Anyone searching for the Ultimate Truth in Music by looking at the many Best Albums of the Year, Decade, Century, etc., lists out there is probably wasting their time.
But here are some of them anyway. Have at it. There's plenty more:
Pitchfork
Billboard
Stereogum
Rolling Stone
New Musical Express
VICE
Consequence of Sound
Variety
There is a remarkable consistency to these lists, but if you check the music itself out you may or may not be impressed.
Not only are Best of Anything lists (mine included) subjective, they’re personal. Meaning that my favorites moved me in a way that they may never move you. So there’s a risk you’ll be baffled by what I love. Who would blame you for thinking There I go, trying to learn about good music but end up only learning about Jaybee. I should sell t-shirts that say “I Went to Jaybee’s Blog and All I Got Was a Lousy CD”.
Also, after perusing a couple of dozen best of the decade lists, I see that my personal favorites rarely appear at the top. I was much more likely to find them somewhere in the middle. This is not because I’m especially unique but rather because I’m somewhat unique. Just like you. All together now, “We are all individuals!”
Polls are compiled by people whose job is to listen to as much pop music as possible. I couldn’t possibly have heard as much music as they did, but they couldn't possibly have heard some music as much as me.
To put it another way, while the pollsters, having heard more music than me, can judge it all in a wider context that enables them to do so in a more intellectual way, I’m judging mine in a narrower one, and have the opportunity to be more emotionally moved by it than they have the time to be.
So, here’s some guidance to my lists and to all those other ones you’re bound to see:
- “Great” records are somewhat overrated: You'll hear a lot of hype or enthusiasm directed at some records. If you decide to check them out, don't be shocked if they leave you a little cold. There's a million reason for this, not the least of which is that rush one feels when we think we're seeing an emperor not fully clothed. Don't get too mad, though. I might be you. Give it some time and you may eventually deem it "good".
- “Good” records are somewhat underrated: These are the ones in the middle of the list. They tend to make the list after all the other more famous artists get (more than) their due and it's kind of where I live. I'm not saying you'll love the same ones I do but the ones you would love are hidden here.
That’s okay. I will get to them, and give them the time to sink in. And when something does click it’s the sound of a new door opening. And that, people, is why I do this.
My attitude is the exact opposite of that tired old “Music Sucks These Days” attitude geezers like me are prone to.
No, music doesn't suck these days. But maybe we do. Oh, not you or me. Some other guy.
This Decade:
The good news is that there were plenty of albums to love, if not to be completely obsessed by. Ask me tomorrow and the order will be completely different:
- Car Seat Headrest: Teens of Denial (2016) 🌶 Yes, it's a little too long, a little too sloppy. Yes, the songs end a little too abruptly. Yes, Will Toledo's nasally voice isn't...welcoming. But damn if this isn't the most bracing rock n' roll I've heard in maybe decades.
- tUnE-yArDs: W H O K I L L (2010) 🌶
- Tame Impala: Lonerism (2012) 🌶
- Courtney Barnett: Sometimes I Just Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
- Robbie Fulks: Upland Stories (2016)
- Arcade Fire: The Suburbs (2010)
- Courtney Barnett: The Double EP: A Sea of Split Peas (2013)
- Sufjan Stevens: Carrie and Lowell (2015)
- Beach House: Bloom (2012)
- Jon Hopkins: Immunity (2013)
- Beach House: Teen Dream (2010)
- Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest (2010) 🌶
- Max Richter: Infra (2010) 🌶
- Angel Olsen: My Woman (2016) 🌶
- King Creosote/John Hopkins: Diamond Mine (2011)
- Snail Mail: Lush (2018)
- Beck: Morning Phase (2014)
- Grimes: Art Angels (2015)
- The New Pornographers: Whiteout Conditions (2017)
- Kacey Musgraves: Golden Hour (2018)
- The Roots: How I Got Over (2010)
- Superchunk: Majesty Shredding (2010)
- Janelle Monae: Dirty Computer (2018)
- Alvvays: Anti-Socialites (2017)
- Kacey Musgraves: Same Trailer, Different Park (2013)
- Mike Burns: Mountain Mover EP (2015)
- Tallest Man on Earth: The Wild Hunt (2010)
- Loudon Wainwright III: Older Thank My Old Man Now (2012)
- Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit: The Nashville Sound (2017)
- Waxahatchee: Out from the Storm (2017)
- Leonard Cohen: You Want it Darker (2018)
- Best Coast: Crazy for You (2010)
- Jens Lekman: Life Will See You Now (2017)
- Robyn: Body Talk (2010)
- Cloud Nothings: Attack On Memory (2012)
- Lori McKenna: The Bird and the Rifle (2016)
- Kanye West: My Dark Beautiful Twisted Fantasy (2010)
- Yo La Tengo: Stuff Like That There (2015)
- Paul Simon: So Beautiful or So What? (2011)
- Withered Hand: New Gods (2014)
- Forlorne: The Old and Weathered Glass (2017)
- Arca: Arca (2017)
- Soccer Mommy: Clean (2018)
- Father John Misty: I Love You, Honeybear (2010)
- Mbongwana Star: From Kinshasa (2015)
- Parquet Courts: Light Up Gold/Tally Up the Things You Broke (2013)
- Japandroids: Celebration Rock (2012)
- Destroyer: Kaputt (2011)
- Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel (2012)
- Todd Snyder: Agnostic Hymns and Stoner Fables (2012)
Okay, I'll stop here. Yes, it was THAT good a decade.
Here's a Spotify list of my favorite songs from the 2010s, which, by the way, I'm constantly adding to. Like most of my lists, it starts out quiet and gets louder and faster, but then gets quiet again. (Hey, that sounds like when I get drunk...)
It might help you figure out which of the above are worth checking out.
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