Over/Undergroundâs Favorite Albums of 2015
To celebrate the end of the year, Over/Underground worked with some of our close friends and fellow musicklovers to put together a list of 2015's top albums. Enjoy responsibly.
Will Butlerâs debut arrived not a moment too soon. You may know that Butler typically runs around with his older brother and the rest of The Arcade Fire. On Policy, Butler surveyed wide latitudes: throwing back to the 50's and snapping forward to the Moog-laden âAnnaâ.
The latter is certainly the breakout song for Butler. While each music video for âAnnaâ is its own treat (including a high-production gala featuring an in-form Emma Stone), we at Over/Underground prefer the earlier version. Featuring only a suited Butler, a dark overgrown background, and clever overlain graphics, âAnnaâ was our favorite music video of the year.
All in all, Butlerâs first effort is well worth digesting. He recalls LCD Soundsystem, Buddy Holly, and Beck. Policy is vibrant, diverse, playful, and wistful, and often a mouthful too:
âI remember what I wanted to say/but the words in my mouth I just swallowed away/and the timing was wrong/and the weather was grey/and the feeling I felt/it had faded/It wasnât real.â
But it was, it hadnât, and weâre hungry for more.
19. Ought | Sun Coming Down
Oughtâs Sun Coming Down builds on many of the thoughts expressed in their debut album More Than Any Other Day. In this album, the heartfelt and thoughtful whimsy shown with âHabitâ and âMore Than Any Other Dayâ are felt equally throughout. Their musings in the banal suggest a frustration with the everyday, but through the course of the album the listener witnesses the progression from sincere introspection to finding the answer to lifeâs queries in those around us. Frustrations grow as treading water slakes no thirst for the growth into something more fulfilling in a broader context. This concern for the bigger picture suggests a psychological and musical growth of the band, whose preoccupations have moved beyond being able to choose a type of milk at the grocery store. This is best shown on âBeautiful Blue Sky,â where solace for these frustrations is shown through what we all share: death, the big, beautiful blue sky above us, and the ability to dance tonight to these sweet tunes.
18. The Zoltars | The Zoltars
Hailing from trendy-as-ever Austin, The Zoltars slinked onto the scene this year with a hopelessly catchy self-titled LP. Although the distribution model for the record is distinctly 21st century (with vinyl sold by Happenin Records and cassettes through Burger Records), the content could not be more timelessly rockânâroll. Listening to immaculately crafted tunes like, â16-17-18 Living,â you get the sense that the band gutted a soda fountain jukebox from decades past and filtered its sock-hopping innards through the gritty introspection of modern-day anxiety. In fact, the album is virtually consumed with anxious nostalgia, as heard when vocalist Jared Zoltar (nee Leibowich) pines for a good old fashion visit to the picture show in the stirring third track, âMovies.â Named for the mystical and mysterious fortune-telling game in the movie Big, The Zoltars embody a sense of anachronistic playfulness. At turns both light hearted and distraught, the album is a joy that bears multiple replays.
DISCLAIMER: A band that Iâm in had the chance to open up for The Zoltars in Little Rock, and they are some of the most genuine and pleasant to be around people that Iâve ever met. Seriously.
17. King Gizzard and Lizard Wizard | Paper Mache Dream Balloon
This album came as a complete (and pleasant) surprise: King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard are known for their steady output, but they had just released another LP called Quarters in May, so Iâm not sure anybody was expecting this wondrous piece of acoustic psychedelia. With a heavier jazz influence than their other albums, a psych flute that could rival Jethro Tullâs, interesting and unpredictable progressions, smart arrangements, and playful lyrics, this album is a joyful experience to listen through again and again. It literally put a smile on my face, and more than once at that! Really, listen to the whole thing, but in case you need some more convincing, try the title track, âCold Cadaver,â âTime = Fate,â and/or âTime = $$$.â
16. Viet Cong | Viet Cong
The (formerly) self-titled debut album from Viet Cong had an appropriate seasonal release in January; the chilly, industrial tones that resonate throughout the album matched the climate of most of those giving this album a first listen. As a post-punk band hailing from Calgary, they reinforced their dire tone with desolate lyrics of societal flaws and personal strife. Thematically, it follows a dismantling of the self through the analysis of existence without agency in a system that was made for production. Much like the Calgary winters which assuredly shaped Viet Cong, this system is not nurturing or understanding or forgiving to those who arenât adequately bundled. As the album progresses, there is an undeniable energy that competes with the nihilistic subject matter. This contrast is best portrayed in the closing track of the album, âDeathâ, which opens with jingling guitars and devolves into an industrial, discordant rhythms, paired with passionately forlorn lyrics. As the weather turns again, it is worth revisiting this album to remind us what it was like to be cold in 2015.
I could write about how Jamie XXâs first solo album harkens back to dubstepâs early days, of the âdark garageâ variety, while infusing it with the more-poppy melodies that mark current electronica. But, that would cheapen the effect In Colour has on the listener and the way XX crafts the genre to his liking (as well as cheapen the quality of this blurbâtoo late, perhaps).
I dare you not to get lost in the second half of âGosh,â the album opener. It begins much like dubstep itself, dirty, a combination of drum and bass, jungle, and grimeâBenga and Skream with a bunch of drunks in the early 2000s. But, XXâs magic comes out mid-song. From that point, the album does not release the listener from XXâs vision. Melodic and captivating, the songs range from the pained melancholy of âStranger in a Roomâ to the Summer Anthem âI Know Thereâs Gonna Be (Good Times).â XX takes full advantage of the other members of the xx (the band composed of Jamie XX, Romy Croft, and Oliver Sim). Their additions impart a layer of poignancy completely absent from the schizophrenic dubstep found on our shores. âLoud Placesâ is particularly arresting in this regard. âI go to loud places to search for someone to be quiet with who will take me home,â the narrator breathlessly states. âYou go to loud places to find someone who will take you higher than I took you. Didnât I take you to higher places you canât reach without me?â XX makes imagining a party-goer completely alone, surrounded by the scene, easy and tragic, âYouâre in ecstasy without me. When you come down, I wonât be around.â
Amongst XXâs take on the genre, he has taken opportunities to honor those before him. XXâs single, and loving homage to his predecessors, âAll Under One Roof Raving,â shows the movement from whence his sound came. But, amongst the marimba, XX brings the genre to his territory. âHardcore will never die,â to be sure, but XX is making himself home in the second decade of dubstep.
14. Jason Isbell | Something More Than Free
Jason Isbellâs fifth studio album, Something More Than Free, is familiar. Isbell earned his singer-songwriter reputation as a member of Drive-By Truckers, and his own career exploded after his last solo album, Southeastern. In these efforts Isbell paints characters as much as he tells stories, leaning heavily on the internal conflicts rather than the world around him. Isbell writes through his own lens and discusses his personal experiences at the forefront, and this remains true with Something More Than Free.
In the albumâs opening track itâs hard not to hear Isbell himself, a touring musician and recovering alcoholic, in lines like âI thought the highway loved me, but she beat me like a drumâ and âI donât keep liquor here/never cared much for wine and beer.â His strife is eventually resolved, and in his new, simpler life he will âfind happiness, by and by.â This eventual uplift seems to be the theme of the album. Where Southeastern was the apparent bookend to Isbellâs darker days, Something is a look to the light.
Unlike in his acoustic driven Southeastern, Something is heavy on instrumentation. Where Southeastern was stark and dark, Something finds hope in even its more dour songs with louder and more electric strings. Something More Than Free takes fewer chances, but remains true to what Isbell knows, personal struggle and growth. And each gleeful guitar solo is a reminder that not only did Isbell beat his demons, heâs also happy again.
13. PAGIINS | Opium Den Pool Party
Plenty of bands face adversity, and not all survive. Still fewer thrive. Pagiins has. Recorded over a year ago in Atlanta, Georgia, Opium Den Pool Party saw the light of day only this year.
There is plenty of pressure on bands like theirs to deliver: it can come from friends, people plunking down money, fans, everyone investing time. Within your band or within yourself.
Pagiins seems to work best when lyrically bidirectional. For Leif Hinshaw, pronouns are often all-inclusive or even intentionally deceptive. As an example, âThings Iâve Learnedâ works so well because the speaker could be either subject or object, or really just about anyone else:
âIâm so tired of/Your excuses/Take my Time and/Make it uselessâ âYouâve got no one/Left to Turn to/Canât depend on/You to follow throughâ
On Opium Den, Pagiins often make it seem easy. Scrappy guitars and nigh-countrified train beats join concise lyrics and sensible melodies. Yet beneath the surface complexity rules the roost.
Despite its easy-going first blush, the arrangement is deeply conscientious. Repeated, and repeated, and repeated, bangs yield to shimmers, and rhymes combine to rhythms. Theirs was the best record released in Arkansas of 2015.
Opium Den Pool Party by Pagiins
Since their debut in 2013, Los Angeles pop-punkers Upset have garnered a reputation for pedaling guitar-driven nostalgia that calls to mind the low slung basses and restless energy of early 2000âs Warped Tour. Their second release, â76, delivers tight melodies that are equally animated by youthful resentment and seasoned contemplation, a tension that reflects the groupâs intergenerational composition.
Founded by scene veterans Ali Koehler (Vivian Girls, Best Coast) and Patty Schemel (Hole), Upset has the chops and the cred to appeal to a broad base of punk and indie rock fans. On â76, they are as comfortable reminiscing about listening to Bleed American with an old flame as they are covering Jawbreakerâs monument to love-lost, âDo You Still Hate Me?â This album was deeply satisfying, and I can only hope that Upset has enough unresolved tension and untapped retrospection to fuel more albums in years to come.
11. La Luz | Weirdo Shrine
La Luzâs Weirdo Shrine is a great sophomore album from a criminally underrated band. One of several excellent 2015 releases from Hardly Art, La Luz sprays ocean waves as viscous, plodding darkness. The band owes more Jules Verne than Brian Wilson.
In comparison to 2013âs Itâs Alive, this release takes more chances. Excellent harmony, refreshingly surfy reverb, and crisp songwriting typify yet another wonderful salvo from Seattle. Replete with dour, unwary listeners may casually set this record aside. They would surely regret it.
10. together PANGEA | The Phage
Although The Phage doesnât pioneer new territory for together PANGEA (formerly PANGEA), it is a more-than-fitting follow up to their excellent 2014 release, Badillac. âPhageâ isnât a formal âwordâ with a traditional âdefinition,â but you can bet that whatever it means, like the EP itself, has some nastiness to it. And yet the ever present underbelly of together PANGEAâs sound isnât without humor and lightness, and even the EPâs most vulnerable moments are cut with flippant resignation (heard on the excellent track, âBlue Mirrorâ).
The EP also features tracks that fit neatly into the bandâs comfort zone of warm, beachy fuzz, including the earworming opener âLooked In Tooâ and the middle track âMy Head Is On Too Tight.â Ultimately, however, it is The Phageâs eclectic experimentation, (e.g., Segall-esque closing track, âSheâs a Queenâ) that shows together PANGEAâs burgeoning potential as vanguards of a new generation of guitar rockers.
9. Speedy Ortiz | Foil Deer
Most wordsmiths sharing a crick of a neck of a genre woods with Pavement must at some point withstand comparison to Stephen Malkmus. Surely flattering at first, such comparisons have a tendency to gloss over the new by revolving around the old. Perhaps this is why Speedy Ortizâs excellent Foil Deer begins with a minute-long faded-in, dissonant, hard-panned-stereo slow jam. After meandering for a minute, the instrumentals of âGood Neckâ swerve into menace:
âGot a lack of woe/Iâve known you not so very long/but watch your >back/because babyâs so good with a blade.â
âRaising the Skateâ is waking up having fallen halfway off the couch only to find the heater was turned off sometime during the night. Sadie Dupuis jabs and jabs and jabs. Rarely does the bridge of a song unify the dynamics â both lyrical and musical â with the elegance of this gem. If it clicks for you, so will the album:
âWe could hang out for the summer while you wait for your girl/Dip a toe âtil itâs soaked and freezing/But just because I let you kill time dangling me/From the quarry doesnât mean that I wonât land on my feet.â
As compared to their full-length debut Major Arcana, here Speedy Ortiz evoke a broader range of influences: the industrial âPufferâ, the midtown Memphis of Wowee Zowee on âZigâ, R.E.M. surf on âThe Graduates.â Quarrels at the bar are rarely this deductive. With this record Dupuis continues to show her knack for linking zig and zag.
Fuzz II was my most anticipated album of 2015, and honestly, it over-delivered. While Fuzzâs debut, Fuzz, was more firmly rooted in the proto metal bands that former high school buds Ty Segall, Charles Mootheart, and Chad Ubovich geeked out over, the new album shows a Fuzz thatâs finding their own sound. Mootheart absolutely rips through riffs and solos, Segall sings and shouts and throws in grooves and fills at a furious pace, and Ubovich provides solid bounce-y basslines and an as-close-to-Ozzy-in-Sabbath voice as youâll ever find. This album is not for the faint of heartâif you even being to think the question âHow much fuzz is too much?â then youâve missed the point. This album is hard and rocking, and will make you want to grow your hair out and bang your head around. Just try to listen to âBurning Wreath,â âJack the Maggot,â or âNew Fleshâ without jumping around in your own imaginary mosh pit.
7. Thee Oh Sees | Mutilator Defeated at Last
Thee Oh Sees have been around since the late 90s, so itâs not exactly revelatory that the band has seen different lineups, or that their sound has evolved over the years. This newest iteration of Oh Sees, with Dwyer at the helm as always, Tim Hellman on bass, and Nick Murray on the drums (since replaced by Ryan Moutinho and Dan Rincon for an amazing two drummer lineup), might be the most frantically energetic and outright thrashiest yet. Long story short, Mutilator Defeated At Last is about Dwyer shredding, from beginning to end. Murray provides a fast-paced jazzy flare on drums that somehow fits perfectly with these tunes, and Hellman provides solid basslines to keep everything anchored. Dwyer even implements some of his growing synth knowledge gained from his Damaged Bug solo project into tunes like âSticky Hulks,â switching back and forth between trebly riffs and melodic keys to form a seven minute long ballad that undulates and swells and subsides again. Really, if you think of yourself as a fan of rock music, you just need to listen to the first track, âWeb,â to realize that youâre going to love this album. (One additional note: if you ever have the opportunity to see Thee Oh Sees live, you take it. The insane energy they bring will have you thinking about attempting to crowd surf for the very first time.)
Itâs impossible to describe the feeling I had when I listened to Golem for the first time. The pure ecstasy I felt when I heard the opening riff of âThe Unexplored Map,â the giddy excitement for something so brutally heavy yet melodic, something unlike anything else I had heard to that point. I tend to avoid the word âepicâ for many reasons, but there really is no other way to describe Golemâit is epic. The first three songs storm in and set the tone for the album; the next song, âMelted Rope,â downshifts and shows the bandâs quieter side. But like the eye of a storm, what follows is a steady progression of heavier and fuzzier tunes, climaxing with the excellent âFloating Headâ and the all-out noise assault of âPlanet Golem,â and concluding with the airy and psyche-y track, âThe Drift.â This album is an experience, a lesson in creating heavy garage songs that are somehow also harmonious and catchy.
Saccharine in a time when weâre all pretty sure that actual saccharine will give us cancer, Art Angels is a work of dancefloor pastiche that easily contends with Carly Rae Jepsen and Justin Beiberâs releases for the title of 2015âs pop masterpiece. As an artist, Grimes reflects the intercultural bricolage that defines global pop culture in the 21st Century, swirling the infectious energy of JPop, the trance-inducing rhythms of Euroclub, and the vocal stylings of American R&B to create a distinctly transnational sound that, frankly, kicks ass.
At 27, the Canadian indie goddess has already established herself as a genre-bending icon, inspiring âscene girlsâ on both sides of the Atlantic with her provocative, but not inauthentic, style. Art Angels sparkles and pops throughout its course, especially on crowning jewels, âFlesh Without Blood,â and âKill V. Maim.â The latter track exemplifies Grimesâ wide-ranging aesthetic, blending cheeky call and response with snarling rage in a consistently danceable slurry of minor-key goodness. The entire album deserves several listens, and will serve just as dutifully backing a pumped-up house party as it will pouring out of your car speakers on a cross country trip.
4. Protomartyr | The Agent Intellect
Three albums into Protomartyrâs career, itâs still nigh impossible to find anything written about the band that isnât also, in one way or another, about The City of Detroit. This is exactly the kind of thing the cynics among us tend to take issue with â another product of the internet echo chamber. Except, lucky for us, the ongoing preoccupation with Protomartyr and their hometown isnât just hype.
Not unlike Dickensâ London, Protomartyrâs Detroit is the sensory manifestation of a kind of melancholy that transcends its locus in time and space. If 2014âs outstanding Under Color of Official Right sketched the desolate landscape of Americaâs enduring symbol for the failure of industrialization, The Agent Intellect renders the same abandoned factories in full Technicolor. Unsurprisingly, this is an album that contends with some heavy stuff â mortality, the impossibility of true fulfillment, hope lost, and dreams deferred.
This, then, brings us to the great irony of The Agent Intellect, which is the fact that it is an album of remarkable ambition. It just so happens to be about the failure of ambition, both at the individual level and on a historical scale. An album about the evil that men do ends up showcasing our highest aspirations. And Protomartyrâs portrait of American despair turns out to be nothing short of an absolute triumph.
3. Kurt Vile | bâlieve iâm goin down
Kurt Vile has built a musical oasis in a place that only a handful of artists (Curren$y and former Woodsist labelmates Real Estate come to mind) can locate. Coupling cool, typically dispassionate delivery with artfully arranged instrumentation, Vile exudes mastery to the point that it approaches boredom. But lying in the sometimes-sleepy density of Vileâs lyrics are pockets of inescapable truth, or, at the very least, undeniable wit. Vileâs humor comes across on all planes of bâlieve iâm goin down, from the jangly instrumentation in âIâm an Outlawâ to the unforgettable description of, âa headache like a shop vac coughing dust bunnies,â in âDust Bunnies.â
While the lead single, âPretty Pimpin,â is a formidable stack of guitar licks and lyrical turns, my favorite track has to be the nearly seven-minute, âLost my Head there.â That track finds Vile wielding his screwball delivery to tackle bouts of mental instability (âa bit of funky psychosisâ) before spiraling into an instrumental stretch that would be at home on a 1970âs dancefloor. While it may not have the energy of some other top albums, bâlieve is a journey worth taking, with enough twists to keep you engaged even when your eyelids get heavy. It wouldnât hurt to enjoy it with a cup of coffee, though.
2. Kendrick Lamar | To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick Lamarâs To Pimp a Butterfly is everything that you could hope for in a hip-hop album: smart, socially conscious, fun, self-aware, and political. Despite the seventy eight minute run time, the album never feels overlong; largely due to the powerful combination of Lamarâs lyrics and expertly constructed instrumental tracks. From the free-jazz explosion of âFor Free?â to the 90s hip-hop back-beat of âThese Walls,â the album is filled with musical references to Carlos Santana, The Funkadelic, Public Enemy, and Miles Davis. Lamarâs lyrics focus largely on challenges African-Americanâs face; whether that be white suprematism, police violence, or divisiveness within the African-American community. Kendrick is not only an exceptional lyricist but also a chameleon vocalist: changing the timbre and tone of his voice to match the concept and content of his rhymes. While Kendrickâs ability to attract high-caliber collaborators (Bilal, George Clinton, Thundercat, and Snoop Dogg) is impressive in itself; his ability to remain at the helm of every track is a testament to his talents as an artist. The album climaxes with an interview between Kendrick and one of Hip-Hopâs late-great philosopher kings that is too good to spoil. Just listen to it.
1. Courtney Barnett | Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
To open as strongly as Courtney Barnett did in her debut is nearly unprecedented. Sheâs smart, crafty, heavy, but all the while careless. Her brand of cool is undeniable yet undefined. While Barnett is quick to remind her audience that she ought not be put on a pedestal, itâs impossible not to crush on her quick-witted storytelling.
From the opening track Barnett proves herself a clever wordsmith and technical musician. In âElevator Operatorâ, Barnett convinces an adrift young man not to jump off a roof. Later she tells the story of a swimmer passing out while trying to impress his competitor. Of a coupleâs house hunt turned soul search. She talks to Jesus (who happens to be a woman); she realizes that nobody really cares if you donât go to the party; and, like every young woman, stares at the ceiling wondering what her crush is up to. Barnett dives deep into the human psyche. There she finds that the most human concerns are often distracted by the trivial.
Barnettâs Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit is a twenty-something stream of consciousness probe of whatâs wrong with the world, all the while constantly second-guessing whether fixing it matters. She asks big questions atop perfectly crafted, cool riffs and feedback fuzz. Her monotone couples with clever lines like road-kill as a âopossum Jackson Pollockâ and references to SimCity, glazing over the obscure with playful sass. On Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit, Barnett is a riot girl that speaks gossip girl, and it translates beautifully.
