Part of the joy of being one man with a blog and not an important publication is that I don't feel any pressure to make an albums list that contextualizes the decade. Nobody's reading this, so I don't need to fit anything in because it's "important" or "groundbreaking." No, this list is only concerned with what "slaps" and "goes hard." The real criteria was slightly more complicated, but only slightly. In choosing my favorite albums of the decade, I thought about the records that meant the most to me at the time they came out, but often an album can seem great in the year of its release and then you never return to it. So I also made sure to give credit to the albums that I returned to most often and the ones that still held up when I did my relistening throughout this year in preparation for this list.
They say that the music somebody listens to in their adolescence is the era that resonates the most with them and for me that's true, because if I had to choose, I'd probably say I enjoyed the music of the 2000s more than I enjoyed what the 2010s had to offer. But that's not to say I didn't think this was a good music decade. You could stretch the list you're about to read out to 100 picks and it would still include albums I love. The early part of the decade saw the bombast of the 2000s give way to sleeker, more electronic based sounds, which led many writers to declare that rock music was dead. But really, it was just that great rock music was coming from different places. Particularly in the last half of the 2010s, there was a boom of women making excellent DIY, punk, and music indebted to 90s alt-rock. Meanwhile, as rap became the dominant force in our culture, and pop continued to be embraced more as a genre worthy of serious consideration, both scenes gave us terrific examples of the form. Music was thriving all around, and it's ultimately a good thing that the wealth is being spread and not coming from the traditional modes of yore.
So let's celebrate all the 2010s had to offer...
The rules: In order to maximize the amount of variety on this list and ensure that certain artists don't clog it up, I've limited myself to one album per act. If a certain artist made albums under two different projects -- like Julian Casablancas with The Strokes and The Voidz, for example -- they would both be eligible. For my yearly lists, I usually consider EPs, but for this decade list I didn't really include EPs into consideration. There is one exception, but that EP feels so massive and made such a splash that it's basically an album. And in this day and age, a mixtape is the same thing as an album so naturally those are included. Other than that, the window of eligibility includes anything released between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019.
20 Honorable Mentions (alphabetical order)
Belle and Sebastian - Write About Love (2010)
Boygenius - boygenius EP (2018)
Bully - Feels Like (2015)
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
D'Angelo - Black Messiah (2014)
Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition (2016)
Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan (2012)
The Dodos - No Color (2011)
Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation (2016)
JPEGMAFIA - All My Heroes Are Cornballs (2019)
Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience (2013)
Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know (2011)
Miguel - Kaleidoscope Dream (2012)
The National - Sleep Well Beast (2017)
Parquet Courts - Human Performance (2016)
Shabazz Palaces - Black Up (2011)
The Strokes - Angles (2011)
Wilco - The Whole Love (2011)
Wild Beasts - Smother (2011)
Young Thug - Slime Season mixtapes (2015-2016)
30 years and 11 albums into their career, a band should be running on fumes, but nobody told Superchunk that. Simply put, What a Time to Be Alive is one of the band's best, a blistering and catchy record about raging on in an age where despair seems like the only answer. Punk music is a young person's game, but luckily Superchunk is not here to play games.
Jenn Wasner is one of rock's best guitarists, so the news that Shriek would feature no six-string action seemed like a massive mistake. The final product proved otherwise, showing that Wye Oak's real power lies in their direct, gleaming songwriting. Plus, Wasner happens to be an incredible bassist as well.
The emo revival was one of the dominating musical narratives of the 2010s and the main counterpoint to the idea that guitar music was dying. For the most part though, this music just bounced off of me. One exception is Pity Sex's White Hot Moon, which feels more akin to shoegaze than emo, what with its gauzy sound and whirlwind alternation of male and female vocals.
Maybe this is the album that broke Arcade Fire. The Album of the Year Grammy win and the ambitious scope left them with no choice but to reach for larger bombast, eventually leading them to drop a misfire like Everything Now. But listening to The Suburbs, with its incredible variety of tracks held together by a nostalgic spirit, it's hard to blame such a wonderful record for anything that happened in its wake.
Robyn opened the lane for the likes of Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX, and Sky Ferreira, the alt-pop singers who have achieved success and a fervent audience without the superstardom that usually comes along with it. Her Body Talk series -- three EPs and an album featuring the best pickings from them -- had a futuristic sound to match her influence. Everyone's still trying to catch up to the catchy robotic pop on display here.
Vampire Weekend were an excellent band from their inception, but their white collar aesthetic and playful sound gave people an easy excuse to not engage with them. That's part of the reason why Modern Vampires of the City was so warmly embraced -- when they discarded what some saw as a gimmick and left only these baroque pop diamonds, nobody could deny the talent that was always there.
On both his most ambitious and best sounding album, Kendrick Lamar fully launched himself into the rap stratosphere with To Pimp a Butterfly. (It's a great reel for his eventual foray into voice acting as well.)
She's now the biggest pop star in America, but at one point Ariana Grande was just an upstart trying to shake off her Nickelodeon origins. Her first album remains her purest expression, displaying her impressive ability to turn 90s R&B stylings into blissful pop music.
For a long time, it felt like St. Vincent was holding back a bit. Her first three albums were fantastic, but they showed little of the wild flights she proved capable of achieving in her live shows. That all changed with her self-titled fourth album, where she came back decked out with a gray-haired mad scientist look and a set of zany, brilliant tunes to match.
Long after the flame of many of their NYC rock revival peers was extinguished, The Walkmen continued to fluorish. Their music aged like the fine wine meant to be drank along with it, culminating in Heaven, one of their most elegant collections of songs.
Port of Morrow has fallen victim to the shifting tides of discourse, as it feels largely forgotten despite being warmly received back in 2012. It may not change your life, but it's further evidence that James Mercer has a never-ending supply of devilishly catchy melodies.
Jens Lekman takes his sweet time between albums, but the finished product is always worth the anticipation. I Know What Love Isn't came five years after his magnum opus, Night Falls Over Kortedala, and the intervening years did nothing to dull the Swedish songwriter's attention to detail, droll humor, and lush instrumentation.
Death doesn't have to be all sadness. A Tribe Called Quest proved that with We Got It.., a celebratory swan song gathering new friends and old, where the late great Phife Dawg is simultaneously dead and fiercely alive.
90s rock has been the sound du jour of this decade, but it might have been perfected in 2011 with Yuck's debut album. Synthesizing the sounds of Dinosaur Jr., The Smashing Pumpkins, and Sonic Youth, the band wielded their influences like the guitars they slashed to create an album that feels like a lost gem unearthed years later.
The rap game's leading purveyor of chilly, clear-eyed coke rap has always had great taste in producers, and his 25 minute team up with Kanye West stands up there with his legendary, crime writer specific work with The Neptunes. May Pusha T never run out of clever ways to talk about selling drugs.
P.S. Eliot's star burned for only a brief period, but their energy could power multiple solar systems. Sadie was the ultimate realization of their potential, keeping their DIY aesthetic while moving towards a more polished, direct sound. The band is now known as the launching pad for the separate successes of Katie and Allison Crutchfield, but the youthful passion on display here was unique, special, and hasn't been replicated since.
Part of Disclosure's success can be attributed to the fact that they arrived right around the time when the world was itching for crossover electronic music on a Daft Punk level. But Settle resonates so much more than countless pretenders because it's simply incredible, a pristine send-up of UK garage that's reverential and fresh in equal measure.
Vince Staples has emerged as one of rap's great chameleons, always trying out new sounds to lay his hard-knocking flow over. It was a surprise when he decided to release an album full of cold, futuristic electronic beats, but it was an even bigger surprise just how well it worked.
To the wider world, Carly Rae Jepsen is still the "Call Me Maybe" girl. But to the internet, she's an underdog messianic meme queen figure, all thanks to Emotion. People would have moved on after a few months if this wasn't such a dizzying set of fizzy, heartfelt posi-pop.
Punk and indie rock turned music about anxiety and depression into an economy in the last few years, but Kicking Every Day remains one of the essential documents of mental illness. The songs on this record cut deep, channeling the everyday struggles to stay afloat and battling feeling like a burden to everyone around you into intense explosions of punk music.
Many of the prominent acclaimed indie bands of the 2000s had already fizzled out, but The Decemberists came into 2010 strong with The King is Dead. The key is that they were able to adapt, adopting a more rootsy sound. And they wear the alt-country hat well, keeping The Decemberists spirit despite the fresh new skin.
By the time 2014 rolled around, people seemed to have grown so accustomed to The New Pornographers making bulletproof power pop that everyone seemed bored with it. So it was the perfect time for them to release Brill Bruisers, another perfectly constructed hookfest and their best work since 2005's Twin Cinema. It was far too good to be ignored.
If you live anywhere but Detroit, Bartier Bounty was probably your introduction to Sada Baby. And what an opening statement it was -- 20 tracks of unrelenting rapping, delivered with such unique verve that you can't deny it. You get the sense that this is just the beginning of a creative run that will continue well into the next decade.
Every time I listen to Shapeshifter, I feel a tingle of recognition. There's a quality to this weird, queasy, and sad album that feels comfortable in a way that few others do.
Angel Olsen has come a long way from the sparse folk songs of her debut Half Way Home. By the time of her third album, she'd grown to flex so many different muscles. My Woman gives you everything you could want from Olsen: the old-timey jams, the oblong synth splashes, and the sprawling siren songs.
Cult bands usually attract so much devotion because they make the kind of music that inspires people to see themselves or understand themselves better. Hello Sadness is the quintessential cult band project in that regard -- Los Campesinos! frontman Gareth slicing himself open in melodramatic, exhilarating songs for all to listen to and sympathize with.
This was maybe the toughest choice to make: Channel Orange vs. Blonde. While Channel Orange has the more straightforward jams, Blonde is the one that becomes richer after you let it simmer. The way it cracks open more each time you hear it makes more likely to linger in our collective consciousness.
Even the best bands who make breezy indie rock often sacrifice complex instrumentation to do so, but not Hospitality. It's part of why their self-titled debut is one of the unsung masterpieces of the 2010s: their ability to strike a seemingly impossible balance between fluff and musicianship. Not enough people have heard this album, and if you're one of those people, give it a listen immediately.
In the middle of increasing amounts of bands making pop records under the guise of indie rock, Sky Ferreira made one of the few indie rock records under the guise of pop. Night Time, My Time is full of diamond-quality catchy songs, but they've got a serrated, unkempt feeling to them that makes them even more arresting.
Lorde had a few breakout hits at 16 on her debut album, but instead of chasing stardom with her second record, she made an Artistic Statement. Melodrama operates in a magical middle ground where Lorde writes with a level of poetry beyond her years but a clarity about youth that only someone in the trenches could achieve. It may have been less commercially successful than Pure Heroine, but its a legacy strengthening album for her as a songwriter.
Sometimes there's no other narrative behind an album besides "the songs are good." And the songs on Soccer Mommy's debut album Clean -- from rockers like "Cool" to elliptical ballads like "Wildflowers" -- are really, really good.
Joanna Newsom is the exception to every musical rule, so don't let the fact that it's a triple album turn you off from listening to Have One on Me. Over 18 songs and over 150 minutes, the harpist spans styles and subjects, but every track is united by Newsom's ability to wield the English language to craft dense, emotional narratives.
Sufjan Stevens rose to indie stardom on the back of ambitious, orchestral, state-specific albums like Greetings From Michigan and Illinois. And even his left-field electronic turn on The Age of Adz was filled bombast. But Carrie & Lowell reminded us that he's just as good at sparse beauty.
The third album from New Jersey band Cymbals Eat Guitars completely blew the doors open on their music. They always had a dense tangle of instrumentation, but this time they added oomph to Joseph D'Agostino's lyrics, centering most of the songs on memory and the death of his childhood friend. LOSE is the ultimate catharsis album, filled with huge tracks that will leave a lump in your throat.
It may be controversial to pick this over My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, but with some years of distance Yeezus feels like the fresher, more interesting work. Though it may be abrasive and confrontational, it's still compulsively listenable. It's one of the best highwire acts in a career defined by them.
Anybody who thought Big Boi was the weak link of Outkast would have a hard time standing by that already ludicrous sentiment after hearing Sir Lucious. The legendary Atlanta rapper's first solo album under his own name stands up there with the best work he did with Andre 3000. Sir Lucious is a luxurious album of funky bangers, the kind of expansive, genre-spanning rap album they don't make anymore.
Painted Shut blends Hop Along's two most potent elements -- Frances Quinlan's distinctive rasp and the band's tight dynamic -- into a perfect storm of rousing songs. Guitar music was never dead, but it feels particularly vital on this album.
It's impossible to overstate how much Sit Down, Man rewired my brain in 2010. During a time when rap music was still tilted toward a sense of self-seriousness, it felt revolutionary for an album to be this sly about dissecting race and pop culture while also being so hilarious and playful about it. Das Racist were so of the time that you'd think they'd age like lukewarm milk, but this mixtape still sounds exciting.
With an album title like Father, Son, Holy Ghost, you're under alot of pressure to make something akin to a religious experience. And Girls did that on what ended up being their final statement as a band, stirring up influences from gospel, to Elvis Costello, to 50s pop and conjuring an album that feels wholly unique and special to this day.
It must be tough to have a breakout song that eclipses the rest of the songs on an album, as Alvvays did with "Archie, Marry Me" on their very good self-titled debut. But it didn't seem to phase them while making their second LP, a record that solidified once and for all that making great, catchy songs is just what they do. Antisocialites is the ideal sophomore album: bigger, bolder, and just plain better.
Allison Crutchfield is the less famous of the Crutchfield twins, which is a shame because her band Swearin' deserves just as much shine. They've been the real deal since day one, when they released their debut of rip-roaring punk tunes. Underestimate them at your own peril.
Before the Doritos commercials, before the youth pastor evangelizing, before the thin-skinned strong-arming of journalists, Chance the Rapper was just a kid from Chicago. And Acid Rap was the mixtape that launched him into the stratosphere, making good on the promise shown on 10 Day with a fully-formed project that used his excitable yammer to deliver a devastating mix of grim musings on growing up in Chicago and exaltations about living through it all. He's done his best to destroy all of the goodwill he's built up, but we'll always have Acid Rap.
8. Beach House - Teen Dream (2010)Beach House is without a doubt the most consistent band of the decade. Over the last 10 years they've released five excellent albums that could all make a strong case for being their best. But ultimately I went with Teen Dream, which still feels like their strongest piece of front-to-back songwriting. The album flows so well, every track a classic that matches the thrills of the last.
Fleet Foxes proved they weren't just an ephemeral buzz band with their sophomore album, which turned their classical folk pop stylings more insular and ornate, each song feeling like its own beautifully crafted movement. It took the band six years to follow this up and after listening to it again, who can really blame them?
Red may not be Taylor Swift's best record (that's still last decade's Fearless), but it might be the most definitive display of her powers. The sheer range of jams she churns out on this record -- the arena-ready "State of Grace," the slow burning "All Too Well," the bubblegum pop of "22" -- is something to behold. It's what makes her one of the best songwriters ever.
Run the Jewels 2 is the summer blockbuster of albums. There's no other way to describe the spectacle of hearing Killer Mike and El-P rap like titans, crushing everything in their wake. But unlike most blockbuster films, the political rage and head-spinning production of RTJ2 doesn't evaporate from your mind as soon as you step away from it.
A Frankie Cosmos record is not just an album, but an invitation into Greta Kline's world. Next Thing is one of her many collections of small wonders. The tracks may be short but they contain a deep well of feeling and melody.
Over the course of four increasingly assured albums, Katie Crutchfield has emerged as the indie rock queen of this decade. Her breakthrough Cerulean Salt remains her most definitive album, a 90s rock-indebted collection of gut-scraping songs that serve as the bible to one's 20s.
The Blue Album for the 2010s, Guppy supercharges early Weezer's catchy riffage and sticky hooks but trades in Rivers Cuomo's vocals for Eva Hendricks' high-stakes, high-pitched singing. Charly Bliss' debut is a joyous and endlessly listenable album.
The tragic loss of keyboardist and founding member Carey Lander means this might be the final Camera Obscura album. If that's the case then Desire Lines is a gorgeous swan song, the millennium's best band crafting one more set of elegant indie pop.
Farewell to a decade of music. Leave your thoughts below, as well as any lists you may have. If you want to read a long list of songs I liked from artists who didn't make this list you can find it on this Google doc.
I'm a little nervous to share my top 10 albums because, well, honesty I feel bad because some of my choices are a little controversial, and when they're not they're pretty down-the-road whatever's the most popular. Oh well.
ReplyDelete1) PWR BTTM, Pagaent
2) R. Kelly, 12 Nights of Christmas
3) XXXTentacion, ?
4) Lil Dicky, Professional Rapper
5) Chris Brown, Indigo
6) Now That's What I Call Music! 69
7) Sleater-Kinney, The Center Will Hold (deluxe edit where they talk shit ahout Janet Weiss between tracks)
8) Suicide Squad: The Album
9) Guardians of the Galaxy: Awesome Mix Vol. 1
10) Louis CK, Hilarious
Jkjkjk lmao nooooooooo.
In reality, I was VERY pleased to see one record make your top 50, as it made my top 10 and I was absolutely certain nobody else would claim it as one of the greats! The King is Dead is absolutely one of the decade's finest.
Loved your list though. That top 10 -that no. 1!!!- is not going to be seen anywhere else and that's hella cool. Mine is practially copy-pasted with a few exceptions. Listened to the Hospitality band as your blurb instructed: I dig it!
I may do a lb post because fuck it and whatnot, but if not then this is it.
10) Mitski, Puberty 2
9) Vince Staples, Summertime 06
8) The Roots, undun.
7) The Decemberists, The King is Dead
6) Lorde, Melodrama
5) Frank Ocean, Blond
4) Daft Punk, Random Access Memories
3) St. Vincent, St. Vincent
2) Kendrick Lamar, good kid, M.A.A.D. city
1) Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
lmao I read your comment at work and had to try so hard to suppress my laugh at your fake top 10. Putting PWR BTTM at number 1 was a genius touch. It's kind of hilarious how thoroughly they've been erased from the world.
DeleteThe King is Dead rules!!!! The Decemberists slowly became kind of a punching bag (and I'm pretty lukewarm on their last two albums) but when they were at their peak they were untouchable. Also love The Roots pick!! Feels like that album has been a little forgotten (apparently even by me).
My taste is generally pretty boring and not unique but I'm very proud of how much I love Camera Obscura. They are -- or, they were..... :( -- the best band in the world and I don't understand how more people didn't see that.
PWR BTTM is still the only cancelling that seems like it was actually effective. It was pretty awesome watching their record label and their old record label and their tour dates drop them one by one. I really like the Camera Obscura song "French Navy", I should probably listen to more of their songs.
Delete