James' Albums of the Decade

[-james-]

Top 50 albums of the decade. Humour me dickheads this took ages. I'll do 5 albums at a time over the next couple of weeks or something and I may or may not write a sentence about each one.

[-james-]

50. Lil Peep – Come Over When You’re Sober Pt. 2 (2018)

I can’t think of many recent albums that are this evocative and it’s a real shame this is the last of his work. Widely scoffed at because of the “tortured genius” trope ascribed to him and because he had "crybaby" tattooed on his face, but he was a good kid and a wrote some great rap songs.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzV_QZODisQ

49. Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019)

I’ll be reasonably surprised if she hasn’t achieved superstar status at the end of the next decade. This is a brilliantly weird pop album that’s really easy to listen to on repeat indefinitely.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyDfgMOUjCI

48. Male Gaze – King Leer (2016)

Loads of fun. Post-punk tunes buried under a layer of fuzz and the vocals sound a bit like Ian Curtis. Loads of memorable guitar bits on this.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4MykqsIjio

47. La Roux – Trouble in Paradise (2014)

This was my album of the year at the time which was something I had not expected. The whole thing is just catchy as fuck. Go listen.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnCLiNDx1qU

46. Hot Chip – In Our Heads (2012)

The worst thing I can say about Hot Chip is that their albums are sometimes a bit of a hodge-podge. In Our Heads has none of that and all of things I love about Hot Chip. Irresistibly catchy hooks and immaculately smooth synth/guitar noises. “Flutes” man, what a song.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oo2lCREilQw

[Shindig]

I like Sit Down as much as the next person but there's no way they did 50 albums this decade.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

ilomilo on the Billie Eilish album is a gem that doesn't get any credit.

[Magic]

Billie Eilish is 18 now so we can blow our muck over her kid pics.

[Clunge]

You're spot on about In Our Heads. My housemate was adamant it was their best, but I steadfastly refused to accept it until he insisted I revisit it. It is without doubt their most complete work.

[Alex]

I'm all in for this mate, top work. Love an end of year/decade list. And Male Gaze is already something that was never on my radar and sounds right up my alley. :thbup:

[igor_balis]

You have fucking terrible taste

[Jimmy Floyd]

Taste is a weird thing. My Spotify year thing came up the other day and my most listened to song this year is 'Tuesday Morning' by the Pogues. To my ear it is the note perfect pop song, however I have never encountered it in any context other than me digging to the bottom of Pogues playlists so I reckon I may be the only person in human history (since it was recorded) to have that opinion.

Similarly if you made me listen to James's number 49 'on repeat indefinitely' I would kill you, your pets and exhume your grandma before the end of the fourth play.

[Spikey M]

I'll take up arms with you Jim. I hate that whispering cunt.

[igor_balis]

Okay it's all subjective and terrible is harsh. James, you have the taste of a basic teenage girl.

[phonics]

We talking about songs based on Whispering?


https://youtu.be/HvkwQxdkqMU

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Loved that song back in the day but now it annoys me.

[Jimmy Floyd]

My album of this decade is Big Thief - Masterpiece. Amazing emotion in it. The follow up wasn't as good but they never are.

[Magic]

Benjamin Clementine's At Least For Now.

[Magic]

Lorde appearing on a lot of lists. Should I be checking that out?

Also NME have two 1975 albums in the top 20 LMAO.

[Ian]

I've barely listened to a new album in years. I quite liked the first Royal Blood one and it seems there have been two Foo Fighters albums since the last I heard so I should probably give them a go.

I just have one massive Spotify playlist that has basically every song I've ever liked on it.

[Bernanke]

My album of this decade is Big Thief - Masterpiece. Amazing emotion in it. The follow up wasn't as good but they never are.

Mary off of the second album is easily one of the most beautiful tracks this millennium.


Lorde appearing on a lot of lists. Should I be checking that out?

Also NME have two 1975 albums in the top 20 LMAO.

Melodrama is a legitimately great album.

[hfswjyr]

Reading with interest. I didn't think I had actually listened and enjoyed 50 full new albums this decade, but going through my list, it seems I've got exactly 52 decent albums. Often multiple albums by the same artist as well, so it seems I've found a more streamlined musical taste this decade.
Will post the full list after James is done.

[Shindig]

I'm going to have to remind myself what new stuff I bought this decade. I could probably scramble 10. EDIT: 38. 41 if you include live albums and Wugazi.

[Magic]

Mary off of the second album is easily one of the most beautiful tracks this millennium.



Melodrama is a legitimately great album.

Thanks, will have a listen.

[-james-]

45. Nivhek – After its own death / Walking in a spiral towards the house (2019)

This is a very unusual album. Its slow, meandering, minimal in the extreme and steeped in reverb as if it were made in a cathedral. The sounds seem to disintegrate as it progresses, and towards the end a lot of motifs are repeated in a way that is uniquely anxiety-inducing. Ethereal, intoxicating bliss.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hS36Y42c3lk


44. Xylouris White – Goats (2014)

Not clued up on your experimental Greek folk? Get this. This project is a collaboration between legendary Cretan lutist Georgios Xylouris and Jim White, the drummer out of Australian instrumental rock band Dirty Three. Xylouris’ lute has a wonderfully dark tone throughout and White consistently finds the perfect accompanying percussive phrases throughout.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ky1t3xR-4Fs


43. Guttersnipe – My Mother the Vent (2018)

Probably the most extreme thing on this list, and an album I’m unlikely to have bothered with if I hadn’t seen them live first. It’s always interesting to see how bands with such sheer fucking chaos and energy in a live setting transfer to the studio. It’s not as good as seeing them in the flesh (few things are) but Guttersnipe do a great job here. A cataclysm of noise.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl4wCinDqgU


42. SBTRKT – SBTRKT (2011)

Squeaky clean UK garage tunes from the start of the decade. The production is intricate, tight, and modest in a way that it remains engaging throughout without overreaching. The featured vocalists elevate it to another level, Sampha sounds amazing on this (I really need to get around to listening to that album of his).


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZU-qZ-fyag


41. Shabazz Palaces – Black Up (2011)

An incredibly original and creative hip-hop album. It’s a short album of short songs but remarkably dense in ideas and sounds. The abstract lyrics, charismatic delivery and alien sounding beats make Black Up an album that really rewards repeated visits.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5LgCaxrbpc

[-james-]

Had less time to do this than I anticipated this week. Probably get back to it in the new year.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'll have £10 on James failing to finish this and another £5 on James not even getting to the top 10.

[John]

I'd heard of, and at least some music by each artist in your first post, but that installment is a complete mystery. The phrase 'legendary Cretan lutist' has to be self parody. The Greek tune is alright in places, in a sort of Rodrigo y Gabriela 'oh that's different' way, but then just discordant noise in others.

[-james-]

Yeah there's probably more weird stuff in that post than there will be in any to come.

He's legendary in Crete lute playing circles, for sure.

[Offshore Toon]

I'd be happy with Black Up finishing as the top album. Rediscovered that and Nine Types Of Light by TV On The Radio on my old iPod a couple weeks ago and it made for a FANTASTIC walk.

[Shindig]

I've been backtracking through the decade a bit. I totally forgot My Bloody Valentine put another album out. It really has been a decade of reunions.

[-james-]

40. Kamasi Washington – The Epic (2015)

Look, I’m not going to sit here and pretend to have a clue about jazz. It’s three fucking hours long too so I’m not going to pretend to know which song is which either (but I am very fond of disc 1 closer The Rhythm Changes). It’s a damn fine listen; casual at times, playful, frantic, joyful at others. Stick this on as you go about your day and you’ll not have a bad time.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkLz4MyDmuE

39. Smith Westerns – Dye It Blonde (2014)

Joyous shit. Sure, they wear their influences on their sleeve, but these songs are so catchy, the melodies so undeniable that I couldn’t care less. Pure romantic fun.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLAlSRf-fDk

38. Mount Eerie – A Crow Looked At Me (2017)

Death sells. I’ve always been a fan of Phil Elverum’s various projects but this, the album he wrote in the immediate aftermath of his wife’s death, is the only one of his releases of the last few years that I’ve listened to. Possibly because it’s so visceral & overwhelming I’m not sure I can handle another. Sheer rawness and human experience. It’s hard to listen to but quite clearly very special.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGESP0iePmQ

37. Perfume Genius – Put Yr Back N 2 It (2012)

This album is perfect to get a bit drunk and feel a bit sad to. A collection of small-yet-big piano ballads mostly about things that don’t concern me. Simple songs, beautifully arranged and delivered.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5WNqvdIfJ8

36. Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges (2011)

Spectacularly ambitious saxophone album that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever heard. It’s an absolute masterpiece in recording and he extracts from his instrument sounds that I didn’t know existed or were possible. Technical wankery aside, this thing sounds incredible; jarring, rhythmic and beautiful.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7sHfTcVdr4

[hfswjyr]

My album of this decade is Big Thief - Masterpiece. Amazing emotion in it. The follow up wasn't as good but they never are.
Doh - I started having a listen after seeing this recommendation, but I ended up listening to every album but Masterpiece. Will have to go back to it now.


Mary off of the second album is easily one of the most beautiful tracks this millennium.

Loving this track at the moment, as well as Not.

[-james-]

Gonna try and polish this off this weekend. I messed up the ordering a bit so we start from 37.

[-james-]

37. Holly Herndon – Proto (2019)

Explores themes of AI, technology and humanity and manages to subvert the usual anti-capitalist clichés, coming off euphoric and hopeful. The music itself is the sound of folky choral compositions being through some giant, mechanical sounding audio processing grinder. The usual striking production values are there, and the result is lush, expansive, high drama from start to finish.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sROgbaeOs


36. Daughters – You Won’t Get What You Want (2018)

They’ve gone out of their way here to make an album that’s as dark and unsettling as possible. Lyrically and vocally it’s sheer venom throughout, but my favourite thing about this album are the guitars which are just amazingly rich and bright. On highlight “Satan in the Wait” they wail/grind/shriek beneath frontman Alexis Freeman’s cries of “This world! Is opening up!”, and it is an entirely believable claim.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSl4w6PXVbY


35. Gorillaz – Plastic Beach (2010)

An album of charming pop songs featuring probably the most ridiculous all star cast of the decade. I was in my first year of uni when this came out and it was the perfect soundtrack to that time of child like adulthood, I think it really broadened my musical horizons too.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-yP9f0gadU


34. Deakin – Sleep Cycle (2016)

I always thought Deakin was the best one in Animal Collective. I haven’t enjoyed any of their releases in a while but strip away the messy psychedelia of their most recent music, and you’d be left with something like this. Spacey, endearing experimental pop. You can tell it’s a deeply personal album that he’s poured his heart in to. Let’s have another m8.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmaJTpJpUiU


33. The Body – I Shall Die Here (2014)

Dark and punishing. Huge drone metal soundscapes that demand your attention. Highlights include “Alone All the Way” with its end of the world kick drums, and the murky catharsis of droney delayed guitar at the end of “The Night Knows No Dawn”.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMCeES2b_tw


32. Austra – Feel it Break (2011)

There were quite a few albums that I listened to for the first time in an age while doing this list which I found my feelings had dulled on, was pleased to discover that this was not one of them. Super tight synth pop tracks that sound a bit like early The Knife. Katie Selmanis’ vocals are captivating, no more so than epic, operatic closer "The Beast".


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO_V5RfJ7YU


31. Yuck – Yuck (2011)

A lovely, summery, fuzzy noise pop album that I revisit all the time. That’s all I really have on this one. Like the Smith Westerns album earlier in the list there’s nothing too complicated, just really good songs.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55sVV-t8R0c


30. Women – Public Strain (2010)

This really stands out among the mass of American indie bands from around that time. The vocals are often intelligible and exist only to add to the droney, hazey fog that this album hides behind. It’s got a wonderful air of mystery about it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEXQNSwrWZI


29. Moa Pillar – Humanity (2015)

Moa Pillar is some lad in Moscow who makes massive industrial techno in his bedroom. On Humanity he marries his usual balls-to-the-wall noisemaking with beautiful, ritualistic sounding textures using ethnic instruments and field recordings. The result is an album with a beautifully celestial feel to it. A real hidden gem.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5b5ZLXFiXG8


28. Leonard Cohen – You Want It Darker (2016)

One of the great poets examines his impending death with incredible measure. An album of sadness, reflection and acceptance. Cheers Leonard.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0nmHymgM7Y

[-james-]

Never mind, my ordering was fine. :charm:

25. Les Filles de Illighadad – Fatou Seidi Ghali & Alamnou Akrouni (2016)

An album of utterly entrancing acoustic Touareg music “recorded in the open-air studio of the desert”. I bought this after seeing them at the always excellent Counterflows festivals in Glasgow and I can’t think of many records this decade that are as transportive.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljPYUfxBARo


24. Gnod – Chapel Perilous (2018)

Face-melting stuff from Gnod at their very best. Fifteen-minute opener "Donovan’s Daughters" is just fucking huge in both noise and ambition. They do a load of murky, sinister sounding stuff across the middle of the album, pulsating “Voice From Nowhere” a particular highlight, then close with another behemoth of a track in “Uncle Franks Says Turn it Down”.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xwtEci3oOs


23. PJ Harvey – The Hope Six Demolition Project (2016)

One of the most on-the-nose political things I heard all decade. It’s almost voyeuristic at points but comes off as absolute sincerity rather than anything else.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELPF1bEBIZs


22. Kate Bush — 50 Words for Snow (2011)

Best Christmas album ever.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXI8iB_TTuM


21. Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains (2019)

:(


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvUBbROsXBw


20. The Knife – Shaking the Habitual (2013)

In terms of sound and ambition I've scarcely heard anything grander. Intricate, sometimes overwhelming but rewarding as hell. Every song is a pearl of fucked up, noisy synth-pop. I think my favourite cut is “Wrap Your Arms Around Me”, of which every element is massive, claustrophobic and threatens to engulf the listener whole.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPfe0J0eboM


18. My Bloody Valentine – m b v (2013)

The world spent twenty-two years trying to recreate Loveless, and the first thing to hold a candle to it is Kevin Shields deciding he fancies another go.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2FQ3ih0MoE


17. Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer (2018)

The crown jewel in a decade where she released three absolute classic contemporary albums. Powerful, urgent and just insanely fucking cool.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgSpeV-bklk


16. Caribou – Swim (2010)

Seeing Caribou live in 2011 blew my puny mind and was pretty much my introduction to “dance music”. This still sounds as fucking transcendental, now that I’ve come down, as it did then.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX1pm2o_2T4

[Offshore Toon]

I really regret going with the group and seeing The Streets over Janelle last year, although it made sense from a 'first time' v 'fourth time' point of view.

[Alex]

Yuck. :cool:

What a phenomenal record that was. It's a shame they sort of split up. I mean, I know they're technically still going, but the main guy left and it was never much good after they carried on without him. His solo stuff is largely not that great either. Although the Hebronix album was decent.

[-james-]

HERE IS THE REMAINDER OF THE LIST. I never got around to writing the blurbs and the moment has now passed but anyway.

15. Julia Holter – Have You in My Wilderness (2015)
14. Kendrick Lamar – Good Kid m.a.a.d. City (2012)
13. Deerhunter – Halcyon Digest (2010)
12. Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
11. Demdike Stare – Wonderland (2016)
10. Angel Olsen – Burn Your Fire for No Witness (2014)
9. LCD Soundsystem – This is Happening (2010)
8. Burial – Tunes 2011 – 2019 (2019)
7. Bill Callahan – Apocalypse (2011)
6. Jai Paul — Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) (2019)
5. Charli XCX – Charli (2019)
4. DJ Python – Dulce Compañia (2017)
3. Richard Dawson – Peasant (2017)
2. SOPHIE – OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES (2018)
1. Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me (2010)

[Alex]

Ah, the Jai Paul leak. What a saga that was. He never followed up with any sort of "official" project, did he? Not to my knowledge anyway.

[-james-]

There were the two tracks that he released along with the "official" version of the leak in 2019. I quite like "He", but thought they generally lacked that charming, meticulous weirdness of the old songs.

I find it quite strange to think about whether a finished version would have been better or not.

[-james-]

Str8 Outta Mumbai is apparently the only finished song on it though, and that's one of the high points of the decade.

[Offshore Toon]

You might hate me for it, but I prefer the remix album of OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES.

[CJay]

Shocked to see your number 1. I knew you liked Divers but I had no idea you appreciated that album so much. What a masterpiece.

[Spammer]

Heard of hardly any of them and I'm sure they're all shite

[Shindig]

Joanna Newsom sounds like what would happen if you filled a choir full of dying goats.

[Spikey M]

If James hosted a book club the first 'book' would be a mouse trap on top of a kettle.

[-james-]

You might hate me for it, but I prefer the remix album of OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES.

Yeah that's a gem. I've had the remix Autechre have just done of BIPP on all day actually.

The Heaven Suspended thing on youtube last year as well, dunno if it was a teaser of new stuff or what? Just all so good.

[-james-]

Shocked to see your number 1. I knew you liked Divers but I had no idea you appreciated that album so much. What a masterpiece.

I wanted to do one album per artist for this list. Divers is good but HOoM is on another plane, I think. Spent the decade rinsing it and I'm still pretty obsessed.


Joanna Newsom sounds like what would happen if you filled a choir full of dying goats.

I can understand her vocals on Milk Eyed Mender driving people away (I still cringe ever so slightly at Peach, Plum Pear), maybe on Ys too. I don't think there's any of that on the most recent two, is there? Maybe I've grown desensitized.

[-james-]

Some entry level Joanna, for the uninitiated.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qukojXEK2GI

[Jimmy Floyd]

Vibes of an avant-garde west coast Kate Bush.

[-james-]

There are definitely similarities. Kate Bush is at her best when telling stories quite abstractly, knitting words together, drawing on themes and conjuring up images but never quite opening the door.

JN is the same. Kingfisher is a song I've listened to hundreds of times and I still haven't a clue when she's on about. A lot of her stuff is pretty impenetrable. Perfect escapism.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Yes, it's the juxtaposition of the expressiveness and range of the vocal (and music, tbh) with the opacity of what she's singing about.

God I shouldn't be typing that at 00.45.

[hfswjyr]

I pulled this list together when this thread was first started. It's basically the 50 albums I had actually listened to and enjoyed last decade. I've definitely become one of those people who have set music tastes, and just go back to albums by the same artists.

In no particular order:

Los Campesinos - Romance is Boring
Los Campesinos - Hello Sadness
Los Campesinos - No Blues
Los Campesinos - Sick Scenes
Taylor Swift - Red
Taylor Swift - 1989
Noah Gundersen - Ledges
Noah Gundersen - Carry the Ghost
Noah Gundersen - White Noise
Noah Gundersen - Lover
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials
Florence and the Machine - High as Hope
The National - High Violet
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
The National - I Am Easy to Find
Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour
Band of Skulls - Himalayan
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Augustana - Augustana
Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
Hey Rosetta - Seeds
Hey Rosetta - Second Sight
The Jezabels - Synthia
James Vincent McMorrow - Early in the Morning
James Vincent McMorrow - Post Tropical
James Vincent McMorrow - We Move
Ed Sheeran - +
Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away
CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
CHVRCHES - Every Eye Open
Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Laura Stevenson - Sit Resist
Laura Stevenson - Wheel
The xx - I See You
Hozier - Wasteland, Baby!
Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Ben Howard - I Forget Where We Were
The Antlers - Burst Apart
The Antlers - Familiars
Torres - Torres
Torres - Sprinter
Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect
Destroyer - Kaputt
Sigrid - Sucker Punch
Lorde - Melodrama
Maggie Rogers - Heart It in a Past Life
Matt Corby - Rainbow Valley
Adele - 21
Dodie - Human
Mallrat - Driving Music

[CJay]

Some entry level Joanna, for the uninitiated.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qukojXEK2GI

Baby Birch kills me every time.

[Pen]

I pulled this list together when this thread was first started. It's basically the 50 albums I had actually listened to and enjoyed last decade. I've definitely become one of those people who have set music tastes, and just go back to albums by the same artists.

In no particular order:

Los Campesinos - Romance is Boring
Los Campesinos - Hello Sadness
Los Campesinos - No Blues
Los Campesinos - Sick Scenes
Taylor Swift - Red
Taylor Swift - 1989
Noah Gundersen - Ledges
Noah Gundersen - Carry the Ghost
Noah Gundersen - White Noise
Noah Gundersen - Lover
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math
Florence and the Machine - Ceremonials
Florence and the Machine - High as Hope
The National - High Violet
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
The National - I Am Easy to Find
Band of Skulls - Sweet Sour
Band of Skulls - Himalayan
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City
Augustana - Augustana
Ryan Adams - Ashes & Fire
Hey Rosetta - Seeds
Hey Rosetta - Second Sight
The Jezabels - Synthia
James Vincent McMorrow - Early in the Morning
James Vincent McMorrow - Post Tropical
James Vincent McMorrow - We Move
Ed Sheeran - +
Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away
CHVRCHES - The Bones of What You Believe
CHVRCHES - Every Eye Open
Kacey Musgraves - Same Trailer Different Park
Kacey Musgraves - Golden Hour
Laura Stevenson - Sit Resist
Laura Stevenson - Wheel
The xx - I See You
Hozier - Wasteland, Baby!
Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Ben Howard - I Forget Where We Were
The Antlers - Burst Apart
The Antlers - Familiars
Torres - Torres
Torres - Sprinter
Brandon Flowers - The Desired Effect
Destroyer - Kaputt
Sigrid - Sucker Punch
Lorde - Melodrama
Maggie Rogers - Heart It in a Past Life
Matt Corby - Rainbow Valley
Adele - 21
Dodie - Human
Mallrat - Driving Music

We have quite similar taste in music and I think I got some very good recommendations back in the old board (or is that the new old board). That said I’m a busy modern man and instead of doing the leg work myself I would really appreciate a Spotify playlist link. Could you sort me out with one?

-james-I don’t recognize as many artists from your list, but would like to give them a go as well if you have a Spotify playlist as I really like some bands from your top 50.

Edit:hsfwjyr There are actually quite a few on your list I’ve probably found through you in the first place 👍

[CJay]

Were those Antlers albums anywhere near as good as Hospice? I see they’re releasing a new album in March, but I don’t know if I even gave their other works a go, just based off reviews.

[hfswjyr]

We have quite similar taste in music and I think I got some very good recommendations back in the old board (or is that the new old board). That said I’m a busy modern man and instead of doing the leg work myself I would really appreciate a Spotify playlist link. Could you sort me out with one?

-james-I don’t recognize as many artists from your list, but would like to give them a go as well if you have a Spotify playlist as I really like some bands from your top 50.

Edit:hsfwjyr There are actually quite a few on your list I’ve probably found through you in the first place ��
Which ones in particular? I know I got into James Vincent McMorrow after a recommendation from someone on this forum, and more recently Big Thief.
I'm going to make one, because I'm deathly bored on a Saturday night in, and it's a nice trip down memory lane. Stay tuned.




Were those Antlers albums anywhere near as good as Hospice? I see they’re releasing a new album in March, but I don’t know if I even gave their other works a go, just based off reviews.
I thought they were both great. Hospice is the most depressing one, but the other two are equally melancholy - just not pure depression material.

[hfswjyr]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Im0c3g7p31H6ycmxNdl6y?si=OxX3xJ4JRjay9hnL8myjew
Ended up picking 2 of my favourite tracks from each album. Hope you discover something cool from these!

[-james-]

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2uYY89okpveabzXRqLFzBb?si=oa6OMG0uT2GAJUEWCNEbgw

A couple of things from this thread regrettably not on Spotify.

[-james-]

Baby Birch kills me every time.

Yeah the Melkweg performance of that gets played a lot. Sometimes just the last four minutes (https://youtu.be/jKrpokfVR0E?t=343) if I'm cheating.

[Reg]

What did you make of To Pimp a Butterfly, James? (Good Kid in your top 15.)

A couple of things in the list has me intrigued, I'll check out some of the ones I've not heard of.

[-james-]

Oh it's phenomenal. I think I find it harder to dive in or out of than GKMC, though, so I've listened to it a lot less.

Good Kid Maad City has this incredible immediacy about it. Every track is an absolute banger while also being incredibly lyrically dense and rewarding of revisits.

[Pen]

Which ones in particular? I know I got into James Vincent McMorrow after a recommendation from someone on this forum, and more recently Big Thief.
I'm going to make one, because I'm deathly bored on a Saturday night in, and it's a nice trip down memory lane. Stay tuned.




I thought they were both great. Hospice is the most depressing one, but the other two are equally melancholy - just not pure depression material.

Jezabels, Los Campesinos (don’t remember if that was from you, but from TTH anyway), Hey Rosetta and Antlers I think.

Cheers for the playlist to both. I saved them and will give them a listen next week.

[Reg]

Oh it's phenomenal. I think I find it harder to dive in or out of than GKMC, though, so I've listened to it a lot less.

Good Kid Maad City has this incredible immediacy about it. Every track is an absolute banger while also being incredibly lyrically dense and rewarding of revisits.
Understandable. A lot of the tracks work best as part of a mood piece / whole album experience, and my favourite track (Wesley's Theory) was most exciting on the first listen and when hyping the rest of the album. I don't know Good Kid as well but can imagine that might be easier to dip in and out of.

[Manc]

I'd put Flower Boy down as my rap album of the decade. Laughable that DAMN pipped it for the Grammy.

[Shindig]

I'd have Killer Mike's RAP Music down for that but then I'm barely up to speed on modern stuff.

[Offshore Toon]

You can't really argue against MBDTF. Everything about that album is just brilliant. Every story is gold.

[Spoonsky]

My album of this decade is Big Thief - Masterpiece. Amazing emotion in it. The follow up wasn't as good but they never are.

Adrianne Lenker :nodd:

You should check out her solo work.

[Jimmy Floyd]

On that post spoonsky quoted immediately above, I have recently been reappraising this topic and would like to renounce the above post - the second album (Capacity) is a thing of incredible beauty. Maybe I needed to be a year older, or a year more locked down, to get it. No one does melody like she does.

[hfswjyr]

I was lucky enough to discover all their albums at the same time, and am happy to report they are all outstanding. I need to give her solo stuff another listen, as I'm sure it'll be great too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I haven't even approached the most recent two albums yet. I can only do one thing at a time with music, if there's something good I tend to milk the fuck out of it in quite a narrow way.

[Raoul Duke]

This is my favourite of theirs:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5OV1JPqlNQ

[Jimmy Floyd]

At the moment mine is the preceding track 'Haley' but I get a new one every week.

[AyDee]

Ended up doing this the other day. Harder than expected but managed to keep it to no more than one album per artist.

Some random entries (hello, Sheeran) but nostalgia scores high.

Number Artist Album Year
1 Kanye West My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy 2010
2 Sufjan Stevens Carrie and Lowell 2015
3 Kendrick Lamar To Pimp A Butterfly 2015
4 Hamilton Hamilton 2015
5 Bon Iver 22, A Million 2011
6 Book of Mormon Book of Mormon 2011
7 Florence and the Machine Ceremonials 2011
8 Billie Eilish WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? 2019
9 The Roots How I Got Over 2010
10 Ben Howard Every Kingdom 2011
11 London Grammar If You Wait 2013
12 Nas Life is Good 2012
13 Rainbow Kitten Surprise How to: Friend, Love, Freefall 2018
14 Rapsody Laila's Wisdom 2017
15 Oddissee The Good Fight 2015
16 Lorde Melodrama 2017
17 Lana Del Rey Norman Fucking Rockwell 2019
18 Danny Brown Atrocity Exhibition 2016
19 The Game Documentary 2 & 2.5 2015
20 Frank Ocean Channel Orange 2012
21 Chance the Rapper Coloring Book 2016
22 Ed Sheeran + 2011
23 J Cole The Sideline Story 2011
24 Freddie Gibbs Pinata 2014
25 Taylor Swift Reputation 2017
26 Halsey Hopeless Fountain 2017
27 Common Black America Again 2016
28 Dave Psychodrama 2019
29 Action Bronson Blue Chips 2 2013
30 Bears Den Red Earth and Pouring Rain 2016
31 Run the Jewels Run the Jewels 3 2016
32 Novo Amor & Ed Tullett Heiress 2017
33 Jay-Z 4:44 2017
34 Lupe Fiasco Tetsuo and Youth 2015
35 Anderson Paak Malibu 2016
36 Noname Telefone 2016
37 Earl Sweatshirt I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt 2015
38 Daughter If You Leave 2013
39 Arctic Monkeys AM 2013
40 The Civil Wars The Civil Wars 2013
41 Young Fathers White Men are Black Men Too 2015
42 Saba Care For Me 2018
43 Destroyer Kaputt 2011
44 Benjamin Francis Leftwich Last Smoke Before The Snowstorm 2011
45 Foreign Fields Anywhere But Where I Am 2012
46 David Bowie Blackstar 2016
47 A Tribe Called Quest We Got It From Here 2016
48 Smino blkswn 2017
49 Sleeping At Last Atlas (Space) 2017
50 Yann Tiersen EUSA 2016

[Manc]

Solid list. Channel Orange being released in 2012 has really thrown me.

I'd have Islands above RE&PR personally.

[hfswjyr]

Reputation is your favourite Taylor Swift album? Interesting. That one was pretty much unlistenable for me, and I really like all her other stuff.

[Panda Bear]

hey -james- I saw Caribou back when they went by Manitoba

[Serj]

Settled on a top ten, then trying to sort the rest gave me a headache so I put in in alphabetical order. Surprised at how much I struggled to even come up with fifty albums. I kept on coming up with stuff that felt somewhat recent to me but wasn't. Getting old(er) is weird.

1. Tropical Fuck Storm - A Laughing Death in Meatspace (2018)
2. The Knife - Shaking the Habitual (2013)
3. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor (2010)
4. of Montreal - Paralytic Stalks (2012)
5. Kendrick Lamar - good Kid, m.A.A.d City (2012)
6. Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid (2010)
7. The Drones - I See Seaweed (2013)
8. Jeff Rosenstock - WORRY. (2016)
9. MGMT - Little Dark Age (2018)
10. Alex Cameron - Forced Witness (2017)


Agnes Obel - Aventine (2013)
Algiers - The Underside of Power (2017)
Anderson .Paak - Malibu (2016)
Avey Tare - Down There (2010)
Beach House - Bloom (2012)
black midi - Schlagenheim (2019)
Caribou - Swim (2010)
Caroline Rose - Loner (2018)
Clarence Clarity - No Now (2015)
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
Dan Deacon - America (2012)
Daughters - You Won't Get What You Want (2018)
Deakin - SLEEP CYCLE (2016)
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2015)
Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma (2010)
Frank Ocean - Channel ORANGE (2012)
Idles - Brutalism (2017)
Joanna Newsom - Have One on Me (2010)
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Murder of the Universe (2017)
Kirin J Callinan - Bravado (2017)
Melt Yourself Down - Melt Yourself Down (2013)
Michael Kiwanuka - Love & Hate (2016)
of Montreal - Lousy with Sylvianbriar (2013)
Perfume Genius - No Shape (2017)
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (2011)
Purple Mountains - Purple Mountains (2019)
Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork (2013)
Sault - 5 (2019)
SBTRKT - SBTRKT (2011)
St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (2011)
Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz (2010)
Swans - The Seer (2012)
Swans - To Be Kind (2014)
The Kills - Blood Pressures (2011)
Tim Hecker - Virgins (2013)
Tune-Yards - w h o k i l l (2011)
Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires of the City (2013)
Woods - At Echo Lake (2010)
Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat (2016)
Yonathan Gat - Director (2015)

[-james-]

hey -james- I saw Caribou back when they went by Manitoba

I've never listened to any of his stuff before Swim. Maybe I should. The stuff after it was always pretty meh I thought.

[Panda Bear]

I've never listened to any of his stuff before Swim. Maybe I should. The stuff after it was always pretty meh I thought.oh shit

I was just going for a useless flex, but Up in Flames is pretty good stuff