Today’s entry concludes Listmas week here at Ranting About Music! It was a big year at the office, where we dabbled in more live music reviews and a features-heavy summer, and I want to thank everyone for their support. There might be another blog going up next week, but aside from that, this’ll do it for 2015. See y’all after the new year.
Favorite Albums That Just Missed the Favorites List:
Erykah Badu – But U Cain’t Use My Phone
Titus Andronicus – The Most Lamentable Tragedy
Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon
Waxahatchee – Ivy Tripp
The Internet – Ego Death
Beach Slang – The Things We Do To Find People Who Feel Like Us
Albums I Meant to Listen to But Never Did, So Watch Me Fall In Love with Them in Like, February or Something
Vince Staples – Summertime 06
Hamilton Original Cast Recording
Turnover – Peripheral Vision
Sorority Noise – Joy, Departed
Album I Kept Forgetting I Really Liked Until It Came Back Up and Floored Me: Downtown Boys – Full Communism
Most Overrated Album: Sufjan Stevens – Carrie and Lowell
Most Underrated Album: The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die – Harmlessness (genuinely already wishing I’d put it in my top ten)
Most “I Mean, It’s Fine But Let’s Not Get Carried Away” Album: Tame Impala – Currents. Currents, to me, represents how big name indie rock wasn’t bad this year, but kinda stalled. I liked a good number of indie rock records this year, but very few of them felt vital the way that To Pimp a Butterfly or Art Angels or the G.L.O.S.S. demo did.
A Non-Exhaustive List of Female-led Rock That Shows Women Ran the Genre this Year: Courtney Barnett, Bully, Sleater-Kinney, Screaming Females, The Juliana Hatfield Three, Waxahatchee, Wolf Alice, Hop Along, Allison Weiss, Sharon Van Etten, Adventures, and Speedy Ortiz killed it. Even the Veruca Salt reunion album was better than you’d think.
“Sleeper” Album of the Year: Lana Del Rey – Honeymoon. Didn’t wow me at first after Ultraviolence last year, but lately I’ve come around on it.
Pop-punk/Emo Power Ranking
5. The Front Bottoms: I can’t make heads or tails of Back on Top. It has five songs I love, and six I can’t help but feel indifferent toward. Go figure.
4. Modern Baseball: health problems threatened to sideline MoBo this year, but The Perfect Cast EP was a solid comeback leading into their new LP next year.
3. Bully: I feel like if emo wasn’t implicitly boy-centric, Bully’d get tagged as an emo band more often.
2. The Wonder Years: how to pop-punk like an adult.
1. The World Is…: the only band in-genre getting more attention than within their scene.
Favorite Hot 100 Songs That Didn’t Make the Year-End
Nicki Minaj ft. Beyonce – “Feelin Myself”
Justin Bieber – “Sorry” (next year, Justin)
Like, Any Remotely Rock Single That Wasn’t Fall Out Boy
Honorable Mentions (Considerations For Best Hits List)
Fifth Harmony – “Worth It”
Fetty Wap – “My Way”
Ellie Goulding – “Love Me Like You Do”
Major Lazer ft. MO – “Lean On”
Dishonorable Mentions (Considerations For Worst Hits List)
OMI – “Cheerleader”
Meghan Trainor – “Lips Are Movin'” (Saved by “No one deserves to be on three out of ten songs”)
Omarion ft. Chris Brown & Jhene Aiko – “Post To Be” (purely for Aiko, who has a song I adore, singing “He gotta eat the booty like groceries”)
Best Number 1 Hit: Mark Ronson – “Uptown Funk!” Okay this feels like cheating.
Best Number 1 Hit That Wasn’t on the Best List: The Weeknd – “The Hills”
Worst Number 1 Hit: Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth – “See You Again”
Worst Number 1 Hit That Wasn’t on the Worst List: OMI – “Cheerleader”
Most Whatever Number 1 Hit: Justin Bieber – “What Do You Mean?”
“Wow, I Didn’t Expect Your Career to Tank That Fast” Award: Mumford & Sons, who seem to have totally disappeared after Wilder Mind.
Least Essential Album of the Year: Fall Out Boy – Make America Psycho Again.
Artist That Most Made Me Feel Like an Asshole for Liking Indie Music: Mac DeMarco
R.I.P.: Grantland, fledgling site Wondering Sound, Property of Zack
Listmas 2015 Schedule
December 16th: Favorite Albums
December 17th: Worst Hits (10-6)
December 18th: Worst Hits (5-1)
December 19th: Best Hits (10-6)
December 20th: Best Hits (5-1)
December 21st: Favorite Songs
December 22nd: Year in Rant: Odds and Ends
Ranting About Music! 
So just curious, given that you loved Worth It by Fifth Harmony feat. Kid Ink (glad I’m not the only one who enjoys that song 🙂 ) enough for it to land in your honorable mentions, and given what you’ve said about DeRulo in the past, I’m guessing you’re not exactly a big fan of Talk Dirty (personally, it was #10 on my best list for last year), where does that leave you on GDFR by Flo Rida feat. Sage The Gemini & Lookas? Other I’m also curious to know your opinion on include the following: Nick Jonas’ other hit from this year, Chains, Sam Hunt’s 2 hits from this year, House Party and Take Your Time, as well as his hit from last year, Leave The Night On, Taylor Swift’s Wildest Dreams, Ed Sheeran’s Photograph, Fetty Wap’s 679, Time Of Our Lives by Pitbull feat. Ne-Yo, and I could go on, but I think that’ll suffice, and I won’t even be that disappointed if you don’t want to answer for all of these.
GDFR & Time of Lives: Eh, lunkheaded but yelling at club pop in 2015 seems tired.
Chains: I think I just find Nick Jonas really boring now that the “I used to be a Jonas brother!” sheen’s worn off.
Sam Hunt: I don’t hate his stuff, but I don’t like it, either. He’s gonna blow up and it’ll stump me.
679: I like it more than “Trap Queen” but juuust less than “My Way”.
Wildest Dreams: Still a weird single choice, but I’ve warmed up to it slightly.