Sound Obsession

2015 was an exceptional year for music.  Here are my top-ten favorite albums of 2015, and check out my ten runners-up and honorable mentions .  Hey, better late than never.  Enjoy. . . . 1. Ghost: Meliora (8.5/10) Meliora is Ghost's third LP, released in late summer of 2015. The title is a Latin adjective meaning "better" and so it is that the album continues an upward trajectory for the Swedish occult-metal band, adding to their mock-ecclesiastical mythos. Ghost's breakout debut Opus Eponymous mined a spooky mediaeval aesthetic exemplified by a traditional proto-metal sound, while their playful sophomore album Infetissumam (previously reviewed here ) skewed baroque, incorporating disparate elements like disco, surf-rock, and choral music. By contrast, Meliora is the band's take on 20th century modernity and futurism (its cover references Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi film Metropolis ) . Accordingly, on Meliora , the band's musical palette...

In alphabetical order. . . . The Arcs: Yours, Dreamily, (6.5/10) Dan Auerbach, front-man of blues rock duo The Black Keys, temporarily ditched his longtime drummer pal Patrick Carney and launched a new collaborative side-project last year - The Arcs. The band's debut Yours, Dreamly, bests the Keys' recent material, exploring more soulful textures. It doesn't all work, but its lush slow jams and vintage aesthetic make the journey worthwhile. Artificial Intelligence: Timeline (7/10) North London drum & bass duo Artificial Intelligence released their second LP, Timeline , last year - their first for revered label Metalheadz. Timeline shifts easily between sunny liquid rollers and dank breakbeat workouts and though it doesn't shatter many molds stylistically, the album is superbly consistent and stirring from start to finish. Easily one of Metalheadz's best artist albums since Goldie's Timeless . The Atomic Bitchwax: Gravit...

Kurt Vile & The Violators, 930 Club, Washington DC - 10/8/15 Sturgill Simpson, Lincoln Theater, Washington DC - 9/23/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Ghost, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 9/22/15 Eagles of Death Metal, 930 Club, Washington DC - 9/15/15 Eagles of Death Metal, 930 Club, Washington DC - 9/15/15 Chelsea Wolfe, U Street Music Hall, Washington DC - 9/11/15 High on Fire, Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore MD - 8/20/15 Pallbearer, Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore MD - 8/20/15 Lucifer, Baltimore Soundstage, Baltimore MD - 8/20/15 Failure, 930 Club, Washington DC - 8/11/15 Hum, 930 Club, Washington DC - 8/11/15 Deftones, The Fillmore, Silver Spring MD - 7/31/15 Black B...

Tame Impala Date:  June 6, 2015 Venue:  Echostage, Washington, DC It's pretty fun, and increasingly rare, to get on board early with a promising new rock band and watch them rise from relative obscurity to international super-stardom in the short span of five years.  I'm talking about psychedelic rockers Tame Impala, all the way from Perth, Australia.  I fell hard for this band when I downloaded their debut album, Innerspeaker , on a whim in the summer of 2010 (my curiosity initially piqued by a sweet album cover that reflected the woozy lava-lamp sound inside) and caught them live with a small crowd of early converts at the divey Black Cat just down the street from my apartment.  I saw them again six months later with a much larger crowd at the same venue, then two years on at a sold out gig at the 1,200 capacity 9:30 Club with the release of their sophomore album Lonerism .  This past weekend, just a couple months ahead of their third album release C...

Mini Mansions:   The Great Pretenders Label:  Capitol Records Released:  March 23, 2015 8/10 Despite what some of the press might tell you, Mini Mansions aren't really a Queens of the Stone Age side project.  Mini Mansions are an LA-based psychedelic pop trio comprised of Zachary Dawes (guitar and bass), Tyler Parkford (keys and vocals), and Michael Shuman (percussion and vocals) - a distinct animal all its own.  Yes, Michael Shuman has been playing bass in Josh Homme's marauding rock collective Queens of The Stone Age since 2007, but arguably wasn't a full-fledged Queen until contributing to their chart-topping Grammy-nominated tour de force  ...Like Clockwork from 2013 ( my favorite album that year ).  By that point Shuman and his Mini-cohorts had already been kicking around for years, putting out a stellar and criminally overlooked self-titled debut in 2010.  That first album , Mini Mansions (released on Homme's own indie imprint Rekord...

Torche, DC9, Washington DC - 3/29/15 Swervedriver, Rock & Roll Hotel, Washington DC - 3/25/15 Helmet, Black Cat, Washington DC - 2/25/15

A diverse year for music, here are my favorite albums of 2014. Enjoy. . . . 1. D'Angelo & The Vanguard - Black Messiah (9/10) Enigmatic and reclusive Richmond, VA, soul man D'Angelo has been a favorite of mine since the mid-90's when he dropped his debut album  Brown Sugar -  an exceptional 1995 launch that vaulted over its tepid R&B and "neo-soul" competition by merging tough hip-hop swagger with throwback musicality and charm. I even picked that album's version of "Cruisin'" over Smokey Robinson's 1979 original to sit alongside classic cuts by Wilson Pickett, Stevie Wonder, and Bill Withers on my wedding goodie-bag mix CD three years ago. So, after a fourteen year hiatus plagued by legal troubles, substance abuse, weight gain, and the paralyzing anxiety of high expectation to follow up his acclaimed sophomore album,  Voodoo from 2000, D'Angelo finally, and without much warning, dropped his long awaited third LP  ...