AllMusic 2015 Year in Review
Favorite Indie Pop and Indie Rock Albums
This year's indie pop/indie rock highlights include Mac DeMarco's mainstream coming out party, Grimes' most ambitious and accessible album to date, and Battles' first instrumental release. Also, new records from Sufjan Stevens, Panda Bear, Speedy Ortiz, the Soft Moon, Protomartyr and Purity Ring made an impact.
The explosive debut by this trio employs elements of gospel, blues, post-punk, funk, and psychedelic soul.
The band's first entirely instrumental album is some of their most engaging and exciting music yet.
Combining Bloom's sophistication with the simplicity of their debut, the duo's fifth album demands and rewards close listening.
The duo's second album of 2015 is a more down-to-earth, diverse affair that is equally beautiful and affecting.
The band's first studio album combines more polished sounds and more heartfelt songs with stunning results.
Chiming guitars, melancholic tunes, and loads of jingle-jangle '60s-inspired goodness on the band's second album.
Reworking of songs from precocious lo-fi whiz Will Toledo's 11 previous albums done with a full band.
Second album from this Seattle group that blends beguiling, mysterious guitar songs with sharply funny lyrical themes.
Collaborating with members of Russian Circles and True Widow, Wolfe embraces the heavier side of her music with stunning results.
Drawing from influences as wide-ranging as dub and '50s pop, the artist's fifth album is some of her boldest, most eclectic music yet.
Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit.
Invigorating, compelling debut from the wry and furious Australian singer/songwriter.
The Swedish duo's second album is well-crafted and expansive, full of swirling keys, hypnotic female vocals, and soundtracky charm.
Recorded in the wake of an accident that hospitalized Bradford Cox, the band's meditations on seizing the moment are some of their finest music yet.
A cohesive, intensely wistful, strings- and horns-washed epic exploration of New York city life from the bewildering Dan Bejar.
The band's third album is their most accomplished to date, expanding their sound by adding horns and various keyboards.
The Chicago trio strips its music down to its bones, with uncompromising and often riveting results.
Sax-enriched punk rock band cooks with righteous rage and inspiring joy on their first full album.
The frenetic Chicagoan offers a brilliant and colorful field guide to her personal chaos on this doo wop-inspired third LP.
Full of breezily bittersweet power pop, the Brooklyn trio's debut feels like a long-lost classic.
Caustic retro-pop confectioner Josh Tilmann finds true love on his second outing under the Father John Misty moniker.
Eclectic and intelligent solo effort from the Saturday Looks Good to Me founder, embracing the personal as well as the global.
Claire Boucher's independent pop is more ambitious and more accessible than ever on her Visions follow-up.
The ex-Pipette returns with a lovely solo album built on vintage synths and featuring dreamy songs inspired by sci-fi and sung in Welsh and Cornish.
The composer's fragmented, ethereal explorations of humanity and technology blur the line between intimate and invasive.
Consistently catchy, passion-steeped indie rock with raw lyrics and vocals by bandleader Frances Quinlan.
The band's second album is a hyper-focused blast of piercing pop and dynamic noise, poppier than their debut but just as strong.
The singer/songwriter's fourth album questions the nature of time and love in dazzling, profound, and affecting ways.
The singer/songwriter's third album is some of his angriest, saddest, funniest, and most adventurous music.
The singer/composer's fourth album offers a more approachable version of her music's breathtaking beauty and ambition.
Inspired by Julie Campbell's time exploring Manchester's decaying outskirts, her second album finds funky, joyful resilience in isolation.
The eccentric Canadian songwriter's follow-up to 2014's critically acclaimed Salad Days is a wonderfully beguiling mini-concept album about love.
After over a quarter century of releasing records with Superchunk and Portastatic, their nominal frontman steps out with a synth pop-flavored solo album.
A second album of unfailingly beautiful, relentlessly longing, sparse electronic song from the Montreal duo.
Chicago-based experimental musician Whitney Johnson expands her otherworldly, hypnotic sound on her second LP as Matchess.
Smart and furiously powerful, the second album from this Canadian trio is a brutal but effective assault of sound.
Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper
Fifth solo album by the Animal Collective contributor finds him in a class by himself with his hypnotic, electro-friendly pop.
Third album from these Detroit indie rockers is a smart, furious combination of guitars and voices, each ranting with purpose.
The duo refines its ethereal electropop with songs that are equally challenging and accessible.
The composer and pianist returns with 11 outstanding new pieces that honor the joys and terrors of the world outside.
Sparkling debut album from a Montreal trio with a firm grasp on how to make killer rock & roll of all sorts.
Super-hooky scruff pop from Seattle delivered with tuneful swagger and introspection, like a leather-clad Beach Boys or a sweater-wearing JAMC.
Catchy, barbed, and unabashedly feminist, the band's second album builds on the best of Major Arcana and the Real Hair EP.
The acclaimed singer/songwriter confronts the death of his mother with this powerful song cycle of memory and loss.
The follow-up to Sun Kil Moon's 2014 breakout success Benji is another life-affirming triumph for songwriter Mark Kozelek.
John Darnielle's lo-fi heroes deliver a concept album about pro wrestling and the lives of the people in and out of the ring.
The West Coast duo's second record is a relaxed and calming modern-day psych-pop masterpiece.
Written and recorded in near isolation in Venice, Luis Vasquez's third album is his most emotional, and compelling, to date.
Second album of relaxed and lovely Velvets-inspired guitar pop from James Hoare (Veronica Falls) and Jack Cooper (Mazes).
Third full-length from this introspective songwriter delivers a more confident reading on the band's nakedly honest style.