So.....I got a bit caught up in the ol' writer's block, and sat on this for the past seven damn months. But you know what, everyone loves lists! (It's just science.) Here are some thoughts on some of the best rock that 2015 had to offer - as ever it's overly white and male, but this time has the distinction of hewing overly OLD as well! Without further ado, check out my favorite releases of 2015...AND GET OFF MY LAWN!!!
1.
The Sun Lions – Whatever’s On Your Mind
There is something so incredibly thrilling
about a band whose music comes out of nowhere and smacks you upside the
head. This Boston-area trio’s debut
full-length splits the difference between fuzzy Dino Jr-esque riffs (lovingly
recorded by godhead producer Justin Pizzoferrato) and catch-in-your-throat
melodies…a rush of blood to the head that echoes the greats of the Boston
alt-rock scene of the late 80s while sounding remarkably vital. If you find a catchier, more anthemic song
released this year than ace album-centerpiece, “Right Now”, I’ll buy ya a Coke!
2.
Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love
This is how you reunite! Recorded in secret and ready to go before
even a whisper of their reunion went public, Corin, Carrie and Janet came back
with a bruiser of a record. Opener
“Price Tag” bridges the sound that two-thirds of the band explored with the
short-lived Wild Flag project a couple years back with the frantic, apoplectic
punk of their first iteration. It’s a
beautifully realized record, alternatively reflective and punishing, and we are
all better for them having pulled it off.
3.
Faith No
More – Sol Invictus
Speaking of reunions that stuck the
landing, the creative rebirth of Faith No More was one of the bright spots of
2015. It was improbable at best that a band as fanatically beloved would be
able to equal the records of their 1989-1997 heyday, but “Sol Invictus” goes a
step further and is arguably BETTER than some of those classics. A band of 50-somethings should not be capable
of the raw-throated fury of a track like “Superhero” or “Separation Anxiety”,
but Patton and co. deliver in spades.
4.
Frank Turner – Positive Songs for Negative
People
After 2013’s middling “Tape Deck Heart”
(whose title, frankly, was the best thing about it by far), Turner finds his
way back to making rousing, anthemic joints that tickle the head and the
heart. The quiet feint of “The Angel
Islington” leads directly into “Get Better”, the most scorching thing Turner
has written since his Million Dead days.
By focusing on the good that we are capable of (and raging against the
type of malaise and negative self-talk that derails living up to our potential),
“Positive Songs” lives up to its title and is song-for-song Turner’s finest
album.
5.
Swervedriver – I Wasn’t Born to Lose You
Let’s get this out of the way – there was
no NEED for a new Swervedriver album.
The lads had put a fine cap on their career with 1997’s “99th
Dream” and leader Adam Franklin’s most recent records have been consistently
decent. But, like several others on this
list, the Swervies defied expectation and sound more like the band that created
1993’s high-water mark, “Mezcal Head” than many of the bands who have formed in
their wake. The guitars crunch and sigh
like breathing organisms battling to keep Franklin’s voice at bay, and the
rhythm section is just devastating. All
in all, a stunner.
6.
Built to Spill – Untethered Moon
Sometimes you have to shake the tree a
little. Shedding a rhythm section and
gaining the production prowess of Quasi’s Sam Coomes, Doug Martsch has made
the liveliest BTS album in 15 years. The
shambolic speed-up of first single, “Living Zoo”….the doomy plod of “Some Other
Song”…the spiraling noodling of “So”…it all feels so incredibly vital in a way
that the past few albums haven’t! Even
Martsch’s voice, which on 2009’s “There Is No Enemy” sounded weak and hollow,
has a new heft to it. Great, great stuff…
7.
Bully – Feels Like
Lots of bands fetishize the early 90s alt
rock scene, but few do it as thrillingly or with as much conviction as Bully do
on their debut. The brainchild of Alicia
Bognanno, a demon behind the boards as well as in front of the mike, these 10
tracks bristle with energy and sound a bit like Courtney Love fronting Speedy
Ortiz (which is kinda genius, innit?) In
and out in under 28 minutes, “Feels Like” is a very solid introduction to a
promising talent.
8.
Rhett Miller and Black Prairie – The Traveler
The Old 97s put out a solid rawk record in
2014, but I honestly haven’t connected with a Rhett Miller solo effort since
his first, 2002’s stellar power-popish “The Instigator”. Co-written and recorded with Black Prairie
(basically the Decemberists minus Colin Meloy), “The Traveler” is a great set
of tunes that utilize the acoustic strengths of his nimble backing ensemble to
create his most effective record in years.
9.
Public Image Ltd – What the World Needs Now…
In which our favorite old crank shakes off the
doldrums of 2012’s boring reunion LP “This is PIL”, and wobbles (see what I did
there?) back into greatness. This is the
album John Lydon fans have been waiting for – groovy, thoughtful, and full of
his patented vitriol. Ably abetted again
by longtime comrades Lu Edmonds and Bruce Smith, the real treasure here is
Scott Firth’s bass playing. His deep,
supple lines carry many of these songs and give them the hips that act as
perfect complement to Lydon’s spitting delivery.
10. Hop Along – Painted Shut
This one is all about Frances Quinlan’s
burnt-out howl. Her voice goes from a
coo into paint-peeling shriek in less time than it takes your jaw to hit the
floor. She is a force of fucking nature.
Produced by the always-awesome John
Agnello, “Painted Shut” fulfills the promise of their debut, and “Waitress”
should have made them enormous.
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