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#1 SONG REVEALED|Kang his best of 2015 reloaded the re-up
Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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oh my gosh
ohh my gosh
4. Jamie xx - In Colour
Haaa predominantly instrumental music with more personality than 99% of **** with words in it. It's an interesting contrast to most of today's dance music how In Colour doesn't really concern itself with things like big builds and big payoff, at least in an obvious explicit way. He's obviously transferred over a lot of the same restraint that characterized the best of the xx + fittingly here we get mayybe the 2 or 3 best xx songs this decade as part of the whole package.  But of course there is payoff -- it's just more so achieved through the sequencing of these songs over the long term and how they like to flow into and build off each other. The BANGERRRful explosive euphoria of 'I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)' is just too strong not to show out in isolation, but it's made about 3x more forceful coming right after the empty loneliness that Loud Places shows us. Not to be corny but the whole alb feels like a celebration of life like that. Can't have the relief without the anxiety. If you're looking for anxiety relievers then here's probably a good start though.
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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sometimes i wish that i could change
but not for me, for you
so we could be together, forever
but i know, i know that i won't change for you
cause where were you, for me?
when i needed someone
when i needed you?
3. Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION
I could go off on something on how E•MO•TION is great because of how it approximates the idea of what love does or should feel like without ever making the acknowledgement of having gotten there, how it takes little shards of what we know trendy 80s pop is supposed to have sounded like but welds them together into a sound that isn't backwards-looking in any way, or how it trades the adorably cavity-inducing idealism of Kiss for something a little more realistic but accordingly a lot more compelling ..... and I wouldn't be wrong, but above All That ;-) the album's greatness comes from how it sounds ****ing amazing. If Kiss showed us how CRJ can shoot out a sharp pop song then this is the pencil sharpened to its fullest tip, her increasingly unique writing voice coalescing with the instincts of EVERYONE else brought on board to reveal a kaleidoscope of sounds and well...emotions. For music this instantly rewarding it really revels in its subtlety; if my first listen I was just a little underwhelmed at no other song coming close to the absurd gigantism of RAWM, on my twentieth I was too busy trying to picking up all the other little musical or lyrical nuances given off by the other tracks to care -- " oh, <thaat's> how they did that."
Because the whole thing is smarter than it lets on; the cliches are easy enough to find, sure, but when was the last time you heard a song in any genre go for the exact feeling that say Boy Problems or When I Needed You so successfully articulate like it's no big deal? Lolz you probably haven't. It was a GREAT great year for music if not mainstream pop in particular, but if that crowd was too dense to pick up this giant ass flag waving in front of their faces, one that could have made things shine a lot brighter on their side, then I guess the joke's on them in a couple ways.
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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i have to go buy spaghetti sauce FML!!!!!!!!
#2 Purpose
#1 SWISH
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 13,978
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Jamie and Tame really knocked it out of the park this year those albums woooo.
And Carly obviously is the best artist of all time. That album could've been my AOTY if it was released in any other year this decade tbqfh.
Nice top 2, can't wait for Facts to top ur song list.
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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i forgive you, mother, i can hear you
and i long to be near you
but every road leads to an end
your apparition passes through me in the willows
five red hens – you’ll never see us again
2. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Back when C&L was first announced, as fan of Michigan and the more low-key parts of Illinois I was pretty hyped; then when I first listened to it, as someone who's lost a parent, I was bowled over.
But as much as it stuns as a document of personally loss, depair, family, broken family issues, rebuilding and at the end of it all having to move on with your life, that's what it is: a document. Of this man losing his mother and having to deal with their issues that they shared in their relationship. So as cathartic as the listening experience can be as Sufjan approaches the grieving process from all these different angles over the course of 11 songs and we can all individually find places to latch on to and relate, it's just as much of an almost morbid fascination to explore this one triangle of relationships in the wake of two of them coming to their ends. These angles are what make the whole thing: Suf diving into the process wanting to forgive his mother for everything, but at so many points reminding himself and us of the various ways she fell short at parenting. Finding peace in making amends with her in the period leading up to her death and then turning around wanting to kill himself in the wake of it actually happening. Looking for solace in the activity that's always kept him on track through all his previous tough times and finding none. And most of all looking back at the isolated periods of time actually spent with mom and stepdad which turns into a bigger reflection on aging, memory, pardoning, and how all these things work to complicate the healing and hurting processes.
Obviously the music isn't the focus here. But after some time spent working through these tough-to-down stories, you start to feel it drawing itself out in a couple comforting ways. The soft strums and their gentle variations across the all songs turning this unequivocal sadness into something pleasant and even catchy. Sufjan's voice staying calm through the storm, never sounding anything above ~just OK~ but maybe giving us a sign that 3 years past this thing happening everything has started to get better; how maybe time has a way of smoothing over even the most ****ed up ****.
All very crucial touches that just wouldn't be possible in like short story form.
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Member Since: 1/1/2013
Posts: 13,978
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Aw Kang, I'm sorry about your loss 
Even as someone who hasn't experienced something like that, there's such a universal feeling to this album that really makes it easy to relate to. Which is pretty impressive considering how detailed and personal it is as well.
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 4/24/2011
Posts: 8,547
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OMG this top 5 is perfect so far asfdoashdfoadsh CARLY, JAMIE, TI AND SUFJAN SLAYING YESSSSSSSSSSSS. Can't wait to see your #1.!
Honestly, TRF.
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Member Since: 2/5/2014
Posts: 29,111
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Great top 6. Everything here is pretty excellent on a near objective level. I have to show some love for Sufjan though, poor guy just wants to be well and then he goes and delivers that heartbreaking album. Carrie & Lowell is excellent.
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For music this instantly rewarding it really revels in its subtlety; if my first listen I was just a little underwhelmed at no other song coming close to the absurd gigantism of RAWM, on my twentieth I was too busy trying to picking up all the other little musical or lyrical nuances given off by the other tracks to care -- "oh, <thaat's> how they did that.
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Yes! Not only is the music infectious from your first couple listens, there's also a lot of little subtleties that shine through and give it depth. It's a great album.
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Member Since: 1/4/2014
Posts: 22,877
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Yes at the KING of 2015 albums E•MO•TION getting that praise. 
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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but I need to tell ya something
i know most likely
how i used to be a frail and silly thought in your mind
don't be unkind
you're so far behind me
1. Grimes - Art Angels
So Grimes took a break, took some heat from all over really – fans, critics, couple fellow artists, some music industry types – had some kind of breakdown maybe or maybe not, and went off to hide in her cabin in the woods woods to get back at everyone who did her wrong, as artists do (I don't know about this last part). And she came back roaring with a couple really VICIOUS takedowns on Art Angels, her 4th album but the first she's made with a substantial audience waiting ready for her, it's just that you might not have picked that up immediately when the bigger story here is her move to .. ^pop music>. It's true, this is where Grimes has grown more skilled and more confident in her ability to make noises out of her computer, and also maybe where she's learned she has a crazy unique voice she can move up to the front of the track so we can actually hear it, and how not everything has to sound like it's being streamed out of an (actual, physical) cloud. But it's possible too that she wound up confused in her state of hibernation, because pop music doesn't sound like this. Again like with Carly and the 80s revival, there are familiar elements: the Pon de Replay claps, the "Pin" action noises that pop up on top 40 radio as symptoms of overproduction, just here more like symptoms of overstimulation. But hoedown-style Pitchfork hate tracks, Taiwanese rapping over surf-rock backing beats punctuated with screams, demented cheerleader all-out assault jams, choruses sung in French but for almost absolutely no reason considering the lyrics come out borderline inaudible engulfed in their production, songs about angels crying polluted tears, bummed out about environmental degradation; these ideas didn't come from outside, they came from inside. Then there are songs about girl power, getting stabbed in the back by a friend, finding escape from the world inside music, with another one about realizing when it's time to buck up and face your challenges head on. I could be misinterpreting the intended meanings of some. But either way it's a lot of ground covered.
If I were in a position of power w.r.t the making or release of this album, I don't know what I would have done with some of the ideas that came up in the recording process. Not that I didn't believe in the power of Grimes prior to 6 November 2015 or want the best for her, just that in the past she had already done plenty with less; did we really need a song about Al Pacino in the Godfather Pt. II where the only difference is he's a vampire who can switch genders and travel through time? Well .. looks like we did. The whole thing is a testament to the power of saying yes, yes, yusss. She went big all around, and she pretty much stuck it. It sounds like candy that's amazing for your health.
This time last year I really didn't have any idea what to do with my 3 favorite albums in terms of ordering and such. In 2015 it was not even a question.
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Member Since: 8/7/2015
Posts: 24,463
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Excellent Top 5. They're all undeniable.
Grimes really impressed me with Art Angels.
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Member Since: 1/6/2014
Posts: 21,185
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luv art angles and emotion and i did enjoy currents too <3
i haven't listened to sufjan but because i was not on the mood for it
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ATRL Contributor
Member Since: 9/2/2011
Posts: 21,728
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Now that top 5 is pretty great, but that #1 is actually legendary! Great list overall, so much cool stuff and a lot that I should try to get into. Your writeup are entertaining as always~
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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So now tomorrow we move to the songs list. 
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Member Since: 2/5/2014
Posts: 29,111
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That Grimes album is a strange album, I never realized how many things were going on until I read the description.
It is a great album though, no doubting that.
Looking forward to the list o songs 
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Member Since: 10/5/2009
Posts: 137,162
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Carly  She really stepped up this year, I don't think anyone was ready for the slayage she was preparing for us.
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Member Since: 1/1/2014
Posts: 12,760
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Wow the PUNCH of 5-2, I love all those albums.
And Art Angels is one of the most unique albums of 2015.
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Member Since: 5/23/2007
Posts: 65,087
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Tame Impala, EMOTION and Sufjan Stevens  Grimes #1, well deserved 
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Member Since: 7/10/2008
Posts: 13,417
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Member Since: 12/14/2011
Posts: 21,274
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THE TOP 101 SONGS OF 2015
101. Silentó - Watch Me (Whip/Nae Nae)
No hook was more enjoyable to spontaneously shout out at random moments
this year, ATRL truly always loses Still don't know what the nae nae is.
100. Drake - Legend
"If I die I'm a mother****ing legend" . . . grumble as I may he only told the truth
99. Rihanna - Bitch Better Have My Money
There were zero songs on Unapologetic 1/27826827162th as unapologetic as this
98. Little Mix - Black Magic
So 80s my ...... perm is on fire
97. FIDLAR - 40oz. on Repeat
Anxiety in all its forms is a biiiiitch, but at the same time one of the most reassuring things in the world is just being able to recognize there other people fighting some of the same battles we are and pretty much just enumerating the worst parts of the day to day struggle, this song did the trick. The brattiness just makes it more convincing.
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~ Carly
