Fluxblog 2015 Survey Mix

Here’s the 2015 survey, featuring 183 songs from across several genres from the past year. A thing I realized in making this survey is that while I strive towards making the ‘80s surveys an “accurate” representation of a year, these present-day surveys sorta nod towards that conceit while mainly representing my lived experience of the year in music. Which is still quite varied, but it’s a lot more personal, and I have more invested in sticking up for the smaller artists I enjoy than acquiescing to include every hit or random artist other critics decide are worthwhile for the moment.

2015 has been an interesting year for this site, in that everything’s sorta gone full circle and it’s the first time in a while where pretty much all of my music writing goes here rather than on BuzzFeed, Rolling Stone, or Pitchfork. Writing the site now reminds me a lot of how it felt in the early days, where it was my only outlet and my methods reflected a philosophical difference with how most other music writing was being done. Back when I started this site, there was very little room in music writing either in print or on the web focused on writing about songs. All the focus was on macro topics and trends and identity politics –– and here we are again! I don’t mean to denigrate or dismiss that stuff, but while I may enjoy reading that sort of thing, it’s not what I do. I think Fluxblog is also back in a position of offering an alternative to the values of other critical institutions, and repping for artists who maybe aren’t “cool” enough to gain any sort of consensus of approval at Pitchfork, Noisey, Stereogum, or Fader.

If you’ve been following this site, I thank you. I don’t pay attention to numbers for Fluxblog, and would be doing exactly the same thing whether the audience was tiny or huge. This is a personal endeavor and a part of my life I would never give up. That said, if you like this site, tell people about it. If you like a thing I wrote, share it. There’s not many paths open to new readers now, and I’d like for people to still find the site somehow. And, of course, there’s the weekly newsletter version of the site for people who don’t want to keep coming back to a website all the time.

Anyway, enjoy the survey.

DOWNLOAD DISC 1

Hot Chip “Huarache Lights” / Grimes “Artangels” / White Hinterland “Chill and Natural” / Kendrick Lamar “Alright” / The Internet “Just Sayin’/I Tried” / Joanna Newsom “Sapokanikan” / Donnie Trumpet and the Social Experiment featuring Chance the Rapper “Sunday Candy” / Kamasi Washington “Leroy and Lanisha” / Beach House “One Thing” / Colleen Green “Deeper Than Love” / Sexwitch “Helelyos” / Wolf Alice “You’re A Germ” / Veruca Salt “Eyes on You” / No Joy “Moon In My Mouth” / Leon Bridges “Lisa Sawyer” / Vince Staples “Summertime”

DOWNLOAD DISC 2

Chvrches “Clearest Blue” / CL “Hello Bitches” / Disclosure featuring Lorde “Magnets” / Swim Good x Merival “Since U Asked” / Prince “X’s Face” / Peaches “Dumb Fuck” / !!! “Lucy Mongoosey” / Belle & Sebastian “Play for Today” / Jeremih “Oui” / Archy Marshall featuring Jamie Isaac “Ammi Ammi” / Lana Del Rey “Terrence Loves You” / Action Bronson “Terry” / Isaiah Rashad “Nelly” / Pusha T “Untouchable” / Deerhunter “All the Same” / Thee Oh Sees “Web” / Lower Dens “Non Grata” / Unknown Mortal Orchestra “Ur Life One Night” / Charly Bliss “Urge to Purge” / Courtney Barnett “Small Poppies”

DOWNLOAD DISC 3

Shamir “Vegas” / FKA Twigs “Figure 8” / Dr. Dre featuring Kendrick Lamar, Marsha Ambrosius and Candice Pillay “Genocide” / The Weeknd “Tell Your Friends” / Drake “Hotline Bling” / Jamie xx featuring Romy “Loud Places” / Erykah Badu featuring Andre 3000 “Hello” / Tame Impala “Cause I’m A Man” / Gardens & Villa “Fixations” / Hinds “Chili Town” / Bad Bad Hats “Say Nothing” / Teen Girl Scientist Monthly “Games” / The Mountain Goats “Werewolf Gimmick” / Electric Six “Two Dollar Two” / Eric Church “Chattanooga Lucy” / Logic “Like Woah” / Selena Gomez featuring A$AP Rocky “Good for You” / Justin Bieber “Sorry” / Christine and the Queens “Tilted” / Demi Lovato “Stone Cold” / Wet “Deadwater”

DOWNLOAD DISC 4

One Direction “Hey Angel” / Of Montreal “Like Ashoka’s Inferno of Memory” / PWR BTTM “Dairy Queen” / Born Ruffians “Stupid Dream” / Kelly Clarkson “Take You High” / Carly Rae Jepsen “All That” / Rae Sremmurd “Unlock the Swag” / Father “BET Uncut” / Micachu and the Shapes “Crushed” / Björk “Lion Song” / THEESatisfaction “Fetch/Catch” / A$AP Rocky “Excuse Me” / Swindle “London to L.A.” / Jimmy Whispers “I Get Lost in You in the Summertime” / Kurt Vile “Lost My Head There” / Florence + The Machine “How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful” / Father John Misty “The Night Josh Tillman Came To Our Apartment” / Aphex Twin “disk hat ALL prepared1mixed 13”

DOWNLOAD DISC 5

The Mynabirds “All My Heart” / Major Lazer & DJ Snake “Lean On” / Maroon 5 featuring Nicki Minaj “Sugar (Remix)” / Passion Pit “Where the Sky Hangs” / Jason Derulo “Want to Want Me” / Panda Bear “Boys Latin” / Missy Elliott featuring Pharrell “WTF” / Janelle Monáe “Hell You Talmbout” / Lil Mama “Sausage” / Damaged Bug “The Frog” / Titus Andronicus “Lonely Boy” / Melkbelly “Bathroom at the Beach” / Wilco “Random Name Generator” / Ratboys “MCMXIV” / Adele “Send My Love (To Your New Lover)” / Waterbed “Do2Me” / Chris Lee (Li Yuchun) “混蛋,我想你 (Only You)” / Rap Monster “Do You” / YG “Twist My Fingaz” / School of Seven Bells “Open Your Eyes” / Majical Cloudz “Disappeared”

DOWNLOAD DISC 6

Sophie “Just Like We Never Said Goodbye” / Madeon “You’re On” / Hudson Mohawke “Ryderz” / Neon Indian “Dear Skorpio Magazine” / Girls’ Generation “Party” / Fight Like Apes “Pop Itch” / Lunchmoney Lewis “Bills” / Young Thug “Constantly Hating” / Miley Cyrus “Space Boots” / Julia Holter “Sea Calls Me Home” / Aurora “Half the World Away” / Destroyer “Times Square” / Eleanor Friedberger “False Alphabet City” / Car Seat Headrest “Times to Die” / Diet Cig “Breathless” / Chastity Belt “Cool Slut” / Ashley Monroe “On to Something Good” / Mark Ronson featuring Kevin Parker “Leaving Los Feliz” / Big Sean “Outro” / Earl Sweatshirt “Quest/Power” / Cakes Da Killa “Serve It Up” / Georgia “Kombine” / Oneohtrix Point Never “No Good”

DOWNLOAD DISC 7

Alabama Shakes “Sound & Color” / Speedy Ortiz “Raising the Skate” / Sleater-Kinney “Surface Envy” / Holly Herndon “Morning Sun” / Keith Ape featuring JayAllDay, Loota, Okasian & Kohh “잊지마 (It G Ma)” / Nocturnal Sunshine featuring Catnapp “Down By the River” / Moon King “Secret Life” / Jenny Hval “That Battle Is Over” / Blur “Ong Ong” / The Last Hurrah!! “Can’t Wait No More” / Built to Spill “Never Be the Same” / Modest Mouse “The Best Room” / Toro y Moi “Empty Nesters” / Bixiga 70 “100% 13” / Joey Bada$$ “O.C.B.” / Oddisee “That’s Love” / She’s So Rad “Sewn Up Sunshine” / Bed Rugs “Drift” / Boots “Only” / Arcade Fire “Soft Power”

DOWNLOAD DISC 8

Future Punx “Post-Wave” / Ought “Celebration” / Torres “Cowboy Guilt” / Doldrums “Blow Away” / Laura Marling “False Hope” / Thundercat “Them Changes” / Janet Jackson “Gon’ B Alright” / Robyn & La Bagatelle Magique “Set Me Free” / Bilal “Open Up the Door” / Kanye West “All Day” / Extraordinaire featuring Killer Mike “What You Said” / Erase Errata “Watch Your Language” / Beck “Dreams” / Deradoorian “Violet Minded” / Woke featuring George Clinton “The Lavishments of Light Looking” / Astronauts, etc “No Justice” / Jim O’Rourke “Half Life Crisis” / Godspeed You! Black Emperor “Peasantry Or ‘Light! Inside Of Light!’” / Soak “Sea Creatures”

DOWNLOAD DISC 9

Coldplay “A Head Full of Dreams” / Battles “Summer Simmer” / Tobias Jesso Jr. “Can’t Stop Thinking About You” / Matthew E. White “Rock & Roll Is Cold” / Wire “Blogging” / Madonna featuring Nicki Minaj “Bitch, I’m Madonna” / Charli XCX featuring Rita Ora “Doing It (A.G. Cook Remix)” / Rihanna “Dancing in the Dark” / Yacht “I Wanna Fuck You Til I’m Dead” / BigBang “우리 사랑하지 말아요 (Let’s Not Fall In Love)” / Leikeli47 “Two Times A Charm” / Young Fathers “Shame” / Rich Homie Quan “Flex” / Jazmine Sullivan featuring Meek Mill “Dumb” / Kalela “Rewind” / Makeshift Shelters “This Song Is Definitely Not About A Boy” / No Ditching “Song for Shelley” / Bully “I Remember” / Princess Reason “Your Divorce” / Yo La Tengo “Friday I’m In Love” / Maribou State featuring Holly Walker “Steal” / Moresounds featuring Fracture “Dead and Bury” / Arca “Vanity” / Jessica Pratt “Wrong Hand” / Sufjan Stevens “Carrie & Lowell”