I vote for 2012. Tremendous amount of relevant releases and even some knockdown gems if you dig up some more. What’s your favorite year this decade?
I vote for 2012. Tremendous amount of relevant releases and even some knockdown gems if you dig up some more. What’s your favorite year this decade?
So hard to answer. I can’t for the life of me decide between 2010 or 2011.
2010 had way higher highs for me especially with masterpieces like Public Strain, Have One on Me, and Congratulations while 2011 churned out too many great albums to count. Probably the most consistent year in bringing out great releases from a ton of genres.
2014 is low-key underrated though and I’d have to say this year is probably the weakest yet.
2015 gave me TPTB, mellissa, currents, in colour, 2 8 1 4, tpab
Though, as siberian said, 2014 is underrated. 2014 is when I started gathering my own opinions on music. Flylo’s ‘You’re Dead’ was a huge eye opener and made me fall deeper in love with music.
2011 to me, like Siberian pointed out, has a plethora of genres and interesting releases with many different flavours. Some of my personal favourites in the decade come from that year as well, like Kaputt, Replica, Let England Shake and Black Up. I still need to check up on some of that year’s other albums, but, for me, 2012 is the most consistent year. The Seer, Bloom, GKMC, channel Orange, All We Love…, NLDW, Darkspace III and so many others… I mean, cmon. Fantastic.
2014 is also great.
I would have to go with 2015. Julia Holter Have You in My Wilderness, Sufjan Stevens Carrie & Lowell, Death Grips Powers That Be, Kendrick Lamar To Pimp a Butterfly, Bjork Vulnicura, and Father John Misty I Love You Honeybear were absolute gems. Those were my favourites of the year but 2015 also had many albums that exceeded my expectations and ended up in the 80-90 bracket for me.
I’d also have to agree that 2016 has been one of the worst years of the decade unfortunately despite some solid releases such as Radiohead, Danny Brown and Angel Olsen to name a few.
I think the reason 2010-2012 look so good is because they’re 6, 7 years in the past, and we’ve had time to appreciate those great albums as formative to the development of now-recognized heavily acclaimed artists. Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes, Beach House, James Blake, St. Vincent, Kendrick, Death Grips, Deerhunter, Danny Brown, Frank Ocean and Tame Impala were all either just starting or releasing their breakthrough albums in that time, and now those artists are all watched very closely. I think it’s fair to say that in a few years, albums we merely thought of as ‘really good’ in 2015/2016 will be regarded as modern classics, and the attached artists will subsequently be a big deal (Chance, Vince Staples, Car Seat, Mitski, Father John, Anderson .Paak). It’s likely that people will even look back more fondly on their ‘older, classic’ albums. That said, I think 2012 seems like the most stacked year, between Good Kid, Channel Orange and Lonerism. 2014 has always struck me as by far the weakest year (just from a top 10 top 20 consistency standpoint, everyone will always find something they like). 2013 seemed like the year the most ‘big name artists’ released new albums, to mixed success (Kanye good, Jay Z Bad / Vampire Weekend good, Strokes bad, Arcade Fire Okay). I think 2015 will be a landmark year on the back of TpAB, Carrie & Lowell and albums I see becoming classics over time- Father John Misty, Vince Staples and Tame Impala’s Currents. As artists’ longevity increases, I think we’ll see years become more and more stacked between new classic artists like Bon Iver, Tame Impala and Kendrick as well as emerging big deals, namely the trio of 2016’s great indie rock acts- Car Seat, Mitski and Angel Olsen.
Well said, can’t agree more.
Going to bring this thread back to life.
In my opinion, the best year of the decade thus far for music was 2014. Stellar releases from Swans, FlyLo, Sun Kil Moon, Julian Casablancas + The Voidz, FKA twigs, Aphex Twin, Run the Jewels, clipping., Death Grips, Ariel Pink and Freddie Gibbs & Madlib in one year.
2015 was a year that had a lot of underrated albums.
Mine seems to be 2013:
Queens of the Stone Age - …Like Clockwork
David Lang - Death Speaks
Atoms for Peace - AMOK
FKA Twigs - EP2
Arctic Monkeys - AM
The National - Trouble Will Find Me
Chance The Rapper - Acid Rap
James Blake - Overgrown
The Flaming Lips - The Terror
Tim Hecker - Virgins
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Mosquito
Justin Timberlake - The 20/20 Experience
Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety
Nils Frahm - Spaces
The Field - Cupid’s Head
James Holden - The Inheritors
Boards of Canada - Tomorrow’s Harvest
Jon Hopkins - Immunity
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Four Tet - Beautiful Rewind
Julia Holter - Loud City Song
Rhye - Woman
2010-2013