what was the best year for music in the 2010s

imo This makes more sense as a current reassessment as opposed to just re-reading the way we thought in January of the following year. A lot of the music that makes me feel some nostalgia today is the same stuff that fell outside of my top 10s at the time, or discoveries from a year or two after their release.

I guess that's a plus for RYM -- all of those top 10s are current.

Is no one gonna vote for 2014 lol

personally, 2010 by a landslide

I'll certainly consider 2014, for Neneh Cherry alone

Stara Rzeka is the Eastern European Bram Stoker of American Primitive guitar.

And was involved in at least two excellent albums in 2017 (Zimpel / Ziolek and The Luminous Guitar Craft of Alameda Duo).

Why do people dunk on millennials.

Is no one gonna vote for 2014 lol

I did. D'Angelo, Aphex Twin, Run the Jewels, Grouper, Spectral Lore, Robert Rich, John Luther Adams, Behemoth… All albums I still listen to.

Ziolek's upcoming collaborative project, Clinamen, is excellent. Kinda moving towards Owen Pallett art-song territory.

I'm a fan. The Alameda 4 record (2018) is wicked as well.

yeah that is the ziolek pinnacle imo (a controversial belief i'm sure!)

2015 for me.

Wolf Alice - My Love Is Cool
Carly Rae Jepsen - Emotion
Grimes - Art Angels
Failure - My Heart Is A Monster
Veruca Salt - Ghost Notes
Sleater Kinney - No Cities to Love

― peace, man, Wednesday, August 12, 2020 3:51 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

forgot about Screaming Females - Rose Mountain

every year is a best year for music

- Bob Marley

But since ILM polls are all about Year of Impact I will go with 2012, which was a ground zero year for me, musically speaking.

The 00s were the first decade I was no longer really on top of the music I liked. I started buying fewer and fewer cds. Only after I got internet at home in 2008, I slowly started getting back into gear. YouTube, last.fm and Spotify on the listening side, and FreakyTrigger, The Singles Jukebox and yes, ILM on the reading side were instrumental in this. But it wasn’t until late 2011 that I started actively exploring new genres and downloading new music.

In 2012, not only did I get into Kpop, much more importantly I discovered Ghanaian azonto and in its slipstream all kinds of other African pop, and it blew my mind. I never looked back, almost literally.
(Lots of this was actually music from 2011 or even earlier, but hey: year of impact)

Anyway, Bob Marley was right. Silly poll.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

So I pulled up the Top 25 "Best of the Decade" Albums & Tracks lists I made at the end of 2019 -- gave each Top 10 appearance a score of 2 and each "next 15" appearance a score of 1. Here's how the combined scores hashed out:

2010: 6
2011: 8
2012: 6
2013: 11 (7/11 from Albums)
2014: 9
2015: 7
2016: 14 (11/14 from Tracks)
2017: 4
2018: 5
2019: 0

Interestingly my top 2 albums were both released in 2010 and my top 2 tracks were both released in 2011.

A bit odd that the first Stsra Rzeka album gets so many mentions since it was basically the 2nd SR album + To Pimp a Butterfly that caused me to vote for 2015

does everyone actually remember what year stuff came out or do you look it up? cuz honestly I could not tell you if something came out in 2014 or 2016

lousy smarch albums

I look it up unless it's one of my GOATs.

xp

I have no idea when most things came out

Mine was 2011 because of this astounding run:

Matana Roberts - Coin Coin Chapter One
Corrupted - Garten der Unbewusstheit
Hallock Hill - The Union
Blues Control & Laraaji - FRKWYS Vol. 8
Petrels - Haeligewielle
Rob St. John - Weald
Roly Porter - Aftertime
Dean McPhee - Son of the Black Peace
Destroyer - Kaputt
Meg Baird - Seasons on Earth

Yikes.

I can definitely reel off release dates for albums released before I was born much easier than I can the 2010s.

2013