Alex's decade list

The 25 albums I most consistently reach for (click at, in these crazy modern times?) no matter how many times I've heard them. Everything on here I would happily play at any time regardless of mood. All album name links go to a good example via YouTube of why the album's worth listening to. All recaps kept to tweet length because I could go on and on about all of these. For the visually inclined, my favorites from the YouTube videos follow the entries.


25. Handsome Boy Modeling School: White People - An insane collection of talent used to great effect. Even makes me enjoy Jack Johnson and John Oates. The De La, Casual & Del tracks shine.

24. Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele - Ghost makes up for several years of Clan oversaturation with the Wu banger LP of the decade.

23. Soulive: Doin' Something - Snappy jazz funk elevated by hip-hop feels, like Tribe Called Quest tribute "Shaheed." Fred Wesley shows what horns should sound like.

22. Morphine: The Night - Sad and beautiful, a poignant posthumous note for the band to end on.

21. Zero 7: Simple Things - As lush and chill as albums come. Mellow late-night perfection.

20. Loveage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By - Innuendo at its max, A+ beats and fantastic vox. Shoves trip-hop somewhere sultry, sexy, sleazy, dirty, creepy. In a fun way.

19. Air: Virgin Suicides soundtrack - At times sinister, at times touchingly sweet. Air showing their versatility on an incredible soundtrack.

18. The Sword: Age of Winters - Riff after riff after riff... all sick.

17. Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet: Requiem for a Dream soundtrack - The story replicated musically. An amazing score. Harrowing yet enjoyable.

16. Quasimoto: The Further Adventures of Lord Quas - High-pitched raps and odd ball production from Madlib that somehow works. Has a blaxploitation movie soundtrack vibe.

15. Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030 - Tomorrow's raps today. Another brilliant Automator concept album and Del's finest showcase. The future is dope.

14. Madvillain: Madvillainy - Two geniuses at the top of their game. One of many hip-hop classics from Madlib, MF DOOM and Stones Throw in the aughts.

13. Ween: White Pepper - Their last great album with 12 slick, diverse songs, from the sludge of "The Grobe" to the lovey morning of "Stay Forever."

12. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Robots - Handily reversed my opinion of the Lips. A strong mixture of silliness and earnestness.

11. System of a Down: Toxicity - Responsible for more car rocking than any album ever. I put in much time mastering "Chop Suey!" harmonies in the pre-Beatles Rock Band era.

10. Gorillaz - Gorillaz: Trip-hop evolved. Top notch song writing and production. More Automator magic plus Albarn excellence.

9. MF DOOM: Mm..food - Elite wordplay focused on food and tremendous, innovative beats. Sample-based skits that impress.

8. Tortoise with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: The Bold and the Brave - Best cover album ever. Their "Thunder Road" is my track of the decade. Amazing reimaginings of songs by Elton John, R. Thompson, DEVO, etc.

7. Tool: Lateralus - Proving "math rock" needn't be a slur. Fibonacci FTW

6. Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein - A masterpiece. El-P in top production form and two great storytellers turning in the best indie hip-hop LP in a decade chock full of them.

5. Radiohead: Kid A - Obviously I'm not alone on loving this album.

4. Mastodon: Leviathan - Lives up to its Moby Dick whale of a theme, thrashing you sea beast style. Killer riffs and unhinged drumming in a cohesive package.

3. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat - Incredible. Soulful songs bolstered by beautiful harmonies. I still can't stop listening.

2. Mr. Lif: I Phantom - BLif's flow in top form. Great storytelling with a variety of producers turning in one dope track after another. An all time hip-hop fav.

1. Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R - Deceptively complex rock that surprises me after a decade of steady listening. Even the 9-min psychedelic closer is enthralling. The best.

Quick Rec, from PGJ

It's that time of year -- when I dive into the previous year's "Best Music Writing" anthology and turn up some classics, including David Ramsey's "I Will Forever Remain Faithful," originally printed in the Oxford American. In it, Ramsey recounts his year teaching in post-Katrina New Orleans, where Lil Wayne was the common language between the out-of-towner-college-boy-teacher and his Weezy-loving students:

"For some of my students, the questions Where are you from? and Do you listen to Lil Wayne? were close to interchangeable. Their shared currency—as much as neighborhoods or food or slang or trauma—was the stoned musings of Weezy F. Baby.

The answer was, sometimes, yes, I did listen to Lil Wayne. Despite his ubiquitous success, my students were shocked.

“Do you have the mix tapes?” asked Michael, a sixteen-year-old ninth grader. “It’s all about the mix tapes.”

The following day, he had a stack of CDs for me. Version this, volume that, or no label at all.

And that’s just about all I listened to for the rest of the year."

You can read it here.

And for a little memory of a 17-year old Lil Wayne, here's Weezy back in 1999 (at 3:28) rhymin "Drop It Like It's Hot" 5 years before Snoop:

My Decade (Abridged)

1. I think it's fascinating that we still talk in terms of albums... such '90s kids, all of us. Whether it's in exercises like this or just in my general thought process, I've spent the decade trying to figure out how iPods, file-sharing and MySpace impacted music and my love for it. Music is as good (or has the capacity to be) as it's ever been before, but I hate the way we get it. The delivery mechanism for receiving music has forever changed and the value of an "album" is entirely different than its was 15 years ago. There's no going back... and, really, I feel badly for the 13-year old who will never know the genuine pleasure of buying an album.

2. As I mentioned and Mark (Cummins) better articulated, my age has impacted me. I think I understand, better than ever before, why my parents (or anyone their age) could never have loved Radiohead as much as me. So much of the magic of pop music is wrapped up in youth and its emotions.

3. As I mentioned and Mark (Cichra) better articulated, Kings of Leon?? Really? That's where we landed???

25. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place/Explosions in the Sky

24. The Meadowlands/The Wrens

23. Logos/Atlas Sound

22. White Blood Cells/The White Stripes

21. Late Registration/Kanye West

20. Sound of Silver/LCD Soundsystem

19. In Rainbows/Radiohead

18. You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene

17. The Moon & Antarctica/Modest Mouse

16. Up The Bracket/The Libertines

15. Thunder, Lightning, Strike/The Go! Team

14. Amnesiac/Radiohead

13. Grab That Gun/The Organ

12. Agaetis Byrjun/Sigur Ros

11. Funeral/The Arcade Fire

10. Stephen Malkmus/Stephen Malkmus

9. Microcastle/Deerhunter

8. Is This It? (UK Version)/The Strokes

7. The Black Album/Jay-Z

6. Apologies to the Queen Mary/Wolf Parade

5. Turn on the Bright Lights/Interpol

4. Takk/Sigur Ros

3. Silent Alarm/Bloc Party

2. The Grey Album/Danger Mouse + Jay-Z

1. Kid A/Radiohead

13 Songs I loved from the Albums Above...
Motion Picture Soundtrack/Kid A

Neighborhood #1/Funeral

Your Hand in Mind/The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
All My Friends/Sound of Silver
Someone Great/Sound of Silver
Hoppipolla/Takk

My 1st Song/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Public Service Announcement/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Walkabout/Logos

Church on White/Stephen Malkmus

House of Cards/In Rainbows

Pioneers/Silent Alarm

Time for Heroes/Up the Bracket

13 Songs I loved from other sources...

The Present/Bloc Party

Roc Boys/Jay-Z

Winters Love/Animal Collective

Paparazzi/Lady Gaga

Hate to Say I Told You So/The Hives

Oil in the Fields/Paul Duncan

C'mon, C'mon/The Von Bondies

What You Know/T.I.

Make It Rain (Remix)/Fat Joe featuring R Kelly & Lil' Wayne

Stadiums and Shrines II/Sunset Rubdown

Staring at the Sun/TV on the Radio

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)/Beyonce

Romeo/Basement Jaxx

Re-release of the Decade...
Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe/Pavement

Hip-hopera of the Decade...

Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-22)/R Kelly

Best Year of Music...

2001

Year I was Most Interested in Music...

2004

Best Year of Pop Music...

2008 (I am... Sasha Fierce/Beyonce, The Fame/Lady Gaga)

10 Films I loved this Decade...
Requiem for a Dream

The Barbarian Invasions

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I Heart Huckabees
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Inglourious Basterds

Mulholland Drive

Knocked Up

Book of the Decade...
Everything Is Illuminated/Jonathan Safran Foer

Best TV Drama...
The Wire

Best Character on The Wire...
Marlo Stanfield

Best TV Comedy...
Arrested Development

Best Character on Arrested Development...
Franklin

Best TV Reality Series...
Jersey Shore

Best Cameo on Entourage...
Matt Damon

Favorite Sports Moments...
1. Tiger's chip-in at 2005 Masters
2. Vince Carter's dunk on Frederic Weis (G.O.A.T.)
3. Tiger winning the 2008 US Open on a broken leg and torn ACL

Least Favorite Sports Moments...
1. John Terry's Missed Penalty in 2008 Champions League Final
2. Andres Iniesta's Injury-Time Goal in 2009 Champions League Semi-Final
3. The New York Mets (continuous)

Mark's 2009 Paulies List

Hi everyone. I'm Mark; buddy of PGJ since college, Paulies contributor
from the beginning.

First, my metal band Denial Machine released its self-titled debut
album this year. Search for it in the usual places (Amazon, iTunes,
LaLa) or check it out at our myspace
(http://www.myspace.com/denialmachine) or our website
(http://www.denialmachine.net).

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

****************************

First, numbers 25-11 in no particular order:

IDLEWILD - The Remote Part

JOANNA NEWSOM - Ys

RADIOHEAD - Kid A

I think of it as an album closing the last decade, not an album of
this decade, in that it features the culmination of several 90's
influences more than it influenced the next ten years of music. But
it's great and it came out this decade and it needs to be on the list.

BLOC PARTY - A Weekend in the City

GOD FORBID - The Constitution of Treason

The album that re-introduced me to the current state of American metal.

RILO KILEY - More Adventurous

INTERPOL - Turn on the Bright Lights

Remember how much we loved this album? Damn.

THE KILLERS - Hot Fuss

COHEED AND CAMBRIA - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

COLDPLAY - A Rush of Blood to the Head

ALL SHALL PERISH - The Price of Existence

I play this album for people to show them one kind of metal's
extremes. The technical brutality of this band is unbelievable.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Fever to Tell

MODEST MOUSE - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

SYSTEM OF A DOWN - Toxicity

Nu-metal's only worthwhile product.

ISIS - Panopticon

Along with fellow post-metallers Neurosis, Isis defined a genre. Er, subgenre.

10.) MUSE - Absolution

9.) UNEARTH - In the Eyes of Fire

8.) TRIVIUM - Ascendancy

Credibility issues aside, Trivium synthesized the best of metal's
history into a perfect album.

7.) AUGUST BURNS RED - Thrill Seeker

Mathcore's unpredictability made majestic and musical. Breathtaking.

6.) JOANNA NEWSOM - The Milk-Eyed Mender

Have to disagree with Niki on this one. Not since Neutral Milk Hotel
have we heard such a skilled blend of absurdity and earnestness. Only
if she were kidding would she be embarassing.

5.) JIMMY EAT WORLD - Bleed American

The pinnacle of emo, just after it hit the mainstream and just before
it became too much. A sweaty, satisfying, heartfelt album.

4.) THE STROKES - Room on Fire

For me, it was this album and not Is This It that showed the Strokes
in perfect indie-pop form.

3.) THE WRENS - Meadowlands

A statement of failure so true and deep it becomes beautiful and
hopeful in its effectiveness.

2.) COHEED AND CAMBRIA - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume I:
From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

"Welcome Home" left a small crater in the earth the first time I heard it.

1.) BLOC PARTY - Silent Alarm

The quintessential album of this decade. Indie guitar rock, dance
beats, hints of electronica. The honesty only a British accent can
deliver. Members of various ethnicities, including ethnicities besides
black and white (for a while, until Tiger Woods blew things recently,
multiethnicity was the new black). "Banquet" still sounds like an
pole-dancing steamroller on ecstasy.

A List of Bands I Loved that Blew It
********************************

Hot Hot Heat

Death Cab for Cutie

The Strokes (First impressions of my asshole)

Interpol

Rilo Kiley (indie sexy =/ sexy, Jenny Lewis)

Rapture

Daft Punk

Franz Ferdinand
Idlewild

Discoveries of This Year
*************************

For a few days this year, I thought that all the music I listen to for
the rest of my life should sound like Jesu's Opiate Sun EP. Lush,
full, melodic post-rock pop.

NORTH - What You Were: more post metal. The album I listened to most this year.

Listen to Howlin' Wolf's recording of "Smokestack Lightnin'" and hear
the 60 years of rock history which followed it put to shame.
Everything else becomes embarrassing after hearing the purity of this
proto-rock masterpiece.

General Observations
*********************

I like Paul's idea of having someone smarter than us document the
development of indie rock. But its development in this decade is far
more bizarre than we've considered since it culminated in KINGS OF
LEON. Really? KINGS OF FUCKING LEON? As I write this, they've just won
a GRAMMY for Record of the Year?!? Of all the early to mid 2000's
bands, could anyone have predicted that Kings of Leon would be the
grand outcome of the mainstreaming of indie rock?

BTW, ask Paul to tell his story about how he bitched out the son of
one of the members of Guided by Voices for praising Kings of Leon.

Music Consumption
**********************
In this decade, iTunes surpassed WalMart as the number one music
retailer. But have a look at this graph for a more sobering assessment
of the success of digital music:
http://musformation.com/assets_c/2009/08/musicforweb2-thumb-280x770-2482.gif
I'm not sure what this means. Are people just stealing a lot more
music? Or is it being consumed in more disposable, ephemeral ways
(LaLa streams, MySpace pages)? Again, someone smarter than me could
bring some perspective to this.

***********************
Happy to have been a part of the Paulies for the whole decade. Talking
about music helps us listen to it better; each year I look forward to
the insights shared by the people who participate in this list to help
me find new music and better enjoy the music I listen to already.

Combination Pizza Hut

...and Taco Bell. What an amazing artifact of 2009 -- put it in the time capsule straight away. This is what the naughties sounded like:

-PGJ

decade list! - kate miles

I know it's down to the wire, but after four drafts, I finally put down the pens and highlighters and felt at peace with who stayed and who went in my decade list. When it was all over, I realized that the decade was a great one for the ladies. Whether it be folk (Gillian Welch), shake-your-booty music (Beyonce), indie (Feist), rock n roll (Heartless Bastards), many dissimilar genres were, from 2000-2009, represented by multiple dominating females, something I don't think happened quite so forcefully in the 90s where you might say ladies were either Riot Grrl Bikini Kill/Sleater Kinney types or the gals who wore floral jumpers and had soft-focus music videos (Sophie B. Hawkins).

And speaking of Sleater Kinney, The Woods was the first no-brainer for my decade list, and like Niki Pop, I was also lucky enough to catch them on tour for it in 2005. I know fellas who love SK who don't like The Woods, and so I agree that gentlemen are afraid of how they [brilliantly] take rock n' roll and turn into, as Nicki said, a "creepy deep female thing." (I believe the aggressiveness of Janet's drumming make boys run for the hills.) Now that Sleater Kinney are done, I'm glad that bands like The Organ and The Gossip are doing a fabulous job of filling that "angry gal music" void that some of us crave though "angry gal" is a label that does a disservice to the quality of the music, it's more - as Christian from Project Runway would say - fierce.

And so here is my decade list, organized by year:

[2000]
'Kid A' - Radiohead
'Puzzle' - Tahiti 80
It's been ten years since I first heard Tahiti 80's "Heartbeat" and yet it still is the thing I go to in my iPod when I need something hopeful and lovey-dovey. 'Puzzle' is filled with happy gems that put you in a good mood without any corniness or sugary fakeitude. I think 'How to Disappear Completely' and 'The National Anthem' being on the same album made 'Kid A' the winner of the obligatory 'which Radiohead?!" battle.

[2001]
'Time (The Revelator)' - Gillian Welch
'When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up' - Snow Patrol
It has to be said that before Snow Patrol became the go-to band for crappy television dramas, they actually made three really good albums. "Olive Grove Facing the Sea" is not a song everyone will like, but I think it's the best arranged indie-ballad of the decade, more memorable than any of Death Cab's slower numbers, which is saying something!

[2002]
'Kill the Moonlight' - Spoon
'A Rush of Blood to the Head' - Coldplay
'Lost in Space' - Aimee Mann
'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' - Wilco

[2003]
'Elephant' - White Stripes
'Meadowlands' - The Wrens
'Chutes Too Narrow' - The Shins
'Give Up' - The Postal Service
'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' - Outkast
Unfortunately I think that when we're in our 50s the oldies radio station is going to be playing "New Slang" from 'Oh, Inverted World' even though the songs from 'Chutes Too Narrow' are more interesting.

[2004]
'7 Swans' - Sufjan Stevens
'Grey Album' - Jay-Z/Danger Mouse
'Antics' - Interpol
'Funeral' - Arcade Fire

[2005]
'Fisherman's Woman' - Emiliani Torrini
'Confessions on a Dance Floor' - Madonna
'The Woods' - Sleater Kinney
'Strange Geometry' - The Clientele
I don't think any of us can deny being freakin floored when "Hung Up" came out; 'Confessions' is certainly when Madonna is at her most godmother-to-Lady-Gaga best. 'Fisherman's Woman' came out before Regina Spektor was all over the radio and Torrini definitely just sounds 1000x better, more mature, etc (at least to me).

[2006]
'The Letting Go' - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
'The Life Pursuit' - Belle & Sebastian
Trying to decide which Will Oldham to highlight for the decade is kind of insane, but I went for it to highlight how gorgeous the whole pairing with Dawn McCarthy thing is.

[2007]
'The Reminder' - Feist
'Night Falls Over Kortedala' - Jens Lekman
Of all the awesomeness put forth by Jens in the 00's, this album is the one that can be listened to from start-to-finish with the most ease; his albums are all expensive booze and this one is the smoothest.

[2008]
's/t' - Fleet Foxes
'Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust' - Sigur Ros
Sigur Ros gets major high fives for making music that you can listen to at the gym, or when you have a swing in your step.

[2009]
'Vecktamist' - Grizzly Bear
Not sure how to approach including 2009 in the decade list, so I went with Grizzly Bear because perpetually annoying Paul with Grizzly Bear praise is fun, plus the album is freakin amazing.

I used the thingamabob at the top of the post to include some of the stuff from my list, and some of the stuff from the decade that I liked that isn't on my list.

A Decade of Regrets, by Niki Pop

Going through my listening history of the past 10 years is a useful exercise in more ways than one. Not only did the process yield a list of nineteen best albums. But I also discovered a whole trove of stuff that I loved very much once, and now, can no longer listen to. It's embarassing; it hurts my ears; it isn't very good; it's hokey and cute in a way that dates it; all of the above.

True, this isn't really part of the Paulies. But I wanted to share these gems with y'all. What did you used to love that now makes you cringe? How have your tastes evolved in the past 10 years?

In no particular order:

(1) Babyshambles, and anything else involving Pete Doherty. There was a point in my life when I imagined myself very obsessed with Pete Doherty. He was cute, kind of, in a vulnerable I'm-in-a-band sort of way. And the music sounded enough like rock to get me through the day. But five years later, I can confidently say: This guy is a schmuck! What's more, he can't sing, and his lyrics are just plain dumb, and the music overwrought and uninspired. Fail, Niki. Fail.

(2) CoCoRosie. The song "Ohio" is very good, but that's because someone else wrote it. Everything else is them playing with toys in their bathtub while high on ketamine. The concept is better than the execution. Ah, kitsch doesn't age well.

(3) Princess Superstar. I needed some electronic music, and loved the idea of a hard-rocking female MC, which is probably why I suffered her 2005 album, "My Machine" for at least a year before I gave up. Today she has the same cutesy/edgy quality that makes Vice magazine abhorrent.

An example from "The Classroom:"

My, um, um, ancient speaking report
Is on my great-to-the-50th-power grandmother whose name was Superstar
I am the descendant of a duplicant
A cycophant from a cloning plant*Pause* (no telepathing, Coke Is It!)
Right, uh, the year of her was 2080
Understandably illusive since we don't count time anymore maybe
It's a bit hazy, but Superstar was crazy
An entertainer back when there was entertainment, pleasure for payment
So that everybody would stop their complainin'
She was very very bad, and I don't mean bad meaning good
I'll explain how bad Superstar was if I could

(4) Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Sorry, Ted. This guy will disapper. I kept putting songs like "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" on mixes for people, but when they came onto the mix I'd skip them and feel guilty.

(5) Scout Niblett. Another one where I loved the idea of her so much I probably forgave the fact that she was kind of awful. A tiny British girl who plays the drums (only) and very cutely howls along about death in a reedy little girl voice. Everyone I knew tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen. Internet research reveals that Jens Lekman covered "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death," which I guess might give her some legitimacy to some, but artiness aside - aaaargh! Thoughts?





(6) Death Cab for Cutie/Transatlanticism (2003)
I've probably heard this album 1,000 times, if not more. Today it makes me want to kill myself. Not only is it maudlin and overwrought, but it’s bleak. That it’s so well-crafted musically makes it all the more dangerous. I can't keep it down for this:
The glove compartment is inaccurately named and everybody knows it, so I’m proposing a swift orderly change:
‘cuz behind its door there’s nothing to keep my fingers warm, and all I find are souvenirs from better times.

(7) Joanna Newsom. See my earlier post re: our generation will never be forgiven for Joanna Newsom. Quirk, novelty, and technical talent shouldn't be viable substitutes for listenability. Right? I mean, it is cool that she can play the harp and everything, but how long can you stay in the room when "The Milk-Eyed Mender" (2004) is playing? Don't lie.

Mike D's Best of the Decade

Sorry this is so late. Here are the albums I enjoyed most in 2009:

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Mason Jennings - Blood of Man
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
Tegan & Sara - Sainthood
Metric - Fantasies
Passion Pit - Manners
Regina Spektor - Far
Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
The Swell Season - Strict Joy

I also started listening to the Tiny Desk Concert series from NPR's
"All Songs Considered," and quite a few of those are worth a listen.

Best of the decade:

The Magnetic Fields - Distortion (2007)
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (2006)
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season (2006)
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me (2004)
Stellastarr - Stellastarr (2003)
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2003)
Andrew Bird - Weather Systems (2003)
Tegan And Sara - If It Was You (2002)
The Postal Service - Give Up (2002)
Cory Branan - The Hell You Say (2002)
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack (2001)
The Strokes - Is This It? (2000)

Pazz and Jop, 2009

It's a special treat each year when the Village Voice releases its list of the best records and songs of the year, namely the annual Pazz & Jop Critics Poll. It's been around 26 years longer than the Paulies, and in many ways its our stylistic forebearer.

And according to America's pop music critics, here are the top ten records and songs from 2009:

1 Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavilion
2 Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
3 Neko Case, Middle Cyclone
4 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz!
5 Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
6 Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest
7 The xx, xx
8 Raekwon, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx...Part II
9 The Flaming Lips, Embryonic
10 Girls, Album

Songs:
1 Jay-Z (ft. Alicia Keys), "Empire State of Mind"
2 Phoenix, "1901"
3 Animal Collective, "My Girls"
4 Grizzly Bear, "Two Weeks"
5 Dirty Projectors, "Stillness Is the Move"
6 Yeah Yeah Yeahs, "Zero"
7 Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"
8 Girls, "Lust for Life"
9 Phoenix, "Lisztomania"
10 Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"

But much more than these lists, it was one accompanying article in the Voice that really struck a chord with me, "The Year of Too Much Consensus":

http://www.villagevoice.com/2010-01-19/music/the-year-of-too-much-consensus/

In it, the 50-year old music critic Chuck Eddy ruminates on the state of critical consensus, in particular, the Pitchfork-ification of America's music critics. I implore you to read the whole article, but his closing paragraph is pretty killer (and telling of these Pitchfork-ian times):

"For the record, no Springsteen voters also voted for the xx or Girls, and only one voted for Animal Collective. Theoretically mainstream old-guard pros like Bill Holdship of Detroit's Metro Times and Geoffrey Himes of the Nashville Scene both saw only two of their Top 10 albums place in the P&J Top 40; St. Louis stalwart Steve Pick, choosing esoterica like Dave Alvin and the Bottle Rockets and Ian Hunter, got shut out entirely. Back in 1980 in these pages, Robert Christgau divided the Pazz & Jop electorate into "the avant-gardists versus the traditionalists, the radicals versus the conservatives"—you know, Beefheart guys vs. Bruce guys. Me, I like strangeness and skronk, but I also like boogie and beer; still, my basic instincts have always been with the vanguard. But when it's mainly the old farts who seem to have minds of their own, I start to wonder."

-PGJ

Thomas' Best of Decade List

I think its notable that this decade was when albums that were listened to the whole CD through devolved into the track that you might listen to the whole way through without skipping ahead.  So an album that stood up in this decade was no small feat.  Very simply, these got skipped the least, played the most, and had something new and interesting or exemplary to offer.

The National-Boxer - quiet, solid, reassuring, homely. (2007)

Animal Collective-Merriweather... - I had a hard time committing to this choice but for newness and, er, joy? it's granted a spot. (2009)
 
Air-10000Hz Legend - for some refreshing and out there moods this is the unsung hero. (2001)

Sunset Rubdown-Shut up I am Dreaming - brilliant snippets, a lot of brilliant snippets. (2006)

LCD Soundsystem-Sound of Silver - another contender for future sound of the decade, but also fun. (2007)

!!!-Myth Takes - maybe an alternate for LCD, but damned if i didn't nearly burn through the part of the hard drive where this was stored. (2006)

Gorillaz-Demon Days - If you don't know why this is great then you're probably not reading this list. (2005)

The Shins-Chutes Too Narrow - currently in the deeply unlistenable zone, but the future retro "sound" of the decade, i think, maybe. (2003)

Burial-Untrue - say what you will, this was new and sent chills whoever you were. (2007)

Radiohead-Kid A - Yeah I liked it too. (2000)

Alex's favorite tracks of the decade

This list is my way over-the-top solution to a simple problem. I couldn't narrow down the final spots on my top 25 albums of the decade. So I came up with my favorite 25 tracks of the decade, excluding those from bands already on my top 25 albums list.

What we have here is basically a list of my top 26-50 albums, with a few standout tracks (i.e., Frontier Psychiatrist) thrown in.

Note: Every album cover image links to a version of the song, either: a.) the official music video; b.) a moderate quality live performance; or c.) an audio track.

These are hazily ranked from first to worst.