Year End List 2015: Top 10 Albums I Discovered/ Rediscovered This Year

As with last year, I'm sharing some albums that I either discovered this year, or rediscovered when looking through my collection and had in heavy rotation this year. After all, why should year end lists be entirely composed of new albums? There are plenty of things I get turned on to every year that aren't new releases, so I thought I'd honor that. My year end top 10 and anticipated albums of next year are in the works.

Cult of Fire- मृत्यु का तापसी अनुध्यान (2013)
After I overcame my block and started to get into black metal (see below), this album was one of the ones I went to a lot this year. This album is extremely experimental by black metal standards, with satanic themes being replaced by Hindu and Kali devotional-ism themes, and the addition of traditional Indian instrumentation was awesome. I'm a pretty big fan of sitar music, so that being mixed with black metal was pretty awesome.







Miles Davis- Birth of the Cool (1957)
A compilation of Miles Davis singles recorded in 1949 and 1950, this record contains some of his best known material. I lucked out and was able to grab a copy of this on vinyl, so I had this on the turntable a lot this year.

Emperor- Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk (1996)
This is the album that got me into black metal. I had been listening to black metal for a little while this year before finding this album, but it just wasn't clicking. I think this has a more orchestral and melodic sound than most black metal, so I found it a little more accessible, but it's still kvlt enough for the metal heads. After listening to this, black metal kind of clicked with me, and I've been enjoying it and being depressed by it ever since.

Jack Kerouac- Blues and Haikus (1959)
At a local record store, I found a Jack Kerouac CD box set, that compiled the records he had released during his lifetime. As a fan of his works of fiction, so I thought I'd check it out. I had heard talk of how his prose sounds, comparing it to jazz, and that rings true after hearing it. The words have a flow about them, and the jazz instrumental backing really puts you in that beat time period. It makes you yearn for a time where you could bum a ride in the back of a truck for a few cents and a nip of whiskey.

Leviathan- Howl Mockery at the Cross (2005)
This was my introduction to Leviathan, and it is amazing. This is very brutal black metal, and pretty terrifying as well. This release and others make it clear that Leviathan is one of the foremost black metal acts in America. Plus this record led me down the road to Scar Sighted. More on that later.












Madlib- Shades of Blue (2003)
Mixing my love of jazz and hip hop beats, Madlib (of Madvillainy and Pinata fame) was given free reign of the Blue Note Jazz vaults to make an instrumental hip hop album, and the results are great. I always try to pick out what samples I can hear. I really enjoy these jazzier kind of hip hop instrumentals, and they really have a great groove to them.









The Mothers of Invention- Freak Out! (1966)
Always been a big Zappa fan, and I really got back into this record again. Something about the mix of humor, doo-wop and experimental rock in this LP is always so intriguing. I actually tried to listen to all his LPs in order this year, but didn't get too far. Probably got into the mid '70s. I just think this was Zappa at one of his many artistic peaks. Maybe not his most complexly executed albums, but extremely innovative for the time.







of Montreal- Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)
When I was preparing to go to the of Montreal concert this year, I rediscovered my love of this LP. I listened to 'Gronlandic Edit' an extraordinary amount of times this year. It's not my favorite of Montreal album (that's a toss up between Cherry Peel and A Bedside Drama), but definitely the one I most listened to this year. Just got the picture disc version today in the mail, so pretty excited about that.

Edith Piaf- La Vie En Rose (1999)
During one of my many trips to the library this year, I picked up this album in their sale. I had heard of Piaf's music before, but hadn't really delved too deeply into it. This gave me the opportunity to really get a picture of Edith Piaf's career, and really helped me appreciate her talent as a singer and a performer. It's very unfortunate that so long after Piaf's death, she still is really only well heard in France.

The Smiths- Hatful of Hollow (1984)
The Smiths are a great band, and their snub from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame recently was pretty disappointing. This record is the reason for me. 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now' got so much rotation from me this year that it's not even funny. This album, a compilation of singles, b sides, and radio sessions, actually sounds more cohesive and better to me than most of their albums. Generally these types of compilations have a very choppy sequencing, but not so here. This is a compilation with a studio album flow, and that's why it's probably my favorite Smiths record.




Keep checking back for my upcoming top tens, and let me know what records you were turned on to this year, or what records you had in heavy rotation.



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