For much of the past decade, I served as rock-and-pop critic of the Wall Street Journal and listened to a lot of recorded music – at least 3,000 albums and EPs, by my rough count. I liked many, enough to inform my opinion that rock and pop is as good now as it’s ever been.
A number of the albums I liked during the past 10 years remain in my regular rotation. That’s the simple standard I’ve used to compile “My Favorite Albums of the Decade” list: Of the albums of the 2010s I liked, which ones do I listen to repeatedly for their capacity to satisfy and surprise. I whittled the list down to the following dozen (in alpha order by the artists’ names):
Everyday Robots (2014) Damon Albarn
Albarn’s first solo album is a sparse, gauzy blend of acoustic instruments, electronic soundscapes and knotty rhythms unlike anything in his catalogue. As the emotional distance between the listener and the artist vanishes, he emerges as a man grappling to understanding who he’s become in a world in which technology mutes human interaction.
Vulnicura (2015) Björk
A document of the dissolution of her long relationship with artist Matthew Barney, Björk’s tale unfolds chronologically beginning months before the breakup and continuing into its aftermath. With strings, female choir, warm keyboards and crackling, shard-like beats, her music vacillates between harrowing and bittersweet as she moves toward a suggestion of recovery.
Comfort (2013) Maya Jane Coles
Amid the explosion of electronic dance music, on her first full-length album the DJ and composer-producer Coles stayed with what she does best: creating hypnotic house tracks that serve as seductive platforms for her memorable melodies. She’s joined on the top line by a battery of extraordinary vocalists who flow perfectly with her.
Random Access Memories (2013) Daft Punk
Undeniably, proudly retro, Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo rocket listeners back to the mid-1970s with a team of funk, jazz and pop veterans led by Nile Rodgers. One track celebrates Giorgio Moroder, best known as Donna Summer’s producer. The album revels in the joy its creates.
Black Messiah (2014) D’Angelo and the Vanguard
After an 14-year-absence, D’Angelo returned no less brilliant than he had been as he layers his guitars, keyboards and his voice over funk and R&B tracks that by turns are dense and gruff or slinky and pristine. He delivers a relentless powerhouse amalgam of African-American music from past to future.
Fear Fun (2012) Father John Misty
His solo career floundering, Josh Tillman assumed the guise of Father John Misty for “Fear Fun,” which favors the Southern California folk-rock sound of the ‘70s. His storytelling is characterized by a cranky, jaundiced eye as he documents absurdity while ping-ponging across a fuzzy Los Angeles.
Metals (2011) Feist
Leslie Feist discarded her pop instincts and went for a tougher edge with a rock rhythm section, guitars, swelling keys, brass and reeds. Her lyrics take on big subjects and her evocative voice – fragile yet full of resolve – communicates the thoughts of a complex artist.
Wine Dark Sea (2014) Jolie Holland
The music seems to come from a distant, ghostly place where ancient blues and avant-garde noise-jazz collide. Distortion and dissonance give visceral clarity to Holland’s free-flowing stories, which she sings with a boozy slur. A dizzying, entirely original work that dazzles darkly with invention.
Once I Was An Eagle (2013) Laura Marling
A folk masterpiece by a singer-songwriter of undeniable talent, self-possession and insight features Marling on droning acoustic guitars accompanied by cello, bass and percussion. Documenting a breakup, Marling’s voice is clear and sturdy, her attitude increasingly defiant.
Heligoland (2010) Massive Attack
Robert Del Naja and Grant Marshall shift toward improvisational rock on this brooding, often-ominous album of down-tempo electronica. Their well-chosen all-star lineup of vocalists work wonderfully well in a context in which the conflict between organic and synthesized instruments create an undercurrent of tension.
This is My Hand (2014) My Brightest Diamond
Shara Worden added funk to sound and the album opens with a burst of music invigorated by brass, reeds and polyrhythms. But it also includes tracks of her meticulous baroque pop. As always, her vocals are flawless.
Blessed (2011) Lucinda Williams
The album’s brilliance rises from Williams’ poignant songs she sings with fury or sympathy as her words require. Put together by Williams and producer Don Was, the loose-limbed band responds beautifully, following her as she reconnects with the emotions that sparked the songs. A superior collection of Americana by our best songwriter.
Honorable mention: This is All Yours (2014) – Alt-J; Breaking English (2018) – Rafiq Bhatia; Anna Calvi (2011) – Anna Calvi; Map to the Treasure: Reimagining Laura Nyro (2014) – Billy Childs; Psychic (2013) — Darkside; Cosmogramma (2010) – Flying Lotus; Pale Green Ghosts (2013) – John Grant; The Terror End of Beauty (2018) – Harriet Tubman; To Pimp a Butterfly (2015) – Kendrick Lamar; Pure Heroine (2013) – Lorde; Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (2011) – M83; Be the Cowboy (2018) – Mitski; Heartland (2010) – Owen Pallett; Temple Beautiful (2012) – Chuck Prophet; Woman (2013) – Rhye; Hot Thoughts (2017) – Spoon; Aromanticism (2017) – Moses Sumney; Titanic (2019) – Weyes Blood.
