My Favorite Albums of 2015

2015 felt like the year I fell back in love with music. It was something that had been developing for a while. A Google Music All Access subscription meant I could listen to nearly everything coming out, and music became less “order off the menu” and more “take another trip to the buffet.” Music release days (which moved to Fridays in 2015) became little mini-holidays as I poured over the new albums each week.

I got to listen to a lot of stuff in 2015, and a lot of it stuck with me. Being so aware of releases as I was this year, I fell in love with many singles and EPs which are not on this list, but hopefully will be next year when their respective full length albums come out! I’m anxiously awaiting the full length debut of The Dirty Nil, for example, and I can’t wait to hear more from The Rubens based on their excellent song “Hoops”.

The following were my ten favorite albums of 2015, in no particular order:

Jeff Rosenstock — We Cool?

I didn’t really listen to Jeff’s previous venture Bomb the Music Industry, but We Cool? captured me in a huge way this year. I played this sucker on loop while driving and while on vacation, and it’s one of those great records where every song sounds super happy, but when you finally stop and listen to the lyrics there’s an intense sadness permeating everything. Jeff manages to rock hard while also wondering what the heck he’s doing with his life on this record, and I loved it.

The Front Bottoms — Back On Top

The Front Bottoms are probably my current favorite band. This year, if I was listening to music, you had about a 50% chance that I had a Front Bottoms record on. I can’t even really explain why… there’s something instantly catchy about frontman Brian Sella’s not-actually-that-great voice, and it feels like he’s bearing his strange quirky soul to you on every track. Back On Top finds the Front Bottoms putting out a much more produced, pop sounding record, but still managing to retain their weird charm. This is 2015’s most listenable record.

Desaparecidos — Payola

I’ve never listened to Conor Oberst’s main band, Bright Eyes, but his side band Desaparecidos freakin’ rocks. This is one of the best straight up punk records of the year, and it grinds its teeth with righteous politically-fueled fury on every track. Oberst is angry, and his record is a catchy indictment of modern society.

The Wonder Years — No Closer to Heaven

As the followup to my favorite record of all time, 2013’s The Greatest Generation, No Closer to Heaven could really only have let me down… and that’s exactly what it did. Despite that though, it’s still an amazing album, and one of the best of the year. It also finds the sound of the Wonder Years creep closer to that of front-man Dan Campbell’s side project Aaron West and the Roaring Twenties, which is a fantastic move sonically for the band going forward.

Knuckle Puck — Copacetic

Copacetic doesn’t do anything novel, or even interesting. It’s a record with zero surprises, a band playing it safe and ending up sounding a bit too clean and polished despite all their yelling and loud guitars… yet, despite that, I couldn’t stop listening to it. Copacetic is filled with songs that you can hum along with after a single listen, and the “everything is copacetic” reprise is extremely satisfying. Despite the lack of reach, this album is filled with some of my favorite ear worms of the year.

Neck Deep — Life’s Not Out To Get You

Not to get all hipster on you, but I’ve liked Neck Deep since before their first EP Rain in July. Since then, Neck Deep has been a really fun band to watch get super popular. Life’s Not Out To Get You is most definitely not a sophomore slump, and is my favorite release by Neck Deep to date. Plus, there’s a song about Indiana Jones, kinda.

Fall Out Boy — American Beauty/American Psycho

For whatever reason, Fall Out Boy often feel like the scapegoats of the music industry. You probably stopped listening to them because your little sister hung their poster on her wall around the same time that she started wearing that spiky bracelet and died that blue streak in her hair, and then she stopped listening to them when Bullet for my Valentine came out and like, totally spoke to her, man. Despite their success, they still kind of feel like underdogs, which make it easy to root for them while you’re bopping along to one of the best pure rock albums of the year. Plus, I’ll bet you five dollars that Uma Thurman has been stuck in your head at least 10 times this year.

Anti-Flag — American Spring

Anti-Flag might not be your favorite band, but you have to respect their singular commitment to using their music to disseminate their anti-war, anti-violence sociopolitical message. I love political punk like this, because so much of what they’re singing about infuriates me as well. This album in particular is one of my favorites from Anti-Flag, because they manage to make anti-war anthems sound so beautiful. Don’t believe me? Go read the lyrics to Brandenburg Gate, and then listen to the song.

Twenty One Pilots — Blurryface

Blurryface was probably my most anticipated album of 2015 after having been a huge fan of Twenty One Pilots’ 2013 effort Vessel, and it didn’t disappoint, managing to deliver another collection of instantly catchy, weird, lyrically complex songs. Dancing along to “Tear in my Heart” at a baseball game this summer, screaming “MY TASTE IN MUSIC IS YOUR FACE” was pure stupid fun, and made me realize just how much I liked this record. I’m glad the world caught up with how awesome Twenty One Pilots are in 2015.

Drake — If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late

So… I started liking Drake this year. It started ironically, I swear. I got wrapped up in the drama and hilarity of the Drake/Meek Mill feud, and the concept of a diss track fascinated this white boy scared of conflict. Turns out, Drake’s coup de grâce against Meek Mill, Back to Back, is an amazing track. The song took over my life this year… for months my friends and I sang it to each other whenever we were together, and we even picked up some sayings from Drizzy (like “getting bodied”). My Drake love has become an inside joke, and for Christmas I received a Drake poster and a Drake comic book. My Drake love very quickly became quite genuine, and that led me to his latest pseudo-mixtape-sorta-record-thing, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. Something about playing it and cruising around town at night makes me feel so cool. Yes, I understood it actually has the exact opposite effect. Still, these songs, no matter how simple the lyrics actually are, are catchy, and that’s all I’m ever looking for in a song. It’s not my fault that only me and white college girls in North Face jackets drinking pumpkin spice lattes have good taste in music.