Paige Walter of Cherry-Veen Zine's Top 5 Albums of the Decade
Paige Walter is one half of the Philadelphia music magazine Cherry-Veen Zine, which specializes in show coverage, album reviews, and concert booking. Chances are you’ve seen her and Kristen Levine at a DIY show or you’ve spotted their zine at various punk hotspots around the city.
Big Thief - Capacity (2017)
Big Thief finished the decade strong with two releases in 2019: the celestial UFOF and its sister record, earthly Two Hands. Both albums are spectacular, but 2017’s Capacity shines the brightest. Like a true concept album, Capacity is best played from top to bottom in one continual listen. The track list has the perfect ratio of intimate, slowed-down ballads to high-energy anthems. The subject matter is thoughtful and haunting, each song showcasing the most emotional of Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting; songs like “Mythological Beauty” and “Mary” will make you experience tens of kinds of heartbreak at once. For all these reasons, I was traumatized to hear my friend refer to this record as solely “the one with the baby on it.”
Courtney Barnett - Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015)
Courtney Barnett’s greatest strength is turning mundane experiences into existential diatribes through quirky, self-aware narrative. It’s this quality that’s missing on 2018’s Tell Me How You Really Feel, but is exhibited in droves on Sometimes I Sit and Think. The second track, “Pedestrian at Best”, highlights her humorous, self-deprecating style: “Erroneous, harmonious, I'm hardly sanctimonious / Dirty clothes, I suppose we all outgrow ourselves / I'm a fake, I'm a phoney, I'm awake, I'm alone / I'm homely, I'm a Scorpio.” While I was a fan, I didn’t have a full appreciation for Courtney’s music before I saw her live at the Fillmore last year. Her performance carries more energy than is to be expected from her droll lyrics.
Father John Misty - I Love You, Honeybear (2015)
Rarely are love songs as nuanced and maddening as when Father John Misty writes them. His characters live in a not-so-distant dystopia, but their love is old-world. “Bored in the USA” and “Holy Shit” plot society’s downfall, but “I Went To The Store One Day” injects optimism into this apocalypse via true love. I Love You’s tortuous path comes to a climactic, satisfying ending. It’s a record best accompanied by a bottle of wine and no one else, for Misty’s brand of romanticism is sentimental yet isolating, enchanting yet depressing. The lines he blurs makes I Love You, Honeybear the most delicate of his heavy-handed discography.
Hop Along - Bark Your Head Off Dog (2018)
The debate over the top Hop Along record is electric in Philadelphia. Each release is unique, but Bark Your Head Off Dog stands out as the band’s triumphant arrival at their fully-developed sound. The best elements of Hop Along--Frances Quinlan’s boundary-stretching vocals, her meandering melodies, and the band’s rhythmic layering--are all featured on Bark, but they’re more mature and complex than before. I first saw Hop Along live at Spirit Hall in Pittsburgh spring 2018; by that summer, I had moved to Philadelphia.
Lucy Dacus - Historian (2018)
I never anticipated a sophomore record as eagerly as I did Lucy Dacus’s. After falling in love with her debut, No Burden, I knew I’d cherish whatever she released next. What I didn’t anticipate, however, is this album becoming the soundtrack to my past year. I belted it out alongside my sister cooking dinner in our childhood home. My roommate and I swayed to it as we cleaned the house. It played in my bedroom when I recovered from heartbreak. Perhaps I would not have experienced those moments so deeply if Lucy had not been playing over them. I wish I had told her that when I met her briefly at Silk City before her Union Transfer show this spring. Instead I said, “I recommend the Impossible Burger.”