the Top 10 Indie Rock Albums of the Decade

The decade began before this blog was started , I can not just rely on sorting through previous reviews. I am just embedding video clips to support the reasoning for these albums to be listed as such, since I already did a best of the year list for each sub-genre. I broke up what was the punk / harcore list and made them two seperate lists. What was the deciding factor here was what album had the  best songs that are  worth listening to again and again.  Maybe these are not the hippest albums of the decade when it comes to this genre, but what matters more is the fact these are the albums I listened to the most when it came to this sort of thing. ; Any ways here are the Top 10 Indie Rock  albums of the decade.




10- Whirr- "Sway" 2014 









9-No Joy - "More Faithful" 2015












8-Slothrust - "the Pact " 2018 












7-Ride - the Weather Diaries" 2017













6-Pianos Become Teeth -"Wait For Love" 2018 













5-Nothing - Guilty of Everything- "2014" 












4- the Drums -'s/t"  2010














3- the Twilight Sad- "Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants Leave" - 2014 













2 - The National - "Trouble Will Find Me"- 2013













1- Morrissey - "World Peace is None of Your Business"- 2014




 

The Top 10 Toxic Love Songs

Yeah, I know we already did a top 10 break up songs, but this is my fucking blog so I do whatever the hell I want. Toxic Love are chemicals still in motion, making the difference being these songs the end result is not as clear cut and in the dysfunction there is the hope for a light at the end of the tunnel which may or may not be the train. I think this rings true because even when things go wrong there are always layers of feelings, so that what I am going for here, so this is almost more of a playlist for exploring the range of feelings. The songs are selected as what has hit my current mood this morning rather than me going through ever song I own to make sure this is the definitive list, after all love is more of in the right now than the forever. I'll let the lyrics of these songs do the talking rather than throw my to cents in as we count these down , which are not in the strictest order so if you are ocd, then get over they have just been arranged the way they are.


 10- the Magnetic Fields- "All My Little Words"

 Now that you've made me want to die , you tell me your're unboyfriendable"

 

 9- the Used - "Buried Myself Alive"


 "I guess it's ok I puked the day away, I guess it's better you trapped yourself in your own way"


 

8-Chris Isaak - "Things go Wrong" 

 "Trying to remember , what I know I should forget"


 

 7-Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "It Gonna Rain Anymore" 

 "Once there came a storm in the form of a girl It blew to pieces my snug little world "


 

 6-Morrissey- "the More You Ignore Me" 

 "I now an essential part of your mind's landscape , whether you care or Not"


 



 4- Emma Ruth Rundle - "Furious Angel"

 If I send you my army only you can disarm me If you won’t have me or bring me your love Furious angels reign death from above onto me


 



5- The Postal Service - "the District Sleeps Alone Tonight"

 "I am finally seeing, I was the one worth leaving"


  3- the Drums - "Blood Under my Belt" I am scared of the child that lives in me I don't know if he learns You left your t-shirt under the bed we shared together I put it over my face

2- Sunnyday Real Estate - "Song About an Angel" 

 And all the time I tried to let you know Discomfort comes clearly




 1- Chelsea Wolfe- "The Waves Have Come" 

 I made you queen and you forgave me we'll be given the world in the right time but we made our own and left it empty


 

the Drums : " Abysmal Thoughts"

I have liked this band for sometime. Right from the beginning it sounds like they have taken the direction they went in on the last album and have combined it with the more 50's beach music tinged pop that works best for them. The electronic pulse gets stronger on "I'll Fight For Your Life" . Jonny Pierce does what he does best and doesn't stray from it despite the shifting landscape underneath him. I like how is voice drops down a little on the chorus. "Blood Under My Belt" has a playful melody that reminds me of the Cure's earlier punk days. The vocals are obviously more sugary than what Robert Smith did back in the day. Lyrically this is an album of break up songs so that part really works well for me. Speaking of sugar, diabetics need to be careful when listening to "Heat Basel". It has more skip in it's step than what we have previously heard on this album. I do like the fact Pierce goes into his head register a little more on this album.

While the chorus about him putting a blanket over his face stuck with me, I had to play "Shoot the Sun Down" to absorb the full impact of the song. "Head of the Horse" seems to be about the aches and pains of coming out of the closet. The hooks are very sleepy. I do like how the guitar rings out on this song. I can hear the hooks hiding in "Under the Ice". The guitar is more intangible and while there is a more organic feel to the instrumentation the vocals are very multi-tracked. 'Are You Fucked"  has a lighter heart to it than the lyrics might suggest. The bass line adds to the drone of the song. The electronics threatened to smother "Your Tenderness" . At the  end of the day despite what experimentation they delve back into it's Jonny's melody that makes this interesting. The sax gives things more of an organic glaze.

"Rich Kids"  bounces around enough to merge post-punk meets early R.E.M. The ballad "If All We share" has some really nice guitar work.  There is something much more soulful about the title track that closes the album. For a few seconds he sounds like Bono. IT takes the more post-punk qualities of indie rock and marries it to some with layered pop. The vocal parts feel like they are arranged like something from Paul Simon's "Graceland" album. I will give this album a 9 as it's emotional output is pretty impresses.

The Drums:"Encyclopedia"

Down to a duo, the production is darker and song writing more chaotic, abandoning the beach strolling pop of previous albums. "I Can't Pretend" finds the duo closer to their former glory. The lyrics are still smart, but now the music matches the once subtle sneer the lyrics held. According to the commentary that I heard on the Spotify version of the album, this is the band coming out of the closet, song's like "I Hope Time Doesn't Change Him" sticks this fact in your face. The singer said he wanted the album to sound like a garbage can, while the other half of the duo wanted it to sound like the Sound of Music. What they got is a more garage rock sound that has a glistening coat splattered over it like a money shot.

The band calls "Kiss Me Again" the comic relief of the album, but it hearkens back to their more 50's sounds if draped in camp drag. It's a silly warped version of a pop song. "Let Me" rings up a breezy clamor. They have a really cool guitar sound here that is offset by the darker electronic pulse. The way these elements work together through out the album sounds almost like the Shins at times. The lyrics are cloaked in cynicism , not to the extent of Morrissey, but that sort of thing is present. It carries venom in lines like "they might hate you /but i love you/ and they can go kill themselves". Even when he sings this the phrasing brings the Shins back to mind.

The soaring pop of " Break My Heart" is delicate as it floats like a bubble. The guitar is equally fragile to compliment the overly sensitive vocals. This isn't the album's strongest song, but even then it's not half bad. The wondering of where he begins and this other person ends returns as the theme, though according to the band the album's theme is about being honest and who your really are. They call "Face of God" their atheist anthem, as it asks why are we waiting around for what is coming after death, when we waste today in the process. This song is especially compelling. The sense of movement in this song is pretty powerful.

They rather creepily stated they like to romanticize the idea of the Boy Scouts and this song is about dying alone."U.S. National Park" might be one step closer to the Drums turning into the Shins. They return to their more 50's ish sound on "Deep In My Heart".Even the band claims that the obtuse "Bell Laboratories" will always be a mystery. It is a shade darker than the others songs on the album. It's largely comprised on vocals and electronic bleep and blips. There is a little of Brian Eno influence on this. I can appreciated where they are going with it, but not sure if it is a song that will get tons of repeat listens.

"There is Nothing Left" is a quirky tender pop number that is not unlike their past work, so they have not forsaken their old sound for the garbage can. The album ends with a song intended for the singer's solo album, but the other half of the equation was so moved by it he insisted it be on this album. It's a reflective ballad that still has the electronic flashes around the outskirts. Well written and well sung, it more Kraut Rock than you might expect in a ballad from these guys.

I'll round this one up to a 9, they have put out some really classic stuff in the past and while I realize they are growing as humans and not where they were when they recorded the older albums, so of the Pet Shop Boys moments as well as the Shins moments take some time for me to adjust to as they had such an original sound it's hard for me to hear it with these added elements. If I had never heard them before I would be more impressed, but it is just a matter of me adjusting to the changes.