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One of the quickest ways to give everyone the impression that you have hip taste in music is to scan the Pitchfork Top 50 Albums list at the end of the year and buy all the releases that aren’t just some hip reviewer’s pick to show how obscure their taste in music is. About ten of the titles will have broad appeal but not be overplayed yet, another twenty or so will be really good, and your friends won’t have heard of them, and the remaining titles will be really interesting, some of them so “interesting” that no-one will actually want to listen to them.
But Is Pitchfork Actually Still Hip?
Apparently other media sites have caught on to the game, and are releasing their Top 50 Best Album lists early, beating Pitchfork to the punch. When Pitchfork does release their list this year, it will be interesting to see if they’re hanging on to their “hip quotient”; they were acquired by Condé Nast this year, and that’s about as mainstream as a media outlet can get. Time will tell.
As sick boy famously explained in Trainspotting, “you have it, then you lose it”:
All these lists present us with a rather overwhelming amount of purchases to ponder, so we’ve done you a huge favor by wrangling the data a little. Below is a top 20 list assembled by taking albums that made at least three, if not all four of the lists. Further below, we’ve stripped the various outlets’ lists of all that cumbersome expertise the reviewers offer, and simply presented the lists in a simple 1 through 50 format.
Top 20 Albums of 2015
Compiled from the top four top 50 lists, with links so you can easily preview or purchase.
Beach House: Depression Cherry – Preview/Buy
Björk: Vulnicura – Preview/Buy
Blur: The Magic Whip – Preview/Buy
Carly Rae Jepsen: Emotion – Preview/Buy
Chris Stapleton: Traveller – Preview/Buy
Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think – Preview/Buy
Drake: If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – Preview/Buy
Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear – Preview/Buy
Future: DS2 – Preview/Buy
Grimes: Art Angels – Preview/Buy
Hop Along: Painted Shut – Preview/Buy
Jamie xx: In Colour – Preview/Buy
Kamasi Washington: The Epic – Preview/Buy
Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly – Preview/Buy
Oneohtrix Point Never: Garden of Delete – Preview/Buy
Shamir – Ratchet: Preview/Buy
Sleater-Kinney: No Cities To Love – Preview/Buy
Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell – Preview/Buy
Tame Impala: Currents – Preview/Buy
Vince Staples: Summertime 06 – Preview/Buy
Top 4 Top 50 Lists
Click the tabs to easily compare the lists. Arranged left-to-right in descending order of hipness.
1 Grimes, Art Angels
2 Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly
3 Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION
4 Vince Staples, Summertime ’
5 Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
6 Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
7 Hop Along, Painted Shut
8 Colleen Green, I Want To Grow Up
9 Jim O’Rourke, Simple Songs
10 Deafheaven, New Bermuda
11 Jamie xx, In Colour
12 Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
13 The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die, Harmlessness
14 Jenny Hval, Apocalypse, Girl
15 Tame Impala, Currents
16 Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experiment, Surf
17 Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy
18 Future, DS2
19 Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp
20 Screaming Females, Rose Mountain
21 Shamir, Ratchet
22 Joanna Newsom, Divers
23 Blur, The Magic Whip
24 Tribulation, The Children Of The Night
25 Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
26 Natalie Prass, Natalie Prass
27 Sleater-Kinney, No Cities To Love
28 Eskimeaux, O.K.
29 Ought, Sun Coming Down
30 The Staves, If I Was
31 Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
32 Yowler, The Offer
33 Chvrches, Every Open Eye
34 Horrendous, Anareta
35 Kamasi Washington, The Epic
36 Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife
37 Fred Thomas, All Are Saved
38 Björk, Vulnicura
39 Car Seat Headrest, Teens Of Style
40 Julien Baker, Sprained Ankle
41 Girlpool, Before The World Was Big
42 Deerhunter, Fading Frontier
43 Chris Stapleton, Traveller
44 Speedy Ortiz, Foil Deer
45 Viet Cong, Viet Cong
46 Sorority Noise, Joy, Departed
47 Beach House, Depression Cherry
48 Kurt Vile, b’lieve i’m goin down…
49 Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden Of Delete
50 Julia Holter, Have You In My Wilderness
1 Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2 Future, DS2
3 Carly Rae Jepsen, EMOTION
4 Jamie xx, In Colour
5 Grimes, Art Angels
6 JME, Integrity>
7 G.L.O.S.S., Demo
8 Hop Along, Painted Shut
9 Misþyrming, Söngvar elds og óreiðu
10 Miguel, Wildheart
11 Chris Stapleton, Traveller
12 Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden of Delete
13 Sporting Life, 55 5’s
14 Earl Sweatshirt, I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside
15 Beach Slang, The Things We Do to Find People Who Feel Like Us
16 Kehlani, You Should Be Here
17 Fetty Wap, Fetty Wap
18 Nicole Dollanganger, Natural Born Losers
19 J Hus, The 15th Day
20 Desaparecidos, Payola
21 Future, 56 Nights
22 Kamasi Washington, The Epic
23 Little Simz, A Curious Tale Of Trials + Persons
24 Vince Staples, Summertime 06
25 Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
26 Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
27 Young Thug, Barter 6
28 Cloud Rat, Qliphoth
29 Empress Of, Me
30 A$AP Rocky, AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP
31 Dilly Dally, Sore
32 Tame Impala, Currents
33 Iron Maiden, Book of Souls
34 Disclosure, Caracal
35 Holly Herndon, Platform
36 Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.
37 Laura Stevenson, Cocksure
38 Björk, Vulnicura
39 Thundercat, The Beyond/Where Giants Roam
40 Mgla, Exercises in Futility
41 Speedy Ortiz, Foil Deer
42 Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style
43 Tyler, The Creator, Cherry Bomb
44 Justin Bieber, Purpose
45 Title Fight, Hyperview
46 Shamir, Ratchet
47 HEALTH, Death Magic
48 Julia Holter, Have You In My Wilderness
49 The Internet, Ego Death
50 Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
1 Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2 Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
3 Jamie xx, In Colour
4 Tame Impala, Currents
5 Vince Staples, Summertime ’06
6 Waxahatchee, Ivy Tripp
7 Deerhunter, Fading Frontier
8 Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material
9 Shamir, Ratchet
10 Alex G, Beach Music
11 Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
12 Deafheaven, New Bermuda
13 Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
14 Miguel, WILDHEART
15 Royal Headache, High
16 Beach House, Depression Cherry
17 Future, DS2
18 Lana Del Rey, Honeymoon
19 SOPHIE, PRODUCT
20 Protomartyr, The Agent Intellect
21 Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
22 Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION
23 Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
24 Destroyer, Poison Season
25 Kelela, Hallucinogen EP
26 Grimes, Art Angels
27 Earl Sweatshirt, I Don’t Like S**t, I Don’t Go Outside
28 Björk, Vulnicura
29 Kurt Vile, b’lieve i’m goin down…
30 Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden of Delete
31 Colleen Green, I Want to Grow Up
32 Titus Andronicus, The Most Lamentable Tragedy
33 Jason Derulo, Everything Is 4
34 Chastity Belt, Time to Go Home
35 Rabit, Communion
36 Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, Surf
37 Blur, The Magic Whip
38 FKA twigs, M3LL155X EP
39 Bully, Feels Like
40 Mbongwana Star, From Kinshasa
41 Fetty Wap, Fetty Wap
42 Best Coast, California Nights
43 CHVRCHES, Every Open Eye
44 Krallice, Ygg Huur
45 Seinabo Sey, Pretend
46 Mount Eerie, Sauna
47 RP Boo, Fingers, Bank Pads & Shoe Prints
48 Majical Cloudz, Are You Alone?
49 Girlpool, Before the World Was Big
50 Janet Jackson, Unbreakable
1 Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2 Adele, 25
3 Drake, If Youre Reading This Its Too Late
4 DAngelo and the Vanguard, Black Messiah
5 The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness
6 Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
7 Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
8 Various Artists, Hamilton: Original Broadway Soundtrack
9 The Arcs, Yours, Dreamily
10 Blur, The Magic Whip
11 Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
12 Lana Del Rey, Honeymoon
13 Tame Impala, Currents
14 Wilco, Star Wars
15 Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
16 Jack Ü, Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü
17 Keith Richards, Crosseyed Heart
18 Boz Scaggs, A Fool to Care
19 Kurt Vile, Blieve Im Goin Down…
20 Don Henley, Cass County
21 Chris Stapleton, Traveller
22 Florence and the Machine, How Big How Blue How Beautiful
23 Mark Knopfler, Tracker
24 Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment, Surf
25 Darlene Love, Introducing Darlene Love
26 Future, DS2
27 Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
28 Miguel, Wildheart
29 Joanna Newsom, Divers
30 Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style
31 Leon Bridges, Coming Home
32 Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show
33 Beach House, Depression Cherry
34 Marilyn Manson, The Pale Emperor
35 Vince Staples, Summertime
36 Hop Along, Painted Shut
37 Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color
38 Ashley Monroe, The Blade
39 Muse, Drones
40 Songhoy Blues, Music in Exile
41 Kamasi Washington, The Epic
42 Björk, Vulnicura
43 Selena Gomez, Revival
44 Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife
45 Madonna, Rebel Heart
46 Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
47 James Taylor, Before This World
48 Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion
49 Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night
50 Bomba Estéreo, Amanecer
Sources: Stereogum, Noisey, Spin, Rolling Stone
