Ten Favorite Albums of the Decade (2010-2019)

And now Vice

Super eclectic list. Couple of albums I was really happy to see listed (Darkside, Swimming) because other publications have ignored them, a couple of rap albums and pop albums that I absolutely detest and some randos that I've never even heard of.
 
I don't know if this has been suggested, but it would be cool if we do this like the year-end megalists: we have a limited amount of points to give to any number of records we want. At the end of the year the totals for each album are added and we get a picture of the top albums for the whole forum.
 
I'll be prepared to write about these even if they are low on the megalist (depending on how many options there are)
  1. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete
  2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  3. Beach House - 7
  4. Beyonce - Lemonade
  5. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
  6. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
  7. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
  8. Big Thief - Capacity
  9. Mitski - Bury Me At Make out Creek
  10. Brand New - Science Fiction
  11. Thom Yorke - ANIMA
  12. Lana del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
  13. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
  14. Jay Som - Everybody Works
I dunno where blonde or channel orange will be on this list, still figuring those out (that will make it a top 15)

This list was super hard and can change any time. Seeing as I'm often reminded of great albums I forgot
 
I'll be prepared to write about these even if they are low on the megalist (depending on how many options there are)
  1. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete
  2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  3. Beach House - 7
  4. Beyonce - Lemonade
  5. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
  6. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
  7. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
  8. Big Thief - Capacity
  9. Mitski - Bury Me At Make out Creek
  10. Brand New - Science Fiction
  11. Thom Yorke - ANIMA
  12. Lana del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
  13. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
  14. Jay Som - Everybody Works
I dunno where blonde or channel orange will be on this list, still figuring those out (that will make it a top 15)

This list was super hard and can change any time. Seeing as I'm often reminded of great albums I forgot

Whoa, I love the high ranking of 7. I was spinning it last night for the first time in a while, and it's excellent (even though in my book it's only the fourth-best Beach House album of the decade)!
 
I'll be prepared to write about these even if they are low on the megalist (depending on how many options there are)
  1. Oneohtrix Point Never - Garden of Delete
  2. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
  3. Beach House - 7
  4. Beyonce - Lemonade
  5. Jon Hopkins - Immunity
  6. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma
  7. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
  8. Big Thief - Capacity
  9. Mitski - Bury Me At Make out Creek
  10. Brand New - Science Fiction
  11. Thom Yorke - ANIMA
  12. Lana del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
  13. Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory
  14. Jay Som - Everybody Works
I dunno where blonde or channel orange will be on this list, still figuring those out (that will make it a top 15)

This list was super hard and can change any time. Seeing as I'm often reminded of great albums I forgot

I love seeing Immunity on here. Incredibly moving and organic, for an electronic record.

Very nice list overall, @duke86fan!
 
Top 20. After number 1, they're not in a particular order. And I'll probably have to do some editing at some point.

1. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly
D'Angelo - Black Messiah
Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon
Erykah Badu - New Amerykah Part 2
Janelle Monae - The ArchAndroid
Kendrick Lamar - good kid, mAAd city
Baby Rose - To Myself
Frank Ocean - Blonde
Quadron - Avalanche
Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap
Gallant - Ology
Anderson .Paak - Malibu
Sons of Kemet - Your Queen Is A Reptile
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
The Roots - How I Got Over
Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
Lianne LaHavas - Is Your Love Big Enough?
Xenia Rubinos - Black Terry Cat
Sampha - Process
Alice Russell - To Dust
Mayer Hawthorne - Where Does This Door Go?
 
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Man, I started on this and it is overwhelming trying to catalogue. So, I stopped, and just went with the first ones that came to my head. There are TONS, and subject to change. But, these are what came to mind:

Neon Indian - Vega Intl. Night School

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories

A Tribe Called Quest: We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service

Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp A Butterfly

Vampire Weekend - Contra

Run The Jewels - RTJ1
 
I am very impressed with some of these lists. I need a better way of archiving and referencing my albums that are 2010-2019.

Serious appreciation. Are you guys cataloguing these from the top of your head? Some master list of albums released? A Discogs archive? Show me your ways.
 
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I am very impressed with some of these lists. I need a better way of archiving and referencing my albums that are 2010-2019.

Serious appreciation. Are you guys cataloguing these from the top of your head? Some master list of albums released? A Discogs archive? Show me your ways.

In my case- I started making top 30 lists in 2013 (which became top 50 in 2014 onward because of the sheer amount of music I was consuming due to streaming and What.CD)-- sometimes accompanied by long blog posts, sometimes just a playlist. At some point, I went back and made lists for 2010-2012. I tend to have a list of roughly 50 albums that I've liked come December and then the end of the year lists hit and I use AlbumoftheYear.org to sift through what I may have missed. I also tend to update past years on occasion just via my personal files.

So when I started my top 200 of the decade- it was as simple as going through those old lists + beginning to re-listen to stuff that I used to love but maybe never purchased on vinyl + re-approaching stuff that I had never really given a chance either due to the timing of the release (ala D' Angelo) or the fact that my taste has shifted over the course of the decade due to key releases that opened my ears to new genres.

I've always had eclectic taste (in any medium I tend to value that which is playing with form and challenging boundaries), but my bread and butter entering the decade was definitely alt-rock/metal, classic rock, indie rock, downtempo electronica and (underground leaning) hip-hop. I look at my list now and am blown away by all the R&B, pop, punk and auto-tune tinged (which I used to despise) music within. And also just with how deeply in love I've fallen with non-EDM electronic music.

In fact I think the hardest part in making this sort of list was prioritizing albums that literally changed my taste in music (Art Angels/Visions, Summertime 06', Freetown Sound, Malibu, Saturation II) versus personal favorites that were already up my alley (American Dream, Sometimes I Sit, Blackstar, To Pimp a Butterfly, Painted Shut, Teens of Denial). I tended to prioritize the former.

Also, I think what's special to me about this decade is the way in which a) major labels lost control of the creative process and b) that resulted in the crumbling of genre as we know it.
 
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In my case- I started making top 30 lists in 2013 (which became top 50 in 2014 onward because of the sheer amount of music I was consuming due to streaming and What.CD)-- sometimes accompanied by long blog posts, sometimes just a playlist. At some point, I went back and made lists for 2010-2012. I tend to have a list of roughly 50 albums that I've liked come December and then the end of the year lists hit and I use AlbumoftheYear.org to sift through what I may have missed. I also tend to update past years on occasion just via my personal files.

So when I started my top 200 of the decade- it was as simple as going through those old lists + beginning to re-listen to stuff that I used to love but maybe never purchased on vinyl + re-approaching stuff that I had never really given a chance either due to the timing of the release (ala D' Angelo) or the fact that my taste has shifted over the course of the decade due to key releases that opened my ears to new genres.

I've always had eclectic taste (in any medium I tend to value that which is playing with form and challenging boundaries), but my bread and butter entering the decade was definitely alt-rock/metal, classic rock, indie rock, downtempo electronica and (underground leaning) hip-hop. I look at my list now and am blown away by all the R&B, pop, punk and auto-tune tinged (which I used to despise) music within my list. And also just how deeply in love I've fallen with non-EDM electronic music.

In fact I think the hardest part in making this sort of list was prioritizing albums that literally changed my taste in music (Art Angels/Visions, Summertime 06', Freetown Sound, Malibu, Saturation II) versus personal favorites that were already up my alley (American Dream, Sometimes I Sit, Blackstar, To Pimp a Butterfly, Painted Shut, Teens of Denial). I tended to prioritize the former.

Also, I think what's special to me about this decade is the way in which a) major labels lost control of the creative process b) that resulted in the crumbling of genre as we know it.
Thanks for this! Man, I miss what.cd
 
Hard disagree

It's clearly the best they did
I figured you would, based on your list!

All five are really good, though (Depression Cherry is probably my least favorite of the bunch, and I still consider it a good album).
One of my favorite artists of the decade. Teen Dream is the one that means the most to me and has a shot at my top 10 list. 7 is probably my second favorite and Depression Cherry is the one I go back to the least often.
 
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