Monthly Archives: June 2026

What Were the Best Albums of the Twenty-Teens? V2! (Part 4 of 6)

2 Replies

Wait, didn’t I already review the 2010s? Indeed I did! See here for my picks for the best albums of the 2010s from that first review. But we’re not quite done, and the reason why involves 2024…

It turns out that 2024 was the 25th year of the millennium. And that is just too rich a symbolic target for me to forgo- the chance to discover the 25 best albums of the first quarter century of a new millennium! I have all the source material I’ll need: I’ve reviewed the 2000s in several venues, did the above-mentioned 2010s review, and have top 20-23 lists for 2020, 2021, 2022 & 2023, with the search for 24 for 2024 now underway.

But my 2010s list is a little light comparatively. While my 2000s list from various sources sports around 60 entries, my 2010s review of 52 of the the critic’s top-ranked albums resulted in 34 picks. In order to balance that out a bit decade by decade, I’ve decided to go ahead and review the next tier down of 2010s albums per my original source lists. That will give us 36 more albums to review, which I’ll do in 6 blocks of 6. And hopefully thereby have a few more picks for my aspired Grand Review of 2000-2024!

So far we’ve had: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Got it? Okay, let’s go with part 4!

Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording) (Lin Manuel Miranda, 2015)– Without question, Hamilton is a stupendous achievement. It brought a body of contemporary music to theater that had previously been ignored there, and recast both theater and a chunk of American history from the point of view of people of color. As an album, though, the soundtrack is probably less influential. That is to say, it brought hip hop and contemporary soul to theater, but they were already dominating pop music in the teens, and while the musical looms large, this album as such wasn’t musically influential. At least that’s how it seems to me, looking back from almost ten years on…

Pure Heroine (Lorde, 2013)– I had heard “Royals” of course, in 2014 you were actually required by law to listen to that song at least once a week. But I wasn’t otherwise familiar with this album. It turns out that the melodic synths and glitch beats that pervade the rest of the album are pretty pleasing. But the real star, by far, is Lorde’s voice, in both senses of the word. She manages to sound passionate and richly lackadaisical at the same time, and paints vivid pictures of love and life among youth on the outside- due to age, class, values, etc. So it’s a pleasure to listen to, it has depth, and it has cohesion, which is pretty darn good for a debut album from someone who was then in her teens!

Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (M83, 2011)– After a lifetime of skepticism, over the past two plus years, I have been developing some considerable affection for electronic music. More old school house and techno and their immediate offshoots than the more contemporary continental Euro-version, though there are definitely exceptions to that! But French electronic group M83, or at least this album by them, does not seem to be one of those exceptions. It’s just a little too dreamy synthy bleary all-one-tone for my tastes.

Puberty 2 (Mitski, 2013)– The weirdly off metallic beats, double-entente lyrics and vocal melody of the opener had me hooked right off! And then again on track two, which felt like nineties alternative come again. In general, she seems to be on a path that several other female song-writers of the teens were tuned in to- a kind of fusion of nineties guitar rock and electronic music production in a lush pop setting, with complex confessional emotional lyrics. Generally achingly pretty, but very not afraid to get rough and ugly, in fact relishing it. On this album, she makes that mix work from beginning to end.

The Pinkprint (Nicki Minaj, 2014)– I’m more than a little ashamed to say that I wasn’t really familiar with Nicki Minaj beyond the fact of her major cultural footprint, and part of me wanted to find something to dislike here due to her recent embrace of the Magaverse. However, if there’s one thing I’m never dishonest about, it’s what I think of music, and I have to report- I utterly failed! The versatility and verve of the production is amazing, blenderizing multiple aspects of twenty-teens hip-hope, soul, and dance music in a way that feels both effortless and very skillful. No less impressive, though, is her lyrical and vocal range and the variety of personas she writes from. Heartfelt ballads of disappointed love, soul-baring meditations on loss, and sheer bawdy raunch all co-exist here in a way where none of it feels false or out of place. Sorry part of me that wanted her to misstep, but she’s amazing! I can totally see how this album ended up on this list. In fact, I’m insulted on its behalf that it didn’t rank high enough with critics to get on the original batch of 2010s albums I reviewed.

After Laughter (Paramore, 2017)– I can hear a lot of roots here- both the pop and the more quirky new wave side of eighties electro-pop, frequent appearances of polyrhythms that bring the Talking Heads to mind, and some of the confessional rawness of alt nineties female singer songwriters. It’s never less than well-done, fun, and very agreeable. Can you smell the but coming? (Sorry about that, I swear I showered!) But… I’m not sure it adds up to more than that. I don’t hear the sound of this album descending to anything after the teens, being better than the best albums of that decade in a similar vein, or being as great as their (seeming, to my ear) inspirations. Sorry Paramore, I know that’s an insanely high standard, but we’re 24 albums into this review now, and the competition is fierce!

So there we are with batch four of six of the 36 overflow albums for the 2010s that I’m reviewing! From this batch, I would say Pure Heroine, Puberty 2 and The Pinkprint are definite “yeses”. That’s a 50% success rate according to my calculations! Stay tuned to see what awaits us in albums 25-30…

50 Years of Hip Hop Album Review: E. 1999 Eternal, Liquid Swords

3 Replies

2023 was the 50th anniversary of hip hop, and in honor of this anniversary, in 2024 the idea bloomed in my that I should review the top 50 albums of that 50 years. As I crunched together a list from various sources, 50 proved to be too restrictive- many of the classics were getting squeezed out. So, to make a little more room, I opted for 100 albums, two for each of hip hop’s 50 years. Due to some medical situations, I took a several months long hiatus from blogging that year, so I didn’t finish the series. It’s now 2026 and still proceeding fitfully, but I won’t stop if you don’t!

For its formative years, hip hop was a live entertainment form, with the first recorded singles not emerging until 1979, and the first albums in 1980. So my review covers 1980-2023, with 50 posts of two albums each. The only ground rule I made for myself (besides looking for 2×50, aka 100, albums that were widely well-regarded) was that I had to have at least one from each year. As you’ll see by and by, some years get multiple albums, but since we have 100 spots for 43 years, it tends to all work out.

And with that, let’s embark on our next installment!

Bone Thugs-n-Narmony, E. Eternal 1999 (1995)– Bone-Thugs-n-Harmony, formed in Cleveland in 1991, are maybe the first Midwestern hip hop entry on our list. I wasn’t familiar with them beyond “The Crossroads” (more on that below), but the name turns out to tell you a lot- they have a kind of perfect fusion of 90s gangster rap and 90s boy band harmonies, courtesy of the rapid flow “chopper” style of rapping. And although they’re Midwestern, their flavor of gangster rap is heavily redolent of West Coast hip hop, for good reason- they went on a months-long cross country quest to audition with Eazy-E (ironically finally catching up with him in Cleveland after months of searching L.A.) that resulted in their eventual signing with Ruthless Records, and work with Eazy-E and L.A. producer DJ U-Neek. This is their second album with Ruthless, and was their major breakthrough, eventually selling 4 million copies. Post-release they re-worked a song on the album, “The Crossroads” to serve as a tribute to Eazy-E, who had died shortly before the album came out, and their memorial to those who have passed was the first rap single to reach #2 nationwide. My impression after a good two listens is that, between the unique vocal style, the exquisite song production by DJ U-Neek, and the variety of ways they bring depth to the standard gangster rap themes, this album truly deserves its place in the list.

GZA, Liquid Swords (1995)- It’s a great thing to have a plan, and aiming high certainly gets you better results on average than not aiming anywhere. But the way some plans come together is a mystery of synergy, timing, and magic that’s beyond the everyday. Wu-Tang Clan founder RZA’s vision had always been that the group would serve as a launching pad for the individual members as well, with the group’s success expanding in all directions. Having already made an album for the ages with 1993’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), RZA headed back to his basement studio and wasted no time putting out successful albums for Method Man and Ol’ Dirty Bastard. He followed that up by simultaneously working on Raekwon’s album Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… (which we’ll get to shortly in this series) and this album for co-founding member GZA/The Genius. GZA was considered Wu-Tang’s spiritual core and its most skilled lyricist, and that is in view here with his dense storytelling that looks for the reasons beneath (and above) the street scenes it represents. (For extra story-telling credit, GZA even directed the four videos for the album.) Match that with RZA’s darkly textured production and gritty beats, and the spell this album weaves is still powerful thirty years later.

If you’re curious about the sources I used to compile my list, you can check them out here:

And if you want to catch up on the previous installments, here they are…

  1. Sugarhill Gang- Sugarhill Gang (1980)/Kurtis Blow- Kurtis Blow (1980)
  2. Sugarhill Gang- 8th Wonder (1981)/Grandmaster Flash- The Message (1982)
  3. Wild Style Original Soundtrack (1983)/Fat Boys- Fat Boys (1984)
  4. Kurtis Blow- Ego Trip (1984)/Run-D.M.C.- Run-D.M.C. (1984)
  5. Whodini- Escape (1985)/The Treacherous Three- The Treacherous Three (1985)
  6. Run-D.M.C.- King of Rock (1985)/LL Cool J- Radio (1985)
  7. Beastie Boys- Licensed to Ill (1986)/Run-D.M.C.- Raising Hell (1986)
  8. Boogie Down Productions- Criminal Minded (1987)/Eric B. & Rakim- Paid in Full (1987)
  9. LL Cool J- Bigger and Deffer (1987)/Big Daddy Kane- Long Live the Kane (1988)
  10. Boogie Down Productions- By All Means Necessary (1988)/EPMD- Strictly Business (1988)
  11. Eric B. & Rakim- Follow the Leader (1988)/Jungle Brothers- Straight Out the Jungle (1988)
  12. N.W.A- Straight Outta Compton (1988)/Public Enemy- It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold us Back (1988)
  13. Slick Rick- The Great Adventures of Slick Rick (1988)/Ultramagnetic MCs- Critical Beatdown (1988)
  14. Beastie Boys- Paul’s Boutique (1989)/Big Daddy Kane- It’s a Big Daddy Thing (1989)
  15. De La Soul- 3 Feet High and Rising (1989)/EPMD- Unfinished Business (1989)
  16. Geto Boys- Grip It! On That Other Level (1989)/Kool G Rap & DJ Polo- Road To The Riches (1989)
  17. The D.O.C.- No One Can Do It Better (1989)/Ice Cube- AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted (1990)
  18. A Tribe Called Quest- The Low End Theory (1991)/Ice Cube- Death Certificate (1991)
  19. Dr. Dre- The Chronic (1992)/Pete Rock and CL Smooth- Mecca and the Soul Brother (1992)
  20. The Pharcyde- Bizarre Ride II the Pharcyde (1992)/A Tribe Called Quest- Midnight Marauders (1993)
  21. Snoop Doggy Dogg- Doggystyle (1993)/Wu-Tang Clan- Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)
  22. Nas- Illmatic (1994)/Scarface- The Diary (1994)
  23. The Notorious B.I.G.- Ready to Die (1994)/2Pac- Me Against the World (1995)

Finally, if you’d like a playlist for the entire list, you can find that here. Listen to it sequentially for the historical development of the genre, or play on shuffle for maximum historical scramble!