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    • Nah, once the emotion has ebbed Blackstar is but a middling Bowie record ie very good but nowhere near Record of the Decade. It is most likely too soon to be definitive about this but Norman Nice Chap Rockwell is a contender.

      • No, it’s a truly great Bowie record, one of his very best. The Next Day was middling. Lana’s album has some truly brilliant moments, but is overlong and suffers from a sameyness both in arrangements and lyrical subject matter. Does make me worry about her …

  2. Google doesn’t even give Blackstar as an option, so you must be wrong. Of those it does nominate, I’d choose Frank Ocean’s Blonde (only without the talking tracks). I certainly wouldn’t choose Kaleidoscope Dream by Miguel, Watch The Throne by (presumably) Watch The Throne, Sunbather by Deafhaven, Run The Jewels 2 by (it would appear) Run The Jewels, or any of the others I’ve never heard of.
    Interestingly I see the only artiste to have two albums nominated by Google is Darren Grimes (Visions and Art Angels) but I’m certainly not giving my approbation to someone who campaigned so fervently and allegedly illegally in favour of Brexit.

  3. These are the twenty-one albums I’m mulling over. Not quite sorted out an order:

    Melanie De Biasio – No Deal (2013)
    David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)
    Zara McFarlane – Arise (2017)
    Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)
    Melody Gardot – Currency Of Man (2015)
    Beyoncé – Lemonade (2016)
    Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (2017)
    Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean (2014)
    Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
    Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
    Lana Del Ray – Norman Fucking Rothwell (2019)
    Agnes Obel – Avantine (2013)
    Sons Of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile (2018)
    Flying Lotus – You’re Dead (2014)
    GoGo Penguin – A Humdrum Star (2018)
    Deadbeat & Paul St. Hilaire – The Infinity Dub Sessions (2014)
    Songs Of Our Native Daughters (2019)
    Jóhan Jóhansson – Orphée (2016)
    Anaïs Mitchell- Hadestown (2010)
    Japandroids – Celebration Rock (2012)
    Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Sounds Almighty (2018)

    • Blackstar is indeed brilliant….but to be very honest I find that list very depressing….anyways I’m back going through the incredible output of the very very great Wes Montgomery and thanking God for him..

      • Really?

        I’ve settled on a Top Fifty:

        Melanie De Biasio – No Deal (2013)
        David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)
        Zara McFarlane – Arise (2017)
        Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp A Butterfly (2015)
        Lana Del Ray – Norman Fucking Rockwell (2019)
        Melody Gardot – Currency Of Man (2015)
        Matthew Halsall – Fletcher Moss Park (2012)
        Burial – Tunes 2011-2019 (2019)
        Beyoncé – Lemonade (2016)
        Kendrick Lamar – DAMN. (2017)
        Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (2016)
        Chris Lightcap’s Bigmouth – Deluxe (2010)
        Agnes Obel – Avantine (2013)
        Sons Of Kemet – Your Queen Is A Reptile (2018)
        Harrison Birtwistle – Night’s Black Bird/The Shadow Of The Night/The Cry Of Anubis (2011)
        Our Native Daughters – Songs Of Our Native Daughters (2019)
        Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)
        Flying Lotus – You’re Dead (2014)
        Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean (2014)
        GoGo Penguin – A Humdrum Star (2018)
        Deadbeat & Paul St. Hilaire – The Infinity Dub Sessions (2014)
        Jóhan Jóhansson – Orphée (2016)
        Anaïs Mitchell- Hadestown (2010)
        Jon Thome Danny Thompson – Watching The Well (2011)
        Raphael Saadiq – Jimmy Lee (2019)
        Ólafur Arnalds – re:member (2018)
        Japandroids – Celebration Rock (2012)
        Goldfrapp – Tales Of Us (2013)
        Grace Jones – Hurricane Dub (2011)
        Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Push The Sky Away (2013)
        The Magnetic Fields – 50 Song Memoir (2017)
        David Bowie – The Next Day (2013)
        Jónsi – Go (2010)
        Gillian Welch – The Harrow And The Harvest (2011)
        Buika – La Noche Más Larga (2013)
        Nat Birchall Meets Al Breadwinner – Sounds Almighty (2018)
        Agnes Obel – Philharmonics (2011)
        The Haxan Cloak – Excavation (2013)
        Dawn Of Midi – Dysnomia (2015)
        Avishai Cohen – Into The Silence (2016)
        FKA Twigs – LP1 (2014)
        Fatoumata Diawara – Fenfo (Something To Say) (2018)
        Paul Simon – So Beautiful Or So What (2011)
        Prince Fatty Presents Hollie Cook In Dub (2012)
        Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes (2011)
        Cee Lo Green – The Ladykiller (2010)
        Black Roots – On The Ground In Dub (2013)
        Massive Attack – Heligoland (2010)
        Four Tet – There Is Love In You (2010)
        Dreadzone – Dread Times (2017)

  5. One from each year from me
    2010: John Grant – Queen Of Denmark
    2011: Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
    2012: Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks
    2013: Steve Mason – Monkey Minds in the Devil’s Time
    2014: Stiff Little Fingers – No Going Back
    2015: Public Service Broadcasting – The Race For Space
    2016: Madness – Can’t Touch Us Now
    2017: Conor Oberst – Salutations
    2018: Wreckless Eric – Construction Time & Demolition
    2019: Richard Dawson – 2020

    The best of that lot?
    3 way tie between John Grant, Steve Mason and Stiff Little Fingers

    • @Rigid-Digit 2017 and 2018 are humdingers.

      I heard a track off the Richard Dawson this am on 6Music. Had been thinking about buying this based on reviews I had seen. However his voice appears to be an acquired taste that I haven’t yet acquired.

      Will ponder and post mine tomorrow.

  6. Norman Forking Rockwell would be the one I’ve had the strongest positive reaction to. When I started listening on Spotify I felt compelled to listen all the way through. That’s never happened before when streaming a new album, and finding myself listening properly quite often, not browsing the net at the same time. That says something, something like this must be my favourite of the decade, out of the shamefully small sample I’ve heard.

    • Yep. Right now it dominates my picture like an elephant in the en suite. Others I can think of would be First Aid Kit’s The Lion’s Roar, Brother Ali’s All The Beauty In This Whole Life, John Grant’s Queen Of Denmark and Euros Childs’ Summer Special..

  7. The last 10 (effectively random) years have seen some fine albums and, although I don’t feel like my tastes are in the middle of the mainstream I’m surprised to realise that I’m so out of step with other’s ideas.
    Never mind…. I reckon the best album of the decade is Dudes by David Mead but it’s a close run thing.. The FFS album is fabulous and spawned some brilliant live gigs as well.
    We also had:
    Fountains Of Wayne – Sky Full Of Holes
    Nick Lowe – The Old Magic
    Caitlin Rose – “The Stand In”
    Kacey Musgraves – Same Trailer Different Park
    Any one of which could be my favourite of the decade and I’m sure I’ll be playing all of them a lot in the coming years.

    • No surprise that I already have a list! Here’s the top part. Some fantastic albums here and even more as my list goes beyond 50, although it needs updating, as I think I like Nick Cave’s new one more than Skeleton Tree. But there are plenty of exciting artists out there who are improving album by album, so plenty to look forward to in the roaring twenties.

      1 – Brother Ali – All the Beauty in This Whole Life
      2 – Gary Numan – Savage (Songs From a Broken World)
      3 – Kendrick Lamar – To Pimp a Butterfly
      4 – The Decemberists – The King is Dead
      5 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Wanderlust
      6 – John Grant – Queen of Denmark
      7 – Ghostpoet – Some Say I So I Say Light
      8 – Gary Numan – Splinter (Songs From a Broken Mind)
      9 – Goldfrapp – Head First
      10 – Kendrick Lamar – Damn!
      11 – Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
      12 – Danger Mouse and Daniele Luppi – Rome
      13 – Skepta – Konnichiwa
      14 – Kanye West – My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
      15 – Ghostpoet – Dark Days + Canapés
      16 – Kendrick Lamar – good kid, m.A.A.d city
      17 – Lorde – Melodrama
      18 – Syd – Fin
      19 – Naibu – Corners
      20 – The Weeknd – Starboy
      21 – J. Cole – KOD
      22 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Make a Scene
      23 – Olafur Arnalds – …and They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness
      24 – Little Simz – GREY Area
      25 – Czarface – Every Hero Needs a Villain
      26 – Grieves – Together/Apart
      27 – Czarface – Czarface
      28 – Frank Ocean – channel ORANGE
      29 – David Bowie – Blackstar
      30 – Thievery Corporation – Culture of Fear
      31 – Norah Jones – Little Broken Hearts
      32 – Cherry Ghost – Beneath This Burning Shoreline
      33 – Qwel & Maker – Beautifu Raw
      34 – Yuna – Nocturnal
      35 – Emancipator – Safe in the Steep Cliffs
      36 – Anderson .Paak – Malibu
      37 – Verb T – Serious Games
      38 – Ghostpoet – Shedding Skin
      39 – Janelle Monae – Dirty Computer
      40 – Nick Cave – Skeleton Tree
      41 – Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Familia
      42 – Christine and the Queens – Chris
      43 – Blocks & Escher – Something Blue
      44 – Scuba – Triangulation
      45 – James Blake – Assume Form
      46 – JME – Integrity>
      47 – T.R.A.C. – Life in Motion
      48 – Dom & Roland – Last Refuge of a Scoundrel
      49 – The Internet – Hive Mind
      50 – Dessa – A Badly Broken Code

    • I can’t possibly pick one but here’s my faves, more from the start of the decade than the end.

      Massive Attack – Heligoland
      John Grant – Queen of Denmark
      Joanna Newsom – Have One on Me
      This is the Kit – Wriggle Out the Restless
      Joan as Policewoman – The Deep Field
      Queens of the Stone Age – Like Clockwork
      British Sea Power – Let the Dancers Inherit the Party
      Broken Social Scene – Hug of Thunder
      Queens of the Stone Age – Villians
      The Go! Team – Semicircle

  8. Off the top of my head, and with a quick peruse of my CDs here are contenders from my point of view – entirely subjective and partial of course. And there will be any number I will have forgotten.

    I’d agree with the nomination of Black Star, both because of its circumstances but also its musical quality. It’s still one of the records of the last ten years that gets regular airplay in the Blue Boy household. But I’d also make a case for Frazey Ford; Indian Ocean is just an indispensable record.

    Olivia Chaney Shelter
    Laura Marling Once I Was An Eagle
    David Bowie Black Star
    Gretchen Peters Hello Cruel World
    Frazey Ford Indian Ocean
    Lucinda Williams Blessed and Ghosts of Highway 20
    Ry Cooder The Prodigal Son
    Low The Invisible Way
    Valerie June Pushin’ Against The Stone
    Courtney Marie Andrews Honest Life
    Angel Olsen My Woman
    Christine and the Queens Chaleur Humaine
    Bjork Biophilia
    Janelle Monae Dirty Computer
    The Delines Colfax
    Natalie Merchant Natalie Merchant
    Rhiannon Giddens Freedom Highway
    Randy Newman Dark Matter
    Paul Simon Stranger to Stranger
    Paul McCartney New
    Belmont Tench You Should Be So Lucky
    Weyes Blood Titanic
    Our Native Daughters Songs of Our Native Daughters

  10. @Blue-Boy my fledgling list which will be completed later this evening will duplicate at least 4 of the albums in your list ie, Blessed, Stranger to Stranger, Natalie Merchant and Benmont Tench.
    You are a man of great taste it has to be said.

    • I am indeed, Steve, I am indeed. But then, we all are here, aren’t we?

      That Benmont Tench record is a lovely thing, isn’t it? Must admit I hadn’t played it for a while but spotted it on the CD rack and put it back on – sounded as good as ever.

  11. Being a bit of sad b….. Ive just been through my lists of best of the year since 2010. Some of them I can barely remember listening to – Rick Redbeard anyone ?? The ones that have sustained my interest over the years and I still regularly play are:

    Steven Wilson – Hand Cannot Erase
    Kristina Train – Dark Black
    Silver Seas – Chateau Revenge
    Jens Lekman – Life Will See You Now

    So not saying they are the best albums but the ones I listen to.

  14. A near impossible task, sifting thru the myriad genres and styles I have always liked and come to like over these 10 eventful years. As I scrolled up and down, I kept alighting on this, a far from perfect record, but one I go back to frequently, when in search of a mood. I guess my favourite genre is and always will be a caledonian hued indie-folk. I forget who it was, but thank you, but a review was put up of a fella I had never heard of, Ross Wilson, aka Blue Rose Code. Within a month I had seen him live and purchased the back catalogue, belatedly discovering his 2014 masterpiece, The Ballad of Peckham Rye, narrowly edging out Water of Leith, from 2017.
    STOP PRESS: Have looked back and it was good old @tiggerlion who alerted me, with his review of Water of Leith. Thanks, mate!

  16. Impossible to choose just one from so many fabulous albums, but I will try my best. Any one of Jason Isbell’s last 3 albums are worthy of the top spot, as is Frazey Ford’s Indian Ocean. Mary Gauthier’s Rifles and Rosary Beads brings out emotions in me that I didn’t know I had. I love Dawes’ All Your Favourite Bands too. Today though, I am choosing The Jayhawks Back Roads and Abandoned Motels.

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