This is my list of the top 25 albums of the decade. I know this came out kind of quick, but since I'm not in school I have time to think about it. I will say before you read it, though, that I am still very new to this world of independent music, but the long drones I write about the albums I've put on this list shouldn't be taken as just bullshit (at least most of the time). So, without further ado:
TOP 25 ALBUMS (in reverse order so there's some suspense):
25. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
People will wonder why I have this as significant for the decade; it's too new, it doesn't hold up to the classics, fuck that. This album is significant because it got to put in its own two cents about how to be poppy; a new, fresh idea not borrowed from any band I can think of (me being the indie music n00b I am). My favorite tracks: "M79," "Oxford Comma," "Walcott," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa."
24. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Three years after they made their best album, how would the Flaming Lips improve upon perfection? They didn't, but they got damn close to making an album worthy of being The Soft Bulletin Part 2. Yoshimi is not a sequel, of course, but it takes a lot of the orchestral bombast used in their previous album and expands it to showy (almost overproduced?) levels, which, thankfully, in this case was not a bad thing; they were still able to put out an album that held up mostly to the standards of its predecessor, made people smile, and even produce the Oklahoma State Song. My favorites: "Fight Test," "Do You Realize??" "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1," "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell."
23. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
I'm a singer, I love harmony, and I was brought up partly on Crosby, Stills, and Nash, so it was pretty much inevitable that I was going to love a new folk band that uses harmony. When I listen to this album I could imagine walking through the woods and hearing the voices reverberate off the trees, with some songs like "Ragged Wood" starting out soaring in the sky, before coming down from the mountain back into the forest. Whatever they were going for, they certainly nailed it. Faves: "Ragged Wood," "White Winter Hymnal," "Blue Ridge Mountains," "Your Protector."
22. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Before giving Merriweather extended listenings, I was dead set on this being the best album of 2009, and it is still locked in at number 2. But here, on the decade list, it shows a band that started with just Ed Droste recording music in his house before the other three got there, and turned into one of the best bands in the new era of psychedelic music. Sure, there's "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others," but if you listen to the entire album, you can sit or walk and contemplate instead of rock out to the beats and Beach Boys-esque harmonies (which is lots of fun too). If Grizzly Bear continues to improve on each album, who knows what they'll sound like in another 10 years; hopefully they won't get some major-label deal with some big-name producer that dumbs down their sound like other bands I like (cough, Avett Brothers, cough). Chris Taylor does a fine job. Faves: "Southern Point," "Two Weeks," "While You Wait for the Others," "Fine For Now."
21. OutKast - Stankonia
Why can't mainstream hip-hop be like this today? Artful, slick, and on some tracks just as gangsta as their predecessors, Big Boi and Andre 3000 did what still no other rapper or rap group, duo, whatever, has managed to put into the mainstream and make people like it. I still will rock out to this album and if my kids ever start listening to mainstream rap, I'll give them Stankonia so they can listen to what hip-hop is supposed to sound like; certainly not at the bare essentials, but fresh. So fresh, and so clean, clean. Faves: the singles. I grew up on that shit.
20. Animal Collective - Feels
The first Animal Collective song I ever heard, "Banshee Beat," remains to this day my favorite Animal Collective song. I remember hearing something off of Strawberry Jamin that coffeeshop, but when I went onto Ruckus in my dorm room to immediately download as much Animal Collective as I possibly could, I thought, hmm. Banshee Beat sounds like a cool song title... and an 8-minute track? I love epic shit like this! The album as a whole, however not so much as epic, portrays Animal Collective's perfectly balanced sound between freak-folk and pop. It flits, runs, and screams, but above all, it makes you happy. Faves: "Banshee Beat," "Grass," "The Purple Bottle," "Did You See The Words."
19. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Thanks to the return of Stuart Murdoch's role as primary songwriter, Belle and Sebastian put out their best album since If You're Feeling Sinister, not to mention an album chock full of pop songs. I'm not going to go all Ryan Schreiber on this band and say they were absolutely terrible when they wrote songs as a collective, but this album shows that when he works by himself, Murdoch can create a good story set to music that not necessarily flows, but definitely works together as a whole. You can see the same kind of storytelling prowess in God Help the Girl, but while that was a good album, the idea works so much better with the rest of his band, and it shows onThe Life Pursuit. +: "For the Price of a Cup of Tea," "Funny Little Frog," "We Are the Sleepyheads," "Sukie in the Graveyard," really all of them, at least the upbeat ones.
18. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Could this be my favorite Radiohead album? Realistically, no; it's not even in the top 3. But still, an album this good that led the charge of bands shunning their labels deserves a spot up here. Undoubtedly one of the best deals ever in music, the tip-jar price tag yielded no shortage on quality. Tracks like OK Computer holdover "Nude" and "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses" coda "Reckoner" show the band making some of its most beautiful music, while lyrically, "All I Need" and "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" show the band at its most emotional. Thom Yorke said that he was trying to make "seduction songs." Whether they worked as that or not (they do), what I see is an album full of damn good songs. +: "Reckoner," "Nude," "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," etc.
17. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
How many people can you cram on one stage? I don't give two shits if they make music like this. Arcade Fire may be Canada's best band, but Broken Social Scene put the Canadian indie scene on the map with this album. All those bandmembers, 19 strong, each from their own side project, put a little into this album, creating a wash of beautiful dream pop. This is seen the most on "Lover's Spit," a 6-and-a-half minute epic that sounds like all 19 bandmembers played a different, repeating part each, made a song out of it, and managed to make it sound beautiful. That aesthetic is spread all over the album, which should make it a no-brainer why this album is ranked so high. +: "Lover's Spit," "Stars and Sons," "KC Accidental," "Cause = Time."
16. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
My friend once told me that the Avett Brothers "go somewhere, sleep with some girl, and then write a song about her." Well, that girl from Chile must have been amazing (in bed or otherwise), because the song they wrote about her goes about everywhere you can with a bluegrass band, from a straight up porch jam, to something that sounds like it's out of a Mexican cowboy movie, and then a phone call later we're headbanging to a metal jam. That may be the most diverse track on the album, but that doesn't discount the rest of the tracks by any means - they all hold their own. The album title and the song titles are all very fitting; the lyrical content encompasses many different emotions and with the music tell... well, an emotional story. And they tell it well, they tell it well. +: "Pretty Girl from Chile," "Paranoia in Bb Major," "Die Die Die," "Shame."
15. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Here's an album that I'll admit I listened to a lot because Pitchfork made a big fuckin' deal about it. I actually downloaded it before I had ever heard of Pitchfork; it came up associated with Animal Collective when I searched it on Ruckus (being the neophyte, I of course had no clue of his relevance). Maybe a year and a half later, I finally listened to the song "Bros." Holy shit. That's all I have to say about that. +: "Bros," "I'm Not," "Comfy In Nautica," "Good Girl/Carrots."
14. of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
When Skeletal Lamping came out, I heard people talking about how it was nowhere near as good as their previous work (again, I am very much a neophyte to the world of independent music). When I finally gave this album a listen, I found out why. I first listened to the poppier tracks, such as "Suffer for Fashion," "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," and the relentlessly head-sticking "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger." Then I finally clicked on the 12-minute "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal." Kevin Barnes rarely gets angry musically, but holy shit does this song build up and explode. Let's tear the fucking house apart! +: the ones I mentioned and others.
13. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Here's another album that I was introduced to by reading Pitchfork (and formed my own opinion of it afterwards). Sound of Silver is probably the best assortment of different applications of electronic music that I have ever heard. Mood music in "Someone Great," dance music in "Get Innocuous!" and "Time To Get Away," ...the list goes on. James Murphy certainly isn't losing his edge anymore - it's at its sharpest on this album and another is on the way next year. Might want some protective gloves to handle the CD. +: "Someone Great," "All My Friends," "Get Innocuous!" "North American Scum."
12. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Two people? There's seriously only two people playing on that album? With only two instruments? Where's the bass? When this album came out, or more accurately, when it surfaced in the mainstream, those are the questions people asked, and the answer is yes, and it is awesome. This album is the most bare-boned, simple definition there is of raw power, and it shows most on single "Fell In Love With a Girl." There's just so much going on in those short less-than-2 minutes and yet that's only coming from a guitar and a drum set. You could give me any rock band that everyone knows and with all their instruments they wouldn't compare to what Jack and Meg White did here. +: "We're Going to be Friends," "Fell in Love with a Girl," "Hotel Yorba," "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground."
11. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
You were waiting for it, weren't you? I mean, Feels was damn good, but come on. This album is just so awesome on so many levels that if the top 10 on my list hadn't achieved classic status, were by this one band called Radiohead, or were for some strange reason even more awesome, this would be near the top. The action starts about 2 minutes into "In The Flowers" and continues into one of the best tracks this decade, "My Girls." Unbelievably melodically catchy and, lyrically, quite culturally relevant, it's a song for everyone that made even the crowds of uncultured bros at Lollapalooza yelling for them to play it (they didn't). And although that's the best track on the album, the others hold right up with it, making for an endlessly replayable psych-pop masterpiece. +: "My Girls," "Summertime Clothes," "Bluish," "Brother Sport," listen to the damn thing already.
10. The Strokes - Is This It
The saviors of rock and roll? They may very well be. Although they've kind of slacked recently, The Strokes certainly lived up to the hype surrounding their first release. Not only do they make a perfectly accessible rock sound on this album, unlike most other mainstream rock acts, they're in a good mood. Perhaps happy-sounding (musically at least) singles "Last Nite" and "Someday" had a few too many indie leanings (too lo-fi, too polite, major key, etc.) for other rock acts to pick up on their influence, dismissing them as not commercial enough for the masses, but if every mainstream rock act had tried to imitate that, I might not listen to as much indie rock as I do. Either way, what I'm saying is, Is This It is the defining rock 'n roll album for this decade, and no one else seems to have managed to repeat it. +: "Someday," "Last Nite," "Soma," "The Modern Age," and then the rest.
9. Daft Punk - Discovery
Work it. Make it. Do it. Makes us. You know the rest. When someone says anything about electronic music, dance music, house music, whatever, the mind turns immediately to Daft Punk. Especially since Kanye sampled "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," and since the song "One More Time" existed, Daft Punk has become a household name. But there's so much more to this album than the known cuts; "Digital Love" and "Crescendolls" both come to mind, along with "Superheroes" and the aptly-named (though I disagree with the sentiment) 10-minute closer "Too Long." Bottom line: This album says dance party. +: "One More Time," "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," "Crescendolls," "Digital Love," and more.
8. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Isaac Brock should teach the Avett Brothers how to do a major-label debut. Their first album for Epic, instead of adding loads of production tricks and pop hooks (which would inevitably come later), Modest Mouse did what they do best and kept to their weirdness of the '90s. Opening track "3rd Planet" is no "Float On" in terms of pop accessibility, but its lyrics, especially those concerning everyone in this country's religious fascination/fanaticism, hold the song up in its own right (and that doesn't mean it's not a catchy song musically). And that's only the first track. Listen to the rest yourself; you'll see why this is now regarded as classic after 10 years. +: "3rd Planet," "Gravity Rides Everything," "The Stars Are Projectors," "Dark Center of the Universe," etc.
7. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
YouTube "Frontier Psychiatrist." Your life will be changed, and that's only one track. The best sample-based album to come out since DJ Shadow's Endtroducing....., it's a gapless jam the whole way through, sifting through dance, hip-hop, and even some laid-back mood music. Apart from the epicness of the album, the music videos, especially from "Frontier Psychiatrist," which features the samples turned into characters, are some of the best I've ever seen. This is one to listen to the whole way through. +: see previous sentence, but if you want to be picky, "Frontier Psychiatrist" and the title track are the best two.
6. Between the Buried and Me - Colors
This band doesn't lie. Touted by them as their best effort yet, Colors has something for everyone, from the most brutal of death metal to major-key progressive cadences to bluegrass. Yes, bluegrass. Start with "Ants of the Sky" and listen all the way through the end, and you will find every possible genre that a metal band could possibly use effectively, and brilliantly at that. The band described the album as "adult contemporary progressive death metal," but they also described it as "67 minutes of beautiful music," which is much more fitting. To quote Calvin (and Hobbes), "When you're great, people often mistake candor for bragging." Everything the band says about this would keep a lie detector perfectly still; they said it was great, and it is. +: Listen to it the whole way through. If you're strained for time, listen to it from "Ants of the Sky" to the end. If there's even less time, listen to "Ants of the Sky" immediately followed by the next track. JUST LISTEN TO IT. YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY.
5. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Here's an interesting story: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was delayed for over a year because of the AOL Time Warner merger. Reprise president Howie Klein, a big Wilco fan, lost his job, leaving David Kahne, who wanted a radio single, to decide whether or not the album would be released. Needless to say, Jeff Tweedy was able to negotiate a buyout of their narrow-minded contract and signed to another Warner affiliate to release the album. Boy, was David Kahne ever wrong. Now, YHF is Wilco's best-selling and highest rated album, a feat they haven't been able to accomplish since. From the country-pop A.M. through the 90s, Jeff Tweedy was building and building on his band's sound, until peaking like Everest in 2002 with this album. Fuck you, major label. +: "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," "Jesus, Etc." "Ashes of American Flags," "Radio Cure," and the lot of 'em.
4. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The second of his 50 States project, Illinois will certainly be hard to top (and I hear recently that he won't be attempting to). Stevens goes through the entire state of Illinois in 22 beautiful tracks. Lush orchestration, storytelling lyrics, catchy hooks; it's all there. And all of the instruments? Sufjan Stevens played most of them himself, did all of the arrangements, and produced it himself, making a DIY indie folk album sound like it got the Rick Rubin treatment (except it actually sounded amazing). The track "Chicago" also gave him the biggest commercial track of his career, thanks to its inclusion in the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack. Hopefully, there's still plenty more to come from Sufjan Stevens (he just recently released the BQE), and if there is, I look forward to it eagerly. +: "Chicago," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!!!" "Casimir Pulaski Day," "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" and the rest.
3. Radiohead - Kid A
Raise your hand if you listened to OK Computer back in 1997 and expected this as a follow-up. I don't think any other band is, ever has been, or ever will be capable of making such a drastic sound change on a major label that is just as good and still has mainstream accessibility. I mean, fuck, both OK Computer and Kid A were nominated for the Grammy for Album of the Year. That's mainstream acceptance unheard of today by any decent band with artistic integrity and probably would have been unheard of then had "Creep" not ever came out. Yet Kid A has downtempo, electronic ambience only heard of by music snobs like me, so why does Capitol deem that marketable? Because remember when U2 came out with All That You Can't Leave Behind and said they were "reapplying for the job of best band in the world?" Sorry, Bono. Radiohead took that job a long time ago. +: all of them.
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral
If I want to put out a great album, I think I'm going to wait until 3 family members die at the same time. Only then can I match it up to this monumental album. No other album this decade, in my opinion, had a better combination of instrumentation, lyrical themes, subtle pop hooks, and just damn greatness in just about everything that I can't begin to describe than Funeral, and the only reason it doesn't come out on top is that the winner is amazing in so many other different ways. Normally I'm not a lyrics person, but throughout the "Neighborhood" suite, the lyrical themes reflect what I'm sure the writers were thinking because of lost family members; the characters in the stories just need to get away from wherever they are, right now, because they can't find the deathly peace their loved ones just achieved. Escapism, as Pitchfork would like to put in a fancy word. This album didn't define a genre, nor did it make some sort of statement for anything other than the nation of Canada, but it was such leaps and bounds above the rest of the crowd that it was good enough to be this high, but if you know me, you know what will top it... +: all of them, of course.
1. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
I first heard the song "Starálfur" on a sadly-WMG-muted YouTube video that my friends made (incorrectly labeled as Vaka, a track from the album ( )). It was only a small clip, but it demonstrated to me in that short time what I would grow to absolutely love about this band. Jonsí's amazing voice, the ambient orchestral and electronic passages; those are only two things out of many to be found on this album. The opening track, "Svefn-g-Englar," is 10 minutes of some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard made by only 4 people, and that's just the first part of the album. Epic, swirling, ethereal, and poignant are only a few words to describe the music found here. You can fall asleep to it, you can take a walk to it, you can listen to it in any altered state imaginable, and it will make you smile. Smile and think, do I really want to know what they are saying or do I want to use this music as a background to my own thoughts? The band picked up on that sentiment with their next album, but while that was also amazing, it is not as consistently engaging, mood-fueling, or, not to wear out the word as it is absolutely necessary, beautiful as Ágætis Byrjun. Sigur Rós boldly claimed when they released this album that they were out to change music forever and the way people think about it. They've more than done that now, but left is perhaps the biggest understatement ever mentioned in music: the album title's English translation is An Alright Start. Please. +: the whole thing on repeat.
Think we're done yet?
Naw.
THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTISTS OF THE 2000s
10. Girl Talk
Ahh, the art of the mashup. Tried many times by pop radio stations in an attempt to provide "new music" to its listeners, Girl Talk trumped them all with his epic album-length jams. This guy came from my hometown, too... that's pretty big in my book.
9. Broken Social Scene
When 19 people can get together, make music, and not just have too much going on, you're probably doing something right. This band and another on this list helped put Canada's music scene on the map, too.
8. LCD Soundsystem
All I'll say is it's about time someone reinvented dance music.
7. Grizzly Bear
One of the big buzzworthy genres of this decade has been the reintroduction of psychedelic music, and Grizzly Bear provides the best interpretation of psych's folky side. You know it's for real when Veckatimest debuts in the top 10.
6. The White Stripes
For consistently good rock music, sometimes all you need is two people. Who needs a bass guitar?
5. Arcade Fire
When Funeral came out, I'm sure Canadians were thinking, "Hey America, you can have Nickelback. We have a good band to claim now." Actually, Broken Social Scene came first, but Arcade Fire came in in such a huge way that they've become Canada's number 1 name-drop.
4. The Strokes
One of the few bands that started out with mainstream recognition to live up to all the hype. They may have taken a step down after their debut, but hey, they're still the saviors of rock and roll (and Julian Casablancas sure put out a hell of a solo album).
3. Sigur Rós
A quote from Jón Þór Birgisson: "We're not looking to become superstars or millionaires. We are simply gonna change music forever and the way people think about it." Mission accomplished.
2. Radiohead
U2 came out in 2001 attempting to "reapply for the job of best band in the world." I know I made this joke already, but Radiohead took that job and has a firm grasp on it. When a band like them can open mainstream eyes to their kind of music, that's just huge.
1. Animal Collective
Music's psychedelic revival may not have begun with Animal Collective, but they are arguably now its largest symbol. The hardest-working and most consistently stellar band in the business, Animal Collective are only getting started, and it just makes me wonder what kind of good music they'll come out with next decade.
And that's all I have to say about that.
TOP 25 ALBUMS (in reverse order so there's some suspense):
25. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
People will wonder why I have this as significant for the decade; it's too new, it doesn't hold up to the classics, fuck that. This album is significant because it got to put in its own two cents about how to be poppy; a new, fresh idea not borrowed from any band I can think of (me being the indie music n00b I am). My favorite tracks: "M79," "Oxford Comma," "Walcott," "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa."
24. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Three years after they made their best album, how would the Flaming Lips improve upon perfection? They didn't, but they got damn close to making an album worthy of being The Soft Bulletin Part 2. Yoshimi is not a sequel, of course, but it takes a lot of the orchestral bombast used in their previous album and expands it to showy (almost overproduced?) levels, which, thankfully, in this case was not a bad thing; they were still able to put out an album that held up mostly to the standards of its predecessor, made people smile, and even produce the Oklahoma State Song. My favorites: "Fight Test," "Do You Realize??" "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1," "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell."
23. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
I'm a singer, I love harmony, and I was brought up partly on Crosby, Stills, and Nash, so it was pretty much inevitable that I was going to love a new folk band that uses harmony. When I listen to this album I could imagine walking through the woods and hearing the voices reverberate off the trees, with some songs like "Ragged Wood" starting out soaring in the sky, before coming down from the mountain back into the forest. Whatever they were going for, they certainly nailed it. Faves: "Ragged Wood," "White Winter Hymnal," "Blue Ridge Mountains," "Your Protector."
22. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Before giving Merriweather extended listenings, I was dead set on this being the best album of 2009, and it is still locked in at number 2. But here, on the decade list, it shows a band that started with just Ed Droste recording music in his house before the other three got there, and turned into one of the best bands in the new era of psychedelic music. Sure, there's "Two Weeks" and "While You Wait for the Others," but if you listen to the entire album, you can sit or walk and contemplate instead of rock out to the beats and Beach Boys-esque harmonies (which is lots of fun too). If Grizzly Bear continues to improve on each album, who knows what they'll sound like in another 10 years; hopefully they won't get some major-label deal with some big-name producer that dumbs down their sound like other bands I like (cough, Avett Brothers, cough). Chris Taylor does a fine job. Faves: "Southern Point," "Two Weeks," "While You Wait for the Others," "Fine For Now."
21. OutKast - Stankonia
Why can't mainstream hip-hop be like this today? Artful, slick, and on some tracks just as gangsta as their predecessors, Big Boi and Andre 3000 did what still no other rapper or rap group, duo, whatever, has managed to put into the mainstream and make people like it. I still will rock out to this album and if my kids ever start listening to mainstream rap, I'll give them Stankonia so they can listen to what hip-hop is supposed to sound like; certainly not at the bare essentials, but fresh. So fresh, and so clean, clean. Faves: the singles. I grew up on that shit.
20. Animal Collective - Feels
The first Animal Collective song I ever heard, "Banshee Beat," remains to this day my favorite Animal Collective song. I remember hearing something off of Strawberry Jamin that coffeeshop, but when I went onto Ruckus in my dorm room to immediately download as much Animal Collective as I possibly could, I thought, hmm. Banshee Beat sounds like a cool song title... and an 8-minute track? I love epic shit like this! The album as a whole, however not so much as epic, portrays Animal Collective's perfectly balanced sound between freak-folk and pop. It flits, runs, and screams, but above all, it makes you happy. Faves: "Banshee Beat," "Grass," "The Purple Bottle," "Did You See The Words."
19. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Thanks to the return of Stuart Murdoch's role as primary songwriter, Belle and Sebastian put out their best album since If You're Feeling Sinister, not to mention an album chock full of pop songs. I'm not going to go all Ryan Schreiber on this band and say they were absolutely terrible when they wrote songs as a collective, but this album shows that when he works by himself, Murdoch can create a good story set to music that not necessarily flows, but definitely works together as a whole. You can see the same kind of storytelling prowess in God Help the Girl, but while that was a good album, the idea works so much better with the rest of his band, and it shows onThe Life Pursuit. +: "For the Price of a Cup of Tea," "Funny Little Frog," "We Are the Sleepyheads," "Sukie in the Graveyard," really all of them, at least the upbeat ones.
18. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Could this be my favorite Radiohead album? Realistically, no; it's not even in the top 3. But still, an album this good that led the charge of bands shunning their labels deserves a spot up here. Undoubtedly one of the best deals ever in music, the tip-jar price tag yielded no shortage on quality. Tracks like OK Computer holdover "Nude" and "Feeling Pulled Apart by Horses" coda "Reckoner" show the band making some of its most beautiful music, while lyrically, "All I Need" and "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" show the band at its most emotional. Thom Yorke said that he was trying to make "seduction songs." Whether they worked as that or not (they do), what I see is an album full of damn good songs. +: "Reckoner," "Nude," "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi," "Jigsaw Falling Into Place," etc.
17. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
How many people can you cram on one stage? I don't give two shits if they make music like this. Arcade Fire may be Canada's best band, but Broken Social Scene put the Canadian indie scene on the map with this album. All those bandmembers, 19 strong, each from their own side project, put a little into this album, creating a wash of beautiful dream pop. This is seen the most on "Lover's Spit," a 6-and-a-half minute epic that sounds like all 19 bandmembers played a different, repeating part each, made a song out of it, and managed to make it sound beautiful. That aesthetic is spread all over the album, which should make it a no-brainer why this album is ranked so high. +: "Lover's Spit," "Stars and Sons," "KC Accidental," "Cause = Time."
16. The Avett Brothers - Emotionalism
My friend once told me that the Avett Brothers "go somewhere, sleep with some girl, and then write a song about her." Well, that girl from Chile must have been amazing (in bed or otherwise), because the song they wrote about her goes about everywhere you can with a bluegrass band, from a straight up porch jam, to something that sounds like it's out of a Mexican cowboy movie, and then a phone call later we're headbanging to a metal jam. That may be the most diverse track on the album, but that doesn't discount the rest of the tracks by any means - they all hold their own. The album title and the song titles are all very fitting; the lyrical content encompasses many different emotions and with the music tell... well, an emotional story. And they tell it well, they tell it well. +: "Pretty Girl from Chile," "Paranoia in Bb Major," "Die Die Die," "Shame."
15. Panda Bear - Person Pitch
Here's an album that I'll admit I listened to a lot because Pitchfork made a big fuckin' deal about it. I actually downloaded it before I had ever heard of Pitchfork; it came up associated with Animal Collective when I searched it on Ruckus (being the neophyte, I of course had no clue of his relevance). Maybe a year and a half later, I finally listened to the song "Bros." Holy shit. That's all I have to say about that. +: "Bros," "I'm Not," "Comfy In Nautica," "Good Girl/Carrots."
14. of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?
When Skeletal Lamping came out, I heard people talking about how it was nowhere near as good as their previous work (again, I am very much a neophyte to the world of independent music). When I finally gave this album a listen, I found out why. I first listened to the poppier tracks, such as "Suffer for Fashion," "Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse," and the relentlessly head-sticking "A Sentence of Sorts in Kongsvinger." Then I finally clicked on the 12-minute "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal." Kevin Barnes rarely gets angry musically, but holy shit does this song build up and explode. Let's tear the fucking house apart! +: the ones I mentioned and others.
13. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Here's another album that I was introduced to by reading Pitchfork (and formed my own opinion of it afterwards). Sound of Silver is probably the best assortment of different applications of electronic music that I have ever heard. Mood music in "Someone Great," dance music in "Get Innocuous!" and "Time To Get Away," ...the list goes on. James Murphy certainly isn't losing his edge anymore - it's at its sharpest on this album and another is on the way next year. Might want some protective gloves to handle the CD. +: "Someone Great," "All My Friends," "Get Innocuous!" "North American Scum."
12. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
Two people? There's seriously only two people playing on that album? With only two instruments? Where's the bass? When this album came out, or more accurately, when it surfaced in the mainstream, those are the questions people asked, and the answer is yes, and it is awesome. This album is the most bare-boned, simple definition there is of raw power, and it shows most on single "Fell In Love With a Girl." There's just so much going on in those short less-than-2 minutes and yet that's only coming from a guitar and a drum set. You could give me any rock band that everyone knows and with all their instruments they wouldn't compare to what Jack and Meg White did here. +: "We're Going to be Friends," "Fell in Love with a Girl," "Hotel Yorba," "Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground."
11. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
You were waiting for it, weren't you? I mean, Feels was damn good, but come on. This album is just so awesome on so many levels that if the top 10 on my list hadn't achieved classic status, were by this one band called Radiohead, or were for some strange reason even more awesome, this would be near the top. The action starts about 2 minutes into "In The Flowers" and continues into one of the best tracks this decade, "My Girls." Unbelievably melodically catchy and, lyrically, quite culturally relevant, it's a song for everyone that made even the crowds of uncultured bros at Lollapalooza yelling for them to play it (they didn't). And although that's the best track on the album, the others hold right up with it, making for an endlessly replayable psych-pop masterpiece. +: "My Girls," "Summertime Clothes," "Bluish," "Brother Sport," listen to the damn thing already.
10. The Strokes - Is This It
The saviors of rock and roll? They may very well be. Although they've kind of slacked recently, The Strokes certainly lived up to the hype surrounding their first release. Not only do they make a perfectly accessible rock sound on this album, unlike most other mainstream rock acts, they're in a good mood. Perhaps happy-sounding (musically at least) singles "Last Nite" and "Someday" had a few too many indie leanings (too lo-fi, too polite, major key, etc.) for other rock acts to pick up on their influence, dismissing them as not commercial enough for the masses, but if every mainstream rock act had tried to imitate that, I might not listen to as much indie rock as I do. Either way, what I'm saying is, Is This It is the defining rock 'n roll album for this decade, and no one else seems to have managed to repeat it. +: "Someday," "Last Nite," "Soma," "The Modern Age," and then the rest.
9. Daft Punk - Discovery
Work it. Make it. Do it. Makes us. You know the rest. When someone says anything about electronic music, dance music, house music, whatever, the mind turns immediately to Daft Punk. Especially since Kanye sampled "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," and since the song "One More Time" existed, Daft Punk has become a household name. But there's so much more to this album than the known cuts; "Digital Love" and "Crescendolls" both come to mind, along with "Superheroes" and the aptly-named (though I disagree with the sentiment) 10-minute closer "Too Long." Bottom line: This album says dance party. +: "One More Time," "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger," "Crescendolls," "Digital Love," and more.
8. Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
Isaac Brock should teach the Avett Brothers how to do a major-label debut. Their first album for Epic, instead of adding loads of production tricks and pop hooks (which would inevitably come later), Modest Mouse did what they do best and kept to their weirdness of the '90s. Opening track "3rd Planet" is no "Float On" in terms of pop accessibility, but its lyrics, especially those concerning everyone in this country's religious fascination/fanaticism, hold the song up in its own right (and that doesn't mean it's not a catchy song musically). And that's only the first track. Listen to the rest yourself; you'll see why this is now regarded as classic after 10 years. +: "3rd Planet," "Gravity Rides Everything," "The Stars Are Projectors," "Dark Center of the Universe," etc.
7. The Avalanches - Since I Left You
YouTube "Frontier Psychiatrist." Your life will be changed, and that's only one track. The best sample-based album to come out since DJ Shadow's Endtroducing....., it's a gapless jam the whole way through, sifting through dance, hip-hop, and even some laid-back mood music. Apart from the epicness of the album, the music videos, especially from "Frontier Psychiatrist," which features the samples turned into characters, are some of the best I've ever seen. This is one to listen to the whole way through. +: see previous sentence, but if you want to be picky, "Frontier Psychiatrist" and the title track are the best two.
6. Between the Buried and Me - Colors
This band doesn't lie. Touted by them as their best effort yet, Colors has something for everyone, from the most brutal of death metal to major-key progressive cadences to bluegrass. Yes, bluegrass. Start with "Ants of the Sky" and listen all the way through the end, and you will find every possible genre that a metal band could possibly use effectively, and brilliantly at that. The band described the album as "adult contemporary progressive death metal," but they also described it as "67 minutes of beautiful music," which is much more fitting. To quote Calvin (and Hobbes), "When you're great, people often mistake candor for bragging." Everything the band says about this would keep a lie detector perfectly still; they said it was great, and it is. +: Listen to it the whole way through. If you're strained for time, listen to it from "Ants of the Sky" to the end. If there's even less time, listen to "Ants of the Sky" immediately followed by the next track. JUST LISTEN TO IT. YOU WILL BE BLOWN AWAY.
5. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Here's an interesting story: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was delayed for over a year because of the AOL Time Warner merger. Reprise president Howie Klein, a big Wilco fan, lost his job, leaving David Kahne, who wanted a radio single, to decide whether or not the album would be released. Needless to say, Jeff Tweedy was able to negotiate a buyout of their narrow-minded contract and signed to another Warner affiliate to release the album. Boy, was David Kahne ever wrong. Now, YHF is Wilco's best-selling and highest rated album, a feat they haven't been able to accomplish since. From the country-pop A.M. through the 90s, Jeff Tweedy was building and building on his band's sound, until peaking like Everest in 2002 with this album. Fuck you, major label. +: "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart," "Jesus, Etc." "Ashes of American Flags," "Radio Cure," and the lot of 'em.
4. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The second of his 50 States project, Illinois will certainly be hard to top (and I hear recently that he won't be attempting to). Stevens goes through the entire state of Illinois in 22 beautiful tracks. Lush orchestration, storytelling lyrics, catchy hooks; it's all there. And all of the instruments? Sufjan Stevens played most of them himself, did all of the arrangements, and produced it himself, making a DIY indie folk album sound like it got the Rick Rubin treatment (except it actually sounded amazing). The track "Chicago" also gave him the biggest commercial track of his career, thanks to its inclusion in the Little Miss Sunshine soundtrack. Hopefully, there's still plenty more to come from Sufjan Stevens (he just recently released the BQE), and if there is, I look forward to it eagerly. +: "Chicago," "John Wayne Gacy, Jr.," "Come On! Feel the Illinoise!!!" "Casimir Pulaski Day," "The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades is Out to Get Us!" and the rest.
3. Radiohead - Kid A
Raise your hand if you listened to OK Computer back in 1997 and expected this as a follow-up. I don't think any other band is, ever has been, or ever will be capable of making such a drastic sound change on a major label that is just as good and still has mainstream accessibility. I mean, fuck, both OK Computer and Kid A were nominated for the Grammy for Album of the Year. That's mainstream acceptance unheard of today by any decent band with artistic integrity and probably would have been unheard of then had "Creep" not ever came out. Yet Kid A has downtempo, electronic ambience only heard of by music snobs like me, so why does Capitol deem that marketable? Because remember when U2 came out with All That You Can't Leave Behind and said they were "reapplying for the job of best band in the world?" Sorry, Bono. Radiohead took that job a long time ago. +: all of them.
2. Arcade Fire - Funeral
If I want to put out a great album, I think I'm going to wait until 3 family members die at the same time. Only then can I match it up to this monumental album. No other album this decade, in my opinion, had a better combination of instrumentation, lyrical themes, subtle pop hooks, and just damn greatness in just about everything that I can't begin to describe than Funeral, and the only reason it doesn't come out on top is that the winner is amazing in so many other different ways. Normally I'm not a lyrics person, but throughout the "Neighborhood" suite, the lyrical themes reflect what I'm sure the writers were thinking because of lost family members; the characters in the stories just need to get away from wherever they are, right now, because they can't find the deathly peace their loved ones just achieved. Escapism, as Pitchfork would like to put in a fancy word. This album didn't define a genre, nor did it make some sort of statement for anything other than the nation of Canada, but it was such leaps and bounds above the rest of the crowd that it was good enough to be this high, but if you know me, you know what will top it... +: all of them, of course.
1. Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
I first heard the song "Starálfur" on a sadly-WMG-muted YouTube video that my friends made (incorrectly labeled as Vaka, a track from the album ( )). It was only a small clip, but it demonstrated to me in that short time what I would grow to absolutely love about this band. Jonsí's amazing voice, the ambient orchestral and electronic passages; those are only two things out of many to be found on this album. The opening track, "Svefn-g-Englar," is 10 minutes of some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard made by only 4 people, and that's just the first part of the album. Epic, swirling, ethereal, and poignant are only a few words to describe the music found here. You can fall asleep to it, you can take a walk to it, you can listen to it in any altered state imaginable, and it will make you smile. Smile and think, do I really want to know what they are saying or do I want to use this music as a background to my own thoughts? The band picked up on that sentiment with their next album, but while that was also amazing, it is not as consistently engaging, mood-fueling, or, not to wear out the word as it is absolutely necessary, beautiful as Ágætis Byrjun. Sigur Rós boldly claimed when they released this album that they were out to change music forever and the way people think about it. They've more than done that now, but left is perhaps the biggest understatement ever mentioned in music: the album title's English translation is An Alright Start. Please. +: the whole thing on repeat.
Think we're done yet?
Naw.
THE MOST IMPORTANT ARTISTS OF THE 2000s
10. Girl Talk
Ahh, the art of the mashup. Tried many times by pop radio stations in an attempt to provide "new music" to its listeners, Girl Talk trumped them all with his epic album-length jams. This guy came from my hometown, too... that's pretty big in my book.
9. Broken Social Scene
When 19 people can get together, make music, and not just have too much going on, you're probably doing something right. This band and another on this list helped put Canada's music scene on the map, too.
8. LCD Soundsystem
All I'll say is it's about time someone reinvented dance music.
7. Grizzly Bear
One of the big buzzworthy genres of this decade has been the reintroduction of psychedelic music, and Grizzly Bear provides the best interpretation of psych's folky side. You know it's for real when Veckatimest debuts in the top 10.
6. The White Stripes
For consistently good rock music, sometimes all you need is two people. Who needs a bass guitar?
5. Arcade Fire
When Funeral came out, I'm sure Canadians were thinking, "Hey America, you can have Nickelback. We have a good band to claim now." Actually, Broken Social Scene came first, but Arcade Fire came in in such a huge way that they've become Canada's number 1 name-drop.
4. The Strokes
One of the few bands that started out with mainstream recognition to live up to all the hype. They may have taken a step down after their debut, but hey, they're still the saviors of rock and roll (and Julian Casablancas sure put out a hell of a solo album).
3. Sigur Rós
A quote from Jón Þór Birgisson: "We're not looking to become superstars or millionaires. We are simply gonna change music forever and the way people think about it." Mission accomplished.
2. Radiohead
U2 came out in 2001 attempting to "reapply for the job of best band in the world." I know I made this joke already, but Radiohead took that job and has a firm grasp on it. When a band like them can open mainstream eyes to their kind of music, that's just huge.
1. Animal Collective
Music's psychedelic revival may not have begun with Animal Collective, but they are arguably now its largest symbol. The hardest-working and most consistently stellar band in the business, Animal Collective are only getting started, and it just makes me wonder what kind of good music they'll come out with next decade.
And that's all I have to say about that.
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