Top Albums of the Decade

[TheDude]

So I know this is more than a bit late considering we're 17 days into the new decade, but after watching a few YouTube videos, I decided to put together my Top 10 Albums of the 2010s list. Thought it might be fun to see what others have in their own lists, be it Top 5, 10, 25, 42, what have you!

TheDude's Top 10 Albums of the 2010's (not to be confused with The Dude, though the Eagles still aren't present):

1) Foo Fighters - Wasting Light
2) Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
3) King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Fishing for Fishies
4) Atmosphere - Family Sign
5) King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Flying Microtonal Banana
6) Queens of the Stone Age - ...Like Clockwork
7) Tool - Fear Inoculum
THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - Handwritten
9) Muse - The 2nd Law
10a) Aesop Rock - The Impossible Kid
10b) THE GASLIGHT ANTHEM - American Slang

Honorable Mentions:
(in no particular order)

The Milk Carton Kids - Ash & Clay
Greta Van Fleet - From the Fires
Ecstatic Vision - Raw Rock Fury
Frank Turner - Positive Songs for Negative People
Queens of the Stone Age - Villains
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Infest the Rats Nest

[alanp]

I'd throw in these, in no particular order:

Heilung, _Lifa_
I loved how primordial and tribal it sounds, and yet, at the same time, utterly European. (These sounds usually wind up being very African, or Aborigine, or Amazonian Rainforesty... you get the idea.) It gets hypnotic at times.

Perturbator, _New Model_
One of the most brutal synth albums I've ever heard. Take no prisoners, give no f--ks.

Lee 'Scratch' Perry, _Back On The Controls_
One of the Old Masters of dub, showing the young guns how it's done.

[somnif]

I never really like calling something a "top" or "best" album, as music is such a personal and subjective field.

I can certainly, however, list a few I personally thought were standouts that haven't been posted here yet (in no particular order).

Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid Madd City/To Pimp a Butterfly - Both of these make me feel homesick for LA, which probably says something unhealthy about nostalgia. I still strongly feel that he won his Pulitzer for "DAMN" (which I honestly didn't like very much) as an apology for TPaB largely getting ignored when it first came out.

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening - Felt like a Talking Heads album when I first heard it. The same head tilted, slightly odd, take on "What the hell am I doing with my life". Your appreciation will depend largely on how much talk-singing and minimalist synth blarps you can stand.

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - So, who would've guessed 2013 was when Disco came back? And that it would actually succeed (briefly, anyway)?

Purity Ring - Shrines - A set up like 'The Postal Service" accomplished a few years earlier, mix a talented singer/lyricist and producer corresponding and making their music while separated by about a thousand kilometers (though via email rather than post this time). Weird, quirky lyrics sung in a deceptively "sweet" style over tightly produced electronic tracks. Some tracks feel downright Lovecraftian in their lyrics, but sung in such a lighthearted fashion you could miss it if not paying attention.


And good god is it hard to remember everything that came out in the past 10 years, I'm going to have to dig through my hard drive and actually think about this....

[TheDude]

And good god is it hard to remember everything that came out in the past 10 years, I'm going to have to dig through my hard drive and actually think about this....

This was the main reason I put this list together, as a fun way to dive back and look at the more recent tunes that made an impact on me. There were a number of albums that I totally forgot about, along with a bunch from the late 00s that made me feel older than I am when I found out just how old they were. Icky Thump turns 13 this year! Plus I always like to hear what hit other people, so I can look into some new stuff.

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[dan.schumaker]

Definitely a fan of The Gaslight Anthem and Milk Carton Kids being on your list 

[thesmokingman]

that last gary clark jr album was pretty good ...

[Muadzin]

There hasn't been an album of the decade since the 90's, when Nirvana's Nevermind and Metallica's Black Album were game changers. You had to go to a deserted island to not hear Teen Spirit or Enter Sandman. Those albums had cross genre appeals and they sold to everybody. It made Nirvana from a small club act into a major stadium act and Metallica fashionable amongs non-Metal heads. There hasn't been any album since that which has managed to equal what those albums did. To say those and those albums that nobody has heard about outside their respective scenes are albums of the decade is like saying that the battle for Aachen in 1944 was like a battle of Stalingrad in the West. No it wasn't. And no album released since 1992 has ever managed to come even close to Nevermind or the Black Album. OK Computer by Radiohead came kinda close, but it was still arty niché and the band still hasn't made, or sought for that matter, the leap to the big audience. And its not like Nevermind and the Black Album are that special, because the previous decades had tons of them. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Electric Ladyland, Dark Side of the Moon, Thriller, Purple Rain, the Joshua Tree, to name a few. There was no escaping those albums when they were released. Whereas almost all of the albums named so far fall into the never heard of them category for me. And reckon most people.

Let's face it, like rock, the concept of the album is dead. In a way we've moved back to the 50's, where artists didn't release albums, they released singles. All the major pop, EDM and rap artists release songs. It's all about dropping a new track every so often. The public has no patience anymore to wait and listen for a whole album.

[TheDude]

There hasn't been an album of the decade since the 90's, when Nirvana's Nevermind and Metallica's Black Album were game changers. You had to go to a deserted island to not hear Teen Spirit or Enter Sandman. Those albums had cross genre appeals and they sold to everybody. It made Nirvana from a small club act into a major stadium act and Metallica fashionable amongs non-Metal heads. There hasn't been any album since that which has managed to equal what those albums did. To say those and those albums that nobody has heard about outside their respective scenes are albums of the decade is like saying that the battle for Aachen in 1944 was like a battle of Stalingrad in the West. No it wasn't. And no album released since 1992 has ever managed to come even close to Nevermind or the Black Album. OK Computer by Radiohead came kinda close, but it was still arty niché and the band still hasn't made, or sought for that matter, the leap to the big audience. And its not like Nevermind and the Black Album are that special, because the previous decades had tons of them. Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Electric Ladyland, Dark Side of the Moon, Thriller, Purple Rain, the Joshua Tree, to name a few. There was no escaping those albums when they were released. Whereas almost all of the albums named so far fall into the never heard of them category for me. And reckon most people.

Let's face it, like rock, the concept of the album is dead. In a way we've moved back to the 50's, where artists didn't release albums, they released singles. All the major pop, EDM and rap artists release songs. It's all about dropping a new track every so often. The public has no patience anymore to wait and listen for a whole album.

Yeah, well, you know, that just like, uhh... you're opinion, man.


I do understand what you're saying. Perhaps I should've been more direct with the title, saying, what are YOUR top albums of the decade. You're correct in your assessment of the industry, but this was meant to get people talking about what albums left the biggest impact on the people of this forum, not what was most commercially important.


Alan, somnif, and thesmokingman - really like all your album suggestions. A few I've heard, and a number I'm going to look into

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[TheDude]

Definitely a fan of The Gaslight Anthem and Milk Carton Kids being on your list 

Always great to find other Gaslight and MCK fans!

Quick little story: I spent the summer of 2016 living out of my car and a tent, bouncing around various state parks depending in western New York (best summer of my life). One night another guy (late 20s, early 30s) at the campgrounds invites me to join his fire with him. The park was his dad's favorite - he had taken this guy camping there at least once a year since he was like 5. Unfortunately the guy's father had passed away earlier in the year, so he was back this time to get away with his thoughts and to honor his old man. We wound up passing the bottle of Jameson between us, sharing stories including plenty about his father, and rocking out to The Gaslight Anthem into the wee hours of the morning. I went out for a hike the next day, and when I was back, he had packed up and left, so I've never seen the guy since. But nights like that are some of my favorite memories in my whole life, and built up to make that summer the best I've had.

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[somnif]

Ok, screw it, my brain is refusing to dredge up memories past last Tuesday so this list comes with an asterisk the size of a satellite dish. I'm sure there are other albums I liked/admired/adored in the past 10 years but here are what I can recall for now (basically expanding on what I posted earlier, now with sound!)

Presented in no particular order, 10 of my favorite (not necessarily best) albums of the decade... that I can actually recall right now. Limited to one album by each group, just to mix things up.


Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly - A man acknowledging his role as a role model, and coming to terms with knowing he can, has, and will fail to live up to it all. Dissatisfaction with society, dissatisfaction with life, and dissatisfaction with himself, this album combines P-funk, soul, jazz, beat poetry, and deeply personally lyrical rap to paint a portrait of a man looking in a mirror and questioning every damn thing he sees. Each track builds upon the previous, tied together by a poem being assembled stanza by stanza, culminating in an impossible ending.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8kEiL81_R4[/youtube]

Purity Ring - Shrines - While their second album (Another Eternity) is tighter and more consistent, it doesn't quite have the same Lovecraftian fairy tale edge of their debut. Contrasting dreamily sweet etheral vocals, driving electronic beats, and lyrics that are just on the edge of nightmarish, it combines into a strangely cohesive whole that doesn't really fit into any particular mold. Like dreampop after a double dose of Lariam.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmRraoL9v7k[/youtube]

Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 - Fascinatingly off-the-wall production (no mere 808s for this group) and clever lyrics that can go from the typical bling-and-bitches tropes to downright militant politicism within the same verse. Plus, they remixed the entire album with all the beats replaced by cat sounds as a joke and actually kinda made it work, so... yeah, that was a thing.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJJyKlRxyvA[/youtube]

Badbadnotgood - III - This is Jazz, regardless of what Amazon's genre assignment might say. Skilled musicians playing off one another to convey thought and feeling. It never gets into the atonal wankery that the genre occasionally gets maligned for, but plays experimental enough to keep things interesting. Nor does it confine itself to the typical instrumentation of the genre, playing with synths to compliment and move the story around.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ3XrlMQYDc[/youtube]

Wolf People - Ruins - Full disclosure, I grew up listening to a LOT of Jethro Tull. And this band, well, the first time I heard them I had to check to see if Ian Anderson had died to be resurrected into this group of English lads. Each of their albums seems to move forward a few years in terms of influence, and they have aged past the flute solos of the 60s into the reverb heavy fuzz of the early 70s with this latest effort. Early heavy psychadelia reminiscent of early Sabbath, this album took a while to grow on me but these days is my favorite of theirs.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmKt76_wtHs[/youtube]

Sigur Ros - Kveikur - The Icelandic band known for ethereal meandering decides to do a metal album... ok, sort of. It's much harder and "darker" than a lot of their earlier work, with a tighter production and more driven focus. Actually got to see them live during the tour for this album, great show. As a note, this band is why I own multiple cello bows.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc6zXSdYXm8[/youtube]

LCD Soundsystem - This is Happening - I must admit, I really hated this band when I first heard them, but as I got older and more cynical it started to make sense. And this is an album dripping with cynicism (and even nihilism at times). A group looking back at a youth they hadn't realized was ending, and coming to terms with life as a grown up and all that entails. As I mentioned before this has a very "Talking Heads" air to it, that early post-punk ethos of taking a sorta punk-ish mindset and applying it to modern themes and instrumentation.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoA0cTC228M[/youtube]

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories - The Enigmatic French house duo decided that the time had come for Disco to return to the airwaves. Who would've guessed that a genre so maligned as to be ritualistically burned on a bonfire would one day actually come back around to gain popular success in 2013 of all years. Good lord it's been an odd decade. Combining some of the biggest names in production and session artists of the era and combined with a strict adherence to analog recording tech results in a sound that was unlike anything else on the radio at the time. I wish it had left more of an impact on the pop genre than it seems to have, but it was nice while it lasted.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhl-Cs1-sG4[/youtube]

Aesop Rock - Impossible Kid - The man who held the Guinness world record for the largest vocabulary in Rap builds on his legacy with a very autobiographical album about dealing with self-doubt and mental health. Plus, it has a strangely adorable song about his kitten, which works so much better than that description suggests.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npcGql9Ir6Y[/youtube]

Gary Clark Jr - Black and Blu - Flat out badass rocking electric blues. What more needs be said?
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhBmN-hhMOI[/youtube]

[TheDude]

Aesop Rock - Impossible Kid ...... Plus, it has a strangely adorable song about his kitten, which works so much better than that description suggests.
[youtube width=640]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npcGql9Ir6Y[/youtube]

Heeeeeeyyy Kirby. Why'd you eat that leaf?

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[jjjimi84]

The nonagon infinity opens the door, Wait for the answer to open the door

Such a great collection of LPs, some I am unfamiliar with (Run The Jewels) with some stuff I need to give another spin (Kendrick Lamar and Gaslight Anthem). I started listening to Aesop Rocks because of the "what are you listening to now" thread and am nuts over it, Lotta Years is just perfect.

My favorites of this decade has been:
Umphreys McGee - its not us its you, one of the strongest releases in their album catalog. Every release is different yet still them, also they were the best concert I have seen of the decade. Red Rocks with Jason Bonham about 100 feet from Jake.
Coheed and Cambria - Ascension/Descension Another double album of really strong tracks that stayed in the keywork mythos.
Jason Isbell - Southeastern, this guy writes songs like I crap my pants, often and with ease.
City and Colour - If I should go before you, just love the whole feel of this album.
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math, super catchy well written songs.
White Denim - D, listened to this way too much
Graveyard - Hisingen Blues, I got no friends only people that I know. What a great way to start a song
Prince - Art Official Age. This could have been Plectrum Electrum or hit and run phase I and II. He is and has been a favorite of mine for a long time.
Candlebox - Disappearing in Airports, they write catchy rock songs and I am in love with it.
Opeth - Pale Communion, this is the way I love my prog rock, with metal and synths.

So much great music that is is hard to pick, I loved Tool - Fear Inoculum 7empest in particular is just insane. Brandi Carille - By the way I forgive you had some songs that made me just uncomfortable with how honest they were. Mark Lettieri put out 3 great releases and Alice in Chains had some great songs.

I hope anybody who reads this checks out a new song they haven't heard and digs it. I love when people can talk positively about music.

[juansolo]

Sleeping Pulse - Under The Same Sky

Clutch - Earth Rocker

Stone Sour - House of Gold and Bones (both parts)

Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves

You get two of these because this is such an awesome video also.

A couple just squeezing in

Sully Erna - Avalon

Monster Magnet - Mastermind

Lisa Cuthbert - Obsticles

[davent]

The nonagon infinity opens the door, Wait for the answer to open the door

Such a great collection of LPs, some I am unfamiliar with (Run The Jewels) with some stuff I need to give another spin (Kendrick Lamar and Gaslight Anthem). I started listening to Aesop Rocks because of the "what are you listening to now" thread and am nuts over it, Lotta Years is just perfect.

My favorites of this decade has been:
Umphreys McGee - its not us its you, one of the strongest releases in their album catalog. Every release is different yet still them, also they were the best concert I have seen of the decade. Red Rocks with Jason Bonham about 100 feet from Jake.
Coheed and Cambria - Ascension/Descension Another double album of really strong tracks that stayed in the keywork mythos.
Jason Isbell - Southeastern, this guy writes songs like I crap my pants, often and with ease.
City and Colour - If I should go before you, just love the whole feel of this album.
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math, super catchy well written songs.
White Denim - D, listened to this way too much
Graveyard - Hisingen Blues, I got no friends only people that I know. What a great way to start a song
Prince - Art Official Age. This could have been Plectrum Electrum or hit and run phase I and II. He is and has been a favorite of mine for a long time.
Candlebox - Disappearing in Airports, they write catchy rock songs and I am in love with it.
Opeth - Pale Communion, this is the way I love my prog rock, with metal and synths.

So much great music that is is hard to pick, I loved Tool - Fear Inoculum 7empest in particular is just insane. Brandi Carille - By the way I forgive you had some songs that made me just uncomfortable with how honest they were. Mark Lettieri put out 3 great releases and Alice in Chains had some great songs.

I hope anybody who reads this checks out a new song they haven't heard and digs it. I love when people can talk positively about music.

If you like Jason Isbell and Dallas Green (City in Colour), you might be interested in Blackie and the Rodeo Kings album, Kings and Kings, they along with a mess of other male artists guest on that album.

Prior to that album they did an album, Kings and Queens, with a stellar group of female artists.

https://www.blackieandtherodeokings.com/kings-and-kings/
https://www.blackieandtherodeokings.com/kings-and-queens/

dave

[midwayfair]

I'm not even confident that I can say I listened to 10 full albums in the last decade. And most of the albums I got from artists that predate this decade I thought weren't releasing their best work.

I'll throw in another vote for To Pimp a Butterfly, that album was just unforgettable, and the Milk Carton Kids' Ash and Clay, though I'm not sure how big of an effect it really had on music. I can't actually think of a folk album that really moved the needle in the way several albums did in the 00s. Maybe Father John Misty's I Love You, Honeybear.

Realistically, Taylor Swift's 1989 and Beyonce's Lemonade probably belong on a list. And I'll add that they're proof that the idea that the idea of the album is dead is just total and complete nonsense, because they're two of the highest selling albums of the decade and they're concept albums.

I'm a huge fan of Gaslight Anthem's The 59 Sound, but I was massively disappointed in Handwritten. I found the lyrics and themes "subtractively repetitive," meaning I think it ultimately ended up being less than the sum of its parts.