Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly is not only the highest rated album of the year so far but also our all-time highest rated album
ADM 2015: The half year report
We're six months into 2015 so it's time for our look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year
Three short months ago in our ADM 1st Quarter Report we were
babbling excitedly about what a musically epochal year 2015 looked
set to become on the basis that three and a half early-year
releases had vaulted into our all-time top 10 (the half courtesy of
D'Angelo And The Vanguard's album which was released towards the
end of December 2014 too late to properly figure in the 2014
reckoning).
With albums still to emerge from the likes of
Grimes, Frank Ocean,
Raekwon and Deafheaven to mention
but a few, it felt like 2015 was almost guaranteed to go down as a
vintage year.
And, three months further on, it still could. But it ain't
happened yet. The aforementioned albums have still to emerge.
Kendrick Lamar, D'Angelo,
Sufjan Stevens and Sleater-Kinney
are still sitting pretty in our all-time roll of critical
honour.
Elsewhere, there have been some solidly-appreciated releases in
the past three months, most notably from Vince
Staples, Mbongwana Star and - perhaps
most intriguingly - Donnie Trumpet & The Social
Experiment, aka Chance The Rapper's side
project self-released free download mixtape iTunes blog giveaway
soul-jazz-hip-hop collective sort-of album.
Surf has garnered acclaim among a smaller circle of reviewers than
it might have attracted had it had a less unconventional release,
which is perhaps surprising given the way many respected hip hop
artists nowadays circumvent the traditional major-label route. Who
knows, with more attention from a wider range of critics, it could
have been up there alongside Lamar, Frank Ocean, and Kanye
West.
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
9.25
Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp A Butterfly
"One day, To Pimp A Butterfly could be regarded a cultural and
historical document worthy of academic discussion. It most
certainly should be"
Pretty Much Amazing
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.77
Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell
"He's never produced an album this nakedly autobiographical, so
stripped of complex conceptual trappings"
Slant
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.74
Sleater-Kinney
No Cities To Love
"From front to back there's not an ounce of flab - a perfectly
toned muscle that sits out of time in the best possible way"
DIY
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.57
Vince Staples
Summertime '06
"A triumph not just for Staples, who has never sounded this
engaging, but also for executive producer No I.D., who takes big
risks behind the boards"
AV Club
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.50
Father John Misty
I Love You Honeybear
"A messy, extravagant, astonishing, beguiling and honest
experience: that's love, and that's also what I Love You, Honeybear
is. Just magnificent"
The Line Of Best Fit
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.48
Mbongwana Star
From Kinshasa
"A gripping mix of excitement, apprehension and sensory
overload"
The Guardian
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.31
Natalie Prass
Natalie Prass
"Everything she sings here feels honest and convincing, and,
like the best soul music, her songs here transform the personal in
to the universal"
musicOMH
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.28
Courtney Barnett
Sometime I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
"Sometimes is the work of probably the best lyricist writing
today, and roundly deserves to be an album for the ages"
The Line Of Best Fit
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.24
Björk
Vulnicura
"The best in two decades from one of a handful of the
greatest artists of their era. Vulnicura is a truly significant
achievement"
Crack
More
reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
8.23
Donnie Trumpet & The Social
Experiment
Surf
"Surf succeeds on multiple levels: as a rap album, as a
soul album, as a showcase of musicianship and as proof that the
industry ladder can be ascended without a label or sales"
Exclaim
More reviews
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - - - -
- - - - -
And the next 20
11. Lone Wolf Lodge
12. Susanne Sundfør Ten Love
Songs
13. Lonelady Hinterland
14. James McMurty Complicated Game
15. Kamasi Washington The Epic
16. Jamie xx In Colour
17. Young Fathers White Men Are Black Men
Too
18. Ryley Walker Primrose Green
19. Napalm Death Apex Predator - Easy Meat
20. Jim O'Rourke Simple Songs
21. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat The Most
Important Place...
22. Bassekou Kouyaté And Ngoni Ba Ba Power
23. Lightning Bolt Fantasy Empire
24. Viet Cong Viet Cong
25. Holly Herndon Platform
26. Everything Everything Get To Heaven
27. Bop English Constant Bop
28. Torres Sprinter
29. Godspeed You! Black Emperor Assunder,
Sweet...
30. Panda Bear Panda Bear Meets Grim Reeper