Albums of the Year: Honorable Mention Edition

First of all, let me make it clear that these are not necessarily the best or most popular or most significant albums of 2015. These are my favorite albums that I have listened to more than once or twice. It's my list.

I'll link to the album spotlights and interviews from this blog. There won't be any commentary in this post.

The list would be shorter if I were genre specific or only listened to mainstream stuff. This is about good music that I like. And I don't listen to much of anything mainstream. I listed my favorite albums of 2015 and came up with 24. This honorable mention list will include the 14 that didn't make the top ten.

The artist's name will link to my posts, the album name will link to the artist's web site.

In no particular order:

Plastic Rhino - Recondition

Jonathan Tyler - Holy Smokes

Lindi Ortega - Faded Gloryville

Frankie Bourne - Californicana

Samantha Fish - Wild Heart

Koritni - Night Goes On For Days

Europe - War of Kings

Striking Matches - Nothing But The Silence

Allison Moorer - Down To Believing

Gretchen Peters - Blackbirds

Butch Walker - Afraid of Ghosts

Brandi Carlile - The Firewatcher's Daughter

honeyhoney - 3

Ray Wylie Hubbard - The Ruffian's Misfortune

Look for my top 10 coming out later this month.

Q and A with Plastic Rhino

The Los Angeles-based duo Plastic Rhino recently released their third album Recondition. You can read on their website what they think. Here's my take: very good hard rock album. Sure, you can try to break it down and do all the sub-genre stuff, but what it all boils down to is that it's hard rock done well.

For all the doomsayers saying "rock is dead", artists like Plastic Rhino are proving that it is not. You can read my Album Spotlight here.

Vocalist Atara Gottschalk and guitarist Jack Glazer were kind enough to to grant me a Q and A. The results follow.

Album Spotlight: Plastic Rhino: Recondition

I was provided the opportunity to get a pre-realease listen to Plastic Rhino's upcoming record Recondition. The album reinforces my notion that rock is definitely not dead.

The duo of lead vocalist Atara Gottschalk and guitarist Jack Glazer bring their own brand of multi-decade influenced rock to life on Recondition.

Great riffs, strong vocals, heavy with a sense of melody. What's not to like? Oh, and I didn't even mention the pop sensibilities and punk tendencies.

The lead single,  "Big Man Baby", is a straight up rocker. If this is the first time you've heard Atara's raspy, passionate vocal stylings, you're in for a treat. From there. no drop off in quality. Tasty guitar, kick ass vocals, great songs.

The album closer, "The Ballad Of The Rhino" shows a softer side of Plastic Rhino, up until 3:50 mark when it turns into a full blown rocker. That kind of diversity is much appreciated. To me, the record compares very favorably to Halestorm and Chaser Eight. That's not bad company.

The record drops October 13. It's good. Check it out.

In the meantime here's the lyric video for the lead track on Recondition , "Big Man Baby":