top 25 albums of the decade
This list was surprisingly difficult to pick. I had 70+ options to begin with, and a lot of my favourites had to be eliminated along the way to get to the 25 you see before you (sorry to Titanic Rising, My Head Is An Animal, After Laughter and Joanne in particular). A lot of that difficulty can be directly linked to the fact that the 2010s were my adolescent years, and so every single album I even kinda liked possesses a lot of personal value. In that way this list is also a crystallisation of the type of teenager I was (spoiler alert: pretentious and obnoxious) which is fun and also horrifying.
Bears mentioning that metal and rap are not really my deal, so please don’t expect those genre’s to appear here (sorry Kendrick and Kanye fans). As with my top 25 films of the decade this is entirely subjective but please keep in mind that I am also 100% correct.
25. FKA twigs: MAGDELENE
The most recent release on this list and maybe also the most devastating? catholic guilt is such a potent thing, once you’ve got it you can never lose it, so the best thing you can do is weaponise it, and FKA Twigs certainly does!
24. Ariana Grande: Sweetener
Me, literally every single time I hear a track from this album:
“I wish Ariana had stayed in the Sweetener era a bit longer. I understand that after her breakup she needed to move on to a new project, but come on, the best tracks from Thank U, Next don’t even hold a candle to the worst tracks from Sweetener. Synth-pop is just so much better suited to her voice than trap music, and she’s become too caught up in her own image now, whereas here she was caught up in the joy of living!”
My friends, having heard this rant upwards of a hundred times:
“Shut the fuck up Josh.”
23. Chvrches: Every Open Eye
Never not thinking about Laura Mayberry describing CHVRCHES’ sound as “emo with synths in it”.
22. Florence + The Machine: High As Hope
The most grounded Florence album to date, although that concept is relative where she is concerned considering there’s a video of her singing ‘Sky Full of Song’ (best track) at a literal thunderstorm. I shit you not this woman is a witch, the daughter of fellow witches Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush. Yes, definitely, absolutely.
Um, anyway… love to cry to this one!
21. Vampire Weekend: Father of the Bride
I get why Vampire Weekend are one of the most divisive bands out there, like do you take their shtick at face value or look through it to see them for the east coast elitist shits they probably are? My answer to that of course is “who cares?”, but that might just be due to the fact that they’re smart enough to write a divorce song that doubles as an allegorical retelling of the Balfour Declaration.
20. Arcade Fire: The Suburbs
King Shit.
19. Halsey: Hopeless Fountain Kingdom
I love both Halsey albums a lot, but this one is, in my mind, the superior of the two because:
- It opens with Halsey reading out a Romeo and Juliet quote (I mean… come on)
- ‘Strangers’ is one of the best alt-pop songs ever written.
- ‘New Americana’ is not on the track list.
18. Tame Impala: Lonerism
As a white male I am legally obligated to put a Tame Impala album on this list, sorry!!!
17. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard: Nonagon Infinity
Getting loopy, going round and round, etc etc.
16. Taylor Swift: Speak Now
Taylor’s best and most underrated era. Has she ever written a better lyric than “You made a rebel of a carless mans careful daughter”?
15. London Grammar: If You Wait
Easily, easily, EASILY the most “lost in the sauce” album on this list. The opening notes of ‘Hey Now’ never fail to turn me into a dazed, lethargic object which is ironic considering the albums central theme is “wasted youth”.
14. Beyoncé: Lemonade
Pales slightly without the perfect complimentary object that is the visual album but even then it still stands head and shoulders above most other records.
13. PJ Harvey: Let England Shake
If someone told me PJ Harvey is an immortal being (a vampire, probably) who lived through the Great War I would not question it.
12. Arcade Fire: Everything Now
She’s a hot mess but she’s also MY hot mess, ya feel? For every track the rules (‘We Don’t Deserve Love’) another track is borderline unlistenable (*cough* ‘Chemistry’ *cough*). The themes don’t come together in any meaningful way, sonically it’s a disaster, yet I love it just the same.
Also throwback to 2017 when i had this so often that i alienated several of my roommates.
11. Gorillaz: Plastic Beach
When Pitchfork gave this 8.5 and called it a “gorgeous pop record”… if you know, you know.
10. Carly Rae Jepsen: Emotion Side B
9. The War On Drugs: A Deeper Understanding
Weird, dark, and hermetic. When I listened to this right after seeing Blade Runner 2049 I nailed it, I think. This is the perfect album for an out-of-body existential crisis, in a good way.
8. Car Seat Headrest: Twin Fantasy
Will Toledo spent his teenage years in a coastal town where he pined after boys and dreamt of being swept into the water. So did I.
7. Lorde: Melodrama
This was released during my first year of university; a time when I first came out, was partying too hard and too often, feeling both the lowest and highest I had ever felt in my life, and just behaving like a general mess. It was like Lorde had put my life to music.
6. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Push the Sky Away
Only Nick Cave (only Nick Cave) could write a song about spiritual morality called ‘Higgs Boson Blues’ (real subtle, Nick) in which he compares Miley Cyrus and The Devil and somehow have it be a masterpiece of mood. Only Nick Cave.
5. Sufjan Stevens: Carrie & Lowell
Does sadder music exist? Sufjan Stevens is Florence Welsh’s (spiritual) gay, emo cousin I think. Every single track on this makes me absolutely crazy, the opening lyrics to ‘Death With Dignity’, when he asks if he should tear his eyes out in ‘The Only Thing’, the breathing in ‘Blue Bucket of Gold’. The breathing! The way he breathes is loaded with melancholy. Christ!
4. Lana Del Rey: Norman Fucking Rockwell!
Many artists have written albums covering “the decade”. climate change, technological connectedness, emotional isolation, social degradation, and Trump are all big touchstones. No album, however, has done it quite as well as Norman Fucking Rockwell!, mainly because most artists try to stand above the culture they’re critiquing, which is lofty and arrogant. Lana , however, knows she’s smack bang in the centre and is trying to navigate her way out. That a Lana Del Rey album is the vibe of the times is both unforeseeable and perfect.
3. M83: Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
An album for anyone who spent an endless night out on the town in their early 20s. So, ya’know, an album for everyone.
2. Gorillaz: The Now Now
More a mood than anything, and certainly not a mood that everyone will groove with, but it’s a mood that i groove with a lot. I spend the better part of my daydreams ideating L.A so when i saw the ‘Humility’ video clip I knew this album had me written all over it. Like a day at the beach but you’re too sad to enjoy it.
1. Lorde: Pure Heroine
The soundtrack of my adolescence. Incomparable.
