There are a few albums on this list that are here by virtue of just being damn solid records. Not every album has to reinvent the wheel, upend a band’s sound, or innovate, and I feel like it’s important to remember that in a culture that is so saturated with stuff to consume, all of it fighting for your attention. Fortunately, since music requires so much less time investment to know if something is good opposed to a book, movie, or TV show, it’s easy to try out a lot of stuff. That’s how Cheap Girls Famous Graves ended up as one of my most listened to albums of the decade. I just never stopped playing this album, and it’s one I still like to put on when I need something to fill a silent void. There’s nothing fancy about this album. It’s pure indie rock with power pop leanings that I love by virtue of the list of bands they’ve been on tour with (The Hold Steady, Against Me!, AJJ, Joyce Manor, you can see why I like these guys). Famous Graves is a rock solid record, and it’s a shame it proved to be the band’s last as they split in 2017. Sometimes a band only gets 30 seconds to convince me that I should continue listening to them, and with Cheap Girls I needed all of 10 seconds to fully commit to the album. The opening to “Slow Nod” is my kind of music. Better yet, one of my favorite songs--the bonus track “7-8 Years”--didn’t even make the album! And that’s a crying shame because the lyric “So kick me in the kidneys really hard/ I’m gonna write my name in blood in the backyard” is an absolute killer.
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