Welcome to Album of the Year 2015 for mxdwn.com. Hopefully you’ve already read our Song of the Year feature over here. If you’re an avid reader of mxdwn, you know that we pride ourselves on trying always focus on the best in music removed of hype and pure trendiness. Over the many years we’ve done these features, many times we felt in sync with our fellow music journalism sites and competitors. Sometimes it’s obvious, an album like My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy or …Like Clockwork truly deserve top honors. However, this year, we felt completely out of sync with nearly every other publication. Without bagging on any particular artist that ranked highly everywhere, let’s just say, we really believe almost every other pub left most of this year’s outstanding music on the table. We won’t try to tell you that we were perfect either, but it fills me with pride to present this feature to you in all it’s hell-bent for diversity, ultra scrutinized glory. Crafted by 20+ writers from the mxdwn team, here is Album of the Year 2015. Featured image photo by Raymond Flotat

50. Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden of Delete Garden of Delete is a dark tangle of flowers and thorns, a complex and artsy sort of vaporwave that is unmatched and truly contemporary. – Sean Taras

49. Battles – La Di Da Di Odd and lively, clean and colorful, La Di Da Di is a synesthetic jam record with tinges of Talking Heads that sounds like a plastic rainbow. – Sean Taras

48. Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness If there were ever to be a soundtrack to the life of a twenty-something, this would be it. – Lauren Doyle

47. Meg Myers – Sorry Myers uncompromisingly bares her essence to unravel the fragility and intrinsic beauty of the soul. – Cayla Bleoaja

46. Dave Rawlings Machine – Nashville Obsolete Being their second full-length album, Nashville Obsolete is an overpowering force of musicianship and craft. – Ryan Fricke

45. Telekinesis – Ad Infinitum On Telekinesis’s fourth full-length, singer/songwriter/drummer Michael Lerner combines pops of both the Brit and synth-variety to produce his own distinct brand of zany, keyboard-fueled alt-rock. – Conor Fagan

44. The New Regime – Exhibit B Consistent, lyrical alt-rock that sports anthemic highlights like “We Rise, We Fall”. Doesn’t try to overcompensate and is all the better for it. – Patrick Smith

43. Mew – +/- Combines hooky vocal melodies with well-placed atmospheric instrumentals, and results in an effective slice of indie pop. – Patrick Smith

42. SUNN 0))) – Kannon Sunn O)))’s ode to the Goddess of Mercy is uncharacteristically catchy, characteristically grim and painfully brief. – Bill Washburn 41. Carly Rae Jepsen – E·MO·TION E·MO·TION proves that Carly Rae Jepsen is more than her smash hit “Call Me Maybe.” E·MO·TION takes the concept of a pop record to a whole new level with the addition of prominent funky bass, eccentric percussion, and lush soundscapes. – Natalie Cahill 40. Deradoorian – The Expanding Flower Planet Deradoorian album, The Expanding Flower Planet, reveals the combinations that often fueled her into making an album of her own. Deradoorian captures everything in a manner similar to Pink Floyd, everything intricately detailed and wondrous to the ears. – Heather Elizabeth 39. Secret Chiefs 3: Ishraqiyun – Perichoresis The second LP from a SC3 “satellite band” is as many decades is a surprisingly cohesive, brain-exploding maze of bizarre polyrhythms, microtones, Middle Eastern/North African/South Asian/Western instrumentation, synthesizers and mysticism. – Bill Washburn 38. Screaming Females – Rose Mountain Takes the meat and potatoes rock approach to great heights, with riffs aplenty and spirited vocal performances. The production is crisp and pronounced, and the record is paced with slower moments at just the right times. – Patrick Smith 37. The Early November – Imbue Catchy and emotional, blending the feel of their early 2000s origins with more current post-hardcore and shoe-gaze elements, The Early November will tug on every heartstring you’ve got with Imbue. – Laura Ansill 36. Django Django – Born Under Saturn Born Under Saturn is jammed packed with the ethereal vocals and the psychedelic synth sounds of the London based, Scottish quartet Django Django. It’s an obvious soundtrack of my future dance parties and forthcoming lone explorations, alike. – Cristina Pimental 35. Blur – The Magic Whip After a 12-year album hiatus, Blur came back in 2015 with The Magic Whip, which was as retro-English-rock sounding as ever; however, this time, coinciding with the album’s artwork, the songs see hints of Southeast Asian influences. – Kristina Kokkonos 34. Napalm Death – Apex Predator – Easy Meat Pioneers in the realm of “fucking shit up,” Napalm Death will forever serve as everyone’s beacon of destruction. Apex Predator-Easy Meat serves as an additional soundtrack to your arsenal. – Cervante Pope 33. The Weeknd – Beauty Behind The Madness With lyrics evocatively self-aware and a defiantly independent aesthetic, the Weeknd’s star-studded album unleashes Abel Tesfaye’s most intimate and transformational material, as the once indistinct mask of anonymity peels away. – Cayla Bleoaja 32. Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss Heavy rocker Chelsea Wolfe experimented with distorted sounds and metallic sounds on her 8th studio album, Abyss, but many of the songs are punctuated with her slow, ethereal vocal melodies – making the album hauntingly beautiful as a whole. – Kristina Kokkonos 31. Rolo Tomassi – Grievances Rolo Tomassi’s fourth studio album, Grievances, reveals everything there is about Rolo Tomassi and a whole lot more. Their experimental style is anything but ordinary; Rolo Tomassi is everything chaotic and beautiful. – Heather Elizabeth 30. Teenage Time Killers – Greatest Hits Vol. 1 Greatest Hits Vol. 1, the cleverly named debut album from hard rock supergroup Teenage Time Killers, is exactly the heavy as all heck release you could expect from such a lineup. – Laura Ansill 29. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell Stevens’s best album to date – hands down. This album is a personal journey through loss, grief and ultimately dealing with the death of others and our own. Stevens’s voice is at its best and most vulnerable. The album can easily be interpreted as a sonic photo album, moments in the life of shadow in the life of Stevens. – Mason Sams 28. Between the Buried and Me – Coma Ecliptic Back in the “scene” days, if Between the Buried and Me wasn’t on your black, sticker-covered iPod Classic, you weren’t s**t. Nowadays, it’s kind of the same way. The progressive-metalers have seen numerous changes, but Coma Ecliptic still seems to properly represent the band’s intended sound. It’s melodic and pleasantly dramatic at times, while still riding the wave of brutality. – Cervante Pope 27. Ratatat – Magnifique In a word – tight. Ratatat’s Magnifique is a bright and fun album full of tight grooves that proves art doesn’t have to be a downer to be smart. Blazing guitar riffs run new wave, pop-punk, oldies and funk influences that all roll up into a delightfully varied and modern throwback. – Sean Taras 26. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit Courtney Barnett’s debut LP is a fun ride from start to finish, despite containing songs titled “An Illustration of Loneliness (Sleepless in New York)” and “Debbie Downer.” The album starts strong and fast with the upbeat, quasi-anecdotal “Elevator Operator” and the momentum carries throughout the 11-song standard album. Other highlights include the catchy chorus of “Dead Fox” and of course Barnett’s impressive guitar playing, which differs from track to track but maintains a consistently unique sound. – Jackie April Ruth 25. Lamb of God – Sturm Und Drang Starting as Burn the Priest and ending as Lamb of God, the Richmond, Virginia band brought heavy metal back to life in the states back in the 90s. The band’s 8th studio release, Storm Und Drang perfectly states Lamb of God’s refusal to hang up their instruments and dissipate into normality. – Cervante Pope 24. Primitive Race – Primitive Race The sheer pedigree of Primitive Race is mind-blowing, with some members having spent time with legends of industrial music like of KMFDM and Skinny Puppy, and others having experience working with electronic music innovators like Tricky and Gary Numan. Primitive Race came from humble beginnings, rooted in a Twitter campaign which evolved into a real-life band after a successful Indiegogo fund-raising project. The result is a self-titled LP which serves as a melting pot of industrial ideas and sounds like little else being released in any genre. – Matt Matasci 23. High on Fire – Luminiferous HIGH on F*&%*%&$*G FIRE. Really what more needs to said? They are probably the best metal band out right now and Lumiferous is as heavy as an elephant eating at a hometown buffet. The onslaught of this record is out of control. From the opening riff of “The Black Pot” to “The Falconist,” this album is incredible. Hell it cracked the top 25 on a list that includes Kendrick Lamar, Chvrches and Tame Impala. One of the best metal releases of the year. – Brian Adler 22. Happy Fangs – Capricorn With all the subgenres being used lately, it’s becoming harder and harder to find a band that will just give you pure, hard rock and roll. Thankfully we have Happy Fangs to answer the call for something that just rips. Capricorn has all the fun and fuzz any rocker could want. – Laura Ansill 21. Joy Williams – VENUS VENUS is the fifth studio album that Joy Williams has released since her break into the solo world in 2001 and her individual talent has bloomed into something explicitly amazing. VENUS, with its obvious tilt toward female empowerment in its name, is the perfect catalyst to the fire of equality that Williams preaches to awaken with all her listeners. – Ryan Fricke 20. Grimes – Art Angels Her wide range of musical influences bleed through this album. Grimes is the peak of modern electronic, with synth-pop laden in nearly every track, unnervingly catchy melodies and harmonies, and even parts from a song or two that sound derived from a classic RPG soundtrack. This album sticks with the brain. – Mason Sams 19. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly The haunting, frenzied, chaotic and often dramatic stylings that make Kendrick Lamar a true artist have culminated in his epic release of To Pimp a Butterfly earlier this year. Being no stranger to making solid top 40 hits in the past, it is an awe-striking wonder to see him smash D’Angelo’s eclectic comeback Black Messiah from last year into the ground as he draws from influences ranging from jazz and r&b to funky soul, creating one of the most relevant and jaw-dropping albums of the year. Hence, we have no choice but to add him to our top 20 list. – Rachel Zimmerman 18. Big Grams – Big Grams “No matter what I do to break your heart, I know you’ll always love me” – Goldmine Junkie,” Big Grams. No truer words have ever been spoken by Big Boi of Outkast fame. In his most recent self-titled EP endeavor with Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter of the Phantograms as the Big Grams, the super group coyly intermingle their respective hip hop and electronic personas on seven tracks to create an unexpectedly electrifying dance record. Although sometimes riddled with tepid lyrics that leave you longing for the past lyrical genius of Big Boi, the infectious beats of producer Skrillex coupled with the effortless New York cool of the Phantograms elevate this EP to an experimental success that easily transforms the Big Grams into a band we love in 2015! – Cristina Pimental 17. Speedy Ortiz – Foil Deer Speedy Ortiz exploded out of the Western Massachusetts punk scene into national prominence with the release of Foil Deer on Carpark Records in April. The songs utilize angular guitar riffs and driving choruses to form the bedrock over which Sadie Dupuis unleashes her unmistakable vocal hooks. The album quickly gained momentum on the back of initial singles like “Raising the Skate” and “The Graduates,” but the true strength of Foil Deer was its front-to-back replay value. “Puffer” saw them venture into uncharted territory with feedback-filled, funk-inflected grooves; “Dead White Girl” showed off Dupuis’ songwriting skills with stark morbidity. Dupuis’ genius lyricism and incredible work ethic are making the future look bright for Speedy Ortiz. – Matt Matasci 16. Baroness – Purple Usually near-death experiences and horrific crashes spell the end of a band. But in Baroness’ case, and despite the amicable departure of drummer Allen Blickle and bassist Matt Maggioni, it proved the prelude to their most accomplished album since their landmark Red LP. New members Nick Jost and Sebastian Thomson have made admirable contributions and the band sounds re-invigorated and inspired. What we are left with is the conviction that Baroness has not only emerged from the other side of perdition, but emerged triumphantly with a record that is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of the decade thus far. – Matthew Landis 15. Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon Honeymoon, Lana Del Rey’s newest and most mystical album to date, furthers her Old Hollywood aesthetic to an incredible extent with her sorrowful crooning and Los Angeles inspired tracks. The album cover boasts an image of Del Rey draped over a Hollywood star tour bus, accurately setting the tone for the haunting, glamour soaked tracks that make up the transcendental album. Honeymoon seems to be Del Rey’s more mature and reserved follow up to Ultraviolence, almost as if her soul had suddenly aged ten years after its release. It’s an impressive and whimsical record, with much more depth to it than its leading single “High By The Beach”. – Natalie Cahill 14. Doomtree – All Hands Doomtree operates as both a collective and a record label, making this super-group more tight-knit than your average hip-hop collaboration. Based in Minneapolis, MN, the group consists of rappers Dessa, Cecil Otter, P.O.S., Sims, Mike Mictlan as well as producers Paper Tiger and Lazerbeak. The beats on their third official studio album All Hands are exceptional and unforgettable, but the group really earns its stripes through dexterous, intellectual lyricism that can be heard throughout its many verses. Keeping a song interesting when five MCs are taking turns on the mic can be dangerous territory; one bunk verse and the entire song can be sunk. It may sound corny, but the well-roundedness of All Hands is owed to a group effort, or an “all hands on deck” mentality. Standout songs from the record include the opener “Final Boss” as well as singles “.38 Airweight” and “Gray Duck.” – Matt Matasci 13. Myrkur – M This paean to black metal past found its origin in an unlikely place – the feminine half of indie popsters Ex Cops. With the help of one Trickster G. Rex, Amalie Bruun traded in her Blondie-esque prancing for a long and somber walk through the cold climes and sere textures of Scandinavia, building her debut full-length M around the juxtaposition of haunting folk and choral arrangements, and wicked, low-fidelity blasts of trve black metal aggression. Texturally adventurous and often hauntingly beautiful, Myrkur’s promising foray has shattered black metal’s obsidian ceiling, proving that women too are capable of wearing garish makeup and screaming unintelligibly but convincingly about foreboding nonsense. – David Sano 12. Kurt Vile – b’lieve i’m goin’ down It wouldn’t be a year end list without everyone’s favorite moonfaced indie rock jokester to crack the top twenty. While Vile’s cleaned up his production for country rock ramblers like “Pretty Pimpin’,” and “I’m An Outlaw” – few echoes, noise and vocal filter effects swirl in a cloud above the actual music this time around – his coy artistic voice remains undiluted. Vile still leans heavily on his seemingly infinite well of droll one-liners like “Going nowhere slow” and “Young and dumb and full of / ‘Come over to my house, there’s a party goin’ on here,’” each of which paint the songwriter’s “unappreciated but wickedly funny weird guy in the corner” persona in more vivid detail. It makes you wonder if this goofy cynic ever gets bored chalking up all these constant hits. – Conor Fagan 11. The Gentle Storm – The Diary Set against the exhilarating backdrop of the Dutch Golden Age and taking its inspiration from a doomed romance between Susanne Vermeer and her seafaring husband, Joseph Warwijck, The Diary offers not just an ambitious concept, but an audacious format as well. The album is presented twice, once as acoustic folk, and once as symphonic metal. Anneke van Giersbergen’s melodious voice is a constant throughout, while Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s compositions manage to incorporate a vast array of old world elements in both formats. Sweeping, immersive and lovely, The Diary is a complete and multifaceted statement – one that fans of both European folk and metal’s softer side would be wise to explore. – David Sano 10. Tame Impala – Currents What sets Tame Impala apart from other groups today is the fusion between 60s and 70s psychedelic rock and the world of modern electronic as of 2015. Each track is laden with delay, phasers and completely wet with reverb as the group takes the listener through a dreamscape that’s familiar and new all in one drifting feeling. While some tracks appear slow, there is serenity surrounding each rhythmic nook and cranny. Currents is loud, but relaxing, like a gentle boat ride down a river, sometimes transient in spirit, and yet evocative enough to the senses to insight movement through you. The music finds its way into the ears and through your feet like a lightning bolt. The fact that creator, Kevin Parker, was most inspired by listening to the Bee Gees on a mushroom trip is essentially all there is to know. This is the future of electronic. – Mason Sams 9. Corrections House – Know How To Carry A Whip On Know How to Carry a Whip, Corrections House sound determined to prove that there are still flags to be planted in the soil of industrial metal. Placing a heavier emphasis on the electronics of Minsk’s Sanford Parker, the supergroup’s sophomore effort is more succinct, more intense and more industrial – but no less metal – than Last City Zero. With thrashy, Pailhead-esque guitars (courtesy of Neurosis’s Scott Kelly), clanging loops that sound pulled from Skinny Puppy and Tabula Rasa-era Einstürzende Neubauten and near-danceable beats that harken back to Nitzer Ebb’s finest work, Know How to Carry a Whip proves that Corrections House is far more than the sum of its parts. And though it may seem unlikely, the moody, restrained contributions of saxophonist Bruce Lamont (Yakuza) make a pitch-perfect counterpoint to the grim, distorted verses recited with equal parts despair and ferocity by Eyehategod’s Mike IX Williams, especially on the Morricone-inspired “Visions Divide.” – Bill Washburn 8. Puscifer – Money Shot Maynard James Keenan has always emphasized that Puscifer is not just a side project to keep him busy between Tool and A Perfect Circle albums. Instead, the band serves as a collaborative outlet for the enigmatic vocalist best known as the voice behind some of modern rock’s biggest and best radio hits. Puscifer’s third studio album, Money Shot, was recorded at Caduceus Cellars, Keenan’s winery in the foothills above the Northern Arizona desert. The influence of these wide open spaces resonates throughout the course of the record, most notably on the jaw-dropping “Grand Canyon.” Balancing out the experimentation are a fair amount of straightforward riff-based bruisers; the title track and second single “The Remedy” particularly stand out. Well-supported by the musical dexterity and input of vocalist Carina Round and producer/multi-instrumentalist Mat Mitchell, with Money Shot, Keenan has created an album that ranks among the best of his work. – Matt Matasci 7. Chvrches – Every Open Eye CHVRCHES, the current reigning champions of electro pop, made the tail end of 2015 more synth-heavy and and impossibly catchy than ever with their full-length LP, Every Open Eye. Lead vocalist and known feminist activist Lauren Mayberry is back with more impressive presence than ever as she channels her inner indie powerhouse, commanding attention with her youthful and off-kilter vocals. The lyricism on Every Open Eye is often surprisingly profound, with tracks such as “Afterglow” and “High Enough To Carry You Over” emitting powerful emotion with their evocative choruses. Every Open Eye is a prime example of the musical maturation of CHVRCHES. The album is extremely heavy in terms of electronic down beats and drum kits, but the band has turned the digital element of the album in their favor, creating an end result that is profoundly catchy, with nearly every song boasting an infectious hook. – Natalie Cahill 6. Failure – The Heart Is A Monster Failure’s triumphant return to the music scene, The Heart is a Monster, has been herald by critics and fans alike as a return to the Failure we knew and loved. After spending years as the mystical 90s rock band nobody had heard of, they came through and released a gem. Is it as amazing as their seminal, genre defying, space rock opus Fantastic Planet? No. But was it a fantastic rock album filled with great songs that took on a life of its own? Absolutely. In year that had great releases including returns from some great bands, failures return stood as a testament that you can go away and come back just as good as when you left. Let’s just hope they never leave us again. – Brian Adler 5. HEALTH – Death Magic HEALTH’s latest work treads further into pop than the raucous noise of their earlier work, but that doesn’t mean they’ve gone soft. The foreboding intro of “Victim” and the machine-gun percussion of “Salvia” hit as hard as anything out there, forging a pounding, blaring, impossible-to-ignore sound that lays the foundation for Death Magic. The music is more polished than it’s been before, featuring lots of colorful and distinct synthesizer voices, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s cleaner. Some of these tracks, “Life” for instance, sound radio-friendly enough to be Top 40 hits, but they’re built on a sense of existential dread that shines through in their lyrics: “Life is pain / But I’m afraid to die.” Minimalism is a powerful force, and HEALTH use it to their advantage. They keep their melodies simple and let them blare. They keep their lyrics frank and honest. “Flesh World (UK)” lays bare the thought process behind every line of cocaine in history – “Do all the drugs / We die, so what?” Even in its brighter moments, Death Magic is pretty damn dark. It’s a kind of tongue-in-cheek macabre that makes everything work. Noisy enough to destroy speakers, but counterpointed with melodic sensibilities, Death Magic is often sonically violent and lyrically anti-everything. Party tonight, because you might be dead tomorrow. It’s a nihilist pop album whose sheer weirdness and unmistakable style make it one of the year’s most unforgettable records. – Sean Taras 4. Kylesa – Exhausting Fire Kylesa has been one of the heaviest of all sludge bands. It might be the dual drums. It is in that sense, perhaps, that one is reminded of a female-fronted Melvins. Exhausting Fire is full of mighty riffs, psychedelic atmosphere, haunting melodies, and unquestionable intensity. But, like the aforementioned Melvins, there is also a real investment in the hookiness of the riffs. They don’t sacrifice accessibility, despite their nearly unparalleled heaviness. Kylesa is simultaneously an answer to the macho-stereotype oft associated with metal and the apotheosis of the potency and dread which that stereotype contains. Laura Pleasants’s often plaintive vocals shouldn’t fool you—Kylesa know what it means to be heavy, and not just in the more nuanced sense of some of Baroness’ more-recent efforts. Exhausting Fire is alternately haunting and bone-crushing and sits alongside Baroness’ Purple as an example of how diverse, ambitious, and forward-thinking the best of modern sludge & doom metal can be. Kylesa have firmly left their stamp on the genre with this record, as well as on the entire musical landscape. They are a prime example of why we must now make the case that metal is no longer about the guttural, dread frustration of a disturbed segment of a (mostly) male sub-culture, but a musical embodiment of the complexity, intensity and diversity of harrowing and sometimes overwhelming socio-cultural landscape. – Matthew Landis 3. Laura Marling – Short Movie Laura Marling is a mere 25 years old and she is writing songs that are so profound that she cannot shake her nickname, “old soul.” With her fifth studio album she has been critically revered for what would be her most personal album to date. Marling has always been known as a secluded person, never giving too much away in her lyrics or answering too much in interviews. Her lyrics before all seem to come from her experience but her ingenious way of drifting away right when the listener gets too close to her has always been there. What she did with this album, Short Movie, is finally retracted her “arm’s length” style of writing and invite listeners in to learn a little more about what he has going on. Short Movie has been called Marling’s “quarter life” crisis album for the content that she confronts and in the end any generation or stage of life can seek wisdom in her words. The album took on more of an electric step than her previous albums have and there were skeptics about this approach but she definitely owned the new sound and successfully showed her creative diversity. – Ryan Fricke 2. Ghost – Meliora Ghost’s previous efforts hinted at a chimerical sensibility walled in and obscured by straightforward structures and a layer of fog clinging to the mix. With Meliora, the fog has blown away, revealing that there never really were any walls. In their newfound freedom, the band is invigorated, slithering and shapeshifting through the latest entry in their conceptual series with a sense of refined eclecticism. Newly-mitred vocalist Papa Emeritus III is equanimous and assured, carrying the music into dark-rocky, proggy, theatrical places. No longer offering halfhearted Hail Satans to the heavy metal orthodoxy, the Nameless Ghouls are free to be zany – to break out the Theremin and Casio tones, to evoke feelings of Porcupine Tree, Between the Buried and Me, Orange-era Dark Suns and Queen. Highlights include the lovelorn stomp of “Cirice,” the stadium-sized ballad to the Antichrist that is “He Is” and the epic conclusion delivered by “Deus In Absentia.” But make no mistake, the entirety of Meliora is rich with uplifting choirs, lovely chord progressions and pleasingly unexpected digressions, seasoned with the perfect dash of metal crunch. This is the sound of a band discovering their musical identity, and sharing it with the world. – David Sano 1. Faith No More – Sol Invictus Atop our list of a supremely impressive year of new music sits the first new album from alt rock heroes Faith No More, their first since 1997’s humorously titled Album of the Year. Riding high on a wave of resurgent popularity on their “Second Coming” tour the band quietly debuted new songs “Matador,” “Motherfucker” and “Superhero” at sporadic festival appearances last year before ultimately announcing their full-length return, Sol Invictus. Latin roughly for “Unconquered Sun,” the notion of the band seeing themselves as returning champions is prominent throughout many of the album’s songs. “Matador” includes the line “We will rise from the killing floor / like a matador.” Elsewhere, “Superhero” is a full-on examination of their own confidence and ability to raise the flag for quality high (e.g. “Leader of men / Will you be one of them?”). And later still, “Separation Anxiety” deals quite literally with the feelings of being away for so long “I can’t let you go / because you’re a part of me / Not apart from me.” While the group deeply examines their roll in the band-to-fan conversation, the songs, craftsmanship and interplay is all top of the line. Whereas Jon Hudson was the newcomer on Album of the Year, here his interplay with founding member Roddy Bottum’s piano is an essential foundation of nearly every song here. Later, his fretwork on “Cone of Shame” sets a foreboding Morricone-esque tone, setting the perfect foundation for a sinister verse and explosive chorus from longtime singer Mike Patton. Along with that track, “Superhero” and “Motherfucker” jump off the page with immaculate cohesion. All the while, bassist Billy Gould and drummer Mike Bordin provide a thundering, nuanced and unforgettable foundation for all of the melodic interplay. Call this the return of the king. It’s been years since a band demonstrated the value of such precision artistry and relentless fearless creativity. As the band says themselves on the final track “From the Dead,” “Welcome home my friend.” – Raymond Flotat