Saturday, 9 January 2010

My top 50 albums of the 2000s

Best albums of the decade (limit one per unique artist within top 20)...

It was a tough call; I'll probably change my mind tomorrow.

Top 50:
! the national - boxer
! radiohead - kid a
! the strokes - is this it
! the xx - xx
! the knife - silent shout
! arcade fire - funeral
! animal collective - sung tongs
! andrew bird - the mysterious production of eggs
! mos def - black on both sides
! elliott smith - new moon
! explosions in the sky - the earth is not a cold dead place
! grizzly bear - yellow house
! portishead - third
! tv on the radio - return to cookie mountain
! broken social scene - broken social scene
! deerhunter - cryptograms
! caribou - andorra
! four tet - rounds
! lcd soundsystem - sound of silver
! beirut - gulag orkestar

madvillain - madvillainy
andrew bird's bowl of fire - the swimming hour
the dodos - visiter
modest mouse - the moon and antarctica
the mountain goats - tallahassee
M.I.A. - kala
bon iver - for emma, forever ago
jay-z - the black album
sufjan stevens - illinoise
elliott smith - figure 8
wilco - yankee hotel foxtrot
dan deacon - bromst
beck - sea change
no age - nouns
panda bear - person pitch
the roots - game theory
grouper - dragging a dead deer up a hill
of montreal - hissing fauna, are you the destroyer
yeasayer - all hour cymbals
broken social scene - you forgot it in people
radiohead - in rainbows
animal collective - MPP / Fall Be Kind EP
the strokes - room on fire
sigur ros - takk
okkervil river - down the river of golden dreams
the national - alligator
cat power - you are free
bjork - vespertine
gang gang dance - st. dympna
skream - skream!
burial - untrue

! = top 20

See also Stereogum's list.

Friday, 8 January 2010

Best albums of 2009

Top 20:
the xx - xx (saw live)
animal collective - mpp + fall be kind ep
dirty projectors - bitte orca
atlas sound - logos
yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz
circulatory system - signal morning
dan deacon - bromst (saw in concert)
grizzly bear - veckatimest (saw last summer)
dark was the night (compilation)
high places - high places
mos def - the ecstatic
mf doom as doom - born like this
neon indian - psychic chasms
fever ray - fever ray
wavves - wavves
st vincent - actor
handsome furs - face control
bat for lashes - two suns
the antlers - hospice
sun O))) - monoliths & dimensions

Notable releases:
andrew bird - noble beast / useless creatures
sparklehorse and danger mouse - dark night of the soul (collab)
yacht - see mystery lights
nomo - invisible cities (saw live)
matt & kim - grand
miike snow - miike snow
wild beasts - two dancers
big pink - brief history of love
bonnie 'prince' billy
real estate - real estate
jj - jj2
generationals - con law
the pains of being pure at heart - [self-titled] (saw last summer)

Let-downs: wilco - wilco (the album), the dodos - time to die

I liked Tiny Mix Tapes' list.