As 2020 approaches, it’s best to look forward instead of back, as this decade has largely been a swirling tornado of chaos. Despite the bedlam, some amazing music came out — this blog serves as a tribute to the albums that shaped the past decade for me and deserve their moment in the spotlight, personal anecdotes regarding the albums left intact. And off we go.

2010 - Yeasayer, Odd Blood

I firmly believe that a band’s mettle is tested with a live show; their albums either gain a new vibrancy with a live performance, or they don’t and you’re strapped in for an hour or two of exactly what you’ve heard before. Somehow, Yeasayer harnessed the fragile anger of Berlin, a city trapped in the middle of a long, brutal winter and venue for that night’s show, and harpooned right through it. This Yeasayer show is the closest I’ve ever come to blows with someone (punches! at a Yeasayer concert!) and I was a resident punk cretin from the years 2003 - present day. The crowd was a wave of thrashing bodies from the very start of the set, and positively erupted when the band closed with Ambling Alp. I left the show covered in beer that had been thrown into the air. A frothy celebration, punctuated by wild, oscillating keyboards and drums that set a perfect stage for the decade to come.

2011 - Metronomy, The English Riviera

The English Riviera’s lead single, “The Bay,” is so damn funky. Seriously, I dare you to go and listen to that bass and see what involuntary reactions your body embarks on. A foot tap, a finger wag, a head nod — it’s veritably impossible to not start to move once Metronomy breaks into that groove. As the band croons, this isn’t Paris, it’s not Hong Kong, and there’s appreciation in that. Metronomy burst into the decade bringing about music that you can hear, instrumentation that stands out after the early 2000s reveled in polished, augmented pop tunes. It’s music that pulls from a long history of electronica while locating itself squarely in the confines of pop and indie rock.

2012 - Grimes, Visions

Visions is an insane album that deals in audio hypocrisy. It’s melodic and discordant. It’s angry and sweet. It’s dark and bright. All of this exists in equal measure and often oscillates between states within in a single track. This sounds like a pop record that a gremlin princess and a synth computer program got together and wrote on a cloud. Visions is undeniably visionary, independent of my own personal opinions about Boucher as a pseudo-political figure. See you on a dark night, folks.

2013 - Beyoncé, Beyoncé

This album revitalized a pop music culture that was in the bad habit of subsisting on singles. Some of the decade’s best songs were, in fact, singles, with “This Is What You Came For” by Rihanna as an immediate stand-out. But Beyoncé begs to be consumed in its entirety. From “No Angel,” co-written by Chairlift vocalist Caroline Polacheck, to “Blue,” a track that introduces the world to Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy, we are taken through an artfully curated album that is steeped in Beyoncé folklore, of which she is both the subject and author. Allusions to her troubled marriage, which would take center stage for the later album Lemonade, come to the surface on the self-titled, but Knowles-Carter is quick to bring the album back up to tempo with dance anthems like “XO” and “Blow.” That the album was accompanied with a visual counterpart offered only more to love.

2014 - Chromeo, White Women

“Jealous” could have been sung by Katy Perry, and I say that as a compliment. It’s a delectable pop confection that kicks off an album absolutely rife with them. “Come Alive” offers harmonies that the 80’s nu-wave gods pined for, thanks to the guest vocalist Toro y Moi. “Old 45’s” strikes the perfect balance of romance and nostalgia, propped up by vocals from the HAIM sisters. Hell, “Lost on the Way Home” brings Solange to the forefront in a captivating synth line, with a softness reminiscent of the Solange we see on later albums like A Seat at the Table and When I Get Home. White Women is a guilty-pleasure of an album, that revels in lyrical sleaze and near-perfect grooves.

2015 - G.L.O.S.S, 2015 Demo EP

G.L.O.S.S. kicked 2015 squarely in the jaw with their demo EP. Clocking in at a trim five tracks, this EP encapsulates rage — pure, wild, bleeding rage. Fronted by lead singer Sadie “Switchblade” Smith, the trans-feminist hardcore punk band advocated for the outcasts with such fury that it was impossible to stand idly by and not join in. This demo is as much a testament to the power of girls living outside society’s shit as it is a call to action, to stand up for the “faggots and femmes” and other marginalized communities. Sadly, G.L.O.S.S. called it quits just a year later, citing the mental hazards of life on the road being a primary driver for their early retirement. We’re worse off for the void left by G.L.O.S.S.’s departure, but how lucky are we that we have this EP to celebrate.

2016 - The 1975, i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful, yet so unaware of it

i like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful, yet so unaware of it pushed The 1975 past the glib reputation their debut single, “Chocolate,” earned them. The 1975 are regularly lambasted for being exactly what they are: poppy, cloying, and slightly too polished for what we want out of a rock band. But if you can push past that, you’re in for a treat — i like it when you sleep being an excellent example. Lead singer Matthew Healy occupies a pop identity somewhere between Conor Oberst and Harry Styles, and is viewed with intense heart-eyes by the band’s fans, but sonically, the band knows how to deliver. Panning guitar riffs, punctuated bass lines, and droll lyrics bring together a complete package. i like it is uncomplicated and charming, perhaps due to its simplicity. But it’s an album I return to in good, bad, and sad moods — solidifying its spot on this list.

2017 - Jens Lekman, Life Will See You Now

“How We Met, The Long Version” is a perfect love song , and yet it’s opening lines describe the Big Bang theory in great detail and reference subatomic particles. Lekman is an artist known for casting a wide net when it comes to subject matter, and Life Will See You Now perhaps embodies that most fully. This album’s got everything: Mormonism; cancer; the Cambrian explosion; beach vacations; ferris wheels; friendship; house parties; and perfume. Performed with percussion pads and samples, I wish we have gotten more instrumentation behind Lekman’s wild vision for storytelling, especially when you hear the horn samples pop in — how fabulous would that have been to hear live. Regardless, I would define this album as both madcap and incredibly tender, never straying from its mission to tell full, honest stories. That you can dance to it doesn’t hurt either.

2018 - Robyn, Honey

Robyn’s Body Talk earned infamy for not only its vulnerability, but also for being one best bodies of electronic music to come out of the early 2000s. For years, Robyn fans desperately hunted for signs of a new album. And in 2018, Robyn delivered with Honey. The crescendoing keyboard crashes through the album’s initial moments as the first single, “Missing U” strikes up.

Finding clues in my pockets and opening boxes / And going places we went / Remember to forget / Thinking how it could’ve been / I've turned all my sorrow into glass / It don't leave no shadow

Honey is all the rawness of Body Talk, but with the perspective of age. It tackles grief in the wake of her mentor’s death and loneliness after the collapse of her long-time relationship. “Because It’s in the Music” is home on the dance floor, but just as much so alone, in your apartment. It serves as the soundtrack of loss and finding your way through with music that can envelop, maybe even transform, your emotions. It shares that transcendent quality with much of Body Talk, begging the question whether Robyn is simply tapped into music in a way that others aren’t. Her music is sentimental and inviting, without shying away from hurt or cheapening the sincerity of sadness. Honey perfectly melds impeccable electronic beats with universally human themes, and the result is a masterpiece of an album.

2019, Caroline Polachek, Pang

As half of Chairlift, Polachek’s vocals elevated the group’s indie-pop music into something somewhat ethereal — but left to her own devices on Pang, Polachek utterly soars. This is moody pop that draws on the influence of albums like the aforementioned Honey, but Polachek’s operatic voice is singularly her own. The album lilts breathlessly from track to track with a wide array of synth-heavy songs that keep the beat moving, while still leaving enough room to reflect. Repetition emerges as a theme across the album as choruses offering the same refrain on loop (look to “Door” as an example), and it’s a novel device that brings an inherent amount of catchiness to a piece of work that could otherwise render as slightly inaccessible. “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” is infectious in that regard, while “Look at Me Now” calls upon the existential confusion of life post-breakup played against the soft strum of an acoustic guitar and soft percussion. With Pang, Polachek carves out new musical terrain, leaving so much to explore in both execution and subject matter.

Link to your album compilations below — I can’t wait to check them out. And cheers to the next decade.