My Decade In Music: 2010-2019
As I started looking back on the albums I was into in 2019, it felt like I was just on a victory lap of my favorite music of the decade. So rather than re-hash and reorder my favorite artists one more time and just be done with it, I decided to do a deeper look into the past 10 years in appreciation of the music that soundtracked the highs and lows of the 2010's for me (and anyone I could get to listen).
Read The Long Thing or Nah
50 Artists
These 50 artists had the biggest impact / staying power with me over the last 10 years. They are loosely ranked by their presence in my yearly lists, with some correction for history and what I truly spent the most time listening to. For each of them, I've included a few words, plus an embed of my favorite album of theirs from this decade, and the occasional bonus material to highlight my appreciation. I hope you can find something in here that you enjoy as much as I have.
Year By Year
I've reduced my annual lists down to a more digestible 25 per (as much as it breaks my heart to see what got left out). Also included my yearly playlist of favorite tunes for each year provided, starting in 2012.
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2012
- Bowerbirds- The Clearing
- Titus Andronicus- Local Business
- Joe Pug- The Great Despiser
- The Mountain Goats- Transcendental Youth
- Dr. Dog- Be The Void
- Strand of Oaks- Dark Shores
- Dan Deacon- America
- Matthew E. White- Big Inner
- Tallest Man on Earth- There's No Leaving Now
- King Tuff- King Tuff
- Japandroids- Celebration Rock
- Sigur Ros- Valtari
- Zammuto- Zammuto
- Langhorne Slim- The Way We Move
- Poliça- Give You The Ghost
- Spiritualized - Sweet Heart Sweet Light
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor- Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
- B. Fleischmann- I'm Not Ready For The Grave Yet
- Chromatics- Kill For Love
- Father John Misty- Fear Fun
- Woods- Bend Beyond
- Fiona Apple- The Idl....(etc)
- Tame Impala- Lonerism
- John K. Samson- Provincial
- Andrew Bird- Break It Yourself / Hands of Glory
One To End On
Thanks to Pickathon's relentless dedication to recording, I can go back and re-live one of my favorite musical moments of the decade. Sweden's own Daniel Norgren, on the Treeline Stage in 2016. It's Friday at Pickathon, and things are just getting started. He's relatively unknown (if not entirely?) in the US, and this is his first US performance ever. The set is relatively subdued- interesting, pleasant, but you can see at the start most are sitting down cross-legged soaking up the lightly accompanied accordion, piano, and blues guitar. I'm somewhere in there too- up relatively close (as I tend to be), though I've looked for myself many times in this video. I'll let the video speak for itself, but when this set was over, I (and nearly everyone else lucky enough to be present) prioritized his next two shows at the festival over everything else, and those 3 shows from that weekend will live among my favorite musical memories.