The 80 Best Albums of 2015

Travel back five years ago when the release calendar was rife with stellar albums. 2015 offered such an embarrassment of musical riches, that we selected 80 albums as best of the year.

                                      
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Music

Young Fathers Create a Powerful Ballad and Dance Track with "In My View" (Singles Going Steady)

With "In My View", trio Young Fathers performs a masterful balancing act, turning a powerful ballad into a lightly banging dance track and back again.

Music

Young Fathers: TAPE 1 and TAPE 2 (Reissue)

The reissue of Young Fathers' TAPE 1 and TAPE 2 shows the Scottish group's early promise.

Music

Massive Attack / Young Fathers - "Voodoo in My Blood"

"Voodoo in My Blood" is a trip-hop New Orleans funeral parade with the casket open, brimming with incantatory rhymes and death-hymn melodies.

Music

Massive Attack: Ritual Spirit

Massive Attack primes the trip-hop pump with a compelling, bite-sized EP.

Music

Young Fathers - "Old Rock N Roll" (Singles Going Steady)

Syncopated loops and grimey production provides the perfect backdrop to add a new voice to the ongoing, and much needed, dialogue on race relations.

Music

Young Fathers: Dead

Dead is a deeply weird album. It's probably the strangest hip-hop album made since Death Grip's Government Plates.

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The 80 Best Albums of 2015

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Young Fathers Do It Their Way on Best Album Yet, 'Cocoa Sugar'

Young Fathers Create a Powerful Ballad and Dance Track with "In My View" (Singles Going Steady)

With "In My View", trio Young Fathers performs a masterful balancing act, turning a powerful ballad into a lightly banging dance track and back again.

Young Fathers: TAPE 1 and TAPE 2 (Reissue)

The reissue of Young Fathers' TAPE 1 and TAPE 2 shows the Scottish group's early promise.

Massive Attack / Young Fathers - "Voodoo in My Blood"

"Voodoo in My Blood" is a trip-hop New Orleans funeral parade with the casket open, brimming with incantatory rhymes and death-hymn melodies.

Massive Attack: Ritual Spirit

Massive Attack primes the trip-hop pump with a compelling, bite-sized EP.

Young Fathers - "Old Rock N Roll" (Singles Going Steady)

Syncopated loops and grimey production provides the perfect backdrop to add a new voice to the ongoing, and much needed, dialogue on race relations.

Young Fathers: Dead

Dead is a deeply weird album. It's probably the strangest hip-hop album made since Death Grip's Government Plates.

Arlo McKinley's Confessional Country/Folk Is Superb on 'Die Midwestern'

The Inescapable Violence in Netflix's I'm No Longer Here (Ya no estoy aqui)

Rufus Wainwright Makes a Welcome Return to Pop with 'Unfollow the Rules'

Jazz's Denny Zeitlin and Trio Get Adventurous on 'Live at Mezzrow'

Viserra Combine Guitar Heroics and Female Vocals on 'Siren Star'

Whitney Take a Master Class on 'Candid'

King Buzzo Continues His Reign with 'Gift of Sacrifice'

The Redemption of Elton John's 'Blue Moves'

The Band's Discontented Third LP, 1970's 'Stage Fright', Represented a World Braving Calamity

Kristin Hersh Discusses Her Gutsy New Throwing Muses Album

Buridan's Ass and the Problem of Free Will in John Sturges' 'The Great Escape'

Planningtorock Is Queering Sound, Challenging Binaries, and Making Infectious Dance Music

The Erotic Disruption of the Self in Paul Schrader's 'The Comfort of Strangers'

Jamila Woods' "SULA (Paperback)" and Creative Ancestry and Self-Love in the Age of "List" Activism

Finding the Light: An Interview with Kathy Sledge