The countdown is near, folks. And with the end of the year nearly here, the end of Phil’s Picks’ year-enders is officially here. We have finally come down to the last of this year’s “Best Of” lists. To close out this year’s group of year-enders we come full circle and finish where we started; back in the music world. To close out 2015, Phil’s Picks offers up its list of the year’s top new albums overall. This list was anything but easy to compile. That is because the top 10 albums and five honorable mention titles really represent so many galaxies within the musical universe. There’s some blues in this list courtesy of The Rev.Shawn Amos in this list. Salvador Santana, Carlos Santana’s son is also on this list, along with Pimps of Joytime and Fort Knox Five representing the rap and hip-hop galaxies. George Strait, The King of Country himself, is also here as are Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. Even jazz great Terence Blanchard gets a nod as do Joe Satriani and electro-rock duo NYVES. There are others included here. And they are noted in the list below. Being that each album comes from a different part of the musical universe, figuring each album’s place in this list was what really made assembling this list so tough. The ability of listeners to take in the album without skipping tracks was taken into account as was each album’s production values and combined lyrical and musical content. That goes back to the albums’ ability to keep listeners fully engaged from start to finish. So no offense was meant to any act in its placement on this list. EVERY one of the albums included in this list was far more than deserving of being included in this list. That taken into consideration the following is the final list of this year’s top overall albums from Phil’s Picks. And as always, the top 10 albums make up the main body of the list while the bottom five each receive honorable mention. Without any further ado here for your reading pleasure dear readers, is the Phil’s Picks 2015 Top 10 New Albums. Happy New Year!
PHIL’S PICKS 2015 TOP 10 NEW ALBUMS
1. BOARDWALK EMPIRE: BOARDWALK EMPIRE VOLUME 3
2. JUDITH HALL: BACK IN TIME
3. SALVADOR SANTANA: FANTASY REALITY
4. GEORGE STRAIT: COLD BEER CONVERSATION
5. WILLIE NELSON & MERLE HAGGARD: DJANGO & JIMMIE
6. SCALE THE SUMMIT: V
7. JOE SATRIANI: SHOCKWAVE SUPERNOVA
8. BLACKBERRY SMOKE: HOLDING ALL THE ROSES
9. FORT KNOX FIVE: PRESSURIZE THE CABIN
10. PIMPS OF JOYTIME: JUKESTONE PARADISE
11. NYVES: ANXIETY
12. DELTA RAE: AFTER IT ALL
13. THE REV. SHAWN AMOS: THE REV. SHAWN AMOS LOVES YOU
14. SUGARCANE JANE: DIRT ROAD’S END
15. TERENCE BLANCHARD: BREATHLESS
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