Album of The Year Personal List Thread

1. D'Angelo - Black Messiah

Guys, this album. I've always been fond of D'angelo, but never like this. I've listened to it around twenty times since it came out and each time is a new experience. The rhythm section is outstanding and it might be the most well mixed album I've heard since... shit.. Thriller? It's great. It's amazing. It's outstanding. It maintains the sound of Voodoo while building with more experimental sounds and more meaningful lyrics. It's like listening to 'Are You Experienced' and 'Kind of Blue' all at once for the first time.

2. Shabazz Palaces - Lese Majesty

I was working construction this summer, 95-hour weeks. It was terrible and awful but you have to pay for university somehow, right? At the worst of it all, I'd sit in my car over lunch break and listen to this LP. I'd just go to space for a bit. The opening to Ishmael? Harem Aria? Solemn Swears? Shit kept me going.

3. Sun Kil Moon - Benji

The first time I listened to this album I thought it was hilarious and dismissed it as sadness-porn; a Nicholas Sparks novel without the romantic subplot. It wasn't until I came back, months later, and something about the opening chords of Carissa or the forced breeziness of Ben's My Friend or the frantic confusion of Richard Ramirez that I realized it wasn't about all the death, dying, sadness, it was about all the beauty that happened in between.

4. Cloud Nothings - Here And Nowhere Else

I don't have any sort of anecdote for this one. Against Me! stopped making interesting or good music after 2005, and I've been waiting a long time for someone to fill that void. Every song is borderline artisanal; give it a listen and just pay attention to the drum track-he's fantastic.

5. Alvvays - S/T

I haven't been this excited about a debut since James Blake dropped in 2011. At it's best, this album sounds like that girl from my creative writing class singing over lost VU tracks. What's more, songs like Marry Me, Archie and Party Police show an admirable and abnormal understanding of how to craft a pop song and, if they continue down this road, we'll be talking about these kids for AOTY soon.

6. Real Estate - Atlas

This is the perfect album for waking up far too early, making a cup of coffee, and staring glumly outside, trying not to think about finals. It's equal parts despair and hope, without falling too much into either. It's something to listen to when you need to go away for a while, and it's something to listen to when you need to stay.

/r/indieheads Thread