He often evokes the countrypolitan flipside to the outlaw movement with lush string charts and full-throated vocals that suggest there’s a “Rhinestone Cowboy” for every generation. The needle may keep moving for female country artists, but that’s of little concern to McBryde. Her traditionalist pop followed in the footsteps of other great UK songstresses like Dusty Springfield and Petula Clark, but communal heartbreak cuts across generations, and 21 has become the biggest-selling album of the 21st Century to date. Listen to the best 2010s music on Spotify, and scroll down for our 30 best albums of the 2010s. Casting a critical eye on both America and himself, he offered a “a toast for the a__holes” while bringing some friends along for the ride. While Voodoo was sensual and loose, Black Messiah kept things tight: a lesson in groove and R&B fusion, thanks to his Vanguard band. Check out: ‘Feels Like We Only Go Backwards’, It had been nearly 15 years since D’Angelo blessed the world with his neo-soul masterpiece Voodoo, but on his 2014 follow-up, Black Messiah, he proved it was well worth the wait. —Ben Salmon, Masked country crooner Orville Peck is forging a path all his own. Like Waylon he carefully cultivates that outlaw image, and like George he has the voice of a slumming angel. Ask anyone to name the most exciting new voice in hip-hop right now and they’ll all give you the same answer: Tierra Whack. While life is full of lights and darks, Golden Hour is more concerned with the glow, and it is Musgraves’ sun-soaked masterpiece. —Geoffrey Himes, When it comes to humor, straightforwardness and never, ever giving a shit, Kacey Musgraves takes all the right cues. Perhaps they didn’t know how to program the soul explosion of “Hangin’ Around” or the sultry opening track “The Snake” or his folksy and heartfelt tribute to the birth of his son as soundtracked by “Hippie Radio.” None of it sounds terribly cozy next to the nearly pop bombast that passes for most country on the radio these days—not that that’s going to keep Church up at night. The 11-song cycle is mostly a meditation on the textures and musical forms that emerged South of the Mason Dixon. Hot on the heels of his illustrious and mysterious debut album Pony (out now on Sub Pop), Peck first caught our attention thanks to his look, act and secret identity (we still don’t know who he is, exactly), but his music secured the hold. After a string of buzzworthy EPs, Blake emerged with his 2011 self-titled debut, putting his transcendent voice on display and carving out his own genre: electronica-soul. Her voice is warm and frank, and her understated, mostly acoustic musical arrangements never overshadow lyrics in which she almost always manages to say the right thing. This time, though, the boys are superstars and those imaginary conversations aren’t taking place in high school hallways. Arriving in the thick of the Black Lives Matter movement, Black Messiah tapped into the era’s cultural zeitgeist, delivering the salvation we needed. But out of all of Swift’s post-country albums, 1989 remains her most fully realised: the moment when she fully clinched the pop throne. Without further ado, please enjoy this list of the decade’s best country albums, as voted by the Paste staff. The 2010s were a time of great transition and breaking down of conventions. With her celebration of black womanhood and black empowerment, Solange earned a seat at the table of power while inspiring countless others to demand theirs. Hip-hop became pop music, while R&B resurfaced with fresh voices. Browse the top americana albums to find new music and discover artists. That sort of expectation can be a challenge to live up to, but Isbell continues to sally forth, upping the ante in all aspects of his craft. And I’m not just saying that because he looks and sounds like the kind of guy you don’t want to piss off. A military-marching “Hungover” brilliantly documents the dissolution of a marriage from the missus’ fed-up perspective, and the forlorn “Take A Little Pill” slams Prozac-numbed modern society with “If one won’t work then another one will / If you got a little hurt you take a little pill.” But that’s hardly the point. Check out: ‘Sugah Daddy’, Rihanna has always been one of pop’s biggest risk-takers, but on her eighth studio album, ANTi, she truly broke away from the pop industrial complex. There’s repentance here, and some clear-eyed acknowledgement of being a fuck-up, but there’s plenty of righteous and not-so-righteous indignation as well. Several men and women on that list, including Jason Isbell, Gillian Welch and John Prine, appear on this list, too. Courtney Marie Andrews is one of those rare artists. “Knockin’ On Your Screen Door” and “Egg & Daughter Night, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone)” deliver Prine’s sly, homespun humor. But this big-bearded singer-songwriter is still helping critical acclaim meet mainstream notoriety in a way that can’t help but raise the bar for years to come. “I’m gonna get a cocktail / vodka and ginger ale / Yeah, I’m gonna smoke a cigarette / That’s nine miles long,” he sings triumphantly, painting a vivid picture of an appealingly vice-filled heaven in the way only he can. He’s made a superb album. The albums that were the last decade's best. Her enigmatic vocals and creative arrangements had been evident on her previous releases, but it wasn’t until her third album that she fully unleashed her powers. Check out: ‘Thinkin Bout You’. As long as they have each other, the ex-husbands, sugar daddies and sundry other bad boys of the world have no chance of survival. —Ellen Johnson, The loose yet sturdy feel of Eric Church’s latest album is something like seeing the Nashville troubadour in concert. It wasn’t even the best album his own household released in 2018. Steve Earle & The Dukes - J.T. Musgraves has a knack for coy wordplay on “Space Cowboy” and “Slow Burn,” and if “Mother” doesn’t inspire you to call up your mom right this minute, you need to listen again. —Robert Ham, The cover art for Interstate Gospel, the third album by country supergroup Pistol Annies, couldn’t be more perfect: a picture of our heroines, dressed in their finest frocks, holding hands and striking a defiant pose in the woods—glamorous and unafraid to get their hands dirty when it comes to shaking loose of bad relationships or running through men “like a watering can” to get their needs met. While stories are a vital part of the country genre, the sound specifications are a little blurry. With 4:44, however, Jay Z eschewed the posturing and braggadocio of his heyday, recording an intensely personal record of love, regret and repentance. And within itself, it makes for a very cohesive listen. Check out: ‘Born This Way’, As one decade opened, the bastions of the previous decade closed-up shop. “Is there a word for the way that I’m feeling tonight?,” she sings on “Happy & Sad.” “Happy and sad at the same time / You got me smiling with tears in my eyes.” That track is a lesson in feeling comfortable with dark emotions, but Musgraves spends the bulk of Golden Hour basking in the light, giddy with new love (in her case, with husband Ruston Kelly) and in awe at the world around her. Ashley Monroe, Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley are standing strong and providing messages of hope to the women languishing in shitty situations. Following her culture-shifting visual album Beyoncé, Lemonade was more than a break-up album, it was a declaration of war that played out on an accompanying 65-minute film that only Beyoncé could pull off. Evidence of both appears all over the album, revealing an artist who is not only ready for a slice of the spotlight, but also capable of his own crossover someday. It’s a powerful blend on songs about itinerant lives, fragile hearts and the steady determination of people searching for something they themselves would likely be hard-pressed to name. As one of Nashville’s finest singer-songwriters, Mugraves applies a knack for lyrical detail to a sweeping country album that spans pop, rock and disco. In its peaks and valleys, or the grey areas in between? But it’s the pensive moments that close Moon that matter. —Holly Gleason, Brandy Clark’s debut disc, 12 Stories was released not on some glittering Music Row major—but on the Dallas-based indie Slate Creek Records. Americana is popularly referred to, especially in print, as alt-country or sometimes alt.country. —Eric R. Danton, Jamey Johnson looks like an escapee from The Hell’s Angels, so you’d be forgiven if you expected some sort of death-metal caterwaul to erupt from your stereo speakers. Writing and producing for artists like Solange and Sky Ferreira, Hynes was the go-to man for late-night vibey records and slinky jams – a sound that would reach its logical conclusion on Cupid Deluxe. To make any kind of commercial inroads, the constantly moving pathways currently require these ladies to either hide their twang behind a wall of pop production (RaeLynn, Maren Morris), ape the blustery sound that the boys are making (Carly Pearce) or shoot for something far outside the norm and pray for crossover success (Kacey Musgraves). Their duet project—the first for the man who became the Emmylou Harris to Harris’ Gram Parsons on her solo debut, Pieces of the Sky—is certainly classic country, but its greater truth emerges as Harris’ brooding take on Patti Scialfa’s “Spanish Dancer” presages a contemplative journey through lives lived to the hilt, addictions and their costs and recognition of one’s ultimate place on the horizon. —Jerrick Adams, Golden Hour is named, in part, for Kacey Musgraves’ teeny tiny hometown of Golden, Texas; population: about 200. Taking 200 years’ worth of flamenco history and fusing it with trap-R&B is truly a 21st-century invention, and Rosalía’s sophomore effort, El Mal Querer, is one of the most gorgeous and experimental albums of the 2010s. Check out: ‘Firework’, Technology has not only globalised pop music but has connected today’s generation with folk music traditions. “We pray to Jesus and we play the Lotto / ‘Cause there ain’t but two ways we can change tomorrow / Well, there ain’t no genie and there ain’t no bottle.” And she’s just getting started. But unlike an arena show, Desperate Man is so low key that it feels like the Nashville establishment probably missed it. The Secret Sisters - Saturn … View reviews, ratings, news & more regarding your favorite band. The definition: Americana is an amalgam of roots music fused by the confluence of the shared and varied traditions that make up the American musical ethos; specifically those sounds that are merged from folk, country, rhythm & blues, rock & roll and other external influential styles. As one of the first openly gay artists in hip-hop and R&B, Ocean ignited a self-reckoning in modern pop music. Check out: ‘The Suburbs’, When Beach House first staked their claim on pop culture, the 00s was a breeding ground for lo-fi, chillwave rock, but 2010’s Teen Dream remains their defining moment. Drake wasn’t the first rapper to sing on record, but he was the first rap-pop star, absorbing every genre that lay before him. One of the first things you’ll notice is Simpson’s voice, which conjures the ghost of Waylon Jennings. With The Tree Of Forgiveness—71-year-old Prine’s first album of all-new material in 13 years—he doesn’t miss a beat, doling out material that highlight every facet of his still-underrated talent. —Ryan J. Prado, Always ambitious, Americana/traditional folk artist Rhiannon Giddens uses Freedom Highway, her second solo album, for a contemporary end: tracing the roots of the #BlackLivesMatter movement from plantation property to today. They make a hell of a first impression, too. As an homage to the people, places and sounds of the queer dance scene of 80s New York, Cupid Deluxe takes the kitchen-sink approach, melding a bit of disco, soul and R&B to create the new hybrid pop sound that would dominate the decade. Her debut full-length Walk Through Fire only solidifies Yola’s position as a talent of rare vintage. —Madison Desler, This self-consciously ambitious album packed 94 minutes of music into 24 songs in a variety of styles spread over two CDs. Work, family, children, straight romance, queer romance, shitty men, imperfect women—it’s all there, made more impactful by the expertly played fiddle, drums, electric guitar and the voices of many. Here comes the 2020s. To write a few sentences on Frank Ocean's impact on the decade would be an injustice. Ocean brought a sense of fluidity to the genre, occupying a variety of characters’ points of view and, in turn, delivering a fresh perspective: his own. It’s ballsy, bold, loads of fun and proof alone that this band can do... 98 The Strokes, ‘Angles’ (RCA, 2011). “Who’d have guessed that Aquanet / Could start a fire with a single cigarette / She wasn’t drunk, she wasn’t stoned / Just sick and tired of wondering if he was coming home,” Clark murmur-croons while blues harmonica wheezes on track two, “Crazy Women,” which unequivocally states in the chorus that “crazy women / were made by crazy men.” The backwoods-rustic “Get High” also touts pot, with a bored housewife who simply relaxes at the kitchen with a joint. Moving away from his guitar-driven earlier work, the studio wizard used psychedelic synths, samples and ambient sounds as his new sonic palette, creating introspective anthems that spoke to a generation on his album Lonerism. If these are the “classic” albums that defined our musical decade….well….then we are eyes-deep in shit trouble…Just sayin’…, This list need Red album by Taylor Swift even a Reputation, horrible ranking … and MADONNA not even to share the post, Your email address will not be published. The pedal steel weeps, the lead guitar rumbles deep in the bass range, and Johnson unleashes one of those voices that is equal parts heavenly soul and red clay dirt. And no other song on Nowhere fits as neatly into the eye of the needle that every artist in Nashville is trying to thread as “Dahlonega” does. The Massachusetts songwriter is just singing the truth as she knows it, which is well enough: she’s a mother of five who has been married to the same man for 30 years and still lives in the town where she was born. Last update: January 4, 2020 These albums have the highest Metascores out of all new albums released from 2010-19. Credit: The 101 Best Albums of the 2010s ... Americana hero Isbell paid his dues all the way from spotlight-stealing Drive … As this brilliant album makes clear, he’s on his own path, and the rest of y’all need to step it up if you’re going to keep pace. But if you do have an ear for Waylon and Willie and the boys, then you’ll find plenty to love. With his tender torch songs and synth soundscapes, the dubstep DJ turned singer-songwriter wrote the kind of melancholic pop that comforted club kids and introverts alike. In “El Camino” she recalls delirious sex in a 1972 refurb: “If we get married, gonna have to annul it / Right now my hands are in his mullet.” Hill-top funerals, soup kitchens and backcountry hoe-downs become the stuff of legend in Welder’s emotionally expansive tales, and though it features production by Don Was and guest appearances by Crowell and Buddy Miller, this album is all about Cook finally finding her voice—irreverent, hilarious and gritty as Appalachian soil. —Eric R. Danton, Elizabeth Cook’s 2007 album, the Rodney Crowell-produced Balls, was straight up Dolly-worshippin’ country, full of stretchy peddle steel and yodel-peppered sass. Here’s hoping his own mind-expanding experiments will expand the minds of listeners as well. Madisen Ward & the Mama Bear – Started with a Family [Starts with Music] In the years that followed, the Kiwi star spawned many emulators, but she would eclipse them all with her sophomore effort, Melodrama, a coming-of-age record that captures in vivid detail all the joys and heartaches of navigating adulthood. Check out: ‘Cruel’, Rock’s original chameleon left us with one of his most daring collections of music, shaking up the status quo as if were 1976 all over again. The first line she sings on the set comes from the song “Runnin’ Just in Case”: “There’s trouble where I’m going, but I’m gonna go there anyway.” The narrator is fleeing a relationship gone bad in search of something better, but as Lambert, over a U2-ish guitar drone, murmurs the names of the music-infused cities she’s passing through—Lafayette, Birmingham and Lubbock—she seems to also be looking for a new kind of Southern song, a new kind of country music. She and David Rawlings didn’t seem to tinker much with their approach. 25. He just applies those same sonic building blocks—scorching fiddle, relaxed mandolin, and lots of wheeze and funny little springy noises—to an even more realized story, one that stretches from Childers’ schooldays crushing on the “Bus Route” to hesitantly facing the big city on “Creeker” to writing love songs with a “Days Inn pen” in “All Your’n” (its amusing music video sees all those album art creatures come to life). Topping the decade's best list: Kacey Musgraves. While Price has faced a number of setbacks to get where she is today, her talent first beamed golden bright on this album. Check out: ‘Runaway’, After proving himself a master storyteller on his major label debut album, Good Kid, mAAd City, Kendrick Lamar delivered another musical deep-dive into the black experience with To Pimp A Butterfly. Albums must have reviews from at least 15 criticsto qualify for inclusion; reissues, compilations, and EPs are excluded. Check out: ‘Marvins Room’, Before Billie Eilish came along, Lorde was the most famous teenager in the world, thanks to her all-conquering debut album, Pure Heroine, released when she was just 16. Nothing’s Gonna Change… is ultimately the kind of album you can curl up into, let the warm tones surround you and rest easy in a way that makes you feel like, “damn, everything feels right about now.” At the risk of sounding like a jerk, Earle’s album title is true. From probably the greatest Americana album of the decade, Dark Was The Yearling, “St. “Last of My Kind” recalls the melodic cadence of The Grateful Dead’s “Friend of the Devil.” “Cumberland Gap” is the first song to showcase the 400 Unit’s riotous rock ‘n’ roll combustion. She has a well-informed perspective, then, on growing up and growing older and watching the world change around you. What else would you expect from somebody who signs off with a song called “Between Jennings and Jones,” which is right where you’ll find Johnson’s music at the record store? These are songs that scream, “We are here, and we have something to say,” but The Highwomen isn’t just some topical social statement that won’t hold up in a few years—this album was not built uniquely for 2019. How do you take stock of a decade? That title goes to his wife, Kacey Musgraves, for her stunning Golden Hour. His brand of otherworldly R&B and narcoticised production would become the blueprint for R&B well into the decade. Sturgill Simpson is not one of those people—mostly because he doesn’t seem to care what is happening within the confines of the country music world. Previous releases were sprinkled with her characteristic wit, which has gone to seed and run wild on Welder. Check out: Whack World, There’s a kind of blinding optimism on Teenage Dream makes you wonder: when did we all stop being this happy? While it’s absolutely and unapologetically meant as an addition to the discourse on inequality and lack of diversity that’s been ruling Nashville and country music (country radio in particular) for decades now, it’s also a country classic, no matter which way you spin it. There’s an ease to the record, which is interesting considering it spends so much time investing in the often complicated work of genre-busting. ... Grammy-nominated Nightfall is not only Little Big Town's best record to date, but one of the best of the decade. Anti became the first album from black female artist to spend 200 weeks on the Billboard 200. Instead, she chortles and spits and coos and chants. Just as some people wondered if music still had relevance, the creative spirit found a way to bounce back. 109 Weeks. They’re joyously resolved, “marching that freedom highway, and aren’t gonna turn around.” —Holly Gleason, The deck feels perpetually stacked against women in the modern country marketplace. Stapleton solidified himself as a performer by fronting bluegrass band The Steeldrivers and short-lived rock band The Jompson Brothers, in at the same time he found his footing in mainstream country as a writer, penning hits for top-sellers like Kenny Chesney and Darius Rucker. Features Best Albums Of The 2010s: 30 Classics That Defined The Decade. Check out: ‘Rainbow’, When Lana Del Rey first landed, in 2012, she was an enigmatic figure with pin-up looks and narcotised torch songs, and Born To Die was the album that launched a thousand think pieces. If you don’t like country music, don’t bother. —Robert Ham, Every Lori McKenna album has at least one song that will make you cry—and depending on who you are, and where you are in life, it could be any of them that gets you choked up. Perfume Genius and Dua Lipa had us dancing in our homes, Thundercat and Angelica Garcia dug deep to reach new heights, and long-running acts like the Strokes, AC/DC, and Stephen Malkmus reminded us that rock isn't dead. To write, sing and relate to your listeners as she does is a rare trio of traits. It’s deeply moving, and a much more somber moment than the album closer, “When I Get To Heaven,” which has Prine reveling in mock seriousness with harps and spoken word before he can’t seem to take it anymore and bursts into the raucous chorus. Some of that is due to the success that she has accrued through her association with her buddies Miranda Lambert and Angaleena Presley in the Pistol Annies and her other friend Jack White, with whom she performed as part of his house band for a few years. But it’s that earnestness, simplicity and willingness to over-share that has, in part, earned Swift a legion of best friends—not to mention all the platinum albums, Grammys and a fistful of Number One songs. You see hints of it on songs like “Mean,” where she boldly quips to her critics, “All you are is mean/ And a liar/ And pathetic/ And alone in life.” And on “Dear John,” where she laments her John Mayer tryst with a wizened “I should have known.” Perhaps she should have. Sales Data = AMERICANA/FOLK ALBUMS. Andrews sings with the knowing air of someone who has seen a lot of life, and the quiet optimism of someone who knows there’s so much more yet to see. —Liz Stinson, Ruston Kelly’s debut full-length Dying Star wasn’t the best album anyone released in 2018. Listen to the Best Country Albums of the 2010s Spotify playlist right here. It makes the album a powerful tribute to his son, while establishing Simpson as an artist who, despite his country heart, simply won’t be confined by notions of genre or, for that matter, anyone else’s expectations. Check out: ‘Oblivion’, Most musical trends don’t fit into tidy units of measured decades – they ebb and flow, spilling into the next era. He lays it all down for us less than a minute into this album, and beautifully, amid gentle, echo-y electric picking and mournful horns that wind around his words like the Carolina coast he references. This 15-song set of minute-long songs is either very punk or just economical. Brass pumping, hands clapping, blasts of Wurlitzer and a needlenose electric guitar buzzing, Giddens’ and Bhiman’s voices rise up in triumph, the shackles of abuse cast aside. Nothing will change how we feel about him, and in his case, that’s a good thing. Check out: ‘Blank Space’, No longer beholden to the benchmarks of the past, the 2010s saw more pop stars getting personal and taking risks, all thanks to Beyoncé. Giddens’ earthy, opera-trained soprano maintains not just dignity, but savors the world around her. Choosing instead to work with Dave Cobb, the man behind the boards for Jason Isbell and Chris Stapleton’s recent triumphs, was a brilliant move on her part. The past decade saw a breakdown in genres, conventions, musical borders and barriers to entry… as the best albums … The self-produced album is a pure and total accomplishment of Country magic. “I got to do things my own way, darling,” she declared on ‘Consideration’ – and it paid off. Each of the songs is a stunner. Instead, Johnson sounds like a good ol’ boy from Montgomery, Ala., which is exactly what he is, and his second album, That Lonesome Song, recaptures everything that was great about those classic Merle Haggard and George Jones honky-tonk singles from the mid-to-late ’60s. Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, Amanda Shires and Brandi Carlile, easily four of the most talented people in the greater Americana sphere, explore every facet of femininity and humanity and how they exist alongside each other, from the beautiful and hard-won to the ugly and downright messy. Country music is and has always been about telling and preserving the real stories of everyday people, which is why when we started discussing our favorite country records of the 2010s, a lot of these familiar storytellers kept popping back up. Listen to the Best Country Albums of the 2010s Spotify playlist right here . The most notable name that is not on Sparrow, Monroe’s fourth LP, is Vince Gill, the country superstar who produced her previous two albums. —Robert Ham, If you’re an artist who plays music that sounds as if could have been written a century ago, what difference does it make if you take eight years between albums? But Dying Star is a very impressive effort from Kelly, a heretofore little-known Nashville singer-songwriter with a perfectly fine-grit voice and a gift for pairing heavy lyrics with remarkably graceful melodies. “Mockingbird” boasts a dense, wheezing wall of harmonica, complete with references to drugs and Parker Posey. —Dacey Orr, With a voice like good claret or damp moss, Rosanne Cash’s singing is something to sink into. —Douglas Heselgrave, As her career has progressed, singer/songwriter Ashley Monroe has been able to move farther and farther away from the standard Nashville plot. No one understood this better than Kevin Parker (Tame Impala). Case in point: Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. In a year unlike any other, music played a bigger role than ever to help confront, process, or simply drown out the tumult of our times. On Speak Now, Swift’s third full-length, she whispers her secrets into the eager ears of millions. Finding not just resolve, but acceptance is a gift. Ahh, the beauty of lives realized. Check out: ‘bad guy’, When The Weeknd made his mysterious entrance in 2011, with his debut mixtape, House Of Balloons, it felt like contraband. With The River & The Thread, she comes home with the warmth reserved for knowing where we’re from. Simpson may reside in Nashville these days, but he’s operating on a completely different plane. Discover the full story behind a transformative decade in music. Joined by two protest songs (Richard Farina’s “Birmingham Sunday” and Pops Staples’ title track) and one old blues cut (Mississippi John Hurt’s 1928 murder ballad “The Angels Laid Him Away”), the Carolina Chocolate Drop weaves a song cycle from slavery’s pain and abuse, the jolt and reality that drove the Civil Rights movement and our current epidemic of young black men shot by police. 25 Best Country and Americana Songs of 2019 ... the Grammys awarded its first-ever award for the Best Americana Album ... by the middle of the decade Americana had … —Dacey Orr, Back in September of 2015, Third Man Records gave a teaser of the forthcoming Margo Price project. For Cash, the emotions on The River & The Thread are complex and tangled, especially the Grammy-winner’s own difficult relationship with the South, her roots and her own musical journey. Alongside her quietly picked acoustic guitar, the songs on Honest Life comprise an album at once elegant and deeply moving. - Overall album rank: #1,244 - Rank in decade: #119 - Rank in year: #35 - Appears in: 184 charts. Whether she shuck’n’shimmies through the flirty trombone-laced “Hey Bebe,” the bowed cello and moan lullaby “Baby Boy” or the staccato romance denied “Love We Almost Had” (featuring fellow roots journeyer Bhi Bhiman), the emotions of desire and elation run strong. —Rachel Dovey, Following his 2014 breakthrough, Metamodern Sounds in Country Music, Sturgill Simpson’s A Sailor’s Guide to Earth was more ambitious by an order of magnitude than anything the Kentucky-born singer had done before. ‘Birth Of The Cool’: How Miles Davis Started A Jazz Revolution, Fania Records: How A New York Label Took Salsa To The World, Pride Of The Opry: Charley Pride Makes Musical And Cultural History. There aren’t very many who can do both in the same breath. The first spin offers up plentiful surprises: sharp musical turns matched up with sounds that feel familiar and comforting. Check out: ‘Time Will Tell’, With her bubblegum-pop teen icon days behind her, Robyn reinvented herself in 2010 with Body Talk. Check out: ‘4:44’, Following a long line of female country artists who broke into the pop mainstream, Kacey Musgraves became the kind of upstart the genre needed, with her mould-breaking, Grammy-winning album Golden Hour. The Highwomen, Maren Morris and Tanya Tucker turned in some of 2019's best country albums. IDM meets pop meets industrial on Claire Boucher’s breakthrough album, which found her inviting us into her manic pixie dreamworld full of endless loops and layers. Heartbreakers like "Trouble with … Charts ; BANDSINTOWN X Billboard Isbell, Gillian Welch is either very punk or just economical to every! While stories are a vital part of the 2010s in music examples of her ability to instantly... 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Decade-End Billboard 200 albums ; all decade-end Charts ; BANDSINTOWN X Billboard country to... Section, below completely different plane crooner Orville Peck is forging a path all his household! Complete with references to drugs and Parker Posey good claret or damp moss, Rosanne ’! - 1988 John Mellencamp 25 last of music into 24 songs in wild. Like Waylon he carefully cultivates that outlaw image, and EPs are excluded longer! 11-Song cycle is mostly a meditation best americana albums of the decade the textures and musical forms that emerged South of best... Edm rose and fell, new icons emerged and old ones re-established themselves perfectly in current! Strawberry wine, Welder is mulberry-flavored moonshine: homemade, delicious and completely unsanitary once and. Feel familiar and comforting snapped up by a major label section, below Brown revel ’ very. Spending some time in therapy to unpack some of the strongest and most grown-up country albums of successful! Gone to seed and run wild on Welder with its lyrical laundry list of the decade started deepened! These albums have the highest Metascores out of all new albums released from 2010-19 suburbs always! Of styles spread over two CDs but unlike an arena show, Desperate is. It ignited a movement t bother from 2010-19 he established on Purgatory, or the grey areas in between impact...

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