I listened to (very nearly) every album released in 2015

This year I decided to listen to everything. I figured it would be interesting.

Here’s how I did it:

1. I made a playlist titled “2015” in Google Play Music.
2. Every week* I checked the “New Releases” section and added everything to my playlist (normally around 12 albums). If I found/heard of a release that for some reason wasn’t shown in New Releases, I hunted it down and added it to my list.
3. I listened to the playlist. If I didn’t like a song, I removed it. If I didn’t like a bunch of songs in a row on an album, I removed the album without finishing it. This is mainly to preserve my own sanity.
4. I didn’t have to listen to re-releases, remasterings, or live concert compilations. They aren’t actually new music.
5. I didn’t have to listen to Christmas music, because Christmas music is horrible.

At the end of it all, I have a playlist of about 250 songs (more than 15 hours) that summarizes my year in music. It spans nearly every major genre of music (admittedly not much in the way of metal, ska, or orchestral) and includes more than 125 artists. I listened to more than 60 of those artists for the first time ever this year.

Keep in mind that this is only the stuff I liked enough to keep.

If you’re curious, you can check out the full playlist on Google Play Music.

New artists

One of the best parts of this exercise was finding interesting new talent. This year I’ve found a fair few musicians that I really hope stick around.

Alice Glass

Sure, the former Crystal Castles vocalist has only released one song. But it’s a really good song (that is like getting slapped in the face with sound). I’m excited to see what she gets up to next.

King Avriel

King Avriel’s music is smart and pointed, sketching out incisive commentary on race and class over alternative R&B stylings. Her thesis EP is well worth a listen.

HOLYCHILD

Los Angeles “brat pop” duo HOLYCHILD dropped their debut album, The Shape of Brat Pop to Come, this year. Their music is fresh and energetic, a base layer of Icona Pop garnished with a touch of MSTRKRFT’s edge.

Tove Styrke

Hardly a newcomer to the music business, Tove Styrke has built a solid reputation in her home country of Sweden, but her work hasn’t proliferated much outside of Europe. It’s a real shame because her latest album, Kiddo, is catchy, well-tuned pop that subtly packages deeper messages in a sound evocative of Swedish megastars Robyn and Lykke Li.

New albums

It wouldn’t be a year in music if I didn’t tell you what albums I loved, right?

another eternity — Purity Ring

Purity Ring skewed significantly more towards pop this year, creating an album that interleaves soft electronica reminiscent of The Bones of What You Believe punctuated with a much sharper edge (Flood on the Floor best embodies this). It’s a much more approachable album than Shrines, neatly packaging Purity Ring’s classic weirdness (see: the lyrics, or music videos, for the songs) into recognizable pop song structures.

BADLANDS — Halsey

I’m not used to seeing concept albums in pop, especially not ones bankrolled by major labels. BADLANDS is a solid narrative that candidly explores society, relationships, and mental illness in a relatively friendly electropop format. Gasoline and Control are especially haunting examples, distilling the uneasiness that permeates most of the album.

Every Open Eye — CHVRCHES

The Bones of What You Believe was my favorite album of 2013, and I had no idea where CHVRCHES was going to go from there. I didn’t know what I wanted, but they delivered it, in spades. It’s everything that was great about their first album evolved — more complex musical structure, better use of dynamics, better momentum on the beats.

Honorable Mention

ARCHIS (EP) — ARCHIS

Dia Frampton has been circling the outskirts of mainstream music for more or less her entire career, always a shade too intellectual for easy radio airplay. Meg & Dia started pop-punk and drifted towards folk as they matured (compare Cocoon to Something Real), an aesthetic Dia continued to evolve during her brief solo career after appearing on The Voice. Now she’s teamed up with composer Joseph Trapanese to deliver a rich fusion of folk-pop vocals and full-scale orchestral music. It’s unintuitive but instantly compelling.

Art Angels — Grimes

Grimes has historically been too ethereal (and avant-garde) for my tastes, but Art Angels was just tangible enough for me to get into it. I still have mixed feelings about most of the album, but it excels at what it’s trying to be, and is a pretty good introduction to what Grimes is all about.

Know-It-All — Alessia Cara

Alessia Cara is clearly being marketed straight into the blue-eyed-soul-by-a-young-person niche, a pop alternative for young people who don’t want to be young (but still kind of like pop). But she delivers solid vocal performances and wrote a song about hating house parties, which have pretty solidly won me over. Maybe I just have a soft spot for ambitious, intellectual young women.

Standout songs

Last but not least, here are a few standout songs by artists who I didn’t mention above.

Chasing Twisters — Delta Rae (After It All)

Chasing Twisters is gripping and driving, without getting quite as eerie as the iconic Bottom of the River. That’s not to say that Delta Rae have lost their edge, or their chops — their latest album is a solid showcase of their vocal talents.

Dixie — Ashley Monroe (The Blade)

Pistol Annies singer Ashley Monroe isn’t pulling any punches with her latest album. Dixie is a pure country ode to getting the hell out of dodge, taking great advantage of the genre’s stylistic quirks to serve up 3 1/2 minutes of bittersweet disdain.

Girls Like Girls — Hayley Kiyoko (This Side of Paradise EP)

This song is adorable. The music video for it is adorable. The rest of Hayley Kiyoko’s debut EP is also pretty cute, a pastel watercolor slice of indie pop that is perfect for the summer.

More No More — Matt Pond PA (The State of Gold)

Matt Pond’s latest release strikes a perfect balance between soothing and energetic. The album opens with More No More, a surprisingly catchy anthem with a driving beat.

Woke Up Dead — Murs (Have a Nice Life)

Woke Up Dead has an excellent hook and Murs’ flow throughout the song is impeccable. It’s smart and sensible rap with a point to make, wrapped up in a compelling acoustic package.