The Best Self-Titled Albums of the Last Decade

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There's always a sense of added pressure when an artist releases an eponymous album. Cue up Marlo Stanfield and his inspirational quote from The Wire. But for real, self-titled albums don't come out too often, yet the consistency of quality seems to go up whenever they do. Who can forget Beyoncé​'s surprise release that shook the music world? Or when Killer Mike and El-P formed like Voltron on their 2013 debut? There's obviously levels to this. From Chris Brown to Vampire Weekend, these are The Best Self-Titled Albums of the Last Decade.

10.Chris Brown

Release Date: 2005

Label: Jive

The first single from Chris Brown’s debut album gave away little as to what the kid from Virginia was capable of. The Scott Storch-produced dance ditty featured fuzzy synths and an adequate verse from Juelz Santana. It was a hit that managed to top the charts. The song was the kind you would imagine a teenager trying to pass for an adult would make. But that’s not what made Brown’s debut so memorable. That was the project’s next single, “Yo (Excuse Me Miss)." With the help of Johnta Austin and Dre & Vidal, Brown crafted a love song that perfectly captured the butterflies that flutter when trying to court a new crush. It was love from the viewpoint of a 16-year-old. Chris Brown worked so well in balancing tender songs about pubescent love ("Say Goodbye") with numbers that would get a dance floor full of adults moving ("Gimme That"). No easy feat, that. —Damien Scott

9.TNGHT

Release Date: 2012

Label: Warp/LuckyMe

At the time of this writing, Hudson Mohawke and Lunice's TNGHT project is on hiatus. If they never released another full project, that'd be OK, as TNGHT is pretty damn perfect. Released in the summer of 2012, TNGHT played like the illest resume for producers, ever. It took the booming trap sound that had started to bubble in EDM circles and just made it epic. Tracks like "Higher Ground" did just as the vocal sample said, funneling hypnotic trap horns and booming 808s, all in the name of making something that was much more than a throwaway "trap banger." Everything about HudMo and Lunice was in there, from the off-kilter melodies and movements of "Easy Easy" to the simplistic turnt anthem "Bugg'n." There was no insanity here; this was a focused, primed attack, and the project that showed the chinstroking tastemakers that there was more to trap that Baauer's "Harlem Shake" and Flosstradamus' "Original Don" remix. And again, if this is the one and only TNGHT release, we're OK with that. —khal

8.Burial

Release Date: 2006

Label: Hyperdub

For debut albums for the electronic music scene in the last decade, not too many producers have made the impact that Burial has. While classified as "dubstep," Burial's debut album was so much more. He blended his love for dubstep and other forms of U.K.-centric sounds (like the U.K. garage and 2-step scenes) along with ambient textures to truly revolutionize the dubstep scene like no one before him. While not Burial's best (that distinction would be thrown upon his sophomore LP, Untrue), Burial struck at a time where the dubstep scene was growing and expanding past the Digital Mystikz sound, letting heads know that the 140BPM lane didn't need to solely consist of punishing basslines and cracking drums. Dubstep's much deeper than some would give it credit for, and Burial hinted at the future of the genre. —khal

7.Run the Jewels

Release Date: 2013

Label: Fool's Gold

Sometimes heroes don't wear capes. An unlikely duo made up of an underground legend and an under-appreciated major label rapper took the game by storm in 2013. El Producto and Killer Mike's helter skelter style of futuristic beats and mind-bending raps makes your favorite rap group obsolete. Run the Jewels embraced the Internet and released the album for free—a tactic that's becoming more and more popular. Touring the country performing music released for free is the smartest thing for independent artists to do these days. And if you thought they were a flash in a pan, they released a critically acclaimed follow-up using the same process with even better results. They continue to revolutionize the use of the Internet by creating a remix album using cat sounds aptly named Meow the Jewels. —Angel Diaz

6.Crystal Castles

Release Date: 2008

Label: Last Gang

It's a shame Alice Glass of Crystal Castles decided to call it quits in 2014, as the Toronto-based electronic duo were just beginning to hit their stride as one of the best acts on the experimental scene. That was foreshadowed on their 2008 debut album, which offered up eclectic soundscapes that felt ahead of their time, "Crimewave" being the obvious standout. Most impressive was their sampling techniques. "Vanished" capitalized on the best elements of Van She's "Sex City," while "Magic Spells" flipped Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's legendary "The Message" into a lo-fi trance tune that bounced with ease. The project has since settled in as a favorite for hipsters and critics alike. This is one of the few times we can't fault either crowd for digging such a forward-looking piece of work. —Edwin Ortiz

5.Fleet Foxes

Release Date: 2008

Label: Sub Pop

There's something undeniably charming about Fleet Foxes' debut album. The melodies are full and warm; the lyrics, while at times darker than the tone suggests, filled with innocence and wonder. Robin Pecknold and crew effectively pieced together an indie folk project that feels like it could fit any season of the year. This musical equilibrium​ shines through on "White Winter Hymnal," a hearty call to memories past, as well as "Your Protector," an impassioned performance that takes flight with flutes billowing in the background. Clocking in at under 40 minutes, the album is seamless and does more with less. On "Quiet Houses," Pecknold repeats only 10 words throughout the song, yet the melody builds to a blissed-out state. These moments of space capture the essence of what Fleet Foxes achieved here. —Edwin Ortiz

4.Vampire Weekend

Release Date: 2008

Label: XL

Started as a group whose two first members, writer and lead singer Ezra Koenig and drummer Chris Tomson, shared a love of rock and global music, Vampire Weekend blended together many disparate forms, sights, and sounds to make something new pop. And by pop, we mean poppy as well as the way a balloon explodes when filled with too much air. Gone were the rock riffs of their contemporaries, and in its place we got upbeat guitars, wonky drums, wonderful blends of African pop that made you want to skip across a campus on a nice spring day. The entire project was a beautiful melange of influences. Only on this album would we get a song called “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa.” The lyrics were surprising, too, in their detail of a style of life many experienced but very rarely put into song—one where a degree uselessly hangs in your parent’s crib while you’re off acting reckless. That’s an experience many can share. —Damien Scott

3.St. Vincent

Release Date: 2014

Label: Loma Vista/Republic

Annie Clark put her best foot forward on her latest release, a project that captures the heart and soul of an individual to self-aware for her own good. Her lyricism borders on witty, often calling upon fragments of personal experiences that pull the listener in for the wild ride. "Rattlesnake" is a perfect example. Over a mercurial backdrop, Clark sings, "Follow the power-lines back from the road/No one around so I take off my clothes/Am I the only one in the only world?" Not really, since you feel like you're right there with her. She balances these moments out with "Prince Johnny," a pop-oriented record that will probably inspire HAIM's next album. And then there's "I Prefer Your Love," a subtle ballad that wraps the listener up in feels. It's no surprise then why St. Vincent earned her a Grammy nod for Best Alternative Music Album. —​Edwin Ortiz

2.LCD Soundsystem

Release Date: 2005

Label: DFA

James Murphy released LCD Soundsystem’s first single, “Losing My Edge," in 2002. He then made us wait nearly three years before we got a full-length LCD project out of him, but we were rewarded handsomely for our patience. “Daft Punk Is Playing at My House” busted the door down in the first seconds of the two-disc album, and the songs that followed provided a drum-fueled, disco- and punk-rock-referencing playlist for the different phases of your house party: "Too Much Love" was for the steadily buzzing kitchen early in the night; "Tribulations" went to the sweaty basement where people kept time with the zigzag beat; "Never As Tired As When I'm Waking Up" played in the hazy comedown spot. And for those without house parties, the album worked equally well in a grimy club in LCD's hometown of New York. The album may have come out in January 2005, but during that summer in the city, you couldn't escape LCD Soundsystem if you tried. —Christine Werthman

1.Beyoncé

Release Date: 2013

Label: Parkwood/Columbia

When the digital release dropped around midnight on a winter Saturday late in 2013, Christmas came a couple weeks early. The lustful anthem “Drunk in Love,” swirling club trance “Partition,” and arena ballad “XO” animated dance floors on New Year's Eve and then for all 12 subsequent months, as she outpaced total sales of her previous album in just four weeks and spent much of the year with multiple hits in the Hot 100. This is the album that confirmed, once and for all, Beyoncé's reign as the biggest, most adored pop star in the world. Beyoncé isn't as grand and massively orchestrated as her earlier, more straight-forwardly pop solo albums; it's rather a tender, intimate meditation on family and masterwork celebration of agency, independence, and bold existence. From bedroom to boardroom, straight to the top. —Justin Charity