Music & Films for
Common People
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100
THE ARCHANDROID
Janelle Monáe (2010)
In paper, a concept album about a messianic android in two suites of funky R&B sparkled with a wide diversity of genres, from pastoral folk to cinematic scores sounds overwhelming; in practice it is pure fun.
Best tracks: Tightrope (feat. Big Boi), Cold War, Dance or Die (feat. Saul Williams).
99
DOGREL
Fontaines D.C. (2019)
From the first minute, you know they are unmistakably Irish, unmistakably working class, and unmistakably young punks. An exciting guitar rock album that explores the anger and disillusionment of European youth.
Best tracks: Boys in the Better Land, Television Screens, Sha Sha Sha.
98
COEXIST
The XX (2012)
It never reaches the creative and emotional peaks of their debut, but Coexist still offers more ethereal and melancholic atmospheres, at times shiny and at times obscure, about worn out and fading relationships.
Best tracks: Angels, Sunset, Chained.
97
SLEEP WELL BEAST
The National (2017)
Their most adventurous album, In turns reflexive and in turns outspoken, part tenderness and part straight bluntness, it is subtle and careful in its transitions, but clear in painting emotional states in each track.
Best tracks: The System only Dream in Total Darkness, Carin at the Liquor Store, Day I Die.
96
TEENS OF DENIAL
Car Seat Headrest (2016)
Toledo worked arduously in polishing his project, releasing 10 albums in the span of 6 years, but it wasn't until Teens of Denial that he ended his searching period and found a sound that was urgent and personal.
Best tracks: Drunk Drivers / Killer Whale, Vincent, Fill in the Blank.
95
MALIBU
Anderson .Paak (2016)
Malibu is a cocktail that mixes funk, soul and contemporary jazz, and is served on the rocks to appease the summer heat, it will be fresh on the first sip, but will reveal a complex spice on further tastes.
Best tracks: Am I Wrong?, The Waters, Heart don't Stand a Chance.
94
HOW BIG, HOW BLUE, HOW BEAUTIFUL
Florence + the Machine (2015)
Welch's third album was a cathartic emotional relief brightened by powerful orchestral arrangements that never overshadow her powerful mezzo-soprano voice full of tonalities that reach intense emotional levels.
Best tracks: What Kind of Man, Ship to Wreck, Queen of Peace.
93
HOUSE OF BALLOONS
The Weeknd (2011)
We're not sure when was exactly that The Weekend got lost in commercial music, but we want to remind him with the hazy sound of his minimal R&B that dealt with melancholic late night stories of sex and drugs.
Best tracks: Wicked Games, High for This, What you Need.
92
NEGRO SWAN
Blood Orange (2018)
A beautiful interpretation of black music through history, as a way to celebrate the hard struggle that took to reach this historic point where a poetic introspection of growing up as a black queer man is possible.
Best tracks: Charcoal Baby, Nappy Wonder, Saint.
91
SHAKING THE HABITUAL
The Knife (2013)
The least accessible album from a band that already wasn't friendly to all public, Shaking the Habitual is a dissonant step further into the experimental structures and the political discourse of this eccentric duo.
Best tracks: Full of Fire, A Tooth for an Eye, Without You My Life Would Be Boring.
90
BROTHERS
The Black Keys (2010)
A refreshing take on blues rock, Auerbach and Carney add a touch of psychedelia and a lot of attitude to an album that never takes itself too seriously and effortlessly delivers good riffs and witty lyrics.
Best tracks: Tighten Up, Howlin' for You, Everlasting Light.
89
RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES
Daft Punk (2013)
A band that redefined electronic music goes back to the roots of the genre to bring a new perspective to all their influences, With 13 tracks of potential singles, it still sounds as a whole rather than a collection.
Best tracks: Get Lucky, Doin' it Right, Lose Yourself to Dance.
88
ROYAL BLOOD
Royal Blood (2014)
Powerful alternative rock, full of energy and rage, that shows that a duo of bass and drums can be as incendiary as any full band. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it keeps alive a tradition of good rock music.
Best tracks: Figure it Out, Out of the Black, Little Monster.
87
U.F.O.F.
Big Thief (2019)
A serious and mature piece of music, with refined lyrics that take little details as symbols for greater, almost philosophical quests. The straightforward structures get twisted from time to time to add complex layers.
Best tracks: U.F.O.F., Cattalis, Contact.
86
OUR LOVE
Caribou (2014)
Our Love shows the warmest and most luminous side of computer-produced music, while Snaith explores the possibilities of cohesing disparate music spectra in a sort of multicolored digital pop.
Best tracks: Can't do Without You, Our Love, Julia Brightly.
85
THE DRUMS
The Drums (2010)
The Drums is what happens when you make a cocktail with The Beach Boys, Joy Division and Backstreet Boys. An album that is happy summer rock with dark morbid subtexts and the catchinness of queer pop.
Best tracks: Best Friend, Let's Go Surfing, Forever and Ever Amen.
84
TROUBLE WILL FIND ME
The National (2013)
Rich in its lyricism and orchestration, The National kept delivering refined and mature rock music, and Trouble Will Find Me might be their most energetic album, the one that almost hints at their idea of bangers.
Best tracks: Sea of Love, Pink Rabbits, Graceless.
83
MBV
My Bloody Valentine (2013)
A cult band that bended time barriers and travel back twenty years to the early 90's, right when they paused their career, in order to continue the evolutionary line of shoegaze with a wider scope.
Best tracks: Only Tomorrow, She Found Now, New You.
82
PUT YOUR BACK N 2 IT
Perfume Genius (2012)
A tormented soul revealing their fragility and anxiety facing a hostile world where they haven't find a place and the only redemption comes from tragic love stories. Lo-fi production with a real purpose.
Best tracks: Hood, Dark Parts, All Water.
81
HUMAN PERFORMANCE
Parquet Courts (2016)
Parquet Courts is a band that gives zero-fucks about the industry demands, and just decides to have fun with their punk music, sounding adventurous, energetic and yes, silly at times, but the rawest kind of silly.
Best tracks: Berlin Got Blurry, Human Performance, Dust.
80
STRANGE MERCY
St. Vincent (2011)
It was the first time that Clark showed us her capabilities as a full artist rather than a mere singer-songwriter. Quaint and subversive, it was a juicy tease of the explosion she had in store for us.
Best tracks: Cruel, Surgeon, Cheerleader.
79
WHEN I GET HOME
Solange (2019)
Blackness and womanhood are heavily examined on the album, at times on soft and tender introspections, and at times with powerful protests and claims to reaffirm the power and beauty she has found in herself.
Best tracks: Almeda, Binz, Way to the Show.
78
CHRIS
Christine and the Queens (2018)
Adopting the alter ego of Chris, a gender-bending persona with a seductive masculine attitude, Letissier upfront tackles gender identities and social constructs with catchy hooks and a contagious retro pop.
Best tracks: Damn-dis Moi (feat. Damn-Funk), Doesn't Matter (Voleur du soleil), La Marcheuse.
77
VULNICURA
Björk (2015)
Björk was full back in form with Vulnícura by stripping from the pretentiousness of avant-garde conceptualism and instead baring her vulnerability. Complex, portentous and fully honest record.
Best tracks: Black Lake, Stonemilker, Lion Song.
76
JOY AS AN ACT OF RESISTANCE
Idles (2018)
With unpolished and enraged chants that use sarcasm as a weapon, Idles are relentless in attacking many of the hot topics of modern world, from toxic masculinity to immigration, with their furious punk riffs.
Best tracks: Colossus, Samaritans, Danny Nedelko.
75
NO CITIES TO LOVE
Sleater-Kinney (2015)
A strident war cry and a loud middle finger to rules and social structures, riot grrrl in a soundtrack for a new generation that has taken feminism to new heights and is set to destroy patriarchy once and for all.
Best tracks: No Cities to Love, Bury our Friends, A New Wave.
74
BON IVER, BON IVER
Bon Iver (2011)
After a minimalist debut, Justin Vernon went for a bolder sound, with a much larger and complex instrumentation that still captures the idea of an existential walk in the snowy woods of Wisconsin.
Best tracks: Holocene, Beth/Rest, Perth.
73
CONTRA
Vampire Weekend (2010)
A transition album that juxtapose the cheeky impudence of youthful indie rock with mature introspections on existential topics, a further development on the witty hipster lyricism that is quite a trademark for them.
Best tracks: Giving Up the Gun, Cousins, Horchata.
72
SBTRKT
SBTRKT (2011)
Avant-garde drum and bass mixed with tribal rhythms and dark atmospheres that are a siren's call towards the dancefloor. In the peak of dubstep, SBTRKT's debut was on the finer side of the spectrum.
Best tracks: Wildfire (feat. Little Dragon), Pharaohs (feat. Roses Gabor), Hold On (feat. Sampha).
71
ULTRAVIOLENCE
Lana del Rey (2014)
Ultraviolence was a first tweak in Del Rey's project, finer production of elegant and deep ballads that still dealt with flesh pleasure and pain, mixing pop, rock and blues with a sultry vintage California style.
Best tracks: West Coast, Cruel World, Ultraviolence.
70
ALL MIRRORS
Angel Olsen (2019)
All Mirrors is the darkest album in her catalogue, and also the most dramatic one, with a newfound love for string instruments mixed with subtle electronic touches to stage her sharp passionate vocal renditions.
Best tracks: Lark, All Mirrors, Chance.
69
BE THE COWBOY
Mitski (2018)
If in previous albums she has already addressed the feeling of not belonging, it's in Be the Cowboy where Mitski frontally confronts her identities, what it means to be herself and how she fits in the world.
Best tracks: Nobody, Geyser, Washing Machine Heart.
68
A CROW LOOKED AT ME
Mount Eerie (2017)
Phil Elvrum put all his pain after the death of his wife into a heart-breaking testament of everlasting love, a recollection of moments and ideas that feels entirely cinematic thanks to the attention to punching details.
Best tracks: Ravens, Seaweed, Real Death.
67
IN A POEM UNLIMITED
U.S. Girls (2018)
Exploring different personalities in each track, all of them victims of a choking system, Remy hits at the structures that oppress women. Patriarchy, corporations, romantic love, politicians; no one is spared.
Best tracks: Rosebud, M.A.H., Velvet for Sale.
66
PLASTIC BEACH
Gorillaz (2010)
Three albums in, Albarn kept showing the necessity of his virtual project, and by mixing moments of pure pop with avant-garde experimentations, he questioned the plastic and recycled postmodern lifestyle.
Best tracks: On Melancholy Hill, Stylo (feat. Bobby Womack & Mos-Def), Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon).
65
DAYS ARE GONE
Haim (2013)
With just one album, it was clear that the Haim sisters were set to be superstars of alternative pop. The freshness in the lyrics, and the energy in their instruments playing was a nice addition to Californian sound.
Best tracks: Forever, Falling, If I Could Change Your Mind.
64
SUCK IT AND SEE
Arctic Monkeys (2011)
The first draft in the evolution of the band was a pretty good effort in itself, a reinterpretation of the 80's post-punk, and proving why they might be the only indie rock band from the 00's that still matters.
Best tracks: Suck it and See, Brick by Brick, Don't Sit Down 'Cus I've Moved your Chair.
63
SILENCE YOURSELF
Savages (2013)
An aggressive statement of the importance of contraculture in music to question the status quo of our agitated noisy society and to celebrate freedom and individuality. An album that grabs and shakes.
Best tracks: Shut Up, Husbands, She Will.
62
THE IDLER WHEEL
Fiona Apple (2011)
Apple strips her sound to the bare basics: her voice, her piano, but overall, her sharp and personal lyricism. Yet, with that simplicity, the author finds a way to create a complex and creative full record.
Best tracks: Every Single Night, Hot Knife, Werewolf.
61
ARE WE THERE?
Sharon Van Etten (2014)
An explosive album where Van Etten exorcizes her demons on intense lyrics about pain, love and loss, with full elegance and deploying a high level of musical artistry. Vulnerability rarely feels this confident.
Best tracks: Your Love is Killing Me, Every Time the Sun Comes Up, Tarifa.
60
I SEE YOU
The XX (2017)
A record where the three pieces work as a mirror and catalyst for each other, so the music flows as if it was an intimate conversation that bares their vulnerabilities and raw emotions on rich ethereal textures.
Best tracks: Say Something Loving, I Dare You, A Violent Noise.
59
THE BONES OF WHAT YOU BELIEVE
Chvrches (2013)
Fresh electronic pop with shiny synths, ethereal atmospheres and heavy nods towards the 80s. It might be melodic and sweet on the surface, but on closer inspection we find the dark complex threads underneath.
Best tracks: The Mother we Share, We Sink, Gun.
58
A SEAT AT THE TABLE
Solange (2016)
A reinvention album that documents how the personal issues are always political through a very intimate approach to race and gender, demanding not only a seat at the table, but loud speakers for her voice.
Best tracks: Cranes in the Sky, Don't Touch my Hair, Mad.
57
BLONDE
Frank Ocean (2016)
Blonde is enigmatic and transgressive minimalist urban music that showcases a compendium of stories full of emotion and vulnerability, another triumph for Ocean in tracing musical identities of race and sexuality.
Best tracks: Nikes, Ivy, Pink + White.
56
REFLEKTOR
Arcade Fire (2013)
Reflektor, a departure for the band's sound, combines their instrumental baroque virtuosity with electronic dance music to question the state of the art of our contemporary digital society and of the art itself.
Best tracks: Afterlife, Reflektor, We Exist.
55
MY WOMAN
Angel Olsen (2016)
My Woman takes Olsen out of her indie rock confort zone, putting her in scenarios that range from the pop to the avant-garde, but always finding the way to use her vibratto voice as the central instrument.
Best tracks: Shut Up Kiss Me, Intern, Sister.
54
DAMN.
Kendrick Lamar (2017)
Once again, Lamar shows how rap music is a weapon against racism; rather than just rhyming, Lamar is confronting, exposing, demanding and setting fire to preconceptions on what rap music is about.
Best tracks: Humble., DNA,, Fear.
53
MASSEDUCTION
St. Vincent (2017)
Clark's approach to pop is Warholian, taking the culture of masses and imprinting an industrial technicolor manufacture to deliver a vibrant, contemporary and colorful piece with multiple layers of complexity.
Best tracks: New York, Fear the Future, Los Ageless.
52
ANIMA
Thom Yorke (2019)
Almost a gaze into a dystopian future where technological chaos reigns, Anima is aggressive and filled with anxiety. A harsh album that speaks to the most animal nature in our hyper-connected world.
Best tracks: Not the News, Dawn Chorus, Last I Heard (... He was Circling the Drain).
51
SWIM
Caribou (2010)
Swim is an elegant electronic album with hypnotic sounds in a shiny enveloping but dark atmospheres, a smart way to draw us to the dancefloor with sharp house that crosses the boundaries of techno.
Best tracks: Odessa, Sun, Leave House.