Fantano described 2015 as "a really chaotic and volatile year for music."
As part of an annual tradition, the "Internet's Busiest Music Nerd" Anthony Fantano of The Needle Drop got back to his roots at WNPR where he used to intern and shared some of his favorite music of the year on Where We Live.
This year's picks include some pop records, hip-hop, jazz, and several genre-defying tracks. After listening to hundreds of new releases, Fantano described 2015 as "a really chaotic and volatile year for music."
One noticeable trend, Fantano said, is the length of albums.
"I feel like the internet age, and just the indulgence of the art form today has allowed so many artists to put out so many long, long albums," Fantano said. "I'm not really sure why that's happening, but maybe it's just the ease of putting out music digitally allows artists to put out anything and everything and not really edit themselves."
Listen to some of Fantano's favorite songs below.
Advisory: some of these songs have explicit language.
Missy Elliott - "WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams"
Fantano's take: It is a kooky, nutty, hard-hitting track. It's such a danceable, fun song, from the moment I heard it, it was one of my favorite singles of the year.
Kendrick Lamar - "The Blacker the Berry"
Fantano's take: There are very few albums in the hip-hop genre that can go toe-to-toe with this record on a conceptual level. He's really the only artist out there that I think is making music that is this socially conscious, this politically charged, but simultaneously, he makes music that can grab the ear of a radio listener.
Everything Everything - "Distant Past"
Fantano's take: The latest album they’ve put out is called "Get To Heaven" and it’s a really progressive pop album – pretty much every track here has a strong hook, and really great melodies, but the instrumentation is so intricate, and it’s so layered. I love the hook, it reminds me of just, so many bad but also simultaneously good euro-pop hooks.
Father John Misty - "The Night Josh Tillman Came to Our Apartment"
Fantano's take: He sort of seems to pick up on all of these weird personality traits of, I imagine a woman, who he’s singing about in this song, and just sort of picks apart at them like an over-zealous therapist or something. It’s got a bit of a Velvet Underground vibe to it, but also given that it is Josh Tillman and his connections to Fleet Foxes it’s got kind of a neo-indie folk edge that I like as well.
Destroyer - "Times Square"
Fantano's take: It’s a great song, and it’s rare that you run across a singer who’s as expressive as him, and a singer that also sounds like they're simultaneously acting while they’re singing, and it’s been a while since someone’s romanticized Times Square.
Benjamin Clementine - "Adios"
Fantano's take: His songs are very much not about verses and choruses...they’re very linear. He’s telling a story. If you love hearing dramatic theatrical music with strong pianos in the background and very expressive vocals you have to check out his new record.
Julia Holter - "Sea Calls Me Home"
Fantano's take: Her music is very peppy, very upbeat, sounds very heavenly. I feel like I’m just listening to nothing but harps and angels, and golden gates; just very pillowy clouds, golden sunbeams as I’m listening to this new record of hers.
Björk - "Stonemilker"
Fantano's take: The album is a break up album of sorts. If you look into the track listing there are songs that specifically say ‘this happened nine months before the break up,’ so you really kind of trip through this emotional torment of hers on this record and there are just a lot of sad, powerfully sad moments on this album, but the music is just beautiful.
Kamasi Washington - "Miss Understanding"
Fantano's take: When him and his friends are getting together and playing jazz, the thing is in that era there’s not a whole lot of people to play with, because it seems there are less and less young people taking to the genre – everybody needs to embrace everything. If you’re making a three hour jazz record, you’re probably going to have to go outside of the standards, you’re going to have to play some of the other styles of jazz just to kind of fill up that run time – so a lot of this music came as a result of how much him and his friends just love every shade of the genre.
Amanda Gallagher contributed to this post.
