“Staff Favorites of 2015” lists The Day’s features staff’s favorite releases, programs, events and other moments in the arts and entertainment world. As we can’t possibly take in everything that’s been released or performed this year, we can only call these selections “favorites.” Here, staff writers note their favorite recorded music releases from 2015. 

“Hand. Cannot. Erase.”

Steven Wilson

Whether we’re talking basic songwriting, production, aesthetic vision or all of the above, there is NO. ONE. ALIVE. (to borrow Wilson “period” construct) capable of pulling off what this Brit genius does on a spookily prolific and routine basis. A concept album, this is based on the true story of a 20-something, employed London woman with friends and family who nonetheless vanished — and no one noticed until her body was found in her own apartment two years later. For drama and to flesh out the story arc, Wilson fills in some narrative gaps in heartbreaking fashion. Considering the stylistic variety — from Industrial to piano balladry to chiming hard rock and protracted but always hooky prog — the album builds in exhilarating fashion. Plus, at the album’s tender heart, the back-to-back punch of “Perfect Life” and “Routine,” along with the visionary videos for each, “Hand. Cannot. Erase.” is an otherwordly masterpiece.

— Rick Koster 

“Love, Fear and the Time Machine”

Riverside

This Polish quartet has released several albums of atmospheric, clever and distinctive rock, but with “Love, Fear and the Time Machine” they’ve sculpted a virtually flawless record — if Wilson’s is #1 on the year-end charts, Riverside’s gotta be #1-A. Songwriter/bassist/vocalist Mariusz Duda describes the album as the result of a consciously self-induced midlife crisis and, if that sounds self-indulgent, well, it’s not the normal midlife crisis. Any fan of Riverside, or Duda’s side project Lunatic Soul, knows he’s drawn to mental darkness. With “Love, Fear and the Time Machine,” Duda has tried to put a positive spin on his melancholia. The fact that this record intertwines clockwork riffage with gorgeous, sculpted arrangements and yearning melodies might make one wonder where, exactly, the new optimism surfaces. But let’s not worry about such things. My God this is a wonderful album. Oh, and why “#Addicted” isn’t a multi-million-selling single is a true mystery.

— Rick Koster 

“Something More Than Free”

Jason Isbell

In that rootsy-folk-country category we call “singer-songwriter,” no one is crafting better tunes today than Isbell. Period. His 2013 “Southeastern” is an all-timer, and this follow-up is almost as great. Isbell’s effortlessly wonderful melodies, a sense of narrative that summons Deep South chroniclers from Flannery O’Connor to James Lee Burke, and a heartbreaking sense of honesty and introspection that couldn’t be faked in a million years — all of these fuse magically like some sort of musical SuperCollider. Look for the country music industry to call this the album of the year and “How to Forget” the song of the year. I’m kidding, of course. Those idiots would never do such a thing — no matter how clearly superior Isbell is to the stars wandering Nashville. This guy is a national treasure.

— Rick Koster 

“At.Long.Last.A$AP”

A$AP Rocky

Most folks suggest Kendrick Lamar’s “To Pimp a Butterfly” is the hip-hop album of the year and, granted, that CD’s “King Kunta” is one of the most irresistible songs of 2013. On the whole, though, A$AP Rocky’s sophomore release strikes me as a more consistently powerful and striking work. While he certainly revisits the sort of thuggery lazily employed by countless rappers, there’s a weary darkness to A$AP Rocky’s braggadocio and scenarios that suggest a creepy sort of wish fulfillment or at least a subconsciously reluctant cautionary element. As is customary in rap, collaborators and producers are myriad and range from Lil’ Wayne, Kanye West and Rod Stewart to Danger Mouse, Mark Ronson and Dan Auerbach. “Holy Ghost,” “L$D” and “Everyday” are standout tracks.

— Rick Koster 

“Caviar Bobsled”

Hands

I’m grateful that this recording made so many world-wide 2015 Best-of Prog Rock lists, and not just because it’s collective testimony from a lot of sources. In fact, this widespread acclaim makes me feel entitled to add “Caviar Bobsled” to my own list, which I otherwise wouldn’t have done because I spent years playing in the band Safety in Numbers with Handsters Ernie Myers, Steve Powell and John Rousseau. In spite of their associations with me, though, they and their Hands bandmates are actually tremendous musicians whose empathetic nuances and inspired, fresh performances on (mostly) Myers’ pinball songscapes continually bring smiles to your ears, heart and brain. You’ll hear sonic touchstones from Tull, Gentle Giant and Happy the Man, but Hands very much sculpts its own joyful noise and main melodist Myers is a master of Andy Partridge/Pete Ham-strength vocal hookery.

— Rick Koster 

“Honeymoon”

Lana Del Rey

You’d think 2015’s “gorgeous-voiced women with delicately arranged albums of melancholia” prescription was gloriously filled by Adele’s long-awaited album, which has already sold more copies than there are people in Lagos. But, while I’d never suggest Lana Del Rey is a better singer than Adele, this absinthe-by-moonlight album is the sort of amazing and evocative song cycle that reminds me of what would happen if Kate Bush summoned Billie Holiday and Jim Morrison via Ouija board and they set out to up the ante on the Lizard King’s “L.A. Woman” metaphor for the modern age. It’s hard to say whether “Honeymoon” is sadder than it is beautiful — and maybe it can’t be one without the other.

— Rick Koster 

Isabelle Faust and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

Isabelle Faust and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra led by conductor Pablo Heras-Casado released a crucial recording this year of the sadly neglected Schumann violin concerto. Suppressed by Schumann’s wife, a hidebound traditionalist who saw the concerto’s innovations as symptoms of his failing mental health, the piece was neglected for nearly a century, and even after its debut in the 1930s, it was performed with an air of melancholy, as if a requiem for a lost soul. But this new recording crackles with vitality and gives a clear indication that while breaking new ground, Schumann lost little of his powers. The opening movement is symphonic in scope and form, its thrilling central theme returning again and again to greater and greater effect. The performers celebrate the heroism, not the memories. Faust plays the ethereal slow movement with aching poignancy, and Schumann’s bizarre finale — a polonaise! — is sharp-edged in its accenting and makes perfect sense in this ensemble’s capable hands.

— Milton Moore 

“Traveller”

Chris Stapleton

Chris Stapleton started the year as someone only the insiders knew in Nashville — he has written hit songs for Kenny Chesney, George Straight, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw and Darius Rucker — and ended it as the hottest country act around. He swept the CMAs and rocked the house with two songs alongside Justin Timberlake, and then he was nominated for four Grammys. His debut album shot to number one and he is now touring as a headliner. “Traveller” reveals Stapleton as a triple threat — a songwriter, singer and guitarist of old country. You might not hear him much on country radio, which is slow to adjust, but you should take a listen.

— Tim Cotter