Our Best Albums of the Decade

Nick Warren

We've gushed before about how fun these End of the Year lists are for critics and writers to pick apart and share, but the End of the Decade? That's another story. For this monumental task, we've decided to not only look partially at what was categorically the "best" of the 2010s, but also at the albums that impacted us — and the genres we love — the most. Trust us, if your top album of the 2010s isn't on this immediate list, there's a good chance it was featured on one of our individual lists of 50. In our opinion, what follows is the best of the best.

1. Phoebe Bridgers – Stranger in the Alps (2017) — Single-handedly perfecting the art of "sad girl" indie rock, Phoebe Bridgers' debut has only gained ground since its release. Since then, she's been part of Boygenius and the Better Oblivion Community Center, teaming up with greats like Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Conor Oberst, respectively. The resounding potency of this record has had it accumulating plays nonstop since it came out. The nerve Bridgers taps into is raw and delicate. It's music we all need sometimes. When you find a Stranger in the Alps, you won't forget it.
2. Cymbals Eat Guitars – Lose (2014) — Lose is the third album from Staten Island's Cymbals Eat Guitars, and while 2011's Lenses Alien garnered the band critical acclaim, Lose happened to show us exactly what the eccentric indie rock quartet was capable of. Equal parts organic and experimental, Lose grapples with difficult subject matter — substance abuse, grief, and the dissolution of youth — but often sounds more like a celebration than a eulogy. The band would experiment further on the neon-tinged glam-rock of 2016's Pretty Years before unceremoniously disbanding, but Lose is the kind of album that quietly helped sustain the entire indie rock genre.
3. Title Fight – Floral Green (2012) — Looking back, it would be easy to believe that Floral Green was nothing more than another run-of-the-mill hardcore-gone-experimental album that dominated the alternative and punk scenes in the early 2010s. In reality, Title Fight were always ahead of their time (they even went shoegaze before every mediocre metalcore band started doing it). Just one year following the release of 2011's Shed, Title Fight succeeded in crafting a game-changing punk album that incorporated elements of post-hardcore, space-rock, and grunge paired with some of the strongest lyricism of their career.
4. The Menzingers – On the Impossible Past (2012) — There has been no greater album to sing along to this decade than On the Impossible Past. The Scranton, Pa. quartet's third studio album is the highest point in their career, the must-hear album from the decade's best punk band, and the pinnacle of an entire generation of modern punk as we know it. Featuring plenty of Vladimir Nabokov references intertwined with relatable twenty-something musings, the lyrics are dense enough to dive into and fun enough to remember.
5. Kanye West – The Life of Pablo (2016) — The majority of End of the Decade Lists have listed pop culture's biggest provocateur at one point or another, usually citing 2010's critically acclaimed My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. While that album may show off Kanye West's perfectionist tendencies, hear us out; The Life of Pablo is the antithesis of MBDTF, and it's even better for it. The final album to be released before the artist's hospitalization and political self-sabotage, TLOP highlights a spectrum of styles from throughout the artist's career, lending to a colorful and kaleidoscopic masterpiece about family, fame, and God – before he even found God.
6. Mitski – Puberty 2 (2016) — This is arguably the best album by Mitski Miyawaki, one of the definitive artists of the 2010s. Putting out five records since 2012, at least three of them deserve spots on this list as well. If 2014's Bury Me at Makeout Creek codified her exceptional indie talent and creativity, and 2018's Be the Cowboy found her moving onto new, poppier paths, Puberty 2 is that perfect midpoint, harnessing a cultured rawness into 11 heartbreaking tracks.
7. The National – Trouble Will Find Me (2013) — The National just keeps writing sadder and sadder records. It's not that Trouble Will Find Me did anything exceptionally different than 2010's High Violet; it's more that the band, including frontman Matt Berninger, honed their abilities to craft honest, emotional songs that could be minimalist one minute and lush the next. It doesn't hurt that Berninger's strong suit is turning oddly specific references into universal themes – just listen to him singing about "Tylenol and beer" on album standout "This Is The Last Time."
8. Anderson .Paak – Malibu (2016) — There wasn't a smoother party album released in the 2010s than Anderson .Paak's Malibu. The second in the artist's quartet of California-inspired releases, this exposes .Paak at his peak. The versatile vocalist, producer, and percussionist is able to craft his own brand of engaging R&B that you won't want to put down. This album has seen a thriving life years after its release, being discovered and obsessed over by new fans regularly.
9. Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010) — A thoroughly addicting record, The Winter of Mixed Drinks came at the midpoint of Frightened Rabbit's career. Between the brilliance of 2008's Midnight Organ Fight and pop polish of 2013's Pedestrian Verse, it toes a delicate line. While the music is oftentimes catchy and upbeat, it provides the backdrop for the demons that frontman Scott Hutchison dealt with, eventually leading to the singer's death in 2018.
10. Fucked Up – David Comes to Life (2011) — Fucked Up's third album was an opus, a masterwork that spanned 18 tracks, four "acts," and nearly 78 minutes. Though the band's 2008 album The Chemistry of Common Life was similarly lauded, David Comes to Life gets the last word in. It succeeds in its lofty ambitions, combining shoegaze and hardcore for a daring work of punk rock genius.

Aaron Mook's Top 50:

1. Title Fight - Floral Green
2. Kanye West - The Life of Pablo
3. The National - Trouble Will Find Me 
4. Wild Nothing - Nocturne
5. Deftones - Diamond Eyes
6. Deafheaven - New Bermuda
7. Tame Impala - Currents
8. Tyler, the Creator - Flower Boy
9. Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
10. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps
11. Cymbals Eat Guitars - LOSE 
12. Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool
13. Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear
14. Crime in Stereo - I Was Trying to Describe You to Someone
15. Porches - The House
16. The Sidekicks - Runners in the Nerved World
17. Sun Kil Moon - Benji 
18. Earl Sweatshirt - Some Rap Songs
19. King Krule - The Ooz
20. (SANDY) Alex G - Beach Music
21. Clairo - Immunity
22. Fiona Apple - The Idler Wheel…
23. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
24. Father John Misty - Pure Comedy
25. Tame Impala - Lonerism
26. Japanese Breakfast - Soft Sounds From Another Planet
27. Daughter - Not to Disappear
28. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie and Lowell
29. (SANDY) Alex G - Rocket
30. Julien Baker - Sprained Ankle
31. Sampha - Process
32. Mount Eerie - A Crow Looked at Me
33. Frank Ocean - Blonde
34. Earl Sweatshirt - I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside
35. Title Fight - Shed
36. Fun. - Some Nights
37. Bon Iver - 22, A Million
38. The National - Sleep Well Beast
39. Drake - Nothing Was the Same
40. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.
41. Childish Gambino - Because the Internet
42. Radiohead - The King of Limbs
43. Arctic Monkeys - Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
44. Deafheaven - Roads to Judah
45. Bon Iver - Bon Iver, Bon Iver
46. Drake - Take Care
47. Japanese Breakfast - Psychopomp
48. King Krule - 6 Feet Beneath the Moon
49. Porches - Pool
50. The Sidekicks - Happiness Hours

Nick Warren's top 50: 

1. The Menzingers - On the Impossible Past (2012)
2. Frightened Rabbit - The Winter of Mixed Drinks (2010)
3. Phoebe Bridgers - Stranger in the Alps (2017)
4. Mitski - Puberty 2 (2016)
5. Anderson .Paak - Malibu (2016)
6. Fucked Up - David Comes to Life (2011)
7. Japandroids - Celebration Rock (2012)
8. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy (2011)
9. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Lose (2014)
10. Alvvays - Alvvays (2014)
11. Iron Chic - Not Like This (2010)
12. Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book (2016)
13. Mitski - Bury Me at Makeout Creek (2014)
14. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly (2015)
15. Against Me! - Transgender Dysphoria Blues
16. Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
17. Great Grandpa - Four of Arrows (2019)
18. Miya Folick - Premonitions (2018)
19. Ariel Pink - Pom Pom (2014)
20. Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
21. Mitski - Be the Cowboy (2018)
22. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2 (2014)  
23. Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell (2015)
24. Fred Thomas - All Are Saved (2015)
25. Grimes - Art Angels (2015)
26. Savages - Adore Life (2016)
27. St. Vincent - St. Vincent (2014) 
28. Tycho - Awake (2014)
29. Sleater-Kinney - No Cities to Love  (2015)
30. Basia Bulat - Good Advice (2016)
31. Dum Dum Girls - Only in Dreams (2011)
32. El Ten Eleven - Transitions (2012)
33. Beyonce - Lemonade (2016)
34. Cloud Nothings - Attack on Memory (2012)
35. Charli XCX - Sucker (2014)
36. Sufjan Stevens - The Age of Adz (2010)
37. Beach House - Bloom (2012) 
38. Illuminati Hotties - Kiss Yr Frenemies (2018)
39. Best Coast - Crazy For You (2010)
40. The Mountain Goats - Transcendental Youth
41. Okkervil River - The Silver Gymnasium
42. Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion (2015)
43. Hop Along - Painted Shut
44. Angel Olsen - My Woman (2016)
45. Eternal Summers - The Drop Beneath (2014)
46. Beach Fossils - Somersault (2017)
47. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity (2016)
48. Veronica Falls - Waiting for Something to Happen (2013)
49. Parenthetical Girls - Privilege (2013)
50. Crystal Stilts - In Love With Oblivion (2011)