Alfie and I have come together
to create a couple of posts of our favourite albums and tracks of 2015. In this
post, in no particular order, we picked our favourite albums. All of which we
highly recommend you have a listen to if you haven't already. There is a
playlist at the bottom of this post with (almost all, we won't discuss this
business today) the albums on. So hit shuffle and have a listen! Let us know if
you agree with our choices, and what your top five albums were of 2015 in the
comments below or on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Top Albums
of 2015
Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
Alabama Shakes’ second record has seen a huge
step from earthy, American-South jangle to powerful, spirit lifting brute
force. The album is also a showcase for the different ranges of genre and
sound that Alabama Shakes can lay out for their growing audience. They can
spill out messy rockers like ‘The Greatest’ but also refrain themselves to
soulful subtlety in ‘This Feeling’ and ‘Dunes’. The album has a plethora of
GRAMMY nominations, but more importantly slots
nicely in What’s The Set List’s Top 10 albums of 2015.
Adele - 25
As a massive fan, this album
was a huge deal for me! I have been waiting for this album for what felt like
an eternity. When the album was finally released I think I lost count of the
amount of times I listened to it in its entirety in the first 24 hours. 25
comes from a much more mature Adele, and although it can't beat 21 for me, it's
still a fabulous and record breaking album. Like Beyonce in 2013 (and
throughout her career really), anything to do with Adele in the last couple of
months of 2015 and in to this year has turned into record breaking gold dust,
for example tickets to see Adele live are being re-sold for at least 4x their
original price (I won't get into what I think about this now). But with ballads
like All I Ask and Hello, this album is set to go far and easily deserves a
place in our top 10.
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Chasing
Yesterday
Even before the High Flying Birds, Noel
Gallagher had already, in my opinion, firmly set himself among the giants of
rock and roll songwriting. Lennon/McCartney, Jagger/Richards, Dylan are a few
to mention. But what Chasing Yesterday has done is thrown down, perhaps, his
greatest writing as of yet. The Britpop legend has once again charmed us with
his explosive melodies and strong riffs on great songs numbers like ‘Riverman’
and ‘Lock All the Doors’ (which was written in 1992!). However,
my favourite song on the record is ‘The Mexican’, a bluesy, Rolling
Stones-esque change up from the rest of the album sitting beautifully in the
middle of a sea of great songs. Noel will be pleased to know he and his High
Flying Birds have soared into our Top 10.
Jamie XX - In Color
Jamie xx is a new found love for me, not that I
didn't like his music before, I just hadn't really given it a proper listen.
However after missing him at Glastonbury for a second time, I thought I better
up my game. In Colour has got some fabulous tracks on it with some awesome
samples on it, especially in I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times). My personal
favourite track on the album is Loud Places ft. Romy, I think its because it
has that slight gospel feel in the chorus. This album has seen Jamie xx get
nominated for a Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance album this year, along with
another album in our top 10 coincidentally.
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Those of you that know me will understand that I
am in fact not a fan of hip-hop. As it turns out, I am a fan of experimental
hip-hop and ‘To Pimp a Butterfly’ ticks all the right boxes. In this
alluring frenzy of jazz-funk rap, Kendrick Lamar voices an assault of lyrics on
tracks like ‘King Kunta’ and ‘Alright’. He also teams up with soul legends
The Isley Brothers for a few tracks, even titans like Michael Jackson
and Tupac get songwriting credits on a few songs which really hits home his
insightful messages of racial discrimination in America. Overall the album is a
masterpiece; it has an attitude of a young, debuting artist with nothing to
lose but also the presence and magnitude of a career defining performance.
Tame Impala - Currents
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One of my close friends introduce Tame Impala to me, and he was
just as excited as I was when they released Currents in July. The album opens
with Let It Happen, a massive track that straight away grabs you and makes you
want to dance. There are so many really good tracks on this album; The Moment,
Disciples and Yes, I'm a Man.
They have Indie Rock/ Psychedelic rock
vibe going on which I love, and is especially obvious in this album. Some
tracks have a little funk influence to them as well, like in The Less I Know
The Better, which is another reason this album is so cool.
Brandon Flowers – The Desired Effect
2015 saw the continuation of Brandon Flowers’ solo career. Who
could have seen this one coming? First of all, possibly the greatest pop album
by a rock star ever and I mean that genuinely. It seems as though Flowers took
great inspiration from the recently lost icon, David Bowie. The Desired Effect
screams “Fabulous Las Vegas” with all the grit and glitter culminating in a
righteous cinematic-pop album. I am also a believer that Flowers and The
Killers are under appreciated and fall into the category of unsung heroes, but
they needn’t worry as this album hits the heights in our top 10.
Lianne La Havas - Blood
Lianne La Havas' music was
a big part of 2015 for me. I was a big fan of her first album, so when
Unstoppable was released in April, I was super excited to hear her new music.
Especially as it reminded me of Is Your love Big Enough. Blood has so
many of those truly heartfelt, soulful tracks that La Havas
absolutely nails, just like in her first album. Green and Gold and What You
Don't Do have to be two of my favourite tracks from the album, they just
demonstrate Lianne La Havas' skill and awesome songwriting ability. I was
lucky enough to see her at Glastonbury and the the O2 Academy Bournemouth (a
review to be posted soon), both times she and her band were incredible. Blood
easily earns Lianne la Havas a spot in our top 10 albums of 2015.
Miley Cyrus – Miley Cyrus & Her
Dead Petz
But for me, Miley releasing this album as a free
download is a significant step the music industry must take note of. Pop
legends like Sir Elton John have shown great support for the move. It is a real
ploy that could bridge
the gap between music industry and music
distribution
to the fans.
Disclosure - Caracal
Last, but not certainly not least, is Caracal, Disclosure's
massive 2nd album. It features some huge artists and has a Grammy nomination
for Best Electronic/Dance album. My favourite track on the album is Hold
On ft. Gregory Porter, and is also one of my favourite tracks of 2015. Although
it does help that I'm a huge Gregory Porter fan, this track just sticks out of
the pack and was probably chosen as the lead single for that reason. Sam Smith,
who was featured on Disclosure's last album, features again in Omen, another
awesome track on Caracal. A lot of tracks from Caracal were featured in What's
The Set List's Uni playlist, as I was hearing them every night in the clubs
during Freshers. Disclosure have this awesome sound thats is like pop music,
but is electronic, you can't help but dance. So dances it's was in to our top
ten.
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