We’re in the last stretch before 2015 comes to an end. As such, many of the music industry’s sharpest critics and busiest enthusiasts are taking to their respective blogs or YouTube channels or social media outlets to share their opinion of how the year was musically. Even with something as important as the Best 50 Albums of this year, lists have already out come from Stereogum, SPIN, and Complex while we continue to wait for lists from other reputable music nerds like TheNeedleDrop and Pitchfork.
But the mega mac daddy of all music reviewers Rolling Stone has jumped into the fray and revealed their very own list of the Best 50 Albums of 2015. From Kendrick Lamar‘s undisputed masterpiece To Pimp A Butterfly to the three-hour jazz-power Kamasi Washington record The Epic, Rolling Stone ranked what they believe were the cream of the crop of this year’s musical output.
That being said, if you’re reading this article, you might be more inclined to listen to electronic dance music on your downtime, and this list might leave you disappointed. From top to bottom, Rolling Stone’s list is filled with rock, hip-hop, country, folk, metal, R&B, and pop, but seems to lack a little EDM flavor. But if you keep going up the list, you’ll find that Skrillex and Diplo secured the 16th spot of this prestigious list with their Jack Ü project and their debut album. Nestled between the love ballad album that was I Love You, Honeybear by Father John Misty and the album Crosseyed Heart from Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, Skrillex and Diplo present Jack Ü seems to be the placeholder on the list to represent the best of what electronic dance music can do. As they put it, “Instead of bringing a little EDM flavor to pop, they made some of pop’s biggest stars hop over the fence to their mind-bending EDM fiesta.” 
Based on that quote, however, it seems that Rolling Stone appeared to skip over a few albums of the electronic persuasion and picked the one with the biggest success. Other lists included the works of CHRVCHES in Every Open Eye, Jamie xx‘s In Colour, Brava by Brodinski, but I could be reading too much into it, and still, this is just their opinion.
Check out the what Rolling Stone had to say about each album they picked here and see the full list below.
- Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp A Butterfly
- Adele, 25
- Drake, If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late
- D’Angelo And The Vanguard, Black Messiah
- The Weeknd, Beauty Behind The Madness
- Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit
- Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free
- Various Artists, Hamilton: Original Broadway Soundtrack
- The Arcs, Yours, Dreamly,
- Blur, The Magic Whip
- Sleater-Kinney, No Cities To Love
- Lana Del Ray, Honeymoon
- Tame Impala, Currents
- Wilco, Star Wars
- Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
- Jack Ü, Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü
- Keith Richards, Crosseyed Heart
- Boz Scaggs, A Fool To Care
- Kurt Vile, B’lieve I’m Going Down…
- Don Henley, Cass County
- Chris Stapleton, Traveller
- Florence and the Machine, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
- Mark Knopfler, Tracker
- Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment, Surf
- Darlene Love, Introducing Darlene Love
- Future, DS2
- Eric Church, Mr. Misunderstood
- Miguel, Wildheart
- Joanna Newsom, Divers
- Car Seat Headrest, Teens Of Style
- Leon Bridges, Coming Home
- Jazmine Sullivan, Reality Show
- Beach House, Depression Cherry
- Marilyn Manson, The Pale Emperor
- Vince Staples, Summertime ’06
- Hop Along, Painted Shut
- Alabama Shakes, Sound And Color
- Ashley Monroe, The Blade
- Muse, Drones
- Songhoy Blues, Music In Exile
- Kamasi Washington, The Epic
- Björk, Vulnicura
- Selena Gomez, Revival
- Rae Sremmurd, SremmLife
- Madonna, Rebel Heart
- Rhiannon Giddens, Tomorrow Is My Turn
- James Taylor, Before This World
- Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion
- Bob Dylan, Shadows Of The Night
- Bomba Estéreo, Amanecer
