Staff Picks: The Best Music of 2015

2015 was, again, a stellar year for music. From small, unexpected releases to established acts releasing star-making albums, our ears were extremely pleased with the impressively diverse and genre-spanning releases this year. As the year draws to a close, the Unhemmed staff picked their favorite releases of this year.

Scott Wicken - Editor In Chief
Leon Bridges - Coming Home
Incredible debut of soulful tunes, it sounds like beauty from another era. It's short and sweet but I kept going back to it.
Jamie xx - In Color
Beautiful, eclectic, and genre-defying electronic music. Dance or chill, it's entirely up to you.
Future - Dirty Sprite 2
Welcome to the sound of Atlanta...money, blunts, Lean, and Magic City. Even the 6-God himself, Drake (who also killed it in 2015), couldn't outshine Future's flow this year.
Honorable Mention: The Weeknd - Beauty Behind The Madness
Maybe because I saw him live this year or maybe because the Michael Jackson vibes were strong but I couldn't help myself. His music is everywhere but I'm still not sick of it yet.

Patrick Green - Lifestyle Writer
D'Angelo and the Vanguard - Black Messiah
This timely throwback comeback album was worth the wait.
Tame Impala - Currents
Ambitious space pop romp sticks its landing with "Let It Happen", my single of the year.
Jaime xx - In Colour
Intimate rave music sends us back to the future of London House.

Reginald Christian - Style Writer
Jasmine Sullivan - Reality Show
One of the best R&B albums of the year, her vocals are like fireworks filled with raw and bold emotions.
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
This album will go down as one of the best poetic albums of the decade, packed with grappling lyrical work.
Miguel - Wildheart
This is an all-around feel good album; he's able to evoke the sensual vibes and sounds of Prince at his peak.

Ken Conrad - Lifestyle Writer
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
Throughout "To Pimp a Butterfly" what you most hear in the album is hip hop in the days of old, when rap didn't feel boring or cliche, and sound identical to pop music. That rap can actually still be radical and revolutionary while harkening back to old school sounds.
Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz - Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz
Say what you want about Miley Cyrus, Dead Petz is the boldest, ballsiest, and strangest collection of pop songs in years, the kind of stuff that reminds you what pop music can do in a time overrun by singers who sound exactly the same and sing songs all written by committee.
Late Night Alumni - Eclipse
The album doesn't reinvent the wheel, but this EDM group does manage to make some of the year's best chill house grooves.

Brian Wilder - Style Writer
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
A masterpiece, from start to finish. Artfully captured the essence of what originally made hip-hop one of the most powerful genres in modern music.
Chris Stapleton - Traveller
It's likely you didn't hear about him until his fantastic performance with Justin Timberlake at the Academy of Country Music Awards a few months ago. True country; the epitome of "brown liquor" music.
Thundercat - The Beyond/Where the Giants Roam
Super funky with otherworldly musical concepts, this album moved the body and stirred the soul.