The Year in Music, vol. 3 — My Top Ten

This is my 2015 Top Ten. I don’t pretend that these were the best records issued in 2015; my only claim is that these are the ones I liked best of the admittedly small percentage of albums issued during the year. Let the debate continue.

1. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, Sometimes I Just Sit

2. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
3. Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
4. Kamasi Washington, The Epic
5. Leon Bridges, Coming Home
6. Wilco, Star Wars
7. Shamir, Ratchet
8. Blackalicious, Imani, Vol. 1
9. The Decemberists, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World
10. Barrence Whitfield and the Savages, Under the Savage Sky

There are other records that could have made the list — and might have were my mood different on the day I write this, which is the beauty of moods and our response to art. Five records, however, did come really close to making this list and are worth mentioning as Honorable Mentions: Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy; Mikail Cronin, MCIII; Chris Stapleton, Traveller; Death Cab for Cutie, Kintsago; Steve Earle, Terraplane Blues.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.
Unknown's avatar

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Leave a comment