La popular y emblemática revista británica NME (New Musical Experience), tiene una gran tradición de enlistar y calificar todo lo que se pueda, así que el día de hoy seleccionare 20 discos de todo su top 100 de mejores discos de la década de los 10s, que considero que son importantes que escuchemos al menos una vez en nuestras vidas.
(#99) Bring Me The Horizon, ‘amo’ (SONY/RCA, 2019)
15 years into their career and light years from their deathcore beginnings, the Sheffield band embarked on an odyssey in sound, turning in a pop-metal album that touches on ambient and electro-pop with cameos from Dani Filth and Grimes.
It’s ballsy, bold, loads of fun and proof alone that this band can do what they want and get away with it. There’s nothing as exciting as a surprise that pays off. In their own words, “no, it ain’t heavy metal”. It’s just class songwriting. AT
(#91) Florence + The Machine, ‘Ceremonials’ (ISLAND, 2011)
Bolstered by the success of her debut ‘Lungs’, Florence Welch was allowed to dive head-first into her sumptuous, baroque fantasies with the velvety ‘Ceremonials’.
Here, she was able to make a hangover sound worthy of a place in the National Gallery (‘Shake It Out’), and melded Kate Bush curios with soulful epiphanies (‘What The Water Gave Me’), truly earning her place as one of the UK’s greatest songwriters. LC
(#87) Alt J, ‘An Awesome Wave’ (INFECTIOUS, 2012)
So distinctive in sound that it inspired a stoner parody, alt-J’s debut tapped into a largely unexplored musical genre: sexy geometry.
Praising the humble triangle with a sensual yowl on ‘Tessellate’ and penning an entire lighter-wafting ballad based on the closing line of Luc Besson’s ‘Léon: The Professional’ might be a unique niche to hold, but still, it turned this lot into festival headliners. EH
(#86) Childish Gambino, ‘“Awaken, My Love!”’ (GLASSNOTE, 2016)
Donald Glover silenced any remaining Gambino doubters through his 2016 reinvention as a soul and funk singer from the 1970s. The pairing of Glover’s powerful vocals (rapturous opener ‘Me and Your Mama’ and the frenetic ‘Riot’ being two fine examples) and Ludwig Göransson’s lush production paid wonderful homage to the greats, while the foot-tapping twilight groove of ‘Redbone’ – which won a Grammy and went global after soundtracking the opening scene of Get Out – is guaranteed to live on for many years to come. SM
(#79) Unknown Mortal Orchestra, ‘Unknown Mortal Orchestra’ (FAT POSSUM, 2011)
Unknown Mortal Orchestra end the 2010s as indie’s most treasured new hero and it was their self-titled debut that laid the groundwork at the start of the decade.
Playing like a mixtape you’d send to a loved one, ‘Unknown Mortal Orchestra’ is the eclectic, rough and ready sound of a band figuring out who they want to be in real time. The edges would get smoothed over later on, but this is the band at their purest. WR
(#77) Gorillaz, ‘Plastic Beach’ (PARLOPHONE, 2010)
After hiding behind a cartoon facade for two albums, Gorillaz became that much more real on ‘Plastic Beach’. With an all-star cast of collaborators including Lou Reed, Snoop Dogg, Kano, Mos Def and Bobby Womack, it seamlessly collected genres like a treasure seeker sifting through the sand of its imagined seaside world, finding gold in each song. RD
(#75) The Black Keys, ‘Brothers’ (NONESUCH, 2010)
It felt like ‘Brothers’ was the moment where everything clicked into place for The Black Keys. Their breakthrough sixth studio album had the riffs and the vintage flair and it ultimately laid the foundations of an arena-ready juggernaut.
With grit and rawness in the guitars – and that instantly recognisable high, soulful vocal – they pulled the blues-rock genre right back into the mainstream. RB
(#73) Queens of the Stone Age, ‘…Like Clockwork’ (MATADOR, 2013)
Written in the wake of knee-surgery-gone-wrong, and with depression brought on by the immobility subsequently engulfing him, QOTSA’s sixth album is a voyage into the shadows of a man’s heart.
It begins with a song that sounds like the national anthem of Hades (the lumbering ‘Keep Your Eyes Peeled’) and ends with the epic number that gives the album its title; think a Bond theme, only performed by a choir of ghosts.
Somehow the record also finds space for – deep breath – Dave Grohl, Trent Reznor, Jake Shears, Alex Turner, James Lavelle, Brody Dalle and Elton John. And yet the record belongs to Homme more than any other in the Queens catalogue. JM
(#71) Tame Impala, ‘Currents’ (CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL, 2015)
After lingering in the shadows of cult cool, ‘Currents’ was Tame’s stepping-out-into-the-spotlight moment – a huge album featuring some of mastermind Kevin Parker’s biggest pop songs yet. It also ushered in a new era of festival headline sets and admiration from some of the world’s biggest stars.
‘Let It Happen’ went full-on lasering rave banger, ‘Eventually’ detailed heartbreak through divine synths, and ‘Cause I’m A Man’ dove headfirst into FM pop and emerged as one of Parker’s best creations so far. RD
(#65) Wolf Alice, ‘My Love Is Cool’ (DIRTY HIT, 2015)
When Wolf Alice first burst out of Camden’s locks, they felt like the cohesive gang that indie had been missing for some time, and ‘My Love Is Cool’ was a spot-on debut.
Have a go at counting the pints-in-the-air anthems and you’ll lose track: from night-bus hopping ‘Bros’ to the snarl of ‘Giant Peach’ and thunderclap intro to ‘Fluffy’, they make every second count.
Plus, ‘My Love is Cool’ walked so that Wolf Alice’s unlikely chart rivalry with Shania Twain could run on album two. EH
(#53) Arctic Monkeys, ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’ (DOMINO, 2018)
Set in a fictional hotel and casino on the moon’s Tranquility Base landing station, the Sheffield lads went galactic on this curveball: a slab of lounge-jazz examining consumerism, modern tech, and the trappings of rock stardom.
What ‘Tranquility Base…’ lacked in juggernaut riffs, it delivered in one-liners, with Alex Turner hamming things up in his new role as a jaded extra-terrestrial rock star. “What do you meeeeeeeean you’ve never seen Blade Runner?” Still got it. EH
(#45) Lorde, ‘Pure Heroine’ (UNIVERSAL/REPUBLIC, 2013)
Lorde never shied away from the influences she grew up with – Florence + The Machine, James Blake, Lana Del Rey – but her youthful wisdom was unique from the start. ‘Pure Heroine’ sings bravely of teenage boredom and ambition, finding adrenaline in the mundanity.
She laid rich and hypnotic vocals over sirens, attacking the clutches of fame and celebrating the nighttime dreams of house parties going nowhere. It was the apex of teen-pop and finally good enough for adults.
Key track: ‘Royals’; Goosebump moment: ‘It drives you crazy getting old’, the lyrics synthesising the agony of adolescence when closing the chorus of ‘Ribs’. EK
(#40) The War On Drugs, ‘Lost In The Dream’ (SECRETLY CANADIAN, 2014)
Slinking out of a hazy Americana fever dream, The War On Drugs’ third album quickly took them from cult concern to crossover success, placing Adam Granduciel’s widescreen tales of depression, extremely Dylan-esque vocals and Tom Petty played by Spacemen 3 riffage bang into the mainstream rock canon.
Key track: ‘Under The Pressure’; Goosebump moment: When Granduciel really, really fucking goes for it, whooping two thirds of the way into ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ and you think your heart might actually burst. LC
(#34) LCD Soundsystem, ‘This Is Happening’ (DFA, 2010)
“Everybody’s getting younger – it’s the end of an era, it’s true,” mourned frontman James Murphy on opener ‘Dance Yrself Clean’. The ageing hipster was done with the scene he created on 2002’s ‘Losing My Edge’.
While intended to be LCD’s swansong, ‘This Is Happening’ felt so complete in its nine songs of oh-so-human electronica that it inspired a wave of emulation of their sentimental but self-aware take on dance-punk, later begging their return. Ironically, it turned out to be ageless.
Key track: ‘Dance Yrself Clean’; Goosebump moment: That drop three minutes and six seconds into ‘Dance Yrself Clean’. I mean, just – fucking yes mate. Come on. AT
(#24) Metronomy, ‘The English Riviera’ (BECAUSE MUSIC, 2011)
Previously masters of after-dark electro, ‘The English Riviera’ marked something of a transition for Metronomy. On it, they stepped into the daylight and made something to match – a dreamy, bright pop album that still featured the moments of weirdness that made Joe Mount’s outfit special in the first place.
Through a lens of summertime nostalgia, he crafted warped synth-pop romance as golden as the beach cruises they could soundtrack and set Metronomy free to explore increasingly weirder worlds.
Key track: ‘The Look’; Goosebump moment: Guest vocalist Roxanne Clifford’s detached declarations of “I’m in love” on the subtle swing of ‘Everything Goes My Way’. RD
(#21) Kendrick Lamar, ‘To Pimp A Butterfly’ (TDE/INTERSCOPE, 2015)
Kendrick could have just done more of the same and still satisfied critics, but by taking this ambitious left-turn and experimenting with jazz and a loose, free-flow style of rapping, the Compton native showed an aversion to following a script.
People rightly talk about how ‘Alright’ fuelled the endurance of the Black Lives Matter movement, but this record is at its best when it channels the more paranoid politics of Malcolm X rather than the optimism of Martin Luther King, with the moody urgency of ‘The Blacker The Berry’ and ‘Mortal Man’ still capable of lighting a fuse under any crowd.
Key track: ‘King Kunta’; Goose bump moment: When you realise the homeless man Kendrick raps about on ‘How Much A Dollar Cost’ is actually God. TH
(#10) Lana Del Rey, ‘Born to Die’ (POLYDOR, 2012)
‘Born to Die’ is Lana’s worst-reviewed album. It was a brave, mysterious release, thrusting a confident identity into the mainstream before anyone knew what to do with it. She didn’t either – she offered it, curls sprayed and lips puckered, but her image didn’t bloom into a living thing until later.
Here was a beautiful girl singing proudly about being sad. About loving men passionately. About sex, glamour, and money.
Key track: ‘Video Games’; Goosebump moment: The five-string snarling countdown of ‘Blue Jeans’.
(#9) Arcade Fire, ‘The Suburbs’ (CITY SLANG, 2010)
It bottles the comforting yet ultimately empty glow of nostalgia, but also a sense of dread about the future that now feels more than a little prophetic. Much of the album’s energy comes from a sense of desperation.
There are fantasies of fleeing fruitlessly from the sprawl, nostalgic daydreams laced with sorrow, and straight-up denial that anything is even wrong. Yet for all of its paranoia and doom, ‘The Suburbs’ is a record that still sounds absolutely beautiful.
Key track: ‘Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains’); Goosebump moment: The tense, staccato piano chords that open ‘We Used To Wait’; the calm before the storm
(#5) Kendrick Lamar, ‘good kid, m.A.A.d City’ (TOP DAWG ENTERTAINMENT, 2012)
A work of extraordinary empathy and insight, Kendrick Lamar’s second studio album – and commercial breakthrough – wove a bighearted tale about his upbringing in LA’s infamous Compton neighbourhood, as he rejected the temptations of gang culture and instead embraced a life of rhyme.
Like so much of Lamar’s work to follow, it combined dense lyricism and incredibly intricate delivery (listen to the beautiful tumble of words that unspools on ‘good kid’) with a neat conceit that threaded the whole thing together in an unfussy way.
Key track: ‘Backseat Freestyle’; Goosebump moment: Literally every time that warped backing vocal chants “Drank” on ‘Swimming Pools (Drank)’.
(#1) Arctic Monkeys, ‘AM’ (DOMINO, 2013)
As soon as you heard ‘AM’ erupt out of your speakers for the first time it was clear that from now on the Arctic Monkeys were moving to a different beat.
They stole from hip hop, glam, Motown, rock’n’roll, R&B and even doo-wop with equal ease and evident delight.
This disparate collection of pilfered genres and stolen sounds came together seamlessly with Turner’s too-clever-by-half lyrics about love, lust and the grey area in-between.
Key track: ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’, which somehow delivers on Turner’s ludicrous hype quoted above; Goosebump moment: If ‘AM’ is an album on which our narrator finds himself torn between the immediate pleasures of the flesh and a deeper romantic longing, then ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ is the moment he chooses love.
Si bien, todos y cada uno de estos discos se merecen un lugar en esta lista formada por la revista NME, ya que han sido muy importantes y han marcado una época musical, es muy válido tener otra opinión en cuanto a el acomodo de los álbumes. Si quieres revisar la lista completa, dirígete a https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-decade-2010-2019-2580278 y comenta cuál es tu álbum favorito de esta década.
Referencias:
N. (2019b, diciembre 5). Here it is: the ultimate guide to the 100 essential albums of the 2010s, picked, ranked and dissected by NME experts. NME. https://www.nme.com/features/nme-best-albums-of-the-decade-2010-2019-2580278
Uff Bring me the horizon son muy buenos!!
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