My 101 Favorite Albums of the Past Decade (2010–2019)

Justin Green
Nov 7 · 4 min read

A decade used to seem like such a long time when I was younger. Now, it doesn’t really seem like a very long time period. Maybe that is because as I get older, a single year is a smaller percentage of my life lived so far. Or maybe it’s because as I read various publications’ Best Of The Decade lists, I thought: “I still listen to this album a lot, I can’t believe it came out almost 10 years ago.”

Kendrick Lamar’s landmark album was the record I listened to the most, without a doubt.

As a musician with listening tastes that are both broad and specific in equal measure, I certainly don’t feel comfortable ranking the decade’s albums in a “Best” way. Instead, I took a look back at the music I listened to the most, and organized this as a “My Favorites” list. There are a LOT of albums that I did not include that will no doubt make you say “but what about…!” That’s expected; I did not listen to everything that is considered an all-time best album of this past decade. But I did listen to a lot of music, and there may be some things in here that are new to you. Ranking them is more of an exercise than a definitive determination — my Top Favorites ranking might change in a month! But for now, this is how I see the Top 25 albums, followed by 76 unranked albums in alphabetical order.

(One thing I can definitely say is that I had no trouble at all determining my top 5 favorites. They were obvious to me as soon as I started making this list.)

I’ve also put together a 101-song playlist with one song from each of these records. This playlist is ordered in the same way as the list: the first 25 songs are ranked in order of my favorites, and the next 76 songs are just alphabetical by artist. Click shuffle and find something you like.

  1. Kendrick Lamar — Good Kid, M.A.A.D City
  2. Desaparecidos — Payola
  3. Frightened Rabbit — Pedestrian Verse
  4. The Hotelier — Home, Like Noplace Is There
  5. Sufjan Stevens — Carrie & Lowell
  6. Vampire Weekend — Modern Vampires of the City
  7. Kendrick Lamar — To Pimp a Butterfly
  8. Crying — Beyond the Fleeting Gales
  9. Hiss Golden Messenger — Bad Debt
  10. Hop Along — Painted Shut
  11. Frightened Rabbit — The Winter of Mixed Drinks
  12. Pinegrove — Cardinal
  13. Japandroids — Celebration Rock
  14. Vince Staples — Summertime ‘06
  15. My Morning Jacket — Circuital
  16. Broken Social Scene — Forgiveness Rock Record
  17. Sturgill Simpson — Metamodern Sounds in Country Music
  18. Run the Jewels — Run the Jewels 2
  19. Foxing — Nearer My God
  20. Vampire Weekend — Contra
  21. The Hotelier — Goodness
  22. The National — High Violet
  23. Bon Iver — Bon Iver, Bon Iver
  24. Gorillaz — Plastic Beach
  25. Mutual Benefit — Love’s Crushing Diamond
  • Aesop Rock — The Impossible Kid
  • Beach House — Bloom
  • Better Oblivion Community Center — Better Oblivion Community Center
  • Big Boi — Sir Lucious Leftfoot…The Son of Chico Dusty
  • Big K.R.I.T.—4eva Is a Mighty Long Time
  • Blis.—No One Loves You
  • Cardi B—Invasion of Privacy
  • Chance the Rapper—Acid Rap
  • Coma Cinema—Blue Suicide
  • Destroyer—Kaputt
  • Diarrhea Planet — I’m Rich Beyond Your Wildest Dreams
  • Dinner Time—Dinner Time
  • Dot.s—We Swim
  • Elvis Depressedly—Holo Pleasures
  • Fiona Apple—Idler Wheel…
  • Foxygen—We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic
  • Frank Ocean — Channel Orange
  • Frank Turner—Tape Deck Heart
  • Frightened Rabbit — Painting of a Panic Attack
  • Fucked Up—Dose Your Dreams
  • Fucked Up—David Comes to Life
  • Futurebirds—Baba Yaga
  • Great Grandpa—Four of Arrows
  • Gold-Bears — Dalliance
  • Hiss Golden Messenger—Heart Like a Levee
  • Iron Chic—You Can’t Stay Here
  • Janelle Monae—The Electric Lady
  • Japandroids—Post-Nothing
  • Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit—The Nashville Sound
  • Jeff Rosenstock—WORRY.
  • Jenny Lewis—The Voyager
  • Jim James—Regions of Light and Sound of God
  • Jimmy Eat World—Surviving
  • Julien Baker—Turn Out the Lights
  • Kendrick Lamar—DAMN.
  • Kevin Devine—Bubblegum
  • LCD Soundsystem—This is Happening
  • Lee Bains III & The Glory Fires—Youth Detention
  • LVL UP—Hoodwink’d
  • Manchester Orchestra—Simple Math
  • Mannequin Pussy—Patience
  • Menomena—Mines
  • Mitski—Puberty 2
  • New Junk City—New Junk City
  • PUP — The Dream Is Over
  • PUP—Morbid Stuff
  • Ra Ra Riot—The Orchard
  • Ra Ra Riot—Beta Love
  • Reptar—Body Faucet
  • Rubblebucket—Survival Sounds
  • S. Carey—Range of Light
  • Say Anything—Hebrews
  • Small Reactions—Similar Phantoms
  • Small Wonder—Wendy
  • Spoon—They Want My Soul
  • Superchunk—I Hate Music
  • Surfer Blood—Astro Coast
  • The Get Up Kids—Problems
  • The Hold Steady—Thrashing Thru the Passion
  • The Menzingers—Rented World
  • The New Pornographers—Together
  • The Pains of Being Pure at Heart—Belong
  • The Shins—Port of Morrow
  • The Walkmen—Heaven
  • Titus Andronicus — The Monitor
  • Titus Andronicus—The Most Lamentable Tragedy
  • Tune-Yards—W H O K I L L
  • Various Artists—Hamilton Original Cast Recording
  • Waxahatchee—Ivy Tripp
  • WHY?—Alopecia
  • Wilco—The Whole Love
  • Woods—Bend Beyond
  • Yeasayer—Odd Blood
  • Yo La Tengo—Fade
  • Zeus—Busting Visions
  • Zeus — Say Us
Justin Green

Written by

Dad who plays in bands and has a day job and does some writing and ranking occasionally.

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