The 100 Most Underappreciated Albums of the 2010s: 25-1

25. EVACOM - Fragments from a Hologram Rose

Gave a proper farewell to my friend Tom here.

24. Ty Dolla Sign - Free TC

Free TC is a complete exercise in smooth R&B songwriting. The genre has fairly waned over the last decade, as a mixture of rap and pop has claimed the charts while leaving the explicitly sexual aspects unfulfilled comparatively. Ty’s audacious odes are perfectly aligned against the grain of the mainstream concept, genuine yet beautifully soapy. It’s in this album that we get to experience the melodrama that is so laden in our lives.

23. Tay-K - Santana World 

Of course, it’s about the saga. He did the race, he got caught, the legacy grows. And through all that, this kid, THIS CHILD, put some of the hardest bars of the decade on tape. “Murder She Wrote” is sheer menace, spoken by a dude who sounds like his balls haven’t even dropped. Without the mythos it’s possible we never would’ve heard of Tay-K, but god, this talent deserved to be showcased regardless. Free the man.

22. Contact Lens - ICE IN THA VEINS

From the MSWord clip art to the glistening synths, ICE IN THA VEINS is a blissful fever dream. It’s decidedly Tumblr, perfect for scrolling and gawking at ~aesthetic~ pics straight out of a Windows 98 starter set. Straight beats, no lyrics except for Biggie providing bars on the stratospheric track “I WANNA DIE PT. 1”. Get your warped VHS tapes out and keep this on repeat.

21. Crash of Rhinos - Distal

Triumphant. An absolute belter from start to finish, that gets embedded in your brain and makes you want to yell every lyric at a shitty punk bar in a shitty college town. If you’re not an emo kid, just imbibe Hanif Abdurraqib’s seminal poem “Defiance, Ohio is the Name of a Band” and drink in that passion, then substitute the titular band for Crash of Rhinos. You won’t be sorry.

20. Ravyn Lenae - Crush

God where was this for most of the decade? We spent the 2010s mired in either sadboy R&B or neutered top 40 stuff, but Ravyn Lenae blasted her way through a morose genre landscape to make one of the best releases of 2018. Steve Lacy helps create the scene as Lenae espouses unbridled sensuality, an oft-lost quality among the new R&B talents. It’s been 4 years and 1 single later; the world needs that album.

19. Ricky Eat Acid - Sun Over Hills

“Ricky Eat Acid footwork” sounds like a snide Twitter post but it’s real and wholly legitimate. The standout here is the breathtaking title track, which combines “Still Tippin” and “Stoner” into a glorious mess amidst colliding breakbeats. Through all the controversy, Sam Ray was one of the 2010s’ unsung geniuses.

18. Mongo Skato - I Don’t Give It

A palpable VHS static permeates this techno, woozing around big rooms like the fog from the Simpsons that turns you inside out. Given Thomas Richards versed himself within math-rock it should come as no surprise that his stab at DJing features swaggering polyrhythms and unrelenting mania. Maybe not suited as much for the floor as for bouncing off the walls.

17. Protest the Hero - Scurrilous

Really, ridiculously stupid prog-metal and definitely the most debatable entry for anyone reading not raised on dorky Rock Band fodder like I was. Yet I feel as though there’s honestly something here for everyone’s tastes. The riffs are suitably crunchy for hardcore kids, the theatrics provide goofy drama, and every arrangement just hits like a fucking Mack truck. Perfect music for railing Monsters and playing Halo.

16. Glocca Morra - Just Married

Cathartic punk emblematic of the college-adjacent DIY scene that sprang up in the decade. Like Distal in its scream-your-throat-out ethos except for emo and not skramz. Every song is written tight as fuck and that just makes belting them even better.

15. SebastiAn - Total

I’d have to surmise that house purists hate this one just as the underground weren’t particularly fond of the Prodigy back in the 90s. But despite the heresy there is an undeniable kick to SebastiAn’s spin on the French wave. His is kitchen-sink approach, gleefully disregarding any semblance of restraint in the instrumentals, always blasting your speakers in an almost comical fashion. Ed Banger’s best record, sorry Cross.

14. Peaceforevereternal - Nextcentury

Besides Floral Shoppe, pretty much every Vektroid is wildly underrated but Nextcentury takes the crown for being in her later, less aesthetic-driven era that so defined her amidst the 2010s vaporwave boom. Similar to Robin Burnett’s ░▒▓新しいデラックスライフ▓▒░ (New Deluxe Life) or her own fuji grid TV, the broken transmission sampling style is warped and abrasive, plunging listeners into chaos. It’s a trippy, bewildering concoction that may be difficult to decipher, yet endlessly rewarding when you do.

13. The Coneheads - L.P.1

OK what if Devo had weird cousins who really liked nitrous and the band Urinals? Yeah you better believe this album fucking owns.

12. Bomb the Music Industry! - Vacation

If you’ve paid attention to this list you’d probably be able to tell I was a punk kid, as I’ve included a bunch of punk/punk-influenced stuff from my upbringing, but none were so formative and excellent as BTMI!. I wrote this piece already about how they and many other punk bands were unfairly snubbed from coverage for a fair amount of time, and Vacation is the most egregious snub among this bunch. Simply a classic of the genre.

11. La Luz - It’s Alive

How many surf rock bands have ever been taken seriously? Early Beach Boys? Maybe Dick Dale or the Ventures? Compared to almost every other subgenre of rock its longevity and respect is in the dirt. La Luz took this as a challenge and produced one of the most banging rock albums of the decade in It’s Alive. Every song brims with style, producing melodies worthy of featuring on the Ed Sullivan Show.

10. Glassjaw - Our Color Green

Glassjaw isn’t necessarily underrated in their sphere but given the relative ubiquity of Worship and Tribute and EYEWTKAS, this mythological EP deserves more credit in its function as a transitional centerpiece for the legendary post-hardcore band. You could say this is the apex of Glassjaw’s powers, with Daryl Palumbo frantically wailing as he is wont to do, and the rhythm section producing crunchy hitter after crunchy hitter. It’s luxury music, stuff you produce when you’re in a sumptuous prime, yet Glassjaw did this after a hiatus. A true flex.

9. 骨架的 - Holograms

Muzak was made to be as inoffensive as possible, a mechanical invention used in liminal situations, whether it be supermarkets or phone lines or elevators. But juxtaposed by intense conditions, say psychosis or schizophrenia, its qualities take on an almost meditational force, evocative both artificially speaking and within the mind’s eye. Holograms is considered the first true vaporwave release but its pull resides in its sculpting of situations, past present and future warped uncannily and ironed out.

8. DJ Rashad - Rollin

I encountered DJ Rashad for the first time junior year scrolling through Pitchfork, seeing “Let It Go” get Best New Track. There wasn’t anything like this in my purview, so chaotic yet contained, breakbeats washing over me. As I became acquainted with DJ Rashad, Rollin has gained a new sort of emotional conveyance given Rashad’s untimely passing. The EP is uniquely solemn compared to his discography, yet it still slots in the majestic canon he created.

7. Dangers - Messy, Isn’t It?

You’re staring down the barrel of a gun. The problems contained in your brain could be eliminated. Almost elegant, really. Bullets make themselves ruthlessly efficient, tearing gristle and turning flesh into baby food. They are a tool, a solution contained within the most explicit violence possible. You have never been that uncomplicated. Better reminiscence before everything hits the pavement. It’s all downhill from here.

6. Viet Cong - Cassette

My high school review of this way back in 2014.

5. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People

How could a Sufjan Stevens album be underappreciated? The darling prince of indie? Well, if Laura Snapes’ awful review of this record is any indication, All Delighted People deserves its fucking flowers and then some. “painfully celestial balladeering self-indulgence”? Have you ever heard a Sufjan song you troglodyte, that’s literally the whole goddamn point. The sheer triumph of his pageantry makes his music so compelling wherein he refuses to ever tone down his ostentatiousness. And why not? Why would he ever deprive us of such majesty? He does it for the people, those who don’t accept mundanity and normalcy, striving for the brilliant experience in life. God do we need that.

4. James Ferraro - Live at Primavera Sound 2012

Was anyone at this show? It’s such a pioneer in the scene yet I’ve never seen anyone brag about being at this legendary event. Ferraro in his element, aided by Yves Tumor in what is still the best thing he’s ever been a part of (no shade). Every disparate idea he’s ever heard is thrown in, but it never feels forced or cluttered, just a perfect synthesis of the uncanny worlds that Ferraro plays in. The set is beloved by the vaporwave-adjacent corner of the web but largely has been ignored by the general listening masses, which is a shame. A ground-breaking experience like this deserves decade retrospectives and its own oral history to boot.

3. Migos - Young Rich Niggas

Migos was young and rich, and now they’re older and rich. They haven’t made anything worth paying attention to in years. And yet, their role as transitionary figures in the trap scene hasn’t really been acknowledged. Post-Flocka/Gucci, they ushered in the Atlanta dominance that we take for granted today. Young Thug has received plaudits galore from critics, but YRN’s sheer track-by-track brilliance sequestered into No Label 2’s victory lap is an absurdly strong run. A Datpiff classic of its time that nevertheless should be heralded.

2. Sicko Mobb - Super Saiyan Vol. 2

The lack of recognition for this tape is criminal. Today, rap is inundated with bubbly, frenetic, pop-leaning beats, but in 2015, even in Chicago’s native Bop scene, no one sounded like Sicko Mobb. The follow up to their 2013 debut tape Super Saiyan Vol. 1, Super Saiyan Vol. 2 expanded upon and honed their sound in all the right ways. From start to finish it is nothing short of a barrage of infectious, chaotic, and off-kilter melodies and beats. It’s fun, it’s hilarious, it’s hard as fuck, it’s pure joy. I have rotated through nearly every track as my favorite at some point and it still feels fresh after what feels like a million listens. Maybe it’s DJ V Dub, maybe it’s my favorite ad libs of all time, Maybe it’s the run of 80’s through Go Plug, maybe it’s Ceno and Trav’s chemistry, but something makes me come back to this tape again and again. Skee skee skeeyEEEEeeee!!!!! -Jack Hampton

1. Jai Paul - Jai Paul

Thank god someone stole Jai Paul’s laptop. Could you imagine not getting this in your life? The discusssion of retromania was everpresent over the last decade, many bemoaning the lack of something fresh overtaking the industry, and suddenly, like a bolt of lightning, a maestro with a brand new sound appeared. Whether or not he wanted to was beside the point—we needed it. I mean, is there anyone since who’s created such distinctive music while maintaining a pop sheen? And disappearing afterward is just a straight flex, bequeathing us with the shit we begged for but didn’t deserve. Jai Paul is the greatest one album wonder since Lauryn Hill, and even she has the Fugees if you need more of her. For those similarly obsessed as I, his cameo on Atlanta may offer a semblance of hope in releasing future music. Until that day, we have his self-titled, aka Leak 04-13 (Bait Ones), aka the most underappreciated album of the 2010s.

Wow I finished this! If you’re here thanks for reading and please give me money to write, XOXO