Top Ten Albums of the 2010s with 12 Tracks
Some of these albums have several different editions with slightly differing tracklists. Sometimes these are due to bonus tracks on limited editions, sometimes these are due to regional differences. Usually, an album qualifies if it doesn't specifically say deluxe edition and has 12 tracks. The tracks needn't be full songs, they can also include intros, outros, skits and similar.
Jay-Z's and Kanye West's trendsetting debut combines the sheer endless creativity of both artists that pushes the boundaries of the hip hop genre to a big and lush album filled with diverse music, and excessive showing off of gripping rapping performances and dystopic images.
In fact, I was highly stunned that Lana del Rey's career turned out this successful. She may be the most un-mainstream singer-songwriter to have entered the mainstream in years. Her nostalgic, calm and minimalistic melodies with echoing vocals stand out of the sound of today, and positively. Her debut already contains some of her big hits, like "Video Games", "Summertime Sadness" and "Born to Die". It established one of the most memorable trademark sounds an artist of the 2010s has.
Okay, I get this is cheating, because the 12th song on the album is a hidden track. But it is an individual selectable song, not attached to track number 11, and it is on every issue of the album.
"Schiffsverkehr" is not unlikely the darkest album Grönemeyer has ever recorded. "Mensch", the best selling album of all time in Germany, which is partly a catharsis for his pain due to the loss of both his wife and his brother, was dark in a way of containing honest melancholia, but this album is angstly, sinister and pretty heavy. Something you wouldn't expect from an artist known for his soft poetry.
My first thought when I got this album was that 35 minutes of music is very weak for a German hip hop album, as up to 20 tracks per record are perfectly normal over here.
But my worries were right out of the window when I pressed the play button.
Kool Savas holds the honorific title "King of Rap" in Germany, and is generally accepted as being the greatest German rapper of all time I always felt this was out dated. Sure, he has a gripping and energetic flow and an exceptional vocabulary, and he also invented the basic structure for every diss track that followed in the years to come, but since he became big in the early 2000s shen German hip hop was more underground, several way more complex lyricists have rosen, most notably Kollegah, who got equal praise as Savas and more commercial success. But you know, "Aura" from 2011 is awesome. The beats he raps on are top notch and Savas flows on them like liquid gold. And he manages to write wordings so advanced that even brag rap ...more
So, this was the last masterpiece Linkin Park left us?
Well, what can I say other than it's one of the emotionally roughest and musically most gripping rock albums of the 2010s and perfectly shows what made them such a great and generation defining band.
The music is often a lot harder than on their other rock album instant classics ("Keys to the Kingdom"), but sometimes it's also a lot more melodious and powerful ("Guilty All the Same"). No matter what they released as their last album, it's music like this I'll remember them for.
Ironically, I consider Nelly Furtado's two most overlooked albums, "Folklore" and this, as her absolute best. For different reasons though. While "Folklore" embraces a naturality in both music and lyricism that usually only indie artists have, but enrichened by the energy of popular music, "The Spirit Indestructible" is her most diverse album, filled with lots of different influences in both musical style and cultures. There are songs with an almost meditative touch, poppy melodies, indie guitars, hip hop drum kits, oriental percussion, sitars, 90s dance rhythms, and more to explore. The sounds blend into each other like a multinational celebration of music around the globe.
In Germany this album peaked at number 3, but in both the US (79) and Canada (18) it failed to continue Furtado's success.
How glad was I that their third album went back to the roots after this horrible mess of genres and sounds randomly slammed over each other without any sense for harmony that is "Fashionably Late".
I adore "The Drug in Me Is You". It had perfectly angstly, perfectly entertaining, perfectly personal and perfectly gimmicky moments played with just the right mix of heaviness and memorable melody. And "Just Like You"... is just like that.
The debut album of Conchita Wurst (I am still waiting for the sophomore record) put the Austrian music scene upside down in 2015. Since her triumphant Eurovision-winning "Rise Like a Phoenix" in 2014, people were waiting for the full album, and it almost instantly went platinum. At least in Austria. In Germany that usually has a very similar taste it only peaked at number 27 and wasn't praised as euphorically. But really: what's not to love with such lush and big productions and a voice that's soulful enough to keep up with them. Also: there is no moment where you would realize that Wurst is a biological man.
The standard version for Japan has 12 tracks because it contains 2 bonus tracks. I asked the author of this list and he said it counts.
I think this album is perfect (came out in 2010).
Amy MacDonald's chart topping second album is full of wonderful and alive guitar anthems with perfectly written lyrics performed by one of those unique and immediately recognizable voices, that show why Amy MacDonald rightfully is such a beloved and successful artist.
