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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I like Sit Down as much as the next person but there's no way they did 50 albums this decade.
ilomilo on the Billie Eilish album is a gem that doesn't get any credit.
Billie Eilish is 18 now so we can blow our muck over her kid pics.
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.
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.
You have fucking terrible taste
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.
I'll take up arms with you Jim. I hate that whispering cunt.
Okay it's all subjective and terrible is harsh. James, you have the taste of a basic teenage girl.
We talking about songs based on Whispering?
Loved that song back in the day but now it annoys me.
My album of this decade is Big Thief - Masterpiece. Amazing emotion in it. The follow up wasn't as good but they never are.
Benjamin Clementine's At Least For Now.
Lorde appearing on a lot of lists. Should I be checking that out?
Also NME have two 1975 albums in the top 20 LMAO.
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.
Mary off of the second album is easily one of the most beautiful tracks this millennium.Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Melodrama is a legitimately great album.
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.
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.
Last edited by Shindig; 25-12-2019 at 09:45 AM.
Thanks, will have a listen.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Last edited by -james-; 29-12-2019 at 08:40 PM.
Had less time to do this than I anticipated this week. Probably get back to it in the new year.
I'll have £10 on James failing to finish this and another £5 on James not even getting to the top 10.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by -james-; 12-01-2020 at 01:45 AM.
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.
Loving this track at the moment, as well as Not.
Gonna try and polish this off this weekend. I messed up the ordering a bit so we start from 37.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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".
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.
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.
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.
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.
Last edited by -james-; 06-02-2020 at 02:54 PM.
Never mind, my ordering was fine.
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.
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”.
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.
22. Kate Bush — 50 Words for Snow (2011)
Best Christmas album ever.
21. Purple Mountains – Purple Mountains (2019)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yuck.
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.
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)
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.
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.
Str8 Outta Mumbai is apparently the only finished song on it though, and that's one of the high points of the decade.
You might hate me for it, but I prefer the remix album of OIL OF EVERY PEARL’S UN-INSIDES.
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.
Heard of hardly any of them and I'm sure they're all shite
Joanna Newsom sounds like what would happen if you filled a choir full of dying goats.
If James hosted a book club the first 'book' would be a mouse trap on top of a kettle.
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.
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.
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.
Some entry level Joanna, for the uninitiated.
Vibes of an avant-garde west coast Kate Bush.
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.
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.
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