Top 10 Most Overrated Albums of 2015:

Every year the overrated album rises to new heights and every year I put the smack down. Let's proceed:






1. Jamie XX In Colour: as if the music made by his band (The XX) wasn’t overhyped enough, Jamie now has gone solo and critics have fallen for his lo/fi atmospherics again. To be fair, this is better than anything the band has ever done though. I’ll tune in when he gets serious about lyrics.





2. Tame Impala Currents: Pitchfork’s reviewer compared it to Loveless and Kid A---nigga please, this isn’t even better than their last album!





3. Kurt Vile B’lieve I’m Going Down…: dunno Kurt, might be time to rejoin The War On Drugs.





4. Jason Isbell Something More Than Free: well-received, with only Pitchfork going out of its way to be mean, but Isbell’s album has punched above its weight because of his soulful voice—no other reason can explain why critics loved it so much.





5. Sleater-Kinney No Cities To Love: good to have you back ladies, now let’s really have an album’s worth of grrl hits next time.





6. Natalie Prass Natalie Prass: I honestly feel she benefitted by putting this out early in the year, hence all the praise.





7. Future DS2: a one-trip lyricist who only occasionally finds the right groove.





8. Carly Rae Jepson Emotion: nice but others do this pop game better.





9. Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear: finding his inner virginal queer is all good and done but it wasn’t that earth-shattering.





10. Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit And Think…: in many regards this is not justifiable but then again, the album is half pop gems and half um, well, not pop gems. Barnett has to learn to maintain her dynamism right throughout her albums instead of fizzing out of ideas half way through.

Top 15 Most Disappointing Albums of 2015:

The most immediate thing that stood out for me was how many of my best new artists class of 2013 made the list. It's not easy entering the scene in spectacular fashion, only to return with diminished results. But, this isn't to shame but more to encourage. For the first time, I've included albums that were not released, even though they were promised...in this social media era the fans want are promised to them and that includes new music.

Here's the list:










1. Jamaican Queens Downers: if I were Jewish, this is where I’d let out a huge ‘Oy…”





2. Cee-lo Green Heart Blanche: I blame ‘The Voice’ for this and his need to conform to modern pop expectations with some corny-ass lyrics.





3. Radkey Dark Black Makeup: punk mission detour? I hope not…





4. THEESatisfaction EarthEE: sometimes a groovy underground band stays too much—and too long—in character…





5. Mac Demarco Another One: an apt title, as opposed to The One.





6. Alabama Shakes Sound And Colour: three years is a long time between releases but, even with the band’s emerging fame, the sophomore, surprisingly, manages to box in Howard’s amazing vocals instead of setting fire to them.





7. Autre Ne Veut Age of Transparency: too early to shout one-trick pony but let’s hope when we look back on his career we won’t say ‘buy the debut and skip the rest’.





8. Lana del Rey Honeymoon: “Oh Lord, please don’t let/ me be misunderstood”, Lana croons on the ending track. I have the advice: quit with the sad, droopy music, love.





9. Charli XCX Sucker: kinda feels like a sell-out effort because we know, lyrically, she’s better than this.





10. Active Child Mercy: it’s always dismal when a talented act loses their plot and seemingly have no way of getting out of the mess. Pat Grossi used to produce mesmerizing electronic ditties but now all he cares about is expressing sadness—instead of realizing the dance genre cannot expand that way. He needs some rage and quick.





11. Summer Camp Bad Love: a perfectly charming album but we’ve heard the duo sound much arty so at this point of their career we expect much more.





12. Angel Haze Back To The Woods: technically a toss away mixtape before the real thing but it was still patchy at best.





13. Beach House Depression Cherry: when even indie critics who defend this band with their lives don’t have it in year-end top 10 lists, then you know it disappointed.





14. ASAP Rocky At Long Last ASAP: he’s started to get stuck.





15. No Kanye West or Frank Ocean album: the entire year was dominant of new work from these two and here we are still waiting.

2015 BEST NEW ARTISTS:

A lot of new bands but not many making a blimp on my radar. Here are the one that did:




THE YEAR'S BEST NEW ARTIST IS:



Meghan Remy: yea yea, she's not new but this is her new big label debut and, woosah, its smoking! We want U.S.Girls around always.




THE REST (in no particular order):



Young Thug:freaky talent.



James Petralli: his solo output (as Bop English) is so much better than when he's in his band.



Shamir:gender-smashing house/hop.



Will Butler: away from the proclaim of Arcade Fire but still shining with a promising solo LP.



Tobias Jesso Jr.:the new white soul class has arrived.



Tink: no shortage of female rappers but look out for this one.



Day Wave: real emotion.



Young Guv:little by little he's getting there.



Alessia Cara: only 19 but that voice, wow!

Top 15 Worst Films of 2015 (That I Saw):

It's been a dismal year so why waste time examining the carcass? Here are the films that made me cringe the most:






1. Knock Knock: an absurd tale of a married man not being able to resist two young seductresses. If the plot wasn’t hooey enough, Keanu Reeves completely messes up every single line of dialogue that spews from his lips. (DIRECTED BY ELI ROTH)




2. Lake Placid Vs. Anaconda: B-movie obviously but damn, the alligators’ jaws don’t even move when eating human prey… (DIRECTED BY A.B. STONE)






3. The Boy Next Door: Jenny from the block in search of young white jock peen and it costs her far more than she thought it would, including nutty, wooden dialogue... over and over again. (DIRECTED BY ROB COHEN)






4. Seventh Son: the countless delays of this project was warning enough how putrid it is but even the global box office intake confirmed that the public didn’t care for Julianne Moore (who should have known better) as Mother Malkin, a witch who has a ridiculous decades-old battle with a hunter named Gregory, a drunk-sounding Jeff Bridges (working hella hard to land a Razzie). He’s, by far, the worst thing here—in a minefield of pretty horrible action all around. (DIRECTED BY SERGEI BODROV)






5. #Horror: shockingly senseless. (DIRECTED BY TARA SUBKOFF)






6. Zombieworld: gutter-level foolishness. 9DIRECTED BY VARIOUS PERSONS)






7. Mortdecai: the point at which the end of Johnny Depp’s box office appeal began. For once, the parody he performs runs flat and takes everyone out with him. Rated SU for severely unfunny. (DIRECTED BY DAVID KOEPP)






8. The Last Witch Hunter: for Vin Diesel, less should always be more, as in the words he speaks. (DIRECTED BY BRECK EISNER)






9. Ted 2: admittedly not as horrible as its prequel but even so the political incorrectness has long run thin. (DIRECTED BY SETH MACFARLANE)






10. The Ouija Experiment 2: insipid and basic. (DIRECTED BY ISRAEL LUNA)





11. Paul Blart Mall Cop 2: blah blah blah… (DIRECTED BY ANDY FICKMAN)





12. Poltergeist: taking an iconic scary 80s flick and cleansing it of any genuine scares in the name of modernism is just plain dumb. (DIRECTED BY GIL KENAN)





13. Vice: came out early in the year but its cheap-looking narrative hasn’t been forgotten nor Bruce Willis forgiven. (DIRECTED BY BRIAN A. MILLER)





14. Pay The Ghost: no year-end worst films list would be complete without Cage and he doesn’t disappoint in this B tepid pot-boiler. (DIRECTED BY ULI EDEL)





15. Terminator: Genisys: let’s hope Arnold won’t be back. (DIRECTED BY ALAN TAYLOR)