Albums of the Decade

In less than a week, we will be leaving the decade of the teens, and entering the promise of a new decade. The Roaring '20s, part 2. Because of this, I thought it would be fun to go back and reflect on what some of my favorite albums of the decade have been. The teens have produced some absolutely incredible albums and should be celebrated. Let's go back and see what some of the standouts have been. You'll also see my initial reaction to each album.

Frightened Rabbit: The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010)
I first heard of Frightened Rabbit about a month ago when I was listening to my old college radio station, and since then I cannot stop listening to them. Frightened Rabbit mainly writes about relationships that have taken a wrong turn, relationships that are ending, or how a relationship can save an individual. The beauty is they take a totally different perspective on this old chestnut, and the music is fantastic. I cannot recommend this album enough. Please take the time and check this band out. You will not be disappointed.

LCD Soundsystem: This Is Happening (2010)
This album is already getting universal praise from music critics. And it deserves it. This is Happening is a brilliant pop dance album by James Murphy. Five years from now, you will still be listening to this album and still find enough little diddies to keep you interesting.

The National: High Violet (2010)
Like LCD Soundsystem’s album, the new National is getting universal praise from music critics and it deserves it. High Violet deals with love lost, and loneliness, all set to very dark music. It’s epic, and it deals with subject matter that anyone can relate to. It’s a great album to listen to on headphones.

Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (2010)
Within a few seconds of hitting play on the Suburbs, you already know that this is a special album. The band creates an incredible picture of suburban life, and how it effects those who grew up in the suburbs. Pure and simply, The Suburbs is a masterpiece.

Frank Turner: England Keep My Bones (2011)
HOLY CRAP!!! Is this a great album. Turner covers a wide range of topics on this album, from friendship to religion, and the power of rock n’ roll. And though I do not agree with everything Turner says on this album, I have nothing but respect for him as an artist. This is a brave album, and will be like a fine wine. As it ages, it will only get better.

William Elliott Whitmore: Field Songs (2011)
I love this album. 9 songs that capture the feeling and struggle of the middle class/ working poor of the United States. The album is breath taking. It is poetic, yet simplistic. A celebration of nature and the human spirit. Whitmore continues to grow and develop as an artist. The way he is developing, I see him becoming the voice of a generation, much like Johnny Cash or Tom Waits. If there is one album you were going to buy this year, you should buy this one.

Local H: Cold Manor (2012)
Cold Manor, off of the new album: Hallelujah! I'm a Bum.
Just a hard rocking romper stomper of an album. Here is my favorite track of the album. Performed live in NY earlier in the year. The album does a really cool "Abbey Road" style of songs blending into one another.

Mumford and Sons: Babel (2012)
Epic. That is the only way I can describe this song. If this album is half as good as this song, Mumford and Sons just became a very important band.

Murder By Death: Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon (2012)
My mind was literally blown after I finished hearing this song for the first time. It is so good. Then I heard the album, and I was equally impressed. If this album does not blow up Murder By Death, I do not know what will. It seems like they have been a band that is always on the verge of becoming very well known.

Queens of the Stone Age: ...Like Clockwork (2013)
What a pure rock album. This never left my stereo.

Moby: Innocents (2013)
Innocents is an absolutely beautiful album. The melodies are what really standout and hold my attention throughout the entire album. Moby has a way to crafting music that is sober, sad, and yet joyful. For me, Innocents is a great capstone to Wait for Me and Destroyed. Three albums, linked together by Moby discovering what it means to sober and a musician.

St. Vincent: St. Vincent (2014)
I will always remember 2014 as the year I discovered St. Vincent. Her self-titled 4th album is without a doubt one of the best front to back albums I have ever heard. The musicianship on the album captures your ears and does not let go, but its her lyrics that are the most interesting. On this album Annie Clark (St. Vincent) discusses life in the digital age, and how it can affect one's life. It's pretty standard now to say that technology is good for us, but Clark is brave enough to ask is it really? Seeing her live during the first part of December has cemented her standing with me as the David Bowie of this generation. If you are to buy any album of 2014, buy this one. You will not be disappointed.

Beck: Morning Phase (2014)
It had been six long years since Beck had released his last album Modern Guilt.  But it was worth the wait. Beck crafted an album that is like a sequel to his outstanding album from 2002  Sea Change. Now more mature, Beck is looking back and almost answers the questions he asked on Sea Change. Yet Beck continues to be Beck and he still finds a way to reinvent himself on this album. It is true that it is a "slower" album. But I find that sometimes in life it is a good thing to slow things down, and this album is an example that slow/quieter music can still be the most impactful. One of my new year's resolutions for 2015 is to listen to Sea Change and Morning Phase back to back.

Punch Brothers: The Phosphorescent Blues (2015)
I was telling a friend of mine that I feel like The Phosphorescent Blues has been around for years. It obviously hasn't, it came out in early 2015, but I've listened to it so much that it feels like it has always been here. For me the real test of a record is listenablility. What I mean by that is how many times can you hear it, before you get tired of it. The album has yet to stray far from my stereo, or from my iPod. It showcases a band that after 10 years together still isn't afraid to experiment. This very well may be their best album yet. For anyone looking to get into folk or bluegrass music, The Punch Brothers are the band to check out.

Alabama Shakes: Sound and Color (2015)
My goodness this is a great record. I mean this is a really great record. 2015 was a breakout year for Alabama Shakes. From a killer Saturday Night Live set, to Lollapalooza, to jamming with Paul McCartney, Brittany Howard and company could do no wrong. This is the record that we will look back on as Alabama Shakes' coming out party. Blues rock at its best!

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds: Skelton Tree (2016)
I was scared to listen to this record at first. It was almost as if the emotional impact this record promised would be too great for me to handle. Skeleton Tree focuses on the tragic death of Cave's son. This is Nick Cave at his most rare and hurt. After listening to this album numerous times, all I can say is that Nick Cave is one strongest individuals in the world. This record sees him at his lowest, and he brings the listener right there with him. And yet, there is a sense of hope throughout the album, that is truly inspirational.

David Bowie: Blackstar (2016)
What can I saw about the late great David Bowie that hasn't already been said? Same goes for his 2016 and last ever release Blackstar? Upon its release, critics called the album spectacular. After Bowie's death of cancer, it became his magnum opus. Any music fan NEEDS to listen to it at some point in their life. It lives up to the hype.

Radiohead: A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
I love A Moon Shaped Pool. It is a beautiful record. For me, it is on par with their 2007 release In Rainbows. And it is sort of a return to form for Radiohead. In 2011, Radiohead released King of Limbs which I found to be very robotic in sound. Where King of Limbs was abrasive, A Moon Shaped Pool is melodic. And with the untimely death of Thom Yorke's partner Dr. Rachel Owen, it takes on a whole new meaning.

Esperanza Spalding: Emily's D+ Evolution (2016)
The word masterpiece is thrown around a lot. And I am just as guilty of throwing that word around as anyone else. With that being said, please believe me when I tell you, Emily's D+ Evolution is a masterpiece. What Spalding does on this album is absolutely incredible. She creates a fusion of jazz, classic rock, RnB, and pop. It is unlike anything I have ever heard. It's an album that ten years from now, I'll be able to listen to, and hear something new that I had never heard before. Because I am a music nerd, I have a list of my all-time favorite albums written down. It's time for me to add to the list.

The Kronos Quartet: Folk Songs (2017)
This is a really interesting record and band, and I want to do more research before I write a more in-depth article on them. Essentially, the Kronos Quartet is a quartet of classical musicians who experiment and re-interpret classics and folk songs. Hence their new album Folk Songs. Their re-imagining of American and French folk music is incredible. The songs are beautiful, peaceful, and thought provoking. This is definitely a band I want to learn more about.

Chris Thile: Thanks For Listening (2017)
Three records in a single year. Chris Thile is a machine, and each album kept getting better and better. Released in early December, Thanks for Listening is a compilation album of all of his "Song of the Weeks" he has performed on A Prairie Home Companion, now known as Live From Here. Many of these songs benefit from the recording studio. Over the past two years, Chris Thile has sky-rocketed into my top five favorite artists ever, and based off his this past year, that trend looks solidified. I cannot recommend this record enough.

St. Vincent: Masseduction (2017)
I really needed to take my time, and digest Masseduction because there are so many different layers to this album. Not only is it about heartbreak, depression, and drugs, but it's also a well thought out reflection on our society as a whole. How we interact with celebrities, what are expectations of them are. How the press interacts with celebrities. How we interact with one another, etc. All of this is accomplished with incredible poppy music, and catchy hooks. St. Vincent, very quietly and confidently wrote what is my favorite album of 2017, what may be the best whole album of 2017, and what very well may be her masterpiece. I've talked to a number of my friends who are diehard music fans, and I keep hearing the same thing from this, this is St. Vincent's best album to date. And that is saying something.

Lord Huron: Vide Noir (2018)
Lord Huron's third album "Vide Noir" continues the bands trend of uplifting, almost spiritual music. Very slowly, very quietly, Lord Huron is becoming one of the most important bands in the world. I almost thing the question is, when will the rest of the world discover this. I love this album, and I love the track Lost in Time and Space.

Nathaniel Rateliff and The Night Sweats: Tearing at the Seams (2018)
God this band is good. Like I feel guilty that I'm just getting into them now good. Like where have I been the past few years? Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats tear it up with "Tearing at the Seams". Perfectly blending southern rock, garage rock, folk, and country into one perfect symmetrical sound. (I can't believed I just typed country there, but there you go. 2018 is full of surprises.) My prediction, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats will be headling a major festival soon. Lollapalooza, Bonaroo, whatever. It's coming.

Paul McCartney: Egypt Station (2018)
With "Egypt Station", Sir Paul McCartney once again proves that he is Sir Paul McCartney. At age 76, McCartney puts out one of his best solo albums in years. It's catchy, it's modern, it's classic, it's everything we've come to expect from him. It has very quickly become one of my all time favorite McCartney solo albums. Personally, I can't wait to see these new songs live. 

Punch Brothers: All Ashore (2018)
This is difficult for me to admit, but when I first heard "All Ashore" by the Punch Brothers, I didn't like it. Since the bands 2015 masterpiece album the Phosphorescent Blues, Chris Thile and company have grown to almost mythical levels in my mind. (I currently put them in the same breathe as The Beatles in my favorite bands listing in my head.) Needless to say, when "All Ashore" was announced, and I first listened to it, my expectations where sky high.

The album totally caught me by surprise. I think deep down I was expecting it to be an almost spiritual sequel to Phosphorescent Blues. While "All Ashore" does have some similar characters to Phosphorescent Blues, it is a truly unique album and very different from its predecessor. With "All Ashore" the band took a collective step back, and reflected on all aspects of life. (Tying it back to I'm With Her here.) The majority of the music is melodic, and very honest about the times we are living in, while also discussing family life, and growing older. While I was expecting something more upbeat, the Punch Brothers delivered an album that, for me at least, will be a time capsule of what 2018 felt like. I only discovered this after a second and third listen. Now I absolutely love this album, and it is without a doubt my favorite album of 2018. I hope you give it a listen to at some point. I feel that you will absolutely love it.

Brittany Howard: Jamie (2019)
What can I say about this album that hasn't already been said? This is a breakout album for Miss Howard. Like in the way of become a voice of a generation. Howard creates an experimental roots album with lyrics that explore relationships, drug use, love, and life as a whole. I think this album maybe evidence that Brittany Howard has outgrown Alabama Shakes, and about to embark on an incredible solo career.

Coldplay: Everyday Life (2019)
Wow!! That's all I can say about Coldplay's eighth album. It is by far their most experimental album. It explores politics, religion, police violence, and classical music. Yet all of this exploration is contained in the musical sound of their first two albums. If you prefer "old" Coldplay, this album is a must listen. It's incomplete, rough, and human. If this is signs of a direction for the band, I cannot wait to see where they go next!!

*My sincerest apologies, Blogger isn't letting me embed the videos in this posting for some reason.