As the 2010s draw to a close, it’s fun to think of how this most recent decade’s music will be thought of in the future. The 70s had disco and funk, the 80s had new wave and hair metal, the 90s had grunge and classic hip-hop, and the 2000s had emo and an indie rock explosion. Plenty of music sites have already published their retrospectives on the decade, which generally show the prominence of hip-hop, greater acceptance of pop, and the slow and steady rise of electronic and country music over the last ten years.
What of indie music though, which the Indiecator is all about? Indie music in general has become less rigid, more diverse, and less rock-focused this decade, with electronic music, hip-hop, pop, and R&B all gradually finding their way into the hearts of indie fans. The era of the archetypal Brooklyn-dwelling hipster who relished obscurity and elitism is gone, replaced by musical chameleons who don’t care about genre and subgenre labels as much. For the music itself, this means more songs that cannot be easily categorized as just “rock” or “electronic” or “pop.” Now more than ever, it’s become harder to ask the question “what is indie music?”
While most music sites have done lists in terms of “top albums” or “top songs” of the 2010s, I feel like this would lead to a lot of “apples and oranges” comparisons where you’re pitting the best of one type of music against the best of another type, and a lot of good stuff will be left out. Even something like “the top indie rock albums of the 2010s” would be tough to narrow down. Instead, I’d like to compare how each year of the 2010s was for music.
As an overview, it’s hard for the 2010s to stand up to the 2000s in terms of indie music. For starters, the 2000s gave us so many legendary debuts by personal favorites – artists who are now on their fifth album or later. However, I might just be saying that because I’m an older millennial and the 2000s were my formative music years. Yes, this list is subjective, and you’ll realize that I still gravitate towards indie rock, like electronica, know almost nothing about hip-hop or R&B, and still don’t like pop.
2014
When I sit down to write my year-end top album countdowns, I usually ask myself “was this a good year for music?” Usually I write the answer to this question in the intro to the countdown itself. Well, in 2014 the answer would have been “no.” What a forgettable year for music. It wasn’t a total loss – for indie rock we had Sunbathing Animal, which put Parquet Courts on my radar, and the ever-consistent Spoon’s They Want My Soul. Synth-rockers Future Islands also hit it big with Singles, where their live performance of “Seasons (Waiting On You)” on Letterman drew in many a curious viewer. It was a strong year for singer-songwriters too, with Owen Pallett’s In Conflict marking the last time we heard from that super-talented Canadian lad. St. Vincent really stole the show, though, with her self-titled album, which in hindsight I’d have to nominate album of the year for 2014. Otherwise, I’m glad I didn’t launch the Indiecator until 2015.
2018
It was hard for me to make a “top 10 albums of 2018” list last year, or as I politely stated: “I will admit that making this list was somewhat difficult, as few albums this year jumped out to me as exceptional.” I gave Car Seat Headrest’s Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) the top album slot last year, with the disclaimer that “this album is mostly here because I couldn’t think of anything better.” There were a lot of “very good” albums by indie critical darlings including Wide Awake! by Parquet Courts, 7 by Beach House, and Tell Me How You Really Feel by Courtney Barnett, but nothing I’d award a 9 or 10/10. There were some pleasant surprises though, like the out-of-left-field and highly divisive Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino by Arctic Monkeys and MGMT’s big comeback album Little Dark Age. Lastly, while ye might not have been Kanye’s best, he made up for it with his Kid Cudi collab Kids See Ghosts and their self-titled album.
2017
Just like last year, thinking of ten great indie albums to highlight at the end of 2017 was no easy feat. In the intro to that year’s countdown, I noted that “2017 gave us an abundance of…perfectly adequate albums.” Well, I’d say that albums like Hot Thoughts by Spoon, ken by Destroyer, Pleasure by Feist, and Masseduction by St. Vincent were definitely more than “perfectly adequate.” There were also robust showings from the xx with I See You and the National with Sleep Well Beast. I gave the best album of the year award to LCD Soundsystem’s American Dream, which few expected to see after the group prematurely called it quits in 2011.
2019
Since this year isn’t completely over yet, and more importantly, I haven’t published my top album countdown for 2019, I’ll hold off on giving the specifics for putting this year as number 7. Don’t want to ruin the surprise! I will say that it was a better year for indie music than the last couple, and that it ended the decade on a high note. Check back after the top 10 albums of 2019 is published for an updated explanation here.
2015
Coming right in the middle of the decade, 2015 likewise earns its place as a solid, middle-of-the-pack year for music. While my declaration in that year’s countdown that “2015 was an all-around amazing year for music” is a little hyperbolic in retrospect, it still gave us plenty of albums I’ve come back to repeatedly. These include Beach House’s Depression Cherry, Panda Bear’s Panda Bear Meets the Grim Reaper, and (personal favorite) Destroyer’s Poison Season. On the rock front, 2015 gave us Courtney Barnett’s studio debut Sometimes I Just Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit, Titus Andronicus’ ambitious punk opera The Most Lamentable Tragedy, and Tame Impala’s one-man triumph Currents. It was also a landmark year for electronica, with underrated albums like !!!’s As If, Miami Horror’s All Possible Futures, Everything Everything’s Get to Heaven, and Neon Indian’s VEGA INTL. Night School. I had to give my top album slot that year to Jamie xx’s In Colour, which I’ve listened to a ton since its release. Lastly, while I was late to the hype train for both, hence their absence from that year’s list, 2015 also gave us Father John Misty’s I Love You, Honeybear and Kendrick Lamar’s universally acclaimed To Pimp a Butterfly.
2016
The year 2016 was such a bad year that it became a meme after a while. However, as I said on that year’s countdown, the same year that gave us Trump and Brexit wasn’t nearly as bad for music as it was for humanity. For folksters, there was Conor Oberst’s minimalist Ruminations and Bon Iver’s slide into folktronica with 22, A Million. Many had started writing preemptive eulogies for indie rock around this time, but then Parquet Courts’ Human Performance and Car Seat Headrest’s breakthrough Teens of Denial reminded us it was very much alive. It was also a year of grand returns – the Avalanches delivered Wildflower after a 16-year wait for a second album, and hip-hop legends A Tribe Called Quest released We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service 18 years after their last studio album. Some of the most highly acclaimed albums of this year stood out for both their quality and their unusual release procedures: Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo was updated multiple times after its release, and Frank Ocean independently released the much-loved Blonde the day after he released the peculiar Endless on Def Jam. I said that Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool was the best album this year, but truthfully have seldom returned to this captivatingly sad work since.
2012
I’m glad the world didn’t end as everyone predicted this year, because it was a standout year for music. There weren’t a ton of A-grade albums that came out this year, but the few that earned high marks deserve an A+ if not an A++. For instance, 2012 gave us Lonerism by Tame Impala, Celebration Rock by Japandroids, Good Kid M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar, and Light Up Gold by Parquet Courts. It was also a year of albums that remain personal favorites, like Hot Chip’s In Our Heads and Beach House’s Bloom. So many of these releases were the introductions that got me “into” their respective artists, but none blew me away as much as Frank Ocean’s multi-genre Channel Orange.
2011
The second year of this decade stands out for the sheer number of great albums it provided us. This is right around when I really started getting more into electronic music, thanks to albums like STRFKR’s Reptilians, Metronomy’s The English Riviera, Toro Y Moi’s Underneath the Pine, Neon Indian’s Era Extraña, Cut Copy’s Zonoscope, and Holy Ghost!’s self-titled debut. Speaking of debuts, both the Vaccines’ What Did You Expect from the Vaccines? and the Joy Formidable’s The Big Roar where solid first-time efforts from 2011. It was also an incredible time for indie rock overall, as this was the year that brought us the Black Keys’ El Camino, TV on the Radio’s Nine Types of Light, the Horrors’ Skying, St. Vincent’s Strange Mercy, the Pains of Being Pure at Heart’s Belong, and the Antlers’ Burst Apart. Elsewhere, there were loud triumphs like Fucked Up’s David Comes to Life, and quieter ones like Fleet Foxes’ Helplessness Blues. It would be hard to pick just one album I loved above all others in 2011, but I recall really enjoying Panda Bear’s pop-inspired Tomboy, Bon Iver’s lush Bon Iver, Bon Iver, Destroyer’s jazzy breakthrough Kaputt, and Bright Eyes’ final album The People’s Key.
2013
The runner up for the best year for music in the 2010s goes to 2013. So many indie rock heavyweights released top-notch albums this year, including the National with Trouble Will Find Me, Arcade Fire with Reflektor, Arctic Monkeys with AM, and Vampire Weekend with Modern Vampires of the City. It was also the year Kanye West really started getting weird on Yeezus, Daft Punk hit it big with Random Access Memories, and My Bloody Valentine delivered their reunion album m b v. Even though chillwave was declared “dead” by this time, you still had notable chillwave-inspired albums like Washed Out’s Paracosm, Blood Orange’s Cupid Deluxe, and Toro Y Moi’s Anything in Return. It was a year for newbies, up-and-comers, and established acts, as CHVRCHES released their brilliant debut The Bones of What You Believe, Janelle Monáe had a strong sophomore showing with The Electric Lady, and Foxygen struck the right chord with third album We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace and Magic. We also saw some heaviness this year in Sigur Rós’s industrial-tinged Kveikur, Queens of the Stone Age’s gritty …Like Clockwork, and the crossover appeal of metal band Deafheaven’s Sunbather.
2010
It wasn’t even close on this one. The first year of this decade, 2010, blew away all nine years that followed with the quality of music released, and I’m not just saying that because 2010 is the closest year to the 2000s. Let’s start with the heavy hitters: this is the year where Arcade Fire released the Suburbs, which won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year and caused households all over to ask “who is Arcade Fire?” Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy was praised as one of the greatest albums of all time, and marks the last time the then-relevant Pitchfork gave an album a 10/10. LCD Soundsystem looked like they were going out with a bang when they released the incredible This Is Happening prior to their breakup-turned-hiatus. These albums dominated their respective genres that year, but there were so many other stellar releases below this top tier as well. You had breakthrough indie rock albums like the National’s High Violet, the Black Keys’ Brothers, Deerhunter’s Halcyon Digest, and Titus Andronicus’ The Monitor. You had debuts like Janelle Monáe’s The ArchAndroid and Tame Impala’s Innerspeaker. Beyond all these, there were excellent albums like Beach House’s Teen Dream, Vampire Weekend’s Contra, Spoon’s Transference, Foals’ Total Life Forever, Owen Pallett’s Heartland, Hot Chip’s One Life Stand, and Yeasayer’s Odd Blood. I’m sure I missed a few there too. Basically, count your blessings if you were around to experience 2010’s music.
