Your Personal Top 10 of the 2010s • Page 13

Wrong decade

 

already fixed it

 

Big Thief - Two Hands would like a word with you

 

The Hotelier - Home, Like Noplace Is There
The Menzingers - After the Party
Bon Iver - Bon Iver
Hurula - Vi är människorna våra föräldrar varnade oss för
Touché Amoré - Stage Four
CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
Deafheaven - New Bermuda
Manchester Orchestra - A Black Mile to the Surface
The Maine - Lovely Little Lonely
Kent - Tigerdrottningen

This was NOT easy!

 

Foxing – Nearer My God
Linkin Park – A Thousand Suns
The Wonder Years – The Upsides
The 1975 – I Like It When You Sleep, For You Are So Beautiful Yet So Unaware Of It
Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE
Turnstile – Time & Space
Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
The Menzingers – Rented World
Elvis Depressedly – New Alhambra
Parquet Courts – Wide Awake!

 

I wish I liked nearer my God like people on here do

 

Wow this was hard. Could only get it down to a top 20 in chronological order (and am almost certainly missing something):

Bayside - Killing Time
Of Monsters and Men - My Head Is An Animal
Rebelution - Peace of Mind
Yellowcard - Southern Air
The Hotelier - Home, Like NoPlace Is There
Matisyahu - Akeda
The Wonder Years - No Closer To Heaven
Common - Black America Again
The Hotelier - Goodness
Nahko and Medicine For The People - Hoka
A Tribe Called Quest - We Got It From Here...
Yellowcard - Yellowcard
Anti-Flag - American Fall
Deaf Havana - All These Countless Nights
Oso Oso - the yunahon mixtape
SOJA - Poetry In Motion
Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth
Lupe Fiasco - Drogas Wave
The Wonder Years - Sister Cities
Oso Oso - Basking in the Blow

 

Would be great if folks could write a little bit about their choices so this doesn't become a boring list thread.

 

Yes please.

 

Do y'all really want me to write about Floral Green? Because I will do it lol

 

Or people can post their lists and that can generate discussion??? Not everyone has the time, energy, or desire to go into it unprompted.

 

I’ll do write ups for my top 10, but there is no way I’m doing them for all 50 haha

 

In fairness, it’s definitely not “unprompted.” That’s the entire concept of the thread, if you read the OP. It’s not a big deal, but I get why Matt was hoping people would explain why they love the albums they’re picking. Even a short blurb helps drive interest and discovery in a way that just posting a list of 10 albums doesn’t.

 

I will not be able to articulate why a lot of my favorites resonate with me how they do

 

“Hi um yes my name is Audrey and my favorite album of the decade is ILIWYS by The 1975 and that is because it is the BEST album of the decade and also ever thank you for your time”

 

I was originally just going to post the list, but here are some extra words

1. Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness - Self-Titled

the man is my favorite artist, but sometimes albums have the vibe and color of your life when they come to you. the holy blue-gold nostalgia. rebirth and airy possibility. it was a time I thought anything could happen. turns out I was right—I would soon go insane (not hyperbole) and start singing All Our Lives in public so I could feel I made a difference to some passerby before I peaced out from this dimension. but it was the manic season before, the autumn when God was in the leaves I kicked on the ground just because, that this album will always be to me

2. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang

I first listened to Gaslight when the The '59 Sound came out. it didn’t click with me. I remember the soul production on Brian’s voice being a little much for my young ears. but they found me in college (when they were supposed to, like all things) and I listened to the 59-AS-HW trilogy hundreds of times. one of the few albums I’m never tempted to skip a song

3. The Dangerous Summer - War Paint

I got a reckless driving charge in Virginia to this. but officer have you heard the bridge to Miscommunication

4. Tyler Lyle - The Native Genius of Desert Plants

aside from some of the best songwriting I’ve heard, this record tinted my reality forever. it helped me feel—not just know—there’s nothing you need to do or be. no significance of impact you need to achieve. everything just is, and is ultimately impermanent. and in that surrender comes deeper love and peace. as Tyler says in the accompanying essay “the difference between revelation and realization is so slight, but it’s at the center of everything”. this record was that revelation

5. Microwave - Much Love

there was a period of my life that was chronic pain, smoking cigarettes on the porch, and relationships with women I didn’t like but needed. I was basically living this record. it’s also the best songwriting and vocals combo the present day scene has to offer (their new one isn’t for me though)

6. Butch Walker - Stay Gold

this hit the spot of The Gaslight Anthem album that never was. will forever be good time rock ’n' roll in the summer

7. Copeland - Ixora

this soundtracked my descent into psychosis. in retrospect all suffering has a strange beauty and sacredness to it, and this transfigured moments of trackside begging where I almost hurtled off the earth, into a church

8. Noah Gundersen - Ledges

I first heard Noah Gundersen and his song “Family” on an episode of The Vampire Diaries. so that wasn’t a waste of time. it wasn’t a waste of time because The Vampire Diaries is a great show

9. Field Report - Marigolden

red burning sacrament I'm tired that's all I got just listen to it there are no words

10. Jason Isbell - Southeastern

I was late to the party on this one, but about as late as Andrew McMahon since I listened when he tweeted “I can’t believe it took me this long to listen to Jason Isbell’s Southeastern”. me either. the way he put pictures and scenes in your head is unlike anyone else

H.M. Charlie Simpson - Young Pilgrim

 

Loved reading these, and not just because we have a bunch of overlaps between our lists. Beautiful writing.

Also, I need to check out that Tyler Lyle record, apparently! Had never heard of him until now.

 

Brian Fallon - Sleepwalkers (2018)

I love everything this guy does, and he writes his lyrical themes and messages in a relatable human way. Brian just makes music I feel I relate to.

Top Tracks: See You On The Other Side, If These Prayers Don’t Get To Heaven, Come Wander With Me, Sleepwalkers, Little Nightmares

Thrice - To Be Everywhere Is To Be Nowhere (2016)

It’s sucks when one of your favourite bands goes on hiatus. When they come back with an album like this, it makes you love them even more. Still get chills from some on this album when the first notes hit.

Top Tracks: The Long Defeat, Black Honey, Hurricane

Gang Of Youths - Go Father In Lightness (2017)

This album really doesn’t hold back. It’s heart break, hope, sadness, frustration, pity, pain, and just honest and real. This is sort of a rock opus journey of an album.

Top Tracks: Let Me Down Easy, The Deepest Of Sighs The Frankest of Shadows, The Heart Is A Muscle, Fear and Trembling, What Can If I Do When The Fire Goes Out?


The Gaslight Anthem - Handwritten(2012)/American Slang(2010)/Get Hurt(2014)

This kind of feels like cheating, but I love all the Gaslight Anthem albums. Brian’s lyrics just capture me. It’s raw, and energetic and never gets tired to me.

Top Tracks:
HW:Hand Written, Mae, Biloxi Parish, 45
AS: She Loves You, American Slang, Bring It On, Old Haunts
GH: Get Hurt, Break Your Heart, 1,000 Years, Underneath The Ground, Dark Places

The Menzingers - After The Party era (2017)

On The Impossible Past and Rented World are both fantastic. With After The Party they took the best parts and tried to put it into one album. There’s some good storytelling, raw energy, and just feels grown up and self aware.

Top Tracks: After The Party, Lookers, The Freaks, Toy Soldier, Midwestern States

The Horrible Crowes - Elsie (2011)
Brian Fallon rules. Being able to switch styles between albums to write so beautiful but still still raw album is cool. He said this album was “Night Time music”. It’s seems like a weird statement, but once you hear it, it’s like, yeah, he’s right. Also, first album with Ian.Ted Hutt deserves credit for his work on Brian albums.

Top Tracks: Behold the Hurricane, Last Rites, Ladykiller

Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones (2011)

A really cool folk-punk hybrid that is a return to great storytelling, and seems like a more professional record. It’s appropriately regional, and knows when to push full band and when to pull back and like the acoustic sound fill the speakers

Top Tracks: I Still Believe, Redemption, I Am Disappeared, Wessex Boy, Balthazar, Song for Eva Mae

Yellowcard - Southern Air (2012) and When You’re Through Thinking Say Yes (2011)

Both albums are fantastic. Coming out of a hiatus, and delivering two albums so close together without sounding like you missed a step is impressive. I always feel like every song by these guys a “big song” with something to say. Wish they were still around.

Top Tracks:
SA: Southern Air, Sleep In The Snow, Always Summer
WYTTSY: Sing For Me, FormYou and Your Denial, See Me Smiling

If I didn’t pass 10, then these would squeeze in there:

Bad Religion - True North (2013) and Age Of Unreason (2019)
Noah Gundersen - Ledges (2014)
Moving Mountains - Waves (2011)
The Republic Of Wolves - Varuna (2010)
Austin Plaine - Austin Plaine (2014)

Who knows if a Blink Nine, Jimmy Eat World Surviving or Menzingers Hello Exile will make it in there.

 

thanks Craig. and yea we definitely have wheelhouse overlap.

and yea I think you'd really like that record. his album from this year The Floating Years is also an all timer in the making for me

 

I’m impressed by some people’s choices in here. Good mix and I’m glad certain bands got votes.

 

I’ll make a top 10 at some point buying I think my number one is Carrie & Lowell. I’m surprised more people don’t have it on their lists.

 

I love C&L but if Sufjan makes my list it’s going to be Age of Adz

 

finished up my top 100 but i need to work on the order

 

Really pleasantly surprised to see a couple people mentioning Southern Air. Perfect Yellowcard record front to back.

 

This write-up made me immediately turn off whatever I was listening to and dive in. Great stuff.

Might be a dumb question, but what was his reasoning beyond the "standard" vs "deluxe"? I see that the tracklist is padded in the middle vs a bunch of bonus tracks tacked on at the end, so clearly he thought about sequencing... which in your opinion is the "canon" version?