It\u2019s the holidays of 2015 and as I am writing my annual Top Album review, I\u2019m thinking about my own year.\u00a0 2015 presented some challenges both personally and professionally but as always, music gets me through! \u00a0How I listen to music changed for me and most music fans as streaming services opened up a vast array of choices and options.\u00a0 Spotify is my personal streaming source.\u00a0 My Sonos wireless sound system makes listening to my ITunes catalog, Pandora, Spotify, and personal playlists a simple choice on my phone or IPad.\u00a0 All my CD\u2019s are boxed up and in storage and I am not sure I need them anymore.\u00a0 I still buy albums (downloads) because I believe as a fan the artist should receive fair royalties, but Spotify allows me to listen to anything at any time.\u00a0 If I read a good review in the NY Times, I just look it up and play it.\u00a0 Pandora and other streaming stations will introduce things I never heard of.\u00a0 Living in Center City, with my go to music partner Dr. Jamarcus Henry living a few blocks away, gives me the opportunity to see live music almost any night. The combination of more streaming choices and live music options makes this list better and yet harder to limit to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My musical journey shifted this year to a heavier jazz influence.\u00a0 Two jazz albums are listed here, a first for my top 10 selections.\u00a0 I saw more jazz shows this year than ever.\u00a0 The best show of the year was sax player Kamasi Washington at the World Caf\u00e9 Live. \u00a0\u00a0Mr. Washington\u2019s album is three hours long, and believe it or not, I could not point to a song he should have left out.\u00a0 In a year when I saw all time jazz legends like Herbie Hancock, Chick Korea, Wynton Marsalis, and Stanley Clarke to say Kamasi and his big band was my favorite show and a top ten album tells me that jazz remains an important genre with new artists taking over for the iconic masters before them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Top 10 Albums of 2015<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryan Adams \u2013 1989<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Ryan Adams covered 1989<\/em>, the pop smash from Taylor Swift – the entire album. If you have not listened to it you are probably asking, \u201cReally Jim? A Taylor Swift cover album is your number one album??\u201d I asked myself what makes a great album? Did I listen to it constantly, is it good from beginning to end, did new songs get stuck in my head upon subsequent listens? Check, check, check. Ryan\u2019s versions are his own and do not sound like Taylor\u2019s. It made me listen to Ms. Swift\u2019s original well written pop versions. So yes, Ryan Adams\u2019 1989<\/em> was my top album for 2015 and it was an easy decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kopecky \u2013 Drugs for the Modern Age<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Formerly the Kopecky Family Band, Kopecky released their sophomore album in 2015. The six piece band from Nashville has a varied pop sound featuring different instruments (horns, cello, and lap steel guitar) and alternating vocalists.\u00a0 One critic compared their sound to somewhere between Sleigh Bells and Fleetwood Mac.\u00a0 You may have heard their songs on many different TV shows throughout the year.\u00a0 I discovered them in late spring and they stayed in the rotation throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bad Bad Hats \u2013Physic Reader<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 This is the debut album from the Minneapolis based trio Bad Bad Hats. The lead vocalist, Kerry Alexander, has a sweet, melodic voice and the songs are well written, catchy and hook filled. There are enough noisy elements to the music to keep the songs fresh and different. You may not have heard of the band, but I highly recommend checking out their sound. The album is strong from start to finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n J.D. McPherson \u2013 Let the Good Times Roll<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 JD McPherson is a singer song writer with a total retro, rock and roll sound. The music sounds like old 50-60\u2019s era music. This is the guitar player\u2019s second album and the music is very upbeat, and danceable with wide appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kamasi Washington \u2013 The Epic<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Kamasi is a tenor sax player and big band leader. His release this year was indeed \u2018Epic\u2019, both in length (3 hours!) and quality. I referenced Kamasi and his show above. He released 3-4 albums on his own label before this year\u2019s release on Brainfeeder label. He plays with everyone from Snoop, to Herbie Hancock, Chaka Kahn, Stanley Clarke and Kendrick Lamar (he played sax as part of an amazing backup band on Kendrick\u2019s highly regarded \u2018How to Pimp a Butterfly\u2019). Despite its length the album never gets stale and features some vocals and great jazz diversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hop Along \u2013 Painted Shut<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Frances Quinlan is the lead singer, writer and guitar player for this four piece band from Philly. Her voice is pure rock and roll. It can be off putting to some as she screeches and screams in between gorgeous singing. The songs tell some great stories including her hit single \u201cPowerful Man\u201d. The song is a creepy tale of a man beating his kid while the older narrator just watched. \u201cShe\u2019s not going to help you\u201d says the powerful man in reference to the girl watching the beating. Frances\u2019s brother is the band\u2019s drummer, but Frances is the driving force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lord Huron \u2013 Strange Trails<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Lord Huron\u2019s first album appeared in my 2012 Best albums. Their sophomore album Strange Trails<\/em> is not as strong as Lonesome Dreams<\/em> but good enough to make this year\u2019s Top 10. They are an indie band from LA with a dreamy rock sound. We saw them play songs from this year\u2019s album live at the Union Transfer and the music was even better live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n R. City \u2013 What Dreams are Made of<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 R. City (aka Rock City) consists of two brothers, Theron and Timothy Thomas from St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Their sound is an interesting combo of hip hop and reggae. They have written songs for many artists and released mix tapes in the past, but this is their first full studio release. Good songs all the way through and certainly a band to watch going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keith Richards \u2013 Crossed Eyed Heart<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 How is this guy still alive? At 72 the Rolling Stone icon released his 3rd<\/sup> solo album and first in 23 years (with help from the X-pensive Winos). It is classic Keith\/stones\/ blues based rock and roll. If you read his amazing autobiography \u2018Life,\u2019 you know he has lived quite the extraordinary life. Crossed Eyed Heart<\/em> has some great ballads and blues. He caused some controversy this year with his public criticism of rap music proving that Keith obviously couldn\u2019t care less what people think of him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s the holidays of 2015 and as I am writing my annual Top Album review, I\u2019m thinking about my own year.\u00a0 2015 presented some challenges both personally and professionally but as always, music gets me through! \u00a0How I listen to music changed for me and most music fans as streaming services opened up a vast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":545,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/veseycapital.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}