Ten Albums From the Last Decade for Dads Who Think Music Stopped in 1989

We've all heard it at a family barbecue: "They don't make music like they used to." It's true, in a way. They make it differently. But for every dad who swears nothing good has come out since The Stone Roses' debut, there's a modern album that would have sat happily in his record collection back then.

Here are ten to start with, each paired with the old favourite it reminds us of.

The list

• IDLES – Joy as an Act of Resistance (2018). If you loved the furious energy of early punk, this is your record. Loud, funny and surprisingly tender.
• Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia (2022). Dublin post-punk with a poet's eye. Fans of The Fall and Joy Division, step this way.
• Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under (2021). The North East's answer to Springsteen. Big choruses, real stories.
• The War on Drugs – I Don't Live Here Anymore (2021). Widescreen, driving rock that sounds like the best bits of late-eighties Dylan and Petty.
• Michael Kiwanuka – Kiwanuka (2019). Soul and psychedelia with a seventies heart. Put it on after What's Going On.
• Courtney Barnett – Tell Me How You Really Feel (2018). Sharp, scuzzy guitar songs for anyone who misses the Lemonheads.
• Black Pumas – Black Pumas (2019). Warm, gritty soul that sounds like it was found in a box of old Stax singles.
• Wet Leg – Wet Leg (2022). Deadpan, catchy indie from the Isle of Wight. Your kids probably already know it.
• Arctic Monkeys – The Car (2022). Lush, string-soaked and very far from "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor". Think Scott Walker.
• The Lathums – How Beautiful Life Can Be (2021). Jangly, big-hearted Wigan indie for anyone who still owns a Smiths T-shirt.

Where to start

Pick the one that sounds closest to what you already love, play it twice, and give it a fair hearing. The first listen is always the hardest. By the third, you might be the one telling the barbecue about it.