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.

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Top Tracks: The Suburbs, We Used to Wait, Sprawl II

I was born in 1995. The aughts were my formative years – the years from before my memories to the start of high school – but they are only one half of the formative years. Too young to have any clue what I was doing, and too naive to even care that I was clueless. Those were the years in which my surroundings were impressed upon me. The twenty-tens are the years in which I started consciously deciding who I am and impressing myself upon my surroundings. I formed my own tastes in the arts. I entered the workforce. I got a college diploma. I got married. I hardly feel I qualify as an adult, but broadly speaking, I grew up.

I grew up with The Suburbs at my side. Since I own four physical copies of this album (long story), I mean that quite literally, but The Suburbs isn’t just an album I grew up with. This album is about growing up. It’s about being an average kid in your average North American suburb. It’s about learning who you are. It’s about having goals and aspirations. It’s about failing at some of those goals and succeeding at others. It’s about struggling to find your footing as an adult. It’s about looking past what other people think and focusing on what matters to you. It’s about looking to the future with equal parts optimism and pessimism. It’s about feeling nostalgic for your youth. It’s about living with regrets of missed opportunities and forgotten relationships. It’s about how, even with all that you know now, you wouldn’t change a thing about your past. The Suburbs is also a gorgeously constructed piece of music. This album was created with pacing and atmosphere in mind. It isn’t a short album, but it never overstays its welcome. Arcade Fire finds the perfect balance between moments as disparate as the anthemic chorus of Sprawl II and the melancholic balladry of Wasted Hours. The orchestration is full-bodied, sweeping, and cinematic without ever feeling overwrought. The Suburbs is a perfect album, and a crowning achievement not just for the band, but for this era of independent music.
[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
22,230
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Buy album United States
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Top Tracks: Sailing, Coronado, He Would Have Laughed.

There’s a lot to discuss regarding Deerhunter’s constant yet subtle evolution. At this point in their career they’ve navigated vast sonic terrain without ever losing sight of what sets them apart. Now, they haven’t altered their sound simply to maintain appearances. Experimentation for its own sake is a worthwhile endeavor, but Deerhunter’s artistic development serves a greater purpose: to seamlessly marry musical content with lyrical concept. Halcyon Digest is a journalistic examination of the halcyon days (the blissful and serene days of one’s youth). Deerhunter takes this opportunity to deliver a hazy, ephemeral album. Opener Earthquake is one prolonged swell crashing down like a wave. Sailing is listless and loose, washing over the listener with nostalgic warmth.

The subject of Halcyon Digest is a double-edged sword. The past is never recalled correctly. So, while accepting the desire to reminisce on days long gone, we are confronted with our tendency to retrospectively idealize events that were uglier than we care to admit. That too finds integration into the music of Halcyon Digest. Turn your attention to Desire Lines. On the 2008 single Nothing Ever Happened Deerhunter fought against their pop sensibilities with an outro that slowly decayed into aggressive distortion. Here they embrace their saccharine songwriting, riding through a similarly structured track with a soothing outro that gently dissipates until there’s nothing left. They’re taking the lyrical tendency for idealization and applying it to the music, going as far as to include a wonderfully exuberant saxophone accompaniment on the penultimate Coronado for one of their biggest hooks to date. Unfortunately, the halcyon days never last, which brings us to closing track He Would Have Laughed, dedicated to punk rock savant Jay Reatard. At the age of twenty-nine, Jay passed away in his sleep. Like many endings in life, his came completely out of the blue. In symmetrical fashion, He Would Have Laughed concludes without notice – mid-note. It leaves the listener feeling hollow and it begs you to revisit just once more.
[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
6,660
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Buy album United States
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Top Tracks: Terrible Love, Sorrow, Bloodbuzz Ohio

Why High Violet? Of all visible color, violet’s wavelength is the shortest, or highest frequency: an interesting detail that probably has no bearing on this album’s title. Due to the historical rarity of violet dyes, violet has long been perceived as a high-class color. Maybe I’m grasping at straws, but The National have always written about class. They aren’t a built from nothing success story. They have degrees. They had desk jobs. These men are white collar Americans. Like most of us, they found that world disaffecting, but like few of us ever will, they managed to leave it behind. Yet, sometimes making it as a band isn’t enough. Inadequacy, emptiness, sorrow – those feelings can stick with you, and they’re woven throughout The National’s career – here they are most clearly laid out on Sorrow. Not five minutes into High Violet, Matt Berninger hits us with “Sorrow found me when I was young. Sorrow waited. Sorrow won.” It’s a monumental moment: a complete loss of hope. Given the band’s decision to perform this one song for six hours straight as part of an installation at the MoMA PS1 (later released in the box set A Lot of Sorrow) I take it the band understands both the weight of the song and the inherent humor in its melodrama. High Violet isn’t all gloom, but The National understands catharsis. In order to feel release, you must first feel confined, as though everything has been lost. That point is Sorrow. But fittingly, the brightest song on High Violet is closing track Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks. At this point in the album, they’ve mourned it all, and all that’s left is to cry. It’s the final release.
[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
11,615
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Average Rating:
Comments:
36. (34) Down2
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Top Tracks: Is Love Forever, Written in Reverse, Got Nuffin

The final record in Spoon’s five album run with Merge records may always find itself in the shadow of its predecessors. Spoon is one of those bands that always found perfection through endless studio tinkering. Yet unlike the Brian Wilsons and Kevin Shields of the world, who spend endless hours piling layer upon layer, when Spoon enter the studio, their fine tuning is all about stripping back. It’s about finding the backbone of the song, whatever it may be – a riff, a hook, a drum fill – and cutting out the rest. It’s about the economy of the song. So when they released Transference, an album where many of the tracks still existed in their demo form, some degree of fan confusion was understandable. But that’s part of what makes Transference so marvelous. It opened their methodology up; it gave us a full view of how their music is built, from start to finish. It also kept the music fresh. The raw nature of Transference hid surprises around every corner – an abrupt ending to Is Love Forever or an atypically sweet ballad in Goodnight Laura. It’s something I myself didn’t fully appreciate until Spoon unloaded a hoard of demos on us for the tenth anniversary of 2005’s Gimme Fiction. Now that I see the beauty in Transference, it’s something I’ll never unsee.
[First added to this chart: 12/16/2016]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
466
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Comments:
41. (39) Down2
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Top Tracks: Penal Colony, China Steps, Locust Valley

On Public Strain, Women really refined the sounds that have made post-punk great in the past, while simultaneously laying the groundwork for much of what the genre would see for the rest of the decade. There are sharp and angular riffs most prominent on songs like Heat Distraction and Eyesore. Narrow with the Hall showcases the band’s proclivity for burying otherwise poppy bits like the irrefutably infectious bassline behind a wall of abrasive feedback. Then there are subdued and almost dreamy ramblings on Penal Colony and Venice Lockjaw. There are perfect contrasts at play here. Take as an example, the decision to follow the frenzied cacophony of Drag Open up with Locust Valley – the most refined and approachable track on the album – where Women take everything that they do best and sand off the more jarring edges. What’s most surprising about Public Strain is how reserved of an affair it is. You won’t find the searing howls of Preoccupations, the spastic effervescence of Ought, or the rumbling noise of Protomartyr. On Public Strain, Women are calmer than their contemporaries, but it’s that calm that makes them feel so collected and self-assured. With that confidence, the listener feels that Women have nothing to prove. They know exactly what they’re doing.
[First added to this chart: 07/03/2016]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
564
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Buy album United States
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Top Tracks: Futile Devices, The Age of Adz, Impossible Soul

There was a point in time where one of Sufjan Stevens’ defining traits was his prolificity. Three of Sufjan’s most widely acclaimed albums, still beloved to this day, were released back to back in 2003, 2004, and 2005. He didn’t exactly stop. The man has worked on various live experiments, compilations, EPs, and side projects in the interim, but it wasn’t until 2010’s The Age of Adz that Stevens released his studio album follow up to that mid aughts trifecta. Futile Devices, the album’s opening track, is a wispy acoustic ballad accompanied by the sort of delicate fingerpicking upon which Sufjan built his name. It’s a welcome invitation back to the music of a man that audiences had sorely missed. It’s also a total bait and switch.

The moment Futile Devices ends, the swirling gurgling synths of Too Much enter, and for the proceeding 70 minutes, The Age of Adz runs the gamut of cacophonous and frenzied electronics. Stevens’ typically delicate vocals are at times heavily processed. The title track is a skronky tune loaded with horns and whistles that can only be described as the sound of malfunctioning steampunk. Sufjan’s changes of pace don’t rest solely in the arrangements. The Age of Adz is also more urgent in its messaging than the dense historical allegories of his previous work. Driven by a viral infection that caused Sufjan to suffer from chronic pain, and step away from music for a while, The Age of Adz is thematically dreary, and the bleakest of his works. Towards the end of the title track he recites “I’ve lost the will to fight, I was not made for life.” It’s hopeless, and almost suicidal in notion. The penultimate I Want To Be Well concludes with overlapping chants of “I want to be well” and “I’m not fucking around.” That word, one that so often loses all potency through overuse, hits like a ton of bricks in the context of Sufjan’s otherwise PG discography. Then, in a classic setup of penultimate and closing tracks that complement each other as perfect inversions, he gives us Impossible Soul. Clocking in at one third of an already lengthy album’s total runtime, Impossible Soul is a multi-suite epic culminating in perhaps the most triumphant point in Sufjan’s career. “Boy we can do much more together. It’s not so impossible.”
[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
5,199
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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Top Tracks: Dance Yrself Clean, I Can Change, Home

As much as we’d all love to believe that the music industry is a perfect meritocracy, we know it isn’t. Building a persona can be as essential as building a solid oeuvre. LCD Soundsytem’s James Murphy probably knows this, and yet, he’s pretty bad at it. There’s nothing remarkable about his physical appearance. He was never the exciting young talent. He has historically been well behind the times, drawing heavily on the sounds of his youth for musical inspiration. (On This Is Happening, that trend continues with songs often accused of knocking off Iggy Pop’s Nightclubbing, The Pool’s Jamaica Running, and Bowie’s Heroes.) He’s desperate to earn clout by reciting his bona fides, but also the first to roast himself with a bit of self-deprecating humour. (I always get a sensible chuckle out of “love is an open book to a verse of your bad poetry… and this is coming from me” in I Can Change.) James is the frontman and brains behind a band popular enough to sell out Madison Square Garden, but thanks to a stint as a self-proclaimed loser that lasted throughout his twenties, he may always struggle to feel like he’s made it. He’s fallible and there’s nothing wrong with that. James is always looking to the next thing in earnest – ready to just keep doing what he can.

It’s that dedication that really makes me wonder why after This is Happening, the conclusion of one of modern music’s best album trilogies, James Murphy announced his retirement. Plenty of past musicians have settled into early retirement. Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Mangum was a private man who never loved fame. He called it quits to get out of the spotlight. That’s not a fitting reason for Murphy – a man who once penned a blog post begging his fans to buy sophomore LP Sound of Silver on release week in a go for broke attempt at topping the charts. As a disseminator of undeniable dance grooves, Murphy revels in performing for an audience, so fame was never the issue. Given that much of history’s great rock, and particularly punk rock (dance-punk included) was written by people barely out of high school, quitting before you lose touch is justifiable. Many bands should have retired early to keep from tarnishing their track record as they aged. Yet again, in James’ case this reasoning doesn’t jive. The man released his debut album on the eve of his 35th birthday. He lost touch before he ever began. I’m not saying that to be rude either. It’s the thesis of his career. LCD Soundsystem’s debut single Losing My Edge is an eight-minute diatribe on how out of touch he was. Sound of Silver is a full-length rumination on lost youth. Aging only ever worked in James’ favor. On This Is Happening, he reached a point in his life where he could put away everyone’s expectations and do exactly what he wanted to be doing. That’s what was happening. He riffed on the ideas of his elders because it’s what inspired him. He made a nine-minute piss take for anyone who thought he wasn’t a good enough hitmaker. He waited ‘til three minutes into the album to finally let the beat drop. I’m not even confident this is Murphy’s best album (that honor likely still goes to Sound of Silver), but it is probably his most self-assured, and that’s an alluring trait. Whatever Murphy’s reason was for leaving the spotlight, I’m glad he eventually returned. We need more albums like this one.
[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
8,436
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,759
Rank in 2010:
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Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 11/14/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,972
Rank in 2010:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album United States
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[First added to this chart: 01/20/2015]
Year of Release:
2010
Appears in:
Rank Score:
4,124
Rank in 2010:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Total albums: 11. Page 1 of 2

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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%
Ought 2 2%
Fleet Foxes 2 2%
Spoon 2 2%
LCD Soundsystem 2 2%
Show all
Country Albums %


United States 66 66%
Canada 13 13%
United Kingdom 12 12%
Australia 6 6%
Mixed Nationality 2 2%
Norway 1 1%
Compilation? Albums %
No 98 98%
Yes 2 2%
Soundtrack? Albums %
No 99 99%
Yes 1 1%

Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s chart changes

Biggest climbers
Climber Up 41 from 52nd to 11th
Black Up
by Shabazz Palaces
Climber Up 34 from 82nd to 48th
Reflections
by Hannah Diamond
Climber Up 26 from 99th to 73rd
Moth
by Chairlift
Biggest fallers
Faller Down 35 from 26th to 61st
Pom Pom
by Ariel Pink
Faller Down 28 from 21st to 49th
The Age Of Adz
by Sufjan Stevens
Faller Down 24 from 48th to 72nd
Benji
by Sun Kil Moon

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Top 100 Music Albums of the 2010s ratings

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87/100 (from 6 votes)
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From 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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From 04/02/2015 20:04
Excellent Chart!
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Best Albums of the 2010s
1. To Pimp A Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar
2. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
3. Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar
4. The Suburbs by Arcade Fire
5. Carrie & Lowell by Sufjan Stevens
6. A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead
7. Lonerism by Tame Impala
8. Blond by Frank Ocean
9. ★ (Blackstar) by David Bowie
10. Modern Vampires Of The City by Vampire Weekend
11. High Violet by The National
12. Teen Dream by Beach House
13. Currents by Tame Impala
14. Channel Orange by Frank Ocean
15. Lost In The Dream by The War On Drugs
16. Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
17. Bon Iver, Bon Iver by Bon Iver
18. AM by Arctic Monkeys
19. This Is Happening by LCD Soundsystem
20. Random Access Memories by Daft Punk
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