Neph Basedow (Indie Rock)

1) Tame Impala, Currents (Interscope)

2) Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop)

3) Deerhunter, Fading Frontier (4AD)

4) Kurt Vile, B’lieve I’m Goin Down … (Matador)

5) Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love (Sub Pop)

6) Car Seat Headrest, Teens of Style (Matador)

7) Thee Oh Sees, Mutilator Defeated at Last (Castle Face)

8) Royal Headache, High (What’s Your Rupture?)

9) Viet Cong (Jagjaguwar)

10) Fuzz, II (In the Red)



Greg Beets (Pop)

1) Floating Points, Elaenia (Luaka Bop/Pluto)

2) Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Mom + Pop)

3) Hiatus Kaiyote, Choose Your Weapon (Sony Masterworks)

4) Sunflower Bean, Show Me Your Seven Secrets (Fat Possum)

5) Promised Land Sound, For Use and Delight (Paradise of Bachelors)

6) Joanna Newsom, Divers (Drag City)

7) Salad Boys, Metalmania (Trouble in Mind)

8) Reptar, Lurid Glow (Joyful Noise)

9) Palehound, Dry Food (Exploding in Sound)

10) The Sandwitches, Our Toast (Empty Cellar)



Jim Caligiuri (Americana)

1) Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free (Southeastern)

2) JD McPherson, Let the Good Times Roll (Rounder)

3) John Moreland, High on Tulsa Heat (Old Omens)

4) Dave Alvin & Phil Alvin, Lost Time (Yep Roc)

5) Lindi Ortega, Faded Gloryville (Last Gang)

6) Boz Scaggs, A Fool to Care (429)

7) Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell, The Traveling Kind (Nonesuch)

8) Israel Nash, Silver Season (Loose Music)

9) Los Lobos, Gates of Gold (429)

10) Neil Young & Promise of the Real, The Monsanto Years (Reprise)



Thomas Fawcett (R&B)

1) D’Angelo, Black Messiah (RCA)

2) Alabama Shakes, Sound & Color (ATO)

3) The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness (Republic/XO)

4) Leon Bridges, Coming Home (Columbia)

5) Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show (RCA)

6) Erykah Badu, But You Caint Use My Phone

7) Dornik (PMR/Island)

8) Jill Scott, Woman (Atlantic)

9) Raury, All We Need (Columbia)

10) NxWorries, Link Up & Suede (Stones Throw)



Doug Freeman (Country)

1) Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free (Southeastern)

2) Chris Stapleton, Traveller (Mercury Nashville)

3) Willie Nelson & Merle Haggard, Django & Jimmie (Legacy)

4) Kacey Musgraves, Pageant Material (Mercury Nashville)

5) Asleep at the Wheel, Still the King: Celebrating the Music of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys (Bismeaux)

6) Sam Outlaw, Angeleno (Six Shooter)

7) Lindi Ortega, Faded Gloryville (Last Gang)

8) Dwight Yoakam, Second Hand Heart (Warner Bros.)

9) Whitey Morgan & the 78’s, Sonic Ranch (Whitey Morgan)

10) Shelby Lynne, I Can’t Imagine (Rounder)



Abby Johnston (EDM)

1) Grimes, Art Angels (4AD)

2) Jamie xx, In Colour (Young Turks)

3) FKA Twigs, M3LL155X (Young Turks)

4) Shamir, Ratchet (XL)

5) Floating Points, Elaenia (Luaka Bop)

6) Oneohtrix Point Never, Garden of Delete (Warp)

7) Holly Herndon, Platform (4AD)

8) Four Tet, Morning/Evening (Text)

9) Arca, Mutant (Mute)

10) Neon Indian, Vega Intl. Night School (Mom + Pop)



Kahron Spearman (Rap/Hip-Hop)

1) Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly (Aftermath/Interscope)

2) Vince Staples, Summertime ’06 (Def Jam)

3) Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, Surf

4) Young Fathers, White Men Are Black Men Too (Big Dada)

5) A$AP Rocky, At.Long.Last.A$AP (RCA)

6) Lupe Fiasco, Tetsuo & Youth (Atlantic)

7) Little Simz, A Curious Tale of Trials + Persons (AGE 101)

8) Scarface, Deeply Rooted (Let’s Talk)

9) Drake, If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late (Cash Money)

10) Dr. Dre, Compton (Aftermath/Interscope)



Michael Toland (Metal)

1) Baroness, Purple (Abraxan Hymns)

2) Tribulation, The Children of the Night (Century Media)

3) High on Fire, Luminiferous (eOne)

4) Panopticon, Autumn Eternal (Bindrune/Nordvis)

5) Blind Idiot God, Before Ever After (Indivisible)

6) Kylesa, Exhausting Fire (Season of Mist)

7) Sigh, Graveward (Candlelight)

8) Corrections House, Know How to Carry a Whip (Neurot)

9) Lucifer, Lucifer 1 (Rise Above)

10) Visigoth, The Revenant King (Metal Blade)



Jay Trachtenberg (Jazz)

1) Amir ElSaffar, Crisis (Pi)

2) Kamasi Washington, The Epic (Brainfeeder)

3) José James, Yesterday I Had the Blues: The Music of Billie Holiday (Blue Note)

4) Dave Douglas, High Risk (Greenleaf)

5) Rez Abbasi Acoustic Quartet, Intents & Purposes (Enja)

6) Myra Melford, Snowy Egret (Enja/Yellowbird)

7) Charles Lloyd, Wild Man Dance (Blue Note)

8) Wadada Leo Smith & John Lindberg, Celestial Weather (TUM)

9) Jack DeJohnette, Made In Chicago (ECM)

10) St Germain (Nonesuch)

This article appears in 2015.

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Greg Beets was born in Lubbock on the day Richard Nixon was elected president. He has covered music for the Chronicle since 1992, writing about everyone from Roky Erickson to Yanni. Beets has also written for Billboard,Uncut, Blurt, Elmore, and Pop Culture Press. Before his digestive tract cried uncle, he co-published Hey! Hey! Buffet!, an award-winning fanzine about all-you-can-eat buffets.

Thomas Fawcett has been freelancing for The Austin Chronicle since 2007. He likes good music and does not fake the funk.

Doug Freeman has been writing for the Austin Chronicle since 2007, covering the arts and music scene in the city. He is originally from Virginia and earned his Masters Degree from the University of Texas. He is also co-editor of The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology, published by UT Press.

Kahron Spearman is a journalist and writer with bylines including The Austin Chronicle, Austin Monthly, Consequence of Sound, Texas Highways, and the London-based journal The Break-Down. He currently serves as Senior Editor at Atmosphere TV.

Michael Toland started writing about music in 1988 on the Gulf Coast, moved to Austin in early 1991, and has inflicted bylines upon the corporeal and digital pages of Pop Culture Press, The Big Takeover, Blurt, Amplifier, Austin.citysearch, the Austin American Statesman, Goldmine, Sleazegrinder, Rock & Roll Globe, High Bias, FHT Music Notes, and, since 2011, The Austin Chronicle.