'You are what you love' | My Favorite Albums of the 2010s

Hello, it is somehow almost the end of the decade? And not just any decade: my first one as an "adult."

I was 17 at the end of 2009 and across the decade, I've graduated high school, moved to Austin, attended college, graduated college, moved back home, gotten a Real Job, been unemployed, moved back to Austin, started another Real Job – and that's just the professional stuff.

But this isn't about that. This post and the ones that will follow are not "decade of reflection on who I've become as a person" posts. They're much more important: we're going to talk about my favorite stuff I watched and listened to. Because let's be real: that's what's made me me anyway.

I was going to write about albums, movies, TV shows and whatever else in one post but then I wrote 900 words about albums so, LOL, we'll start there.

Favorite Albums of the Decade

I decided to start my media rewind with the medium I write about the least: music. I don't write about music often (and definitely not as often as 17-year-old me thought I would) because, frankly, I'm not qualified to. Also, while film and TV can obviously be very personal, I think it's easier to talk about those mediums in terms of "this is what's good about them and this is what's bad" than it is to do that with music. Music is extremely personal – to me, there really isn't good and bad, there's just what you like. It's what makes "best of" music lists basically pointless.

So, mine isn't a "best of the decade" list. It's a list of my favorites of the decade, the full albums (so, more than a couple of songs) that I listened to the most over the last 10 years or that made the biggest impact on me. And they're exactly the records you think they're going to be.

Animal – Ke$ha (2010)

Y'all, yes. Do you remember the lives we were living when we first heard "Tik Tok"? That truly feels like one million years ago. But Ke$ha's debut album, Animal, came out in January 2010, halfway through my junior year, and when I think of high school, this is what it sounds like. Plus, good news: the songs hold up and Kesha has just gotten better and better as an artist.

Light Me Up – The Pretty Reckless (2010)

While the general vibe of high school culture sounds like Animal, my teenage "I'm so edgy, y'all don't even know" personality sounds like the first Pretty Reckless album. I was obsessed with Taylor Momsen and even took a picture of her Jenny-is-a-punk-now haircut to the salon as a reference. Light Me Up still holds a place in my fake-alt-girl heart.

Save Rock and Roll – Fall Out Boy (2013)

Where were you when you learned FOB was returning? I was sitting in an 8 a.m. sophomore journalism class, frantically texting Maggie and Melany. It was truly a Moment for a lot of us who were teens during emo's reign and I still think Save Rock and Roll is a really great record (and much better than everything they've put out since).

E•MO•TION – Carly Rae Jepsen (2015)

All hail Queen Carly. Imagine writing "Call Me Maybe" and then writing better songs, over and over again. E•MO•TION is a perfect pop record where even the weaker songs are better than non-CRJ songs and I've listened to it on many a plane ride because it's downloaded on my phone.

Midnight – Grace Potter (2015)

Another popular plane ride soundtrack is "Midnight," an album Bryan recommended to me in 2015 and that I've listened to dozens of times since. Grace's voice is so cool (I was already a big fan of "Ooh La La" before I heard this record) and I love these songs.. I've definitely gotten emo about "Your Girl" before and "Nobody's Born With a Broken Heart" makes me tear up a little bit almost every time I hear it, even though it's a happy song. Being a person is weird.

After Laughter – Paramore (2017)

Speaking of how it's weird to be a person, Paramore's fifth album is about exactly that. I was going to love After Laughter no matter what because it's basically an '80s power pop record about being sad – but then I had my first Real Adult Job, where I felt awful almost every day. It was really hard but listening to "Hard Times," "Rose-Colored Boy" and the rest of Hayley and the boys' happy-sad tunes made it a litter easier. Which is why I basically didn't listen to anything else for most of 2017.

Death of a Bachelor – Panic! at the Disco (2016)

Listen, I've said this many times, but Brendon Urie is the perfect man. As I wrote back in 2015, I didn't buy A Fever You Can't Sweat Out until 10 years after everyone else, so I was extremely late to the joys of Panic!, but I was fully on the hype train by Death of a Bachelor. Every single released made me more excited for it and I still remember listening to it to the first time and being so happy it was as good as it was. I also may or may not have developed a Broadway musical concept based on it one day for no reason.

Melodrama – Lorde (2017)

Pure Heroine should honestly be on this list too because it is also perfect and technically more revolutionary – but I've definitely listened to Melodrama in full more often. Everything Lorde does is so much cooler than anything the rest of us will ever do. It was true in 2013, it was true in 2017, it will be true with the next album and probably for the rest of all of our lives.

Dirty Computer – Janelle Monáe (2018)

My life was less before I knew who Janelle Monáe was. While I knew and liked some songs from her earlier records (especially "Q.U.E.E.N."), Dirty Computer was the first one I really listened to and adored. She's seriously one of the coolest people in the universe, "Make Me Feel" is one of the best songs ever and when I saw her at ACL in 2018, it was a transcendent experience.

Master Volume – The Dirty Nil (2018)

My life was also less before the Nil. I saw The Dirty Nil during SXSW on Bryan's recommendation and became a diehard fan in approximately 15 minutes. I've since seen them a second time and listened to Master Volume endlessly, including every day for probably three months earlier this year. They're one of my favorite bands now and I've known about them since March – the album is that good.

Honorable mention: 1989 – Taylor Swift, (2014) Harry Styles – Harry Styles (2017).

I'll link to my other "favorites" posts when they're published! Here's to more great music in the raging '20s.