Pop Goes The Decade
Dancing on my Own was released shortly before I moved to the US. I remember watching the video on MTV (when MTV still played videos) and within a few months of my arrival in Albany, NY I got a ticket to Jingle Jam, featuring none other than Robyn! I was the only person in the audience dancing and singing along to Fembot but I didn't care. Robyn was bouncing around on stage in her platform boots and I was in pop heaven. I was obsessed with her Body Talk project (parts 1 and 2 and then the composite album) which provided a soundtrack to my transition to a new life in a new country. Indestructible also went on to become a particularly special song.
2011 21 - Adele
2011 was the year of Adele. Her incredible sophomore album won Grammys for Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album while the lead single Rolling in the Deep won Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Short Form Music Video. The album is a timeless testament to Adele's songwriting and vocal talent. The Glee mashup of Rumour Has It and Someone Like You is also one of the best mashups from the series.
2012 Trespassing - Adam Lambert
Adam Lambert really came into his own with his second studio album, Trespassing, which debuted at number 1 on the Billboard 200, making him the first openly gay artist to achieve this feat. He proved he was no one trick American Idol pony with an album boasting several fabulous dance tracks (including Never Close Our Eyes and Cuckoo) and powerful ballads (including Better Than I Know Myself and Outlaws of Love, a moving track about acceptance and "how it feels that no matter where you go or where you turn, sometimes it feels like you're just running from the law").
2013 Closer To The Truth - Cher
After a few "final" final farewell tours, Cher came back in 2013 with her 25th studio album and its lead single, the fantastic feminist anthem, Woman's World. The album features Cher's signature dance-pop sound (with plenty of Believe era autotune thrown in for good measure) but also includes some synth-pop, EDM and house flavours in addition to the essential Cher power ballads such as I Hope You Find It. I was privileged to see her perform many of the songs from the album on the D2K (Dressed to Kill) Tour in LA (the same show where Tori Spelling was sitting in the row behind us), one of my favourite concerts of all time.
2014 1989 - Taylor Swift
Until 1989 (the album that is), I liked Taylor Swift but this album made me fall in love with her. I did not care about the salacious gossip regarding her tumultuous love life and haters attacking her good girl image - I only cared about the music. And this album is hands down her best work, and one of the best pop albums of the decade. The album earned her two Grammy awards, namely Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album and was named one of the best albums of the year by Rolling Stone, Billboard and Time. The opening track Welcome to New York has also become a personal anthem in the past decade while Shake it Off has been the perfect song to deal with haters.
2015 Rebel Heart - Madonna
Yes, the Rebel Heart campaign was a bit of a mess, with the unfinished album being leaked ahead of the album's official release, a cape malfunction that still haunts me, and cringeworthy lines referencing a bodyshop and asshole Kanye West's penchant for her vajayjay. But, despite being an incohesive album, there are some incredible tracks that are up there among Madonna's best and most underrated work, including Ghosttown (accompanied by a visual masterpiece of a video featuring Terrence Howard), a song which should have been a much bigger hit than it was, Living for Love (ahead of its time), Unapologetic Bitch and Rebel Heart.
2016 Joanne - Lady Gaga
The album received pretty solid reviews from critics but is often snubbed by fans. I love every song on the album, which seamlessly blends folk, country, disco, rock and pop; I still listen to it regularly without skipping a song. The pink, wide-brimmed hat is iconic. Million Reasons is one of her best ballads. I was all about the A-YO handclaps. Robin Skouteris created an kickass mashup of Perfect Illusion and Papa Don't Preach. And one of my favourite memories of my trip to Ireland was seeing a drag queen perform to Dancing in Circles.
Talk about a comeback album! This was a reminder of why we loved them back in the 90s and it had me dancing through 2017. Indeed, the lead single, Scared of the Dark, made it to the top of my list of songs of the year. The album includes a cover of Story of a Heart by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson (of ABBA) and a club-ready cover of Lara Fabian's I Will Love Again.
2018 Golden - Kylie Minogue
The second artist on my list who did a country-tinged pop album. Kylie recorded a lot of her 14th studio album in Nashville and co-wrote all of the tracks. The first single was Dancing which was a preview of the magic that the rest of the album had in store. I have so many favourite tracks, in addition to Dancing, including Stop Me From Falling, Shelby 68, Raining Glitter (whoop!) and Low Blow, one of the bonus tracks on the deluxe album. She performed several of the songs at Pride Island that year (in the rain!) as well as a cover of Dolly's 9 to 5, making the performance one of my favourite memories of the year.
2019 Madame X - Madonna
Probably Madonna's best critically received album since Confessions and certainly the most diverse in terms of musical influences and languages. The entire project was carefully thought out and had a strong message from start to finish. It was so good to see music videos that both entertained and sparked controversy, reminiscent of her groundbreaking videos of previous decades. The remixes of Medellín, I Rise and Crave were also amazing. And of course, it was surreal to experience Madame X just a few meters away from me - hands down the best show of the year and at the top of my list of all time best.
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