Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Best of the Decade

I make no claim that these are epoch-defining or the most influential of the decade. My criteria is simple: these are the albums that I’ve come back to again and again these last ten years.

#1 Funeral by Arcade Fire (2004)

#2 In Rainbows by Radiohead (2007)

#3 Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco (2002)

#4 Twin Cinema by The New Pornographers (2005)

#5 Boxer by The National (2007)

#6 Come On Feel the Illinoise! by Sufjan Stevens (2005)

#7 Middle Cyclone by Neko Case (2009)

#8 Ten New Songs by Leonard Cohen (2001)

#9 Sound of Silver by LCD Sound System (2007)

#10 The Meadowlands by The Wrens (2003)

#11 The Odd Couple by Gnarls Barkley (2008)

#12 Love & Theft by Bob Dylan (2001)

#13 Essence by Lucinda Williams (2001)

#14 3 Rounds and a Sound by Blind Pilot (2008)

#15 Failer by Kathleen Edwards (2003)

#16 Satellite Rides by Old 97s (2001)

#17 All Your Summer Songs by Saturday Looks Good to Me (2003)

#18 Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga by Spoon (2007)

#19 Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea by PJ Harvey (2000)

#20 Alligator by The National (2005)

#21 Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes (2008)

#22 Sea Change by Beck (2002)

#23 Dig, Lazarus, Dig by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (2008)

#24 Challengers by the New Pornographers (2007)

#25 A Boot and a Shoe by Sam Philips (2004)

#26 Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? by Of Montreal (2006)

#27 You & Me by The Walkmen (2008)

#28 When the Telephone Rings by The Silos (2004)

#29 Microcastle by Deerhunter (2008)

#30 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields (2000)