My Attempt at Forming a Consensus “Best Albums of the Decade” List
I read through all of the internet’s Best Albums of the Decade lists so you wouldn’t have to. (But you still should anyway because there’s a lot of great music writing out there).
Three things I’m borderline obsessed with are: Best-of-the-Decade lists, conversations about consensus picks, and the survival of the album format. So, I combined all three of those things into this collection of thoughts. I have tried to form a consensus “Best Albums of the Decade” list by reading through thousands of words from publications across the internet.
This started out as a purely mathematical exercise. I tried to devise a points system that would determine which albums were definitively the most representative of the glut of “Best of the Decade” lists from the past few months. But, after combing through list after list after list (all cited below), I realized a stats-based approach would be impossible. How do you factor in lists of varying length? Unranked lists? Publications that cover certain areas of music more than others? Besides, Album of the Year already had this covered.
I decided to use the lists as more of a guide than an end-all, be-all. Which obviously opens up room for human error and bias, but that’s always going to happen. Trying to devise a consensus list of anything is absurd for that very reason. No collection will please everyone. But, I tried to with this one. 160 albums, with a criteria based on their presence on end-of-decade lists, cultural footprint, critical praise, album sales, and award wins, with more of a focus on the first item and the least focus on award wins, while all the middle items are roughly considered in descending order.
Just a few other notes:
- In an attempt to include as many artists as possible, I tried to limit the amount of albums per artist to one or, if they were really churning out great music at a culturally relevant level, two. As you’ll see, there’s one obvious exception to that rule.
- Some dominant figures have just one album. For example Drake (spoiler alert) only has one on the list, although he had three in the running. But if this were a consensus songs of the decade list, he’d have more entries than anyone. (This could also lead into another fascinating discussion about how streaming turned a huge swath of artists into “singles artists” rather than “albums artists.”) (And a side-note to this sub-point, I tried to take my own feelings out of it in cases like this. My favorite James Blake album, for instance, is The Colour in Anything, but that wouldn’t best represent him on this list.)
- Obviously there’s all kinds of music out there, especially from the past 10 years. There is more quality music now than there has ever been, just because so much music exists in general. The scope of this is limited to stuff that became decently popular (at least to the mainstream music heads stratosphere, if that makes sense) in the US. I’m not qualified enough to comment on anything outside of that.
- The selections are presented in alphabetical order because I’m a coward
I’m sure everyone will agree with every single one of these selections.
The Top 160 Albums of the Decade:
Adele — 21
Alabama Shakes — Sound & Color
Anderson Paak — Malibu
Angel Olsen — My Woman
Anohni — Hopelessness
Arcade Fire — The Suburbs
The Arctic Monkeys — AM
Ariana Grande — Thank U, Next
ASAP Rocky — Live.Love.ASAP
Bad Bunny — X 100pre
Beach House — Teen Dream
Beyonce — Beyonce
Beyonce — Lemonade
Big Thief — U.F.O.F.
Billie Eilish — When We Fall Asleep…
Bjork — Vulnicura
The Black Keys — Brothers
Blood Orange — Freetown Sound
Bon Iver — Bon Iver
Bon Iver — 22, A Million
Brandi Carlile — By the Way, I Forgive You
Cardi B — Invasion of Privacy
Caribou — Our Love
Carly Ray Jepsen — Emotion
Car Seat Headrest — Teens of Denial
Chance the Rapper — Coloring Book
Chance the Rapper — Acid Rap
Charli XCX — Pop 2
Charly Bliss — Guppy
Chris Stapleton — Traveller
Chromatics — Kill for Love
Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit and Think…
D’Angelo — Black Messiah
Danny Brown — XXX
Daft Punk — Random Access Memories
David Bowie — Blackstar
Deafhaven — Sunbather
Death Grips — The Money Store
Deerhunter — Halycon Digest
Dirty Projectors — Swing Lo Magellen
Disclosure — Settle
DJ Rashad — Double Cup
Drake — Take Care
Earl Sweatshirt — Some Rap Songs
Eric Church — Chief
Father John Misty — I Love You, Honeybear
Fiona Apple — The Idler Wheel
FKA Twigs — Magdalene
FKA Twigs — LP1
Fleet Foxes — Helplessness Blues
Florence and the Machine — Ceremonials
Flying Lotus — You’re Dead
Frank Ocean — Blonde
Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
Future — Dirty Sprite 2
Future Islands — Singles
Grimes — Art Angels
Grimes — Visions
Haim — Days Are Gone
The Highwomen — Highwomen
The Internet — Ego Death
Jack White — Blunderbuss
Jai Paul — Leaks 04–13
James Blake — James Blake
Jamie XX — In Colour
Janelle Monae — Dirty Computer
Japandroids — Celebration Rock
Jason Isbell — Southeastern
Jay Som — Everybody Works
Jay-Z — 4:44
Jenny Lewis — On the Line
Joanna Newsom — Have One on Me
Julien Baker — Turn Out the Lights
Kacey Musgraves — Golden Hour
Kali Uchis — Isolation
Kamasi Washington — Heaven and Earth
Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Kanye West — Yeezus
Kaytranada — 99.9%
Kelela — Take Me Apart
Kendrick Lamar — DAMN.
Kendrick Lamar — Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly
The Knife — Shaking the Habitual
Kurt Vile — Smoke Ring For My Halo
Lana Del Ray — Norman Fucking Rockwell
LCD Soundsystem — This Is Happening
Leonard Cohen — You Want It Darker
Lin-Manuel Miranda — Hamilton
Lizzo — Cuz I Love You
Lorde — Melodrama
Lucy Dacus — Historian
Mac DeMarco — Salad Days
Margo Price — All American Made
Migos — Culture
Miguel — Kaleidoscope Dream
Miranda Lambert — The Weight of These Wings
Mitski — Be the Cowboy
Mitski — Puberty 2
Mount Eerie — A Crow Looked at Me
My Bloody Valentine — m b v
M83 — Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
The National — High Violet
Nicki Minaj — Pink Friday
Nipsey Hussle — Victory Lap
Noname — Room 25
Oneohtrix Point Never — Replica
Paramore — After Laughter
Perfume Genius — No Shape
Phoebe Bridgers — Stranger in the Alps
PJ Harvey — Let England Shake
Purple Mountains — Purple Mountains
Pusha T — Daytona
Queens of the Stone Age — …Like Clockwork
Radiohead — A Moon Shaped Pool
Rich Gang — Tha Tour Part 1
Rihanna — Anti
Run the Jewels — Run the Jewels 2
Robyn — Body Talk
Rosalia — El Mal Querer
Sampha — Process
Schoolboy Q — Blank Face
Shabazz Palaces — Black Up
Sharon Van Etten — Remind Me Tomorrow
Skepta — Konnichiwa
Sky Ferreira — Night Time, My Time
Sleater-Kinney — No Cities to Love
Sleigh Bells — Treats
Snail Mail — Lush
Soccer Mommy — Clean
Solange — A Seat at the Table
Sophie — Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides
Spoon — Hot Thoughts
Stormzy — Gang Signs & Prayer
Sturgill Simpson — A Sailor’s Guide to the Earth
St. Vincent — Strange Mercy
St. Vincent — St. Vincent
Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
SZA — Ctrl
Tame Impala — Currents
Tame Impala — Lonerism
Taylor Swift — 1989
The Throne — Watch the Throne
Thundercat — Drunk
Tierra Whack — Whack World
Titus Andronicus — The Monitor
Travis Scott — Astroworld
Tune-Yards — Whokill
Tyler, The Creator — Igor
A Tribe Called Quest — We Got It From Here…
Vampire Weekend — Modern Vampires of the City
Vampire Weekend — Father of the Bride
Vince Staples — Summertime 06
The War on Drugs — Lost in the Dream
Waxahatchee — Out in the Storm
The Weeknd — House of Balloons
The XX — I See You
YG — My Krazy Life
Young Thug — Jeffery
1975 — I Like It When You Sleep…
Links to all the lists I combed through:
https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/the-200-best-albums-of-the-2010s/
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2019/10/best-albums-of-the-2010s-paste.html
https://uproxx.com/music/best-albums-2010s-ranked-decade/
http://www.gorillavsbear.net/gorilla-vs-bears-albums-of-the-decade-2010-2019/
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/sep/13/100-best-albums-of-the-21st-century
https://www.stereogum.com/featured/best-albums-of-the-2010s-list/
https://consequenceofsound.net/2019/11/top-albums-of-the-2010s/
https://www.albumism.com/lists/110-best-albums-of-the-2010s
https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/list/8543722/best-albums-of-the-2010s-top-100
https://music.avclub.com/the-50-best-albums-of-the-2010s-1839776060
https://www.allmusic.com/decade-in-review
https://www.theyoungfolks.com/music/137777/the-young-folks-top-50-albums-of-the-2010s/
https://crackmagazine.net/article/what-just-happened/the-top-100-albums-of-the-decade/
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/qvg5j3/the-100-best-albums-of-the-2010s
https://blog.discogs.com/en/the-200-best-albums-of-the-2010s/
https://genius.com/Genius-ranking-page-100-best-albums-of-the-2010s-annotated
https://time.com/5725768/best-albums-2010s-decade/
https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-decade-2010-2019-2580278
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/g29956903/best-albums-of-the-2010s/
https://thekey.xpn.org/2019/12/02/the-25-best-albums-of-the-decade/
https://apnews.com/d66d82c5f7182b087f88b4e787e33073
https://www.thewildhoneypie.com/playlists/top-50-albums-of-the-2010s
