Throughout December, CHIRP Radio presents its volunteers’ top albums of 2015. Our first list is from Features Director Dylan Peterson.

#1   Late Night Tales by Jon Hopkins (Late Night Tales)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Specifically, the “continuous mix” version. So technically, my favorite album of 2015 is also a DJ mix. But nothing else came close to hitting me as hard as this. My first listen of the continuous mix paralyzed me. Not only are Hopkins’ song choices exquisite (Bibio, Nils Frahm, Evenings, Riceboy Sleeps, Alela Diane, just to name a few), his mixing skills are otherworldly. When music is this delicate, this fragile, finding the appropriate blend is absolutely crucial. It’s not as simple as matching up BPMs on the 1s and 2s for a club night. What Jon Hopkins created here, as a curator, is his own work of art. Ambience drifts, like ice-cold breath in winter, into almost nothingness, but we always eventually return to a place of melody, and security. Warmth from the cold.

#2   Inji by LA Priest (Domino)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Watch the video for album opener, “Occasion.” This aesthetic is perfect to me. Plants amongst analog synths, very tiny lights, smoke and a cat, and everything sounds weird and maybe almost unsettling if not for that chorus (I want to sing it!). The rest of the album plays around more, even funks it up at times ("Party Zute/Learning To Love"), but never quits with that impossible blend of serene melody, sonic what-the-fuck-ness, subtly psychedelic inventiveness, and 80s adult comic book moodiness. I believe this is the music playing in the New York sewers. I believe in even dirtier hair. That Tame Impala album is great, but that Tame Impala album should sound more like this.

#3   Depression Cherry AND Thank Your Lucky Stars by Beach House (Sub Pop)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Depression Cherry by itself would’ve made my list, but then for Beach House to drop another full-length album a few weeks later that was arguably better than its predecessor… this is the stuff of legends. Nobody does Beach House like Beach House. They have a monopoly on dream pop right now, and Thank Your Lucky Stars was the definitive proof. Sometimes it feels like nothing is happening, then suddenly you’re breathing clearer and easier, colors are brighter, a forgotten childhood memory comes back to you, and you realize—thank you Beach House.

#4   Someday Somewhere EP by Mura Masa (Jakarta)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Every year I like to include an EP in my top 10, especially if the artist hasn’t released a full-length yet. Mura Masa made it very easy for me this year. Following in the deep, deep footprints of Cashmere Cat and Giraffage, this kid is digging his heels even deeper into the trampled soil of electronic music and leaving behind the mark of a master producer. His attention to detail is staggering. But beyond that, and the important thing, this music makes you want to move.

#5   I Want To Grow Up by Colleen Green (Hardly Art)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

I am 31 years old. So is Colleen Green. Over loud-ass power chords, she kicks off her album with, “I want to grow up / Oh yeah, I want to grow up I really do / Cuz I’m sick of being immature / I wanna be responsible / And I’m so sick of being insecure / I wanna be more comfortable.” Maybe it’s a 31-year-old thing, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever related to any other lyrics more than these. And the thing is, we don’t really want these things. We do want to stay young and dumb and having fun… but, we can’t. So, we tell ourselves that we want to grow up. I saw Colleen Green at the Empty Bottle this year, and right after “Whatever I Want” she played the beginning of Blink 182’s “Dammit” and I nearly spit out my beer. The intro to “Dammit” was the very first guitar riff I ever learned how to play. All at once I felt nostalgic, sad, financially stable, confused, and, well, I guess this is growing up.

#6   self-titled by Natalie Prass (Spacebomb)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

There’s someone out there for everyone. And by “someone” I mean “a style of music.” Music can be enormous, an orchestra, a world record-breaking drum circle, or, it can be a hum, a whistle, or a foot tap. Range in music is a mind-blowing thing, and the way Natalie Prass plays with it on her full-length debut is astounding. Her small, small voice is at the front of massive instrumental production, a juxtaposition that highlights her vulnerability, and reveals how much power that can have in a crowded, noisy, overwhelmingly big world.

#7   The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us by Beach Slang (Polyvinyl)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

This love letter to punk, rebellion, and outsiders everywhere is at first charming, and eventually miraculous. This 40-year-old frontman singing about youth, how great it is, and that it is all behind us…he is a hero. His passion for music is so clear. It reminds me of falling down in my first mosh pit, being pulled back up by a guy with a mohawk, and jumping right back into the pit without saying a word. There’s so much (SO MUCH) love in this music--for those of us who’ve been there.

#8   Prom King by Skylar Spence (Carpark)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

FKA Saint Pepsi, vaporwave star, and current future-funk prodigy Skylar Spence’s first proper full-length album is a throwback to the great nu-disco era of '07-'08. It was a trend that didn’t last long enough with Cut Copy, Holy Ghost!, Justice and the rest, but Skylar Spence is picking up where they left off and adding hints of emo and Hemsworthian production for the 40 minutes of the happiest/saddest songs a boy could ask for.

#9   St. Catherine by Ducktails (Spacebomb)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

Real Estate’s Matt Mondanile has released a handful of Ducktails albums, all showing sparkly potential but none that ever really had the chill-as-fuck brilliance of his full time band. But with St. Catherine, it could very well be the album that kicks off Mondanile’s solo career. This album is a contemplative saunter through an empty street on a windy fall day. It’s like a bunch of sad Kinks songs, if The Kinks grew up in the New Jersey suburbs.

#10   Do You Feel OK? by Superhumanoids (Innovative Leisure)
BUY: Reckless / Amazon

My favorite interview I did this year was with Superhumanoids. We talked about human relationships, emotions, sadness, etc. What really struck me about the interview was that the connectedness that I felt with them during our conversation was exactly the same feeling I got from listening to their music. Emotion in music is a double-edged sword; it allows an artist to be expressive while also letting a listener relate to, and connect with, a greater idea. This sword cuts through solipsism, and art becomes communal and redemptive. Despite its lyrical content, there is no despair in Superhumanoids’ music, only humans, being humans (plural).

1/2 Decade of Wonder (2011-2015)

These were my favorite albums from the last five years. They're all holdin' up!

2011: Destroyer - Kaputt

2012: Tanlines - Mixed Emotions

2013: Haim - Days Are Gone

2014: Alex G - DSU

2015: Jon Hopkins - Late Night Tales