For the final installation of Put Your Records On of this decade, I decided to discuss some of my favorite albums from the last 10 years. I won’t just look back at these albums in the future because they have and will become cultural and emotional touchstones in their respective genres. I am also extremely cognizant that these are the albums I listened to most when I was growing through my teenage years and into adulthood. These albums challenged my ideals and gave me reassurance and clarity in this extremely formative time. When looking back to the 2010s, we should all think about the music we listened to through the most important years of our lives. This list is filled with my favorites, but I challenge everyone to think about how their own favorite music accompanied them throughout this decade.
Lorde – Melodrama (2017)
Lorde arrived in 2013 with the game-changing Pure Heroine. Her debut album put the feelings of the young generation of high schoolers into words, bringing a bit of edge and challenging pop-artists to stop telling her to “throw my hands up in the air.” Pop music responded to that message, abandoning club-ready radio hits and ushering in a new acceptance of a bare, indie-leaning sound. Between Pure Heroine and 2017’s Melodrama, Lorde matured as her listeners did, which resulted in an album centered around a breakup and anchored in the zeitgeist of the late-teenage experience. Melodrama is huge and personal at the same time, best exemplified on songs like “The Louvre,” “Hard Feelings,” and “Supercut.” When Lorde returns, she will undoubtedly have changed her outlook on the world, but Melodrama will always be remembered as an album that so perfectly described being at a certain age and in a certain mindset.
Sufjan Stevens – Carrie & Lowell (2015)
Sufjan Stevens’ early works, specifically 2003’s somber Michigan and 2005’s sprawling Illinois, excelled at revealing snippets of his personal life within vast American epics. However, on 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, events in Stevens’ personal life were thrust front and center, most prominent of all being the death of his mother, Carrie, who suffered from depression, schizophrenia, and alcoholism, and was largely absent from his life. Throughout the album, listeners can feel Stevens’ yearning to come to an understanding of his conflicting feelings regarding his mother. Piecing together memories from a few childhood summers spent in Oregon with Carrie and his stepfather, Lowell, Stevens created a masterpiece stricken with grief and confusion. I could write an essay about this album and how deeply affecting its sadness, confusion, and glimmers of hope are, but that wouldn’t fit on the page. This album taught me that it is so difficult to know exactly what you want from life, and that regrets are unavoidable, but all we can do is move forward and cherish the moments that bring us joy.
Beyoncé – Beyoncé (2013)
Think of Beyoncé before her self-titled album as a current Ariana Grande — that is, certainly one of the most adored artists, and always on the radio, but still with a legacy to write. With Beyoncé, though, her image shifted in every way. I will never forget the “world, stop” moment caused by the surprise release of a completely visual album, and the album — experimental, expansive, and honest — was a complete left turn; even its deeper tracks like “Mine” and “Superpower” would never have found a space on an earlier Beyoncé record. The album and its successor, Lemonade, may have had a polarizing effect on the general public, but while Beyoncé has not had as much of a commercial impact with her singles since then, she has become a cultural icon nonetheless. All thanks to the surprising pivot into making her most ambitious and best album so far.
Rosalía – El Mal Querer (2018)
El Mal Querer, translated roughly as “the bad desire,” was Flamenco singer Rosalía’s second album, and blew me away last year when I first heard it. Based loosely on the story of a 13th century novel about a toxic relationship, this album’s greatest accomplishment is fusing the old and the new. Flamenco clapping and rapidly strummed guitar back an industrial soundscape featuring motorcycle samples and trap-beats. This album has no loose end; Rosalía’s voice is powerful and triumphant, the lyrics, which are in Spanish, are pure poetry, and the many supporting music videos released by Rosalía show her immense stage presence and creativity. Last month, she took home the Latin GRAMMY for album of the year for El Mal Querer, and I was delighted to see such a unique body of work get recognition.
Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
The perfect rainy-day album, A Moon Shaped Pool finds lead singer Thom Yorke in the wake of the breakup with his longtime partner. As always with Radiohead, the album features extremely emotionally-charged lyrics and vocals, except cynicism and anger are exchanged for helplessness and sadness here. With beautiful strings and piano adding to the mood, this album masterfully builds a world without Jonny Greenwood’s arrangements ever being overly indulgent. These strings and piano, like on “Glass Eyes,” were then directly referenced in Greenwood’s score for 2017 movie Phantom Thread, one of my favorite scores — just another reason I love the album so much.
Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a healthy and successful end to the semester (and decade)!
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