Tame Impala – “Currents”

In the best album of the year, Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker sidesteps his reputation for tasty guitar licks and Led Zeppelin comparisons in favor of a synthesizer and an electronic aesthetic. Rife with lover’s lament (“I know that I’ll be happier, and I know you will too…eventually”) is a break-up album that makes for great beach music. If Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon recorded his tear-jerking classic “For Emma, Forever Ago” in the solitude of a Wisconsin hunting cabin the dead of winter, Parker retreated to the solitude of a spaceship fueled by Stevie Wonder B-sides and Australian sunshine to write “Currents.” If that doesn’t sound convincing, it’s because I’m realizing how hard it is to afford honest praise whilst sounding self-aware of my overzealousness and pretentiousness. Breaking the fourth wall is so passé. Five stars.

Album favorites: “The Less I Know the Better” (the music video is crazy), “Let it Happen,” “The Moment,” “Cause I’m a Man”

Kendrick Lamar – “To Pimp a Butterfly”

The No. 1  album on everyone else’s Best Of lists and the 11 Grammy-nominated garnering masterpiece brimming with socio-political commentary on the African American community makes tough fodder for the white Humor Columnist of a private school in upstate New York. I predict by the year 2032 it will be required listening in high schools, and with jazz-funk production from Thundercat (“Them Changes” was one of the best songs of the year), Flying Lotus and Kamasi Washington, kids will be pumped to do their homework. “The poem at the end is worth waiting for” isn’t praise you can give to many other hip-hop albums. Five stars.

Album favorites: “King Kunta,” “Mortal Man,” “Alright”

Jamie XX – “In Colour”

Maybe Jamie XX can put together a Grammy-nominated dance/electronic album, but he can’t even spell “color” properly. The inferiority of the British spelling aside (the “u” stands for “unnecessary”), “In Colour” is an insanely complete electronic album. Pausing only briefly for the summer’s best singles, “Loud Places” and “I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times),” it runs seamlessly front-to-back, each song tied together like you’re listening to a live DJ set. I’m just grateful someone realized how cool it sounds to sample and loop steel drums. Five stars.

Album favorites: “Gosh” (hilarious if you’ve ever been to a rave), “Loud Places,” “Obvs”

Drake – “If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late”

Drake deserves to be on any year-end list simply because he constituted about 30 percent of popular culture in 2015. Drake’s been on the top of his game for years, but this year he used an album he was going to release for free to sell millions, while simultaneously destroying my beloved Meek Mill in a rap beef and eliciting the most memes (for better or worse) of any album this decade. Turtlenecks and bad dancing a la “Hotline Bling” have been my thing for years — thanks for helping everyone else catch up, Drizzy. Five stars.

Album favorites: “No Tellin,” “6 God,” “Legend,” “Energy”

Courtney Barnett – “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit”
Father John Misty – “I Love You, Honeybear”
Earl Sweatshirt – “I Don’t Like S***, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt”

We’ll call it a three-way tie for fifth position in lieu of extending the list to 10 albums. If I did that, the last two would just be a crapshoot. All three albums are deserving of a spot on the list and your attention. Fifteen stars combined between the three.

Any of the albums mentioned would be the perfect soundtrack to sitting around and doing nothing in your pajamas, so get listening and happy holidays.

Evan Hohenwarter is a senior advertising major who is almost as modest as he is handsome. He can be reached at emhohenw@syr.edu or on Twitter at @evanhohmbre.

Published on December 24, 2015 at 1:56 pm