The Music of 2015: My Top 20 Albums

Creating a list of a year’s favourite albums is hard work. You need to keep an eye (and two ears) open all through the year to catch all the good releases, you have to remember which albums were your favourites in February and July when the year comes to an end, and you have to rank the albums according to a set of rules only you know about, some of which you simply invent as you go along. But the worst part of it is the knowledge that no matter how many wonderful albums you stumble across throughout the year, you can be pretty sure of missing out on an unknown number of equally wonderful albums. As I said – hard work!

The 2015 list turned out to be impossible to limit to only 10, so I’ve doubled it. When summing up in December, I found around a hundred high quality album releases that I’ve been listening to for something between a couple of weeks to almost a year. All in all, I've written more than 8 pages of notes to these albums, and spent A LOT of hours enjoying the music. According to my kids, it is a collection of sad and depressing music. Well, I like it anyway! 

If you use Spotify, you can listen to my Top 20 there, or to an extended list, consisting of my three favourite songs from each album. I've also made a list of ten great songs, independent of whether or not they belong to a great album.

Enjoy!

20. Chemical Brothers: Born in the Echoes (UK)

My favourite song of 2015 must be “Go”. I think it’s simply brilliant, and it’s the main reason the album claimed a place on my top 20. Do not watch the video for "Sometimes I feel so deserted”, by the way. It is slightly unsettling:-) Having said that, I find there’s a dark and gloomy streak to the whole album. Or maybe I’m just influenced by that video …

Best songs:

Go

Sometimes I feel so deserted

Wide open

19. Foals: What Went Down (UK)

Good pop songs and a good voice, what else do you need? Slightly more rock 'n' roll than my usual stuff. I'm sure they're great live. Could someone invite them to Tromsø?

Best songs:

What went down

Albatross

Snake oil

18. Jay-Jay Johanson: Opium (Sweden)

No matter how interested I am in pop music, there are always bands and artists that seem to appear out of nowehere, and then it turns out they've been around for quite a while. Apparently this is Johanson's tenth album. And I haven't heard about him until this year. Strange. Or perhaps not. This is introvert, but still catchy electronica with an old fashioned tint to it - modern day meets the 40s or something. 

Best songs:

Moonshine

Drowsy

I can count on you

17. Algiers: Algiers (US)

Algiers is such a different band that you're bound to like it. The singer shout sings with an intensity, you should think his life depends on it. Raw and industrial - dare I call it pop? no, think not. Let's stick with industrial rock, with a clear inspiration from Tom Waits. Good debut. They're very welcome to play Bukta, Tromsø Open Air Festival in July this summer:-)

Best songs:

But she was no flying

And when you fall

Black eunuch

16. Landshapes: Heyoon (UK)

Raise your hand if you've heard about the Landshapes before! (I hadn't!). This is shoegaze meets folk pop. Quite similar to wonderful Lush during their heyday. Lost of good songs here.

Best songs:

Francois

Stay

Rhino

15. Astrid Williamson: We Go to Dream (UK)

Been a fan of this Shetland artist for some years now, and love her melancholic songs and electronic colouring.Lots of songs here in the same spirit as "Slake", on of the songs from her 2009 album Here Come the Vikings, especially the more quite, almost hypnotic tracks. If you're classically inclined, you might also like her divine other 2015 album: Requiem & Gallipoli.

Best songs:

Ambienza

We go to dream

Captured

14. Bernard + Edith: Jem (UK)

This is slow electronica with clear references to for instance Cocteau Twins or the trip hop scene of the 90s.

Best songs:

Crocodile

Poppy

Heartache

13. Gwenno: Y Dydd Olaf (UK)

Welsh artists singing in Welsh isn't too common in my playlists, but thanks to BBC 6 Music, Gwenno climbed into my list with this wonderful album, which by the way means "The Last Day" and has nothing to do with someone called Olaf. Apparently. According to the Internet.This is actually a re-release of her 2014 album, so it sort of cheated its way onto my list, but since I didn't discover it until now, I allow it. Is there a sample from I Break Horses' "Winter beats" in "Patriarchaet" or have they just both used the same source (unknown to me)? Or am I imagining things? (I might!)

Best songs:

Chwyldro

Fratolish hiang perpeshk

Patriarchaeth

12. Florence & The Machine: How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (UK)

I love Florence Welch's strong and unique voice. I don't think this album is as good as the last one, but it still stands out quite clearly. I like the up-tempo song better than the quiet songs. This is where she has her strength.

Best songs:

Delilah

Ship to wreck

How big, how blue, how beautiful

11. John Grant: Grey Tickles, Black Pressure (US)

John Grant and electronica is a really good match. His songs are submersed in something dark and hopeless,quite suitable for my taste in music. He was quite high on my 2013 list, so it's clear that his music is right for me. Another great artist to get to Tromsø! It's not that far from Iceland, where he presently lives, to Northern Norway!

Best songs:

Disappointing

Voodoo doll

Black blizzard

10. The Unthanks: Mount the Air (UK)

Another new band to me, and utterly charming with their quaint folkpop. Sometimes too theatrical for my taste, but mostly bleak and beautiful, often based on traditional stories. Flutter is magnificently sad and one of my most played songs last spring. 

Best songs:

Flutter

Died for love

Madam

9. Julia Holter: Have You in my Wilderness (US)

This is intelligent pop, symphonic and lyrical songs with a twist. Music for late autumn evenings - all through the year.

Best songs:

Silhouette

Feel you

Sea calls me home

8. Beach House: Depression Cherry (US)

Beach House actually released two albums in 2015, but I haven't had time to listen to their latest, Thank Your Lucky Stars. Quite a productive gang, in other words. This is dreampop, with slow, atmospheric songs for quiet moments.

Best songs:

Space song

Sparks

Days of candy

7. Ela Orleans: Upper Hell (UK/Poland)

Polish electronica! (Polish band, The Dumplings, also have a handful of good songs, by the way.) Ela Orelans, however, has relocated to Glasgow and her "Dark floor" is without doubt one of my favourite songs from 2015. The rest of the album is not quite as brilliant, but still very much worth listening to if you like this kind of dark and gloomy electronica.

Best songs:

Dark floor

The sky and the ghost

Upon the abysses

6. Gaz Coombes: Matador (UK)

Strangely enough, I was never really into Supergrass, when they were popular. Too rock 'n' roll for me, perhaps. And not good enough songs, perhaps. (Apart from "Moving", which is brilliant). This solo album from Coombes has lots of good pop songs. Where "Moving" and a handful of other songs seem to be undecided whether they are pop or rock songs, Matador belongs on the pop side of the fence, and it seems Gaz Coombes has come home. A solid album, with almost no low points.

Best songs:

Buffalo

Needle’s eye

20/20

5. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat: The Most important place in the world (UK)

I sometimes wonder if I had noticed this album if it had been sung in a standard British accent, and not in the strong Scottish voice of Aidan Moffat. We'll never know! Well, he talks more than sings, but he does it in such a poetic manner, that you hardly notice. The sound is dark and industrial and irresistible. This too has sometimes a Tom Waits quality to it.

Best songs:

This dark desire

Lock up your lambs

Far from you

4.  Halleluwah: Halleluwah (Iceland)

Iceland has no shortage of good artists. (Samaris is another Icelandic band that gave us a lovely album in 2015.) Halleluwah makes electronic pop music which sometimes reminds me of Cerys Matthews, other times of Kate Bush. I tried to persuade my colleagues that beautiful "Dior" was a Christmas song and put it on our playlist for the Christmas party. I don't think anyone minded:)

Best songs:

Beginnings

Move me

Blue velvet

3. Editors: In Dream (UK)

Editors is probably one of the best bands in Britian this century. Tom Smith's voice is really fantastically attractive to my ears. Their first three albums were brilliant. The fourth, not so much. Fortunately this one's almost up to the band's previous standard. 

Best songs:

No harm

Forgiveness

Marching orders

2. Nadine Shah: Fast Food (UK)

Shah's deep and dramatic voice is one of the most interesting on the British pop scene just now. She clearly stands out in the crowd of female artists. And male, for that sake. Another dark and gloomy album, impossible not to love. If you are me.

Best songs:

Fast food

Fool

Stealing cars

1. Susanne Sundfør: Ten Love Songs (Norway) 

It took a while before I understood the greatness of Sundfør. I must admit, it took Røyksopp's "Running to the sea" before I gave in and became a fan. She is at her best with a strong electronic sound driving her distinctive voice, preferably also with a bit of tempo. It was a close race between her and Nadine Shah, but Sundfør won in the end - both because she is Norwegian, and because she played an outstanding concert in Tromsø this summer. And because of "Delirious"!

Best songs:

Delirious

Accelerate

Kamikaze

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And of course, there were a lot of bands that didn't quite make it, either because I haven't listened enough to them, or because they simply weren't good enough: (Stornoway and Kathryn Williams came closest to be included in the top 20!)

A Place to Bury Strangers, Ash, Beirut, Willis Earl Beal, Belle & Sebastian, Best Coast, Braids, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Brolin, Will Butler, Champs, Dear Rouge, Darwin Deez, Mac Demarco, Diagrams, Anneli Drecker, The Dumplings, Thomas Dutronc, East India Company, Echo Lake, EL VY, Eternal Summers, Everything Everything, FFS (Franz Ferdinand/Sparks), Jacco Gardner, Guy Garvey, Gengahr, Georgia, Ghostpoet, Girls Names, Nicolas Godin, Nuria Graham, Grasscut, Gypsy & The Cat, Marika Hackman, Half Moon Run, Richard Hawley, Hot Chip, Hurts, Isbells, Izia, Jamie XX, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, Leftfield, Lonelady, Low, Lydmor, Man Without Country, Marina & The Diamonds, Muse, Nadastrom, Nothing But Thieves, Novella, Of Monsters and Men, Other lives, Outfit, Nerina Pallot, Pearls, Petite Noir, Prodigy, Public Service Broadcasting, Purity Ring, Rhodes, Lucy Rose, Samaris, Sasha Siem, Space Daze, Spector, Stealing Sheep, Stornoway, Swim Deep, Tame Impalas, Anna Ternheim, Terranova, This is Head, Thåstrøm, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vitamin A, Patrick Watson, Kathryn Williams, Charlie Winston, You Love Her Coz She's Dead.