I don't think I listened to any new albums enough to make a list of favourite 2015 albums. I can't post last.fm stats either because I've been using Apple Music and other stuff. So here are some tracks I probably played a lot.

Natalie Prass - Violently
Mostly here for that pretty, pretty bridge.

Courtney Barnett - Depreston
Hot damn, Pitchfork put this as the 9th best track of 2015. I couldn't get into the rest of the album, but I love this. For some reason, I liked to have it playing out of my phone while I was in the shower.

Lianne La Havas - Tokyo
This is almost perfectly within my voice range, and I too have been alone in Tokyo this year, metaphorically.

The Drones - Taman Shud
Like that rant in Why Write A Letter You'll Never Send, but angrier and catchier. It's rare to find a tasteful song that goes, "I don't give a fuck about..."

Grimes - Flesh Without Blood
Guitar parts make me think of mid-2000s radio pop-rock songs, e.g. Kelly Clarkson. I also really like Scream, because I have never heard good Chinese rapping before.

Susanne Sundfor - Kamikaze
"Tonight is the night we might fall together." Might.

Lana Del Rey - Terence Loves You
I don't matter to anyone.

Sufjan Stevens - Blue Bucket Of Gold
I had a lot of trouble getting into Carrie & Lowell, until I realized that it's almost Oregon: The Album. I like the idea of linking your small, personal sadness to big, permanent things like places.

Carly Rae Jepsen - Your Type
Honestly, I could pick almost anything from this album, but I'll go with this one because it's the latest single. There's a roughness to her voice in the chorus here that makes it a bit more interesting. Also worth mentioning: Let's Get Lost, When I Needed You, and Run Away With Me.

RIP Mess+Noise. Now where will I go for reviews of Australian things nobody has ever heard of?

The Singles Jukebox likes a Thai song. It actually is decent, but I'm sure it's not popular in Thailand. I watched some music video program on TV there once and I think only one song got a passing grade for me.

New Carly Rae Jepsen. Really reminds me of Taylor Swift's 1989, probably because of the similar nostalgic production. The beginning of the video screams Lana Del Rey, though I guess a lot of 1989 did that too. The controversial sax-synth noise reminds me of Midnight City, so it gets a pass from me.

Tangent: I think people get more into mainstream music as they age not just because of laziness, but because it starts sounding like the alt music of their youth.

New Lana Del Rey. It's very pretty, and I like the return to the movie score sound. The ending isn't great, but I'm guessing it'll lead on to something bigger and better on the album.

Shiina Ringo - Tsumi to Batsu (live). I've linked it before, but I'll link it again because it's still on high rotation.

fun. - Light A Roman Candle With Me. I was reminded of this song by a screenshot of Apple Music with the album cover. It was very popular in fanmixes a few years back. It's all "why isn't this a relationship?" and cute imagery. (And my voice might crack at you look for a legend, I'm looking for common ground.)

Panic! At The Disco - Nearly Witches (Ever Since We Met). Yeah, I know, this band. And it has singing children in it! Gross! But there's something about that chorus that keeps bringing me back to it years after the emo kid in my homeroom played it at a birthday party.

Tegan & Sara - Superstar. Well, of course they disowned this song; they ended up getting big off having Closer on Glee. Closer is ok, but I definitely prefer this rougher sound. It almost sounds like a demo.

Natalie Prass - self titled
I'm surprised at how universally praised this is by critics, while not even cracking the top 100 of 2015 on rym. The music is beautiful, the vocals are sweet, and there's not a track that's noticeably worse than the others. But I can't go for those lyrics. I know it's a breakup album, but I can only listen to so much "why don't you love me?". The one track I've got on repeat is Violently. "And I'll break by arms 'cause they want to hold you" is the kind of thing I'm into.

Megan Washington
I haven't seen much on the internet about Insomnia. Its highs are higher than her debut. I've probably mentioned before that Sentimental Education is my favourite track of hers, and it's back on high rotation. Holy Moses is a fun singalong now that my voice is a bit higher, not to mention its lyrical relevance.

Kimbra - As You Are
I didn't give The Golden Echo as much attention as I should've because it got a fairly negative review from someone I follow, and I generally can't be bothered with long albums. I gave As You Are a go because I saw it in Kimbra's top tracks on Spotify. "Honey that hourglass got me thinkin', you ain't no friend of mine" 

The Church - Wide Open Road
The original is great, but a bit of extra jangliness and modern recording helps. According to Wikipedia, Paul Kelly has also done a cover, but there doesn't seem to be a recording. Damn.


Crowded House - Don't Stop Now
"Give me something I can cry about." Oh wait, this song is about the singer's wife driving and getting lost? Wow. I feel like it ought to be placed next to The Go-Betweens' Finding You on a mixtape. They're both about driving, getting lost, and mention lightning.

Computer died so I haven't been able to scrobble to last.fm. Guess I should note down what I've been spamming on my commute lately.

The Church - Anna Miranda
Distance alters all our words, time meanders | I don't know why I've taken to this random bonus track.

Augie March - Toorak Fires
It's rough and it really sounds like some of the lyrics haven't quite been worked out. But I'm still noticing new layers in it every time I listen.

Hachi - Panda Hero
Basically the same as Matryoshka, but with a few more layers and hooks. I think the album version sounds a bit better than the one I linked here.

rerulili - Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl
I don't like macarons, but everything else in the lyrics is uncannily perfect. It is probably possible for the arrangement to be better, and a good human singer would be preferred, but I haven't found any version that does both well.

wowaka - Unhappy Refrain
iu nara sore wa, sore wa happy | It's not that great of a song, but I need something loud and punchy to drown out the crying children on the train. I can sort of imagine it being an opening theme to my life too. That's what I think about when I'm staring out the window.

Shiina Ringo - Tsumi to Batsu
Ai shiteru hitori nakiwameite | This is about to become the song that I have on repeat while I mope on the floor of my room.

Shiina Ringo - Yattsuke Shigoto
Nani mo ii to omoenai | Wow, just typing that made me think of standing on my underground train platform.

Wowaka ft. marina - Ura-omote Lovers
I found this on Grooveshark and can't find any reference to it anywhere else. Good thing I saved it. I really prefer this arrangement by sasakure.UK (I think?). The lower key suits it well; the original was too shrieky for my taste. 

Obligatory rant about this:
Did you think I grew up and chilled out about "Best Australian ___" lists? No! Never! Yeah, I know all the top 10 has to be MOR inoffensive stuff, and that's fine. But the likes of The Saints, The Go-Betweens, The Triffids not being in the top 20 is unacceptable. What is Savage Garden doing up there?

Tori Amos
Pitchfork gave the re-release of Little Earthquakes 8.6, so I'm listening to it again. I thought it was influential enough to score higher than that. I think they gave some Oasis reissue a higher score, and that's not right.

Another Japanese list
I wouldn't ordinarily pay attention to any Rolling Stone list, but this one is a bit odd. Merzbow in the same list as Utada Hikaru? Also, interesting points about record labels not liking these kinds of lists.

Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
First: oh my god Katamari Damacy is over 10 years old now. This album is amazing and I don't know how I've only just downloaded it now. Katamari On The Rocks is hilarious in a good way, which is not something I can often say about music. Even the grumpy people at rym like it. "It's the Japanese version of Illinois" summarizes its scope.

From this list here. This was the best I could find when looking for a list of  "classic" Japanese songs. English sources that talk about J-pop mostly focus on idols or anime songs. The list is a bit outdated, but it covers a good variety of genres.

1. Southern All-Stars
tsunami (2000)
涙の海で抱かれたい　～sea Of Love～  (2003)

2. YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra)
firecracker (1978)
solid state survivor (1979)

3. Yumi Matsutoya
ひこうき雲 (1973)
ルージュの伝言 (1975)

4. Happy End
風をあつめて (1971)
夏なんです (1971)

5. Hibari Misora
川の流れのように (1988) - voted best Japanese song of all time in 1997
愛燦燦 (1986)

6. Tatsuro Yamashita
Ride On Time (1980)
Christmas Eve (1983)

7. Momoe Yamaguchi
さよならの向こう側 (1980)
秋桜 (1977)

8. Yosui Inoue
夢の中へ (1989)
少年時代 (1990)

9. Eiichi Ohtaki (member of Happy End)
君は天然色 (1981)
さらばシベリア鉄道 (1980)

10. Seiko Matsuda
風は秋色 (1980)
あなたに逢いたくて ～Missing You～ (1996)

11. Ryuichi Sakamoto (member of YMO)
Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (1983)
bibo no aozora (1996)

12. Keisuke Kuwata (member of Southern All-Stars)
明日晴れるかな (2007)
白い恋人達 (2001)

13. Motoharu Sano
Visitors (1984)
アンジェリーナ (1980)

14. Eikichi Yazawa
止まらないHA～HA (1986)
I LOVE YOU, OK (1975)

15. Flipper's Guitar
恋とマシンガン (1990) - highlight of this quarter of the list for me.
Groove Tube (1991)

16. RC Succession
I LIKE YOU (1990)
Transistor Radio (1980)

17. Kenji Sawada
時の過ぎゆくままに (1975)
勝手にしやがれ (1977)

18. Kyu Sakamoto
上を向いて歩こう (1961) - aka Sukiyaki. The only Japanese song to top the Billboard 100.
坂本九見上げてごらん夜の星を (1963)

19. The Blue Hearts
Linda Linda (1987) - heard it in Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan
Train-Train (1988)

20. Miyuki Nakajima
わかれうた (1977)
地上の星 (2000)

21. Tetsuya Komura
Running to Horizon (1989)
I want you back (1989)

22. Boowy
Marionette (1987)
わがままジュリエット (1986)

23. Yutaka Ozaki
I Love You (1991)
Oh My Little Girl (1991)

24. Hikaru Utada
First Love (1999)
travelling (2001)

25. Tamio Okuda
愛のために (1994)
息子 (1995)

2015 Releases

Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
This is super hyped, but I'm not totally won over yet. I like the songs that are on Spotify, so there's hope.

Courtney Barnett - Depreston
"If you've got a spare half a million, you could knock it down and start rebuilding" makes me think of my friend who is knocking down his house and splitting the lot in half. Early contender for song of the year for me. Future Australian classic, even.

Susanne Sundfor - Ten Love Songs
This is fun. Current highlight for me is Kamikaze.

The Grates - 7-Eleven
Used to hate this band. But this song was just what I needed after coming back from two weeks in Japan, which involved a lot of hanging around in convenience stores. "I light up like a NightOwl in Brisbane" gets it some points too.


Vocaloid - Because I actually heard Vocaloid songs playing in shops in Japan.

rerulili - Spinal Fluid Explosion Girl
This is it, this is my theme song. Those lyrics are on point. There should be more pop songs with jazz piano and chiptune together.

hachi - Panda Hero
Does this song have two bridges? Excellent. Covers don't hold up to the original, because I think it works better with the deadpan, robot voice. Everyone seems to think it needs to be shouted because of the rollicking backing track.

Jin - Kagerou Days
Worth watching the PV and reading the subs.


Other things

Halfway - Dulcify
Won Song of the Year at the Queensland Music Awards. Improves my opinion of QLD slightly. But they seem to have misplaced 2014 on the website.