NO! I AM NOT HAPPY!

I thought I was happy… Pulling up to see a square shaped box protruding from my mailbox attached to my place. IS IT IN?!?! It was! Not just my “White Reaper Does It Again” vinyl (THANKS SQUAD!) but Grimes “Art Angels” on vinyl! IT CAME EARLY!

After listening to “White Reaper Does It Again” top to bottom (#priorities) I threw on “Venus Fly” to work on some future choreographed dance moves (#priorities). After a few spins, I decided it was time to rip into “REALiTi” since it’s the best… Let’s find the groove… No, that’s “World Princess, Pt. II”… No… That’s “Pin”… Is… What? IS IT?!? NOOOOO!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!! IT’S NOT FUCKING ON HERE?!?!?!

I check the back of the vinyl packaging. Not listed. I check wikipedia just now to remember if it’s part 1 or 2 of “World Princess” (#FormattingIsEverything) and what do you know it says so right there that “REALiTi” is excluded from cassette and vinyl pressings.

Well fuck.

Glad I didn’t put it higher than #9 on my albums list. That omission is egregious.

Oh, and gratz ‘Ye

gonna name him ‘wild’. mark it down.

THIS motherfucker?

RIP formatting

It’s almost as if there’s a fundamental difference between desktop computers and life saving drugs.

“I know it comes too soon…”

So croons Victoria Legrand on the epic Depression Cherry closer “Days of Candy,” and so it felt for all of us when we woke up on December 1st and found that AOTY Season was at hand. Never mind all the binge-listening and second-guessing we had planned. We knew what had to be done. Though we will likely be debating the legacy of 2015’s embarrassment of musical riches well into 2016 and beyond, this list represents our first attempt to sort through it all and to celebrate the albums that stuck with us. Fifty albums may seem like a lot, but there were plenty of beloved releases that just didn’t have the numbers to make the final list.

This year, 113 commenters spoke up for close to 250 of their favorite albums. I did my best to account for every list and to double-check every score for our Top 50 albums, but I will nonetheless apologize in advance for whatever errors I inevitably made in tabbing it all up. Consider this an estimate, a first-draft, a conversation piece: anything other than a definitive ranking. We’re just starting the conversation about a year that spoiled us with so much ear candy that “2015!” eventually became synonymous with “how many classic albums can possibly drop in one year?”

To create the list, I counted every album ranking from the AOTY comments section, assigning 4 points for a 1st place ranking, 3 points for a 2nd, 2 points for a 3rd, and 1 point for any other Top 10 finish. If you listed 10 albums but didn’t rank them, I assigned 1 point to each. If you didn’t create a full list but you named a favorite album of the year, I counted that as a 1st place. Albums are ranked by their total points, then by their total number of votes, both of which are listed in parentheses beside the album title. Further ties were broken, where possible, by looking at which album received the highest number of 1st place rankings (then 2nd, then 3rd). Several albums had the exact same breakdown of votes, so there was nothing to but let those ties stand.

Because there were so many more votes this year, I didn’t have time to compile this list and write up a commentary. I’m sure there’s a lot to talk about (check out that nail-biting 09-10-11 line-up) and I leave that discussion in your able hands!

Here are the results:

01. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (171, 64)
02. Sufjan Stevens -Carrie & Lowell (122, 55)
03. Grimes – Art Angels (113, 54)
04. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear (93, 50)
05. Tame Impala – Currents (87, 49)
06. Jamie xx – In Colour (75, 45)
07. Beach House – Depression Cherry (41, 26)
08. Deafheaven – New Bermuda (40, 26)
09. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06 (38, 28)
10. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (38, 23)
11. Viet Cong – Viet Cong (37, 20)
12. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love (27, 19)
13. Bjork – Vulnicura (26, 17)
14. Deerhunter – Fading Frontier (25, 19)
15. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness (23, 18)
16. Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy (23, 13)
17. Kurt Vile – b’lieve I’m goin’ down… (20, 16)
18. Kamasi Washington – The Epic (20, 12)
19. Neon Indian – VEGA INTL Night School (20, 11)
20. Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment – Surf (19, 15)
21. Joanna Newsom – Divers (19, 13)
22. Hop Along – Painted Shut (19, 12)
23. Colleen Green – I Want To Grow Up (19, 10)
24. HEALTH – Death Magic (18, 8)
25. White Reaper – White Reaper Does It Again (17, 9)
26. Chvrches – Every Open Eye (16, 14)
27. Miguel – Wildheart (15, 11)
28. Beach House – Thank Your Lucky Stars (14, 11)
29. Majical Cloudz – Are You Alone? (14, 11)
30. Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Multi-Love (13, 8)
31. Destroyer – Poison Season (12, 8)
32. Carly Rae Jepsen – E*MO*TION (12, 7)
33. Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass (12, 6)
34. Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss (12, 4)
35. The Tallest Man On Earth – Dark Bird Is Home (10, 5)
36. Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete (9, 7)
36. Ought – Sun Coming Down (9, 7)
38. Future – DS2 (9, 7)
39. Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp (9, 6)
40. Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (9, 6)
41. Julien Baker – Sprained Ankle (9, 6)
42. Drake – If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (9, 5)
43. Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Like Us (8, 7)
43. Jim O’Rourke – Simple Songs (8, 7)
45. El VY – Return to the Moon (8, 6)
46. Dawn Richard – Blackheart (8, 5)
46. The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Harmlessness (8, 5)
48. Screaming Females – Rose Mountain (8, 5)
49. Royal Headache – High (8, 3)
50. Algiers – Algiers (7, 4)

9 month promotional campaign qualifies as surprise release these days?

I signed up for an account just to downvote your idiotic comments.

This list is missing Jeremy, Rearviewmirror and Alive.

It’s a joke

Don’t you do it, don’t you deify this asshole. He’s not Cobain, he’s not Staley- hell, he’s not even Hillel Slovak. He was Elvis, shriveling and dying…and people were so hard-up to re-live their youth through him that- instead of refusing to cater his suicide, his career and his ultimate destruction by not subsidizing it- the world turned a blind eye and accepted this outcome. You don’t get to mourn the scarecrow you helped to manufacture.

Then have morals and “don’t do anything for money”…………. Moral of the story, don’t get AIDS and you don’t have to worry about it.

I love name calling from the left… “sociopath”, “shitface”, “asshole” etc. You can’t properly describe your difference or objection with what he/anyone does so you just name call… If the FREE Market will pay for that price, then it is an adequate/appropriate price. Apple Products are WAY overpriced compared to the cost that it takes to manufacture them, but I don’t hear you calling Tim Cook names. Next time with your “journalism”, try to appropriately describe the situational facts. Man… I can’t take it anymore, fuck Stereogum.

1. I Can Be Afraid of Posting Comments Too Fast – TWIABPblahblahblah
2. The Faster The Comments – Kendrick Lamar
3. Levitation – Beach House (named for those places where you take things slow)
4. Senorita – Vince “Lightning Fingers” Staples
5. Fat Chance (that this will actually post) – Mothers
6. John My Beloved (IT guy on vacation) – Sufjan Stevens
7. Run Away With Me (and stop trying to post so fast) – Carly Rae Jepsen
8. Price Tag (for posting) – Sleater-Kinney
9. Rejoice (if this will actually post) – Julien Baker
10. Vice City – Jay Rock (feat. Black Hippy and the SG comments section)

Please don’t actually post this time…