Be(a)st of 2015

[kbit]

Oh duh, I missed the "for the same reasons" part

[casecandy]

Well, it's been twelve pages, now's as good a time as any to update my running list. What a phenomenal year for metal, given Bell Witch, Chaos Echoes, Sumac, and Gnaw Their Tongues, and I haven't even heard the new KWC yet. Oh, and the obligatory Thou release.

Added some singles to the list; added real short reviews to some releases.

FYI for the "real screamo" crowd, I haven't heard a song like Suis La Lune's "Different Perspectives" in ages. Like a punch in the jaw with brass knuckles, and then crying alone in the corner about it for a real long time LOL

THE LIST (WORK IN PROGRESS)

★★★★★
Gnaw Their Tongues - Abyss of Longing Throats
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (Hard to top GKMC, too, but he did it)
Loma Prieta - Self Portrait
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (Return to form! Seven Swans style)
Suis La Lune - Distance/Closure (EP)
Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Bloated, but it's really just more a good thing)

★★★★
Beirut - No No No
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms (★★★★½)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Musique de Film Imaginé
Chaos Echoes - Transient
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Death Grips - The Powers That B
Desaparecidos - Payola
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Escapecraft/Confidence - Used Sex Tentacles (EP) (collaboration)
Kanye West - "All Day," "FourFiveSeconds," "Only One" (singles)
Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues (Nice return to form!)
Thou/The Body - You, Whom I Have Always Hated (collaboration)
Tyler, the Creator - Cherry Bomb
William Basinski - Deluge, Cascade (those are two albums FYI)
William Basinski/Richard Chartier - Divertissement (collaboration)
The Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven (good but a little monotonous in tone)
Sumac - The Deal

★★★
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (too soul and not rock enough for me)
Björk - Vulnicura (★★★½)
Drinks - Hermits On Holiday (guy from White Fence)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress
The Milk Carton Kids - Monterey (★★★½, excellent, just not as good)
The Tallest Man On Earth - Dark Bird Is Home (good, but not up to par)
Travis Scott - Rodeo (Kanye's on this, too)
Viet Cong - Viet Cong

★★
Brand New - "Mene" (single) (not up to par)
Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife (really iconic singles, though)
Ryan Adams - 1989 (★★½, but a lot of fun)

★
Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind (FYI I'm a fan of the first two records)
Refused - Freedom (total shit LOL)

HAVEN'T HEARD YET, BUT INTERESTED

NSFW: show

High On Fire - Luminiferous
Dan Mangan - Club Meds
Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, girl
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - After
Monolord - Vænir
Mount Eerie - Sauna
Nai Harvest - Hairball
The Saddest Landscape - Darkness Forgives
The Sonics - This Is The Sonics
Stornoway - Bonxie
Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp
The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Harmlessness

NOT OUT, BUT HIGHLY ANTICIPATED

NSFW: show

Baptists

RATINGS KEY

NSFW: show

★★★★★
Perfect albums that might be considered classics one day.

★★★★
Really good albums, maybe close to perfect.

★★★
Not a great album, but there's some really solid songs and ideas on there.

★★
Average, weak, meh, blasé, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road, okay-ish, etc.

★
A complete failure on all fronts. Sucks huge, sweaty donkey testicles.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Club Meds is 100% worth checking out, definitely one of my favs of the year so far.

[whitecapsof]

dang I gotta check out the new Milk Carton Kids and feel cozy inside

[casecandy]

dang I gotta check out the new Milk Carton Kids and feel cozy inside

It's not their strongest effort, but an okay MCK record is still better than most bands' stuff!
The opening track is breathtaking.
Saw them live (in D.o.S's home city of Portland, ME) last summer and it was legit, one of the best shows I've ever seen.
My mom and brother were at the show where they recorded the first three tracks, in Edmonton
All 100% live... pretty impressive. True folk diehards

[DarkAxel]

Been listening to that new High on Fire album a lot. If anyone tells me the new Slayer is the best metal album of the year I'll punch him in the face with a les paul, wearing nothing on my torso and being sweaty

Matt Pike stylez

no but seriously that album rocks the fuck out

[casecandy]

Club Meds is 100% worth checking out, definitely one of my favs of the year so far.

I'm gonna get to it, for sure!

[odontophobia]

Well, it's been twelve pages, now's as good a time as any to update my running list. What a phenomenal year for metal, given Bell Witch, Chaos Echoes, Sumac, and Gnaw Their Tongues, and I haven't even heard the new KWC yet. Oh, and the obligatory Thou release.

Added some singles to the list; added real short reviews to some releases.

FYI for the "real screamo" crowd, I haven't heard a song like Suis La Lune's "Different Perspectives" in ages. Like a punch in the jaw with brass knuckles, and then crying alone in the corner about it for a real long time LOL

THE LIST (WORK IN PROGRESS)

★★★★★
Gnaw Their Tongues - Abyss of Longing Throats
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (Hard to top GKMC, too, but he did it)
Loma Prieta - "Love" b/w "Trilogy 0 (Debris)" (single)
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (Return to form! Seven Swans style)
Suis La Lune - Distance/Closure (EP)
Titus Andronicus - The Most Lamentable Tragedy (Bloated, but it's really just more a good thing)

★★★★
Beirut - No No No
Bell Witch - Four Phantoms (★★★★½)
The Brian Jonestown Massacre - Musique de Film Imaginé
Chaos Echoes - Transient
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Death Grips - The Powers That B
Desaparecidos - Payola
Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
Escapecraft/Confidence - Used Sex Tentacles (EP) (collaboration)
Kanye West - "All Day," "FourFiveSeconds," "Only One" (singles)
Punch Brothers - The Phosphorescent Blues (Nice return to form!)
Thou/The Body - You, Whom I Have Always Hated (collaboration)
Tyler, the Creator - Cherry Bomb
William Basinski - Deluge, Cascade (those are two albums FYI)
William Basinski/Richard Chartier - Divertissement (collaboration)
The Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven (good but a little monotonous in tone)
Sumac - The Deal

★★★
Alabama Shakes - Sound & Color (too soul and not rock enough for me)
Björk - Vulnicura (★★★½)
Drinks - Hermits On Holiday (guy from White Fence)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress
The Milk Carton Kids - Monterey (★★★½, excellent, just not as good)
The Tallest Man On Earth - Dark Bird Is Home (good, but not up to par)
Travis Scott - Rodeo (Kanye's on this, too)
Viet Cong - Viet Cong

★★
Brand New - "Mene" (single) (not up to par)
Rae Sremmurd - SremmLife (really iconic singles, though)
Ryan Adams - 1989 (★★½, but a lot of fun)

★
Mumford & Sons - Wilder Mind (FYI I'm a fan of the first two records)
Refused - Freedom (total shit LOL)

HAVEN'T HEARD YET, BUT INTERESTED

NSFW: show

High On Fire - Luminiferous
Dan Mangan - Club Meds
Jenny Hval - Apocalypse, girl
Lady Lamb the Beekeeper - After
Monolord - Vænir
Mount Eerie - Sauna
The Sonics - This Is The Sonics
Stornoway - Bonxie
Waxahatchee - Ivy Tripp

NOT OUT, BUT HIGHLY ANTICIPATED

NSFW: show

Baptists

RATINGS KEY

NSFW: show

★★★★★
Perfect albums that might be considered classics one day.

★★★★
Really good albums, maybe close to perfect.

★★★
Not a great album, but there's some really solid songs and ideas on there.

★★
Average, weak, meh, blasé, run-of-the-mill, middle-of-the-road, okay-ish, etc.

★
A complete failure on all fronts. Sucks huge, sweaty donkey testicles.

I feel like you very liberally doled out reviews. Definitely a lot of enjoyable records out this year. Strange to me that you've labeled some albums as "potential" classics -- that feels a little strong for every record on there but I've been wrong in the past.

[Inconuucl]

Yeah, literally the only record on that list that's poised to be a classic is To Pimp a Butterfly.

[Strange Tales]

Giving Death Grips anything above 0 stars.

Giving Bjork 3 stars.

Like, I expect shit, but it's still bad.

[casecandy]

Yeah, literally the only record on that list that's poised to be a classic is To Pimp a Butterfly.

I'll see your TPAB and raise you Carrie & Lowell, those are the two certified classics

Every Sufjan Stevens full-length from Michigan (2003) on is a classic.

But I added some others based on my own speculation

RE: Titus Andronicus, it's a great album, and their first two records (s/t and The Monitor) are definitely classics, so there you go.

It says may be regarded as classics, some day.

Gotta take risks bro, no safe lists

[casecandy]

Giving Death Grips anything above 0 stars.

Giving Bjork 3 stars.

Like, I expect shit, but it's still bad.

Don't hate on Death Grips. They're doing something unique and visceral. Usually when bands are as divisive as Death Grips, it's a tip-off as to their greatness, because they're able to elicit such strong opinions and discussion in people. I know I'm not alone on the Death Grips train on ILF.

Also, what in the name of Jesus is wrong with Björk? With The Haxan Cloak producing, no less?

(Disclaimer: I agree with you on 90% of music so I'm particularly interested in why you don't like these bands.)

[Strange Tales]

Death Grips is fucking ass. They're a joke that I still don't get 5 years later. I wish every Death Grips concert would start with a void swallowing every person in attendance.

Everything Bjork releases is a 5.

[casecandy]

Death Grips is fucking ass. They're a joke that I still don't get 5 years later. I wish every Death Grips concert would start with a void swallowing every person in attendance.

Everything Bjork releases is a 5.

Oh, okay, I thought you didn't like Björk.

Yeah man, 3 1/2 stars, that album is full of lovely textures and minimalist bits but moves a little too slowly for me. I wish it was a bit more dynamic. I liked the record. It's just not, say, Biophilia. If you loved it, that's awesome. I'm not saying it's bad.

I think you said it yourself, you don't get DG. That's fine. They're not for everybody. They're definitely not a joke, though. I quote Tyler The Creator, "I put together a whole trampoline in under 17 minutes. That's when I realized that Death Grips was my meth." LOL

You know who's really good, though, is Punch Brothers.

[Inconuucl]

Death Grips was one of the best shows I've been to, really. Few bands are able to capture that raw anger and tenacity in a good while.

They also have the deepest lore.