Cultured Vultures’ Best Albums of 2015

Callum Davies

 

Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly

It’s difficult to find any words to describe To Pimp a Butterfly which haven’t already been said in some other article, forum or sponatenous social media gush. It’s an astounding achievement of production, instrumentation, vocal versatility and political commentary. Lamar has spent his short career surrounding himself with immense talent, not only in hip-hop but jazz, funk, soul and damn near every other form of music you care to name. With this astounding album he knit those parts together and made a statement so potent it threatened to tear the fabric of reality apart.

 

Hiatus Kaiyote – Choose Your Weapon

Hiatus Kaiyote represent one of the best live acts I’ve ever seen. Their combined musicianship is such a force to be reckoned with that even the improvisational transitions between songs are worthy of enormous praise. Choose Your Weapon is a sprawling, bleeping, blaring sci-fi, funk odyssey into the core of their collective consciousness. No track is out of place, no note falls out of favour, it’s like a rich painting which transfixes you further with each repeat scan.

 

Little Simz – A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons

Ever since Little Simz broke onto the scene people have been taking notice. The entire hip–hop community waited with bated breath for her debut LP and by God was it worth the wait. An emotional battering ram of personal struggle intermingled with gothic dreamscapes and striking, haunting production. Simz proudly declares herself a king on the first track and then sets about proving it beyond any doubt.

 

Kamasi Washington – The Epic

The overwhelming richness of the current LA jazz scene simply cannot be understated, from Thundercat to Robert Glasper to this magnificent saxophonist. This album, however, transcends anything I’ve ever heard on any other contemporary jazz record. It recalls Coltrane by way of Return to Forever, an impossibly detailed, dramatic, sprawling release that does everything necessary to justify its title. At first listen it will baffle you, but persevere and it will hypnotize you.

 

Floating Points – Elaenia

At a glance, this might look like a short, understated release from electronic pioneer Floating Points, running in at around 40 minutes through 7 tracks, but the level of depth and complexity contained within those 7 tracks is enough to fill stacks of albums. As it stands, it’s compressed with the density of a pulsar. The harmonies, vocal tones, string sections and electronic sweeps might seem simplistic at first, but dig deeper and you find magic. Allegedly this was a 5 year project, and the meticulous nature of Floating Points’ production has never been more evident.

Rudi Abdallah

 

Sleaford Mods – Key Markets

Listening to a Sleaford Mods album from start to finish is like hurling yourself into a cyclone of sulphuric acid. Picking up where 2014’s Divide and Exit left off, Key Markets is a celebratory assault on both crippling intellectual apathy and banal tripe like Two Door Cinema Club clogging up the arteries of guitar music. Jason Williamson’s skilful character assassinations and incisive pop culture references decorate Andrew Fern’s truculent punk-hop punches, making alienation sound enjoyable.

 

Blur – The Magic Whip 

The messianic return of indie’s chameleonic art-poppers sees Damon Albarn’s polyamorous musical ventures married to Graham Coxon’s thorax-scraping fret play. The outcome? A riotous, mesmeric hybrid of Parklife era hymns channelled through the textured, electronic soundscapes of 13. Comeback albums are notoriously patchy, but because Albarn and Coxon have retained their artistic hunger, they’ve collaborated to produce Blur’s best album.

 

Tame Impala – Currents

Shedding the psych-fuzz garb of early Impala, Kevin Parker embraces pornographic grooves and shuffles coyly into a dimly lit club. Basslines sizzle with testosterone, vocals ache with lust and Parker confronts self-doubt on the dancefloor, creating melancholic disco with a shoegaze aesthetic. On Currents, ABBA, Britney and Jacko are remoulded for indie kids and Parker more than survives.

 

Kid Wave – Wonderlust

Androgynous vocals, crystalline hooks and stratospheric harmonies collide on an album that from start to finish never fails to enthral. Nothing here sounds new, but what Kid Wave do is merge late eighties and early nineties indie to stunning effect. Every song is a potential single, every chorus explodes in a shower of colour and every note tastefully recalls the cider dappled shimmer of Teenage Fanclub and Lush.

 

Lusts – Illuminations

Despite arriving in October, Lusts brawl straight to the top of the list thanks to an album abundant in accomplished melodies. The brotherly duo of Andrew and James Stone sound fully formed and ready to brawl the world with their lightning quick flurry of aqueous tunes. The energy summoned quite simply puts bigger bands to shame. A bit of Depeche Mode here, a little Orange Juice there and some Cocteau Twins conspire to create bittersweet paeans to communal introspection.