The 50 best albums of 2015

This reunion album, the US punk trio’s first in ten years, suggests that age hasn’t withered Sleater-Kinney one jot. Their minimal, super-influential musical formula (two very loud guitars, one very heavy drum kit) is not the sort of thing that dates, and Corin Tucker’s cold fury and Carrie Brownstein’s eccentric hiccups roar and rage and slip and slide with the force of old. Andrzej Lukowski

Proving that math rock is way more fun than it sounds, Battles made a wonderfully wonky return this year. Those oddball guitar riffs and batshit time signatures were a welcome contrast to 2015’s catalogue of shiny pop, but despite that, there’s an undeniable funky flavour on the album. ‘FF Bada’, for example, has more going on in it than a Thomas Pynchon novel, but still makes you want to dance – even if you do need a calculator to do so. Tristan Parker

Just beating Jeremy Corbyn as Islington’s biggest breakout star this year, young MC Simbi Ajikawo came endorsed by Kendrick Lamar, J Cole, Andre 3000 and Dizzee Rascal. Ignore the insane levels of hype, though: her debut album was a bold gambit by a committed young artist determined to do it her own way. James Manning

In a world full of boring pop stars, Charli XCX sticks out like a goth at Center Parcs. On her riot of a breakthrough album she channelled Joan Jett and Cyndi Lauper, ripped the piss out of the jetset lifestyle and managed to make even Rita Ora (duetting on ‘Doing It’) sound cool by association. It’s giddy, ballsy and brilliantly different. James Manning

The first full-length release by London pop pranksters PC Music is a sonic sugar rush: a ten-track blend of ’90s Europop, J-Pop and chopped-up electronica. It should be awful, and in some ways it kind of is. But it’s also unbelievably catchy, and a pointed futurist retort to anyone who thought music had finally run out of road. James Manning

With former members of legendary Congolese band Staff Benda Bilili on board, and a sound spanning dub, funk, afrobeat, electronica and psychedelic rock, it would have been more surprising if Mbongwana Star hadn’t made an engrossing debut album. ‘From Kinshasa’ is just such a record, pulling together everything from dark, spaced-out guitar jams to the joyful sound of the electric likembé. James Manning

Packed to the gunnels with virtuoso playing and time-signature shifts, and with two members of instrumental post-rockers Red Sparowes on board, ‘Salome’ could have been a real navel-gazer. Instead it’s one of this year’s finest rock albums. Thank God for the soaring vocals, Cocteau-ish guitar lines, crunchy riffs and spiralling pop melodies that lift the trio’s musicianship way beyond vulgar displays of power. James Manning

A funky bassline, a rumbling vocal, some strings and horns, a gospel choir and suddenly your emotions have been punched in the stomach by Matthew E White’s subtle and expertly crafted wall of sound. Just because his music is an indie/soul/pop mash-up, don’t think he’s not sure of what he’s doing: this sophomore release takes the good-natured songwriting of his debut ‘Big Inner’ and cranks up the intensity. Ashleigh Arnott

Almost 40 years in, wild post-punk rockers Killing Joke proved they were still as angry as ever with their fifteenth album. All the classic KJ ingredients are there, from crunchy, barnstorming riffs in tracks like ‘Autonomous Zone’ to killer pop-ish hooks (check ‘New Cold War’ for something approaching industrial disco), held together by Jaz Coleman’s biting observations. Thanks, Killing Joke, for showing naysayers that heavy rock in 2015 can be engaging, innovative and damn smart. Tristan Parker

‘He recorded it in his bedroom’ isn’t usually a phrase that enters lists of the year’s best albums, so Christopher ‘C’ Duncan should feel extra proud that his debut record ‘Architect’ has wowed the music world this year, even getting him on to the Mercury Prize shortlist. The classically-trained Glaswegian has crafted a package of intricate and rich chamber pop, but don’t assume this is music for snobs – you’ll be whistling along to ‘For’ and joining in with the harmonies on ‘Say’ before the songs are even over. Ashleigh Arnott

In 2014 Disclosure pushed house music into the mainstream. In 2015 Hun Choi’s pulled it right back into the shadows. This is the good kind of obscurity though: 5am, dancing in a quiet corner of Berghain obscurity. There’s an artistic sketchiness to Choi’s productions as Hunee, and he riffs on eerily atmospheric samples as much as he does four-to-the-floor beats. It all makes for a profound dance album – thoughtfully composed and deeply satisfying. Jonny Ensall

If this isn’t the best dreamy Finnish synthpop album of 2015, we’ll eat our ylioppilaslakkit. JEK is a producer, singer and former tram driver from Helsinki who’s now based in Berlin. We still can’t pronounce his name, but his sonic world – with its pulsing synths, shimmering guitars and murmuring vocals – is somewhere we’d gladly spend a two-week holiday. Plug in and bask. James Manning

This Norwegian collective have been around more or less forever, but ‘Starfire’ – their first studio album in five years – got a new generation hooked on their freaky sound. It’s much more than a jazz album: it’s a sci-fi soundtrack, a prog rock odyssey, a freaky synth trip partly inspired by the lights of LA. ‘Fusion’ doesn’t quite do it justice, unless we’re talking the atomic kind. James Manning

‘More of the same’ isn’t such a bad thing when it comes from John Grant. ‘Grey Tickles, Black Pressure’ did bolster his sound with some spiky uptempo tracks, but if you loved the tormented balladry and biting humour of 2013’s awesome ‘Pale Green Ghosts’ then you’ll revel in this sequel. James Manning

Just one of many ways Drake grabbed 2015 by the crotch was with this miraculously murky mixtape with Atlanta rapper Future. It was Drizzy who gained the most out of the collab, as Future’s trap-titude rubbed off on the Canadian in style. Check out the swirling smokescape of ‘Jumpman’ as an example. Oliver Keens

If you tried and failed to get your head round ‘Dead Petz’ – less an album than a 90-minute, 23-track Soundcloud dump – then you’re doing it wrong. As with the records of Miley’s new sonic fellow traveller, Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, the trick is to just jump in and wallow in the glorious psychedelic weirdness of one of 2015’s silliest and most enjoyable releases. Hannah Mon-who now? James Manning

Julie Ann Campbell’s second LP is partly a tribute to Manchester: streets and ruins, memories and ghosts, factories and Factory Records. But ‘Hinterland’ isn’t (just) a post-industrial art project: it’s also full of shuddering basslines, relentlessly funky drums and echoing vocal hooks that make it one of this year’s smartest and most stylish dance records. James Manning

On her invitingly lo-fi second album, Katie Crutchfield darts from ramshackle indie rock to more stripped down singer-songwriter fare, captivating with effortless pop melodies and candid lyrics. Some of the Gen-Y melancholy on ‘Ivy Tripp’ provoked unwanted ‘Dawson’s Creek’ flashbacks, but it’s hard to hold a grudge when the music is this compelling. Nick Levine

For album three, psych-pop outfit UMO lift the lid on their record collections and channel acts that their previous – more wistful – work hinted at. The heritage pop-funk and shimmering disco songwriting of Steely Dan and Hall & Oates are fed through a hazy, sepia kaleidoscope – it’s still dashed with melancholia, but not enough to wipe away the smile that you should have as you listen. Tristan Parker

Twin daughters of the late Buena Vista Social Club percussionist Anga Díaz, Lisa-Kaindé and Naomi Diaz picked up plenty of props for their cajón-laced, stripped-back and soulful debut – released on XL in February. Adept at relaying lyrics in both English and Yoruba, fans of both traditional Afro-Cuban music and FKA Twigs found something to groove to here. Oliver Keens

The best Animal Collective stuff has always been the ketamine surfer-boy cuts contributed by Panda Bear, who hones his technique on this latest solo album: his greatest offering of children’s music for druggies. The sloshing, gurgling loops hypnotise like waves as Noah Lennox overlaps his voice into balmy meditations, while synthpop songs like ‘Selfish Gene’ suggest that his working with Daft Punk seems to have rubbed off. Brent DiCrescenzo

This intense rush of fiery jazz from LA saxophonist Washington – one of Kendrick Lamar’s band – mixed up the otherworldliness of Herbie Hancock, the roaming bluesiness of Miles Davis and the offbeat funk of Chick Corea, alongside reams of Washington’s own visionary stylings. In both content and length (almost three hours via a whopping three discs), ‘The Epic’ more than lives up to its ballsy title. Tristan Parker

Marooned in Hong Kong for five days in 2013, Blur locked themselves in a studio and pressed record for the first time in ten years. The result, finally released this year, was ‘The Magic Whip’: a gem of a record and a worthy addition to the band’s canon. Mellow earworms abounded, but it was Graham Coxon’s vital, eclectic playing that stole the show. Oliver Keens

Sam Shepherd’s got a PhD in neuroscience and he’s made one of the records of the year as Floating Points. What did you do in 2015? ‘Elaenia’ is the full realisation of the promise Shepherd’s shown as a DJ and producer – a bringing together of eclectic influences into a coherent ball of epic, jazzy, otherworldly goodness. It takes you on a journey, far outside of the traditional boundaries of dance music. Brainy and very beautiful. Jonny Ensall

We were kind of expecting Jamie Smith’s solo debut to be packed with four-on-the-floor bangers. It wasn’t. But it was a great showcase for the XX beatmaker’s eclectic tastes and polished production, and his irrepressible talent for warm, instantly nostalgic melodies made ‘In Colour’ a serotonin rush of a very different kind: less all-night rave, more hazy, loved-up glow. James Manning

Both haunted and haunting, ‘Fast Food’ is a portrait gallery of ex-lovers that confirms Geordie singer Nadine Shah as one of the finest indie songwriters around right now. Backed and boosted by her band’s raw, clanging rock, Shah’s penetrating voice and spot-on lyrics – full of telling observations and sly put-downs – let her emotional dramas burn subtly into your brain. Turn down the lights, pour yourself a gin and tuck in. James Manning

The baronet’s daughter and former queen of the west London folk scene is still only 25, but with five albums under her belt she’s far from callow. ‘Short Movie’ is a confident folk-rock record that expands her template into Dylan and Fleetwood Mac territory. The best may still be yet to come, but for now this’ll do very nicely. James Manning

Doo-wop, glam rock, gender politics, sin and Dostoyevsky – it’s all fuel for Ezra Furman’s extraordinary brain. ‘Perpetual Motion People’ provided new evidence for his being one of the best songwriters working right now, powered by guitar, organ, clarinet, bar-room piano and screaming sax, and including a clutch of twisted lyrical masterpieces. James Manning

Surprise! February brought a new Drake album, which found Canada's most lint-free rapper lock down his position at the top table of hip hop. Thanks to its sudden, zero-publicity launch, many at the time assumed it was a dud – intended to break him from his contract with Cash Money. How wrong they were. Drake was on fire, and subtly aiming shots at Tyga, Kanye, Diddy and Jay Z. It was Drake who ended up smiling, though – despite being facially assaulted by Madonna. Oliver Keens

This Liverpool trio are to 2015 what the polished funk of Jungle or the languid melancholy of London Grammar were to 2014. Like many modern bands they’re truly citizens of the United States of Internet, with songs like ‘Go’ displaying influences as diverse as The XX, Steve Reich and Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. It all makes ‘All We Are’ a clever and confident debut. Oliver Keens