my 100 favorite albums of the 2010s

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Gonna be doing my current top ten albums for each year in this beautiful decade of music. This was a decade when my taste got blown the fxck open many many times as these artists released innovative, imaginative, brave, concise, provocative, or otherwise just striking works.

For the record, I'm counting EPs as albums, and each year's list is in alphabetical order because picking top tens was hard enough on its own 🔤

Anyway here's...

2010

i. Bonobo - Black Sands

ii. Dhafer Youssef Quartet - Festival de Jazz de San Javier

iii. Flying Lotus - Cosmogramma

iv. Maps and Atlases - Perch Patchwork

v. Sleigh Bells - Treats

vi. Teebs & Jackhigh - The Tropics (EP)

vii. Tera Melos - Patagonian Rats

viii. Tobacco - Maniac Meat

ix. TOKiMONSTA - Midnight Menu

x. Zach Hill - Face Tat

2011

Putting this list together I was reminded how many of these albums were shown to me by people I am/was close to. I think that association has a lot to do with which ones have really stuck with me...it's kinda hard to put into words. But I appreciate all yall suggestions immensely.

i. A$AP Rocky - Live. Love. A$AP.

ii. Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Part Two

iii. Danny Brown - XXX

iv. Death Grips - Exmilitary

v. Disasterpeace - Rise of the Obsidian Interstellar

vi. Gauntlet Hair - Gauntlet Hair

vii. Hella - Tripper

viii. Oorutaichi - Cosmic Coco, Singing for a Billion Imu's Hearty Pi

ix. Stateless - Matilda

x. tUnE-yArDs - WHOKILL

2012

2012 was probably the worst year of my life and these are some of my favorite albums ever. Also the world didn't end and I'm glad it didn't 😎😎

i. Code Orange Kids - Love is Love // Return to Dust

ii. Death Grips - The Money Store

iii. Deerhoof - Breakup Song

iv. EPROM - Metahuman

v. Kendrick Lamar - good kid, m.A.A.d city

vi. Purity Ring - Shrines

vii. SchnAAk - Cool Drink Town (EP)

viii. Son Step - Here Comes Dreamboat

ix. Sweet Valley - Stay Calm

x. TNGHT - TNGHT (EP)

2013

I didn't end up listening to a bunch of these albums until after 2013, which is a big reason I thought this decade retrospective would be fun...I pretty frequently find albums I reaaaally fuck with like 2 or 4 years after they come out and get a passing feeling like I missed something...but late is better than never I guess 🤷‍♂️ then again a couple of these were in HEAVY rotation so my experience is probably pretty average lol 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

i. Anamanaguchi - Endless Fantasy

ii. Danny Brown - Old

iii. Gauntlet Hair - Stills

iv. Gita - Escaping the Dream World (EP)

v. Gorgeous Children - ICE

vi. Machinedrum - Vapor City

vii. Summer of Haze - ЧƩРНΩ†∆

viii. Tera Melos - X'ed Out

ix. ƱZ - Balltrap Muzic Vol. 1

x. William Onyeabor - Who is William Onyeabor?

2014

2014's picks seem to be about "coming through to the other side" - I don't fully know what I mean by that, but it seems fitting

i. Anderson .Paak - Venice

ii. Aphex Twin - SYRO

iii. Crying - Get Olde/Second Wind (EPs)

iv. Machine Girl - WLFGRL

v. Nnamdi Ogbonnaya - FECKIN WEIRDO

vi. Run the Jewels - Run the Jewels 2

vii. SBTRKT - Wonder Where We Land

viii. ScHoolboy Q - Oxymoron

ix. Takuya Kuroda - Rising Son

x. tUnE-yArDs - Nikki Nack

2015

i. BLACKHANDPATH - Obfuscant

ii. Clarence Clarity - No Now

iii. Frontierer - Orange Mathematics

iv. Hiatus Kaiyote - Choose Your Weapon

v. Kendrick Lamar - To Pimp a Butterfly

vi. LA Priest - Inji

vii. Tennyson - Like What (EP)

viii. The Garden - Haha

ix. The i.l.y's - I've Always Been Good At True Love

x. VOODOOM - VOODOOM

2016

2016 was equally a year of hard-af records and lighter-than-air cheerful records, that's a lifestyle goal methinks 💎

i. Car Bomb - Meta

ii. Death Grips - Bottomless Pit

iii. Deerhoof - The Magic

iv. Guerrilla Toss - Eraser Stargazer

v. Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation

vi. Sampha - Process

vii. ScHoolboy Q - Blank Face

viii. The Sooper Swag Project - BADD TIMING

ix. Wormrot - Voices

x. Youngster Jiji - BARBAROSSA EP

2017

A bunch of these I initially listened to around when they came out, but it took me a while to warm up to them...that's another pattern you won't see as much on a typical top ten of the year 😏😏

i. BROCKHAMPTON - Saturation II

ii. EPROM - Pineapple EP

iii. Kendrick Lamar - DAMN.

iv. Mr Jukes - God First

v. Mujo - Reincarnation

vi. Nate Smith - Kinfolk: Postcards from Everywhere

vii. Palm - Shadow Expert

viii. Smino - blkswn

ix. The Garden - U Want the Scoop?

x. The i.l.y's - Bodyguard

2018

Approaching the years where I barely have enough albums to choose from...reminding me how few new albums I actually listen to "on time". I feel like a LOT of the music I find fills in the last 20 years, like seriously, if I did the 2000s this would be WAY harder.

i. BLACKHANDPATH - did it and got away with it

ii. BROCKHAMPTON - Iridescence

iii. Conjurer - Mire

iv. Death Grips - Year of the Snitch

v. Jpegmafia - Veteran

vi. Kendrick Lamar et al. - Black Panther

vii. King Yosef - GUILTY.

viii. Machine Girl - The Ugly Art

ix. Mansur Brown - Shiroi

x. Smino - NOIR

(p.s. I tried to only choose three Death Grips albums but what can I say)

2019

And finally, my top ten for 2019. I hope I can spend the next ten years filling in all the albums I'm missing out on! 🔜

i. Aesop Rock & Tobacco - Malibu Ken

ii. Body Meat - Truck Music

iii. Car Bomb - Mordial

iv. Cherry Glazerr - Stuffed & Ready

v. EPROM - AIKON

vi. J-E-T-S - ZOOSPA

vii. Joose Keskitalo - En Lähde Surussa

viii. Jpegmafia - All My Heroes Are Cornballs

ix. Posij - Cocoon

x. Quelle Chris - Guns