The Year In Review: Okayplayer's Top 15 Albums Of 2015
Let's face facts, audiophiles around the OKP-universe... 2015 absolutely destroyed 2014 musically. It was as if at any moment we would be hit with something fun (Surf), weird (Cherry Bomb), dance-crazed (Watch Me Whip / Nae Nae), powerful (To Pimp a Butterfly) or just plain awesome (If You're Reading This It's Too Late). Genres blended and merged to create unique symphonies that couldn't escape your eyes or ears, and the surprise album became the norm within the industry.
Artistry was in high demand this year, as acts like Alabama Shakes, Sufjan Stevens and GoldLink all pushed their respective boundaries. With all of these killer albums and singles, 2015 will go down as the year where criticism became microwaved fodder, the rise of the protest anthem hit center stage and R&B music made an exciting return to the forefront. As many of these projects still haven't left our minds (we're looking at you, Kamasi Washington), the last few weeks of December still has us looking around to see if we'll get releases from Rihanna (Anti), Drake (Views from the 6ix) and Kanye West (Swish).
Without using extremely broad language, 2015 rocked-and-rolled in more ways than one, where no matter what style of music you were into there was a great new album available for you to pick up and digest. From the experimental world of the aforementioned Kamasi Washington to the sultry, ballad-filled crooning of Adele, we here at OKP HQ had some serious trouble deciding what to cut or include on our final list of Top 15 Albums of 2015. In the end, this post isn't in ranking order and we're not complaining.
It's been a complete and utter blast, 2015. This year has given us rap classics that challenged conventional theory, expertly crafted saccharine meant for Top 40 radio play and a bonafide jazz masterpiece. Without further ado, please allow us to introduce to you the Top 15 Albums of 2015.
Happy New Year to all!
15.
Album: If You're Reading This It's Too Late
Artist: Drake
To be a Drake-hater in 2015 must have been truly exhausting. There was the $19 million Apple Deal and some modern rap beef knockout, the Future-istic victory lap and then the rise of "Hotline Bling". There was the Billboard chart milestone, the Spotify victory, the Grammy nods and a clear co-sign from none other than Erykah Badu. But above and before all that came If You're Reading This, It's Too Late, a record that sucker-punched the hip-hop world when it dropped by complete surprise back in February. 300 days later and we still haven't recovered.
Drake has always offered us a bit more of himself than he should on his raps, and therein lies his problematic power. Hardcore rap fans hear his wounded confessions and gripe about an MC being soft, while old-school heads take his overzealous boasting as proof that he's the egotistical pantheon of millennials' self-absorption. His previous records have been too vulnerable for the block and too confident for conscious crate-diggers, but on IYRTITL Drake has a response to all that: "Too fucking bad."
He claims his own legend status, makes it rain with whole bands, blows off centerfolds and dismisses the internet. This new Drake knows himself, makes good with his mother, puts on for Toronto like never before and refuses to sit down, stay in or slow down. On If You're Reading This It's Too Late, he deploys a wide array of airtight flows over beats that tack toward grey, melancholy and gorgeous (seriously, go back and listen to "Preach") but lyrically the record is nothing but punches, and pity the people that might stand in his way. It's certainly possible, and even understandable, to not enjoy the way Drake makes music, but there's no denying that pretty much every bit of game-running foretold on IYRTITL came true. Now bring on the Views.
—Scott Heins
14.
Album: GO:OD AM
Artist: Mac Miller
Let the headlines read: Local Boy Makes Good. On his sprawling, sneering and often-gorgeous GO:OD AM LP, 23-year-old Pittsburgh MC Mac Miller is fully-lit by the flashbulbs of fame and yet never forgets his humble beginnings. Right from the get-go, Miller is pushing back against status symbols on "Brand Name" even has he knocks the 9-to-5 grind. Elsewhere on "Two Matches" the extra-white boy holds his own alongside Black Hippy's own Ab-Soul and producer Sounwave, and on "Clubhouse" Miller kicks back and self-identifies as one of rap's elite. He ain't wrong.
After all, this is a kid who was (un)lucky enough to get singled out by Kendrick on "Control". On GO:OD AM, Mac Miller is crude, persistent, self-effacing and self-aware; he does it all on tracks that infuse gorgeous jazz chords (thanks Thundercat!) with trap that goes right for your throat. It's a heavyweight bout that's loaded with plot. We got plenty of reflective rappers stunting over hard stuff in 2015, but hardly anyone did like the young and talented Mr. Miller.
— Scott Heins
13.
Album: Ego Death
Artist: The Internet
With millions wondering just when Frank Ocean is coming back to grace us with his presence, The Internet has done a wonderful job of stepping up and out into their own. Ego Death picks up where Feel Good’s jazz-chords-for-jazz-chords’-sake left off and anchors itself deeply in hip-hop and low-end funk and rock. Lead singer Syd tha Kydbranches out into her own as a writer on Ego Death, and the band, led by Jet Age of Tomorrow architect Matt Martians, grows exponentially over 12 warm, spacey tracks.
Ego Death re-appropriates the romanticism of that Motown soul sound for 21st century girls who want or have a girlfriend. Invoking lush and progressive bedroom grooves, The Internet challenges the ideas of “alternative” by taking some cool and unexpected turns. “Get Away” is sinister with the bass and drum stomps, littered throughout the verses and pretty around the choruses. “Girl,” which was assisted by Kaytranada, is haunted by some ill spectral keys as the heavy bass thumps the listener off into a spacey interlude. Ego Death struts and shows off in parts, such as the psychedelic waltz-timed offering, “Gabby,” which featured wordless melodies from Janelle Monae.
Elsewhere on the album, Syd’s Odd Future cohort, Tyler, the Creator jumpstarts an audio mosh pit on “Palace/Curse,” which is pure salaciousness to the ears. Ego Death is one of this year’s standout efforts thank to Syd tha Kyd’s economic writing, Matt Martians’ purposeful instrumentation and the album’s left-of-center co-stars. Adept at making the most complex matters of the heart feel like a simple conversation, Ego Death excels at making the maelstrom of love seem like beautiful morning dew.
— Kevin L. Clark
12.
Album: Sounds & Color
Artist: Alabama Shakes
If you didn’t heed the call when they came onto the scene with Boys & Girls, Alabama Shakes’ second time out should have certainly gotten the message across. Of all the year’s musical excellence, Sound & Color is a particularly rare case. It is perhaps the only record on this year’s list that leans as heavily on Muscle Shoals soul as Led Zeppelin’s grit, reaching into even deeper pockets with genre cuts like “Shoegaze” and the immutably funky “Don’t Wanna Fight.” But what makes Sound & Color a true treasure? What makes it perhaps the most unique album on this list? Conversion rates. There isn’t an ear that’s been put on this thing that hasn’t been flooded with the feels almost immediately. Maybe it’s Brittany Howard’s howl. Maybe it’s the mountains of reverb. Whatever it is, Alabama Shakes’ sophomore album is a triumph by any measure with no slump to be found.
- Zo
11.
Album: Choose Your Weapon
Artist: Hiatus Kaiyote
For fans of Hiatus Kaiyote's progressive and impassioned approach to R&B, it was a very long wait. Three years ago Tawk Tomahawk set the jazz, funk and hip-hop scenes ablaze, and while yes, the quartet did spend much of that time out on the road giving the people what they want, some of us began to wonder. How long until LP number two? And then, all of a sudden there was almost too much to handle. On Choose Your Weapon, Hiatus Kaiyote widened their sonic palette to include more free-floating ballads like "Laputa" and "Jekyll," the breakneck drum-and-bass of "Atari," full-on progressive rock via "Molasses" and a varietal of hip-hop so damn dirty it stinks. They called it "Swamp Thing". The entire record proved to be an elevation of what it is the band does best, and if the blistering musicianship isn't enough to keep you captivated, those tender, imaginative lyrics surely sealed the deal. Miyazaki Frontier, indeed.
— Scott Heins
10.
Album: Seven Sundays
Artist: SiR
One of the greatest pleasures of 2015 has been the steady, and suave rise of SiR. An Inglewood singer and producer whose bonafide songwriting include credits with Robert Glasper and Jill Scott, SiR delivered his best work to date on Seven Sundays, an immersive and debonair R&B concept record that tells the tale of a relationship that ignites, burns and finally fades under the California sky. A phalanx of producers including Stones Throw all-star Knxwledge, drumming genius Chris “Daddy” Dave, DK The Punisher and Tiffany Gouche all lend their talents to the record, which is full of ricocheting handclaps, twirling guitars and patient music box melody. You could call Seven Sundays the crowning achievement of this year’s SoundCloud scene, and you wouldn’t be that far off.
But the biggest and most important thing happening here is SiR himself. His vocals absolutely explode on “Perfect Remedy,” a ballad that builds chords out of multi-tracked vocals that flips from minor to major at all the right places. “I promise I’ll be gentle / While I break your love apart,” SiR promises, diving head-first into love’s euphoric risk. If Frank Ocean isn’t sweating bullets, he oughtta be.
Put out by Portland indie label Fresh Selects, SiR’s record would be impressive enough if it were merely a great start from a new, budding artist. But it’s so much more than that. Seven Sundays shows mature self-awareness (“He Deserves Your Love”), keen patience (“Jay Z”), unbridled attitude (“N.B.N.”) and superhuman talent (again, “Perfect Remedy”). If Channel Orange is your shit, if Anderson .Paak has you believing in R&B again and perhaps most importantly, if you’ve longed, loved, lost and learned to move on, then Seven Sundays is the record you never knew you always needed all along.
— Scott Heins
9.
Album: Surf
Artist: Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment
After killing the game with his own brand of independent releases, Chance The Rapper shifted the spotlight to the creative scene bubbling out of his hometown Chicago. Led by Nico Segal, also known as Donnie Trumpet, Surf was a collaborative effort that utilized the talents of “bohemian musicians” such as Peter CottonTale (keyboardist), Eryn Allen Kane (songwriter), Nate Fox (songwriter) and Jamila Woods (singer/poet) to name a few.
The surprise-released effort pulled a Beyonce as the project made its way to iTunes as an exclusive free download. Powered by the singles “Sunday Candy” and “Nothing Came To Me,” the album proved to be worth the hype and anticipation. Not just because of Chance’s heavy involvement, but also because the arrangement and sequencing of the album was stellar. Surf’s diverse range of guest artists like BJ The Chicago Kid, Big Sean, Noname Gypsy, B.o.B., Quavo, Busta Rhymes and Erykah Badu made this stylistic effort a profound statement by this Windy City collective.
Surf is a musical vacation, taking the listener on a journey full of dance, jazz fusion and neo-soul that bookend a world and a worldview. Ignoring the industry baits and hooks, Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment’s Surf is a fantasy of its own creation: players in a city working together to add their collective fingerprints to shape a singular product. It is that communal sense of collaboration that supercharges Surf and compels us to ride the wave in anticipation of future possibilities.
— Kevin L. Clark
8.
Album: And After That, We Didn't Talk
Artist: GoldLink
The gawd of the “Future Bounce,” GoldLink, earned widespread acclaim for his 2014 debut mixtape, The God Complex, which blended his sensual musical tastes with hard-hitting rhymes. Fast forward to 2015, and it is safe to say that And After That, We Didn’t Talk is not a significant departure from his brand of hyper-masculine, exaggerated sexual boasts and street-savvy rhymes. Instead, GoldLink’s charismatically strong genre-bending album is more thematic, detailing the relationship and subsequent breakup he had when he was 16.
Taking note of his highs (“After You Left”), his lows (“See I Miss”) and his pride (“Dark Skinned Woman”) — GoldLink’s retelling of a six-year-old story informs the listener about the moments that inspired his journey-to-date. The latter song best encapsulates his hip-hop/dance hybrid sound, otherwise known as “Future Bounce,” and finds Link joyously recounting his sexual exploits. Although the woman in question on Talk remains nameless, her effect on the Washington, D.C. native is apparent throughout the album.
Brimming with personality, tongue-twisting flows, deeply rich narratives and textures, Link is not limited to one genre. Adept at blending his sounds, Talk finds GoldLink diving into R&B and, at times, completely abandons rapping. On “Palm Trees,” he sings about his obsessive love, while on “Polarized” he sings so convincingly about his experiences that you find yourself searching Google to find the real world inspiration. While And After That, We Didn’t Talk isn’t the sonic superpower that its predecessor was, GoldLink proves that he is a total-package artist and a bonafide star who does not have to rely on pure bars to evoke a reaction.
— Kevin L. Clark
7.
Album: But U Caint Use My Phone
Artist: Erykah Badu
Okay, fine, it's not a "real" album. But even if it's not an "official" follow-up to New Amerykah Part Two, even if it is just a spontaneous half-joke of a mixtape that Badu didn't even know she was going to make until her "Hotline Bling" cover started trending...even if it is considerably less than an hour of musical substance...even noting all that, these 11 conceptually phone-related covers, freestyles and interludes still comprise one of the greatest musical longish-form statements of the year. Twist it not, we're all for proper long-players with two sides, 12-15 grooves, cover art and extensive liner notes.
Let's be real, in 2015 a meaningful album is really more of a multimedia art project that incorporates music, visuals and interactive media in a different sort of bundle that gets across the overall vision. By that measure, Badu's experiment in dialing up her friends, fans and former lover through songs, an actual burn-out phone and while Periscoping her Facetime conversations on a Twitter #AMA (trust us, this is true!) is surely the defining project of the year. Of course, it doesn't hurt that amidst all the timeliness of the technology, the 11-tracks on But You Cain't Use My Phone included songs like the revelatory Badu x Andre 3000 collabo "Hello" which is destined to go down as a duet for the ages.
— Eddie STATS
6.
Album: Mr. Wonderful
Artist: Action Bronson
Funny how an album can take a newly-minted internet sensation and transform him into a full-blown rap gawd. We always knew what Action Bronson was capable as an emcee, but Mr. Wonderful proved to be his better half. Hazed-out and psychedelic in all of the right ways, the Queens native cemented his spot in our hearts with his major label debut. Stitching together some of the most elegant culinary verbiage to ever land outside of Food & Wine and sonic suites that range from the wavy, diminished-chord dominated “Terry” to the bubbly Motown update that is “Baby Blue” to the steel-toed thrashing of “Only In America”. Mr. Wonderful, in essence, proves its own name, and barring any setbacks, stands as the first true pillar in what could be a dynastic presence in hip-hop for years to come.
- Zo
5.
Album: B4.DA.$$
Artist: Joey Badass
If you’ve ever shivered in a subway station, waiting for a moribund G train, you know the truth—that grey, jazz-inflected hip-hop sounds best in New York City’s outer boroughs, under a cold, howling winter wind. Joey Bada$$ knows it too, and on his deep and gnarled debut LP B.4.DA.$$ he capitalizes on our memories, delivering tracks that sound like they came off a dingy Memorex cassette tape that was cut back in 1994. In terms of timbre, the vibe is strong on B.4.DA.$$. Literally—no one has rapped over so many marimbas since Guru got on Jazzmatazz. Arid MPC loops and flowery jazz hits congeal into a sound that we can call, yes, “classic”; despite its modern synth patches and Dragonball Z references, what Joey Bada$$ offers us is a chance to collectively remember as he spits his own realizations. Seriously, there’s a DJ Premier beat, Illmatic references, and on “Like Me,” The Roots pick up where Dilla left off.
But there’s more to B4.DA.$$ than a reverence for tradition, it’s a deep trip into the mind of a man who’s standing on the verge of adulthood, reeling in the rage, euphoria and paranoia that accompanies that moment, and rather than self-analyze, Joey opts to just get it all out. As a result the LP’s tracks are messy, blistering and borderline brilliant. And unlike his teenage mixtape moves, Joey’s aware that this one is different; B.4.DA.$$ is a first step that he won’t be able to take back and so the double meaning of Joey’s title—”before the money”—emerges as both a snapshot of hip-hop’s lineage and his own contested space inside it. Beats and rhymes used to sound like this, they still can, and perhaps they still should. Catharsis is a hell of a drug.
— Scott Heins
4.
Album: Cherry Bomb
Artist: Tyler, The Creator
How does one describe the chaos and disorder that is Cherry Bomb? Loud. Plainly, simply, loud. From the opening crash of “DEATHCAMP” to the final bells of “OKAGA,” Tyler, The Creator’s third studio album is a calamitous wonder of musical growth and self-awareness. Equal parts hypebeast and hopeless romantic, Cherry Bomb’s a deafening fuzz, interspersed with deceptively-deep love songs, never compelling one to turn down, no matter how much the drums crack and your ears ring. It’s a record that conveys, without a morsel of doubt, just how far the Odd Future figurehead has come, waving his flag for the 2000s Neptunes sound, yet paving his own path, on a self-produced record that gathered his musical heroes for a wild ride in the two-seater. Top down, middle finger to the world.
- Zo
3.
Album: The Switch
Artist: Emily King
Feels like I've been saying this for too damn long by now, but Emily King is a modern-day queen of rhythm & blues. Her reign is one predicated by years of sharpening and study, like any and all that came before, tipping her reign to the gawds, yet asserting herself as next-up with every weep and whisper of an absolutely stunning voice. But The Switch is so much more than merely music nerd precision and stan-like reverence. With her third studio record, King reinforced what New Yorkers have known for years: that a once-in-a-generation singer and performer was biding her time in the brush, waiting out the perfect moment to pounce.
The Switch is precisely that gesture, masterfully-executing a broad range of musical movements — strut-worthy funk, woozy acoustic balladry, all through a pristine pop lens — and doing so with some of the best voices, hands and musical minds in the game (Black Messiah's Ben Kane on the mix!) And so, with The Switch, a local treasure (who's led one of the tightest bands in the game for years now) spreads her proverbial wings over 36-minutes of lush, lean and lovely soul music that will stand the most rigorous R&B snob's tests for years to come. Enjoy this, as The Switch will be plenty to hold us over until then.
- Zo
2.
Album: The Epic
Artist: Kamasi Washington
You are either setting yourself up for immense success or embarrassing failure when you title your debut album. For Kamasi Washington, a venerable session player who has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Terrace Martin, Billy Higgins and Flying Lotus, it appears that his titling gamble was the former and not the latter. Described as a “21st century jazz album that is as accessible as it is virtuosic,” The Epic feels weighty, groovy and imbued with the essence of legends such as Stanley Clarke and Kenny Burrell.
The nearly three-hour album, which is anchored by a 10-piece jazz band, a 32-piece orchestra and a 20-member choir, can be called no less than epic. Washington, a grandmaster of an arranger, saxophonist and band leader, attended UCLA’s Department of Ethnomusicology and has known most of his bandmates since high school in South Central Los Angeles. It is the confluence of those experiences — participating in the Los Angeles jazz scene, making music with peers like Snoop Dogg — that adds scope and grandeur to Kamasi Washington’s three-disc effort.
Holistic, powerful, rebellious and swimming with black pride, The Epic is made tall and wide by the energy of the multiple players and voices, most notably singer Patrice Quinn. Her immersive voice captures the listener of songs like “Henrietta, Our Hero” and “Malcolm’s Theme,” and flows like an extravagant love letter to soulful jazz. Kamasi Washington’s added sense of melodrama on tracks like “Isabelle,” “Re Run Home” and “The Message” proves that he is worthy of the title and excels in making the listener feel just as epic.
— Kevin L. Clark
1.
Album: To Pimp a Butterfly
Artist: Kendrick Lamar
Was it ever really a question? To Pimp a Butterfly was the record of the year, in several ways it was indeed the Black Messiah of 2015, an opus that spoke perfectly and prophetically to its moment, while simultaneously reclaiming for a new generation what felt like damn-near the entire tradition of black music from Miles Davis to Tupac Shakur to George Clinton to well, everything. The groove of "These Walls" could be KING...though they conspicuously channel Funkadelic and DJ Quik in the murky funk grooves of "Wesley's Theory" and "King Kunta" really sound like nothing so much as OutKast at their Stankoniest. "For Free" is the, as he related in our feature "It Takes A Village To Pimp A Butterfly," the straightest jazz Robert Glasper ever played, while Kendrick's frenetic rhyme flows channeled 'Pac, Busta Rhymes, Saul Williams and all points in between.
It was also the record that—as Justin Charity pointed out with rare, if uncharitable, honesty—that motherfuckers were most scared to hate on, doubtless more praised than enjoyed by many listeners. That perhaps is, part of the beauty of Butterfly, though it's "Ugly Beauty," to quote the Thelonious Monk tune, although "Pannonica" may be a more direct spiritual ancestor. It's "moment" is not just its assertion of overwhelming blackness but also the sheer beautiful audacity of the fact that, being the most anticipated rapper in the game, Kendrick spent the lyrical capital he accrued with Section.80 and good kid, m.A.A.d. city on this challenging, frequently difficult—in the jazz sense—sonic statement; practically daring the streets to disown him—and in the process won the very curbs and corners around the world.
For all of the ambition of To Pimp a Butterfly, it is in some ways much bigger than Black Messiah's—it not only sounds like all the records we don't get any more, it sounds like all those records on shuffle and contemporary rap. The half-yelled mantra of "We gon' be ALRIGHT," is not, as some critics would have it, just a moment of pandering to club dynamics on a record that is otherwise too deep for its own knees. On the contrary, the tension between mildly dissonant sax line and heavy trap drums, the abrupt shift from stuttery, uncomfortable personal spoken word cadence to the chorus that vies with Drake's "Runnin' through the 6 with my woes," for call-and-response ubiquity is the intellectual project of To Pimp a Butterfly; extending the canon while simultaneously dignifying and radicalizing the hustles and struggles of generational trap. While certainly discordant at moments, less satisfying maybe than good kid, m.A.A.d. city, Butterfly simply points to a different kind of enjoyment, the pleasure of discovering layers and connections, the profound epiphany that comes from savoring the alternating notes of black coffee bitterness and stinging salt. Those who praised it before they enjoyed it maybe just haven't had their Epistrophy yet.
- Eddie STATS