My 101 Favourite Albums of the 2010s
My favourite studio albums from the decade of streaming. The list is inevitably somewhat biased towards albums released towards the end of the decade, since I’ve listened to a lot more music over the last few years. I’ve written summaries for the majority of entries, and cited pertinent lyrics for the others (in instances where doing so better reflected the respective album’s content than my appraisal of it ever could). In three instances, I’ve linked to longer pieces I’ve written on those albums. Your challenge - should you choose to accept it - is to give one album from the list you haven’t heard a listen. |
| 101 |  | JME
Grime MC
Hard-hitting and verbose, with incredible flows. |
| 100 |  | Parquet Courts
Wide Awake
“Add up the bribes you take / and know time can’t be bought / by the profits that you make / before the water gets too high / to float the powers that be / or is it someone else’s job / until the rich are refugees?” |
| 99 |  | Eric Church
The Outsiders
Witty lyricism sparkles alongside a fascinating fusion of Country and Rock. |
| 98 |  | The Comet Is Coming
The Afterlife
Transcendental instrumental Jazz. The virtuosity on display here is dazzling. |
| 97 |  | Kero Kero Bonito
Time 'n' Place
“I thought I was only acting / but I felt exactly like it was all for real / I sure didn’t know it hurt so / but then no rehearsal could show you how to feel inside” |
| 96 |  | Kemba
Negus
A timely political manifesto. |
| 95 |  | Lubomyr Melnyk
Fallen Trees
Intricate and swirling piano meanderings. |
| 94 |  | Blood Orange
Negro Swan
“part of survival is, like, being able to just fit in / to be seen as normal and to, like, quote-unquote ‘belong’ / but I think that so often in society in order to belong means that we have to like shrink parts of ourselves” |
| 93 |  | Yves Tumor
Safe in the Hands of Love
Alluringly abrasive. |
| 92 |  | Burna Boy
African Giant
Who says Hip-Hip can’t have melody? |
| 91 |  | Drive-By Truckers
American Band
Political Rock and Roll. |
| 90 |  | Loraine James
For You and I
Beauty and dissonance combine in a sensational pirouette. |
| 89 |  | Eleanor Friedberger
Rebound
“I proposed to a woman for a man last night / she said yes, they cried and we kissed / I’ve got three lines on TV tonight / ‘Thank you’, ‘Great’ and ‘Yes’” |
| 88 |  | JPEGMAFIA
Veteran
Glitched-out Hip-Hop bangers. |
| 87 |  | Hot Chip
In Our Heads
Dance music perfected. |
| 86 |  | Earl Sweatshirt
Some Rap Songs
Incredibly intense, profoundly powerful. |
| 85 |  | Dave
Psychodrama
Conceptual UK rap, with a compelling narrative. |
| 84 |  | Kacey Musgraves
Same Trailer Different Park
A stunning and evocative debut. |
| 83 |  | Manic Street Preachers
Futurology
The most ambitious (and best) album they’ve released this millennium. |
| 82 |  | Tierra Whack
Whack World
Hip-hop experimentalism that pays off in a big way. |
| 81 |  | Jon Hopkins
Immunity
Impeccably produced and wonderfully inventive Electronica. |
| 80 |  | Solange
When I Get Home
“Sound of rain helps me let go of the pain” |
| 79 |  | Xiu Xiu
Plays The Music Of Twin Peaks
Hauntingly beautiful. |
| 78 |  | Cate Le Bon
Reward
“You don’t love me / concaved empathy / but you don’t love me” |
| 77 |  | SZA
Ctrl
“I get so lonely, I forget what I’m worth / we get so lonely, we pretend that this works” |
| 76 |  | PVRIS
White Noise
“while you’re trying to fool the whole world / don’t forget that you’ll decay and you’ll waste away / you can’t cheat death when you’re digging your own grave” |
| 75 |  | Ghost (SWE)
Prequelle
Their most consistent album yet. Immensely fun. |
| 74 |  | Kishi Bashi
Omoiyari
A sublime portrait of the dark side of American history. |
| 73 |  | Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott
Wisdom, Laughter and Lines
A scathing attack on Britain’s increasingly far-right everything. |
| 72 |  | Swans
To Be Kind
Menacing and beautiful. |
| 71 |  | Whitney
Light Upon the Lake
Blissful and charmingly retro. Painfully evocative. |
| 70 |  | FKA Twigs
LP1
High octane Electronica. |
| 69 |  | Brandy Clark
Big Day In A Small Town
Immensely compelling storytelling. Effortlessly cements Clark as the songwriting equal of the likes of Springsteen and Dylan. |
| 68 |  | Jessica Pratt
Quiet Signs
Soul-soothing magic. |
| 67 |  | Kamaiyah
A Good Night in the Ghetto
Epic raps about everyday life. |
| 66 |  | Mitski
Be the Cowboy
“I steal a few breaths from the world for a minute / and then I’ll be nothing forever / and all of my memories / and all of the things I have seen will be gone / with my eyes, with my body, with me / but me and my husband / we are doing better / it’s always been just him and me / together / so I bet all I have on that” |
| 65 |  | D'Angelo
Black Messiah
“I wrote a perfect song / you sang it all night long / held your breath when you were done / and waltzed out with the sun” |
| 64 |  | Little Simz
GREY Area
“You idolize the rappers that are on gun talk / but their lifestyle never lived that, never did that” |
| 63 |  | Alex Cameron
Forced Witness
Remarkably clever and probing satire. |
| 62 |  | Lana Del Rey
Norman Fucking Rockwell!
“L.A. is in flames‚ it’s getting hot / Kanye West is blond and gone / ‘Life on Mars’ ain’t just a song” |
| 61 |  | Radiohead
A Moon Shaped Pool
Tranquil and truly gorgeous. |
| 60 |  | Bruce Springsteen
The Promise
One of the greatest outtakes albums of all time. Continues right where Springsteen’s 1980s output left off. |
| 59 |  | Soundtrack (Theatre)
Paint Your Wagon
A outstanding, lovingly assembled restoration of the classic stage musical. Blows the original cast recording out of the water. |
| 58 |  | Janelle Monae
Dirty Computer
A provocatively unique approach to speculative fiction. The accompanying film is well worth a watch too. |
| 57 |  | Kanye West
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
One final burst of Kanye greatness. Wildly exuberant, and impeccably produced. |
| 56 |  | Destroyer
Poison Season
“Like you, I’ve been around the world, worn a million pearls / I’ve seen Bangkok, I’ve seen Bangkok” |
| 55 |  | Weezer
The White Album
Essentially Pet Sounds recreated for a new generation. Almost as good as the original. |
| 54 |  | Chumbawamba
In Memoriam: Margaret Thatcher
A stunningly ambitious EP which successfully distils the band’s characteristic sound into short form. A fitting farewell to both Chumbawamba and the milk snatcher. |
| 53 |  | Dorian Electra
Flamboyant
Regardless of whether or not you believe trans people deserve to attain basic human rights, this is a damn fine album. |
| 52 |  | clipping.
CLPPNG
“Everyone trying to be the king of this landfill / probably get us just a hill of bodies / you stand still / you cancelled” |
| 51 |  | Chance the Rapper
Acid Rap
An important moment in the evolution of Hip-Hop. Chance had no need for a record label with a flow and verses this dope. |
| 50 |  | A Sunny Day in Glasgow
Sea When Absent
“Have you ever thought how young we’d be / if we never ever went to school / if we never learned how not to be” |
| 49 |  | The War on Drugs
Lost in the Dream
“Feel the way that the wild wind blows through the room / like a nail down through the heart / that just don’t beat the same anymore” |
| 48 |  | Daughters
You Won't Get What You Want
“I let it into my bed, I let it into my bed / led a long way down, led a long way down / I gave it complete control, I gave it complete control” |
| 47 |  | Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 2
“This year we iller than a nun in a cumshot / gettin’ double penetrated in a dope spot” |
| 46 |  | Deafheaven
Sunbather
An excellent experimental Metal album. Haters gonna hate. |
| 45 |  | Default Genders
main pop girl 2019
“I’m stepping out to do some errands, and my reception might stall / so I’ll just say I love you now, in case the phone drops the call” |
| 44 |  | Oneohtrix Point Never
R Plus Seven
Electronica with a kick. Endlessly inventive. |
| 43 |  | School of Seven Bells
SVIIB
Posthumous albums are often overhyped, but this one deserves all the praise it gets and more. Aesthetically divine. |
| 42 |  | Penguin Cafe
Handfuls of Night
Transformative classical melodies. Subtle and disarming. |
| 41 |  | Altar of Plagues
Teethed Glory and Injury
The best vocals in Metal combined with phenomenal playing. Breaks the mold in an endearingly novel manner. |
| 40 |  | Courtney Barnett
sometimes i sit and think, and sometimes i just sit
“Jen insists that we buy organic vegetables / and I must admit that I was a little sceptical at first / a little pesticide can’t hurt / never having too much money / I get the cheap stuff at the supermarket” |
| 39 |  | Steven Wilson
Hand. Cannot. Erase.
A heartbreaking conceptual exploration of the alienation inherent in technologised societies. Proves the continued relevance of Prog Rock. |
| 38 |  | Fire-Toolz
Field Whispers (Into the Crystal Palace)
Simply otherworldly. |
| 37 |  | The Beach Boys
The Smile Sessions
The excellent de jure follow up to Pet Sounds. Delayed by almost half a century, but the wait was certainly worth it. Weird and wonderful. |
| 36 |  | Perfume Genius
No Shape
“Each and every breath I spend / you are collecting / limit every second left / ‘til I’m off balance” |
| 35 |  | Every Time I Die
From Parts Unknown
“I looked up and the desert was everywhere / but insight comes through blackened eyes / I climbed a hill to dig a hole in the ground where I could bury the faithlessness / and the evidence that I was ever actually right” |
| 34 |  | cupcakKe
Ephorize
“Love is love, who give a fuck? / Girl on girl, they like yup / but when it’s man on man they like yuck” |
| 33 |  | Swans
The Seer
A crushing aural odyssey. Swans don’t play here, they thunder. |
| 32 |  | Amen Dunes
Freedom
“I don’t have any ideas myself / I have a vacant mind” |
| 31 |  | Felix Blume
Death In Haiti
Devastating, and profoundly moving. A potent Field Recording that pushes the boundaries of the genre into uncharted territory. |
| 30 |  | Beyonce
Lemonade
A timeless and powerful treatise on brokenheartedness, topped off by an ageless R&B banger. Bey slays here. |
| 29 |  | Nails
You Will Never Be One of Us
A cacophony vigorous enough to wake the dead. Gorgeously melodic, and almost overwhelmingly visceral. |
| 28 |  | Jeff Rosenstock
Worry.
An urban manifesto, drenched in existential dread at modern life, and distilled into a ghastly facsimile of Abbey Road. |
| 27 |  | Ariel Pink
Pom Pom
Lo-fi and zany. Pop without inhibitions meets high absurdist drama. Album cover reads Wool Wool if turned upside down - a likely and deeply irreverent reference to the sheep bleet heard in penultimate track ‘Exile on Frog Street’. |
| 26 |  | Grimes
Art Angels
“Angels will cry when it’s raining / tears that are no longer clean / what do you mean? / what do you mean, it’s all gone? / I’ve waited here so long” |
| 25 |  | Richard Dawson
2020
Back in the early 1900s, the formalist Victor Shklovsky proposed that the function of great art is to defamiliarise mundane reality. Dawson’s album achieves that goal amply, transforming the modern world through astute and probing social commentary. This is Folk music taken to another level entirely. Graceful lyricism, compelling melodies, and deeply immersive storytelling. |
| 24 |  | Mount Eerie
A Crow Looked At Me
That rare variety of album which demands an emotional response from its listener. It necessitates them to consider not only the life of another human being, but also the stark reality of death. Despite its postmodern mode, it is not an album so much as a spoken word tunnel - into the enveloping grief of a bereft husband. |
| 23 |  | Brandy Clark
12 Stories
Not only a powerful and uncompromising feminist statement, but also one of the greatest debut albums of all time. Clark draws a dozen intricate character portraits that are vivid enough to seem almost to materialise out of the speaker. Its finely-honed Country aesthetic pays its dues to former greats, but carves a path entirely its own. |
| 22 |  | Kendrick Lamar
good kid, m.A.A.d city
One of the greatest narratives of the 21st century to date. A landmark in conscious Hip-Hop, and an utterly enthralling story. Adroitly conceptual, and packed to the brim with exceptional beats. Smart and sophisticated, but simultaneously incredibly fun. It was this album which rightfully established Kendrick as one of the top tier rappers of all time. |
| 21 |  | Rosalia
El Mal Querer
It is to Flamenco Pop what Floral Shoppe was to Vaporwave, in the sense that it single-handedly establishes an entirely new paradigm for its genre. Melodic, but fiercely experimental. Endlessly graceful, yet relentlessly ominous. Bonkers, but thoroughly resonant. Its exquisite emotional overtones allow its impetus to adeptly transcend the barriers of language. |
| 20 |  | Father John Misty
Pure Comedy
Dark, scabrous, and entirely profound. A sagacious journey through the twisted psyche of the human race in modernity. A damning portrait of our idiocies, and of the absurdity of anthropocentric thought. Its lush orchestrations make a subtle, yet imperative, counterpoint to its rampant nihilism; offering a glimpse of those illusive strains of beauty which nevertheless reside in the fucked-up world we live in. |
| 19 |  | Daft Punk
Random Access Memories
The best Disco album of the decade. It single-handedly resuscitated the genre, and led an unforeseen dancefloor renaissance, as its sublimely catchy lead single became an unstoppable force on singles charts worldwide. Its more subdued moments are just as powerful however, and despite looking back to the past with a charming wistfulness, it also charts a compelling course for the future. |
| 18 |  | Sufjan Stevens
Carrie and Lowell
An elegant snapshot of grief and catharsis. Beautiful and haunting. Its glistening lo-fi aesthetic seems to emblematise the emergence of sublimity from simplicity. Refined and unpretentious, it comprises an affirmation of the elegance of all that is intuitive. Death - a phenomenon concurrently all-encompassing and utterly banal - becomes a waypoint on the path to recovery. |
| 17 |  | Frank Ocean
channel ORANGE
One of the most left-field R&B albums of the decade. Breathless and brooding, its tortured harmonies evoke - amongst other things - the heartache of loving and losing a sweetheart. Ambiguity pervades, multiplying in the spaces between tracks. Deeply evocative melodies gesture beyond themselves to experiences hidden tantalizingly from view. An accomplished paean to queer love. |
| 16 |  | The Hotelier
Home, Like NoPlace Is There
The album that rightfully rekindled the Emo Rock genre. Its uniformly melancholy lyrical content is gloriously counterpointed by its alternately subdued / raging instrumentation, culminating in a congenitally conflicted soundscape; a carefully sculpted stylistic allegory for the feelings of inadequacy dealt with by its lyrics. Acerbic, but also profoundly purgative. |
| 15 |  | Deerhunter
Halcyon Digest
Deerhunter’s most conceptual effort, and an exemplary foray into Dream Pop. Lyrically, just as ingeniously cryptic as Deerhunter’s earlier (and later) efforts. Its taut yet buoyant atmosphere, paired with the sublime songwriting in evidence throughout, makes it the band’s most essential release to date. Writer and frontman Bradford Cox suggests that the album’s tracks collectively present a study of the human tendency to romanticise the past. |
| 14 |  | Shael Riley and the Double Ice Backfire
Ultimate Songs from the Pit
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/76601/Shael-Riley-and-the-Double-Ice-Backfire-Ultimate-Songs-from-the-Pit/ |
| 13 |  | Sophie
Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides
Exquisitely tumultuous. Overwhelmingly avant-garde. Within its abrasive instrumental palette, beauty lies imprisoned, straining to be free. Splendidly synthetic, but powerfully emotive in impact. A blueprint for the future of Pop music itself. Eminently danceable - although only the performance of the strangest bodily contortions would encapsulate its pervasive weirdness. Sets a lush scene with its opening number, then proceeds to annihilate its listener’s assumptions by proceeding to tear its base fabric apart with glee. |
| 12 |  | Kendrick Lamar
untitled unmastered.
A glorious patchwork quilt of demos and outtakes. Presumably for that reason, almost entirely overlooked and/or underrated. Like Radiohead’s Amnesiac however, this is a significant and momentous work of art entirely in its own right. Kendrick’s most experimental release to date, with a sprawlingly expansive free-flowing structure, and rewarding forays into Soul. Magnificently understated production, which gives its killer flows ample room to breathe. Utterly indispensable. |
| 11 |  | Craig Finn
I Need A New War
A trenchant series of Indie Rock character studies which sharply delineate and explore the vicissitudes of everyday life. Like the best of Bruce Springsteen’s music does, it sagely charts the lives of the dispossessed. Although our modern societies condition us to take a greater interest in the lives of distant celebrities than those of the people who surround us, Finn’s album recalls that heroism can be found all around us. It is set to lushly epic orchestrations, and sung through with an imminently compelling vocal pallette. |
| 10 |  | IDLES
Joy as an Act of Resistance
What the album title says. A non-stop adrenaline fuelled soundtrack to the fight for emancipation (broadly defined). Despite the guttural aesthetic, it showcases incredibly finely honed craftsmanship and songwriting prowess, and what’s more, it rocks hard. A middle finger to toxic masculinity, and a roundhouse kick to those who keep us down. Throughout the phenomenal concerto which results, even the most unassuming of its lyrics is effortlessly capable of probing the human condition with alacrity. Exquisitely crafted Rock music with a conscience. |
| 9 |  | PJ Harvey
Let England Shake
At the date this was released in 2011, Britain had been at war in Iraq for almost eight years, and simultaneously had thousands of troops deployed in Afghanistan. Taking armed conflict as its muse, Harvey’s album grapples with, and strenuously opposes, England’s continuing colonial legacy. Resonant and haunting. Charmingly retro. Simmers with unstated frustration. Sadly, the majority of our leaders have scarcely learnt its lessons in the years since it was released. The best Folk album of the decade. |
| 8 |  | The Armed
Only Love
Uncompromising Hardcore viscera. Hypnotic and terrifying in equal measure. Cryptic and audaciously enigmatic. Layers of undiluted rage perform a complex choreography. Apocalyptically experimental, but utterly enthralling from its first insistent note to its last. Dissonantly alluring, like a copy of My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Loveless’ that’s gone a few rounds with a food blender. Relentless crescendos offer up submerged vocals from the deep depths of the psyche. Plays out like a soundtrack to the end of civilisation, exposing the transience of all human endeavour. |
| 7 |  | Anais Mitchell
Hadestown
Rewrites Greek myth into an acutely contemporary context with pizazz. Deserves to become just as classic and abidingly revered as its Classical source material. Weaves its narrative with passion, and espouses an absolute conviction in the human spirit. Vocally immaculate, with subtle intonations which reveal universes of nuance. Released in 2010, but remains particularly relevant at the end of the decade, as a result of its incredibly successful Musical adaptation. Although austerely rendered, it remains thrilling to its closing moments, by virtue of its prodigious complexity. |
| 6 |  | Various Artists
STUMM433
https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/80438/Various-Artists-STUMM433/ |
| 5 |  | Kendrick Lamar
To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick’s most essential album to date - and that’s a real feat given the competition. In its closing track, Kendrick ‘interviews’ Tupac Shakur, but by this point in the album, the passing of the torch from one Hip-Hip god to the other has already been completed. Significantly more politically oriented and somber than previous efforts, it successfully draws an intricate portrait of an America starkly divided by race and class. It is bold, audacious - and fittingly - had already established its reputation as a Hip-Hop classic within the first few days of its release. It contains multitudes. |
| 4 |  | St. Vincent
MASSEDUCTION
A non-stop kaleidoscope of transcendent Pop. Singularly refined, and supremely produced. More than any other album on this list, feels like an invitation into the headspace of another, attendant with all the resonances and conflicts of perspective which that inevitably involves. Powerfully futuristic; attacks and strains at the emotional limitations of contemporary consciousness. Weaves its way through the full emotional spectrum with an unperturbed sangfroid. Its title was misspelt so frequently that its follow-up was punningly titled MassEducation. |
| 3 |  | Janelle Monae
The ArchAndroid
Part two of the as-yet incomplete Metropolis concept album series, which riffs off of Fritz Lang’s 1927 movie Metropolis, relating the escapades of a persecuted and revolutionary android in the 27th century. Where Lang’s film codified its android as a dangerous antagonist, Monáe reappropriates the role, reclaiming the figure of the android as a bastion of hope and a shining light of possibility in a world of injustice. Its setting is broadly dystopian, but it remains hopeful of wresting utopianism from the embers. Stunningly diverse generically, it swerves through the genres of R&B, Soul, Pop, Rock and Hip-Hop at breakneck pace. Manoeuvres with extraordinary grace to an anxious conclusion which refutes closure by staying with the trouble, but which nevertheless asserts that love is a marvellously powerful way of changing the world around us for the better. |
| 2 |  | clipping.
Splendor and Misery
https://vector-bsfa.com/2019/09/29/afrofuturism-in-clipping-s-splendor-misery/ |
| 1 |  | Arcade Fire
The Suburbs
The fourth word of The Suburbs is its most fundamental. Ultimately, this is an album about the complex situation of being an “I” in a world filled with other I’s. My copy of the album has a cover I instantly recognize, but yours - if you own it (and you undoubtedly should) - likely has a different one. I remember playing (yes, playing) the music video for ‘We Used To Wait’, and seeing the suburbs of my own childhood scrolling across the screen off my laptop. I remember buying my copy of the album from an independent record store in a foreign country whilst on holiday with my family in early 2014. I believe I’d heard someone at college raving about it. Looking back, it is the one album most responsible for getting me into music in a big way. I can’t remember much of the holiday other than snapshots, and I can’t remember for certain who recommended I give it a listen, but The Suburbs continues to endure. It is the abiding soundtrack to an adolescence I both did, and didn’t, experience. |
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