We’re almost halfway through the year and it’s time for the Last Mixed Tape’s mid-term report starting with the 10 stand-out albums of 2015 so far. This list is no particular order.
Soak – Before We Forgot How To Dream
Soak more than met the weighty expectations that came in the build up to her debut, resulting in an emotionally raw first record that teems with the complete abandon of youth.
Key Track: ‘Garden’
Young Wonder – Birth
Another stunning first album release from a year already filled to the brim with them, Young Wonder’s Birth is a masterclass in beautifully structured electronic pop.
Key Track: ‘Sweet Dreaming’
Ham Sandwich – Stories From the Surface
Ham Sandwich delivered a career high with Stories From the Surface, all the promise that had come before finally came to fruition in album about the synchronicity of relationships, what happens when that becomes disjointed and how the past colors the present.
Key Track: ‘In Perfect Rhythms’
Villagers – Darling Arithmetic
Very few albums can capture a moment in time as deftly as Darling Arithmetic, Conor O’Brien’s third album finds one our best songwriters at his most unflinchingly honest and bare boned with heart-wrenching yer affirming results.
Kay Track: ‘Courage’
Little Xs For Eyes – Everywhere Else
Little Xs For Eyes have once again shown themselves to be the hidden gem of Irish music. The band’s sophomore effort traverses the emotive twists and turns that make music, love and life itself, so gratifying.
Key Track: ‘Illogical Love’
The Hard Ground – Triptych
The culmination of an ambitious three E.P. project, Triptych finds the Hard Ground producing their best work to date in album that is as transformative as it is engrossing.
Key Track: ‘Pucker’
No Monster Club – People Are Weird
The mad scientist of Irish music Bobby Ahearn returned with the joyously manic People Are Weird. Subversive and undeniably unique, No Monster Club’s latest album put’s indie-pop through a thresher of noise and resembles it to create something very different.
Key Track: ‘I’ve Retired’
Naoise Roo – Lilith
Lilith marks the debut release from songwriter Naoise Roo, and what an entrance she makes. Bold, defiant and brooding Roo’s music is the perfect antidote to the mundane “radio friendly” songs that have annexed our music scene.
Key Track: ‘For You’
Jape – This Chemical Sea
Jape’s This Chemical Sea album once again established Richie Egan as a musician with the uncanny ability to capture and reinterpret the flickering, fleeting moments of the present through music.
Key Track: ‘Seance of Light’
i am niamh – Wonderland
A record that takes the listener on a wonderous journey, i am niamh’s Wonderland skips and jumps around the quirky/too quirky line with abandon but somehow manages to avoid the latter.
Key Track: ‘Wonderland’
So what are your thoughts? What albums would you have in your 10 stand-out albums of 2015 list? Comment below and have your say…
“How the past colours the present” is a nice turn of phrase.
Villager’s ‘Darling Arithmetic’ is phenomenal to be fair. Other than the list I think This Other Kingdom’s album ‘Telescopic’ is being under appreciated. The Mighty Stef’s album ‘Year of the Horse’ would be up there for me too.
No Monster CLub!!!!