The 50 Best Albums of the 2010s
This decade saw the explosion of streaming as a means of consuming content. Instead of obliviously feeding on the industry-funded, above-the-line distributions of tracks, TV shows and news from mainstream media companies, we started to rely on the algorithm; independent discovery.
Yes, the same corporate firms now work just as hard to funnel their cherry-picked art through these new channels and we still by-and-large consume most of what they offer up. But a door that was once on the latch — available to enter, but much harder to find — has now swung wide open. Every artist, of every calibre and every size, has their art on EXACTLY the same platforms as the industry plants. And that means it’s all free game. At our disposal. Exciting, no?
What you’re about to read below is indicative of that. Within this list of 50 projects is an account of accompaniments to, well…me. It’s not meant to be a balanced, catch-all of the 2010s’ cultural highlights and the albums that represented them the closest. I’m not Pitchfork. This list is pulled together from personal experience. Some you’ll recognise, some you won’t, some you’ll agree with, some you won’t. Think ‘favourites’, but with a smattering of objective perspective for…uh…commentary reasons, I guess. Let’s jump in.
50. Yes Lawd! — NxWorries (2016)
Anderson .Paak’s charisma is enough to pump joy into any listener, and this smooth, soulful collaborative effort with Los Angeles-based hip hop producer Knxwledge is no different.
It’s a groovy, hip-gyrating singalong that’ll infect anyone with its happiness. Anything .Paak touches turns to gold. Expect him to be around for a loooong time.
Listen to Yes Lawd! on Spotify
49. Schlagenheim — black midi (2019)
In a time where musicians rely so much on an online presence to market their projects, black midi somehow marketed theirs even better than them without even putting their songs on the internet. Drumming up ripples in the underground with the odd live performance and remaining anonymous for an uncomfortably long time, black midi became music’s biggest enigma of 2019.
It just so happened that, when the time eventually came to put their album out to the masses, it turned out to be fucking amazing. With noticeable influences from math rock gods Slint, black midi produced an utterly noisy mess that’s sure to brush the Top 10s of many 2019 lists.
Listen to Schlagenheim on Spotify
48. Art Angels — Grimes (2015)
The weird, wacky futurist had already made a splash with a number of head-turning, awesomely dense, distorted pop music, but it was this album that really solidified her in the sights of most.
Bombastic EDM-inspired tunes with some real singalong hooks, Art Angels burrows into your mind and stays there for days on end. It just shouldn’t be this catchy.
Listen to Art Angels on Spotify
47. IV — BADBADNOTGOOD (2016)
I’m pretty certain one of the best things I did this decade was start listening to jazz. Let’s just thank the heavens the internet just has so damn much of it, including this electrifying release from BADBADNOTGOOD.
Fusing jazz fusion (yes that works) with more modern elements of trip-hop and electronica gave IV a sound with so many pretty frills and inflections. What a hot groovy mess.
46. Run the Jewels 2 — Run the Jewels (2014)
Hip-Hop’s most confident super-group of the decade couldn’t STOP with the constant, consistent barrage of I own this, shut the fuck up-pery in the 2010s. It’s so difficult to single out a project out of RTJ 1/2/3 that’s overtly better than the other, but that’s not to say they got lazy and didn’t mix-up their approach either.
I dare you to just hear ‘Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck)’ and NOT bang your head until your spine dislodges itself from your skull.
Listen to Run The Jewels 2 on Spotify
45. Wildflower — The Avalanches (2016)
Sample-crazy electronic bop-generators The Avalanches made a return after sixteen long years with a wonderfully wholesome, quite Disney-esque release that remains one of the most colourful collections of tracks I’ve ever heard.
The palette of this album is just stunning — I couldn’t name many others that paint such a vivid picture in my imagination.
Listen to Wildflower on Spotify
44. Blackstar — David Bowie (2016)
What an icon. An absolute force to be reckoned with, and one of the most culturally influential humans of the last two centuries. Bowie went out with a message, but also with a bow and a goodbye in Blackstar.
While we can now hear the ill-health in his voice and read into the morbid references in hindsight, this album was even hugely impactful even before we learned of his death. The songs are truly haunting, and those brief moments of brightness take you right back to the ’70s for a mesmerising dose of nostalgia.
Listen to Blackstar on Spotify
43. Union Black — Skindred (2011)
Being in my mid-teens at the start of this decade meant that, quite understandably, I hadn’t had enough time to really explore the myriad genres offset by our lovely music ecosystem. One gateway into an entirely unexplored area was the above, reggae-metal forefathers Skindred.
Hugely helped by the Newport Helicopter at Reading Festival 2013 (and aided by other heavy bands like System of a Down and Enter Shikari), this album was a pillar of heavy music for me as I was finding my feet in the genre.
Listen to Union Black on Spotify
42. Malibu — Anderson .Paak (2016)
Our guy .Paak had to return. Another super talented artist who’s dropped a number of great projects this year, his soulful enthusiasm has bled into the hip-hop-osphere so well that everyone’s dying for a collab with him.
Malibu was my pick of the bunch — it’s James Brown-revival with a healthy sprinkling of featured rappers that give it its modern edge and it’s just goodness all the way through.
41. GREY Area — Little Simz (2019)
I can’t fault a single song on this. It’s incredible. There’s no real thematic link in the production track-by-track, yet every one encapsulates the monochrome, suffocating image of Simz on the cover.
From the 8-bit trippiness of ‘101 FM’ to the assertive ‘Boss’ to the grimey ‘Venom’ to the utterly heartbreaking ‘Sherbet Sunset’, Simz takes you through an entire shopfront of emotions so damn effortlessly.
Listen to GREY Area on Spotify
40. To Be Kind — Swans (2014)
A monster. Invest lots of time into this one if you can — it’s two hours long and has SO much to unpack — but even on first and second listen this brooding yet crashing, bombastic yet meditative beast is sure worth it.
It’s intimidating and chilling, but if that’s your shtick then by all means, sit back and let the onslaught hit you. Hard.
Listen to To Be Kind on Spotify
39. No Shape — Perfume Genius (2017)
The fragile melancholy of Mike Hadreas’ Perfume Genius is completely unrivalled. Not many artists can display as much pain and despair as he does in his music, which makes those few moments of sheer unrelenting power that burst through unexpectedly THAT much more invigorating.
The crash-landing of ‘Otherside’ and the wonderfully blissful, thumping ‘Slip Away’ just open this album up so well, and the vibe is maintained perfectly throughout.
38. Too Bright — Perfume Genius (2014)
More of the same Perfume Genius compliments I had for №39’s No Shape, but somehow just a bit better.
‘Queen’ is one of the songs of the decade, hands down. That track alone could carry any normal album to the year-end lists, so isn’t it great that the other tracks which make up Too Bright are insanely fantastic too?!
Listen to Too Bright on Spotify
37. Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery — The Comet Is Coming (2019)
Shabaka Hutchings is a bit of a prolific genius. A driving force behind the acclaimed London quartet Sons of Kemet and the (aforementioned) Comet is Coming, his saxophone has found itself on some of this decade’s most innovative UK experimental jazz records. My pick of the bunch is the above, simply because of the journey.
The pacing, the implicit narrative and the swells and crescendos put you exactly on that path in the album cover above. Destination: that tall door-looking thing that looks like it’s been taken from Assassin’s Creed: Revelations. I hope you enjoy the ride as much as I did.
Listen to Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery on Spotify
36. Minecraft — Volume Alpha — C418 (2011)
One of the biggest games to release this century, Minecraft has firmly established itself as a heavily influential cultural phenomenon borne out of the 2010s. And now as this tenner draws to a close, I can confidently (yet controversially) say the following:
THE MINECRAFT SOUNDTRACK IS THE BEST GAME SOUNDTRACK OF THE DECADE
Phew, good to get that off my chest. Truly though, the tropical synths and expansive electronica puts me in the most mellow mood possible and it’s a FANTASTIC stress reliever. Couldn’t recommend it more.
Listen to Minecraft — Volume Alpha on Spotify
35. Flying Microtonal Banana — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2017)
For some reason when I first came across Gizz in 2016/17 I…didn’t listen to them much afterwards? No idea how that happened. Anyway, I thankfully gave them another shot this year and am happy to announce they’ve absolutely blown every other band out of the water in my Spotify Wrapped for 2019.
Not sure how they had the time to modify their instruments for this album to nail certain microtones that aren’t really found in Western music, since they also released FOUR MORE ALBUMS in just 2017 alone, but by golly they did it and what a psych-oddity it turned out to be. Dancing to ‘Rattlesnake’ and ‘Open Water’ will give you the calf exercise of a lifetime.
Listen to Flying Microtonal Banana on Spotify
34. Every Kingdom — Ben Howard (2011)
If you’re anything like me, scrolling through these lists looking for justification to your own opinions, you might have clicked off this page after seeing the album above. How can an album with such a lukewarm reputation be so high on a DECADE list?! The rest of this list must be just as wrong!
Welp, sorry not sorry. This album SLAPPED when I was 16. Tough. Blame young, innocent, unpretentious me for having such a low bar. Still fire tho. Moving on.
Listen to Every Kingdom on Spotify
33. So The Flies Don’t Come — milo (2015)
This album ever so slightly preceded the ‘lo-fi hip hop beats to study to’ Chillhop wave everyone seems to be riding, and I think that’s super clever of producer Kenny Segal, whose instrumentals make a perfect match for milo’s subtle, thoughtful flows and existential musings.
I hate the term ‘mood music’ but when an album envelops a state of mind so well and so consistently, it makes its re-listen value shoot right the fuck up. And that’s what this awesome duo managed to create here. Lyrics are damn deep too; love ‘em.
Listen to So The Flies Don’t Come on Spotify
32. The Spark — Enter Shikari (2017)
Right up there with my absolute favourite bands, Shikari have provided me with many an awesome night at the ~7 live shows and countless DJ sets I’ve attended. Love the boys to bits.
This album was a two-pronged attack on my senses. One side was the standard, catchy, progressive bangers I already love the band for, but the other was Rou’s perspective, which shone through here. He went through some awful shit when writing this and these tracks — especially the closing moments of ‘An Ode To Lost Jigsaw Pieces’ — bring me near to tears every damn time as a result.
Listen to The Spark on Spotify
31. Pale Green Ghosts — John Grant (2013)
Imagine the energy of Run The Jewels channelled into smooth, suave, subtle EDM-folk with cutting lyrics and hilarious takes (don’t say you can’t do that) and you arrive at this gem.
Like a learned Daddy, John Grant dogmatically tells you how it is and you love him all the more for it. And dance at the same time. Just…look, listen to ‘Black Belt’ at least. Then ‘GMF’. Got it?
Listen to Pale Green Ghosts on Spotify
30. Golden Hour — Kacey Musgraves (2018)
Quite a high proportion of albums that end up in my favourites take at least a few listens for me to fully get to grips with it, to make sure I’m not just riding off first impressions and genuinely think it’s amazing.
Within the first minute of the first song of this album on my first listen I loved this. Golden Hour gets top marks for its beautiful songwriting, gorgeous tones and Kacey’s softly smooth voice, but like the sweetest honey, every now and then a stunning, euphoric little country-music inflection will just drip onto the track and give it just the most blissful boost.
Listen to Golden Hour on Spotify
29. SATURATION III — BROCKHAMPTON (2017)
Maybe not exactly reaching the levels of prolific output as King Gizz did in 2017 — but coming damn close — was BROCKHAMPTON’s breathtaking SATURATION trilogy. The young rapper-singer collective from Texas absolutely blew onto the scene with three fire albums, all released in the second half of 2017.
SATURATION III (while not my absolute favourite BH album) shows the incredible capability of short-term growth. The beats, the lyrics and the delivery were all so much more fine-tuned, mature and engaging, just 6 months bloody later than SATURATION I. The undeniable talent of this group knows no bounds, and I get so excited for every new project they drop.
Listen to SATURATION III on Spotify
28. Pure Comedy — Father John Misty (2017)
I love this man. Imagine if John Grant had a younger brother who was kidnapped by a group of hippies at a young age and you’ll probably arrive at FJM. His cynical, sarcastic, cutting worldview is channelled through the most hilarious lyrics and put to the backdrop of the grandest folk orchestra you’ve ever heard.
Pure Comedy turned out to be an excellent commentary on the shitfuckery that was 2016, but it’s pretty clear now that it may as well apply to the entire decade. I’ve never felt so good singing my heart out along to all the domestic injustices Mr Tillman highlights in this collection of songs. Pure Gold.
Listen to Pure Comedy on Spotify
27. Someone Out There — Rae Morris (2018)
Ten years ago I never thought I’d ever love pop music so much. As glad as I was to get into heavy music, I’m equally relieved I started appreciating pop music for its true, feelgood, positive energy. There’s so much good pop out there, man, but Rae Morris’ Someone Out There might take the cake for the 2010s.
Massively underappreciated, this record is chock fulla bops. FULLA BOPS. Rae puts down a dash of desire, mixes it with a shaving of sheer unrelenting hope and then injects it with raw caffeine. It gets you on your feet and singing away to the prettiest melodies that’ll never leave yer noggin.
Listen to Someone Out There on Spotify
26. The Money Store — Death Grips (2012)
Kinda feel dirty for talking about this one right after the above, but here we go. FUCK.
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.
FUCK FUCK.
F U C K.
That’s pretty much how this album sounds in my head.
Listen to The Money Store on Spotify
25. James Blake — James Blake (2011)
Oooo what a wonderfully velvetty voice. Downtempo dubstep wasn’t really much of a thing — or at least, it didn’t really mean a thing — before James Blake.
On his debut self-titled LP he dives into the deepest crevices of your consciousness and paints a visual display of the empty black nothingness inside, all while sounding like a robot that’s about to lose battery power. Also it’s trippy but still manages an RnB attitude throughout. Mad lad.
Listen to James Blake on Spotify
24. Lonerism — Tame Impala (2012)
Man, what a fucking decade it’s been for Kevin Parker. The sole mastermind behind this effervescent psych-everything colossus has produced some of the most popular indie tunes of the last ten years.
Lonerism is a twisting, winding, chugging masterpiece. The knob-turning waves of synth sync up perfectly with a thumping roots-rock backbone to create one of the most engaging experiences of any rock album in the 2010s.
23. Memories Are Now — Jesca Hoop (2017)
Goddammit I love folk music. Goddammit even more I love folk music that breaks free of its traditional shackles and actually strives for some originality — and that’s what Jesca Hoop manages here.
With insightful, topical lyrics pattering on top of some gorgeous acoustic instrumentation, it could either put you in the most blissful trance-like state or empower and invigorate you to stand up to society. Also, ‘The Coming’ might be the best religious commentary I’ve ever heard in a song.
Listen to Memories Are Now on Spotify
22. Get To Heaven — Everything Everything (2015)
Oh man this album is so much fun. Get up, prime your achilles tendons and just fucking throw shapes to this absolute banger of an LP. It’s even more incredible live, but the album absolutely does the job.
The number of in-your-face, abrasive sustained yells from lead singer Jonathan Higgs will knock you off your feet — this man’s vocal range mixed with his damn PROJECTION is so wonderfully disorientating and powerful that you’ll want to listen to this album multiple times just to get your fix of it.
Listen to Get To Heaven on Spotify
21. Crack-Up — Fleet Foxes (2017)
Fleet Foxes returned in 2017 after a six-year gap from their spectacular Helplessness Blues (more about that later…), with their most complex, brooding effort yet. It takes multiple forms, offering a somewhat muted but beautiful set of very distinct progressive folk passages that are just weaved together so expertly.
It’d test the patience of the uninitiated ear, so by no means is an entry-album if you plan on getting into Fleet Foxes, but when all you want is the sweet, smooth tones and inflections of their stunning instrumental talent, this album satisfies that and then some. So much love for this wonderful record.
20. Titanic Rising — Weyes Blood (2019)
Ah, this is so special. Natalie Mering has always been an irresistible force of creation, but Titanic Rising — her fourth studio album — beats her past work to take the crown. The production on this gets me every time (see what I did there?) and the songs are just so well arranged that I couldn’t get enough of it this year.
The tracklist is kind of split into two parts. The first is the bona fide single material with ultra-catchy hooks and the latter half is saved for the more meditative, intertwining numbers. But every track is just so consistently fantastic. Dreamy.
Listen to Titanic Rising on Spotify
19. Writing of Blues and Yellows — Billie Marten (2016)
Billie Marten’s trajectory is frightening. Not many artists can say they’d released two, full length, fucking brilliant albums before even reaching 20 years old. There’s SUCH good reason why though — her music is delicate, yearning and, I mean, just really damn pretty.
Writing of Blues and Yellows is no entry-effort either. It’s well-fed, expansive and considered, which when applied to Marten’s excellent songwriting makes for an all round beatific experience. The span from ‘Unaware’ to ‘Untitled’ is one of the best strings of songs I’ve ever heard.
Listen to Writing of Blues and Yellows on Spotify
18. A Flash Flood of Colour — Enter Shikari (2012)
Shikari were bound to show up again. Where The Spark scratches that emotional itch, Flash Flood triggers so much ‘happy anger’ in me that I can’t help but throw my arms about and scream.
We live in a society, that’s for sure. And Shikari embodied that so fucking much with this record, AND turned me onto so many real-life phenomena that still rustle my jimmies to this day. Satan bless this band.
Listen to A Flash Flood of Colour on Spotify
17. An Awesome Wave — alt-J (2012)
There’s a lot of personal investment in some of these choices. alt-J, for as radio-friendly-in-that-hey-look-we’re-a-radio-station-playing-weird-shit as they are, represent a breakthrough on my behalf into the left-field. For example, I don’t think that I’d have been able to love Björk if I hadn’t heard this first, if that makes sense?
This album concocts a kind of magical formula that seems to satisfy multiple audiences — everyone (except maybe for the pretentious traditionalists) was able to find common ground with this odd little debut, from all walks of the earth for all kinds of reasons. It maintains this unpredictable, edgy standard while keeping to pretty rudimentary song structures, which is very intriguing and, in my opinion, quite difficult to achieve.
Listen to An Awesome Wave on Spotify
16. Wide Awake! — Parquet Courts (2018)
I don’t think I could describe this album any better than a tweet from last year. So:
Listen to Wide Awake! on Spotify
15. Babel — Mumford and Sons (2012)
Please refer to №34 and №17 this list for a perfectly sound reason why a band like Mumford and Sons can be so high up in a ‘best albums’ article. Soz.
Seriously though, the love I had for this band at 16/17 was just as big as any love I’ve shared for a band in recent times, so I can’t just ignore this album on the basis that I’ve listened to a lot of other music since then. I’ll always have a hefty lump of affection for these boys.
14. The Epic — Kamasi Washington (2015)
This maestro might well have made the best jazz album of the decade with his own damn debut. Well, to call it a debut would do it a disservice really — Washington’s been in the game for years and this ‘debut’ is THREE HOURS LONG — so there’s no need to factor that in here, really.
Spanning pretty much every sub-genre of jazz you could think of (maybe except Trad), The Epic truly does what it says on the tin. It’s a bloody behemoth, but instead of wreaking havoc it instead runs you a nice hot bath and tucks you into bed at night. It does pick up the pace too, and those moments are just as captivating, but the overall consequence is comfort. And that’s definitely okay.
13. A Moon Shaped Pool — Radiohead (2016)
My ‘favourite band’, I guess. Not much of a shocker to say that but I reckon it’s true. Radiohead were a lot quieter this decade, with band members spending a lot more time on their own projects, but when they reconvened for A Moon Shaped Pool it became clear quite quickly that they were never going to lose their spark.
‘Daydreaming’ alone is one of the best songs of the 2010s and if anyone disagrees with me on that then that’s…totally your valid viewpoint but you’re WRONG. As for the rest, there’s a lotta melancholy — but in this energy Radiohead were able to provide the clearest view of the dire, and very real state Thom was in while writing these songs. It takes an iron grip on your heart and won’t let go for a second.
Listen to A Moon Shaped Pool on Spotify
12. Joy as an Act of Resistance — IDLES (2018)
If you’ve ever had a hankering for the growling, punky yelps of five very angry Bristolians then by golly you’ll enjoy this one. IDLES tackle the deepest issues of our not-so-United Kingdom with this wonderful mixture of aggression and love that you can’t help but listen to every fucking word Joe Talbot screams at you.
Forget Slaves, THIS is the Punk 2.0 the UK needs right now. Joy as an Act of Resistance is a massive fuck off to xenophobia, toxic masculinity, tax-dodging millionaires, superficial body standards and all the other institutional issues that are causing higher rates of depression and suicide than ever before. Inject this modern-day mantra into your veins and vive la révolution.
Listen to Joy as an Act of Resistance on Spotify
11. Nonagon Infinity — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard (2016)
This record is a marvel. The pinnacle of innovation, the peak of inventiveness and the epicentre of experimentation. Instrumentally it doesn’t breach the boundaries too far, but just the CONCEPT of this thing spans further than any human cognition can compute.
Nonagon Infinity is just that. Nine tracks (a nonagon has nine sides) that can be looped forever (for an infinity) — they’re all seamlessly blended together, including the end of the final track and the beginning of the first track. Riffs and passages from one song show up again three songs later and just seem to…work. So well. Effortlessly. What a fucking experience.
Listen to Nonagon Infinity on Spotify
Just a note before we start with the Top 10: since this list is primarily based on personal preference, it only makes sense that the higher we get, the more meaning they have to me on a completely individual level.
Some are just there due to pure enjoyment, but a sizeable chunk of the following are there because they accompanied some of my most vivid and memorable experiences of the past ten years. It might become obvious when some of those took place…
10. Have You In My Wilderness — Julia Holter (2015)
After five solid years of daily use, my Spotify ‘Genre of the Decade’ ended up being Chamber Pop (lol), and that starts to become pretty clear as we progress through the Top 10. Have You In My Wilderness is an easy example of that.
The sounds, the dreamy landscape and (of course) the STRINGS in this record have stuck with me ever since my first listen. Holter’s voice flawlessly matches the music — a breathy, yet almost staccato-like delivery provides a surprising amount of rhythm to a very ethereal musical backdrop and it sends you right up to the softest cloud nine on earth.
Listen to Have You In My Wilderness on Spotify
9. SATURATION II — BROCKHAMPTON (2017)
My favourite of BROCKHAMPTON’s legendary SATURATION series, this display of unadulterated talent is exactly what excites me about new music and is what will always keep me eagerly on the lookout for the next best thing.
SATURATION II so competently executes on an astounding variety of elements — flow, inflection, emotion, songwriting, singing, sound, message and an uncountable amount more. It connects with the generation that needs it most and it reflects the elements of society that need addressing the most, all while being a fire album that can be enjoyed in any environment. Kudos, BROCKHAMPTON, massive kudos.
Listen to SATURATION II on Spotify
8. A Pocket Of Wind Resistance — Karine Polwart (2017)
Absolutely, positively, 100% the most underrated album on this entire list. An adaptation of her 2016 stage show, Polwart creates a world I never knew I wanted. She uses a mixture of spoken and sung word to recount a devastating love-tragedy set in the depths of the Scottish countryside at the beginning of the 20th Century and soundtracks it with fluttering, eclectic traditional folk with help from Pippa Murphy.
You’ll hear birds chirping, leaves rustling and all manner of bog insects going about their daily business, and incredibly heart-wrenching story taking place amongst it all — it’s the most visual you could ever get with sound. Listen to this damn album right now.
Listen to A Pocket Of Wind Resistance on Spotify
7. Currents — Tame Impala (2015)
If you’re even slightly into Tame Impala you’ll probably be aware of the vicious contest between Lonerism and Currents to be regarded as the ‘better record’. While both are stunning, it’s Currents that I have the stronger personal connection to. Find some good-quality, bassy speakers, whack them up to max volume and just…sink. The sonic expedition this record takes you on will shit you out at the other end a brand new person.
The textures are so palpable and dense you could probably whisk the sound waves into a smooth, creamy, delicious purple pancake mix. Parker delivers his lyrics with a heavy dose of forlorn hindsight in his usual suave falsetto voice, which dives in and out of the heavy synths like the most elegant dolphin. I’m not making an ounce of sense right now and I’m not even playing the damn thing. It’s just that encapsulating. Goddammit Kevin.
6. Benji — Sun Kil Moon (2014)
This album is about death. Every track (barring ‘Dogs’) either features or is centred around the passing of someone Mark Kozelek, frontman and songwriter, knew. He highlights the most unbelievable twists of fates and muses upon the legacy of his loved ones in a collection of stories that are all genuinely true. The no-holds-barred honesty is very real, which makes the stories he tells that much harder to bear.
Whether he’s trying to comprehend how two members of his family could die from an aerosol can exploding while they were burning trash (in two completely separate incidents unrelated to each other), or considering how those who die prematurely of ‘natural causes’ never know when today might be their last, or if he’s simply looking back on the death of a friend, saying “well, that’s life”, there has never been a clearer view of an anxious man’s thoughts.
5. No Now — Clarence Clarity (2015)
Absolutely, positively, 100% the 2nd most underrated album on this entire list. It’s a frazzled, frantic frenzy that’s so disjointed yet…poppy…and by all means of modern music should. not. work. But my god, is it fun.
Each track is like if you wrote three separate songs and fed them through a processor with the aim of finding a middle ground between them all. There’s PC Music and Glitch-Hop right next to the cheesiest pop melodies that I’m surprised never came out of Atomic Kitten or the Backstreet Boys first.
It’s a voyage — the pacing takes you through multiple waves of high intensity and cool down — and that might tire you on first listen. So just bung a toxic waste and vibe off the sugar rush to this glamorous monstrosity.
4. Helplessness Blues — Fleet Foxes (2011)
This record is actually divine. I’m stumped as to how it’s ended up 4th — it’s given me so many songs that I hold dear to my heart to this day and it’s associated with some of the best memories of my life. I adore this. I want to breathe it. Helplessness Blues is a heavenly piece of baroque folk, with constant killer harmonies and melodies that I’ll never forget. Pecknold’s voice soothes me to no end and its acoustics echo around my cerebrum to form this exquisite nugget of pure goodness that I could feed off for the rest of my life.
It wouldn’t sound out of place around the central log fire of a 17th Century tavern yet the lyrics accurately pinpoint the frustration felt by young people everywhere who don’t quite know what their purpose is yet. It hits this feeling of unrequited ambitiousness that rings so true with Millennials and Gen Z, as they came to the realisation this decade that they’ll probably be the first generations in centuries to be financially worse-off than their elders. At least we can sing along to our own demise though, right?!
Listen to Helplessness Blues on Spotify
3. To Pimp A Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar (2015)
Okay, let’s get real. To Pimp A Butterfly is the best album of the 2010s. The narrative it follows, the lyricism, the JAZZ and — most importantly — its exquisite commentaries on the persistent struggles black people face in the United States, deteriorating mental health and the difficulty of fame, puts this album above all else this decade for the most objective reasons music could possibly conceive.
It’s just not my favourite. I know I know, that’s not the most ‘critical’ perspective take to have and you may even be tempted to think “well that’s it then” if I’ve already named the best album, but as much as it did so much for my music taste (I was getting into hip-hop at the time but this propelled my love for it), the personal connection is stronger with just two more. Sorry K-Dot.
Listen to To Pimp A Butterfly on Spotify
2. I Love You, Honeybear — Father John Misty (2015)
I discovered pretty much all of my favourite artists in 2015. I was going through a 2nd wave of music discovery at a time when I desired music the most — so it only makes sense that a lot of them have stuck with me since.
Father John Misty could release a tropical house compilation album exclusively featuring guest vocals from Pitbull and I’d still probably put it in my Top 10 of the year. There’s just this masterful excellence, deep relatability and thorough entertainment that comes out of everything he produces that just ever further tightens the latch I hold on this beautiful man.
I Love You, Honeybear is schmaltzy, over-sharing and just disgustingly sentimental, but it’s delivered with so much conviction and without any evidence of given fucks that you fall just as in love with what Tillman is singing about as he obviously is. Then out of nowhere he’ll fire off this outrageously curt quip that’ll instantly ground the situation and rip you right back to the real world. What a tease.
Listen to I Love You, Honeybear on Spotify
1. Carrie & Lowell — Sufjan Stevens (2015)
The Album. I can’t even bring myself to call it my ‘top’, or my ‘favourite’ for that matter. It’s just The Album to me. As I’ve said, personal experience trumps all other criteria in my assessment of these 50 albums, and that isn’t more justified anywhere else than with Carrie & Lowell.
Again, death is the focal point. Stevens wrote this album about his troubled mother Carrie — we hear memories of his times with her as a child (both loving and traumatic), we hear recounts of his final times spent with her, and we hear about the newly-born entries to the family since her passing. It’s chillingly raw and truthful.
Stevens made a name for himself earlier in his career by incorporating as many different instruments as physically possible into stupendously lovely orchestras, producing some of the most eclectic indie records of the entire century so far. We don’t hear that here. In comparison this is muted; melancholy, stripped-back. He doesn’t want to divert attention away from the real reason we’re all listening — to collectively grieve, reflect and love. It’s a record I’ve turned to in some of the darkest moments of my life, and precisely for that reason.
Carrie & Lowell isn’t really music to me. I don’t use this album in the same way I use any other. It lights up so many more areas of my brain than music should. Millions of people listen to it, sure, but I can comfortably say the effect it has on me is entirely unique — it really is a personal experience.
Listen to Carrie and Lowell on Spotify
Honourable mentions
There were so many to choose from, man. And so many awesome albums that I just couldn’t fit into this list. Here are some of the records that just missed out.
Geography — Tom Misch
Wasting Light — Foo Fighters
Have One On Me — Joanna Newsom
Opposites — Biffy Clyro
The 1975 — The 1975
good kid, m.A.A.d city — Kendrick Lamar
We Slept At Last — Marika Hackman
ANYTHING LAURA MARLING
A Fever Dream — Everything Everything
channel ORANGE — Frank Ocean
Blonde — Frank Ocean
Multi-Love — Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Swedish Death Candy — Swedish Death Candy
Ultimate Care II — Matmos
Run the Jewels 3 — Run the Jewels
SATURATION — BROCKHAMPTON
The Suburbs — Arcade Fire
Melodrama — Lorde
Flower Boy — Tyler, the Creator
The Way Out — The Books
Aromanticism — Moses Sumney
The Kid — Kaitlin Aurelia Smith
Veteran — JPEGMAFIA
KIDS SEE GHOSTS — KIDS SEE GHOSTS
Orc — Thee Oh Sees
Partita for 8 Voices — Caroline Shaw
A Crow Looked At Me — Mount Eerie
