My Decade in Music So Far: Eric Torres

This week, Pitchfork shared lists featuring the best albums and tracks of the decade so far. We asked Pitchfork writers and editors to share a favorite song and album that didn't make the list, along with a music highlight and their personal Top 10s or 20s. Check back for more installments of My Decade in Music So Far.

Rodrigo Amarante: Cavalo [Easy Sound]

Rodrigo Amarante’s gorgeous debut pulls from previous stints with Los Hermanos, Little Joy, and Devendra Banhart for its smoky sonic breadth, but there’s no question that each song that makes up Cavalo remains firmly his own. Bouncing between tracks in English, French, and Portuguese, it’s the kind of diverse, deliberate records I can easily return to on any given day while still unearthing some rich, new detail every time. A perplexing bonus: Kristen Wiig sings on three of the album’s 10 tracks, for whatever reason.

Perfume Genius: "All Waters" [Matador]

In the two sparing minutes that make up “All Waters”, Mike Hadreas provided the most succinct and devastating summary of what it felt like to be in the closet for the first 18 years of my life: perpetually anxious, irrepressibly yearning, self-doubting at every opportunity. Despite its mournful call, however, listening to “All Waters” now makes me oddly hopeful, a reminder that perhaps a future where there is no hesitation in doing something as natural as holding a lover’s hand isn’t so impossible.

Musical Highlight of the Last Five Years: There have been so many, but top honors goes to enduring the horrors of a crowded Bowery Ballroom to see Fiona Apple’s return to Manhattan.

Favorite Albums of 2010-2014:

1. Fiona Apple: The Idler Wheel...
2. Deerhunter: Halcyon Digest
3. Joanna Newsom: Have One on Me
4. St. Vincent: Strange Mercy
5. Robyn: Body Talk
6. Kendrick Lamar: good kid, m.A.A.d city
7. Rodrigo Amarante: Cavalo
8. The Knife: Shaking the Habitual
9. Shabazz Palaces: Black Up
10. Beach House: Teen Dream
11. Cibo Matto: Hotel Valentine
12. St. Vincent: St. Vincent
13. James Blake: James Blake
14. Erykah Badu: New Amerykah Part Two: Return of the Ankh
15. Flying Lotus: Cosmogramma
16. EMA: Past Life Martyred Saints
17. Janelle Monáe: The ArchAndroid
18. Toro y Moi: Underneath the Pine
19. Rhye: Woman
20. Chairlift: Something

Favorite Tracks of 2010-2014:

1. Deerhunter: "Helicopter"
2. Erykah Badu: "Out My Mind, Just In Time (Part 1, 2 & 3)"
3. Robyn: "Dancing on My Own"
4. Fiona Apple: "Werewolf"
5. St. Vincent: "Strange Mercy"
6. Dum Dum Girls: "Coming Down"
7. Joanna Newsom: "Easy"
8. Rhye: "Open"
9. Jai Paul: "BTSTU (Edit)"
10. FKA twigs: "Water Me"
11. Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti: "Baby"
12. Kendrick Lamar: "Sing About Me, I'm Dying of Thirst"
13. Tame Impala: "Feels Like We Only Go Backwards"
14. tUnE-yArDs: "Powa"
15. The Tallest Man on Earth: "On Every Page"
16. Crystal Castles: "Celestica"
17. Perfume Genius: "All Waters"
18. James Blake: "CMYK"
19. LCD Soundsystem: "Dance Yrself Clean"
20. Azealia Banks: "212"