6 Music has revealed its albums of the year, as picked by the station's 21 presenters.
A different album will be featured each day on 6 Music, with the presenter that picked it explaining their choice.
“6 Music’s presenters are on a mission to seek out share the very best new music," said 6 Music head of programmes Paul Rodgers. "6 Music Recommends Albums of the Year 2015 is an unmissable list that represents the wealth of brilliant new music from a range of artists and genres that can only be found on BBC Radio 6 Music, many of whom have played fantastic live sessions on the station this past year.”
The 21 albums, the day they will be aired on 6 Music and words from the presenters who picked them can be found below:
Friday 4 December: Sleaford Mods - Key Markets
Chosen by Iggy Pop, who says: “I just like their music, there is never a conker with these guys. Every groove and every vocal has a sound that I enjoy and the song writing is really good DNA, good tight song writing.”
Saturday 5 December: Drenge - Undertow
Shaun Keavney says: “It’s a difficult thing to pin down because we all have a number of favourites, but the album I keep coming back to time and time again is Undertow. They’ve got fantastically bleak lyrics which is one of their signatures. The lyrics are very dark but in an interesting way and it’s an uncompromising sound they’ve created on this album.”
Sunday 6 December: Colleen - Captain Of None
Gideon Coe says: “Colleen uses the Viola de Gamba very percussively to underpin her songs and provide the bass. It’s a really dubby record and I’m fascinated by the studio techniques she’s used here. There are moments of beauty and then there’s also some hefty drum work on This Hammer Breaks - and she has a voice that floats in and out of all that. All in all it just works really well. I will still be listening to this in years from now.”
Monday 7 December: Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys
Nemone says: “It’s enchanting, magical, moving and I have just loved how Roisin Murphy’s Hairless Toys album kept revealing itself throughout the year. It started with the delicate Gone Fishing which appeared to announce the album was coming. Then the hypnotic, evocative Exploitation landing as the first single proper with her as tragic movie star in the video, directed by Roisin as well; followed by Evil Eyes, and I loved playing Hercules and Love Affair remix of that.”
Tuesday 8 December: Kamasi Washington - The Epic
Gilles Peterson says: “I heard about the record because I had spent a lot of time chatting to Flying Lotus, who has his own record label called Feeder, and they have a really diverse number of artists signed to it. It’s a kind of celebration of jazz, acoustic jazz in the spirit of John Coltrane. It’s a very important record for jazz and for the future.”
Wednesday 9 December: This Is The Kit - Bashed Out
Guy Garvey says: “It’s a beautiful piece of work and I’ve been following This Is The Kit for years now. I just love the honesty and I love how she sings like a songbird. She very rarely slides her voice or if she does it’s very deliberate, it usually jumps between notes like the trill of a birdsong. She comes up with beautiful, hypnotic music over which she puts simple gorgeous lyrics. She’s very talented. She lives in Bristol and Paris with her family and I think she is marvellous.”
Thursday 10 December: Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Mary Anne Hobbs says: “Kendrick Lamar is a true hero, an artist with the heart of Marvin Gaye and the soul of Malcolm X, born and raised on the streets of Compton in LA. It’s a record with real duality, it’s so ingenious, so joyful, so wildly creative and yet simultaneously ferocious in Kendrick’s account of his own personal struggles and the struggles of his community too. It’s totally redefined hip hop and it’s peerless.”
Friday 11 December: Lance Ferguson - Black Feeling 3
Craig Charles says: “This was just the perfect album for me in 2015. There are so many reasons why I love this guy’s work. One of them is his breadth of taste so we have Latin Soul, Bossa, Afro-Funk, and plain old raw dirty funk all on offer here. Second is his impeccable taste in music so he offers versions of tunes from Donny Hathaway, Dexter Wansell, and Joe Bataan and many others. But above all this guy has 100 percent pure unadulterated funk running though his veins and knows how to deliver grooves that are simply impossible to stay still to.”
Saturday 12 December: Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated At Last
Marc Riley says: “Mutilated Defeated At Last leads where others follow. The Californian garage scene is as strong as it’s ever been as far as I can work out. John Dwyer doesn’t play the music industry game at all. He makes music more thrilling than anyone else. They have two drummers in the line-up. It’s so great it gives me a headache.”
Sunday 13 December: The Charlatans - Modern Nature
Chris Hawkins says: “Modern Nature is a true return to The Charlatans’ best form. The album features lashings of the band’s trademark Hammond organ, breezy jangle guitars and some of their best lyrics too, all fuelled up on funk. For me Modern Nature is the best of The Charlatans past as much as it is the sound of their evolution and gold-plates their status in the indie hall of fame. Amongst some great records released in 2015, I didn’t hear anything better than this.”
Monday 14 December: Tame Impala - Currents
Mark Radcliffe says: “This is perfect 21st century psychedelic. It is simultaneously the past and the future, with shimmering pop melodies from the hit parade of a parallel universe.”
Tuesday 15 December: Max Richter - Sleep
Jarvis Cocker says: “There are two versions of this - the record version over two albums and the whole eight-hour version designed for you not to listen to consciously, but you just let it drift through your consciousness while you’re asleep. It’s interesting to get a record that wants to perform a specific function, the way that the world is accelerating with information moving around, it’s nice when someone releases something that is the exact opposite of that.”
Wednesday 16 December: Trembling Bells - The Sovereign Self
Stuart Maconie says: “I love this band. I love them because they are so wild, British and exciting and merge so many forms of music into one in a way that is not exclusive at all, full of personality. If you want to start anywhere with this band this is a good place to start.”
Thursday 17 December: Bachar Mar-Khalife - Ya Balad
Cerys Matthews says: “Occasionally you get a piece of recording that you assume is written centuries ago and this is one of them. It’s powerful, it seems to say a million things and it connects with you in some way and makes you ask questions. This is one of those records.”
Friday 18 December: Royal Headache - High
Steve Lamacq says: “This reminds me of the sort of record I would have liked when I was 15/16 but it also makes me think of a lot of records from the 80s. It’s a bit like records by people like The Creamers, The Mice and The Citizens from the early 80s. It fits into this anonymous but brilliant punk album. It sounds like it’s all been recorded at different times and there’s very little balance throughout it. It’s very rough and raw and I think slightly angst-ridden and maybe a little regretful of a youth misspent. All these things together make this album my album of the year."
Saturday 19 December: Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi Love
Don Letts says: “The title track itself starts with a delicate vocal courtesy of singer and songwriter Ruban Nielson followed by some serious beats and bass that sets up the rest of the album beautifully. Can’t Keep Checking My Phone is possibly one of my favourite cuts of the year. It’s an uplifting, disco type floor filler with a cool grove, bouncing bass, hooks and harmonies aplenty. They’ve kind of moved forward by taking tips from the past and putting their own unique spin on it. It is 21st century psychedelic funk rock and soul that’s definitely worth your time and your money.”
Sunday 20 December: Tobias Jesso Jnr - Goon
Lauren Laverne says: “Choosing an album of the year is a tricky one as 2015 has been a really good year, but this is a big favourite of mine and I really don’t think it’s had the exposure or love that it deserves. It’s a fantastic record. It’s a really sad, beautiful, funny, witty, soulful pop record made quite in the style of Harry Neilson. If you’re a fan of that classic pop music yearning of the mid/late 60s then you will love Tobias Jesso Jnr. He’s a fantastic song writer, very smart, very witty and a beautiful voice as well.”
Monday 21 December: Girl Band - Holding Hands With Jamie
Tom Ravenscroft says: “The reason I particularly love this album is essentially because it’s a very noisy record and records haven’t been that noisy for a while so it’s a breath of fresh air. Four very noisy and good looking lads, there is nothing not to like. I’ve been following the band from when they first started out and were working in clothes shops and then they got signed to Rough Trade, so it has been quite nice seeing them at the very start of their journey. It’s a very wonderful thing.”
Tuesday 22 December: Roots Manuva - Bleeds
Tom Robinson says: “I’ve been waiting for this album. It’s been far too long since we last heard from Roots. He’s one of the most interesting artists around. He’s such a sonic experimentalist with this facility with words that just roll out of him and are completely unique turns of phrase. He should be recognised as a great British innovator and songwriter, quite separate from being associated with the urban music scene. It’s special, it’s unique, no one else makes a noise like Roots Manuva and I think he’s just one hit song away from breaking it like Dizzee Rascal."
Wednesday 23rd December: Slaves - Are You Satisfied?
Liz Kershaw says: “As soon as I heard the first few bars of Slaves first single I felt like I’d been hit right between the ears. It was fast, furious, full of energy from the first bar to the tidy ending. I knew immediately that they were disciples of punk. The album is a driving, adrenalin-fuelled set of perfect pop songs. And their live set at the 6 Music Festival showcased it perfectly. They look good. They sound great and I know they have a future.”
Thursday 24 December: The Milk - Favourite Worry
Huey Morgan says: “They just transformed on this record to this sick group playing the music that I always love. They touched on it and they were right up my street. They signed to WahWah 45 which is a great fit for them. The album is so special because it was not an economic endeavour. These dudes were compelled to make the music that they make because they love it, and in this day and age of such contrived nonsense that we hear it was awesome and I love that whole vibe they’ve got.”