Albums of The Decade in An Era of Real Change: A Fan’s Look at Music in The 2010s

The personal experience of listening to music is probably my favorite feeling in the entire world. There is nothing more cathartic, more soul-stirring, or more fundamentally interesting than taking in a great album; it just feels like the most intrinsic and natural form of human artistic heights. Getting into music has been my defining experience over the last decade. The slow movement from the music that your parents leave you towards entirely new directions that allow you to discover the eternally vast catalog of human creativity is something that I feel like defines the adolescence of most music fans. There is so much with music, so much to talk about and to dive deeper in to. Within the past 5 years, I have managed to discover bands and artists who have spoken to me in such distinctly personal ways that it sometimes feels like direct communication. And yet I always feel like I have just scraped the tip of the iceberg. I just know there is so much more out there, so many new experiences, music heading into 2020 looks incredibly bright.

The 2010s were an insanely groundbreaking and paradigm-shifting time in the music industry; the entire experience and market of music has been digitized for better or for worse, and social media and the internet now replace the predominance of the label from the 2000s. Genres were innovated upon in ways that couldn’t even be imagined in 2009; production, sound design, and countless other technical musical aspects are now truly in their golden age of growth and development. Technology has helped musical achievement reach new heights, but these are only the tools. What is even more remarkable is the breakout in the brand new, vastly diverse and unique, and revolutionary voices which were only so rarely accessed in music before. Queer, trans, POC, and all varieties of marginalized voices made their impact and poignancy common knowledge; the 2010s were the decade where the music industry truly lost white heteronormative orthodoxy as its defining trait. So many new genres, new ideas and forms, and even experiments in what music itself is have become prominent. The 2010s were the new apex of musical change and innovation.

After months of subconsciously thinking about how I would order my favorites from this decade, eventually, I couldn’t help but put the time into doing something like this. It felt right to me, and I genuinely appreciate anyone who shares in this experience with me. I really do think these are the best 100 albums of the decade, and I will attempt, with increasing fervor, to offer why I think so. However, the line between “best” and “favorite” is always a strange territory to me; because music is such a subjective experience, all music criticism is personal judgment by its very nature. Thus, I understand how personal this list is, and I hope that, in a way, it maybe helps the project: this is really just one experience of music, categorized just for the sake of it. Thank you for reading.

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100 | Rihanna - Loud (2010) 

Loud is a collection of some of the most undeniable hits to come out of this decade, as well as a bold harbinger of the veracity with which pop as a genre would make itself known in the 2010s. Rihanna harnesses the charisma of her earlier works and melds it into a grown-up, revolutionary pop arrangement that would come to define the latter half of her career. Songs like “S&M” are classic iPod Touch-core and bring forward a strange sense of nostalgia upon further relisten. This album is one of the pop landmarks of the 2010s.

99 | Noname - Room 25 (2018)

Room 25, from Chicago veteran Noname, is a thoughtfully provocative album that takes on patriarchy and racial injustice through the lens of whimsicality and comedic overthrow. Long is the tradition of the subtle protest album, records railing out against a diseased and broken culture just as much as they are at any specific political figure. This album is a rich continuation in this legacy. Noname’s flow is effortless and soaring as she rises and falls across bars about injustice and oppression as easily as if she were reading a YA novel. Room 25 intends to convey the banality of evil and greed in our modern capitalist culture, and how this is rerouted through the lenses of race and gender. Noname, with her technical skill and superb political awareness, is exactly the right voice to do so.

98 | Sidney Gish - No Dogs Allowed (2018)

Sidney Gish creates music that is somehow nostalgic without referring back to any specific era or event. Listening to No Dogs Allowed makes you wistful for a bygone era you weren't actually sure ever existed. The songs on this record have an innately charming and ethereal nature to them, basking them in a layer of familiarity that most music can only achieve after repeated listens. Gish is infinitely likable and constructs well-made songs that play exactly to their strengths. No Dogs Allowed is an amazing look at the later Gen Z experience in America today and strikes a deserved chord with many other queer young people. This record is easily one of the most criminally underlooked of the past five years.

97 | Megan Thee Stallion - Fever (2019) 

Megan Thee Stallion wants you to know that she is bad as hell in every sense of the word. This album is an affirmation of both her badness and skill for delivering fun slapper tracks. The album is a lengthy testament solely to the act and lifestyle of being a pimp. As an album, it represents a new sort of gender equality within the rap scene. It’s a 40-minute-long acceptance and celebration of the fact that women can also make dope, focused, and invigorating tracks about all traditional rap topics with just as much self-importance and braggadocio. Megan is impatient for her rise, but Fever shows that this desire is less immature and more important; her voice is powerful and belongs on the forefront of the contemporary rap scene.

96 | Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool (2016) 

A Moon Shaped Pool is Radiohead’s most depressing and mournful record yet, which is a pretty big statement for a band that's made some of the most desolate and unsettling songs ever. Thom Yorke’s voice has ripened even further with age, growing even more ghostlike and otherworldly over the electronic and dream pop-influenced instrumentals. A Moon Shaped Pool is a haunting treatise on impermanence, death, aging, and the legacy we leave behind through art after we are gone. For a band so late in their career, Radiohead maintain a youthful ability to adapt and grow their sound to an evolving musical world, and this skill is one of the reasons they deserve their status as one of the best bands to grace the Earth.

95 | Beach House - Bloom (2012)

Bloom is the ultimate stadium pop album, a dreamy pop piece from an era of oversaturatedness and insincerity in the genre around them. What makes Beach House so honest is their refusal to reinvent the wheel; they may lean heavily on their influences, but they still produce top-notch music which is amazing for what it is. This album, however, is their most original; Beach House delve into the darkened corners of their own sound, breaking the way for their comfortable pace the rest of their discography. This is one of the best dream pop records this decade.

94 | King Krule - The OOZ (2017) 

King Krule creates an incredible exploration into the nature of misery with The OOZ. This record is one of the somberest of the decade, wallowing in depressively lengthy songs and featuring decrepitly introspective songwriting and aesthetic choices. Krule’s deep and rumbling cadence is an enabler of his musical direction, allowing him to truly sell the depth of the misery and depression he reflects upon as fully personal and authentic music. This record, while not essential for every type of music fan, is a poignant and valuable look into the manifestation of depression into art, something those of us with the illness must reconcile with as we seek to create. Krule is authentic, resonating, and triumphant.

93 | DaBaby - KIRK (2019) 

DaBaby is one of America’s new favorite media personalities, in no small part due to the fact that he radiates sincerity in everything he says and does. In every interview, be it in the aftermath of his recent unjust arrest and police harassment in his native Charlotte or on Saturday Night Live, DaBaby is stunningly kind, evocative, charismatic, and hilarious. His music is absolutely reflective of this sincerity, and KIRK is one of the most fun and energizing hip hop records of the decade. His flow remains unchallengably appealing, switching from hit to hit in almost equally bangertastic verses that make you feel like you can run through a wall or punch a cop and get away with it. DaBaby is also unlauded for his ability to bring out good things from others, scoring noticeably above par verses from the likes of Moneybagg Yo and Stunna 4 Vegas which play up from the artist’s usual performance. DaBaby had the epicest 2019 there was.

92 | Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues (2011) 

The Fleet Foxes are masters of creating ambiance, and Helplessness Blues is the full realization of this knack as well as the full realization of Robin Pecknold’s vocal talent. Brooding and existential lyrics are veiled in a sash of fluttery strings and naturalistic production. The experience of listening to Fleet Foxes is part of what makes their music good itself; one can’t help but feel at ease when Peckinold is sliding angelically over a sound which can be most accurately described as ‘early Bon Iver but woodsier.’ This album is a key piece of early decade folk and one of the most atmospheric pieces of the decade.

91 | JPEGMAFIA - Veteran (2018)

JPEGMAFIA has recreated the protest song for a new generation, combining leftist liberatory thematic spins and industrial-influenced production to create one of the most political and striking records of the past few years. Internet culture and its influence is absolutely marked on the work, but is nowhere near as saturated and essential to its understanding than his other projects. Veteran is accessible, ravenous, and unforgiving: blame is placed squarely on those who deserve it, and god help those who JPEGMAFIA is able to enact his righteous vengeance upon. Leftist ideology is too rarely directly promoted and understood in contemporary records, and is even more rarely done well; Veteran is this done at its best.

90 | Ariana Grande - Sweetener (2018)

Standing in contrast to the brooding and serious thematic spin of 2019’s Thank U, Next, Sweetener is a treatise on positivity, happiness, and the everlasting energy of the human spirit. Sweetener celebrates the divine nature of budding relationships love, passion, and the emotional ensemble that comes with it. This album also was the first to truly establish Grande as a certified hit-maker, with songs like “God Is A Woman” serving as key set pieces which both advance the album and manage to stand on their own as individual pieces. Ariana’s 2010’s career has been the definition of turbulent, and Sweetener represents an already bygone era and radiating love and positivity which emerged from it.

89 | Blueface - Dirt Bag (2019)

I promise this is not a bit, I really think that Blueface is one of 2019’s freshest rap voices. Blueface is a connoisseur of the dense rap bar and, Dirt Bag hones his ability to deliver biting punchlines into even more memorable choruses following his breakthrough Famous Cryp. Blueface’s lifestyle, worldview, and hedonism are fully celebrated and advertised on the EP: Songs such as “Bussdown” and “Bleed It” represent some of his best songwriting to date. Blueface’s untamed and cascading flow may be off-putting to some, but he carries bars and swings through verses on levels of imagery like no other contemporary artist. This tape is a promising performance from one of rap’s coolest new voices.

88 | Death Grips - The Money Store (2012)

The Money Store is one of 4 Death Grips projects featured on this list; it is reasonable to say that no band had a more consistent, full decade run than the titanic Death Grips. And, although Exmilitary is excellent and influential in its own right, The Money Store is when it all really started; the hype, the bits, and everything tangential to the band’s notorious internet fanbase really began with this album. Completely aside from all that dumb trivial crap, Death Grips can be seen coming into their own throughout the album; harvesting their virulent and pulsating sound, showcasing the flawless drumming of Zach Hill, and creating choruses and hooks which are just as impactful with today’s youth as punk was in the 80s. The Money Store was the beginning of a legendary run.

87 | Toby Fox - UNDERTALE Soundtrack (2016)

I am anti-soundtrack, as a person. I generally don’t love soundtracks to movies or games, and they don’t often stick out to me as independent pieces of work. I’m absolutely a soundtrack Grinch. But I can not even begin to imply that the Undertale soundtrack is nothing other than a work of virtuoso from a man who is just as good of a music producer as he is of a game designer. Undertale transcends its status as the ultimate meme music not by shunning it, but by outshining it through the sheer charmingness and sprightliness of the short songs and the resounding poignancy of the longer-form atmospheric tracks. It is far and away the best soundtrack to any piece of media that I have heard in a long time; it stands as a complete work, and I consider it to be an album.

86 | Rico Nasty and Kenny Beats - Anger Management (2019)

The 2nd shortest project on this list, Anger Management makes its veracity known and leaves its mark fully within the 20 minutes the listener has with it. Kenny Beats is a producer coming fully into his own, and the production on Anger Management reinforces the legitimacy of said rise; there is not one dull sounding moment, and the ferociousness of Rico’s flow never allows for one slow moment. Kenny and Rico are a powerful duo heading into the next decade, and this tape offers hope for even lengthier cooperative projects. However, the album has maintained its status as an energetic festival since release, and will likely only grow more revered with time.

85 | Jeff Rosenstock - WORRY (2016)

Jeff Rosenstock is the definitional cool old head, in no small part because he is still making music that whips ass about 10 to 15 years after the high-point of his career. WORRY, besides being an undeniably charming and endearing record, is some of the best garage rock/ska-influenced rock that’s been released this decade. Rosenstock has a knack for constructing surprisingly wholesome and poignant love songs and lyrical arrangements, and guitar work on this album is fabulously technical. This record represents the best of a genre creating music as they do best.

84 | Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial (2016) 

Teens Of Denial is one of the best conventional rock records to be released in a long time. While it lacks the artistic vision and grandiose thematic construction of Twin Fantasy, Will Toledo’s incredible lyricism is even more the centerpiece of this album. Lyrics that are as common as they are poetic, like my personal favorite, “I did not transcend, I just felt like a piece of shit in a stupid looking jacket,” strike a chord because they are funny, relatable in some way or other, and somehow still incredibly poignant. Will Toledo’s voice is amazing (as it always is), and Teens of Denial was an impressive reflection of a band about to truly come into stride and hit their peak.

83 | Deakin - Sleep Cycle (2017)

In the 2010s, synth-pop titans Animal Collective maintained a steady yet comparatively uninspired pace, choosing instead to develop their solo careers. Sleep Cycle is the best of these solo projects and is notable for being a vocal-based album by a member of the band who was not a primary vocalist. Deakin’s voice is soothing and distant, ushering in the otherworldliness and kindness which caused Animal Collective’s work to resonate with so many. Additionally, Deakin establishes his prowess as a solo artist with his own artistic vision.

82 | Vampire Weekend - Modern Vampires Of The City (2013)

Vampire Weekend permanently toe the line of bourgeoisie corniness and perfectly made yacht rock, and Modern Vampires Of The City is the band at their most creative and genuine. Ezra Koening and crew will always sound like a song made for Kia commercials, although if Neo Yokio is any indication, the band operates with this fully in mind. However, this doesn’t mean the music is bad in any sense of the world; Vampire Weekend produce music that is so insanely well crafted that it wraps back around to feeling inauthentic in some way. The band manages to make this sincerity known with heart-wrenching songs like “Hannah Hunt,” and as always Koenig’s smooth and reassuring voice is a highlight of the album and a treat to hear. Despite everything, Vampire Weekend slaps and will continue to slap. Ezra’s grand design is beyond our mortal plane of understanding.

81 | Denzel Curry - ZUU (2019) 

I hate to nuance positive reviews with negativity, but it needs to be said; I thought Denzel Curry was pretty crap before ZUU. I still think that “TA300” or however it's spelled is a cornball-bonanza, and I thought there was no way the follow-up would be anywhere close to good. I was dead wrong. Denzel Curry managed to harness all the good, endearing parts scattered in his previous work and congeal them into a 30-minute banger fest based on South Florida pride. ZUU works extremely well because it is a catchy, non-assuming record that seeks only to deliver the highest possible frequency of kickassishness it can within its short running time. And for the most part, it succeeds, forming a lasting contribution to the 2010’s rap canon.

80 | (Sandy) Alex G - Rocket (2017)

(Sandy) Alex G is the most relevant voice in neo-folk to emerge this decade, doing so largely by constructing a sound that is warmly inviting and understanding of the difficulties of the modern rural/suburban experience. Although there are experimental tracks like “Brick” scattered throughout the record, the core of the album’s arc is a story of the warmth of domesticity, the ethereal nature of family, and the wistful beauty of a domestic existence. (Sandy) Alex G’s music is charming to its core, unassuming about the listener, and a completely self-contained experience that is somehow also universal in its messaging.

79 | Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015) 

Courtney Barnett possesses a knack for bitingly real lyrics and sound songwriting, which has rightfully allowed for her to be recognized as one of the best singer-songwriters this generation. Songs on Sometimes I Sit and Think are morose, relevant, familiar, and loving all the same; it is an insanely smart testament to the strangeness of the modern human condition. I would also be remiss to not mention how hard the bass lines and guitar choruses hit on this album. The ability to combine such fierce songwriting with powerful music is all too rare in rock today, which is why Barnett’s breakthrough was such a breath of fresh air when it first released and still remains so to this day.

78 | Slowdive - Slowdive (2017) 

Reunion albums always pose a risk of severe disappointment, especially when said band is as relevant to the development of a genre and music internet tastes as Slowdive are. Instead of wavering under such expectations, Slowdive soared, delivering one of the best shoegaze albums of the decade and a highly worthy addition to the Slowdive canon. While not a revolutionary reimagining of their previous sound, the eponymous album continues the band’s uncanny knack for creating dreamy, refreshing soundscapes, which are the sonic equivalent of the eternally pleasant feeling of the cold side of the pillow. Many shoegaze bands have come and gone since Souvlaki’s release in 1994, but with their 2017 return, Slowdive proved that their ethereal magic is eternal. 

77 | Tame Impala - Currents (2015) 

Kevin Parker’s follow up to the breakout Lonerism establishes him as one of the most influential and prominent producers and sound designers of the century. The sleek, techno-rock filtered production aesthetic so carefully created by Parker more than carries famously maligned weak points such as “Past-Life.” Meanwhile, the high points of the album such as “Let It Happen,” and “Eventually” stand as some of the most sonically pleasing songs of the decade. If Rihanna thinks that Tame Impala songs sound good enough to be on the masterful ANTI, I trust that judgment.

76 | alt-J - Relaxer (2017) 

I went to an alt-J concert shortly after Relaxer was released. Every bandmember stood amongst their synthesizers on stage, harmonizing and doing what they do while thousands of tranced-out/high teenagers danced rabidly to the music. The concert, much like the band and this album, was not a repudiation of their critics or reimagination of their style, but a celebration of their particular approach to indie music. To this day, the show’s pure, simple, and positive essence remains one of my fondest live music experiences. Similarly, the group’s third effort is an unassuming yet remarkable record if only for its sheer dedication to the craft of creating enjoyable, layered psych trance-pop. alt-J focuses not on pretenses, but on making pleasant and thoughtful music, and Relaxer is their best work yet.

75| Freddie Gibbs & Madlib - Bandana (2019) 

Although their first collaboration produced the renowned Piñata, Freddie Gibbs and Madlib found their true sound on Bandana. Madlib proves that, as we all know, he is still one of the forefront producers in the world; it feels canned talking about Madlib production at a certain point (what hasn’t been said?), but it really is that good. Gibbs continues his incredible post-wrongful-arrest hot streak into 2019 with this record, delivering fierce and firm bars with little breathing room from top to bottom of the tracklist. He even drops an anti-vaxxer line and it still kinda hits, that’s how hard this record is. “Classic” style rap records made in the 2010s were rarely ever non-derivative, yet Bandana feels wholly original and self-created.

74 |  Lil Peep - Come Over When You’re Sober, Part I (2017) 

The story of 2010’s rap is impossible to tell without the inclusion of Lil Peep. One of the original artists to become popular off of Soundcloud following and an originator of the rise of “emo rap,” Peep's music reflected the bitter realities of his life with the same kind, soft-hearted emotionality which continues to resonate with fans of his work long after his death. The music itself exists on the fringes of misery, a world full of painful break-ups and the all-encompassing horror of drug addiction. Yet somehow, his outlook and talent shine through this misery, delivering songs that are empathetic yet empowering. The music scene and the world is a darker place without him.

73 | Bon Iver - 22, A Million (2016) 

22, A Million came at a critical juncture in Bon Iver’s career. The album represents a move completely in the experimental direction, abandoning the comfort zone of guitars and understated ballads for an intriguing and admirable voyage into the dregs of Justin Vernon’s psyche. This album is primarily about feelings, and thus the music is designed mostly to procure an emotional and wistful response above all else. The detached sort of imagination I am placed in whenever I listen to this album is a testament to its success in this objective. The longer songs on this album are striking in their permanence and their emotional impact. I have listened to very few albums which so effortlessly throw me into introspection, and the cascading beauty of this album has been a comfort many times in my life.

72 | SOPHIE - Oil of Every Pearl’s Uninsides (2018) 

SOPHIE is one of the seminal producers and most visible trans musicians in the industry today. Her debut album, a techno-influenced dream pop extravaganza, is a triumphant reflection on both existing as a trans person, a woman in the music industry, and an isolated being in the cold and expansive universe. Sometimes, this is done through erotically biting distorted bangers such as “Ponyboy” other times through distant, ethereal angelic pleading like on “Is it Cold In The Water?” Diversity and confusion is a key aspect of SOPHIE’s existence, and this album manifests this into an artistic avenue and a bold exploration that is immeasurably valuable for those unversed in her experience.

71 | Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap (2013) 

Before Chance became the ambassador for cornballs nationwide, he was an up-and-coming rapper who rightfully broke into the mainstream consciousness with his excellent tape, Acid Rap. A product of an early 2010’s hip hop scene which was largely devoid of new ideas and fresh talent, Chance was able to establish himself as a master of fun, catchy hip-hop/ R&B fusion tracks that inspire emotions of youthful revelry and a world full of wild possibilities. Chance also uses his album as a platform for other Chicago artists yet to break into the public consciousness through fabulously crafted features from Saba and Noname. While his public image has shifted more towards Chance the Capper, Acid Rap is still an excellent record from a now bygone era of hip hop.

70 | Young Thug - Jeffery (2016) 

Young Thug’s dynamic follow-up to the equally-strong Barter 6 is a reintroduction of his true self to a hip-hop scene that still was not ready to accept his talent. And, unsurprisingly to his fans, he reaffirmed his status as one of trap’s most eccentric and imaginative voices, constructing a genre-bending fusion feast which holds its originality and fire to this day. Jeffery operates as a Young Thug’s “Self Titled” of sorts, describing the vast, bright majesty of his lifestyle and the connections in life that he has made. Young Thug albums, when they are at their best, are joyous celebrations of humanity and the ties we can make, be they sexual, romantic, platonic, or any of the weird sorts of bonds in between. Jeffery is a fantastic collection of songs with this spirit fully imbued into them, coming out from the seams to explode into one of the most empowering albums of the decade.

69 | Beyoncé - Beyoncé (2013) 

Self-titled albums, as a concept, are about the musicians themselves and the lives they lead. Beyoncé’s self-titled work, from the height of her popularity and the beginning of her cultural indomitability, is focused squarely on her. Beyoncé has developed a voice, an important and valuable voice, and she intends to share it. The thematic focus on women’s empowerment and emboldenment, often through means of wealth and fabulousness, are equal parts reflective of a bygone Obama era neoliberal optimism and a powerful statement rooted in generations of struggle. This album is a testament to the conflict which is black existence in America in the 2010s, and it is executed marvelously. Also, “Partition” bears one of the best beat switches of the decade.

68 | Ariana Grande - thank u, next (2019) 

Songs on thank u, next sound organically cool. Ariana crafts it to seem like she isn't really trying when she makes her lyrics; they're just about how boss she is and the boss life that she leads. However, a close listen reveals that this blasé veneer is just as purposeful and well done as anything else the pop star has ever touched. The emotional reckoning with the highly public nature of her turbulent love life combined with the death of a loved one came together to form a profoundly sincere and thoughtful piece. Ariana is a badass still, and wants you to know it; songs like “7 rings” and “Break up With Your Boyfriend, I’m Bored” are so good that you won’t soon forget that fact. But, as humans are eternally complicated and internally conflicted, Ariana also relays and grapples with sentimentality, romance, loss, and their coexistence all at once. Additionally, the structural tracklist choice of putting the singles exclusively at the end of the record is a bold and rewarding selection, which fits amazingly within the organization of the album.

67 | Carly Rae Jepsen - EMOTION (2015)

Carly Rae Jepsen is a the master of the chorus. One of my closest friends and I have spent many hours discussing *exactly* what makes EMOTION such a fabulous pop project, and we couldn’t help but settle on the chorus writing as one of the primary reasons. Carly creates extended, heart-wrenching, cascading choruses as if it were the easiest thing to do in the world, and loads the album (and B-sides) full of them. Smart pop songs are very often outwardly enjoyable and inwardly miserable, and Carly writes lyrics and songs which are the perfect embodiment of this phenomenon. This album has helped to define a generation of pop and is one of the most influential records on this list.

66 | Blueface - Famous Cryp (2018) 

What makes Blueface good? This is a question many of you are probably wondering at this point in the list; I am here to preach the gospel of chasing a bag and worrying not what others are doing. Blueface songwriting exists in a comic-book universe, where gangbanging heroes pull up and bleed it in broad daylight. Crypping and bravery are the currency of this universe, and our protagonist is rich. Blueface lyrics are densely layered with humor and otherworldliness: from the insanely Freudian extended metaphor of people’s piece being directly referred to as their “second dick”  to the bars about owning a minivan and dealing with romantic partners who don't understand object permanence. In this universe, rapping is storytelling and the beat is a suggestion that can be played with and hopped in and out of. Blueface is a master wordsmith and one of the best musicians in the game when it comes to ‘worldbuilding’ through music; his aesthetic vision and artistic representation of the life he leads and the debauchery he participates in is highly developed.

65 | Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) 

So much has already been said about this album, and how could that not be the case? My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy redefined what hip-hop albums were supposed to look like, sound like, and be structured like in the new decade; no album has been a bigger trendsetter and cultural pariah as this one. The production still holds up after almost a full decade, creating the first true Kanye West masterful soundscape and making an album about being an irredeemable asshole sound like it came from a gospel choir. I won’t dwell on how fantastic this album is; this has been done by better music reviewers than I many times over. But to omit it from this list would be a staunch disservice.

64 | Vince Staples - Big Fish Theory (2017)

Vince Staples is very good at rapping. Technical, concise rapping and flows are done better than Vince by few in the music scene today. Such talent and technicality is the thematic basis for Big Fish Theory, an album with a clear focus as a showcase of the insane talent of Staples and to claim his rightful place at the forefront of contemporary rap. This album achieves this not only through sole reliance on Staples’ revelry, but the eclectic hip-hop production of SOPHIE, creating an Avengers-tier collaboration on “Yeah Right” with Kendrick Lamar. Lyrics on this album are also notably poignant for their strong and powerful political messaging, all coming together to form an excellent rap record.

63 | Jai Paul - Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones) (2013) 

The Jai Paul story is a tragic legend, recounted on music message boards and leak websites for years. That is, until he returned from the shadows with a heartfelt and memorable twitter post and then released the formerly leaked work officially, not in its intended final form but as it was, as Bait Ones, which in spite of everything is still fantastic. Jai Paul has one of god’s chosen voices; something about it daunts you and hangs over the soundscape in your head like an eternal musical poltergeist. The songs are mostly either unfinished or demos, but they are fantastic and imaginative and a completely novel approach to pop nonetheless. The album’s incompleteness is part of the mythos, a work permanently hampered by time yet resilient through all of that nonetheless. Also, in a major upside, he kept the really cool cover which is one of my favorites of the decade. Cool ass album.

62 | Taylor Swift - RED (2012) 

This album comes from a beautiful midpoint in Taylor Swift’s career, the juncture between her earlier pop-country act and her future full-on arena pop direction. What is left in the middle is a sprawling and revolutionary pop record, the best she has ever released and her essential contribution to the 2010’s pop canon. Swift employs her skill for catchy songwriting and earnestness found in her earlier albums, and refines it into a mature and developed pop sound; her artistry comes into its own with this album. All the things Taylor Swift has been praised for for years, be it her fabulous songwriting and riveting orchestration and arrangement, is best on RED. The album is a feat of Americana and one of the best traditional pop albums of the era.

61 | Arcade Fire - The Suburbs (2010) 

The Suburbs is the swan song of the first era of Arcade Fire’s sound; a wistful and optimistic reflection on life in the endless American cultural wasteland which is the suburbs. Those of us who grew up where all houses looked the same for hours on end can have something specific resonate upon listening to this album. Win Butler knows how it feels to exist as a young person in this marginal suburban experience, and the band is able to transpose this feeling across an epic of a rock album. The Suburbs is not the peak of the band’s songwriting, and really that's not an insult considering how Arcade Fire has written some of the best songs of all time, but it still delivers its message with enthusiasm and vitriol.

60 | Tierra Whack - Whack World (2018) 

I feel like, because so much (rightful) attention has been given to the conceptual arc of Whack World as a 15 minute/15 song album, many have failed to commend just how structurally good songs and Tierra Whack’s rapping are themselves. Every blurb on this record manages to be catchy and memorable, creating a rich, cultured soundscape that lingers in your memory for days after listening. Tierra Whack sought to identify the base and concise components of what makes music good, and she absolutely succeeded. It is one of the most imaginative projects of the decade.

59 | Tame Impala - Lonerism (2012) 

On this record, quite unscrupulously titled to its thematic focus on loneliness and isolation, Kevin Parker was able to synthesize 60’s era pop patterns with cutting-edge production. The result is something that is most accurately described as “The Beatles Through A Sepia Instagram Filter”: the sound is breathtakingly familiar yet surprisingly new. Tame Impala’s music is as much original as it is a reimagining of previous sounds. On this album, Parker is more lucid and honest about himself and his life than on any other Tame Impala effort. It is the best album from a band that makes good albums, and the one with the tightest thematic focus and actual positive factors that don’t hinge solely on production.

58 | Snail Mail - Lush (2018) 

Lindsay Jordan is one of the best voices in rock today, and Lush serves as a fantastic debut and introduction of her talents. Aside from her angelic, haunting voice, the songwriting and arrangement skills of Jordan are sublime. Songs on this album are never too short, nor do they overstay their welcome; and when they are playing, the lyrical density and metaphorical motifs inserted into the record are phenomenally deep. This album is well-written, well-made, well-realized, and well-executed, and rarely are debut albums all of these things. Lush is an essential part of the 2010’s rock canon, and Snail Mail will be a core part of the 2020s rock canon.

57 | Mitski - Be The Cowboy (2018) 

Mitski’s popularity exploded with Be The Cowboy, partially as a testament to the excellence of her earlier career, but largely because the album is a culmination of her journey and her most polished and researched sound to date. She has found her songwriting niche as the master of vagueness and subtlety; lines like the choruses of “Two Slow Dancers” and the lines about venus and global warming which manage to be heart-wrenching and desolate despite being trivial at a surface level. Mitski challenges you to understand the struggles she faces and her reckoning with past abusive relationships through the same lens that she does. She executes this challenge by creating compelling, haunting, and universally appealing music that is even more rewarding to those who relisten and attempt to dig deeper into what the album has to offer. It is one of the most layered releases to be put out in years and is a testament to the power of songwriting and poetry. Oh, and her singing is still, like, top 5 in the business right now. That helps a lot too.

56 | Weyes Blood - Titanic Rising (2019) 

Titanic Rising is one of the best chamber pop/singer-songwriter records of the decade, an astounding latecomer of this decade that also serves as an introduction to one of the industries’ most promising figures of the next. The lyrics on this album are phenomenal, some of the best on this list: eternally wise and striking mantras such as “true love is making a comeback” are so commonplace on this album that it feels ordinary in its excellency. So many great records came out in 2019, and this record is reflective of a completely unique vain of this fabulousness; Weyes Blood have returned to the sounds of mid-70s under-recognized artists, such as Joni Mitchell, and completely refined it for a beautiful new sound.

55 | KIDS SEE GHOSTS - KIDS SEE GHOSTS (2018)

Out of the most bizarre and disappointing era of the Kanye West arc comes the collaborative project with Kid Cudi KIDS SEE GHOSTS, a bottled-lightning record, and a testament to the maintained dominance of West as the world’s forefront producer and audio technician. Kids See Ghosts is Kanye at his inward and polished, a digital sandbox of songs constructed with his favorite collaborator on his own terms. While the context of Kanye’s horridness at the time of this record’s release can not be removed from the albums aesthetic, the magnificent and empowering songwriting and high-effort contributions from Cudi are able to exhibit profound beauty also within the confines of the 24-minute work. This album is musically infallible, intense, and a key testament to the new heights of production capable in the modern era. Kanye West has never produced better than this album.

54 | Sufjan Stevens - The Age Of Adz (2010) 

The Age of Adz is Sufjan Steven’s wildest sound to date, a cacophony of noise experimentation and electronic riffing that comes together with his genteel singing to form a reflective, brooding, and stunning album. The album opens with what is probably the masterwork of Sufjan’s conventional style and ends with a 27-minute-long sprawling opus of a song that could easily be qualified as an EP in and of itself. The kicker is that everything in the middle of “Futile Devices” and “Impossible Soul” is completely distinct from the ideas and sound of the opener and closer. The sounds and motifs on this album are experimental yet well-considered, a combination so rare in forays into the unknown. Sufjan had a plan for this album, all the twists and turns which it goes through and decisions it makes, and it is executed immaculately.

53 | Death Grips - No Love Deep Web (2012) 

No Love Deep Web is a snapshot of Death Grips at the high point of their visceralness and intensity; few records released this decade contain the raw untapped power created in some of these songs. Zach Hill, who I personally believe to be the most paramount member of the band, is unstoppable with his drumming on this album. Few have managed to drive the entire arc of songs and be at the forefront of the musical ensemble quite like Hill has, especially on this album. Although the band has evolved into something newer and greater, No Love Deep Web is an essential look at the peak of the band’s first wave.

52 | Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2015)

Josh Tillman has one of the sweetest voices in all of music today, and he takes this indescribable talent all the way to the bank on his brilliant sophomore album. Misty’s bitter pessimism and misanthropy are disguised and even enhanced by the divine beauty of his voice; the contrast of the bitterness and resignation of his songwriting and his singing cadence is the essential crux on which this album succeeds. Songs on this album are empathetic and tender just as much as they are condemnations of human misery. The press cycle around Father John Misty and his uber-eccentric public profile often fails to account for just how good the music really is.

51 | BROCKHAMPTON - Saturation Trilogy (2017) 

The “Brockhampton Moment” meant a lot to a lot of people, including myself. I was really, really into the Saturation albums when I came in to contact with my queerness and realized I wasn’t straight. If anything, I can say that Brockhampton acted as a really refreshing and cool way to reflect on the common anxieties and motivations of queer people in today’s world and the internal struggle of queer American existence. It feels amiss to consider the 3 separate works; for me, Saturation is an extended, magical musical slide across three wonderful albums. However, the Ameer sexual assault situation and his subsequent removal from the band have permanently marred and estranged the albums for me personally; it is hard to erase the mark of the man who is literally on the cover of all 3 albums, and his evils seem to hang over the work. Brockhampton’s 2017 was an insane and eventually tragic moment, but the albums themselves remain important, yet sullied, statements on queer existence.

50 | Black Dresses - Love And Affection For Stupid Little Bitches (2019) 

Devi Genetrix and Ada Rook’s chemistry is as tangible as the unending fleeting distortion on every track on this album. The duo explore the trans and -wlw experience through brilliantly layered choruses, early 2000’s nostalgic yet existentially miserable songwriting, and a completely unique sound that relies on the balance between beauty and convolutedness and toes the line everywhere from pop to industrial. Black Dresses make music that is completely their own, an encapsulation of their own journey through queer and trans existence in a hostile and ignorant world. The sound of the band is borderline indescribable and is one of the coolest things I’ve been introduced to this year.

49 | Joanna Newsom - Have One On Me (2010)

Have One on Me by the incomparable Joanna Newsom is an amazing avant-garde work of folk and ambient music that pushes the borders of album definition and creativity itself. The longest album on this list, Have One On Me is a lyrical stunner; Newsom is a wordsmith like none other who can elicit nostalgia and dread in the blink of an eye. The album has troughs and lulls that bring the listener in to a sort of meditatively catatonic state which is both pleasurable and intense. Her art engages you in a way other music doesn’t, almost as if she is challenging you to think critically about the concept of the song and album themselves.

48 | Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (2019) 

Billie Eilish is the harbinger of Gen Z, and with her comes a reimagining of poptimism style sounds with highly apparent ASMR, YouTube, internet, and countless other musical influences. Eilish’s artistry is defined by her youth and her otherness and separation from a world that has doomed her generation; the music produced through this attitudinal lens is a whirling, sharp collection of songs. Her natural virtuoso is unmistakable, and her synergy with her brother’s production is a boon to the playout of a lot of her songwriting. I like Billie so much because she makes incredibly honest, youthful, yet wise pop for a generation that is only now finding its voice. Many of the anxieties and absurdities of the album and her public persona strike a sort of familiarity with younger people, who have been faced their entire lives with terrifying existential threats such as climate change and never-ending war. This album is a manifestation of this dejectedness, this anxiety, and the coolness harnessed from it.

47 | Angel Olsen - All Mirrors (2019) 

All Mirrors is a wonderful hybrid of a multitude of styles and genres from chamber pop to shoegaze to noise and everything in between. Yet, instead of being disoriented and unfocused, Angel Olsen’s vision and clarity shine throughout the record, acting as a beam of light that splits a prism into a complex and beautiful rainbow. Songs on this album are so sonically built and well made they can be almost overwhelming; Angel Olsen is a savant of conveying the emotionally subtle through sonic veracity. This album is one of 2019’s finest because the importance and scope of the project are so visibly apparent in the craftsmanship and tonality of the work; Angel Olsen very visibly put in an excess of time to convey her vision and artistic merit through a prismal artistic lens.

46 | Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city (2012) 

good kid, m.A.A.d city is Kendrick Lamar’s finest work, a universally poignant yet personally disorganized album that which is just as much about Kendrick himself coming to terms with his own life as it is about us, the listeners, learning about it. This album is entirely narrative-based, containing discussional interludes and sections which serve perfectly to keep driving the story, and tells an important story on the interplay of race, poverty, and violence within America today. Overall, good kid, m.A.A.d city is hopeful despite the depravity and evil faced within it. Despite the death of a close friend and the injustices of gang violence and the conditions which cause them, Kendrick finds hope in religion and in himself. This album prescribes hope to the hopeless and voices to the voiceless and is a key part of the early 2010’s hip-hop Mount Rushmore.

45 | Freddie Gibbs - Freddie (2018) 

Born out of the fires of Kenny Beats’ production refinery and molded in the heat of Freddie Gibbs’ cadence comes one of the hardest and most underlooked projects of the decade. Gibbs is a veteran who constructs appealing flows and bars like its nothing; part of what makes Freddie so appealing is how effortlessly it feels like the words are falling out of his mouth. This album also encompasses some of the best work Kenny Beats has put out thus far, matching Gibbs’ fierce energy with bouncy and intense production, which even comes to outshine the flow of Gibbs at times. It is a shame this album never took off in critical or commercial circles because it absolutely stands shoulder to shoulder hits-wise with some of the most revered music of the day. Also, this album has an excellent 03 Greedo feature, which got me into him as an artist.

44 | MGMT - Congratulations (2010) 

My all-time favorite bit is how ridiculously often people on /r/indieheads will tell you that MGMT’s Congratulations is the “hidden gem” album of the 2010s. It is non-exaggeratedly every daily music discussion thread. While this is an insane circlejerk, the undercurrent to the sentiment is undoubtedly true - Congratulations is one of the coolest psych-pop records of the 2010s and a seminal album from the earliest part of the decade. The synth work on this album is absurdly good, the best the band has achieved up until this point. MGMT harnessed the might of their youthful energy from Oracular Spectacular and blended it in to form amazingly spacey and exquisite-sounding hooks. This album is the closest musical equivalent I can draw to a powerful shrooms trip on a beach in Malibu, and it is nuts.

43 | Rico Nasty - Nasty (2018) 

Simply put, Rico Nasty delivers some of the staunchest heat known to man on this album. I wish there was a better adjective to describe her flow style than ‘annihilating,’ but going in is really what she does best. This album was a breakthrough in her career, a filtering of the raw energy hidden beneath her previous work, erupting into a sound that is refreshingly insane. Flying over production from Kenny Beats, Rico delivers empowering anthem-esque tracks with the same veracity as she does all-out flaming bangers. This album is a core part of conventional modern hip hops’ environment and has received far too little attention overall.

42 | Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 (2014) 

Run The Jewels 2 is a testament to the power that those with artistic vision can achieve with immaculate album organization and construction. Although it feels almost impossible to not find Run The Jewels a little corny, they are so good at the act of creating a rap album that they manage to overcome this predilection towards cornballery and even use it as a charming badge of honor, a testament to their cartoonish lyrics and electronic production. Killer Mike and El-P have undeniable charisma formed very apparently through years of friendship, and it is exuded through every inch of the album. The two of them exchange bars and lines seamlessly, rapping as an integrated machine with their stylistic differences complementing each other instead of hindering. They are both very clearly in their element working together, and the album succeeds because of this.

41 | Danny Brown - XXX (2011) 

With this mixtape, Danny Brown delivered the starkest artistic piece on drug addiction to be released this decade. XXX is a thoughtful, angry, and pulsing album, conjuring up imagery of OD’d rockstars as choruses and illustrating how pervasive and encapsulating drugs can be on one’s life. Danny Brown doesn’t celebrate addiction in any way, but he also does not exclude what he sees as the fun parts of the lifestyle; what results is an incredibly honest rap album which is both influential for its lyrical content, its sound design, and its bangers. Danny Brown’s flow is biting and striking, both because of the high pitched and nasally sound of his cadence and the starkness of the lyrical content..

40 | Janelle Monáe - Dirty Computer (2018) 

The interplay of gender, race, and identity in America is a complex web of interaction that many strive to capture and grapple with in their art. None this decade have done a better job than Janelle Monáe, whos’ Dirty Computer is one of the most expressively conscious and dialectically important albums to be released this decade. Monáe is authoritative in her defiance of the capitalistic order which defines our everyday lives and celebratory of her own identity and her rightful and insanely poignant passion. “Dirty Computer” is a sprawling work, taking the listener down all the twists and turns felt in Monae’s experience with gender and race in evocative and eternally relevant ways. Nonbinary identity, blackness in America, grappling with the pressures of both the past and present, and countless other experiences are the underpinning of this fantastic and important album.

39 | Future - Monster (2014) 

Before there was DS2, Monster was the breakout success for Future and is the active host to some of his finest material, which manages to sound just as cool and groundbreaking as it did when it dropped as a mixtape over 5 years ago. Future is a virtuoso of versatility, employing so many varied cadences, flows, and singing styles which all manage to be emotionally provocative and equally entertaining. “Wesley Presley” is one of the hardest songs of his career, “Codeine Crazy” is still his most emotionally gut-wrenching, and “Radical” remains to be one of his most rousing anthems, contesting stellar songs such as “Groupies.” Future delivers consistently, and he delivers amazingly. This album also begins his trend of having only one, insanely high profile feature; in this case, a fantastic verse on “After That” from Lil Wayne that is reminiscent of the peak of his artistry. Monster is an incredible hip hop record and one of the finest works of one of the decade’s forefront artists.

38 | DJ Rashad - Double Cup (2014) 

Double Cup is the forefront of the footwork genre and is an amazing noise project from an artist that was taken from this Earth far too soon. DJ Rashad is a master of production, sewing together samples and beats like a master tailor into one of the most sonically interesting musical endeavors of the decade. Part plunderphonic influenced, part conventional beats, and part classic footwork are the bases upon which Double Cup is built, besides of course just being a cool-ass record at its core. This is the closest album I can qualify as the spiritual successor to the magic of DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing…; the ambiance and ethereal whimsicality that are the central aesthetic choices of both albums. However, Double Cup is also an experience all its own, and the talent of DJ Rashad will be sorely missed.

37 | Young Thug - So Much Fun (2019) 

Young Thug’s insanely creative and powerful decade is topped off by So Much Fun, his best work yet, and a showcase of the voluminous Atlanta talent in trap music today. This album is stacked to the brim with fabulous features from fellow contemporary Atlantian visionaries such as Lil Uzi Vert, 21 Savage, Lil Baby, Future, Gunna, and many more. However, none are quite as in tune as Thug himself, who has completely come into his own with this album. He is completely unapologetic for his idiosyncrasy, both personal and artistic, and it radiates off of him as he slays track after track with the most polished flow and catchy production he’s had in years. Seeing him rap alongside those popular, younger rappers he directly influenced (including an amazing feature from the stolen far too early Juice WRLD) and create a new generation of insane tracks is a warming feeling for any Thug fan, and I am more optimistic than ever for the directions he will head in 2020.

36 | Everything Everything - Get To Heaven (2016) 

The wistful etherealness conjured on this album by British band Everything Everything is a uniquely powerful aesthetic. This is experimental pop at its finest, pushing boundaries yet keeping things massively enjoyable. Choruses linger and cascade in to overtures, motifs reveal themselves and then re-emerge when you least expect them, and the instrumentality of the guitars and drumming is nothing short of immaculate. In a decade where group pop releases were not at the forefront of critical acclaim, Everything Everything stand above the rest as the landmark of group-based experimental pop.

35 | Beach House - 7 (2018) 

Beach House’s 7 stands for something in and of itself; it is an incredibly well-defined celebration of the genre and one of the most technically sound and auditorily appealing albums to be released this decade. 7 is the band’s opus and the culmination of their decade-long exploration into their own sound and the sound of dream pop in and of itself. The songs on 7 are intensely beautiful, almost overwhelming the listener at times; the catharsis put in to the creation of this album from every single member of the band is palpable. These are some of the sweetest sounding, lush, and expansive songs I have had the pleasure to experience from this decade. Beach House are transcendental.

34 | Tay-K - #SantanaWorld (2017) 

At the age of 16, Taymor McIntyre was facing trial as an adult for a gang-violence related murder in the particularly litigious state of Texas. He decided to take matters into his own hands; he cut his ankle monitor and ran for it, jumpstarting in popularity one of the most short-lived and unique hip-hop careers of the decade. While his notoriety helped Tay-K gain popularity independently, many have correctly identified his tape #SantanaWorld, released while on the lam, as one of the most essential pieces of cloud trap ever released. Tay-K slides over majestic, in-your-face beats with an untamed, sincere, and terrifying flow. Although there are only 8 non-remixed songs on the tape, he manages to make every track important: even back-tracks such as “Lemonade” and “Saran Pack” deliver the fun-loving, renegade-ish feeling that smash-hit “The Race” is most famous for delivering.

33 | Death Grips - Year Of The Snitch (2018) 

Year Of The Snitch is a victory lap for one of the decade’s most illustrious careers. Stefan, Zach Hill, and Andy Moranis are fully in control of their artistry and their legacy and chose to deliver a booming and diverse meditation on their existence as a band and one of their best works yet. Deriving a considerable portion of its sound from “Steroids,” a brilliant pre-album gabber I am choosing to lump in with this album for list space’s sake, Year Of The Snitch is a self-titled album and exploration of the Death Grips legacy. This album is a smart look in to the experience and musical psyche which are wrought from years of constant touring, internet pariah status, and other compounding factors. This managed to reignite the anger of the group, and ushered in what can be seen as a return to their origins, forming the most complete encapsulation of their sound to be released in album form.

32 | Charli XCX - Pop 2 (2017) 

Pop 2 is the textbook definition of an unproblematic favorite; bringing together of dozens of incredibly cool and musically-influential people under the guidance of the visionary Charli XCX. Converting her momentum from Vroom Vroom and Number 1 Angel into pure bliss, Charli constructs insane songs which are as remarkable for their memorability as they are for their sincerity. It is obvious that this album was in the hands of many people and is the passion project of a collected effort; Pop 2 feels too diverse and well-thought-out to be sincerely pinned down as one conceptual work. Charli is stunning in her delivery, maintaining a sort of piercing optimism and dedication to happiness that it is hard to not be won over by. “Track 10” is one of the most essential pop songs of the decade, to tie it all together and top this release off.

31 | Cardi B - Invasion Of Privacy (2018) 

Cardi B can really rap. Her flow is biting and raw yet always completely rhythmically in-check and her adlibs and charisma manage to sell her stylistic choices even more. Invasion of Privacy is a kickass album which has mastered the fun song, pulling in fabulous features from some of rap and R&B’s best. Even Cardi’s slower and more R&B-influenced songs are seasoned with anger and aggression. She is a woman who grew up in unjust conditions and continues to live an unjust existence due to factors outside of her. Her anger, ferocity, and resistance of this world and the hand she has been dealt is the chief underpinning of her music and the source of her artistic authenticity. Because of this, her successes feel like actual victories and her celebrations of them are even more striking; a song like “Bodak Yellow” is hard to sell to an audience and even harder to make good, and she does both. 21 Savage and the Migos both deliver their features excellently and deliver bangers, meanwhile SZA and Kehlani exquisitely complement Cardi’s anger with melody and emotionality.

30 | Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition (2016) 

Atrocity Exhibition is Danny Brown’s most polished work, an incredible achievement in sound construction and working to the strengths and talents of individual rappers. Brown is especially notable for his multiple cadences and flows and ability to swap between them with ease, and Atrocity Exhibition makes sure to make the most it can out of these talents. Rapping on this album is rarely consistent in any factor except for its solidness; cadence, flow, and all other sorts of technical matters are constantly played with and manipulated in order to achieve the best possible sound. What is consistent, however, is the strength of his delivery in an artistic sense. On top of all this, the cohesion of his features add a particularly strong finish to this magnificent record.

29 | Earl Sweatshirt - Doris (2013) 

Doris is, far and away, the best of the early Odd Future efforts and is emblematic of an era of a group which would go on to create their own subculture and music genres. Earl’s flow is insanely developed in comparison to his experience on this album; songs with Vince Staples are some of the most technically precise and contrite tracks put out this decade. The album is ripe in the way of good features; Tyler The Creator drops his early obnoxious public persona and delivers his most endearing bars from the era, Domo Genesis has his only good verse maybe ever, and handfull of the less-recognized voices in the Odd Future extended universe make some of their best contributions. Earl Sweatshirt, even at a young age, was fully-cognizant of the depths of evil and destruction felt by those living in capitalist societies, and his music reflects a sort of youthful jadedness and anger which has become the political fuel for generations of leftist young people. He was one of the first to tap into this feeling in our generation, and the one who probably still does it the best.

28 | 21 Savage, Offset, and Metro Boomin - Without Warning (2017) 

Without Warning is a superb conventional trap album that harnesses the internal spookiness and terror of Metro Boomin’s production and ramps it up to 11 in a vaguely Halloween-themed carnage festival. Offset and 21 Savage trade verses with genuine chemistry and excel on songs on their own, delivering radio smashes such as “Ric Flair Drip” and lower-key scary tracks such as “Run Up The Racks.” Offset is an amazing ad-libber, and that skill is deployed in full-force on this album; his verses feel like his best Migos contributions but more focused and featured appropriately within a well-constructed setting. Additionally, features on this album from Travis Scott and Quavo are notably above the artist’s usual mark, coming together to form the extended universe of Atlanta’s main trap justice league.

This album stands above other traditional trap albums due to its mastery of technical aspects, thematic strength, and just proclivity for making the songs good. It is one of the defining mainstream rap albums of the last five years and provides a key definitional album for the trap genre in the age of cloud trap ascendancy. Also, the cover dog is really cool, I want to pet that guy. ;]

27 | Kanye West - The Life Of Pablo (2016) 

The Life of Pablo is Kanye West at his emotional peak. This album is (and is entirely self-described as) the workings of an insane genius at the height of his power and production capability. What results is the most feature-dense, well-imagined, and ideologically expansive Kanye West album that there ever has been. This album, too, can be seen as the closing of an era, the last ramblings of pre-Republican and pre-billionaire Kanye West, as well as the last album before a major stylistic change heading into the Wyoming Sessions. This album is a panacea of talent that is, in a way, paying tribute to Kanye’s influence. Acts like Chance The Rapper, Sia, Young Thug, Sampha, and many other visionaries who are powerful Kanye-influenced voices turn in fantastic features for this record. All in all, The Life of Pablo is a stunning album that speaks for itself as far as scope and power.

26 | Tyler, The Creator - IGOR (2019) 

IGOR is a fascinating sonic project, a reimagination of the synth as an instrument and a testament to the goodwill and artistic genius with which Tyler, The Creator has come to operate. The narrative of this album is stunning and stark, a non-chronological heartbreak story that serves Tyler more as a means of reckoning with his own identity than with a broken heart. The influences on this album range from Playboi Carti’s adlibs to 80’s synth bands to Pharell beat construction; IGOR is a fusion and amalgamation of all of Tyler’s influences and a reconciliation of them within his own sound. This record contains sounds which will no doubt inspire a generation of artists heading into a new decade, and is a special album with an intrinsic coolness which is undoubtable.

25 | 100 Gecs - 1000 Gecs (2019) 

As much as I am tempted to just write the word “gec” 1,000 times for this blurb, it would be a disservice not to talk about how forward-thinking this album is and how genre-defining it will come to be. Laura Les and Dylan Brady have created the best Bubblegum Bass album to exist yet, and it would be a good world if the sounds and bold new choices made by the duo came to define the genre. Equal parts a child of early 2010s internet culture and early 2000s nostalgia, 1000 gecs is a celebration of the complexity of queer existence in a dystopian and confusing modern-day world. There are poppy poignant love songs which embody this queer experience, such as “Ringtone” and “gec 2 Ü,” just as much as there are insane otherworldly nether dimension bangers such as “800db cloud” and “money machine,” which feel as if they were born from the bottom of a pirated 2004 version of GarageBand gone rouge. 1000 Gecs says a lot, and it says it in all 23 minutes. Even more than that, it feels like they got across what they wanted to say, in their own Gectastic way. 1000 gecs is also impressive because it has the best Ska song of the decade on it, and that's nuts.

24 | The Avalanches - Wildflower (2016) 

It’s hard to imagine how Wildflower, made by the most revered plunderphonics act in the world, could be seen as vastly exceeding expectations. Yet The Avalanches managed to turn in a nearly-flawless, eternally summery work of Americana-themed noise and plunderphonics tracks after their 15 years of absence. The group manages to incorporate other legendary hip-hop voices, not the least of which include Biz Markie rapping about cereal and the best MF DOOM verse this decade, into a soundscape in which they sound reinvigorated and fully at home. Wildflower is a sprawling work of an album, bouncing off of summer barbecues, eternal subway systems, and the energy behind lovers’ eyes in a beautifully paced and never boring odyssey. Danny Brown has two incredible features on this album, one of which is on the lead single, and inspires hope for a future filled with The Avalanches-produced hip-hop fusion tracks. I have absolutely heard this album being played in the lobbies of Chipotle, but it's so good that it even bops there.

23 | Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (2012) 

At the onset of her career, before the limelight and public profile helped her form into one of today’s foremost pop stars, Lana Del Rey had a mystifying knack for conveying personal emotions incredibly effectively. Lana Del Rey, whose name was originally Elizabeth Grant, is an encapsulation of walking contradiction: adjacence to wealth with intense disdain for it, a complex relationship with drugs that changes from song to song, underlying meditations on abuse hidden behind childlike, Lolita-referencing lyrics. However, it is the infallible whole that Lana brings together which defines her as an artist, and this album was her first grand and stunning show of that power to create and construct emotion. This album’s songs were pervasive for a generation of teens, and reflect a youthful sort of outlook that undoubtedly helped to inspire and form many creative tastes. This album is synonymous with the story of 2010s music.

22 | Godspeed You, Black Emperor! - 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (2012)

No band makes post-rock sound more angelic than Godspeed, a fact readily proven with the band’s comeback album and modern genre masterpiece 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!. They return seemingly uninterrupted as far as creative vision is concerned, delivering a beautiful reimagining of their own classic sound with an album that builds on lyrical and thematic motifs of their previous works. This album feels like a relic of the past, a too good to be true find that gives you modern access to some sort of hidden and ancient musical knowledge. The best description I have of it to this day, no matter how gross it is, is to imagine if Swans made beautiful and cohesively imagined music instead of their own work. This album is one of the genre’s essentials.

21 | Arcade Fire - Reflektor (2013)

Reflektor is Arcade Fire’s most imaginative and off-the-wall work; a complete departure from their previous sound and aesthetic on The Suburbs, and a brave and successful foray into dance and alternative sounds. Although one can see the legacy of the band as innovators of the entire rock genre, it is still stunning that Win Butler and company manage to make music this diverse and encapsulating over a decade after the seminal Funeral. This album goes on eternally within itself, diving into the corners and complexities of the immaculately curated sound and revealing the deepest oddities of the band members’ musical psyches. Reflektor even offers contributions from David Bowie, who was initially highly instrumental to the band’s popularity and is a figure that is still sorely missed by those in music today. This album is a fascinating look into the power of legacy and innovation.

20 | Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked At Me 

Nothing is more impossible to understand than death and the sorrow that it brings. Nothing that I say here would be better said than Everlum himself; I can’t come close to even suggesting I can understand his emotions or where he came from in the production of this album. I feel like quantifying it as a rateable and reviewable in itself can be seen as a disservice, but it felt wrong to not put it on this list. This record stands on its own.

19 | Future - Dirty Sprite 2 (2015) 

DS2 continues to serve as the premium model for the exemplary and successful mainstream trap album. Everything about the album feels fully within the control of the Future and Metro Boomin grand alliance. “I Serve The Base” has a beat that sounds like a helicopter viciously approaching, Future raps with a borderline speaking-in-tongues flow on “Stick Talk,” the intro to “Freak Hoe” sounds like The King Of Limbs-era Radiohead, and “Slave Master” is so good that Future felt the need to sample his own song 4 years later. So many little things are done correctly, and done so correctly, that they circle back around to being big things. Future is a master of working within his production and styling himself to it; it is how he’s able to create such diverse yet musically-sound titles such as Save Me and HNDRXX. In my opinion, there is no better production to fit within and work with than 2015-era Metro Boomin, and DS2 executes this masterfully.

18 | Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (2015) 

Carrie & Lowell is the culmination of Sufjan Stevens’ brilliant career; the full maturation of his sound, resonation, and honesty with his individuality and identity, and the absolute peak of his vocal performance. This album is starkly personal and completely unreckonable with upon first listen; emotions inspired by this album feel just as poignant and inner reaching as the absolute peaks only reached by Sufjan once before on Illinois. This album deserves the hallowed praise it continually receives and is a deserved member of the pantheon of singer-songwriter work for the rest of time. It, again, feels hollow to reflect on such a personal and grieving work’s lyrical content; Carrie & Lowell conveys emotionality in a way that few ever works of art ever have. 

17 | Death Grips - Bottomless Pit (2017) 

Bottomless Pit is the absolute peak of the Death Grips’ songwriting arc, an album which is quite easily their most consistent work to date and serves as a shining example of everything the band stands for. Death Grips has one of the most consistent discographies to ever exist, and this album is the group at the peak of their newest and most compelling arc. The songs on this album are perfectly-ordered, excellently paced, and quickly delivered. There is absolutely no doubt that this album is the closest representation of Death Grips’ ultimate vision for themselves as a band. This vision all comes together in the title track, a brilliant closer which infuses all of their previous styles and motifs into a blood frenzied celebration. This album is the peak of the Death Grips discography.

16 | Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs (2018) 

Some Rap Songs is a live look into the inception of a completely-new genre being crafted in real-time. There are incredibly few and far between instances for the listener to be able to witness someone cracking into a completely new, completely off-the-wall way of approaching music. Earl Sweatshirt, with Some Rap Songs (and the also-brilliant follow-up EP Feet Of Clay), is doing precisely that; messing with time signatures, avant-garde jazz riffs, freeform production, and monotone depressing lyrics, all of which come together in the cauldron of creativity to brew up an entirely new musical concoction. The sound of this album, whose roots can be seen on the more somber parts of Doris such as on “Chum,” is eternally distressing; something about the way this record resonates through your mind feels off, almost otherworldly. However, long after you finish listening to the album, this unease and lack of understanding turns into motivation to listen even more. From this repeated listening, the absolute genius of the production, flow, lyrical content, and the sound of this album manage to imprint themselves on your brain. Some Rap Songs is the definition of a groundbreaker as well as the definition of a grower; I can’t imagine any album I’d say more benefits the listener with repeated listening. This album is meditative yet jaded, cynical and depressed yet whimsical. Some Rap Songs is a victory for artistry and will come to be one of the most influential records of the century.

15 | Lil Uzi Vert - Lil Uzi Vert vs. The World (2016) 

Lil Uzi Vert is a visionary when it comes to crafting bangers, and with this release, he delivered a classic trap tape full of nine incredible songs that imbue the listener with energy and power upon every listen. Lil Uzi Vert is emblematic of the early Soundcloud rap era for many reasons. Sure, there’s the abundance of brightly-colored hair, the bootlegged-looking album covers, and space-age production choices, but Uzi succeeded in this field because he’s also the most musical and artistic of this early wave of rappers. “Money Longer” sounds like no song I have heard before or since, “You Was Right” features the incredibly rare double Metro Boomin producer tag, “Ps and Qs” manages to make manners fun, and “Scott and Ramona” is a starkly saddening love song that caps everything off. There are so many impressive things to list about this tape and its construction that I could go on indefinitely. Uzi is a naturally cool and visionary dude, and his music sounds groundbreaking innately; he caught-on to a sound and a style long before others did and was able to put a stamp on it before anyone else was even able to comprehend it.

14 | Pusha T - Daytona (2018) 

Every word in Daytona, from the striking first verse of “If You Know You Know,” to the demolishing finish that is “Infrared,” feels as if it's part of a long-form poem. Songs flow in and out of each other astoundingly, focusing on narrative over track listing. Kanye West’s production is as immaculate as it has ever been, inspiring hope that a transition to a production-focused role may cease the eternal Bruh Moment which is post-2017 Republican Kanye West. Pusha T said that he named the album after his favorite wristwatch, the Rolex Daytona, because he had nothing but time while making the album. This is absolutely confirmed through listening, as this record is one of the best-organized and well-crafted short-form media pieces of the 21st century, as well as the best conventional/classic rap album released this decade. Pusha T is a savant who takes his time with his work and does things right, and Daytona is the ultimate realization of his vision as the best dealer turned rapper in the world. Every repeat listen of Daytona is a treat, and “The Story of Adidon” serves as an amazing unofficial 8th bonus track, given that it’s probably the best diss track of the decade.

13 | Tyler, The Creator - Flower Boy (2017) 

Flower Boy is the defining rap album for reckoning with queer identity, a brave and stunning exploration made by the queer communities’ most unexpected member and ally. Tyler, The Creator built a career and legacy off of his creation of the Odd Future clique and subculture; an anarchistic and offensive viewpoint to combat an unfair and oppressive world. This album is striking proof that artistic and personal growth are not only possible, but that they can also lead to some of the highest creative peaks. No one has since made an album more honest in its encapsulation of youthful alienation and malaise, nor has anyone come close to relating queer identity so strongly to blackness and self-identity as a black man. Flower Boy is a beautiful panacea to all sorts of lovesickness and pain. Many young people in my generation who felt the same sort of anger and disenfranchisement championed by Tyler in his earlier work with Odd Future have since come to find a sort of peace and self-understanding with the help of Flower Boy.

12 | Lorde - Melodrama (2017) 

Melodrama is a masterwork of heartbreak. This album is fully immersed in the loneliness and dread which curse post-break-up psyches, the pain of loves come and gone, and the mental processes that come out of nowhere and allow one to begin to sniff the inroads of emotional progress. The production on this album fits the enigmatic and brilliant Lorde like a comfortable wool sweater; she sings from within the music, reaching out to the listener through her poignant displays of lyricism and the relation one can feel with her universal pain. Jack Antonoff, to the surprise of just about everybody, has separated himself as one of pop’s most notable producers and sound designers (indeed, this is a far cry from the ‘fun.’ days for him). Melodrama is fascinating, partially because it is the continuation of an already beautiful discography which takes Lorde’s compelling ideas and spins them in a new and rewarding direction. Above all, her music retains its supremely empathetic quality; Lorde is a master of reaching into the emotional fountain within everyone’s soul.

11 | Playboi Carti - Playboi Carti (2017) 

Jordan Terell Carter is one of the most visionary artists of this generation, and the Playboi Carti Self-Titled is not only an insanely powerful introduction to the music world at large, but an unparalleled celebration of his worldview, and one of the tidiest, most diverse collections of songs that have been put out this decade. Every song on Playboi Carti is completely distinct in both sound and content from its album mates. Somehow, Carti was able to select 12 completely disjunctive, yet insanely polished, song ideas and meld them into a completely realized work. Carti’s self-titled is the perfect embodiment of the Playboi Carti lifestyle, brand, sound, and general approach to the world. Humans are multi-faceted and complicated, so on an album whose concept is himself, Carti captures these differences and personal oddities so well that to listen to this album feels like knowing Carti himself.

Not only is the construction of this album immaculate. Carti is a master of remembering to make the songs good above all else. He exhibits this virtuoso by delivering tunes that never tire, keep on plodding, and even manage to grow on you despite being so out of touch with each other. “Location” has some of the spaciest production I’ve ever heard in a rap song, and it's absolutely cathartic and beautiful; from this track, he moves seamlessly to “Magnolia,” a pop radio hit which feels scientifically designed to be his ‘popular’ song. The songs with Lil Uzi on this album are the peak of the two’s collaborative work, and “New Choppa” with A$AP Rocky elicits terrifying late-night horror carnival vibes. Even deep cuts like “Half & Half,” “NO. 9,” “Kelly K,” and “Yah Mean” are all so creative and charming that you can't help but be won over by Carti and his infallible persona. This is one of the most spirited and well-crafted trap tapes to ever be released and is a landmark of personal achievement in the realm of the self-titled album.

10 | Rihanna - ANTI (2016) 

The phrases ‘sprawling’ and ‘expansive’ are often thrown around in music criticism where they don’t apply. Music writers use these words to define albums that are incredibly well-put-together and long, yet not diverse or epic enough to fit said adjectives. ANTI is the closest definitional album that I can find for those terms that are thrown around far too often; a sprawling pop masterpiece that permeates across all borders and genres of music and comes together under the vision and seemingly god-given natural talent of Rihanna. No album this decade achieves as many different things, and does them all as fantastically, as ANTI does. This record is so consistent that even the 3 bonus tracks are not only essential but worthy of consideration as actual album tracks (I don’t want a world where “Goodnight Gotham” isn’t considered part of the main ANTI canon). This album is truly something special and all too rare in the music scene today; an album that is great largely because of how fully it encapsulates the base definition of great albums. ANTI is a primal exercise in album composition and a test of the limits of diversity and style brought together under one roof of musical genius, and it succeeds more than is possible to describe.

9 | 21 Savage & Metro Boomin - Savage Mode (2016)  

Savage Mode is the magnum opus of the most important producer of the decade and a testament to the power that fantastic production can have and the heights to which it can carry an album. Metro Boomin’s beats on this album are the most masterful we’ve ever seen in his career; the culmination of his efforts from 2014 onward and a striking reaffirmation for him as the best producer on the planet. There are very few albums where the artist is more in-tune with the production than the brilliant and haunting 21 Savage is with Metro’s direction. Every word that leaves his mouth is exactly in tune, exactly on time, and strikes even harder than the one that came before it. This is the most technically crafted trap tape that I have ever heard. This tape set the direction for a half-decade of both trap and pop rap and very well may be the peak of the genre.

21 doesn’t need to convince you that he is a hard motherfucker. As soon as you hear the brilliant first two tracks, “No Advance” and “No Heart,” his badassery unquestionably oozes from every pore. As far as innate believability of the lyrics because of the rapping flow, 21 pales only to maybe Pusha T as far as genuineness in delivery. 21 Savage is a fantastic rapper who was able to put behind the amateurishness of his early work on this album, crafting what is far and away a top 10 rap performance for the decade. Savage Mode is the best of every world; lyrics, production, flow, sound, and everything else you could possibly want in a rap album is consummately taken care of by the artists. Metro deserves to have his name on the album, and 21 deserves his place in the pantheon of great rappers of our time.

8 | Mitski - Bury Me At Makeout Creek (2014) 

Bury Me At Makeout Creek was my high school breakup album, my personal anthems of a young love lost, and the acute pain felt at the time that it occurs. However, to pigeonhole this album as being a breakup record (or even a romantic record) would be a disservice; Mitski is an artist who approaches music from countless different pathways and to define her work as only one thing is wrong. Part singer-songwriter, part rock, and part everything else, Bury Me at Makeout Creek is a stunning record that gets more done in 30 minutes than other artists manage to do with 2-hour efforts. If you’re looking to experience catharsis embodied fully in music, you will find it on this album. If you’re looking to uncover the rawest and most base release of emotion communicated through shredding guitars and heartbreaking vocals, you will find it on this album. If you want precise guitar work, immaculately constructed motifs, and directions you never knew a guitar could go in, you can find it on this album. Regardless of why you find yourself drawn to music as a medium, you will find something positive and wondrous contained in the walls of this brief yet stunning work.

Rock as a genre has historically been hostile to voices that are not from the white male perspective, and Mitski’s music is a complete repudiation of this sadly-persistent attitude in the music community. With Bury me At Makeout Creek, Mitski made a better rock and roll album than 99.9% of the rock bands this decade, and it isn’t even really a “full” rock album. Talent is prescribed entirely on bases not related to gender and race, and too long have rock and roll voices and exposure been defined by these archetypes. Mitski’s music is internally defiant of these gender roles and racial definitions of genre, and her music is a full rejection and complete defeat of such patterns of thinking.

7 | Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell! (2019) 

Norman Fucking Rockwell is a fabulously introspective and stunningly beautiful exploration of womanhood in America. The record is a love letter to Americana and a testament to the atmosphere that enabled the culturally pervasive Lana Del Rey to grow into the woman and artist she is today. Del Rey’s voice is as good as it's ever been, growing even sweeter and more daunting with age; as a result, NFR is one of the most stunning vocal performances of all time. Lana kills it, and she kills it on every track. It is impossible to not feel some kind of way while listening to “Venice Bitch,” or really any song on this album for that matter. Whether it’s the strength of her voice as both an artist, or the strength of her voice as a singer, something about these songs has the power to place you directly in Lana’s viewpoint. This allows you to experience the emotions, feelings, and experiences Lana has with more clarity than any other piece of media I have ever engaged with. I first listened to this album while stranded on a bus after waiting for six hours following an accident. The record was so transformative that it immediately pulled me from the annoyance and triviality of my own situation into the real, expensive, and complex problems that Lana Del Rey grapples with in her life. Norman Fucking Rockwell is a masterpiece of empathy as much as it is of singer-songwriting. I can only hope my experience with this album continues to evolve in the way it has in the short time since its release.

6 | Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do (2012) 

The fact that Fiona Apple takes the title of this flawless work from her own poetry is abjectly unsurprising given the composition of the album. The Idler Wheel... is prosaic and poetic at its core and all the way through its existence; Apple is a master of the subconscious blend of poetry and music, and it is the most apparent on this album. A product of 13 years of work, this album is the strongest narrative musical work this decade by a solid margin. This album contains better poetic content than most poetry collections and better narrative content than most novels. Fiona Apple is the single most magnanimous singer-songwriter on the face of the Earth, and this album is her reintroduction to a new generation with her most heartbreaking work yet.

Fiona Apple captures the feeling of disconnectedness and loneliness caused by depression and general ennui better than any other artist I can think of. She is blazingly aware of her own faults and beats herself up for them more than she beats up others for theirs. This consistent dejectedness and loneliness that she espouses makes you long to only see good things for her and her life. The lyric “How could I ask anyone to love me, when all I do is ask to be left alone” is easily one of my favorites of the decade, and it isn't even the best lyrical selection from the album. Even past the lyrical and thematic content, this album *sounds* great too. She is able to incorporate percussion and strings with more versatility and vivaciousness than I have ever seen. Fiona Apple is an indispensable voice.

5 | Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (2018) 

Twin Fantasy is the best rock and roll album of the decade. Even if you were to remove the stunning, beautiful, and poignant content of this album’s thematic motifs and lyrical content, you still have a band that has completely set themselves apart from other rock acts thanks to their ingenious evolution of the rock and roll sound for a new generation. Much like Phil Spector’s Wall Of Sound revolution, Car Seat Headrest have made rock a 21st-century genre through the sheer widening and complication of sound. Songs on Twin Fantasy are never repetitive or tiring in the slightest even though the record clocks in at an hour and a half long. If anything, the album feels short given the scope of its sonic achievement, masterful guitar work, stellar production, and far-reaching lyricism.

At its core, Twin Fantasy is a love story and statement on queer existence in this new generation. The record weaves the tale of a dying relationship made and developed through the internet with dazzling sound design and lyrical excellence. It highlights the contradictions that things like technology, being queer, distance, family, and emotionality can have on love and the emotional fallout that happens when these things seem to conspire against you. I can’t describe how relevant Twin Fantasy was for me personally in the coming out process. This album’s lyrical content, subdued humor, and the resignation of Will Toledo were some of the first things that truly helped me understand my own queerness, and I know I am far from alone in this. This is a special once in a generation sort of album.

4 | Beyoncé - Lemonade (2016)

Beyoncé’s immaculate Lemonade represents the ultimate triumph of the concept album as a valid media organization. Never before and never again will there be a better effort to capture one’s own pain, sense of loss and abandonment, and anger at unfaithfulness than there has been here. Although many among us can relate to the fierceness of the lyrics, the intensity of her sentiment, and the graceful nature of her forgiveness, it is impossible to say any of us have truly felt Beyoncé’s pain. The overarching motif Lemonade is that relationships, no matter how public, are inherently personal; therefore, the reactions and emotions caused by their twists and turns are entirely personal. Nobody can understand exactly what it is like to be you, and thus nobody can really ever 100% feel how Beyoncé felt during the construction of this album. However, one of the many reasons this record is flawless is because so many people relate to it so personally. Beyoncé managed to construct an album that is both wholly personal and universally relatable. What began as an entirely subjective experience has transformed into an objective battle cry for womanhood and black identity in America, and this is an altogether unique artistic occurrence.

Lemonade brings in talent from all genres and musical heritages. Beyoncé is able to create classic White Stripes era riffs with Jack White with the same ease as she manages to deliver a fantastic Kendrick Lamar set piece. So many people contributed small parts of themselves and their own pain into the creation of this record, and Beyoncé immaculately fused it together under the hood of her own experience. This album is starkly beautiful sounding, and it feels amiss to not mention the production given how insanely consistent it is from the front to the back of the record. This album is truly something special.

3 | Playboi Carti - Die Lit (2018)

Die Lit is trap’s best album and an absolute tour de force of cloud trap. Playboi Carti carried the momentum of his self-titled work more successfully than anyone could have imagined, forming a machiavellian treatise on life, a penning love letter to Atlanta trap, and completely revamping an entire genre in the process. Die Lit is massive, sprawling, and expansive in both its sound and ideas. Pierre Bourne has emerged as a new saint in the pantheon of all-time producers, bringing his completely fresh and insane sound to a genre already filled with dozens of other visionaries waiting to help develop it. Carti’s flow rests somewhere between that of a goblin and a pop singer, a tense sort of duality that slaps hard and remains unchallenged in the rap game today. It is absolutely unprecedented how an album with this many tracks manages to deliver essential songs at such a high ratio; consistency is one of this album’s biggest selling points. Carti continues to be a visionary both musically and culturally, and it has become increasingly evident that he is in the middle of constructing a new vision of punk trap while also on one of the best album runs of all time.

Die Lit is cool, sleek, and long-lasting, but above all, it manages to be pervasively fun. This album is one of the most joyous and pleasant listens of the decade, a work of absolute eternal happiness and aesthetic jubilation. It is impossible to overstate how much this album means to me and how much I have listened to it. The spirit of this album remains undefeated despite injustice and pain, Carti holds an indomitable spirit that he successfully projects out into the world.

2 | Kanye West - Yeezus (2013)

It is absolutely impossible to overstate the impact of Yeezus as a record; from its lasting and entrenched influence on the future of rap and hip-hop production to the emotional wrath and disquiet it immediately released in the souls of the music fans who had years to reckon with it. From the hundreds of artists who have taken pieces of this record into their own to the monumental meaning it has to artistry as a whole, the shadow of Yeezus looms large over the music industry even today. This album will continue to be regarded as one of the decade’s most classic and influential works, and it is without question that this analysis is deserved. Yeezus operates on the same thematic and aesthetic wavelength as The Great Gatsby; it is an album about the depravities of wealth and success, and the failure to understand oneself as a human in the light of drug abuse and moral depravity. This is all a byproduct caused by a predatory culture that feeds upon those human relations that offer the only hope of escape from this bleak and wretched world. These messages are packed into a compact 40-minutes where no two songs sound alike. “Black Skinhead” is one of the best rock songs of the decade, “Bound 2” is a completely unrivaled love song, and “Send It Up” is a drill-infused genre-bending masterwork. Every song on this album accomplishes a different goal but works toward the same end, all coming together to form one of art’s mightiest achievements.

1 | Lorde - Pure Heroine (2013) 

Pure Heroine captures the essence of pure, unadulterated young love, more brilliantly and perfectly than any other album has ever even come close to. Pure Heroine is a victory for the pop genre and an undisputed top 2 or 3 pop album of all-time. Such isolated works of transformative genius, works that contribute to a completely different and compelling direction for a genre as varied and diverse as pop, are once in a lifetime opuses. The fact that Lorde managed to compose such a work on her DEBUT album at the age of 16 is unequivocal proof of her genius. I can’t even remember what I was up to at 16 besides gaming. This album would feel like an anomalous showing if Lorde has not also released another one of the best albums of the decade. And really, how anomalous can this perfect of an album be? The talents of Lorde and her truest, completely ungarnished inner-self are present in every pore of this album.

Pure Heroine is an album about love; love that shockingly persists in spite of the wasteland of suburbaness and apathy which has long been at war with the psyche of the youth. It feels wrong to even discern between analyses of songs on this album given how flawless every minute of this record is and how the miraculous whole speaks for itself better than any particular partition of the music. This album is a work of sublime thematic genius, an absolutely infallible artistic achievement completely lacking a single bad moment, error, or lapse in thematic judgment. “Royals” is one of the best hit songs of the decade, and “Team” is even better; there’s no part of this album that doesn’t completely break the mold. It is impossible, once introduced, to stop thinking about the stark utopia of suburban love that Lorde has generated on this album. Pure Heroine is, quite simply, one of the best albums of all time.

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If you want more thoughts on this decade of music, follow Jack on twitter @tedcruzcontrol.

The 2019 Diamond Platters: Swim Into The Sound’s Ancillary End of the Year Awards

Between end of the year awards that start in November and (this year) decade retrospectives that started coming out as early as October, I’m sure you’re as tired of listicle countdowns as I am. That’s why I created The Diamond Platters; the extravagant, opulent, and hyper-exclusive end of the year list designed for people who are sick and tired of end of the year lists.

The Diamond Platters are designed around categories that you won’t see on your average clickbait music review site. You’ll find no “album of the year,” and no high-minded retrospective attempting to weave these songs into some forced narrative of what this year “represented.” No, these are awards designed to highlight music, people, and events that made this year feel special. What follows may not fit into a website’s typical “Best of 2019” list, but still felt important and worth celebrating nonetheless. 

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Best Cover Song

Winner: Skatune Network - Everything
For the last three years, Jeremy Hunter (aka Skatune Network) has been creating some of the best and most consistent covers on the internet. They’re niche in the sense that every cover is ska, but for me, that merely adds an additional layer of charm. The fact that Hunter plays every instrument makes each video a feat of musicality that’s nothing short of wondrous to behold. Whether it’s Billie Eilish, Blink 182, Pokemon, or half of the Counter Intuitive Records roster, Hunter has a knack for making anything and everything sound wonderful and skank-able.

Runner-up: Denzel Curry “Bulls On Parade”
The magic of a cover song is taking something that belongs to someone else and making it feel wholly your own. Rage Against The Machine had a distinct (and hard to copy) sound, but for his cover of “Bulls On Parade,” Denzel Curry took that famous RATM energy and infused it with his own, resulting in a one-of-a-kind performance primed to become a staple of your gym playlist.

Best Album Art of the Year

Winner: Flume - Hi This Is Flume
Album art used to have one job: catch your eye on the shelf of a record store with the hopes of leading to a purchase. Its secondary job was to give potential listeners a visual representation of what the music directly behind it sounded like. Now that every song is one click away, artists have far more flexibility to make album art that fulfills that second bullet point, and this year no one did it better than Flume. The cover to his surprise-released mixtape is not only eye-catching, but it also does a fantastic job of encapsulating the vibrant, violent, and often-clashing elements of his particular version of electronic bombast. Additionally, the way the car was featured in music videos and Spotify visualizers only lent further depth and accuracy to the album cover.

Runner-up: Sleater-Kinney - The Center Won’t Hold
Lineup turmoil and a few mediocre songs aside, the cover to Sleater Kinney’s ninth studio album is a beautiful black-and-white optical illusion, collaging together every member’s face into a mishmash of lips, bangs, and winged eyeliner. It’s an arresting image that also manages to tackle the album’s central theme of being a middle-aged woman in music.

Best Music Video

Winner: FKA Twigs “Cellophane”
When the video for FKA Twigs’ “Cellophane” dropped, you could distinctly feel waves of ‘what the fuck’ reverberating throughout the internet. First off, it’s quite ballsy to release the closing track for your upcoming album nearly six months before its release, but as this video proves, FKA Twigs is a mastermind operating on a level higher than us mere mortals are capable of understanding. Aside from the notable way in which this track rolled out, the video itself is a beautiful and breathtaking meditation split into two main acts. “Cellophane” opens with FKA Twigs embracing her newest passion, pole dancing, in a routine that’s equal parts beautiful and athletic. From there, the video flies into a CGI-fueled acid trip as Twigs ascends into the sky, comes face to face with a robotic version of herself, then comes crashing back to earth in a coat of blood-red paint. This video is unlike anything I’ve ever seen this year, and all we can do is take it in and thank FKA Twigs for being herself. 

Runner-up: The Menzingers “America (You’re Freaking Me Out)”
Much like their music, the lead single off Menzingers’ Hello Exile is at once comedic, self-deprecating, socially-conscious, and pissed-off. Plus, the fact that the music video was filmed in Portland (a fact that I up on based off a strip club in one shot) means that it’s near and dear to my heart. 

Best Album From 2018 That I Missed

Winner: Charmer - Charmer
While I technically listened to Charmer’s self-titled album two times in December of 2018, within the space of a year, Charmer has climbed the charts to become my second most-listened-to album of all time on last.fm. I spent the better part of 2019 listening to the album at least once a day, usually on my way to work, and it single-handedly made my mornings bearable. I’ve seen the group live three times, including a front-to-back playthrough of this very album, and I was there singing along with every word. I can’t quite explain why this record resonates with me so hard, but I imagine it’s a little bit of everything. There’s impeccable emo guitarwork, powerful drumming, and choruses that get stuck in your head faster than you even realize. All of this swirled together into an album that I simply can’t get enough of. I may have arrived at Charmer late, but now I’m glad it’s become a part of my life. 

Runner-up: Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly - Alpha, Omega, Murphy
Much like Origami Angel, Guitar Fight From Fooly Cooly takes fast-tapping emo and infuse it with nerdom, pop-culture references, and a hearty helping of sincerity. Clocking in at a mere 17 minutes, Alpha, Omega, Murphy is a packed little EP that merely represents the first step of a band riffing their way onto a larger stage as promising up-and-coming members of the 5th wave of emo.

Best Soundtrack of the Year

Winner: Labrinth - Euphoria (Original Score from the HBO Series)
Not only was Euphoria one of the best shows on TV this year, but it also addressed addiction, anxiety, and sexuality with more honesty than anything else on the air. One of the best unsung parts of Euphoria is Labrinth’s excellent Drake-produced score. Whether it was soundtracking a neon-lit high school party or a ten-minute conflict set at the state fair, Labrinth always seemed to know what the mood called for. The result was a soundtrack that perfectly mirrored the emotions poured out on-screen. On top of that, the album is eclectic, containing a range of genres from bumping hip-hop, soaring orchestras, and even some radio-ready pop hits. There’s a little bit of everything in the Euphoria score, and that only ended up elevating what was already one of the best shows of 2019.

Runner-up: Bobby Krlic - Midsommar (Original Score)
Much like Hereditary before it, the soundtrack to Ari Aster’s second feature-length film helps magnify the horror and accentuate the skin-crawling twists. As great at the movie is, it wouldn’t have been half as unsettling without Bobby Krlic’s excellent score lurking menacingly beneath every moment. 

Best Promo

Winner: Prince Daddy & The Hyena “Love Of My Life: Chasing Gold”
Advertising is hard. For bands, it’s a necessary evil to promote their new music. For brands, it’s their bread and butter. Usually any sort of corporate-fueled musical crossover is cheesy as hell, but when Taco Bell asked Prince Daddy & The Hyena to cover a song from their recent biopic-skewering campaign the group jumped at the opportunity (because what emo band doesn’t like Taco Bell?) The result was definitively awesome, true to the band’s style, and hopefully got them a few free Crunchwrap Supremes out of the deal. Really, it’s a win for both parties, with the end result being advertising done right. 

Runner-up: Punk Goes website redesign
The Punk Goes series has always been a stronghold of nostalgia. Sometimes it’s nostalgia for the songs being covered, and sometimes it’s nostalgia for the bands from the listener’s childhood who have resorted to covering an outdated pop song. This year, Punk Goes decided to lean into this aesthetic, completely redesigning their homepage to resemble peak-era MySpace (friends list and all) to promote their third iteration of Punk Goes Acoustic.

Most stank-face inducing song of the year

Winner: Rico Nasty & Kenny Beats “Cold”
The opening track to Rico Nasty’s aptly-named Anger Management is a blistering two-and-a-half-minute takedown of haters and dickriders alike. Backed by a disgustingly-hard Kenny Beats instrumental, the song hits like a ton of bricks. Pair that beat with Rico Nasty’s fast-paced in-your-face rapping, throw in a few screamed ad-libs for good measure, and you got yourself a 100% USDA Certified banger.

Runner-up: Danny Brown “Savage Nomad”
My face every time I hear the opening lines to this song.

What the fuck is this outro????

Winner: 100 gecs “745 Sticky”
I entered 100 gecs’ debut album an innocent man. What I heard when I clicked play on “745 Sticky” was a whir of electronics followed by a barrage of autotuned Lil Aaron-esque raps and Brockhampton-like croons. The chorus hit hard, and the instrumental shook my fragile bluetooth speakers, but the pièce de résistance came at the end where a spike of 8-bit distortion makes way for a hyped-up group chant set to a bubblegum pop beat followed by a dubstep drop punctuated by screams, dog barks, screeching tires, and other stock sound effects. By the time the first song ended I was breathless, shaken, and my speaker had literally rattled off the table that it was sitting on. I felt both confused and seen. Like someone took my Spotify account, highschool music library, and favorite Instagram meme account, then blended them together in GarageBand. Suddenly everything made sense. 

Runner-up: Charli XCX “Click”
Someone on the /r/popheads subreddit said it best: “Had to turn down the volume during Click's outro due to feeling like my eardrums were about to blow up and lose a significant portion of my hearing. 10/10”

Hardest Working Person In DIY

Winner: Lex Atchison of Chatterbot Records
There’s something innately admirable about the DIY hustle. Maybe it’s the fact that no one makes money doing this, and there’s very little clout to be had. That means almost everyone involved in the scene is doing this from a place of love. That means they’re spending all this time and energy for the sole purpose of sharing art they love with the world. In 2019, no one did that better than Lex from Chatterbot Records. This year Lex helped artists release dozens of albums, EPs, and singles. She directed and edited music videos, joined bands on tour, produced dozens of merch items, and launched an ARG album announcement. If that sounds like a fulltime job you’re right. Sometimes DIY takes precedence over a sound sleep schedule.

Runner-up: Alex Martin of Short Fictions, Soft Toss, and You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania Booking
After helming one of the most slept-upon emo projects of last year, Pittsburg-based Alex Martin showed no signs of slowing down in 2019. This year they booked more than 45 tours for dozens of bands through You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania Booking, and anyone that’s even so much as touched a tour Google Sheet knows what an undertaking it is. Aside from insane amounts of booking this year, Martin also formed a new band called Soft Toss, and just this month released an absolute heater of an emo album with Short Fictions. The fact that Martin did all of this alongside school and a “real” job seems borderline-impossible to me, but the more I think about it, the odds that they have access to some sort of time travel seems increasingly likely to me. 

2019 Time Capsule

Winner - Lil Nas X “Old Town Road - Remix” Video
The animated music video for the third remix of “Old Town Road” almost has almost too much 2019 in it. Aside from being the biggest song of the year, this video contains Lil Nas X, Billy Ray Cyrus, Young Thug, The Yodeling Kid, Thanos, Area 51, and Keanu Reeves Naruto running all in under three minutes. This video represents everything 2019 was about, and I love it

Runner-up: SZA, The Weeknd, Travis Scott “Power Is Power”
Unlike the wholesome goofiness contained in the “Old Town Road” music video, “Power is Power” is emblematic of 2019 for all the wrong reasons. Here we have a shallow music video, soulless verses, and lifeless instrumental that ends up feeling like a blatant cash grab in an attempt to pick a Black Panther-esque hit off the bones of a dying TV show. Yuck.

Too Iconic For This World: Most Breathtaking IG Feed

Winner: Sim Morales of Insignificant Other
Some people simply light up your timeline and provide you with an ever-renewing sense of warm fuzzies with each post. Sim Morales of Insignificant Other is one of those people. Aside from putting out one of the best power-pop records of the year, Sim’s Instagram feed is filled to the brim with killer looks and unforgettable fits. They are a DIY Fashion icon, plain and simple.

Runner-up: Aubree Roe of The Weak Days, Get Tuff, Safe Face, and Jetty Bones
Much like Sim, Aubree Roe (better known as RB) is a constant source of glammy makeup pics that make me feel simultaneously impressed and like one of those memes where people are surrounded by heart emojis.

Most Unexpected Celebrity Appearance

Winner: Strange Magic x Gilbert Gottfried
I don’t know what Mr. Gottfried’s going rate is, but the decision to include him throughout Strange Magic’s blistering 14-minute punk album was nothing short of a masterstroke. First introducing the listener to the record, then quickly moving on to heckling the group as the tracks wear on, Gilbert Gottfried’s presence only elevates an already-fantastic release. 

Runner-up: Mr. Moseby x Surely Temple
When you’re a band, getting people to listen to your album is hard. When you’re Mr. Moseby from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and The Suite Life on Deck, getting people to listen to your album is easy. Truly a genius marketing play by Surely Temple. Plus, it helps that their EP is pretty great (seriously, “enough.” is one of the most slept-on emo songs of the year). 

I Hope Someone Fights Me Right Now

Winner: Kublai Khan TX
I’m generally a pretty happy dude, but sometimes you just need to blow off some steam, and Kublai Khan TX has the riffs, lyrics, and attitude to soundtrack your next fight. Shit hits like a steamroller.

Runner-up: Gulch
I feel like this video explains the energy of Gulch pretty well.

Don’t @ Me: Best Social Media Presence

Winner: Eric Egan of Heart Attack Man
If you follow pop-punk twitter at all, then the phrase “Good morning everyone it’s Eric from Heart Attack Man” is probably all-too-familiar. From daily morning selfies with his coffee and Tik-Tok-ready memes to racking up a nearly $100K bid for a beanie on eBay, Eric has proven adept at garnering attention for both himself and his music through consistent and unrelenting shitposting. While most of it is positive (who doesn’t daily coffee-clad selfies from their favorite frontman?), a recent light-hearted beef with Hot Mulligan over the band’s un-verified twitter status brought even more eyes to the group, further solidifying them as the meme-generating centrifuge of pop-punk twitter.

Runner-up: Chris Farren of Chris Farren
Turning yourself into a meme is a risky gambit. However, turning yourself into a promotional tool for your music seems to have worked for Polyvinyl’s Chris Farren. In between writing his own music, designing his own merch, and putting on his own one-man live shows, Farren has been a consistent bright spot on my social media timeline throughout the year.

Best Single of the Year

Winner: Stars Hollow “Tadpole”
Some bands only put out one song this year, and Stars Hollow might have put out the best. As they shitposted on twitter earlier in the year: “Broke: Stars Hollow only released a single this year. Woke: Stars Hollow released a one song album this year.” They may be joking, but “Tadpole” genuinely comes off as a fully-realized entity that stands on its own more than some full-length albums I’ve listened to this year. Almost a postscript to their 2018 EP Happy Again, “Tadpole” is a continuation of the band’s fresh take on midwest emo. In the band’s own words, “It’s about how I want to be young forever and how I’m anxious that people want me to grow up.” It’s tappy, it’s screamy, it’s really fucking good. 

Runner-up: American Spirits “Retrograde”
This year Bowling Green mainstays American Spirits broke up, played a packed farewell show, and put out two of the best songs of their career. “Retrograde” is merely one half of the one-two-punch along with the cleverly-named “Error 404: Band Not Found.” While these may have been the band’s last songs, there’s also something to be said for going out on top. Plus, the newly-formed Soft Toss and half kidding share many of the same members, so hopefully this won’t be the last we’ve heard from these boys.

Most Goosebump-inducing Moment of the Year

Winner: Bring Me The Horizon “Ludens”
Bring Me The Horizon have transitioned from deathcore to metalcore to metal to rock so gradually I almost wouldn’t have noticed… if it weren’t for fans constantly complaining about it. While I don’t mind the musical pivot, it’s always fun when the band dips back into their hardcore roots whether it’s concert medleys or screams ironically directed at those fan criticisms. Needless to say, when I heard the tight-as-shit breakdown on the Death Stranding one-off “Ludens,” I lost my mind. More specifically, I got full-body goosebumps and my eyes began to water. It’s a flash of old school BMTH that made me feel like I was right back in high school again, even if it was just for 45 seconds. 

Runner-up: Summerbruise “Fricked”
“Well I only get this way after a rough day or if I’m drunk… Well, every day is rough and I’m always DRUUUUUUUUUNK.”

Most Unorthodox (But Noteworthy) Album Rollout

Winner: Bon Iver - i,i
Justin Vernon is an enigma. He puts out albums when he feels like it, and this year’s i,i was no different. Preceded by a bizarre trailer, the album released in-full almost a month before it’s announced date, but that’s not even the weird part. Vernon & Co. decided to upload the album to streaming services one song at a time. Releasing one song each hour, it gave the album drop a notably more communal feel. Instead of rushing through the first listen, Bon Iver gave fans something new to talk about each hour before finally piecing the record together as a whole. 

Runner-up: Lucy Dacus - 2019
Coming off releasing one of the best albums of 2018, Lucy Dacus kept busy this year by putting out a song every month or two. First it was a Spanish cover song, then a song for mother’s day, and finally culminating with a Christmas song, and capped off with an absolutely fantastic original track. Then she was kind enough to wrap up all these singles in a nice little EP for fans. Once again, it’s interesting to see an artist eschewing a traditional “album drop” and opting for one-off loosies every now and then. The difference here is that these weren’t just singles because, in the end, they were all collected in one place for easy listening. This kept Lucy Dacus top of mind throughout the year, and I probably ended up revisiting Historian even more because of it. 

Best Concert Video

industry folk: “what’s a band we should check out”

me: “@macsealband”

industry folk: “nah i doubt they can sell any tickets”

macseal: pic.twitter.com/DJrFxiR2ni

— Counter Intuitive🚀🖼 (@CIRecs) June 23, 2019

Winner: Macseal performing “Next To You” live at East Coast Customs
Live music is inherently hard to translate to any other medium. Sure, you can snap a picture or take a video of a band, but rarely do those snippets capture the energy felt in the room as the songs were unfolding live… Yet this video of Macseal is some of the most contagious energy I’ve seen all year. 

Runner-up: Dogleg performing “Calling Collect” live at Fauxchella III
As I mentioned in my profile on them earlier this year, this video was taken during the performance that single-handedly turned me into a Dogleg fan. It was aggressive, thrashy, and lead guitarist Alex Stoitsiadis capped it all off with a goddamn handstand. After making the rounds on DIY twitter, this video has since been a centerpiece in the band’s Pitchfork Best New Track, hopefully converting thousands more to Dogleg fans. 

Best Headline of the year

Winner: Alex G clarifies he is not Beto O'Rourke, did not piss himself.
Midway through the summer at the preliminary height of the democratic debates, some right-wing nutjob posted a picture of who they thought was Texas senator Beto O’Rourke pissing himself (because I guess that’s the best they can do to bring down Democratic candidates). It turns out the blurry photo was not Beto O'Rourke, in fact, it happened to be indie-folk musician (Sandy) Alex G, who had just released his brilliant album House of Sugar not even one week prior. In a bizarre turn of events that only 2019 can string together, all of this came to light within the space of 24 hours and became the talk of indie water coolers the nation over. What a goofy timeline. 

Runner-up: Celine Dion begs Drake NOT to get a tattoo of her face. Offers to go out with him, do a song together, and hang out with his mother in order to avoid him getting a tattoo of her face.
This headline is runner-up only because this was paraphrased via the /r/hiphopheads subreddit, but still worth mentioning here because it’s an emotional rollercoaster of a sentence.

Porch Beer Album of the Year

Winner: The Berries - Berryland
To be a “Porch Beer” album, you need a few things. Number one: jangly guitars. Number two: a laid-back rhythm section. Number three: a relaxed vocal delivery that pairs perfectly with a warm summer night and a cold beer. All of these elements are found on Berryland in spades. It’s simply a pleasant record; laid-back indie with a twinge of country that makes for a perfect listen on warm summer’s night.

Runner-up: (Sandy) Alex G - House of Sugar
More fitting for the time of the night when you stand up six PBRs deep and the porch starts spinning, Alex G’s House of Sugar is a jaunty indie record that’s occasionally glitchy, jazzy, wandering, and wonderous.

Best Sample of the Year

Winner: Knocked Loose “In The Walls”
The Kojima-helmed PT may have died in development hell, but luckily “In The Walls” makes use of one of the game’s eerie world-building radio broadcasts so that we may never forget. 

Runner-up: 2 Chainz “I Said Me”
I guess this is a good a place as any to admit that The Sound of Music is my favorite movie of all time. Needless to say, when I heard 2 Chainz's “I Said Me” sampling Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “My Favorite Things,” I geeked out more than I probably should have while listening to hip-hop about drug dealing and drive-bys. 

Greatest Addition to the Christmas Canon

Winner: Taylor Swift “Christmas Tree Farm”
While she had already made a fabulous contribution to the Christmas Cannon back in 2008, a lot has happened to Taylor Swift in the past eleven years. “Christmas Tree Farm” is a nostalgic original Christmas song that shines with the polish and primp of a 2019 Taylor Swift coming off her sugary-sweet Lover. It swells with a mix of orchestral flourishes, sleigh bells, and harmonized background vocals as Swift waxes poetic about the ideal holiday season that lives in her heart. It’s lovely, cinnamony, and smile-inducing, just like the holidays. 

Runner-up: Phoebe Bridgers “7 O’Clock News / Silent Night”
Now three years deep, it’s officially safe to call Phoebe Bridgers’ Christmas songs a tradition. Following up 2017’s “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” and 2018’s “Christmas Song,” this newest addition to the dour Bridgers Christmas catalog finds her assembling a Mount Rushmore of indie. Enlisting Fiona Apple and The National’s Matt Berninger, the three craft an updated cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “7 O’Clock News / Silent Night,” which Bridgers dedicated to “everyone whose family has been literally or figuratively torn apart by Donald Trump. And to my racist, xenophobic, misogynistic, hypocritical family members, fuck you.” 

Reissue of the Year

Winner: The Beatles - Abbey Road (Super Deluxe Edition)
Abbey Road is my all-time favorite Beatles album, and that makes this year’s reissue even more exciting. Featuring a full-album remix and over 20 tracks of demos and alternate takes, the Super Deluxe Edition of Abbey Road only gives me more reasons to return to one of the greatest classic rock albums of all time. 

Runner-up: The Rolling Stones - Let It Bleed (Deluxe)
This year I discovered that my favorite Beatles album (Abbey Road) and my favorite Rolling Stones album (Let It Bleed) both came out in the same year. Mind-blowing timelines aside, that means that two of my favorite albums both got 50th-anniversary reissues this year. While the deluxe edition of Let It Bleed came with fewer bonus goodies than Abbey Road, hearing my favorite Stones album remastered was a beautiful experience to behold. 

Most Slept-upon Release of the Year

Winner: Virginity - With Time
I’ll admit I first checked out Virginity only because of their name, but With Time is so great that they don’t even need a gimmick. Clocking in at a whirlwind 25 minutes, With Time is a punchy, clever, and self-deprecating bout of pop-punky emo most reminiscent of Jeff Rosenstock. I don’t care how many streams the album has on Spotify or how many followers the band has on twitter, whatever it is, it’s not enough.

Winner-up: He Was An Artist, She Was A Carpenter - I'll Never Be As Happy As I Was Last Summer
Self-branded as “zoomer emo,” He Was An Artist, She Was A Carpenter is a band that just happens to tick all of my hyper-specific boxes. Clever song titles? Check. Obscure pop-culture samples? Check. Catchy, twinkly, and nostalgic emo? Triple-check. I'll Never Be As Happy As I Was Last Summer is already a fantastic emo album, but it also happens to be the single most promising release I’ve heard all year. Now’s the time to get up on this band before they’re the next big thing in DIY.

That’s Why You Don’t Publish an Album of the Year List in November

Winner: Georgia Maq - Pleaser
Single-handedly proving why it’s a fool’s errand to publish a (supposedly comprehensive) list of the best albums in November, Georgia Maq surprise-dropped her synth-pop debut on Run For Cover this December. Famous for Camp Cope, where she defiantly fronts one of the best pop-emo groups in the southern hemisphere, Pleaser sees Maq swapping her guitar for a synth and shedding her anger to don the persona of a pop artist who’s fallen deeply in love. Still bearing her trademarked Melbourne-accented croon, Pleaser is unexpected not only in that it’s a surprise release but also in that it’s one of the best-constructed pop albums of the year. Should be an easy contender for many last-minute album of the year lists. 

Runner-up: Short Fictions - Fates Worse Than Death
This December also saw the release of one of the best emo albums, Short Fictions’ sophomore record Fates Worse Than Death. Bearing horns, impassioned vocals, and tight choruses, there’s a good reason why Fates has been making the rounds on emo twitter, even this late in the year. 

Best Interpolation

Winner: We Came As Romans “From The First Note” 
We Came As Romans was one of my first real concerts. I use “real” in the sense that it was the first concert I went to with people who were my age and not just my parents. To this day, I distinctly remember We Came As Romans taking the stage and playing the first song “To Plant A Seed.” Midway through the song I’d fought my way through the crowd, braved the moshpit, and made my way to the first few rows of fans before the end of the song. The track concludes with a powerful group chant that found the entire band lining up at the front of the stage harmonizing with the crowd. There’s a snapshot in my mind of that exact moment, and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it. Kyle Pavone’s passing in 2018 was a loss for both the band and the genre, but I think that he would be happy knowing that memory will live on forever in me. And now, thanks to “From The First Note,” that feeling has been bottled up for the rest of time. In this song, the group sampled their own song ten years later in memory of their fallen frontman, and it’s absolutely chilling. “From The First Note” is simultaneously catharsis for the band and a reward for longtime fans. Nothing will ever replace the loss that Kyle’s friends and family felt in August of 2018, but this song will forever act as a beautiful memorial. 

Runner-up: Summerbruise “Bury Me At Penn Station” 
Imagine this; you’re already 12 minutes into a fantastic emo EP, vibing out to the last song when suddenly the unmistakable words of Drake Bell’s “I Found a Way” shoot through the front of your speakers. No, this isn’t a dream, you’re just listening to Summerburise, and it’s beautiful. 

Live Album of the Year

Winner: Vulfpeck - Live in Madison Square Garden
Simply life-affirming. 

Runner-up: IDLES - A Beautiful Thing: IDLES Live at Le Bataclan
Gripping, dynamic, and explosive. Exactly what live music should be.

Nastiest Bass

Winner: Russian Circles - “Arluck”
With a bassline that can only be described as “evil,” Russian Circles came out strong in the first half of the year when they released “Arluck” as the lead single to Blood Year. Much like the band’s previous work “309,” “Arluck” features a demonic bassline that thumps through your speakers, rattles the fillings out of your head, and makes you want to set everything around you on fire. 

Runner-up: Varials “Romance”
In what’s essentially a two-minute interlude from a brutal onslaught of metalcore, Varials gave their audience a breather with this Nine-Inch-Nails-interpolating track that allows for some of the most chunky and destructive bass lines of the entire record. 

Biggest Come Up

Winner: Lil Nas X
I think it’s safe to say that no one in the entire world had a better 2019 than Lil Nas X. If his story is to be believed, this time last year he was living on his sister’s couch with less than zero dollars to his name. He bought a $30 beat online and then posted it on Tik-Tok until it became a meme. From there, the story of “Old Town Road” is mostly public knowledge. The song transformed from meme into social cause when Billboard said the song did not “merit inclusion” on the Country charts only for Billy Ray Cyrus to come to the song’s rescue, giving Nas the assist (and legitimacy) to push forward to the top of the charts. Now “Old Town Road” has become the longest-charting song of all time, spending a grand total of 19 weeks at #1. Lil Nas X came out as gay at the height of the song’s popularity and has gone on to chart with songs like “Panini” and “Rodeo.” Now the world waits to see what the 20-year-old wunderkind will do after making the single most defining song of the year. 

Runner-up: Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish was a known entity long before 2019; however, this year marked the release of her debut album, her first #1 song, and countless sold-out shows on a year-long worldwide tour. Not only that, Billie managed to release a legitimately-great album that crossed boundaries and proved pop music doesn’t need to be traditional, sexy, or “normal” to be commercially successful. She’s the face of a new generation, and this year solidified it. 

Cozy Album of the Year

Winner: Great Expectations - Figures of Speech
Sometimes an album just feels cozy. As if it’s made for the express purpose of staying in, wrapping yourself in a blanket, and sipping on a hot cup of tea as you listen to it. Great Expectations' Figures of Speech is one of those albums. Filled with lush folky instrumentation, subdued Owen-esque arrangements, and softly-whispered vocals, it feels like the musical equivalent of sitting by a warm fireplace and looking out the window as the snow comes down in blankets outside.

Runner-up: Jack M. Senff - Good To Know You
I guess Michigan bands just know how to make cozy albums because ex-emo frontman Jack M. Senff’s debut solo album is a wholesome and comforting record seemingly designed for easy-morning Sunday listening.

Best Remaster

Winner: Dance Gavin Dance - Acceptance Speech 2.0
Post-hardcore mainstays Dance Gavin Dance have spent a better part of this year releasing instrumentals versions of their entire catalog. That instrumental avalanche (alongside one-off singles, acoustic tracks, and side projects) has kept fans more than satisfied. Not only that, but this year the group also revisited their 2014 album, and my personal favorite, Acceptance Speech for a “2.0 version” that makes the mix less muddy, the instrumentals more full, and the vocals even sharper. Acceptance Speech 2.0 gives fans a welcome reason to revisit the humble beginnings of the band’s current era.

Runner-up: August Burns Red - Constellations (Remixed)
Following up last year’s remaster of their best album, August Burns Red continued forward, touching up 2009’s excellent Constellations to sound much more clean and modern. 

Best Song Title

Winner: closure. “Alien vs. Predator vs. Brown vs. the Board of Education”
Filed under both “songs names I wish I’d come up with” and “joke that would have popped off on twitter,” the discography of closure. tends to lean into ridiculous over-the-top song titles, but “Alien vs. Predator vs. Brown vs. the Board of Education” takes the cake.

Runner-up: Proper. “A$AP Rocky Type Beat”
In a brilliant and culturally-aware meme-worthy move, Proper. turned a search term into a song title. Not only that, this song title fits into the group’s ethos calling into question the space between “emo-ness” and blackness. I can only hope that this song got the band got some runoff streams from confused hip-hop fans.

Split of the Year

Winner: Portrayal of Guilt / Soft Kill
There’s an art to a split. Bands have to find another group that they get along with well enough to coordinate an entire release (even if it’s less substantial than a full-length). Generally speaking, your music would line up stylistically, but that’s not the case with Portrayal of Guilt and Soft Kill’s split from this summer. Instead, we have a brutally-fast deathcore track followed by a synthy 80’s throwback jam making for one of the weirdest, most whiplash-inducing one-two punches of the year.

Runner-up: Niiice / Gully Boys
Here we see two massively-underrated Minnesota artists team up to help the world realize that they should be overlooked no longer. From the emo horns and dreamlike breakdown of Niiice’s “Caffeine” to the post-punky goodness of Gully Boys’ “Little Brother,” this split offers an excellent entry point into both of these band’s already-fantastic catalogs. 

Song of the Year

Winner: The National “Light Years”
I can only describe “Light Years” as achingly beautiful. Written at the same time as “Carin at the Liquor Store” off of 2017’s Sleep Well Beast (probably my favorite song of that year), “Light Years” is a song that adapts itself to whatever emotion you bring into it. Grief? Longing? Heartbreak? “Light Years” is malleable and applies to each and every one of them. Centered around a heavenly piano line and Matt Berninger’s remorseful delivery, the song hits like a ton of bricks and captures raw emotion in a way that very few songs seem to. 

Within the space of three and a half minutes, the song builds from those two core components and slowly starts building a near-imperceptible emotional weight. Gradually new elements begin to emerge as the song wears on. A background singer joins in for the first chorus. A subtle string section accentuates the song’s second verse. By the song’s second chorus, kaleidoscopic swirls of ambient noise in the background subsume the listener, lifting them up into the air. The track ends with a meditative instrumental outro where the piano, strings, and hushed vocalizations give you the sensation of floating off into space as you sink deeper and deeper into your emotional state. It’s nothing short of masterful. 

Runner-up: Slaughter Beach, Dog “Anything”
Closing tracks are hard, but Slaughter Beach, Dog seems to have a knack for them. Whether it’s the breathless one-two punch of their debut album, the wholesome love found on 2017’s Birdie, or the raw humanity seen on the band’s newest record. 

“Anything” takes an entire lifetime and compresses it down into a four-minute song. Jake Ewald jostles the timeline around like a Tarantino movie and then presents this journey to us as a wondrous and awe-inspiring tale. The song begins capturing minor frustrations like car troubles and running out of smokes, then moves on to more substantial looming discomforts like drifting away from friends and loved ones as Ewald flashes forward from ages five, ten, nineteen, and eighty-four. After a short instrumental interlude, the vocals return as Ewald pleads with the listener to swim out to him, finally ending with a message that beams with hope and optimism “Anything you want to know, you can find out / Any place you want to see / I can promise I will be a friend to you / If you will be a friend to me.”

Most Anticipated Release of 2020

Winner: Charmer - LP2
There’s a lot to be excited about in 2020. Long-awaited follow-up albums from indie darlings like Phoebe Bridgers and Japanese Breakfast. Debut albums from promising up-and-comers like Beach Bunny, and Dogleg. Big moves from personal faves like Retirement Party and Just Friends, and The Wonder Years. And of course, big-name releases from people like Fleet Foxes and Tame Impala.  Yet with all of that new music coming at us within the next calendar year, the album I’m most excited to hear is Charmer’s sophomore effort. As mentioned above, within the space of one year, the band’s debut became my second-most played album of the last ten years, so it’s safe to say I’m a fan. I’m both excited to see what the band comes up with next and anxious to see if it connects with me in the same way that Charmer did. Perhaps that collection of songs was just lightning in a bottle, but I’m holding out hope that the group’s new album will surpass it.

Runner-up: Stars Hollow - Debut Album
This year I had an unabashed love affair with Stars Hollow. I fell in love with the group’s 2018 EP, I saw the band live three times, and I even interviewed Tyler earlier this year because I had that many questions about his music. The group is comprised of some of the sweetest and most talented people I’ve ever met in the music scene, and I sincerely believe they will go far. As I (also) talked about above, if “Tadpole” is anything to go off of, the group has a long and fruitful future of goosebump-inducing emo that somehow has a direct line to my emotional core. The prospect of a full album from these guys already has me excited for the next year to start. 

The Second Annual Diamond Platters: Swim Into The Sound’s Ancillary End of the Year Awards

Most end of the year lists suck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still in the process of putting together our own “best of” as you read this, but each December we see the exact same thing: dozens of publications all rushing to push out ten pages of clickbait listicles intentionally-ordered to cater debate (and clicks) while simultaneously falling in-line with the broadest most commonly-held opinion. There’s nothing technically wrong with “List Season,” but most of it just comes off as going through the motions, and I believe there’s a better way to reflect what happened over the previous year. That’s why I created The Diamond Platters. 

As you can tell by their name, The Diamond Platters are the highest honor that can be bestowed upon an artist. They are an extravagant and one-of-a-kind accolade representative of artistic achievement and abject opulence… Just kidding, this isn’t anything that grandiose. 

While the name is poking fun at the seriousness of List Season, The Diamond Platters do serve a purpose: they’re a way to circumvent publishing “just another” end of the year list. This is a look at the past 365 days in music through a unique (and sometimes hyper-specific) lens. These awards allow me to draw attention to releases that may not get discussed on a typical publication’s end of the year list. Most importantly, it’s a way to celebrate the year in music without pitting artists against each other. Unique categories for the unique music listener, because not everything fits into a list of 50. 

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Best Cover Song

Winner: The Regrettes - “Helpless”

2018 was a great year to be a fan of Hamilton. Not only did the show finally come to my city, but we also got a new one-off single, and to top it all off The Regrettes released their incredible cover of “Helpless.” Like a pop-punk counterpart to The Hamilton Mixtape, The Regrettes took an already goosebump-inducing song and transformed it into an empowering power-chord shred-fest that somehow works just as well as the original. 

Runner-up: Phoebe Bridgers - “It’ll All Work Out”

Last year Tom Petty passed on October 2nd. Less than two weeks after his death I caught Phoebe Bridgers live and witnessed as she closed out her set with a heart-rending cover of “It’ll All Work Out.” It nearly broke me. One year later on October 2nd Bridgers re-opened that emotional wound when she released a deluxe edition of her debut album featuring a full-studio rendition of the same cover.  

Remake/Rework of the Year

Winner: Car Seat Headrest - Twin Fantasy (Face to Face)

Remastering an album is one thing. Re-recording an album, amending it, and adding onto it is a different thing entirely. Indie darlings Car Seat Headrest did just that when they revisited their 2011 Bandcamp breakthrough earlier this year. Originally recorded entirely by Will Toledo in Garageband, the 2018 version of Twin Fantasy finds the songs backed by a full band, improved production, and an actual budget. The remake remains faithful its predecessor while simultaneously making just enough new additions to make it feel relevant and fresh, all while retaining the same core message that made the album resonate so deeply seven years ago.

Runner-up:  TTNG - Animals Acoustic

Possibly one of the most seminal albums of the entire math rock genre, TTNG’s debut full-length has built quite a reputation for itself over the past ten years. When the band revisited their zoological release in a fully-realized acoustic style this fall, they did so in the most careful, reverent, and precious way possible. 

Mini Wheats™Award For Hardest Shit I Experienced All Year

Winner: Denzel Curry - “Sumo”

Cursed with the mixed-blessing of a meme-adjacent hit, “Ultimate” became the standard Denzel Curry was held to for better or worse. While Imperial, 13, and TA13OO prove his artistic talent undeniably, “Sumo” is the sequel to “Ultimate” we’ve all been waiting for. Featuring yelled vocals, blown-out instrumentation, and hard-as-bricks lyrics, “Sumo” will be a staple of the gym playlist for many years to come. 

Runner-up: Carnage x Lil Pump - “i Shyne”

Bolstered DJ Carnage’s destructive production, “i Shyne” finds Pump at his most ignorant, shouting boasts over an out-of-control hype-up beat for two and a half minutes. 

Stone-Cold Chiller

Winner: Dylan Mattheisen of Tiny Moving Parts

Every once in a while you have someone that just makes your day on social media. Maybe it’s a friend, perhaps it’s a crush, but sometimes it’s a band. When he isn’t singing, shredding, or tapping on his guitar, the frontman of Tiny Moving Parts can be seen smiling across the world and enjoying life on social media. Aside from putting out a new record in 2018, this was also a year of personal progress for Dylan as he shared his weight loss journey with fans in between beaming selfies and adorable musings. Always happy to meet fans at the merch booth after shows, Dylan is a stand-up guy and the definition of a stone-cold chiller.

Runner-up: Caroline Rose of Caroline Rose 

Caroline Rose is a special crystal angel full of rainbows and dreams. Whether she’s releasing one of the best sophomore records of 2018, charming viewers with her music videos, or uploading goofy goings-on in her downtime on tour, Caroline’s red-hued antics are a constant social media delight.

Holdin’ It Down: Award for Most-needed Genre Makeover

Winner: Bloodbather & Jesus Piece - Metalcore

While there were undoubtedly some early indicators like Knocked Loose, Code Orange, and END, the metalcore revival has never felt more real than it did in 2018. Between Jesus Piece’s Only Self and Bloodbather’s Pressure, it’s safe to say that the genre is back in safe hands and experiencing and refreshing second wind. May it never truly die. 

Runner-up: Shame & Heavy Lungs - Post-punk

Forecasted by the arrival of IDLES’ Brutalism last year, genuine, angry, gray, UK-based Post-punk is back in full-force in 2018. Back in January, England-based Shame kicked off the year with a world-rocking debut album, and more recently the IDLES-adjacent Heavy Lungs released a banger of a single following an angry little EP of political tunes. 

“Continental Breakfast” Award For Most Inoffensive Sunday Morning Easy Listen

Winner: Hovvdy - Cranberry

Named after 2017’s collaboration between Kurt Vile and Courtney Barnett, sometimes you just need slow-moving hangover music. While Cranberry is definitively much more than that, their music certainly is easy on the ears.

Runner-up: Yo La Tengo - There’s a Riot Going On

Yo La Tengo’s fifteenth album is a half-ambient relaxing descent into utter bliss. More like a float tank than a collection of songs, There’s a Riot Going On is a wonderful record to throw on in the early hours of a crisp Sunday morning as you contemplate whether or not you want to make eggs. 

Most Important Song Of The Year

Winner: Stella Donnelly - “Boys Will Be Boys”

“Boys Will Be Boys” is a song about the aftermath of sexual abuse. Specifically, it finds Donnelly talking to one of her close friends who, after confessing what had happened to her, explains why she’s to blame for her own rape. It’s an exorcism of pain — a condemning piece of art that’s more powerful than anything I’ve taken in this year, music or otherwise. 

Runner-up: Field Medic - “Let Freedom Ring 2”

If you were to ask Field Medic why he recorded a sequel to “Let Freedom Ring” he may tell you he had to. He may tell you it was an exercise. He may tell you it was a way to air his grievances and get his thoughts out into the world. Whatever the case, “Let Freedom Ring 2” is a raw, honest, and transparent assessment of where America is in 2018. It’s a middle-finger-adorned callout as much as it is a plea for sensibility… and we’re at the point where even that would go a long way. 

Most Fabulous Christmas Bop

Winner: Sufjan Stevens - “Lonely Man of Winter”

Having launched, organized, and ran a Sufjan Christmas blog this December, the back half of my year has been absolutely dominated by Sufjan’s Christmas music. While I gave his 100 Christmas tracks dozens of spins as I usually do, this season felt extra special when fans received a long-obscured loosie from the days of Christmases past. Crisp, cold, and frigid, “Lonely Man of Winter” is a realist Christmas song about feeling a distinct lack of jolliness during a season where that seems to be a requirement. 

Runner-up: August Burns Red - “It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year”

August Burns Red may have released a highly-influential metalcore album early in their career, but their vast body of Christmas work has always been a personal favorite of mine. Needless to say, when we got a six-song EP of holiday tunes earlier this season, it practically made my year. Hearing lead guitarist JB Brubaker shred out the melody to “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” was exactly what I needed to ignite my Christmas spirit. 

Best Cover Art

Winner: SOPHIE - Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides

Shiny, soft, synthetic, glossy, reflective, and smooth are just a handful of the adjectives that come to mind when one finds themselves face to face with the cover to SOPHIE’s debut record. Turns out these words also accurately describe the futuristic dance music contained just behind this cover, all while taking the viewer by surprise and making them want to know more. In other words, it does everything an album cover is designed to do.

Runner-up: Nas - Nasir

An image of five black children lined up against a wall with their hands up in the air says more than I ever could, and almost says more than Nasir does in its 26-minute running time. 

Best Gibberish

Winner: Kanye West - “Lift Yourself”

In the confusing lead-up to Kanye West’s eighth album, anything could have happened. While the aftermath left me and many other fans deeply-conflicted, pretty much every Kanye fan could agree on one thing: “Lift Yourself” was a masterstroke. Clocking in at two and a half minutes, the song was uploaded to Kanye’s site late on a late May evening. Like most fans, I clicked play, vibed out to the classic Kanye soul chop, and then proceeded to bust out laughing when he starts aggressively scatting. I can’t think of any other moment this year that evoked such a strong reaction from me, and for that, I must commend Mr. West. 

Runner-up: Future - “King’s Dead”

Picture this: you’re listening to the newest Jay Rock song. It features Kendrick Lamar, Future, and James Blake. You’re taken aback by the song’s rapid-fire bars and powerful beat. Then halfway through, the instrumental pauses and Future busts out a raspy ode to Slick Rick and Juicy J’s with the line “La di da di da / slob on me knob.” You are shocked. You try to brush it off, but you keep coming back to it. What was once an off-putting and perplexing yelp soon becomes something so stupid it’s catchy. You can’t help but love it. That’s how I feel about “King’s Dead.”

Live Album of the Year

Winner: The National - Boxer Live in Brussels

Often cited as one of their best records, The National’s performance of their 2007 record is everything a live album should be. Bearing faithful renditions of their wine-drunk songs, the band also manages to inject some moments of surprise into this recording. Whether it’s a vibrant horn break on “Slow Show” or a series of distressed guitar solos leading up to a frantic yelp of a chorus on “Squalor Victoria,” the band was able to breathe new life into these classic indie songs. Plus, with engaging crowd responses throughout, and just the right amount of banter, Boxer Live in Brussels is proof that, much like a fine wine, The National are only getting better with age.

Runner-up: Mac Miller - Tiny Desk Concert

While it’s only three songs long, Mac Miller’s Tiny Desk Concert remains one of the most powerful performances I’ve seen all year. Released just one month before his passing, this video became one of Miller’s final moments in the public eye. Fortunately crystalized on film for the rest of time, the video is a 17-minute encapsulation of the type of soul, charm, and artistry he was possible of. 

Porch Beer Album of the Year

Winner: Bonny Doon - Longwave

Sometimes you hear an album that jangles just in the right way. That kicks up just enough dust and casts just enough of an amber-coated summer breeze. A record where the drums are light, the vocals are relaxing, and the bass is played just in the pocket. The kind of music that you can close your eyes, sip your beer, nod along, and enjoy the absence of worry. That’s Longwave.

Runner-up: Nap Eyes - I’m Bad Now

Practically punk compared to Bonny Doon, Nap Eyes’ third record I’m Bad Now is a lovely and light-colored Lou Reed-esque jaunt that’s as pleasing and flavorful as it is relaxing. 

One for the Streets

Winner: Young Dolph - Role Model

At the end of the day sometimes you just need to turn your brain off. There’s no need high-minded metaphors or far-reaching artistic goals, and luckily Young Dolph is striving for neither of those on Role Model. Featuring some of the most audacious, enigmatic, and hilarious bars I’ve heard all year, Dolph’s fifth studio album is 44-minutes of braggadocio, all delivered at a shockingly-consistent quality. Everything’s a banger, and we’re all better off for it. 

Runner-up: Sheck Wes - MUDBOY

Outside of Playboi Carti, it’s hard to think of a single artist who pervaded the hyped-up online sphere more than Sheck Wes. While his popularity had been brewing up for some time now, a Travis Scott co-sign, Drake name-drop, and perfectly-timed album release all converged into the perfect storm of hype and success. 

Best Album From Last Year That Took Until 2018 To Discover

Winner: Field Medic - Songs From the Sunroom

Earlier this year I discovered Field Medic through a stroke of Spotify luck and almost immediately turned around a short review gushing about his poetic folk music. The album has been a constant companion of mine throughout the year, and my discovery felt affirmed when I saved Field’s hat during a Remo Drive mosh pit over the summer. Clever, romantic, and emotionally-raw, Songs From The Sunroom is a lovely and personable release that’s as charming as it is inventive.

Round-up: Surf Curse - Nothing Yet

The modern surf rock scene walks an intoxicating mix of fast-paced aggression and laid-back good nature. While it may sound contradictory, this balancing act is a feat clearly mastered by Surf Curse on their sophomore album which also happened to be the soundtrack to my summer this year. 

Best Music Video

Winner: Childish Gambino - “This Is America”

This is America, and it’s terrible. After producing a transformative funk album in 2016, Donald Glover returned to rap with one of this year’s most impactful singles. “This Is America” has a lot on its mind: gun violence, police abuse, and institutionalized racism are all tackled in the space of four minutes. Not only does Glover eloquently address all those topics, he also managed to deliver this message over a beat that bangs so hard the song’s both catchy and accessible. The music video itself is a striking, twisted, and hypnotic bit of long-shot cinematography that half a billion viewers found impossible to look away from… much like America. 

Runner-up: Charli XCX - “1999”

We have to go back. Not to do anything different, but just to enjoy it all again. On this nostalgic bop, the underground pop queen teams up with Troye Sivan to recreate some of the 90’s most iconic moments. From Matrix dodges to Skechers advertisements, the mix of wistfulness, commitment, and innovation is simply too impressive to ignore. 

“It Me” Award For Verbose And Awkward Lyrics That Most Closely Mirror My Internal Monologue

Winner: Retirement Party - Somewhat Literate

There’s something to be said for representation in music — representation not just in race, gender, religion, or culture, but in thought and personality. Even upon my first listen, I could tell that Somewhat Literate was the most I’d identified with a lyricist in some time. Opening and closing with the airing of her own hypochondriac-fuelled grievances, lead singer Avery Springer spends the rest of the record weaving nervous stream-of-conscious tales fraught with overthinking, awkwardness, and self-deprecation. In short, it feels like someone took my brain and transposed it onto jittery garage-filtered pop-punk.

Runner-up: Illuminati Hotties - Kiss Your Frenemies

Much like Retirement Party, Illuminati Hotties’ debut album represents a similar verbose and overwrought self-criticism. With songs about doughnut dates and searching for a fourth job to pay off her college debt, Sarah Tundzen was able to capture the average Millenial’s quarter-life-crisis with depressing accuracy. 

Freestyle Maestro

Winner: Tyler, The Creator - Various Loosies

If nothing else, Tyler wins this one for the sheer amount of freestyles he gifted fans this year. Most of them under two minutes long, the ex-figurehead of Odd Future released somewhere in the neighborhood of a dozen freestyles this calendar year alone. While not all of them wound up on the major streaming sites, tracks like “Okra” and “435” alone should prove Tyler’s proficiency as a freestyle titan.

Runner-up: Saba - “Nice For What Freestyle”

While I found myself extremely disappointed with Drake’s Scorpion, I was glad that someone took the time to salvage the album’s best beat and transform it into something with a little more substance.

Biggest Glo-Up

Winner: Tay Keith

I’m not going to pretend I was up on Tay Keith before “Look Alive,” but unless you’re big into Southern hip-hop, it’s likely that 2018 was the first time you heard his iconic producer tag. While some deride Tay Keith for making the same type of beat over and over again, he’s seemingly produced hundreds of songs this year alone, and there’s something to be said for respecting the hustle.

Runner-up: Kacey Musgraves

Kacey Musgraves has been making country music for over a decade at the time of writing, so it’s hard to call her an undiscovered force in the country scene, but Golden Hour sparked conversations across the music sphere when it became a certified crossover success. Balancing at the perfect intersection of country, pop, and indie, Musgraves proved that you don’t have to relegate yourself to one lane. 

Song of the Year

Winner: Saba - “PROM / KING”

“PROM / KING” is a seven-and-a-half-minute two-part hip-hop epic that packs as much personality, story-telling, and raw honesty as the entirety of Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid, M.A.A.D City. The first half of the song finds a sixteen-year-old Saba reconnecting with his estranged cousin Walter back in high school. Saba recounts his traumatic prom night experience over a woozy Chicago jazz beat for three minutes until exactly halfway through the song when everything stops. There’s a brief moment of silence, and then the song explodes into a new pattern now propelled by a bombastic drum beat. From there, time flashes forward to 2017 as Saba paints a picture of his first successes as a musician and his growing bond with Walt. As the instrumental grows faster Saba’s flow increases and you get the feeling of an inescapable danger. Eventually the story unfolds, Walt is involved in a fatal stabbing, and Chicago claims another life. As the beat gets faster, so do Saba’s bars. He eventually raps until he’s out of breath, seemingly collapsing from exhaustion, but then making way for a posthumous outro sung by Walter himself. It’s harrowing, beautiful, and painful all at once. In a year where hip-hop was largely dominated by lyrics about money, women, and opulent flexes, it’s refreshing to hear a song with a message and a story. “PROM/KING” is an artistic achievement. A feat. A warning. A memorial.  

Runner-up: Mac Miller - “2009”

For one month “2009” was a poignant reflection on nostalgia, addiction, and innocence lost. Then Mac Miller died, and all of those feelings became amplified ten-fold. With his passing, an already-great track became the penultimate swan song of an artist we lost just as he was reaching his prime. It makes you equal parts heartbroken and thankful to have shared the world with such an incredible artist.  

Most Anticipated Project of 2019

Winner: Angel Olsen

Angel Olsen’s 2016 record My Woman opened up my world musically and philosophically. While last year’s b-sides collection temporarily satiated my hunger for more Olsen, I absolutely cannot wait to see what she’s been cooking up for us over the last two years.

Runner-up: PUP

The Dream Is Over was one of those rare records that was so good it crossed musical boundaries. From indieheads to emo boys to hardcore punks, there seemed to be nothing but praise for the Canadian group’s sophomore effort. With tracking finished back in May, we should be on the receiving end of some heart-rending thrashy punk rock any day now.

July 2018: Album Review Roundup

Overall, July turned out to be a fairly light month for new releases, but even with a lesser quantity of music, we had no shortage of quality tunes. With a few long-awaited follow-ups, a wondrous live album, and some brand new discoveries (as always), the peak of Summer still gave us plenty of new music worth raving about.

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Mom Jeans. - Puppy Love

If you, like me, find it hilarious that a band would price their albums at $4.20 and $6.66 on Bandcamp, then Puppy Love is an album for you. With song titles like “Jon bong Jovi” and “now THIS is podracing” it should be immediately clear that Mom Jeans are going for a very specific brand of self-aware pop-culturally-obsessed millennial humor. Picking up where bands like Modern Baseball and Dads left off, Mom Jeans are four awkward 20-something white dudes writing hyper-realist slice-of-life songs that remain as cutting and confessional as they are affable and goofy. Some bands write songs about love, and others write songs about death, but even the most romantic among us recognize that in the grand scheme of things, those emotional highs and lows are few and far between. Mom Jeans make music about what happens outside of those extremes, the unexciting and unglamorous (but very real) moments that make up a majority of life. The space where you’re killing time, eating Cheetos, and talking to your dog. Puppy Love is an album of songs about the moments that happen while waiting, and, in a way, isn’t that more true to life than anything?

Future - Beast Mode II

At some point, everyone must question why they like Future. While most of us can’t claim the same level of drug use, money, or extravagance, Future exists to show us that these (supposed) benefits of fame come at the price of one’s happiness. Catchy phrases aside, Future’s portrayal of excess in the face of obliteration is both haunting and engaging. Like a car crash you can’t look away from, his escape into women, drugs, and money feels like something more than the typical rapper’s playbook, if only because these topics are undertaken while on the precipice of oblivion. This dichotomy makes him relatable and enigmatic, even when rapping objectively-despicable bars like “I left her sitting at the Loews, oh / 'Cause she wasn't touching her toes, no.” Lines like these are not necessarily something the listener identifies with, but serve as more of a cold and unforgiving vignette carried out by Future’s persona. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that no matter what he’s rapping, Future is always accompanied by a beat that’s hard as bricks. 

Bongripper - Terminal

If you’re an outsider to the genre, your reaction to finding out there’s a Stoner Rock band called “Bongripper” might be one of disbelief. While I’ll admit that their name seems painfully-on brand, there is also a band called Weedeater, so I’ve found that it’s best not to judge a book by its cover. Bongripper’s Terminal is a 43-minute album cut into two pieces “SLOW” and “DEATH,” two arcs that sway with heavy guitar, crashing cymbals, and enough bass to rattle the fillings from your molars. It’s slow-moving, dark, and sludgy instrumental metal at its best. 

Deafheaven - Ordinary Corrupt Human Love

It begins with a piano. Soon a lone guitar seeps into the mix, accompanied by the sound of waves. A cymbal is brushed, and the keyboard warms itself way up to a melody. Finally, a bass enters the fray, synchronizing all of the instruments into one swirling and kaleidoscopic soundscape as a female voice begins to read a passage from some unknown text. As that reading comes to a close, a wall of screamed vocals are telecast from some distant satellite, freezing the listener in their tracks with a spine-chilling pang of haunting beauty. This is the first track of Deafhaven’s Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. Taking the familiar style of black metal shoegaze the band has become known for, Deafhaven’s newest album adds on a bewitching mix of post-rock and dream pop to the proceedings, resulting in something that’s entirely unique and unlike anything they’ve ever done before. Utterly enchanting and possibly one of their best.

The National - Boxer Live in Brussels

When I first tried to get into The National years ago, the group’s 2007 album Boxer was often cited as the best entry point into their vast, decades-long discography. While I gave the album a handful of spins on a few separate occasions, it never grabbed me in the way it seemed to resonate with most fans. It wasn’t until a fateful meeting soundtracked by 2017’s Sleep Well Beast that the band finally clicked for me. I’d later go on to find out that I’m more of an Aligator man, but I can see now that Boxer is a much more reserved, complicated, and poetic album than I initially gave it credit for. The National’s live re-recording of the album breathes new life into these classic alternative songs, adding lush instrumental flourishes, raucous solos, and unexpected vocal deliveries, all of which make the songs feel brand new yet still familiar. Truly a testament to how well this album has aged and how, much like a fine bourbon, The National only get better with time. 

Denzel Curry - TA13OO

Despite being one of the most commercially-successful genres in 2018, the hip-hop landscape has never been more volatile than it is right now. Phases, idioms, and styles change overnight, and (consequently) the artists that chase these fleeting trends often make a big splash, then fade away into obscurity just as soon as they were found. With trap falling out of favor and SoundCloud rap on the rise, Denzel Curry sits at an interesting intersection between the blown-out Floridian style of hype rap and something much more special. I guess you could call it “conscious” even though that too has fallen out of favor, but Denzel Curry’s long-awaited TA13OO speaks for itself. Unlike anything else in the genre, TA13OO is an absolute achievement and the sort of release that some artists spend their entire career chasing. Released as three EPs over the course of three days, TA13OO is a three-act decent into darkness that integrates genres, topics, and styles rarely ever touched upon in hip-hop. There are chilled-out Outkast-esque tracks like “BLACK BALLOONS” as well as unimaginably-hype songs like “SUMO,” all of which have impeccable flows, engaging beats, and well-conceived messages. The fact that Curry can handle such a wide variety of sounds with such proficiency and artistry is a testament to his skill as a creator.

Wild Pink - Yolk In The Fur

As is a recurring theme with these monthly reviews, one of my favorite albums of July was given to us courtesy of a band that I’d never heard of until the day their album came out. I entered Yolk In The Fur with zero expectations, and once I hit play on the dreamy “Burger Hill” I was instantly mystified by the track’s otherworldly moodiness. Every element of the song takes it’s time to enter, leading to a song that journeys at its own pace in a sort of spiritual quest for metaphysical connection. Walking the listener from hazy emo to colorful heartland rock, Wild Pink shows absolute mastery on every front. A considerate, reserved, and well-thought-out world-building release that swirls into your ears and works its way down to your soul.

Quick Hits

• Meek Mill - Legends of the Summer: The recently-released rapper completes a celebratory victory lap of four hard-hitting gym-playlist-ready rap songs.

• Dirty Projectors - Lamp Lit Prose: Post-post-breakup tunes that trade the behavior of a vindictive ex for a wide-ranging swath of collaborators and guest features.

• Wet - Still Run: Beautiful, heartfelt, and deeply-human rock made for ordinary people experiencing abnormal feelings.

• Between the Buried and Me - Automata II: The sequel to an album of the same name from earlier this year bearing similarly-proggy metal, but in more digestible chunks than usual.

• Wiz Khalifa - Rolling Papers 2: Wiz Khalifa used to smoke weed. He still smokes weed, but he used to, too.

• Real Friends - Composure: Scrappy and happy pop-punk from the fearless Illinoisans.

• DRAM - That’s A Girl’s Name: A surprise-released three-track of breezy summer tunes courtesy of hip-hop’s most adorable frontman.

• Chance The Rapper - Four Singles: Chance The Rapper doesn’t release singles, he releases enough songs to constitute an EP, all of which are just as wholesome, fun-loving, and vibrant as we’ve come to expect.

• The Internet - Hive Mind: An hour of bumpin’ funk and vibin’ bops to lose yourself in.

• Ty Segall & White Fence - Joy: Expansive guitar-based throwback tunes that hop from one idea to the next with wild abandon.

• Trash Boat - Crown Shyness: Equal parts melodic and hard-edged, Crown Shyness is a hardcore album with pop-punk sensibilities that bleeds emotion like a fresh wound.

• Frontierer - Unloved: Bombastic and technical metalcore that attacks the listener with explosive ferocity, firey aggression, and destructive anger.

• Like Pacific - In Spite of Me: An unfaltering sophomore album bearing heart-on-sleeve pop-punk made for screaming out the windows of cars at night while doing 60+ on the highway.

• Phantastic Ferniture - Phantastic Ferniture: Effortlessly-charming and charmingly-effortless indie tunes made for slackers and chillers alike.

• No Better - It Felt Like Glass: A pop-punk debut album that scratches vocal chords, strains emotions, and swings wildly as sentiments escape from its soul and work their way up its diaphragm.

• Clearance - At Your Leisure: Fittingly titled, this sophomore album revels in 90’s influence, latent malaise, and sunny post-punk.

• The Coup - Sorry To Bother You: The Soundtrack: The absurdist, political, bizarre, unexpected, and unapologetic soundtrack to the most-needed film of 2018.

We also saw singles from Lil Pump, Childish Gambino, Minus The Bear, Joyce Manor, Death Cab For Cutie, Asking Alexandria, Foxing, The Story So Far, IDLES, Charli XCX, Animal Collective, Mac Miller, Interpol, Dj Khaled, The 1975, Tyler, The Creator x A$AP Rocky,  Blood Orange, Pond, BROCKHAMPTON, Yoko Ono, Nicki Minaj, Foxing, Metric, Smokepurpp, Yves Tumor, Guided By Voices, and Waxahatchee. 

Rewind

Finally, here are a handful of albums that came out earlier this year that I missed until this month.

• Let’s Eat Grandma - I’m All Ears: Mind-expanding, soul-searching, and heart-crushing electronic indie that wanders from room to room of your consciousness.

• Barely March - Marely Barch: Much like Mom Jeans, Barely March offers self-deprecating and hyper-personal tales of breakup, recovery, and nerdy faults.

• 03 Greedo - God Level: Releasing as much music as possible before a 20-year prison sentence, 03 Greedo is crafting extremely-proficient rap songs that are sharp as a bowie knife.

• Naked Giants - SLUFF: Unapologetic rock music that explodes to life in concert.

• Just Friends - Nothing But Love: Remember ska? It’s back in Pog form.

• Dream Wife: Dream Wife: Middle fingers extended and sex drives turned all the way up, Dream Wife delivers unabashedly-wild and in-your-face rock from down-under.

• Gladie - Everyone Is Talking About You: Lovely heartbreak and beautiful self-destruction recorded to emo-tinged indie.