Favorite Songs of 2015
by Christopher Piercy
I have been making lists of my favorite music every year for at least a decade, and they seem to be only getting more difficult to compile. The instant access to an infinite jukebox of music can make the listening experience almost overwhelming. Not that I’m complaining. When I was a kid, compiling mixtape after mixtape, it was my ultimate dream that one day I would have access to this kind of library of the world’s music. Now that the dream is a reality, it takes an extra element of discipline to fully absorb music rather than merely let it drift past you like all the other information we are overloaded with on a daily basis.
2015 was an especially strong year for both forward-thinking and classicist-leaning R&B and incredible female-fronted bands seemed to dominate indie rock (note: I did not include anything by Sleater-Kinney, whose most recent album was one of the best of 2015, only because my favorite song on that album appeared on my 2014 list). As always, I attempted to listen to as wide a range of music as I could, but we all have our personal preferences. I have attempted to put the following list in the order of how much I loved each song, but depending on the mood I’m in from day to day, or season to season, this list would probably be slightly different. If you take the time to listen to the accompanying playlist, I hope you enjoy.
D’Angelo’s “Black Messiah” came out in the waning moments of 2014, about two weeks after I had finalized my list of favorite songs of that year; but it was such a deep, nuanced, and important album that it continued to influence how I absorbed everything that came out during 2015. Coming 14 years after his last record, expectations were almost impossibly high. His first two albums, 1995’s “Brown Sugar” and 2000’s “Voodoo”, were two essentially perfect albums. How could someone who had dealt with so much personal turmoil, for so long, even come close to reaching those heights again? The day the album came out, I listened to it at least five times in a row. After a year of living with “Black Messiah”, I feel comfortable in saying that it’s even better than those earlier albums. “The Charade” is a song that came at an especially uneasy moment within the modern American racial climate, detailing intense feelings about institutionalized subjugation through police brutality and other forms of pervasive systemic racism, and it deserves to be in the company of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”. Sadly, these songs are still necessary.
ANOHNI is the artist formally known as Antony, and “4 Degrees” is the first single released from her forthcoming album co-produced with Hudson Mohawke and Oneohtrix Point Never. In a recent interview, ANOHNI said of the song’s apocalyptic outlook on climate change, “I have grown tired of grieving for humanity, and I also thought I was not being entirely honest by pretending that I am not a part of the problem. ‘4 Degrees’ is kind of a brutal attempt to hold myself accountable, not just valorize my intentions but also reflect on the true impact of my behaviors.” ANOHNI has proven yet again why she is one of the most dynamic, brave, and important vocalists in modern music.
- Jamie xx “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times)” [ft. Young Thug and Popcaan]
Young Thug has spent the past couple of years as perhaps the most polarizing, bizarre, and exciting artist in hip-hop, Popcaan is one of the best modern Jamaican dancehall singers, and Jamie xx’s solo album was maybe the most anticipated dance record of this year. This sun-kissed anthem, built on a sample of The Persuasions’ “Good Times”, was the song that I listened to the most over the summer months; a soundtrack to a particularly good times-filled year for me personally.
Kendrick Lamar is only 28 years old, but 2015 was the year when he fully realized his position as the voice of his generation. Speaking truth to power with the conviction and clarity of Cornel West, and with the lyrical strength of Tupac Shakur, there is no one in music right now who seems quite as important as Kendrick. Was there any image as powerful in 2015 as Kendrick performing “Alright” atop a vandalized cop car on the BET Awards?
Compared to so much of the so-called “alternative R&B” currently in vogue, Jazmine Sullivan is a throwback and an outsider, but her powerhouse vocals and tastefulness helped to make “Reality Show” one of the most endlessly enjoyable albums of the year. “Let It Burn” would be near the top of any year’s list.
- Kurt Vile “Pretty Pimpin”
- Sufjan Stevens “Fourth of July”
- Oneohtrix Point Never “Sticky Drama”
- Prurient “Dragonflies to Sew You Up”
- Viet Cong “Pointless Experience”
- Miguel “Simple Things”
- SOPHIE “JUST LIKE WE NEVER SAID GOODBYE”
- Janet Jackson “No Sleeep”
- Young Thug “Knocked Off” [ft. Birdman]
- Leon Bridges “Coming Home”
- Bjork “Stonemilker”
- Thou and The Body “Lurking Fear”
- Freddie Gibbs “Pronto”
- Beach House “Levitation”
- Fetty Wap “Trap Queen”
- Lindstrom & Grace Hall “Home Tonight (Extended Version)”
- DJ Koze “XTC”
- Deafheaven “Come Back”
- Destroyer “Archer on the Beach”
- Chelsea Wolfe “Iron Moon”
- Nils Frahm “Ode”
- Torres “Strange Hellos”
- Carly Rae Jepsen “All That”
- Vince Staples “Norf Norf”
- Major Lazer “Lean On” [ft. MO and DJ Snake]
- Beach Slang “Throwaways”
- Leviathan “The Smoke of Their Torment”
- Courtney Barnett “Depreston”
- Grimes “REALiTi (Demo)”
- Kelela “Rewind”
- Future “March Madness”
- The Weeknd “Can’t Feel My Face”
- Bassekou Kouyate and Ngoni ba “Siran Fen”
- Shamir “Demon”
- Floating Points “Silhouttes (I, II, III)”
- Neon Indian “Slumlord”
- Petite Noir “The Fall”
- Nicolas Jaar “Swim”
- Blood Orange “Sandra’s Smile”
- Jack U “Where Are U Now” [ft. Justin Bieber]
- A$AP Rocky “Lord Pretty Flacko Jodye 2 (LPFJ2)”
- Gavin Turek “Don’t Fight It”
- Tame Impala “Let It Happen”
- Drake “Hotline Bling”
- Kamasi Washington “Change of the Guard”
- Erykah Badu “Hello” [ft. Andre 3000]
- FKA twigs “in time”
- Empress Of “Kitty Kat”
- M.I.A. “Borders”
- Julia Holter “Sea Calls Me Home”
- Jay Rock “Vice City” [ft. Black Hippy]
- Vic Mensa “U Mad” [ft. Kanye West]
- Jason Isbell “24 Frames”
- Aphex Twin “MARCHROMT30a Edit 2b 96”
- Waxahatchee “Bonfire”
- New Order “Singularity”
- Ty Dolla $ign “Saved” [ft. E-40]
- Holly Herndon “Interference”
- Carla Morrison “Flor Que Nuanca Fui”
- Galcher Lustwerk “Parlay”
- Rich Homie Quan “Flex (Ooh, Ooh, Ooh)”
- Hiatus Kaiyote “Breathing Underwater”
- Paradise Lost “No Hope in Sight”
- Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment “Sunday Candy”
- U.S. Girls “Sed Knife”
- Jam City “Dream ‘15”
- Bully “I Remember”
- Pure Bathing Culture “Pray For Rain”
- Kehlani “The Way” [ft. Chance the Rapper]
- Panopticon “Into the North Woods”
- CHVRCHES “Never Ending Circles”
- Jill Scott “Can’t Wait”
- Dej Loaf “Back Up” [ft. Big Sean]
- Meek Mill “Lord Knows”
- Hot Chip “Need You Now”
- Horrendous “The Nihilist”
- Diiv “Dopamine”
- Lil Durk “Like Me”
- Windhand “Two Urns”
- Christine and the Queens “Tilted”
- Young Guv “Ripe 4 Luv”
- Julien Baker “Sprained Ankle”
- Jeremih “Impatient” [ft. Ty Dolla $ign]
- Nicki Minaj “Truffle Butter” [ft. Drake and Lil Wayne]
- Napalm Death “How The Years Condemn”
- Thundercat “Them Changes”
- Lightning Bolt “The Metal East”
- Marriages “Love, Texas”
- DILLY DALLY “Desire”
- Little Simz “Dead Body”
- Deerhunter “Living My Life”
- dvsn “The Line”
- Pictureplane “Technomancer”
- Mizan K “Looking For”
- Hudson Mohawke “Ryderz”
*Note from Dee: It has come to my attention that if you’ve accessed this via a link from Facebook mobile, the numbering might be screwy. It should be 1-100. I’ll try to fix it later today if I have time. Sorry about that!
Favorite Songs of 2015 Spotify Playlist
Christopher Piercy used to blog at Silence in Architecture and his mother keeps hoping he will revive the site. In the meantime, for a glimpse of how music has impacted his life, you can read “A Personal Music History” which he wrote a few years ago. It also explains quite a bit about our weird family.
Leave a Reply