When the year winds down, we begin making lists. Lists outlining the great things we accomplished that year, the lessons learned, the places visited, our favorite films and the music that shook our souls over the past 12 months. With the year having come to a close and so many great albums released, I wanted to share some of my favorites from 2015.

The other day, I looked ay my Spotify "Year in Music" review to see my top listened-to artists, albums, and tracks of 2015 which outline the top 5 in each category. Initially, I was going to create my own Top 5 Albums of 2015, but I soon realized that five slots just wasn't going to cut it. There was a plethora of great albums released this year, so why limit the music sharing to just five albums?

I shan't. 

And so I present my Top 10 Albums of 2015 which outline the ones I connected with and listened to the most.

Top 10 Albums

10. Wild Child, Fools

Wild Child’s third album, Fools, employs the elements I’ve enjoyed since day one: lovely harmonies, their signature ukulele, and delicate stories that circle around heartbreak and detailed memories. Expanding upon these elements, they’ve created a much fuller, pop-infused sound with horns, prominent percussion and uptempo melodies.

It’s an enjoyable record and I appreciate their growth, though, I will say it’s not my favorite Wild Child album. That declaration goes to The Runaround. The element that I miss most from previous records is the witty, dual perspective banter between singers Kelsey and Alexander. It’s touched on in “Saving Face,” but it’s largely absent. As a band, they made a creative decision, stuck with it and I respect that. I do hope, though, that with future work they choose to weave this writing style back into their storytelling.

With that said, it was one of my top-played albums of the Fall with 221 streams and "Meadows" ringing in as my top played song in one day.

  Go to tracks -- Meadows, Break Bones, Oklahoma

9. San Fermin, Jackrabbit

San Fermin is a band from Brooklyn, NY who I first heard last summer when they opened for St. Vincent at the Celebrate Brooklyn summer concert series. I've seen them twice since then, once at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and later at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. 

Characterized by their classical, baroque-rock sound, they’ve consistently put on incredibles shows of high energy, sweeping horn solos and enrapturing sonic landscapes. With the release of their second album, Jackrabbit, San Fermin builds upon this sound with somber stories, discordant phrases and ethereal vocals by Charlene Kaye that range from entrancing to unsettling. Concurrently, the album shows movement into the pop landscape with catchy, uptempo melodies and drum beats that get you groovin'.

It's both grim and lively, and was a go-to throughout the year with 230 streams.

  Go to tracks -- Jackrabbit, Reckoning, Two Scenes

8. The Arcs, Yours, Dreamily

The Arcs is the latest project from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. Here, he teams up with longtime music friends Leon Michels, Richard Swift, Homer Steinweiss, Nick Movshon and Kenny Vaughan to create Yours, Dreamily, a smoky, psychedelic-rock album woven with elements of blues, country and Neo soul. It features vocals by the New York-based female mariachi band Flor de Toloache and a warped spoken-word intro atop circus music that I just love.

  Go to Tracks -- Stay in My Corner, Outta My Mind, Cold Companion

7. Diane Coffee, Everybody's a Dog

This album puts me in good spirits. I want to dance, I want to rummage through vintage stores and adorn myself in lavish patterns and sprakling gems; I want to get weird. Take a listen and get weird with me, will you? Let's march.

  Go to tracks -- Everybody, Mayflower, Duet

6. Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color

Ain't no sophomore slump here. With the release of Sound & Color, front-woman Brittany Howard came out roaring, untamed and reeking of an invigorated new energy spawned from a newly-found comfort and confidence. The album is funky, gritty and most of all heartfelt. The only thing left to do now is step aside and let this woman shine, or else succumb to the reality of being steamrolled over because this powerhouse ain't slowing down. 

  Go to tracks -- Sound & Color, Gimme All Your Love, Don't Wanna Fight

5. Tame Impala, Currents

This record is groovy, soul-easing, psychedelic funk. I just want to dance in the sun along the beach with my eyes closed and face to the sky, twirling about with my flowery kimono waving in the breeze. That's what this album is.

  Go to tracks --The Less I Know The Better, The Moment, Yes I'm Changing

4. Foals, What Went Down

Before this album, I knew of Foals and I was well acquainted with their hit "The Number" off their 2013 release Holy Fire, but as catchy as the tune was, it didn't beckon me to dive into the rest of the album. Two years later, the title track and lead single "What Went Down" was released and I was itching for more. It's a more aggressive album compared to their earlier work, dark and tumultuous like a looming storm brewing from within. I love it.

  Go to tracks -- Mountain at My Gates, Give It All, Lonely Hunter

3. EL VY, Return to the Moon  

El VY is the collaborative project between Matt Berninger of The National and Brent Knopf of Menomena. With The National's Trouble Will Find Me being a steady play since its 2013 release. this album, Return to the Moon, feels both familiar and refreshing. It displays Berninger's signature melancholy vocals and hyper-aware stories about love and life, though, now set against a more upbeat tempo, dance-provoking keyboard and an eerie tone that's strung throughout. I look forward to more from this duo.

  Go to tracks -- Need a Friend, Sad Case, Careless

2. Milo Greene, Control

From the first time I heard Milo Greene's self-titled debut album, I was hooked. The gorgeous four-piece harmonies, the sweeping vocal echoing, their emotional, atmospheric folk-rock sound. I devoured it. With the release of their sophomore album, Control, the band traded in their established sound for a fresh one, expanding upon their strengths and experimenting with new tones and tempos to render a sound that I like to call ‘indie rock disco-pop.’ It's a synth-heavy album full of groovy drums, smokey vocals and a retro vibe that beckons you to move your bones.

Whether folk pop or indie rock disco-pop, it don’t matter. This band is aces.

  Go to tracks -- White Lies, Not Enough, When It's Done

1. Florence and the Machine, How Big How Blue How Beautiful

Given the handful of other posts admiring, praising and illustrating how I'm struck still by the creative collaboration between Florence Welch and director Vincent Haycock, it should come as no surprise that this is the album that had the greatest hold on me this year. It was also one of my top played albums of 2015 attributing to the Top Played Artist ranking with 635 songs listened to, and that doesn't even include the dozens of music video streams. Yeah, it was serious.

With this album, Welch laid aside the fantastical, grand spectacle and laid bare the uninhibited feelings of heartbreak, self-destruction and self-awareness. It was an album that hashed up old feelings, sent me in a spiral and prompted me to revisit my own history. 

One of my favorite songs on the album is "St. Jude," which has one of the most devastatingly beautiful and emotionally articulate phrases, both melodically and lyrically, that rings ever so true:

And I'm learning, so I'm leaving and even though I am grieving, I'm trying to find the meaning. Letting loss reveal it.
Letting loss reveal it...

This album will forever be a staple in my collection. 

  Go to tracks -- What Kind of Man, St. Jude, Delilah, Hiding (bonus track)

Top 10 Tracks

And now for some singular tracks. Here are 10 of my favorite songs from 2015 in no particular order:

Chet Faker ft. Banks | 1988
 

James Vincent McMorrow | How to Waste a Moment

The Chemical Brothers | Wide Open

Lapsley | Falling Short

Laura Welsh | Hollow Drum

Kurt Vile | Pretty Pimpin'

Glass Animals | Pools

Dawes | Things Happen

Courtney Barnett | Pedestrian At Best

Lucy Rose | Shiver (Live from RAK Studios)

Here's the 2016!

xxChris