25 Favorite Albums from the 2010s

I probably listened to more music this decade than the rest of my life combined. Streaming services make it so much easier to check out new music and unfamiliar genres. So I decided to share my 25 favorite albums from the 2010s.

Now, there are a few cases where I combined a few records, but that’s because I feel that together they tell one story. And there many artists that I love that are missing from this. Just a few that come to mind are Angel Olsen, Teenage Fanclub, My Bloody Valentine, Bruce Springsteen, Kacey Muscgraves.

Of course, in today’s world, you can listen to any of these on streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. Both open up a lot music we normally wouldn’t hear.

25. Everything will be alright in the End by Weezer.

Ok. this one surprised me. It wasn’t in my top ten for 2014. But I still listen to it from time to time. The three-song suite at the end of the album reminds us that for all of Cuomo’s quirks and fame chasing, Rivers Cuomo can still write exciting music. Plusuomo it is expertly produced by Ric Ocasek.

24. Black Messiah – D’Angelo And The Vanguard

Sometimes the wait is well worth it. This album was righteously angry and incredibly sexy. There is not a bad song on this album. The only downfall is how long will we have to wait for a new one from the master.

23. A Seat at the Table – Solange

I admit it. When I first listened to this album, I just thought it would be background music. But it kept pulling me in. Solange’s voice, so beautifully soulful without theatrics, tells you the story even if you don’t listen to the lyrics. Lyrically, it’s right there with Black Messiah in its explorations of the artist’s place in the world.

22. High Violet – The National

The National are like old friends that I just count on. They write songs about people my age trying to deal with the anxiety and soul-crushing existence we have to go through to make it in America.

21. good kid, m.A.A.d city – Kendrick Lamar

This album felt like a great coming of age film one that showed the realities of growing up in an area that has more traps than anything I could have imagined growing up. It’s the music you would expect if NWA and Terrence Malik collaborated on a project.

20. The Nashville Sound – Jason Isbell and the 400 unit

On this album, Isbell is at the height of his confidence in his songwriting. “Anxiety” is a perfect encapsulation of what it is like to have that dreaded condition. And “If We Were Vampires” is probably the most beautiful love song of the decade.

19. Channel Orange – Frank Ocean.

Frank Ocean could be this generation’s Marvin Gaye, but he is content on being himself. This is good news for us. While Blond is excellent, this set of songs stays stuck in my head, especially “Thinking About You” and “Bad Religion.”

18. Run the Jewels 2 – Run the Jewels

Killer Mike and El-P are soul mates when it comes to music. This album hits hard before a note is ever played and doesn’t let up. The lyrics are amazing, but if this is one of the few non-Dre albums that if there were just an instrumental version, I would have to listen to it as much as the full version.

17. Carrie & Lowell – Sufjan Stevens

Losing a parent is hard. Losing a parent that you didn’t feel you really know must be even harder. Sufjan explores his grief on this album (a theme that will repeat itself on this list). Watching him perform this album live, it showed how something so personal can be so universal at the same time. People were literally crying next to me.

16. Black Star – David Bowie

We can’t listen to Black Star without confronting Bowie’s death. He knew it, and it allowed him to make as difficult an album as he wanted. My favorite part is when he quotes “A New Career in a New Town,” tipping his hand to what was coming.

15. The Age of Adz – Sufjan Stevens

It took me almost three years to just like this album. Now it’s one of my favorites by Sufjan. Musically, its practically the same approach as Illinois takes with it layered instruments except with digital devices and autotune. Lyrically, without the crutch of the state project, you feel like you are getting a glimpse of who Sufjan actually is.

14. I Love You, Honeybear – Father John Misty

An honest and real love letter to FJM’s wife, this album is probably number one if the Mrs and I were compiling the list together. It’s just beautiful.

13. Celebration Rock – Japandroids

My favorite band of all time is The Replacements. The anthems on this album are the closest a group has made me feel like to listen to the Replacements.

12. Post- – Jeff Rosenstock.

This is the best pop-punk of the decade. Rosenstock’s anthems make you clench your fist and sing along.

11. Wild Stab – The I Don’t Cares

God bless Juliana Hatfield. She got to hear some of the stuff Paul Westerberg had been playing and recording but not releasing. She realized how great it was and convinced him to rework them with her, and we got this gem of an album. For a Replacements/Paul Westerberg fan like me, I can’t thank her enough. And the fact that we have “Hands Together” is enough to make me want her to have sainthood.

10. Sunbather – Deafheaven

How did I describe this album to the Mrs? Well, its as if Robert Smith made a death metal album that was produced by Kevin Shields. If that makes sense to you, then you know why it ranks so high. When you read the lyrics while they are being sung, you will not believe they are the same thing, but that’s what makes it so different than most death metal.

9. Southeastern – Jason Isbell

Honestly, I believe The Nashville Sound is a better album. However, this is my favorite. Isbell had wrecked himself for years with drink. This album is way out. Elephant and Live Oak are devastating listens, but nothing prepares you for the honesty in Isbell’s voice in Cover Me Up.

8. Yeezus – Kanye West

Lyrically, this album is silly (300 hundred like the Romans…huh?). But let’s face it, West has always been lightyears better as a producer than as a rapper. Stripping away the maximalism of My Dark Twisted Fantasy, for a minimalist approach, Kanye sets a mood for the album. The atmosphere is probably the most activist West could ever be.

7. A Sailor’s Guide to Earth – Sturgill Simpson

This is a country album that sounds like it was made during the heyday of Stax. Out of all the records on the list, this would be the one I would recommend to someone I never met and didn’t know their music taste. It’s that good.

6. Masseduction – St. Vincent

Every album she made this decade was a masterpiece. Masseduction shows all facets of her songwriting: great singing, expert guitar playing, fantastic production. It’s excellent to listen through headphones or driving a car, and you never think about the skip button.

5. To Pimp a Butterfly – Kendrick Lamarr

The expectations for this album were through the stratosphere and skyrocketed past all of them. I saw Kendrick on tour for this album, and I kept thinking that this must be what seeing the Stones on the Exile tour must be. An artist that is so in control of his powers that he is almost otherworldly. Also in attendance at that show were Aracde Fire and Florence Welch. Sometimes I would watch them, and you could see they were thinking the same thing.

4. Father of the Bride – Vampire Weekend

After taking six years off and losing a band member who was a significant voice in the sound of the band, I didn’t expect them VW to make an album that I would become obsessed with. But I did. In fact, I’ve already written a blog about it.

3. Benji – Sun Kill Moon

I remember listening to this album while doing some grad school work. I had to stop and just listen. It was so breathtakingly good. It’s songs about death and dealing with death, but it’s not that depressing. The stories here are so specific they could never be covered by another artist, but their specificness allows for a universal feeling to the album.

2. Push the Sky Away, The Skeleton Key, Ghosteen – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Yes, this is three albums (so will be my number one). Yet, this to me works as one album. Push the Sky away shows a different direction for Nick Cave. A quieter one, especially after Dig Lazurus Dig. The Skeleton Key was continuing this new sound. Then Cave’s son Arthur died. Most of the songs were written before this traumatic event but recorded after.

Ghosteen has Cave dealing with the emotions of the loss in his songwriting. Cave understands how the pain can swallow you and works to not let this happen. You can hear this struggle in his voice and his music. Which leads me back to Push the Sky Away. The title track deals with having to keep going no matter how bad it gets. It’s a trilogy I wish we didn’t have, yet at the same time, I’m in awe of how Nick manages to find some beauty in this.

1. A Crow Looked at Me, Now Only, (after) – Mount Eerie

Another trilogy that deals with death. Here, Phil Elverum (who is Mount Eerie) explores his emotions after the loss of his wife to cancer while their child was 15 months old. While Nick Cave writes more in metaphor and in stories, Elverum works with memoir as songwriting. The details are so specific they become haunting. Six days after our child was born, I had to rush my wife to the ER. Her blood pressure was near 200/120. Obviously, she survived.

The first album A Crow Looked at Me deals with the immediate aftermath, Now Only is a few months later, and (after) is a live performance of both. I cry almost every time I listen to it. So why do I listen to it? It’s because it makes me realize how lucky I am. When I listen to it, I feel so blessed (and that is a word I rarely use). Again, I hate that the album exists, but I am thankful that Elverum decided to explore his grief this way.