What's been the best music of this decade?

22-11-2019 10:21pm

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have made some of their best music this decade; Push The Sky Away, Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen are all amazing pieces of work.

Some of my other favourite albums this decade:

Arcade Fire - The Subrubs (2010)
Janelle Monáe - The ArchAndroid (2010)
Warpaint - The Fool (2010)
Lykke Li - Wounded Rhymes (2011)
The Antlers - Burst Apart (2011)
Tom Waits - Bad As Me (2011)
TRST - Trust (2012)
Goldfrapp - Tales Of Us (2013)
Sky Ferreira - Night Time, My Time (2013)
Samaris - Samaris (2013)
The National - Trouble Will Find Me (2014)
Beck - Morning Phase (2014)
Kelis - Food (2014)
The War on Drugs - Lost In the Dream (2014)
Villagers - Darling Arithmetic (2015)
Lana Del Rey - Honeymoon (2015)
Florence and the Machine - How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (2015)
David Bowie - Blackstar (2016)
Fever Ray - Plunge (2017)
Lorde - Melodrama (2017)
Beach House - Seven (2017)
Troye Sivan - Bloom (2018)
Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow (2019)

And I'm sure there's hundreds more great albums from the past decade that I just haven't listened to yet.

nkl12xtw5goz70 · 22-11-2019 11:28pm

buried wrote: »

For me this decade has been all about 'Autechre', now I know full well the first time people will hear their current works from this decade without knowing who or what they do will just assume their listening device has completely and totally $hat itself. That's what I thought on first listening, but I gave it time, gave it the time it deserves, then you just 'get it' you get the melodies, the intricate arpeggios hidden within the tracks that constitute electronic bleeps and blops. Then you truly have a whole new music experience in your eardrums to enjoy. I get totally lost in their work, especially Elseq 1-5 and the NTS Sessions 1-4 released 2016 and 2018. Its so brilliant.

That's fascinating. I've always been intrigued by how we have to retrain or reprogram ourselves to appreciate experimental art and literature. I've done that successfully with painting, poetry, and prose, but I've never tried it with music. You've inspired me to give it a shot.

Quantum Erasure · 23-11-2019 12:27am

that Dance Monkey tune is pretty catchy

jiltloop · 23-11-2019 1:03am

I've been fan of Autechre since the mid 90s.their music is on a different level but I think the majority of people will find it inaccessible.

I find that I sometimes have to psych myself up to listen to them but it's very rewarding when I do. I suppose you could say that it requires active listening. If you have any knowledge of electronic music and how it's made or indeed knowledge of computer programming and algorithms then it will heighten your appreciation of the music.

dasdog · 23-11-2019 1:27am

I'll just add to the lots of good recommendations already made.

Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley (2017)
Let's do a concept album about the decline of the Welsh mining industry

Night Beats - Sonic Bloom (2014)
A 1960's garage throwback

Dry Cleaning - Sweet Princess EP (2019)
Just fk off you cvnt in a polite way

Hail Mary Mallon - Bestiary (2014)
Tongue in cheek hiphop

Kamasi Washington - Heaven and Earth (2018)
Sun Ra would approve this

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo · 23-11-2019 1:31pm

One of my favourite tunes of decade.

Rubberchikken · 23-11-2019 1:35pm

the best music of this decade is music from any other.
maybe its age but the amount of mindless unmemorable crap on the radio today that passes for music is sad.

randomspud · 23-11-2019 1:45pm

That one song with "the ting goes.....".

Truly an excellent encapsulation of the godawful music from this decade.

23-11-2019 1:59pm

In the last decade my musical taste has completely changed. I've gone from listening to rock and guitar based music to nearly exclusively listening to electronic music.

Jon Hopkins
Kiasmos
Four Tet
Paul Kalkbrenner
Bicep
M83
The Blaze
The Chemical Brothers (I know theyre going years but the album's they released this decade are some of my favourites)

A brilliant decade of music if you take the time to go find what you like. So much music has never been so accessible and with the Spotify and YouTube algorithms being so good if you find something you like you can listen to tonnes of similar stuff without the need to do anything other than listen.

If you think this decades music was crap it just means you haven't made any effort to find what you like. And it's never been easier. Spotify was a game changer.

smilerf · 23-11-2019 2:04pm

[Deleted User] wrote: »

In the last decade my musical taste has completely changed. I've gone from listening to rock and guitar based music to nearly exclusively listening to electronic music.

Jon Hopkins
Kiasmos
Four Tet
Paul Kalkbrenner
Bicep
M83
The Blaze
The Chemical Brothers (I know theyre going years but the album's they released this decade are some of my favourites)

A brilliant decade of music if you take the time to go find what you like. So much music has never been so accessible and with the Spotify and YouTube algorithms being so good if you find something you like you can listen to tonnes of similar stuff without the need to do anything other than listen.

If you think this decades music was crap it just means you haven't made any effort to find what you like. And it's never been easier. Spotify was a game changer.

love m83
Great music and Kayla sinclair is very easy on the eye

Rothko · 23-11-2019 2:11pm

Rubberchikken wrote: »

the best music of this decade is music from any other.
maybe its age but the amount of mindless unmemorable crap on the radio today that passes for music is sad.

The radio isn't even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to music.

Mister Vain · 23-11-2019 2:15pm

The only artist that comes to mind is Ryan Sheridan. I think he has been consistently good. There have been a few catchy songs here and there from other artists but I couldn't tell you the names of them. Most of the music from this decade has been forgettable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7Gpul2E3pE

LAZYIRISH · 24-11-2019 12:38am

Right now for me ending this decade ,it has to be avicii , some of the stuff he didn't release is just brilliant. I tend to love all types of music and he seems to bring every element and genre to his music. He seemed to be overrated yet very underrated at the same time

Bobblehats · 25-11-2019 1:12pm

The reissue of Extreme’s decadance

nthclare · 25-11-2019 1:19pm

I think the biggest travesty of this decade was the way a lot of so called artist's sampled from a lot of old school underground deep house music from the 90's and made a mint out of it.

If you're into Deep house music, and hear a lot of the shoite today, you'd notice the loop's, samples and bass lines...

Vocals being manipulated by computer applications etc

Any one who's remixing appreciate the artist, anyone who copies are just peeler's or biters...

RayCon · 26-11-2019 12:54pm

I'm interpreting the question as "What's been the best new music by a new artist in this decade ?"*

* if it was album releases by already established bands I'd be here for ever and still forget some.

So I'm going with :

Ghost
King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Anesthetize · 26-11-2019 8:15pm

RayCon wrote: »

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

They're a band I really want to like but I've never fully warmed up to them.

The amount of music they release is ridiculous. They released 5 albums in 2017 alone. I'm hoping a couple of their albums will grow on me eventually.

andekwarhola · 26-11-2019 9:01pm

Rothko wrote: »

It's been a brilliant decade for music. Some of my favourite artists of the last ten years: Tame Impala, Fionn Regan, Weyes Blood, Lana Del Rey, Deerhunter, Mac Demarco, Melody's Echo Chamber, St. Vincent, Laura Marling, Beach House, Japandroids, (Sandy) Alex G, Swans, Danny Brown, King Gizzard And The Lizard Wizard, Vince Staples, Jeff Rosenstock, And So I Watch You From Afar, Tokyo Shoegazer, Flying Lotus, Sharon Van Etten, Ty Segall, Big Thief.

Is it wrong that I refuse to countenance bands with names like Tokyo Shoegazer or And So I Watch You From Afar purely on grounds of irascible middle-age?

JohnnyFlash · 26-11-2019 9:14pm

andekwarhola wrote: »

Is it wrong that I refuse to countenance bands with names like Tokyo Shoegazer or And So I Watch You From Afar purely on grounds of irascible middle-age?

Not wrong, dude, but probably a bit limiting if you're into shoegaze.

antimatterx · 26-11-2019 9:16pm

Drake!!

Has been in the charts almost every week for the decade so far.

beamoflight · 26-11-2019 9:21pm

Tool - “Fear Inoculum”

Bigboldworld · 26-11-2019 9:28pm

From an irish perspective Fontaines DC have been a very welcome addition to the Irish music scene, doing very well, won rough trade album of the year and bbc radio 6 album of the year, very good debut album

Diagonalley · 26-11-2019 9:28pm

Twenty One Pilots

Turquoise Hexagon Sun · 26-11-2019 10:02pm

Can't really say.

Plaid have released some nice stuff.

Also, Aphex Twin making a return to releasing more music has been nice.

Someone already mentioned The War On Drugs, too. A Deeper Understanding is a superb album.

Yeah, Spotify has been great. I really love the reccommended playlists. Great way to discover new music.

EmmetSpiceland · 26-11-2019 10:06pm

JohnnyFlash wrote: »

Not wrong, dude, but probably a bit limiting if you're into shoegaze.

“And So I Watch You From Afar” ain’t shoegaze, J.

You should check out their first album, if you get a chance.

26-11-2019 10:20pm

Turquoise Hexagon Sun wrote: »

Can't really say.

Plaid have released some nice stuff.

Also, Aphex Twin making a return to releasing more music has been nice.

Someone already mentioned The War On Drugs, too. A Deeper Understanding is a superb album.

Yeah, Spotify has been great. I really love the reccommended playlists. Great way to discover new music.

This so much, its saved me listening to the same dross, on every station, same 10 songs on the hour every hour on every station, Today FM, 2fm, Red FM, 96fm....ireland needs more variety in the stations

DrumSteve · 26-11-2019 10:22pm

Think metal is pretty healthy.

Have Behemoths last album on repeat since it was released.

DrumSteve · 26-11-2019 10:23pm

Rhea Hissing Suspicion wrote: »

This so much, its saved me listening to the same dross, on every station, same 10 songs on the hour every hour on every station, Today FM, 2fm, Red FM, 96fm....ireland needs more variety in the stations

John Creedon still the best DJ on the radio, found so many good tunes through his show.

shamtastic · 26-11-2019 10:35pm

Car Seat Headrest seriously impressed me with his releases. Tough to follow the noughties with straight up alt rock as it was done to death, but his songs are so awkward, meandering and catchy that it still seemed fresh. Funny songs without being a parody, which is hard to do.

Arghus · 26-11-2019 10:47pm

Arghus wrote: »

I must give Autechre a go. I've listened to bits and pieces of their stuff, but I was put off by the size of their latest releases, but I'll brave it and report back.

So anyway I gave nts session 1 a listen today as I was out and about. Really enjoyed it. Was able to get into a proper trance listening to some of the pieces, particularly the longer ones like gonk steady one. Definitely not for everybody, of course, but pretty excellent if you're in the mood for it. Quite hypnotic listening to the beats and blips skitter, mutate, and come together and fall apart.

DrumSteve · 26-11-2019 10:50pm

Also, Frightened Rabbit are a great shout.

What a band.

Arghus · 26-11-2019 10:52pm

shamtastic wrote: »

Car Seat Headrest seriously impressed me with his releases. Tough to follow the noughties with straight up alt rock as it was done to death, but his songs are so awkward, meandering and catchy that it still seemed fresh. Funny songs without being a parody, which is hard to do.

Car Seat Headrest is great. I don't think his/their(?) albums are consistent from start to finish, but definitely contain some of the best straight up indie rock of the decade: Vincent, Destroyed By Hippy Powers, Drunk Drivers, Beach Life in Death - all great songs.

sabat · 26-11-2019 10:55pm

Arghus wrote: »

So anyway I gave nts session 1 a listen today as I was out and about. Really enjoyed it. Was able to get into a proper trance listening to some of the pieces, particularly the longer ones like gonk steady one. Definitely not for everybody, of course, but pretty excellent if you're in the mood for it. Quite hypnotic listening to the beats and blips skitter, mutate, and come together and fall apart.

Give tri-repetae and incunabula a spin-a lot of their newer stuff is just noodly **** imo. If you've never heard eutow before you're in for a treat...

JupiterKid · 26-11-2019 11:11pm

As an old codger, I’m completely out of the loop when it comes to good music this decade. IMO most good new releases during the 2010s were by artists who were long established by then - such as David Bowie’s final album, Black Star, Goldfrapp’s Silver Eye and Placebo’s Loud Like Love.

In terms of new artists to emerge this decade, Lana Del Rey is pretty good.

Relikk · 26-11-2019 11:31pm

sabat wrote: »

Give tri-repetae and incunabula a spin-a lot of their newer stuff is just noodly **** imo. If you've never heard eutow before you're in for a treat...

Don't forget about Amber. Great album.

They kind of lost me for a while when Confield came out. Oversteps saw a return to form.

Arghus · 26-11-2019 11:48pm

sabat wrote: »

Give tri-repetae and incunabula a spin-a lot of their newer stuff is just noodly **** imo. If you've never heard eutow before you're in for a treat...

I listened to Autechre before, but it was years ago. I appreciated them, but the newer stuff is just so voluminous that I was always a bit put off by that.

I can see how they could be a accused of being noodly ****, but, honestly, some of what I listened to today was, to my ears anyway, very rewarding.

26-11-2019 11:54pm

Bon Iver Bon Iver (2011) by Bon Iver - my album of the decade.

Sort of forgotten about now because it was early on and the name is the same as the group but what a piece.

Justin Vernon is unbelievably talented - he can do it all.

Saw them live at the National Stadium years ago - blew me away.

A cohesive masterpiece of an album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KrmxavLIRM

Quantum Erasure · 27-11-2019 3:43am

this won song of the decade at the Q awards,

(only got to number 9 on Pitchfork's list of 200 songs of the 2010's, theres a lot there that I hadn't heard before)

dougm1970 · 27-11-2019 3:59am

my 15 yr old kept playing 'ren' for me....hes very talented, really is...

https://youtu.be/ZT4PtvgakLU

Arghus · 27-11-2019 4:13am

I've given it time, but try as I might I just can't get into Lana Del Ray's music. I find her voice so flat and unemotional. Whether she's singing about her heart breaking or her toast being burnt, to my ears, it all sounds dead inside. I appreciate that Norman Fcking Rockwell had some good songs on it, but there's a distance or artificial aspect to her music, for me, that stops me from feeling it. But to each their own.

27-11-2019 4:40pm

Arghus wrote: »

I've given it time, but try as I might I just can't get into Lana Del Ray's music. I find her voice so flat and unemotional. Whether she's singing about her heart breaking or her toast being burnt, to my ears, it all sounds dead inside. I appreciate that Norman Fcking Rockwell had some good songs on it, but there's a distance or artificial aspect to her music, for me, that stops me from feeling it. But to each their own.

video games is a great song but very much a one off imo.

nothing else she has done comes close to it.

Anesthetize · 27-11-2019 7:55pm

Arghus wrote: »

I've given it time, but try as I might I just can't get into Lana Del Ray's music. I find her voice so flat and unemotional. Whether she's singing about her heart breaking or her toast being burnt, to my ears, it all sounds dead inside. I appreciate that Norman Fcking Rockwell had some good songs on it, but there's a distance or artificial aspect to her music, for me, that stops me from feeling it. But to each their own.

The only album of hers that I heard before was Ultraviolence, and it didn't have much impact on me. But Norman ****ing Rockwell is on another level, it's definitely my album of 2019.

bigar · 27-11-2019 8:12pm

buried · 28-11-2019 12:08am

Arghus wrote: »

I can see how they could be a accused of being noodly ****, but, honestly, some of what I listened to today was, to my ears anyway, very rewarding.

ILoveYourVibes · 28-11-2019 12:22am

Arghus wrote: »

I've given it time, but try as I might I just can't get into Lana Del Ray's music. I find her voice so flat and unemotional. Whether she's singing about her heart breaking or her toast being burnt, to my ears, it all sounds dead inside. I appreciate that Norman Fcking Rockwell had some good songs on it, but there's a distance or artificial aspect to her music, for me, that stops me from feeling it. But to each their own.

Then you haven't heard her live.

Elemonator · 28-11-2019 12:41am

I'm fairly involved in the music scene and I don't think has been a good decade for popular music. It's all computerised and Protools edited now. That removes the human element which is what makes it human in the first place.

That's not to say there isn't good music out there, but it has certainly been pushed underground. There has been a few artists that have been popular and are talented, like Adele, but that isn't the music I'd really go for anyway. Most of the stuff that is popular these days is guys just talking, that annoying warbly singing accent that was popularised by Passenger or just straight ahead electronic pop.

Maybe with the advent of Spotify and so forth, a lot of previously unknown artists will find it easier to break through. The world is at your fingertips.

As for memorable bands there isn't anything that stands out bar a few. There is loads of bands mentioned out there but everyone says they are brilliant just because everyone else is. The National did a good album, Charles Bradley is a big one for me, he had a good album too and he made it big in older age, Tame Impala, The War On Drugs, Bon Iver maybe, Kendrick Lamar did have some really interesting rhythms for me as a drummer, Daft Punk's Random Access Memories because of Nile Rodgers. The rest of the good stuff was old guys with recent albums like Nile Rodgers and David Bowie's Blackstar.

buried · 28-11-2019 1:00am

The 'Bandana' LP from Freddie Gibbs & Madlib released this summer is all sorts of good craic.
Just pure entertainment buttered on both sides. These two really bring the best out each other.

piplip87 · 28-11-2019 1:06am

I think Rock Music has started to come back this decade. To see Guns N Roses with Slash, Axl and Duff, Metallica, The Killers and the Foos play sold out shows in Ireland, among others all going strong and having people in Thier late teens into guitar based music was my highlight.

As for my personal preference Noel Gallagher's first two solo albums where amazing, Liam's two where class too.

Greta Van Fleet, Inhaler and Frank Carter all breaking through the future looks bright too

Arghus · 28-11-2019 2:47am

Being honest, I thought the decade wasn't particularly encouraging for rock music. And I say that as someone who still listens to more of what can broadly be classed as "rock" than any other genre of music.

I don't think rock is dead and some guitar orientated bands released some of my favourite albums of the decade, but I think these last ten years is really going to be looked back at as the decade where it lost its place at the forefront of popular music.

Okay, maybe it started losing ground in the noughties in some ways, but if you look back at what was acclaimed and influential during that time, then rock was still doing pretty okay - by some metrics at least.

I think there is a paucity of really fresh ideas in rock right now. There is good stuff out there, undoubtedly, but no matter how good it is, even as excellent as it can be, it can all feel a bit familiar. And I don't just mean stuff that sells and gets popular, I'm talking about across all genres - noise, dream-pop, shoegaze, blackened death, goregrind, twee-pop - whatever you want, the whole gamut.

I can often admire and like what bands/artists are doing, but their creativity stems more from what they do with their influences and how they mix and match the familiar to make some newish sounds. I guess that's partly a characteristic of musical genres generally: building on the past, but every "rock" act that I've listened to this decade - and that's a lot - I can usually pigeonhole into some pre-existing musical box. There's very little that makes me think, "this is totally new and unclassifiable" - aside from the deliberately esoteric and experimental. But even that spectrum of things can feel like a running meta commentary on the essentially played out heart of rocks creativity.

Like I said earlier, I don't think it's properly dead. Indie rock is still relatively popular, metal is still relatively popular. Bands still sell tickets for gigs. But there's a lot of nostalgia at play about that now in relation to rock. Look at the big gig announcements for the summer: dominated by legacy acts.

Rock doesn't feel as culturally relevant anymore. I remember when I first started really getting into music how sites such as Pitchfork were really important, but there's been such a sea change of difference with even those kind of places over the last decade. It used to be a bastion of indie rock snobbery - now it has more time for Cardi B.

Anecdotally, I remember also when Silent Discos started becoming a thing and you'd reliably get guitar bangers at more or less every one. I went to a few in the past year or two, where I definitely felt too old for that ****, and they were 90% hip-hop/trap. Now, I guess the only thing that proves definitively is that I'm getting old, but, it suggests to me that the young folks don't really listen to rock these days. And if the teenagers and young twentysomethings aren't that bothered then rock could be entering a tough period.

Though, it could easily rebound too. Things being cyclical and all. This decade saw the renewed appreciation for a lot of musical styles and sounds of the eighties - so maybe an alternative rock renaissance is due. The sales of flannel will go through the roof. But, to tell you the truth, I'm not betting on it.

smilerf · 28-11-2019 6:01am

Rock is alive and well
Check out Greta Van Fleet. Goodbye June Lilac. Badflower

What's been the best music of this decade?

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