RVA Magazine’s Top Albums Of 2015: Contributor’s Top Five

by | Dec 25, 2015 | MUSIC

Our official countdown is up for everyone to see now, but here’s a little bonus for you all today to enjoy today after you sit down for your Christmas hangover.

Our official countdown is up for everyone to see now, but here’s a little bonus for you all today to enjoy today after you sit down for your Christmas hangover. Before we get into it, here’s a quick overlook of what we’ve covered so far:

Introduction & Honorable Mention

#25 – #16

#15 – #6

#5 – #1

The bonus for you all today is a look at our contributor’s individual picks for the top five records of the year. We want to thank everyone again for helping put together this project and just take a look at the wonderful diversity in records, artists, and genres below!

Dash Brown

1. The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Harmlessness
2. CHVRCHES – Every Open Eye
3. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
4. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
5. Death Cab For Cutie – Kintsugi

Josh Buck

1. Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
2. Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion
3. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
4. Grimes – Art Angels
5. Colleen Green – I Want To Grow Up

Shannon Cleary

1. Hop Along – Painted Shut
2. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love
3. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterflu
4. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
5. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

Andrew Cothern

1. Kopecky – Drug For The Modern Age
2. Kacey Musgraves – Pageant Material
3. Catfish And the Bottlemen – The Balcony
4. Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass
5. Smallpools – LOVETAP!

Anna Creech

1. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
2. Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love
3. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
4. Screaming Females – Rose Mountain
5. Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer

Cody Endres

1. Jenny Hval – Apocalypse, girl
2. Young Thug – Barter 6
3. The Mountain Goats – Beat The Champ
4. Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden Of Delete
5. Battles – La Di Da Di

Davy Jones

1. Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass
2. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
3. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
4. Jason Isbell – Something More Than Free
5. Grimes – Art Angels

Matthew Klimas

1. Hop Along – Painted Shut
2. Tamaryn – Cranekiss
3. Panda Bear – Panda Bear Meets The Grim Reaper
4. John Vanderslice – John Vanderslice Plays David Bowie’s Diamond Dogs
5. Low – Ones And Sixes

Melissa Koch

1. Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp
2. Joanna Gruesome – Peanut Buttter
3. Trust Fund – No One’s Coming For Us
4. Laura Stevenson – Cocksure
5. Miguel – Wildheart

Brad Kutner

1. HEALTH – Death Magic
2. Grimes – Art Angels
3. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06
4. Jamie XX – In Colour
5. Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion

Stephen Lecky

1. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
2. Phil Cook – Southland Mission
3. Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats – Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats
4. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
5. Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass

David Munro

1. Björk – Vulnicura
2. Majical Cloudz – Are You Alone?
3. Tame Impala – Currents
4. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
5. Grimes – Art Angels

Drew Necci

1. Pinecones – Sings For You Now
2. Self Defense Family – Heaven Is Earth
3. Deafheaven – New Bermuda
4. So Stressed – The Unlawful Trade Of Greco-Roman Art
5. Hop Along – Painted Shut

Doug Nunnally

1. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Natalie Prass – Natalie Prass
3. The Mountain Goats – Beat The Champ
4. Tame Impala – Currents
5. Hop Along – Painted Shut

Mark Osbourne

1. Freddie Gibbs – Shadow Of A Doubt
2. Travis Scott – Rodeo
3. HEALTH – Death Magic
4. Earthgang – Strays With Rabies
5. Petite Noir – La Vie Est Belle

John Reinhold

1. Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
2. Björk – Vulnicura
3. Faith No More – Sol Invictus
4. Clutch – Psychic Warfare
5. Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion

Kyle Shearin

1. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear
2. Tame Impala – Currents
3. Beach House – Depression Cherry
4. Deerhunter – Fading Frontier
5. Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy

Tyler Spindle

1. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly
2. Jamie XX – In Colour
3. Deafheaven – New Bermuda
4. Carly Rae Jepsen – Emotion
5. Vince Staples – Summertime ’06

PJ Sykes

1. Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer
2. Mac McCaughan – Non-Believers
3. Beauty Pill – Beauty Pill Describes Things As They Are
4. Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon
5. D’Angelo – Black Messiah

Daniel White

1. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell
2. Jamie xx – In Colour
3. Turnover – Peripheral Vision
4. Foals – What Went Down
5. Tame Impala – Currents

Thanks one more time to all of our contributors and don’t miss our last bonus of the day – the countdown of our favorite ten Richmond records!

Marilyn Drew Necci

Marilyn Drew Necci

Former GayRVA editor-in-chief, RVA Magazine editor for print and web. Anxiety expert, proud trans woman, happily married.




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