Best of the Decade List: Paul Jackson

If I’ve ever been surly around the time of my listmaking--with the usual complaint, "It aint like it used to be"--now's the time to remember just how good it was. What a decade of music... Broken Social Scene and Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Doves and Dillinger Escape Plan; Mclusky and Menomena; Pete Yorn and Peter Bjorn and John; The Shins and Spoon; TV on the Radio and Thom Yorke; the Wrens and Wolf Parade. None of those artists are even on my Top 25 list, but they each made the decade a memorable one. Bjork remained Bjork; the Beastie Boys remained the Beastie Boys; Jay-Z remained Jay-Z; Radiohead remained Radiohead -- what other decade had so many great artists continuing great work into a second decade. And with no further ado, my 25 favorite records of the last ten years:

No. 1-5
1. Jay-Z and DJ Danger Mouse, "The Grey Album" [2004; hip hop mash-up]
2. ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, "Source Tags and Codes" [2002; alt rock]
3. The Streets, "A Grand Don't Come for Free" [2004; Brit hop]
4. Kanye West, "The College Dropout" [2004; nerd hop]
5. The Moldy Peaches, "The Moldy Peaches" [2001; anti folk]

Breakdown: Danger Mouse established the mash-up as a legitimate art form with the Grey Album, and it's still the greatest of them all--taking Jay-Z's best lyrical performance of the decade and pairing it with the White album, it's the record I listen to the most year in and year out. I consider "Source Tags and Codes" the finest alt-rock album ever made--taking all the lessons of those late 80s/early 90s bands and making one perfect mess out of it. The other three -- well, they succinctly sum up my taste this decade.

Nos. 6-10
6. The Strokes, "Is This It" [2001; NYC indie rock]
7. The Unicorns, "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone" [2003; indie pop]
8. Dandy Warhols, "Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia" [2000; country drone]
9. Gorillaz, "Gorillaz" [2001; cartoon pop]
10. System of a Down, "Toxicity" [2001; Armenian metal]
Breakdown: I can't abide with placing "Is This It" in the top five -- an extraordinary album that we all needed, but not quite a top 5 record. Much like Moldy Peaches, The Unicorns seemed to be a fun, ephemeral gimmick -- but amazingly, those albums stuck with me. The Dandy Warhol's 2000 album was the last great work from that severely underrated band; Gorillaz was Damon Albarn's most complete project of the decade; Toxicity's the only metal album I've ever truly loved.

No. 11-15
11 Radiohead, "Amnesiac" [2001; electronic joy]
12. KaitO, "Montigola Underground" [2002; power pop]
13. Andrew WK, "I Get Wet" [2001; American rock]
14. Daft Punk, "Discovery" [2001; French synth pop]
15. The White Stripes, "White Blood Cells" [2001; garage blues]

Breakdown: Was all of the best music of this decade made between 2001 and 2004? I'd give it a resounding yes. Amnesiac I liked slightly more than Kid A and In Rainbows, but all could have been on this list. KaitO is the only "unkown" band on this list, but their 2002 EP was a classic; Andrew WK, Daft Punk, and the White Stripes nicely represent the diversity of music this decade -- none of them could have existed in the 1990s, which says something.

Nos. 16-20
16. Modest Mouse, "The Moon and Antarctica" [2000; indie rock]
17. Beastie Boys, "To the 5 Boroughs" [2004; old school hip hop]
18. MIA, "Kala" [2007; international dance pop]
19. The Rapture, "Echoes" [2003; indie dance rock]
20. Interpol, "Turn on the Bright Lights" [2002; indie rock]

Nos. 21-25
21. Blur, "Think Tank" [2003; post Brit pop]
22. The Good, The Bad, and The Queen, "S/T" [2007; Brit soul]
23. Clinic, "Walking With Thee" [2002; post Brit pop]
24. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Fever to Tell" [2003; indie rock]
25. The Blood Brothers, "Crimes" [2004; thrash]

Best of the Rest:
Idlewild, "100 Broken Windows" [2000]
Fugazi, "The Argument" [2001]

Pulp, "We Love Life" [2001]

The Shins, "Oh Inverted World" [2001]

Coldplay, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" [2002]

The Hives, "Veni Vidi Vicious" [2002]

Queens of the Stone Age, "Songs for the Deaf" [2002]

Polyphonic Spree, "Beginning Stages of" [2002]

Postal Service, "Give Up" [2003]

Tv on the Radio, "Desperate Youths, Bloodthirsty Babes" [2004]

Futureheads, "S/t" [2004]

Air, "Talkie Walkie" [2004]

Franz Ferdinand, "S/t" [2004]

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, "S/t" [2005]

Wolf Parade, "Apologies to the Queen Mary" [2005]

Belle and Sebastian, "The Life Pursuit" [2006]

Lily Allen, "Alright, Still" [2006]

Spoon, "Ga ga ga ga ga" [2007]

Lil Wayne, "Tha Carter 3" [2008]

Jay-Z, "The Blueprint 3" [2009]

Locations of Top 25 Albums:

New York City / Brooklyn - 8

England - 8

Seattle, WA - 2

Portland, OR - 1

Austin, TX -1

Chicago - 1

Detroit - 1

Glendale, CA - 1

Montreal - 1

France - 1

Years of Top 25 Albums:

2000 - 2

2001- 8

2002 - 4

2003 - 4

2004 - 5

2007 - 2

Favorite tracks, in alphabetical order from other artists: Arctic Monkeys,"A Certain Romance,” Avalanches “Frontier Psychiatrist," Battles “Atlas," Beyonce "Single Ladies," Goldfrapp "Ooh La La," Groove Armada, "I See You Baby," Lady Gaga "Paparazzi," Killers "All These Things That I've Done," Missy Elliott "Work It," Of Montreal, "Bunny Aint No Kind of Rider," Thom Yorke "Black Swan," Ting Tings "Great DJ," The Vines "Get Free," Von Bondies "Cmon Cmon," Wilco “Handshake Drugs”

Best producer of decade – Kanye West

Best musician of the decade -- Damon Albarn (three appearances on my top 25!)

Best reunion of the decade - The Pixies

Worst reunion of the decade -- Weezer

Best technology of the decade - iPod

Best musical year of the decade - 2001

Best musical city of the decade - Brooklyn, NY (sorry Seattle)