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Blur
Blur … ‘Great music, without megalomania.’ Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA
Blur … ‘Great music, without megalomania.’ Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA

The best albums of 2015 – readers' picks

This article is more than 8 years old

We’ve had our say – but what did you think were the best albums of 2015? Here’s what you voted for

We are in accord! For the first time any of us can recall, Guardian readers and Guardian writers had the same two favourite albums of the year, in the same order. This year, in a rare moment of rigour, we decided to exclude obvious attempts to game the system – so, Tinker’s Mitten (“like a beefier Flying Pickets”, one reader suggested, enticingly), Jodie Marie and Karnataka, we’re sorry; but next time you suspect your admirers might be voting for you en masse in a poll, tell them not to all vote at the same time (we record exactly when each vote is cast, for exactly this reason). Had they only spread their votes out a little more, all might well have featured in our top five.

You nominated hundreds of albums, with strong showings for some that didn’t make it into our top 40 – Lana Del Rey’s Honeymoon and Blur’s The Magic Whip, for example. But you are now, surely, craving to know how it all panned out, right? We will keep you waiting no longer.

5. Jamie xx – In Colour

“Crafting old skool influences into a modern-day masterpiece with game-changing ramifications that will change the perspective of how dance music is made in the future.” Joseph Pragg

“It brings together so much of British dance music past and present to create a part-uplifting, part-melancholic album with genuine depth and emotion.” Neil WS

“Rare you find a record that’s so embedded in club culture but so emotional. Songwriting is fantastic too.” John Boar

What we said: “Although In Colour flirts with being overly tasteful, it usually manages to stay just the right side of strange – much like the xx themselves.”

Watch I Know There’s Gonna Be (Good Times) by Jamie xx ft Young Thug.

4. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear

“Honeybear’s lyrics run the full gamut from laugh-out-loud funny to tear-jerkingly tender. Josh Tillman isn’t afraid to deal out sharp wit – aimed at himself as well as others – but at the core of this album is a real humanity and love.” Will J

“A consummate performer singing songs that are current and classic, and rest in that hallowed place where a writer finds their exact spot in the artistic firmament at the perfect moment.” King of Oxgangs

“It’s the last stand of pop music as an intelligent force in a world that is dumbed down by one-dimensional ideologies and the loss of wonder. A strange, beautiful record.” vollyrocks

What we said: “His lyrics capture the inner monologue of someone who is always thinking and rethinking, who cannot reach a conclusion in one line without questioning or subverting it in the next. He keeps you on your toes.”

Watch I Love You Honeybear by Father John Misty.

3. Blur – The Magic Whip

“Blur come back as mature band, absolutely free from any label to define them. Great music, without megalomania.” Irineu Machado

“Best surprise of the year. Far better than it has any right to be, it is a triumph of musicianship over hype and is everything a Blur album should sound like in 2015.” Damien Sullivan

“It’s amazing that they were able to make something in five days that stands up against their best work. The world still needs Blur.” Jonathan Chapman

What we said: “They don’t sound like a band taking a final curtain call. They sound like a band filled with ideas and potential new directions, who have plenty left to do together, if they choose.”

Watch Ong Ong by Blur.

2. Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell

“The most moving album I’ve heard in 2015 – Sufjan Stevens puts away the bizarre concepts, choirs and angels’ wings to reveal an immense songwriting talent.” Daniel

“From beginning to end, this album is simply sublime. It wraps you in the comforting tones of Stevens, while simultaneously breaking your heart. Every time I listen I can’t help but shed a tear. Stunning and beautiful.” Lorna Boothroyd

“Initially sparse and simple, on repeated listening it grows into something beautiful, heartbreaking and deeply touching. A work of genius.” Bigred

What we said: “It’s a record not just of sadness, but wonder. It’s the sound of the space between the stars.”

Watch Should Have Known Better by Sufjan Stevens.

1. Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly

“Dense, thoughtful, challenging and ultimately rewarding. Feels like a landmark record – Alright becoming a protest song underlines the album’s cultural impact.” Ryan Gilbert

“Kendrick transcends hip-hop by fusing elements of funk, jazz, soul and blues in a stylistically different but worthy successor to Good Kid, M.A.A.D City, which manages to tackle pertinent social issues while simultaneously making you want to dance.” Alan Cunningham

It’s easy to forget that rappers are poets. Kendrick Lamar is an absolute master at technical rhyming, multisyllabics, switching cadence and flow – and that’s before you even get to the empowering and insightful lyrical themes of his music. As for the instrumentation, this feels like an exploration of 20th-century black music.” Jonathan Rimmer

What we said: “Kendrick Lamar produced something so potent that it leapfrogged the usual considerations of commerciality and connected with a mass audience. It hardly needs underlining that this almost never happens: proof that To Pimp a Butterfly was something special.”

Watch Alright by Kendrick Lamar.

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