Best albums of the decade (2000-2009) lists
 

It's that time of year. I think the general pall over the state of the economy, a few wars and such alike have managed to have 2010 creep up on us. Nonetheless, we're almost 10 years away from Y2K hysteria!

But enough of that. I just finished doing an entire list of 100 albums for a project with a few colleagues from around the country and thought it would be interesting to get people here to chime in on their favorite albums of the decade.

Could be one, could be 100. Doesn't matter, really. Apply whatever rules you like, just post it here and let's compare.

To start, here's a link to Pitchfork's "The Decade in Music" which includes the Top 500 songs, Top 50 videos and Top 200 albums of the decade.

http://pitchfork.com/p2k/

Lost all interest in the lists after I realised I only rated one of the bands in the top 20 singles of that decade .... heck I only recognised the names of about 4-5 of them ;)

Whoevers 'best' that is - its not mine ;)

Starting at song number 500, I had only heard of 2 of the acts up through 468.

Weezer and The Strokes.

I'll give them credit though, I checked out the top 20 and the two most annoying songs of the decade were right on the list like I expected.

You know you're getting old when you read a top-100 albums of the decade list, and have only listened to 8 of them, only 2 of which were in the top-50, and have zero desire to seek out any of the others. :(

Well it's Pitchfork. Gotta sell print, yo. (Ok, not really.)

I imagine any thread like this is going to be a split between

"How many hipsters to take to screw in a lightbulb? It's kind of a big number, you probably haven't heard of it."

and

"You kids and your fancy music! I haven't listened to anything since they took 8-track out of my pea green Dodge Dart!"

Here's Paste Magazine's list:

The 50 Best Albums of the Decade (2000-2009) :: Blogs :: List of the Day :: Paste

And NME's:

http://www.nme.com/list/the-top-100-...158049/page/10

Some overlap in all of these, but some divergence too.

Here is the AV Clubs Top 50 albums:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-b...-decade,35540/

Which is mostly like because The White Stripe's phenomenal "White Blood Cells" is #1 :D

I just don't get the White Stripes. I've given them more chances than I usually would any group, based solely on the acclaim, but I find them entirely unlistenable.

Whew - I thought I was really out of touch with music reading that list.

My vote for best goes to Muse's recent new effort - one of the greatest albums I've heard in a long time. Then again, I am also VERY far behind the mainstream when it comes to listening to new music, so I'm leaving a lot out due to ignorance.

I'm a pretty massive Muse fan and while I think Exogenesis and United States of Eurasia are pretty great, the rest of the album is so-so IMO. I think their last two efforts have both been a very mixed bag.

Elbow, IMO, are now the best English "art-rock"ish group around.

Here's my list. The numbers really aren't all that important for the most part, because it's a pretty personal list with motivations that don't have a lot to do with purely sonic measurements.




Most overrated album of the decade?
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (2006)
Runner up: Vampire Weekend (2008)

Most underrated album of the decade?
Richard Swift - Dressed Up For The Letdown (2007)
Runner up: Hilary Hahn - Violin Concertos (Mendelssohn/Shostakovich) (2002)

Song of the Decade:
Plus/Minus (+/-) Steal The Blueprints (2006)

+1

I also have to admit that the album was my first introduction to Muse (like I said, I'm woefully behind). I have yet to check out any of their other albums.

Middle Cyclone is also a fantastic album - it didn't jump out and grab me, but every time I listen to it, I am more and more impressed.

Being an Aussie, the blues probably isn't engrained into your culture as it is here. Maybe that has something to do with it? Most of their music is extremely blues-reverent.

Good list, DC. We have some similar taste. I hope I can overcome my laziness and put together a list of my own here soon.

Yawn


Another list that tries to show how cool the people who put it out are because they listen to obscure music with a few trendy acts ( Radiohead, The Strokes) thrown in.

Any list that doesn't include American Idiot in the top 20 loses all credibility IMO.

Space Station #5 by Montrose.

The blues are fairly big here (so are the White Stripes). It's just more to do with my musical tastes I guess. To my ears, a group needs to be either strong with melody or technically pretty "creative" ("unusual" might be a better word) to catch my attention. Blues of the kind the White Stripes play doesn't really fit into either of those categories. I do like a few other groups that dabble in the blues though.

Midnight Oil?

/ducks and runs

:D

You have to realize that these people (myself included) have actively spent time seraching for music that they enjoy. It's almost something of a hobby. For a lot of people, it just comes on tv or the radio or something, and they just say "I like that" or "I don't like that.".

If you say "I liked American Idiot" and I tell you you're a fool, then go ahead and ignore me. If you say the same thing and I tell you to enjoy it, but I've found something more interesting to me, then you gotta play fair and say "Okay, since I'm not willing to invest any time in finding out about any of that music, I should probably just stand by in silence as the arts pass me by."

Something doesn't have to be obscure to be awesome.

I'm not being critical of those artists or people enjoying them, to each is own. Up until a couple of years ago my favorite band in the world was little known ( Dropkick Murphys), but these lists always seem so contrived to me. It is like great albums are left off because they are to mainstream.

dola- I am admittedly somewhat of a hypocrite. Most people have never heard of my favorite bands and they get no radio play. Murphys, Flogging Molly, Horrorpops, Ben Folds Five, The Dead Pets, Bouncing Souls just to name a few.

:+1:

Easily my favorite album of this year. I can't remember the last time I had an album that literally lasted all year long. Usually they get boring after a few months or you go back and check out a few songs. But with that thing, it just held up extremely well and I imagine it'll age even better because the songs seem to transcend the seasons.

I must kill you now! :mad:

Mostly because "The White Stripes" are by far my favorite band (and "White Blood Cells" is my favorite album ever). But, its Thanksgiving, so I guess I shall spare your life after all.

He jumped the shark after the 2nd BF5 album, but...what good times they were:

I totally agree DC, I really wish they had stayed together. Their first full length album is still an all time favorite. Video may be my favorite all time song, plus philosophy, last waltz, where's summer B, etc... amazing album

That was me in college. But when you work in the computer lab, purposely during the times where it's slow (weekends, late at night during the week), I basically had two things to do. Surf the net or study. So I used that time very wisely and search the net for all kinds of music.

Now...eh. I'm more of one of those radio listeners now. Sometimes I try to go and find music, usually to be disappointed.


Anyway, looking through iTunes, here are some albums that I would nominate for a decade's list.

Static-X - Cannibal
The Killers - Hot Fuss
The Killers - Sam's Town
Tool - Lateralus
Tool - 10,000 Days
Ill Niño - Revolution Revolucion
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step
System of a Down - Toxicity
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells

I left off the obscure stuff I listen to (which isn't much, but there is some) because I think for an overall "all-decade" list, popularity should be taken into consideration.

I think popularity based upon the readership should be taken into consideration ;). A Top 100 for Pitchfork which includes a lot of pop mainstream big selling bands is NOT going to be met with applause from that readership.

Not one SM and Jicks album. Crap list.

I agreed with maybe 15. The only top 20 I really felt was a solid choice was Interpol.

My personal fav from this decade: The Stance Brothers "Kind Soul"

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/stancebrothers

Good point. :) Here's some industrial/aggrotech in case I were nominating for something dedicated to that type of music.

Psyclon Nine - Crwn Thy Frnicatr
Tactical Sekt - Syncope
Combichrist - What the Fuck is Wrong With You People?
Unter Null - The Failure Epiphany
Noisuf-X - The Beauty of Destruction

No Jimmy Eat World on the top 200 lists makes the list completely bullshit.

It ain't about obscurity. It's about what the people who care about it most find appealing. If you're a casual music fan, then yes, many things may seem obscure to you. If someone asked me to list my favorite computer software programmers of the past decade, my list would seem pathetic to anyone who had invested time (whether it be forced through occupation, or enjoyed as a hobby) in learning about computer software development. I wouldn't "yawn" at that list. I'd try to take the advice of those who have invested time into it to heart.

I hate hate beer snobs. When I tell someone I drink Budweiser, I know it's shit. If someone was making a list of the Top 100 beers of the past decade, I'd know better than to try and throw Budweisers hat into the ring. I'd get laughed out of the discussion. That doesn't sway my own appreciation for Budweiser, but I know better than to try and flaunt Budweiser into the faces of those who obviously have invested more time into the intricacies of beer.

Basically, American Idiot is the Budweiser of music to me.

now that´s a well constructed metaphor that can be understood by nearly every 15+ year old human being :D

I love those lists, gives me ideas on what to check out or reminds me of artists/albums i haven´t heard in a while.

I make it a habit that arround the end of a year i take a day or 2 (mostly some weekend filled with little activity, preferably rainy outside) to go through about 5,6 blogs that i enjoyed reading (not even regularly reading them) and got bookmarked to see if they have a year ends list up and then got a couple tabs open with youtube, myspace, lastFM etc (often the blogs offer a song or 2 for download per artist/album) , good (albeit nerdy) times ;)

@ DC : In my Top list there would/will be a lot from your list so i´ll definitely have a look at the albums/artists i haven´t heard of/listened to on that:) Most of the so-called "indie" section of my "repertoire" is covered on your list, missing is Post-Rock (Explosions in The Sky,
Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Mono f.e.) and some more artists like Franz Ferdinand or Maximo Park. And of course a few german acts that obviously haven´t made it across the Pond other than maybe The Notwist.
Will post a list on the weekend mabye ...

Agree that mainstream success shouldn´t exclude albums from such lists at all. Heck, there was a period when a ton of Indie music got played on shows like The OC or Greys Anatomy and suddenly they were accused of that on blogs while by now it should be clear it had a immensely positive effect.
I also hate things like a lot of artists get discredited from the internet public once they start to sell big (Death cab For Cutie is one example here. Everybody on the web basically says "Transatlanticism was their best album, then they were merely good but weren´t as good because they wrote for a bigger audience" . Makes me cringe...)

Then again : Just because you haven´t heard of it doesn´t mean it´s obscure (or even "artsy") either. A lot of those albums, they are on a ton of personal lists of people that are a bit more than casual music listeners. They have also been introduced to a whole new group due to the much more frequent use of songs in popular TV series (think the OC or Greys Anatomy who have produced amazing soundtracks and introduced a ton of amazing artists to a lot of people)

I´m not saying you have to like them or even know them, but there´s tons of people that do, more than you think ;) And it IS a certain group of people, but those are the people that make those lists in the first place.

It´s also not just weird people either, try to embrace us ;)
Sales often don´t back that up, but there´s a plethora of reasons to that...

A lot of artists/albums on those lists also are from Europe and/or from lesser-known genres and if you don´t actively look out for them you aren´t going to have heard of them.
Yet with the digital age you can get to know them whereas 20 years ago only the biggest stars even go a fanbase on the other side of the pond. So don´t say they are obscure just because you haven´t heard of it. Actually a lot of the acts you might find "obscure" or "artsy" are actually very easily digested.
Take "The Postal Service", "Death Cab For Cutie" or "Nada Surf" (just to name personal favourites) who create pop-songs essentially. Listen to Death Cab´s opener to Plans (Marching Bands of Manhattan), Nada Surf´s (See Theese Bones) or Postal Sevice´s "Such Great Heights" (yeah, the UPS jingle does originate from that !) , this isn´t "artsy" music but just beautifully structured pop songs.

If it's any consolation, I'm pretty sure my favourite album ever would probably make your ears bleed. :D

Is that pitchfork list available anywhere that doesn't require clicking through dozens of ad-heavy pages to view?

It's been mentioned in this thread, and it is my slam-dunk #1 album of the year.

Neko Case - "Middle Cyclone" is currently 5 bucks on amazon.com as one of their lighning deals. Looks like it expires about 8PM eastern. Amazon.com: Black Friday Deals: Music

If any of you have ever taken my advice on an album, trust me this is worth 5 dollars.

I really like all three of their albums, but I might be the only person who thinks The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner is their magnum opus.

:+1:

You know, I just can't seem to ride the post-rock wave. I've tried, but...I can't do it. It just doesn't work for me. I appreciate the work GYBE does and believe the hoopla is well founded, but...it just doesn't do it for me, so I've tended to avoid it by and large.

I love the Notwist. The Devil You + Me is a glaring omission from my list.

+1

Looks like you stuck to one album per artist. Glad to see someone else who has Get Behind Me Satan as White Stripes best.

We differ on the Metric choice. I haven't gotten into Fantasies nearly as much as Live It Out.

I did a top 40 songs of the decade list for a music club I'm in (one per artist)

40) Ballad of Human Kindness -- The Dears
39) Plasticities -- Andrew Bird
38) Buy A Dog -- Luce
37) Oxford Comma -- Vampire Weekend
36) Buttons -- The Weeks
35) This Boy Is Exhausted -- The Wrens
34) Station Approach -- Elbow
33) Sometimes In The Fall -- Phoenix
32) Bhindi Bhagee -- Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros
31) Frontier Psychiatrist -- The Avalanches
30) Bang Bang -- The Knux
29) Skinny Love -- Bon Iver
28) Flake -- Jack Johnson
27) All My Friends -- LCD Soundsystem
26) Rex Kramer -- Gomez
25) Everyone Gets A Star -- Albert Hammond, Jr
24) Take Me Out -- Franz Ferdinand
23) Float On -- Modest Mouse
22) I Bow Down And Pray To Every Woman I Meet -- Chuck Prophet
21) Casimir Pulaski Day -- Sufjan Stevens
20) The Hop -- Radio Citizen featuring Bajka
19) VCR -- The xx
18) The General Specific -- Band of Horses
17) St. Francis Dam Disaster -- Frank Black and the Catholics
16) Chips Ahoy! -- The Hold Steady
15) Just a Dream -- Great Northern
14) The Staunton Lick -- Lemon Jelly
13) Struggle -- Ringside
12) Carmella -- Beth Orton
11) Mardy Bum -- Arctic Monkeys
10) Pelz Komet -- Kingsbury Manx
9) Rebellion (Lies) -- Arcade Fire
8) Kissing Families -- Silversun Pickups
7) Take, Take, Take -- The White Stripes
6) My Mathematical Mind -- Spoon
5) Rondo A Capricio -- Tosca
4) 2080 -- Yeasayer
3) Pocketful of Money -- Jens Lekman
2) Last Night -- The Strokes
1) I Am Trying To Break Your Heart -- Wilco

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dark Cloud (Post 2174211) You know, I just can't seem to ride the post-rock wave. I've tried, but...I can't do it. It just doesn't work for me. I appreciate the work GYBE does and believe the hoopla is well founded, but...it just doesn't do it for me, so I've tended to avoid it by and large.

Yeah well, one can´t like everything ;) I certainly can´t listen to everything either in that field, but really love the more melody-driven bands (even though Godspeed is right on the edge with some songs) like Explosions In The Sky. That band in particular I could listen to for days … Driving the Icefield Parkway with EITS (and Sigur Ros btw) coming out of the speakers, doesn´t get any better ... J
There´s a lot of great instrumental stuff out there, not just Post Rock per se. Have you ever listened to Olafur Arnalds out of Iceland ? Unbelievably beautiful melodies, just wow. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6u5D-5LWSg
kind of a mix between Indie, classical music (which he is studying) and electronical elements

Have you listened to “Neon Golden” by the Notwist? Even better (albeit different) than Devil imo and deservedly high praised.

Sure, some people (and I give DC credit here) can listen to and include albums from different genres with varying degrees of commercial success. But when you have lists that hit every indie rock/hipster cliche - admittedly combined with some underappreciated gems - then they've crossed the line from connoisseur to pretentious person ordering the most obscure microbrew on the menu and thinking they've got a better beer than my Blue Moon.

Music is such a subjective taste and there are so many good albums released every year that the amount of overlap on these lists smacks more of groupthink than of an honest accounting of varied tastes. Really, Stankonia, The Blueprint and Late Registration are the only rap albums of the decade worth mentioning? Albums like Yankee Hotel Foxtrot are being placed in the top 5 admittedly as much for the anti-label coolness they represented as the music itself.

It is what it is as these lists and magazines are catering to their audience, but insinuating that a person who likes American Idiot more doesn't care about music as much as one who has Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, the Strokes, Radiohead and a token album from an artist before they became mainstream (we'll say M.I.A. or Death Cab) as his top 5 is ludicrous and insulting.

again, the sites in question making those lists in question all serve a similar base. Both for listeners as well as for Bands/Artists.
Look up some hip hop sites and you won´t even find non-hip-hop albums on those lists, they don´t even bother and just say "best Rap/Hip Hop albums of the year/decade".
How many hip hop artists or excessive/intense (sorry, can´t find the word i´m loooking for in english right now ;) ) hip hop listeners will you see that would list a single non-rap album on their personal Top 10 or even Top50 ? At most the occasional RnB album.
Dunno, seems even more ignorant and way more of a groupthink to me to be honest.

A ton of Rap artists makes a point in not being mixed with other music, don´t they ? The albums mentioned are mostly ones that weaved in other music genres in a way.

Of course any list is going to be subjective, but don't you think your last statement here contradicts your first?

Personally, I find Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to be miles above anything else Wilco has done, regardless of the label shenanigans that went on with the release. Again, ymmv.

It's less about that - I said catering to an audience is fine as long you're not pretending to include other genres - and more that they picked the same 3 albums for their top 20's out of all the hip-hop options. (Especially when The Blueprint and Stankonia are both probably the 3rd best album from their respective artists - although Outkast's better efforts were in the 1990's.) There were other superlative efforts from Lupe, Eminem, the Roots, Reflection Eternal, Common, J5 and Nas, just to name mainstream enough artists. The odds of multiple people actually listening to the catalog from those artists and then picking The Blueprint/Stankonia/Late Registration as the 3 best is miniscule. Which is why that list seemed like more of a coronation of the consensus best reviewed albums than a true person's stand on what they listened to the most.

Well, I prefer my music to be pleasing first on an auditory level and not because it's attached to deeper meaning. I have no problem with people who put that album in their top 5. I do have a problem when their entire write-up for why it was #2 is based on what it meant and not how it sounds.I'd be willing to bet that if YHF was originally released in a normal manner instead them being dropped and the album streamed for free it wouldn't have garnered nearly the attention or acclaim it did. Because people behind lists like this couldn't clap themselves on the back for being cooler than the major labels.