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Anyway, here are my five albums of 2015 I thought were worth my money…

Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color

This is the second album from the blues rock band. Their first felt so raw and vibrant because of how authentic their sound was to the genre. It was a classic example of what is now and old sound despite being a modern take on it.

Sound & Color however updates their vibe to a more complex, more sonic experience. It’s hard not to be taken aback by it at first as it’s a massive step-up even at the production level of their music but after a couple plays you start to see the threads of what drew you in to them in the first place. Soulful singing, lyrics of yearning and regret, and some great, dirty guitar beats.

There have been no big hits from this album but this live video is a great example of why, in my eyes, they’re both a vital part of the music scene and a band worth catching in concert.

Everything Everything – Get To Heaven

Get To Heaven is the third album from the English band and contains all the swagger of a band who have gone from strength to strength on the festival and live circuit. They have not experienced any kind of over-night success but a steady and sustained rise with critical adoration but relatively small public acknowledgment.

This holds slightly less of the energetic melody changes and urgency of their second release but much more bombastic songs with a shorter but to the point play time. Lyrically they’ve always been a bit all over the place and nothing really changes here with “Spring / Sun / Winter / Dread” having lines like; “Are those my people or are they barbarians all? I need a shoulder to talk to about it. Swing the hammer. The fragments. A skull exploding on you, on all you and showers on the infant’s bed”. You know. As you do.

They’ve a couple of mad-as-a-brush videos worth looking up online but here is my favourite from this album for “Regret”.

Fight Like Apes – Fight Like Apes

Another band that have seemingly matured their sound significantly are Fight Like Apes. They’re still having fun, they’re still naming songs with endless pop culture references (first song on the album “I’m Not A Merry Man” being a prime directive example). But after leaving their label, going it alone, and a couple line-up changes I think it was inevitable for them to move on in more ways than one.

This is their third album, which I’ve always believed define bands for better or worse. I was genuinely worried for after all the changes to their make-up in the past year or two that they would become another “remember them?” band like so many great Irish indie outfits a la The Chalets. Thankfully, this album has the confidence of a band determined not to be stopped.

“Crouching Bees”, below, was the first single and did quite well. If you ever get a chance to catch them live I can’t recommend it enough. There is an air of general chaos that spins around lead singer MayKay and heart-of-the-band Pockets when they play. They’re just as likely to break their instruments as they are to rugby tackle each other in the crowd. It’s a visceral experience.

Florence + The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful

Florence Welch specifically came out and said that she wanted to change the band’s perception of writing big, powerful ballads and decided to use this album to write more intimate sounding songs. For the main part she has accomplished that but what she’s also done is take away what made Florence + The Machine so special.

They cut a path through most of the “too cool to care” bands on the indie scene to present a much more artistic and flamboyant alternative. It was like when The Smiths’ Morrissey showed up with his blouse open swinging flowers in the middle of all the other Manchester bands around him trying to be as hard as possible. If you lose that, you may still keep the solid musical sensibilities but you lose the flair that lifts you above the crowd.

Florence excels on the big stage and there are very few bigger in this world than the main stage at Glastonbury. There are no stand-out tracks from the album but this is a good example of what’s there.

Seth Boyer – Get Rekt

Released this month, Get Rekt managed to squeeze in to this list but somehow got played more than any of the albums above on my iPod. In a year full of slightly disappointing releases from bands who are established and maturing, it took an album from an unsigned artist to really get me excited.

The album opens with the anthemic rock sound of “Totino’s Party Pizza (For One)” and sets the tone lyrically with the chorus “Who you gonna share your cool ass life with you lonely sack of shit?”. Maybe it’s because we’re seemingly in a similar place in our lives but Seth’s uncanny ability to make you tap your feet to a song about the fleeting nature of love or the futility of craving a better life is both uncanny and impressive. He has found a way to shine a light on modern life and how internet culture intersects feeds while simultaneously cripples our loneliness. But, you know, with guitars and stuff.

Get Rekt is definitely my album of 2015 and I really can’t recommend it enough. Because of it’s very recent release, no videos from the album yet but we’ll be posting an interview podcast with Seth in about two weeks so hang tight for more content!

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To listen to all the albums from this list in full, check out the Spotify playlist I made https://open.spotify.com/user/aaronfever/playlist/1toV11WzdfOLKQr09kNEeX

Molly is joined by the cool-internet-nerd-squad of Joseph Scrimshaw, Vixy & Tony, Marian Call, Seth Boyer, Josh A. Cagan, Nicole Dieker, The Mongrel Jews, Kiri Callaghan, The Doubleclicks, and Kevin Murphy. Between them they round out Thanksgiving vs. Christmas which was recorded last year in front of a live audience. The album contains the full comedy show and 11 tracks of original songs who’s topics range from pumpkin spice latte to Doctor Who to Hanukkah.

First of all, it’s great to hear Molly backed by a band with strings. She has always been a wonderful solo musician but it adds a breath of fresh air to hear her accompanied by such a rich sound. However, while she features heavily in the show it’s very much an ensemble piece with highlights ranging from Marian Call’s manic work in the kitchen, Joseph Scrimshaw’s snarky narrator, and Kevin Murphy’s cameo as Santa Clause who (or is it whom?) tells us all to get bent.

This is the sort of concept that we don’t see much of anymore. It’s an old fashioned variety holiday show that you might have gotten in the 60s and 70s but is kind of seen as the domain of someone like Michael Bublé now. While the theme may be dated this show remains modern due to the sardonic wit of its cast and with lots of knowing nods of over-the-top enthusiasm.

Molly Lewis, despite making music for around ten years now, is still relatively early in her career. For someone in their mid 20s to be able to write, and pull off, a full show as polished as this one is incredibly impressive. The show’s topics are purposefully scattershot and sometimes bizarre but they make sense within the modern landscape of the internet community. I especially recommend you listen to Molly’s song demos on the expanded album’s special features.

So if you’re looking for a musical comedy album about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Hannukah (and who isn’t?!) this has to rate at the very least in the Top 3 examples of that very specific genre.

You can listen to and buy the album here > https://mollylewis.bandcamp.com/album/thanksgiving-vs-christmas

Geography – Yay For Squares

I wrote previously about this album HERE so for a more in-depth write-up give that link a clink.

Since writing that I have to say that I’ve probably played this album more than any other this year. Between the catchy hooks, exciting riffs, and other phrases that make me sound like an old fart Geography is a stomper of a rock album. Everything I wish the Foo Fighters still were.

Here is “Unwilling, Ungrateful” with a pretty cool video featuring the drummer working on the song from home.

In The Lonely Hour – Sam Smith

Sam Smith has been the revelation of 2014. His debut album has sold over 3 million copies already and has been nominated for two Grammy awards. He is a spectacular vocalist in the style of old soul singers but has featured on many dance tracks. In The Lonely Hour features more a-typical ballads but if Adele can get away with it…

Smith has been ubiquitous this year so you probably don’t need me to recommend him to you as I’m sure you’re probably already aware and have made up your mind either way, but I would suggest to give the album a spin on Spotify either way.

There are probably bigger tracks from the album to put here but I’m going with the one that launched him out of the stratosphere. This is “Stay With Me”.

x – Ed Sheeran

Ed Sheeran is a hard man to pigeon hole. Seemingly equally derided as respected. Hailed as the great white hope of British R’n’B while releasing tween friendly ballads. It’s difficult to know what type of artist he really is.

The answer isn’t satisfying to most of us sarky internet writers who love to turn anything into a punchline. He’s essentially an eclectic singer-songwriter who despite the grammy nominations and huge sales is still under-rated by the general population due to a large and loyal teen fan-base skewing everyone’s image. But he has earned my respect with a keen work ethic and general unwavering ability to write a cracking song.

I expect to someday see “Thinking Out Loud” on top of a list of songs used for the first dance at weddings. Just wait.

Live Well, Change Often – The Minutes

The Minutes are a Dublin based rock and roll band designed to be heard in a sweat-box of a venue at full volume and partial inebriation. It’s the type of band your dad told you he snook into a bar to listen to when he was 17 (and possibly conceived you with your mother in the toilets of said venue).

Live Well, Change Often is their second album and as with most second albums this has gotten slightly less attention because it’s more of the same. Music critics don’t like more of the same from bands because they can’t write anything new about it and therefore don’t write anything at all. I, however, thrive on the ability to repeat myself.

Here is their song “Supernatural” which has nothing to do with gay-baiting sci-fi shows and much more to do with growling guitars and dog moustaches.

Half Lonely – Seth Boyer

I first discovered Seth Boyer accompanying Marian Call on her tour. An accomplished guitarist and all-round good dude, I was eager to hear his own music. He describes his brand of stripped down, sweet but melancholic songs that haunt your soul “BummerJamz”. It’s an unnervingly accurate description.

Seth is also a prolific song writer. After releasing this 9 track album in April he has released a 6 track EP this month on his Bandcamp page called I Got Believe In You.

To give you a good taste of his style, this video features a live performance of three songs from Half Lonely. “A New Leaf”, “West Side Ghost Hunters”, and “News From The Real World”.

Want To – Champagne Leader

Champagne Leader are and indie rock band with a little bit of synth thrown in from Los Angeles, California. Want To is the debut album from the band and is the result of a pretty successful Indie-Go-Go campaign.

Funkier than you’d expect of 4 white boys from LA, there’s an element of a number of bands present. I hear similarities to Pavement, Weezer, and even latter-day Kings of Leon but without the pretentiousness of thinking that they are Rock and Roll Jesus’. Sorry, my K.o.L. bitterness is showing.

This is a live performance of “Shores”, which is track four from Want To. To see them perform live in person check out their website http://www.champagneleader.com

My Favourite Faded Fantasy – Damien Rice

It’s been 8 years since his last album, titled 9. Just to put that into context. He was 33 years old when he released his last album. He’s now 41. That’s a big chunk of your life to go into hiding.

He has previous for this sort of thing. After his band Juniper split up, he became a farmer in Tuscany for a while. This time, after his professional and personal split with Lisa Hannigan he went into hiding in Iceland. There is a lot of that discord in this album. Lyrically, this is about a man coming to terms with his life, decisions, and mistakes.

I’m not entirely sure I like My Favourite Faded Fantasy. It has an element of self-indulgence with 8 and 9 minute long songs. And after nearly a decade without any new music, there is something about an 8 track album that feels like a bit of a let down.

Give The People What They Want – Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings

Sharon Jones is an ex prison officer who last year battled pancreatic cancer and won. She went on tour this year just a couple months after her last chemo session to promote this, their 5th studio album. The greatest musical crime America has ever committed is not recognising one of their national treasures in Ms Jones.

Give The People What They Want was recorded before Jones’ diagnosis so it contains no reference to that time in her life. It does, however, contain all the soulful trappings that you would expect with this out-of-time troupe.

If you’re a fan of Motown or soul music at all, you need to be listening to Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. All their music is recorded in that old analogue style so it has that genuine quality feeling in every note.

Ball Pit by Paul and Storm

The internet’s favourite male duo Paul and Storm are close personal enemies acquaintances of mine. But you can trust me when I say that they put on great live shows and are funny, talented guys. Honest.

This year saw them have a very successful Kickstarter campaign for this album. I doubt any of it’s backers could complain about value for money because it’s a 25 track beast ranging from geeky subjects such as Game of Thrones to creepy subjects like stalking your favourite band.

“This Song” is my favourite of the bunch possibly because it un-ironically works as a great tune, despite the sardonic intention of it’s lyrics.

Ghost Stories by Coldplay

Colplay, somewhat foolishly, before the release of Ghost Stories compared its change of musical direction to Radiohead’s Kid A. Cue acres of derision from music journalists. But here’s the thing, they’re kind of right.

It doesn’t sound much like Kid A, but that wasn’t the point. This is a much subtler musical release from the generally crowd pleasing band. In a way, it’s a return to their quieter debut album Parachutes but with more electronic sounds and a penchant for key changes.

After the almost cartoon-like Mylo Xyloto, this is a welcomed breath of fresh air. I’m sure Martin’s divorce has influenced proceedings, the heartbreak is tinged in every song but I think the progress is more than that. They may be looking to claim back some of the indie cred they had when they started. It’s certainly a step in the right direction.

III by Take That

Eternal pop connoisseurs will remind any Take That nay-sayers that lead singer Gary Barlow has won an Ivor Novello Award for songwriting. Say what you will about boy-bands and their contribution to the music pantheon but Take That have always been a step above the average boy-band, with more hits standing the test of time than most rock bands can claim.

Down to three members, the remaining men have missed no beats. In fact, they’ve added a few with this significantly dance influenced album. There are still a couple ballads thrown in but on the whole this has an 80s electronica feel to it. In fact, I would dare say if Robyn released this collection of songs nobody would notice the difference.

“These Days” is the first release and is catchier than ebola. There are about two more tracks of this level on the album so expect the charts to have a few songs from III in 2015.

White Women by Chromeo

Funk purveyors Chromeo have returned to lift us from our dull lives into the higher echelons of dance-hip-hop ecstasy. With tongues planted firmly in their cheeks, the Canadian duo know how to get your feet tapping.

White Women took an age to release. They teased the album since 2013! With that sort of hype build-up you’d be worried that blue-balls might stop your enjoyment once it finally arrives but Chromeo do their thing consistently and do not disappoint.

“Jealous” is a perfect example of the Chromeo oeuvre. Funky, silly, and begging you to put on your best leather jacket and dancing shoes.

JJ and his amazing friend Jason want to start at the very beginning, as rumor has it, it is the very best place to start. Our duo then discuss how cool it is when young people get to have success early in life, and wonder why people shit on them. JJ explains why he is a hypocrite. Then our pals remember what a pain in the tuckus renting movies used to be…

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JJ and his amazing friend Jason have fallen a bit behind in the podcast regiment. So the duo accidentally do what many shows have done to save time and energy…a bottle episode. Yes indeed, an episode that is mainly timeless and can be played at any time. So does that mean our heroes hold on to it for when times are desperate? Hell no, it goes up this week anyway!

Also, the internet won JJ over again, as it is proven that our listeners are the best bunch of people on this planet. Give yourselves a hug, you deserve it.

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7 years later: Caleb Lee, Jason Himstedt, and Justin Horrell have reformed with an 8 track release called Geography. We here at DOOM Towers got sent an advanced preview of the release before anyone else and I could not have been giddier.

However, the issue is that 7 years is a long time. Very few things in this life age well but more than most, rock bands age horribly. So many become dated and soft before they realise it. It’s the nature of the beast. Rock and roll was invented from teenage rebellion and nobody is a teenager forever. No matter how hard we try.

The good news is; very little has changed.

First track “My Plan” starts with an intro composed of 8-bit music almost in a nod to the metaphorical step back in time. Then the familiar feedback kicks in. For a three piece band YFS are incredibly adept at creating a rich wall of sound.

Some songs tend to last a little bit longer than is probably necessary. I feel like YFS work at their best in the fast-paced pop-rock format but their occasional indulgence can be forgiven considering their long absence. It seems they’re enjoying the experience with long instrumental sections and while that reminds me of some of my favourite live rock shows, sometimes it needs to be kept there.

They really find their niche though with the exciting up-tempo tracks like “This Story” and “Unwilling, Ungrateful” while “Madeline” couldn’t be more 90s grunge if it wanted to (and for those who don’t know me well, that is a compliment).

There are moments when I’m reminded of the likes of Weezer and Incubus but if I was to compare what they’re doing to any band I think it would be Biffy Clyro. If Geography was released as a Biffy Clyro b-sides album it would sell somewhere around 50,000 copies and would be touted by music magazines the world over. Alas, Geography might never shift that many units but if any of those bands interest you I don’t think you’ll regret getting it.

It becomes available to download on the 21st of July from all the usual places but you can keep up to date on releases and live shows at the newly re-launched www.yayforsquares.com.

The second was recent, and lasted longer than most of my musical phases last. It started in similar places as the first one, and rapidly expanded. There’s will likely few more installments of Audiophilia dedicated just to Minneapolis-based rappers, but for this one I’ll just name some stuff that anyone remotely into hip hop will already know. But hopefully I’ll reach someone who hasn’t wandered into that territory too heavily and cause the occurrence of a significant rap phase.

Disclaimer: This is rap, so there’s several swears and some “N Words” contained herein. Also note that I am extremely white.

Slaughterhouse

Slaughterhouse is pretty mainstream, actually. The 4 person rap group was signed fairly recently to Eminem’s Shady Records, which I imagine gave them a major boost. “Our House” is the first track off of their debut album. It’s essentially an introduction to themselves and the album, showcasing each member of the group as well as Eminem who makes several appearances on the record. The last song I’ll showcase from Slaughterhouse is “Get Up”, which does something that has probably been done before but was new to me. There are some words sung as part of the beat, and they seemingly effortlessly rap around that. It’s pretty awesome; I had to listen to it several times in a row the first time I heard it just to bask in it.

Slaughterhouse’s “Welcome to Our House” doesn’t quite break free from the misogyny that pervades a lot of rap, which slightly disappointed me. But the album is well polished, written, and executed, and has some killer beats and hooks. If the above songs did anything for you I’d check it out.

Hopsin

Hopsin is probably the most famous underground rapper out there. His “Ill Mind” YouTube series has lately been garnering millions of views, and his latest album “Knock Madness” got quite a bit of buzz. This first song is off his second album “Raw”.

Hopsin is an interesting character. He technically is a character, played by rapper Marcus Hopson. He wears white colored contacts on stage, in videos, and for interviews. He’s portrayed as a sort of cantankerous soap-box preacher, supremely confident in his superiority over all other rappers. The man behind the character is a toned down version of that. Marcus has a lot of ideas about where rap is and where it should be, and he’s not afraid to call people out.

At the same time, he’s created his own label. He writes lyrics, mixes and produces his own beats, sings a lot of the hooks himself, and clearly has a handle on self-promotion (see the aforementioned white colored contacts; he’s pretty easy to recognize). His album “Raw” dealt with a lot of his feelings about his interactions with Ruthless Records, who signed him for some small amount of money and basically buried his debut album “Gazing At The Moonlight”. That first album sold only 47 copies. Subsequently he broke away and started the “Funk Volume” label, to which he’s been signing up-and-coming rappers who meet his pretty rigorous standards.

He spent a long time on the follow-up to “Raw”, releasing “Knock Madness” in 2013. Production values were emphasized on this record, and you can definitely tell there’s a technical leap between the previous song, and the next one I’ll include.

Hopsin is great, and you should totally listen to at least his Funk Volume records.

Bonus!

Yelawolf is another rapper who’s blowing up. He’s been touted as the next Eminem, by Eminem no less, and was also signed to Shady Records. He’s actually pretty good, and has the mystique of originating from Alabama. But I’m including the song “Get Away” off of “Radioactive”, mostly because it makes me laugh every time. Yelawolf’s stuff is good, the first guest verse is all right, but the second guest verse by Mystikal is so over-the-top, to the point where it doesn’t really even fit in the song, I can’t help but crack up. Hopefully it’s not just me.