A quick note before the TV list: usually I do a Top 30-40 list, but with time running out on me I condensed it a bit. There were so many great shows that I loved that missed the top 20, so look at that Just Missed list and you’ll see a lot of strong shows. Another thing that played a part for the 20-15 portion of the list is whether I had something to write about them. So there might be a couple of shows that I like about the same that miss the cut, but what helped certain shows make the cut was whether I had something to new to say about them. Which is why you’ll see a lot of new shows on the list. I loved the final seasons of Parks and Recreation and Community, but i’ve written about both shows for a solid 5-6 years now. Anyway, here’s the big list of shows that missed the cut, in no particular order.
Just Missed:
Parks and Recreation (NBC)
Community (Yahoo)
Moonbeam City (Comedy Central)
Broad City (Comedy Central)
Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)
Key & Peele (Comedy Central)
Kroll Show (Comedy Central)
Another Period (Comedy Central)
Workaholics (Comedy Central)
South Park (Comedy Central)
Louie (FX)
Man Seeking Woman (FXX)
Rick and Morty (adult swim)
Black Jesus (adult swim)
Neon Joe: Werewolf Hunter (adult swim)
The Jack & Triumph Show (adult swim)
The Simpsons (Fox)
Bob’s Burgers (Fox)
Brooklyn Nine-Nine (Fox)
The Mindy Project (Fox/Hulu)
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW)
iZombie (The CW)
Playing House (USA)
Blunt Talk (Starz)
The Knick (Cinemax)
Rectify (SundanceTV)
Girls (HBO)
True Detective (HBO)
Show Me a Hero (HBO)
The Jinx (HBO)
Mom (CBS)
Limitless (CBS)
Comedy Bang Bang (IFC)
Portlandia (IFC)
Maron (IFC)
20. Person of Interest
Network: CBS
Last year I wrote this about Person of Interest, which at that time I wasn’t officially caught up on:
Quote:
Person of Interest (CBS) – The reason why POI didn’t chart is because I am not entirely caught up. Since the summer, i’ve been watching the series from the beginning at a deliberate pace and I am very much enjoying it. I will definitely be caught up for next year’s list, though, so expect it to make a showing. It is one of the most underrated shows on TV, and i’m glad it finally got some well-deserved press this year, from the likes of The New Yorker (billed as “The TV Show That Predicted Edward Snowden”),Vox,Buzzfeed (Journalistic Buzzfeed, not Listicle/GIF Buzzfeed)and The New York Times. I hate the term “the best show you’re not watching,” but I think it’s fair to use in this instance (though it ranked as the #4 most watched drama in prime-time with combined viewers for the 13-14 season), as it’s a show that deserves the same kind of passionate audience that shows like Lost and The X-Files got.
So yeah, now i’m current with the show, and can loudly proclaim how much I love it. Only the back-half of season 4 aired in 2015, so that only a half a season beat out so many great shows to chart at #20 says a lot for how strong those episodes were. This show is so much more than just a crime procedural, just read some of those links from the quoted paragraph above to tell you the kinds of subversive topics this show is doing. It’s been a rough year for POI fans, though, as while CBS ordered it for a fifth season, it was only for 13 episodes, and is thought to be its last. Usually a show ending at season 5 would be a good thing, as that should be plenty amount of episodes, but there’s a lot of story left to tell! I fear that just 13 might not be enough, and it could come off as rushed. And it’s not like the show did bad in the ratings, the deciding factor in this was because Warner Bros TV is the production company behind it, not CBS Productions, so CBS doesn’t get the extra money in owning it. It all but assuredly would get another season if CBS was getting that extra dough as the broadcast model crumbles year-by-year (just look at Elementary, a show that does about the same in viewers, yet there’s no inclination it will end any time soon). Also complicating matters is that creator/EP Jonah Nolan is also in charge of HBO’s upcoming Westworld, which is filming season 1 now. I imagine its existence, with Nolan having to juggle both shows, might have also played a part in ending POI’s run.
As for why I love the show: I love the characters (which have been developed over time in exciting ways), both the world-building and procedural episodes are just as interesting which doesn’t happen much on these shows, and it’s really the first show of its kind to go into these post-9/11 techno-thriller issues. Mr. Robot might get all the praise and accolades, but Person of Interest was covering much of the same territory years earlier, in a non-preachy and flat-out FUN way. Let me again point you to that New Yorker article quoted in the above paragraph, where the show predicted Edward Snowden months before it actually happened. That takes a lot more smarts than naming your corporation Evil Corp and riding with the tide. I’d go into more specifics, but more people need to watch this show. It’s not a boring procedural!! It’s really funny! It makes you think! It has strong female characters! Great action scenes! It’s the perfect mix of high-brow and low-brow sci-fi, and I hope more people check it out now that all four seasons are on Netflix! When Westworld comes out at the end of 2016, and critics say “hey, this is really smart! Where did this guy come from?” be one of the cool kids and say “those smarts were present on network TV for five years!”
19. The Carmichael Show
Network: NBC
A topic i’ve gone back to many times over the years writing these TV lists has been me advocating the return of the multi-cam sitcom. Yes, there are more great TV comedies than ever today, but they can’t all be just the same style. And to look at the history of sitcoms, so many of the greatest shows of all-time were done multi-cam, and they all still hold up! I currently really enjoy CBS’ Mom, which I wrote about last year, but beyond that i’ve been waiting for that old-school multi-cam show that demonstrates how effective they can be today. NBC’s The Carmichael Show was absolutely that, it’s the best use of the form since HBO’s Lucky Louie, and a long-deserved launching pad for the very talented and funny Jerrod Carmichael.
So what makes The Carmichael Show effective? The plots are very simple; rarely do you see any b or c-plots. An episode is just about one topic typically (episode titles include “Protest,” “Kale,” “Gender,” “Prayer,” “Guns”), and the joy of each episode is seeing how each distinctly drawn character reacts to it. Jerrod has a different point of view from his liberal college grad girlfriend Maxine (played by Amber Stevens), while the two parents Joe and Cynthia (expertly played by David Alan Grier and Loretta Devine) both have their own old-school feelings on topics that are believable to their characters. Which is why the highlight of most episodes are the scenes that take place in The Carmichaels’ living room, where opinions get bounced around, and it feels incredibly lively. It reminds me of Everybody Loves Raymond at its best, which sometimes had entire episodes take place in the living room as they discussed a single topic. Another plus for The Carmichael Show is the organic sound of the live audience. The reason why most stand-ups want to make their first show multi-cam is because of the similarity between playing off the live audience is very similar to what they do as stand-ups. A constant complaint from people who don’t want to watch these kinds of comedies are the “laugh track,” which I get if you aren’t used to it, and if it’s a bad show and you aren’t locked into its rhythms, it can be painful. But a great multi-cam at its best modulates the live audience in a more natural way, and it isn’t “sweetened.” That’s why I loved Lucky Louie so much, it was truly a LIVE AUDIENCE, and you heard certain jokes bomb! You couldn’t pull that off as well on a big network show , but to my ears The Carmichael Show has the most organic sounding multi-cam audience i’ve heard in a long time, you can hear “oooh’s!” at certain jokes, audible reactions from people, it feels like a genuine audience watching a live staged play, which is what these shows should really strive for.
The show was a sleeper success last summer, only ordered for six episodes, and thankfully was ordered for a second season not too long after that (which is set to premiere later this spring). If you haven’t had the chance to watch it, you really should! One of the main things Jerrod Carmichael wants to do with his comedy is to be “honest,” and you really feel that in The Carmichael Show. There’s nothing phony about it.
18. The Grinder
Network: Fox
The world doesn’t need more showbusiness parodies or shows that frequently break the fourth wall. But yet, The Grinder is a very inventive and hilarious new spin on old tropes. I guess part of what helps the show avoid those pitfalls is because the show is about Rob Lowe’s character Dean Sanderson, Jr moving back to his small town Idaho home to work at the family lawfirm, where his brother Stewart is an attorney and his father (Dean Sanderson, Sr, so you know which son is the favourite) is the head of. Meaning, it’s about the showbiz-focused guy as a fish out of water in the Real World, as it were, which is a hilarious premise, especially since Lowe’s Sanderson played “Mitch Grinder” for eight seasons on the legal show The Grinder, so he feels like he knows everything there is to know about practising law. Lowe is very good as a pompous actor type, throwing around buzzwords to the increasingly exasperated Stewart (brilliantly played by Fred Savage). It’s a show that just dips its toe into the Hollywood stuff, while remaining at its core a law comedy/family show.
The creative team behind this one is strong: Jarrad Paul & Andrew Mogul are the creators, the great Jake Kasdan EP’d/directed the pilot, and the also great Nick Stoller is an EP, too. It’s a powerhouse comedy team, and they help steer the show away from cliché/predictability. The cast is also very good, beyond Lowe and Savage (can’t stress enough how funny Savage is on the show as the audience surrogate), Mary Elizabeth Ellis as Stewart’s wife Debbie is also tremendous. On most network shows, the role of Debbie would be a nothing part, but Ellis is given a lot to do, and one of the frequent highlights of the show are the scenes where Savage and Ellis are going to bed, essentially recapping the plot of the episode thus far very matter of factly. Which doesn’t sound funny, but in execution it definitely is. It kind of reminds me of the amazing final scene of Pineapple Express, except done every/most weeks. And as a major Eastbound & Down fan, i’m happy that Steve “Stevie Janowski” Little is a constant presence on the show, playing a similar character. The show also features amazing guest stars, with one in particular really being tremendous. I won’t give it away in case you haven’t watched it yet, but it’s a favourite actor of mine who just might be the lead in one of shows still to come on this list.
Again, The Grinder is really such an inventive and frequently hilarious show. I would compare the level of writing to Community and Arrested Development, two shows that assume you are smart enough to know the jokes they are throwing at you, but even if you miss the reference the show has a strong foundation that makes you care about the characters. Its ratings aren’t great so it might not be around much longer, which is all the more reason I am recommending it so highly.
Sidenote: Rob Lowe also was the lead voice in Comedy Central’s Moonbeam City, which just missed the top 20. A tremendously funny show that you should also check out!
17. BoJack Horseman
Network: Netflix
I wrote extensively about BoJack Horseman last year, so i’ll just C&P last year’s write-up. Season 2 was another great year for the show, but I don’t have much else to say beyond that.
Quote:
Biggest surprise of the year, without question. When I first heard about BoJack Horseman's premise (Will Arnett voices washed-up '90s sitcom star BoJack Horseman, who vows to return to celebrity prominence with a tell-all biography that he dictates to a ghostwriter), it sounded very familiar to me. I love showbiz satire, but it didn't sound all that original. And in watching the first few episodes, I laughed but I wasn't entirely convinced that it would be more than just some funny lines. Once I saw episode 4 though, I realized this was something deeper and more moving than I originally thought. This was a soul-searching tale about being an asshole, pushing away the people that you care about, and what cost that pays on your life. The flashbacks to his days working on the sitcom Horsin' Around are initially funny in a surface way, but they become heartbreaking when you see the relationship he has with creator Herb Kazzaz (voiced by Stanley Tucci!), who he started out with on the stand-up circuit before eventually having a falling out. This is a show that isn't afraid to just go darkly dramatic, and you realize halfway through into the series that you are so emotionally affected by a series that is centred on Will Arnett as a boorish talking horse. Arnett deserves a lot of credit here, as while it's not surprising that he can nail the hilarious asshole-ish comedy lines, I have never heard him go this dramatic before, and his vocal performance makes BoJack a living, breathing creation that you care about. When all is said and done, this might end up being Arnett's finest acting performance.
BoJack Horseman is in my opinion the best Netflix original series to date and creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg really plays to the medium's strengths, as it is a heavily serialized show, with both running jokes and deep character development. In watching back those early episodes, you can see those initial seeds planted for future moments in the series, which is really impressive. You also realize that the early episodes thematically fit in perfectly with the darker later episodes, which makes every moment add up to a larger whole. The entire cast is terrific, like Amy Sedaris as BoJack's agent/on-and-off girlfriend Princess Caroline, Alison Brie as BoJack's ghostwriter Diane, Aaron Paul as Todd who is BoJack's unemployed roommate, and the great Paul F. Tompkins as Mr. Peanutbutter, a dog who is a former sitcom rival to BoJack and is dating Diane. The entire cast does an amazing job with the comedy beats and also completely deliver when there's dramatic stuff to play (an end of episode moment with Princess Caroline is heartbreaking).
This is seriously such a fantastic show that I urge all of you check out. Season 2 will premiere sometime this summer, and I want this show to grow a bigger audience prior to then. I repeat: This show is not what it looks like. Yes, it is incredibly funny (Vincent Adultman is one of my favourite comedy characters of 2014), but the depths that this show gets into, for an animated comedy filled with anamorphic talking animals, it's unbelievable. The last three episodes in particular are as existential and harrowing as anything I have watched recently. Please give it a shot.
16. W/ Bob And David
Network: Netflix
A couple of weeks ago an amazing oral history of the influential comedy message board/community A Special Thing was published online. I never posted much on it (ATRL will always be my #1 message board love ) but i did read it often and it helped me think more clearly about comedy, plus also discover many great stand-ups/shows/comedians. One point that is articulated in the piece is about how being a “comedy nerd” is now a mainstream thing, which definitely wasn’t the case in the 2000’s. One of the clearest examples of comedy nerd-dom entering the mainstream is the existence of W/ Bob and David. Yes, you could argue that Bob Odenkirk is now a big star thanks to Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul which might have played a part, but I think that would be shortchanging what’s happening here. Bob Odenkirk and David Cross have been plotting a return to Mr. Show for as long as i’ve known about the show (probably around 2002 when I discovered it through the DVD’s), like the failed HBO pilot David’s Situation, starring a pre-The Hangover Zach Galifianakis They even wrote an entire book titled Hollywood Said No! which contained all the film scripts they wrote that never got made. So my long point is, they have been trying for a while to get the next Bob & David project rolling, so i’m glad I lived long enough to see it happen. The show W/ Bob and David itself is just a collection of hilarious and creative sketches, so I don’t have more to add on the content of the show itself. I just am grateful to Netflix for writing that check to make something that looked impossible a reality for all of us comedy fans. They made more dreams come true in 2015 with another project, but more on that later.
15. Big Time in Hollywood, FL
Network: Comedy Central
Comedy Central has been getting great press for the past couple years for its great slate of shows, but i’m sad Big Time in Hollywood, FL fell under the radar. Created by Alex Anfanger (who stars as Jack) and Dan Schimpf (director of nearly every episode), Big Time was really something unique as it strived to be Comedy Central’s first ever serialized show. It almost plays like a 10-episode long movie, as while certain episodes are enjoyable on their own, you don’t fall head over heels about it until you get two or three episodes deep. I won’t try to describe the plot, as there are many twists and turns that are better left unsaid. I guess the most basic premise I could give it is that Jack and Ben (played by Lenny Jacobson) are brothers still living at home who are aspiring filmmakers who want to make it big, as the title alludes to. HOW big they make it....... Well, i’ll leave it to you to find out what kind of attention they get. It’s just a super funny show that was unlike anything else that aired this year, and i’m sad it only lasted for one season. The more I think about it, it would have been the perfect Netflix show due to its serialized nature. Oh well. I don’t know what the availability of this show is, but I really urge everyone to check it out.
14. Last Man on Earth
Network: Fox
One of the big joys of 2015 was seeing Will Forte finally getting his due, after years of being perennially underrated and overlooked. I saw so much praise for Forte this year, praising his SNL sketches (a nice change of pace from the years where I saw most of his sketches trashed in the moment), praising MacGruber and everything else he’s done, that a part of me was like “hey! Where were you guys in 2010??? You could have made MacGruber a big hit!” But oh well, better late than never! Last Man on Earth was his big breakout show, and it really lived up to Forte’s greatness. The first season made me laugh as hard as anything that aired in 2015, as i’m a big fan of Forte as Obnoxious A-Hole. Going into season 2, the show changed its tone a bit and developed the characters more significantly, which was mostly for the best. The show of season 1 wasn’t sustainable as a long-running Fox sitcom, while the show of season 2 is something I could see run for another three years. When the show is airing, it’s one of the highlights of my TV-week, and I can’t wait to see where it goes next.
13. Veep
Network: HBO
One of the under-reported TV stories of 2015 was the departure of Veep creator/showrunner/true comedy genius Armando Iannucci. I feel like not enough people realize how big of a deal this was. The reason for Iannucci’s departure were very reasonable (he was basically tired of travelling back-and-forth from the UK to America with his family missing him, plus UK shows in their DNA don’t last that long, so he wanted to move on to something else), but a part of me thinks that the Veep as we know it is over. At the very least, season 4 ended on a high note, with many memorable moments and hilarious episodes. And it was a great moment to see Veep finally win the Best Comedy Emmy for Iannucci’s last year, you couldn’t have asked for a better send-off. And the show got a big endorsement this year from David Letterman during the final Late Show, as he told Julia Louis-Dreyfus after she did the final Top Ten list, “the show has been tremendous this year.” What higher praise could you get??
My worry about the upcoming season 5 is that it will be VERY different. The new showrunner is David Mandel, of Seinfeld/Curb Your Enthusiasm fame, and he has brought with him a bunch of American comedy writers (like Steve Koren, the guy who wrote Click). Nothing against Mandel, whose work I have enjoyed over the years, but the improv-y/Harvard Comedy Writer-style of Mandel is just a very different fit from what Iannucci and his entire UK-based writing staff came up with, which were detailed, dense scripts with no real room for improv. I am certain Veep will still be funny, as it remains a fabulous cast and the 2016 Election should inspire some fun storylines (even if Veep runs on a different political schedule than the one we have in real life). I just worry Veep is going to turn into Just Another Sitcom without Iannucci and his co-EP Simon Blackwell (who also departed the show ) at the helm. And on a You Might Not Have Even Noticed So I Hope I Don’t Ruin This For You-note, the production moved to Los Angeles this year, after four years in the Baltimore/DC-area. So get ready for a LOT of Hiding Where We Really Are-shots! Which of course works for a lot of shows, but after setting the tone of being in DC, with that cold DC air coming through the TV at times, I just can’t see how they will be able to replicate that feel in L.A. without coming off as artificial.
But hey! The real point is: Veep season 4 was amazing!! Fingers crossed for season 5, but if season 4 is the last great season of the show, at least we’ve got four seasons of great TV to rewatch for years to come!
12. Mad Men
Network: AMC
The very first year I came up with a TV list for my year-end was the same year season 1 of Mad Men debuted. It has been a staple ever since, while never reaching #1, it was always a show I greatly loved and looked forward to seeing each year. Since it has been such a constant presence since the start, I am feeling pretty tapped out on saying anything new about it. I’ll just say briefly that I thought the last (half) season was really great, with the finale in particular being tremendous. Since I feel writing this little about an all-time great TV drama is a crime, i’m going to C&P my favourite write-up on the show: from 2012 when it ranked at #4. The last paragraph in particular is fun to read now.
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2012 will be known as the year when Mad Men became the underdog. Most publications are putting Breaking Bad's latest season over Mad Men, the show was snubbed at the Golden Globes, and it lost the Best Drama Series Emmy to Showtime's Homeland, missing out on winning it for a record-breaking fifth time in a row. Oh, and Damian Lewis beat out Jon Hamm in Best Actor in a Drama, which was ****ing absurd (and I liked season 1 of Homeland and like Damian Lewis!). It seems like people are taking the show for granted nowadays, which seems especially crazy after season 5, which was one of Mad Men's best and most confident seasons to date.
I found season 5 of Mad Men to be a complete pleasure to watch, with maybe the best string of episodes the show has ever had. I mean, we had "Mystery Date" (The Richard Speck episode), The Frank Pierson co-written "Signal 30" (The Pete Goes To Driving School episode), "Far Away Places" (The Howard Johnson's episode), "At the Codfish Ball" (the episode that centered on conflicts between parents and children), "Lazy Lazarus" (The "Tomorrow Never Knows" episode), "Dark Shadows" (the Killer Smog episode), "Christmas Waltz" (The Hare Krishna episode), "The Other Woman" (The Jaguar Deal episode), "Commissions and Fees" (the Non-Starting Jaguar episode), and "The Phantom" (the "Casino Royale" episode). All of those aired in a row! And I didn't expect to type that many episodes! Obviously, the things I highlight aren't the themes of the episodes, as I chose non-spoilery things, in most instances. My point is that all of those aired in a row. Really, the second episode was the only OK one, as the premiere was really great, as well. This was a true banner year of Mad Men (though I still may prefer season 4 as my favourite overall), and that it lost/was snubbed of so many awards is insanity to me. As much as I liked the first season of Homeland, it couldn't come close to these episodes.
We have two seasons of Mad Men left. As the show goes further into the '60s (and becomes weirder in the process, which I love), it is only going to get even better and more exciting to watch. I've been rewatching a lot of The Sopranos lately (can't you tell? Due to my 100 references to it throughout this year-end hahahaha), and I briefly get sad that there isn't a drama like that on the air currently. But then, I have to remember Mad Men, which is Matthew Weiner following his old boss David Chase, and making some of the most stunning, dramatic, hilarious, beautiful, heartbreaking TV since Tony Soprano ate onion rings and listened to Journey. Speaking of, goodness am I excited to see what Weiner does with the Mad Men series finale. Like I said before, it won't harm the series if it isn't good, but i'm still incredibly excited and interested to see what he ends up doing for it. I am giddy just thinking about it!
11. Halt and Catch Fire
Network: AMC
Halt and Catch Fire was a show I missed during its first season. It sounded like an interesting show, but as The Birthday Boys brilliantly put it “THERE’S TOOOOO MANY SHOWS!!!!” so I forgot about it. When season one ended I kept hearing rumblings from people saying it was good, so once it was put up on Netflix, I decided to try it out, and I instantly became a fan. I want to dispel a narrative I saw way too often, in regards to Halt’s first season: IT WAS GREAT FROM THE START! Of course it got better, as any great show does, but to say it didn’t become worth watching until season 2 (and I read some critics outright telling people they should just skip season 1 WHAT) really made me mad. If you skip the first season you miss so many great little character details that pop up in the second season, you learn about the Cardiff Giant and what happened afterwards, it was just a really involving season of TV and I hate to see it bagged on like that. When I said that I was convinced to watch the show from people’s rumblings saying it was good, they were from PEOPLE, not critics, which is always the best barometer, I feel. Critics often miss great shows on their first year, and then you see them playing catch-up when it builds a groundswell, so they try to make excuses for being late to it by building a false narrative that “the first season wasn’t good.” I saw it with Enlightened (great from the start!), I saw it with BoJack Horseman, I saw it with the #9 show on this list, I predict we’ll be seeing it with Baskets once it gets renewed for a second season, and those are just the examples that are off the top of my head!
Oh anyway, back to Halt and Catch Fire: this is a great, great show covering a fascinating topic in a new setting. The writing is really good, but what really hooks you right away is the pitch-perfect casting: Lee Pace as Joe McMillian, Scoot McNairy as Gordon Clark, MacKenzie Davis as Cameron Howe, Kerry Bishe as Donna Clark, and Toby Huss as John Bosworth. That is maybe the best cast of mostly-newcomers for a drama that I can remember. Some of them have had cult success (Lee Pace on Pushing Daisies, Kerry Bishe on the weird final season of Scrubs, and Toby Huss’ exemplary voice-over-work on King of the Hill), but part of what makes you buy into the show is you don't have expectations based off past performances. They just fee like those characters right off the hop, kind of like what Mad Men did. All of these characters have intriguing aspects about them and not one of them is a dud.
I am so happy this show got a season 3, so hopefully even more people discover it as it deserves a larger audience. Part of the big build-up over the Breaking Bad and Mad Men finales was the worry of what AMC would do after those shows ended. Between Halt and Catch Fire and a show coming up in the top ten, they have nothing at all to worry about. Let’s just again hope more people check out Halt, so it can stay on the air for as long as the creators need it to!
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Thanks for all the comments! I am cutting it pretty close, so I hope i’ll have the top ten up either tomorrow or Wednesday and then i’ll focus on the Top 40 Albums. Due to the short amount of time I have left, I expect I won’t be doing full-on write-ups for every album, but I have an idea for a good compromise so both people can see the list before cut-off and for my own sanity haha. More on that later!
Now this is what I'm here for. Holy sh%!, that Just Missed list alone for TV could be an entire countdown of its own. It was great to read your thoughts on Mad Men back in 2012 and how it related to the finale. Also, I really need to catch up on Halt and Catch Fire, because I stopped watching it a few episodes into Season 1 and that was dumb on my part. Bring on the top 10 and the music! YA GOT 5 DAYS. (At least I'm right there with you.)
One of my favourite SNL sketches of the past five years was History of Punk: Ian Rubbish and the Bizarros. I always love Fred Armisen’s super-specific music parodies, and he nailed that late ‘70s/early ‘80s anti-Margaret Thatcher punk scene (of course the joke of the piece was that Ian Rubbish was the one UK punk who loved Thatcher). It’s a perfect sketch, as it has fun with that premise while also slyly paying tribute to Thatcher following her death that week. But, as terrific as Armisen was, what really caught my eye the first time watching it was the pitch-perfect direction of Rhys Thomas. The way he emulated the different film styles (including a practically shot-for-shot remake of the famous Sex Pistols interview with Bill Grundy) blew my mind and really displayed his talents. In learning more about him, I found out he was responsible for essentially all of the style parody sketches that have appeared on SNL over the past eight or so years, nailing everything from Wes Anderson to UK crime movies. This guy is an unheralded talent who deserves more praise, so I was happy that 2015 saw the creation of his greatest undertaking to date in Documentary Now!
Documentary Now is really one of those shows that could only exist in this super niche-ified market we are in, where there’s a show for every single subset of interest under the sun. And I fell squarely in the demo for Doc Now, not just as a fan of documentaries, but of those aforementioned SNL style parodies. The show really is a 30 minute version of one of those each week, and it’s just HEAVEN to me. The team of Seth Meyers, Bill Hader and Fred Armisen have been working together for over ten years now, and they are such great collaborators. Bill and Fred get a lot of the well-deserved praise for the series for their wide-ranging performances, but Seth deserves just as much praise. I feel like once Seth left SNL as head writer/Weekend Update anchor, people just then started to realize how pivotal he was to the show’s success in those golden mid to early 10’s years. The amount of great stuff he was involved with in writing that most people don’t know about.... It is staggering, and i’m glad he is starting to get his due.
I’ve spent two paragraphs setting it up without directly talking about the show itself. Each episode is a separate faux-documentary, usually a parody of a well-known classic but knowing what is parodied doesn’t hinder your experience in enjoying it. It’s like that Ian Rubbish sketch I linked to above: if you don’t get the Sex Pistols/Bill Grundy reference, that doesn’t kill the sketch for you, it’s just a subtle fun easter egg for the ones who do. I greatly enjoyed every episode: Sandy Passage the Grey Gardens parody (which is the pic featured above), The Nanook of the North-riff Kunuk Uncovered, The VICE parody DRONEZ (Jack Black’s spot-on Shane Smith impression is divine), The Bill Hader/John Mulaney-penned The Eye Doesn’t Lie (true crime docs like The Thin Blue Line), and my favourite of them all Gentle and Soft: The Story of the Blue Jean Committee, which is most music docs but especially The Story of the Eagles. I left off one, A Town, a Gangster, a Festival, which isn’t a direct parody of anything, but more just a general “Let’s Document a Small-Town’s Culture”-kind of doc, which are common. Each one of these has a different tone, some are more overtly comedic, some have less laughs and more sweet/endearing, they run the gamut. There’s so much I could say about all of these episodes, but I don’t want to ruin any of the surprises. Each one is a little gem that should be savoured for both comedy and documentary fans alike.
This write-up is all over the place, as there’s so much I need to give credit to: Rhys Thomas’ next-level direction, the superb writing of Meyers/Armisen/Hader, the great performances, how each episode goes in unexpected directions. It’s a show I can’t believe exists, as it feels like something only my wildest dreams could dream up of. I wrote a tweet back in October 16, 2013, where I said this: “Ian Rubbish is one of my new fav comedy characters. IFC needs to make a 6-10 episode mini series about The Bizarros.” While it wasn’t the Ian Rubbish show, we got the next best (and really, better) thing. The show has already been renewed for multiple seasons, so if you missed out on it this year, you’ve got plenty of chances to watch it over the next few years. I think it says a lot about Seth. Bill, and Fred that while all three work on higher profile projects throughout the year, they will continue to carve out time to make this hyper-specific and wonderful little TV show. It won’t advance their careers and it won’t make them much money; they do it just because they love creating sketches together.
09. The Leftovers
Network: HBO
One of the fun TV stories to track in 2015 was the turnaround in popular opinion about The Leftovers. A show that was roundly mocked in certain quarters swiftly turned around into a critical darling all in the span of a year. I’m on the record as being a big fan of the first season (I ranked it at #11) and I really didn’t see much change between seasons, honestly. Again, like I wrote in my Halt and Catch Fire write-up, the show got better as most shows tend to do in their second season, but I think the tone of it remained pretty consistent to what came before. I guess this is what happens with new shows that have distinct tones, with so many TV options present today, anything that seems a little different or takes some effort into getting its tone is instantly dismissed. Until word gets around that “hey, this show is good!” and then the herd-like mentality hits and what once was a divisive show turns into a darling overnight. It’s all very odd, and I know I have been guilty of it in the past. But anyway, i’m just glad that The Leftover finally got its due.
Another aspect which I felt helped The Leftovers this year was its week-to-week storytelling, and that it wasn’t a show on Netflix where they could be binged at any given time. A show like The Leftovers, that is so mysterious and evacuative, is helped by the week-long discussion points, the anticipation for what’s coming up next. Without getting into specifics, if The Leftovers was released all-at-once the surprise of episodes such as “International Assassin” would have been out there and spoiled for people, rather than tuning in that Sunday and being shocked and surprised at what you are seeing. We live in this age of knowing everything about something before it comes out, knowing what’s going to happen in the next episode of something, but that didn’t use to be the case. So i appreciate when people like Damon Lindelof tries to subvert expectations in this current media age.
I haven’t talked in specifics about the show so far, as I fear going into spoilers, but it really was a wonderful season of TV. I am both happy and sad that the upcoming third season will be its last, sad obviously because there won’t be anymore, and happy because Lindelof is ending on his own terms. Of course, we all remember the last time Lindelof had advanced warning to end a show, with the LOST finale (which I liked!), and i’m sure no one is more cognizant of those expectations than him. It’s hard to please people, so I just hope he makes exactly the kind of finale he wants to make, as I trust his sensibilities. I am rooting for him to pull it off.
08. Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
Network: Netflix
Since 30 Rock left us in 2013, there has been a large hole in the TV landscape for what that show so brilliantly did for seven seasons. In these TV lists since 2013 i’ve compared shows to 30 Rock, saying it was the next heir to its legacy. Shows like Happy Endings and The Mindy Project, which did that “Rapid-Fire Jokes” thing very well. All that being said, as much as I love those two shows, it takes the arrival of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt to realize they were just imitators, and that “the next 30 Rock” had to actually come from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock themselves. Obvious, isn’t it? It’s hard to put into words of what their special talent is in writing spectacular jokes, but this tweet from D.C. Pierson states it simply: “Ain't no joke like a Fey/Carlock joke, because a Fey/Carlock joke is actually funny.” There’s truth to that. Another thing that makes them better than the rest is that their jokes are often rooted in character, they don’t just write interchangeable one-liners and hand them out randomly. A Kimmy Schmidt joke is different from a Titus Andromedon joke which is different from a Lillian or Jacqueline Voorhees joke. Fey/Carlock know what makes their characters tick in addition to being two of the best joke writers around today. It’s really quite impressive.
One aspect where Kimmy Schmidt differs from 30 Rock is the main protagonist, Ellie Kemper’s Kimmy Schmidt. Her character is really refreshing, as usually in these kinds of shows the lead is very self-aware and is surrounded by crazies. With Kimmy, she’s such a ray of sunshine, as sunny as her yellow jacket, and it gives this kind of comedy a new feeling than just the cynical person who hates their life. In Kimmy’s case, after being in a doomsday cult for years, she’s grateful she has a life which is why she has that sunny disposition. Everyone on this show is great, Tituss Burgess, Carol Kane, the amazing Jane Krakowski (she needs to recite Fey/Carlock lines for the rest of her life), and all the great guest stars! MARTIN SHORT AS DR. GRANT! What was better than that??? And Jon Hamm, tremendous as always. The one nitpick I have with the show, which probably kept it out of the top five, was the Tim Blake Nelson character, the yokel stepfather of Kimmy. Joking about the south has been really the only weakness I can think of in Fey/Carlock’s oeuvre, as everything they write about characters based in that area reads as condescending and mean. I know these shows are basically cartoons, and really everyone is exaggerated, but it’s still something that irks me a bit. But that’s just one small thing, everything else about this show is amazing! Daddy’s Boy???? Are you kidding me?? So many great moments, there are too many to mention. Take it from me, Dr. Spaceman himself, that if you haven’t seen Kimmy Schmidt yet, you need to fix that.
07. Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp
Network: Netflix
My face watching Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp the first time:
This series existing at all is some true dream-come-true ish and I am so happy it lived up to my wildest expectations. So many hilarious moments, it helped deepen all of the established characters we love, and it ended in a really strong and oddly moving way. God bless you Netflix for writing up a check to make this happen. I might say bad things about you & your model sometimes, but I just need to remember all the great cult-comedy sequels you helped give us in 2015. For some people it was the Marvel stuff that made their year, others it was House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, but for me the continuations of true cult comedy enterprises is something I will be eternally grateful to Netflix for giving us in 2015.
06. Better Call Saul
Network: AMC
Another reason not to blindly trust TV critics: most of them thought Better Call Saul was a bad idea! Real geniuses. I always had high hopes for it, less so for the Breaking Bad factor, but because it was a show starring Bob Odenkirk created by Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. That’s as great of a group of people you can trust with your entertainment dollar, they aren’t going to steer you the wrong way. But anyway, Better Call Saul was tremendous this season. Part of what I loved about it is how it just took its time, the pilot episode spends a solid minute just on the setting up of the courtroom television! So much of TV is just “go-go-go” so I like it when masters like Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould sloooooow it down and just let us experience the mundane as it makes the world more believable. I also liked the slow-burn aspect of finding out about Jimmy McGill’s brother Chuck, and how our views on him evolved throughout the season. At first, he was sympathetic with his condition, and then near the tail-end of the show you realize what a bastard he truly is. And it’s not a bastard in a Shonda Rhimes/soapy-TV way, it’s REAL LIFE. It’s the fractures of family relationships that you sometimes look past, but when the time comes, it bubbles up all over again, the seething resentment.
The other arc of the season that I enjoyed watching play out was the evolution of Jimmy McGill into the Saul Goodman we see in Breaking Bad. It’s very gradual (again the slow pace is A+), as you start to understand where Jimmy/Saul was coming from, and in the finale’s closing moments, you really understand why he drives with “Smoke on the Water” blaring. You’ve seen ten episodes of what lead up to this moment, so that moment feels earned. I’ve seen Bob Odenkirk describe the show as a sort-of superhero origin story, and it’s a fun way of looking at it, if that superhero became an ambulance chasing/TV-ad blanketing lawyer haha! All the performances in the series are wonderful, but the show just wouldn’t work without Bob Odenkirk at the center of it. You want to about another earned moment, seeing Bob nominated for the Emmy this year, after following his career for over a decade now, I felt so happy for him. The guy who played Van Hammersly was up for a major Dramatic acting award..... I couldn’t have felt more proud, and i’m not even related to the guy!
The second season premieres in just a few weeks now and i’m very excited to see where the story takes us this year. I know a complaint of prequels is that you already know what the ending is, but what makes most of those prequels fail is that they don’t make the world of the prequel as interesting as the source material. The world of Better Call Saul is just as interesting to me as Breaking Bad’s, so i’d gladly spend many years watching Jimmy McGill gradually turn into Saul Goodman, which is a success that not many of these prequels achieve. I love that the tone is different from Breaking Bad (some have compared it to The Rockford Files, which is a great comparison), as it further differentness itself from it. And taking away the BB connection, there just aren’t many shows today that are paced this way and have this distinct comedy/drama tone, which makes its existence so worthwhile.
Andy Daly’s Review was my #1 show of 2014 and season 2 was just as great. I say this every year when a formerly #1/high placing show charts lower despite remaining great, but it was less about what Review did and more about how great the other shows were. Really, all five of these shows are #1 in my heart, and at various times in prepping this list I had every show in the top five listed in the top spot at some point.
Season two continued the dark spiral of Forrest McNeil’s life, and it really did get dark at points. A house was burned down, people died, imaginary people died, and yet Andy Daly’s mastery made you laugh at all of this. You maybe cringed doing it, but you still laughed your head off. I mean, the house burning down segment..... That originally started as an absolutely ridiculous Dorf-riff of Forrest trying to see what life is like as a little person. I also loved the Cult/Perfect Body episode (written by amazing Late Night with Conan writer Kevin Dorff), which contained a lot of those dark laughs. And how the season ended (listed only as a Conspiracy Theory episode!!), between him and Grant (played with a laser-focused menace by James Urbaniak) was truly shocking. I mentioned in The Leftovers write-up of how I wish there more shows in this current media age where you have no idea what will happen next, and Review is definitely one of those. The vague episode titles don’t tip anything off, really, and yet the directions they go in will have your mouth on the floor by the end of the half hour.
As for season 3, there still hasn’t been any word about an additional season, but Andy Daly continues to promote its availability on services like Hulu, so it’s probably on the bubble. I hope we see another season, as while I know some people might say “I don’t know where Daly can go from here,” I KNOW Daly can get even darker. I’ve been a fan of his for a long-time, listening to the characters he makes up on shows like Comedy Bang Bang which also end in dark-dark turns, his imagination is unparalleled. I know if a third season happens, he will find a way to equal or top it again, as there are few people in comedy today that are more creative.
04. Silicon Valley
Network: HBO
Last year when I wrote about season 1 of Silicon Valley (which ranked at #19) I ended my write-up with this sentiment: “I am certain season two will be better than the first season.... I am anxiously awaiting to see season 2 of Silicon Valley, as even without those circumstances*, comedies always tend to get better in their second year anyway, so I feel like we are in for something truly great this year.” That turned out to be correct, as Silicon Valley was my favourite season of a (scripted) comedy in 2015. It’s a show that has all the tools: the ensemble is flawless, the comedy writing is incredible, the week-to-week/season-long plots are as involving as any show on TV, it has everything you could want from a comedy.
Let’s break this down a little bit. First, the ensemble. Going into the first season I was already a fan of the majority of the cast, but seeing them all together as an ensemble (that main ensemble including Thomas Middleditch, TJ Miller, Kumail Nanjiani, Martin Starr, Zach Woods) is a whole other thing. If the show had no script and it was just the guys in a room improvising, it would still be a top ten show on television. The dynamic of the main crew sort of reminds me of Knocked Up, the Seth Rogen-character’s group of friends (which funnily enough also featured Martin Starr), and at times it feels like HBO made a TV-version of those Knocked Up scenes. HBO also realizes how talented they all are, as in the lead-up to season 2 the cast did a lot of funny ads for Game of Thrones that basically were just full-on riffing, and they were always laugh-out-loud funny. When you have a comedy you hope to God you can have an ensemble where most of the cast can click like this, but that all of them so naturally funny... It’s like winning the Powerball. I have talked a lot about the main ensemble, but I don’t want to neglect the other great main cast members: Amanda Crew as Monica, Josh Brener as Big Head, Matt Ross as Gavin Belson, Jimmy O. Yang as Jian-Yang, and Suzanne Cryer as Laurie Bream. All of them got to shine this season, and the inclusion of more female characters in particular (which also included the very funny Alice Wetterlund who recurred as a new programmer for the Pied Piper team) helped alleviate the “This is Just a Dude’s Show” criticism.
I don’t want to get into specifics for season 2, as there are a lot of twists and turns that are better to be surprised by, but not only was this a funny season of TV it was intense. Holy ****, during multiple episodes my heart would start racing, that’s no joke! Because it’s easy to forget when it’s just the gang riffing with each other that the actual stakes for the company and their livelihoods are absurdly high. Much of those stakes this year came with Chris Diamantopoulos’ Russ Hanneman, a dot-com era billionaire (he put radio ON the internet!) who is as big of a d-bag as you’ll see on TV. Diamantopoulos has been in dozens of shows and movies i’ve watched over the years, but this role is easily his greatest to date. The level of unpredictably he brings to the show, the coked-out speed at which he operates in juxtaposed with the Pied Piper crew, leads to a lot of funny and shocking situations.
You know how great Silicon Valley was this year? I have barely mentioned the great Mike Judge! As a life-long Judge fan, i’m so happy this show is a big success. As comedian David Angelo put it on Twitter last year “This is the comedy show of the decade.” While I don’t know if i’d go that far, I definitely understand where he’s coming from, as it feels very relevant to our current era where the tech world is mainstream, and again, it’s doubtful you’ll find a more simpatico + hilarious cast in a comedy today. Now that Community is over, i’m going to reuse their old mantra in service of Silicon Valley, as this is how I feel about it: #SixSeasonsandaMovie.
*Those circumstances being the tragic death of Christopher Evan Welch who played Peter Gregory who died in the middle of production, which very understandably threw showrunners Mike Judge and Alec Berg a curveball. The show wrote in Peter Gregory’s death in the season 2 premiere in an equally touching and hilariously true-to-his-character way.
03. Nathan For You
Network: Comedy Central
“I love you. Again. I love you. Again. I love you. Again.”
While that dialogue came from a truly memorable scene from the third season of Nathan For You (pictured above), it could have also been what I said after every episode ended. I love Nathan For You and Nathan Fielder’s comedy. I have singled out lots of great comedy writing on this list already, but I do believe that Nathan For You is comedy writing at the very highest level today. Yes, of course there’s reality inserted (how much reality is a topic for another discussion), but the amount of planning and the ideas for these ingenious business plans that Nathan comes up with are jaw-dropping. Some comedy shows are predictable and you can see the joke coming a mile away. But there’s zero chance I could ever predict what will happen in a Nathan For You episode, it’s true MacArthur Genius Grant-level stuff. Didn’t the guy from Hamilton win last year? Eff him, it should have gone to Nathan!! I’m sure that Hamilton show is fine for what it is, but I doubt it was anywhere near on the same level as “The Hero,” or “Smokers Allowed,” or “The Movement,” to list only three examples from this year.
This show is difficult to talk about, as like Silicon Valley, I don’t want to tip what happens this season in case you haven’t watched it yet. I guess all i’ll say is that it might have been my favourite season of the show to date (season 1 ranked at #2 and season 2 ranked at #6), with every episode feeling like it was better than the last. To tiptoe on this slightly, the finale titled “The Hero,” was remarkable. It took Nathan six months of strenuous training to pull off what he did, and the final moments of the episode were a great mix of uplifting and hilarious (especially Nathan’s final shot in the episode). And to speak broadly of an episode, that the Summit Ice jackets have raised over $300,000 to the Vancouver Holocaust Education Center is really amazing. That illustrates why Nathan For You is different from other shows of its type, as the joke is never on the small business, and Nathan is so kind-hearted for a lot of it, despite the often-ridiculous advice he dispenses out. It has already been renewed for a fourth season, but I don’t expect to see it this year. Each season takes a bit longer to make (season 1 premiered in February 2013, season 2 in July 2014, and season 3 in October 2015), so i’m predicting another January/February 2017 airdate for it. And i’m fine with that, as he needs to take his time to craft what he will come up with. I didn’t see how he could top himself in season 1, and then he gave us Dumb Starbucks, and then he topped it again in season 3. So i’ll be waiting here patiently for what Canada’s favourite business expert has in store for us this time.
02. Justified
Network: FX
I’ve been going back to my previous lists to quote passages that are relevant to the topic at hand, but I think the most relevant paragraph to quote so far involves Justified. I wrote this last year, when it ranked at #32 and i’ll bold the most important part of it.
Quote:
If this list was of the shows I watched the most in 2014, Justified would be near the top (right beside King of the Hill and The Simpsons). I rewatched earlier seasons as season 5 aired, and now as sixth and final season of Justified is about to start up in about a month, I am watching them all again from the beginning. It is such a rewatchable show, as you get more out of the Elmore Leonard-y plots, you get to hear all the hilariously quotable lines again and they are just fun characters to hang with. It is just such a fun show to watch, which you can't say for a lot of current cable dramas, even the ones I love! Season 5 was probably the weakest season, due to a lot of convoluted storytelling, but it was still such a breeze to watch anyway. Where else are you going to see Dave Foley and Will Sasso as two Canadian gangsters making Tim Hortons jokes? Where else are you going to see Eric Roberts get a legit badass role again in 2014? I am very, very excited for the upcoming final season, as the focus is now returning to the two people pictured above: Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens and Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder. That has always been the heart of the show, as there's so much history between them, so I can't wait to see how Graham Yost, Fred Golan and company decide to wrap up their stories. Because, here's something i'm putting in print right now: if season 6 lives up to my high expectations, this is guaranteed a slot on my top 10 (or even top 5) list next year. There's so much potential here, and I have a lot of faith in them to deliver. And seriously, if you haven't watched Justified yet. What the **** are you doing with your time?? This show is the greatest.
I am a man of my word! As boy, did it ever deliver!! In a year full of final seasons to beloved shows, in my opinion Justified had the greatest final season (to a scripted show) of them all. Because like going back to Luckenbach, Texas Graham Yost got back to the basics of Elmore Leonard, with Raylan and Boyd and the boys. Oooof that’s strained i’m sorry lmao. But Yost really did get back to the fundamental core of what made people fall in love with the show in the first place. The relationship between Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan Givens and Walton Goggins’ Boyd Crowder was one of the best on all of TV, and people saw what they wanted to in it. I know people who adored Boyd and hated Raylan, I saw one journalist compare the show to wrestling and said that Raylan was the ultimate babyface and Boyd was the natural heel. Whichever way you looked at it, it was compelling television.
I mentioned in the quoted paragraph how I was going back and rewatching the show, and that continued throughout 2015. I’ve now seen seasons 1-4 three times through (season 5 and 6 only once so far!) and I could go back and rewatch them again after I finish this write-up. To me, it’s the most endlessly rewatchable TV drama since The Sopranos, and I get more out of it with each viewing. The one-liners are as funny as any comedy out there, the big villains of the seasons rival any show, the plotting was great, it’s just a really fun show. I touched on this in old write-up, but not many of these beloved TV dramas are actually fun to watch. Which is what made Justified such a refreshing change of pace, as you knew, even in a lesser season like season 5, any given episode you were about to watch would give you some laughs, some cool action, and nice character work.
UCB comedy guy Alex Fernie tweeted out something great last year that I agree with whole-heartedly: “Every single show on television could learn a thing or two about character and pacing from Justified.” He’s right, the pacing was never off, and the character work.... It goes beyond just the main characters, but how minor characters would rise up the ranks in-between seasons and gain importance. One example that comes to mind was Ellen May (played by Abby Miller), a “working girl” at Audrey’s who was only slated to be in one episode. She impressed the showrunners so much that they kept bringing her back, and she gained a lot of depth that made you care about what happened to her.
I feel like I could write many more paragraphs about this show, as i’m trying to sum up a series’-worth of feelings which would be impossible. I again thought the final season was pitch-perfect, with Sam Elliott and Garrett Dillahunt being great big-names, but to go back to them making you care about minor characters: the character of Choo-Choo played by former MMA fighter Duke Davis Roberts. He was another one that was only set to be in one episode, but he made such an early impression that they kept bringing him back, and I would argue he was the most memorable new character of the final season, bringing a sort of sweet lunkheaded charm to the show. And of course the performances from the main cast were superb, Olyphant and Goggins did series-best work, the great Joelle Carter did great work as it was a big season for Ava. To keep it short and not to list everyone, the whole cast impressed!
If these paragraphs haven’t made this clear, I highly, highly recommend watching Justified if you haven’t. What you’ll get is the most FUN cable-drama of the 10’s, that has one of the best pilots i’ve ever seen, some pheonomial seasons, a great final season that wraps things up well, and the series finale itself.... I want to hint at things about it, as it was so perfect but i’ll refrain. There are tons of great shows out there today, but I do hope something comes along that can replicate this feeling as right now nothing comes close to it. I look forward to everything Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins (he’s in Danny McBride/Jody Hill’s new HBO show! DREAM COME TRUE), Joelle Carter, Jere Burns, Graham Yost, and everyone involved does next as they’ve gained my trust. And remember “you’ll never leave Harlan alive.”
Additional reading: Parks and Recreation creator Michael Schur’s great piece in Vulture about the dialogue in Justified which includes him saying this which I 100% agree with: “There were shows that got more viewers, were more famous, and won more shiny trophies during Justified’s six-season run, but none of them — and I do mean none of them — had better dialogue. Better conversations. Better words, words, words.”
Late night TV is probably my favourite form of television, and what began that love was watching the Late Show for the very first time in the late ‘90s. So to say that the end of David Letterman’s tenure as host affected me is an understatement. The phrase “end of an era” can often be a cliché, but I really can’t think of better words to use. After the final episode ended, i’ll be honest and say I was in a depressive funk for the following weeks every night at 9:35 (when the 11:35 late night shows air here). I like the majority of the current late night hosts, but I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of it. And when I got back to watching the shows, I honestly became more nit-picky as what Dave did wasn’t being represented anymore. That sentence reads as like a conservative/Ted Cruz thing, but I just mean the types of interviews he did, the pace. It also became clear to me what the term “broadcaster” really meant, and all due respect to everyone in late night now, there isn’t one left. Because by its very nature, the term “broadcast” doesn’t apply anymore in this niche-cultivated world we’re in now. The host is now on the same level with the guest, which is different from Dave who was probably the last of his kind to be the bigger star than the guest, which carried a level of gravitas. I remember a discussion on the old Late Show when Oprah Winfrey was on, and Dave was listing the greatest broadcasters and he named her, Howard Stern, and Rush Limbaugh as the three best broadcasters of the modern era. And while I know he’d hate reading this, he clearly deserves to be on that same list.
There are just certain things that ended with the Late Show, which god bless Les Moonves for keeping it on the air as long he did and not pushing Dave out, but after Dave announced his retirement, Les confessed how expensive the show was. I guess partly because Dave was so loyal to his staff and kept people on for decades, but also little things like Paul Shaffer & the CBS Orchestra’s walk-on songs, which you don’t hear much of anymore. The Roots still do it, but not to the extent that Shaffer did, where he played big licensed songs going into break, as well. It’s a tiny thing, but it’s an aspect I miss from these shows, as most of the generic non-licensed music that the late night bands play nowadays don't thrill me much. And I also liked that Dave had long conversations with people that weren’t always going for the joke, but when they did it was an organic laugh. Now don’t get wrong, I love what Conan does with interviews, which are still the funniest on late night TV, but I just liked the relaxed pace of what Dave did which is the antithesis of so much of what is going on now.
Oh wow this write-up has been pretty depressing so far! I didn’t see it going in that direction going in haha. But anyway, the final year of Late Show with David Letterman was the greatest run of late night TV I have ever seen. I’m also including the January shows, which were business as usual, but just showed off how strong the show was in its regular form. Again, i don’t even know where to begin so i’m just going to list some moments off the top of my head :
- From January 8th, Chelsea Peretti’s first appearance. CBS has removed the video sadly, but it was a great bonding between two of my favourite comedy figures (the segment ended with Letterman saying “coming up Foxygen with Starpower” with Chelsea blurting out “AND STARPOWER??” which made Dave laugh out loud before the break). This episode is also noteworthy as it featured a pre-presidential candidate Donald Trump. I don’t like Trump, but watching his campaign unfold really makes me miss Dave, and his appearances with him were legendary. Dave liked having a buffoon to his side that he could swat when needed (like when he called Trump out on his ties being made in China!). Watching how easy Trump is getting off from Colbert, Fallon, Kimmel and the rest makes me miss Dave all the more as he would never take that ********
- From February 10th, Chris Elliott’s final appearance on the show. If you’re a long-time fan you understand what a big deal this was. A great, touching interview (Dave calling Chris “the funniest man i’ve ever worked with”), but the best moment is Chris’ song “To Dave with Love” (8:20 into the video)
- Martin Short made two appearances in 2015 (February 5th, May 6th), and both were tremendous. Could you ask for a better talk show guest than Marty Short? As Paul Shaffer once said, you get “socko entertainment” from him every time.
- “Jungle” Jack Hanna was one of Dave’s best guests, and he always brought a weird energy to his segments. He appeared twice in 2015, but the best was the final April 29th appearance, which featured Hanna getting choked up.
- The legend goes that back in 98/99, Dave was asked who should take over the Late Late Show, and he handpicked Norm Macdonald for the job. Les Moonves and CBS vetoed it and instead chose Craig Kilborn, and the rest is history. Dave and Norm have had a wonderful bond for decades now, and i’m happy he made two appearances. His final stand-up set got a lot of deserved praise but his March 18th appearance was just as memorable.
- April 24th featured a great Jerry Seinfeld appearance (where he did his very first stand-up set from Letterman!), but my favourite moment from the episode was Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires’ cover of Warren Zevon’s “Mutineer” Zevon was such a massive part of the Late Show, so to see his music represented in such a beautiful way by Isbell & Shires had to make every long-time fan misty-eyed.
- What I feel was possibly the most underrated/least talked about in the closing weeks was the May 8th appearance from Ray Romano. I’m a big Ray fan, and this appearance was something else. It was not only funny, but the closing moments of it are as moving as anything that aired in those final weeks, with Ray breaking down step-by-step how Dave changed his life forever.
- The May 8th episode as a whole was one of my top-to-bottom favourites of the whole year, as it also featured Brian Regan’s phenomenal final stand-up set but also the performance by the Dave Matthews Band of “What Would You Say” was a great nostalgic trip for me. I know some people hate Dave Matthews and his band, but that performance helped me get back into his older stuff which gave me some ‘90s flashbacks.
- I mentioned this in my Top 10 Singles thread, but on April 14th was the final Network Television Debut musical performance in Letterman history. It was a great one, Chris Stapleton’s “Traveller” and another strong pick by the best music booker in late night Sheryl Zelikson (who now works for Colbert’s show).
I couldn’t list everything so I know there are many, many moments I missed. President & Michelle Obama. Steve Martin. Julia Roberts. Oprah Winfrey. Paul Rudd showing his faux-Letterman fanclub sponge. Michael Keaton bringing in the old clip of Dave from Mary Tyler Moore’s variety show. Howard Stern and Don Rickles together. Tom Hanks’ great final two appearances. First Aid Kid’s beautiful version of “America.” John Mayer pulling off “American Pie.” Hootie & The Blowfish’s “Hold My Hand.” But of course the one moment I am leaving off until the end was the remarkable montage put together by Barbara Gaines & and her editors, set to Foo Fighters’ live performance of “Everlong.” You couldn’t have asked for a better send-off to the show, with the perfect clips chosen, the perfect band & song, The perfect capper to the best final episode to a late night show I have ever seen (contrary to what Grantland may tell you). To bring up a sad fact about it: the montage was nominated for a Best Picture Editing Emmy, but LOST to The Colbet Report’s final montage. Excuse my bleeped out French, but you have got to be ****ing kidding me. I liked the final Report, but what editing was there????? Just a couple edits to Bill Clinton and a couple other people? AND THAT WON OVER A MONTAGE PUT TOGETHER SINCE NOVEMBER OF 30+ YEARS OF FOOTAGE THAT WAS TIMED TO A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF A SONG. As Kevin McCaffrey brilliantly put it on Twitter: “Letterman's final montage lost the editing Emmy to Colbert's last segment, which would be like if the '85 Bears lost to my high school.” Un-****ing-real. That Letterman didn’t win a single Emmy for its final season.... But I won’t think about that!
I should probably wrap this up, but maybe part of the reason why it’s so long is because I don’t want it to end. As soon as I finish it, it’ll probably be my last time writing about the Late Show at any length. I was so happy to see the groundswell of support that those final shows got, the #ThanksDave hashtag trending all day. Despite Dave being gone/those earlier paragraphs, I still love late night TV. I think Seth Meyers, Conan, Jimmy Fallon, James Corden are doing great jobs, while Stephen Colbert’s Late Show still isn’t there but it's slowly getting better. But I still believe that the Late Show ending was very much the end of a specific kind of late night talk show which we’ll never see again, with a host that was the best to ever do it. Dave has been showing up in public far more than I expected, with his great bit at the Martin Short/Steve Martin show, and he’s signed on for National Geographic’s Years of Living Dangerously climate change documentary series. I am happy he is still around, which lessens the blow a bit. I also want to pay tribute to the great Late Show team, the aforementioned Barbara Gaines, the genius director Jerry Foley (I wish Foley could consult/help on Colbert’s show, as IMO it needs serious camerawork help), EP/head of Worldwide Pants Rob Burnett, the great long-time writers like Bill Scheft and Steve Young to name just a couple, Paul Shaffer and The CBS Orchestra (as someone on Twitter put it, the greatest band ever assembled for television),Alan Kalter, Biff, Pat Farmer, Sue Hum, Joe Grossman (now working on Samantha Bee’s show!), Todd the cue-card guy (saw him on Seth Meyers a month ago!), and too many others. The show will always be a major influence on my sensibilities and my life in general and i’m happy it was on for as long as it was. Thank god for YouTube and episode *******s so I can revisit old moments whenever I want, which is one plus of ending in this current era. But anyway, I can't put it all into words what the show has meant to me, so i'll just keep it simple: Thanks for all the laughs, Dave.
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whew! Next up THE TOP 40 ALBUMS! Again, it won't be the full treatment I usually do, but I have a good idea in how to post my list while still commenting on it in some way, so look out for that before the cut-off! Thanks Doc for the comment! I have been slacking on commenting on others and I really need to do some of that before the forum shuts down!
My friend showed me it about a month and a half ago and then we watched it all together + finished all 3 seasons in maybe two weeks (which isn't too bad considering I'm not a big binge watcher.) I don't watch a lot of TV but that series is absolutely hysterical, definitely hyped up for season 4.
First off, let me thank you for your comment on my own thread. I think you wrote more words than I did! It means a lot that you are actually reading what I'm writing and taking the time to respond.
Now, TV. I really enjoyed your write-ups of Review, Nathan For You, Wet Hot, Kimmy Schmidt, and you convinced me to check out Documentary Now, which I haven't had a chance to do yet because I don't receive IFC.
But man, am I glad you wrote about Letterman, and that it's your #1. This is what I wanted to do but never took the time. People need to read this! I might want to republish it on my own website! (Which might bring it, say, 10-20 more views than it would get otherwise, haha. HUGE ratings.) But yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
I do like some late night stuff, but I've never gotten into the habit of wathing it nightly. I know you loved Dave though and it was a big loss for you as its part of your daily life that you just dont have anymore. Im really gld you got a chance to reflect on everything, months later and hopefully get the closure you needed. There is ony one Dave!
Love that Kimmy is top ten! As you nailed exactly what makes it special. You do make a good point on Feys treatment of the south/midwest. Parks and Rec did the same thing but it was never in a mean way. As you mention, she does the same thing for people in New York, but being more familar with the subject she allows NYC to be in on the joke.
Your Veep write up was kind of a bummer. Had to be said.
Keep fighting the good fight for POI. Six seasons and a movie lives on.
Thanks for turning me on to Big time, but I was instantly hooked by the pilot. The spirit is there, even if an academy award winner isn't.
40. Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Chasing Yesterday
Thanks to ATRL’s Calvin “O” McHobbes for recommending this album to me! I haven’t kept track with all the various Noel & Liam Gallagher post-Oasis side projects, but he said this was the best one and I believe it! A very good album that cements Noel’s status as the best of the Gallaghers (the video of Noel giving video commentary to Oasis’ music videos is still one of the funniest on YouTube). The one-two punch of “Riverman” and “In the Heat of the Moment” are my favourites.
39. Mark Ronson – Uptown Special
I think Uptown Special might be one of the most underrated albums of 2015, and it has very little to do with the big singles “Uptown Funk” and “Feel Right” (my #10 single of 2014). Those songs are great, but the meat of the album is so in the complete opposite direction stylistically. Ronson in interviews has said that he was heavily influenced by Steely Dan, which you can tell listening, as half of the album is the best Steely Dan album since Gaucho. And he smuggled that weird ‘70s rock stuff on the same album as a Bruno Mars smash! How cool is that? Pulitzer Prize winning author Michael Chabon wrote the majority of the lyrics, which helps give it that literate-Dan feel. I like “Daffodils,” and “Leaving Los Feliz” a lot (which both feature Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker), but my #1 favourite song of them all is “In Case of Fire” featuring Jeff Bhasker. If this was a list of the songs I played the most in 2015, “In Case of Fire” would be in the top five. I’ve been a big Ronson supporter for a long time, and this album stands amongst his greatest work. It’s kind of too bad that not a lot of people paid attention to it after “Uptown Funk” had its day, but then that’s partly why I wanted to write about this album. To inspire people such as YOU, the person who is reading this, to check it out!
38. Gary Clark Jr. – The Story of Sonny Boy Slim
The Story of Sonny Boy Slim is my favourite studio album from Gary Clark, Jr to date. That said, his 2014 double album Gary Clark, Jr Live remains my favourite, so much so that it’s tough for his studio stuff to compete. I really liked his last album Blak and Blu, but all of those songs are improved on the live album, so it’s difficult for me to go back to it. It’s possible the same could happen with this one, which feels even more road-tested/prepared for live gigs, as the songs focus more on grooves and feeling as opposed to catchy hooks. My favourite song on the album is “Church.” which is some of Clark’s best song-writing to date and a song that continues to give me goose bumps every time I listen to it. I hope Clark puts out another live album, as I can’t wait to hear how even improves on these songs and then makes me not want to listen to the studio album again haha. “Will the circle be unbroken......”
37. Colleen Green – I Want To Grow Up
Album cover of the year? It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I love everything about Colleen Green, I love this current sub-genre of stoner-fuzz-pop-rock. I like the whole album, but my favourite song is easily “TV” which is maybe the most relatable song i’ve ever heard. It starts off “TV is my friend and it has been with me every day from an early age. TV is my friend and it has been always there for me in my time of need.” Preach!!! Every single line in this song fits me to a T, but I also really like the later line “In my room where I don’t have to worry about a conversation, and I don’t have to worry about being fun, being fun.” It’s an anthem for all TV-obsessed/socially awkward weirdos! If you don’t like that song or Colleen Green in general, i’ll use another line from “TV” to sum up my feelings about you: “If you’re not a fan, then I can’t relate.”
36. The Sheepdogs – Future Nostalgia
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan ‘s own The Sheepdogs last worked with The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney on their last self-titled album, and it was good, but sometimes sounded more like the Black Keys than The Sheepdogs that impressed the world in 2011, when they landed on the cover of Rolling Stone due to a fan-voted contest. Future Nostalgia is a return-to-form. Their classic rock influences are clear as day (they remind me a lot of Canada’s beloved The Guess Who), but that’s part of their charm, as not many people make this kind of back-to-basics rock anymore. The big “Medley” that closes the album is the highlight, and the way they seamlessly blend songs together reminds me of another Canadian institution in Sloan. This is just good, crack open a Molson and watch Hockey Night in Canada-kind of music. While they may never play the Superbowl, they have performed at an even more prestigious event: The 2013 Grey Cup! Okay, that’s enough Canadian references for one write-up haha.
35. Martin Courtney – Many Moons
Thanks to comedy hero Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show I found out about Real Estate lead-singer Martin Courtney first solo album Many Moons. He played a really great three song set on the show, which had me downloading the album before the end of the second song. If you like Real Estate, you will love this. Mellow indie-rock with beautiful harmonies, it’s the kind of music that sounds so effortless, which lets you know how much effort is actually put into it. Courtney stands above his peers at delivering this kind of cool, crisp fall-air rock, kind of melancholy but also kind of beautiful. I knew I liked Courtney from the Real Estate albums, but through Many Moons is when I definitively became a fan. Check out “Northern Highway””Vestiges,” and “Airport Bar.”
34. The Arcs – Yours, Dreamily
Dan Auerbach’s newest side-project The Arcs (which includes Auerbach, farfisa organ/synth player Leon Michels, bass player Nick Movshon [who played bass for Back to Black-era Amy Winehouse], drummer Homer Steinweiss, percussion/keyboard player Richard Swift, and baritone guitar player Kenny Vaughan) shares certain garage-rock properties with The Black Keys while also greatly expanding the sound/scope of his typical style such as R&B. It feels more collaborate than his Black Keys-work, as every member in the band shares song-writing credit, and Auerbach shares production duties with Leon Michels. It was also recorded over just a two-week period, so it feels less fussed over than the past few Black Keys albums. I love those Black Keys albums, don’t get me wrong, i’m just trying to articulate what makes this album stand out from his previous work. It kind of feels like a personal mixtape Auerbach has gifted to you, not just due to its seamless progression, but also that it bounces around stylistically to showcase all of Auerbach and The Arcs’ musical inspirations. I bought this album when it came out on September 4th, and it became my go-to driving soundtrack for a solid three weeks. Driving around to songs like “Outta My Mind,” “Nature’s Child” (which features vocals from the legendary Lee Fields!), “Stay In My Corner,” to list only a few, made me feel way cooler than I really am. It almost felt like the score to my own personal Tarantino film, where luckily no one died. I hope “Yours Dreamily,” isn’t the last we hear from The Arcs, and it’s just the start of another great run of albums from the unstoppable Dan Auerbach.
33. Carly Rae Jepsen – EMOTION
In perusing the many year-end lists on ATRL this year, Carly Rae Jepsen’s EMOTION seems to be the clear consensus favourite. Which isn’t really a surprise, as it was something that venerable music blog Stereogum talked about back in March 2015. In the opening paragraph of the piece James Rettig wrote in regards to her last album Kiss’ lack of success “It was lauded by pop critics and propped up by the ATRL crowd, but was bound to be overshadowed.” And history has repeated itself with EMOTION, as guess what? It was lauded by the pop critics and propped up by the ATRL crowd again. At this rate if she ever scores a hit album/earns a major award, she needs to personally thank the ATRL crowd for helping keep her career alive during these lean years. It’s a real bummer, as EMOTION really is a great album!! Every song on it is great, but the song that first jumped out at me and remains my favourite was “All That,” a slow-burn jam that reminds me a lot of the Tiffany songs from the Jetsons Movie soundtrack. There’s this specific feeling that Jepsen and co-writers/producers Ariel Rechtshaid and Dev Hynes aim for and achieve that instantly brought my mind to that formative movie/soundtrack from my childhood. I hope one day Mission, British Columbia’s own Jepsen scores that big commercial hit album one day, and I look forward to seeing ATRL explode of joy when it happens.
32. Thee Oh Sees - Mutilator Defeated At Last
While on the surface a new Thee Oh Sees/John Dwyer isn’t a huge deal (since they have been releasing at least one album a year for quite some time), Mutilator Defeated At Last marks a new chapter for the band. The great Brigid Dawson left the band (thankfully she still contributes her distinct backing vocals), and in her place are new band members Tim Hellman on bass (from Sic Alps), Nick Murray on drums, and genius garage rock producer Chris Woodhouse on synth/mellotron. The new set-up gives the band a slightly different dynamic, while also giving us that John Dwyer-inspired lunatic rock that we all know and love. If you aren’t familiar with Thee Oh Sees, this might be a good starting point, as it begins a new chapter for the band. Think of it as like a new season of Doctor Who, and there’s a Doctor and companion. You don’t need to have watched the previous ones to appreciate it, but you’d be missing out on a lot of great stuff if you never went back. I don’t even watch Doctor Who, so I don’t know how that analogy came to mind haha. My favourite songs are “Web,” “Turned Out Light,” and “Sticky Hulks.”
31. The Dead Weather - Dodge and Burn
It has been way too long since the last The Dead Weather album (2010!!), and Dodge and Burn delivers. I love everything Jack White does, and The Dead Weather is some of his greatest work. The sinister, raw rock, fronted by the amazing Alison Mosshart, instantly motivates me + makes me want to rip ish up. My favourites are the “I Feel Love” (Every Million Miles), “Buzzkill(er)” and “Rough Detective.” Now, Jack White, I very much appreciate a new Dead Weather album, but we now need a new Raconteurs album! Call up Brendan Benson and get it done! It’s been nearly ten years since the last one!!
30. Alabama Shakes – Sound and Colour
Yeah, I know it says “Color” on the album cover, but i’ve come here to push my “our” agenda. Alabama Shakes’ last album Boys & Girls was an album I really wanted to like, but it never fully clicked with me. I saw the clear talent of Brittany Howard, but for whatever reason the songs never grabbed me. With Sound and Colour all that changed, and I can now i’m officially a fan. And while I don’t want to take anything away from the band themselves, I will attribute a lot of that to working with the genius Blake Mills as producer, as he’s the only difference between the two albums.
Going back to last year’s Top 40 Albums write-up, I wrote this during my Blake Mills write-up (my #11 album of 2014): “2015 also promises to be a big year for Mills..... he also produced the much-anticipated sophomore album from The Alabama Shakes, which I suspect will cause a big stir once it’s released.”And cause a big stir it did! Again, I feel wary of giving a ton of credit to Mills, as he’s a modest guy and would be the first to say “the band is why the album is great!,” but considering the album has gotten a ton of attention and I rarely see Mills’ name out there, i’m going to right that wrong a bit. If you want a clear understanding of what makes Mills so great, you need to go back to that 2014 write-up I linked to above, so i’ll just talk about what he brought to this album. He co-wrote the songs “Future People,” “Guess Who,” and “Gemini,” and plays numerous instruments throughout the album (like his distinct and brilliant guitar playing on “The Greatest”), plus as job as producer he oversaw the vision/helped the Shakes achieve what they were aiming for. Again, I can’t stress this enough, if the Alabama Shakes weren’t who they were, this album would not be as good, so i’m not saying all the credit should go to Mills. I’m just speaking personally; where I didn’t really connect with Boys & Girls, but love Sound & Colour, and wanted to underline who I thought helped bring that change to the band. As the fundamentals were always there with the Shakes, but with Mills they’ve now got the coach that helped get them to the Super Bowl. I hope they work together on the next album, but if not, i’m happy Mills was there to get the band to that next level.
29. Chris Cornell – Higher Truth
Higher Truth is Chris Cornell’s best solo album ever, a clear differentiation from what he does with Soundgarden, which is what most solo albums should be. Working with Pearl Jam/Stone Temple Pilots producer Brendan O’Brien, Cornell mixes acoustic/piano-led songs in a modern rock radio-ready sheen, which is a nice combo. If VH1 still played music, I feel like these songs would go over big in that environment, I really like “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart,” “Dead Wishes” “Worried Moon” (these three back-to-back A+++), and the title track. “Higher Truth” has this great sweeping, Bond theme-like feeling to it; it definitely should have been the theme to Spectre over the Sam Smith deal. I know they never repeat artists who sing the James Bond theme, but they should with Cornell, since his last one “You Know My Name” is one of the best, and “Higher Truth” as a faux-Bond theme is really great as well. But as for the album as a whole, I really enjoy it, and i’m glad Cornell made it before he heads off to make his next Soundgarden album, which is expected later this year.
28. Maddie & Tae – Start Here
When I first heard Maddie & Tae’s “Girl in a Country Song,” I thought it was a really clever send-up of male-country music clichés/criticism of Bro-Country, but thought they were just a novelty group, one-and-done. I was wrong, as their debut album Start Here is really quite terrific, and showcases a lot of the great talent the two ladies have. Despite their pop-country look, they really are passionate about country. I read an interview with them, where in the mixing process of the album they kept pushing the steel guitar way up in the mix, so much so that even country veteran (and producer of Start Here) Dann Huff said “I think this is a bit much!” haha. My point in bringing that story up is that it seems the poppier you are in country, the less you hear those kinds of instruments, the steel guitar, fiddle, mandolin, all of those instruments that define the genre, so it’s really cool that two 20-something girls want to bring about that change (and by change, i mean bringing it back to where it started. START HERE, if you will).
Every song on here is great (“Shut Up and Fish” is a wonderful + hilarious subversion of the “can’t wait to get away from my wife/girlfriend so I can go out to fish with the guys” song), but I really like the songs about growing up, like, appropriately enough, “Downside of Growing Up.” It’s pretty rare to hear a song like this in country, a very relatable song about moving out and starting your own life written and sung by actual young people (a favourite line from the song goes “Fixin’ up your brand new place, first day in and something breaks, your dad ain’t there to get you unstuck, yeah that’s the downside of growing up”). Another obvious comparison that Maddie & Tae get a lot is of the last big young people-focused country artist in Taylor Swift, and with Swift officially out of the genre, there’s now a huge gap to be filled. I would argue, as much as I like Swift, she never wrote a song like “Downside of Growing Up,” which really taps into honest feelings about the next chapter in your life. And Swift at her countriest was never like Maddie & Tae, with the aforementioned blaring steel-guitars, so I think Maddie & Tae are very important artists for the genre right now. From the interviews i’ve read, they seem very driven, artists who write their own songs, have beautiful harmonies, and know exactly what they want out of their career and won’t get pushed around by a major label who wants them to turn pop. This is only their first album, and i believe if they continue writing the kind of music they want without label interference, they have a very good shot at making my top ten. Even now, I feel like i’m underrating it, but oh well.
27. The Darkness – Last of Our Kind
Last of Our Kind is the perfect album title for The Darkness, as it’s very accurate. They really are the last of their kind, artists who make this kind of swaggering hard rock who are very earnest about it, and aren’t doing it as a laugh (this isn’t a Steel Panther situation). Part of what has made The Darkness such a lasting group is Justin Hawkins’ stellar songwriting skills, which even if you don’t care about the genre, each song has an undeniable hook to it. Another key to The Darkness’ success is they know how to sequence an album, all four of their albums are ten songs (one exception is Hot Cakes, which includes their cover of “Street Spirit,” but it’s still ten original songs), and run in the 35-40 minute range. I guess since the kinds of artists they idolize from the ‘70s and ‘80s came through in that vinyl generation, where a single album had to be that long or else it becomes a double album, it proves how you could slip any of their four albums in a music collection from the ‘70s or ‘80s and the person wouldn’t notice. They were born in the wrong era, I guess, as if these songs came out then, they would be massive hits. But hey, if they were from a different era, I and the other Darkness fans wouldn’t be listening to/anticipating new albums from them! Anyway, about Last of Our Kind, every single song is great. I love the “She Sells Sanctuary”-riff “Open Fire” the fantasy epic “Barbarian,” the anthemic mission statement “Last of Our Kind,” the irresistibly catchy Exile on Main St-tribute “Hammer & Tongs” and again the whole album delivers. With The Darkness, i’m not sure I would list them as one of my very favourite artists/bands, but when news comes out that they are about to release something new it always excites me, and they have yet to disappoint.
26. JD McPherson – Let the Good Times Roll
This is just a good-time album. Put it on and you will dance! ’50-style rock ‘n roll, with some great, great saxophone solos. I also like the more modern, garage-rock influences present, like on “Head Over Heels, and “You Must Have Met Little Carolina?” My favourite song is “Bridgebuilder,” co-written by Dan Auerbach, a classic-sounding ballad, which is very minimalist in its arrangement.
To say this is Superchunk frontman Mac McCaughan’s first solo album feels a bit wrong, as he’s been also been making music solo under the name Portastatic, which has lasted nearly as long as Superchunk. So I guess this is Mac’s first solo album under his own name, which is still pretty noteworthy. Non-Believers is an electronic-based album, so it’s obviously different from Superchunk’s punk/pop, but Mac’s stellar, emotive songwriting still comes through no matter what genre he’s writing music for. If you are new to this year-end, I am a big-time Superchunk fan (Majesty Shredding was #4 on my 2010 albums list, and I Hate Music was #1 on 2013’s list), so this Mac solo album really is the next best thing to getting a new Superchunk album. Check out “Only Do” (whose chorus is built around the Yoda-ish “there is no try, there’s only do) and “Wet Leaves.”
24. Fuzz - II
Speaking of artists who have made numerous appearances over the years! Ty Segall! Since 2010, he’s made an appearance on my list every year: 2010’s Melted (#29), 2011’s Goodbye Bread (#11), 2012 was a three way tie at #1 for Ty Segall Band`s Slaughterhouse, Ty Segall & White Fence’s Hair + Segall`s solo Twins (“ànd TWINNNNNS“ to quote the dumb commercial). 2013 saw the first Fuzz album at 11 plus Segall’s Sleeper at #10, and last year had Manipulator at #2. That might be the best track record of any artist in this year-end’s history! Look at those positions! 2015 saw the long-awaited release of the second Fuzz album (the group where Segall handles drumming duties, while Charles Moothart handles guitar/vocals) and it was really great! Maybe it’s because i’ve written so much about Ty over the years, but I don’t really much to add. It’s just another good album from Mr. Dependable himself Ty Segall.Fuzz II would not be the first album i’d recommend as a gateway into his music, it’s for the already converted/preaching to the choir, but if you like me are a SegallManiac, I can’t see how you wouldn’t love this album.
23. Jeff Lynne’s ELO – Alone in the Universe
A new ELO album!!! If anything else, 2015 was a great year just because of that. I’m a huge fan of ELO and also of Jeff Lynne’s production (Lynne in 2015 also produced a really good Bryan Adams album!), and never thought we’d see another ELO album as long as I lived . The first single from it, “When I Was a Boy,” is a really touching personal ode to his childhood that follows a “Whiter Shade of Pale”-like beat which gives it additional heft. And then you’ve also got a song like “One Step at a Time,” which is classic upbeat ELO that could have been on the Xandau soundtrack alongside “All Over the World.” The whole album is great, but i also want to single out the song “I’m Leaving You,” which is one of the best on the album. I’d say something about it, but instead i’ll let the great Steven Soderbergh (via his Twitter @Bitchuation) handle the job for me: “ELO's I'M LEAVING YOU is the best Roy Orbison song Roy Orbison never wrote.” Well said, Steve. Now, could you write my other write-ups, i’m running out of time here!!
22. Carrie Underwood - Storyteller
I’ve liked my fairshare of Carrie Underwood singles over the years, but I would have never considered myself a true “fan.” I had nothing against her, she does a great job co-hosting the CMA awards and seems like a delightful person, but there’s always been a little piece missing for me to fully get on board. But then I heard the Jay Joyce-produced “Smoke Break,” and I said out loud the first time “THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR!” I’ve already written about “Smoke Break” on the singles list, but the album itself Storyteller also delivered! My favourite songs are the Joyce productions: “Renegade Runaway,” “Dirty Laundry,” “Choctaw County Affair,” “Like I’ll Never Love You Again,” and “Chaser,” as for the most part they don’t stretch Underwood’s vocals that much. I love it when she belts out songs, but even she has admitted that why she liked co-writing/singing songs like “Smoke Break” and “Choctaw County Affair” is because they wouldn’t be much strain to her vocal chords, and she could sing them fairly easily. It’s a glimpse of Underwood’s career if she decided to do the southern rock thing full-time, which I would be all in favour of. But I also like songs like “Church Bells,” “What I Never Knew I Always Wanted,” and others which are classic Carrie. I hope Carrie continues making these kinds of songs on future albums, as they really suit her and prove she’s more than just a power-ballad machine.
21. Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy
I admire Patrick Stickles from Titus Andronicus a lot and what his vision is for his band. Some people in bands don’t care and just see it as a money-vehicle, but Stickles really sweats this stuff, thinking of grandiose visions of what the next move for his band will be. After deciding against another rock opera after the brilliant The Monitor (#2 album of 2010!), he made Local Business (#27 in 2012), which was more straight-forward and funnily enough less accessible than the big, sprawling rock opera. Funny how that works. The Most Lamentable Tragedy is Titus back to basics, with another sprawling rock opera (this one spanning two discs and five acts!). I bought the album, and reading the lyrics/liner notes as I listen has really helped me get more out of it. It’s not essential, as the songs are for the most part the great punk rock that Titus is best at, but if you really want to get into Stickles’ brain, I suggest you read the lyrics as well. I don’t even know where to begin with this album, and since i’m running out of time, i’ll just note that I really love this album and continue to get more out of it. I love that the No Future series is continuing (now on Part IV!), them covering songs as varied as The Pogues’ “A Pair of Brown Eyes,” Daniel Johnston’s “I Lost My Mind,” and Auld Lang Syne! I especially love how Auld Lang Syne transitions into “I’m Going Insane” (Finish Him). The music world is more interesting when Patrick Stickles is making music and I hope he continues making his wacko rock operas for as long as i’m living.
20. Daniel Martin Moore – Golden Age
The one benefit of waiting until the very end to finish my list is I could add last-minute albums to the list, and this one was about as last minute as it gets. I’m talking, last week. So technically, this was an album I heard in 2016, but since i’m avoiding all the 2016 releases until I finish this list, that’s my way of justifying it. But anyway, Daniel Martin Moore’s Golden Age is a beautiful album, a piano-based ‘70s singer/songwriter-style album. In my opinion, it’s a better version of the Tobias Jesso Jr album (Jesso Jr is probably more known around these parts as the co-writer of Adele’s When We Were Young”), and yet Moore’s album received a fraction of the attention and he certainly isn’t helping write huge hits for Adele! Golden Age was produced by one of my musical heroes Jim James (more on him later in this year-end), and you can tell. The ghostly reverb, the spare backing, it’s really great. The title track is my favourite song on the album, followed right behind “Anyway.” Sidenote: both the Golden Age and “Anyway” videos are weird, one features Donald Trump entirely and the other includes a still image from the show Suits, because I guess it was featured on there? Anyway, i’m glad I discovered Daniel Martin Moore as late as I did, as he is now in the permanent Ben’s Top 40 Albums record books! Congrats dude!
19. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think...
I love Courtney Barnett. I liked her before, but as I wrote in my “Depreston” write-up, it was the late fall Austin City Limits appearance that really made me officially love her. “Depreston” is my favourite song on the album still, but I also love “Elevator Operator,” “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t Go to the Party” (words I need to remember myself!), and “Boxing Day Blues,” because how often do you hear a song about boxing day??? I can relate to that! Maybe you yanks can’t, but we international folk can! Not sure how this write-up turned into an Us Versus Them thing. I love all the countries! But anyway, everything knows why this album is great, and I love her wry-Nick Lowe-like lyrics. Can’t wait for the next album!
18. Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material
Like the Alabama Shakes, I wasn’t fully on board with Kacey Musgraves when her well-received major label debut album was released. She seemed like a good person, had some fun lines, but I feel a lot of Same Trailer Different Park was a bit too cute-sy and samey for my tastes. Pageant Material finally won me over, as I feel there are actual sturdy songs here. Starting off with “High Time,” (“It’s high time, to slow my roll, let the grass just grow and lean wayyyyyyyy back”), going into the autobiographical “Dime Store Cowgirl,” (“i’m just a dime store cowgirl, that’s all i’m ever going to be, you can take me out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of me, no”) the swoony “Late to the Party” (“i’m never late to the party when i’m late to the party with youuuuuu”) and the amazing title track (“I ain’t pageant material, i’m always higher than my hair, and it ain’t that I don’t care about world peace but I don’t see how I can fix it in a swimsuit on a stage. I ain't exactly Ms. Congenial/Sometimes I talk before I think, I try to fake it but I can't/I'd rather lose for what I am than win for what I ain't”), and I could really do this with the entire album. It’s so good! Clever lyrics, great musicianship, Kacey’s personality shines through. I felt bad for not getting into her from her previous album, but i’m happy to say I am now a big fan.
17. Mikal Cronin - MCIII
The great Mikal Cronin was a late discovery for me in 2011/early 2012, when his debut album (produced by Ty Segall!) really blew me away. If I had heard it in time, it would have placed very high on the 2011 list, I promise you. Then in 2013 he put out MC2 and it charted at #3, so I clearly loved that. Now we have MCIII, and while it charts a bit lower, I do really enjoy it. Cronin is a great artist who really cuts you to your core with universal truths, very earnest singing and songwriting. As an addition to MCIII from the previous albums, he added strings, horns, and in general very lush arrangements which you don’t hear often enough in indie rock. He’s trying to be Burt Bacharach, which more indie guys should strive for! I really like the lead-off track “Turn Around,” which gives you a nice taste to what I was trying to articulate.
16. Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv
Ben Cook from ****ed Up’s solo project Young Guv is a power-pop feast for the ears, and Ripe 4 Luv is definitely his best album to date. This album in particular takes it right to the early ‘90s, and on this short album every song delivers. As previously stated, “Crawling Back to You” is definitely my favourite song on the album (my #2 single of 2015), but the rest of the album has some gems on it. The Mike Viola-inspired “Crushing Sensation”the killer title track“Kelly I’m Not A Creep” I could list the whole album! Check it out if you love throwback power-pop jamz.
15. Rhiannon Giddens – Tomorrow is My Turn
I was first introduced to Rhiannon Giddens from last year’s The New Basement Tapes (ranked at #23 on last year’s list), and well.... Let me dig up my old write-up:
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And new-comer Rhiannon Giddens, who I previously wasn't aware of.... incredible. Her voice is sensational, every song she sings is goosebump-inducing. One of the highlights of the Showtime documentary is her struggle in figuring out how to crack "Lost on the River," as her version (which she co-wrote with Mumford) is initially more upbeat, uptempo. But at the 11th hour, she strips it all down, just a guitar, her voice, and a few backing singers, and delivers the definitive take on "Lost on the River." She is set to release her own T. Bone Burnett-produced album next month, and it's high on my list of albums I am looking forward to most in 2015. I expect it to deliver, so you should be seeing it on next year's Top 40 Albums list.
And I was right! It did deliver and it did make my Top 40 Albums list! What I like about Tomorrow is My Turn is the variety: you’ve got showstoppers like “Waterboy” (i’m serious. If you can listen to this song and not feel a single thing, I will send over an ambulance, as you must be dead), the melodica* & beatbox-driven jam “Black is the Color” her beautiful version of Hank Cochran’s classic “She’s Got You,” a great cover of Dolly Parton’s “Don’t Let it Trouble Your Mind,” it has it all! I also like how Giddens covers some traditional songs, some are old Spirituals (like “Waterboy”), and really tries up update them. As these are great songs that should be remembered, so it’s great we have people like Giddens and Burnett to help bring these songs to a new audience. For a debut solo album, you couldn’t ask for a stronger first impression, and what excites me the most is I know she has way more great work ahead of her. If this is the bottom, can you imagine how great she will end up becoming?
*No joke, I was going to make an aside on how it sounded straight out of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show band, but first I looked up the credits and it actually is Jon Batiste playing the melodica! Seriously! I guess there aren’t many other melodica players out there haha!
14. Wilco – Star Wars
Wilco are one of my very favourite bands, they made their first appearance on my in 2007 for Sky Blue Sky (#7), came back in 2009 for Wilco The Album (#5), and their last album The Whole Love in 2010 (#8). Star Wars (no, there’s no real connection for it be named Star Wars, just like there’s no connection for the cat on the cover. They are just fun!) was a surprise free release over the summer, and it’s one of Wilco’s sleekest and most rocking albums in years. The opening stretch of “EKG,” “More....” “Random Name Generator,” “The Joke Explained” are as punk as a Wilco album has sounded in decades. The next song is the slower “You Satellite” which is one of my favourites on the album. But really, at only 33 minutes, there’s no real room to not like any of the songs. They are all great, because most of them are fairly short! A new Wilco album is said to be forthcoming, so this was just a fun quickie release surprise, so I greatly look forward to seeing what they have up next.
13. Richard Hawley – Hollow Meadows
I’ve been a big proponent for Richard Hawley for years now, even though my year-end chart might not show it. It all started when I heard Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys say how much he respected Hawley as a songwriter, and put him in the same breath as Nick Lowe. This had to have been 2010? So I looked up his stuff, and found “The Ocean,” which is genuinely one of the best songs i’ve heard. It hit me like a ton of bricks the first time I heard it. So i’ve been a fan ever since, but 2015 is the first time I can chart an actual album of his and it’s a great one! Hollow Meadows features tremendous songwriting throughout, and is a great mellow record to relax to. Though there are some more upbeat/midtempo songs like “Which Way” if you want a quick sample of this album, listen to these songs: ”I Still Want You”“Nothing like a Friend,””Heart of Oak” and ”The World Looks Down” Wow I listed half of the album! If nothing appeals to you from those songs, I don’t know what to tell you.
12. The Mountain Goats – Beat the Champ
Beat the Champ combines two of my favourite things: indie rock and wrestling! The Mountain Goats first charted in 2009 with The Life of the World to Come (#19), followed by 2011’s All Eternals Deck (#26), then returned in 2012 with Transcendental Youth (#24), so this is their highest charting album yet! John Darnielle is an old school wrestling fan, and it covers a wide swath of wrestling lore. “The Legend of Chavo Guerreo” talks about how Chavo Sr (why would you write a song about Jr??) is Darnielle’s favourite wrestler and what he meant to him, there’s the Brusier Brody-inspired “Stabbed to Death Outside San Juan”, “The Ballad of Bull Ramos,” and then all the songs with titles that reference wrestle various wrestling terms/notes “Foreign Object,” “Heel Turn 2,” “Hair Match,” it’s a true dream come true to see an album by a serious-minded artist like Darnielle cover the topic of pro-wrestling.
11. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
My top Jason Isbell moment of 2015 was his performance with his wife Amanda Shires of “Mutineer” on the Late Show, but not far behind is his own album Something More Than Free. Isbell writes songs you need to focus on the lyrics, as he tells such often-heartbreaking stories performed/arranged beautifully. My favourite song on the album isn’t heartbreaking but rather invigorating ”24 Frames”Just a great song. This is music you need to spend time with, to soak up all of Isbell’s details, Dave Cobb’s great production.
Blur are back!!! I never would have expected that! I wrote a bit about in my singles write-up, but just hearing Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon together again on great songs like “Go Out,” “My Terracotta Heart,” makes me think it’s 2000 again when I first heard the Best of Blur (still one of the best greatest hits albums ever). The decision to work with Stephen Street again was a great idea, as it gives it that classic Blur feeling. Street was involved with Leisure, Modern Life is Rubbish, Parklife, The Great Escape, 1997 self-titled, so really basically everything great that Blur has ever made. The Tony Visconti to Blur’s David Bowie! It looks like this reunion is going to stick, so we should be expecting more Blur albums in the future, which I can’t begin to tell you how excited that makes me!
09. Dwight Yoakam – Second Hand Heart
Dwight Yoakam was my first favourite artist as a young boy, and that he’s still putting out amazing albums at his age gives me a certain kind of pleasure. I wrote a bit about my history with Dwight in 2012 when 3 Pears ranked at #10 (in 2005, Blame the Vain ranked at #21). Second Hand Heart is an even better album, a swift 40 minute blast of everything that made me fall in love with Dwight’s music back in the early ‘90s. Some of my favourite songs include the great Tom Petty-ish title track, the Buck Owens tribute “Off Your Mind,” the raved-up rockabilly/Elvis-on-speed number “The Big Time,” plus two amazing covers: the cow-punk take on “Man of Constant Sorrow,” and the beautiful Anthony Crawford song “V’s of Birds.” That’s also without mentioning “Liar,” my #10 single of 2015 and really every single song is worth mentioning. As the Sum 41 album was called, All Killer No Filler!
08. Kurt Vile - b'lieve i'm goin down...
As stated in my “Pretty Pimpin’” write-up, KV is one of my go-to guys. He is the best! I first charted him at #33 back in 2010 for Childish Prodigy (which really came out in 2009, as I later noted), he was then #3 in 2011 for Smoke Rings for My Halo, and as for 2013’s Wakin’ in a Pretty Daze.... I did not chart it as a complete accident! That was a year I had fallen way behind (similar to this year, except I finished!), and needed to cobble together a Top 40 list quickly without write-ups, and I ended up leaving it off! To further illustrate that, look at my Top 10 Singles list that year, where “Wakin’ on a Pretty Day” was #2, and included this line: “. 2013 is a great year if only because it brought this song (and the tremendous album Wakin on a Pretty Daze) into my life. More on the album later!” Not Really! What a plot twist!
Which leads us to 2015’s b'lieve i'm goin down..., which thankfully I did not forget this time! This is a more acoustic/scaled back album for KV, and I quite like it. His stream-of-conciiousness lyrics really draw me in, and it feels like i’m having a conversation with a a guy for four minutes. Outside of “Pretty Pimpin’” (I brought this up in the singles list, but I still can’t get over Keith Urban loving that song haha!), I am quite fond of “Dust Bunnies” (though not actual dust bunnies!), “That’s Life Tho” (almost hate to say) which feels like the definitive KV song title that could describe most of his work. I’m happy he continues to give us these great albums every few years, and I can’t wait for the next KV Chronicles. Maybe the next album will feature Jelloman??
07. Brandon Flowers – The Desired Effect
Thanks once again to O for telling me to check this album out, as i’m sure I glad I did! Brandon Flowers made a comment in an interview where he said that he felt every single song on the album could be a big single, and while some may read that as hubris, I see as the truth (similar to Kanye West’s many comments. May be crazy to some, but more often than not he’s correct). Flowers worked with in-demand producer Ariel Rechtshaid on this, and it’s a really great combination. Every single song is great, but my favourite stretch as O correctly pointed out in his own write-up, is from “Between Me and You” to “Never Get You Right.” Absolutely outstanding. I can’t believe “Between Me and You” hasn’t been released as a single, as I will say if it was, there would have been a very good chance it would have been #1 on my list. It’s a really relatable song, stripped of all the usual bombast, and features BRUCE HORNSBY on KEYBOARD! It really sounds like a Bruce Hornsby & The Range song, so it feels like one of those creative discussions that starts off like “I want this to sound like a Bruce Hornsby song” other person: “why don’t we just call Hornsby himself to do it?” He also plays keyboard on “Never Get You Right,” which makes me just want a permanent Brandon Flowers/ Ariel Rechtshaid/Bruce Hornsby supergroup! The two songs in-between those, “Lonely Town” is the jam to end all jams and features Danielle Haim on drums, and “Diggin’ Up the Heart” is the greatest Jeff Lynne production that Lynne was never involved with. As stated earlier, I am a major Jeff Lynne guy, so on first listen this was the song that first jumped out at me. Oh, a fact I just learned about “Never Get You Right”: it was co-written by Dawes’ Taylor Goldsmith and Conor Oberest! How cool is that?? And the Ambulance, LTD guy co-wrote the very Eno/Lanois-era U2-sounding “The Way It’s Always Been”! This album is just hit after hit after hit, even if none of them have really become actual hits. Rechtshaid was the guy behind Carly Rae Jepsen’s EMOTION, as well, so he really has this knack of making phenomenal pop/rock music that doesn’t actually hit. What a shame!
06. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
For an album of To Pimp a Butterfly’s magnitude, an album that was probably the most written about in 2015, I feel like I don’t know what I can say? I know that I think Kendrick Lamar is an amazing rapper (Section.80 ranked at #37 in 2011, Good Kid, m.A.A.d. City ranked at #5 in 2012), I love his ambition, the political motivation (the Black Lives Matter connection to “Alright”), the awesome funk-inspired production/instrumentation (LOVE that Thundercat co-produced & played on the album!), he’s just someone who gives an eff, which is all too rare in the mainstream. I recently saw his performance on Austin City Limits, which does the best job of articulating what makes Kendrick so special. So, in case you haven’t watched that yet, just watch that instead of reading my write-up haha! If you are one of the three people not yet converted, that ACL performance will do the trick.
05. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
I have previously stated my history with Sleater-Kinney in my Wild Flag write-up (#2 of 2011!), but in short I didn’t get into them until well after their then-final album The Woods came out. I then listened to The Woods and really loved it, and have been a fan ever since. So, really, this Sleater-Kinney was a gift from the gods to me, as now I could finally experience SK in real time, and not just as history. “Bury Our Friends” was my #1 single of 2014. To repurpose a part of my write-up to explain why I loved “Bury Our Friends” so much: “And what a song to return with! “Bury Our Friends” is a MONSTER of a song. This thing, holy moly. I love the line “My body has no need for sleep, this time ARRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOUND,” the delivery on that is so ****ing good. I just feel so motivated listening to it, a song that demolishes everything in its path” And the album itself follows right in line, the songs are politically/socially relevant to our current moment (my favourite is “Price Tag,” WE NEVER REALLY CHECKED THE PRICE TAG, WHEN THE COST COMES IN, IT’S GONNA BE HIGH, WE LOVE OUR BARGAINS, WE LOVE THE PRICES SO LOW, WITH THE GOOD JOBS GONE, IT’S GONNA BE RAW). I don’t know what it is with SK’s music that makes me want to write in all caps, but it just FIRES ME UP. I also love the title track, which features one of the best videos on YouTube this year. A who’s who of the Greats singing Sleater-Kinney! I am so happy they are reunited, and we don’t have to wait another decade+ for the next album, but i know Carrie is busy with lots of stuff, so i’ll be waiting patiently!
04. Chris Stapleton – Traveller
“Traveller” was my #1 single of 2015 which describes the first time I heard Chris Stapleton sing. I was aware of his songwriting for years, but to actually hear him sing, wow! Most songwriters don’t sing because they aren’t the best at it, but in Stapleton’s case that definitely isn’t the case. His album is a nice mix of both modern and classic country. I like that song of the songs that other artists have recorded of his are included on here, most notably the amazing “Whiskey and You,” which has been recorded from everyone to alt-country great Jason Eady to Tim McGraw. Stapleton’s version falls more towards Eady’s, and it’s a great performance to a perfect lyric. The two covers are well-chosen (George Jones’ “Tennessee Whiskey” and Charlie Daniels “Was it 26”) and the work by both Stapleton and producer Dave Cobb help make those decades-old songs feel new again. One of my favourite songs from it is “When the Stars Come Out,” a co-write between Stapleton and the great pop songwriter Dan Wilson (former lead singer of Semisonic, writer of Adele’s “Someone Like You,” Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready To Make Nice,” etc), which is a non-cynical look at chasing your dreams of stardom. I also like that the album closes on a live version of “Sometimes I Cry,” which is a vocal showcase for the ages. My favourite part of that song though, is when Stapleton meekly says “uhhh, there you go!” almost like another spirit inhabited his body for those three minutes, and then he returned to normal. Kind of reminds me of powerhouse singer Adele vs. cockney charmer/cackler Adele off-stage.
I am so happy for this album’s success, which came late in the game. Until the CMA’s in November, it looked like it would be just a cult success, so thank god for Justin Timberlake using his stature to give it attention, and now he’s really big. He was on SNL! Nominated for lots of Grammys! No one deserves it more!
03. Eric Church – Mr. Misunderstood
There’s all this talk about surprise releases, and I saw some describe the debut of Mr. Misunderstood to be that. In a sense, it was, but the reality is it was something much, much cooler. Imagine this scenario: you are a member of Eric Church’s fanclub, mostly for ticket deals, newsletters, all that kind of stuff. But then one morning you go to the mail, and you find a vinyl record + personal note from Eric Church himself, and that vinyl record happens to be his brand new album, which hasn’t been hinted at anywhere. That is the height of cool. Of course later that day, it was released on iTunes (the surprise release was timed to be the same day as the CMA Awards, which Church performed the title track for the very first time), but still, it was the true fans who learned about it/got it first.
I rated last year’s The Outsiders also at #3, and I think that’s a fair placement, as I find the two albums to be of equal merit (though depending on the day, I might rate Mr. Misunderstood a smidge better). The story goes that Church buys a new guitar every time he’s about to write a new album, and once he got this new guitar over the summer, he couldn’t stop writing, and ended up with a full album in a record amount of time. That process is why I think this album is more immediate than The Outsiders, and I have a feeling there will be many, many hit singles from it. The Outsiders had some big hits (“Give Me Back My Hometown” and “Talladega” were the biggest, with the rest either doing moderate or flat lining), but personally I think the entire second half of the Mr. Misunderstood could be some of Church’s biggest hits of his career (“Record Year” “Three Year Old” and “Round Here Buzz” in particular). “Record Year” in particular..... The first time I heard that song I laughed out loud at how genius the wordplay was. In case you haven’t heard the song, I won’t spoil that for you, so click the link to find out for yourself. The front half is also really great: the title track “Mr. Misunderstood” is really, really wonderful. My favourite part of the song is when the drum beat kicks in a bit too early, almost like the band is so excited to jump in. It’s a nice organic moment, which doesn’t happen much in mainstream country. I’ll credit that again to the amazing Jay Joyce, best producer in country and the person who has produced all of Church’s albums. As is the case with all the albums at this point, I love every song on the album: the funky “Chattanooga Lucy” featuring Church’s regular backup singer/force-of-nature Joanna Cotten, the duet “Mixed Drinks about Feelings” featuring Susan Tedeschi[ from The Tedeschi Trucks Band, the clever “Kill a Word” featuring my #15 artist Rhiannon Giddens. All those songs, beyond being great, feature tremendous female singers, proving that Church has great taste in collaborators. When I ranked The Outsiders last year, I was not expecting another album only a year later, so I don’t even know what to predict now I assume he won’t put out another one in 2016, but who knows! Maybe he will! Whatever happens, i’ll remain a huge Church fan and can’t wait to see what he has next.
02. Ashley Monroe – The Blade
Ashley Monroe’s last album Like a Rose was my #2 album of 2013, and just a couple years later she’s back in the #2 spot! Like ‘Like a Rose,’ The Blade was produced by the legendary Vince Gill, who’s a great veteran presence for Monroe. Monroe is obviously an angelically beautiful singer and brilliant songwriter, but having one of the all-time greats guiding you has to be wonderful. I like the musical variety on this album, first song/lead single “On To Something Good” is unlike anything Monroe has done before (my #2 single of 2015. Always #2! One day she will be #1....). I also really like the Monroe/Gill co-write “Weight of the Load” which has an incredibly melancholy melody, the Monroe/Jessi Alexander/Chris Stapleton-penned “Winning Streak” (featuring Marty Stuart's band!!!), “Mayflowers” written by Monroe and Brendan Benson (if you find that union weird, don’t. Arguably Monroe’s big debut was appearing on the country/bluegrass version of The Raconteurs’ “Old Enough”), and final track “I’m Good at Leavin,” written by Monroe, Jessi Alexander, and the one and only Miranda Lambert. It’s a murderers row of credits! Again, every single song is great, but due to time I won’t talk much about them. The Blade was one of my most played albums of 2015, and I can’t wait for whatever is up next, whether it’s a solo album or the new Pistol Annies record!
01. My Morning Jacket – The Waterfall
This is going to be a tough write-up, as so much of what this album means to me is personal and not easily to articulate but i’ll try. My Morning Jacket are on the top tier of my favourite bands. I first found out about them through Evil Urges which I loved (#6 in 2008) and then went back to their past stuff and in particular really loved Z. Next came 2011’s Circuital (#17), and despite it ranking lower than Evil Urges my fandom for MMJ was much bigger at that time. Anyway, all that then leads to 2015’s The Waterfall, which I was very much looking forward to. First, that album cover, I just like to look at it when I listen to these songs, as Jim James has described his process of recording this album, and for the benefits of time rather I rewrite it i’m going to quote some of this:
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The Waterfall was mainly recorded at Panoramic House, a hilltop mansion in the coastal town of Stinson Beach, California.The band felt the surroundings were "slightly supernatural,"which produced a largely idyllic recording process. The group rented two houses on the seaside, and would "record during the day, then cook dinner together and walk on the beach."These long walks to and from the studio was "no better way to defragment your mind than to let it wander off in the air, up in the treetops and gliding along the waves," according to Blankenship.James found himself inspired and "hypnotized" by being able to view the ocean from large windows. He likened the experience to having their "own little universe" where they could simply make music and experience nature, calling the entire process a "beautiful experience."Their time there left them with a strong affinity for the area, and it profoundly impacted the album's tone; Blankenship remarked, "When I listen to the record it [...] sounds like a sunset out there.”
Now, i’m going to relate this to where I stay in lake-front Idaho over the summer, where this album became a constant companion to me in that environment. Now, i’m not going to compare Idaho to California, i’m not stupid, but reading those quotes..... I totally feel it. This is not some new-age stuff, I put this album on in the middle of nature, or on the boat driving in the vast lake in the blazing sun, and I feel like i’m one with the earth. And the songs are more about overall feeling than, say, some of the catchiest songs MMJ has ever written, so if you are looking for that aspect from MMJ I get why you missed it. Though personally, I think songs like “Compound Fracture,” “In Its Infancy” (The Waterfall), “Spring” (Among the Living), “Tropics” (Erase Traces), and “Only Memories Remain” are without a doubt some of the best songs MMJ have ever done. But really, to me, this is an album you have to listen to start to finish, to fully get Jim James’ open-hearted “wishing people could be more accepting of each other” worldview. There’s also a song like “Compound Fracture,” which literally is about a serious injury James suffered that sent him out for months, but if you listen to the song it gives off the message “things are broken but we’re moving on” which really helped inspire me during some low days in 2015.
Another anecdote I have to relate about this album: driving home to Calgary on the 8-hour trip, right in the midst of the B.C. mountains, was one of the worst rain (and what later turned into snow) storms i’ve ever driven in. What helped me? I was listening to an official bootleg of MMJ’s August 14th, 2015 show at Red Rocks, which is well over 3 hours long. First off, the set is one of the best live albums I have ever heard, but listening to the succession of “In Its Infancy” – “Gideon” – “Tropics” (Erase Traces) - “I Think I’m Going to Hell” – “Spring” (Among the Living) during those rough driving times weirdly added a lot to the experience. As ****** as the weather was, to see those mountains as I listened to these songs (which were mostly from The Waterfall) gave me an even deeper appreciation of the album. I’m not saying I wouldn’t have made it without that album, but outside of even a small town, where mountains envelope you as mother nature/God throws everything they’ve got, when you hear lyrics like “Worked all day/worked all night/getting nowhere/drove all day/drove all night/going nowhere/out of print/threw caution to the wind/window to another world” you feel like it is truly soundtracking your experience. Out of body!
Again, this is very hard to articulate, so I hope what is above makes some sense. On the larger topic of MMJ, they’ve been a favourite band for a while, but have never reached the top spot, so even if this album didn’t hit me at such a bulls-eye spot in my life, they are definitely due to be #1 for a year. I will wrap up on this begging & pleading note: Jim James and the rest of MMJ – PLEASE DO A SHOW IN CALGARY! I have looked up the history and you guys have never played a show here. Never! You know how I just said you were due for #1, we are long overdue an MMJ show! I have had to resort to buying bootleg shows, like the Red Rocks show! I have bought the three MMJ One Big Holiday shows (which feature great special guests and amazing covers)! I watched your Todd Haynes-directed live stream from the Circuital era! But nothing beats actually being there, and I would love it if you guys could come here. So Jim James, if you are like Ryan Tedder and various other popstars who frequent ATRL, please come here. I would buy tickets the millisecond they go on sale!
Additional Reading: this article by Ryan Leas for Stereogum titled “Opening The World Again: My Morning Jacket’s The Waterfall And The New Americana” is the best piece of rock/music journalsm I read in 2015. I don't agree with every point, but it really gave me a lot to think about, and i’m sure you can see some of its influence in my write-up above.
Favourite Songs:
01. Tropics (Erase Traces)
02. Only Memories Remain
03. Compound Fracture
04. Spring (Among the Living)
05. In Its Infancy (The Waterfall)
That about does it! Thanks to everyone who commented I really appreciate it. All the hard work it takes to come up with and write these year-ends every year is worth it for the great comments. I feel really bad I didn’t comment as much as I normally do, which is on me, and next year I promise i’ll be better! Thanks for everything and I hope to see all of you again later this year:
My reaction to your comments/that year-end time is over:
Yes! So happy to see you get this up in time. Rest well, you've earned it.
I knew you loved The Waterfall but that's still a pretty big shocker at #1. Even after seeing Ashley at 2 I was clueless. But after reading, I now fully understand why you made such a personal connection with it. You know I was disappointed, but even a disappointing MMJ album is better than most other music. And if I expanded my list to 40, it would probably land right where my #1 placed on yours lol. So all is right. And hell yeah to rock n roll surviving the 2015 country onslaught!
Though I did like/recognize many more country artists on here than usual. Thats mostly by your design though, so the evil plan worked.
So glad that Bflow made the top ten! Definitely the landmark album of 2015 that nobody heard.
As for the stuff I dont recognize, I assume you wouldve recced it by now if it was for me. This Colleen Green sounds interesting though. Love the album cover!
Great job as always. Can't wait to see you again on January 31st, 2017!!
I'm afraid the forum is going to shut me off before I can type out all my thoughts, so let me just say YES YOU MADE IT! I'll follow up in more detail with you one-on-one. And your #1 was such a surprise! I barely remember that album! Where was I???
Goodbye for the last time from the classic ATRL "Best of"! Bye, Ben! Bye, gold bar! Bye, bear!