Top 20 albums of the decade so far?

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I'll have to listen to an album straight through. :up: I've heard enough singles and youtube-y things to appreciate them...and sense their influence on others. Chris Martin mentions them in every second breath.

I'd listen to Takk... or ( ), the new album's pretty good, too.

Chrissy Martin's a colossal tool. Always remember that.
 
For the record, most seem to consider Agætis Byrjun the band's peak, and from what I've heard from it, it does sound like their best.
 
Twenty is actually a pretty small number though. That's only about two albums from each year. Then again, from looking at some of your lists, I can tell you aren't really up-to-date with modern music. Anyway, I'll make mine a Top 50-ish, one max. per artist.

Animal Collective - Feels
Annie - Anniemal
Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Bjork - Medulla
The Books - Lemon Of Pink
Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever
Brian Wilson - SmiLe *(highly debatable if this counts)
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
Cat Power - You Are Free
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Clientele - Strange Geometry
Daft Punk - Discovery
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
The Dismemberment Plan - Change
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Jay-Z - The Black Album
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
Knife - Silent Shout
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
M.I.A. - Arular
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Madvillain - Madvillainy
The Microphones - The Glow, Part 2
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
The Postal Service - Give Up
Radiohead - Kid A
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Strokes - Is This It?
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilderness - Wilderness
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
The Wrens - Meadowlands
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind

Frankly, the second half of this decade has already had twice as many great albums. I've got like a dozen albums from 2001 on my iPod and over 40 from 2007. I'm surprised at just how many from 2000-2004 ended up in my list. Guess while there wasn't a plethora of good, there were still plenty of the decade's best albums, all time classics, being released through that time.
 
Twenty is actually a pretty small number though. That's only about two albums from each year. Then again, from looking at some of your lists, I can tell you aren't really up-to-date with modern music. Anyway, I'll make mine a Top 50-ish, one max. per artist.

Animal Collective - Feels
Annie - Anniemal
Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Avalanches - Since I Left You
Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin
Belle & Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Bjork - Medulla
The Books - Lemon Of Pink
Boy Least Likely To - The Best Party Ever
Brian Wilson - SmiLe *(highly debatable if this counts)
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out Of This Country
Cat Power - You Are Free
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
The Clientele - Strange Geometry
Daft Punk - Discovery
Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Deerhoof - The Runners Four
The Dismemberment Plan - Change
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics
Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat
The Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Strike
I'm From Barcelona - Let Me Introduce My Friends
Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog
Jay-Z - The Black Album
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala
Joanna Newsom - The Milk-Eyed Mender
Knife - Silent Shout
LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
M.I.A. - Arular
M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
Madvillain - Madvillainy
The Microphones - The Glow, Part 2
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica
New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
The Notwist - Neon Golden
Okkervil River - The Stage Names
Pearl Jam - Binaural
Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block
Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes
The Postal Service - Give Up
Radiohead - Kid A
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Stars - Set Yourself On Fire
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free
The Strokes - Is This It?
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Wilderness - Wilderness
Wolf Parade - Apologies To The Queen Mary
The Wrens - Meadowlands
U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind

Frankly, the second half of this decade has already had twice as many great albums. I've got like a dozen albums from 2001 on my iPod and over 40 from 2007. I'm surprised at just how many from 2000-2004 ended up in my list. Guess while there wasn't a plethora of good, there were still plenty of the decade's best albums, all time classics, being released through that time.

I think by listing that many albums, you dilute the significance of trying to pick the very best from the decade.

And, do you really like Broken Social Scene's S/T more than You forgot it in People? As Well as Milk-Eyed Mender more than Ys?

And the Sigur Ros album you listed came out in the 1990's
 
I never made yearly lists until 2005 and even that one wasn't initially comprehensive. So, I used the Pitchfork 2000-2004 list for albums from that period along with some immediate favorites from nearly a decade ago (Binaural, ATYCLB).

As for listing so many, I think listing only twenty albums dilutes the importance of this decade ever which is easily the greatest in the history of popular music. I'm so sick of forty year-olds, especially on this forum, complaining about modern music when you'd be fortunate to have ten killer albums in a given year before 2000. Making the list a "sensible" 20 just means crap like American Idiot and The Rising will show up. They're not bad albums but they can't even be said in the same breath as those deserving of Top 200 status from this decade. The ease of release thanks to the internet along with the ability for indie-acts to gain an instant fanbase of 100,000 people is the best thing to happen since The Beatles.

More importantly, I listed so many albums because there's no way I could make a Top 20. Offhand, I could sort've put together a dozen favorites from this decade but the other eight or so is impossible and would've taken more time than typing all of those titles out.

To whomever said listing of Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights, well, at least you reminded me Interpol needed to be on the list. :doh:

Oversights That Are As Deserving As The Block Above. They were either forgotten or listed lower on a yearly list than a few others:

Interpol - Antics
Nelly Furtado - Folklore
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
Sonic Youth - Rather Ripped
Yo La Tengo - I Am Not Afraid Of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine

And Favorites From '08 That I Didn't List Yet Because It's Sorta Soon:

Drive-By Truckers - Brighter Than Creation's Dark
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Beach House - Devotion

Also Timbaland is without a doubt the best producer of the decade. Had another killer tune been added and a few "meh" ones dropped, Nelly Furtado's Loose might've been one of the decade's best albums. Certainly has some of my favorite singles along with How To Dismantle The Atomic Bomb
 
And, do you really like Broken Social Scene's S/T more than You forgot it in People? As Well as Milk-Eyed Mender more than Ys?

And the Sigur Ros album you listed came out in the 1990's


1) You Forgot it In People is great but it's nice soundtrack music and it, along with the other early album, worked beautifully in the movie Half Nelson. BSS's self titled, on the other hand, has some of the best written tunes of the entire decade and works as both a clever indie rock album and an atmosphere soaked chill-out.

2. Ys isn't as good as Mender because the songs go on forever. I felt like a lot of it was overkill, be it with the many instruments and the endless stream of consciousness lyrics. It was a pretty good album, not a great one. I eventually deleted it. I listen to over 150 new albums a year and I just don't have time for the merely good.

3. And I had mentioned the Pitchfork list because the Sigur Ros album happened to be on it. Probably has something to do with an American release date or some mode of cheating. Just replace it with () and I'll be absolutely fine.

WTF. My iPod is missing the Interpol albums. Not like I'd delete them. Ugh.

Ah, it's missing every artist with an "I" at the start of their name. Must be some sort of copy/paste error or whatever.
 
1) You Forgot it In People is great but it's nice soundtrack music and it, along with the other early album, worked beautifully in the movie Half Nelson. BSS's self titled, on the other hand, has some of the best written tunes of the entire decade and works as both a clever indie rock album and an atmosphere soaked chill-out.

2. Ys isn't as good as Mender because the songs go on forever. I felt like a lot of it was overkill, be it with the many instruments and the endless stream of consciousness lyrics. It was a pretty good album, not a great one. I eventually deleted it. I listen to over 150 new albums a year and I just don't have time for the merely good.

1. Your description of the self titled I think is way more fitting for YGIP. Isn't Almost Crimes or Cause=Time some of the best pure songs of the decade? . And isn't Pacific Theme the perfect atmosphere soaked chill out? I suppose I just find a little bit of the middle/later half of the S/T to drag a little bit

2. Yes the song on Ys are ridiculously long, but atleast they all go somewhere. The various crescendos that each song have I think not only keep the songs continually interesting, but also make for powerful moments that the Milk-Eyed Mender could never come close to making.
 
First off, I refuse to include anything from 2008, its way too early, and hesitate to even include much from 2007, but I did anyway....here goes.

In no order.....

Arcade Fire - Funeral
M. Ward - Transfigurations Of Vincent
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
M. Ward - Post War
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
The National - Alligator
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sigur Ros - Takk
MMJ - It Still Moves
Wilco - YHF
Franz Ferdinand - S/T
BSS - You Forgot It In People
The Strokes - Is This It?
Beck - Sea Change
Elbow - Asleep In The Back
Coldplay - Parachutes
Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun
Radiohead - Kid A

:|
 
First off, I refuse to include anything from 2008, its way too early, and hesitate to even include much from 2007, but I did anyway....here goes.

In no order.....

Arcade Fire - Funeral
M. Ward - Transfigurations Of Vincent
Radiohead - In Rainbows
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
M. Ward - Post War
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain
The National - Alligator
Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time
Spoon - Gimme Fiction
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Sigur Ros - Takk
MMJ - It Still Moves
Wilco - YHF
Franz Ferdinand - S/T
BSS - You Forgot It In People
The Strokes - Is This It?
Beck - Sea Change
Elbow - Asleep In The Back
Coldplay - Parachutes
Sigur Ros - Ágætis byrjun
Radiohead - Kid A

:|

Wow, we sure have similar tastes. I have and love all but 4 of these, and 3 of those 4 are on my to-get list.
 
For the record, I like Takk better and don't care what "most" say :wink:

I love them both equally, I think, Takk maybe slightly more after hearing those songs live but for me it's similar to the Ok Computer vs. Kid A or Joshua Tree vs. Achtung argument--can't live without any of them.
 
I love them both equally, I think, Takk maybe slightly more after hearing those songs live but for me it's similar to the Ok Computer vs. Kid A or Joshua Tree vs. Achtung argument--can't live without any of them.

OK Computer vs. The Bends for me, Kid A is interesting but OK Computer wins hands down.
 
In no particular order (because that would be WAY too much work):

1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Radiohead - In Rainbows
3. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
5. LCD Soundsystem - Sounds of Silver
6. The National - Alligator
7. The National - Boxer
8. Sonic Youth - Murray Street
9. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam
10. OST - Lost in Translation (is this cheating?)
11. Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
12. Beck - Sea Changes
13. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Take Them On, On Your Own
14. Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway
15. Sun Kil Moon - April

I really can't get to 20. In fact, I'm surprised I got to 15. It's not that I can't list more albums...but I just can't think of ones other than those listed that would be deserving of a "top albums of the decade" label. Broken Social Scene's YFIIP being one example...it's a great, fantastic album, but I wouldn't think of it as deserving of that description.

Also, I tend to listen to fewer albums more times, so there's a lot of stuff that I've wanted to get into but just haven't gotten around to doing...like Kanye.
 
1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
3. The National - Boxer
4. Arcade Fire - Funeral
5. The National - Alligator
6. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses
7. Beck - Sea Change
8. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
9. The Flamings Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
10. My Morning Jacket - Z
11. Sigur Ros - ( )
12. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
13. Radiohead - Amnesiac
14. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
15. Wilco - A Ghost is Born
16. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
17. My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves
18. The White Stripes - Elephant
19. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
20. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver




Hey oh!
 
As for listing so many, I think listing only twenty albums dilutes the importance of this decade ever which is easily the greatest in the history of popular music. I'm so sick of forty year-olds, especially on this forum, complaining about modern music when you'd be fortunate to have ten killer albums in a given year before 2000. Making the list a "sensible" 20 just means crap like American Idiot and The Rising will show up. They're not bad albums but they can't even be said in the same breath as those deserving of Top 200 status from this decade. The ease of release thanks to the internet along with the ability for indie-acts to gain an instant fanbase of 100,000 people is the best thing to happen since The Beatles.
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Easily the greatest decade in the history of popular music. :tsk:

Greater than the 60s, when the Beatles and the Stones and Dylan and early Led Zep and early Doors and the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel and Jimi Hendrix, etc etc, were competing?

Greaeter than the 70s, when Led Zep was in their prime, when Floyd was in their prime, when the Who was in their prime, when Aerosmith was putting out much of it's best albeit early material, when David Bowie was in his prime, when Queen was in its prime, when Billy Joel was in his prime, when Elton John was in his prime, when female singer-songwriters like Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Carly Simon were paving the way for women like Tori Amos and Fiona Apple decades later, when Abba was putting out some of the most beautifully-crafted pure pop music that's ever been put out, etc etc?

Greater than the 80s when U2 was putting out their early work, when REM was making their name, when Sting&The Police were around, when Metallica put out some of the greatest metal records of all time, when Michael Jackson and Madonna changed the pop world forever, when the Beastie Boys and Public Enemy and Dre and Run DMC revolutionized hip-hop, when GNR burst on the scene, when Depeche Mode was making its name, when the Cure was in their prime, etc?

Greater than the 90s when Radiohead was putting out the Bends and OKC, when U2 was putting out the boldest work of their career, when Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Alice In Chains among others spearheaded the grunge movement, when alternative acts like Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, RATM, etc were competing, when Tupac and Wutang and the Fugees and Jay-Z were making hip-hop mainstream, when Tori Amos and Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple were competing, when REM was in their prime, when RHCP was putting out BSSM and Californication, etc etc?

Not better than any one of the above, but better than all of them?

Really?

Your statement is hyperbolic if any statement ever was. I'm not saying there isn't good music this decade. That's ridiculous, of course there is - Radiohead, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Eminem, Audioslave, Killers, Franz Ferdinand, older acts like Pearl Jam, RHCP, REM, U2, Tori Amos, Green Day, Springsteen still going at it - there's plenty of good music this decade, when it's just silly, imo, to say that it's the greatest decade in the history of popular music.

And I'm not 40. I'm 23.
 
Well, perhaps there haven't been the cultural touchstones and sheer masterpieces that previous decades have, but, at least below the mainstream music is really spreading off in a lot of new directions all at once, with influence and sounds being exchanged much more readily thanks to the internet. I'm not going to agree that this is the best music decade, but we are in a period where experimentation and variation in tastes is much easier to come by.
 
Easily the greatest decade in the history of popular music. :tsk:

Yeah, it would be...if the music were any good, outside of the occasional bright spot.

The internet has put music in the hands of the people again, which is fantastic, but that does not necessary mean that those people actually have talent.
 
Your statement is hyperbolic if any statement ever was. I'm not saying there isn't good music this decade. That's ridiculous, of course there is - Radiohead, Coldplay, Arcade Fire, Sigur Ros, Eminem, Audioslave, Killers, Franz Ferdinand, older acts like Pearl Jam, RHCP, REM, U2, Tori Amos, Green Day, Springsteen still going at it - there's plenty of good music this decade, when it's just silly, imo, to say that it's the greatest decade in the history of popular music.

You just proved that you've listened to practically nothing this decade outside of the mainstream. If RHCP, Pearl Jam, REM, Torio Amos, Green Day and Springsteen are some of the best acts from this decade (along with Coldplay, Audioslave and the fucking Killers) then you don't know shit. Your listing of artists from the other decades was also predictable and, of course, fails to mention nearly every great underground act of the 70s/80s/90s.

Go download some of the albums off my list and come back to me.
 
Not my fault people say modern music sucks when they don't listen to any of it. That's like saying Spider-Man 4 was absolute shit.

That analogy isn't great...it would be more applicable to somebody saying that Fleet Foxes' sophomore album was crap, but yeah...I see what you're saying.
 
That analogy isn't great...it would be more applicable to somebody saying that Fleet Foxes' sophomore album was crap, but yeah...I see what you're saying.

There's always records leaked early, old tracks that could be revised, and most importantly, Fleet Foxes playing new tracks in concert. I used a movie that hasn't even been given a script treatment because a lot of the users on here haven't even heard a song from these artists (unless it's used in a television commercial).

I'll bow to the thought that not as many albums today can fit into the 100 Greatest or whatever. If Sufjan's Illinois had come out in the sixties, for example, it would certainly deserve such an honor. However, artists of the 00's are influenced by the many before them and some of those influences can be easily discerned in a listen or two.

That said there's just so many more good albums coming out now. It's practically on a weekly basis, if not more. Biggest reason really is the internet as the underground scene was certainly not thriving anywhere close to this extent in the 90's. Artists now have the audiences they need. In a way, it's similar to how the content of television was altogether crappy minus about a half-dozen shows up until 2000. Suddenly, the internet/cable mean less viewers so the programs can go for a much narrower audience and need to be far more creative in order to be seen. Frankly, the sixties through the seventies had a lot of closed doors for musicians with very few minor labels, and even then, little to know way to let your artists be heard. After, things slowly expanded thanks to the rise of indie labels and now the doors are wide open.
 
You just proved that you've listened to practically nothing this decade outside of the mainstream. If RHCP, Pearl Jam, REM, Torio Amos, Green Day and Springsteen are some of the best acts from this decade (along with Coldplay, Audioslave and the fucking Killers) then you don't know shit. Your listing of artists from the other decades was also predictable and, of course, fails to mention nearly every great underground act of the 70s/80s/90s.

Go download some of the albums off my list and come back to me.

When someone is told that they don't know shit, it is not likely to encourage them to want to delve deeper into your list and continue debating with you.

I never said 'modern music sucks' or anything like it, all I said was that I disagree with you when you say that this decade is the best in the history of popular music. There is a vast difference between the two things.

I've listened to about 1/5 of the records on your list. The Sigur Ros record is great, the Arcade Fire record is great, the Flaming Lips record is good, I haven't heard all of the Shins record but what little I have heard is good, the few songs I've heard from the Modest Mouse record were ok, didn't grab me too much, Binaural is good, ATYCLB and Kid A are great, Smile is ok, haven't heard the Bjork record but judging from some of her other stuff I'm sure it's at the very least interesting, but I can honestly say, the songs that I have heard from the Wilco record and the Decemberists record have left me with the 'I don't get it' feeling. However, it's been said that Wilco requires the headphones, 1000% attention treatment in order to appreciate it, and admittedly I haven't done that. Haven't heard pretty much any of the other stuff on your list.

I'm not going to sit here and say I'm know everything you've listed cold, because I don't. I know some of it, and what I know of it isn't make me jump up and down. I've tried. But when I choose a few songs off a record to listen to, and they do little for me, and this happens with 3, 4, 5 straight records on your list, then I'm not exactly salivating to get my hands(ears?) on the rest of them. That doesn't mean you're wrong or that I'm wrong, it just means we have different opinions. I may even give some of those other records a try anyway, since I have nothing to lose.

But don't tell people they don't know shit when referring to subjective topics.
 
There's always records leaked early, old tracks that could be revised, and most importantly, Fleet Foxes playing new tracks in concert. I used a movie that hasn't even been given a script treatment because a lot of the users on here haven't even heard a song from these artists (unless it's used in a television commercial).

I'll bow to the thought that not as many albums today can fit into the 100 Greatest or whatever. If Sufjan's Illinois had come out in the sixties, for example, it would certainly deserve such an honor. However, artists of the 00's are influenced by the many before them and some of those influences can be easily discerned in a listen or two.

That said there's just so many more good albums coming out now. It's practically on a weekly basis, if not more. Biggest reason really is the internet as the underground scene was certainly not thriving anywhere close to this extent in the 90's. Artists now have the audiences they need. In a way, it's similar to how the content of television was altogether crappy minus about a half-dozen shows up until 2000. Suddenly, the internet/cable mean less viewers so the programs can go for a much narrower audience and need to be far more creative in order to be seen. Frankly, the sixties through the seventies had a lot of closed doors for musicians with very few minor labels, and even then, little to know way to let your artists be heard. After, things slowly expanded thanks to the rise of indie labels and now the doors are wide open.

Like an earlier poster said, I get your drift about not limiting oneself to the mainstream, but you're way too aggressive with the way you make your point. If you want to expose someone to what's out there, this is the worst possible way to do it.

Also, I think there's a lot of people who HAVE heard many of the albums on your list, just don't have the same passion for those records you do. You may be mistaking indifference for ignorance. People simply have different tastes, and by definition the majority have tastes that are rather mainstream. We're on a U2 message board for Chrissake. What were you expecting?

And as far as the decades argument is concerned, I cast my vote for the 80s all the way...and it's not an age thing. I'm 26 and I didnt start listening to music till I was 16. U2, REM, Echo and the Bunnymen, early New Order, Springsteen at the top of his game, Sonic Youth at arguably the peak of their powers, the Replacements, My Bloody Valentine's early days...and to top it all off, Joy Division. I'm dying for a contemporary artist to come and blow me away the way that Loveless and Closer have, but that day has yet to come. The closest I can remember is Kid A (when I was quite very stoned), and that record was made in 2000.
 
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