My 10 Favorite Albums of the 2010s (So Far)

[DouglasReese 500]

10

Tyler, the Creator is a meme-like artist, whereas he can show earnestness in his feelings, while still remaining just as frank with his bizarre (and often cringing) sense of humor. While his lyrics spew out like there’s some kind of consistency (it helps that his style is completely steady; with his beats being repetitive and familiar, while still feeling hypnagogic), Goblin is a contradictory album that’s as maddening as it is fascinating. Much praise has been given to “Yonkers”, which is a summation of Tyler’s craft, and the very themes of Goblin itself: paradoxical, but all sides of each subject is undeniably honest.

 

9

“No family is safe, when I sashay”. An intentionally blunt rebuttal to heteronormativity and the fears of the homosexual man, Perfume Genius’ Too Bright starts off with a self-destructing piano ballad before bursting into heavy synth and bass for “Queen” – a song that shifts the entire direction of the album into an abstraction of overt gay lingo. Whether considering himself a “queen” and raising a middle finger to gender norms, or letting himself fall into demonic screams while trying to figure out what it means to love, his messy self-reflection reaches poignancy when he finally ends the album reflecting back to the first track, by allowing himself to remain conflicted on whether or not companionship is the very thing that’s causing his doubts.

 

8

https://youtu.be/pKMibrA71LQ

Swans has always felt like a band singing straight from hell – and with The Seer, they make that analogy a reality with Satanic verses that dare to have you condemn them for their pleas for individualism. “Your life pours into my mouth, my light pours out of my mouth”. A criticism on the world, at large, done so nihilistically it hurts. Throughout the album’s many shifts from spoken word (which borders on beat poetry when read by itself) into psychedelic instrumentation, the album feels like a summarization of every little negative thing we can comment on the current American climate; and a strikingly supportive view on individualism within a world of what they see as pointless.

 

7

A love letter to music, on the whole, Vampire Weekend’s Modern Vampires of the City is borderline Biblical in its religious imagery – but it’s also tongue-in-cheek while balancing out sincerity. By the time the album’s best track, “Ya Hey”, comes around – the way in which the band captures the industrialization of cityscapes eventually becomes something more primitive. By emphasizing the shifts in music itself, and appropriately changing up what is expected in delivering the old under the mask of something new, Vampire Weekend’s album becomes an alarming album that is pinnacle 2010s, while drawing attention to the very artform’s endless branches of change. Somehow, camel-riding in Jerusalem feels no different than a bicycle on the city streets. Vampires, indeed.

 

6

https://youtu.be/pYeNahbUNrw

Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz feels like it was made in Miley Cyrus’ basement. Many tracks reprise the same production, while lyrics are reprised again and again on tracks down the road. Everything is triggered by common things: smoking weed and having sex, all told through an off-putting dream logic. With references to emojis, and lines such as “let’s go na-na-nah” representing sex (as if Cyrus just couldn’t find the energy to write any more lyrics), Dead Petz is a hedonistic and annoying album, but so well-defined by its concept that it captures exactly what is necessary; a 92-minute break from a studio-controlled pop artist so that she can share her multi-faceted feelings of emptiness, confusion, depression, loneliness, incompatibility, and a need for expression.

 

5

Sufjan Stevens has been on the verge of retrospection almost his entire career, and yet his calming, reverb-natural voice has always felt a bit detached. His albums of the past have always had this distant, yet close, oxymoronic feeling (recall Illionis). On Carrie & Lowell, Stevens makes way into the realm of “mommy issues” by, once again, approaching the subject from afar. While trying to steer away from anything that would admit to trauma, he finds himself incapable of avoiding the most violent of imagery to show both his grief and anger through what he’s reminiscing. “Head on the floorboards, drunk as a horsefly, climb on the mattress pad, twist my arm”.

 

4

https://youtu.be/cDFg7kuX97U

If Perfume Genius is insistent on facing outsiders with a maximalist representation of queer identity (and an embracement of male sensitivity), John Grant is less self-aware – with a voice akin to Godsmack, but with lyrical content that intentionally blurs the line between emotionally resonant and downright goofy. On Queen of Denmark, he opens up with two tracks (“TC and Honeybear” and “Marz”) that include references to food (delicious desserts, to be exact), spewing out trivial lyrics to the point of where they feel alien. By the time we reach the last half of the album, his track “Jesus Hates Faggots” (where he compares gays to Froot Loops cereal) delivers the album’s queer overtones into the heights of surrealist. The imagery of this album is like Sweet Movie by way of self-loathing on being a gay man forced to stray into what it means to be “masculine”.

 

3

Salad Days by Mac Demarco is a surf-wave-cum-stoner-grunge type work that operates on some kind of off-putting relationship with Demarco’s self. There’s glimpses at love, but also glimpse at nihilism. While Demarco has founded an image off the absurd – and could very well be genuine – it shows through in his lyrics that he’s at a tug-of-war with himself while equally being comfortable in it. “Chamber of Reflection” is a terrifying horror-show of self-retrospection, speaking it in third-person by a way of expressing a fear of loneliness; something that is applicable to a millennial mindset, especially in terms of the contemporary, under-the-radar, Instagram-driven musician that isn’t pushing for universality.

 

2

Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is equally in a hellish landscape – only West’s hip-hop repetition and asinine lyrics create a genuine representation of a man stuck within both his fame and his origins, while creating a pop character of his own that is representative of a multitude of constructs that dare to tread into the shameless. His vulgarity isn’t necessarily off-putting, but instead quite tragic. By the time the track “Blame Game” comes around, its like a cry for help – and whether its stemming from a real place, or not, is best left up to the unknown; a fantasy, have you will - and one that is euphoric and tragic.

 

1

Ultraviolence is peak Lana Del Rey, even though she has consistently proven that she can stay on the same wavelength throughout her other albums. The criticism for her cycling the same themes is valid, but its also exactly what causes such a reaction to her work that is overly positive. The woman is a storyteller, paying homage when due, and then remaining self-aware to her pop image while crossing into different genres – sometimes within the same track. Ultraviolence beautifully blends her pop sensibilities with progressive rock and jazz – creating a baroque atmosphere that peaks into hellish territory; both a cautionary tale and masochistic love story.

[missdelreyxo 3,786]

Born to Die

Paradise

Ultraviolence

Honeymoon

BAR

[graham4anything 2,859]

TIED FOR #1= (in no particular order)

#1 HONEYMOON

#1 PARADISE

#1ULTRAVIOLENCE

#1 BORN TO DIE

#1the one about to be released

#1 AKA

 

#7- Julien Baker- Sprained Ankle

#8  EMILE HAYNIE- we fall

#9 Pet Shop Boys- electric

#10 Pet Shop Boys-Super

 

so Julien Baker has my favorite non-Lana album of the 2010-2017 period

[JFKBae 3]

Born To Die

Ultraviolence

Paradise

Honeymoon

Love 

[californianfreak 3,484]

BTD

FROOT

UV

The Family Jewels

Paradise

Electra Heart

AKA

HM

Art Angels

Ceremonials

[SlowGinFizzzz 15,354]

1:

Born To Die

 

2 - 10, in alphabetical order:

Asylum

Beyoncé

Blue Neighbourhood

Electra Heart

Honeymoon

Lemonade

Paradise

This Is What The Truth Feels Like

Ultraviolence

[HEARTCORE 18,969]

Lana Del Ray

Born to Die

Ultraviolence

The Family Jewels

Electra Heart

Femme Fatale

Glory

Lemonade

BEYONCÉ

Talk that Talk

ANTi

Night Time My Time

Aphrodite

Kiss Me Once

MDNA

Rebel Heart

The Pinkprint

The Fame Monster

Born This Way

ARTPOP

[expandableclitoris 9,091]

Agree with 9 and 7;

The new ZAYN record was fine as shitt

[HunterSThompson 4,646]

Reviving this thread, folks!! Thought it would be fun to do this. So here are my top 10 records from the 2010s, thus far*: 

 

1. Ultraviolence / Lana Del Rey notable tracks: every. single damn. one. - listen every single day all day (but I highly recommend this as a summer record, when it's really hot) 
2. 22, A Million / Bon Iver notable tracks: 33 "GOD" / 666 ʇ - listen anywhere, at any time, when you're feeling meditative, philosophical and introspective, when you need healing or a prayer in the form of indie psychedelic folk songs
3. How Big How Blue How Beautiful / Florence & the Machine notable tracks: Which Witch / Various Storms & Saints / HBHBHB / Delilah / Third Eye - listen when you need healing/strength
4. M3LLI55X / FKA twigs notable tracks: Figure 8 / In Time / Mothercreep - listen anywhere, anytime, by yourself
5. Currents / Tame Impala notable tracks: The Moment / Disciples / Love/Paranoia / New Person Same Old Mistakes - listen in the summer, day or night, with your friends or even at a party
6. Ison / Sevdaliza notable tracks: Human / Amandine Insensible / Shahmaran - listen by yourself, in your room when it's dark out
7. I Love You, Honeybear / Father John Misty notable tracks: Chateau Lobby #4 (in C for Two Virgins) / True Affection / Holy Shit - listen in the sun, anywhere, with anyone
8. Modern Vampires of the City / Vampire Weekend notable tracks: Obvious Bicycle / Step / Hannah Hunt / Don't Lie / Hudson - listen in New York City in that time between the winter and the spring
9. I Forget Where We Were / Ben Howard notable tracks: Rivers In Your Mouth / Time Is Dancing / Conrad / Evergreen / I Forget Where We Were - listen in the rain, when you're feeling pensive, philosophical or uncertain
10. Cleopatra / The Lumineers notable tracks: Angela / Sleep On The Floor / White Lie / Sick In The Head / In The Light ~ for most of the record, listen in the car when it's sunny & you're happy

I based my top 10 off of records that I truly loved every single song from, without exception. Notable mentions: Art Angels by Grimes & I See You by The xx & Paradise and Honeymoon by Lana Del Rey among others I may be forgetting! <3

 

*Lust for Life is projected to become my #4, kicking each song down one place and kicking Cleopatra off of the list lol x

[creampiedelrey 716]

I wanted to do my all times instead 

 

 

 

1. Lana Del Rey - Ultraviolence

 

2. Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon

 

3. Lana Del Rey - Born to die/Paradise

 

4. Sade - Love

 

5. Aaliyah - Aaliyah

 

6. Patti Smith- Horses

 

7. The Velvet Underground - The Velvet Underground 

 

8 Fiona Apple - Tidal

 

9. Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope

 

10. The Doors - The Soft Parade