top albums/songs of 2015

[Portia]

It's been an excellent year in music. Some of my old standbys—The Decemberists, Death Cab for Cutie, Belle and Sebastian—have released new albums, all of which I've liked to loved, and I've discovered some new acts/tracks as well.

Here are some of my favorites.

Belle and Sebastian, Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance

I liked Belle and Sebastian—I even saw his strange non-film-y film, God Help the Girl, when it premiered at Sundance—but I don't think I loved Stuart Murdoch until this album. The opening track alone is this mind-blowing exegesis of life and death and mental illness and BAH I CAN'T GET ENOUGH

Alabama Shakes, Sound and Color

Brittany Howard is cooler than you.

The Decemberists, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

This is one of the least pretentious albums by this band, and that's a good thing. I think it's one of their most listenable.

Songs

Death Cab for Cutie, Ghosts of Beverly Drive

Oh Ben Gibbard, how do you still get me after all these years? The album wasn't their best, but this song is my favorite of the year. Post-divorce songs are always !!!.

Oh I need not be flattered that you've never been here before
So there's no need to mention that you've no firsts anymore
But if you let me be your skyline I'll let you be the wave
That reduces me to rubble that looked safe from far away

Their live show at Pioneer Park this summer also did not disappoint. I probably cried.

Ryan Adams, Blank Space

I'm not up to speed on my early 2000s alt country legends. Never had heard of this dude before he covered the entirety of T Swift's 1989. Can we all stop the snark and admit that Swift is just an amazing songwriter? Cool, let's. (And yes, it has "Oh My God" in the lyrics. #shock)

Walk the Moon, Portugal

This is from late last year, but it's early October, so I'm counting it. So this sounds like an auto-tuned version of the neo boy bands I was into in high school. But it just works for me. Despite the "long list of ex lovers" of Swift/Adams, the relationship this song makes me think the most of is my platonic best friend who served his mission in Portugal (ten years ago as it happens). We ended up starting and graduating from BYU at the same time, as well as leaving the LDS Church at the same time. He's one of the very few people I can be vulnerable with.

Albums I feel like I missed out on: Leon Bridges (WHY DID MY BROTHER BUY IT IN iTUNES ONLY), St. Vincent, Lana del Rey (#shotsfired), a ton of other good stuff, I'm sure.

What made your list? Any disappointments?

[Whistler]

I feel like I'm still catching up on music from the past four years, but I really liked Radiohead's The King of Limbs. Muse's Drones was kind of meh to me. I want to check out that Belle and Sebastian CD as well as We Are Scientists' latest.

[Cognoscente]

I feel like I'm still catching up on music from the past four years, but I really liked Radiohead's The King of Limbs.

Thank you. Everyone dismisses that record and I think it's genius.

[Portia]

Here are approximately 10 million words on the subject.

http://www.stereogum.com/1786306/in-def ... head-week/

(My Radiohead knowledge extends to the Rock Band version of "Freak" and knowing where Optimistic.'s nym comes from.)

[Cognoscente]

It's called "Creep."

And Portia, please follow this flowchart. (I suggest starting with OK Computer and In Rainbows first.) You have a whole world ahead of you.

[Portia]

Yes, I remembered it was "Creep" as I was falling asleep last night. #HypnagogicThoughts

That flowchart is making me twitchy. If someone does not like guitar music, do they exit the flowchart?

I was born in the '80s, but implying I'd know an alt rock album that came out when I was 7 is silly. In 1995, I was listening to Disney soundtracks and classical and KidzBop or something.

[Cognoscente]

You're overthinking it. Just listen to the music.

[Cognoscente]

Oh, and on topic, I've loved Bully's debut album Feels Like - here's one of their singles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g12-eoMVTWY

(Ladies that rock hard always make me melt)

And one of the greatest albums of the year, and maybe of the last 5 years, is Torres - Sprinter. It's haunting and devastating and chaotic and wonderful, and I can't do it justice with just a paragraph. It deals with alienation and existentialism in the face of lost faith, and it's incredibly cathartic. Check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol61WOSzLF8 or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYOQgwIKj9c

[mic0]

How do you get into music? When do you listen to music? Most of my life is lived without music, except in the car or sometimes at work at which time I want stuff that is not disruptive. I'm just curious. As a teenager I was a little into music, but definitely not "cool" stuff, just random stuff, and I listened to it mostly while playing video games that I muted.

[Portia]

How do you get into music?

Music has always been a big part of my life, but I would say I "got into" it in late high school/early college. We had some seminary thing where we had to bring music: I was limited to Tchaikovsky and, I don't know, the Anastasia soundtrack. The first pop album I bought and listened to more critically was Waiting for My Rocket to Come. I discovered this because of my pointe teacher. So some popular girl had brought, like, Avril Lavigne or some such noise and I made more of an effort to listen to popular music on the radio and form my own opinions. I favored pop punk like All-American Rejects and a capella stuff and singer-songwriters.

Then when coming to college, two people really pushed me toward taking music more seriously: my first boyfriend and one of my best friends.

My boyfriend's only real noticeable talent was in music (even he would probably have admitted this, it's not a neg, just a fact), and he had an extensive collection. Also a fan of Mraz, he was a veritable treasure trove of early to mid '00s pop. Death Cab, The Starting Line, older stuff like John Denver, even cheesy ultra-Christian Relient K. This was when physical CDs were still a thing, which I think encourage more album listening compared to, say, Spotify.

My ultra-hipster friend was the one who introduced me to indie music: she made me a mix CD which pretty much changed everything. Andrew Bird. The Postal Service. Rufus Wainwright. I doubt I ever would have gone to a José Gonzalez concert this year without having been introduced to music that at that time just wasn't on the radio. Now you can tune into Coffeehouse XM radio to get that sound. But it was completely new to me.

So between those two and going to a lot of dances where BYUSA seemed to not mind pushing boundaries with their sets (cue the angry letters to the DU, which was daily), I got a pretty good grounding in different genres of the 00s.

I also will read Pitchfork from time to time and use services like Pandora to discover new-to-me acts.

When do you listen to music?

At work, on roadtrips, when I'm doing chores. A lot, really.

mostly while playing video games that I muted.

I could just as well ask how one gets into video games, because besides Mario Party when I was depressed and underemployed, I can't think of a time when I was like, hey, let's play a video game! I think I missed the critical period on that. I'll even read video game reviews if it appears in an outlet I'm reading (say, the New Yorker), but I happen to prefer board games. /shrug

My current boyfriend is a video gamer to some extent, so I maintain my theory that the passions we discover at 17 take root more than those at 27. At least for me, anyway. This is supported by what I've read on the neuroscience of it.

[Portia]

That felt weirdly like bearing my testimony. :-P

[mic0]

I may have misled you by saying I played video games. I played Neopets and The Sims. I probably also listened to music while reading LiveJournal. Also I don't agree with your passions at 17 theory because for me it is almost 100% false and I am not into the same sorts of things at all as I was then. With that out of the way!

Your background with music is very interesting, thanks for sharing!

eta: Maybe the 17 theory isn't 100% false for me, after all I still quite like reading fiction.

[Whistler]

In high school I was obsessed with classical music--fueled by my desire to appear intellectual and sophisticated, and also because I had an enormous crush on a guy who was into classical piano. I downloaded all the classical music I could find on Kazaa and a lot from Soulseek. I checked out CDs from the library and ripped them to my computer. I read the liner notes carefully to understand what smart people thought of the music, and I played the flute religiously. I especially liked dramatic, tortured composers like Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky, and Schubert. Plus the fact that they were Russian/European seemed really cool to me.

In college I started branching out a little--I asked friends to share their music with me, and that's how I got a bunch of the files still in my collection (although periodically I purge things, like is it really necessary to have all the versions of a single released by Erasure). One of the MCs on From the Top (a radio show about young talented classical musicians) would play piano versions of Radiohead songs at the breaks in the show, which helped legitimize "vernacular" music in my mind. When I joined the Board I really, really wanted to fit in, and so I got some recommendations from Optimistic which I tried hard to like (and some are still among my favorites, like Kings of Convenience). I got other music recommendations from some of my professors, Uffish, Cognoscente, and Pandora (although most of the Pandora recommendations were one-hit wonders). I wanted to be a music major and I attended lots of recitals and concerts. Two years ago I took organ lessons for about six months, and I listened to some organ music I'd never heard of before then.

I used to listen to music all the time. I'd listen when I walked to campus, in between classes, while studying, while reading for pleasure, and while on the internet. I've read that people who are wearing headphones have a smaller personal bubble, and I think that listening to music on headphones constantly was definitely part of how I coped with being around so many people all the time. I don't feel that need as much anymore, and I don't listen to music as often. Now it's basically whenever I'm driving, and whenever I happen to think about it. I feel detached from the music world. I still enjoy music though, and I hope that one day I can learn how to compose awesome videogame music. When I'm out walking or just at home, I often want to savor the silence or the noises of nature. CONCRETE EVIDENCE that I'm getting old.

[Genuine Article]

That flowchart is making me twitchy. If someone does not like guitar music, do they exit the flowchart?

I was born in the '80s, but implying I'd know an alt rock album that came out when I was 7 is silly. In 1995, I was listening to Disney soundtracks and classical and KidzBop or something.

If nothing else, do give The Bends a listen. Radiohead fans will spurn me for saying this, but it's my favorite of their albums. (I know, I know it's not their best album, but I don't care.)

[Marduk]

How do you get into music? When do you listen to music? Most of my life is lived without music, except in the car or sometimes at work at which time I want stuff that is not disruptive. I'm just curious. As a teenager I was a little into music, but definitely not "cool" stuff, just random stuff, and I listened to it mostly while playing video games that I muted.

I never listen to more music than when I was a delivery driver. now that I'm not, I basically only listen to music while running errands, or sometimes while walking.

[Portia]

That flowchart is making me twitchy. If someone does not like guitar music, do they exit the flowchart?

I was born in the '80s, but implying I'd know an alt rock album that came out when I was 7 is silly. In 1995, I was listening to Disney soundtracks and classical and KidzBop or something.

If nothing else, do give The Bends a listen. Radiohead fans will spurn me for saying this, but it's my favorite of their albums. (I know, I know it's not their best album, but I don't care.)

I'm stopping by a record store this weekend. I'll take a look if I like the sound of it on Spotify or something.

My boyfriend isn't a fan, so I know that's nixed for road trips. I will have to ask him what got him "into" music. Especially interesting because he has the worst tin ear of anyone I've ever met.

[mic0]

When I'm out walking or just at home, I often want to savor the silence or the noises of nature. CONCRETE EVIDENCE that I'm getting old.

Haha! Awwwwww.

I also feel "disconnected from the music world" which I guess is why I'm curious how people stay up to date with music. It's just so huge. On the other hand, I don't keep "up to date" with books but I still enjoy the books I read and only occasionally get down on myself for not having read every book ever. So I guess it is just a mental battle.

Marduk, yeah, I feel like I have to be "doing something" with music. I can listen to it while running sometimes or while doing something else, but I almost never just decide to listen to music for the sake of listening to music.

[Digit]

oldness test: do you get the joke at the end of this video?

[Portia]

oldness test: do you get the joke at the end of this video?

NSFW @_@

[Cognoscente]

It's an Animal House reference. ಠ_ಠ