Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #40-31

#40

Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins
2003

Why am I souring on The Shins?  Backlash?  Not aging well?  Halfway through the decade, this would have been a Top-10 album on my list.  Even a couple of years ago, I think this cracks the Top-20.  It's phenomenal, and marks their high point (so far) in their discography.  It's full of poppy-goodness, as I like to call it.  Maybe if it were Spring, rather than Winter, I'd be singing a different tune.  This music isn't the kind of thing for a day where they are calling for snow (Bon Iver, where you at?).  Kissing the Lipless is such a great tune, and So Says I...they are pretty damn close to the best pure pop songs of the entire decade.  I'd argue these guys made Sub Pop more money than any other artist this decade...and it was a REAL good decade for that label.

#39

The Boxer
The National
2007

This one, for me, was a slow burn.  I liked it when it came out, but not to the level that everyone was screaming about it.  I think I really turned the corner on this one just a few months ago, when I spun it on the record player on a lazy night, and drank a cold one.  I'm still left wondering; what is The National?  They are one of those genre defying bands.  Possessing one of the most unique voices in the industry helps.  He's like a cross between an indie rock front man and a crooner from the 50/60s.  It's a strange dynamic, but it works.  Listen to Fake Empire, one of the best political tracks of the decade, and you'll see what I mean.  Or my personal fave, Start a War, with it's poetic repetition and simple guitar line.  I've commented that these guys have the potential to be the biggest band in the world.  They seem to have the drive, the connections, and the talent.

#38

Everything All The Time
Band of Horses
2006

More Sub Pop...they litter the Top-40 on my list.  Is this where the 'folk' thing really coalesced?  Borrowing from the best of Iron & Wine and My Morning Jacket, and doing it before Fleet Foxes, and all the freak folkers that have come about in the last few years cut their teeth.  I'm probably ignoring a huge swath of great bands who were more 'vital' or 'relevant', but Band of Horses crafted their own niche with this record, and are due a ton of credit for the shift in indie rock sound over the last three or four years.  They have an ability to pull the most epic sound out, just by slowing things down a little bit more.  There is tons of space, especially in their drumming (listen to the restraint in The Great Salt Lake, for instance).  The First Song is totally a 70's homage, but somehow it's fresh and new.  Like everything else that is good, it's filtered through a hefty dose of Neil Young.  Few songs can match the soft/loud of The Funeral, though, which just fucking explodes through the chorus.  Just plain epic.

#37

Hospice
Antlers
2009

Guy locks himself in his apartment and cuts an album about coping with the death of his loved one.  It's got a back story that Pitchfork compared to Bon Iver, but aside from the isolation of the creative process, and the self-released buzz that they generated, they are vastly different.  This album is lush...almost grandiose, at times.  The production values are extremely high...there are moments where you're left speechless at the layered wall of sound blasting your eardrums.  I'm left wondering how one person could basically pull this off.  This album hurts.  It literally hurts.  The lyrics aren't to be listened to in great detail if you're inclined to melancholy, or if you rely on prescription drugs to stabilize you.  You'd probably curse the world and pull the covers up for a month.  But that's death, and like it or not, it's real. 

#36

Our Endless Numbered Days
Iron & Wine
2004

Iron & Wine's first real 'studio' effort didn't really change the formula much from the first, and I think a lot of these songs were written during the same period as those that appeared on the debut.  It's quiet, twirling, and folkish.  Sam Beam crafts incredible imagery, thanks I think to his background in film.  He understands how to frame a story.  He understands how to use metaphors to simplify a theme.  Hauntingly beautiful lyrics like the chorus in Naked As We Came just can't be beat: One of us will die inside these arms/Eyes wide open, naked as we came/One will spread our ashes round the yard

There's something visceral about Beam's poetry.  His songs bring emotion.  They remind you of things that you forgot about a long time ago.  He is perhaps the most effective songwriter of our generation, and I say that with as little hyperbole as I can muster.  His songs almost always elicit an emotion.  In his early material, like this album, the simple song structures, and the tinkling chord progressions...they lend more to the intimacy.  It's bigger than coffee shop folk, though.  It's not Starbucks or M&M's or whatever else they are able to flog on the backs of this sound.  It's songs like Sodom, South Georgia, which I've shed more tears to than maybe anything else in my life, and which this week has been highly relevant (almost to the point where I might have to retire it for a while). 

Papa died smiling
Wide as the ring of a bell
Gone all star white
Small as a wish in a well
And Sodom, South Georgia
Woke like a tree full of bees
Buried in Christmas
Bows and a blanket of weeds

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

Papa died while my
Girl Lady Edith was born
Both heads fell like
Eyes on a crack in the door
And Sodom, South Georgia
Slept on an acre of bones
Slept through Christmas
Slept like a bucket of snow

Papa died Sunday and I understood
All dead white boys say, "God is good"
White tongues hang out, "God is good"

It's just a circle of life song...almost cliche, in the vein of something Elton John does for Disney movies.  Those metaphors, though, are untouchable.  To hear that one live these days is a whole new experience than the hushed version on the album.  He's transformed it into an almost triumphant extravaganza, framing it around the celebration of life, rather than the sadness of the passing.  To say that's not relevant to my shit this week is an understatement.  And that's one of the reasons we use music to heal, and the best case for a sad song that I can possibly make.  It's how we cope, how we move on.

#35

Sky Blue Sky
Wilco
2007

I call this one 'Ghost is Born Pt 2'...partially because I like to get on the nerves of my buds, but also a little bit because it feels like an extension of that great album...but it just didn't grow enough to soar past it.  I'll admit, this one has really grown on me, to the point where I'm almost ready to consider it a classic.  It would be indispensable in their catalog.  The newest album is not enjoying this slow burn effect, which makes me wonder if perhaps they were inching down the 'Adult Contemporary' road in here (listen to the beginning of You Are My Face, before the Nels Cline freakout happens).  Wilco is aging like those kids that came on Geraldo back in the day, that had the disease where they looked 95, but were really 12.  Hell, Nels Cline can nearly draw Social Security (and so can Tweedy's wife).  Tweedy looks like death in a lot of pictures I've seen him recently.  In this incarnation of Wilco, they are best when they let Cline freak the fuck out, and he does so plenty on this record.  He's a virtuoso, on par with those assholes in Chickenfoot, or whatever other Steve Vai bullshit you want to shove down my throat.  I would think that Cline could destroy EVH in an MC Hammer/Michael Jackson style play-off.  With Wilco, you're either with me or against me.  I say get on board, and enjoy the ride.

#34

Easy Tiger
Ryan Adams
2007

Chuck Klosterman's 'Highly Advanced' theory really applies to this album.  When it came out, critics jumped at the chance to pan it.  It wasn't whatever they were looking for, which at this point for Adams, could very well be anything.  With expectations so wide, everyone missed the fact that Adams had really nailed this one.  It was SO easy to point towards Halloweenhead, a proto-Highly Suspicious if there ever was one, and say 'WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT'.  That would mean you missed out on the beautiful mountain song Pearls on a String or Tears of Gold, which was very much in tune with all the material that he purged in 2005, or These Girls, which has seen many different versions over the years, but few better than this simple version.  Then there are the two masterpieces on this one.  Oh My God, Whatever, Etc. and I Taught Myself How to Grow Old are, quite simply, ungodly works of music.  It's an album that kept getting better with each listen.  Hell, I don't even skip Halloweenhead, anymore.

#33

Furnace Room Lullaby
Neko Case
2000

I like my Neko best served a little country, and her stuff back when her backing band was the 'Boyfriends' is my favorite (though there really isn't a bad Neko Case record).  Her voice kicks in on that opening track, and bam, I'm entranced.  Thrice All-American (Tacoma) is such an important look into the small town America, especially in today's terms, where it seems that sprawl and loss of manufacturing jobs are killing what was best about being rural.  Her phrasing of the lyric 'dusty old jewel in the South Puget Sound', and the dig on Wal Mart at the end really sell that one as a classic song.  It does get pretty fucking country at times.  Whip the Blankets would get you going at the ho-down, for sure.  It's a perfect balance, though, of country jangle and slow ballads.  Hard to believe this one is 10 years old!

#32

I And Love And You
Avett Brothers
2009

What happens when you take some good ol' boys from Eastern NC, known for mixing mountain folk with a younger aesthetic, and throw them in Southern California with Rick Rubin behind the knobs?  Fucking magic, that's what.  This one hasn't been out too long, but it's made a huge impression on me.  It's so earnest and unpretentious.  I don't quite know what to make of it.  If you're ignorant to the background, you wouldn't peg this for a folk-y type album, and they really don't throw down any mountain sound, except for one outro.  My wife, when asked, likened these guys more to Ben Folds.  There's a lot of piano, a lot of layered harmonies on the vocals, and a lot of earnest pop.  I don't know if I've heard a song as unpretentious as January Wedding since the Mamas and the Papas or something like that.  But everything isn't all lovey dovey.  The title track, for instance, has a heavy final refrain:

Dumbed down and numbed by time and age
Your dreams to catch the world, the cage
The highway sets the travelers stage
All exits look the same

Three words that became hard to say
I and love and you
I and love and you
I and love and you

Sky's the limit for these guys.  

#31

Live
Built to Spill
2000

I have no idea how they did it, but they took Neil Young's Cortez the Killer and made it BETTER.  How is that possible?  I mean, this is Neil Young, for god's sake.  He owns that song.  It's in his wheelhouse.  How could this happen?  I have no idea...in a world where live covers are cliche, Built to Spill somehow took one of the best live songs of All Time, and improved on it.  It's a 20 minute long mindfuck.  It catapults this album, which is full of great, great material (including another epic jam to close things out) far above the rest of their catalog.  This cover is so full of win, if you haven't downloaded it and started the mp3 yet, cranking those shitty PC speakers up to as far as they will go, then you are a pinko-commie, and I don't want anything to do with you.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #50-41

#50

Ágætis Byrjun
Sigur Rós
2001

Technically released in 1999, I don't think it got a proper large scale release, outside of Iceland's best record stores, until 2001 or so.  Some might recognize Svefn-G-Englar, not by name (which I can't even begin to pronounce), but more from it's existence as the central theme of the final scene of Vanilla Sky.  These guys do epic, haunting tunes.  They can be as loud and penetrating as anything else out there.  They can also be incredibly fragile, and because you can't understand a single lyric, it's easy to project the sheer emotion that they are capturing in their songs, and make it your own.  Basically, they are a catharsis band.  Olsen Olsen is one of their best tunes, as well as Flugufrelsarinn.  This album reads like an Ikea catalog, but forget the song titles (and they eventually did)...it's the sound that counts.

#49

Album
Girls
2009

Where the hell did this one come from?  One of the guys in the band had a terrible childhood (parents were Children of God cultists), has no education, and is a huge drug addict...he obviously has some talent of some sort, to bounce around like he did and find opportunities...and then "BAM", he's got a record deal, serious undergound buzz, and is probably going to see his album hit just about every pretentious 'Best of 2009' album lists.  And the damn thing is great, to boot!  It's exceptionally immature...basically a big 'do you like me, check yes or no' album...not quite emo, because their too fucked up on pills to cry.  They are pushing the edge with their videos, where you'll find some rather shocking gay footage of a guy singing into another guys junk like a microphone.  This, ladies and gentlemen, is Vampire Weekend from the streets.  We'll be lucky if this band stays together long enough to put out a terrible letdown of a second album...we'll also be lucky if the backlash hits these guys before one of them is dead.  Have I mentioned that Hellhole Ratrace is the best song of 2009?  

#48

Tallahassee
Mountain Goats
2002

The final Mountain Goats album to make my list of 217...why is this one the best?  I think, of his non-basement recording type records, this one shines through the  most.  The songwriting is always excellent with Darnielle, but being his first time in a 'real' studio, trying to cut a 'real' sounding record, did great things for the music.  I also love it because it's a loose narrative...a concept album, if you will, about a couple who's marriage is awful, and they are hellbent on drinking themselves into oblivion.  Good stuff!  Pitchfork, who gave this one a 6.7 back in 2002 (and included a bunch of snark about how passe the concept album concept was in 2002, etc), went back and made it one of their Top-200 albums of the decade.  Funny how things change, once you actually sit and listen to something...If you hate the pre-major label Mountain Goats because of the tape fuzz, this would be a good place to start.  I still think this is a step below the masterful "Zopilote Machine", which is somehow almost 15 years old now, but marks the most incredible point in a great decade for Darnielle and his Mountain Goats project.

#47

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
Neko Case
2006

What's surprising to me on this album is, how short the songs are.  I've listened to this one many times in my car, and I've never walked away feeling unsatisfied, but looking at the tracks, 7 songs are 2:46 or less.  That's concise songwriting, and evidence of great self editing, I think.  Maybe that's the lure of this album, that just delivers on it's promise of the awesome voice, tight choruses, and perfect melodies.  Maybe Sparrow probably ranks as my favorite song on the album, and is a perfect example of the conciseness.  How she builds so much tension into the song, despite really only going through two verses, is amazing.  When that one explodes, it's unlike anything else you'll hear in the current alt-country sound.  Take something old, make it new, make it better.  Neko does it really well.  John Saw That Number reminds me of the curiosity of my musical tastes, and how I tend to really enjoy songs with strong religious imagery, yet I'm not even remotely religious. 

#46

Stay Positive
Hold Steady
2008

Hootie 2.0 does it again!  This is a great album, full of arena rock juiciness, soaring guitars, .  Sequestered in Memphis is probably the most fun song they have in their catalog.  Lord, I'm Discouraged is an amazingly depressing look at abusive relationships, from the perspective of a friend who just wants the girl to be ok.  I think Excuses and half-truths and fortified wine is the best lyric/chorus I've heard in I don't know when.  I think it takes a bar band like these guys to really hone in on what Rock n Roll is supposed to be, and they nail it on this album.  Crunching, loud, shambling songs.  A rocking good time, and probably the best drinking album of the decade.

#45

Sebastopol
Jay Farrar
2001

Jay Farrar was half of the business end of Uncle Tupelo, which split into Wilco and Son Volt.  This should go without saying, but while Tupelo and Wilco are still regarded with awe, Farrar's projects have fallen out of the mainstream conscious.  Fact of the matter is, this guy is IMPORTANT, and this album is exactly why.  Son Volt essentially broke up in 1998, and this didn't come until 4 years later.  Farrar tried it on his own moniker, but things never meshed, despite awesome material.  It wasn't until he took the Son Volt name back that he started to even get real press again.  So I think one of the biggest 'What If's of the decade is, what if Farrar had used the Son Volt name for this album, which features songs that he still plays live (like Voodoo Candle and Damn Shame, two amazing rockers)?  I think the success would have dwarfed what he ended up having over the last 10 years. 

Admittedly, this one is a diversion from the Son Volt sound that we'd been accustomed to, but having recently listened to Uncle Tupelo's seminal 'March 16-20, 1992' album, I think the soul of where his music was going (and where it was) can be found.  It was here that he re-embraced that Woody Guthrie-loving quality...he took his roots back.  I question anyone who can listen to the shambling Feel Free, which opens this album, and not like it.  I just don't think it's possible.  As a final aside, this album does not have a Wikipedia page, which I find absolutely shocking.

#44

Mignonette
Avett Brothers
2004

This one has been progressively bumped up this list, as I've been making it.  I've gone through a big reassessment period on these guys, and they are skyrocketing in my own personal musical taste world right now.  This one really caught my ear during a recent trip up to my wife's family's mountain condo.  One of her cousins had left a blank faced CD-R lying out, and I tossed it in to laugh at them for listening to Lady Ga-Ga.  Instead, we jammed to this one two times through, enough to make my wife want to listen to something other than the Avett Brothers (otherwise, we'd have gone for the triple).  It's really easy to point to Swept Away as the best song on the album (there are two versions, and I prefer the second one), but the consistency of the tunes here is remarkable.  I think these guys have taken steps forward in their most recent material, and those who are averse to the 'mountain sound' might be turned off by these guys, but my bet is you've never heard Appalachian music sound quite like this.

#43

Z
My Morning Jacket
2005

This one hits you like a ton of bricks, right off the start.  That heavy baseline, then the sort of ska-ish guitar lick precipitate one of the best 'oooooh ahhhhh' choruses you'll ever hear.  It's like a drunken walk through the park.  There are some really, really killer songs here.  I'd probably have put this album #1 on my list in 2005, which was an excellent music year.  It remains a constant on my Ipod, and like their entire catalog, will probably never be deleted.  Gideon, which is epic, even at sub-4 minutes long, and Dondante, which rivals Run Thru as their most exciting song ever, are the true highlights here.  See these guys live, and forgive them for Highly Suspicious.

#42

Veneer
Jose Gonzalez
2005

It's quiet and folky, which you'd figure out in about 10 seconds.  This was a pretty amazing debut album, I believe recommended by my friend out in San Fran, Pete Johnson.  Pete keeps his ear to the rail pretty well, and this one became a pretty instant fave of mine.  Heartbeats and Crosses are perhaps the best representatives from this group of songs, and they come back to back in the middle of the album.  The Spanish style, nylon string guitar sounds fresh, in the Indie Rock spectrum, and there's no denying Gonzalez's chops.  It's amazing that he could pull this album off, with essentially no additional backing instrumentation, or hardly anything other than his guitar and his voice.  Stunning album that we need to prevent from being forgotten about over the next decade.

#41

Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lake State
Sufjan Stevens
2003

Stevens kicks off his '50 State Project' (which he will never, ever even remotely come close to finishing) with his home State of Michigan.  He played all the instruments on this one, which is even more amazing if you hear how dense and orchestral it is.  Each song carries either a historical lesson about Michigan, or some personal story that relates back to the State for Stevens (and sometimes both).  The lyrics are often very topical to Michigan's decline (which really is more obvious today), and are socially important.  Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head! (Rebuild! Restore! Reconsider!) takes to task the poor decisions made, but basks in the past glories of the city.  It builds around the weirdest chorus you'll ever find:

Henry Ford, Henry Ford.
Public trans, public trans.
Pontiac, Pontiac.
Feed the poor, feed the poor.
City hall, city hall.
Windsor Park, Windsor Park.
Saginaw, Saginaw.
After dark, after dark.
Tigers game, Tigers game.
'84, '84.
Industry, industry.
Unemployed, unemployed.
Gun control, gun control.
Wolverine, wolverine.
Iroquois, Iroquois.
Industry, industry.
Public trans, public trans.
Auto cars, auto cars.
Jefferson, Jefferson.
Michigan, Michigan.

Somehow it works.  Flint (For the Unemployed and Underpaid) and Say Yes! to M!ch!gan! are also standouts.  It's an album that is at times seems all over the place, despite it's common theme.  It's vastly interesting, and somehow very informative...and it still sounds good?  Stevens is dynamic, weird, quirky, and maybe pretentious...but he can craft the most unique music out there.

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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #60-51

#60

Alligator
The National
2005

Why are these guys not the biggest Rock Band in the world?  I really can't say.  Chicks LOVE these guys.  I'd compare their broad appeal to that of The Killers, but for some reason, they've remained on the peripheral.  Maybe their songs are a little too sad, a little too mature, and a little too awesome for mainstream success.  Anyway, this little beauty largely slipped past my subconscious, until 'Boxer' became such a huge critical success.  Friends say this is their 'finest work'.  I won't argue that point, except to say that I'm still a bit of a neophyte on this material.  It's got a couple dozen plays on the Ipod.  I can agree that it's phenomenal.  Would I pick it over 'Boxer'?  Maybe 3 out of 10 times.  And that's why their latest album will be higher.  If the Dessner brothers decide to put out a disco album, I bet they would become insanely famous.

#59

Horn of Plenty
Grizzly Bear
2004

What a precious, depressing, deep thought of an album.  The AMG review is pretty much spot on:

This is the kind of album you'll want to listen to late at night, perhaps a few sheets to the wind, with lights off and headphones on to allow these creepy, quiet little tunes to worm their way into your subconscious.

This whole thing comes off as a personal 'project', rather than something meant for mass consumption.  Grizzly Bear has transformed from this haunting debut into the driving force in 'Indie Rock', mostly because they took the building blocks here, and made it more accessible.  This might sound odd to a noob who throws their recent album on, and wonders what the fuck happened, but it's true.  But it's not pretentious, no matter how big the hype around them has gotten, or eventually grows to (before the backlash hits).  They are sort of like a stripped down early era Pink Floyd, in a way.  Mix in some early Genesis prog-like tendencies, and push the technology into the digital age, and this is what you get.  And it's fantastic.

#58

Sojourner
Magnolia Electric Co.
2007

Dissecting Jason Molina's catalog was one of the tougher things to do when rating this past decade.  You could argue that everything he has released is exceptional, and the debate rages on whether this or that is better/worse than what came before.  The newest album from Magnolia Electric Co, for instance, could probably make this list, but does not.  His collaboration with Will Johnson, which just came out last month, could also be argued for, but is a bit to fresh.  And similarly, this 'collection' of songs, released in 2007, could spark controversy, in that it is about as unconventional of an album as you'll ever see. 

Released as a gift to fans, only 5k of these were made.  It came in a wooden winebox like package, with posters, a DVD, and other swag.  I confess to not owning this, but the files are easy to come by on the interweb, if you were inclined to go looking for such a thing.  There is overlap with 'Fading Trails', which came earlier in this countdown, though the versions here are different.  In total, the 33 tracks encompass four different 'sessions', and the varying accompaniment in each session almost makes this four individual albums (this would be far more obvious to me, if I had the actual discs, rather than digital files that all go in one folder).  The music is what you'd expect.  The rocking tunes have a Neil Young bent, the country tunes have a sadness that popular country doesn't touch on anymore, and the stripped down songs carry the agony of depression and loneliness, that only Molina can deliver.

Such a collection probably deserves individual mention, breaking down each part.  If you care to find that online, you can.  That AMG review does a great job of that.  For brevity's sake, I'll just say that this album appeals to my epic-loving, completist tastes, and that plays a lot into my loving it more than anything else in the catalog.  I enjoy tackling something that on the surface is unwieldy and disjointed. 

#57

Ancient Melodies of the Future
Built to Spill
2001

In another dimension, all the accolades heaped on Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie were instead heaped onto Idlewild and Built to Spill.  I think lyrically, Built to Spill is a little bit campy, at times, and maybe that's limited them.  But the guitars, man, the guitars.  Go listen to Trimmed and Burning and try to tell me you didn't tap your foot a reach for more volume.  Just a perfect set of Indie Rock.  If the 'genre' of Indie Rock confuses you, and you don't know what the hell is going on, these guys can recalibrate you.  Funny how when you do that, what you're left with is just a new take on 70's arena rock.  Everything seems to revolve around Neil Young, somehow.

#56

Hearts of Oak
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
2003

What a tour de force of an album.  If I'd have made this list in 2005, it'd have been top-10, at the very least.  For some reason, I've largely forgotten about it.  It's still in the CD book in my car, though, and goes in ever once in a while.  We'll give it a couple of demerits for falling off my radar.  What the hell happened to Ted Leo?  After this album, he was supposed to take his spot at the top of the world.  At the time I first heard this one, I was listening to a lot more punk/ska, especially Second and Third Wave ska.  Ted Leo seemed to be the indie rock extension of that sound.  I never got to see him live, which I think is where the real action was.  I've seen video...holy shit, tons of energy.  Between Ted Leo and D-Plan, the DC Scene stayed on the radar early in the decade.


#55

Superwolf
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy and Matt Sweeney
2005

I'm looking over the list, and this might be the 'best collaboration' of the decade between guys who don't normally play together.  Sure, Sweeney (Chavez, Zwan) toured with BpB a few times, but this studio effort showcases their talent unlike anything that they've done apart.  It's just a perfect to hear Oldham's lyrics with the backdrop of Sweeney's guitar licks.  The tracks are largely still in the Oldham style that you see on all his other material, including the 7 albums he put out in the decade that made my Top-217...best songwriter of the decade?  Quite possibly.


#54

Chutes Too Narrow
The Shins
2003

As good as their debut?  Not in my opinion.  That means they've progressively gotten 'worse', by my measure, over their three albums.  We're due for a new Shins album, but what I heard from Andrew recently was that Mercer has gone Mariah Carey, and kicked dudes out of the band, including the guitar player who looks sorta Indian.  That bodes poorly.  Drama aside, they delivered some great pure pop...sort of a reworking of The Beach Boys, with our generation's snarky irony.  Kissing the Lipless and Fighting in a Sack are personal faves.  It's a perfect 30 minute album...great in the car, or if you're straightening up the house, and need to rock out to something that won't distract you too much.  Am I as big a fan as I used to be?  No.  Did they put on perhaps the best concert I've seen this decade?  Yes.  Will I be searching for a leak of their new album, when it hits?  Hell yes.  Sometimes GREAT becomes simply GOOD, but GOOD is still awesome, sometimes.


#53

Furr
Blitzen Trapper
2008

I think 'Wild Mountain Nation' had higher highs than 'Furr', but I think 'Furr' is the better overall album.  In fact, I rarely ever listened to WMN all the way through, at least until recently, when the vinyl was left over at my house.  What surprises me on this one is the short song times...you'd think that a band that has such a reputation as an 'experimental' outfit would have stretched their legs a little bit.  That's indicative self-editing, I think, which could be why I like this one a little bit more.  Give me what you do well, in short bursts.  If I want to watch you freak the folk out, I'll catch you live (if you upper midwest bastards even know where SC is).  This stuff is very accessible.  I think the wife even dug the title track off of this one, that was on Sirius every couple of hours, last fall.  An untold story (at least I haven't heard it told) is how Sub Pop turned from their Nirvana roots to become the center of the folk revival this decade.  These guys are a perfect fit in that dynamic.  I'm excited for their next album...I think these guys are just getting started.


#52

Transatlanticism
Death Cab for Cutie
2003

Death Cab is a solid band, and this was their finest hour.  Gibbard was really hot, at this point...Postal Service was right around the same time.  They've launched themselves into the stratosphere, in indie rock terms, and might be the most common name in mainstream indie rock.  Gibbard's material has never been better.  The New Year is a great opener on the album, and one of their finer songs.  The epic Transatlanticism, locking in at over 7 minutes, is the highlight of the album, though, and sits right in the middle of this record, as an anchor.  Other than the newest album, which I'm up/down on, depending my mood, this is the Death Cab album I turn to in their catalog.

#51

St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley
2006

Stop the presses!  It's an African-American artist!  Aside from maybe a backing band member or two, this is the only black artist on my entire list, if my glance through is to be trusted.  I've been asking myself, why is that?  What has happened to my musical tastes that have turned them so 'white'?  I don't have a firm answer.  I know in the 90's, especially the early 90's, when Gangsta Rap was still fresh, my CD collection had much more diversity.  My tastes have generally ruralized, however, while most African-American music seems to have gone even further urban.  I dipped into old country, alt-country, and bluegrass.  I moved away from just about all rap.  I listen to about 1 hour of 'regular' radio every year.  That's it.  My ability to choose my niche has streamlined my tastes to exactly what I want, and I never have to deviate from it.  Is that good?  Because I think the extension of that is that artists set out to cater to that niche, rather than looking for ways to express themselves and grow.  What will the next generation of bands take as their influences?  I mean, in the 80's, the influences were all roughly the same...now?  You could see your favorite band namedrop some obscure noise-pop band that you've never heard of, and wonder, what the fuck is going on? 

Back to the whiteness...does the lack of a black artist, other than this awesome Cee-lo project, say something broader about black music?  I don't think so.  I'm not a tastemaker.  I don't speak for anyone other than myself.  I try to persuade others to like what I like, and I mercilessly mock the stuff that I don't (Chickenfoot, anyone?), but I am not the trendsetter.  I would readily admit that there is black music out there that is equal to, or better than what I have here (and music from other ethnic backgrounds, that I'm just not exposed to, as well).  You'd be crazy to think otherwise.  So why don't I like it?

1. Black artists that are well known tend to fall in the 'Mainstream', where I'm just not exposed to a lot of it. 
2. The trend in 'Mainstream' music is moving away from the album, and towards the single.  That's in opposition with how I enjoy music.  I'm an album guy. 

I think those two things stand in the way from me finding the 'good' stuff (read: stuff that I'd like).  I've tried Kanye.  Not into it.  Rap has largely, in my view, lacked true innovation, and just doesn't sound fresh to me.  I'd rather go back and listen to shit from 15 years ago, even if the pop culture references are getting dated.  I can say the same thing for Mainstream white music, though.  I think Timberlake is a solid performer, a funny guy, and probably less of a douchebag than many other 'indie' artists that I follow.  He even has a few catchy songs that I like.  But I'll be damned if I can sit through an entire Timberlake album.  This problem goes into other genres, as well.  Modern rock radio?  Please, I can't even tell the bands apart, anymore.  R&B?  Seems watered down, compared to the greats over the last 50 years, like they've run out of metaphors for fucking.  'New' Country?  Dear god, that's the vilest, overproduced, overmarketed shit in the whole business.  Mainstream music is basically crap, and unfortunately that's where most of the black artists that I'd come in contact with reside. 

Or, maybe I'm just racist.  But this Gnarls Barkley shit is awesome.


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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #70-61

#70

To Find Me Gone
Vetiver
2006

One of the brightest surprises...Had vaguely even heard of them before seeing them live, but was blown away.  All I know of them is what is on my Ipod, and the newer album, which I've heard spun on the record player a few times.  Based on # of plays, the material off this album is my favorite, though you could make a serious argument that the self titled album is better, and I'd believe you on certain days (it ranked #108, FYI).  They could be one of the most underrated bands in music today.  Are they the kind of band that could crack through, a la Grizzly Bear, into a bigger audience?  I think so, but it's just as likely they spit out a handful of great albums that hardly nobody hears.  Won't Be Me is one of the better songs that you'll hear this past decade.

#69

There Is No Enemy
Built To Spill
2009

Had this one came out in 2008, or at least had a little more time to churn through the ether, it could crack the Top-25, I think.  It's just a fantastic album, and greatly surprised me, after I had kind of lost my love for Built to Spill a little bit.  Now, I'm back in full on fanboy mode, listening to their entire catalog at least five times over the last couple of months.  And we can thank this album.  If I had to pick a guitar sound to take with me to heaven, I might opt for these guys.  Just a great tone...Martsch is a phenom, though I'm not even sure if he shows up on the radar when those 'Greatest Guitarist' lists come out.  Damn shame.  This is a great album...one of the best of 2009.

#68

Parachutes
Coldplay
2000

These guys are a huge, horrible, U2 wannabe cliche now, but this album stands out as proof that sometimes what becomes popular at least can start out good.  Yes, Yellow makes me want to shoot my face off with a shotgun, and seeing Chris Martin walk somberly on the beach singing close up into a camera is my idea of Hell...but outside of that track, this album really has no faults.  Shiver is just explosive, and We Never Change is perfection.  It gets lost in the shuffle, but this was largely an acoustic band, at this point.  There's some electric guitar, but they were their best when it was stripped down a bit.  Now?  Chris Martin writes about rainbows and puppy dogs.  That's what happens when you get ultra-famous, marry a boring actress, spit out a couple of kids, and pretend you're the love child of Bono and Thom Yorke.

#67

Rock N Roll
Ryan Adams
2003

Holy shit, at what point did this turn from a clusterfuck of an album to a near classic?  I mean, seriously?  I put this thing on now (thanks for leaving it at the house, Ryan), and the entire house blows up with awesomeness.  Yes, he was a pain in the ass to Lost Highway back in the day, and yes, his heart must have been more into 'Love is Hell'...and yes, he was listening to too much Interpol, The Strokes, and The White Stripes at the time.  I get it, I do...this one was panned, and in the moment, rightly so.  It's been 6 years, though, and I can safely say that this one is aging like a 2003 Bordeaux (that was a good vintage, FYI).  1974 is a great rocker, meant to be played loud as fuck.  The Parker Posey collaboration, Note to Self: Don't Die is somehow fascinatingly excellent.  My favorite is probably Burning Photographs, which I'd put on my '2000-2009 Mix Tape', if I made one.  I don't think any of this stuff appears live, and I'd be surprised if Adams even recognized it's existence, now.  It's holding up well, though, and is worth a listen.

#66

The Woods
Sleater-Kinney
2005

I was taken a bit back when I sorted my list and found three Sleater-Kinney albums ranked very, very highly.  In the first draft of the list, this was Top-50.  I've reassessed, a bit, but this is still up there as the best all girl band of the decade (past two decades, if you're keeping count).  I believe there are only two other female artists that will crack higher than this one.  It's a man's world, but these girls rocked harder than just about any of them.  This was their final album...they have since broken up, and they went out with a bang.  The 11 minute epic, Let's Call it Love stands out as my favorite song in their catalog.  Timeless music, too...ages exceptionally well. 

#65

Person Pitch
Panda Bear
2007

I think Animal Collective is ruining music.  Pardon me if I can't get on that bandwagon.  They turn knobs, and we all flutter, and talk about how awesome they are.  I'm also a huge hypocrite.  There are several Animal Collective tracks that I secretly love, and this Panda Bear album blew me away the first time I heard it.  Whatever genre it is (art-rock?  post-rock?  pretentious-hipster-douchebag-rock?), it's clear that Mr Bear was channeling the best of Brian Wilson, circa the 'Pet Sounds' era.  The harmonized vocals sell this, but also the production quality, which is just off the charts, and deserves either full volume in a small room, or headphones and a quiet corner.  I was sold after hearing the opening track, Comfy in Nautica, and it's loopy vocal/noise track.  I can see the appeal of this variety of music, and I can appreciate that on the top of their game, Animal Collective is phenomenal.  But this kind of music makes the future rockers of tomorrow lazy, IMO, and cheapens the overall aesthetic of 'Album Rock'.  Almost certainly, my kid's kids will not buy albums.  It'll be because of the influences like Panda Bear and Animal Collective that your Grandkids will laugh at how you used to sit and listen to the same band for 45 minutes.  Albums are for old people.  Thanks, Animal Collective, you douchebags.

#64

Time to Die
The Dodos
2009

My new favorite band.  Thanks again to Ryan for leaving the vinyl over at the house...constant rotation, of late.  Their previous album 'Visiter' placed way too low on this list, and should be revised much higher.  I'm that sold on these guys, right now.  This one had Phil Ek behind the knobs, which could be why it's so awesome, but is probably also why it's fairly different from their last album.  The ramped up world beats are not so prominent, and the drums, in general.  Somehow, I don't miss them...this album hits on all cylinders.  This Is a Business holds some of that previous drum passion, and moves along like some kind of mountain ditty, with a machine gun in the back.  Whirling guitars never sounded better.  This one is held out of the Top-50 mainly because it's only been out for 2 months.  Call me in a year, and we'll see how it's holding up.

#63

Cripple Crow
Devendra Banhart
2005

A sprawling masterpiece...songs are all over the place.  Love the Allmusic styles on this one:

    * Alternative/ Indie Rock
    * Lo-Fi
    * Alternative Folk
    * Acid Folk
    * Neo-Psychedelia

What the hell is Acid Folk?  I have no idea, but I guess I dig it.  I totally dig the songs in Spanish, maybe even more than the other material on the album.  It's strange how something you can't understand can somehow still move you.  It's a very long album...22 songs, though several clock in under 2 minutes.  The ambling nature gives you the feel that it's one long piece of music, tied together.  After a few songs, it's not even all that clear where one starts and the other begins...it's a very unique record, and one that I think is tops in Banhart's catalog.

#62

All Hail West Texas
The Mountain Goats
2002

AMG has four (FOUR!) albums that The Mountain Goats dropped in 2002...two of those four make the list, including this one.  Awesomely lo-fi...the storytelling style in this one is so awesome.  Tiny short stories, that are amazingly dense, despite rarely topping 3.5 minutes.  The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton is one of my favorite Mountain Goats songs, of all time.  And there are a shit ton of songs in Darnielle's canon.  I don't know if anyone can match the songwriting style that he possesses.  A truly unique creator in the music world. 

#61

They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top
Liars
2001

These guys are truly unique, or at least were to me, back in 2001, when I first heard this one.  Nothing like it, IMO.  Angular guitars, crazy drums, deftly used samples...fuzzed out lyrics and pretentious as fuck song titles.  These guys almost try to make you not like them, just because you're not cool enough to understand what they are about.  It's smart punk rock, I think.  Mr. Your on Fire Mr. is one of the catchiest songs of the entire decade.  The almost kid's toy drums, that morph into a chugging guitar line...it's stunning.  Nothing Is Ever Lost or Can Be Lost My Science Friend, and it's rolling percussion, and that almost annoying electronic noise...I can't explain it, this shit is just great.  Their later material was very good, but never really hit home like this one did.  A stunning debut from Liars...highly recommend listening to this one as loud as you can.


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Albums of the Decade: 2000-2009 - #80-71

#80

Souljourney
Gillian Welch
2003

I can't believe it's been 2003 since a new Welch solo album.  She tours (is going to be with Rawlings in support of his new album), but I guess just hasn't sat down to make something happen.  It's a damn shame, too, because this stuff if fucking gold.  Best true 'folk' artist in the game.  This one, though, is more rockin' than her previous albums.  There's actually drums here!  The additional instruments and production don't overshadow those pipes, though, as evidenced when she belts out Oh me oh my oh/would you look at Ms Ohio/she's runnin' around with the rag top down in the opening track.  Her No One Knows My Name is a great reworking of her Orphan Girl, from her fucking amazing debut, 'Revival'.  Those two songs are so incredibly sad, but somehow they overshadow their sadness with hope.  That, in a nutshell is what makes Welch so special of an artist.  She somehow blends a traditional aesthetic with a modern sensibility, but I'll be damned if you couldn't take her back to 1930, drop her in, and she'd rule it.  Hell, she's as homely as a depression era dirt farmer.  You couldn't have cast her any better.  She makes M Ward seem like a total poseur.

#79

Get Lonely
The Mountain Goats
2006

Jesus, who pissed in Darnielle's cornflakes?  I love it when this guy goes thematic.  You could put this one up in the sad song Pantheon, for sure.  Every song is about loneliness, making the title perfectly literal.  Why beat around the bush?  Is it sadder than the previous record, about his abusive stepfather?  Fuck, I don't know.  I'm thinking this is the kind of stuff a great artist pumps out to either stave off, or bring on suicide.  I guess he's in a better place, though, since his stuff has moved on to other lyrical territory, since then.  This album is like an existential study on sadness.  His girlfriend must have filmed one of those 'Fuck 500 Guys in 30 Minutes' videos, or something.  Really dig the sad piano line on Song For Lonely Giants.  If you ever get dumped, here's your album to revel in your loneliness to.

#78

The Tyranny of Distance
Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
2001

Holy fuck, I used to listen to this album a lot.  I think what gets lost in the shuffle about Ted Leo, who was the poster boy for the punk infused indie rock period that seemed to fizzle about halfway through the decade, is how awesome of a lyricist  he is.  He's funny as hell, and it shines through in this material.  Snarky would be a good descriptor, but not pretentious.  Listen to Squeaky Fingers, for instance.  Brilliant song, brilliant lyrics.  Ted Leo has largely disappeared.  Remember when Hearts of Oak had all that crazy hype?  Yeah, we'll talk about that in a little bit, but if you wanted to introduce yourself to Leo, this would be a the right album to start with.

#77

The Stage Names
Okerrvil River
2007

I whiffed on these guys, initially.  Thought they were an Arcade Fire cover band.  Shows that ignorance can get best of even my great ear.  I don't think I really gave them any due until my friend Andrew saw them out West, and I forced myself to go back and listen to some stuff.  This album is just fantastic.  Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe does not disappoint.  Love the 'whoo-hoos' in that one towards the end.  They have a flair for the dramatic, and almost, I think, see themselves as writing storyboards, rather than just crafting songs.  This comes across in their live shows, at least what I saw on the recent ACL...I could see these guys kicking out a true Rock Opera one day.  Maybe I'm buying into their aesthetic a little too hard, but it feels like the best is yet to come with these guys.  Chick guitar player, too.  That's always a bonus.

#76

Como Te Llama?
Albert Hammond, Jr
2008

Who knew the rhythm guitarist from the Strokes was actually good?  Not me.  I have still not heard that other album he did, back in 2006, and probably would have missed this one, had it not been for my friend Andrew bringing it over last year.  Damn, what a good pop album this is, though.  These songs are catchy as hell.  GFC was one of the better songs from last year, and I'd put it in a list of singles from the Decade in a heartbeat.  I smell some Costello-cum-Police in him, though, like on the quasi-reggae song Borrowed Time.  You just don't hear a lot of stuff like this in today's indie rock scene.  I have no idea if he'll continue doing solo stuff.  Lord knows, the Strokes are done.  That solo stuff from the lead singer is atrocious, so if Albert wants to keep kicking out the jams, I think he could make a good career of it. 

#75

Pneumonia
Whiskeytown
2001

Technically recorded in 1999, this one didn't see the light of day until 2001.  Record label issues and band troubles (they were basically broken up, minus Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary by this point) kept this one on the shelf until after Ryan Adams had actually had two solo albums out (and at least one other solo album recorded, but also shelved).  This one gets lost in the lexicon, thanks to the fact that everyone is jumping over themselves to anoint 'Stranger's Almanac' as Whiskeytown's opus.  So why did this one fall out of favor, after once being considered a 'lost classic'?  I have no idea.  Maybe the fans missed some of that old school twang, or maybe by the time it was released, Adams had found his voice as a solo artist, so it was no longer vital.

What we have, though, is a damn fine example of great country twinged rock n roll.  Jacksonville Skyline shines as well as 95% of their previous output, while songs like Sit and Listen, To The Rain basically foreshadowed Ryan Adams from 2002-2004.  I'd love to hear a hardcore Beatles fan's take on Mirror, Mirror, which I think is Ryan Adams most obvious mimic of a 'British Invasion' style song in his catalog.  The songwriting was handled mostly by Adams/Daly (who rocks out the awesome pedal steel on this one), with Caitlin Cary only popping up twice.  She was marginalized, to the point where many call this a Ryan Adams solo project.  All that is so far in the past now, though, that it's getting fuzzier around the edges, and what we're left with is a great album, from a great band.  Better than 'Stranger's Almanac'?  Maybe not.  But just as vital, and we're better off having this one out there. 

One last notable about this one; there is a collaboration with James Iha, of Smashing Pumpkins fame...Don't Be Sad.  I have long been puzzled about how Adams came to work with Iha, who at the time was in the biggest rock band in the world.  Go figure.  Good song, too.

#74

Destroyer's Rubies
Destroyer
2006

I will admit to being a bit ignorant on this guy.  Saw him live, as my main introduction to his sound, and enjoyed the shit out of it.  This is the only album of his that cracked my Ipod, for whatever reason, and I enjoy the shit out of it, as well, pretty regularly.  FWIW, I seem to like that Swan Lake stuff more than his other material, outside of this album.  I don't know what to make of that.  Anyway, he's a genre bender.  I have no idea how to tell someone what he sounds like, much less figure out if someone would like it.  His voice is an acquired taste, to say the least, and there are so many key changes and disjointed melodies, you'd think the man was mainlining heroin mid-song.  The epic opener, Rubies would be a great litmus test for someone trying to give this guy a shot.  Like it?  Keep listening.  Don't like it?  Go listen to your fucking Lady Ga-Ga, and get the fuck away from me. 

#73

The Shepherd's Dog
Iron & Wine
2007

If you don't like the tinkly, quiet, laid back Iron & Wine sound, this is your album.  It's got world beats, crazy rhythms, and even ELECTRIC GUITAR.  Wow.  Seriously, though, Sam Beam only sounded like he was recording in his basement on the first two I&W albums because...that's where he was recording those albums.  I believe his vision was always larger, though he:

1. Lacked the chops or the backing band.
and
2. Was a film professor moonlighting as a musician, not the other way around.

Now?  He's got some backing.  He's learned to play well with others.  The songwriting is still freaking outstanding.  Heavy imagery, great metaphors, and catch as fuck choruses.  But what he's mixed in is a bunch of new ideas about percussion, and some loopy electronic elements.  I spoiled myself on this album, initially, by listening to a live show he did of a lot of the material in a stripped down, acoustic setting.  It sounded like what I had expected I&W to sound like.  I wasn't expecting him to take the Woman King EP and extrapolate off of that even further out of his original territory.  So when I heard the release, officially, it took me a long time to get into the groove. 

I think it's safe to say, though, that his evolving sound is good for all of us (including M&M candy, and movie soundtracks).  Resurrection Fern, House by the Sea, and Lovesong of the Buzzard are all just freaking amazing.  This one fits neatly into his catalog, and now two years later, is making me thirst for even more creativity and growth in future albums.

#72

Magnolia Electric Co
Songs:Ohia
2003

Molina has eschewed some of the pallor that hung over the previous Songs:Ohia albums, and really sounds more like his band-to-be, Magnolia Electric Co, than ever before.  I'm in love with the man's tone on the guitar.  You can call it Neil Young-esque, and you'd be right, but that doesn't really give Molina the credit he deserves.  It's more than just mimicking Young's licks, it's adding on to them.  I wish I knew more about the chick who sings on Peoria Lunch Box Blues.  That is a haunting tune.  The two bookends on this disc are both epic rockers, and would probably appeal to anyone who likes to tune in to the Classic Rock station on their local dial.  I could see my Dad digging some Molina stuff.  Hold On Magnolia actually reminds me a little bit of Radiohead, for some reason.  Who knows.  This is also the first of three albums that Steve Albini produced for Molina.

#71

Gather, Form and Fly
Megafaun
2009

Maybe I've fallen too hard, too fast on this one, but damn it sounds good.  I really regret not getting to see these live with the boys earlier in the year.  Kicking myself over that one...They lack a real good singer, which is why I think they went for that harmonized 'campfire sing-a-long' style, as AMG puts it.  The musicianship and production, however, is dynamite, and there are few albums that have hit me right out of the gate like this one.  Maybe it's my rural lean in my musical tastes these days, or maybe I've just got them wrapped up in the Bon Iver afterglow.  Darkest Hour, with it's rainfall segment, that slowly morphs into the song, is stunning, and maybe the best song of 2009.  It's kind of bluegrassy, and there's all kinds of instruments all over this one.  Will it stand the test of time, and hang around all these other great albums over the next decade?  Who knows, but my Ipod thinks it's one of the best albums of all time, if you sort by listens.  And my Ipod is rarely wrong.


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