TOP FIVE UNDERRATED ALBUMS OF THE 2010s

This is the first of what will eventually be three installments of underrated albums from particular decades, working in reverse chronological order from the 2010s back to the 90s. I’ll be circling back to the 2000s and 1990s in a few months. There really aren’t any specific criteria for these lists beyond that I think these are great albums that are generally underappreciated in one way or another, and I wanted to find space on this site to discuss them!

Honorable Mentions

Ellie Goulding-Halcyon (2012)

Narrowly edging-out The Prodigy’s triumphant return to form (and, tragically, the final record with Keith Flint) in 2018’s No Tourists and Cold Cave’s 2011 icy-synthed, edgier Depeche Mode record Cherish the Light Years, this might seem a somewhat odd selection given that it was a major mainstream success. Having said that, I don’t think the album is properly appreciated for what it is: gorgeously-crafted, emotionally powerful and transcendent woodland sprite pop. It’s actually a very unique record in a lot of ways.

Deaf Havana-Rituals (2018)

This record is what the hyper-polished anthemic radio rock bands of the decade should have been doing.

Legend-The Pale Horse (2011)

Punishingly-heavy metalcore that seemed to get slept on for whatever reason. I describe this album as a Golden Ratio of earlier Volumes and vocalist Chad Ruhlig’s other band For the Fallen Dreams.

Grave Maker-Ghosts Among Men (2010)

Two words: "fucking bounce!" Ghosts Among Men was the second and final record for the Canadian road warriors who absolutely killed it live. Maybe it was the artwork that threw people off into thinking they were getting Amon Amarth rather than high-energy hardcore with very distinctive vocals and a bunch of sick mosh/throwdown parts to get kids "picking up quarters from the floor" that caused them to get overlooked, I don’t know, but for whatever reason they never quite got the buzz I felt they deserved.

Speaking of distinctive vocals, another excellent and underrated hardcore band that straddles the 2000s and 2010s is Mother of Mercy; I considered their record IV (2011) here as well. They leaned very heavily into Glenn Danzig territory, particularly his band between The Misfits and Danzig in Samhain, creating a dark and brooding atmosphere that complemented the raw hardcore fury and metal influences in creating a very unique sound. III (2009) and IV are hardcore masterpieces.

BONES-PaidProgramming (2013)

One of my favorite rappers to emerge during this era, this dude is prolific. If I had to pick one album that I think represents BONES’s best work, I would point to PaidProgramming, which is deceptively experimental in its own right and often downright catchy. Some of the highlights for me include: "RotatingBed," which has an 80s funk/R&B Oran "Juice" Jones-type sound to it; the Memphis-meets-emo-meets-80s synthwave of "Waking Up Crying"; and the haunting earworm beat packed with a bunch of absurd and (I’m assuming) intentionally-dated pop culture references of "JonathanTaylorThomas" (and beyond: honorable mention shout-outs include Macaulay Culkin 1992 and Bo Derek 1984), which also exemplifies BONES’s flow. BONES’s singing voice also adds another dimension to the dark and often depressive atmosphere that permeates the record, the vibe really anything but "chill," with the overwhelming sense that despite being superficially laid-back most of the time, there’s a deep sense of unease and even malice lurking just under the surface.

TOP FIVE

5. Hands-Give Me Rest (2011)

While the boundaries of rock and metal have been pushed outward dramatically through the experimentation of post-rock and post-metal, respectively, this particular direction is fairly uncommon in metalcore. Give Me Rest is the finest work of post-metalcore—not in the Bring Me the Horizon post-genre sense of post-metalcore but in the widening of the genre into these huge sonic vistas that paradoxically feel so intimate—this side of Misery Signals. While Misery Signals makes sense as a touchstone, the approach of Hands in crafting something so beautiful and expansive out of the raw materials of metalcore on this album is unlike anything else I’ve heard, however.

4. Harms Way-Posthuman (2018)

This album is massive in every way. The production added crispness and heft to what was already a crushing unit, and the intellectual scope of the record deals with pressing concerns of where humanity is headed, particularly with our relationships with the planet and with technology. By accentuating the industrial/Jesu-like elements of their sound further and somehow getting even heavier, what Harms Way did here was create a work of devastating beauty, an album that is vital to listen to in its entirety to get the full effect, impressive in its scope and ability to make the listener feel like they are "just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself."

3. Poppy-Am I a Girl? (2018)

Before she became the darling of the metal world, Poppy was pushing creative boundaries with rare fearlessness and vision; to me, Am I a Girl? is the most impressive and fully-realized example of said fearlessness and vision, not in experimentation for its own sake, but experimentation that felt so organic and necessary. This is another album that should be listened to front-to-back in its entirety, especially as it evolves in essentially three movements. The first portion of the record is fairly straight-forward and often tongue-in-cheek pop, whereas the conclusion explores what happens when contemporary bubble gum pop, 1950s and 60s girl-pop, and metal are brought into wildly-successful synthesis. In the middle, Poppy’s post-human android musings, futuristic synths, and other genre blending pays similar dividends, taking us from pre-guillotine ballrooms to apocalyptic ones, from the mad scientist’s laboratory to outer space.

2. Don Broco-Technology (2018)

Don Broco started out doing a kind of new wave-infused alternative rock style and some metalcore-ish stuff like "Thug Workout," crafted a pop rock masterpiece in Priorities under-pinned by its rhythmic muscle, and then dropped the slicker but also first-rate Automatic, an album that also found the band continuing to push their sonic horizons outward such as in the arena rock "Money Power Fame," the Hootie and the Blowfish-like "Further," the incorporation of electronic textures, and more. Not necessarily a radical departure from Priorities, but further evidence the band, like sharks, can’t stop in one place—and that’s a good thing, as Technology arrived and while still being clearly Broco accelerated the experimentation. Whether it’s the sludge-pop of "Technology," the funk-rock of "Greatness," or the pop songcraft of "Come Out to LA," this album is a genre-bending ride executed to perfection. And another thing: this band can write hooks. They are on the shortlist for the best and most interesting bands in rock today, not dissimilar to new labelmates Ocean Grove or countrymen Bring Me the Horizon in their ability to not just combine and explore different sounds, but have the results be so consistently organic, interesting, and memorable.

1. Young Guns-Bones (2012)

I could’ve picked their debut or follow-up to Bones as well. I settled on Bones more for nostalgia reasons as the final differentiator, as each of those first three records is equally excellent, and even 2016’s Echoes has some top-tier songs on it. Ones and Zeroes explored the addition of more electronic elements and All Our Kings Are Dead has more of a harder edge to it and the drumming in particular feels more "core." Still, Young Guns are a rock band through and through and a great one at that. Their melodies soar, the vocals suit the music perfectly, and the heart and passion add an extra intangible "something" to the songs that further elevate them, sort of like a rock version of the Bouncing Souls in that way. Many of the songs on here are stadium-ready, but they also shine when they go more meditative, such as on "Dearly Departed" and "You Are Not." Young Guns is everything I look for in a rock band.