10 Best Albums 2015

2015 saw an enormous growth in my musical taste: this year, I've managed to create my list of the 25 best albums of that year. All that while I was dealing with the final steps into my professional career studies. It was a pretty busy year, one that tested my anxiety and panic control, but it's still a year that holds a good spot on me.

A lot of releases caught my eyes and made me get obsessed with, but these are the ten ones that I consider the most fundamental in order to understand how musicality was expressed the best there.

1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly 

Score: 9.5 

The third release from the acclaimed American rapper is his best release to date, and will probably always be. It's difficult to state into words just how wonderful and essential this record is order to try to understand how it's like to be black in the USA. Politics, everyday life, money, drugs and friendship are told in beautiful verses that rose poetry and modern performances. The album is necessary and fully vital, as it is astounding and magnetic.

2. Björk - Vulnicura 

Score: 9.3 

After her tumultuous divorce and a severe spiritual depression, the Icelandic producer returned with her best material in 15 years. Returning to her acclaimed mixture between icy, rockety electronics and classical crossover glitches, Vulnicura feels extremely raw, personal and vulnerable, but it carries a weightless force that makes for a record that's as pessimistic as knowledgeable of a possible future in peace and sane solitude.

3. Grimes - Art Angels 

Score: 8.9 

The fourth album from the Canadian electronic producer and singer-songwriter Claire Boucher leaves behind her whimsical witch house persona and favours synth-pop and new wave in a record that's elastic, gummy and full of joy. Most of the tracks are instant bangers that possess rhythm, charisma and tonality while still maintaining bittersweat melodrama and wobbly perplexity.

4. Ash Koosha - GUUD 

Score: 9.0 

The debut record from the mysterious Iranian producer Ash Koosha is an extravagant macro-universe like no other. Futuristic, eerily alien sounds and vocal passages compose the fifteen tracks on GUUD, a rollercoaster of atonal melodies that possess soul and body. Besides that, the artist shines as a graphic designer, offering one of the most distressing and admiring album covers of the year.

5. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit 

Score: 8.8 

The debut album from the Australian reckless artist Courtney Barnett is inspiring and heavily relatable because she manages to tell mundane stories and give them a magical twist. This quarter-of-life existential crisis turned into geniality bears a special place in every person who's ever felt left aside, lost in time and determinedly numb in emotions and social interactions. And besided, it hella rocks!

6. Jamie xx - In Colour 

Score: 8.7 

The debut full-length studio from one part of the British acclaimed indie-pop trio The xx is the culmination of years and years of hard work, collaborating with tons of artists and crafting a sound that's unique and potent. There's hip hop, house, tropical beats, dark balladas and upbeat turns in this record; at the end, In Colour is a physical experience that's worth the try.

7. Tame Impala - Currents 

Score: 8.6 

The third release from the Australian psychedelic rock band Tame Impala goes fully poppy on Currents. There's an evident approach at mainstream audiences here, but the best part of the transition is that is made without its members losing their essence, excellent performances and fluming personalities. The band seems to continue searching their own voice and the limit of their potential, and the traces they're leaving are great testaments.

8. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear 

Score: 8.8 

The sophomore release from the ex member of Fleet Foxes Josh Tillman cemented his reputation as a modern philosopher and social thinker. The experiences told throughout the tracks feel sordid, raw and so mundane that turn into reveling. Born to be on the road singing and lamenting on the things that never were, I Love You, Honeybear is an outstanding indie folk album; one that resonates and magnifies.

9. Empress Of - Me 

Score: 9.0 

The debut full-length studio record from the Hondurian-American singer, song-writer and producer Lorely Rodriguez was recorded in solitude in rural Mexico, and the results couldn't be more evident: the artist reveals truly personal experiences with delicacy and rawness, and the relentlessly experimental approaches she takes on electronic, R&B and pop are magnific. Me marks the beginning of a true musical gem.

10. Neon Indian - VEGA Intl. Night School 

Score: 8.7 

After creating a reputation for chilly chiptune and dream pop, the project Neon Indian maximises their sound while reverting roles and pushing electroclashy, new-wavy sounds to point at the suffered dancefloor and the quiet room alike. The record breathes cadence and style, as if one's all dressed up to kill the night but cannot stop crying while seducing and bombing the disco.