Well, here we are at the last day of 2015. And it’s been an interesting year, as in “may you live in interesting times.” There’s nothing that can be said quickly about what’s going on around us, except that you have to hope that more people are taking a personal role in speaking out against bigotry, ignorance, and hatred, wherever it shows up. Positivity and compassion, may those ideas fill us all and shape our so-called reality.
Musically, there’s been the constant flow of new material, although to look at the charts, you’d find it hard to believe that besides a small handful of people in the eye of the media, anyone else is actually doing anything. Step away from the mainstream though, and there’s a lot of people out there, fighting the good fight and struggling to get heard in the flood of what’s available.
Someone said to me that artists who have achieved success should stand aside, and let the new come through. I really don’t agree with that, for many reasons, not the least being that to say to someone they no longer have a reason to create is to kill them, early. Let’s be grateful for the people out there who want to keep going, and do, right to the end.
We just lost a fine example of living life on your own terms, not to a mediatized schedule. Lemmy (RIP) said “If you’re going to be a fucking rock star, go be one. People don’t want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet.”
May you find your planet in 2016.
2015 Video Playlist
Top Ten Albums of 2015
Drenge – Undertow
Dave Gahan and Soulsavers – Angels and Ghosts
Duran Duran – Paper Gods
Jamie xx – In Colour
Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
Spector – Moth Boys
Wolf Alice – My Love is Cool
American Wrestlers – American Wrestlers
Dilly Dally – Sore
Mew – + –
Top Ten Songs of 2015
Dave Gahan and Soulsavers – All of This and Nothing
Duran Duran – Paper Gods
Drenge – Standing in the Cold
Kendrick Lamar – How Much a Dollar Cost
Spector – All The Sad Young Men
American Wrestlers – Wild Yonder
Mew – Water Slides
Jamie xx – Hold Tight
Dilly Dally – Desire
Bang Gang feat. Keren Ann – A Lonely Bird
Special Mentions
DTCV – Uptime!
Lull – Bubble Tea EP
