COMPLEX's The Best Albums of 2015 (So Far) list
21. Fifth Harmony, Reflection
Label: Epic, Syco
Released: Feb. 3
At the mid-year mark, the Best Pop Album Of 2015 is, in this humble writer's opinion, a showdown between Major Lazer and Fifth Harmony, the latter having struck a golden ratio of bangers per total album tracks. “Sledgehammer,” “Worth It,” and “Like Mariah” have, at this point, overwhelmed the promise of Meghan Trainor (who's featured on “Brave Honest Beautiful”) and even returning champion Carly Rae Jepsen. “I want a Kanye, not a Ray J,” the girls sing on “Bo$$,” with a blast of claps and buckets to drum the point home. -JC
15. Björk, Vulnicura
Label: One Little Indian, Megaforce, Sony
Released: Jan. 20
Bjork made Vulnicura as a post-breakup salve, following the end of her longterm relationship with artist Matthew Barney, with whom she has a 12-year-old daughter. The title is said to be Greek for “cure for wounds,” and for a complicated and often abstract artist like Bjork, the cure seems to be talking about her hurt in plain terms. “Once it was simple, one feeling at a time,” she sings on “Lionsong. “These abstract, complex feelings, I just don’t know how to handle them.” Co-producers Arca and the Haxan Cloak respect her space with a minimalist backdrop, keeping everything from the synthesizers to the violins warm and sorrowful. Bjork has always had an air of mystery about her, and watching her cast it off in favor of open devastation is both incredibly sad and terribly beautiful. -Christine Werthman
10. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
Label: Sub Pop
Released: Feb. 10
Father John Misty’s first album, Fear Fun, documented Josh Tillman's drug-fueled trip to the end of the line. His second album, I Love You, Honeybear, shows what came next: the finding of a partner to whom this entire album is dedicated. An album like this could be a real slog-the breakdown is usually more fun for the audience than the resolution-but Tillman is still a flawed, self-deprecating, uncomfortably honest protagonist with a gift for Americana melodies. “I can hardly believe that I’ve found you, and I’m terrified by that,” he says on the gorgeous, bluesy “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me,” where a choir of voices sways behind him.
He’s untidied his folksy arrangements, letting things get bigger and more exploratory without ever losing the thread, though he comes close on the delightfully chaotic “The Ideal Husband,” with drums and piano crashing around him. But he’s back to restoring order with subdued piano on “Bored in the USA,” as he asks “Is this the part where I get all I’ve ever wanted?” Maybe not, but Tillman did get what he needed, what everyone hopes for when they hit the bottom: a hand to reach out, pull him up, and put him back on his feet. -CW
5. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late
Label: Cash Money
Released: Feb. 13
So, this is quite possibly Drake's weakest album. Or is it a mixtape? Who knows, or really cares, for that matter, in 2015. The fact remains, even with that caveat, this shit is still wall-to-wall bangers. If stagnant Drizzy sounds this good, then fuck it, stamp the project's opening self-proclamation: He is a legend. The first five tracks alone (definitive ranking: “Legend,” “No Tellin,” “Energy,” “Know Yourself,” “10 Bands”) are as formidable a stretch of undeniable heaters as any true blue mainstream project so far this year. Things get shaaaky, no 6 side in the middle with a mix of good but not so great songs (I'm OK with never hearing “Now & Forever” again). It's Drake, as we've come to expect him.
But it's OK to call dude out for remaking “Worst Behavior” two or three times while sticking to the same subject matter (“Money and women, that's just how shit happened to go”) while still admitting that he remains very good at talking about those things. And the last three tracks mark a welcome switch from the formula that bodes well for his forthcoming proper album. He fits seamlessly into Travi$ Scott's gothic hellscape on “Company,” before he's right back to warmer subject matter, but progressively so, on “You & the 6” and especially the album standout, “Jungle.” And he's got another pinned location freestyle for you if you thought the bars were slacking. That OVO boy is still the business, man. -FT
1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Label: Top Dawg, Aftermath, Interscope
Released: March 15
To Pimp A Butterfly is the rare album where an already coveted artist reaches an entirely new plateau. K. Dot internalizes his struggles with celebrity and mediates on ideas of self-actualization and what it means to be a black man in Amerikkka. With a jam band approach to songs, he incorporates various styles of black music from funk to jazz, creating one of the most eclectic rap albums in recent memory where few of the tracks begin and end the same way.
Take “Hood Politics” for example, which opens with a breezy bounce, shifts into the actual beat, features a haunting interlude before switching back into its actual beat and ending with spoken word. For a lesser artist, any one of those three beats could rightfully have been their own song. But Kendrick is so full of ideas, so willing to expand his palette, every moment is an opportunity to reach greater heights.
Much has been made about the album’s themes on black life, it’s introspective lyrics, and Dot’s varied flows, but it’s his relentless ambition that truly sets it apart. You know you’re already in the pantheon of all-time greats when your latest album is the best rap album since your last album. -IA
favorite album of the year so far ontd?
source + rest of the list: complex
Label: Epic, Syco
Released: Feb. 3
At the mid-year mark, the Best Pop Album Of 2015 is, in this humble writer's opinion, a showdown between Major Lazer and Fifth Harmony, the latter having struck a golden ratio of bangers per total album tracks. “Sledgehammer,” “Worth It,” and “Like Mariah” have, at this point, overwhelmed the promise of Meghan Trainor (who's featured on “Brave Honest Beautiful”) and even returning champion Carly Rae Jepsen. “I want a Kanye, not a Ray J,” the girls sing on “Bo$$,” with a blast of claps and buckets to drum the point home. -JC
15. Björk, Vulnicura
Label: One Little Indian, Megaforce, Sony
Released: Jan. 20
Bjork made Vulnicura as a post-breakup salve, following the end of her longterm relationship with artist Matthew Barney, with whom she has a 12-year-old daughter. The title is said to be Greek for “cure for wounds,” and for a complicated and often abstract artist like Bjork, the cure seems to be talking about her hurt in plain terms. “Once it was simple, one feeling at a time,” she sings on “Lionsong. “These abstract, complex feelings, I just don’t know how to handle them.” Co-producers Arca and the Haxan Cloak respect her space with a minimalist backdrop, keeping everything from the synthesizers to the violins warm and sorrowful. Bjork has always had an air of mystery about her, and watching her cast it off in favor of open devastation is both incredibly sad and terribly beautiful. -Christine Werthman
10. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
Label: Sub Pop
Released: Feb. 10
Father John Misty’s first album, Fear Fun, documented Josh Tillman's drug-fueled trip to the end of the line. His second album, I Love You, Honeybear, shows what came next: the finding of a partner to whom this entire album is dedicated. An album like this could be a real slog-the breakdown is usually more fun for the audience than the resolution-but Tillman is still a flawed, self-deprecating, uncomfortably honest protagonist with a gift for Americana melodies. “I can hardly believe that I’ve found you, and I’m terrified by that,” he says on the gorgeous, bluesy “When You’re Smiling and Astride Me,” where a choir of voices sways behind him.
He’s untidied his folksy arrangements, letting things get bigger and more exploratory without ever losing the thread, though he comes close on the delightfully chaotic “The Ideal Husband,” with drums and piano crashing around him. But he’s back to restoring order with subdued piano on “Bored in the USA,” as he asks “Is this the part where I get all I’ve ever wanted?” Maybe not, but Tillman did get what he needed, what everyone hopes for when they hit the bottom: a hand to reach out, pull him up, and put him back on his feet. -CW
5. Drake, If You're Reading This It's Too Late
Label: Cash Money
Released: Feb. 13
So, this is quite possibly Drake's weakest album. Or is it a mixtape? Who knows, or really cares, for that matter, in 2015. The fact remains, even with that caveat, this shit is still wall-to-wall bangers. If stagnant Drizzy sounds this good, then fuck it, stamp the project's opening self-proclamation: He is a legend. The first five tracks alone (definitive ranking: “Legend,” “No Tellin,” “Energy,” “Know Yourself,” “10 Bands”) are as formidable a stretch of undeniable heaters as any true blue mainstream project so far this year. Things get shaaaky, no 6 side in the middle with a mix of good but not so great songs (I'm OK with never hearing “Now & Forever” again). It's Drake, as we've come to expect him.
But it's OK to call dude out for remaking “Worst Behavior” two or three times while sticking to the same subject matter (“Money and women, that's just how shit happened to go”) while still admitting that he remains very good at talking about those things. And the last three tracks mark a welcome switch from the formula that bodes well for his forthcoming proper album. He fits seamlessly into Travi$ Scott's gothic hellscape on “Company,” before he's right back to warmer subject matter, but progressively so, on “You & the 6” and especially the album standout, “Jungle.” And he's got another pinned location freestyle for you if you thought the bars were slacking. That OVO boy is still the business, man. -FT
1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
Label: Top Dawg, Aftermath, Interscope
Released: March 15
To Pimp A Butterfly is the rare album where an already coveted artist reaches an entirely new plateau. K. Dot internalizes his struggles with celebrity and mediates on ideas of self-actualization and what it means to be a black man in Amerikkka. With a jam band approach to songs, he incorporates various styles of black music from funk to jazz, creating one of the most eclectic rap albums in recent memory where few of the tracks begin and end the same way.
Take “Hood Politics” for example, which opens with a breezy bounce, shifts into the actual beat, features a haunting interlude before switching back into its actual beat and ending with spoken word. For a lesser artist, any one of those three beats could rightfully have been their own song. But Kendrick is so full of ideas, so willing to expand his palette, every moment is an opportunity to reach greater heights.
Much has been made about the album’s themes on black life, it’s introspective lyrics, and Dot’s varied flows, but it’s his relentless ambition that truly sets it apart. You know you’re already in the pantheon of all-time greats when your latest album is the best rap album since your last album. -IA
favorite album of the year so far ontd?
source + rest of the list: complex