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Decade in Review

Whether we are calling it the “tens” or the “teens,” there has been a lot of great music released in the past ten years. To remind you of some of the great music this decade has produced, below are each year’s top 50 albums as chosen by WYEP’s programming staff.

Note that for some years, production deadlines required an October-to-October schedule, so occasional albums might show up in adjoining years.

2010

Rank Artist Album

1 Vampire Weekend Contra

2 Arcade Fire The Suburbs

3 Michael Franti & Spearhead The Sound of Sunshine

4 Josh Ritter So Runs the World Away

5 Mumford & Sons Sigh No More

6 Ray LaMontagne God Willin’ & the Creek Don’t Rise

7 The New Pornographers Together

8 The Black Keys Brothers

9 Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings I Learned the Hard Way

10 Dr. Dog Shame, Shame

11 The National High Violet

12 Broken Bells Broken Bells

13 Band of Horses Infinite Arms

14 Grace Potter & The Nocturnals Grace Potter & The Nocturnals

15 Frightened Rabbit The Winter of Mixed Drinks

16 Robert Plant Band of Joy

17 Laura Veirs July Flame

18 Spoon Transference

19 Bettye LaVette Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

20 Alejandro Escovedo Street Songs of Love

21 Sade Soldier of Love

22 Junip Fields

23 Delta Spirit History From Below

24 Corinne Bailey Rae The Sea

25 Ra Ra Riot The Orchard

26 Los Lobos Tin Can Trust

27 Tegan and Sara Sainthood

28 The Hold Steady Heaven Is Whenever

29 Carolina Chocolate Drops Genuine Negro Jig

30 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Up From Below

31 Brandi Carlile Give Up the Ghost

32 Sarah Harmer Oh Little Fire

33 Ryan Bingham Junky Star

34 Mavis Staples You Are Not Alone

35 Gorillaz Plastic Beach

36 John Mellencamp No Better Than This

37 Josh Rouse El Turista

38 Sheryl Crow 100 Miles From Memphis

39 Freedy Johnston Rain on the City

40 Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Mojo

41 David Byrne & Fatboy Slim Here Lies Love

42 The Tallest Man on Earth The Wild Hunt

43 Ben Folds Lonely Avenue

44 Patty Griffin Downtown Church

45 The Holmes Brothers Feed My Soul

46 Richard Thompson Dream Attic

47 Norah Jones The Fall

48 Sierra Leone’s Refugee All Stars Rise & Shine

49 Eli ‘Paperboy’ Reed Come and Get It

50 The Weepies Be My Thrill

2011

Rank Artist Album

1 The Decemberists The King is Dead

2 Fitz & The Tantrums Pickin’ Up the Pieces

3 Adele 21

4 My Morning Jacket Circuital

5 Alison Krauss and Union Station Paper Airplane

6 TV on the Radio Nine Types of Light

7 Fleet Foxes Helplessness Blues

8 Gillian Welch The Harrow & the Harvest

9 Death Cab for Cutie Codes and Keys

10 Wilco The Whole Love

11 Tedeschi Trucks Band Revelator

12 Lucinda Williams Blessed

13 Iron & Wine Kiss Each Other Clean

14 Bon Iver Bon Iver, Bon Iver

15 Cee Lo Green The Lady Killer

16 Ryan Adams Ashes & Fire

17 Feist Metals

18 Raphael Saadiq Stone Rollin’

19 Sam Roberts Band Collider

20 Elbow Build a Rocket Boys!

21 Ben Sollee Inclusions

22 Emmylou Harris Hard Bargain

23 Dawes Nothing is Wrong

24 Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears Scandalous

25 Foster the People Torches

26 The Jayhawks Mockingbird Time

27 Justin Townes Earle Harlem River Blues

28 Paul Simon So Beautiful or So What

29 k.d. lang Sing It Loud

30 G. Love Fixin’ to Die

31 Bright Eyes The People’s Key

32 The Damnwells No One Listens to the Band Anymore

33 Hayes Carll KMAG YOYO

34 The Head & The Heart The Head & The Heart

35 Dave Alvin Eleven Eleven

36 Beirut The Rip Tide

37 Buddy Guy Living Proof

38 Nicole Atkins Mondo Amore

39 Mike Doughty Yes and Also Yes

40 Amos Lee Mission Bell

41 Nikki Jean Pennies in a Jar

42 Motopony Motopony

43 Wanda Jackson The Party Ain’t Over

44 Ron Sexsmith Long Player Late Bloomer

45 DeVotchKa 100 Lovers

46 Fountains of Wayne Sky Full of Holes

47 Stevie Nicks In Your Dreams

48 Peter, Bjorn & John Gimme Some

49 Lissie Catching a Tiger

50 Glen Campbell Ghost on a Canvas

2012

Rank Artist Album

1 Avett Brothers The Carpenter

2 The Black Keys El Camino

3 Brandi Carlile Bear Creek

4 The Shins Port of Morrow

5 Jimmy Cliff Rebirth

6 Jack White Blunderbuss

7 Alabama Shakes Boys & Girls

8 Dr. John Locked Down

9 Dr. Dog Be The Void

10 Of Monsters and Men My Head Is an Animal

11 Mumford & Sons Babel

12 Michael Kiwanuka Home Again

13 Kathleen Edwards Voyageur

14 Rufus Wainwright Out of the Game

15 Florence & The Machine Ceremonials

16 Bob Dylan Tempest

17 Cat Power Sun

18 Regina Spektor What We Saw From The Cheap Seats

19 David Byrne & St. Vincent Love This Giant

20 Band of Horses Mirage Rock

21 Andrew Bird Break It Yourself

22 Beach House Bloom

23 Bruce Springsteen Wrecking Ball

24 Bonnie Raitt Slipstream

25 The Wallflowers Glad All Over

26 Beth Orton Sugaring Season

27 Norah Jones …Little Broken Hearts

28 JD McPherson Signs & Signifiers

29 Dar Williams In the Time of Gods

30 Passion Pit Gossamer

31 Aimee Mann Charmer

32 Calexico Algiers

33 Dave Matthews Band Away from the World

34 Delta Spirit Delta Spirit

35 Gotye Making Mirrors

36 Great Lake Swimmers New Wild Everywhere

37 Mayer Hawthorne How Do You Do

38 Sharon Van Etten Tramp

39 Glen Hansard Rhythm and Repose

40 Ingrid Michaelson Human Again

41 First Aid Kit The Lion’s Roar

42 John Mayer Born and Raised

43 Blitzen Trapper American Goldwing

44 Amadou & Mariam Folila

45 Heartless Bastards Arrow

46 Simone Felice Simone Felice

47 Patti Smith Banga

48 Father John Misty Fear Fun

49 Fiona Apple The Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do

50 Neil Young Americana

2013

Rank Artist Album

1 Tedeschi Trucks Band Made Up Mind

2 Iron & Wine Ghost on Ghost

3 KT Tunstall Invisible Empire/Crescent Moon

4 The Mavericks In Time

5 Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City

6 Steve Martin & Edie Brickell Love Has Come For You

7 Jason Isbell Southeastern

8 The National Trouble Will Find Me

9 David Bowie The Next Day

10 Jake Bugg Jake Bugg

11 Frightened Rabbit Pedestrian Verse

12 Neko Case The Worse Things Get, The Harder I Fight, The Harder I Fight, The More I Love You

13 Elvis Costello & The Roots Wise Up Ghost

14 Avett Brothers Magpie and the Dandelion

15 The Head & The Heart Let’s Be Still

16 Valerie June Pushin’ Against a Stone

17 Johnny Marr The Messenger

18 Mayer Hawthorne Where Does This Door Go

19 Joseph Arthur The Ballad of Boogie Christ

20 Laura Veirs Warp and Weft

21 Dr. Dog B-Room

22 Thao & The Get Down Stay Down We the Common

23 Black Joe Lewis Electric Slave

24 Billy Bragg Tooth & Nail

25 Blitzen Trapper VII

26 Laura Marling Once I Was an Eagle

27 Jack Johnson From Here to Now to You

28 J.J. Grey & Mofro This River

29 Phoenix Bankrupt!

30 Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion Wassaic Way

31 Josh Ritter The Beast In Its Tracks

32 Mavis Staples One True Vine

33 Patty Griffin American Kid

34 Brett Dennen Smoke and Mirrors

35 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

36 Dawes Stories Don’t End

37 Jesse Dee On My Mind/In My Heart

38 John Fogerty Wrote a Song for Everyone

39 Fitz & the Tantrums More Than Just a Dream

40 Camera Obscura Desire Lines

41 Gary Clark, Jr. Blak and Blu

42 The James Hunter Six Minute By Minute

43 Sigur Ros Kveikur

44 Gov’t Mule Shout!

45 The Lone Bellow The Lone Bellow

46 Erin McKeown Manifestra

47 Junip Junip

48 Michael Franti & Spearhead All People

49 Daft Punk Random Access Memories

50 Buddy Guy Rhythm & Blues

2014

Rank Artist Album

1 Jack White Lazaretto

2 St. Vincent St. Vincent

3 Spoon They Want My Soul

4 Rosanne Cash The River and The Thread

5 Phish Fuego

6 Lake Street Dive Bad Self Portraits

7 War on Drugs Lost In the Dream

8 Counting Crows Somewhere Under Wonderland

9 Arcade Fire Reflector

10 Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings Give The People What They Want

11 The Black Keys Turn Blue

12 New Pornographers Brill Bruisers

13 First Aid Kit Stay Gold

14 Johnny Cash Out Among the Stars

15 Sean Rowe Madman

16 Okkervil River The Silver Gymnasium

17 Ryan Adams Ryan Adams

18 Nicole Atkins Slow Phaser

19 Jake Bugg Shangri La

20 Foster the People Supemodel

21 Boy and Bear Harlequin Dream

22 Broken Bells After the Disco

23 Midlake Antiphon

24 Sharon Van Etten Are We There

25 Nickel Creek A Dotted Line

26 Delta Spirit Into the Wide

27 The Both The Both

28 Trombone Shorty Say This To Say That

29 Lucinda Williams Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone

30 G. Love & Special Sauce Sugar

31 Morrissey World Peace Is None of Your Business

32 Bastille Bad Blood

33 Jenny Lewis The Voyager

34 Beck Morning Phase

35 Elbow The Take Off And Landing Of Everything

36 Billy Joe Armstrong/Norah Jones Foreverly

37 Temples Sun Structures

38 Sarah McLachlan Shine On

39 The Hold Steady Teeth Dreams

40 Tweedy Sukierae

41 The Kooks Listen

42 Chrissie Hynde Stockholm

43 Robert Plant lullaby and… The Ceaseless Roar

44 Old Crow Medicine Show Remedy

45 U2 Songs of Innocence

46 Ray LaMontagne Supernova

47 Conor Oberst Upside Down Mountain

48 Fanfarlo Let’s Go Extinct

49 Old 97s Most Messed Up

50 Damon Albarn Everyday Robots

2015

Rank Artist Album

1 Alabama Shakes Sound and Color

2 Jason Isbell Something More than Free

3 Father John Misty I Love You, Honeybear

4 Rhiannon Giddens Tomorrow is My Turn

5 Leon Bridges Coming Home

6 Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit

7 Hozier Hozier

8 Florence & the Machine How Big, How Beautiful, How Blue

9 J.D. McPherson Let the Good Times Roll

10 Belle & Sebastian Girls in Peacetime Want to Dance

11 My Morning Jacket The Waterfall

12 Josh Ritter Sermon on the Rocks

13 The Decemberists What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World

14 Brandi Carlile The Firewatcher’s Daughter

15 Mumford & Sons Wilder Mind

16 Glen Hansard Didn’t He Ramble

17 Kacey Musgraves Pageant Material

18 Calexico Edge of the Sun

19 The Barr Brothers Sleeping Operator

20 Patty Griffin Servant of Love

21 Wilco Star Wars

22 Death Cab For Cutie Kintsugi

23 Galactic Into the Deep

24 Kasey Chambers Bittersweet

25 Kopecky Drug for the Modern Age

26 The Lone Bellow Then Came the Morning

27 Tame Impala Currents

28 Villagers Darling Arithmetic

29 Blur The Magic Whip

30 Dar Williams Emerald

31 Ratatat Magnifique

32 Son Little Son Little

33 Lord Huron Strange Trails

34 The Mavericks Mono

35 Of Monsters and Men Beneath the Skin

36 Laura Marling Short Movie

37 Ryan Bingham Fear and Saturday Night

38 The Arcs Yours, Dreamily

39 Sonny Landreth Bound by the Blues

40 TV on the Radio Seeds

41 Beirut No No No

42 Best Coast California Nights

43 Los Lobos Gates of Gold

44 Modest Mouse Strangers to Ourselves

45 Dawes All Your Favorite Bands

46 The Weepies Sirens

47 Warren Haynes Ashes & Dust

48 Ivan & Alyosha It’s All Just Pretend

49 Richard Thompson Still

50 Benjamin Booker Benjamin Booker

2016

Rank Artist Album

1 Michael Kiwanuka Love & Hate

2 Case/Lang/Veirs Case/Lang/Veirs

3 David Bowie Blackstar

4 Radiohead A Moon Shaped Pool

5 Margaret Glaspy Emotions & Math

6 Frightened Rabbit Painting of a Panic Attack

7 Lake Street Dive Side Pony

8 The Lumineers Cleopatra

9 William Bell This Is Where I Live

10 Sturgill Simpson A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

11 Andrew Bird Are You Serious

12 City & Colour If I Should Go Before You

13 Charles Bradley Changes

14 Paul Simon Stranger to Stranger

15 Beth Orton Kidsticks

16 Kurt Vile b’lieve i’m goin down

17 Lucius Good Grief

18 Local Natives Sunlit Youth

19 Norah Jones Day Breaks

20 Blood Orange Freetown Sound

21 Avett Brothers True Sadness

22 Joseph I’m Alone, No You’re Not

23 Wilco Schmilco

24 The Record Company Give It Back To You

25 Sara Watkins Young in All the Wrong Ways

26 The James Hunter Six Hold On

27 Lissie My Wild West

28 Marcus King Band Marcus King Band

29 Mavis Staples Livin’ on a High Note

30 Blind Pilot And Then Like Lions

31 Band of Horses Why Are You Okay?

32 Oh Wonder Oh Wonder

33 Coldplay A Head Full of Dreams

34 Iggy Pop Post Pop Depression

35 Adele 25

36 John Doe The Westerner

37 Andra Day Cheers to the Fall

38 Dr. Dog The Psychedelic Swamp

39 Bonnie Raitt Dig in Deep

40 Sam Roberts Band TerraForm

41 Sam Beam & Jesca Hoop Love Letter For Fire

42 Violent Femmes We Can Do Anything

43 Basia Bulat Good Advice

44 G. Love & Special Sauce Love Saves the Day

45 The Head & The Heart Signs Of Light

46 Tedeschi Trucks Band Let Me Get By

47 The Jayhawks Paging Mr. Proust

48 Amos Lee Spirit

49 Steve Martin & Edie Brickell So Familiar

50 St. Paul & The Broken Bones Sea of Noise

2017

Rank Artist Album

1 Jason Isbell The Nashville Sound

2 Regina Spektor Remember Us To Life

3 The War on Drugs A Deeper Understanding

4 Rhiannon Giddens Freedom Highway

5 Bon Iver 22, A Million

6 Nicole Atkins Goodnight Rhonda Lee

7 Sean Rowe New Lore

8 The xx I See You

9 Beth Ditto Fake Sugar

10 Spoon Hot Thoughts

11 Valerie June The Order Of Time

12 Future Islands The Far Field

13 John Legend Darkness & Light

14 Elbow Little Fictions

15 Hurray For The Riff Raff The Navigator

16 Aimee Mann Mental Illness

17 The New Pornographers Whiteout Conditions

18 Iron & Wine Beast Epic

19 Sinkane Life & Livin’ It

20 Josh Ritter Gathering

21 Nikki Lane Highway Queen

22 JD McPherson Undivided Heart and Soul

23 The Shins Heartworms

24 The Mavericks Brand New Day

25 Ryan Adams Prisoner

26 The National Sleep Well Beast

27 Tanika Charles Soul Run

28 Father John Misty Pure Comedy

29 Alt-J Relaxer

30 Jack Johnson All The Light Above It Too

31 Fleet Foxes Crack-up

32 Portugal the Man Woodstock

33 Grizzly Bear Painted Ruins

34 The Rolling Stones Blue & Lonesome

35 Haim Something To Tell You

36 Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears Backlash

37 Dan Auerbach Waiting on a Song

38 Sheryl Crow Be Myself

39 Arcade Fire Everything Now

40 Gregg Allman Southern Blood

41 Conor Oberst Salutations

42 Deb Talan Lucky Girl

43 Laura Marling Semper Femina

44 Grandaddy Last Place

45 The Barr Brothers Queens of the Breakers

46 Benjamin Booker Witness

47 The Lone Bellow Walk Into a Storm

48 Son Little New Magic

49 Bob Weir Blue Mountain

50 Robyn Hitchcock Robyn Hitchcock

2018

Rank Artist Album

1 Courtney Barnett Tell Me How You Really Feel

2 Janelle Monae Dirty Computer

3 Florence & The Machine High As Hope

4 St. Vincent Masseduction

5 David Byrne American Utopia

6 Leon Bridges Good Thing

7 Angelique Kidjo Remain In Light

8 Brandi Carlile By the Way, I Forgive You

9 Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats Tearing At the Seams

10 Dr. Dog Critical Equation

11 Amanda Shires To the Sunset

12 Paul McCartney Egypt Station

13 Cat Power Wanderer

14 DeVotchka This Night Falls Forever

15 Neko Case Hell-On

16 Phosphorescent C’est La Vie

17 Julien Baker Turn Out the Lights

18 The War and Treaty Healing Tide

19 Arctic Monkeys Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino

20 Beck Colors

21 Kacey Musgraves Golden Hour

22 St. Paul & The Broken Bones Young Sick Camellia

23 Death Cab For Cutie Thank You For Today

24 Laura Veirs The Lookout

25 Elvis Costello Look Now

26 Middle Kids Lost Friends

27 Ray Lamontagne Part of the Light

28 Lake Street Dive Free Yourself Up

29 Low Cut Connie Dirty Pictures (Part 2)

30 The Record Company All Of This Life

31 Saintseneca Pillar of Na

32 Glen Hansard Between Two Shores

33 Marcus King Band Carolina Confessions

34 Betty LaVette Things Have Changed

35 Anderson East Encore

36 The Decemberists I’ll Be Your Girl

37 Fleet Foxes Crack-Up

38 Father John Misty God’s Favorite Customer

39 tUnE-yArDs All Nerve

40 Langhorne Slim Lost at Last Volume 1

41 Shemekia Copeland America’s Child

42 Lucy Dacus Historian

43 Calexico The Thread That Keeps Us

44 First Aid Kit Ruins

45 Dawes Passwords

46 Mavis Staples If All I Was Was Black

47 JD McPherson Undivided Heart and Soul

48 Paul Simon In the Blue Light

49 KT Tunstall Wax

50 Portugal. The Man Woodstock

For WYEP’s top 50 albums of 2019, you’ll have to wait until New Year’s Day to hear and see that list…