pointless. They’re pixies in the best way possible. Remember Dazed And Confused where the older guys took the kid who got his ass beat out drinking? This is what Rae Sremmurd’s tour sounds like. Want to know what MC Ride meant by “I like my iPod more than fucking?” Go read their interview with Pitchfork from earlier this year. It’s not for a lack of enjoying themselves, though, and the energy is contagious.
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell [Asthmatic Kitty]
Yes, this is Stevens’ best work since Illinois. In three months chock full of painfully honest statements, Carrie & Lowell, named after his mother and stepfather, takes the cake. Sufjan Stevens’ voice, a croon that mutates into a falsetto, is enough to get the point across, but he describes his surroundings and emotional baggage with the stunning detail of First Come, First Served. Eat your heart out, Father John Misty.
Tree – Trap Genius [self-released]
On his latest album, Trap Genius, Chicago rapper Tree finds the soul-trap aesthetic he’s attached to his music by simply abandoning the soul part in theory. See all of the hooks on this album for proof of just that. Additionally, he managed to uphold his reputation as a stellar lyricist while running through quite a few rap tropes. Forget how much this has been downplayed. This is an artistic breakthrough.
Vakula – A Voyage To Arcturus [Lekela]
Forget the soundtrack-a-novel concept here. Until Kamasi Washington drops The Epic, this is the most cosmic album we have to work with this year. A Voyage To Arcturus serves as a sprawling counterpoint to the downbeat air of 2013’s You’ve Never Been To Konotop. The Ukrainian producer continues to make excellent music with history, arts, and culture as a loose template.
Vic Spencer – The Cost of Victory [self-released]
The rap business is a cold world, yes? As Chicago’s local rap scene continues to get stripped for parts, Vic Spencer continues to go about his business. That is still the case, but in January, the veteran released The Cost of Victory, a full-length more realized than anything dropped from some of his more famous contemporaries. His niche may not be the most en vogue in the city, but his presence is vital.
Zs – XE [Northern Spy]
The ever-prolific once in a generation talent Greg Fox joins experimental rock (which is really a catch-all from the wide range of genres they encompass; from free jazz to no wave) band Zs for what may be the best work in their painfully overlooked discography. Replace the new Liturgy album in your CD changer with this. Wait, do people still use those any more?
Honorable Mention:
Death Grips – Jenny Death
Doomtree – All Hands
Future Brown – Future Brown
Jam City – Dream A Garden
MCFERRDOG – Lawd Forgive Me
Mount Eerie – Sauna
Napalm Death – Apex Predator – Easy Meat
Sherwood & Pinch – Late Night Endless
Title Fight – Hyperview
Viet Cong – Viet Cong