The 2015 Jimmy Awards: Best Albums (albums that we actually listened to)

Anyone following the progression of NLG’s musical tastes may have noticed us inching closer to not listening to any more music at all. Refer to Gene insisting in 2013 that no new music needs to be created, for example. In fact, we were “off” music for much of 2015. We were worried we might have to follow Vice’s oh-so-easy guide when choosing the best albums of the year for the annual Jimmy Awards. Luckily though, Gene began to take an interest in a very niche sub-genre of hip-hop and Serge eloped to the woods with a radio. And so, NLG is proud to be able to list 10 albums we actually listened to during the year. 

Album of the Year:

Laura Marling - Short Movie 
&
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit 

We'll admit it: we are in love with these two ladies. They don’t know it, but that’s okay. It’s not the first time we've fallen for a disembodied woman, either. That would have been the time we first heard Laurie Brown slide the word ‘sex’ over the airwaves on the CBC. But this year we fell hard - and it wasn’t just the fact we've got "bush eyes". It was the quick-witted humour of these songstresses; their no-shits-given confidence; and the poetic way they describe their lives (and ours too, we think). We've written them letters asking them to go with us to Paris to eat white bread and smoke cigarettes but they haven’t answered yet. Do they hate people? No. It might be easy to mistake them for misanthropes. They are morbidly fascinated by the mundane but would simply rather make origami than deal with other people’s bullshit. Can’t say we blame ‘em. Nobody really cares if you go to the party, right Courtney? But they do know how to live. They are punk rock, they are Lou Reed, they are Joni Mitchell echoing in the canyon of 21^st century music. They put up their fists and take what is theirs. There’s no stopping these two. Because as Laura Marling says, it’s a short fucking movie, man.

1. Laura Marling – Short Movie

2. Courtney Barnett – Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit

3. Beirut – No No No

4. El Vy – Return to the Moon

5. Modest Mouse – Strangers to Ourselves

6. Patrick Watson – Love Songs for Robots

7. Tame Impala - Currents

8. Cougars in America – Postcards

9. Twin Bandit – For You

10. Bob Moses - Days Gone By