After 8 seasons, the dust is finally starting to settle, and the very best Rocket League players are rising to the top. Below are some images which shows how each player stacks up across the European and North American regions in Rocket League’s premier competition. In most cases, players with only 1 RLCS season are excluded. I recommend viewing this on a desktop rather than on mobile.
RLCS Players
All Players by Worlds Finish. Players who didn’t make Worlds that season received a placing of “13th”.Top 15 players by how they finished at Worlds, counting only World Championships that they’ve attended.7 Players have played in every Season of RLCS. Next season this number will drop to 6 with al0t leaving the League.GarrettG is the only player to attend every RLCS ChampionshipTurboGOATsa is the only player to win 4 World Championships. Kaydop is the only to make 6 World Finals.al0t is the only player to play in every RLCS and miss 6 World ChampionshipsTurtle is the best player of all time and space.If you have JSTN, Garrett, or Fireburner on your team, you are very likely to win your region.
Best Teams
Orgs that miss the World Championships receive a placing of “13th”.
RLCS Chronicle
Europe
North America
Season 9 is the only season in RLCS history (NA & EU) where all organizations have returned from the previous season.Dappur is the one of the only players to return to RLCS after being away for 3 consecutive seasons. Flame and Skyline have done the same.
I can’t wait to see how this will look in another 8 seasons. I wonder if any of the six players who have played every season will keep their streak alive, or, if the best player in RLCS history hasn’t even taken the pitch yet.
We have had many organizations come through the competitive Rocket League landscape since the inception of the RLCS in 2016. As the esports industry moves towards franchised leagues, it is about time we celebrate the longevity of our organizations, and the highs and lows that have come along with them. Below are images that reflect matches from Major tournaments and RLCS events.
NRG stands proudly at the top as RLCS’ longest standing organizationNote I only included international Majors, so the matches from Renegades and Chiefs Esports do not include Oceanic tournamentsHere we consider full calendar years for orgs, similar to following a season in professional American sports. Splitting into seasons or half years made the sample size of matches too small per franchise. Minimum 10 matches played. Turbopolsa was a player on 5 of these franchise years.exceL had the worst year of any franchise in Rocket League history, so they are included here despite the threshold. We will take a look at Mousesports, Rogue, and compLexity’s 2019 runs below.This shows that even the worst teams aren’t as bad as you think. Even the worst team by match win % won over 40% of individual games. This shows the importance of longer series. The trendline shows that for every match win percentage point increased, teams’ game win percentage only increases by 0.54%.
Not-So-Good Years
Rogue’s 2019 squad was the only team in history to play 40 matches or more in a year and finish with a losing record.Greazymeister, Mognus, and Flakes had a promising run through September, and then it all fell apart.The only thing sadder than compLexity’s 2019 was mousesports’ 2019
Elite Squads
It is impossible to talk about the best teams in Rocket League history without mentioning Kaydop, Turbopolsa, and ViolentPanda. From seasons 4-6, this team stood atop the Rocket League world with their eyes on the prize.
Note this is cumulative win percentage. The more time that passes the harder it is to accumulate percentage points.Top 2 at 8 Majors and won 3. Note than RLCS Summer Series is technically a minor, but included RLCS caliber teams.
Over in North America, the Big 3 organizations of NRG, C9, and G2 have been dominating the rest of their region since 2017. That is until recently.
The Big 3 looks more like a Big 2. NRG is starting to break away from the others.NRG had the 16th, 12th, 9th, and 5th best years of all time.NRG’s 2019 was a wonder to behold. Everyone cried when they finally won the World Championship.
That’s all of the graphs I made. Here’s to four more years (of Rocket League)!
Season 8’s World Championship in Madrid was one of the most exciting Rocket League tournaments in recent history, in part due to a successful bracket format and in part due to Garrett G not stopping until he got to lift that trophy. There are a few notable decisions the organizers made which I had trouble immediately understanding.
Why did the losers of the first round and the losers of the second round of the group stage land in the same round of the loser’s bracket? Why does the winner of the group final advance to the Semifinal and the loser of the group final not go to the loser’s bracket?
Official S8 Group Stage – (Identical Bracket for Group B)Official S8 Knockout Stage (Presented by AXE)
To answer these questions and to create some alternative options to consider, I visualized the season 8 format as such:
Season 8 World Championship Bracket – Reformatted without having a Group Stage
Note here I stay away from using Group A/B notation, but the movement through the bracket remains the same. The seeding is arbitrary; I won’t touch on seeding in this article. Note that the Quarterfinals have been moved to the loser’s bracket and renamed Loser’s Round 3. This change in notation makes it clearer that the loser of the group final (now Winner’s Round 3) is penalized with a trip to the loser’s bracket.
Standard Double Elimination
Standard Double Elimination Bracket
The question is, is the season 8 format preferable to a traditional double elimination bracket? Day 1 and Day 2 remain unchanged with this structure, but Day 3 has a slight tweak. The advantage of a standard double elimination is that the top two teams in the winner’s bracket still have an extra life going into the final rounds instead of immediately playing an elimination game.
See Dignitas’ Season 8 run in Madrid (below). They won three straight matches to advance to the semifinals, only to be knocked out by Renault Vitality in the single elimination bracket. They were the only team to lose only 1 match and not win the tournament. Had it been a standard double elimination bracket, Dignitas would have played NRG in the winner’s finals. Had Dig lost there, they would play the winner of Vitality/SpaceStation in the Loser’s Finals instead of being knocked out of the tournament. Additionally, this also forces the 4 teams in loser’s round 3 (who are all top 6 at this point) to win 2 Best-of-5s to reach the Semifinals rather than just 1 Best-of-7, thus penalizing these teams more for losing earlier in the tournament.
Season 8 Results – See Dignitas’ single loss in the semifinals
Arguably, the double elimination tournament gives a harder path to the Grand Finals because the top two teams in the winner’s bracket must face the strongest remaining competitor in the tournament. The loser has a momentum disadvantage in the loser’s finals because they just lost a match and their opponent just won two.
So, if you are Dignitas, would you rather play NRG in the winner’s finals to get to the Grand Finals, knowing that if you lose, you will face the winner of Vitality/SpaceStation who just won two straight matches? Or would you take your chances against Vitality in an elimination game?
From a stream time standpoint, day 3 would consist of 3 BO5s followed by 3 BO7s compared to the 5 BO7s. If we assume an average of 4 games/match for a BO5 and 5.5 games/match for a BO7, a double elimination Day 3 would take on average 1 additional game (28.5 vs. 27.5) plus an extra break in between matches – this may amount to 15-30 more minutes than the current format.
Round Robin Group Stage
Maybe you preferred the Group Stage format from Season 7? The thing I liked about this format was the 8-team bracket on Day 3. The notion of seven elimination matches is exciting! However, the potential for tiebreakers in the group stage makes this a non-starter for me. Maybe if this was a 4-day tournament, I would like to see BO7 quarterfinals on Day 3 and Semifinals and Finals on Day 4.
Group Stage to Single Elimination Bracket – RLCS Season 7
Loser’s Bracket
The other option I would like to propose is a more robust loser’s bracket. I did not like that the losers of the first round in the tournament got placed in the same elimination matches as the losers of the second round. To me, this does not adequately reward a win in the first round of the tournament. I created an extra round in the loser’s bracket so that the losers of the first round had to play each other first, much like in Season 6 and prior.
Season 8 format with Gauntlet Style Loser’s Bracket
The issue then becomes, there are two winners in loser’s round 1 and four loser’s in winner’s round 2. To solve this, the losers in matches reserved for the NA/EU #2 seeds (f and h, above) are placed into loser’s round 2 and the losers in matches reserved for the NA/EU #1 seeds (e and g, above) are placed into loser’s round 3. The rest of the bracket plays out the same way (note that matches q and r in each format all have the losers from matches o and p).
The main advantage of this gauntlet style bracket is that the winners of the first round are automatically top 10 and do not get put in the first round of the loser’s bracket. The other feature is that every team will win at least one match except for two teams, compared to a potential four winless teams in the current format. This also sets the stage for a crazy 6 round lower bracket run similar to Cloud 9’s run in season 6. Fourth, this gives the NA/EU #1 seeds a slight advantage over the #2 seeds besides just seeding. Lastly, this requires no additional matches to be played throughout the tournament and can be employed in both the double to single elimination bracket and the double elimination bracket.
The disadvantages include that the winners of the first round that move on to face the NA/EU #1 seed (matches a and c, above) have an advantage over the teams who get unlucky enough to face the NA/EU #2 seed. Theoretically, the #1 and #2 seeds from both regions should win the second round match, so giving an advantage to only half of the remaining 8 teams that happen to be placed in that half of the bracket is a bit arbitrary. Though, it can be argued that the #1 seeds (e and g) are harder to defeat than the #2 seeds, so teams should be punished less for drawing into the harder matchup. This is how they do it in season 6 and prior, after all.
Additionally, every match in the loser’s bracket except for the first involves a team that just lost from the winner’s bracket. One may prefer to see the winners from the first loser’s round to play head to head in a bracket style elimination, but this is purely personal preference.
Bracket Resets: Good or Bad? Or really bad?
The last option I want to discuss is the bracket reset. In a double elimination tournament, the grand final typically includes a bracket reset for the team from the winner’s finals because they have yet to lose a match in the tournament and the loser’s finalist has already lost one. However, some tournaments, such as DotA’s premier championship, The International, do not use the bracket reset option, and I see why. For DotA 2, a BO5 lasts longer than a cricket match, so two BO5s is likely not appropriate. For games where having a bracket reset is time-feasible, I would argue that it is unnecessary. The purpose of a double elimination tournament is to more accurately find the top teams in the tournament. Upsets are balanced over the course of a few loser’s bracket rounds, and the cream rises to the top. I argue that once the top two teams reach the grand final, the double elimination format has done its job. The team that has won every match to reach this point no longer needs a second life to reach the final because they are already there! If they were to lose in the first match of the grand final, then they should rightfully be awarded second place despite it being their only loss, because we should place the totality of the importance on that match! This is one reason for having a double to single elimination bracket like in this season, but even in a double elimination setting I think having a bracket-reset-less grand final is most exciting and still fair.
Personal Conclusions
After thinking about this for a long time, I think the season 8 format (pictured first) is the best option for the tournament. This is primarily because Day 3 is primed to be the most exciting out of all. I think having a semifinal and grand final is superior to having winner’s and loser’s finals and superior to having an extra round between the “quarterfinals” (loser’s round 3) and the loser’s finals. I don’t think the extra rounds for day 3 in a double elimination bracket produce demonstrably better grand finalists than in the current format and it takes longer to get there. Best of 7 quarterfinals are fantastic as well. As for the first round of the loser’s finals, I prefer a bracket style over a gauntlet style for the simple reason that more loser’s rounds aren’t particularly fun. Even though it is the same number of matches, I can’t help but think it would feel a little more drawn out. That said, I think a gauntlet style loser’s bracket IS more fair, especially to teams who won the first round. I would also like to see a distinction between 9/10th and 11/12th place teams, though it is unimportant compared to how the top teams are placed.
Reader participation:
Which overall format do you prefer?
Double Elimination to Top 6 Single Elimination – (Season 8 format, current)
Double Elimination – (Winner’s/Loser’s Finals rather than Quarter/Semifinals)
Group Stage to Top 8 Single Elimination – (Season 7 format)
Unless you prefer the Group Stage, which style of Loser’s Bracket would you prefer?
Bracket style Loser’s Bracket – (1 Loser’s Bracket round to decide top 8, current)
Gauntlet style Loser’s Bracket – (2 Loser’s Bracket rounds to decide top 8)
If you prefer a double elimination tournament, would you include a bracket reset for the Winner’s Final victors?
I was reading Pitchfork’s Top 200 albums of the decade and I was compelled to do my own (except just 100). Here are my top picks:
Honorable Mentions:
Ariana Grande, My Everything
Ariana Grande Thank U, Next
Beyonce, 4
Beyonce, Beyonce
Flying Lotus, Cosmogramma
FlyingLotus, Flamagra
JackConte, VS4
JacobCollier, In My Room
KamasiWashington, Heaven and Earth
Kero Kero Bonito, Bonito Generation
Kero Kero Bonito, Time ‘n’ Place
NataliePrass, The Future and the Past
Periphery, Periphery II: This Time It’s Personal
The Internet, Ego Death
Tyler, TheCreator, Flower Boy
Top 100:
100. Coldplay, Mylo Xyloto
99. KanyeWest, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy.
You know, a lot of people have this for album of the decade, and I see why. So much time and effort went into creating this work, and it’s filled with loads of influences and collaborations. The beats are groovy and it is very catchy and anthemic. Kanye shows his egoism and vulnerability like he never has before, and he reconciles with his flaws, and issues a half-apology to the world. This half-apology, along with his general dickishness this decade, prevents me from enjoying this record as much as I could.
98. Moonchild, Little Ghost
97. James Blake, Overgrown
96. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Nonagon Infinity
95. BROCKHAMPTON, Saturation
94. Young The Giant, Young The Giant
93. Big Thief, U.F.O.F.
92. Iglooghost, Neo Wax Bloom
91. FKA Twigs, Magdelene
90. ThomYorke, Anima
89. ChildishGambino, Camp
High school feels. Camp has definitely not held up over time, but every listen brings me back to singing these tunes on the way to high school football games with my buds.
88. ComTruise, Iteration
87. TierraWhack, Whack World
86. Knower, Think Thoughts
This album is one of a few which completely shifted my tastes in music. This glitchy electronic-pop group that I found on YouTube combines funk, pop, and experimental sounds to create irresistible ear-worms. They don’t care about convention, they don’t care about having deep lyrics, they care about groove and showing that weird is cool.
85. Beyonce, Lemonade
84. Rapsody, Eve
83. PushaT, Daytona
82. BROCKHAMPTON, Iridescence
81. HiatusCoyote, Tawk Tomahawk
80. BigThief, Two Hands
79. The1975, The 1975
This is an absolutely guilty pleasure for me. Cliches abound with questionable lyrical choices. Despite that, their take on pop music is the way I’d like to see pop move.
78. Anderson.Paak, Malibu
77. KaliUchis, Isolation
76. Noname, Room 25
75. FionaApple, The Idler Wheel…
74. Gorillaz, The Now Now
“Humility” is one of my favorite songs of the year if not the decade. I hesitate to use the word “bop”, because I’d like that trend to stop.
73. CharliXCX, Charli
This should be what pop strives to be. Listen to “Shake It”.
72. MGMT, Little Dark Age
71. ArcadeFire, The Suburbs
70. M83, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming
69. The1975, I like it better when you sleep…
68. NaiPalm, Needle Paw
67. FrankOcean, channel Orange
66. Sampha, Process
65. boygenius, boygenius
64. Yaeji, EP2
Though only an EP, each song has it’s own flavor. Standout lyric: “Mother Russia in my cup”
63. Moonchild, Voyager
62. BROCKHAMPTON, Saturation II
61. TheRoots, How I Got Over
60. TheCarters, Everything Is Love
59. QuelleChris, Guns
Quelle Chris is the poster child for my favorite brand of hip-hop, music that doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet says more than music that does. On Guns, Quelle Chris takes the pertinent political issues of the day and produces a memorable album that makes you think.
58. Pinegrove, Skylight
The homey d.i.y. production is the only thing keeping Skylight down this low on my list. Pinegrove is one of my favorite new indie bands, and I can’t wait for further releases.
57. BonIver, Bon Iver
56. Macklemore, The Heist
55. BrittanyHoward, Jamie
54. KendrickLamar, DAMN.
53. LauraMvula, Sing To The Moon
52. ComTruise, Galactic Melt
Com Truise is a electronic music producer than has a series of quality Synthwave releases this decade. As soon as I saw some gameplay from the video game “Hotline Miami”, a top-down shooter featuring 1980s-Miami-inspiring graphics and music, I was blown away by the power and edginess of rough synths and retro-sounding drum machines. Com Truise was my gateway into this world, and I regard his music as some of the best in the genre.
51. ComTruise, In Decay
50. DirtyProjectors, Dirty Projectors
49. Kids SeeGhosts, Kids See Ghosts
48. FleetFoxes, Crack-up
Hardly a pop record, Crack-up is Fleet Foxes’ epic album compelled me to stop everything I was doing just to listen to it. I didn’t think I was going to enjoy this as much as I did. It demands all of your attention, but if you submit to it, it will immerse you into its lush instrumentation and deep story about friendships and other relationships.
47. KingGizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Murder of the Universe
46. Periphery, Periphery
I listened to a bunch of progressive and metal records in my teens and this one is the one that still stands up for me. One of my favorite tracks of the decade is the 13-minute long epic “Racecar” which includes really tight chord progression, smooth songwriting, and of course, heavy djent features.
45. BonIver, 22, A Million
Contains Marlowe’s favorite song “715 CR33KS” and others. In my opinion, this is Bon Iver at their best. The electronic elements really propel Justin Vernon’s normally folky songwriting to new heights. Watch NPR’s Front Row on this if you have time.
44. SBTRKT, SBTRKT
43. GrizzlyBear, Painted Ruins
42. Rosalia, El Mal Querer
Rosalia is really taking off, in large part due to this album. “Malamente” is such a good song– one I would play on repeat (and I never put songs on repeat, ever)
41. AnimalCollective, Painting With
Marlowe and I saw them tour this album live, and it was AWESOME. Would see again. I found myself picking up this record again and again after seeing them live even though it varies significantly from the live performance. In fact, at first listen I was thoroughly turned off by it because the unconventional harmonies were sometimes grating and sometimes annoying. The more I listened to it, the more I saw the beauty in it.
40. FleetFoxes, Helplessness Blues
39. Bilal, A Love Surreal
38. JamilaWoods, Legacy! Legacy!
37. Christineand the Queens, Chris
36. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Sketches of Brunswick East
35. Pinegrove, Cardinal
34. Neon Indian, Vega Int’l Night School
Had this electronic-pop album on repeat all of 2016 and 2017. It’s so left of center and delicious.
33. Frank Ocean, Blonde
32. GrizzlyBear, Shields
31. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Infest the Rats Nest
You’ve seen King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on my list a few times now, and if you don’t know who they are, you might be confused. This Australian rock band is not only one of the most prolific (see their five full-length albums in 2017), but also one of the most quality of the decade. Each of their albums is a different sub-genre of rock (from jazz rock to thrash metal, like this album), but they still retain certain Gizz elements in all of them– changing time-signatures, rock sensibilities, and grooves that never fail. Infest the Rats Nest is a hard hitting record that I thought I would hate but absolutely loved. It bangs.
30. TameImpala, Lonerism
29. The Roots, Undun
The Roots have so much great music that I just haven’t had time to appreciate, but this one is my favorite of this decade. Their music is always consistently of a high quality, but this album has the added benefit of telling a single story the entirety of the record.
28. The 1975, A Brief Inquiry Into Online Relationships
27. Todd Terje, It’s Album Time
26. Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool
25. Malibu Ken, Malibu Ken
This is a truly unique record that is unlike any hip-hop record I’ve heard yet. Listen to the gross “Tuesday”.
24. Knower, Let Go
23. Childish Gambino, Because The Internet
22. Lianne La Havas, Blood
21. Sufjan Stevens, Carrie & Lowell
20. Disclosure, Caracal
19. Thundercat, Golden Age of Apocalypse
Stephen Bruner, better known as Thundercat, is my favorite artist. He has already appeared on this list below in Kali Uchis’ Isolation, and even Childish Gambino’s Because The Internet (just found this out this month). He is a bassist extraordinaire and he has developed a sound that is so desirable in many R&B and hip-hop records of this decade. Thundercat creates this luscious deep bass tone that often arpeggiates over jazzy progressions and simple back beats. On his albums, he sings about whatever and creates these otherworldly grooves that absolutely dominate your attention. This album, Golden Age of Apocalypse, is his least polished album, and my least favorite, yet ends at number 19 because it is still amazing.
18. Tame Impala, Currents
17. Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio 2
(See Black Radio, ahead)
16. Quelle Chris & Jean Grae, Everything’s Fine
15. Thundercat, Apocalypse
14. SnailMail, Lush
I admit, I crushed so hard on the lead singer of this band, Lindsay Jordan. They put out this record of very simple, kind of samey indie-rock songs, that in theory would bore me to tears. In fact, I love every song and know many of the words (a rarity for me)! What makes this album so great is the use of non-linear melody. Most songs use stepwise motion for the most part so that each note follows the previous. Additionally, the melodies will often start and end in the chord that’s playing, so that it sounds smooth. Lindsay will often end her melodies on notes that are not in the chord, though tastefully as to not leave you hanging. The result is a beautiful coming of age indie record.
13. Disclosure, Settle
12. Thundercat, Beyond/Where the Giants Roam
11. SZA, Ctrl
10. LouisCole, Time
Louis Cole, one half of the band Knower (see Think Thoughts, above), comes through with a super fun collection of songs, each with interesting chord progressions and oozing with talent. Like Thundercat, his lyrics tend to be about anything and everything from the mundane to the existential, yet his grooves are electrifying. I like music that makes me want to pick up an instrument and start practicing so that I can be as good as the musicians playing. This makes me want to join in, and then some.
9. JamesBlake, James Blake
I like “sad” music. This may take the cake. This enchanting self-titled album pairs pianos and keyboards with James’ British crooning. Often manipulated and processed many times over to create new sounds (listen to “I Mind”), this felt like a breakthrough in my musical listening journey. I was immediately attracted to these jarring yet soothing melodies (if you can call them that). I tell people “it’s only sad if it’s bad,” and this is emphatically not bad.
8. Solange, A Seat at the Table
Certainly a masterpiece and a must-listen from Solange, A Seat At The Table is not only a musical triumph, but a lyrical treasure as well. Solange speaks to her relationship to America as a black woman, and the challenges that she’s faced along the way. As a white man in America, I will never have the same experiences, but listening to the songs on this album helps me empathize with the plight of those that don’t have the same advantages as I do. I also do not want to understate the quality of the music! Solange is an amazingly talented vocalist and producer, and there is no weak track in the bunch.
7. KendrickLamar, Good Kid m.A.A.d City
Good Kid m.A.A.d City came out when I was in college, or just before, and I had heard all the hits, “Poetic Justice”, “B***h, Don’t Kill My Vibe”, “Swimming Pool (Drank)”, “Money Trees”, “Backseat Freestyle”, etc. It was only until recently that I listened to the whole album front-to-back, and this changed my opinion on this wholly. Not only does listening to the same artist for an hour help get your brain in a specific mindspace, but engaging in the story helps elevate the music to another level. Kendrick is a master at weaving his personal experiences into tracks that on the surface sound like hip-hop bangers but in fact tell a deeper message, in this case, about his struggles and thoughts about growing up on the streets of Compton. Kendrick said something like, “we ain’t rapping, we just letting our dead homies tell stories for us”.
6. DaftPunk, Random Access Memories
Daft Punk know how to write a tune. Apparently they also love disco. This has slowly grown to be one of my favorites, and really stands the test of time. I predict this will still be in my 20 favorite albums in 20 years.
5. HiatusCoyote, Choose Your Weapon
Oof. This is just GOOD. Hiatus Coyote is a future soul band that is led by Naomi “Nai Palm” Saalfield. From the epic title/intro track to the epic finisher in “Build A Ladder”, each track is filled with a heavy dose of synths while mixing funk, jazz, electronica, and soul. The talent that every member brings is hard to fit into every space in the mix, but they succeed in doing so here. I was going to pick a favorite song, but I cannot. I will say my favorite moment is in “By Fire” when Naomi impressively sings in unison with the synth and bass on the repeating descending motif.
4. Radiohead, The King of Limbs
I’ve seen a lot of places call The King of Limbs (TKOL) the worst Radiohead album, but I completely disagree (and it’s not just because it was my first Radiohead record, ok maybe a little). From the enchanting, unrelenting groove in Bloom, to the solemn closer in Separator, Radiohead delivers a consistent mood throughout its short 8-track track listing, and it’s one of pondering, musing. Each play of this album has been more enjoyable than the last. I feel differently when listening to this record than any others– I honestly feel like I am part of it, inside of it. I am touched sonically in a way that even other Radiohead records have failed to do. It is something special.
3. Robert Glasper Experiment, Black Radio
This is the album that got me into R&B, and has informed many of my tastes this decade. Robert Glasper is a supremely talented keyboardist that I had the pleasure of seeing live in Richmond for like 5 bucks (a thievery). His experiment with “The Experiment”, Black Radio, is filled with vocal features from top R&B singers and consistent backing from Robert, Derrick (bass), and others. When I heard their rendition of “Afro Blue” with Erykah Badu, I was theirs forever. Whenever this album is on, I feel like I am in good hands. It is instantly comforting– I hold this one close to my chest.
2. Thundercat, Drunk
Finally, Thundercat’s most polished and extensive work in “Drunk.” My favorite Thundercat songs in “Lava Lamp”, “Friend Zone”, “Tron Song II”, and so many others are on this record. Each track gives me a lethal dose of Thundercat bass and keys that I never knew I needed. Produced in part by Flying Lotus, Drunk from beginning to end contains the kind of music that I see myself making. It falls in the center of my musical tastes, and therefore rightfully earns the title of my favorite record, next to my favorite record.
1. KendrickLamar, To Pimp A Butterfly
To Pimp A Butterfly is my favorite album. Kendrick tells a story of greed, love, hate, drugs, street life, sex, celebrity, and ultimately, redemption in an awe-inspiring 79 minutes. Not only is each track lyrically potent on its own, the narrative he weaves and the character he draws from beginning to end is deep and complex. The first time I listened through this album, I was already in love, but not for the reasons mentioned above. The music was produced by Sounwave, Flying Lotus, and others, and most of the tracks were touched by a jazz group including Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, and (you guessed it) Thundercat. They created a jazzy, funky, atmosphere that follows Kendrick through Compton, to South Africa and back. My favorite track of the album is the epilogue, Mortal Man, which reveals the meaning of the poem Kendrick has been repeating throughout the whole album (I won’t spoil it). My love of this album flourished tenfold after listening to a podcast about it called “DISSECT”. Each episode delved into the details of almost every line on the album, and connected the narrative arc from beginning to end. It was a brilliant series, not only because it was produced and executed expertly, but it elevated my appreciation for the music and honestly changed the way I think about music entirely. Kendrick Lamar has truly created something to behold with this deeply personal, deeply emotional, deeply powerful, deeply funky album of the decade.
Thoughts?
That was it! I had a lot of fun making this list and I plan on using it mostly for my own memories. There were a bunch more albums that didn’t make the cut, and I’m PRETTY certain I forgot some, so let me know if there what I missed. (I didn’t miss the new Lana Del Rey, I thought it wasn’t great…)
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