Zoey's Top 5 Albums of 2015

I did one of these for 2014 and had fun doing it, so now I'm here doing one for 2015. I'd say that, in 2015, I increased my collection of music by about anywhere from 60% to 75%.

Out of the pool of music I bought that was released in 2015, I downloaded 11 albums, a total of 6 individual songs from 5 separate albums, and 3 singles.

If you expanded that to stuff that I downloaded last year, regardless of its release date, it expands to 25 full albums, 13 individual songs from 12 incomplete albums, and 15 singles.

Those are both rough estimates, though, since I don't have exact dates for some things in my library. Namely, items that I downloaded off Bandcamp or Soundcloud, which don't show up in my iTunes purchase history. And, even then, I didn't actually look at a purchase history. For "released in 2015", I sorted my library by year, and for "stuff I bought in 2015 regardless of release date", I just went based off what "recently added" was telling me, and it went all the way back to Carpenter Brut's Trilogy and then some. I used Trilogy as the earliest thing I downloaded and went down the line counting stuff. There might be some stragglers here and there, but those figures are decently accurate.

So, yes. For this list, I'll only be using stuff from the former category, "things I downloaded that were released in 2015". Instead of 10 albums, I'm doing only 5, since a few of the albums I don't really listen to very much at all (I'm looking at you, Dark Before Dawn). Anyways, here we go. Got a little short blurb for each pick.

#5: Kicker by Zella Day
This one has much softer edges than your average pop production, but that's what makes it great.
favorite track: "High"

#4: Kill It by El Tigr3
I don't think it's El Tigr3's best work by any means (I think that honor firmly goes to "Heist") but it's still a fantastic album in its own right. The production is thin, but it doesn't need to be complex. It revels in minimalism.
favorite track: "Die Cosmonaut"

#3: Artificial Afterlife Compilation by various artists
The best way I can describe this album is as a little taste-test of what futuresynth has to offer. It's got tracks with a softer, more upbeat tone that lean towards the style of mitch murder, and much darker, brooding tracks that lean more towards Perturbator or Carpenter Brut. Every song is fantastic, and it's an absolutely stellar album and a good entry point for someone who might be looking to sample some futuresynth.
favorite track: "Man Eater (feat. Richard Butler)"

#2: EP III by Carpenter Brut
I would have said Trilogy, but I feel like that would have been cheating, since Trilogy is a compilation of all of Brut's work, including his first two EPs that were released in 2014. But EP III was released in 2015, so it's fair game! Every time, Carpenter keeps refining the cinematic, dramatic style of his work, and it shows the most on this album.
favorite track: "Run, Sally, Run!"

#1: GUNSHIP by GUNSHIP
This was the album I had been waiting for for a very long time. It's a softer one to be sure, and it manages to blend my two favorite genres, dreampop and futuresynth, into something beautiful. I recommend it to anyone.
favorite track: "Black Sun on the Horizon (feat. Martin Grech) [Makeup and Vanity Set Remix]"

Well, there you have it. My top 5 albums of 2015.

This would have been a lot easier if I had included stuff that I downloaded in 2015 and not just what was released, but then it'd just start becoming more of a "favorite albums in general" list and that'd be nah. Not what I'm going for. Maybe later :v