As I’ve done since 2013, I’ve made a top 10 songs list for 2015. Same methodology as always: it is music I discovered, rediscovered, or just listened to in 2015 (whenever it was released), and it includes 12 songs. Over the course of the year, I kept a playlist of interesting songs I heard. At the end of the year, I made two more lists: The Sound of 2015, the stuff I listened to and enjoyed enough that they define the sound of the year for me, and The Best of 2015, my absolute favorites.

If I had one musical obsession this year, it was with Klein & M.B.O., whose “Dirty Talk” was my favorite song in 2014. I could as well have put it on top this year; it’s in there, along with several more of their tracks. Not only did I listen to “Dirty Talk” while walking to work many mornings, it inspired me (along with “Acid Trax” and “Intro”, also on the list) to return to my live techno roots in my own music. The other thing that had an impact on my listening was KEXP’s day of Paul’s Boutique, which got me listening to that album and a lot of the songs it samples. My top album this year would have to be Yppah’s “Eighty One”, which I listened to in its entirety fairly often. Nothing else really broke through for me beyond single songs.

Here’s the list:
– Yppah + Anomie Belle: Film Burn
– Simian Mobile Disco: Audacity Of Huge
– Klein & M.B.O.: Dirty Talk
– LFO: Intro
– Beastie Boys: Shake Your Rump
– Rose Royce: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is
– The Chemical Brothers: Go
– MC 900 Ft. Jesus: The City Sleeps
– New Order: Tutti Frutti
– Led Zeppelin: Poor Tom
– Klein & M.B.O.: Last Call
– Fujiya & Miyagi: Photocopier