Discopop Directory: Top 10 Albums of 2015

Happy new year! And now that 2015 is finally behind us, here is a "definitive" list of the year's best albums, as dictated by my iTunes play counts.

I'm afraid it's bad news for Adele.

10) Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon
The modern flourishes and hip-hop beats have been erased, allowing Lana to plunge headfirst into her oily black pool of languorous melodrama. The songs are stronger, the melodies more memorable, her vocals more confidently authored. And anyone who accuses her of being submissive isn’t listening properly. “The truth is,” she sighs. "I never bought into your bullshit.” Well, quite.




9) Wolf Alice - Our Love Is Cool
Wolf Alice were so confident in their debut album that they left off their best single - Moaning Lisa Smile. The fact you don’t miss it only validates their chutzpah. Four years in the making, My Love Is Cool mixes up the grunge-lite of their early EPs with ethereal, melodic rock and - on Freazy - blissed out psych-pop. A surprisingly accessible rock record.




8) Years & Years - Communion
Olly Alexander paints a depressing picture of 21st century romance, with lyrics like "I'll do what you like if you stay the night" and "Let me take your heart / Love you in the dark / No one has to see." But, to be honest, I didn't notice until I wrote this list. The words wash over you - but the music is crisp, smart and surprisingly deep.




7) Ibeyi - Ibeyi
French-Cuban twins Lisa and Naomi Díaz sing in a mixture of Yoruba and English, mixing deep soul with African tradition, Cuban jazz and electronic samples. It shouldn't work - but the result is one of the most textured, original albums of the year.





6) Chvrches - Every Open Eye
Juddering synth-pop with a soft centre, thanks to Lauren Mayberry’s songbird vocals, which somehow manage to convey strength and vulnerability at the same time. Every Open Eye is essentially a streamlined version of Chvrches' debut album, with value-addded stadium-ready choruses. Even the one where the bloke sings isn’t that bad.




5) Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
The best record, lyrically-speaking, of the year. It opens with Courtney trying to stop a suicidal teenager jumping off a building - only to discover he’s just admiring the view. Later, she trains an acerbic eye on people moving to the suburbs and buying organic vegetables. It’s like a Woody Allen film, set to sloppy lo-fi punk. In other words: Magnificent.




4) Carly Rae Jepsen - E•MO•TION
In the making of this album, Carly Rae Jepsen recorded and rejected songs with Swedish pop overlord Max Martin. That should give you an idea of the quality threshold. She beats Taylor Swift at her own game, crafting a hazy 80s wonderland, full of reverberant saxophones and ridiculous synth hits - but never puts her baby toe over the cheese threshold. The lyrics constantly subvert pop cliche ("I think I broke up with my boyfriend today - but I've got worse problems"), while Your Type is a more heartbreaking than 7.8 million Adele albums combined.




3) Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
Police violence, white fear, black hypocrisy, media manipulation, the devil's temptation, fame, sex, depression, income tax... Is there a topic To Pimp A Butterfly doesn't tackle? The year's biggest album - conceptually and musically - is initially hard to digest, but proffers fresh rewards every time you listen. Bonus points for extended use of jazz clarinet.




2) Janet Jackson - Unbreakable
A solid gold return to form after a run of hopeless misfires. What changed? Well, for the first time since The Velvet Rope, Janet has something to say - musing on the nature of love and loss after a decidedly dark decade. Broken Hearts Heal, her tribute to Michael, is philosophical ("Broken hearts live longer") without being cloying; while Lessons Learned is a nuanced examination of domestic abuse. Add to that the slinky No Sleeep and the Sly Stone tribute Gon B Alright and you have an album as classy as it is catchy. (Although you could trim off tracks 11, 12, 13 and 15 and never miss them).



1) Tove Styrke - Kiddo
Fierce, funny and irresistible - Kiddo is Swedish pop with the autopilot smashed to smithereens. Tove Styrke mocks her Swedish Idol background ("Hijack the idea of a girl that obeys / Ha-ha-ha-ha oh my / Laugh it in the face") and spits venom at the self-obsessed ("I hope you hit the ground hard when you fell for yourself.") If you like the kilter of your pop set to "off", this is a perfect package.

Well, there you go. If you'd asked me before I consulted iTunes, I'd have said Kendrick Lamar would be number one, and that Marina and the Diamonds or The Staves would creep into the Top 10. But there you go, the play counts don't lie. Turns out I really, really like the Tove Styrke album - and the Years & Years one is good for doing the dishes to. Take that, 2015.

Tweet

Video: Ibeyi - Stranger / Lover

The debut album by French-Cuban twins Ibeyi is one of my favourite records of the year and Stranger / Lover is one of its best tracks, so it's nice to see it get wider release as a single.

The video, by Léo Bigiaoui and Maxime Baudin, is simple but effective - playing out the psychodrama of the lyrics with brutal simplicity. It calls to mind Godley and Creme's outstanding video for U2's Numb, but with the "tee-hee" mateyness exchanged for a hefty emotional wallop.

Wallop.

Ibeyi - Stranger / Lover

Tweet

Ibeyi in session at Radio 1

French-Cuban duo Ibeyi are twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz. They're the daughters of Buena Vista Social Club percussionist Anga Díaz. And, more importantly, their debut album Ibeyi (it means "twins" in Yoruba) is spellbinding.

A fusion of Lisa-Kaindé's favourite jazz singers (Nina Simone, Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald) and Naomi's hip-hop fandom. Simultaneously traditional and innovative, it's a meditation on family, love and history - bound together by the sisters' other-worldly harmonies and a superb use of percussion and atmosphere.

The band descended on the BBC's Maida Vale studios last night for a session with Huw "Hoooo" Stephens. You can listen to it in full below - unless you're on this page after 31 March, in which case it's gone forever :(



If the embedded player above has expired, here are the band doing a session for someone else, but with slightly worse production values.

Ibeyo - River

Tweet

Kylie covers Bette Davis Eyes and 11 other songs you may have missed

Here you go - 11 songs that Discopop Directory forgot from the first week of October.

There are some real gems in this female-heavy edition... but I'm a little pushed for time, so its one-paragraph synopses only.

1) Kylie - Bette Davis Eyes
Recorded for Radio 2's Sound of the 80s, it's hard to imagine a better-judged cover version.






2) David Guetta ft Sam Martin - Dangerous
David Guetta is responsible for so many identikit Eurodance musical obscenities that it's easy to forget he also made Titanium and I Gotta Feeling. This new single sees him plunder the Daft Punk sample bank, and it's really rather magnificent.





3) Beyonce and Nicki Minaj - Flawless (live)
Amateur (ie shit) footage of this live collaboration has been floating around for a while, but Beyonce uploaded a professional version two nights ago. It's quite something.






4) Fiona Apple - The Container
An unreleased track dusted down for the opening titles to new US drama The Affair (starring Dominic West and Maura Tierney) this is the best adult pop theme song since Regina Spektor's You've Got Time.

6) Tove Styrke - Borderline
"I'm borderline happy and I'm borderline sad, I'm borderline good and I'm borderline bad" - a bubbling, scandipop gem from music's second-best Tove. Warning: May cause earworms.






6) Charli XCX - London Girls
Equal parts Toto Coleo, Joan Jett and Girls Aloud's theme song for Freaky Friday, this is a riotous teaser for Charli's forthcoming album, Sucker. Oi!





7) Jessie J - Burnin' Up (fr 2 Chainz)
"It's an uptempo love song that uses fire as a metaphor for lust," explains lyric website Popgenius, with unprecedented levels of insight. Personally, I'm more intrigued by Jessie's reference to "subliminal sex".

And by intrigued I mean repulsed.





8) Karen Harding - Say Something
Getting kicked out of the X Factor at the judges' houses stage last year was the best thing that ever happened to her. Co-written by MNEK, like everything else these days.





9) Oh Land - Head Up High
First single from the cheekbonally blessed Danish singer's forthcoming album, Earth Sick. Synthalicious.

10) Ibeyi - River
Signed by XL Recordings, nu-soul group Ibeyi consists of French-Cuban twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Díaz, daugthers of the Cuban percussionist and Buena Vista Social Club member Anga Díaz. (I copied this directly from Stereogum, spelling mistakes and all, so blame them if the facts are wrong).

Judging by this Google image search, the twins were tragically born with conjoined hair, which much make their concerts interesting to watch.




11) RKCB - Elision
Fans of Jungle will get a familiar thrill from the hushed electro-funk of this track, courtesy of LA production duo RKCB. Lovely late-night stuff with impressive use of the "stereo field", for music nerds.




12) Cheryl - Only Human
I haven't been bowled over by the singles from Cheryl's fourth album but this - a pre-order giveaway - is a vast improvement. Spiralling of melody and fulsome of bass, it's one of the best things she's done across her entire solo career.

OK - that's your lot. More of the same next week.

Tweet