LogFAQs > #930737023

Best Album of the 2010s: My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West
Runners Up: Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty by Big Boi, Blond by Frank Ocean, Norman Fucking Rockwell by Lana Del Rey

A few things about album of the decade before I jump in to the write-up. When I was preparing the list, I came up with three tiers of candidates, which is why you only see four runners-up. Tier one is the undisputed album of the decade--a single perfect record that probably ranks in the top 5 or 10 of all time. Tier two consists of the four albums that I selected as the runners up (would be a hard debate for the #1 spot had MBDTF come out a year earlier). And then the third tier of really fantastic albums that deserve a mention in this topic and a half-sentence summary (in no order): The Suburbs by Arcade Fire (the quintessential album that bridged the gap from the 2000s to the 2010s), Channel ORANGE by Frank Ocean (essentially superannuated by Blond), To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar (universally acclaimed to be better than his debut by everyone in the world but me), Yeezus by Kanye West (Kanye's coolest album), Crack-Up by Fleet Foxes (which I am alone in having a fondness for, probably one of the loveliest albums ever), and A Moon Shaped Pool by Radiohead (as a Radiohead stan, I am saddened that everyone has stopped fawning over them despite a stellar release).

But onto the runners up. You may remember a very long time ago (2013 maybe?) that I had a topic series going through the 50 greatest hip-hop albums of all time. I had GKMC at the #1 spot. It had just been released, and it was everything I wanted in a rap album--consistent themes, incredible production, lyrical mastery, that west coast flow that I grew up loving. Sir Lucious Left Foot was also in my top 10, since it was (and still is) the most fun I have ever had listening to an album. Both were ahead of MBDTF. But time has a way of revealing true greatness, and I obviously hold Kanye's magnum opus in higher regard now. That being said, they still are my #2 and #3 albums of the decade, so major props to them.

Blond and Norman Fucking Rockwell likewise are masterpieces in their respective genres and the culmination of two very important artists that came into their own in the past ten years. Like I wrote in the "Ivy" section, Blond is just teeming with wistful nostalgia and heartbreak. It's perhaps the most "emotionally 2010s" record on here. Norman Fucking Rockwell is a recent release, and my god is it good. Almost ostentatiously melodramatic, Lana Del Rey bottles up everything that makes her unique and interesting amongst a sea of other emo-pop stars this generation and creates something so spectacular that I am still stunned it exists.

But as great as those four runners up are, nothing really comes close to touching My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. I remember posting on this board the very minute Kanye released a sneak preview of selected tracks in the form of a long music video on YouTube (I think it was Dark Fantasy, All of the Lights, and Runaway). I said it then and I can confirm now: this was the start of something special. All of his pain from his mother's death, all of the faux pas in his sudden rise to superstardom (literally having two presidents saying what a dick he is), and most importantly the heartbreak of the end of his long-term relationship--all of these coalesced into an operatic medley of Kanye's most profound tracks he's ever recorded. This is an album, my friends. Listen to it front to back. Listen to it uninterrupted. Listen to his journey from satanic depravity through ultimate redemption. It's the greatest breakup album of all time. It humanizes a profoundly unempathetic figure in pop culture. It has stood the test of time and will go down as the single best record since Kid A. Long live Kanye West.
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