Sufjan Stevens - Carrie & Lowell

After a decade of orchestral maximalism and concept albums about entire US states, Stevens pulled everything back for Carrie & Lowell, written after the 2012 death of his estranged mother Carrie. Produced with Thomas Bartlett, it trades ambition for plainness, and in doing so became one of the most acclaimed records of the 2010s — proof that restraint can hit harder than scale. It set a template for confessional indie folk that a generation of songwriters, from Phoebe Bridgers on down, have been working from ever since.

Sufjan Stevens has spent his career refusing to repeat himself — banjo-led folk, orchestral pop, glitchy electronics and ambient drone all sit somewhere in his catalogue. He first drew wide attention with 2005's Illinois, a sprawling concept record about the state, before pulling in the opposite direction entirely for Carrie & Lowell. That restlessness, paired with lyrics that are often devastatingly personal, has made him one of American indie music's most quietly influential songwriters.