To finish out the year, we’re offering the top 25 albums from various SPIN staffers. Here we have Assistant Editor Rachel Brodsky.
My last 12 months, like most of my months, were an ongoing exercise in wanting to hear everything and boomeranging back to the same five records. I can’t help it — I revel in familiarity. But there’s also no denying the thrill of the new (my job also demands it), and there was plenty of that to consume this year, much of it by some very talented women: Grimes expressed every side to her bizarro-pop personality on the outstanding Art Angels; Courtney Barnett’s scrappy-smart Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit; Bully’s yowling debut, Feels Like; and Carly Rae Jepsen’s commercially overlooked ‘80s-pop ‘palooza, E•MO•TION, just to name a few.
And speaking of underrated material, I spent a lot of time this year with albums that I thought deserved a longer listen: Young Galaxy’s dreamy fifth studio effort, Falsework; Skylar Spence’s love letter to electro-disco, Prom King; and Club 8’s emotionally detached Pleasure. But nothing ruled my year (and my ear) more than Kurt Vile’s sublimely sleepy sixth album, b’lieve i’m goin down… And with that, here are my 25 favorite albums from 2015.
25. Young Galaxy, Falsework
24. Dilly Dally, Sore
23. Beach House, Depression Cherry
22. Deerhunter, Fading Frontier
21. Beach Slang, The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
20. Fetty Wap, Fetty Wap
19. CHVRCHES, Every Open Eye
18. Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden of Delete
17. Baroness, Purple
16. Club 8, Pleasure
15. Years & Years, Communion
14. Chastity Belt, Time to Go Home
13. Tame Impala, Currents
12. Hop Along, Painted Shut
11. Shopping, Why Choose
10. Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
9. Best Coast, California Nights
8. Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp
7. Skylar Spence, Prom King
6. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
5. Bully, Feels Like
4. Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION
3. Royal Headache, High
2. Grimes, Art Angels
1. Kurt Vile, b’lieve i’m goin down…