A pressure cooker like Chicago and its looming summer can't do anything else *but* produce a prodigious mixtape from a kid desperate to keep everyone calm and alive until the mercury drops. Stakes don't get higher, responses don't get craftier or more empathetic.
Runner-Up: Malkovich- Great Expectations
Redemption-Sunday soundtrack. An IV of Clarity into your veins: inspired lyricism and the freshest boom bap. You will get your shit done with a smile on your face.
10. Forest Swords- Engravings
Crazy inventive without ever sounding forced. Run if you would like Burial to make a soundtrack for playing capture the flag in the forest with all your friends and some stoners you just met.
9. Tim Hecker- Virgins
What if an entire cathedral rested on your shoulders yet didn't crush you? The choirs would reverberate through your skull.
8. Steve Hauschildt- S/H
My Emeralds bros carry me.
7. Lady Gaga- ARTPOP
Leeegit her duet with Kermie crushed me. Better falsetto than Neil Young. (sidebar Jim Henson was a bigger loss than JFK, agree?)
6. Burial- Rival Dealer
If you have to ask, you're streets behind.
5. Thundercat- Apocalypse
Holy wooly shit are there some great pop songs on here. And some freaky future-jazz to keep up appearances.
4. Califone- Stitches
Have ya met Ted? (Ted is Ben)
3. Kanye West- Yeezus
He doesn't make it easy. He wants to believe we're better than that.
2.Friendzone- DX
Not so much music as an alternate state of existence: dazed happiness and clear blue light under your feet.
1. CHVRCHES- The Bones of What You Believe
Cranberries+New Order=done deal
