We could very well share the best artists of 2015, or the most popular ones. As the year reaches an end, this topic becomes extremely trendy, highly requested, and very much profitable. But it’s also something that we’ve seen before. And, may we add, it’s also something mind-blowingly subjective, considering just how many people do go to NYU to pursue music in different fields, and enjoy different sounds.
So, instead, we decided to feature the interesting, prominent taste-makers of the year, along with fellow contemporaries that may have fallen in their shadows, without having enjoyed the benefits of their more notorious companions. Without further a do, here are overlooked albums and artists of 2015, paired with similar favorites.
5) Deerhunter’s Fading Frontier (for fans of Tame Impala’s Currents)
2015 has seen – or should we say, heard – the return of pop touches in the case of both of these bands. The Australian outfit, Tame Impala, has abandoned former dreamier guitar fuzz-led 1970s phasers for a more listener-friendly synth-heavy sound. The experiment has been very successful for Kevin Parker, the sole recorder of the band’s LPs, who’s falsetto rings eerily reminiscent of Michael Jackson’s.
(Tame Impala’s single “Cause I’m A Man” from their recently Grammy nominated third LP Currents. Play it at 1.5x speed and watch the aesthetics become magic!)
The same has happened with a lesser known, but much older, band that previously dabbled with a variety of sounds of the alternative persuasion, including drone, ambient, psychedelia, baroque, and even garage-infused tones: Deerhunter. Frontman Bradford Cox has continued the journey into accessible indie rock music that the band began in 2010 with Halcyon Digest, briefly intermitted a couple of years ago with the chaotic Monomania, in this year’s Fading Frontier, which glimmers with shimmering dreamlike melodies made iridescent by a feel-good flavor.
(Deerhunter’s “Breaking Away,” one of the jangly singles off of Fading Frontier).
Bonus: if this if your sound, you should also check out Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Multi-Love.
4) Sufjan Stevens’ Carrie & Lowell (for fans of Mumford & Son’s Wilder Mind)
Mumford & Sons belongs to same school of Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, where soft acoustic sounds blend together to make an airy soundscape immersed in nature. With a pop-folk aesthetic, this year’s Wilder Mindbecame one of the best selling albums in this list, featuring a sound bigger and brighter than its predecessors. The shift in dramatic piano accents and angsty choruses, contoured by electric guitar arpeggios, presents an approachable gateway for mainstream fans to appreciate more sonically adventurous harmonies.
(The somber “Believe,” from the latest album, has become the band’s most listened to tracks on Spotify)
Fans of the older, folkier aesthetic of the group may dabble in Sufjan Stevens’ latest offering, Carrie & Lowell, a beautiful blend of organic sounds and bustling harmonics. Stevens’ voice delicately understates the sound explored in this album, which delights with softer instrumentals and whisper-like chants. As always, the storytelling element of the lyrics narrates lives and moments like a letter to listeners, with a quirky seriousness that feels comfortable for the musician, once again.
(Stevens’ “Should Have Known Better” amazes with a shifting latter half of the song, experimenting with delight and heaviness).
Bonus: Want to strum along a little more? Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honey Bear will not disappoint you!
3) Grimes’ Art Angels (For fans of Bjork’s Vulnicura and Taylor Swift’s 1989)
We all know enough about Swift’s record, the most purchased one of 2015, but how can fans of her easygoing commercial hits be grouped with Bjork’s highly unconventional electronica? The Icelandic singer made a long-awaited comeback earlier this year with Vulnicura,leaked for the entire world to hear a month before its official planned release – pushing producers to anticipate it. Accompanied by a peculiar MoMA exhibit (that I had a chance to review last year), it asserted Bjork’s unrivaled ability to blend stormy vocals with gritty sounds to create edgy pop.
(“stonemilker” from Vulnicura, was featured at the exhibit, this past April, and projected in a multidimensional sound theater, which wrapped sounds around viewers with interactive visuals)
These two songstresses meet where art and mainstream electronic infusions reside: Grimes’latest offering, Art Angels.Amongst the better executed collections of catchy sounds, the album is able to echo the much appreciated conventions of most pop music while still managing to express itself as an alternative to radio sounds. Much of the drawback that comes from heavily publicized works is their penchant and potential for repetitiveness, but with fourteen new tracks produced for passion rather than publicity, Art Angels feels refreshing and breath-takingly honest.
(The medley of the enchanting “Flesh without Blood” and the hypnotic “Life in the Vivid Dream” is accompanied by a bright and playful video, worth every view)
Bonus: Those looking for a sweeter songstress may find her in Julia Holter, who serenaded many on her Have You in My Wilderness)
2) The Holydrug Couple’s Moonlust (For fanst of Mac DeMarco’s Another One EP)
Mac DeMarco surprised many people – myself included – when, in the middle of the year, he dropped an EP with a mere eight songs that could easily be described as the best works of his career so far. Heavily influenced by the dissonant sound of the previous Salad Days, Another One is a return to the poetic, yet sentimentally reminiscent tones of the earlier singles of his career. The unconventional synths employed by DeMarco perfectly balance the album’s dreamier tones, with the usual somewhat ditzy image of the artist tainting every note.
(Mac DeMarco plays Jacko in the preview video for “Another One” the titular single from the mini-album)
Extremely underrated and virtually obscure, the Holydrug Couple is hardly a ‘top’ contender of anything, when looking at the band’s discography in terms of mainstream success. However, this appears to be mostly the loss of the public, which overlooks the spectacularly understated, and extremely unreal, brilliance of the sounds featured in the latest album, Moonlust. Chilean in origin, the band has a more stable following in South America, where its effective blend of spacy synths and ethereal guitars create lullabies out of nighttime slumber.
(“Concorde” is one of the most futuristic sounding of the album, mesmerizing many with its retro grooves)
Bonus: Triptides’ Azure is another oneiric testament to otherworldly melodies.
1) The Internet’s Ego Death (For fans of Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly)
A disclaimer: To Pimp A Butterfly is unbeatable. It’s impossible to top it this year. Lamar has outdone any kind of possible feat, uniting the most successful hip hop and soul artists of our time, with the sensibility of what made the genre once feel at its best. He has safely secured himself a permanent spot in the history of rap, by showcasing artistry that feels undeniably relevant to the recent struggles of 2015. In To Pimp A Butterfly, Lamar has narrated a snapshot of what it’s like to live in our world with poignant commentary and absolutely staggering sounds. The album can be lighthearted when it wants to, and extremely prophetic when it needs to, culminating with a twelve-minute-long epic that marries experimentalism and brilliant nostalgia.
(One of the catchiest songs included in the album, “Alright.” I don’t think any critical description of the video would ever do it justice)
One of the most appealing features of the album, is its very tasteful nod to the gilded song structure and instrumentals of the entire R’n B/Soul persuasion, which was plentiful in the original movement. While it reads differently in tone and focus, the same feel is present in The Internet’s now third LP, Ego Death, a soul record tinged by the rap influences of its two Odd Future members, Syd the Kyd and Matt Martians. Sultry female vocals appear on here much more prominently, but the jazzy instrumentals and warm and cozy choruses render the album an authentic and pleasant experience for any listeners willing to engage in a vintage listen.
(KAYTRANADA appears to be living the dream in the og Windows XP background in The Internet’s single “Girl,” from Ego Death)
Bonus: Honestly, it’e enough two albums like this came out this year, so nothing else can really compare. But, for heavier hip hop fans, Vince Staples’ mixtape Summertime 06 is evidence of a plentiful variance.
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