In 2006, Arctic Monkeys debuted at #1 with an instant classic debut widely hailed as the first to be organically catapulted all the way there from the corners of an Internet where Myspace was ascendant and social media was yet to become a dirty phrase; a word-of-mouse juggernaut. In 2022, Wet Leg’s self-titled debut became the first ever Isle of Wight album to put a lid on the same chart, despite it seeming like nobody had even heard of them. Where were these songs being played and how had they attracted such fervent Guardianista acclaim?
To many it felt like a pyramid scheme despite the excellence of “Chaise Longue”, until closing track “Too Late Now” stormed the airwaves and recontextualised the band’s schtick, namely a cooler-than-thou arthouse guitar approach pitched equidistantly between landfill indie and the snook-cocking Strokes and Libertines garage riffs which activated said generation, topped with “Suck It & See”-era Monkeys basslines wobbling like Bird’s Custard. Playful, arch and soaked in ennui, the lyrics aren’t quite on Florence Shaw’s level of detachment but skirt close, with references such as to “Mean Girls” and Vincent Gallo never far away. Despite its greatness, this record’s success seems the bellwether to mark the toppling of the post-punk Brexitwave house of cards. They’re selling Boris wigs on Etsy; Brexit is over and even its advocates know it’s a disaster.
Queen Bey had the universe of commercial singles locked down before morphing into an outstanding album artist with “Beyoncé” (2013) and the epochal pop album “Lemonade” (2016). Despite that, her 2018 Coachella-headline show and the accompanying all-time great concert movie “Homecoming” are merely her most recent volcanic apogee. We just welcomed her back into active public consciousness with the rocket-powered Juneteenth smash “Black Parade”.
Most recent: “Lemonade” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Beyoncé” (2013)
9. Frank Ocean
A one-album superstar after “Channel Orange”, Frank outdid himself with 2016’s spectacular bedroom RnB fantasia “Blonde”. Nobody charts the mountain ranges of Millennial relationships with such devastating, surgical insight, across a gold rush of sublimely crafted pop, soul and rhythm and blues songs with a decisive indie flair. An utterly elusive live act who seems currently settled on an evolving puzzlebox of single releases, Frank continues to be a beautiful phenom.
Most recent: “Blonde” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Channel Orange” (2012)
8. Deftones
The dream-weaving Sacramento alt-metallers peacock their myriad influences and are poster boys for the tentative critical reassessment of nu-metal currently gathering steam, but ejected from the genre’s orbit way back with their 2000 classic “White Pony”. The 2010s saw them release three albums comprising their finest work to date. No other metal band can quite match the aerodynamics of Stephen Carpenter’s guitar playing or Chino Moreno’s impassioned vocals.
Most recent: “Gore” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “White Pony” (2000)
7. Bon Iver
Justin Vernon has well-established pedigree for melding the sacred with the supposedly tasteless, seamlessly marrying Autotune and yacht rock to the unlikely realms of indie folk and art rock before anyone else dared. It doesn’t hurt that he is a once-in-a-generation songwriter with an inimitable ability to bend the very contours of what constitutes a melody or a song and is on an increasingly expressionistic streak of album writing most recently extended by the jigsaw-esque “i,i”.
Most recent: “i,i” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “22, A Million” (2016)
6. Death Grips
Nobody else has sounded like the first truly futuristic band of the 21st Century since they blasted out of Sacramento in the early 2010s as the most profound cultural response to the nightmare of late capitalism. Providing vital reworkings of punk and hip hop simultaneously, with a trenchantly electronic focus, and the source of a veritable production line of music lore memes replicating like grey goo, Death Grips are the leaders of a Transatlantic collective of acts proving that angry men need not be regressive.
Most recent: “Year Of The Snitch” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “The Money Store” (2012)
5. Lana Del Rey
The critically deified “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” is the culmination of a decade of work from Del Rey flavoured with literary aspiration and interrogating the exceptionally dark side lurking behind chocolate box Americana. Del Rey’s magnum opus, marking her out as the nation’s finest songwriter, is a fascinating, multi-storey character study which delves into a national psychology and finds a dysfunctional America which is perpetually 33 years old.
Most recent: “Lust For Life” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Norman Fucking Rockwell!” (2019)
4. The Hotelier
At the vanguard of the 2010s emo revival, these Worcester, Massachusetts upstarts exclusively craft life-affirming, emotionally turbulent rock music. In an era where guitars have been largely eschewed in popular music, “Home, Like Noplace Is There” (2014) and “Goodness” (2016) are rare gemstones of a contemporary folk mythology constellating across white suburbia. The Hotelier are the finest band in the United States of America.
Most recent: “Goodness” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Home, Like Noplace Is There” (2014)
3. The Weeknd
Since emerging with a store-ready mystique on 2011’s “House of Balloons”, Scarborough, Ontario’s Dark Knight has elevated the fusion of musicality and aesthetics to unrivalled heights, remunerated with a dominant chart presence. The ever-woozy, cinema-indebted “After Hours”, the international smash hit album of the Covid-19 pandemic, is his best work yet, finally locating a slippery sweet spot between 80s pop nostalgia and the multi-suite darkwave RnB which minted his name.
Most recent: “After Hours” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “House Of Balloons” (2011)
2. The 1975
More than any other act, The 1975 have articulated the way digital culture has influenced reality and vice versa; the unspeakable synthesis. As if harnessing a sonic singularity, the band seems kitted out to plug into genres at will without ever losing fidelity. Their supercharged fourth album “Notes On A Conditional Form” deeply explores the crossover between underground electronic music and pop while charting the band’s evolution into the world’s best. All three of their previous records are dyed-in-the-wool future classics.
Most recent: “Notes On A Conditional Form” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships” (2018)
1. Kendrick Lamar
The world’s foremost musical artist, having released the 2010s’ most acclaimed album in “To Pimp A Butterfly” in 2015, before becoming the first non-jazz or classical artist to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music with 2017’s follow-up, “DAMN.” Lamar then curated the soundtrack for Marvel’s ground-breaking “Black Panther” movie. To say we eagerly await the next step of a performer so expertly chronicling an era of such dizzying tumult from his lofty pinnacle would be some understatement.
Most recent: “DAMN.” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “To Pimp A Butterfly” (2015)
As an artist, Travis has become a creative centre of gravity, filtering the finest contributions out of all collaborators. His ability to synthesise and refract influences and shades of detail have rendered his own albums exponentially superhuman, while his notorious live show, which went digital to wide acclaim during lockdown, further fosters a youthful solidarity and community from the jaws of the lurid debris of capitalism. He is now a fully-fledged crossover star, as evidenced by Rosalía’s current hit “TKN”.
Most recent: “Astroworld” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Birds In The Trap Sing McKnight” (2016)
19. Kanye West
Where to start? For seven albums across 15 years, West lived up to his controversial billing as a musical genius, constantly challenging audiences with the most sublime, trend-setting records in pop and hip hop. Few in history can claim to have influenced so many disparate movements and generations with every release. Recent albums, while still confrontational and surprising, suggest his exceptionally high peak is in the rearview, but he continues to shine sparingly as a producer.
Most recent: “Jesus Is King” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy” (2010)
18. Tool
Los Angeles alternative stalwarts Tool have been a towering act in metal and rock with only four more momentous albums since the 1993 debut “Undertow”. After a 13 year hiatus, 2019’s “Fear Inoculum” may feature the best individual work from all members. Over a decade, my doomed quest to locate the motherlode of Tool’s amplified aesthetic, summoned by guitar pyromancer Adam Jones, has sent me down a who’s-who spiral of seminal alt bands from Melvins to Helmet, Failure to Primus, and back again.
Most recent: “Fear Inoculum” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Lateralus” (2001)
17. Radiohead
Radiohead would have contended to top this list for a decade or more following the release of the 1997 landscape-altering warhead “OK Computer” through 2007’s gorgeous “In Rainbows”, as they repeatedly released the finest, most fascinating albums in popular music, gateways to the experimental reaches of countless genres for generations of music fanatics. They continue to be compelling, appointment-listening every five years or so; true guardians of the form.
Most recent: “A Moon Shaped Pool” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Kid A” (2000)
16. Kate Tempest
England’s Poet Laureate-in-waiting already boasts a catalogue of rewarding albums of steadily fizzing musicality and playful, rhythmic wordplay, but to call her such assumes anything other than disdain for establishment. Contrarily, Tempest yearningly rues societal decay at every turn. 2019’s “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” is a masterpiece of engaging musical scores and barely-veiled Brexit metaphors, climaxing in the devastating career-best crossover “People’s Faces”.
Most recent: “The Book Of Traps & Lessons” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Let Them Eat Chaos” (2016)
15. Lil Uzi Vert
Lil Uzi has risen to the apex of a group of exciting young rap artists blurring the lines between hip hop, pop, rock and emo, partly because most of the others died before reaching 22. That said, his hyperspeed, technicolour “Eternal Atake” and the accompanying “Luv vs. The World 2” tape see him largely abandon some of those previous emotionally fraught leanings for a saucer-eyed freakout of breakneck rapping and accelerationist consumerism. The results are head-spinning.
Most recent: “Eternal Atake” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Luv Is Rage 2” (2017)
14. Sleaford Mods
The Nottingham duo’s no-holds-barred insights into austerity Britain are the most critical update to punk since it was first scraped off the walls of 70s London. The glorious alchemy of Jason Williamson’s excoriating, oft-hilarious lyricism and Andrew Fearn’s knuckle-dragging bass beats has hit enough chords to entrench the Mods as unlikely repeat occupants of the UK album chart top 10. The pair are indisputably one of music’s most essential, unique contemporary acts.
Most recent: “Eton Alive” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Divide & Exit” (2014)
13. Everything Everything
Manchester’s pre-eminent prophets of poptimism are quietly building one of the finest canons in contemporary rock-based music while subsuming influence from everything but. Brandishing a baton yielded by Radiohead, the band are fuelled by Jonathan Higgs’ ear for maximalist melodies and eye for a wicked sociocultural take to ram into his regularly madcap lyricism. These dispatches from the new model island are equal parts academia and dystopian entertainment.
Most recent: “A Fever Dream” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Get To Heaven” (2015)
12. Meshuggah
Hailing from the rich metal heritage of Umeå in the Swedish north, the progressive metal titans may boast the most definitively signature sound in all of music. Nobody but nobody sounds like the palm-muted landslides and polyrhythmic tidal waves of Meshuggah’s monstrous compositional mania. Pioneers of the djent sub-genre, their albums have been untouchable explorations of seriously deep groove and syncopated insanity for decades now.
Most recent: “The Violent Sleep Of Reason” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Koloss” (2012)
11. Björk
The chameleonic Reykjavik siren songstress is nine albums deep, and her most recent, 2017’s “Utopia”, may be her most blissful yet. Although she never truly missed a step, her recent partnership with electronic trailblazer Arca has, somehow, brought even more illuminating scope, panorama and scale to Björk’s experimentation. Hers is one of the most vibrant, enriching and consistent discographies of any artiste out there.
Since inheriting the folk-metal throne from Falkenbach, Moonsorrow’s colossal sound has outlasted major challengers such as Primordial and Agalloch and continues to withstand a spirited current attack from Celtic folk metal masters Saor. After so many years, their every album is event-listening for the extreme metal community, and all are unparalleled in scale, energy and vision; the very best band from Finland’s world-leading metal scene.
Most recent: “Jumalten Aika” (2016)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Verisäkeet” (2005)
29. Charli XCX
With her latest records of titanium-coated space pop, Charli is caressing and coaxing chart music into its inevitable future; party music aching with empathy and longing, its vulnerability candying in the breathless gaps between slamming production and digitally decaying vocals. “Charli” (2019) is her futurist pop manifesto, “How I’m Feeling Now” (2020) will be the lockdown album du jour. Charli has tirelessly written her way to the near-top and is hopefully just getting warm.
Most recent: “How I’m Feeling Now” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Charli” (2019)
28. Perfume Genius
Mike Hadreas has flown a flag for outsiders everywhere from the days of his lo-fi emergence a decade ago to 2020’s instant classic “Set My Fire On Fire Immediately”, which may cement him as the headline act of excellent NYC label Matador against stiff competition from his peers. Comfortable orienteering baroque, glammed-up chamber pop and smoky Zeppelin-esque segues in equal measure, this ever-improving indie helmsman is one breakout hit song, which nearly came with 2014’s “Queen”, from a surprising future as an arena act.
Most recent: “Set My Heart On Fire Immediately” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “No Shape” (2017)
27. Julia Holter
Los Angeles-based Julia Holter was already one of America’s most exciting experimental talents prior to 2018’s “Aviary”, the multitudinous meditation on medieval memory which saw Holter carving out a liminal space even further down the evolutionary vein of irresistible avant-garde mined on 2013’s “Loud City Song”, after the more traditionally structured “Have You In My Wilderness” brought her a wider audience in 2015. All limits to her sound have now been shed.
Most recent: “Aviary” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Loud City Song” (2013)
26. Tyler The Creator
Tyler manifested a decade ago as an enigmatic but dastardly provocateur who seemed a bit lost for a couple of albums. Few have settled into a niche as comfortably as he now has. He could maintain a cult following for years releasing albums in the style of “Scum Fuck Flower Boy” (2017) and “Igor” (2019), understatedly beautiful records which repurpose the forms and techniques of hip hop to interrogate feelings and demographics around male loneliness.
Most recent: “Igor” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Scum Fuck Flower Boy” (2017)
25. Solange
As Beyoncé seemed to complete her conquering of the planet with the universally adored “Lemonade” in 2016, her sister finally harnessed her own talents into an opus of similar stature. “A Seat At The Table” deep-dived into the lived tribulations of black American women and gleamed with a nourishing, inestimably vintage sound which made it sound like we’d known it forever. “When I Get Home” (2019) continued the trend from a musical family we barely deserve right now.
Most recent: “When I Get Home” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “A Seat At The Table” (2016)
24. Converge
Three decades in, the Salem, Massachusetts metalcore overlords boast a span of albums with which few can compete. Almost 20 years after their defining classic “Jane Doe”, they have continued to bolster their highly accomplished musicianship and increasingly thoughtful lyricism behind the twin pistons of guitarist Kurt Ballou, maven of frenzied, razor-wire guitar riffing and now a producer of immense clarity in the worlds of metal and experimental music, and extreme music pin-up and frontman Jacob Bannon’s seismic, throat-shredding vocal work.
Most recent: “The Dusk In Us” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Jane Doe” (2001)
23. Tame Impala
Kevin Parker (“did you know Tame Impala is just one guy?”, as the music nerd meme goes!) may once have been a rock kid but has now been fundamentally turned by his time deep behind pop lines. Tastemakers already couldn’t get enough after “Lonerism” (2012), and giving in to his inability to resist giddy, luminescent melody saw “Currents” (2015) turn him into a go-to collab for pop music’s biggest names. “The Slow Rush” (2020), an incredibly topical treatise on time, is all vamping, intergalactic beats and electronic euphoria.
Most recent: “The Slow Rush” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Currents” (2015)
22. The National
While hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, big budget indie giants The National came to outstrip the false dawns of The Strokes and Interpol to become the definitive soundtrack of big city living post-9/11. Matt Berninger waxed lyrical about the glamour and boredom of young professionals before the band bottled a dusty, cinematic aura which flowed to some centre on “Boxer” (2007) and “High Violet” (2010). Their most recent albums more playfully stumble across a capacity to surprise.
Most recent: “I Am Easy To Find” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “High Violet” (2010)
21. Ulcerate
The New Zealand trio conjure up jaw-dropping power on record. Their sound is a post-metal melee, a big tent pitched at the atmospheric mid-point between death metal and sludge, with listeners liable to lose footing amid the technical and structural chaos modelled on the utterly disorientating innovations of Gorguts, Portal and Deathspell Omega and the powerhouse drumming of creative engine room Jamie Saint Merat. 2020’s “Stare Into Death & Be Still” may be their best yet as they play with increased melody to astonishing effect.
Most recent: “Stare Into Death & Be Still” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “The Destroyers Of All” (2011)
Nobody, not even Kanye West, has shaped the sound of current American chart music more forcefully than Future since he arrived as a fully-formed modern-day bluesman for the trap generation. A revolutionary artist still churning out records of cast-iron consistency, Future crammed in an underrated collab tape with Juice WRLD in 2018 before Juice’s tragic passing, turned in an arguable career crescendo on the 2019 FKA Twigs cut “Holy Terrain” and continues to average at least an album per year.
Most recent: “High Off Life” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “DS2” (2015)
39. Iceage
Once described as the most dangerous band in the world by Iggy Pop, the Copenhagen outfit’s punk-rooted music is aflame with poetic heft and beaming musicality, transmogrifying from a firebrand modern hardcore sound into a sophisti-rock mould incorporating post-punk, jazzy stylings and various other arthouse leanings, perfected on “Plowing Into The Field Of Love” (2014) and “Beyondless” (2018). These boys look poised to continue to cultivate their profile with class.
Most recent: “Beyondless” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Plowing Into The Field Of Love” (2014)
The incendiary eloquence of Killer Mike has positioned him as one of America’s most significant modern rappers after a long rise. Underground veteran El-P is no slouch, bringing cocksure witticisms and future-funky bombshell production to the table. The duo are on a seemingly intractable run of self-titled calls-to-arms dripping in swagger, steel and style; it’s the very best of political party music anchored in an effortlessly charismatic chemistry between the tandem.
Most recent: “Run The Jewels 4” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Run The Jewels 3” (2016)
37. Deathspell Omega
The mystical French collective have been a unique force in black metal for a long time and boast an expansive catalogue of material showcasing the most dizzying, nauseating guitar dynamics in music. Concluding a stream of records lyrically focused on the theology of God, Satan and humanity, the band switched to political themes on 2019’s “The Furnaces Of Palingenesia” as their shrouded membership came under heightened scrutiny, but the band remains a staggeringly dense lodestar for extreme music.
Most recent: “The Furnaces Of Palingenesia” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Paracletus” (2010)
36. Arca
Venezuelan producer Arca has defined the future sound of electronic music through her albums “Xen” (2014) and “Mutant” (2015) before delivering one of the most exhilarating curveballs of the 2010s by lacing the wartorn dynamics and brooding, Lynchian textures of her ever-shifting compositions with haunting vocal work on 2017’s excellent self-titled album. As well as steering Björk in new sonic directions of late, Arca has just undertaken another left-turn into what can be broadly termed pop on the new album “Kick I”.
Most recent: “Kick I” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Arca” (2017)
35. J Hus
J Hus is flying low on so many radars right now. The London rapper and singer and his collaborative producer Jae5 have brought new linguistic and musicological possibilities to the UK hip hop scene with two white hot albums defined by an effervescent studio sound, midwifing the nascent Afroswing movement in the process, and unlocking a wave of burgeoning young acts headlined by Coventry rookie Pa Salieu. You’d have to look to Nigeria’s Burna Boy to find Hus’ only contemporary right now.
Most recent: “Big Conspiracy” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Common Sense” (2017)
34. Oranssi Pazuzu
Mashing psychedelic rock, black metal and the backwater prog of Swans into a monolithic, snaking curiosity come Finland’s Oranssi Pazuzu. Steadily gathering momentum in the metal world, the band struck gold on 2016’s “Värähtelijä” and are now back with the equally gargantuan “Mestarin Kynsi”, an oft-bonkers, hulking slab of spaced-out, nightmarish chaos. This is an ambitious, complex band with a likely big future of similarly significant statements ahead of them.
Most recent: “Mestarin Kynsi” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Värähtelijä” (2016)
33. FKA twigs
Tahlia Barnett is a singular force, merging contemporary RnB and a hive-mind of star electronic artists to forge an uncompromising, extraterrestrial blend of avant-garde music. Her commitment to her art, as musician, dancer and visual sorcerer, is unquestioned, and on the painstakingly crafted “Magdalene” (2019) she ascends to a magnetic career zenith best highlighted by the album’s stunning closer “Cellophane”, which was instantly acclaimed as one of the finest songs of the 2010s.
Most recent: “Magdalene” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “LP1” (2014)
32. Deafheaven
The San Francisco collective took to the stratosphere with 2013’s instant classic “Sunbather”, the shimmering, shoegazing epic which is one of the most widely acclaimed metal albums of all time and proved that black metal could be as American as apple pie. The band have been remarkably consistent and, in “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” in 2018, added their second classic, rifling expertly through post-rock, post-metal and a dreamy blackgaze sound they have immortalised.
Most recent: “Ordinary Corrupt Human Love” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Sunbather” (2013)
31. The War On Drugs
With 2017’s “A Deeper Understanding”, Adam Granduciel impossibly refined the trippy, panoramic Heartland renderings of 2014’s “Lost In The Dream”. The group is now defined by tightly-confected, skyscraping song structures loaded with foreshadowing of never-promised finalities, lyrics which evaporate on contact with air, statuesque peaks of crystalline instrumentation and Rust Belt evocations painted contemporarily with a veritable Springsheen.
Most recent: “A Deeper Understanding” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Lost In The Dream” (2014)
Welcome to the inaugural entry in the Michael Johnson Power Rankings, my subjective countdown of the 50 greatest acts in music based on the admittedly vague notion of “artistic momentum”! My intention from here is to update these rankings biannually, on the 1st of January and 1st of July each year. I figured this would be fun and informative and will provide both myself and anyone who reads this with an opportunity to discover some great new music and great old music too, as well as tracking the glacial pace at which music acts rise and fall over many years, and the rarity with which artists powerful enough to reach the upper echelons of this poll are unseated. I very much encourage people to shout at me to ask why I did or did not include a certain artist; I will have opinions but it’s perfectly likely that I have not heard their material, and it will therefore assist me to unearth new treasures!
I only applied one cast-iron rule, which was that an artist should have at least two studio albums (or “equivalent”) to their name to be eligible for inclusion. For example, this meant that artists who released debut albums which ranked among the finest records of 2019, such as Dave and Billie Eilish, are not included here. Another factor which is not a rule as such but came into consideration for me was that the longer an act has gone without making a definitive statement, the less likely they were to make this list, which eliminated some outstanding acts such as Joanna Newsom, Daft Punk and Sigur Rós. Otherwise, an act which has gone several years without a release but which I consider highly significant may rank well above a prolific artist with a great but less engaging catalogue; it is largely arbitrary and adheres to my taste, which is why I welcome any questions!
Music fanatics will know how hard it was to leave many incredible artists and performers off this list. Not everyone could make it, but there are troves of stunning music across the careers of all of the acts below, not least in the 100 albums mentioned as recommendations! All things being well, this will be the first time of many that I do this. I already know that you can expect change in January 2021, but for now, I hope you enjoy reading!
50. Drake
Many critics allege Drake sounds tired, but he always has. On the MJ-cannibalising quarantine smash “Toosie Slide”, with the laziest ever novelty dance, he sounds dead behind the eyes, but is the same icon of an overly-medicated, inherently sad generation long embodying bleary assimilation into capitalist exuberance as captured in Mark Fisher’s immortal review of his 2013 masterstroke “Nothing Was The Same”. k-punk is gone, but Drake is still trying to tell us things.
Most recent: “Dark Lane Demo Tapes” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Nothing Was The Same” (2013)
49. Arctic Monkeys
Alex Turner has never had a tighter grip on the reins, but the rest of the band seem comfortable, likely owing to the fact that the sleek, shiny space-lounge of “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” soundtracks the most startling tour of the psychogeography of a hotel since Kubrick’s “The Shining”. The band have firmed up their already stellar reputation; the hyper-observational brat poet who surveyed Noughties England lives on in Turner’s now more metaphorical, but equally swoon-worthy, sociocultural prescience.
Most recent: “Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not” (2006)
48. Shabaka Hutchings
Rapidly becoming an icon of UK jazz and reviving the canonical Impulse! label, saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings has set the scene ablaze with Sons Of Kemet’s “Your Queen Is A Reptile” (2018), a record which channels the spirit, energy and defiance of punk and metal through jazz, The Comet Is Coming’s “Trust In The Lifeforce Of The Deep Mystery” (2019), a progressive tour-de-force, and now Shabaka & The Ancestors’ “We Are Sent Here By History” (2020), a marvellously accomplished record. Anything he now commits to tape is a must-hear.
Most recent: “We Are Sent Here By History” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Your Queen Is A Reptile” (2018)
47. JME
After 2019, the finest year in the history of British hip hop, this list would be simply incomplete without a leading light of the scene on it. Although his brother Skepta has become the genre’s elder statesman either side of the Atlantic, JME marginally has the better albums. 2015’s “Integrity>” may be the best ever British hip hop record and 2019 follow-up “Grime MC” is equally weighty from an artist who prizes authenticity and faithfulness to oneself above all else.
Most recent: “Grime MC” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Integrity>” (2015)
46. Insomnium
The Finnish outfit have no peer when it comes to the melodic death metal sub-genre. By this point, with the addition of “Heart Like A Grave” (2019), they have amassed a portfolio of albums to rival any. Theirs is one of the most emotional listens in metal, typified by cascades of tearful, lamenting guitar melody, sweeping stardust bridges and chugging power chord breakdowns laced expertly together. The secret is in the weight of feeling always counterbalancing the heaviness of sound.
Most recent: “Heart Like A Grave” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Above The Weeping World” (2006)
45. The xx
Possibly nothing influenced British music more in the 2010s than The xx’s jaw-dropping debut “xx” (2009), part of a rich lineage of UK guitar music debuts which arrived from the womb primed to shift psychic earth. The influence of their mercurial texture stretched far beyond rock, not least because it simply sounded amazing. Despite only three albums in 11 years, the trio remain essential listening as their glistening, serpentine indie takes on new colours and shades. It doesn’t hurt that Jamie xx doubles as one of the most exciting electronic artists out.
Most recent: “I See You” (2017)
You’ll also need to hear this: “xx” (2009)
44. Beach House
The Baltimore, Maryland dream pop auteurs may have numerous touchstones, but have unmistakably carved their own name into the heritage of the genre. “Teen Dream” (2010), “Bloom” (2012) and “Depression Cherry” (2015) is their classic trilogy but they continue to progress steadily; by 2018’s “7” they have more gorgeous, blissed-out numbers than you can shake a Flake 99 at (because this is aural ice cream!) and an intriguing career-long storyline regarding how percussion (the band has no official drummer) has driven their songwriting.
Most recent: “7” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Teen Dream” (2010)
43. Flying Lotus
FlyLo has long turned heads as an electronic artist breaking into new territory and has done a similar service for contemporary jazz, which has always defined the leanings of his material, reflective of his familial ties to the Coltranes. His artistic relationship with bass guitarist extraordinaire Thundercat puts him at the centre of the Los Angeles sound. His latest, 2019’s “Flamagra”, is a sprawling, diverse and jam-packed record buoyed by the character FlyLo has always brought behind the boards.
Most recent: “Flamagra” (2019)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Cosmogramma” (2010)
42. Freddie Gibbs
Gibbs is one of hip hop’s most overlooked talents, despite elucidating some of the most dexterous, velveteen rhymes in the game. The most concretely-realised amalgamations of his abilities are two albums with legendary producer Madlib, the modern crime classics “Piñata” (2014) and “Bandana” (2019), both displaying relentless lyrical talent. Gibbs just hooked up with another veteran in The Alchemist for “Alfredo”, and now possesses an enviable legacy playbook.
Most recent: “Alfredo” (2020)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Piñata” (2014)
41. Christine & The Queens
Héloïse Letissier is building an army of followers on the back of two glorious pop albums and a new EP, all bearing theatrical, bungee-jumping melodies, beats which are equal parts arty and danceable and lyrics which match Letissier’s vocals in their penchant for taking oblique turns. With an arena-sized ambition which always brings the spectacle and performative flair of her live show to a track, as well as growing mainstream acclaim, we can expect Christine & The Queens to ascend to far greater heights yet.
Most recent: “Chris” (2018)
You’ll also need to hear this: “Chaleur Humaine” (2014)
Roads To The North 