Favorite Five: Rewind
By Mia Romanoff and Miles Silverstein
Happy New Year! January’s edition of Favorite Five is a celebratory one, with editors Miles Silverstein and Mia Romanoff taking a look at our five favorite albums turning ten years old(!) this 2025. Ring in the new year with some decade-old albums that have stood the test of time.
The Powers That B – Death Grips
The Powers That B eludes description and classification. The double album by Sacramento experimental hip hop trio Death Grips is a step forward from the (underappreciated) Government Plates. Where Government Plates took the Death Grips formula and raised it to its nexus, The Powers That B deconstructs everything about the group. The first eight tracks feature beats composed entirely of Bjork sample flips, and the final ten are almost analog, paying homage to drummer Zach Hill’s math rock roots. MC Ride’s lyricism doubles in on itself, becoming more complex, more forceful, and even emotional (‘On GP’ directly reckons with themes of depression and suicide, a vulnerability not usually associated with the mysterious ethos of the band). Today’s industrial rock and experimental hip-hop owe a great deal to the innovation of The Powers That B.
– Miles Silverstein
Dark Sky Paradise – Big Sean
For our first retrospective edition of Favorite Five, I decided to go for not just albums I love from 2015, but the albums I loved most in 2015. ‘Blessings’ and ‘I Don’t Fuck With You’ might this albums biggest cultural holdovers, but this is also the album that gifted us ‘Stay Down’ and my personal favorite ‘I Know’ (and ‘Platnum and Wood’ on the deluxe version). Dark Sky Paradise makes this list based on sheer playtime and the Kanye feature on ‘All Your Fault’.
– Mia Romanoff
The Epic – Kamasi Washington
“Jazz is dead” is the favorite phrase of every audiophile and purist you’ve ever met. No, jazz is not dead, you just haven’t heard The Epic by Kamasi Washington. From the first thundering, elbowy piano chords of opener ‘Change of the Guard’, The Epic roars through every phase jazz has known in the previous sixty years. It’s modal, it’s bop, it’s free, but above all else, it is Kamasi Washington.
– Miles Silverstein
AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP – A$AP Rocky
I have always been an absolute sucker for this album. AT.LONG.LAST.A$AP feels like the embodiment of a musical moment where rap was the center of everything and for good reason. Throughout the album Rocky keeps things effortlessly cool – there’s no jumping around or dancing. Instead we’re submerged into a syrup filled fish-bowl where everything is slowed down and sparkling. As an Upper West Side kid, ‘West Side Highway’ will always be an unjustifiable nostalgic favorite, but ‘L$D’ and ‘Everyday’ are this album’s classics. Other top tracks include the phenomenal ‘Canal st.’ and ‘Fine Whine’ which features Joe Fox, Future, and M.I.A.
– Mia Romanoff
Emotion – Carly Rae Jepsen
Few albums since the turn of the 21st century have really had a finger on the zeitgeist quite like Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion. No song off the A-side escaped the Vine era unscathed – every one of those songs defined a different internet fad. For something so emblematic of its time, Emotion impressively transcends criticisms of being dated or corny, still sounding like the next big thing that the world hasn’t really caught up to yet.
– Miles Silverstein
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late – Drake
I could not in good faith put together a collection of my favorite albums from 2015 without including If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late. The first of two Drake albums released that year, the cover art alone continues to be an iconic throwback to the times. The first four songs on the album (‘Legends’, ‘Energy’, ‘10 Bands’, ‘Know Yourself’) can still get every person in the room up and singing along. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late has survived all these years because it’s Drake doing what Drake does best – making rap hits (and excessively referring to Toronto as the 6).
– Mia Romanoff
Rodeo – Travis Scott
I mean come on – who hasn’t heard it? Travis Scott is the architect of modern trap, and Rodeo is its high point. From the monologue in the first song, Travis creates a narrative and prepares to unify the aesthetic of all nineteen tracks, a feat that no trap album has managed to the same degree in the ten years since. ‘90210’ is a cornerstone of modern culture, a point from which every artist attempting something similar may orient themselves. ‘Nightcrawler’ comes from the future, beamed back from a neon-lit rainy cyberpunk metropolis to remind us how far hip-hop can still go. To boot, it’s eerily prophetic how the album ends with a minute of dark electronica a la The Cure or Massive Attack underneath Travis promising he’ll never fall off – good call. He’s right.
– Miles Silverstein
Depression Cherry – Beach House
This album is a dream. Hazy, synth filled perfection pure and simple. I can still remember hanging out in the beach parking lot all night with my best friend during a brutal winter our junior year, ‘Space song’ seemingly playing the whole time. Depression Cherry holds up over the years because above all else it is a soundtrack. It presents a singular mood – it encircles you, seeping into every corner, filling a moment. I cannot in good conscience recommend single songs, just play the album from the start.
– Mia Romanoff
Get to Heaven – Everything Everything
“Power Pop” is a term used to refer to the arena-shattering, chart-topping rock of the Who, the Stones, or Cheap Trick, but the unique gold that Everything Everything strike on Get To Heaven can only be described as power pop, despite no connection at all to the real thing. The dominating synth work and futuristic guitars complement Jonathan Higgs’s energetic deliveries and Michael Spearman’s unrelenting percussion. The experimental, upbeat pop of Everything Everything’s Get to Heaven still sounds like pool parties and breezy night drives – it is the soundtrack to everyone’s annual attempt at the perfect summer.
– Miles Silverstein
To Pimp a Butterfly – Kendrick Lamar
You knew this album was coming. 2015 might have been a great year for music, but in the past decade nobody has ever doubted there was an obvious winner. To Pimp A Butterfly leans into jazz and funk, with each song taking you to a new musical world. Kendrick has always been one of the few artists who can make a 16 track album without a boring or repetitive moment. While ‘Alright’ is by far TPAB’s most played track I’d be remiss if I didn’t point you in the direction of ‘u’, and ‘For Sale? – interlude’ which are both made by the trumpets.As a girl who loves an album that is written to be listened to in one sitting, the poem that is revealed throughout the album before being recited in its entirety on ‘Mortal Man’ remains my favorite part of TPAB (I will always endorse a 12 minute Kendrick song).
– Mia Romanoff