My Official 2015 Top 20 Rekkids

In another post below, I listed 116 discs from 2015 that I thought were plenty good. Should you have cared, just reading it might have seemed daunting balanced against trying to properly live your life. For folks with less time on their hands, here is the Top 20 I’m going to send in to the various polls to which I am asked to contribute, followed by my favorite 15 “archival digs”–collections of old stuff that demands reconsideration, but shouldn’t properly take up space on a REAL EOY Top 20.

1. Jack DeJohnette: Made in Chicago (ECM)
2. Kendrick Lamar: to pimp a butterfly (Aftermath)
3. Jeffrey Lewis & Los Bolts: Manhattan (Rough Trade)
4. Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom & Pop)
5. John Kruth: The Drunken Wind of Life—The Poem/Songs of Tin Ujevic (Smiling Fez)
6. Irene Schweizer, and Han Bennink: Welcome Back (Intakt)
7. 79rs Gang: Fire on the Bayou (Sinking City)
8. Africa Express: Terry Riley’s “In C”—Mali (Transgressive)
9. Willie Nelson and Sister Bobbie: December Day (Legacy)
10. Allen Lowe with Hamiet Bluiett: We Will Gather When We Gather (self-released)
11. x_x: Albert Ayler’s Ghosts Live at the Yellow Ghetto (Smog Veil)
12. Coneheads: P. aka “14 Year Old High School PC–Fascist Hype Lords Rip Off Devo for the Sake of Extorting $$$ from Helpless Impressionable Midwestern Internet Peoplepunks L.P.” (Erste Theke Tontraeger)
13. J. D. Allen: Graffiti (Savant)
14. Nots: We Are Nots (Goner)
15. Los Lobos: Gates of Gold (429)
16. Heems: Eat Pray Thug (Megaforce)
17. Erykah Badu: But You Cain’t Use My Phone (self-released)
18. Songhoy Blues: Music in Exile (Atlantic)
19. Drive-By Truckers: It’s Great to Be Alive! (ATO)
20. Wreckless Eric: AMEricA (Fire)

Top 15 Archival Digs or Comps

1. Bobby Rush: Chicken Heads—A 50-Year History(Omnivore)
2. The Velvet Underground: The Complete Matrix Tapes (Polygram)
3. Continental Drifters: Drifting—In the Beginning and Beyond (Omnivore)
4. Various Artists: Ork Records–New York, New York (Numero)
5. Jerry McGill: AKA Jerry McGill (CD) + Very Extremely Dangerous (DVD) (Fat Possum)
6. Dead Moon: Live at Satyricon (Voodoo Doughnut)
7. Various Artists: The Year of Jubilo (Old Hat)
8. Various Artists: Beale Street Saturday Night (Omnivore)
9. Various Artists: Burn, Rubber City, Burn (Soul Jazz)
10. Sun Ra: To Those of Earth…and Other Worlds–Gilles Peterson Presents Sun Ra And His Arkestra (Strut)
11. Bob Marley & The Wailers: Easy Skankin’ in Boston, 1978 (Tuff Gong)
12. The Falcons: The World’s First Soul Group—The Complete Recordings (History of Soul)
13. J. B. Smith: No More Good Time in the World For Me (Dust-To-Digital)
14. Ata Kak: Obaa Sima (Awesome Tapes from Africa)
15. Reactionaries: 1979 (Water Under the Bridge)