Your Personal Top 10 of the 2010s

I was listening to the Horrible Crowes' Elsie tonight and thinking about how it's easily one of my favorite albums of the decade, when I decided to try a simple and complicated exercise:

• List your favorite ten albums of the decade thus far (alphabetical order, no pictures please)
• Write at least one sentence about why you like it so much (keep it short!)

There's no thread for something like this, so I thought I'd make one. Meant to be a fun album discovery option for folks... if you absolutely love 8/10 of someone's list, there's probably 2 other albums you should give a shot.

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Bon Iver - 22, A Million (2016)
Oblique poetry set to folk music that sounds like it was made from a dorm room in space.

Damian Rice - My Favorite Faded Fantasy (2014)
Delicate songwriting that builds and builds until there's nothing left in your heart.

The Horrible Crowes - Elsie (2011)
The heart of a late night epitomized in song.

Japandroids - Celebration Rock (2012)
All-time perfect roaring down the highway music.

Jason Isbell - Southeastern (2013)
A songwriter who's been through hell finds his way out.

Jens Lekman - Life Will See You Now (2017)
Idiosyncratic, joyful storytelling that’s somehow about nothing and everything.

Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle (2015)
A deeply empathetic soul reaches heavenward with a voice that can actually get there.

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
The sound of a collaborative genius on the ledge trying everything at once and succeeding.

Strand Of Oaks - HEAL (2014)
Purgative roars from the eye of a rock maelstrom.

The 1975 - I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it (2016)
Romance and hysteria and loss and triumph, often at the same time.


Honorable Mentions:
Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)
A brilliant urbane poet sings night moods from his lounge chair.

The Hotelier - Home, Like NoPlace Is There (2014)
Catharsis.

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)
The world's best rapper turns the world inside out and back again.

Noah Gundersen - Lover (2019)
A mirror turns into a prism, combining everything he loves into a suite of hyper-personal songs.

 

I think this was actually done back on AbsolutePunk, but it might be interesting to do it again.

 

Can’t wait another year for this???

 

Nice list @Matt Chylak. I was thinking about this a few weeks ago. I'll throw something together.

 

Bookmarking this thread for January 1, 2020

 

can’t wait, see you there

 

If I start thinking about this for more than five minutes I will never be able to answer this, so this is me just throwing a hastily put together unranked list that might be highly inaccurate five minutes from now out there:

YG - My Krazy Life

My Krazy Life > Good Kid, M.A.A,D City. While we're at it, Takeover > Ether, LL Cool J > Canibus and Jay Z on Renegade > Eminem on Renegade.

Maybe the best rap album of the decade.

Kehlani - SweetSexySavage

From a review I wrote last year: "On SweetSexySavage, Kehlani sings her heart out and tells the story of a woman that has been through hell and came out on the other side, by focusing on the things that truly matter: family, friends, love, faith and hope. Musically, the album wears its influences – Brandy, Aaliyah and TLC among others – on its sleeves, without coming off as an attempt at a nostalgia reliant throwback album. Kehlani and her producers instead takes these influences and use them to create a sound that is fresh and new, yet does not shy away from being R&B through and through."

Jay Z - 4:44

Thank you for being real with us, Jay. You’re still helping us grow up, just like you always did. “Hov did that, so hopefully you won’t have to go through that”.

Kacey Musgraves - Pageant Material

I like country in theory but I don't like a lot of country albums. I like this one. A LOT. It's sweet, raw, authentic and relatable.

The Lawrence Arms - Metropole

The traffic light blinked a million times
I blinked twice and twenty years went by

Blu & Exile - Give Me My Flowers While I Can Still Smell Them

Another candidate for best rap album of the decade.

Rick Ross - Rather You Than Me

Lorde - Pure Heroine

The great suburban novel. Nice beats too.

Bad Religion - True North

It was one of the first albums that came to mind. Not sure why. I'm not going to fight it though.

Chance The Rapper - Coloring Book

I'm maybe not as enthusiastic about it as I used to be due to overexposure, but this is what I wrote about it after I heard it for the first time while driving to pick up my girlfriend at the train station after she had been gone for a week: "I just listened to Chance The Rapper's new release "Coloring Book" and it's really fucking good. I'm talking - laugh to, cry to, go to church and praise God to, get married, make babies and die to - good."

Honorable Mentions: All Time Low - Don't Panic, Spraynard - Mable, Nas - Life Is Good, Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, The Roots - How I Got Over, Common - The Dreamer/The Believer, New Found Glory - Resurrection

EDIT: Took All Time Low out of the top 10 for Lorde and added "commentary".

EDIT 2: Changed the Rick Ross album to another Rick Ross album and took Spraynard out of the top 10 for The Lawrence Arms.

 

in reverse chronological order

American Pleasure Club - a whole fucking lifetime of this (2018)
David Maxim Micic - Who Bit the Moon (2017)
The Hotelier - Goodness (2016)
The Sidekicks - Runners in the Nerved World (2015)
The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There (2014)
Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE (2014)
Broadway Calls - Comfort/Distraction (2013)
Waxahatchee - Cerulean Salt (2013)
The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past (2012)
Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lenses Alien (2011)

so pretty much just my aotys but one extra for 2013 & 2014 each

edit: will add descriptions tomorrow

 

Cool list! Love those Kacey and Jay albums, not so much into your more punk/pop-punk stuff. Feel free to edit/revise as you think of more stuff. I like the idea of having my list in one place.

I'll check out that Blue & Exile album this morning. And I've gotta revisit that Rick Ross joint... that had jams for sure.

 

Thanks.

That All Time Low album is on there because I wanted to keep it a little balanced so in my mind I went "hey I like pop punk right, let's think of a post-00s album I liked". I only love about 2/3 of it though so that one might be cut first if I would spend more time on it.

I only started making annual lists in 2015 so I looked at those, which is so many albums from the last three years are on there.

As far as Rick Ross goes, maybe Rather You Than Me should be on this list instead of God Forgives I Don't, but I wanted to avoid the 2015-2017 trap at least a little.

The Blu & Exile album is a masterpiece, that 100% makes the list no matter how much time I spend on it.

EDIT: Made some changes to the original list that makes some of this irrelevant.

 

Van Morrison - Astral Weeks (2012)

 

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. I'll post my list soon.

 

No order:

Deftones - Diamond Eyes
Man Man - Life Fantastic
Converge - All We Love We Leave Behind
Deafheaven - Sunbather
St. Vincent - St. Vincent
The Armed - Untitled
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell
Tycho - Awake
Code Orange - I Am King
Vasudeva - Life in Cycles

 

Would be cool if y'all would write something about each album too. Even if it's just a sentence about a memory you have with the album or your favorite thing about it, makes your list more interesting than just ten album names.

Also, feel free to edit your lists if you think of an album you like more! I intend mine to be a living document. Basically let's Pablo this thread haha.

 

Bruce Springsteen - Wrecking Ball

A living legend turns in a late-career masterpiece by taking stock of modern societal ills and working through the loss of his most iconic sideman.

Butch Walker - Afraid of Ghosts

Raw, aching grief splayed out on tape. Encapsulates what it’s like to lose a parent who is also your best friend.

Butch Walker - Stay Gold

As different from Afraid of Ghosts as a record by the same guy could be. Bright-colored nostalgia and roaring guitar rock. It makes me happier to be alive than anything else I’ve heard this decade

Chad Perrone - Release

It’s a breakup record, but it’s also a record about getting older and realizing how much time has passed between then and now. I think “Here for Good” is one of those songs that could resonate with anyone.

The Dangerous Summer - War Paint

2011, encapsulated in a single document. I doubt there’s an album I’ve listened to more this decade. It’s the sound of coming of age, set against a backdrop of fiercely emotional bridges and crashing walls of guitar.

Field Report - Marigolden

An impressionistic, entrancing record about recovering from alcoholism. The songs feel simultaneously weightless and like the heaviest things in the world.

Jason Isbell - Southeastern

The start to one of the greatest redemption stories of the 21st century. Nuanced storytelling and deeply-felt love songs, delivered with resilience and hope.

Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit - The Nashville Sound

A gripping album about family, marriage, parenthood, anxiety, and politics. In my eyes, there isn’t a better songwriter working today than Jason Isbell, and songs like “If We Were Vampires” are exhibit A.

Noah Gundersen - Ledges

White Noise is more versatile, and Carry the Ghost is more thematically complete, but in terms of peer songcraft, Gundersen was never better than he was here. The best folk album of the 2010s.

Taylor Swift - Red

Elation; romance; infatuation; love; euphoria; dissatisfaction; yearning; loneliness; despair; heartbreak; heartache; sadness; recovery. No record from this decade better captures the full spectrum of emotions that comes with falling in and out of love.

 

The Foreign Exchange - Authenticity
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Screaming Females - Ugly
Title Fight - Floral Green
Tame Impala - Currents
The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth
Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly
My Bloody Valentine - mbv
The Hotelier - It Never Goes Out
Grouper - Ruins

Idk I’ll add descriptions later

 

these arent in any particular order but this seems fun

Motion City Soundtrack- Go
MCS take on slower indie rock is a home run, a fantastic batch of songs that further cemented MCS as top of their genre

Thursday- No Devolucion
Similar to Go, Thursdays take on atmospheric post-rock blending it with their own post-hardcore roots was a fantastic experiment that payed off in spades

The Gaslight Anthem- American Slang
10 tracks of lean, mean rock music with a good dose of experimentation and some of Fallons best songwriting

Every Time I Die- Low Teens
its rare that a band can be 8 album deep and still release their best material but ETID are a special kind of band

The Wonder Years- No Closer To Heaven
probably the most..."controversial" pick but this album got me through a death of a friend, drug abuse, a suicide attempt, and a general sense of aimlessly wandering in my early 20s

mewithoutYou- Pale Horses
just another trophy to add to the case of mwYs achievements, a fantastic album about the apocalypse and wrestling with religious beliefs

Kendrick Lamar- To Pimp A Butterfly
I cant even begin to relate to this album and I know I'm not meant to, but I cant help but stand in awe at how incredible this album is, such a dense and richly crafted album

The National- High Violet
I was half tempted to put SWB here but for now ill give the edge to HV, an incredible back half really cements this in my mind as the best National album. also has some great bonus tracks

Death Grips- The Money Store
aggressive hip hop mixed with punk, MC Ride takes all of the negative stereotypes often associated with rap and blows them up to cartoonish levels while still having an odd sense of philosophy and down-right existentialist views. Hacker slaps

Against Me!- Transgender Dysphoria Blues
2014 was a major year for me in terms of becoming more socially conscious and more involved in trying to understand the plight of the disenfranchised and oppressed, TDB played a role in that. a beautifully dark look at the life of a transgender person, Laura Jane Grace puts her best songwriting on display along with her most candid fears in regards to her transition.

honorable mention/could replace one of the above entries

The Hotelier- Home, Like NoPlace Is There
a truly incredible album, so well made with so many interesting details and some of the best pound for pound songwriting of this decade. unfortunately the list is limited to 10 so it didnt quite make the cut, plus theres a particular song that holds the album back but i wont get into that here

 

Rather than just my favourite albums, I did my favourites that have had a large impact on me. In order of release by year.

Might be a tad long, sorry.

Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life (2010)
I had only briefly heard of Motion City Soundtrack before this album, but within a week of its release I had a new favourite band, one that got me through some super tough times, and whose lyrics (Even If It Kills Me) I have written down my left arm in script with parts of the artwork. For the impact the band had on me, helping me with both an eating disorder and self harm, I will always count them as a favourite, and this album kick started that for me.

The Dangerous Summer - War Paint (2011)
This band got me through two different break ups and nothing reminds me of 2011 like this album. I saw them last week for the first time since late 2012, and it's incredible that they are back. This album reminds me of a breakup with a girl and finding the inner strength to move on, and look forward to the future.

The Wonder Years - Suburbia, I've Given You All And Now I'm Nothing (2012)
This was an accidental discovery, when a guy in college mentioned he was covering them at an acoustic concert and thought I would like them. I listened and I dived headfirst after hearing Local Man Ruins Everything. Ever since they become one of my favourite bands by a long way. An album that truly helped in a year I started university, and one that reminds me of massive upheaval and being away from home.

The Menzingers - On The Impossible Past (2012)
I didn't actually hear this album until July 2015, when I checked it out cause of Absolute Punk looking back at their top albums of every year. I started the stream and within 5 seconds I had goosebumps.
"I've been having a horrible time..."
It took one line for me to find my new joint favourite band, one I may be seeing half the world away from my UK home in June, in San Francisco.

Moose Blood - I'll Keep You In Mind From Time To Time (2014)
I know that they currently have issues I won't go into, but back when this album came out it truly kickstarted UK emo. I had seen them very early on supporting Turnover, Major League and I Am the Avalanche and quickly liked them. I saw them about 7 times on this record cycle and the excitement around them will forever remind me of my friendship group and the new members we found in this year. Despite it all, I really hold this album close to my heart and decided to include it anyway. It's probably the album that most binds my friendship group and I'll never not have those strong memories to it.

Swim Deep - Where The Heaven Are We? (2015)
This reminds me of a four year relationship I got into from Christmas Day 2012 until very early 2017. The last year and a bit was awful and we were constantly on and off, but I honestly look back on the early days with huge fondness and this album, and particularly it's closing track, She Changes The Weather, remind me of those years 2013-15 and how great they were for me and my friends. This was "our" song, but now reminds me so much more of my friends, hanging out, going to Reading festival, smoking weed and feeling like everything was totally alright with the world.

Neck Deep - Life's Not Out To Get You (2015)
This album came out at a difficult time for me, and together with the next album really helped me back up from a difficult place. The fun, energetic tone of the album, and the hopeful lyrics of songs such as Gold Steps or Smooth Seas Don't Make Good Sailors really helped make a difficult summer emotionally a very fun one.

Turnover - Peripheral Vision (2015)
Similar to the above album, this album came out as I was about to finish university, and headed home to a relationship I hated, a town I despised and an uncertain future. This album spoke to me like nothing else and is to this day possibly my favourite album of all time. The mix of emo, dream pop and pop-punk was fantastic and I hadn't really heard anything like it with modern production. This album saved me from myself and I owe it a lot, for the inner strength it gave me, and sometimes just for the feeling of being less alone. It also restarted my love of The Cure.

The Front Bottoms - Back On Top (2015)
This album was released at the end of the summer, and was the soundtrack to me getting my first job out of university, and feeling a little happier with the world. Even now, this and LNOTGY are my go-to "happy albums".

Turnover - Good Nature (2017)
Whilst I don't like this album as much as Peripheral Vision musically, this album lyrically reminds me of a much, much happier time in my life than that album. After the breakup of the relationship I mentioned when talking of Swim Deep/Peripheral Vision I was at my very lowest point, having also become severely depressed and quitting my job. This album is about Austin finding love and happiness and it soundtracked me doing exactly that. It's an album that's perfect for summer, and reminds me a lot of learning to find love and love life again.

Honourable mentions for Tigers Jaw - Charmer, The Hotelier - Home Like Noplace Is There, Modern Baseball - You're Gonna Miss It All.

 

Niiice

 

How many albums did ETID release during that span? There’s my list.

 

Bon Iver - 22, A Million
DJ Koze - Amygdala
Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel...
Hop Along - Painted Shut
The Hoteler - Goodness
Joanna Newsom - Divers
LVL Up - Return To Love
The National - Sleep Well Beast
Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete
Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

Honorable mentions:
Caribou - Our Love
Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE
Pinegrove - Cardinal
(Sandy) Alex G - Rocket

 

jeeeeeez idler wheel did come out this decade, that's wild

 

can't tell if I want to put in the time/effort to actually make a top 10
I know Wheel by Laura Stevenson would be #1 and that's about it

 

Love your list! Makes perfect sense that Butch and Jason would each get 2. Ledges just missed the cut on mine. Gonna give Chad another listen today, his voice just never clicked for me.

I feel like your description of Red blew my description of ILIWYS out of the water haha.

 

I'm not good at writing about music or my feelings haha so I'm not going to go into each of my choices as sometimes I don't really have an explanation. But as an overarching theme these picks to me all represent some of the best "storytelling" of this decade. I've always been a "lyrics guy" and tend to gravitate towards sad music with deeply personal writing and these are 10 of my favorites from the 2010's. Most of these are pretty well known but if you're into sad tunes and don't recognize something give it a shot.

Pianos Become The Teeth - Keep You
Noah Gundersen - Carry The Ghost
The Wonder Years - Suburbia I've Given You All and Now I'm Nothing
Jason Isbell -Southeastern
Gang of Youths - Go Farther in Lightness
Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse
Field Report - Marigolden
Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past
The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang