The 50 Best Country Albums of the 2010s
Country music's best albums are always rooted in great storytelling, and the 50 on this list of the top projects from the 2010s are no different. Find albums from Eric Church, Jason Isbell, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town and Carrie Underwood across a dynamic spread of great country albums from every sub-genre.
The first half of the 2010s decade in country music was defined (perhaps unfairly) by bro-country, but 2014 and 2015 saw a monumental shift with albums from Sam Hunt and Chris Stapleton. These two new artists cut very different paths across an uncharted moor — one embraced genre-bleed, while the other seemingly planted his flag in traditional country music.
It's not nearly that simple, however. A deep dive into either artist's catalog shows a diverse selection of songs and lyrics ripe for fans of all genres to pick from. Many of the rest of the top artists of the 2010s started a decade earlier, but cultivated their country sound to match their place in life and new influences. Keith Urban has several albums on this list of the 50 Best Albums of the 2010s, for good reason. Jason Aldean and Luke Bryan are also featured. So too are Brandy Clark and Kacey Musgraves, two key songwriting cogs of the early 21st century.
As for No. 1? Sure, it's subjective, but to the best of our ability, we took commercial success, critical acclaim and fan opinion into our decision making process. An album's overall importance to the artist and the decade certainly weighed heavily on the Top 10 albums. Our No. 1 country album of the 2010s is not obvious — in fact, a few all-genre publications simply missed it. It is, however, the perfect mix of artistry, acclaim, influence and commercial viability.
Can you really disagree?
These Are the 50 Best Country Albums of the 2010s (2010-2019)