What are your favorite albums of the year / of the last months?

[bomboloni]

Favorite Releases of 2015

Here are my top ten-ish favorite releases for 2015

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell
D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah (technically released Dec 2014)
Kamasai Washington - The Epic
Jamie XX - In Colour
Shamir - Ratchet
Courtney Barnett - Somtimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit
Kurt Vile - B'lieve I'm Goin' Down
Tobias Jesso Jr - Goon
Bob Dylan - Bootleg Series Vol 12 (does this count as a 2015 release?)
Aphex Twin - Computer Controlled Acoustic Instruments Pt 2

[garym]

Sadly I guess, 2015 was like 2014 for me. I bought several hundred new CDs, but most were rereleases, new vault releases, etc. I seem to be stuck in the past (although I've very much enjoyed the Dylan releases, Velvet Underground stuff, old Manfred Mann, etc.) Some new 2015 highlights of the year (in no particular order):

Jimmy LaFave - The Night Tribe
Ida Sands - Young at Heart
Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffian's Misfortune
Robert Earl Keen, - Happy Prisoner, The Bluegrass Sessions
Israel Nash - Silver Seasons

[d6jg]

Very few 2015 albums here as well. I bought loads this year as well.

Public Service Broadcasting - Race For Space

[bomboloni]

Maybe we should have two categories,

1. Best music released in 2015
2. Best music purchased this year regardless of release date

Both provide great insight into what people think is great music.

[garym]

Maybe we should have two categories,

1. Best music released in 2015
2. Best music purchased this year regardless of release date

Both provide great insight into what people think is great music.

Off the top of my head, New purchases but pre2015 I've really enjoyed:

the re-release of the first 5 Lee Michaels albums on CD. Some of these have been out of print for quite a while.
Bob Dylan, 6 CD version of "Cutting Edge" set
Velvet Underground Loaded box set
Velvet Underground Matrix box set
Lee Hazelwood, There's a Dream I've Been Saving, Box Set
Shuggie Otis, Here Comes Shuggie Otis
Kooper Session, Vol 2, with Shuggie Otis
Leon Russell, Hank Wilson's Back
Gil Scot Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Small Faces, Ogden's Nut Gone Flake
multi CD rerelase of Manfred Mann and another of Mandfred Mann's Earth Band
Mulit-disk rerelease of The Four Seasons early work
and more.....

[Pascal Hibon]

Same outcome here: added a lot of albums in 2015 but very few who actually are from 2015; seven to be exact.
Out of those I would select these three (in no particular order):

* EL VY - Return To The Moon
* Kovacs - Shades Of Black
* Sam Vloemans - New Light

As for albums purchased in 2015 but released pre 2015, I would select these three (again in no particular order):

* Various Artists - This Is Icelandic Indie Music (Vol 1 and 2)
* Throwing Muses - The Real Ramona
* Roxy Music - Flesh And Blood

Always difficult to make lists such as these. Music is an emotion and the lists might be a bit different when asked at different times.

[DJanGo]

Always difficult to make lists such as these. Music is an emotion and the lists might be a bit different when asked at different times.

Yapp Louane - Chambre 12


Royksopp - I Had This Thing (Remixes)

[Grumpy Bob]

Reissues I particularly enjoyed this year were:
Van Morrison - Astral Weeks
The Velvet Underground - Loaded (Super Deluxe)
The Harmonia boxed set of 5 LPs
Cubist Blues by Alan Vega, Alex Chilton and Ben Vaughn

I very much liked the live album by The Jesus and Mary Chain - they'd been touring playing the whole of debut album Psychocandy and released the live album. I don't think that counts as a reissue!
Nor is the Cutting Edge 1965-1966 6CD set by Bob Dylan, I suppose!
I enjoyed Stara Rzeka's Zamknęły się oczy ziemi
Evil Blizzard's Everybody Come to Church
Sleaford Mods Key Markets
Max Richter's 8 hour epic Sleep

There's more, but these are the things that occurred to me...

Robert

[Wombat]

This year really didn't have much surprises but some highlights for me are:

IAMX - Metanoia (great already on first listen and even grows on and on!)
Otis Taylor - Hey Joey Opus Red Meat (i saw him life in my hometown)
Villagers - Darling Arithmetic
Blur - The Magic Whip

[d6jg]

My highlight non 2015 purchase is probably Simple Acoustic Trio - Komeda (1995). It was a SmartMix / Spotify discovery that captured me the moment I heard it. I'd never heard of Krystov Komeda or Marcin Wasilewski!

[Wombat]

Here are my top ten-ish favorite releases for 2015
...
Courtney Barnett - Somtimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit

Indeed a cool one!

[RonM]

I found that 2015 was a pretty good year, from the point of view of all of finding great new music, discovering older music I really like and getting some remasters of music that has turned my crank in the past. Here's some of each. Probably missed some out that I'll regret.



Rhiannon Giddens - Tomorrow is My Turn -- outstanding album produced by T Bone Burnett. Giddens is a member of Carolina Chocolate Drops, which has won a Grammy, and this album is nominated this year in the folk category. She's one of the most interesting of the young performers around, operatically trained, but working in traditional folk forms as well as edging into pop. Up against Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, my top album from last year, for the folk Grammy. The Grammys don't use a Jan to Dec calendar year.

Jayme Stone - Jayme Stone's Lomax Project -- Stone has mined the extremely rich mother lode of Alan Lomax's field recordings, and is not the first (not even in the first hundred) to have done so. He is, however, working with a range of ringers on this effort, bringing wonderful instrumentation and singing, and very novel interpretations, of traditional material. Check out Margaret Glaspy's Shenandoah, for instance. Not nominated for a Grammy (no big label support) but named folk album of the year in the extensive critics poll by Canada's Penguin Eggs magazine (Stone is Canadian, but the award is not limited to Canadians, and anyway he lives in Colorado).

The Punch Brothers - Phosphorescent Blues -- impossible-to-place, in terms of genre, The Punch Brothers have careened into uncharted territory for an ostensibly bluegrass ensemble. This is complex music with elements of classical, jazz and prog rock, albeit with bluegrass string band instrumentation. It's good for many listens, each time providing pleasure. Nominated for a roots Grammy this year, ironic given the un-roots nature of this release.

Those are my three favorites.



Whitehorse - Leave No Bridge Unburned -- the closest thing to a rock album in my 2015 faves, the duo of Luke Doucet and Melissa McLelland remain a riveting presence for their great songs, Luke's wonderful rock guitar and Melissa's gritty, not just pretty, vocals.

Moira Smiley and Voco - Laughter Out Of Tears -- one of the ringers mentioned in the Lomax comment above, Moira Smiley is an absolutely wonderful musician and vocalist, and here works with others to present one of the finest vocal music albums you'll hear anywhere. From American and Irish folk through classical to music of eastern Europe, it's a revelation.

Eric Bibb and JJ Milteau - Lead Belly's Gold -- yet another Lead Belly collection, you might say, who needs another? But blues guy Bibb and French harpist Milteau really hit it out of the park. All acoustic, beautifully played and sung.

Buffy Sainte-Marie - Power In The Blood -- Sainte-Marie, the folk icon (Universal Soldier) and Cree woman, has produced an outstanding and powerful album addressing (among other things) the circumstances of aboriginal peoples. It's a very strong rocking performance, with outstanding playing and singing. Might be too strong a drink for some. Winner of Canada's Polaris Prize (big money), awarded to the best musical release by a Canadian in the year, without regard to genre or commercial success.



Maria Schneider Orchestra - The Thompson Fields -- Schneider is new to me, but has a very large presence in the big band jazz field it turns out. I love this recording, which is lush and melodic, with outstanding ensemble and solo playing. Nominated for a Grammy in big band jazz, and Schneider is also nominated for two other Grammys (including for work on a David Bowie recording).

Katherine Bryan - Silver Bow -- I don't listen to a lot of classical, but I do listen to it with some regularity. This great recording is of Bryan's own transcription of violin music for flute, and is a wonder. She plays with the Scottish Symphony here, and is first flute for that ensemble when she's not doing her own projects. It's a warm and wonderfully recorded outing. From Linn, and is released as an SACD, but can be downloaded from their website in standard flac as well as hi-res.



Art Pepper - Winter Moon -- I read Art Pepper's autobiography, and his wife's subsequent elaboration, and was inspired to acquire a bunch of the long dead (and seriously addicted) west-coast saxophonist's albums. What a wonderful player! More melodic than the New Yorkers, but all the chops. This is one of his very last recordings, and is way more lush than most, being recorded with strings. He said it was his favorite, the way he'd always heard the music in his head, so it's the one I'll post here as a "new discovery".

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Trilogy -- one of my favorite stoner albums from back in the day has had the full remastering treatment, and I sprang for it. Still a great album, and really took me back. When I was originally listening to this record I easily imagined that the music was coming from all directions, just like it did at the concerts I went to. The acid helped with this perception, I'm sure. But on the 5.1 version of the remixed/mastered edition, it actually DOES!

Mahavishnu Orchestra - Apocalypse -- I read that some of the 70s Mahavishnu Orchestra albums had been remixed/mastered, so checked it out, looking especially for Birds of Fire. I got that one, and it's still as impenetrably fast as it ever was, but really re-discovered Apocalypse. Lots of fireworks, but way more mellow than Birds, and I found myself really liking it. John McLaughlin is still one of my favorite jazz guitarists. One of the other old albums I listened to for the first time this year was Miles Davis' In A Silent Way, to which McLaughlin contributed excellent guitar. I should probably have included that album in this list, too.

[RonM]

My highlight non 2015 purchase is probably Simple Acoustic Trio - Komeda (1995). It was a SmartMix / Spotify discovery that captured me the moment I heard it. I'd never heard of Krystov Komeda or Marcin Wasilewski!

Did you know that Komeda did the music for Rosemary's Baby (horror film with Mia Farrow)? I didn't, just found out when I went looking for Simple Acoustic Trio.

[reinholdk]

It's high time to look back what 2016 has brought us in Music. Not to the sad losses but to the highlights.

And here I'm looking only to the albums released in 2016 that I've added to my library. Kind of a record year in this regard (no pun intended) as I have 130 in this category.

Since it's difficult for me this year to select my top ten, I'm showing an extended version. But selecting my number one album actually was easy: The Pineapple Thief - Your Wilderness.

Here are my favorite new albums of 2016:

The Pineapple Thief - Your Wilderness
Ray Wilson - Makes Me Think Of Home
Ray Wilson - Song For A Friend
Steven Wilson - 4 ½
Nils Petter Molvær - Buoyancy
Ibrahim Maalouf - 10 ans de Live
GoGo Penguin - Man Made Object
JBBG Jazz Bigband Graz - True Stories
Ólafur Arnalds - Island Songs
Ketil Bjørnstad - Images/Shimmering
Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree
Anna Ternheim - For The Young
Iamthemorning - Lighthouse
Passport - Doldinger
Nighthawks - 707
Jazz at Berlin Philharmonic - Vol. V: Lost Hero - Tears for Esbjörn
Tangerine Dream - Live At The Philharmony Szczecin-Poland 2016
Marillion - Fuck Everyone And Run
Van Morrison - Keep Me Singing

Interestingly, nearly all are European bands/artists (with the exception of Nick Cave and Iamthemorning).

[SlimChances]

Here a a few I liked

Leonard Cohen You Want it Darker

Gord Downie Secret Path

Steve Kimock Band Last Danger of Frost

Joe Bonamassa Blues of Desperation

Guy Buttery Guy Buttery