Top Music Of 2015
My last.fm scrobbler was half cocked this year. I dove into Apple Music which doesn’t scrobble streaming music, but I think this is still an accurate representation of my listening for the year.
The artist, and album links in the ranking tables below are Amazon affilate links that will give me a kickback to help support this website. Links in the play column link to stats on last.fm where you can stream them via Spotify.
My top artists for 2015
| Rank | Artist | Plays |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bad Religion | 558 |
| 2 | Matt Kresling | 520 |
| 3 | Ween | 512 |
| 4 | Leigh Nash | 376 |
| 5 | Thy Art Is Murder | 376 |
| 6 | Daniel Romano | 370 |
| 7 | Pinback | 322 |
| 8 | Black Breath | 289 |
| 9 | Clutch | 238 |
| 10 | Malfunction | 222 |
Some new artists have started to show up in my top tens! I do see some familiar faces, but the Apple Music subscription seems to have really added some diversity to my listening habbits—much of which are heavily influenced by misophonia complications.
My top albums for 2015
| Rank | Artist — Album | Plays |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leigh Nash — The State I’m In | 376 |
| 2 | Matt Kresling — 2 | 337 |
| 3 | Pinback — Autumn Of The Seraphs | 300 |
| 4 | Daniel Romano — If I’ve Only One Time Askin’ | 247 |
| 5 | Black Breath — Heavy Breathing | 236 |
| 6 | Thy Art Is Murder — Hate | 236 |
| 7 | Bad Religion — Against the Grain | 230 |
| 8 | Malfunction — Fear of Failure | 222 |
| 9 | Ghost — Meliora | 212 |
| 10 | Bad Religion — The Empire Strikes First | 203 |
This is where things get really interesting. This past September I started writing album reviews. Writing these reviews has done more to expose me to new music than a streaming subscription alone. The fact that my top album for the year came from one of these reviews shows that this is definately something I should be focusing more attention on. Leigh Nash’s The State I’m In is a fantastic country record. The fact that it came out in late September, 2015 and took my top album spot by such a large margin says all that needs to be said about what a great record it is.
My top songs for 2015
| Rank | Artist — Song | Plays |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leigh Nash — Cruel Heart | 56 |
| 2 | Matt Kresling — Church of Summer | 37 |
| 3 | Leigh Nash — Chicago | 37 |
| 4 | Matt Kresling — Our Turn Beneath the Wheel | 35 |
| 5 | Leigh Nash — Somebody’s Yesterday | 34 |
| 6 | Leigh Nash — Spider and the Moth | 33 |
| 7 | Pinback — From Nothing To Nowhere | 32 |
| 8 | Pinback — Walters | 32 |
| 9 | Black Breath — Black Sin (Spit On the Cross) | 32 |
| 10 | Matt Kresling — Let Your Hair Go Gray | 32 |
Yes, Cruel Heart is my favorite track on the record. It even inspired me to write a waltz number on my ukulele!
This year I really fell hard for Matt Kresling as well. He has been a staple in my library for years, but I finally got sucked into the Madagascar Journals which inspired me to hyper-indulge in is second record.
2015 was a good year for music, and I look forward to going deeper this year.