December 1, 2015
Here are QRO’s top-rated album reviews of the year:
Albums:
| Ryan Adams – 1989 Would you ever have guessed that Ryan Adams would want to release what is basically a cover/tribute/reinterpretation album by someone as mainstream as Taylor Swift? Read more… |
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| Adele – 25 A record that you’re gonna hear a lot of, and you’ll still enjoy. Read more… |
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| All Time Low – Future Hearts Far from being kids in the dark themselves, All Time Low have been around for over a decade and still manage to capture the attention of both old fans and new. Read more… |
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| Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us This is a record as a whole for People Who Feel Like Us. Read more… |
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| Blur – The Magic Whip Blur’s back, baby – woo-hoo! Read more… |
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| Bring Me the Horizon – That’s the Spirit No way back from loving every second of the newest studio album from British metalheads, Bring Me The Horizon. Read more… |
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| !!! – As If Dance-punk masters !!! deliver confidence – and beats – on As If. Read more… |
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| Chris Cornell – Higher Truth Easily better than his previous very soft sounding solo releases, Higher Truth by Chris Cornell opens with a great selection of artistic, expansive, vocals and guitar. Read more… |
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| Death Cab for Cutie – Kintsugi “Ho-hum, just another really nice Death Cab record… – what was that he said?” Read more… |
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| Enter Shikari – The Mindsweep Can you hear the war cry?! Read more… |
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| Florence & The Machine – How Big How Blue How Beautiful Topping charts across the world, it’s great that a sound like what Florence & The Machine are putting out is so well received – and still growing. Read more… |
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| Ben Folds – So There Ben Folds works with New York City instrumental outfit yMusic for So There. Read more… |
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| Killing Joke – Pylon Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Big Paul Ferguson are back with the 16th album by their incarnation – Killing Joke. Read more… |
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| Andy Kim – It’s Decided As iTunes and file sharing have dissolved the eras of music, where fans now listen to tracks from the fifties as easily as brand-new pieces, artists of yesteryear are getting serious reappraisals & revivals. Read more… |
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| Low – Ones and Sixes Ones and Sixes is a new high for Low. Read more… |
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| Metric – Pagans In Vegas Metric is a successful, energetic, and electronic dark indie superpower. Read more… |
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| Mew – + – Mew return and have nicely kept up the quality. Read more… |
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| Miniboone – Bad Sports Every now and then one finds an act that is so happy to be doing what they’re doing that you can’t imagine anyone not loving them. Read more… |
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| Dave Monks – All Signs Point To Yes EP All Signs Point To Yes is definitely in the same vein as Monks’ prior work in Tokyo Police Club, but lets his songwriting come to the fore. Read more… |
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| Mumford & Sons – Wilder Mind Longtime fans of Mumford & Sons will find themselves quite pleasantly surprised at the direction of this quartet on their latest album. Read more… |
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| New Order – Music Complete New Order are back with a cracking set of well crafted songs that indeed help make a Complete album. Read more… |
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| Of Monsters and Men – Beneath the Skin Alt-folk collective Of Monsters and Men go from ominous shadows to bright sun on Beneath the Skin, their follow-up to breakthrough My Head Is an Animal. Read more… |
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| A Place To Bury Strangers – Transfixiation A Place To Bury Strangers always had sonic skill behind their amps, and with each record that comes more to the fore. Read more… |
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| Ratatat – Magnifique This album feels like rainbow colors everywhere. Which is perfect for a band that is so free of lyrics or political notions. Read more… |
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| Silversun Pickups – Better Nature Silversun Pickups is an L.A. band that is polished, famous, and relies on simple guitar to do the studio work with a nightclub sound. Read more… |
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| Sleater-Kinney – No Cities To Love Sleater-Kinney are well timed to come back – especially with a new record as good as No Cities To Love is. Read more… |
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| Langhorne Slim – The Spirit Moves Langhorne Slim gives you just about everything that you’re looking for from alt-folk/country backwoods. Read more… |
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| Slug – Ripe SLUG is known as Ian Black of Field Music. His debut release, Ripe, is a unique one. Read more… |
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| Paul Smith & The Intimations – Contradictions Maxïmo Park’s Paul Smith puts out Contradictions. Read more… |
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| Chris Spedding – Joyland Chris Spedding may be the last of the great ‘70s British rock musicians. Read more… |
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| Jon Spencer Blues Explosion – Freedom Tower Jon Spencer has always been bold and Freedom Tower is no different. Read more… |
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| Christopher Paul Stelling – Labor Against Waste Christopher Paul Stelling is still a young man, and a contemporary, but everything about Labor Against Waste has the feeling and power of an ancient backwoods classic. Read more… |
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| Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell This is the Sufjan Stevens you are looking for. Read more… |
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| Wand – 1000 Days 1000 Days picks up where Ganglion Reef left off by making use of acoustic rhythm and guitar solos in a way that Golem didn’t. Read more… |
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| Patrick Watson – Love Songs For Robots Patrick Watson reappears again! Read more… |
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| Wax Idols – American Tragic Wax Idols’ American Tragic stays true to the name here. Read more… |
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| Paul Weller – Saturn’s Pattern The Jam, largely classic rock, may have been pseudo-punk at times. This does not apply to former frontman Paul Weller though, who mainly relies on softer British rock or alternative. Read more… |
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| Wire – Wire The Ten Commandments according to Wire. Read more… |
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