I am here for the full Top 40 Albums!
You started off your list with a bang! Colleen Green!! I am a big fan, and glad you found a place for her on your list! I’ve heard some of Halsey, and like what i’ve hear. This is the second write-up i’ve read that said that the Metric album disappointed a bit (though you still solid, so “disappointed” is overstating it in your case). I need to listen to it for myself to decide for myself. The Dead Weather are tremendous, you’re right the album cover is awesome. You’ve been a supporter of theirs since the start, so I should have expected to see it, but it still made me happy to see it. I have liked everything i’ve heard from Paper Gods, and after reading that list of collaborators, it makes me mad that I haven’t heard the whole thing yet! Also so proud to see Kiesza’s name listed with all those heavy-hitters, a Calgary girl done good! I haven’t heard The Beverleys but after reading your write-up and looking at that album cover, I will add that to the top of my “Must Listen” list! 1) Toronto, 2) punk-inspired rock, 3) the snarl!! That Phases album cover looks like something out of an ‘80s a-ha music video (“80s a-ha music video” a bit redundant), very cool. Oh cool, didn’t know Ratatat put out an instrumental album! I like the not-planned connection to Beastie Boys’ The Mix-Up (underrated album!). Gotta check it out! I wasn’t on board with the newest Mumford as much, but they were one of the final Letterman musical guests, so they get a free pass based off that. Sleater-Kinney!!! To tip off my own list, I would have never expected you to rank No Cities to Love lower than I will, but there you go. Great write-up (I like the “priceless gift to children of the riot grrl movement” line)
I feel like i’ve seen that Lianne La Havas album cover a hundred times in 2015, and was always struck by it. I never put much connection to it beyond that, but after reading what you wrote, i feel foolish in missing it! I’m sure Bea Miller is a wonderful person, but finding out she was (almost) born in the 2000s makes me irrationally hate her hahahaha. That says more about me than her, obviously. Just another piece in my on-going battle against Time. I like that Little Mix album cover, especially the font/colours. Wolf Alice “crunchy post-grunge” sign me up! I like Natalie Prass! I also like Speedy Ortiz! God bless Tori Kelly for bringing live instruments back to the VMA’s. Never would have predicted The Weeknd’s success after first hearing him on Drake’s Take Care. I saw Alessia Care on Seth Meyers and liked what I heard! Whatever they put in the water in Sweden to give us these great pop artists.... keep it coming!
Great to see Marina & The Diamonds chart again, a mainstay on your list! What can you even say about To Pimp a Butterfly? No, i’m asking you, what can I say about it for my own write-up?! Yours was great, and I like bringing up the Black Lives Matter connection to “Alright.” I like what i’ve heard from Ryn Weaver! You didn’t mention it and i’m glad you didn’t, but I will never get over that Elle King s Rob Schneider’s daughter. Though at the rate her career is going, I think we might soon start saying Rob Schneider is Elle King’s dad! But then as I think of it, would you have expected one of the biggest current pop culture figures to be Billy Ray Cyrus’ daughter? And she has definitely eclipsed his success! KV!!!! I clapped seeing him on your list! So happy he broke through to you, there are few better in music today than KV. I like Waxahatchee a lot! Never listened to her album enough for it to chart on my own, but if I had spent more time with it, it would have had a good chance of making it on. Which is more of a problem of my own, than her, as she is the real deal. “A weird person who loves weird things” should be your new Twitter bio. And Freakpop! Very cool. Glad you related the story of you seeing Demi live over the summer. “Cool for the Summer” was inescapable for me, and I love that it was the official theme to Summerslam. It was a bizarre fit (especially when you read the lyrics! That’s supposed to relate to the graps???), but it kind of worked? I never listened to Every Open Eye, despite loving the last Chvrches, one of the big eff-ups by me in 2015! Looking at the MSMR album cover really quickly made me say “what??? ASMR???” That Would Be A Different Album.
I’m so glad not just to see First Aid Kit make your list, breaking your rule! And what a great album to do it with. I love that the Letterman performance introduced you to them! It really is such a great album, I like First Aid Kit a lot. That’s so cool that Vanessa Carlton made a comeback this year, in such a different style. Need to listen to that. And since you brought it up “A Thousand Miles” has to be a top ten Grocery Store PA song. Yeah, poor Carly Rae! At least the album is getting a lot of praise. The whole point of “pop music” is that it’s supposed to be
popular so it’s always odd when you get these albums/singles that should have clearly done better. It’s not like it’s experimental music! By its very nature, it’s pop! Oh well, there’s nothing cooler than a cult album, so hopefully its stature helps grant her next album that big success she clearly deserves. Edmonton’s own Purity Ring! I wonder if Jamie ever plays them on Power 92? Courtney Barnett is the greatest! What more can you say? A shame Ellie Goulding’s alum was that long, if you aren’t doing a concept album, I don’t really see what the point is in having a pop album be that long. I really need to listen to that Grimes album, sounds really good. Florence remains a big presence! I’ve heard some of Bully’s stuff, and like it! That’s so cool you saw them live! And of course the #1, perfect! I really like the history you bring into the write-up, it reminds me of some of these newspaper endorsement articles, where by the end of the article you realize no other album could have been #1. You’re very persuasive! And I love that all your #1 albums end on the same “make no mistake about it” line, the tradition lives on!
That about does it! One thing I love about your list is for the most part we follow very different music/genres. Music is so vast, if you just focus on your own beat there’s no way you could come close to hearing even a sliver of what’s been released in a given year. So I like that about yours, as I know you are the expert in dance/electronic/all that kind of stuff, and instead of wading through it myself in a confused stupor, I get the straight dope from you at the end of the year. It’s like Apple Music, without paying for it and streaming! Another great year-end, and i’m happy you came back to do it! As I said in the last post, we are the two people who do the Top 40 Albums list, so i’m happy that tradition can live on through all the different eras of ATRL. Now excuse me, I need to work on my own list!
Not a big fan, but his single choices slay. KNOW-IT-ALL is a great start for Alessia's discography. Confident and 25 are obviously amazing. 
EMOTION 
Hope to see you back here this December. 