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Top 100 albums of the 2010s: full list (and another list)

Thanks to everyone who has been reading my top 100 countdown of albums from the last decade – it’s been nice to do a bit of old school blogging, which is a bit of a rarity for me these days. For ease, here’s the full list of all 102 albums in a more readable order – and below that, there’s a second top 100 albums list…

1: Shrag – Canines (2012)
2: Ex Hex – It’s Real (2019)
3: Robert Ellis – Robert Ellis (2016)
4: Sleater-Kinney – The Center Won’t Hold (2019)
5: Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You (2013)
6: Laura Cantrell – No Way Home From Here (2013)
7: Tennis – Yours Conditionally (2017)
8: Jenny Lewis – The Voyager (2014)
9: Kyle Craft – Full Circle Nightmare (2018)
10: Lucky Soul – A Coming of Age (2010) and Hard Lines (2017)
11: The Just Joans – You Might Be Smiling Now (2017)
12: Tigercats – Pig City (2018)
13: Dawn Landes – Bluebird (2014)
14: Old Crow Medicine Show – Remedy (2014)
15: Half Man Half Biscuit – No-one Cares About Your Creative Hub So Get Your Fuckin’ Hedge Cut (2018)
16: Misty’s Big Adventure – The Family Amusement Centre (2011)
17: James – La Petit Mort (2014)
18: MJ Hibbett and the Validators – Still Valid (2016)
19: Frankie Machine – Frankie Machine Has Been Shipwrecked on a Desert Island (2015)
20: Peach Pyramid – Repeating Myself (2017)
21: Caitlin Rose – Own Side Now (2010)
22: Polychrome – Polychrome (2018)
23: Steven James Adams – Old Magick (2016)
24: The Hidden Cameras – Age (2014)
25: Jessica Lea Mayfield – Sorry Is Gone (2017)
26: Slow Club – Paradise (2011)
27: Piney Gir – Geronimo! (2011)
28: Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine (2011)
29: Kathryn Calder – Are You My Mother? (2010)
30: The Pretenders – Alone / Alive (2017)
31: Withered Hand – New Gods (2014)
32: Ultrasound – Play For Today (2012)
33: The Crimea – Square Moon (2013)
34: St Vincent – St Vincent (2014)
35: Jeffrey Lewis – Manhattan (2015)
36: Tender Trap – Dansette, Dansette (2010) and The Catenary Wires – Red Red Skies (2019)
37: Stealing Sheep – Big Wows (2019)
38: Grandaddy – Last Place (2017)
39: Bearsuit – The Phantom Forest (2011)
40: Johnny Marr – Adrenalin Baby (2015)
41: I Am Kloot – Sky At Night (2010)
42: Help Stamp Out Loneliness – Help Stamp Out Loneliness (2011)
43: Traveller – Western Movies (2018)
44: Chris T-T – 9 Green Songs (2016)
45: Anais Mitchell – Hadestown (2010)
46: The Wave Pictures – Long Black Cars (2012)
47: Pixies – Indie Cindy (2014)
48: Basia Bulat – Good Advice (2016)
49: Hospitality – Hospitality (2012)
50: John Prine – The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)
51: Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament – The Violence (2012)
52: The Secret History – Americans Singing In The Dark (2013)
53: Self Esteem – Compliments Please (2019)
54: TeenCanteen – Say It All With A Kiss (2016)
55: Lightning Dust – Fantasy (2013)
56: Iron and Wine – Ghost on Ghost (2013)
57: Wild Flag – Wild Flag (2011)
58: The School – Wasting Away and Wondering (2015)
59: Emmy the Great – Second Love (2016)
60: Emma Pollock – In Search of Harperfield (2016)
61: Just Handshakes – Say It (2013)
62: The New Pornographers – Together (2010)
63: Sink Ya Teeth – Sink Ya Teeth (2018)
64: Victoria and Jacob – Victoria and Jacob (2013)
65: Crybaby – Crybaby (2012)
66: Adam Green – Engine of Paradise (2019)
67: Mikey Collins – Hoick (2018)
68: Garbage – Strange Little Birds (2016)
69: Angel Olsen – My Woman (2016)
70: The Pipettes – Earth Vs The Pipettes (2010)
71: The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts (2011)
72: Pure Bathing Culture – Moon Tides (2013)
73: Rose Elinor Dougal – Stellular (2017)
74: The Leisure Society – Alone Aboard the Ark (2013)
75: The Cornshed Sisters – Tell Tales (2012)
76: Tracyanne & Danny – Tracyanne & Danny (2018)
77: The Futureheads – Rant (2012)
78: Evans the Death – Evans the Death (2012)
79: Sylvie Lewis – It’s All True (2012)
80: Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi (2011)
81: Chvrches – Love Is Dead (2018)
82: Jane Weaver – The Silver Globe (2014)
83: Laura Veirs – July Flame (2010)
84: Mattiel – Mattiel (2017)
85: Charles Watson – Now That I’m A River (2018)
86: The Understudies – If Destroyed True (2019)
87: The Hector Collectors – Remember the Hector Collectors? You Won’t Believe What They Sound Like Now! (2018)
88: Shy Child – Liquid Love (2010)
89: Arctic Monkeys – AM (2013)
90: Art Brut – Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! (2018)
91: Allo Darlin’ – Allo Darlin’ (2010)
92: Hard Skin – Why Do Birds Suddenly Appear? (2013)
93: PJ Harvey – Let England Shake (2011)
94: Badly Drawn Boy – It’s What I’m Thinking Pt.1 – Photographing Snowflakes (2010)
95: Black Kids – Rookie (2017)
96: The Loves – …Love You (2011)
97: Phantastic Ferniture – Phantastic Ferniture (2018)
98: Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep (2011)
99: Juanita Stein – Until the Lights Fade (2018)
100: Future of the Left – The Plot Against Common Sense (2012)

So, I’ve come up with a list of my favourite albums as they stand, with varying degrees of hindsight, at the end of 2019. But what albums was I actually listening to during the decade – and are they the same?

Fortunately, it’s possible to answer that question, more or less, using my Last.fm data. I’ve done the great bulk of my music listening digitally over the last ten years, and for most of the decade I used a smartphone as my principal MP3 player when out and about.

So there are caveats to this data: there will be gaps in it (when my Last.fm account hasn’t logged in properly, or when I was travelling on the London Underground before Last.fm built in a feature to record plays and report them back later, and so on). I’ve taken out any albums from the list not released this decade – only about 20 of them, so the data suggests I’ve been largely successful in prioritising my efforts to keep up with new stuff. But I’ve not removed second and third albums by the same artist, so Johnny Marr crops up three times, and numerous artists twice. Plus, obviously, albums with more tracks will be somewhat advantaged; and even more obviously, older records have had longer to amass repeat plays. I’m more likely to to put selected tracks on my phone for listening when on the go, so this list certainly contains some albums that yielded a few particularly good tracks that I’ve listened to a lot.

Overall, while there are tons of differences between this data and my curated list, I’ve been surprised at the similarities – the two lists tell a lot of the same stories, so I’ve probably not rewritten my listening history when compiling my chart. Well, not very much.

1 Jessica Lea Mayfield – Tell Me
2 Shrag – Life! Death! Prizes!
3 Lydia Loveless – Somewhere Else
4 Ex Hex – Rips
5 Evans The Death – Expect Delays
6 Pure Bathing Culture – Moon Tides
7 The Wave Pictures – City Forgiveness
8 Tigercats – Mysteries
9 The Like – Release Me
10 The School – Loveless Unbeliever
11 Anna Calvi – Anna Calvi
12 Caitlin Rose – Own Side Now
13 Slow Club – Paradise
14 Ex Hex – It’s Real
15 Jenny Lewis – The Voyager
16 Just Handshakes – Say It
17 Laura Cantrell – No Way There From Here
18 Tennis – Yours Conditionally
19 The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers
20 Robyn – Body Talk
21 Arctic Monkeys – AM
22 Lucky Soul – A Coming Of Age
23 The New Pornographers – Together
24 Nikki Lane – All Or Nothin’
25 Pull In Emergency – Pull in Emergency
26 Iron & Wine – Kiss Each Other Clean
27 Sylvie Lewis – It’s All True
28 Bearsuit – The Phantom Forest
29 Help Stamp Out Loneliness – Help Stamp Out Loneliness
30 Beach House – Depression Cherry
31 Shrag – Canines
32 Kort – Invariable Heartache
33 Hospitality – Trouble
34 The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts
35 Desperate Journalist – Desperate Journalist
36 Half Man Half Biscuit – 90 Bisodol (Crimond)
37 Steven James Adams – House Music
38 Misty’s Big Adventure – The Family Amusement Centre
39 Evans The Death – Evans The Death
40 Johnny Marr – The Messenger
41 Shy Child – Liquid Love
42 Edwyn Collins – Losing Sleep
43 Gruff Rhys – Hotel Shampoo
44 The Maccabees – Given To The Wild
45 The Wave Pictures – Long Black Cars
46 Victoria and Jacob – Victoria and Jacob
47 Johnny Marr – Call the Comet
48 Ambrosia Parsley – Weeping Cherry
49 Crybaby – Crybaby
50 Phantastic Ferniture – Phantastic Ferniture
51 Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
52 The Wave Pictures – Great Big Flamingo Burning Moon
53 Mark Morriss – A Flash Of Darkness
54 Basia Bulat – Good Advice
55 Darren Hayman – Lido
56 First Aid Kit – The Lion’s Roar
57 Nervous Twitch – Don’t Take My TV
58 The Pipettes – Earth vs. Pipettes
59 Michael Nau – Michael Nau & The Mighty Thread
60 Kathryn Calder – Bright And Vivid
61 Burns Unit – Side Show
62 Jane Weaver – The Silver Globe
63 The Hidden Cameras – AGE
64 Neko Case – The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You
65 CHVRCHES – Love is Dead
66 Old Crow Medicine Show – Remedy
67 Laura Veirs – July Flame
68 MJ Hibbett & The Validators – Dinosaur Planet
69 The Futureheads – Rant
70 Withered Hand – New Gods
71 Olivia Jean – Night Owl
72 The Rock Of Travolta – Fine Lines
73 Emmy the Great – Second Love
74 Edwyn Collins – Understated
75 Stealing Sheep – Big Wows
76 The Lovely Eggs – Cob Dominos
77 Haley Bonar – Impossible Dream
78 I Am Kloot – Sky at Night
79 Iron & Wine – Ghost On Ghost
80 Lydia Loveless – Indestructible Machine
81 Sleater-Kinney – No Cities to Love
82 The Piney Gir Country Roadshow – Jesus Wept
83 Kathryn Calder – Are You My Mother?
84 The Singing Adams – Everybody Friends Now
85 The Spook School – Dress Up
86 Darren Hayman And The Long Parliament – The Violence
87 Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan
88 PJ Harvey – Let England Shake
89 Piney Gir – Geronimo!
90 St. Vincent – St. Vincent
91 Standard Fare – The Noyelle Beat
92 Hospitality – Hospitality
93 Alabama Shakes – Sound & Color
94 Adam Green – Engine Of Paradise
95 Bloom – What is Life
96 Camera Obscura – Desire Lines
97 Charles Watson – Now That I’m a River
98 Johnny Marr – Adrenalin Baby – Johnny Marr Live
99 One Happy Island – One Happy Island
100 Angel Olsen – My Woman.

Christmas mixes – round-up

John Kell

I hope you’ve enjoyed the Christmas mixes I’ve been putting up over the last week. There will be more mixes soon, as I’m working on my albums of the year list…

As an aside, full marks to 8tracks for making their mixes embeddable on WordPress.com, which they weren’t this time last year. Their uploader still isn’t totally reliable, but I’d definitely recommend the service if you want to share music online.

Anyway, this post is a one-stop-shop for all the festive mixes.








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