4B — Thursday, January 7, 2016 the b-side The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Best Albums of 2015 2. Currents Tame Impala Apparently, people actually take the time to stalk my music preferences on Tinder because I got a message from Luke, eager to know what I thought of Currents. Both Tame Impala fans, Luke and I hit it off immediately. We both agreed — Currents is the Austra- lian band’s best album to date. But unfortunately for us, we disagreed on the album’s best songs. Luke jams to “Let It Happen” and “Past Life,” but when I claimed that “The Moment” and “Eventually” are the best songs on the album I was promptly unmatched. It’s whatever; I’m over it. I’m over it because obviously I’m right. “The Moment” and “Eventually” are both smooth indie classics that have already secured a tenured spot on my “car tunes” playlist and my “summer vibes” playlist. These songs, like the 11 others that com- prise Currents, demonstrate just how ephemeral psychedelic indie rock can be. Tame Impala man- aged to produce a magical 13-track album that’s perfect for any occa- sion. You can play it when you ~chill~, you can burn incense and dream about Coachella to it and you can even use the soundtrack to justify buying things you can’t afford at Urban Outfitters. Addi- tionally, it makes for the perfect, “I don’t want to go to class but let me walk melancholially to class any- way” album. You can even *gasp* just lay in bed and listen to the album on repeat without wanting to look at your phone to Snapchat the moment. -DANIELLE IMMERMAN 3. Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit Courtney Barnett Last March I volunteered to review Courtney Barnett’s debut album Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit with- out knowing anything about her music. In the review, I gave it a B+. Almost ten months later I can only think “what the fuck?” My review wasn’t wrong, I thought her album was good, but it’s stunning. It’s without a doubt an A+. Sometimes I Sit … is a lyri- cal masterpiece. Barnett throws 11 short scenes at listeners and expects them to keep up through- out the entire ride. Every track is lyrically dense no matter the speed of delivery. “Pedestrian at Best,” “Nobody Really Cares If You Don’t” and “Debbie Downer” are the catchiest and offer the most insight into Barnett’s internal (and beautiful) ramblings. Others offer less catch and drone on. “Small Poppies” morphs rock star guitars and monotone delivery of “an eye for an eye for an eye for an eye,” creating one of the most weirdly pleasurable tracks on the LP. “Kim’s Caravan” is soft-spoken reflection on Aus- tralia’s coral reef that builds with repetition and tone. “Depreston” does the opposite — Barnett talks through a story of looking to buy a house in Depreston that “seems depressing.” The track ultimately finds its center on the repetition of the realtor’s line “If you’ve got a spare half a million, you could knock it down and start rebuild- ing.” Each delivery drives home Barnett’s point. It emphasizes the ridiculousness of the trip and exemplifies Barnett’s ability to beautify the mundane. Barnett killed 2015. Her debut album was praised. She was one nomination the VMAs got right. She played killer shows across the world. (I saw her at Bonnaroo and it was transcendent.) Now, in 2016 she’s going for “Best New Artist” at the Grammys. It should be a no- brainer who wins this year. -CHRISTIAN KENNEDY 4. Carrie & Lowell Sufjan Stevens Listening to Sufjan Stevens is great for when you need a good cry, when you miss someone or when you suddenly remember that abandoned cat you saw three years ago and can’t stop wondering what happened to it. But really, he makes you think. Playing Stevens’s record requires a confrontation with your being — it’s impossible to take in his signature spry instru- mentation and delicate vocals without at least being prompted to think about something big- ger than yourself. Carrie & Lowell tackles Stevens’s relationship with his mother and stepfather — their lives, struggles, deaths and beliefs. Stevens holds nothing back, tack- ling the most intimate of questions regarding what it means to be in a family, both the good and the bad. The album is gentle and beauti- ful, with Stevens’s pleasant voice contrasting his emotionally heavy lyrics. Carrie & Lowell is a master- ful, standout addition to Stevens’s already impressive body of work. -CARLY SNIDER 5. Art Angels Grimes Artist and producer Claire Boucher, better known for her most recent project as Grimes, delivers in her highly anticipated follow-up to her 2012 release, Visions. Released in November, Art Angels is avant-garde; it’s kawaii; it’s horrifying; it’s incred- ible. Grimes ushers listeners to their seats with “laughing and not being normal,” violin and synth chords clashing against one another, a sinister organ and her vocals verging on choral yielding a sonic aesthetic that places 19th- century gothic in the present. But straightaway we’re brought into “California,” which plays with juxtaposition once more, its fluid guitar and sugary sound pushed against melancholic lyrics of the ephemeral and dehumanizing nature of hype. Juxtapositions and contradictions are every- where in this album: “California” sounds sweet but then we get “SCREAM,” an ice-hot and semi- horrifying nu-metal collaboration with Taiwanese DJ Aristophanes. She’s avant-pop but unrelentingly claims to represent the alternative, to press against what we think of as going together. Art Angels shows us that women can do the technical work of producers, that producers can be experimental artists, that cute can be “too scary to be objectified” (in the artist’s own words), that happy and angry can coexist, that pop can be alter- native, that the individual can be whatever they want to be, and that life is fucking confusing and dark and fun all at once, all the time. -REGAN DETWILER Best Community Events of 2015 2. Audra McDonald On the evening of Septem- ber 17, Hill Auditorium was packed with an audience eager to see the widely known and beloved Audra McDonald, who returned to UMS for her sixth appearance in concert. McDonald is a six-time Tony Award winner and has found her place both on the stages of Broadway and the opera. Her concert’s set list borrowed from various works, opening with “Sing Happy” from Flora the Red Menace, and including Sondheim’s “Moments in the Woods” from “Into the Woods,” “Maybe This Time” from “Cab- aret,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” from “The Sound of Music” and concluding with “Over the Rainbow” from “The Wizard of Oz.” The concert also fea- tured music from McDonald’s most recent recorded work, an album titled Go Back Home. UMS ticket holders responded to McDonald’s performance with raving reviews, describ- ing the concert as “amazing” and “fantastic,” believing McDonald to be someone who has an “incredible understand- ing of what drives the human soul.” McDonald’s vocal range is remarkable and audiences are continuously amazed by the range of musical theater pieces she is able to perform. Her most compelling gift, aside from the inordinate talent she already demonstrates, is her storytelling through music which leaves audiences cap- tivated and in awe of not only her vocal abilities, but also the stories she tells through them. -BAILEY KADIAN 3. Patti Smith On October 8th at the State Theatre, musician and writer Patti Smith read from her new- est book “M Train,” a book that serves as something of patch- work, chronicling moments of her life spanning from Café Ino, a lower Manhattan coffeeshop, to Frida Kahlo’s Casa Azul in Coyoacán, Mexico. Smith invites the reader to explore various settings, historical moments and landscapes that influence the writing and music she has pro- duced. The stories are punctu- ated by Smith’s black and white photographs and moments where the lines between poetry, prose, reality and imagination are blurred. During the event, she read from a couple of chap- ters of the book and an audience Q&A followed. In her responses to the Q&A, Smith was blunt and direct, providing unvarnished insight into the philosophies that have inspired her work as an artist. She spoke of her art as an obligation, one that she had always managed to fit in around raising a family, work- ing odd jobs and coping with the loss of her beloved hus- band, Fred “Sonic” Smith. She boldly denied the notion that art is a mere hobby or profes- sion — stating that to artists it is like food or shelter, a need that is crippling when unfulfilled. When asked about the practice of well-known artists pursu- ing activism, Smith, who has often called for an alleviation of injustice in her music and writ- ing, suggested that artists were not responsible for activism. She did suggest, however, that pop stars should “pool together their money and bail out our cities.” Although only the reading and Q&A were advertised, Smith surprised the audience with a performance of her 1983 hit “Because the Night,” accompa- nied by her son Jackson Smith, leaving her signature mark as the godmother of punk. -MARIA ROBINS-SOMER- VILLE 4. Sankai Juru As the lights slowly dimmed, an audible diminuendo spread throughout the Power Center, which was filled to capacity with people sitting collectively in stilled breath. There in the quiet and semi-darkness, the lone source of light emanated from the stage before the audience, in the form of a soft glow reflecting off a pillar of falling sand, which gracefully streamed from the ceiling to the floor. If one were to listen closely enough, the soft sound of the earth-bound par- ticles landing could be heard; as the minutes passed, the shift- ing pile beneath the pillar began to multiply. Into the light of the stage stepped a figure of some- what androgynous appearance, bald and covered in white powder, wearing long flowing garments. Slowly, the figure began to dance, and over the course of the evening he was joined by others similarly adorned. The dancers were all members of the Japanese dance group Sankai Juku. The ensemble is dedicated to Butoh, a Japanese avant-garde dance form which originated in the 1960s as a means to express the intensely grotesque and perverse. Throughout the performance, the dancers embod- ied numerous moods and ideas, often juxtaposing extreme still- ness with rapid movement, mov- ing in and out of shifting scenes of colored light, as ethereal music enveloped the space. At one point, the dancers opened their mouths and seemed to scream silently at the sky in a moment of cathartic release. At another moment, they lay on the floor, curled fetus-like into balls, periodically scrabbling against the ground in order to shift their position. At the end of the evening, the audience walked away from the performance with a melancholy mix of emotions, having witnessed something pro- foundly sad, yet undeniably beau- tiful. -DAYTON HARE Best Viral Videos of 2015 1. Drake’s “Hotline Bling” Music Video It seemed like the Internet was imploding when Drake blessed us with his flashy new moves in the “Hotline Bling” music video. The minimalistic set allowed viewers to gawk indefinitely at the 28-year-old rapper’s quirky dancing, which quickly racked up over 307 mil- lion views and infinitely more imitators. In true 2015 fashion, fans took to social media to share their interpretations of Drake’s choreo. Memes circled the web of Drake tossing pep- peroni slices, destroying at Wii tennis and playing with light sabers. Even Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders joined the revolution as Ellen DeGeneres super- imposed his Drake-inspired moves onto the “Hotline Bling” music video stage, yet another example of the way politics were taken just as seriously as this generation’s most promi- nent rappers. Drake taught us to pair turtlenecks with sweat- pants and reminded everyone in 2015 to dance like no one was watching. -DANIELLE YACOBSON 2. Alanis Morissette sings “Ironic” with James Corden 2015 was the last year of a period of upheaval in the late night space, as staples such as Jon Stewart and David Letter- man said goodbye, and new- bies, like James Corden, took the reins. Cordon treats his show like a variety show, with similarities to the current ver- sion of “The Tonight Show.” He is best known for his Carpool Karaoke segment, where he and a singer will drive around in a car. However, my favorite segment was this one where Corden and Alanis Morissette updated the lyrics of Moris- sette’s hit “Ironic” for the digital age. Instead of “rain on your wedding day,” there’s “An old friend sends you a Face- book request / And you only find out they’re racist after you accept.” Or, “It’s a traffic jam when you tried to use Waze.” He and Morissette have a clear chemistry, which makes their mid-song interactions even more fun. Corden is an under- the-radar talent and is actually beating Jimmy Fallon at his own game. Hopefully 2016 is a year where more people notice his talent because he’s only going to be creating more seg- ments like this. -ALEX INTNER 3. “Things Everybody Does But Doesn’t Talk About, Ft. President Obama” BuzzFeed has no shortage of hilarious videos to distract us from our responsibilities, but this video takes the cake. The video, featur- ing the leader of the free world, promotes the launch of health- care.gov, but mostly reminds us how cool the President is. No plat- form is out of bounds for Obama to reach constituents, and BuzzFeed is no exception. In under two min- utes, the President shows us how relatable he is by practicing his finger guns and checking himself out in the mirror, taking pictures with a selfie stick, stumbling over the pronunciation of “February,” doodling a picture of Michelle in a notebook and practicing some fake free throw shots while no one’s looking. He even sarcasti- cally mutters “Thanks, Obama” after he fails to dunk a cookie in his glass of milk. Though 2015 was filled with criticism for Obama, he takes amusement in it while get- ting a message out, making this one of the year’s most entertaining videos. -SHIR AVINADAV 4. “Close Encounter” “Saturday Night Live” might not be as funny as it once was — according to my parents and a bunch of other people who were watching it before I was born, etc. — but every once in a while, they come up with something truly hilarious. A sketch titled “Close Encounters” is one of the best that “SNL” has seen in the past few years, and it went viral for good reason. Cecily Strong, Kate McKinnon and host Ryan Gosling are interrogated by government officials (Aidy Bry- ant and Bobby Moynihan) about their alien abduction. While Strong and Gosling had experi- ences with a creature made of “pure light,” McKinnon’s char- acter had a different ordeal, with 40 gray aliens, steel bowls and a lack of pants. McKinnon’s performance is what makes the sketch an instant hit. Breaking character is something “SNL” ’s actors generally try to avoid, but “Close Encounters” wouldn’t have been nearly as funny if the actors didn’t break. The mirth in McKinnon’s eyes as she ashes her cigarette and gently begins “batting” Strong’s “knockers” as a demonstration is reason enough to press “replay.” Gos- ling just gives up, laughing into his shirt. They are having just as much fun performing as we are watching, and that’s what makes it great. That, and Kate McKinnon. -SOPHIA KAUFMAN 5. DJ Khaled’s Inspirational Video I watched DJ Khaled’s “Motivational Speech” on YouTube for the first time before finals in December. My roommate, her sides splitting, grabbed me as I was heading out to study and handed me her phone. Just under two minutes, the video centers on Khaled, wearing a sweatsuit and bling, as he delivers an inspirational speech that’s absurd and uplifting at the same time. The gist of the speech is this: “We the best. You smart, you very smart. You loyal,” and his catch phrase, “Another one.” As he explains, “another one” refers to push-ups or crunches, where you get on the floor while Khaled coaches you to your better self. The “All I Do is Win” producer repeats the phrase several times, emphasizing that we should “win no matter what,” whether it’s finishing a set of push-ups or buying houses for our mamas. Ridiculous? Yes. But exactly what we needed to get through the semester. Another one! -HAILEY MIDDLEBROOK CHECK OUT THE FULL LISTS ONLINE AT michigandaily.com/arts