The Best Music of 2015!

Hey guess what! Still alive! Maybe someday I’ll finish reviewing Arcade Fire and… other stuff, I guess. But for now, for posterity’s sake, I present you with my list of the Top 20 Albums and Singles of 2015! I compiled these lists for the end-of-year features I contributed to over at Slant Magazine and Spectrum Culture. Links to the features, including a few of my blurbs, can be found at the bottom of this post, even though some of the stuff the other writers chose really blows. Why do people listen to so much terrible electronic dance shit? I am the only person in the word with good taste. But seriously, go listen to the Courtney Barnett album right now. It’s stupid good.

Albums

1. James McMurtry, Complicated Game
2. Drive-By Truckers, It’s Great To Be Alive!
3. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
4. Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy
5. Wilco, Star Wars
6. Alabama Shakes, Sound + Color
7. Roadside Graves, Acne/Ears
8. Destroyer, Poison Season
9. Lucero, All A Man Should Do
10. Turnpike Troubadours, The Turnpike Troubadours
11. The Bottle Rockets, South Broadway Athletic Club
12. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
13. Will Johnson, Swan City Vampires
14. Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart
15. Brent Best, Your Dog, Champ
16. Pops Staples, Don’t Lose This
17. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
18. John Moreland, High On Tulsa Heat
19. The Foxymorons, Fake Yoga
20. Frog Eyes, Pickpocket’s Locket

Singles

1. Destroyer, “Dream Lover”
2. Wilco, “Random Name Generator”
3. The Decemberists, “Make You Better”
4. Courtney Barnett, “Nobody Really Cares if You Don’t Go to the Party”
5. Alabama Shakes, “Don’t Wanna Fight”
6. Titus Andronicus, “Fatal Flaw”
7. Kurt Vile, “Pretty Pimpin’”
8. Father John Misty, “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment”
9. Jason Isbell, “24 Frames”
10. Albert Hammond, Jr., “Born Slippy”
11. James McMurtry, “How’m I Gonna Find You Now”
12. Roadside Graves, “Gospel Radio”
13. My Morning Jacket, “Compound Fracture”
14. Blitzen Trapper, “All Across This Land”
15. Lucero, “Went Looking For Warren Zevon’s Los Angeles”
16. Sun Kil Moon, “Gardens of Lavender”
17. Keith Richards, “Trouble”
18. Craig Finn, “Newmyer’s Roof”
19. Will Butler, “Anna”
20. DIIV, “Dopamine”

Slant’s 25 Best Albums of 2015

Slant’s 25 Best Singles of 2015

Spectrum Culture’s Top 20 Albums of 2015

Spectrum Culture’s Top 25 Songs of 2015

Go forth and dig these awesome tunes! Or whatever.