40. Preoccupations (fka Viet Cong) - Viet Cong [Jagjaguwar, 2015]
In 2013, Viet Cong released one of the absolute best EPs of the decade with their debut Cassette and quickly translated that to success with this killer self-titled album. In a decade that had plenty of great, noisy post-punk albums (Protomartyr! Idles! Priests! Ought! A million other bands that made it so "anxious 80s-inspired post-punk" was one of the biggest cliches in independent music!), I think this does one of the best jobs at capturing the anxiety of the mid-2010. It's an authentic, dark punk album that doesn't just feel like they're aping the classics of the late 70s and early 80s. It's definitely reminiscent of them, but it feels like it belongs right next to a This Heat record instead of being a pale imitation of it.
The band's name ran them into some trouble as their stock rose, and they ended up changing their name to Preoccupations. Their hype pretty much died thereafter. The two albums they've released as Preoccupations have been very good, but they don't quite capture the magic as the band's early stuff.
39. Slowdive - Slowdive [Dead Oceans, 2017]
Slowdive was one of the best bands of the 1990s. For my money, their 1993 classic Souvlaki is the best shoegaze/dream pop album of all time, beating out stuff from heavy-hitters like My Bloody Valentine, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins.
When their 2014 reunion tour turned into them returning to the studio, I was skeptical. Most post-reunion bands release albums that are, at best, good but inconsequential projects that pale in comparison to the rest of their catalog. Slowdive is not an all-time classic like Souvlaki, but it's closer to recapturing that feeling than I ever expected. Neil Halstead and Rachel Goswell still have the dreamiest vocals for this, and they create magic whenever they harmonize. Combined with the dense guitar sounds, it puts me in a calm, almost trance-like state. One of the most relaxing listens of the decade.
38. NxWorries - Yes Lawd! [Stones Throw, 2016]
In January of 2016, Anderson Paak released the critically-acclaimed Malibu and announced he was signing with Aftermath Entertainment after heavily collaborating with Dr. Dre on Dre's long-awaited Compton. The next thing we heard from him wasn't some massive major label album with expensive production and guest features. Instead, it was Yes Lawd!, a culmination of Paak's work with underground rap producer Knxwledge, released on the independent rap/R&B label Stones Throw.
Paak's solo music is great (including his early stuff he released as Breezy Lovejoy), but I don't think he's meshed with another producer quite like he does with Knxwledge. Knx's sample-heavy, jazzy production is perfect for Paak's raspy howl. He knows exactly when to accentuate the vocal production and when to cut out completely to let Paak speak for himself. The songs are just as breezy as Paak's former namesake, with 19 tracks in only 48 minutes. Nothing overstays its welcome. Just under an hour of finely-crafted soul music where Paak unleashes his charm like nothing he's released before or after.
37. Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math [Sony Music, 2011]
It was a tough pick between this and 2017's killer A Black Mile to the Surface for my Manchester Orchestra representative on this list. Black Mile is the more-lauded pick, but my heart told me to go with Simple Math. It's a bit of a nostalgic pick. I played this album to death in high school, but I think it still holds up.
Simple Math sounds a lot more accessible, or at least more polished, than Manchester Orchestra's first couple albums. It was released on the band's Favorite Gentlemen label but distributed by Sony. And while I do like some of the more personal feeling of I'm Like a Virgin Losing a Child and Mean Everything to Nothing that's a bit lost here, I think the band was able to go in some really cool directions with its bigger sound, and I don't feel like it loses band's emotional resonance.
Maybe it's just because the album dropped when I was 16, and it was an extremely easy album for my angsty teenage self to scream along with. It might not be quite as raw with the addition of children's choirs and string sections, but it still feels like a progression.
36. Farrah Abraham - My Teenage Dream Ended [Self-released, 2012]
An utterly fascinating piece of work. Like a lot of people I dismissed this album as some kind of trainwreck novelty when it came out, but it's lingered with me way more than most albums that I loved at the time. Somehow the girl from Teen Mom accidentally predicted the future of pop music.
35. Lana Del Rey - Norman F***ing Rockwell! [Polydor, 2019]
I've been resistant to Lana Del Rey since she was first heralded as the next big thing. I absolutely hated "Video Games" when it blew up. With every acclaimed album release, I checked it out due to morbid curiosity. My reactions always ranged from "this sucks" to "I really wish I got this." I had friends who were into her, but I never understood the hype, outside of liking a song or two on every project.
I went into NFR! assuming the same reaction, dismissing early praise of the album as critics once again trying to make Lana Del Rey into A Thing. I figured I'd like a song or two, but a LDR album with nine-minute songs and a Sublime cover was extremely not my thing. Something about this record clicked with me.
I don't know what changed, but I think this is easily Lana's best album as both a singer and songwriter. Her nostalgic-yet-somber aesthetic has always worked, but the music never reflected it for me until now. I can't remember the last time a single album has made me do a complete 180 in regards to my feelings about an artist. If the album was just a little less uneven (the second half of the album isn't bad, but this album is extremely top-heavy) it would be higher on this list.
34. Beach House - 7 [Sub Pop, 2018]
Beach House was one of the most consistent bands of the last decade, regularly churning out incredibly luscious dream pop every few years. Teen Dream and Bloom are two of the most acclaimed indie rock albums of the last decade, and 2015's one-two punch of Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars is still great even if the band's formula was starting to wear a bit thin.
Sometimes the best way for a band to keep it fresh isn't to completely throw out the recipe book, but to change it ever-so-slightly. 7 is not a drastic shift in sound for Beach House. Victoria Legrand is still wistfully singing over dense layers of synthesizers and guitars, but everything on 7 (co-produced with Spacemen 3's Sonic Boom) is just slightly darker and distorted, giving it a nice contrast with Legrand's vocals. This album is like the point where your dream starts turning into a nightmare. There's nothing outright scare, but once you wake up you'll wonder what the hell was going on.
33. Future - DS2 [Epic, 2015]
Future might be the most difficult artist of the decade to choose a single project to represent him on a list like this. If you asked Future fans what their favorite project of his is, you probably won't have a consensus pick. While each album or mixtape is filled with nihilistic trap music that heavily flirts with R&B, each one hits in different ways. Some people like it when Future sounds more overtly somber, others want something that sounds more hype, others like a mix of the two.
If you did survey those fans, DS2 might not be an overwhelming pick, but it's still probably the most prominent. Released in the aftermath of his phenomenal mixtape trilogy of Monster, Beast Mode and 56 Nights, Future's third studio album might be his most balanced in regards to "how hard do the beats hit" and "how depressed does Future sound." In a time when it feels like every rapper is now open about depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, DS2 is a stepping stone.
32. La Dispute - Panorama [Epitaph, 2019]
Jordan Dreyer's finest hour as a lyricist. One of those post-hardcore/emo albums that blows me away and makes me want to sob, and I say that in the best way possible. Dreyer's vocals seem like they're just slightly undermixed, which could bother a lot of people. I don't know how intentional that is. I like to think that it is, because combined with the grief-stricken lyrics being overwhelmed by the loudness of the frantic guitars and drums no matter how loudly he shouts serves as a nice musical metaphor for anxiety and depression.There are a few albums I absolutely adore but cannot listen to more than once over a long span of time. This is one of them.
31. Jamie xx - In Colour [Young Turks, 2015]
After providing the production for The xx's incredibly successful two albums and releasing a killer collection of Gil Scott-Heron remixes, Jamie xx's first (and so far only) solo album stands out over the rest of his work.
Jamie's previous work was often ruminative. Even The xx's most danceable stuff was often still moody. Here Jamie xx completely goes the opposite direction, releasing something a lot sunnier and straight up dancey, even when he reunites with his bandmates on several tracks. This is one of my favorite summer albums of the past few years.
30. Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy [Mello Music Group, 2014]
I love a lot of independent or abstract rap music, but a lot of the times I listen to them for a full project, it starts to grate on me. I think a lot of underground rappers try so hard to be overly dense or clever with their lyrics that it actively gets in the way of the music as a whole. Obviously lyrical prowess is a massive part of hip-hop music, but there needs to be a balance.
An album like Dark Comedy (and most of Open Mike Eagle's music in general) is very much in danger of losing that balance. It's a concept album where Mike's raps are structured like a monologue from an observational comedian, mixing bleak social commentary with humorous observations, hence the name. Yet Mike never feels too clever for his own good, or too preachy, or that he's being too cutesy with the concept. He's clever, but he's not making things more complex than they need to be.
Mike's not just adept at making rap verses, he's adept at making rap songs. Part of that is his production, featuring some of the underground's best like Jeremiah Jae, Kenny Segal, Illingsworth and Dibiase. It's abstract but approachable.
29. HEALTH - Death Magic [Seven Four Entertainment, 2015]
Can albums where the synthesizer is the primary instrument used allowed to "absolutely shred"? Research says yes.
28. The National - High Violet [4AD, 2010]
I know a lot of people who are bored to tears by both The National's music and music critics' continued praise of just about everything the band releases. Slow-burning, melancholic indie rock is critic bait, and I'm just as susceptible to it. As far as bands I've listened to the most in my lifetime, The National are probably in the top five.
I have a hard time picking a favorite album from the group, but I think it's High Violet more often than not. I think it's got their most consistent songwriting. All of their music is somber and brooding, but I think this one encapsulates that feeling more than even Alligator and Boxer. Bryan Devendorf's drumming is just killer here as well.
The National are a boring pick for a list like this, but I truly love them. They're one of my favorite "rainy day" mood bands. Even if the band has a definite comfort zone, I've never really found them to sound complacent. It always seems to strike the right chord with me.
27. Titus Andronicus - The Monitor [XL, 2010]
Top Songs: "No Future Part Three: Escape From No Future," "The Battle of Hampton Roads," "A More Perfect Union"
"Punk rock that heavily leans on its Bruce Springsteen influence" is a cliche at this point, and turning that kind of music into a Civil War-themed concept album where half the songs are longer than seven minutes long seems insufferable. Maybe it's the kind of things I wouldn't be able to stomach now, but it felt revelatory when I first heard The Monitor ten years ago, and I still love the hell out of it.
It's overwrought. It's silly. It's long. I feel like a lot of Patrick Stickles' references are a little too on the nose. But whenever I put this record on, I smile. Everything about the album is pretentious, but it's all so much that it works for it. Stickles has an anxious intensity and sincerity in everything here that's hard to match. It's the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle energy that the band (and any of the like-minded bands that have come after) hasn't quite been able to recapture since. It rips.
It's overwrought. It's silly. It's long. I feel like a lot of Patrick Stickles' references are a little too on the nose. But whenever I put this record on, I smile. Everything about the album is pretentious, but it's all so much that it works for it. Stickles has an anxious intensity and sincerity in everything here that's hard to match. It's the kind of lightning-in-a-bottle energy that the band (and any of the like-minded bands that have come after) hasn't quite been able to recapture since. It rips.
26. The Tallest Man on Earth - There's No Leaving Now [Dead Oceans, 2012]
The Tallest Man on Earth is probably my favorite indie folk singer-songwriter of all time, and this is his masterpiece. I think very few modern folk singers have a gift of crafting melodies quite like Kristian Matsson. I think a lot of people make the easy comparison between Matsson and Bob Dylan because they're both folk musicians that have raspy-yet-warm vocals. I think that gift of melody is where the comparison might truly lie. Every little melody Matsson brings here is ingrained in my memory. It's the kind of record that makes me wish I learned how to play guitar, because just singing along with the music isn't enough.
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