2015 Albums of the Year (Numbers 30-21)

Continuing the list:

30. Torres - Sprinter

When I first heard Sprinter, I was immediately brought back to the first time I heard PJ Harvey. Torres is a brutally honest songwriter, and these songs leave you emotionally wrecked.

29. Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys

The Grand Dame of quirky pop, Roisin Murphy unleashed another batch of challenging, yet still accessible songs.

28. Deafheaven - New Bermuda

Deafheaven continue their brilliant exploration of black metal and shoegaze on their latest record.

27. ON AN ON - And the Wave Has Two Sides

ON AN ON keeps getting better and better with each release. Their songs quietly encroach on one's inner peace; the emotional impact not felt until much later, leaving one gasping for breath.

26. Purity Ring - Another Eternity

Another Eternity finds Purity Ring making a bold leap into technicolor. While Shrines was creepy and gothic, this record paints in bold, bright strokes. Many decried that they had "sold out," but for me it's a logical progression.

25. The Weeknd - Beauty Behind the Madness

Like Purity Ring, The Weeknd made a monster leap into the pop world. While he still sings on the same subjects of sex, drugs, and more sex and more drugs, there is less of a nihilistic slant to his viewpoint, and more of a tongue in cheek stance.

24. Major Lazer - Peace is the Mission

EDM, hip-hop, dancehall, R&B, and pop all crash together into a breathlessly inventive and fun record.

23. Arca - Mutant

Taking off from where his record Xen left off, Mutant is another stunner. Longer, yet more concise, Mutant unfolds with more purpose, the angular production weaving themes in and out of the 20 blisteringly inventive tracks.

22. VV Brown - Glitch

Armed with a commanding voice whose deep tones with make your inners rumble, VV Brown matches it up to some dark electronica in a record that gets deep under the skin.

21. Deerhunter - Fading Frontier

Deerhunter will never put out a boring record, that is for sure. For the most part, Fading Frontier could almost be considered their "pop" record, albeit a very off-kilter one. Aside from a couple of meandering tracks, Bradford Cox and Co. have really tightened their sound and focus on some killer hooks.