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2015 First Impressions: Music

antemortem

rest after tomorrow
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    hi everyone! we're five months into 2015, not quite halfway, but far enough to have gotten the chance to dip our toes into the new music the year's brought us. There've been a lot of mainstream successes - and mainstream flops - and innumerable new album drops from artists that a lot of you have probably never heard of. rising stars are ever prominent in this evolving age of music we live in. have you found a new artist this year that's begun to stand out as particularly spectacular? has an old favorite dropped something steaming with success? failure? share all of your first impressions of 2015's music with us, discuss why you feel the way you do about the majority

    have fun babies

    (by the way i hope SOMEONE likes catfish & the bottlemen too because "the balcony" dropped in january and it has literally been my lifeblood for four months and i've never been able to say that about any album ever.. except maybe 1989 because i'm a swifty with no shame)
     
    Well one thing I can say is this: this year has actually had steam going for it right off the bat, unlike 2014, where early in the year, the charts hardly moved at all and we had stuff like Happy, Timber, Dark Horse, and Counting Stars dominating everything. Even with Uptown Funk ripping apart its competition for over a quarter of the year, I didn't mind that at all, and we've had other fun stuff in the Top 10 too.

    However, I don't feel like we've had that out of nowhere breakthrough artist that comes out of nowhere and takes us by storm (you know, like what Fancy, Rude and All About That Bass were last year - acts by names you've probably never heard of before and wipe the floor with competition). I'm sure it'll come, though.
     
    this year has already blown 2014 out of the water, and is PROBABLY the best year for music I've lived through so far. I was able to add a new album to my top ~20 records of all time (Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell) and another to my top ~50 (Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly). plus there have been a shitton of other releases that have been good to great. and there are a shitton yet to come that I'm still Highly Anticipating. nice.
     
    this year has already blown 2014 out of the water, and is PROBABLY the best year for music I've lived through so far.

    I can easily agree with that, since there have been so many new releases I enjoyed this year and then again I was thinking of all the great stuff that came out last year but nope I was really spoiled with so much good taste and it helped me find new stuff to fall in love with.

    I do agree with you about the new Sufjan Stevens album, because I like the more emotional pace he took with it and I just love what inspired the album's title. I've also been enjoying new stuff so far from The Wombats, Best Coast, Madeon, Django Django, Mark Ronson, Courtney Barnett, Purity Ring and Passion Pit.

    There's still more new stuff to heavily anticipate in coming weeks and months, late this month Florence + The Machine and Unknown Mortal Orchestra have got some really interesting new albums coming out. And then there's also going to be new releases later in the year for Muse, Of Monsters And Men, Disclosure, Major Lazer, Rudimental and The Chemical Brothers.

    Also, I've heard so many comebacks happening this year as well, such as Refused and Leftfield who will be releasing new albums after what has been like nearly 20 years since they last released new material.

    2015 is gonna be a huge year in music I tell ya
     
    For me personally 2014 was always going to be a hard year to beat; some of my current favourite albums came out last year, like Lost in the Dream by The War On Drugs, Run The Jewels 2 by Run The Jewels, They Want My Soul by Spoon, Tyranny by Julian Casablanas+The Voidz, and so on.

    So far though 2015 has been pretty great. To Pimp A Butterfly and Carrie & Lowell like already mentioned are near perfect LPs, and probably won't be topped by any other release this year. I've also really liked Open Mike Eagle's new EP.

    Let's hope all this great music just keeps on truckin'
     
    However, I don't feel like we've had that out of nowhere breakthrough artist that comes out of nowhere and takes us by storm (you know, like what Fancy, Rude and All About That Bass were last year - acts by names you've probably never heard of before and wipe the floor with competition). I'm sure it'll come, though.
    it might as well be Halsey. she's already selling out (albeit small) venues, is making a name for herself on MTV in more ways than one, and is going to tour with and opening for Imagine Dragons very soon. her music is sonically pleasing and lyrically brilliant, so i have NO doubts that she'll be the up-and-coming artist of 2015. watch out for her.

    the balcony and wilder mind are quite possibly my favorite album releases so far this year, as they are exactly my taste right now and have yet to get old, which is especially impressive given that the former has been out for going on four months now. the sounds this year are just so impressive and pleasing to the ear - i haven't heard a single on the radio yet that absolutely grates on my nerves. that might be because i don't listen to very much on the charts anymore unless it's taylor/beyonce/gaga, who are all quiet right now, but seriously it's not too bad.
     
    the balcony and wilder mind are quite possibly my favorite album releases so far this year, as they are exactly my taste right now and have yet to get old, which is especially impressive given that the former has been out for going on four months now. the sounds this year are just so impressive and pleasing to the ear - i haven't heard a single on the radio yet that absolutely grates on my nerves. that might be because i don't listen to very much on the charts anymore unless it's taylor/beyonce/gaga, who are all quiet right now, but seriously it's not too bad.

    I have to admit Catfish And The Bottlemen have really been getting quite the love, and I know it's turning out as one of your fave releases so far.

    As for the new Mumford & Sons album Wilder Mind, I'm a little iffy on the lack of banjos this time around (I guess I was just so used to the damn banjos) but it is interesting to see they're trying new directions and it will at least give them more variety when it comes to live shows.
     
    This year has been totally underwhelming for me personally, the most exciting things thus far were the release of Taylor Swift's Bad Blood remix, the Feeling Myself video releasing, and Hillary Duff's new music. Drake's surprise release was exciting too, I'm glad to see another major artist with the balls to pull a BEYONCÉ and it just serves as a testament to that albums impact. Uptown Funk's domination at #1 was the most annoying thing I've experience since Happy, I'm so tired of radio candy songs coming out at that time of year and knocking up weeks at #1 like it's nothing, especially when the quality is almost entirely subpar. The BB Top 10 right now is one of the worst I've seen in a long time, See You Again was pushed almost entirely as a guilt song for Paul Walkers death and I find it disrespectful how carefully it was marketed with FF7. To be honest, I was feeling pretty similar about music last year but the second half of the year saved it with Nicki Minaj, Ariana Grande, and Taylor Swift coming out with the best albums and decimating every male artist in the game in terms of both chart ownership and musical quality. Ciara's album (Jackie, released earlier this month) deserved more love than it got earlier this month, and I'm hoping a good single sent to pop radio can help renew the spark of interest in her career. I'm looking forward to the end of this year because anything will be better than Bruno Mars being at the top of the charts for 14 weeks straight, and with Lady Gaga's comeback being highly anticipated maybe we'll see more of a shift to her artist style from 2009-2012 rather than the total mess that was ARTPOP in 2013.
     
    Pretty great so far, especially compared to the trainwreck that was 2014, where the only really interesting releases for me were Lost in the Dream by The War on Drugs and Three Love Songs by Ricky Eat Acid. In contrast, this is one of the better years that springs to mind in a while. Thoughts on some things I've been listening to, in no particular order:

    Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens: Probably one of my favourite albums ever. Sufjan took a complete u-turn from his previous album and went back to his old style but... in a word, better. His releases were always good but felt kind of thin and unfinished. This album is what he should have been years ago, and it's absolutely beautiful. A large part of me hopes he has no further releases for fear that they'd spoil this one, haha.

    In Colour by Jamie xx: Caters to a bit of a niche audience I suppose (well, as far as those who will actually appreciate it go) but it's great if you're into it. A messy album though - Jamie explores all of his musical styles so far and it doesn't really flow that well, but it still manages to be quintessentially... well, him. Interesting and enjoyable, definitely, although not groundbreaking. Still better than anything he's put out yet, though.

    How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful by Florence + The Machine: Strong album, somewhat typical Florence but with some surprisingly special moments in comparison to her older stuff. I feel like this time she's gone for something much more... for lack of a better word, visual. Which is weird given that it's an album, but when you listen to it it just sounds like its name. Big, blue and beautiful; the whole thing feels enormous and theatrical, which is really rare in an album - and especially in one as mainstream as this. Great for fans of Florence, fairly average-but-quite-pretty for everyone else - but I'm pleased to say that Florence is very much a guilty pleasure of mine and I've got a lot of time for this album.

    Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance by Belle & Sebastian: Partly crap, but some really great and more adventurous stuff on here. While it's very hit-and-miss it's good to see B&S taking a bolder approach to their usually tried-and-tested musical style, although some of it is painfully commercialised and forced. Definitely a nice sight this year if nothing else.

    To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar: This is absolutely great. I'm not majorly into this sort of thing so I've not really got much to say about it but I had a really fun time listening to it, and it's one of my highlights for this year so far.

    Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper by Panda Bear: See above - really, really good fun. Musically not spectacular but I had a great time with it and that's largely all that matters. It'll not come close to his last release but for such a drastically different album it's done very, very well and in tandem with his work in Animal Collective it showcases Panda's ability to adapt to a range of styles and pull it off very well. Great effort here.

    That's what springs to mind for now. I've probably missed some stuff out and there's a lot more that I need to listen to yet. I'm noticing now that this is a pretty poppy list, not too sure if that's representative of the year or not but if I was superstitious I'd say it's a sign of good things to come. Given that we're only half-way through the year it's looking pretty excellent so far.

    Hikamaru said:
    As for the new Mumford & Sons album Wilder Mind, I'm a little iffy on the lack of banjos this time around (I guess I was just so used to the damn banjos) but it is interesting to see they're trying new directions and it will at least give them more variety when it comes to live shows.

    I'd argue that the banjos were all that Mumford & Sons had going for them. Imo their removal is giving them even less interest than before rather than more variety.
     
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