Another year comes to a close and it’s time for the end-of-year lists to be revealed. Here at Doubtful Sounds we’ve had another 12 months deeply immersed in Americana music (alt. country & folk) so you’ll find plenty of albums from that genre on the list below. That’s not to say we didn’t listen to plenty of other styles of music. As usual we wrapped our ears around plenty of post-punk and indie rock with doses of jazz, electronic and psych rock. Read on to see what we rated as our favourite albums of 2015 and let us know what your top selections were.
1. James McMurtry – Complicated Game
McMurtry was a new discovery for me in 2015, despite Complicated Game being his tenth studio album. I was immediately floored by the storytelling, the vivid and heartbreaking prose that cut straight to the core of the story at hand and by using the fewest words possible he drew me into his characters, predicaments, heartache and troubled times. His closest contemporary is Willy Vlautin (Richmond Fontaine, The Delines) who he shares a fascination with the downtrodden and struggling. Complicated Game was the most consistent and exquisite example of songwriting, complete with restrained and emotive playing, that I heard in 2015.
2. Marlon Williams – Marlon Williams
“Though this solo debut has been a long time coming he has toured and built a strong reputation as a live performer across Australia and NZ and that experience has filtered through on this superb album that never falters or loses its sense of wonderment across thirty-five playing minutes.”
3. James Thomson – Cold Moon
“The balance and symmetry of Thomson’s writing is a standout facet of his music. From blues to country, folk to New Orleans flavours, through the positive vibe of love songs to the darker desolation of characters at the end of line he nails them all in mood and lyrical imagery”
4. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
“Barnett often gets pegged as quirky yet her musical approach ticks most alt. rock and indie boxes. The joy and achievement of Sometimes I Sit and Think… is how she has married that with her inimitable knack for lyrics that will draw attention from even the most staunchest of listeners who would normally pay little attention to words. Like a more impressionistic pop-art take on the skilful writing of Mark Kozelek, Barnett is leading the way in literate songwriting without any hint of pretension.”
5. Lost Ragas – Trans Atlantic Highway
“That ability to hammer out a brisk honky tonk rhythm one minute and then craft a late night whisky-sodden ballad of heartache highlights the band’s magic. Combined with the way they apply tonality to their songs, both vocally and instrumentally, Lost Ragas have created an album of timeless quality, full of dark and graceful beauty.”
6. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Freedom Tower: No Wave Dance Party 2015
Spencer, Judah Bauer and Russell Simins get back to what they do best; incorporating no wave funk, rock ‘n’ roll, blues and garage rock into one hollering’ and testifyin’ primal groove soundtrack. This was a palette cleanser after all the generic psych rock and faux electro-soul that permeated the airwaves in 2015.
7. Bad Dreems – Dogs At Bay
“This feels like an important album, a statement born of experience, countless hours spent in the practice room and driving to shows. It rocks in a primitive fashion and it takes up residency in your short term memory. It sounds like the country and people that it chronicles and it never loses sight of the power of simplicity in rock n roll.”
8. Gold Class – It’s You
“Gold Class wear their influences on their collective sleeve yet they’ve corralled them into their own sound. The sheets of guitar, cold rhythms and that dark poetic howl are a breath of fresh air on this highly accomplished and compelling debut album.”
9. Protomartyr – The Agent Intellect
“Primal rhythms with wire-brush screes of guitar and the distinctive disaffected howl and Mark E Smith-styled rant of frontman Joe Casey. The way they sonically blend beautiful and bruised sounds is what makes their music so appealing. It sparks and spits, Casey’s black humour lyrics are both catchy and provocative but above all, in 2015, Protomartyr are a breath of dissonant fresh air.”
10. Infinity Broke – Before Before
Though mostly born from the same sessions as last year’s River Mirrors album, these nine songs operate on a different plane. More concise and song-based, yet with a broad range of moods and levels of intensity, the quartet conjure up caustic distorted storms of guitar over measured rhythms.
11. Nadia Reid – Listen to Formation, Look For The Signs
12. Royal Headache – High
13. Houndmouth – Little Neon Limelight
14. Father John Misty- I Love You, Honeybear
15. Blank Realm – Illegals In Heaven
16. Tami Neilson – Don’t Be Afraid
17. Kurt Vile – B’lieve I’m Goin Down…
18. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love
19. Destroyer – Poison Season
20. Twerps – Range Anxiety
21. Ryan Bingham – Fear And Saturday Night
22. Lindi Ortega – Faded Gloryville
23. SJD – Saint John Divine
24. Faith No More – Sol Invictus
25. Bob Dylan – Shadows In The Night
26. Pokey LaFarge – Something In The Water
27. The Holy Soul – Fortean Times
28. The Phoenix Foundation – Give Up Your Dreams
29. Ryley Walker – Primrose Green
30. Perry Keyes – Sunnyholt
31. Tame Impala – Currents
32. Raised By Eagles – Diamonds In The Bloodstream
33. Lucero – All A Man Should Do
34. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
35. Sam Hunt with David Kilgour & The Heavy 8s – The 9th
36. Bill Ryder-Jones – West Kirby County Primary
37. Neil Young + Promise Of The Real – The Monsanto Years
38. John Moreland – High On Tulsa Heat
39. Kamasi Washington – The Epic
40. Beach House – Depression Cherry
41. Sleaford Mods – Key Markets
43. Moon Duo – Shadow Of The Sun
45. Mark Lucas – Little Town Blues
46. Malcolm Holcombe – RCA Sessions
47. Django Django – Born Under Saturn
48. Jamie XX – In Colour
49. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
50. Chastity Belt – Time To Go Home
REISSUES/LIVE/BEST-OF
- Bob Dylan – The Cutting Edge 1965 – 1966 The Bootleg Series Vol. 12
- The Velvet Underground – The Complete Matrix Tapes
- Drive-By Truckers – It’s Great to Be Alive!
- The Jean-Paul Sartre Experience – I Like Rain: The Story of the Jean-Paul Sartre Experience
- John Prine – September 78
- Mogwai – Central Belters
- The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
- Ryan Adams – Live at Carnegie Hall
- Sly and The Family Stone – Live at the Fillmore East: October 4th & 5th, 1968
- Townes Van Zandt – The Nashville Sessions
- Various – Ain’t Gonna Hush: The Queens of Rhythm & Blues
- Various – In a Moment: Ghost Box
- Various – Ork Records: New York, New York
- Various – Punk 45: Extermination Nights in the Sixth City – Cleveland, Ohio: Punk and the Decline of the Mid-West 1975-1982
- Various – Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs By Karen Dalton
- Various – Buried Country 1.5: The Story of Aboriginal Country Music
It’s been a slow-build for the Adelaide quartet since they first emerged with the near perfect jangle pop of single Chills in 2012. After the Badlands EP of the following year it was assumed a debut album was imminent yet what followed was a two year wait punctuated by a slow drip feed of sublime singles. Now the highly anticipated full length has finally arrived and it’s all the better for its long gestation. The rawness has been matched by brawn and polished production that enhances the band’s characteristics rather than muting their personality and rough edges.
