2010s: The 25 Best Underrated Albums
by 
ForegroundNoise 
As with my other decade charts, I've decided to shake things up from the endless lists hailing To Pimp a Butterfly as the best of the decade (an opinion that, for the record, I agree with). Instead, here are my 'underrated' favourites of the 2010s, the criteria being that you'll find no releases in BEA's top 200 of the decade.
That's not to say I'm excluding artists who have entries in the top 100; all the more reason to turn listeners onto the more overlooked corners of their discographies.
I'm a little busy at the moment, but stay tuned for some brief notes on these favourites of mine.
FN xx
- Chart updated: 02/25/2025 15:45
- (Created: 04/25/2020 12:50).
- Chart size: 25 albums.
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ambient • drone • electroacoustic
(Kranky, 48:54)
9.5/10
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
ambient • drone • electroacoustic
(Kranky, 48:54)
9.5/10
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
Year of Release:
2013
Appears in:
Rank Score:
1,376
Rank in 2013:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
____________________________________________________________________________
neoclassical darkwave • death industrial
(Profound Lore, 66:01)
9/10
"I'll only say this once
Life is cruel, and time heals nothing
And everyone you love will leave you
But not me
So will you join me?
Will you join me?
If you lay your life down, no man can take it"
At the end of last year I’d been dreaming up a piece on Lingua Ignota (real name Kristin Hayter) and female subjectivity in metal and its subgenres. And who knows, maybe at some point it will see the light of day. But for now, here is as good as any place to let some of those half-formed ideas unfurl themselves.
Laying claim to an authentically ‘female’ voice in the context of Hayter’s music is more than just a rhetorical gimmick, since it was a voice that was for a long time forced into silence. A survivor of domestic violence, Hayter was embedded within the Rhode Island noise scene but for several years was prevented from ever performing her music at the threat of an abusive ex-partner. Escaping the relationship, Hayter found herself frustrated at the coping strategies suggested by books for abuse survivors, strategies she felt “enforced patriarchal models of civilised femininity”. Hayter didn’t want to serenely accept her suffering, she wanted to rage at its injustice. Lingua Ignota was born.
Heavy metal’s relationship with explicit content has always been something that intrigues me. Much of the genre feels pulled in two directions at once, in that its ethos wants to identify with horror, yet more often that not, the musicians’ own morbid fascination stems from the luxury of having little to no brushes with genuine human suffering (Metallica wrote this zinger about living in a sanatorium - “They keep me locked up in this cage/Can't they see it's why my brain says ‘rage’?” - after watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).
It’s in contrast to these vapid estimations at true horror that Hayter’s power as a songwriter lies. Metal has a rich history of male provocateurs describing sadistic violence upon women under the guise of shock value; Hayter repurposes this language to convey the much more frightening prospect of being the one undergoing that violence.
Though I have tried to voice Lingua Ignota, the best I can do is gesture towards the real thing. I’ll instead leave you with these words from Hayter herself:
"I don't find most of the graphic depictions of (forgive my language here) 'sending this dumb slut back to hell hearing her final screams as my throbbing erection pounds her maggot-filled cunt' upsetting to my feminine sensibilities, most of it isn't even well-executed enough to be taken seriously. I just find that it occupies this weird space of being simultaneously very loaded and totally obsolete, especially when we consider that none of these guys are actually sodomising female corpses in their free time. So my thoughts were to flip this whole paradigm and to try to make it meaningful, to reframe extreme imagery for survivors of violence, upon whom very dark shit has actually been visited".
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
neoclassical darkwave • death industrial
(Profound Lore, 66:01)
9/10
"I'll only say this once
Life is cruel, and time heals nothing
And everyone you love will leave you
But not me
So will you join me?
Will you join me?
If you lay your life down, no man can take it"
At the end of last year I’d been dreaming up a piece on Lingua Ignota (real name Kristin Hayter) and female subjectivity in metal and its subgenres. And who knows, maybe at some point it will see the light of day. But for now, here is as good as any place to let some of those half-formed ideas unfurl themselves.
Laying claim to an authentically ‘female’ voice in the context of Hayter’s music is more than just a rhetorical gimmick, since it was a voice that was for a long time forced into silence. A survivor of domestic violence, Hayter was embedded within the Rhode Island noise scene but for several years was prevented from ever performing her music at the threat of an abusive ex-partner. Escaping the relationship, Hayter found herself frustrated at the coping strategies suggested by books for abuse survivors, strategies she felt “enforced patriarchal models of civilised femininity”. Hayter didn’t want to serenely accept her suffering, she wanted to rage at its injustice. Lingua Ignota was born.
Heavy metal’s relationship with explicit content has always been something that intrigues me. Much of the genre feels pulled in two directions at once, in that its ethos wants to identify with horror, yet more often that not, the musicians’ own morbid fascination stems from the luxury of having little to no brushes with genuine human suffering (Metallica wrote this zinger about living in a sanatorium - “They keep me locked up in this cage/Can't they see it's why my brain says ‘rage’?” - after watching One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).
It’s in contrast to these vapid estimations at true horror that Hayter’s power as a songwriter lies. Metal has a rich history of male provocateurs describing sadistic violence upon women under the guise of shock value; Hayter repurposes this language to convey the much more frightening prospect of being the one undergoing that violence.
Though I have tried to voice Lingua Ignota, the best I can do is gesture towards the real thing. I’ll instead leave you with these words from Hayter herself:
"I don't find most of the graphic depictions of (forgive my language here) 'sending this dumb slut back to hell hearing her final screams as my throbbing erection pounds her maggot-filled cunt' upsetting to my feminine sensibilities, most of it isn't even well-executed enough to be taken seriously. I just find that it occupies this weird space of being simultaneously very loaded and totally obsolete, especially when we consider that none of these guys are actually sodomising female corpses in their free time. So my thoughts were to flip this whole paradigm and to try to make it meaningful, to reframe extreme imagery for survivors of violence, upon whom very dark shit has actually been visited".
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
Year of Release:
2019
Appears in:
Rank Score:
833
Rank in 2019:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
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____________________________________________________________________________
emo • experimental rock
(n/a, 44:33)
9/10
"This is not universal
Kid is not he who abandoned that auditorium and no, I do not want to become him anymore
But yes, I do want him to become what I believe he once was, my best friend
And stop that, he still is
I don't really think about it that way, no, I don't really ever think about it that way"
Okay, I’m gonna stick my neck out here and go out on a limb for this record: Just Got Back… is the best emo album of all time. For what that’s worth. If you hear the word ‘emo’ and think chokers, comb-over fringes, and running mascara, then I know how that sentence must sound to you. But this crown isn’t won through teenage nostalgia; I may have entered the decade an angsty tween drowning in hormones, but by some minor miracle I managed to escape the grasp of pop punk’s black acrylic nails. I was less MCR, more Chris Martin - something at the time I was probably proud of but in retrospect wish it’d been the other way round. Trust me on this one, The Brave Little Abacus are a different beast entirely.
And this isn’t a dig at so-called ‘fake’ emo either. “Real emo”, as the viral copypasta goes, “sounds ENERGETIC, POWERFUL, and somewhat HATEFUL”; a three-word round hole this square peg of a band struggles to fit into. ‘Energetic’ - sure. ‘Powerful’ - maybe. But ‘hateful’?
After limited success, two LPs, and less than five years under their belt, in 2012 The Brave Little Abacus split for good. Some of the members would go on to perform sporadically in other groups, but the dream of ‘making it’ was over. There’s a naïve euphoria to the band which they can’t help spill out into their songs, and in hindsight it seems impossible to imagine them existing any longer than they did. It’s the fearlessness youth brings which allows them to throw everything at the wall, from jazz to drone to bossa nova, and by sheer force of will make it stick, in a way older musicians would be too cynical to try. In 2012 The Brave Little Abacus didn’t just break up; they grew up.
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
emo • experimental rock
(n/a, 44:33)
9/10
"This is not universal
Kid is not he who abandoned that auditorium and no, I do not want to become him anymore
But yes, I do want him to become what I believe he once was, my best friend
And stop that, he still is
I don't really think about it that way, no, I don't really ever think about it that way"
Okay, I’m gonna stick my neck out here and go out on a limb for this record: Just Got Back… is the best emo album of all time. For what that’s worth. If you hear the word ‘emo’ and think chokers, comb-over fringes, and running mascara, then I know how that sentence must sound to you. But this crown isn’t won through teenage nostalgia; I may have entered the decade an angsty tween drowning in hormones, but by some minor miracle I managed to escape the grasp of pop punk’s black acrylic nails. I was less MCR, more Chris Martin - something at the time I was probably proud of but in retrospect wish it’d been the other way round. Trust me on this one, The Brave Little Abacus are a different beast entirely.
And this isn’t a dig at so-called ‘fake’ emo either. “Real emo”, as the viral copypasta goes, “sounds ENERGETIC, POWERFUL, and somewhat HATEFUL”; a three-word round hole this square peg of a band struggles to fit into. ‘Energetic’ - sure. ‘Powerful’ - maybe. But ‘hateful’?
After limited success, two LPs, and less than five years under their belt, in 2012 The Brave Little Abacus split for good. Some of the members would go on to perform sporadically in other groups, but the dream of ‘making it’ was over. There’s a naïve euphoria to the band which they can’t help spill out into their songs, and in hindsight it seems impossible to imagine them existing any longer than they did. It’s the fearlessness youth brings which allows them to throw everything at the wall, from jazz to drone to bossa nova, and by sheer force of will make it stick, in a way older musicians would be too cynical to try. In 2012 The Brave Little Abacus didn’t just break up; they grew up.
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
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____________________________________________________________________________
ambient pop • ambient
(Asthmatic Kitty, 43:44)
8.5/10
"Rolling with my rag top down
Rolling with my rag top down
Rolling with my rag top down"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
ambient pop • ambient
(Asthmatic Kitty, 43:44)
8.5/10
"Rolling with my rag top down
Rolling with my rag top down
Rolling with my rag top down"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
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____________________________________________________________________________
ambient
(Kranky, 78:15)
8.5/10
"Gonna take a spaceship,
Fly back to the stars,
Alien observer,
On a world that isn't mine"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
ambient
(Kranky, 78:15)
8.5/10
"Gonna take a spaceship,
Fly back to the stars,
Alien observer,
On a world that isn't mine"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
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____________________________________________________________________________
avant-garde jazz • spiritual jazz
(Constellation, 61:09)
8.5/10
"Don’t you mind them tears, that’s one of her tricks
Five fifty’s a bid, now who’ll say six?
She’s healthy, she’s strong, she’s well equipped
She makes a fine lady’s maid when she’s properly whipped"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 02/11/2021]
avant-garde jazz • spiritual jazz
(Constellation, 61:09)
8.5/10
"Don’t you mind them tears, that’s one of her tricks
Five fifty’s a bid, now who’ll say six?
She’s healthy, she’s strong, she’s well equipped
She makes a fine lady’s maid when she’s properly whipped"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 02/11/2021]
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____________________________________________________________________________
ambient
(130701, 71:45)
8.5/10
"We'll be the ends, same as the means
All of your haircuts and baby teeth"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
ambient
(130701, 71:45)
8.5/10
"We'll be the ends, same as the means
All of your haircuts and baby teeth"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
Buy album
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____________________________________________________________________________
future garage
(Hyperdub, 30:38)
8.5/10
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/22/2020]
future garage
(Hyperdub, 30:38)
8.5/10
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/22/2020]
Year of Release:
2012
Appears in:
Rank Score:
665
Rank in 2012:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
____________________________________________________________________________
neo-psychedelia • post-industrial
(Warp, 41:57)
8/10
"Have you, have you looked outside?
I'm scared for my life
They don't trust us
I'm not part of the killing spree
A symptom, born loser, statistic"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
neo-psychedelia • post-industrial
(Warp, 41:57)
8/10
"Have you, have you looked outside?
I'm scared for my life
They don't trust us
I'm not part of the killing spree
A symptom, born loser, statistic"
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 05/01/2020]
Year of Release:
2018
Appears in:
Rank Score:
666
Rank in 2018:
Rank in 2010s:
Overall Rank:
Average Rating:
Comments:
Buy album
- #Sponsored
____________________________________________________________________________
chamber folk
(OTOTOY, 66:43)
8/10
"あなたの秘密を ばらしてあげましょう [Let me reveal your secret]
仮面の下は恐ろしい顔 [The face beneath your mask is terrifying]
みんなにも見せてあげて" [Show it to everyone for me]
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 06/23/2020]
chamber folk
(OTOTOY, 66:43)
8/10
"あなたの秘密を ばらしてあげましょう [Let me reveal your secret]
仮面の下は恐ろしい顔 [The face beneath your mask is terrifying]
みんなにも見せてあげて" [Show it to everyone for me]
____________________________________________________________________________ [First added to this chart: 06/23/2020]
Total albums: 25. Page 1 of 3
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2010s: The 25 Best Underrated Albums composition
| Year | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 2 | 8% | |
| 2011 | 3 | 12% | |
| 2012 | 2 | 8% | |
| 2013 | 3 | 12% | |
| 2014 | 2 | 8% | |
| 2015 | 4 | 16% | |
| 2016 | 3 | 12% | |
| 2017 | 3 | 12% | |
| 2018 | 2 | 8% | |
| 2019 | 1 | 4% |
| Artist | Albums | % | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|||
| Julianna Barwick | 1 | 4% | |
| Clarence Clarity | 1 | 4% | |
| Grouper | 1 | 4% | |
| 공중도둑 [Mid-Air Thief] | 1 | 4% | |
| Matana Roberts | 1 | 4% | |
| Munly & The Lupercalians | 1 | 4% | |
| Ian William Craig | 1 | 4% | |
| Show all | |||
2010s: The 25 Best Underrated Albums chart changes
| Biggest fallers |
|---|
| Down 1 from 24th to 25th Under The Skin by Mica Levi |
| New entries |
|---|
| L'Étoile Thoracique by Klô Pelgag |
| Leavers |
|---|
| Luxury Problems by Andy Stott |
2010s: The 25 Best Underrated Albums similar charts
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best Experimental Albums |  blvckgovt | Custom chart | 2018 |  |
| Top 25 Music Albums of 2011 | blvckgovt | 2011 year chart | 2019 | |
| Top 18 Music Albums of 2013 |  Onater | 2013 year chart | 2019 |  |
| Top 21 Music Albums of 2011 | Onater | 2011 year chart | 2019 | |
| Top 24 Music Albums of 2015 |  exileonthehell | 2015 year chart | 2019 |  |
| Top 18 Music Albums of 2015 | DJENNY | 2015 year chart | 2020 | |
| Top 17 Music Albums of 2015 | Onater | 2015 year chart | 2019 | |
| Top 20 Music Albums of 2019 |  AvalancheGrips | 2019 year chart | 2022 | |
| Top 13 Music Albums of 2012 | Onater | 2012 year chart | 2019 | |
2010s: The 25 Best Underrated Albums similarity to your chart(s)
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| Rating | Date updated | Member | Chart ratings | Avg. chart rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 02/12/2021 20:49 | DJENNY | 4,365 | 100/100 |
| ! | 11/17/2020 12:05 |  desh79 | 1,278 | 93/100 |
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| Best Artists of 1970 | |
|---|---|
| 1. Black Sabbath | |
| 2. Neil Young | |
| 3. George Harrison | |
| 4. Simon & Garfunkel | |
| 5. John Lennon | |
| 6. Miles Davis | |
| 7. Van Morrison | |
| 8. Creedence Clearwater Revival | |
| 9. Led Zeppelin | |
| 10. The Beatles | |
| 11. The Stooges | |
| 12. The Velvet Underground | |
| 13. Grateful Dead | |
| 14. Derek & The Dominos | |
| 15. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young | |
| 16. Crosby, Stills & Nash | |
| 17. Deep Purple | |
| 18. Santana | |
| 19. Carlos Santana | |
| 20. The Doors |
