(On My Recommended Albums through the Decades) Part Six: 2010s
Sometimes I wonder why many people could easily dismiss the culture of the current generation as uninteresting, dumbed-down, or lacking in substance. They claim that there’s no more worthwhile stuff to delight or engage in. However, the problem is not really the current culture’s lack of great things to offer; in fact, there’s so much out there. Whether they admit it or not, the problem is their inability to appreciate whatever is new and unfamiliar to them.
Being a music enthusiast myself, I don’t run out of albums to enjoy listening to because I don’t let myself get stuck in the past and in whatever kind of music I have been listening to in my childhood and youth. There’s always so much to be had in whatever genre in any given generation.
For instance, here are my 13 favorite New Wave / Alternative Rock albums that were released in the current decade.
Crash Test Dummies – Oooh La La! (2010)
Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History (2010)
Florence and the Machine – Ceremonials (2011)
The Wild Swans – The Coldest Winter for a Hundred Years (2011)
Mumford & Sons – Babel (2012)
Big Country – The Journey (2013)
Johnny Marr – The Messenger (2013)
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark – English Electric (2013)
Robyn Hitchcock – Love from London (2013)
Suede – Bloodsports (2013)
Toad the Wet Sprocket – New Constellation (2013)
Breton – War Room Stories (2014)
Echo & the Bunnymen – Meteorites (2014)
Final Note
People who claim they are really interested in arts, music, literature, and cultures should not complain that there’s nothing more to enjoy in the current generation. If they are really enthusiasts, then they should have a sense of youthful wonder that will enable them to behold the beauty in new things, or at the least, they should maintain the openness to give these things a chance to grow in them.
