Back in March, we presented our 50 favorite songs released between 2010 and 2014. After the fun of putting together such an all encompassing list, how could we not follow it up with one for our favorite albums of the past few years?

Just as with our songs list, we’ll be presenting it in increments of ten albums, starting with #50-41 today. Some of what’s here may be surprising and certainly there will be something new for even the most dedicated of indie music followers. We wouldn’t want anyone out of the loop. Consider this a social service and be sure to check out our daily Spotify playlists to go along with our countdown.

Best 50 Albums Of The Decade So Far (#50-#41)

Makthaverskan – II

If Makthaverskan are known for anything at this point, it’s for the phrase, “Fuck you!” This may seem like a pretty ordinary phrase at first—what melodramatic TV character hasn’t shouted this and then later apologized for it?—but when a Gothic shoegaze/punk band from Sweden meaningfully applies it in a language that’s not their native tongue, they demand attention. On II, Maja Milner and friends turn this commonplace swear into a lacerating knife, as they do with many English phrases, on “Antabus” and “No Mercy.” In general, they make better use of English than many native speakers, which is ironic given the simplicity of their words. “It’s not me you’re dreaming of!,” “Take off this shirt and we’ll make love,” and “I don’t know where you are tonight, but if you want, I’ll take you back,” rank among the most effective phrases here, yet they’re far from poetic. Instead, Milner’s piercing voice and her band’s gorgeous, yet wintry and confrontational, instrumentation turns her words into weapons. “You outshine them all!” she wails on “Outshine,” and this phrase, although much happier than a “Fuck you!” describes the entirety of II, a diamond in a minefield. [Max]

Waxahatchee – Cerulean Salt

Cerulean Salt begins with a track whose title echoes its creation. “Hollow Bedroom” may describe the location of this album’s genesis, and this inherent intimacy endows Waxahatchee’s sophomore album with a charming haunt. Singer-songwriter Katie Crutchfield recalls past events with a specificity that rivals some of the greatest storytellers; for example, “Brother Bryan” details silver hair, taxi rides, and her sister’s tears impressively vividly, and “Misery Over Dispute” remembers the most difficult moments of a past relationship. Elsewhere, Crutchfield applies her words to explore more generally relatable emotions, ones that tend to be quite devastating: “Blue Pt. II” explores the anxiety of unrequited love, and career highlight “Swan Dive” finds its author in an even more desperate state of need. And if her meticulous lyricism isn’t quite enough to compel listeners, the barren, restricted instrumentation underlying her thoughts is just as affecting. [Max]

Todd Terje – It’s Album Time

Todd Terje as swagged-out jazz pianist on It’s Album Time’s artwork confirms the humor of its title, but its name also fits this LP purely on a sonic level. While some albums are simply collections of songs organized a certain way, Terje’s full-length debut (after seven years of wildly acclaimed singles and compilations) takes full advantage of the album structure, resulting in an adventure rather than a set list. The twelve songs present often segue seamlessly into one another, sounding like the soundtrack to a film about album character Preben rather than a mixtape of unrelated Terje songs. When Preben goes to Acapulco, the joy of a tropical escape dominates the soundscape; when he hits the club, both parts of “Swing Star” document his night on the town. Indeed, It’s Album Time is incredibly club-ready; “Strandbar,” “Oh Joy,” and especially “Delorean Dynamite” and the now omnipresent “Inspector Norse” feel like rescues from an abandoned Saturday Night Live prequel. On the flip side is “Johnny and Mary,” a Robert Palmer cover featuring Roxy Music’s Bryan Ferry on—gasp!—vocals. A starry-eyed comedown amidst this high-energy, multicolored expedition, it’s the album’s most explicitly gorgeous moment. The contrast of its presence illuminates the album’s high-fructose charm, one that’s appealing both as a novelty listen and as a deeply moving composition. [Max]

Frank Ocean – Channel Orange

When the album stream for Channel Orange was posted online, the internet stopped. Everyone seemed to hit play at the exact same time and, about an hour later, Frank Ocean was untouchable. Ocean’s past is a star-studded muck of premature announcements, tension from record labels, and the overwhelming response from his infamous letter, which mentioned a relationship he had with another man when he was younger.

Channel Orange came exactly when Frank Ocean needed an R&B gem that doubled as a personal statement to his newfound fans and haters. The praise that Ocean earns from this record does not stem from details of his personal life but for the universality of his lyrics. He writes about women and men, about happiness and loss, but ultimately his lyrics are concerned with the long-term effects of short, highly influential moments. It’s in Ocean’s nature to be as vibrant as the color orange, to sing about the complexities of love without always involving booty or drunkenness, simply torturing himself by reliving old memories only to repeatedly feel heartbreak or nostalgic happiness. [Susan]

TV on the Radio – Seeds

Legions of indie rock fans have glommed onto TV On the Radio since they hit the scene back in 2002, the Brooklyn-based band’s thrilling, energetic style digging out a niche for them in the industry almost immediately. Their 2014 LP, Seeds, is probably the band’s most subdued album in their discography. “Happy Idiot,” for example, is a light dance track you might hear at a teenage ‘80s night club. While some fans miss the band’s more grandiose and abrasive style of songwriting that fueled their earlier releases, it’s sort of nice to see them give us something new and a little less amplified for a change. They can still rock, though, as is evidenced in the albums later cuts “Lazzeray” and “Winter.” TV On the Radio can always blow back your hair at live shows with their early stuff, but lately they’ve been exploring new colors of their identity as a band, and that’s exciting in its own way. [Bernard]

Dirty Projectors – Swing Lo Magellan

Following up Bitte Orca’s behemoth of odd time signatures, impossibly technical guitar work, and Afro-Carribean influence was probably a daunting task for Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth. After releasing one of the century’s best albums to universal acclaim and a rapidly expanding fan base, what might be the next step? 2012’s Swing Lo Magellan presents the answer as a laser-precise offering of twelve songs bearing more familiar time signatures and less enviably flashy riffage. Although vestiges of Longstreth’s sidelined genius remain—see the offbeat percussive shuffle of “About to Die,” “See What She Seeing,” and “The Socialites,” as well as the oddly timed arpeggios of “Just From Chevron” for evidence—this is Longstreth’s simplest presentation yet. “Impregnable Question” is Bitte Orca hymn “Two Doves” on a healthy amount of tranquilizers, “Offspring Are Blank” appropriates Longstreth’s shouting tendencies into a punk-like chorus, and album highlight “Dance for You” sees its writer using his vast talents to create straightforward yearning rather than complex heartache. Swing Lo Magellan is essentially Dirty Projectors’ White Album: following an intricate, genre-defying album, it fashions its creator’s brilliance into accessibility while maintaining his trademarks and talents. [Max]

Tame Impala – Lonerism

The general consensus is that Sgt. Pepper’s is the greatest psychedelic album of all time, if not the greatest album ever recorded across all genres. Tame Impala’s Kevin Parker likely took many of his cues from this and other Beatles albums, and it’s not unreasonable to say that his sophomore album, 2012’s Lonerism, holds a candle to what preceded it 45 years ago. With a voice that recalls John Lennon more precisely than anyone since, Parker crafts psychedelic bliss with an experimental touch. Six-minute voyage “Apocalypse Dreams” halves its time between surreal pop piano bounce and glowing abstract passages; “Mind Mischief” is the sexiest slab of experimental psychedelic music this side of Deee-Lite; “Keep on Lying” hops along on a warbly synthetic squelch mixed in with fragmented field recordings. Parker achieves an impeccable balance of melody and experimentation throughout Lonerism, essentially filtering pop through an investigative lens. Whether the rushing swirl of “Music to Walk Home By” or the anthemic gush of “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards,” the album walks the tightrope between accessibility and innovation without ever falling off, placing it among the greatest psychedelic albums of all time, if not the greatest albums ever recorded across all genres. [Max]

Weezer – Everything Will Be Alright in the End

I lost faith in Weezer a long time ago. They had a string of about four or five passable-to-mediocre albums over the past decade or so, and my once-favorite band became a shell of their former selves. 2014’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End, however, unexpectedly rekindled my love for them and once again all’s well in Weezer-ville. It’s a self-referential album mostly about the band’s fraught relationship with its fans, with songs like “Back to the Shack,” “I’ve Had it Up to Here,” and “Eulogy For a Rock Band” speaking to them (me) directly. “Da Vinci” and “Cleopatra” cover familiar lyrical ground for frontman Rivers Cuomo, talking about girls he thinks are lovely as per usual, but they’re special tracks because they’re the catchiest things he’s written since “Island in the Sun” and “Beverly Hills.” Reinvigorated and ready to rock, Weezer has finally won back our hearts. [Bernard]

Wild Nothing – Nocturne

In a decade when the descriptor “dream pop” has been so overused that it’s become as meaningless as “indie rock,” it’s rare to find an act that fully occupies the term. Enter Wild Nothing, pet project of Jack Tatum, to claim this genre as his craft. Ethereal, lackluster vocals, swirling synthetic soundscapes, and glossy, delay-heavy guitars abound on sophomore effort Nocturne; these traits not only define dream pop to a tee, but in Tatum’s case, endow this commonly misplaced term with new life. Songs like “Paradise” and “Only Heather” not only feel truly as pillowy and comforting as their style’s name might suggest, but additionally boast earworm melodies that bear constant repeating. The sonics on Nocturne are entirely gorgeous and memorable; try escaping the opening guitar line of “The Blue Dress” or the shoegaze sweep of “Midnight Song.” Hell, the album is even named after the night; what better time for dreams to sound so sweet? [Max]

Chairlift – Something

Brooklyn-based synth-pop outfit Chairlift gained popularity when one of their songs, “Bruises,” was featured on an iPod commercial. The band cemented their status as a legitimate act, however, with Something, their 2012 sophomore LP which is full of art pop tunes and some sweet, new wave-inspired electronic arrangements. Frontwoman Caroline Polacheck’s vocals (and occasional spoken word narration) are really cosmic and breezy and silky smooth, and the incredibly quirky music backing her up is just a lot of fun. Tracks like “Frigid Spring” and “Amanaemonesia” have a ton of character and sound like radio hits from mars. Hooky, bright, and delightfully inventive, Something is the perfect album to share with your kid brother or sister who loves shitty pop music; it’ll snap them out of their top-40 daze and usher them into a new world where catchiness and artfulness coexist and make sweet, sweet intergalactic love. [Bernard]

See the rest of our Best Albums Of The Decade lists!

View Other Lists of this Feature:
Best 50 Albums of the Decade So Far (#40 – #31)
Best 50 Albums of the Decade So Far (#30 – #21)
Best 50 Albums of the Decade So Far (#20 – #11)
Best 50 Albums of the Decade So Far (#10 – #1)

We’ve now reached the peak of this tall mountain. The final 10 songs on our 50 Best Songs of the Decade So Far list is upon us. These songs are all modern classics, and have defined the decade’s music thus far. Years from now, music lovers will think of many songs when they look back upon this era, but these ten are especially likely to come to mind. It’ll be interesting to see if, at the end of the decade, they are still held in such high regard, but for now, these songs have impressed us, as well as hundreds of thousands of other listeners, more than the rest of the music we’ve heard so far this decade.

In addition to our Top 10, we’ve included a section at the bottom we call Passionate Orphans. Songs that are personal favorites and worthy of respect, but that we couldn’t fit and couldn’t leave unmentioned.

Enjoy the list and our accompanying Spotify playlist, including one conveniently containing all 50 songs. Be on the look out for our Best Albums of the Decade So Far list in the coming weeks!

Best 50 Songs Of The Decade So Far
(#10 – #1)

Kanye West – “New Slaves”

Kanye West has been the king of rap for quite some time—almost single handedly reshaping the face of the genre, with both his productions and collaborations. When Yeezus was released upon the world in 2013 it wasn’t tracks like “I Am a God” that surprised the most, it was “Black Skinhead” and “New Slaves,” a pair of superheated songs with aggression so evocative and raw it was a new high, even for Kanye. The stand out, though, is obviously “New Slaves,” a bouncy and lyrically-acrobatic shoulder to the chest that fits perfectly into West’s continual progression at the frontlines of hip hop. Kanye has never been afraid to tone things down, but here the composition is utterly stark, with only a distant thunder of bass, leaving the highly confrontational and politically assertive lyrics to take center stage. The only problem? If West keeps hitting homers like this, he might just deserve that ego. [Gary]

Tame Impala – “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards”

If psychedelic pop perfection were captured in a three-minute bubble, it might sound like this. John Lennon would smile widely if he were around to hear “Feels Like We Only Go Backwards,” or maybe, on the other hand, he would sue for copyright infringement; no one since The Beatles has sounded this much like them. But Kevin Parker isn’t merely copying drug-era Beatles here; rather, he’s taking its best qualities (so, almost all its qualities) and condensing them into a crystalline, gorgeous, infectious pop anthem. “Every part of me says go ahead,” Parker’s falsetto states as it glides over sheets of swirling synths, bubbling psychedelia, and a bass line that never quits. Going ahead is exactly what “Feels” excels in: as this song progresses, it becomes more and more infectious, each subsequent chorus increasing substantially in emotional impact. The key is that the first chorus is already wildly hooky; that the song manages to deliver this statement with more success time and time again is absolutely dizzying. [Max]

M.I.A – “Bad Girls”

No one else has quite brought world music influences to pop prominence like musical wunderkind M.I.A. The multi- talented artist Maya “M.I.A.” Arulpragasam has been a boundary breaking badass for quite some time, skyrocketing to prominence with 2008’s decade-encapsulating track “Paper Planes”—a song everyone knows and hardly anyone knows the lyrics to.

So while she never really went away, M.I.A. came back swinging in 2012 with another genre crushing song. “Bad Girls” is a natural fit in the progressive catalog for the international artist; a song designed perfectly for the time and filling a void that the world hadn’t even known was empty. Not only that, but beneath the glossy, bass packed surface, “Bad Girls” is shockingly empowering, its lyrics loud and clear here, “Live fast, die young, bad girls do it well.” It’s only a matter of time before “Bad Girls” becomes the genre-defining track that it deserves to be. [Gary]

LCD Soundsystem – “Dance Yrself Clean”

How in the world do you compose something so intimate and epic into a 8+ minute track that could never, ever, wear out its welcome? I’ve got no idea, but the recently disbanded LCD Soundsystem sure as hell did. James Murphy and his bandmates kicked off their ultimate album, This Is Happening, with this 8-minute dance-punk cacophonous hybrid that almost sounds like it attempts to exorcise every dancing demon out of the listener’s body. Of course, while Murphy’s vocals and humorous lyrics (“Talking like a jerk/Except you are an actual jerk/And living proof/That sometimes friends are mean”) align perfectly with the production’s primal drum patting, it’s really that moment at 1:40, when the little electronic melody crashes the party in the most beguiling of ways, when “Dance Yrself Clean” triumphantly shimmies its way into the decade’s top-shelf songs. And it goes up (and loud) from there. By the 3 minute mark, the song is unleashed into a dance delirium, and if you’ve done the mistake of increasing the volume on your headphones before, LCD Soundsystem makes you pay for it. In the best way possible. [Nik]

Crystal Castles – “Not in Love (feat. Robert Smith)”

How do you make your song better? Throw Robert Smith on it, of course. Crystal Castles originally covered this Platinum Blondes song on their second self-titled album, with the vocals distorted and warbled to the point of being barely discernible. When they released it as a single, someone had the brilliant idea of letting Robert Smith sing on the track, and the results speak for themselves. Putting Smith on the song is an inspired choice, considering how influential his work has been on bands like Crystal Castles. So naturally his voice fits like a glove, with his mournful vocals elevating the song into another dimension. “Not in Love” goes to show that great songs can sometimes be improved upon in the most surprising of ways. [C.J.]

Beach House – “Myth”

If you were to ask me who the standout musicians of the decade are, so far, my answer would come without so much as a blink of an eye: Beach House. Baltimore duo Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally have been around since the mid aughts, but with Teen Dream in 2010, followed by Bloom in 2012, Beach House redefined the boundaries of dream pop, and reinvigorated my love for the genre. Their first single from Bloom, “Myth,” is as good example as any of the kind of deep, oceanic, emotions the duo successfully reach, in tremendously moving fashion. There’s no other band out there, with the range of Legrand’s voice, and the knack for Scally’s unquenchable melodies, that could make verses like “Found yourself in a new direction/Arrows falling from the sun/Canyon calling would come to greet you/Let you know you’re not the only one” sound like they’re speaking directly to we the listeners. When Legrand sings it, the feeling of loneliness dissipates, because we feel it right down to our marrow. And isn’t that what it’s all about? [Nik]

Grimes – “Oblivion”

Did you know that indie electronic’s club anthem of the decade so far is actually a song about recovering from the trauma of sexual assault? With a groove this thick and steady, “Oblivion” at first masks its important, poignant message. Initial listens of this song entrap willing ears with demonically robotic synths, mechanical percussion, a horrifyingly eerie ambience, and uneasy, fairy-like vocals courtesy of Claire Boucher, the woman behind Grimes. Later listens allow Boucher’s words to crystallize: “Coming up behind you/always coming and you’d never have a clue”, sung hauntingly in the first verse, indicates that “I see you on a dark night”, during the chorus, is directed at a shadowy figure following her home; “When you’re running by yourself/it’s hard to find someone to hold your hand” is likewise completely unromantic, instead detailing the hell of keeping oneself safe from such a figure. The tense situation Boucher describes explodes into catharsis with one minute and forty-five seconds left in the song, when the synths begin to sound like they too are speaking words. If even the instrumentation is trying to say something, there’s no doubting that the message is important. That it’s delivered with arguably the most incessantly replayable synthscape of the decade is just a perk. [Max]

Vampire Weekend – “Hannah Hunt”

The most chilling track on Vampire Weekend’s 2013 album “Modern Vampires of the City,” “Hannah Hunt” is a hushed (until the end) breakup song that stretches from the freezing beaches of the East coast to the shores of Santa Barbara. Ezra Koenig all but whispers the lyrics throughout the sleepy, sparse first two minutes of the track, as if he’s singing with eyes half-closed. Then, the percussion swells and his voice leaps up an octave, shrieking, “if I can’t trust you then damn it, Hannah / there’s no future there’s no answer.” This is Vampire Weekend at their most confident and polished, embracing minimalist presentation and asymmetrical structure while honoring their African music inspirations and keeping up that geographical predilection they just can’t let go of. [Bernard]

Azealia Banks – “212”

Hip-hop has been maligned time after time for containing excessive profanity, so when even the world’s foremost rap critics and listeners were taken aback with the amount of explicit material in “212,” Azealia Banks’ debut single, everyone paid attention. Banks absolutely owns the word “cunt” on this song, whether reclaiming it as a neutral term (“I guess that cunt getting eaten”) or stabbing her opponents with it (“Imma ruin you, cunt”). “Cunt” isn’t the only thing she takes control of, though; she also commands the entirety of Lazy Jay’s “Float My Boat,” a house track created with absolutely no intention for Banks to use it without permission. Hell, Lazy Jay probably had no idea who Banks was when he first heard that a self-described “rude bitch” from Harlem ripped his song, but it all worked out in the end: yep, “212” sounds so great that he got on board, and is now credited on the song. Maybe that’s because Banks not only sings, raps, and screams on “212,” but she does each at the exact moment in the song where it fits best. “This shit been mine!” Banks proclaims during the chorus, but she doesn’t have to say it: this song proves it beyond all doubt. [Max]

FKA twigs – “Two Weeks”

“Two Weeks” was Way Too Indie’s favorite song of 2014, and it remains at the top when we look at the decade in music so far. Really, though, how could it not? This song is nothing short of majestic, an accumulation of everything that trip-hop, R&B, and electronic music have all striven towards this decade. The crystalline synth oscillations and pulsating, deep percussion outline trip-hop’s noblest goals; FKA twigs’ celestial vocal vibratos outdo those of most of her many peers; the song’s overwhelming digital sheen demarcates one of electronic music’s foremost objectives. Then there are the lyrics; in addition to the great sonic template, here we have maybe the strongest example of a woman owning her sexuality and not letting society’s double standard silence her desires. “I can fuck you so much better,” twigs seethes towards an object of desire; “give me two weeks, you won’t recognize her” is an even more sensual threat, one for which twigs reaches towards some of the higher parts of her register. But she saves the highest section for the line “my thighs are apart for when you’re ready to breathe in,” putting everyone on alert, just as a good song should do. We already knew that sex sells, but “Two Weeks” teaches us that owning it is different than buying it. [Max]

Listen to These Songs on Spotify

CJ’s Passionate Orphans (Twins!)

Low – “Nothing But Heart”
Nadia Oh – “Taking Over the Dancefloor”
I couldn’t even begin to count how many songs I tried to fit on this list, so reducing things down to a few passionate picks is even tougher for me. But one song I knew would crush me if it didn’t make it on the list was Low’s “Nothing But Heart.” It’s an eight-minute epic that only has three lines before Alan Sparhawk repeats the line “I’m nothing but heart” a couple dozen times. Sure, it sounds boring, but it’s an achingly beautiful song that builds and builds until it soars. By the end, you’ll want to join in and yell “I’m nothing but heart” along with the band.

Saying that, let me awkwardly segue into my next pick: Nadia Oh’s “Taking Over the Dancefloor.” I don’t have a lot of words left, so let me be blunt: Nadia Oh deserves to be a massive pop star. Her music is like a weird version of pop from an alternate universe, a completely bonkers bastardization of current pop trends that turns into something wholly singular. Just trust me on this one.

Max’s Passionate Orphan

Cloud Nothings – “Wasted Days”
​It’s one thing to recast your lo-fi bedroom pop act as a doom-bearing noise punk project; it’s another to place a nine-minute anthem of angst, dissonance, and dejection as the second of eight tracks on the album marking this unexpected transition. “Wasted Days” actually wastes no time at all; each and every one of this song’s sprawling 494 seconds makes listeners fully inhabit songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist Dylan Baldi’s terror. The cutting chords and slow drum build of its brief intro give way to a lacerating, whipping verse lined with Baldi’s nasal, howling vocals and defeated, exhausted lyrics. “I thought/I would/be more/than this,” goes this song’s straightforwardly anthemic chorus, which Baldi whines its first two times.

This already visceral approach becomes even more gut-wrenching and undeniable during the five-minute noise breakdown separating the second chorus from the third. Just before this final chorus arrives, there’s a bit of a crescendo, over which Baldi transitions from muttering his chorus to absolutely screaming it. In this ultimate moment, Baldi achieves a catharsis unlike any previously heard in noise rock, as will any and all listeners brave and strong enough to endure this incredible song’s hurricane-like nine minutes.

Nik’s Passionate Orphans (Twins!)

Sharon Van Etten – “Your Love Is Killing Me”
Father John Misty – “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings”
Sharon Van Etten has been around smokey underground bars since her album debut in 2009. Slowly but surely, through wondrously introspective and heart-aching songs like “Love More” (from 2010) and “I’m Wrong” (from 2012’s Tramp), she rose through indie folk ranks, and captured hearts with her whispery, sonorous, voice. “Your Love Is Killing Me” from her latest, Are We There, solidifies her status as one of the greatest women armed with a guitar. Naturally it helps that she’s reached a point where she has major studio access because this single is as big room in its absurdly effective chorus, as it is intimate in its quavering, soul-searching, verses. The way she lingers on the repeated “you” in the second verse, before “Stabs my eyes so I can see” ascends to a magnificent melody perfectly tuned to Van Etten’s matchless voice, makes “Your Love Is Killing Me” one of her greatest accomplishments. Here’s a song about painful love that has no substitutes.

Joining Van Etten in my orphanage is Father John Misty’s “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.” In 2012 J. Tillman released the album Fear Fun under his self-appointed alter ego Father John Misty, after a shroom-stocked road trip. While the whole album is recommended, there’s no song as hypnotic, instantly memorable, and gratifying right down to the core as the psychoactively titled “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings.” The lyrics invite you into an enticing world of psychedelic indie rock, and with lines like “‘Cause the marble made my cheeks look pink/But I’m unsure of so many things” we see the effects Tillman’s mushroom trip had on his creativity. From its beginning, he sings “Jesus Christ” like no one else I’ve ever heard, to its end, when he implores someone “to help me dig,” the song is a gloriously abstract journey I love to repeat over and over. Bonus points for casting Aubrey Plaza in the song’s official video; perhaps the greatest music video casting of all time. Yeah, I said it.

See the rest of our Best Songs Of The Decade lists!

View Other Lists of this Feature:
Best 50 Songs of the Decade So Far (#50 – #41)
Best 50 Songs of the Decade So Far (#40 – #31)
Best 50 Songs of the Decade So Far (#30 – #21)
Best 50 Songs of the Decade So Far (#20 – #11)

Last night saw the release of the lineup of this year’s edition of the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Headliners are The Stone Roses and Blur for Friday night, Phoenix hold their own on Saturday night and the Red Hot Chili Peppers close out the festival on Sunday night. Some of the notable undercard includes: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Lou Reed, Modest Mouse, newly reformed Jurassic 5, Grinderman on Friday night. Saturday night’s subheadliners are the XX, The Postal Service, Sigur Ros, New Order, Hot Chip and Grizzly Bear. Helping the Chili Peppers close out the fest are Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Vampire Weekend, Social Distortion and The Wu Tang Clan.

I’ll be sincere, when I first saw the lineup I thought I was being punk’d. First of all, I can deal with The Stone Roses and Blur, but as headliners? I’m not entirely sold. Phoenix is another band that I’m really not that into. I watched part of their set the last time they played Coachella (2010) and it was fine, but again. Headliners? But to be honest, it’s the Red Hot Chili Peppers that bothered me the most. This to me feels like a contingency plan. If the Rolling Stones rumor (that Golden Voice, Coachella promoters, were courting them and failed) is true, then they must’ve called up Kiedis and the boys to fill in. I don’t hate the Chili Peppers, but this is their third time headlining now and let’s face, they’ve become kind of boring.

But this was all last night. All the sadness and anger I had for this lineup needed to be slept on. Ironically, I had a dream that the Chili Peppers were doing sound checks at my house. I woke up this morning and looked at the lineup. I’m becoming more open to this lineup as the time wears on.

Enough crying from this writer, what bands am I excited to see? Being a big Trent Reznor fan, I could never contain my school girl giddiness for the debut performance of his newest group How to Destroy Angels. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bassnectar, Dog Blood, Beach House, New Order, Knife Party, Moby, Benny Benassi, Simian Mobile Disco, Yeasayer, Spiritualized, Ritchie Hawtin, Major Lazer, Dropkick Murphy’s, Bat for Lashes, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Pretty Lights, Tame Impala, The Faint, Paul Oakenfold are the artists I’m looking forward to the most.

Over the course of the next couple of months I’ll be dividing my time between Spotify and Youtube, checking out which artists I may want to entertain as well. One of the best parts of Coachella is checking out some random artist in some tent that you’ve never heard of before and they turn out to be one of your favorite sets.

The festival this year runs over the course of two separate weekends in a row. April 12th-14th is the first weekend and April 19th-21st is the second weekend. I’ll be in attendance during weekend two. Expect another article about my “planned” itinerary for the festival a few days before weekend two. I’ll do my best to report from the festival on a daily basis, but odds are leaning towards a full festival wrap up when I get back. If you want immediate updates during the festival, you can always follow me on Twitter @WayTooIndie.

See the full 2013 Coachella lineup poster of bands below.

During this last year, I have had the unique opportunity to spend the entire year aboard which means that I have been rather isolated from the hub of the celebrity music world. I missed the passing of Etta James, Davy Jones of the Monkees, and Whitney Houston. I never caught any of the tweets surround the reuniting of the Spice Girls for the Olympics in London and I never had to suffer through the hype surrounding “Call Me Maybe.”

Thankfully, though, music has gone digital and even during my foreign hiatus, I have still been able to keep myself connected to the indie music world. This year brought a handful of new releases from indie greats—Of Montreal, Andrew Bird, The Shins, The Mars Volta, M. Ward, Jack White, Regina Spektor, Animal Collective, David Byrne & St. Vincent, the Avett Brothers, Cat Power, the xx, Old Crow Medicine Show, Mumford & Sons, Calexico, and even No Doubt. However, in my opinion, 2012 was an even greater year for the rising stars of indie music. Although many of the artists gracing my top 10 list this year are not exactly new to the scene, they have managed to provide a fresh, yet lasting impression on this ever expanding musical landscape.

Way Too Indie’s Best Albums of 2012

#1 Kishi Bashi – 151a
This album still manages to blow me away, even after having it for months. In fact, it is the first entire album to make my top played list. 151a is a complete 35-minute aural experience between the listener and a musician equipped only with a violin, his voice, and a looping machine. With ethereal lyrics and beautiful, intimate riffs, Kishi Bashi’s debut is one that will set the standard for music in the years to come.

#2 Hurray for the Riff Raff – Look Out Mama
What do you get when you combine a transient Puerto Rican New Yorker, a transgendered drummer, and a honky-tonk band and mix them with the vibrant world of New Orleans’ music? Hurray for the Riff Raff and their newest release Look Out Mama. One part old time, bayou ho-down and one part rockabilly, with a pinch of 1960’s fuzzy surfer rock, Look Out Mama is a sunny day sound track and an incomparable showcase of Alynda Lee Segarra’s exemplary vocals.

#3 Alabama Shakes – Boys & Girls
Produced by Andrija Tokic (who also produced Look Out Mama) the Alabama Shakes are a pleasant reminder of how great those rocking, southern blues can be. Lead singer Brittany Howard carries the album with her hearty, soulful vocals. She is backed by an extremely talented and consistent band, which manages to display a great amount of musical maturity for their first release. Clearly, they have been doing their homework and Boys & Girls is the perfect testament.

#4 Sharon Van Etten – Tramp
With one of most haunting and distinctive voice in music today, Sharon Van Etten’s newest release, Tramp, has not lost the anguish of her earlier albums. However, it feels although she spent these last two years polishing those sentiments and the result is an eloquent display of human emotion.

#5 Dan Deacon – America
For someone who is normally not a fan of electronic music, Dan Deacon’s America broke all of my expectations for the ringleader of the DIY dance club world. Self-described as “electro-acoustic,” America is a “fluid blend of the rigid perfection found in electronic music and the indistinct irregularities that come from the humanization of music.” Deacon accomplished what he set out to do, to capture the essence of America in a single record, a feat I never thought possible, especially from a techo-guy.

#6 Andrew Bird – Hands of Glory
A throw back to his early days as Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, Hands of Glory is the fiddle companion EP to the violin pop of Bird’s earlier 2012 release Break It Yourself. In my opinion, this is Bird at his finest—he has dropped his Cheshire cat persona to focus on the music above enigmatic lyrics. The result is a well-balanced, engaging album to revive your love in Bird just as it was beginning to fade.

#7 Cat Power – Sun
Chan Marshall is back, ladies and gentlemen, and proving that she can still produce a powerful album. Sun breaks Marshall’s long hiatus and offers a side of Cat Power that has remained relatively unexplored in her previous recordings. “Plugged-in and propelled by driving beats and backing vocals, the album is refreshing, confident, and cogitative. Marshall has cut much of the angst that so readily defined her earlier music and the result is eleven tracks with a surprising sense of coherence.”

#8 Macklemore & Ryan Lewis – The Heist
Storming the music charts in early October, Seattle MC, Macklemore, and his producer, Ryan Lewis, brought a new edge to hip-hop with their album the Heist. Touching on a wide range of topics from addiction to shopping at thrift shops to consumerism to gay marriage to their loathing with the recording industry, the Heist in a bold yet sensitive contemporary commentary. Musically, it highlights some of the finest indie talent on the west coast, making it equally as impressive as it is lyrically stirring.

#9 Justin Townes Earle – Nothing’s Gonna Change the Way You Feel About Me Now
There is a very fine line between country music worth listening to and country music that the world would be better without, but to Justin Townes Earl that line has never existed. Instead there is just music and for JTE, it happens to come in a blend of blues, folk, and a good bit of Americana country. His fifth release is a pleasant reminder that JTE is capable of holding his own as a recording artist, not to be deterred by his turbulent lifestyle or the overbearing presence of his famous father.

#10 Ty Segall – Twins
The last minute addition to this list, I will be very upfront with the fact that I am hardly familiar with this seemingly prolific artist. Regardless, this album rocks—straight up, head banging, grungy, garage-style rocking. It brings you back to those early days when you first stepped away form your parent’s soft-rock CD collection and started to explore edgier alternatives. More so, Segall is able to achieve this high energy without screaming and screeching or causing the onset of an epileptic fit. Bravo!

Honorable Mentions

Tame Impala – Lonerism
Another last minute addition to this list, Lonerism is the sophomore release of the Australian psychedelic rock group. These guys take the genre beyond the traditional 1970s feel and leave you lost in the music, dreading the moment the album ends.

∆ – An Awesome Wave
If I could predict the next direction for indie pop in a post-Animal Collective world, these guys would be it. Although I am hardly a fan of the stylization of artists, albums, and song titles, ∆ (Alt-J after the Mac command for the symbol) delivered an innovative album that is as charming as it is eccentric.

Mati Zundel – Amazonico Gravitante
Although I never touch on indie music beyond the English-speaking world, this last album is just too good to not mention—so here’s my one pick from my beloved genre of Alt-Latino. Released on the preeminent Argentinean ZZK Records label, Amazonico Graviante combines the traditional folkloric Latino rhythms, such as cumbia, with modern electro-beats. In doing so, Zundel created an album that will define Alt-Latino music for years to come, not to mention the perfect soundtrack for anyone backpacking through Central and South America.