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normally I wait until the actual end of the year to make these kinds of lists, but I really tapped myself out on new music this year, and am able to confidentially whittle down a list of the 10 albums I'd consider my favorites while knowing that I'm really burned out on hearing anything else new right now.
Here we go...
1. Kamasi Washington - The Epic
As much as a fan of Kendrick Lamar as I am, and as much as I really tried, I was never able to enjoy To Pimp A Butterfly the way I did Good Kid Maad City or Section 80. However the big takeaway I got from that album was the introduction of an entire jazz scene I was missing on the West Coast. Chief among these musicians was Kamasi Washington, a member of the Young Jazz Giants who released the literally Epic 3-disc album I've placed at #1 here. Over the course of three hours Washington delivers a bold solo debut that runs the gamut on everything from 60's Coltrane to gospel to Charlie Brown-era Geraldi Trio to soul... it's as much free jazz at is soul jazz as it is R&B and choir music. But trying to define any of it is worthless. The Epic is feelgood music. Perhaps the greatest jazz album of the 2010's.
2. Vince Staples - Summer '06
Last year Vince really surprised me with his major label debut - a brief but solid EP. This year he's stretched out his proper debut into a double album. And not a word or moment is wasted. Summer '06 is a brilliant narrative that follows a lineage of recent West Coast insta-classics like Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid Maad City and YG's My Krazy Life. While Lamar told the story of the good kid, and YG was the Devil on his shoulder, Staples comes off as the wallflower. Omniscient, he's part of the story the same was the furniture is in the room he's describing. His writing is sharp, vivid and poignant. His delivery is so understated that lines will knock the wind out of you.
3. A$AP Rocky - At Long Last A$AP
It's been a long strange trip. After waiting two years (which is like a decade in hip hop), Rocky delivered the follow-up to his major label debut. And for the most part is sounds NOTHING like its predecessor, all while sounding totally Rocky. Considering it was released as a total surprise soon after the death of A$AP Yams, there's an odd feeling of rush or panic that hovers over the record. Knowing what a perfectionist Rocky is, this gives the album a weird feeling - as if something he'd been laboring over for years suddenly had an urgency to be completed. The result is a mish-mash of soulfulness ("Holy Ghost") and psychedelic singalongs ("L$D") and straight Three Six throwbacks ("LPFJ2") and whatever else Rocky felt like recording. It's like a mixtape with a major label budget. And it's going to rub some ears the wrong way if they come in expecting Long Live A$AP Part 2. But the open-minded will realize that this is just another in what is likely to be long string of surprising and and excellent albums from Rocky.
4. Action Bronson - Mr. Wonderful
So the guy who built a reputation for a string of mixtapes by a rapper sounding like Ghostface rapping about food has finally made a major label album. And I'm not sure where all the money went, cuz it sounds like a rapper who sounds like Ghostface rapping about food. But that's good. Mr. Wonderful is far from a serious album. Heck, at times it feels like it's intent on self-sabotage. Yet the IDGAF attitude serves the project well. And at the end of the day, I found myself coming back to this one more often than BOTH albums that Ghostface himself released this year.
5. Ryan Adams - 1989
There should be nothing shocking here. I love Ryan Adams. I'm a Taylor Swift fan. Ryan Adams re-recorded Taylor Swift's entire 1989 album. And... it's fantastic. This was a cool year for Adams. Instead of a proper album, he delivered this cover album along with a a live album a few months prior. These sort of archival releases make for a nice diversion to new NEW material while reminding why he's such a great performer. There's a lot of folks out there who I'm sure write Swift off as throw-away pop. But Adams does a good job reminding everyone that she gets the props she gets because she deserves them. These are great songs, and Adams handles them with the utmost sincerity.
6. Miles Davis - Miles Davis At Newport 1955-1975
This latest installment in the Davis Bootleg Series proves that there's still plenty more material in the archives that needs to be released. This 4-CD set chronicles 20 years of Newport Jazz Festival performances with shifts from bands and genres that will make your head spin. Many periods of Davis' work is included here starting with a humble all-star jam that probably highlights Monk more than Davis through his jazz fusion bands in the 70's. Just an excellent set for those interested in a history lesson in the evolution of a brilliant career.
7. The Weeknd - Beauty Behind The Madness
The Weeknd's first four albums always felt to me like I should like them more than I did. I knew they were good. I knew they were unique. I knew he was talented as hell. But none of them held my attention all that much. And then he started rolling out a string of new singles starting with his contribution to the 50 Shades Of Gray soundtrack. It was a solid track. A post "Drunk In Love" slow number that got a ton of radio play. But then not to typecast himself he also dropped the super upbeat 80's Michael Jackson-sounding "I Can't Feel Myself," and for good measure the horrific and super vulgar "The Hills" which completed a trilogy of disparate and awesome singles that raised the album to one of my most anticipated of the year. The final result isn't perfect but it is in my opinion the best Weeknd album to date. One that finally highlights everything that made him so blog-worthy to begin with.
8. The Alchemist & Oh No - Welcome To Los Santos
This pseduo-soundtrack to the 2015 PC port of Grand Theft Auto V is an awesome mess of hip hop, electropop, reggae and everything else these two producers could toss into the blender. While I played said game, I kept my car's radio constantly tuned in to this station, so in many ways this album became the definitive soundtrack to not only GTA5, but this weird little world that I spent hours exploring. Welcome To Los Santos is a melting pot of genres and voices that holds up just fine in the real world however.
9. The Robert Glasper Trio - Covered
Another jazz musician I discovered this year thanks to To Pimp A Butterfly. Between projects, Glasper decided to get his trio together and record an intimate live album that takes some of his more experimental tracks, along with productions he's done with others and strips them down into an organic trio recording. It is immediately lovely. It's also quite soulful. There's nothing overly compelling here - which is not a dig in any way. Instead, it is a consistently good and pretty album that serves as an easy to overlook, but totally worth hearing chill out record.
10. Joey Bada$$ - B4DA$$
Joey's been a time-machine for a while now, so it comes as no surprise that his major label debut would sound like it was recorded in 1995 even though it sees the light of day in 2015. This is one of those records for purists who maintain that 'all the hip hop coming out nowadays sounds the same' or who pine for a simpler time we call The Golden Age.
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