Decorated Youth’s favorite EP’s, LP’s and tracks of the decade
Written by Heather Hawke.
Coming from a small town that only had variations of top 40 radio (alternative, pop, country), as well as being the oldest in my family along with all my friends being the oldest in their family, I feel like it was hard to “discover” music…. MTV, VH1, and my local Tower of Records and Sam Goody stores became my go to ways of finding music. It became an event every time I got a new CD where I’d play the album in full at LEAST once and read through the entire album artwork/lyrics/credits. Staring around 2005, Myspace became such a quick, in real time way to find new music before it hit the radio/tv stations and record shops (if any of it ever make it that far), and many, many mixtapes and iPod playlists soon became my preferred way to listen to it all. After Myspace’s demise, I still craved discovering new music in any way possible, whether it be from Pandora radio, TV commercials, compilation CDs, and even digging through the iTunes charts and downloading their “free song of the day” tracks… it was when I started being actively involved in the music industry in late 2011 that my connection to music and a certain time period became even more heightened. Here are my favorite EP’s, LP’s and tunes of the 2010’s…. the ones that basically acted as a soundtrack for that decade.
When putting this list together I limited myself to picking one album and / or song from each artist and the playlist includes all releases (all my favorite stand alone tracks as well as my favorite tracks off the EP/album releases).
Acid Dad “Don’t Get Taken”
A Great Big Pile of Leaves “Snack Attack”
A Rocket to the Moon Wild & Free
“Creating Wild & Free was one of the craziest experiences I’ve had throughout my musical endeavors. Some of my favorite songs that Justin and I ever wrote are on that record. My wife and my dad say it’s good and now you guys agree, so thanks for letting it exist.” – Nick Santino
Alex Cameron “Stranger’s Kiss” (ft Angel Olsen)
Alfie Templeman “Like An Animal”
Alt-J “Dancing in the Moonlight”
Alvvays “Dreams Tonite”
Amber Mark “Heatwave”
Amy Shark “Adore”
Anderson .Paak “’Til It’s Over”
Angel Olsen “Shut Up Kiss Me”
Angus and Julia Stone Down the Way
Arcade Fire “The Suburbs”
Arlie Wait
“These songs are my kids all grown up and out of the house. I conceived and gave birth to each of them, raised them up with as much love and care as I could summon, did my best to protect them (maybe was a bit of a helicopter parent) and then when release time came, ready or not, I had to let them go off into the world on their own. Since the release I’ve been playing these songs over and over at shows, seeing how fans react, as well as watching the themes/motifs in the songs play out in my life — and in that process I keep finding further layers of meaning in each one that I couldn’t see while I was writing and recording them. While they were inspired by particular relationships and experiences, in retrospect they all feel more broad and universal. ‘Barcelona Boots’ is an indignant howl at the inherent unfairness of loss. ‘Didya Think’ and ‘Tossing and Turning’ are roasts of myself from an outsider’s perspective — roasts I didn’t know how much I needed at the time I wrote them. Two sides of the same coin. ‘Water Damage’ is starting over after a crash that breaks you into pieces, the moment when you wake up after being trapped all your life in a false reality, when you realize there’s a whole world out there as you finally start to look up. ‘Big Fat Mouth’ is the weight of the universe hitting all at once in a surreal collision of remorse and yearning. ‘Too long’ is similar to bfm — tenderness in the wake of an emotional mess. I don’t wanna police the official meaning of these songs though — I like to hear other people’s interpretations that differ from mine–and sometimes dancing and singing along can offer more meaning than anything we can explain in words.” – Nate Banks
Bahamas “Caught Me Thinkin”
Barrie “Canyons”
Be Good “Nightbus”
Beabadoobee Space Cadet
Beach Fossils Clash the Truth
Beach House “Space Song”
Best Coast Crazy for You
Beyonce Lemonade
Big Thief “Masterpiece”
Billie Eilish When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?
Bleached “Wednesday Night Melody”
Bleachers “I Wanna Get Better”
Blood Orange “Best To You”
Bombay Bicycle Club “Lights Out, Words Gone”
Bon Iver Bon Iver
Boygenius “Salt In The Wound”
Broncho “Class Historian”
Bully “Brainfreeze”
Cage The Elephant Melophobia
Car Seat Headrest “Something Soon”
Caroline Rose “Jeannie Becomes A Mom”
Charli XCX “Boys”
Charlotte Gainsbourg “Deadliy Valentine”
Cheerleader The Sunshine of Your Youth
Childish Gambino “This Is America”
Childhood “Love Simulator”
Chvrches “The Mother We Share”
Circa Waves “Stuck In My Teeth”
City and Colour Little Hell
Clairo Immunity
Cloud Nothings “I’m Not Part of Me’
Craft Spells “After the Moment”
Coin 1992
Courtney Barnett Sometimes I Sit and Think and Sometimes I Just Sit
Culture Abuse Bay Dream
Cults “Go Outside”
Dances “Suzy Lee”
Daniel Caesar “Japanese Denim”
Daughter “Youth”
Day Wave “Drag”
Death Cab for Cutie “You Are A Tourist”
Declan McKenna “Brazil”
Delta Spirit “California”
Demob Happy “Fake Satan”
DESSERT “Back Around”
DIIV Oshin
Dijon “Nico’s Red Truck”
Dizzy “Backstroke”
Dominic Fike “Acai Bowl”
Dope Saint Jude “Grrrl Like”
Drowners Drowners
Dua Lipa “Be The One”
Easy Life “Houseplants”
Elohim Elohim
Empress Of “When I’m With Him”
Fake Laugh “Short Of Breath”
Fall Out Boy Save Rock and Roll
FEET “Petty Thieving”
FIDLAR Too
Fireworks “Run Brother Run”
Flash Trading “On Display”
Foals “My Number”
Fontaines D.C. “Too Real”
Francis and the Lights Farewell, Starlite!
Frank Ocean Blonde
Free Energy Love Sign
fun. Some Nights
“It was really a joy to make these songs. We could feel all three of us firing together creatively on all cylinders. I won’t ever forget playing shows around the world, connecting with people, and seeing how our music had reached them.” – Andrew Dost
Gallant “Weight In Gold”
Garden City Movement “She’s So Untouchable”
Ghost King “Leech”
Grapetooth “Blood”
Grouplove “Good Morning”
Guards “Ready To Go”
GUM The Underdog
Gurr “Hot Summer”
Haiku Hands “Not About You”
HAIM “Want You Back”
Haley Heynderickx “Oom Sha La La”
Halsey BADLANDS
Hana Vu “Cool (feat. Satchy)”
Hatchie ”Sleep”
Hayley Kiyoko “demons”
Hellogoodbye “And Everything Becomes a Blur”
Her’s “Marcel”
H.E.R. “Losing”
Hinds “The Garden”
Homeshake “Give It To Me”
Honduras “Hollywood”
HONNE, Izzy Bizu “Someone That Loves You”
Hoops “Cool 2”
Houndmouth “Sedona”
Hunny “Cry For Me’
Is Tropical “Dancing Anymore”
Jade Bird “Uh Huh”
Jacuzzi Boys “Glazin’”
James Bay Chaos and the Calm
James Blake “The Wilhelm Scream”
Janelle Monae “Django Jane”
Japandroids “Younger Us”
Jessie Reyez “Gatekeeper”
Jaill “Just A Lovely Day”
Jaws of Love/ “Love Me Like I’m Gone”
John Mayer “New Light”
Julian Baker “Sour Breath”
Jungle For Ever
Kali Uchis Isolation
Karen O (ft. Michael Kiwanuka) “Yo! My Saint”
Kaytranada 99.9%
Kehlani SweetSexySavage
Kelsey Lu “Due West”
Kelela “All the Way Down”
Kendrick Damn
Kevin Morby “Dorothy”
King Princess “1950”
King Tuff “Psycho Star”
Lana Del Rey “Diet Mountain Dew”
LANY Make Out
Leo Kalyan “Stranger”
Leon Bridges “River”
Lion Babe “Treat Me Like Fire”
Liza Anne “Paranoia”
Local Natives Gorilla Manor
“Looking back on Gorilla Manor after 10 years, I still can’t believe it stands up as much as it does. It makes sense though since we spent so many hours playing together in a room to make the songs come to life. It’s basically an album of breakthroughs, where we’d slam our heads against the wall for hours on end with no hope in sight, and then we’d unlock something we couldn’t have imagined before. The beat on Camera Talk was one. The bridge on Wide Eyes was another. Shapeshifter’s dark, one note chordal progression. The house-of-cards-esque outro of Stranger Things. It really feels like all these songs couldn’t have happened before or after. I know the saying lightning in a bottle is so cliché, but I think that’s what that was. And I’m just extremely grateful to have been a part of it.” – Kelcey Ayer
Lorde Melodrama
Low Island “Search Box”
Lucius “Gone Insane”
Lucy Dacus “I Don’t Wanna Be Funny Anymore”
Lxury “Acid Rain”
Lykke Li “Hard Rain”
M83 “Midnight City”
Maggie Rogers Heard It in a Past Life
Magic Man Before The Waves
Mainland “Outcast”
Mallrat “Better”
Mansions Doom Loop
“Doom Loop was our idea of a “fun” record. We had been touring on our previous album and getting burnt out on playing songs that were such a bummer. While it has plenty of bummer moments, Doom Loop was definitely more of a rocker and a lot more fun to play every night. When I listen to it now, I think about how much we felt like a capital-B Band in that era. Everyone had their own perspective and set of talents, and it was more of a collaborative effort that it ever had been or probably ever will be again. It also impresses me how loud it sounds, knowing that all the guitars were recorded at whisper-volume in an apartment. But mostly I think about how this was the start of us learning to exist outside of the traditional music industry. We weren’t signed to a label and released the album with some old friends. We recorded everything ourselves. We had day jobs and normal lives and toured with vacation days. We weren’t trying to “make it,” and that felt ok.” – Chris Browder
Melody’s Echo Chamber “I Follow You”
Methyl Ethel “Ubu”
MGMT Little Dark Age
Miguel “waves”
Middle Kids “Edge of Town”
Milo Greene Milo Greene
Mikky Ekko “Kids”
Mitski “Remember My Name”
Miya Folick “Malibu Barbie”
MorMor “Heaven’s Only Wishful”
Moses Sumney Aromanticism
Muna “I Know A Place”
Ne-Hi (ft. Jamila Woods) “The Times I’m Not There”
Neon Indian “Polish Girl”
Nice Biscuit “Goodbye Luya”
Night Moves “Carl Sagan”
“This song was a song that I had written for our first album, but we weren’t quite able to figure it out in the studio so we shelved it. Fast forward 4-5 years towards the end of writing the Pennied Daysalbum, I thought I better have something more up-tempo so I dug this one out of the vault and finished it. There wasn’t much thought put into it and it came really easy, I remember John Agnello saying Carl Sagan was going to be a hit and having sat on it for so many years I didn’t think much of it as it was old news to me. I was much more excited about other songs on the album. As we were mixing the track though I could tell it was going to go over well with people. I guess that’s the way it goes sometimes when it comes to writing music, the stuff you don’t think too hard on are the ones that pop off. All in all, the song has been really good to us and I’m glad people dig it so much. “The more you think, the more you stink” – I think David Briggs said that.” – John Pelant
Noah Gundersen “Cigarettes”
Now, Now ‘SGL”
Pacific Air “Float”
Palehound “Cinnamon”
“‘Cinnamon’ is one of my only songs that has completely retained the same significance and feeling since I wrote it. When I wrote it, it was for pure fun but I was a little embarrassed by it. Now when we play it live I’m still embarrassed and I’m still having a lot of fun.” – Ellen Kempner
Palmas “You Were My Girl”
Paramore After Laughter
Parcels “Overnight”
Passion Pit Gossamer
PAWS “Sore Tummy”
Peace “From Under Liquid Glass”
Perfume Genius “Slip Away”
Phantasic Ferniture “Fuckin ‘N’ Rollin”
Phoebe Bridgers “Motion Sickness”
Phoenix Ti Amo
Pizzagirl “Seabirds”
Press Club “Suburbia”
Pond The Weather
Porches “Be Apart”
Portugal. The Man Evil Friends
“Making Evil Friends with Danger Mouse was one of the best experiences we have had recording. The way he works really connected with us and he has remained a great friend over the years. The songs that came out of that recording session remain the core of most of our live show. As soon as we pull one of the songs out of the set we get negative reaction from people so I guess people still like them and want to hear, that is a relief because we still like to play them.” – Zach Carothers
Public Access T.V. “Lost In The Game”
PUP PUP
Raye “Decline”
Rejjie Snow, Amine, Dana Williams “Egyptian Luvr”
Rina Sawayama “Alterlife”
Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever “Read My Mind”
Rostam Half-Light
Ryan Beatty “Haircut”
OK Go “The Writing’s On The Wall”
On an On “Ghosts”
Orla Gartland “Between My Teeth”
Oscar Lang, Alfie Templeman “Hey”
Sam Dew “Runner”
Sam Fender “Play God”
Sampha “Blood on Me”
San Cisco “Beach”
(Sandy) Alex G “Sportstar”
San Fermin “Sonsick”
Sego “Cigarette Kids”
Seoul “The Line”
Shopping “Wild Child”
Sinead O Brien “A Thing You Call Joy”
Sir Sly Don’t You Worry, Honey
“We wrote and recorded Don’t You Worry, Honey through the course of the most difficult years of my life. It was the only way that I knew how to deal with grieving my mom’s death and my marriage dissolving at the same time. Years later the album still feels magical to me. Not in the sense that I’m overcome with happiness when I think about it, but magical in the sense that my life has changed considerably since then, so it feels a bit like a dream. That dream took us all over the country playing festivals I had never imagined playing, it gave us considerable radio play, and a platform to speak openly about the things that were plaguing me at the time. I drank myself silly during those years, but I also had the very unique experience of people sharing their stories of loss with me as we travelled. So my view of the album is a mixed bag. Life is full of all kinds of mysteries, and paradoxes. Diving into pain can bring healing, however long it may take or difficult it may feel. Running from the truth is eventually scarier than dealing with it honestly. Human connection is medicine for isolation and depression. I don’t know exactly how to feel, but these days I try to practice gratitude. Music is still magic, and I’m truly grateful that we took the time as a band to make an album that I’m still proud of. “ – Landon Jacobs
Skaters “Schemers”
Sleigh Bells “Rill Rill”
Small Black “No Stranger”
Smerz “Because”
Smino, Ravyn Lenae “Glass Flowers”
Smith Westerns “Varsity”
Soccer Mommy “Your Dog”
Solange “Losing”
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin “Nightwater Girlfriend”
Sports Team “Kutcher”
Sports “Panama”
Spring King “Who Are You?”
St. Lucia Matter
Strange Names “Ricochet”
Sudan Archives “Come Meh Way”
Summer Heart “I Wanna Go”
Sundara Karma “Flame”
Sunflower Bean Twentytwo In Blue
“On Twentytwo in Blue we were writing a record to articulate the feelings and perspective of ourselves and the numerous people who we had met while touring our first album in the lead up to the 2016 election. Being engulfed by the emotional chaos that would follow as we tried to make sense of a world seemingly descending into hell. Meanwhile, in our hearts we were just three 22 year olds from New York trying to make an indie rock album. It brought us to thinking about what the steps forward might be, the personal, and the political. Us and our audience were largely the same age. We heard all the same anxieties, concerns, passions, and ideologies communicated back to us from our fans. We wanted to speak to them, and importantly others, about what the progressive youth felt. The best part has been seeing, in the time since then, how people have gotten attached to certain songs, or lines from the album that we could of never guessed. It’s those moments that keep us connected to the music and knowing that it’s a constant, evolving conversation.” – Julia, Jacob, and Nick
Superfood Bambino
Superorganism Superorganism
Surf Friends “Holiday”
Swim Deep “One Great Song and I Could Change the World”
Swimming Girls “Back of Your Car”
Swimming Tapes “Cameos”
SWMRS “Uncool”
Syd “Nothin to Somethin”
Sylvan Esso Sylvan Esso
SZA CTRL
Tame Impala Currents
Tangerine “Feel This Way”
Tegan and Sara Heartthrob
Tei Shi “Justify”
Temples “Shelter Song”
“Shelter Song is an important song to me personally, and also to the band getting going! It was the first time I’d used a 12 string guitar, and Tom and I were moving away from the old band we were in, I think there are times when we think, ‘if that song didn’t come about we may have still been trying it with the old band (or now doing a job that wasn’t being in a band). Shelter Song really started everything for us, and in many ways we are doing what we do now because of this song. The funny thing is, I always look forward to playing it, even though we have played it at almost every gig we have ever done!“ – James Bagshaw
Tennis “Origins”
“Origins represented a turning point in our writing. Our first record Cape Dory was a straightforward narrative with a lot of limiting factors that made it easy to conceptualize. When we began writing our second album, I had no idea what to say, or what I even wanted to say. The writer’s block was acute, and I spent a lot of time reading poetry, trying to figure out my voice. Patrick wrote the music to Origins one afternoon while I was sick in bed. I could hear him working in the next room over and in my fevered state the vocal melodies and descending piano part came to me. I jumped out of bed and showed him my ideas and we tracked them right away. The only thing the song needed was lyrics. I spent a week trying things out. Everything I wrote felt contrived. I decided I wasn’t being vulnerable enough, so I began writing aimlessly about how I had lost my faith. I grew up in a deeply religious home, my father was a minister and my siblings and I were all homeschooled to ensure a Christian education. As an adult my beliefs no longer mapped onto the world and my faith started crumbling away. It was a painful and isolating time in my life. I wrote the line “is it so hard to forgive the way that we’ve been made to live”–referring to original sin. Then, “a pitied pair denoted by a scene unfair, will you make my children bear the consequences everywhere”–thinking of Adam and Eve and the curse of their sin being carried by their offspring. It was the first time I felt like I was saying something important in my songwriting. It was the first time a song presented itself as a way of working through something painful. Origins laid the groundwork for our future songwriting. Our newest song Runner feels like a continuation of what we explored in Origins. It has a similar music bed — Patrick’s circular guitar riff with my piano playing underneath, while I sing about defending my choices in the absence of faith, “lead me to the promised land, your manna is only a famine.” – Alaina Moore
Tennis System “Such A Drag”
Tijuana Panthers “Front Window Down”
The 1975 I Like It When You Sleep…
The Black Keys “Tighten Up”
The Drums “Lets Go Surfing”
The Early November In Currents
The Front Bottoms “Twin Size Mattress”
The Hotelier “Housebroken”
The Japanese House “Cool Blue”
The Killers “Runaways”
The Lemon Twigs “I Wanna Prove To You”
The Magic Gang “Getting Along”
The National Trouble Will Find Me
The Night Game The Night Game
The Paper Kites Woodland
The Preatures “Is This How You Feel?”
The So So Glos “Lost Summer”
The Video Dept. “Heaven’s on Fire”
The War On Drugs “Red Eyes”
The Wonder Years Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing
Thundercat “Friend Zone”
Tobias Jesso Jr “How Could You Babe”
Tokyo Police Club Forcefield
“Forcefield took a long time to record, and it took even longer to write. We considered and worked on way more songs than we’ve ever done for a record, and by the second year of writing the songs themselves were starting to crash into one another, choruses riffs migrating from song to song, in search of a home. Inevitably, they all found their way back to where they started, having learned something along the way. It’s weird thinking about the whole process and then listening to the record, because my memory of the process is that it was wildly varied and constantly changing, but the finished product sounds way more coherent than that. It’s easily our most experimental record, but of course it doesn’t have a bunch of synthesizers all over everything so nobody notices. If we had to leave one Tokyo Police Club song in a vault to define our band to future generations, it would be Argentina, so the album has that going for it too.” – Graham Wright
Toro y Moi “W.I.W.W.T.W”
Tove Styrke Sway
Trace “Honey”
“It’s always been a favorite song of mine and I think it’s because it’s one of the most simple and honest songs I’ve ever written. It sums up a world of emotion with just a line like “give me something I can keep.” I think fans have been able to hear this song the most having been able to perform it stripped down love, carefully singing each word clearly and unclouded. It’s a pretty sad song but it’s cool to hear it has healed a lot of relationships or from what I’ve received from some fans. I wrote this song at first, wanting more from someone—anyone. Now when I listen to it, it makes me think how about much I expect of myself. If that makes sense?”
Troye Sivan “My My My!”
Twin Peaks Wild Onion
Two Door Cinema Club “What You Know”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra “So Good At Being In Trouble”
Vagabon “The Embers”
Vampire Weekend Modern Vampires of the City
Vundabar “Oulala”
Wallows “Pleaser”
Washed Out “It All Feels Right”
Werid Milk “Anything You Want”
Wet Don’t You
White Reaper “Make Me Wanna Die”
Whitney Light Upon the Lake
Wild Nothing “The Body in Rainfall”
Wild Ones Keep It Safe
Winnetka Bowling League “On The 5”
Wolf Alice Visions of a Life
“This album means a lot to us but I don’t think it means any more or less now we have hindsight on how it went down under the public eye. Even though we can see where we might have changed things here and there it is a snapshot of time and I wouldn’t have it any different. I love seeing what songs people like the most, it is one of the most exciting parts of releasing an album especially when it is one of the more unassuming tracks like planet hunter or after the zero hour. The reaction to Visions of a Life has been truly humbling and we are very grateful.” – Ellie Rowsell
Working Men’s Club “Suburban Heights”
Yaeji “raingurl”
Years & Years Communion
Yeasayer “Ambling Alp”
You Blew It! “Award Of The Year Award”
Youngblood Hawke “We Come Running”
Young Fathers “In My View”
Young Statues The Flatlands are Your Friend
“I was able to revisit the record through this and it’s been forever since I’d last listened. Brings back a lot of good memories from what was a really enjoyable process and also reaffirms how proud I am of what we made. At that point in our career we were under a lot of outside pressure to release something that would widen our commercial appeal, which contrasted what we wanted to do as a band creatively. Looking back, I’m glad we blocked out the noise and did what we wanted — which was to challenge ourselves and make a record that we felt could stand the test of time. Being able to look back now with a bit of perspective has helped me have a deeper appreciation for what we accomplished. I’d say I’m now more proud of these songs and this record than anything we’ve ever done.” – Carmen Cirignano
Your Smith “Bad Habit”
Yumi Zouma “In Camera”
