# What is the best indie album of the 2010s?

> The 2010s brought bedroom pop, the return of lo-fi, and a new wave of emotionally intense singer-songwriters. Which album from this decade meant the most to you?

*By YPB Team · Published April 20, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-indie-album-of-the-2010s*

---

## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Bon Iver, Bon Iver**
   Bon Iver's 2011 second album, moving from cabin-folk isolation to lush orchestral indie pop in a stunning leap.
2. **Modern Vampires of the City**
   Vampire Weekend's 2013 masterpiece, exploring mortality and faith with their most sophisticated songwriting to date.
3. **The Suburbs**
   Arcade Fire's 2010 Grammy-winning double album, a wistful meditation on suburban America and lost youth.
4. **Teen Dream**
   Beach House's 2010 dream pop breakthrough, all lush reverb and bittersweet nostalgia.
5. **Currents**
   Tame Impala's 2015 psychedelic transformation into electronic pop, one of the defining albums of the decade.
6. **Puberty 2**
   Mitski's 2016 breakthrough, raw and intense indie rock about alienation, identity, and desire.
7. **Carrie & Lowell**
   Sufjan Stevens' 2015 devastating and sparse folk album about grief, childhood, and his late mother.
8. **Teens of Denial**
   Car Seat Headrest's 2016 double album of confessional power-pop that brought Will Toledo's bedroom project to wide acclaim.
9. **Burn Your Fire for No Witness**
   Angel Olsen's 2014 album, a raw and haunting folk-rock statement that established her as a singular indie voice.
10. **Lush**
   Snail Mail's 2018 debut, a remarkably assured confessional indie rock album from a teenage Lindsey Jordan.
11. **High Violet**
   The National's 2010 album, a lush and melancholic mid-life indie rock statement.
12. **Are We There**
   Sharon Van Etten's 2014 breakthrough, a powerful indie rock album exploring love, loss, and self-discovery.
13. **A Crow Looked at Me**
   Mount Eerie's 2017 devastating album about grief following the death of his wife, raw and almost unbearably intimate.
14. **Stranger in the Alps**
   Phoebe Bridgers' 2017 debut, an emotionally transparent folk-rock album that heralded one of indie's great new voices.
15. **Halcyon Digest**
   Deerhunter's 2010 album, a dreamy and hypnotic blend of shoegaze, pop, and psychedelia.
16. **Lost in the Dream**
   The War on Drugs' 2014 expansive shoegaze-meets-Heartland-rock album, a slow-burn masterpiece.
17. **Sprained Ankle**
   Julien Baker's 2015 debut solo album, a spare and emotionally devastating set of guitar-and-voice indie folk songs.

Tags: music, rock, bands, indie, 2010s