Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp A Butterfly is not only our current No1 but also the all-time highest rated album
ADM 2015: The 1st quarter report
We're three months into 2015 so it's time for our first look back at the most critically-acclaimed music so far this year
If the remaining three-quarters of this year continues the
trajectory set in the first quarter, then 2015 is going to go down
as a musically epochal 12 months.
Bear in mind that we were ushered into the new year by
D'Angelo And The Vanguard's Black Messiah which
catapulted ADM's long-standing all-time highest-rated album,
Frank Ocean's Channel Orange, on its release in
the dying days of 2014.
That set a very high bar, but not high enough to stop
Kendrick Lamar's 3rd album from superseding it at
the summit of the all-time rankings.
Just prior to Lamar's ecstatically-received release, the comeback
album from Washington punks Sleater-Kinney
cemented its position in the all-time top 10 while Father
John Misty's 2nd solo outing is just a few places below
and destined to remain among the most acclaimed albums in the folk
rock sphere for a good while.
It doesn't end there. Sufjan Stevens's
cathartically autobiographical ode to his deceased mother and
stepfather, the just-released Carrie & Lowell, is currently our
all-time No.5. It may yet edge higher still if there are a couple
of late 10/10 ratings to come.
Phew. And still to come are much-anticipated albums courtesy
of Grimes, Frank Ocean,
Raekwon and Deafheaven to mention
but a handful. In fact, the procession of exalted LP releases could
be very swiftly extended: Mercury Prize winners Young
Fathers will be figuring in the Current Releases chart
very soon.
As we were advised by none other than Justin Bieber, hold tight
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9.23
Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp A Butterfly
"One day, To Pimp A Butterfly could be regarded a cultural and
historical document worthy of academic discussion. It most
certainly should be"
Pretty Much Amazing
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8.81
Sufjan Stevens
Carrie & Lowell
"He's never produced an album this nakedly autobiographical, so
stripped of complex conceptual trappings"
Slant
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8.74
Sleater-Kinney
No Cities To Love
"From front to back there's not an ounce of flab - a perfectly
toned muscle that sits out of time in the best possible way"
DIY
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8.50
Father John Misty
I Love You Honeybear
"A messy, extravagant, astonishing, beguiling and honest
experience: that's love, and that's also what I Love You, Honeybear
is. Just magnificent"
The Line Of Best Fit
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8.31
Natalie Prass
Natalie Prass
"Everything she sings here feels honest and convincing, and,
like the best soul music, her songs here transform the personal in
to the universal"
musicOMH
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8.28
Courtney Barnett
Sometime I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
"Sometimes is the work of probably the best lyricist writing
today, and roundly deserves to be an album for the ages"
The Line Of Best Fit
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8.26
Björk
Vulnicura
"The best in two decades from one of a handful of the
greatest artists of their era. Vulnicura is a truly significant
achievement"
Crack
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8.17
Susanne Sundfør
Ten Love Songs
"Shows a command of artpop, chilly synthpop, and that
simultaneously joyous and desperate disco that seems to seep out of
Scandinavia in an unending flood"
The Guardian
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8.12
Lonelady
Hinterland
'With 'Hinterland' Campbell has not just crafted one of the best
albums of the year so far, but created one of the most powerful
artistic statements of 2015"
God Is In The TV
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8.05
Lightning Bolt
Fantasy Empire
"Auditory annihilation never sounded so good"
Exclaim
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And the next 20
11. Napalm Death Apex Predator - Easy
Meat
12. Viet Cong Viet Cong
13. Ryley Walker Primrose Green
14. Godspeed You! Black Emperor Asunder,
Sweet...
15. Polar Bear Same As You
16. Panda Bear Panda Bear Meets Grim Reaper
17. Bob Dylan Shadows In The Night
18. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat The Most
Important Place...
19. The Unthanks Mount The Air
20. Allison Moorer Down To Believing
21. Africa Express Presents... Terry Riley's In
C Mali
22. Jazmine Sullivan Reality Show
23. Laura Marling Short Movie
24. Tobias Jesso Jr. Goon
25. Gax Coombes Matador
26. Samba Toure Gandadiko
27. Pile You're Better Than This
28. Ghost Culture Ghost Culture
29. Lady Lamb The Beekeeper After
30. Evans The Death Expect Delays