In 2017, Willie Nelson released "God's Problem Child" (7/10) on which he sang, "I woke up still not dead again today." He was one of several artists who still hadn't died by the end of this decade, artists who had been making great music since the 60s or 70s, defying expectations. Willie was still paying off the taxman by giving us an album a year, and quality was in no way compromised by quantity, as validated by "Last Man Standing" (7/10 2018) and "Ride me Back Home" (7/10 2019). Dylan was still not dead and started his 70s with "Tempest" (8/10 2012), then did a lot of painting and Frank Sinatra covers and just when you thought he'd given up writing his own songs, he snuck up and put out "Rough and Rowdy Ways" (8/10) in 2020. Similarly, Springsteen, Neil Young and Richard Thompson farted in the face of death with a good few decent albums between them.
This wasn't enough to make this a good decade for music though.
There were some highlights. I discovered 'Hurray for the Riff Raff' on Jools Holland's "Later..." TV show, on which he consistently manages to showcase a great band every so often in between all the tedious world music, musically competent but unappealing dross and inane interviews with 'legends' whom he blackmails into letting him play boogie woogie piano alongside. Hurray for the Riff Raff are my band of the decade, although in effect they is a she, not in a pronoun fluid sort of way, but in terms of the fact that Alynda Lee Segarra is the singer-songwriter and the rest of the band are a rotation of session musicians. Hurray for the Riff Raff help to provide the bulk of the 8/10 and 9/10 albums of the era - the eponymous debut in 2011 (8/10), "Look out Mama" in 2012 (9/10), a covers album "My Dearest, Darkest Neighbour" in 2013 (8/10) with amazingly beautiful versions of My Sweet Lord and Jealous Guy, "Small Town Heroes" in 2014 (9/10) and "The Navigator" in 2017 (9/10).
The few other top albums of the decade come from the previous decade's favourites, I am Kloot ("Let it all In" 10/10 2013) and The Decemberists ("The King is Dead" 9/10 2011, "What a terrible world, what a beautiful world" 8/10 2015 and "I'll be your Girl" 9/10 2018). My other discovery of the decade, albeit with a back catalogue to the early 80s, was Robyn Hitchcock. My first gig after this discovery was the intimate Betsy Trotwood pub near Farringdon, where I bought "Tromso, Kaptein" (8/10 2011) from the merch stand and asked the man himself to sign it "about bloody time" when I admitted it had taken me nearly 40 years to get into his music. His current LP at this time was as good as any he'd done in a prolific, but slightly obscure career, a self-titled record (8/10 2017). Who waits nearly 40 years to release a self-titled album? Did he just run out of ideas for titles? And in between he gave us "The Man Upstairs" (8/10 2014).
Finally, a special mention to the last few remaining albums to score 8+. David Bowie's hugely tragic death in 2017 coincided with a pretty intriguing and enjoyable album "Black Star" (7/10) and followed his unexpectedly brilliant comeback album in 2013, "The Next Day" (8/10). Noel Gallagher proved that he could reach the same heights as Oasis without Oasis on "Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds" (8/10 2011). Neil Young, relentlessly creative, was closest to his best on "Peace Trail" (8/10 2016) and "Hitch Hiker" (8/10 2017). And Belly's 20 year hiatus ended with a superb comeback album "Dove" (8/10 2018).
Below these are albums by country stars Jason and Margo Price - two consistently good artists on my list of who to see in concert.
But overall, I've struggled to fill the top ten lists in this decade. Sometimes, I have to drop down to the 5/10 level LPs and occasionally I can't even fill ten spaces. Music has very definitely been on a downward trajectory over the decades. But gradually. And I still discover old stuff that I'd previously overlooked. And I have enough in my collection to keep me happy anyway (not that I ever go a month without buying a few more records.)
If you've been reading these blog posts, then thank you for indulging my nerdy need to write about something that I care passionately about. Hopefully, it's made you consider checking out something I have praised and sometimes prompted some interest in my rating of an album that you may love.
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