Five Great Albums of The Last Five Years (2015–2019)
Music to live by.
The last five years of the 2010s released some great music. Shaping it into something which dominates the industry today. The commercial music landscape made hip-hop a driving force, but when you step away from the charts and view, the music landscape there are many artists who release excellent and depth-defying albums. Here are five of those albums.
Clarence Clarity: No Now
If I can describe this album in one sentence:
Justin Timberlake on steroids.
In the year that brought us To Pimp a Butterfly, a sensation was born. This is an insane 20 track glitch fest that takes you on a journey that would spin heads for the rest of the decade. Clarence Clarity, aka Adam Crisp (the producer and writer), creates a pop and R&B infused mess, throwing any beeps-and-boops, bell, and whistles in each track. Clarence is a fantastic producer; he can add on these noises and distortions into something coherent and listenable.
Clarence provides his vocals on the album. An average baritone with an R&B twang. His vocals at first can throw you off but grow on you on multiple listens. Clarence isn’t the best vocalist, but what he lacks in the vocal department he makes up in the lyrical department. The lyrics range on topics about faith and life. Having a moral sense of rhythm and poetic prowess to accompany the instrumentals. Lines like, “Gold pig peppered, strung up Like game. Split it with a holy sister’s sledge-hammer Hear my plier-plucked insecurities Flicking at a tongue-tied sonnet. Where I wrote ten zillion words of Shakespeare As they hit my white eyes. So I was in Hollywood At the witch house With the Reptiles And the Catholics. Before I get out, I’ll put cancer in the water. Before you got out, you left cancer in me.” Perhaps Clarence is applying that lyrics in the future, people view his lyrics upon as Shakespeare’s plays are today. Only time will tell.
Death Grips experiments with other genres on this album. After the powerhouse that was The Powers That B, Death Grips release a catchy and technical album. This album uses samples from punk rock to provide a more aggressive tone in each track. The album has more catchy hooks and flows than any Death Grips previous material. From the technical mess of Hot Head to the coolness of Eh, Bottomless Pit doesn’t bore. Death Grips clarified that they are here to stay and didn’t matter what you thought of them. It is too bad they’re offline?
Fit for Autopsy: The Great Collapse
In a genre saturated with bands, this album stands out.
Once in a full moon, a band no one ever heard of comes into the limelight, and releases their best work. The Great Collapse in this album. The production to this album is in your face and abrasive. The way they mixed every instrument sounds as if a, hence the title, a great collapse would occur. The vocalist shouts and screams vigorously with the instruments capturing the bands’ energy and anger. The lyrics focus on human civilization and the environment. A stand out track is Black Mammoth, with its infectious opening guitar riff and the captivating chanting in the chorus. This is a solid Metal album through and through. It’s powerful production and musicianship make it stand out from the rest.
Clarence Clarity: Think: Peace
By now, many music fans alike have growth in love with Clarence music, and No Now became a stable in the music community. His success with No Now garnered him many production roles with other artist (i.e. Rina Sawayama and Dorian Electra). The artist he produced music for gain more popularity than him, but Clarence continued to make music.
Two years after No Now, Clarence Clarity released multiple tracks with an effort to release another LP. Many songs were flowing around the internet, and Clarence fans wondered if these tracks would appear in an album. At first, Clarence Clarity had the idea of releasing an album called Leave Earth, but didn’t happen. It instead became a playlist of all the songs he’d made in the last two years. The release of a new album was inevitable.
In 2018, Clarence Clarity released the sequel to No Now. A ten track spectacle that followed in No Now’s footsteps. The album is more subdued and doesn’t have the same zaniness as No Now. It feels underwhelming to hear songs which have been out for years now, but with slight differences in this album. There are tracks fans haven’t heard before, but it isn’t enough to satisfy. Still, it’s a fun album which capitalizes on who Clarence Clarity is as an artist. It shows that you don’t have to make the same album again and again.
I’m not a retard; I’m fucking smart- Jon Mess.
2019 was an interesting year; It was the end of a decade, and social and political climates divided, and something huge was about to affect the planet. This album sums up 2019 perfectly. It reminds us of everything which happened in 2019 and lets you know not take things so seriously. Reminding us to sit down, have a good laugh or enjoy the company of others you love or appreciate.
This is the second album from post-hardcore Sacramento, CA band. The band comprises the guitarist of Dance Gavin Dance (Will Swan), Drummer of Dance Gavin Dance (Matt Mingus), and the harsh vocalist of Dance Gavin Dance (Jon Mess). They give us a post-hardcore marble which experiments with progressive metal. LP2 is more creative, fun, and wacky when compared to their debut.
The standout moments are Jon Mess lyrics. Fans know him for his goofy and random lyrics in Dance Gavin Dance, he also is one of the standout vocalist in the Rock genre. If you carefully listen to his lyrics, they’re quite poetic. Jon Mess uses a wide range of Repetition, Rhymes, and Metaphors. Here some of the best lines, “Little baby bunny. Little baby crow. Little baby bunny. Little baby crow, I’m smoking your pee pee and drinking all of your poo poo poo, It’s a bitch and a trip. A wet kiss on the lips. And you can flip off the kids. And you can make your dick hurt. I know one day I’ll be a flaccid corpse. So I guess I’m aiming to not be poor. I’ll battle with a flattened floor. And smash my mouth till A Star Is Born. Yeah, who can be a bard? I think I Wanna worship the best retard. I’m in a rhythm omelette. Acetaminophen is really your mom.” There are so many more. The lyrics pair nicely with the instruments and show off the aggression of the music. You’re going to have a good time banging your head and chuckle with the silly creative writing.
These are some of the best albums, and possibly the best of albums of the last five years. Each album showcases the type of energy and emotion each year brought, displaying music which can define the last five years of the 2010s. The next five years await.
