Author Topic: Albums of the Decade - 2010's  (Read 2424 times)

Eric/E.T.

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Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« on: February 29, 2020, 01:58:20 AM »
I listed it up over on Listnd -->>>> https://listnd.com/list/9046

When I googled for a music site like Letterboxd, I actually saw someone on Letterboxd mention Listnd. It's criminally underutilized...unless there is a reason for that. Please tell me if there's a reason. Or if there's another site that does it better. While I really started going big on movies in the last half of the decade, I've been strong with music since like 7th or 8th grade. I heard lots in the 10's. Here are the fifty best, for those who don't wanna see the cooler-looking list with the pictures:

50. The Seer - Swans
49. Hopelessness - ANOHNI
48. In Colour - Jamie xx
47. I'm All Ears - Let's Eat Grandma
46. Night Time, My Time - Sky Ferreira
45. Romance is Boring - Los Campesinos
44. New Energy - Four Tet
43. Kiwanuka - Michael Kiwanuka
42. The Life of Pablo - Kanye West
41. Trouble Will Find Me - The National
40. Watch the Throne - Jay-Z/Kanye West
39. The Bones of What You Believed - Chvrches
38. Desperate Ground - The Thermals
37. To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
36. Days are Gone - HAIM
35. Skeleton Tree - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
34. Halcyon Digest - Deerhunter
33. The Age of Adz - Sufjan Stevens
32. Singularity - Jon Hopkins
31. Some Rap Songs - Earl Sweatshirt
30. My Name is My Name - Pusha T
29. Run the Jewels 2 - Run the Jewels
28. Atrocity Exhibition - Danny Brown
27. Celebration Rock - Japandroids
26. Blond - Frank Ocean
25. Daytona - Pusha T
24. We Got It From Here...Thank You 4 Your Service - A Tribe Called Quest
23. Sleep Well Beast - The National
22. Tomboy - Panda Bear
21. Tetsuo & Youth - Lupe Fiasco
20. Pure Comedy - Father John Misty
19. Be the Cowboy - Mitski
18. pom pom - Ariel Pink
17. Oil of Every Pearl's Un-Insides - Sophie
16. American Dream - LCD Soundsystem
15. Reflektor - Arcade Fire
14. good kid, m.A.A.d. city - Kendrick Lamar
13. Black Up - Shabazz Palaces
12. U.F.O.F. - Big Thief
11. A Moon Shaped Pool - Radiohead
10. Puberty 2 - Mitski
9. Carrie & Lowell - Sufjan Stevens
8. Sunbather - Deafheaven
7. Centres - Ian William Craig
6. Father, Son, Holy Ghost - Girls
5. The Suburbs - Arcade Fire
4. My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye West
3. Damn. - Kendrick Lamar
2. I Love You, Honeybear - Father John Misty
1. Yeezus - Kanye West

Anyone else? I know Keith must have a Top 250 Tracks of the Decade list coming at us. Also, of FLY's top five, how many of them will be by Kanye West? Will he go one more than me and aim for three? And if 1SO has listened to albums at even a fraction of how he watches films, well damn, he might have a top 300 or so.

Ends of decades only come once every ten years, you know? I'll be graying for sure by the end of the next one...
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2020, 10:04:41 PM »
Praise be to Yeezy!

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2020, 10:44:52 PM »
Artist of the Decade. Maybe along with yr boy, K-Dot.  ;)
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2020, 11:13:39 PM »
Ab-Soul maybe...

Kanye is definitely the artist of the decade, number two, in reality, is probably Thugger.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2020, 11:16:12 PM »
What's that that Rick James said? In the Chappelle Show?
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2020, 04:49:03 PM »
What's that that Rick James said? In the Chappelle Show?

Quote
Yeezys all on your sofa
?

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2020, 06:16:36 PM »
Nah, it had to do with a particular drug...
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2020, 08:50:33 PM »
It is hip-hop centric, and I think there's a case to also be made for Future and Drake, but I was thinking about this earlier in actuality, and I feel like Young Thug is definitely one of, if not the, most influential hip-hop artist of the past decade. He opened the door for so many artists who are huge today (suppose the other case is that Gucci is really the one who did that), and not just the ones who blatantly copy his sound, but also hip-hop culture in general. Also, JEFFREY is definitely one of the decade's best albums.

Eric/E.T.

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #8 on: March 08, 2020, 01:02:17 AM »
I find Young Thug unlistenable. Only thing I've heard him do that I liked was the track on Jaime xx's album. Because of that, I have tried on multiple occasions to get into his music. Can't do it. Can't do Future. Drake, fake, my little cousin used to watch you in Degrassi. Actually, I really liked a good portion of Nothing Was the Same, and think he's very good lyrically, but I have little love for his forays into R&B or the artifice embedded in his persona. He's kinda corny to me.

Kendrick has 13 Grammys and a PULITZER. First non-jazz or classical Pulitzer ever. (Only point out the Grammys to show that he's indeed very influential in popular culture.) I'm sure you know it, so c'mon. If I were just going on cultural importance, it's DAMN. and nothing else. I think he's the greatest emcee of all-time already. I would not rate any southern rapper not named Andre 3000, Big Boi, old Cee-Lo, or Pusha T (nominally southern) in my Top 250. To me, there is a rap ethic, like there's a punk ethic, or a metal ethic. It's about making great art, but doing so in a way that's socially and culturally relevant, not just making pop music. Kanye, no matter how off-the-wall and potentially off-putting his public persona is, and no matter how much money he's made, has always maintained that ethic. (He still would not be high in my rankings. I like him better as a musical artist than strictly as a rapper or emcee.) I haven't heard that ethic in southern rap, which really just makes it a different thing, sort of like (and I know this is a strange analogy) the Catholic-Protestant split. But, for me, yeah, not my thing.
A witty saying proves nothing. - Voltaire

FLYmeatwad

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Re: Albums of the Decade - 2010's
« Reply #9 on: March 08, 2020, 02:26:55 PM »
Well, to be fair, that song has the single greatest line ever delivered on any song ever ("I'ma ride in that pussy like a stroller!"), and I think it's among his best songs in general. Future I really only super got in to his album before he became modern Future with the DS2 (the album's actual name, though it is an abbreviation for Dirty Sprite 2), though think the album with Juice WRLD is fantastic, but that's largely in relation to Juice, and I largely don't like Drake either (If You're Reading This... and Nothing Was The Same are easily his two best for me); however, I would say that Future has definitely transformed the sound of hip-hop. Even Travi$'s sound got pulled more towards Future, to its detriment mostly.

Thugger is a different beast though. His sound has changed so much from 1017 Thug to So Much Fun, and has brought so many artists with him and without losing his voice (both literally and metaphoric, in this case). I struggle with some of it, in the sense that the lyrical content isn't always the draw in the way that it would be for Kanye or Pusha or someone like that, but there's also an impulse to then write him off as all sound, which I would say is not the case. It's just a different kind of music, in the way that Death Grips have also done (similar in the sense that lyrics are important to both, but can get dwarfed by sound. I'd also say that Death Grips haven't had the large scale impact that Thug has), and it's not for everyone I guess, but artistically speaking Thugger is almost in a class of his own. It's concerning in the sense that, with the success of his most recent album, and the number of copies of him out there, that he's refined his sound so much and has settled in to it. But it's so early to have those fears when we're really only like 1.5 years out from the release of a song like "High" that showcases so much of what makes him great. To say nothing of how varied he got even as recently as Young Martha and Beautiful Thugger Girls, to make no mention of what he did on JEFFREY and the Slime Season trilogy. Plus, even if the style has changed a lot since then, 1017 Thug still goes so hard, you get glimpses of what he'd become in "Dead 4 Real" and "Condo Music" as well as unrelenting heaters like "2 Cups Stuffed" and "Picacho".

Feel like Get Ya Mind Correct is one of hip-hops most lyrically rich albums without being socially relevant. Plenty of great work from UGK as well. Even 2 Chainz is working in a traditionally/modern southern sound and putting out work that has things like "NCAA" alongside tracks like "High Top Versace". And there are guys like Kevin Gates who are lyrically impressive while also still working in the Southern aesthetic. Killer Mike and Big K.R.I.T. as well, though with a different sound, especially since Mike is pretty much just Run The Jewels now.

Kendrick is fine, and I wouldn't deny that he's popular, but I'm not sure that DAMN. has had a cultural impact that far outside of its initial release window. I think it's maybe his best project, definitely top two with Good Kid (though even that album I had trouble anointing at the time, and still think it's pretty flawed), though if I were to highlight the one that had the most influence on other work it's probably be Butterfly, which is just an abysmal album, but has opened the door for Chance's ill-advised forays in to Jazz fusion (which also creeps in to Life Of Pablo, to an extent, though Kanye does much more with it and seemed to care more about the gospel than Jazz, thankfully) and equally dull work from people like Anderson .Paak. Kendrick isn't even the best lyricist under the TDE banner though, and Control System runs circles around any project he has put together. I do put some stock in the Pulitzer, but don't know enough about their awards outside of Drama to have much of an opinion on whether or not I would put much more stock in it than the Grammy nominations, which is to say very little.

 

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