Grimes - "Kill V. Maim"

"One song on the album, 'Kill V. Maim,' is written from the perspective of Al Pacino in The Godfather: Part II. Except he’s a vampire who can switch gender and travel throughout space."

That's how Grimes described this utterly nutty dance track from last year's terrific Art Angels. The video is what would happen if you mixed Sion Sono and Law & Order.

2015 in Review: My Top 10 Albums of the Year

Now that The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll is out -- hey, I did pretty well in my predictions -- I guess I might as well reveal my Top 10 albums of 2015. This was my 16th year of voting in the poll, which absolutely blows my mind. 

1. Jamie xx, In Colour 
Not since Moby's Play has an electronic dance album felt so spiritual, alive, cohesive, resonant, human. 

2. James McMurtry, Complicated Game 
Portraits of long marriages and old souls trying to find whatever contentment they can in ho-hum lives. Just think how down in the mouth James McMurtry is going to get if a Republican wins the White House.

3. Tame Impala, Currents 
Kevin Parker decides to put away the guitars (mostly), ends up making his most rocking and lovely album anyway.

4. Kurt Vile, B'lieve I'm Goin Down  
The critical consensus seems to be that Vile's new one is kinda like his last one. I have no problem with this.

5. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
The Album of the Year from the Artist of the Moment is also a great fame's-a-bitch record, Lamar's complaints about celebrity folding nicely into his anxious, thoughtful looks on race and poverty. Still, I hope he extricates himself from Dre.

6. Jason Isbell, Something More Than Free 
Like Vile, Isbell is being discounted a bit because his new album isn't the breakthrough of his last one. But the sturdy, melancholy tales of Something More Than Free suggests that, sobriety now well in hand, he still has tunes flowing out of him.

7. Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment, Surf 
As a messy, poetic exploration of urban life, Surf beats Chi-Raq. Funnier and more humane, too.

8. Laurie Anderson, Heart of a Dog  
My review after I saw the movie:

HEART OF A DOG: Laurie Anderson hems, haws and digresses around the husband she dearly misses. Lou Reed ends up having the last word anyway.

— Tim Grierson (@TimGrierson) October 16, 2015

The accompanying album only heightens the poignancy, provoking you to make pictures in your mind and imagine Anderson is speaking directly to you.

9. Grimes, Art Angels
Not since -- what, Fiona Apple's Extraordinary Machine? -- has an artist so successfully junked her first stab at a new record and come up with something so challenging and yet so fun, as if this was how it was always supposed to sound.

10. Pusha T, King Push – Darkest Before Dawn: The Prelude
Released terribly late in December, King Push hasn't fully revealed itself to me. But I couldn't stop digging Pusha T's reliably steely, brutal songs. Added bonus: No Chris Brown on this album.

To see my full ballot, which includes my list of the year's best singles, go here. (Hint: Drake and the Weeknd dominated the radio, as well as my list.)

2015 Pazz & Jop Poll Predictions

I'm still mortified by how poorly I did predicting last year's Pazz & Jop Top 10. (I really didn't think Black Messiah's complicated musical landscapes would have had sufficient time to sink in with enough voters to carry the day.) Nonetheless, I feel more confident in this year's guesses, mostly because I don't think No. 1 is in doubt at all....

1. Kendrick Lamar, To Pimp a Butterfly
2. Courtney Barnett, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit
3. Grimes, Art Angels
4. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell 
5. Father John Misty, I Love You, Honeybear
6. Jamie xx, In Colour
7. Sleater-Kinney, No Cities to Love
8. Tame Impala, Currents 
9. Adele, 25
10. Carly Rae Jepsen, Emotion 

Other albums I considered for the Top 10: Vulnicura, Summertime '06 and The Epic. We'll know how well I did when The Village Voice releases the poll results on Wednesday. I'm expecting To Pimp a Butterfly to win by a large margin. As for the singles poll, I'm torn between Drake's "Hotline Bling" or Adele's "Hello," but my gut says "Hotline Bling."

(Update: The results are out now and, yes, I nailed the top album and top single. I got eight of the Top 10 albums correct, overestimating Tame Impala's and Adele's chances and not giving enough credence to Vince Staples and Kamasi Washington. Overall, I'm surprised by the relatively soft showing of Ms. Adkins: 25 was a paltry No. 35, while "Hello" tied for No. 9. My ballot is here.)

Grimes - "Oblivion"

Here's a song I just need right now. Maybe you do, too.

2012 Pazz & Jop Poll Predictions

The Village Voice is about to reveal the results of its annual Pazz & Jop music poll. So, for the hell of it, my predictions for the Top 10 on the album list....

1. Frank Ocean, Channel Orange
2. Kendrick Lamar, good kid, m.A.A.d city
3. Fiona Apple, The Idler Wheel...
4. Japandroids, Celebration Rock
5. Grimes, Visions
6. Tame Impala, Lonerism
7. Bruce Springsteen, Wrecking Ball
8. Alt-J, An Awesome Wave
9. Miguel, Kaleidoscope Dream 
10. Swans, The Seer 

I can't wait to see how completely wrong I was.