Standing on the edge of 2015, the arriving year on the horizon looked to be an embarrassment of riches. There was going to be a new Beck album, a new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, the Buffalo Sabres were going to get McJesus, and the Bills were definitely at least going to get in the playoffs.
Fast forward 365 days. All we have is one Beck song, the Chili peppers got delayed by a broken Flea arm, the Sabres got bamboozled by the NHL lottery, and the Bills proved to us once again that if it looks like a tire fire, and it smells like a tire fire, then you’re probably not going to get in the playoffs.
2015 also had a fistful of musical disappointments as well. Toto, Whitesnake, and The Scorpions (Ve are Scorpyans!) all put out new albums, and I listened to all of them so you don’t have to. That last sentence made me sad to write. None of these were more disappointing to me then The Bright Light Social Hour following up a fantastically raucous self-titled debut with the mother of all duds, Space is the Place.
But there are silver linings people. The musical electric sex that is a new Beck album is on its way, the Peppers are recording, Jack Eichel - the consolation prize in the McDavid tank-fest - is a God Damn stud and a half, and the Bills are going to… I don’t know, Tyrod seems like a nice dude I guess.
To the picks. If this was a piece written about sports, what I am about to do would be considered indiscriminate homerism.
Honorable Mentions aka "The Sausage Casing":
Blitzen Trapper - All Across this Land
Everything they do is great, but I love them when they get weird because I’m a weirdo (see my picks below) and this one just wasn’t weird enough. Does that make sense? I don’t care if it does, I’ll be here listening to "Thirsty Man" on repeat.
Alabama Shakes - The Sound and Color
Fantastic sound. When it’s fast and upbeat (relatively speaking) I love it, but when it’s slow I stop paying attention.
Tame Impala - Currents
They tell you how this works in the first song “Let it Happen.” Then they slowly bombard the shit out of your earphones with stereo trickery in the mix. Cool stuff, but the slow parts seem targeted for an audience that has been eating quaaludes for breakfast.
The Top 10 aka "The Inner Sausage Meatstuffs"
10.) Sheepdogs - Future Nostalgia (October)
It almost pains me to put this here. These gents canceled a show I was going to see the morning of without announcing it themselves and then went and toured Canada. What the hell was that about you bunch of jerks you? I didn’t mean that, please come back, let’s never fight again. Future Nostalgia is fantastic and I like it more than I’ll admit here. Country Fried alt-country at it’s finest. In a pre-wikipedia world, I’d like to imagine some heated arguments over whether or not these guys are actually Canadian.
9.) Wilco - Star Wars (July)
I love Wilco. My Spotify year end wrap up told me I spent the year listening mainly to four artists, and these guys were numero uno. Why didn’t I mention the anticipation of this album in that beginning vignette? Because no one knew it was coming. BAM, all of a sudden one day the Twitter machine had news about a Wilco about, then BAM BAM it was available, and sweet mother of crap, it was free. Admittedly, I was putty in Jeff Tweedy’s beard before I even started listening, but it holds up. I consider it like a decaf version of YHF.
8.) Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (July)
How marvelously bizarre. This one is a doozy. If you’re not already into what old Patty Stickles and crew have been laying down on previous Titus Andronicus albums than there could very well be nothing for you here. Yet, you might really enjoy parts. It’s a punk rock opera, and it’s so long that it’s literally exhausting. But finishing this thing from front to back makes you feel like you climbed a mountain.
7.) Ben Folds - So There (September)
Remember Ben Folds? Turns out he’s still really Ben Foldsy. “So There” is soft and beautiful for the majority. It has traditional Ben Foldsish pop-sensibility and the song "F-10 D A" is just him repeating “F’ed in the A with a D” over and over again. Classic. It also ends with a legit 3 movement piano concerto which really brings home the fact that Ben is gonna Ben, and I’m perfectly fine with that. 
Holy shit, I can’t even describe to you how elated I am that The Darkness is back. If you are not already on board, there is nothing I can say that will convert you. Did these guys get stuck on an island in 1987 and have no idea that nothing else sounds like this anymore? That’s not completely true, Steel Panther kind of does the same thing, but I digress. The album is not as good as their first two but The Darkness is one of those bands that has cutting room floor material that matches and sometimes surpasses what hits the initial album - so this is a nod to the deluxe edition that has extra goodies, and ends with, of all things, a Christmas song! 
5.) Modest Mouse - Strangers to Ourselves (March)
"God is an Indian and You are an Asshole". That’s a song title that I only just now realized I don’t know exactly what Isaac Brock means when he says “Indian.” Modest Mouse put out a pretty good album, but I love Modest Mouse so top five it is.
4.) Panda Bear - Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (January)
After my 2015 list got let loose on the wild-wild world of web @Boldflavs was kind enough to tell me about this little ditty. It’s really spacey, has some Beach Boy/Brian Wilson-ish chorus’s, and cranks the weird up to 11. It might not be your cup of tea, but I couldn’t stop listening to it. For what it’s worth this is the only album on my list that wasn’t output from a band I already considered myself a fan of.
3.) Built to Spill - Untethered Moon (April)
I used to prefer indie darling B2S with fast catchy tunes. Then jam-band B2S beat me into submission. This album was everything I wanted out of them. It starts with an almost too perfect "Living Zoo" (IronFish Editor Note: It actually starts with the sextacular "All Our Songs" though "Living Zoo" is soul affirming) and ends with a fantastical shitshow called "When I’m Blind". Everything in between fits the “what I want from Doug Marsh” storyline.
2.) Hot Chip - Why Make Sense? (May)
OH SNAP, I went there. You don’t like EDM? I don’t care. This isn’t dubstep and there aren’t any beat drops. Nobody in the business does musical earwigs like Hot Chip (see the song "Over and Over".) Throw this album on and clean your entire house. I kind of want to tell you who shows up on the second track, but I’m not going to. Hot Chip also released an EP with a "Dancing in the Dark" cover that is spliced at the end with the LCD soundsystem song "All My Friends"… which then ended up on the double disc DEFINITIVE version of Why Make Sense? speaking of covers...
1.) 1989 - Ryan Adams (September)
You’ve already listened to this a bunch haven’t you? First listen gave me a solid, woah. That was followed by an embarrassing amount of revisits. I’ll admit I like the Taylor Swift version but Ryan Adams replaces any iota of brainlessness with crushing depression.
