Your favorite albums of 2015

Not "best" - Your favorites, with the hope we all discover something new.
 
Rules  - no more than 10
No reissues, has to have been released for the first time this year.
 
Here are seven from me to start the ball rolling.
 
Essence – Panic Room.
Newly recorded acoustic (and very different) versions of some of the bands back catalogue along with some new songs including the sublime “Rai and Tears and Burgundy.” http://www.panicroom.org.uk/home.html
 
Secrets and Lies – Luna Rossa.
No apologies for more Helder and Edwards, even more acoustic than Essence, beautiful songs and quite different in style to Panic Room. http://www.lunarossa.co/
 
Hand. Cannot. Erase. – Steven Wilson.
It’s all been said. Another fine album. http://stevenwilsonhq.com/
 
Richard Thompson – Still.
Not as good IMHO as last years “Electric” but neigh on half a centry since  "Meet on the Ledge" Richard can still write a good tune and thoughtful lyric. http://www.richardthompson-music.com/
 
Cooking in Satan’s Kitchen – Nettlesmith.
Coffee House's own Jamesg1213. I bought the very first copy sold on line. I love this but a particular call out to the track “Fall of Trees” https://soundcloud.com/nettlesmith
 
Box of Tears – Mostly Autumn.
A bit of a fudge on my part. I was going to include "Dressed in Voices" but discovered it was 2014, so here is the live version. http://www.mostly-autumn.com/2/News.html
 
Karnataka – Secrets of Angels.
A very enjoyable album. More Prog (as a genre) than Panic Room and Luna Rossa, so less progressive if you get my drift. There are some great melodies. Hayley Griffiths has a wonderful voice, but maybe shows just a little of her West End theatre land background. Some times you think there should be a bit more of an edge. But that’s splitting hairs’ http://echoesanddust.com/2015/03/karnataka-secrets-of-angels/

Guitarhacker
I didn't know they still made those things.... here I was thinking it was all a-la-cart on I-tunes and such places.....

I only use digital media now (i.e., downloadable, no physical CD), but I also only purchase full albums.
 
I'd have a few from Glyn's list on mine, but will have to think about this!

Stan Dupp and The Jennifer Tillies

The only album that I bought in 2015 is Nettlesmith's Dancing In Satan's Kitchen. I have not listened to it yet as we are saving for a road trip on the 30th.
 
I'll report back if that is my favorite album of 2015.

I bought a lot of music in 2015, but most of it was written and/or released way before 2015. 
 
Just a few days ago, a friend turned me onto Jerry Reed, whom I'd never heard before (I know, heresy.) That same friend has been turning me on to a lot of those chicken pickers/country players in recent months. A few days before that, I discovered Berlioz' Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale.
 
I also found a decent boxset compilation of Mozart's Piano Concerto - 10 CD's worth of music for $7.99 on iTunes. Until I decide to get the actual boxset from Amazon, this deal was hard to pass.
 
Actually, my album of the year would be a boxset of Beethoven's Symphonies by Leonard Bernstein and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique.
 
I feel it'd be a shame to miss out on those things just to weed through all the stuff that's coming out. I don't need new music, I need great music.

Sleepwalking Showtunes by my band of course! :-)
 
Los Lobos' Gates of Gold was the biggest for me. 
 

To put that into perspective, the last movie that I saw in a theater was the premiere of the Rock... Oh well! 

Wolf Alice - My Love is Cool
Florence and the Machine - How Big, How Blue How Beautiful
 
And of course our last Album, plus Bats Brews and Nettlesmiths!!
 
Nigel
 

craigb

jamesg1213

Glyn Barnes
 
 
Cooking in Satan’s Kitchen – Nettlesmith.
Coffee House's own Jamesg1213. I bought the very first copy sold on line. I love this but a particular call out to the track “Fall of Trees” https://soundcloud.com/nettlesmith
 

 
Made my day Glyn, thanks.

You could do a Christmas album with a slight movement of one "n" there James! 

I know, we were thinking of bringing out a Nettlesmith Christmas recipe book to that effect

batsbrew

Leadfoot
Sadly, the last CD I bought was Soundgarden's King Animal in 2012.

man, 
you have missed so much good music, quite sad.
 

You're right. Maybe I'll break the slump by getting your album. In February I'll be getting the new Last In Line album.

jamesg1213
I'm struggling with good 2015 albums...the ones I thought of were from 2014 (Bros Landreth 'Let it Lie' and Tin Spirits 'Scorch')..time flies
 
Mark Knopfler brought out 'Tracker', but that was a major disappointment after 'Privateering' I thought, no stand out songs. Likewise Don Henley's 'Cass County', was really looking forward to that, but it's pretty poor. Big Big Train's 'Wassail' EP was excellent though.

Wassail was a treat, but I left it out as it was an EP.
 
Its frightening how time flies. I was sure "Dressed in Voices" was released this year but it was mid 2014. Its probably my most heavily played album this year, particularly after seeing Mostly Autumn in concent.
 
I have not really listened to David Gilmore's "Rattle That Lock" The single seemed a little bland as did another track I heard on the radio.
 
 
 
 

Glyn Barnes

batsbrew
mine IS really good!  
 

It is.

hehe, yea, but you are the only one that knows it!

Hi,
 
Mostly I cleaned up a bunch of LP's from my collection and replaced them with CD's.
 
Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention -- Roxy and Elsewhere, the Movie Awesome concert, albeit the quality of the sound is fixed and great, it is about 1% or so faster than the LP, which is slightly lower and sounds better. I think that the fixit folks that worked on this, were so tired of it, that they did not bother to recheck things. We will see another version "remastered" one of these years, I'm sure!
 
King Crimson Live at the Orpheum -- One of the best concerts I have ever seen, and sadly, the CD is not anywhere near representative of the strength and power that the live show had for a handful of fans. For me, this is oen of the top concerts that I have ever seen, the previous year, and while wanting a video is not necessary, the musicianship and the show itself, was so insanely intense, that not showing this quality to all the fans is a crime. I sincerely hope that Mr. Fripp reconsiders, regardless of how he feels. Not everyone can have a chance to experience one of these shows, and this is trully special and should be accepted as such.
 
Klaus Schulze with Lisa Gerrard (don't even know which one!) -- There are a couple of these, and they are all grand, and different and interesting. But if you are not the type of person to close your eyes and just flow with the music ... this stuff starts glowing and flying all over the place, and its lovely in colors and experience. It's sad that more people can not enjoy this.
 
Richard Barbieri  Things Buried and Stranger Inside --Enough said! Probably the nicest work I have heard in quite some time on keyboards.
 
Incredible String Band -- Be Glad the Song Has No Ending -- Finally got this old show, on DVD and it is not that long, or that "great", but there is a sort of childish play in it, that is indicative of something else at the time, that was not just fun and play and total bs. I find the whole thing charming, fun, and we do the same thing every time we visit those Shakespearean Faires (various names!), and enjoy the fun. A similar show to this one was done at Woodstock and sadly trashed silly and ignored by fans that only wanted a hit ... ought to tell you how screwed up an audience and generation can be when they are so commercialized!
 
Ken Russell on the English Folk Scene -- A special that I think was shown on the BBC, it is actually fun to watch, and catching the different folks and such, and closing with a nice pair of bits from Fairport Convention. It sticks to the eccentric side of thigns, but either way, it is still enjoyable.
 
Zabriskie Pointe - Film by Antonioni -- I got this on Amazon, for like $3.99 and it was worth it, and now it is kinda showing why I despise the media that tried hard to kill everything that came out of the 60's and early 70's, as self indulgent, and stupid and full of drugs, when they were just people. I'm still angry at the Chicago Police for banging my head when Sly and Family Stunk didn't show up ... and to this day, the malicious side of the Police folks in some cities is not something I enjoy. And the media is no different. The film itself, is no different than any youngster trying to learn something about themselves, and all the social climate does is ... kill the vision and the idealism and the beauty inside that person. Despite the well known troubles and hassles this film went through when you see it on the DVD, it is not as stupid and broken up ... a good film director will still make the images blend and come together ... and show the finger to the folks that don't know what clicks for that director. The music is well used all the way through, with the last song, the most malicious point of view EVER ... that youth is stupid and can not dream! That says it all for Hollywood, where "youth" means, just another **** for some authoritarian figure.
 
The Tightrope -- Peter Brook's teachings on improvisation and how to work it. No musician will ever sit and watch this because they are afraid of improvisation! One of the best works ever done on "acting", and "staging".
 
Still have a few things to watch! 

Well I thought we would have got a few more - Nevermind, as Homer said, "what do we need new bands for. Everyone knows rock and roll attained perfection in 1974" (IMHO he was wrong it was 1972/3)
 
Meanwhile I am checking out Lifesigns, Anna Von Hausswolff, Gazpacho, IO Earth, Tim Bowness, The Gentle Storm and a real blast from the past Davy O'List to see if their recent albums are worth buying.