Your Top 3 New Releases of 2015

[privateuniverse]

With 2015 drawing its last breaths, I'm curious to know what was everyone's favorite new music released this year. Pick your top 3 albums of the year (regardless of whether or not they were issued with a surround mix.) As a bonus, feel free to pick your top reissue of the year as well. Here are mine:

1. Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase. A monster epic that draws on the influences of not only the greats of 70's progressive rock but also some of the 80's most creative acts (many of whom Mr. Wilson has spent the last few years remixing their back catalogs into 5.1.) A very powerful piece of music; not easy listening.

2. Todd Rundgren - Global. Todd goes back to the drawing board and fixes the mistakes he made on 2013's State. Todd is back in high-tech mode here but the results are never sterile or lifeless because of his passionate vocal delivery and his voice is still in fine form. The tour to promote the album was glorious.

3. Tommy Keene - Laugh in the Dark. Another collection of perfectly crafted gems from the king of modern day power-pop. Catchy melodies and crunchy guitars.


Reissue:
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk. Tough call on this one, but I have to go with Tusk. A great package celebrating an album that although maligned upon its original release becomes more celebrated with age. A fantastic, revealing 5.1 mix; two CDs of high-energy live material; two CDs of demos & outtakes; plus some nice heavyweight LPs for the vinyl aficionados all enclosed in a beautiful package.


EDIT: OOPS! The title of this thread shoulda been Top 3 New Releases of 2015!!! :violin

 

[windhoek]

Thanks to Ralph, I've bought a lot of good music this year and a fair amount of great music and if I could only remember what I bought this year, I reckon I could easily make a top 10 of top quality buys. Based on what I can remember however, I'd say my top 3 picks for 2015 are:

Beyoncé - Beyoncé CD/BDV (possibly released in 2014)
David Miles Huber - Parallax Eden (5.1 Berlin) BDA
Zofo - Zoforbit: A Space Odyssey CD/BDA

My best non-2015 released purchase this year is probably this Mahler 1-7 BDV set performed by Abaddo/Lucerne Festival Orchestra because the bang for buck is simply outstanding - as are the performances!

 

[mixamatt]

1.Steven Wilson-Hand Cannot Erase. I like it much Better than Raven.
2 David Gilmour- Rattle that Lock
3 Primus-Primus and the Chocolate Factory

Reissue Yes fragile

 

[Quad Linda]

Thread title corrected.

 

[popshop]

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell
(and a distant 2nd and 3rd)
Mew - +-
Baroness - Purple

It's pretty difficult to come up with three *new albums from 2015 that I liked, and very easy to think of older albums that I purchased this year. Of the stuff I purchased, probably 5% was new in 2015.

Reissue: XTC - Oranges & Lemons

 

[skherbeck]

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell
(and a distant 2nd and 3rd)
Mew - +-
Baroness - Purple

I Love Baroness (didn't realize they had a new one out)... I'm reading reviews that say the album sounds highly compressed/clipped... is that what you're hearing, Popshop?

 

[popshop]

skherbeck - yes, unfortunately. It's tough to tell if it is Dave Fridmann's compression or just a super duper loud master. It's DR4. There are a handful of moments with distortion/clipping/what is happening here? It's not unlistenable, but it's distracting. What's worse is that I think the vinyl was cut using the same master.
I bought the CD later, and it came with a free cassette. Based only on my own systems, it's most enjoyable for me on CD in my car or cassette on my home stereo.

All that being said, I'd say the album is their best. The new drummer (from a great [non-Metal] band Trans Am) and new bassist add a lot to the sound. Great songs, great guitar harmonies.

 

[jdmack]

1. Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are (See NPR and Rolling Stone's lists of best albums from 2015).

And that's it for new albums. I'm an old fart who lives in the past. I have "Hand. Cannot. Erase." but I haven't found the time to really engage with it yet.

Reissues - Oranges and Lemons, Fragile.

 

[IMachine]

1. Fink - Hard Believer

2. Steven Wilson - Hand

3. Vola - Inmazes

 

[GOS]

This really is an impossible thread...LOL. So many of us in the quad world don't have tons of new music...and the music we do buy that we call new...may not be new at all. Would we even pay attention to the year? I don't.

But, one of the very few new things I've heard (only because my son) is a couple artists that seem to catch my attention.

* Sun Kil Moon - I love his voice and I adore the pace changes. Very different, I like it. He has a new one in 2015, but also has multiple albums in last few years.
* Father John Misty - another folk type artist that is hard to pigeon hole. He used to be in Fleet Foxes. He's good and entertaining. He's growing on me.

 

[dr. simple]

Like we so often do here at QQ (and please - don't stop on my account!), I'll disregard the thread title and give my top 5 in each category.

MY Top 5 new releases of 2015:
1. Tim Cashion: "Find Us on the Dial"
2. Toto: "XIV"
3. Young Gun Silver Fox: "West End Coast"
4. The Zombies: "Still Got That Hunger"
5. Steven Wilson: "Hand. Cannot. Erase."

My top 5 surround reissues:
1. Blood, Sweat & Tears: Self-titled
2. XTC: "Oranges & Lemons"
3. Mahavishnu Orchestra: "Birds of Fire"
4. Billy Joel: "Streetlife Serenade"
5. Yes: "Fragile"

As if you had nothing better to do on New Year's Eve (I don't) than to read about what some stranger in Ohio likes...

 

[edisonbaggins]

KC - Thrak Box
Yes - Fragile
SW - H.C.E.

 

[peterzach]

As this is a surround site will list my fav new surrounds done in 2015:

1. Steven Wilson-Hand.Cannot.Erase.
2. Ian Cooke-Antiquasauria
3. David Gilmour-Rattle That Lock

Great Remixes in 2015

1. King Crimson-Thrak Box
2. Steve Hackett-Premonitions
3. Yes-Fragile

Fleetwood Mac-Tusk(almost made it into 3rd place)-haven't had enough listens but its a good one and of course leaving out many other amazing releases this year, it was a good year for surround.

 

[windhoek]

Like we so often do here at QQ (and please - don't stop on my account!), I'll disregard the thread title and give my top 5 in each category...

As if you had nothing better to do on New Year's Eve (I don't) than to read about what some stranger in Ohio likes...

A man from Ohio is no stranger to me: I've never been there, but Over The Rhine make it seem so familiar

 

[cutter]

My top New release purchases of 2015:

1. Jason Isbell - Something More Than Free
2. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
3. The Decemberists - Florasongs ep
4: Dave & Phil Alvin - Lost Time
5: The Wood Brothers - Paradise

The most disappointing new release this year for me was Grace Potter - Midnight

The It came out last year but I bought it this year would be Royal Blood - Royal Blood. It is heavy and I like it. Scott