2015 is a another proof of how healthy is the creative scene all around the world – although we are all aware that the music industry is crapping its pants as we speak. The year that has received with open arms the return of true legends like Faith No More, Joanna Newsom, Iron Maiden, Paradise Lost, Sleater-Kinney, Refused, and others, also found space and time to love newcomers like Algiers, Courtney Barnett, War On Women, Downtown Boys, Myrkur, etc. It was through all of that, and what stands in the middle, that we came up with this list of 60 albums that we believe to be the very best of what is an another undeniably great year.
30. Fall Out Boy – American Beauty / American Psycho (Island)
Huge comeback! The punk meets pop titans are more sharp than ever. In their biggest and ambitious effort, Fall Out Boy brings all the guns into their own and funny way of portraying nowadays American Pop culture.
29. Sunn O))) – Kannon (Southern Lord)
Sunn O)))’s textural abilities, part 3 hits that spiritual sweet spot that only they can reach – foreboding and inviting, frost-flecked and healing, black and white. It’s said that form does not differ from the void, nor the void from form, and Kannon’s limitless tones are the embodiment of these teachings.
28. Refused – Freedom (Epitaph)
They have found a new way to spread their message, one that deals as much in hooks burrowing under the skin than in violent stabs in the dark, and it’s an effective one. The fact that it wasn’t the one we may have been looking for probably says more about us than them.
27. Northlane – Node (Unified)
2015 saw the return of Northlane with a new frontman called Marcus Bridge, who took the lead so feriously well that the band’s new album Node is a new confident and cohesive step. The Northlane guys wanted to do something a little more outside of the box and they succeed at it.
26. Paradise Lost – The Plague Within (Century Media)
It’s a relentless effort that marks the rebirth of a band that by finally having accepted their roots again, and taking in consideration the overall diversity in their past discography, will certainly pave the way for great interesting experiments to come in the future. Truly remarkable.
25. Joanna Newsom – Divers (Drag City)
It dreams and fantasies even when the fear insists on casting a shadow. If there’s ever a need to illustrate brilliance, then Divers will have to take a step forward and accept the strong spotlight.
24. Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep (PIAS)
Fearless and peerless, the St. Albans lads are continuing to improve, evolve and invoke change with each step, and it’s an ethos The Mindsweep embodies with gusto.
23. While She Sleeps – Brainwashed (Search And Destroy)
There is no such thing as a WSS formula, these dudes are the real deal, quite possibly the most exciting band in metal right now, you guys just have to deal with that! Game changing déjà-vu all over again…
22. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear (Sub Pop)
There is classicism in instrumental composition that is contradicted entirely by its letters “anti-cliché” romantic, loving, creating an elegant provocation of these issues that shape a monument of modern times. Feels the age of the author fighting the ignorance of youth to the wither and subsequent resignation of the nation’s contradictions, culminating in a major milestone of J. Tillman as an artist.
21. Ought – Sun Coming Down (Constellation Records)
Ought is making us think about the mundane day-to-day, where our life is sucked into the vacuum of social networks. The band displays a synergy that easily expresses the personal reality of its elements and many of us in society.