Tommy’s Toasted Top 5 Albums of 2015
Now usually I don’t do this but seeing how next week a new year starts, I figured, no better time. Here I have the list of my favorite albums of the year. Now if you listen to the Casual Call-In then you’ve already heard my number one album of the year but, that decision wasn’t an easy one. Here’s my Top 5 Albums of 2015:
5. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – (Self-Titled Album)
Growing in small town Texas it’s hard not to get caught up in some of the music you might here in passing. Now I’ve NEVER been a fan of country music but I sure as hell am a fan of Southern rock and it’s been a long time since I’ve heard a Southern Rock album with this much soul. The album has a very classic, down home sound and Nathaniel Rateliff’s voice takes up yet another notch.
FAVORITE SONG: Thank You
4. Tame Impala – Currents
Tame Impala was a band that I was unfamiliar with until this year and after hearing their album Currents, I’m ashamed of myself. Tame Impala is a band that’s very hard not to like. I’ve said the best way to describe them is Glass Animals (My top band/album of last year) and The Beach Boys. The songs on currents are ash about as chill and laid back as they come, perfect for…”recreational listening.”
FAVORITE SONG: New Person, Same Old Mistakes
3. Troye Sivan – Blue Neighbourhood
Blue Neighbourhood has to be the biggest surprise of the year for me for two reasons. One, it was released only a few weeks ago in early December. Two, it’s a pop album and usually, even if I like it, pop albums rarely leave a mark on me. In a year where everyone is raving about Justin Beiber’s album Purpose and rightfully so, not only is it the Beib’s best album but it’s also one of the years best pop albums (even if it kills you to admit it). But Troye Sivan’s Blue Neighbourhood trumps Beiber’s Purpose in a big way. Sivan, who you may know as Young Wolverine in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, has an album filled with personal, thoughtful songs as well as catchy pop tunes that get stuck in your head. The thing is you don’t mind those songs getting stuck in your head. The best way to describe the album would be if someone went to YouTube listened to nothing but songs on the Majestic Casual channel and then made an album. This about as genuine a pop album as I’ve heard in a while, not to mention it’s just plain solid. If you listen to all 16 tracks on the album and call it flat-out bad I would be shocked. Had it come out sooner it might of actually ranked higher on this list.
FAVORITE SONG: DKLA
2. Leon Bridges – Coming Home
As I mentioned above this spot was almost taken by number 3, but at the end of the day Leon Bridges’ Coming Home was so undeniably good it was no way I could have put it lower than number 2. We’ve raved about the album on numerous shows, so I don’t know how much more I can gush over it. It’s a refreshing, familiar sound that reaches your soul and stirs up emotions and feelings you didn’t think music was capable of exposing. It very well may go down as one of my all time favorite albums.
FAVORITE SONG: River
1. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06
I must admit, I haven’t been a fan of hip-hop in a LONG time. I like many feel that the genre has been missing something for a long time. One thing it’s missing, for me at least, is some fucking nuts! I come from the age of gangster rap, when rappers talked about all the fucked up shit they had to do to survive their everyday lives in the “hood.” It’s been nearly two decades since that type of rap has graced our ears with it’s honestly, boldness, and bluntness. In a time where Drake is considered by many as the King of Hip Hop and where Kendrick Lamar (as talented as he may be) is the pinnacle of truth in hip hop. It’s nice to see a rapper just say “fuck all that, I’m just gonna tell you what I know.” Enter Vince Staples, Long Beach’s latest star rapper gave us Summertime ’06 a mix of 20 tracks that vividly place you into the mind of young Vince Staples. The albums has both trunk bangers as well as thoughtful, honest, tracks with lyrics to match. Hand down the best rap album I’ve heard in the past three or four years.
FAVORITE SONG: Jump Off The Roof