125. Father John Misty – I Love You, Honeybear (Bella Union / Sub Pop) (2015)

Following the tentative solo outing Fear Fun three years before, former Fleet Foxes member Josh Tillman spread his wings and soared with I Love You, Honeybear. Offering up his ruminations on love and happiness following his recent marriage, it combined the observational qualities of mainstream figures like Randy Newman with the fey, smutty sensibilities of cult heroes such as Jonathan Richman, or The Magnetic Fields’ Stephen Merritt. From the sweeping mariachi ballads to canned laughter humorously undercutting half-cut, closing-time laments, Tillman showed himself to be a brilliantly original writer and composer. Confessional without being sentimental, wide-eyed and eager without being proselytising, and very slightly misanthropic to boot, …Honeybear was an understated triumph. (LISTEN)

124. Arca – Arca (XL) (2017)

Venezuelan producer Alejandro Ghersi completed a hectic 2017, which saw him involved with both Kelela and Björk’s albums, by releasing his most beautiful and advanced solo record to date. Cold, glitchy and eerie, the album showed off Ghersi’s solidified and well-rounded sound as the tracks on Arca scatter, shiver and tremble with threatening bass and hysterical synths in signature Arca fashion. While Ghersi operatically cried, warbled and bellowed in Spanish, the warm timbre of his vocals work in contrast with the often mechanical soundscape of tracks like ‘Reverie’, adding a touch of vulnerability and allowed Arca to explore identity and becoming your true self. Simultaneously rigid and fluid, the album was like a pulsating, living organism, as if Arca himself came into form during its making, taking the listener along on the extraordinary experience, clawing his way out through sound. (LISTEN)

123. The War On Drugs – A Deeper Understanding (Atlantic) (2017)

While it’s easy to dismiss The War On Drugs as simply making dad-rock inspired road-trip music, Adam Granduciel’s fourth album A Deeper Understanding is also a masterclass in production and long-form songwriting, fueled by Kevin Parker levels of perfectionism and intricacy. Highlights like ‘Strangest Thing’ take you on a journey and lull you into a sense of ease, before halfway through opening up and cutting through with some of the most genuinely beautiful guitar riffs in recent memory. An album that thrives on repeated listens, seemingly delivering a new tiny piece of a puzzle never fully completed each time you put it on. (EW) (LISTEN)

122. Mac DeMarco – Salad Days (Captured Tracks) (2014)

Despite ‘ruining indie’, according to some, due to the many wannabe acts that sound exactly like a worse version of it that sprang up in its wake, you can’t not acknowledge The Vibe and laid back-ness of Salad Days. Somewhere between the heavy reverb, crooked guitar chords, and DeMarco’s decidedly non-accentuated vocal performance is located a perfect late summer afternoon. (EW) (LISTEN)

121. Battles – Gloss Drop (Warp) (2011)

Having produced one of the quirkiest debuts of the noughties with 2007’s Mirrored, Battles suffered the departure of lead singer Tyondai Braxton, leaving them as a three-piece. Their response was ingenious: if they couldn’t have a frontman, they’d fill in with a rotating cast of guest vocalists. Gloss Drop, as its fun and garish front cover suggests (what the hell is that stuff, by the way? I want to eat it) is a more playful and less severe album than its predecessor. It’s much softer round the edges, squidgier and more pliable as a sound, but just as brain-frazzling in its approach to time signatures and song structure. Gary Numan’s turn on the glorious, noisy sensory overload of ‘My Machines’ was a particular highlight, as was the demented fairground ride sound of ‘Ice Cream’ that featured Matias Aguayo, but every moment was done with a totally carefree approach, making Gloss Drop one of the most deliriously fun releases of the decade so far. (LISTEN)

120. LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (Sony / Columbia) (2017)

It’s always risky to mess around with a legendary musical legacy by releasing new material after such a long time, especially if that body of work is as singularly brilliant as LCD Soundsystem’s. James Murphy knew what was at stake with American Dream, given the controversy over their reformation in the first place. Happily, the album easily stood up to the reputations of the original LCD trilogy, with deep cuts like ‘How Do You Sleep?’ and swirling behemoths like ‘Call The Police’ able to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with their finest moments. Fittingly, it finally gave Murphy what he had always set out to achieve – a US no.1 album! (LISTEN)

119. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972 (Kranky) (2011)

Canadian musician Tim Hecker has always had a bent for the experimental, but with his sixth album he made his boldest and most successful statement to date. Recorded in a church in Reykjavik as a number of segmented musical suites, and built primarily around that church’s pipe organ, Ravedeath, 1972 was a captivating, claustrophobic mixture of instrumental shoegaze, drone and ambient music, Hecker using processors, synths and studio trickery to decay and distort the purity of the organ. (LISTEN)

118. David Bowie – The Next Day (ISO / Columbia) (2013)

Having not released a single note of new music in a decade, virtually everyone had assumed that Bowie had retired in 2013. A tightly kept industry secret, very few expected The Next Day’s arrival in early January – even fewer expected it to be as brilliant as it was, full of mature, insightful and poignant writing that referenced the past while living in the now – reflected in the playfully subversive artwork. Providing his first no.1 album in 20 years and receiving nominations for both the BRITs and the Mercury Prize, The Next Day rightfully restored an icon to public view. (LISTEN)

117. Anna Meredith – Varmints (Moshi Moshi) (2016)

Starting off as a classical composer, Anna Meredith’s scope of classical and experimental influences came together to create a genre-bending success. From the seven minutes of the guitar-infused ‘The Vapours’ to the frustratingly brilliant constant build of opener ‘Nautilus’, a track which uses a tuba for the bassline, it never fails to excite and challenge. Varmints draws you in with delightful melodies (see ‘Something Helpful’ and ‘Honeyed Words’) but ignites some of the more unlikely singalong moments of the year in ‘Taken’ and ‘Dowager’ – it really is no surprise that it won ‘Scottish Album of the Year’ in 2016. (LISTEN)

116. Tyler, The Creator – IGOR (A Boy Is A Gun / Columbia) (2019)

An album that saw Tyler, The Creator flourish yet again as one of the more important artists of the decade, IGOR elevated the alt-rapper into the upper echelon of artists in operation throughout pop. Filled to the brim with lush maximalist production, striking harmonies and quaint oddities – including (but not limited to) the massive hit ‘Earfquake’ – IGOR brought us into a vivid spectrum of love and sorrow, giving us one of the best compositional heartbreak albums of the year. Furthermore, despite the large number of big-hitting guest spots on the record, ranging from British newcomer Slowthai to veterans like Kanye West and Solange, Tyler never sounded like he was in anything other than complete control over his highly distinctive artistic vision. (DA) (LISTEN)

115. Arcade Fire – Reflektor (Merge) (2013)

With the critical and commercial triumph of 2010’s The Suburbs, Arcade Fire found themselves in the same kind of position as Radiohead in 1997 after OK Computer. They responded with a complete blowout of a record, a double disc smorgasbord akin to ‘The White Album’ incorporating electronica, dance, rococo and Haitian rara rhythms. DFA’s James Murphy co-produced Reflektor, along with regular Markus Dravs, and the result was an audacious, divisive and frequently bewildering record. Many critics argued that it was a risk they didn’t need to take, but that’s precisely why we include it in our list. For all its flaws (and there are a number of them), there aren’t many major artists prepared to lay their reputations on the line like this anymore. (LISTEN)

114. Laura Marling – A Creature I Don’t Know (Virgin) (2011)

With two accomplished and engrossing albums under her belt, Laura Marling had the confidence to begin work on her third LP by herself and direct the process herself. The result was the sound of one of the decade’s most distinctive, consistent yet criminally underrated artists truly coming into her own. Inspired by literature ranging from John Steinbeck to Robertson Davies, as well as the jazz-influenced travelogue aesthetic of Hejira-era Joni Mitchell, A Creature I Don’t Know was a glorious mesh of style and substance. (LISTEN)

113. The xx – I See You (Young Turks) (2017)

Taking the renewed sense of impetus that came from Jamie xx’s solo release In Colour and running with it, I See You sounds like a Jamie xx remix of every The xx song that came before, and all for the better. It infused the band’s sound with some much-needed life and re-invention after two solid, yet slightly repetitive albums of pleasing, low-key, hushed indie. The songwriting benefits from combining the two genres of indie and electronica in a way that few bands before or since have, and, of course, the production is top notch, making for the most aesthetically interesting xx album to date. (EW) (LISTEN)

112. Radiohead – A Moon Shaped Pool (XL) (2016)

Radiohead are one of those extremely rare bands that manage to penetrate the mainstream whilst maintaining the ever-so-possibly pretentious air of academia, something they’ve maintained throughout their career. Intellectual pop, one might say, to their fans’ horror or agreement. Their long-awaited ninth studio album, A Moon Shaped Pool, was a pleasant surprise, as the electronic experimentation of previous efforts that received very mixed reviews seemed to take the backseat, and the expected political, social, and environmental critique took front stage. What Radiohead do, they do well. A Moon Shaped Pool is well-rounded, sharp, and far from anything that a band resting on its laurels would produce. Introspective and sometimes anxiety-inducing, it’s a record that shines in solitude, and showcases the humble maturity and musicianship of a band that has dominated rock discourse for nearly a quarter of a century. (AS) (LISTEN)

111. Grimes – Visions (4AD / Arbutus) (2012)

For a low-budget bedroom album, Grimes’ 2012 landmark Visions has had a seismic impact on the mainstream, with Canadian laptop wiz Claire Boucher’s minimalist aesthetic in demand from the biggest pop artists ever since. Her spectral synth figures hang like a shroud over the homemade beat patterns and MIDI triggers, with the overall sound designed to sound great on even the tinniest, most basic built-in speakers on handheld devices, which has become a much sought-after quality in the pop industry. Gorgeous highlights like ‘Circumambient’ and ‘Genesis’ seemed to defy classification altogether, falling in uncharted territory somewhere between techno, ambient and house. As well as being sharp and modernistic in its outlook, Visions also happily slotted in with 4AD’s reputation for producing ethereal gems that fall into the loose genre known as ‘dream pop’. Incredibly, she’s delivered even better since. (LISTEN)

110. Sleigh Bells – Treats (Mom + Pop / N.E.E.T.) (2010)

Formed in Brooklyn, Sleigh Bells released their genre-hopping debut Treats to rapturous applause from music critics. Made up of boy-girl duo Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss, they combined choppy metalcore guitar riffs with electronic pop samples and R&B vocals. Krauss crooned and sighed her way through the songs, a neat counterpoint to the violence of the music. Featuring singles including ‘Tell ‘Em’, ‘Riot Rhythm’ and ‘Rill Rill’, the last of which playfully screwed around with a sample of Funkadelic’s classic hit ‘Can You Get To That’ and was used in multiple Apple TV ads. In a post-White Stripes blues rock era, Treats perfectly captured a modern-day melting pot of rock alongside a barrage of drum machines and power chords. Naturally compared to the likes of Crystal Castles and Fuck Buttons, their ear-splitting riffs were crossbred with old-school rap/electronic pop vocal deliveries, and this made Treats one of the big surprises of 2010. Although their accomplished follow-ups didn’t reach the same heights, purely because that surprise element wasn’t there any longer, they still occupy some pretty extreme outlying territory that few other bands attempt to storm. (LISTEN)

109. Melody’s Echo Chamber – Melody’s Echo Chamber (Fat Possum) (2012)

French musician Melody Prochet’s debut album was produced by her then-boyfriend Kevin Parker of Tame Impala. The hazy, lysergic feel may have been indebted to Parker’s qualities behind the desk, but every other breathlessly perfect moment on Melody’s Echo Chamber was down to Prochet’s songwriting and innate sense of (ahem) melody. Despite the exploratory nature of the music, which could easily have drifted off into progressive territory, her band kept it all tightly contained within digestible pop structures. From the ecstatic high of sugar-coated opener ‘I Follow You’ to the daydreaming closer ‘Be Proud Of Your Kids’, there was not a moment that wasn’t beautifully realised and executed with uncomplicated simplicity, with a particular nod to the lush keyboard dreamscape of ‘Quand Vas Tu Rentrer?’. But the dream-like psychedelia was not designed to blow open the ‘doors of perception’ to the outside world; it was introverted, about self-discovery and personal revelation, about retreating to innocence as a method of emotional healing. (LISTEN)

108. Oneohtrix Point Never – Garden Of Delete (Warp) (2015)

With his eighth 0PN record Garden Of Delete, Daniel Lopatin gave us a work of binary opposites existing in the same physical space, like a seemingly random patchwork of styles with no pattern but nevertheless obeys its own internal logic. Soft, pulsing beats suddenly lurched into drilling blasts of nu-metal percussion; abrasion suddenly became smoothness; violence and beauty, wonder and disgust became blended together, indistinguishable as sensations. It was a stark departure from previous form, even for this most forward-thinking and challenging of artists, and it’s formed the inspirational basis for Lopatin’s recent subsequent soundtrack work. (LISTEN)

107. Caribou – Swim (City Slang / Merge) (2010)

Having won the Polaris Music Prize for 2007’s math-rock beauty Andorra, Dan Snaith (the man behind the monikers Daphni, Manitoba and Caribou) applied his knack for challenging yet easily understandable arrangements to house music. Swim was the rather wonderful result, exploring deep house and minimalist techno while garnishing the mixture with unusual instruments and his keening, plaintive vocals. Snaith has said that he made these songs while composing pieces of music to make up his DJ sets, which had been increasing hugely in number by 2010, and that the work ethic applied in pursuit of these led to over 700 unused songs for the album (!). Its opening track, ‘Odessa’, also helped the album gain wider exposure, being used in a number of adverts and the soundtrack to FIFA11. Snaith followed Swim with the very much more pop-orientated Our Love in 2014, but for our money, this just pips it as his finest work to date. (LISTEN)

106. Gold Panda – Lucky Shiner (Ghostly International) (2010)

After building up a cult reputation for a couple of EPs and lots of rather nifty remix work, Derwin Schlecker (a.k.a. Gold Panda) released this hauntingly beautiful debut album in late 2010. Lucky Shiner is one of the best examples of the micro-genre referred to by a number of labels (chillwave, folktronica, glitch), and it played like a dreamy, half-awake travelogue, constructed from recordings of unusual instruments from around the world and any amount of field recordings. Schlecker demonstrated the inquisitive attitude of a true connoisseur, a musical crate-digger always tweaking and perfecting his sounds. Tracks like ‘Same Dream China’ and ‘Snow & Taxis’ sounded like Boards Of Canada trying to reconstruct an Underworld album from memory. Absolute bliss. (LISTEN)

105. Blood Orange – Cupid Deluxe (Domino) (2013)

Having dabbled in all kinds of music from experimental punk in Test Icicles to luxuriant folk as Lightspeed Champion, Cupid Deluxe was the moment when Dev Hynes made himself one of the most in-demand pop collaborators of the 2010s. His second Blood Orange album, Cupid Deluxe, melded chillwave, R&B, funk and transatlantic rap influences to make something that truly could not be pigeonholed, encompassing collaborators ranging from David Longstreth and Kindness to Skepta plus a weird cover of an obscure hit by defunct British indie outfit Mansun. (LISTEN)

104. Shabazz Palaces – Lese Majesty (Sub Pop) (2014)

Hosting the live premiere of the second Shabazz Palaces albumin Seattle’s Pacific Science Center’s Laser Dome was a masterstroke by Ishmael Butler and Tendai Maraire. Consisting of eight mini-suites in under 45 minutes, Lese Majesty was so eclectic and uncategorisable that no genre seemed to do it justice. Containing the cavernous reverberations of dub, the angular, boom-bap beats of SoundCloud rap and shards of everything from P-funk to dream-pop, every moment was artistically rich and deeply rewarding. (LISTEN)

103. Aldous Harding – Designer (4AD) (2019)

Aldous Harding is definitely one to watch live. Grimacing, her mouth a thousand different extreme shapes a song, she’s theatrical almost to a fault, captivating yet at times difficult to watch. Harding walks the line of familiarity and complete authenticity, as her unique timbre, metaphor-heavy lyrics and relatively standard musical set-up amount to something not quite seen before on her third album Designer. Zoo eyes in Dubai, it’s in awe of the variety and beauty of life whilst completely aware of its downfalls and faults, avoiding any dragging melancholy and managing to portray struggle in the lightest and most creative ways. Here, Harding seems content in her personally constructed sandpit, throwing around her cryptic, visually heavy twists of tongue that smell of surrealist tales, hefty of meaning that can’t be deciphered whilst paradoxically being straightforward and analytical. In a way, Designer accepts the subconscious, managing to fit a sea of subtlety into a record that’s more than enjoyable, albeit confusing and evasive at times. (AS) (LISTEN)

102. Disclosure – Settle (PMR / Island) (2013)

The emergence of Disclosure as a commercial success, in a dance music scene populated by the bland horrors of EDM, was been one of the most heartening things to happen to mainstream music in the entire decade. Brothers Guy and Howard Lawrence recontextualised the splintered sounds of the myriad micro-genres within British dance music and reconciled them into pop songs. Settle may not have been technically revolutionary, but it served as a vital re-statement of the basic principles of dance music, something that needs to happen every now and again. Packed with radio-ready hits (‘You & Me’, ‘White Noise’, ‘Latch’, which helped make a star of Sam Smith) that rubbed shoulders with harder dancefloor fillers (‘When A Fire Starts To Burn’, ‘Grab Her!’, ‘Boiling’), making it one of the most consistently entertaining British dance albums in recent memory. (LISTEN)

101. Perfume Genius – Too Bright (Matador) (2014)

The art of Mike Hadreas’ No Shape is the presentation of the socio-political struggles that face LGBTQ+ people without being a political album at all, or even one that preaches struggle at its epicentre. Rather, the commentary is a natural consequence of his poetic and genuine descriptions of the emotions and life surrounding a relationship, that are truly at the core of his music. Beats and synthesisers swell and modulate and envelop each other as Hadreas delivers his tirades on love and belonging on one of the most gorgeously produced albums in recent memory. Period. (EW) (LISTEN)