10 albums turning 10 years old in 2018
It is almost time for 2018, and that means it's been 10 years since some very iconic music was released.
Beyonce, Kanye West, and Coldplay were all making career shaping records back in 2008. While newcomers like MGMT, Adele, and Lady Gaga were also carving out lanes for themselves. Here's a look back at career defining work from your favorite artists.
SEE ALSO: Spotify's most streamed artists are all men. The music industry needs to do better.
1. Kanye West - 808 and Heartbreak
When Kanye won multiple Grammys for his sophomore album Late Registration, he gave a frantic speech. “Everybody wanted to know what I would do if didn’t win," said Kanye while holding up his trophies and looking directly into the camera. "Well I guess we’ll never know.” That speech was a perfect display of Kanye's hubris and his sometimes critical self-awareness.
808’s and Heartbreak was a left turn that very few people expected to be good, and even fewer people expected to change the course of hip hop and pop music in the future. After the death of his mother, Donda West, Kanye shifted his sound with an acute precision.
He ditched the sped-up soul samples and orchestral flourishes for Roland TR-808 drums and synth heavy ballads. Kanye West transformed in front of his audience without reservation. Now I wonder what would Kanye’s legacy be without 808’s and Heartbreak, “I guess we’ll never know.”
2. Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III
I remember hearing Lil Wayne’s “A Milli” for the first time. I was on a plane flying to London and I had the album on repeat. In fact it was the only album I remembered to pack in my carry on so I was stuck with the witty New Orleans rapper that had taken over hip hop with his Dedication and Drought mixtape series. It was hard not to be shocked by Lil Wayne’s verbal dexterity. He had the ability to twist words together like an anaconda until it seemed like you couldn’t possibly squeeze another word out of a line.
Every kid at my school would try to rap along to the words in his songs like we were competing for an Olympic medal. It was the triathlon of raps trying to land every rhyme with same ferocity as Wayne. The Carter III was the culmination of all of Wayne’s effort put into a single cohesive album. Their were some lackluster songs that wouldn’t be played on current rap radio but I’ll be damned if “Let the Beat Build” doesn’t live on.
3. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Ezra Koenig and the rest of Vampire Weekend was fresh out of Columbia University, sporting Oxford cloth button downs, penny loafers, and hand-stitched cardigans all while recording an album full of cryptic lyrics about the bourgeois, bound together by afro-pop sounds.
Vampire Weekend made clever lyrics about oxford commas and Lil Jon charming for the masses. Ezra Koenig the bands lead singer mixed his playful nights on Cape Cod with the breezy sounds of ska. In the beginning the band was an easy target to hate for their preppy leanings but they continued to grow on future albums and looking back 10 years its fun to relish in their playful first album.
4. Bon Iver- For Emma, Forever Ago
Looking back at Bon Iver’s 2008 album, For Emma, Forever Ago and comparing it to his latest effort, 22 A Million you can hear the artist's progression. Slow acoustic guitars, emotional rawness and soft vocals were left behind for electronics blips and reverb drenched falsettos. Despite the change in instrumentation Justin Vernon’s sound has never been more realized than on For Emma, Forever Ago a lover letter to a series of lost lovers. The album feels like a exploration into a snow filled forest accompanied by a smooth ambiance that only Bon Iver could have produced.
5. Adele - 19
Adele stole everyone’s heart with the soulful ballad, “Hello” which launched her already meteoric career into another galaxy. Before she became the patron saint of soulful British crooning she released the album, 19, 10 years prior.
The album was produced with the help of Mark Ronson, the same person that helped Amy Winehouse craft her sophomore album, Back to Black. Her first two singles, "Hometown Glory" and "Chasing Pavements" signaled that the young soul singer was ready for greatness.
6. Kid Cudi - A Kid Named Cudi
Kid Cudi used to be tucked away on my iPod Shuffle gathering dust right below a series of '90s hip hop freestyles and Kanye West albums. While many would consider this a mixtape, the self-described lonely stoner created a lane all for himself and the album stands out as memorable in the age of internet rap. Cudi's blend of eclectic samples ranging from Outkast to Ratatat helped create a template for his future albums. His dark persona and style of singing and rapping helped inspire a new generation of rappers like Travis Scott. His early mixtape was one of his strangest and most inspirational.
7. MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden came together to form the band MGMT back in 2001. One of their hit songs, "Time to Pretend" sounded like it was soaked in honey and had electronic psychedelia vibes. It told the tale of a young person yearning for the rockstar lifestyle while also realizing the dream was completely absurd. Their first album, Oracular Spectacular, became an instant hit and went on to sell over 1 million records. On the album the band had fully committed to the idea of youthful longing and unexpected success.
During an interview on the podcast Song Exploder the band explained, "We didn't really know what we were doing at all." Over time the bands sounds has morphed into something entirely different veering away from pop electronic melodies towards a sound much harder for people to digest. The band more simply stopped chasing their early pop success.
8. Beyonce - I Am... Sasha Fierce
Beyoncé held nothing back on 2016's Lemonade all of her tears were accompanied by a wooden bat called hot sauce. But back in 2008, Beyonce released I Am... Sasha Fierce with numerous hits like "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" and "Halo". They still had that intensity but in recent years she has magnified that focus to reveal a more vulnerable superstar that the music world needs.
9. Lady Gaga - The Fame
Lady Gaga had a moment in the late 2000s as pop music's offbeat new leader. Her image was daring and avant-garde in a space that had come to embrace normalcy. She injected pop with a sort of rush that had not been experienced in years. Pop music was still riding high, but Lady Gaga ushered in a new wave with singles like, "Poker Face" and "Just Dance". Ten years later, Lady Gaga's sound has shifted but her experimental image was exactly what pop needed in 2008.
10. Coldplay - Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends
Before Coldplay became everyones favorite band to make fun of, they came out with Viva La Vida a mid career rework that was supposed to add some intensity to their back catalog of records. The record went on to win a Grammy award for Best Rock album and it appeared on numerous year end lists. Despite Coldplay's current status as a boring band you listen to with shame, the decade prior had the band at the height of their creative output.
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