Part nine of our ten-part review of the critic’s choices for the best 52 albums of 2010-2019! (That’s almost 90% in some parts of the world!) (Wait, what, 52? Why? We’ll address that later.)

If you missed the first eight installments, you can read them here:

( Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 )

This is one of three musical blog series I’m doing this year. You may also want to check out the final edition of my overview of the critic’s choices for the 20 best albums of 2020, and my latest monthly review of 2021’s new releases as I search for the 21 best albums of 2021.

So, most people would do a top 50 list, wouldn’t they? Well, yes. What happened was, I took “best of decade” lists from the AV Club, Billboard, Jim DeRogatis, Greg Kot, the New Yorker, New Music Express, Paste, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, and Vice. For any album that appeared at least once in these lists, I tallied up votes between them. As it turned out, there were 52 albums getting 4 votes and up. This was close enough to a top 50 that I decided to go with that as a cutoff rather than surgically removing two of them.

This series will have 10 posts of 5 albums each (or 6 each on these last two) and then a final wrap-up. All caught up? On to Part 9!

Random Access Memories (Daft Punk, 2013, 5 votes)– Daft Punk is my favorite French electronic music duo. Okay, no, but really, I’m sure there is more than one. And their 2001 album Discovery really was one of the best of that decade. They are as good as they always are here, and the mining they’re doing of 70s and 80s dance music really suits their strengths. But I don’t know if the album as a whole is as good as their best. The pacing often felt weird to me- fast and slow lurches and mood shifts that didn’t seem to build on each other in any apparent way.

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (Courtney Barnett, 2015, 6 votes)– Oh my gosh, such solid rock, chord changes, intelligent lyrics that work with the music. This reminds me of an early 80s era of smart, wordy folks who knew how to work a rock song- Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, Robyn Hitchcock, etc. But with contemporary subject matter. Not a single song fails the whole way through. And extra points for her Australian accent!

Sunbather (Deafhaven, 2013, 4 votes)– I mean, the first track is a pretty weird combo- the unintelligible screamo school of metal vocals, and a kind of orchestral swell of indie rock sound which is really rather pleasant. I think I would rather have the reverse. Then there’s a mellow instrumental. Then back to the scream orchestra. Then a “Revolution #9”-style abstract wank-off. And so forth. I really don’t get where the critics were coming from on this at all.

Take Care (Drake, 2011, 6 votes)– I’m skeptical going in of the 80 minute run-length, but the first track does start off very well- rich music sampling, clear vocal delivery, wit and impact with some honest wrestling with self and success thrown in. It gets a little auto-tuned in parts, but still catchy and substantive, with more than an occasional lyrical and musically surprise that bring one above and beyond what is otherwise a smooth pop ride. I wouldn’t say it’s up there with the best from Kanye or Jay-Z, but I can get behind the critical take on this album.

Teen Dream (Beach House, 2010, 4 votes)– It certainly is dreamy, and a little beachy too. That kind of shimmery, golden, sunburn hot turning to goosebump cool feeling of the end of a late summer day at the beach. There are hints of synth, psychedelia, even some honest to goodness surf music. It does seem to have a weird problem with volume randomly shooting up and down between tracks. Other than that, the dream pop here is in very good shape, but I’m not sure it’s in “decade’s best” territory.

The Idler Wheel (Fiona Apple, 2012, 6 votes)– Let’s be precise, the full title is The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than the Driver of the Screw and Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do. That name alone is a tour de force, and so, here, is Fiona Apple. The soars and dips of her voice, the spare but driving nature of the music, the virtuosity in the phrasing of the vocals, the intelligent bare honesty of the lyrics, all conspire to produce a powerful live-wire of an album.

One more installment to go, and then the wrap-up. Take that, decade!