Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s by 
FlorianJones 
Anything with a write-up was in my top 50 at the end of the decade, in December of 2019.
As of today (June 14, 2022), 6 of those original top 50 have dropped into 51-100. None of them have dropped off the list entirely.
- Chart updated: 06/14/2022 23:15
- (Created: 11/26/2014 05:57).
- Chart size: 100 albums.
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This chart is currently filtered to only show albums from Fleet Foxes. (Remove this filter)
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Top Tracks: Montezuma, Helplessness Blues, The Shrine / An Argument
After Fleet Foxes’ debut in 2008, audiences (as they are wont to do) were quick to draw comparisons to predecessors. Being a debut that drew heavily on previous decades, yet displayed an excess of talent, the comparisons were both numerous and flattering. Sophomore effort Helplessness Blues makes good on any expectations that came from the debut while also expanding the richness of their sound. These songs are fuller, and more extravagantly orchestrated, yet they maintain a balance that gives the more intimate moments ample space to breathe. As much as I admire the progression, the most striking aspect of Helplessness Blues is not musical. This album (as wonderful as it sounds) would be similarly accomplished if it had no instruments at all. Frontman Robin Pecknold’s work here leads to a new comparison. No longer a sonic comparison, but a lyrical one, he evokes the work of Bob Dylan. Much like Dylan, Pecknold alludes to universal experience through intimate personal detail, and in many regards takes on the voice of his generation. Conveying the sensibilities of one’s own generation through music is hardly unique – In this collection of musings I praise Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo for the same thing, but not since Dylan has someone filled the role with such poetic grace as Pecknold. The album opens straight away to the following lines…
So now I am older than my mother and father when they had their daughter. Now what does that say about me? Oh, how could I dream of such a selfless and true love. Could I wash my hands of just looking out for me?
There is clarity to those lines. Like most of his generation, he’s reached a tipping point. He lives with the impression that past generations got their shit together younger than he possibly can. Where some of his contemporaries may have blamed their elders, or the ever enigmatic “system”, Robin looks inward. He struggles with self-doubt. He blames himself while also longing for an ideal that is constantly out of reach for many individuals. It may be a less satisfying route, but it’s more grounded, and it’s honest. Helplessness Blues, as the title implies has many similar lamentations, but it is not without hope. On the title track he sings…
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique – like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you’d conceive. And now after some thinking I’d say I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.
Again, Pecknold delves into society’s often unrealistic ideals, revealing to the audience his own realistic approach. Interspersed in moments like this, I also find that Robin excels at littering his speech with concise imagist details that bring life and color to the world of the album. A line from The Shrine reads “In the morning waking up to terrible sunlight, all diffuse, like skin abused, the sun is half its size.” It’s a palpable form of description. Each and every one of these twelve tracks is rich with similarly evocative and textural verse. It is sure to be interpreted differently by each listener, but with that, Helplessness Blues finds its staying power. To the extent that it doesn’t land with the same impact to each listener, it won’t land the same with an individual over time. Poetic interpretation will vary with experience. In twenty years I’ll still be listening, but I won’t be hearing the same words. [First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
After Fleet Foxes’ debut in 2008, audiences (as they are wont to do) were quick to draw comparisons to predecessors. Being a debut that drew heavily on previous decades, yet displayed an excess of talent, the comparisons were both numerous and flattering. Sophomore effort Helplessness Blues makes good on any expectations that came from the debut while also expanding the richness of their sound. These songs are fuller, and more extravagantly orchestrated, yet they maintain a balance that gives the more intimate moments ample space to breathe. As much as I admire the progression, the most striking aspect of Helplessness Blues is not musical. This album (as wonderful as it sounds) would be similarly accomplished if it had no instruments at all. Frontman Robin Pecknold’s work here leads to a new comparison. No longer a sonic comparison, but a lyrical one, he evokes the work of Bob Dylan. Much like Dylan, Pecknold alludes to universal experience through intimate personal detail, and in many regards takes on the voice of his generation. Conveying the sensibilities of one’s own generation through music is hardly unique – In this collection of musings I praise Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo for the same thing, but not since Dylan has someone filled the role with such poetic grace as Pecknold. The album opens straight away to the following lines…
So now I am older than my mother and father when they had their daughter. Now what does that say about me? Oh, how could I dream of such a selfless and true love. Could I wash my hands of just looking out for me?
There is clarity to those lines. Like most of his generation, he’s reached a tipping point. He lives with the impression that past generations got their shit together younger than he possibly can. Where some of his contemporaries may have blamed their elders, or the ever enigmatic “system”, Robin looks inward. He struggles with self-doubt. He blames himself while also longing for an ideal that is constantly out of reach for many individuals. It may be a less satisfying route, but it’s more grounded, and it’s honest. Helplessness Blues, as the title implies has many similar lamentations, but it is not without hope. On the title track he sings…
I was raised up believing I was somehow unique – like a snowflake, distinct among snowflakes, unique in each way you’d conceive. And now after some thinking I’d say I’d rather be a functioning cog in some great machinery serving something beyond me.
Again, Pecknold delves into society’s often unrealistic ideals, revealing to the audience his own realistic approach. Interspersed in moments like this, I also find that Robin excels at littering his speech with concise imagist details that bring life and color to the world of the album. A line from The Shrine reads “In the morning waking up to terrible sunlight, all diffuse, like skin abused, the sun is half its size.” It’s a palpable form of description. Each and every one of these twelve tracks is rich with similarly evocative and textural verse. It is sure to be interpreted differently by each listener, but with that, Helplessness Blues finds its staying power. To the extent that it doesn’t land with the same impact to each listener, it won’t land the same with an individual over time. Poetic interpretation will vary with experience. In twenty years I’ll still be listening, but I won’t be hearing the same words. [First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2011
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,802
Rank in 2011:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
104
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Top Tracks: I’m All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar, If You Need To Keep Time On Me, I Should See Memphis
When Fleet Foxes came crashing onto the scene with their self-titled debut during the folk revival boom of the late aughts, they wrote big baroque folk with classic hooks. Their music had an immediacy to it. Nine years later, frontman Robin Pecknold was far less concerned about that immediacy. After a mere two albums propelled Fleet Foxes into the upper echelons of indie rock popularity, the band went silent. Pecknold had other ideas, and other things to do. He spent time attending Columbia, not out of obligation to a career or a degree, but out of an innate desire to learn and progress. Following six years in the interim, Crack Up was ready, and Fleet Foxes no longer sounded as they once did.
Mirroring Robin’s own personal ethos, Crack Up is completely uninterested in getting anywhere quickly. The urgency has been replaced, and on Crack Up more than ever before, Pecknold seems captivated by liminal states. He’s not particularly interested in point A or point B, but the gap that bridges the two. That’s not to say the album is without its spectacular points. Some of the album’s most impactful segments, like the melody that goes along with the line “I was a child in the ivy then, I never knew you, you knew me” are parts I would call the points Pecknold is bridging, but he’s not lingering on those points for very long. As is the case with that moment, some of Robin’s best melodies here get repeated only once or twice, but the album is all the better for that fact. There’s a constant sense of yearning that comes with the territory. Each individual moment tends to find itself cut ever so slightly short to make way for what comes next. The audience wants just a sliver more every time. It’s a strategy that yields an album significantly greater than the sum of its parts – parts that are only loosely defined by the accompanying tracklist. The track titles are a dead giveaway of the album’s amorphous structure. The first track masquerades as three with the title I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar while the subsequent two conjoin with the titles Cassius, – and – Naiads, Cassadies. After having a couple years to live with this album, I still don’t consider it in terms of songs, because they don’t have the distinctive separations that Helplessness Blues or Fleet Foxes did. Here, everything moves in waves (making the album art quite suitable), crashing in and drawing out – like the tides, Crack Up takes time to leave an impact, but give it the opportunity and it will get there. [First added to this chart: 10/24/2017]
When Fleet Foxes came crashing onto the scene with their self-titled debut during the folk revival boom of the late aughts, they wrote big baroque folk with classic hooks. Their music had an immediacy to it. Nine years later, frontman Robin Pecknold was far less concerned about that immediacy. After a mere two albums propelled Fleet Foxes into the upper echelons of indie rock popularity, the band went silent. Pecknold had other ideas, and other things to do. He spent time attending Columbia, not out of obligation to a career or a degree, but out of an innate desire to learn and progress. Following six years in the interim, Crack Up was ready, and Fleet Foxes no longer sounded as they once did.
Mirroring Robin’s own personal ethos, Crack Up is completely uninterested in getting anywhere quickly. The urgency has been replaced, and on Crack Up more than ever before, Pecknold seems captivated by liminal states. He’s not particularly interested in point A or point B, but the gap that bridges the two. That’s not to say the album is without its spectacular points. Some of the album’s most impactful segments, like the melody that goes along with the line “I was a child in the ivy then, I never knew you, you knew me” are parts I would call the points Pecknold is bridging, but he’s not lingering on those points for very long. As is the case with that moment, some of Robin’s best melodies here get repeated only once or twice, but the album is all the better for that fact. There’s a constant sense of yearning that comes with the territory. Each individual moment tends to find itself cut ever so slightly short to make way for what comes next. The audience wants just a sliver more every time. It’s a strategy that yields an album significantly greater than the sum of its parts – parts that are only loosely defined by the accompanying tracklist. The track titles are a dead giveaway of the album’s amorphous structure. The first track masquerades as three with the title I Am All That I Need / Arroyo Seco / Thumbprint Scar while the subsequent two conjoin with the titles Cassius, – and – Naiads, Cassadies. After having a couple years to live with this album, I still don’t consider it in terms of songs, because they don’t have the distinctive separations that Helplessness Blues or Fleet Foxes did. Here, everything moves in waves (making the album art quite suitable), crashing in and drawing out – like the tides, Crack Up takes time to leave an impact, but give it the opportunity and it will get there. [First added to this chart: 10/24/2017]
Year of Release:
2017
Appears in:
Rank Score:
2,607
Rank in 2017:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 2. Page 1 of 1
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Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
|
| 2010 | 11 | 11% | |
| 2011 | 6 | 6% | |
| 2012 | 7 | 7% | |
| 2013 | 5 | 5% | |
| 2014 | 9 | 9% | |
| 2015 | 15 | 15% | |
| 2016 | 13 | 13% | |
| 2017 | 12 | 12% | |
| 2018 | 7 | 7% | |
| 2019 | 15 | 15% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
 |
|
|
| Kendrick Lamar | 4 | 4% | |
| Frank Ocean | 3 | 3% | |
| Tame Impala | 3 | 3% | |
| Fleet Foxes | 2 | 2% | |
| Spoon | 2 | 2% | |
| LCD Soundsystem | 2 | 2% | |
| Vampire Weekend | 2 | 2% | |
| Show all | |||
Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s chart changes
| Biggest climbers |
|---|
| Up 41 from 52nd to 11th Black Up by Shabazz Palaces |
| Up 34 from 82nd to 48th Reflections by Hannah Diamond |
| Up 26 from 99th to 73rd Moth by Chairlift |
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 35 from 26th to 61st Pom Pom by Ariel Pink |
| Down 28 from 21st to 49th The Age Of Adz by Sufjan Stevens |
| Down 24 from 48th to 72nd Benji by Sun Kil Moon |
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Other decade charts by FlorianJones
| Title | Source | Type | Published | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Top 50 Music Albums of the 2020s | FlorianJones | 2020s decade chart | 2022 | |
| Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s | FlorianJones | 2010s decade chart | 2022 | |
| Top 80 Music Albums of the 2000s | FlorianJones | 2000s decade chart | 2017 | |
| Top 26 Music Albums of the 1990s | FlorianJones | 1990s decade chart | 2020 | |
| Top 30 Music Albums of the 1980s | FlorianJones | 1980s decade chart | 2020 | |
| Top 30 Music Albums of the 1970s | FlorianJones | 1970s decade chart | 2020 | |
Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s ratings
87/100 (from 6 votes)
where:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
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N.B. The average rating for this chart will not be reliable as it has been rated very few times.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this chart. | Show all 6 ratings for this chart.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 95/100  | 02/17/2018 15:30 |  Davy | | 87/100 |
| 85/100 | 06/28/2017 17:14 | weston | | 87/100 |
| 100/100 | 02/20/2017 19:20 | Seab | | 93/100 |
| 70/100 | 06/01/2015 22:53 |  Applerill | | 75/100 |
| 95/100 | 04/15/2015 13:21 |  andy_hunter | | 88/100 |
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85/100
From weston 06/28/2017 17:15
Nice! I agree 2015 was the strongest year so are. And I like the stuff you've thrown at the end.
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SaulCortes1992 04/02/2015 20:04
SaulCortes1992 04/02/2015 20:04
Excellent Chart!
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