Listed below are the best albums of the 2010s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 59,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 6 hours ago).
"Can i quote the last person? It's disappointing with a couple of salvagable songs near the end, "f!@#king problems" and "1train", both coincidentally featuring many guests."Reply
"This schizofrenic whole is honestly better than the parts. What's great about his style is that he can take any genre and make it sound like a Weeknd track. An enviable skill that a lot of the people he samples wish they could do."Reply
"Where do I even start with this album? It represents such a massive shift in the sound of Lenker, the beginning of the band that would come to be her most well-known musical outlet, it indicates a distinct leveling-up in the power of her songwriting, and this is the first time I have heard that i...""Where do I even start with this album? It represents such a massive shift in the sound of Lenker, the beginning of the band that would come to be her most well-known musical outlet, it indicates a distinct leveling-up in the power of her songwriting, and this is the first time I have heard that iconic (for me in my head canon) Adrianne Lenker voice. This is just a badass statement of a debut. And while it was cute and a bit funny and audacious to name their debut Masterpiece, it nearly lives up to the title.
After the cold open of sorts of the opning track “Little Arrow” we are thrust into the exhilarating and resounding triumph of a song called “Masterpiece”. Everything about this track is killer. The vocals sound like some fiery modern Lucinda Williams, the stomp of the loud drums and guitars is all that rock should be, and that fucking chorus! The lyrics and the way they morph in meeting and the way they so beautifully wrap around the melody and the breathy vocal delivery of this new Lenker we are being introduced to… etc… its awesome, every second of it is awesome from the opening chords, to the dirty feedback solo, to its resounding end. This song is such a moment, it is when you have to stop and take notice of these new young guns and shut up and listen. This is also the best song Lenker has written up to this point.
The fact that the album consistently flows from track to track, some purely indie rock bliss with noisy rock riffs to soft and folky ruminative tracks to beautiful indie pop numbers that reminds me of Beach House (without all the layers of dream pop) or Broken Social Scene, and does it with almost no hiccups or stumbles is brilliant.
Of course there are some small gripes I have. Starting with small things that always slightly annoy me, such as the opening one note explosion of the solo of “Real Love” which is just toooo much and doesn’t work (before getting back on track with a great remainder of solo), to the overly long and annoying little baby saying car and truck over and over at the end of “Interstate”. The only more macro critique is hardly a critique for me anyway (because I don’t value extreme originality) is that this great band hadn’t yet found that utterly unique Big Thief sound yet and much of the songs here, including the best ones done excellently, are quite familiar sounding. By the time they get to 2019’s 2 LPs they had carved out a truly unique sound. But I am not sure those albums are BETTER than this one (we shall see soon enough), its just that they are more unorthodox.
The star of the show her is the ragged, stalwart beauty of Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting, singing and general persona. How she managed to switch gears so fully from her Folk confessional singer/songwriter aesthetic to the fiery, rocker who forces you to hand on to every word in the middle of some deriously stomping rock tunes, baffles me. She is a chameleon and absurdly talented. The lyrics all over this thing are consistently biting, minimalisticly heartbreaking and I feel like she really made her best written album with this one. I suppose having 3 others to play with helped the songwriting process or perhaps its just that this format allowed her to unveil this whole other side of her? I don’t know. Trying to explain the indescribable relatability and fragility and strength and beauty of the singing and songwriting here is like trying to catch gossamer in your hand. This shit is elusive and powerful.
The highlights are numerous, but the TOTAL show stoppers are brilliantly placed at the beginning (“Masterpiece”), middle (“Paul”) and end (“Parallels”)… with each standout track having other great songs of a variously constituted sound and style surrounding it. This album has a flow and a consistency that I love and it just seems (so far) endlessly relistenable.
The closer starts out good, but man when I say the build up to the chorus and the chorus itself is transcendent indie rock glory just know I mean it. Also when I mentioned Broken Social Scene earlier, that could possibly apply to more than just “Paul” but I am mostly talking about that tune. It sounds like something off BSS’s 2002 album You Forgot It In People.
As far as low points, well while I kind of get what they were going with that opening track “Little Arrow” as a sort of short, super low key and fragile introduction, I still think it’s the least special and quality sounding song here. Other than that, every song here bristles with a level of energy and passion and earthy power that makes every song fascinating and uplifting and thought-provoking and just awesome.
So far, Lenker’s discog is so fucking cool. She can rock and folk with the best of ‘em. Also this album makes me excited for all the music yet to come on this project, because I think with this 2016 album she really had found her voice as a vocalist and songwriter. This is the beginning of a new era methinks. Also the relationship between Buck Meek and Adrianne Lenker and the resultant band seems to be getting more and more enmeshed. I think the whole band kicks ass here, but in particular one thing I never mentioned is the subtle harmonies between Meek and Lenker here is just as great, if more subtle, as on their A-Sides EP. And they seem to be one of those rare musical partnerships that just seem made for each other. Like Gram and Emmylou, or Guru and Premier, or other great ones. These 2 have some great music yet to come (as well as a divorce) I can already tell.
This gets a high rating, because I like it. I sometimes feel like I give too many glowing ratings. But then again the reason I pick these artists to listen to and explore is because I already KNOW I like their sound and this project just gives me a chance to really listen and listen a lot and let my thoughts blossom. With that in mind the rating for this near-masterpiece is …. 8.7/10"[+]Reply
"I absolutely love this album It's early days yet but at the moment this is my favourite album by the rhcp Time will tell whether it's a laster but this has not been off my iPod since it was released about a month ago It has the same laid back feel like "by the way" - which up to about a week ago ...""I absolutely love this album
It's early days yet but at the moment this is my favourite album by the rhcp
Time will tell whether it's a laster but this has not been off my iPod since it was released about a month ago
It has the same laid back feel like "by the way" - which up to about a week ago had been my favourite rhcp album since its release back in my long distant youth
I did not like some of the production instantly , it didn't feel in my face enough for a rhcp album - but after a few listens I was hooked and couldn't remember what I'd disliked about it ??
Great tunes - great album"[+]Reply
"Criminally under appreciated PJH album this one This time the over arching theme focus' on America and more precisely the perceived social cleansing through demolition of ghettos and slums , it really is powerful stuff . Tip - get to understand the back ground to this album and you will appreciat...""Criminally under appreciated PJH album this one
This time the over arching theme focus' on America and more precisely the perceived social cleansing through demolition of ghettos and slums , it really is powerful stuff . Tip - get to understand the back ground to this album and you will appreciate it more
"The Wheel" is amongst Polly Jeans best tracks
They're gonna put a Walmart here
They're gonna put a Walmart here ...........
"[+]Reply
"It's hard not to hold Thom to a higher standard since his past works have been so significant, but this album just isn't changing the game the way he used to. It was exciting each time Radiohead changed their sound, but now Thom seems to have developed an affection for this cold, distant, sterile...""It's hard not to hold Thom to a higher standard since his past works have been so significant, but this album just isn't changing the game the way he used to. It was exciting each time Radiohead changed their sound, but now Thom seems to have developed an affection for this cold, distant, sterile electronic music. If this is the kind of music he wants to make, then that's great for him. He's definitely good at it. But what makes this album stand out among anything else he's done? The songs are nice, but they just don't seem to be showcasing the creativity we all know he is capable of. Obviously people enjoy this album, I do too to an extent, but I honestly don't believe it will have the same lasting power of his other work."[+]Reply
"If it weren't for this website I never would've discovered this gem! A folk opera sounded really cheesy to me, to be honest, but since I love Tommy, I thought it would be interesting. A shocker. In my opinion this is better then Tommy, better then Quadrophenia and.... dare I say it?... better the...""If it weren't for this website I never would've discovered this gem! A folk opera sounded really cheesy to me, to be honest, but since I love Tommy, I thought it would be interesting.
A shocker. In my opinion this is better then Tommy, better then Quadrophenia and.... dare I say it?... better then THE WALL!!
This is high praise for a brand new album, I know. But trust me, if this gets around enough, it'll be a classic.
Again, maybe only us nerds who use besteveralbums' assistance to find cool music will get it. In any case, listen to it. Anais Mitchell and Bon Iver's Justin Vernon are perfect as doomed lovers.
And I thought opera sucked."[+]Reply
"It feels like spitting in my idols' face, but this album was just alright for me. Look, when musicians age, they either age gracefully, letting their work age gracefully with them (see: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon) or they keep making albums hoping that maybe the fact that their music sort of sounds si...""It feels like spitting in my idols' face, but this album was just alright for me. Look, when musicians age, they either age gracefully, letting their work age gracefully with them (see: Bob Dylan, Paul Simon) or they keep making albums hoping that maybe the fact that their music sort of sounds similar to the great music they made 30+ years ago, people will like it despite the fact that they tend to sound like a retiree on a karaoke machine (see: Van Halen, anything Sammy Hagar has done lately, The Who). This falls somewhere in between. Somehow, Ozzy’s voice hasn’t changed in the past 40 years. Ok, maybe it’s changed a little, but it could be a lot worse. He sounds ok here, and the lyrics he’s written are whatever, but really, they’ve always been like that. Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler sound great though, especially Iommi, his guitar work, his riffs, his solos, are as good as ever, I love listening to him play guitar. Brad Wilk doesn’t sound awful, but in all reality, he’s a different drummer than what Sabbath needed, he’s from a different era and you can tell.
The area that “13" fails in most is in the quality of the songs, which in all honesty, are alright. There are some good moments here and there, but generally speaking, the album feels pretty uninspired. There are some obvious throwbacks, especially in “Zeitgeist", which really calls back to Sabbath’s slower songs, songs like “N.I.B." and “Planet Caravan", but they sound like an imitation rather than the real thing. Like I said, there are some good moments, one thing I really love is that Sabbath retained their love of long guitar solos, which sound great, but generally speaking the album is pretty lacking. It’s unfortunate, but I can’t say that I’m horribly surprised. Maybe if Bill Ward joins back up one day, they’ll really crank out something special."[+]Reply
"So there’s a problem with The Killers and this problem has existed, it seems, for quite a while. All of their songs are blending together. It seems like with each album, they’re not making any progress. “Hot Fuss" was an awesome album, I loved it and I remember when it came out. Their sound was d...""So there’s a problem with The Killers and this problem has existed, it seems, for quite a while. All of their songs are blending together. It seems like with each album, they’re not making any progress. “Hot Fuss" was an awesome album, I loved it and I remember when it came out. Their sound was different, they had a few singles that sounded really cool, Brandon Flowers had a unique voice and I thought “Wow, these guys are pretty good." Then “Sam’s Town" came out and the album itself was just mediocre. Had a few songs that were really good, but other than that, it was just ok. And then “Day & Age" came out and it was the same thing. Now “Battle Born" is out, and again, it’s the same thing. This album is essentially interchangeable with any of The Killers other albums. Now, all that being said, it isn’t necessarily a bad album. There are a couple songs that are pretty good, but otherwise the album is just ok. Not bad, just ok. "[+]Reply