What started off as a shaky year in music has since shifted towards one as strong as ever, in thanks to old souls in new bodies (Natalie Prass, Tobias Jesso Jr., Leon Bridges), emo kids grown up (Title Fight, Turnover), heady hip-hop (BadBadNotGood, Kendrick Lamar) and a strong collection of women generally kicking everyone’s ass (Courtney Barnett, Waxahatchee, Chastity Belt, Girlpool). There have been some great records released so far this year, and here are the ones that we here at Oxford Karma have collectively deemed the best albums of 2015 so far.
All We Are
All We Are
(Domino)
Take the Bee Gees, put them on ice, and you’ve got a good starting point to this Liverpool trio. All We Are’s self-titled debut album a sparse but frequently mesmerizing take on modern disco and deconstructed R&B that brings with its just enough of the warmth of their gold-chained, ’70s forefathers. “Feel Safe” is a nimble breath of fresh air, and slow-simmered tracks “I Wear You” and “Keep Me Alive” are similarly invigorating.
BadBadNotGood & Ghostface Killah
Sour Soul
(Lex)
Were it not for a body of work that included production spots with Danny Brown and some choice Odd Future bigwigs (Frank Ocean, Earl Sweatshirt, and Tyler, The Creator), Toronto trio BadBadNotGood’s face-melting collaboration with Wu-Tang alumnus Ghostface Killah would have come out of nowhere. Instead, Sour Soul affirms what was suspected with that string of singles: Not only can these free jazz enthusiasts produce an album’s worth of original and engaging hip-hop material (rather than reinterpretations of the classics, as their first two albums were), they can also provide an appropriately luxurious canvas for one of rap music’s most candid and expressive storytellers.
Chastity Belt
Time to Go Home
(Hardly Art)
Seattle indie-rock throwbacks Chastity Belt emerged from their shackles and chains with 2013’s No Regerts, inking a deal shortly thereafter with esteemed hometown label Hardly Art. And while their debut was frequently leaned toward the playful and rambunctious end of the spectrum, they sound decidedly more glum and reflective on their sophomore effort, Time to Go Home. It’s a striking tonal shift that never sacrifices the band’s propensity for simple yet affecting melody, one that these four promising young musicians similarly shouldn’t “regert.”
Courtney Barnett
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
(Mom + Pop)
When Courtney Barnett dropped her first official full-length — Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit — the internet, as it does, churned out myriad think-pieces and anointed her as the Bob Dylan of the Millennial Generation. And while that’s undoubtedly a premature and unfair comparison, lyrically and vocally, it holds some water; the Australian singer-songwriter’s words aren’t as politically charged as Dylan’s, but her observational candor and expressive delivery have a distinctly once-in-a-generation feel to them. Compositionally, her songs are awash in ’90s alt-rock, yet she churns out meticulously arranged and irreverently engaging music in a way that feels timeless.
Eskimeaux
O.K.
(Double Double Whammy)
If you’re reluctant to compare Eskimeaux to Frankie Cosmos, one of last year’s breakthrough artists, don’t be. Brooklyn singer-songwriter Gabrielle Smith actually shares duties in Frankie’s backing band, and their music shares several common thematic elements: brief song lengths, twee vocal inflections, delicate folk-pop instrumentation, anxious introspection. But most importantly, Smith is just a damn talented songwriter. And while she’s not reinventing any wheels on O.K. (hey, we like those letters!), the highly melodic record ought to cement Eskimeaux alongside Frankie as one of indie music’s brightest young starlets.
Father John Misty
I Love You, Honeybear
(Sub Pop)
No record released this year is as bluntly poetic and elegant as Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear. It’s unlikely that there will be one, nor will it be easy for Josh Tillman to top the career-defining work. Drawing as much from baroque pop and show tunes as he does traditional Americana, the former Fleet Foxes drummer has tapped into a wholly individualized sound, hammered home with his similarly unique social commentary and earnest romanticism.
Girlpool
Before the World Was Big
(Wichita)
Before the World Was Big isn’t naive or childish. Indeed, its members Cleo Tucker and Harmony Tividad are just past the teenage years, but they marry the inquisitiveness of someone much younger with the social awareness of someone much older, painting pictures of the way the world should be with primary colors and a punk bristle that would make Sleater-Kinney and Liz Phair circa 1993 very proud.
Holly Herndon
Platform
(4AD)
The allure of Holly Herndon’s second studio album is the way this composer and sound artist never lets the disparate elements settle into their grooves; they always gravitate just above, twirling and hovering in space for robotic pop songs that take on an organic character for all the effortless motion they engage in. Every note is a surprise, each click towards the position you expect usurped by the next, and unfolding into pleasingly, never-dissonant electronic swaths.
