Welcome to the 2015 Talkies, Talkhouse Music’s year-end writers poll. We reached out to our amazing stable of contributors — all of them are, of course, musicians — and asked them to rank their ten favorite records of 2015. Ten points go to first-place records, nine points to second place, etc. The results of the poll are below, ranking every album that received more than one vote. Congratulations to everyone who made the list — and keep an eye out for all the voters’ individual ballots, set to run January 8.
— The editors of Talkhouse Music
1. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath/Interscope) 78
2. Alabama Shakes — Sound & Color (ATO) 39
3. Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell (Asthmatic Kitty) 33
4. Wilco — Star Wars (dBpm) 26
5. U.S. Girls — Half Free (4AD) 26
6. Beach House — Depression Cherry (Sub Pop) 23
7. Algiers — Algiers (Matador) 19
8. Future — DS2 (Epic) 19
9. Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom+Pop Music) 18
10. Palm — Trading Basics (Inflated Records/Exploding in Sound) 18
11. Yo La Tengo — Stuff Like That There (Matador) 17
12. Prurient — Frozen Niagara Falls (Profound Lore) 17
13. Drew McDowall — Collapse (Dais) 16
14. Viet Cong — Viet Cong (Jagjaguwar) 16
15. Deerhunter — Fading Frontier (4AD) 16
16. Tyondai Braxton — HIVE1 (Nonesuch) 15
17. Chvrches — Every Open Eye (Glassnote Entertainment Group/Goodbye Records) 14
18. Disasterpeace — It Follows soundtrack (Milan) 14
19. Vince Staples — Summertime ’06 (Def Jam) 14
20. Zs – Xe (Northern Spy) 14
21. Empress Of — Me (Terrible/XL Recordings) 13
22. Holly Herndon — Platform (4AD) 13
23. Lana Del Rey — Honeymoon (Interscope Records) 13
24. Björk — Vulnicura (One Little Indian) 13
25. Kamasi Washington — The Epic (Brainfeeder) 12
26. Blaxxx — For No Apparent Reason (12XU Records) 12
27. Iris DeMent — The Trackless Woods (FlariElla Records) 12
28. Wax Idols — American Tragic (Collect) 12
29. D’Angelo and the Vanguard — Black Messiah (RCA) 11
30. Ryan Sawyer — One Day Your Heart Will Be Your Skin (Figure Eight) 11
31. Diät — Positive Energy (Iron Lung) 11
32. Panda Bear — Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper (Domino) 11
33. Joanna Newsom — Divers (Drag City) 9
34. The Mountain Goats — Beat The Champ (Merge) 9
35. Will Johnson — Swan City Vampires (Will Johnson/Undertow) 7
36. Grimes — Art Angels (4AD/Crystal Math Music/Eerie) 7
37. Four Tet — Morning/Evening (Text) 7
38. Carly Rae Jepsen — Emotion (Interscope/Schoolboy/Silent Records/Universal Music) 6
39. Circuit des Yeux — In Plain Speech (Thrill Jockey) 4
40. Yarn/Wire — Currents, vol. 3 (self-released) 4
