50. Dry Cleaning – New Long Leg (2021)

This London indie band had the brilliant idea to make music as if someone was just pontificating beside you as a post-punk band plays 15 feet away.

49. Mk.gee – Two Star & the Dream Police (2024)

Bedroom rock has rarely sounded both this hazy and ambitious, seemingly inspired by Arthur Russell as much as Prince.

48. Mandy, Indiana – I’ve Seen a Way (2023)

The most exciting new voice in the industrial electronic scene still maintained such an enticing mystique around their style on their riveting debut.

47. ROSALÍA – MOTOMAMI (2022)

Evolving from flamenco to a reggaetón/art pop hybrid, ROSALÍA finds herself at the center of Latin music’s global takeover.

46. yeule – softscars (2023)

The Singaporean artist is the utopian ideal of a futuristic genre/culture hybrid with their latest album excelling at a litany of sounds and vibes.

45. Faye Webster – I Know I’m Funny haha (2021)

Webster stands out as a songwriter for blending deadpan deliveries and earnest desires so seamlessly across her career highlight.

44. Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven (2024)

From their name to the hard-edged squalling of their guitars and drums, the Philly band is truly punk even as the songs here remain so pretty and sing-along worthy.

43. Sofia Kourtesis – Madres (2023)

The Peruvian producer has pushed house music into fresh, exciting places the whole decade with her debut being a wondrous culmination.

42. Nilüfer Yanya – PAINLESS (2022)

A genre all to herself, Yanya specializes in indie rock produced with such precision and clarity that every snare hit and guitar strum carries a heavy emotional power.

41. Jockstrap – I Love You Jennifer B (2022)

The London duo’s only album thus far is such an unconventional and humorous approach to indietronica that they might be today’s version of Stereolab.

40. Adrianne Lenker – songs (2020)

Whether in Big Thief or her solo work, Lenker constantly proves that nobody is writing knotty and deeply personal folk ballads on her level.

39. Perfume Genius – Set My Heart on Fire Immediately (2020)

Whether its title calls for self-mutilation or a plea for deep emotions, this album adheres to both, ranging from tortured romantic ballads to queer dance floor thumpers.

38. Sufjan Stevens – Javelin (2023)

Sufjan has never stopped releasing music in the wake of 2015’s Carrie & Lowell, but his latest album felt like the true sequel, featuring banjo-driven heartbreakers with still some added grandiose orchestration here and there.

37. Nala Sinephro – Endlessness (2024)

A proper expansion on the spacey nu-jazz of her debut, Sinephro’s arrangements are patient and enveloping — music that dares to be ambitious in its quietest moments.

36. Jazmine Sullivan – Heaux Tales (2021)

An ode to the complete cultural narrative around women, Sullivan’s best work to-date centers feminine tales around some of the best r&b tunes of the decade.

35. Taylor Swift – folklore (2020)

Swift has never been in a place of “needing a hit,” but her maturing listeners definitely needed songwriting this sharp, arrangements this tasteful and melodies this indelible.

34. The Soft Pink Truth – Shall We Go On Sinning So That Grace May Increase? (2020)

One of the most singular releases of the decade, this Drew Daniels’ magnum opus is a minimalist ambient techno treatise on faith, empathy and community.

33. Lana Del Rey – Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd (2023)

Even as most pop stars shrink into their comfort zone or grasp for commerciality over their career, Lana just keeps getting stranger and bolder, leaning into sparer arrangements and singing of her self-image and traumas.

32. Amaarae – Fountain Baby (2023)

Not her first great album but certainly her critical welcoming party, Amaarae’s sophomore album is sensual African-infused alt-r&b that would play on every radio in a proper timeline.

31. Turnstile – GLOW ON (2021)

Baltimore’s post-hardcore saviours produced an insane number of sub-3-minute ragers across their breakout album, earning critical praise and even love from the Grammys without losing any street cred.

30. Sudan Archives – Natural Brown Prom Queen (2022)

Brittney Denise Parks’ breakout album is a massive genre mish-mash, finding inspiration in neo-soul, pop rap and her main instrument of choice: the violin.

29. Magdalena Bay – Imaginal Disk (2024)

The new face of synthpop fulfilled every maximalist potential they displayed on their 2021 debut with this luxurious follow-up that is already a cult classic to many.

28. Mount Eerie – Night Palace (2024)

Phil Elverum’s latest work is also his most torrential work, a sprawling avant-folk epic that could only come from a man capable of The Glow, Pt. 2 as well.

27. ML Buch – Suntub (2023)

With an unassuming presentation and releasing to a tepid response, the Danish artist’s second album took a minute to reach everyone’s radar, but with one listen, you’re just bathed in these dreamy-yet-abrasive guitar tones that you won’t find anywhere else.

26. Special Interest – Endure (2022)

The award for most underrated band right now goes to the New Orleans dance-punk quartet whose third album is a constantly-churning dust devil of desires and revolutions.

25. Kim Gordon – The Collective (2024)

If you don’t want to listen to one of the coolest indie rock legends speak/sing/rap over some coarse, heavy-hitting industrial beats, then I’ve got nothing for you.

24. MJ Lenderman – Manning Fireworks (2024)

Peak slacker vibes abound in Lenderman’s coming-out party, an immediate alt-country classic featuring tales of comedically-driftless men.

23. Yves Tumor – Heaven to a Tortured Mind (2020)

Sean Bowie truly has no contemporaries, making industrial glam pop with an unrelenting gusto best displayed on these twelve staggering tracks.

22. Nourished by Time – Erotic Probiotic 2 (2023)

Bedroom pop has rarely been this immediate and startling as Marcus Brown utilizes perfectly nostalgic synths and drum machines for some therapeutic bangers.

21. Jessica Pratt – Here in the Pitch (2024)

The quiet-but-transcendent folk singer released her best collection of songs to date here with melodies so natural they already feel like old standards.

20. Wednesday – Rat Saw God (2023)

Your local music snob’s favorite band honed their noisy-folk skills across five albums in six years, culminating in this cathartic masterpiece.

19. The Microphones – Microphones in 2020 (2020)

Elverum bringing back his original moniker was not a flippant decision, as this sole 44-minute track is a deeply reflective ballad of a existential crisis where time has passed and little has changed.

18. Caroline Polachek – Desire, I Want to Turn into You (2023)

This long-hyped electro-pop album from the former Chairlift singer delivered with sad indie diva vibes and Kate Bush-esque maximalism.

17. Waxahatchee – Tigers Blood (2024)

Alt-country’s greatest singer-songwriter since Lucinda Williams, Katie Crutchfield has struck gold in this lane, refusing any sense of complacency with tunes that could all be setlist mainstays.

16. Bad Bunny – Un Verano Sin Ti (2022)

The decade’s greatest global pop star reached peak popularity on this 80-minute reggaetón epic that could play front-to-back at any party setting without much fuss.

15. billy woods & Kenny Segal – Maps (2023)

Billy Woods’ unparalleled run this decade was capped by the greatest alt-hip hop album since Earl’s Some Rap Songs, thanks in part to Kenny Segal’s blunt production.

14. Jessie Ware – What’s Your Pleasure? (2020)

The best pop album of the decade that’s not preciously guarded by stans online is pure nu-disco bliss, in the hallowed league of Kylie Minogue and Madonna at their best.

13. Playboi Carti – Whole Lotta Red (2020)

Quite possibly the only major label hip-hop album this decade that is definitively in the hip-hop canon, Playboi’s third major record thrives on ad-libs, blown-out beats and wheezy hooks that nobody else can mimic.

12. Cindy Lee – Diamond Jubilee (2024)

Off in their own corner exists this behemoth of an indie cult classic — a 2-hour fuzzed-out tour through dream pop and noise freakouts galore.

11. Low – HEY WHAT (2021)

The legendary duo’s last album is arguably their best, far from their slowcore beginnings and deep into a spacious industrial post-rock dystopia where their wondrous harmonies are the guiding light.

10. Phoebe Bridgers – Punisher (2020)

Any detractors to Bridgers’ aggressively-sad early work (me) quickly changed their tunes as this album undoubtedly revealed who was the next generation’s most cathartic torchbearer.

9. Alvvays – Blue Rev (2022)

Finding the intuition to just duplicate some MBV guitar tunings, Alvvays elevated their indie pop (remember “Archie, Marry Me”?) into pure shoegaze exultation.

8. Bad Bunny – YHLQMDLG (2020)

Bad Bunny’s second album is his greatest achievement, quite possibly the most concise display of Latin music’s power in 20 wide-ranging celebratory anthems.

7. SZA – SOS (2022)

Heavier and sonically more expansive than her first classic Ctrl, this r&b epic runs the gamut of romantic emotions — conflicted, vengeful, infatuated, horny and all in between.

6. Big Thief – Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You (2022)

The greatest band of the moment reached their peak on this 80-minute epic, packed to the brim with indie folk classics and lyrics worth savoring every syllable of.

5. Beyoncé – RENAISSANCE (2022)

Her most cohesive experience as an album is fully indebted to and committed to honoring the black and gay pioneers of house and dance music with Knowles sauntering in and out as queen emcee.

4. Fiona Apple – Fetch the Bolt Cutters (2020)

Every Fiona Apple release is a grand event, reintroducing a singular voice — backed by always-incredible pianos and drums — to a new generation of the prideful, heartbroken and righteous.

3. Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & the London Symphony Orchestra – Promises (2021)

A minimalist jazz classic with few comparisons, this once-in-a-lifetime collab between saxophone, progressive electronica and classical is as majestic and tasteful as music can get.

2. Charli XCX – BRAT (2024)

For a decade plus, Charli has been the premier tastemaker of pop music to varying levels of fame and acclaim, but BRAT was a culturally-unified embrace of her, thanks to her best collection of songs to-date.

1. Waxahatchee – Saint Cloud (2020)

Fantano be damned, Katie Crutchfield’s alt-country pivot on Saint Cloud is a songwriting evolution worth hailing in the same breath as Springsteen’s Nebraska, also an album designed to listen to in perpetuity for all stages of life.

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