The 100 Best Records of the Decade

1.) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001 and 2002)

2009-12-31T15:40:00.000-08:00

Well, the journey ends here and in a pretty predictable manner, unfortunately.

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has been such a constant in my life since its release that, truthfully, this was one of the easiest decisions I've ever had to make. I've defended the record to detractors, listened with like-minded friends, pored over every single nuance for years and years - I have lived with this record as such an essential part of my fabric that I don't even know that I can be objective about it anymore.

I adore every fractured moment of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and though its mythology is far reaching and descriptive of its inaccessibility, I happen to think its way, way overstated. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is, at its core, a pretty damn fine pop record. "Heavy Metal Drummer", "I'm the Man That Loves You", "Reservations" - come on! These are not difficult songs to digest. Never were. That's the thing though, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is certainly a different side of Wilco, but the press would have had you believe the record they were making was unlistenable. Instead, it was just an alt country band making a pop record.

But enough about what the record sounds like. Much like Kid A before it, you already know. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was for me and for many others the unofficial soundtrack to our post 9/11 world. This would sound like a bad thing, but it wasn't. YHF was the record I was listening to that kind of helped deal with the whole thing. Music being the savior as it tends to be. The record was released after 9/11, but was completed before and in fact the band were streaming it on their website for free that September. Having said that songs like "Ashes of American Flags" and "Jesus Etc" weren't devised to mean what they would come to, if that makes sense.

9/11, as terrible as it still is to talk about, is still the event that will define this decade for America, especially for those of us who are from and were in New York while it happened. Wilco - an American band if ever there was one had this record - this record already steeped in controversy, that would come to sound like that sad time. I can see the rubbled streets of downtown in the spareness of "Jesus Etc" but there was also hope in Tweedy's voice in "Heavy Metal Drummer", you know? It sounded like we did when we rallied around each other and decided to move on. To never forget, but to celebrate the people and places damaged by the horror. That's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to me. Sad, weird and at times cryptic, but ultimately hopeful and downright pleasant. That a record can achieve each of those emotional touchstones makes it great, that it still sounds amazing all these years later makes it indelible. A one of a kind record from one of the great bands of this generation. And easily my favorite record of the decade.

Thanks for reading, I'm back over at PatDSez next week.

2.) Radiohead - Kid A (2000)

2009-12-31T09:26:00.000-08:00

Oh my god! It's not number one! I can't believe it.

Okay, moving on - Kid A is a million things if its one, but most importantly it's art. It's a masterpiece. It's stirring and it's gorgeous and its scope is huge, it's both cold and amazingly soulful sometimes within the same moment. It was a new beginning sonically and the last of its kind in terms of how most people heard it. It's everything you've heard it was and more. Everything that has needed to be said about Kid A has been said and all the lauds are true. It is brilliant. But you don't need to hear this from me. If you're following this list you're infinitely aware of how good Kid A is. Of how important Kid A is in the scheme of rock music. So, I'm gonna shut up and just talk about fond memories I have of a record that is surely one of the best ever.

Kid A was released in 2000. I was a junior in college. I lived in Martyr's Court with six other dudes. I was really excited for Kid A. I mean really excited. People were still listening to music via CD then. Kid A was kind of the end of that era, actually. Some of us dinosaurs keep on keeping on, but most people have stopped caring about having the media. About holding it in their hands. It's just rubbish to them.

The release of Kid A was an exciting thing for me and for some of my friends who had heard so much about it and had spent so much time already loving Radiohead that we couldn't wait. I went and bought Kid A the day it came out. I went by myself. I loved record shopping by myself. Listening to music, for me, has always been an intensely personal experience. I bought Kid A at the big Tower records on 68th and Broadway. I only bought Kid A. It was tunnel vision. I didn't even browse. I walked in. I grabbed it. I paid for it and I left. I brought a discman with me to the store. I popped Kid A in and I walked around the city. I had no destination, I just knew I wanted to spend my day walking around and hearing this record. I listened three times and then one more on the train and then I don't know how many times after it.

I was never going to not like Kid A. I didn't have it in me. It was too important, too big and ultimately too good. As much as I love the record is also how much I loved that time in music. When you had to go and get something you wanted to hear. When it wasn't so easy. In a way, it makes me sad that kids won't have that connection to music, but I'm old maybe they'll have new connections that will be just as good. Hopefully they'll get records like Kid A to connect with because then, they're still lucky.

3.) The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001)

2009-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

It's virtually impossible to think that before 2001 and the release of the White Stripes third record, White Blood Cells, most of the world had not yet heard of Jack White. Now, he's perhaps the most ubiquitous man in rock 'n roll this side of Dave Grohl but back then he was just a scrawny blues man from Detroit who liked to tell people his ex-wife was his sister. However, after hearing this monumental record, it was pretty clear to see this was a band who had the potential to go far.

White Blood Cells announced this band was a force. Just two people, but the sound they created was enveloping. The record is so wonderfully schizophrenic - like a rock 'n roll road map taking the listener on a journey from crunchy guitar riffs ("Now Mary") to stripped down non-songs ("Little Room") to acoustic nursery rhymes ("We're Gonna Be Friends") to straight punk rock ("I Think I Smell a Rat") to country stomp ("Hotel Yorba") to deliriously hokey references (the Citizen Kane breakdown in the middle of "The Union Forever"). All of these styles may make it seem like White Blood Cells is an unfocused mess, but quite the contrary - what the White Stripes do so well is take all these different styles, connect them and create something that feels analogous to them.

When you think about it, early on the White Stripes had a lot of gimmicks - the brother/sister myth, the red and white color color scheme. hell even the video for "Fell in Love With a Girl". Anything to get noticed, I guess and you can't really fault them for it. The probably needed these gimmicks on the outside because their music had none. No frills. No bullshit. No bass. Just two people intimately connected making personal, real music.

White Blood Cells is a record that has aged wonderfully. The White Stripes have made great records since and have only gotten more famous and popular (two different things, trust me) along the way. But there was something else present when White Blood Cells was dropped in our laps. Something effortless. Great songs, you know? Too often we, and certainly I, get bogged down in how good or bad a record is based on its scope or ambition or bells and whistles. It takes a record like White Blood Cells to remind you, nine years after its release, that it's the songs that are gonna make a record a timeless classic or a flash in the pan. White Blood Cells is a stone cold classic. Great songs. Really great songs. 16 of them to be exact. White Blood Cells is a record that will be shared forever, like Exile on Main Street or Rubber Soul. Yeah, it's that good.

Honorable Mention

2009-12-30T15:11:00.000-08:00

Before the Top 3, I wanted to give an idea of the scope of this whole thing. I whittled my favorite records of the decade down to 100, but there were a whole lot more in the running. I like all of the following records very much and they were, initially, all in contention. I cut them down in "rounds" until I got down to 100. The ones "cut after round five" were the closest to getting on the list, but each of these records have merit. They're all good.

Out After Round 1

We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes - Death Cab
Veni Vidi Vicious - The Hives
All Hand on the Bad One - Sleater Kinney
Fold Your Hands Child... - Belle and Sebastian
De Stijl - The White Stripes
The Hour of Bewilderbeast - Badly Drawn Boy
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - s/t
Girls Can Tell - Spoon
From Here to Infirmary - Alkaline Trio
Green Album - Weezer
Amnesiac - Radiohead
Yeah Yeah Yeahs EP - Yeah Yeah Yeah
Essence - Lucinda WIlliams
Miss E...So Addictive - Missy Elliot
John Vanderslice - Time Travel is Lonely
The Ghost of Fashion - Clem Snide
When I Was Cruel - Elvis Costello and the Imposters
Castaways and Cutouts - The Decemberists
Yoshimi - The Flaming Lips
Lifted - Bright Eyes
Songs For the Deaf - QOTSA
Sleepless - Peter Wolf
American IV The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash
Phrenology - The Roots
Source Tags and Codes - Trail of Dead
The Fix - Scarface
Reinventing Axl Rose - Against Me!
Failer - Kathleen Edwards
Get Rich or Die Tryin' - 50
More Parts Per Million - The Thermals
Think Tank - Blur
Good Mourning - Alkaline Trio
Hail to the Thief - Radiohead
Welcome Interstate Managers - Fountains of Wayne
Dangerously in Love - Beyone
Youth and Young Manhood - Kings of Leon
Gallowsbird's Bark - Fiery Furnaces
Room on Fire - The Strokes
Under Construction - Missy Elliot
Boy in da Corner - Dizee Rascal
America's Sweetheart - Courtney Love
Franz Ferdinand - s/t
Pretty Toney - Ghostface
A Grand Don't Come For Free - The Streets
Long Gone Before Daylight - The Cardigans
Uh Huh Her - PJ Harvey
Louden Up Now - !!!
Sonic Nurse - Sonic Youth
Keep Your Wig On - Fastball
Hot Fuss- The Killers
Bubblegum - Mark Lannegan
Soviet Kitsch - Regina Spektor
Rubber Factory - The Black Keys
Figure 8 - Elliot Smith
Aha Shake Heartbreak - Kings of Leon
...Is A Real Boy - Say Anything
Black Mountain - s/t
Coild Roses - Ryan Adams
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Get Behind Me Satan - White Stripes
Tender Buttons - Broadcast
Broken Social Scene - s/t
Back To Me - Kathleen Edwards
Tanglewood Numbers - Silver Jews
First Impressions of Earth - The Strokes
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - s/t
The Life Pursuit - Belle
Ringleader of the Tormentors - Moz
Rather Ripped- Sonic Youth
Alight, Still - Lily Allen
The Trials of Van Occupanther - Midlake
Yellow House - Grizzly Bear
Blood mountain - Mastadon
FutureSex/LoveSounds - Justin Timberlake
Sam's Town - The Killers
The Black Parade - MCR
Gulag Orkestar - Beirut
Let's Get Out of this Country - Camera Obscura
Friend and Foe - Menomena
The Besnard Lakes are the Dark Horse - The Besnard Lakes
Armchair Apocrypha - Andrew Bird
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank - Modest Mouse
Favourite Worst Nightmare - Arctic Monkeys
Spiderman of the Rings - Dan Deacon
+ - Justice
Icky Thump - The White Stripes
The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter
Random Spirit Lover - Sunset Rubdown
We Belong to the Staggering Evening - The Ike Reilly Assassination
In Our Bedroom After the War - Stars
Someone to Drive You Home - The Long Blondes
Night Falls Over Kortadela - Jens Lekman
Jarvis - Jarvis Cocker
Devotion-Beach House
Lookout Mtn, Lookout Sea - Silver Jews
Feed The Animals - Girl Talk
Made in the Dark - Hot Chip
In Ghost Colours-Cut Copy
Torche - Meanderthal
Times New Viking - Rip It Off
Ra Ra Riot - The Rhumb Line
Department of Eagles - In Ear Park
Sun Kil Moon - April
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Marnie Stern - This is It and I Am It and You Are It and So Is That and He Is It and She Is It and It Is It and That is That
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
REM - Accelerate
The Dodos - Visiter
M83 - Saturdays = Youth
The Walkmen - You and Me
Blitzen Traper - Furr
The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
Drive By Truckers - Brighter Than Creations Dark
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
TV on The Radio - Dear Science
It's Blitz - YYYs
Bromst - Dan Deacon
Fortress 'Round My Heart - Ida Maria
Romanian Names - John Vanderslice
A Hundred Things Keep Me Up at Night - Love is All
Wavering Radient - Isis
Cymabls Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
The Ecstatic - Mos Def

Out After Round 2

Return of Saturn - No Doubt
Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World
Home - The Dixie Chicks
Dear Catastrophe Waitress - Belle and SEbastian
World Without Tears - Lucinda Williams
The Execution of All Things - Rilo Kiley
Boy in da Corner - Dizee Rascal
Almost Killed Me - the Hold Steady
Set Yourself on Fire - Stars
American Gangster - Jay-Z
Phoenix- Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Farm - Dinosaur Jr.
The Eternal - Sonic Youth
Two Suns - Bat For Lashes
Oh you're So Silent, Jens - Jens Lekman

Out After Round 3
Transatlanticism - Death Cab
Breakaway - Kelly Clarkson
Mastadon - Crack the Skye
No Age - Nouns
Art Brut- Bang Bang Rock 'n Roll
Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone - The Walkmen
Arular - MIA
Smile - Brian Wilson

Out After Round 4

Morrissey - Years of Refusal
Drive By Truckers - Decoration Day
Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride
Will Oldham and Matt Sweeney - Superwolf
Silent Shout - The Knife
St. Vincent - Marry Me
Antony and the Johnstons - I am a bird now
Oh! Inverted World - The Shins
Rated R - Queens of the Stone Age
Girl Talk - Night Ripper
And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out - Yo La Tengo

Out After Round 5

Los Campesinos! - Hold on Now Youngster
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Daft Punk - Discovery
One Beat - Sleater Kinney
Taylor Swift - Fearless

4.) The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday (2005)

2009-12-30T14:48:00.000-08:00

This is a conversation that happened just two weeks ago between myself and two of my friends, Jess and Billy, regarding The Hold Steady.

Jess: Pat, what's that band you and Sarah like that I don't really like that much?

Pat: The Hold Steady.

Jess: Yeah, the Hold Steady. I don't love them. You really do though.

Billy: Yeah, but Pat likes The Hold Steady pretty much more than anybody.

-end scene.

This is true. Thank you, Bill.

As if there were ever a cat in the bag. I adore the Hold Steady. Over this decade The Hold Steady have skyrocketed toward the top of my list of favorite bands. They make me happier than any band and no band puts on a better live show than THS. It's hard for me to write about Separation Sunday because it has become such an integral part of my existence since its release. I can't really put my love for it into words. I've listened to it a million times, poured over every second, mapped out exactly how I would write it as a movie.

This is the opening scene.

Int. Church. Day

A PRIEST is giving his homily in a huge packed church. The congregates are enraptured. The door of the church quietly opens and a young woman, HOLLY, quietly enters. She is disheveled as if she has been out for days and hasn't slept. She's "limping left on broken heels" and walks slowly down the center of the church. No one pays her any mind until.

HOLLY:
(screaming)
FATHER!!!!!!

Everyone stops and looks at this woman. She looks around. Pleased. Smirking

HOLLY
(CONT'D)
Can I tell your congregation how
a resurrection really feels?

Cut to black as the opening riff of "Stevie Nix" blares.

I think about this record all the damn time. It's so good. It's nostalgic without being trite. It's pure rock 'n roll and it never gets old. As a matter of fact I'm going to stop writing about it so I can listen to it instead. Bye now.

5.) OutKast - Stankonia (2000)

2009-12-30T14:24:00.000-08:00

The two very distinct personalities in OutKast where what made them great. For me, Andre 3000 and Big Boi's split is one of the most disappointing occurrences in music this decade. They just don't sound right alone, you know? It's why I hate Speakerboxxx/The Love Below. In each of those records there is something indelible missing and every single time, it's the other guy.

Having said that, Andre and Big Boi were never better than in the year 2000 when they released the decade's best hip hop record - Stankonia. There was not a weirder record released this decade that would be as big a hit as Stankonia. It almost became a hit in spite of itself. It's fucking avant garde. I mean when was the last time a song as a chaotic (and chaotically brilliant) as "B.O.B" charted? It's a crazy ass freak show of a song that starts at a breakneck pace and never lets up. You can listen to "B.O.B." a thousand times and still hear something new.

Alas, Stankonia isn't only "B.O.B" and thank goodness because there are about a million other wonderful things about this record. That OutKast never had to sacrifice one ounce of weirdness or shed any of their quirks to become superstars is a marvel and Stankonia is Kast at their idiosyncratic best. Stankonia was released at the beginning of the decade and seemed to be the sound of the future. The sound of this new millennium. No stone unturned and no idea suppressed for popular success. It's all the opening "Intro" - one of the few times an intro on a hip hop record actually sets the tone for what's about to happen - "Live from the center of the earth...Welcome to Stankonia, the place from which all funky things come...Would you like to come?" Yes, Big Boi, yes I would. And what follows is insanity. Pure and simple. Chaos.

Take "Ms. Jackson" probably the most popular song on Stankonia and coincidentally still a much better single than the hokeier than hokey "Hey Ya". "Ms. Jackson" follows no clear path. It takes you down a number of roads. First, there's the horror movie-like sample, then there are the video game bleeps, that deep bass, the staccato scratching, the weirdly timed piano, and of course, the perfect melding of the talents of Big Boi and Dre. And it's still catchy. And it's like the fifth best song on the record (behind "B.O.B", "So Fresh and So Clean", "Red Velvet" and "Gasoline Dreams")

The fact that Stankonia works, what with their being so many conflicting ideas to be found all over the damn place, is a testament to the genius (yep, I'm saying it here and I mean it - genius) of Dre and Big Boi. It seems as though these two butted heads during the making of Stankonia - too many ideas, I guess. It's a true shame. Here's to hoping they can figure it out again, because it would be really nice to get another OutKast record as brilliant as Stankonia in this next decade.

6.) The Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)

2009-12-30T13:51:00.000-08:00

What the Strokes were to the early portion of this decade, Arcade Fire were to the its middle period. Translation - the biggest indie rock band around.
Funeral is a record. This we know. But, culturally Funeral became so much more. Funeral marked the moment that the much hyped blogosphere proved it could actually rally around one specific thing and create a phenomenon. It helped, however that the record in question was as good as Funeral.

A whole lot of people heard of Funeral before they heard Funeral. To say there was hype is putting it pretty mildly. There was hype. Tons of it. But, Funeral managed to do what so many other records have failed to do (I'm looking at you Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) - not only deliver on the hype but actually make the hype seem subtle. The record is so sweeping, so grand, so inspired, so ambitious, so wonderfully earnest and sincere. It's just a great piece of art.

The first time I listened to Funeral I was reminded of Neutral Milk Hotel's fantastic In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. I'm sure I'm not the first person to compare the records and I certainly won't be the last, but the orchestral sweep of the them and the storytelling prowess of both Win Butler and Jeff Mangum make them kindred spirits in the best way possible. This is not to say Funeral is anything but a wholly original work (much like Aeroplane) it is, but the records are linked in my mind and in a very good way.

Back when I worked at NBC there was a show about to premiere called The Black Donnellys and I was able to see a rough cut of the pilot before the show was aired. It was a mob show and the climax of the pilot was a shootout that was scored by Funeral's "Rebellion (Lies)". The show was pretty by the numbers, but that last five minutes was a thing of beauty and I remember thinking "this show will be a huge hit because people will never forget that sequence". Ultimately, Arcade Fire would not license the song for the show and when the pilot finally aired it was replaced by a Snow Patrol song. The show was canceled after a few episodes. I still contend that had they been able to use the Arcade Fire song, that show would have been the next Sopranos and probably still on television. Arcade Fire do that. They're unforgettable. They make things better. Their music makes you feel. I mean did anybody see that Where the Wild Things Are trailer and not tear up? I still can't hear "Wake Up" without getting chills. This is a band that will mean something to everyone who hears them and Funeral is nothing short of a perfect record.

7.) Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica (2000)

2009-12-29T13:28:00.000-08:00

If you ever run into someone who has heard the lead track, "3rd Planet", on Modest Mouse's epic The Moon & Antarctica and doesn't like it, please run away. This person is not to be trusted.

For my money, Modest Mouse should be mentioned in the same breath as bands like Nirvana, Pavement... hell even REM. To me they're that good. One of the great indie rock bands that has ever existed and continues to exist. I also tend to think that The Moon and Antarctica is the band's finest moment. I'm as big a Lonesome Crowded West guy as the next person, but in my opinion TM&A bests it. Not by much, but gun to my head...

Isaac Brock is one of indie rock's ballsiest guys - or at least it seems that way. Few indie frontmen are aggressive as Brock. It's as if he's reaching through the speaker, grabbing you by the neck and shaking the shit out of you. It's a very punk rock delivery in a lot of ways and a far cry from the usual twee and shy man children that tend to front indie bands. He can be a bit scary, but it's the very visceral reaction Modest Mouse go for that makes them so appealing to me.

The Moon & Antarctica is not a pop record (and the irony that this is the same bands who would later pen one of the most "uplifting" pop songs of the aughts is not lost on me), not by a long shot. It's frayed rock ' n roll from the perspective of a man, seemingly, on the verge of madness. That his madness feels anything but staged makes Modest Mouse just feel real. Unlike someone like Marilyn Manson (such an old example, I've just dated myself) whose anger feels manufactured by focus groups and the slabbing on of tons of make-up. Brock announces, right off the bat, "[that] it took a lot of work to be the ass I am and I'm pretty damn sure that anyone can equally, easily fuck you over." Now, whether or not this is a persona is a moot point because of how committed Brock is to it through the whole record.

There are a lot of great songs on The Moon & Antarctica, but the one that I think sums the record up the best is "Wild Pack of Family Dogs" a one minute forty five second ditty which, on the surface, is the most pleasant track on the record - a sing along if you will about these titular dogs eating his little sister and his mother "crying bloodlust now", but ultimately ends with the dogs dying. So, full circle you know? It's the most compelling minute and forty five seconds in rock 'n roll this decade and the record as a whole is certainly one of the most compelling, not just of the decade, but in the history of indie rock.

8.) The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

2009-12-29T12:47:00.000-08:00

It's difficult to try and explain the insanity that surrounded the Strokes just before they hit to people who weren't around for it. They were the only band anyone wanted to talk about. They were going to be the biggest band in the world. They were going to save rock 'n roll and, for a minute, they were and they did.

That the Strokes didn't necessarily make good on the promise that was made for them by a music media that loves to build a band up just to knock it down, is not their fault. As a matter of fact, the Strokes' two subsequent records following this, their outstanding debut, are actually way better than they were given credit for. But all that's moot because Is This It is still a glorious, alive and dirty rock 'n roll record. One of the best of its kind, actually. Is it derivative? At times, but so was Let It Bleed and, for that matter, Let It Be. In order for rock 'n roll to break new ground it needs to be unlistenable (see major Strokes influence Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music) and nobody wants that.

It's way too easy to hate on The Strokes - manufactured and rich and purposefully disheveled - yep. Living off trust funds. Mmm hmm. Posers. I guess so. But you know what, no band embodies the early 2000's NYC scene better than the Strokes. All of the, as Craig Finn of the Hold Steady puts it, "sniviling little indie kids", who try to pretend they're boho Brooklyn Animal Collective types, are actually just like the Strokes. These are the people that criticize the band - posers themselves. Which is ironic. I think.

But, as per usual, I digress. Is This It is an undeniably perfect rock ' n roll record. Completely of its time and yet unquestionably timeless. It's dirty with a sheen making it okay for the indie set but palatable for the rest of America. That a song like "Last Night" wasn't the biggest hit in the history of rock 'n roll America just proves that regardless of how "big" we can perceive a band to be, America still doesn't love rock 'n roll they way it should. Is This It is filled top to bottom with absolutely perfect songs. The title track being perhaps the best of all, but don't forget Julian's beautifully detached rasp on "Soma" or the fantastic organized chaos at the end of "Take it or Leave It" and the dip-out of "Hard to Explain". These are all indelible moments in rock 'n roll at this point. They've now taken up space in my head reserved for things as familiar as my ABCs for god's sake and, tell me if I'm wrong, but if that's not the sign of something utterly brilliant then fuck me, I guess I don't know shit.

9.) Joanna Newsom -Ys (2006)

2009-12-28T15:24:00.000-08:00

Joanna Newsom is THE most singular artist on this list. There is no one else like her - proudly weird and virtually indescribable, Newsom is the type of artist who if you love, you really, really love. That's a small number of people, I'd imagine as Newsom's ambition and her quirks have proven irksome to some people.

I love Newsom and Ys is a triumphant record in every sense of that word - triumphant. It's as grand a record as has been released this decade in scope and in execution. Ys is also a record that I've been accused of not actually liking. People who hate us "music snobs" are quick to point to an artist like Newsom who they'll say critics and snobs only pretend to like because it's "cool" to do so. That's fucking stupid. Am I saying people don't do that? No, some probably do, but I can promise you I love Ys. I love it a lot.

One point of contention is sometimes Newsom's voice. Some have called it childlike, but fuck that, I happen to love it. There's a Carol Channing aspect to it that is actually quite appealing to me. Another thing I love about Newsom is the fact that she sets out to make records. Those tend to be my favorite records of all. It goes for Okkervil River as well - you can tell that each and every thing they do on record is absolutely necessary. Ys was without a doubt conceived as a record. There's a clear, albeit askew, vision on Ys that most records don't have. I appreciate that. In this iTunes age, it's refreshing when an artist is ballsy enough to write a five song suite that takes sixty minutes to unfold.

And then there's the music. To put it quite simply, Ys is beautiful. It's meticulously orchestrated (conducted by the legendary Van Dyke Parks) and as far as the lyrics, Ys plays out like a kind of fucked up Disney musical. Nothing is as it should be on Ys and that's what makes it so great. Every eccentricity adds to the mythology of Ys and to try and compare it to any other record is a fool's errand as it is wholly its own and its a wonderful, wonderful thing.

10.) Okkervil River - The Stage Names/The Stand Ins (2007,2008)

2009-12-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

I know, I know I am absolutely cheating here, but I can't help it. Since The Stand Ins was released I have a difficult time separating these records. They feel like one record to me. Or at the very least a continuation of an idea. So, I'm including them together because asking me to pick one is cruel.

The Stage Names was released in August of 2007 and it became the only thing I listened to through the fall. It was that kind of record for me. Other things would be purchased and listened to once or twice but ultimately I wanted to be listening to The Stage Names. The Stage Names is a record, like most of my favorites, unfolds. It's not a one and done thing.

I buy records... like, the actual media. I'll download stuff from time to time, but for the most part I want to go to a store, buy something, bring it home and actually spend time with it. Sometimes it feels silly like "get on with it, pal no one buys CDs anymore". But then sometimes it all makes sense to me.

I can remember bringing The Stage Names home, putting it in the CD player, putting on my headphones, holding the lyric sheet and just being mesmerized by the whole thing. Like I was kid. I wanted to follow along. These stories were compelling. I cared about these character (plus it made it a lot easier to spot the references in "Plus Ones"). That's what makes music special for me. I take it seriously. It captivates me in a way that nothing else does. When I love a record, I want that record to become a part of everything I do. I'm inspired by these records that I've been writing about. The Stage Names/The Stand Ins are inspiring. They're equal parts sad and funny and poignant and pretentious and illuminating. They're a rush of emotions.

These are two records that I couldn't shake. They were just so perfect and complimented each other effortlessly. It's easy to think of The Stand Ins as a sequel, but to me "sequel" can be a dirty word. Rather, The Stand Ins is a wonderful companion piece. The equally talented younger brother. And like, The Stage Names it's brilliant both from a writing perspective and from a simple pop music perspective. They're sequenced to perfection and they're accessible without sacrificing and ounce of intelligence. With The Stage Names/The Stand Ins Okkervil River have made two of the best American rock 'n roll records and I'm surprised by the lack of love for them during this list making season.

11.) The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema (2005)

2009-12-26T10:12:00.000-08:00

In the interest of time and trying to get this list done when I said I would get it done by (still a long shot) I'm keeping this one short. The New Pornographers released four records as a group this decade. They all appear on the list. This one's their third. It's my favorite. It has "The Bleeding Heart Show" which is a perfect song. You probably know that already. If you look at the other TNPs entries, they probably say everything that needs saying about this band and how much I love them. Easily one of the Top 5 most indelible bands of the 2000s. I love them. You love them. Everybody loves them. On to the Top 10.

12.) The Libertines - Up the Bracket (2002)

2009-12-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

(NOTE: I'm not re-telling the Pete Doherty story. You already know it)

Man, the motherfucking Libertines. Live fast, die young and leave a good looking corpse, huh? Shit. The Libertines have exactly one essential record. This is it. The first one. Up the Bracket. A blast of punk rock that rivals the best Clash records. In a lot of ways Up the Bracket was lightning in a bottle. The Libs were a band too unhinged to survive and in a way it's probably better they went away as quickly as they did. If they couldn't keep it together for a second record, what would a third have sounded like, or a fourth? Rumors of a reunion are always floating about, but I don't want it. The Libs were too perfect to exist forever.

The Libs were the real deal. Too fucked up to not write a perfect record, but ultimately too-oooooo fucked up to do it twice. In fact, the best moments on the record find Pete Doherty and Carl Barat slurry and legitimately fucked up in the recording. It's great. The Libertines make the Arctic Monkeys look like pussies - skinny jeans wearing posers. The Libs captured all their fury and youthful abandon and with the help of the Clash's Mick Jones behind the boards managed to create the greatest punk rock record of the decade.

If you haven't heard Up the Bracket then I suggest you do. Immediately. If you have then you know all this- the Libertines sound like spit and piss and punching and the gutter and nightclubs and dancing and broken bottles and disrespect for authority but respect for the night and drugs and cigarettes and booze and slurry speech and sex and living in the moment and disregard for consequences because what are consequences? In short, it sounds like youth. Pure and simple. But it's not immature - it was too off the cuff to be so. Up the Bracket is the kind of record that you fall head over heels for - it's a look into a world you wish you could see, but probably don't really want to be a part of (unless you do, which is fine to- I want to, well, I did).

Get Up the Bracket if you don't have it and do me a favor and play it fucking loud!

In their words -"I've been following up on my mind's instructions on how to slowly, sharply, screw myself to death."

13.) Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005)

2009-12-26T09:44:00.000-08:00

I tend to hesitate before applying the genius tag to anyone. As a term it gets thrown around way too much ("that new Miley Cyrus song is genius!" - no, it's not. It's catchy. Its hardly genius). I'm not even convinced that it applies to Sufjan Stevens, but back in 2005, for a moment, it did.

Illinois (or: Come on Feel the Illinoise) is as wonderful as it is ambitious. The second in a proposed (and since reneged) series of records on each of the fifty states, Illinois left few stones unturned and is triumphant in its bravado. Make no mistake, Illinois is a big record with big songs, big arrangements, numerous guests and heady themes. It's truly an epic and it works on every level. There's a reason it was universally lauded by critics and liked by everyone who heard it. Was there ever a moment wherein you witnessed someone hear "Chicago" for the first time and immediately not ask about it? It's that kind of song - universal, yet intelligent. The best of both worlds.

Listening to Illinois as a whole statement is an important thing to do as it works best that way. Sure, there are individual tracks that stand on their own, but without those instrumental pieces, you kind of miss the scope of the whole thing. Illinois is like a musical, but a really, really good one, you know?

Sufjan Stevens, for all of the sweeping ambition of Illinois, is one helluva songwriter. Take "John Wayne Gacy Jr." one of the record's quietest moments but also one of it's most effective. It's a powerfully intimate song that finds Stevens retelling the horrible story of the child murdering clown in a succinct and literate way all the while facing the grim facts head on. It's an eerily beautiful song and as unsavory as the topic is, it's handled with grace.

This is Illinois - a detailed, nuanced record with all the bells and whistles. That the bells and whistles don't distract and come off effortless is part of the record's, hell i'll say it- genius. For me personally, some of Stevens' other work has been hit or miss, but Illinois is a total hit. It's an easy record to like and a fantastic record to study. It's equal parts pretty and puzzling and never, ever boring.

14.) Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous (2004)

2009-12-23T11:50:00.000-08:00

Was there a bigger indie rock crush this decade than Jenny Lewis? Karen O, maybe, but she was always a bit scary. Jenny was the girl next door. The girl you felt like maybe you could get. Of course she was way out of our league, but she made you feel like, well maybe.

And if that were all there was to Jenny and her magnificent LA pop band Rilo Kiley, then it would all be so superficial and kind of sexist in a way. The whole "I like this band because I want to date the lead singer" thing is pretty stupid really. It may be memorable, but it's not indelible. The fact that Rilo Kiley's records were so good is what really made Jenny Lewis the star she is today.

None of Rilo Kiley's records, however, could compare with More Adventurous - one of the truly great pop records of the decade. I think Rilo Kiley get overlooked when these list things come out because of how smitten we all were by Jenny Lewis. Her beauty and charm have probably worked against her when it came to the whole indie cred thing, but the people doing that are missing the point. More Adventurous is a terrific record that boasts some of the best songs of the decade and, from Jenny Lewis, some of the best vocals as well.

More Adventurous lives and dies by that voice. The voice that soars to such great heights (no pun intended) on "I Never", one of the great blue-eyed soul recordings of this or any decade, is the real star of the show. Jenny works it out on a number of tracks here, most notably on the ferocious single "Portions For Foxes". I love that song and I love how vulnerable Jenny seems on it. It's probably the most rock 'n roll song on the record, but it's also the saddest. It's the story of this woman so in need of something to feel that she makes bad decisions. Ultimately, it's triumphant in that Jenny, or the character she's singing about, decides to trump everything, go with her gut and accept and own the choices she makes. It's still so tinged with pathos however that you find yourself wondering what it all means. It's a study in contradiction.

A lot of shit is thrown at Jenny regarding her songwriting, but I think it's fine and on a song like "Portions" or later on the title track it's downright great. It's brave and personal and you can really feel it. I respect that. And though it may have stopped being "cool" to like Rilo Kiley, I really don't care. I wear my admiration for them proudly and think More Adventurous is a pantheon record of this decade and surely one with a great deal of replay value and to me, that counts for a lot.

15.) Jay-Z - The Blueprint (2001)

2009-12-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

It's impossible to discuss Jay-Z's triumphant The Blueprint without acknowledging the fact that it was released on September 11th. That an artist so tied to New York would release such a landmark album on what would go down as the worst day in our cities history isn't necessarily ironic, but it's certainly something. Having said that, The Blueprint is such a great record that I'd imagine it gave a lot of people comfort during that tough time and because of that, it came out at exactly the right time.

The Blueprint is Jay-Z's best record. I know, I know Reasonable Doubt. I get it. Great album. I prefer The Blueprint. Let's start wih Kanye (and Just Blaze). The Blueprint put Kanye on the map and pulled hip hop production out of the tunnel visioned beat making of the 90s and into the sample-heavy 2000s. I always prefer samples over hip hop tracks to Timbaland-type beats. I like the "spot the sample" game. It's fun and it also makes the music warmer, less synthetic.

Jay is probably the most important artist of the decade. He's made great records and done great things. He's been in the spotlight and has only eclipsed career high after career high. 2001's The Blueprint was a great start. Let's talk about the songs, shall we. Is there a better diss track than "Takeover"? Hell, no, and Jay's math that reduces Nas' ratio of 1 good record per decade is hilarious and, hate to say it, one hundred percent true. "Blueprint (Momma Loves Me)" is another highlight, personal and vulnerable with the ability to strike an emotional chord that most rappers can't begin to understand. Then there's Jay anointing himself hip-hop's messiah on "Izzo" and he began his Sinatra name-checking ("I did it my way") on "Hola Hovito". Blueprint certainly found Jay very confident and incredibly boastful ("If you haven't heard I'm Michael,Magic and Bird all rolled into one") but tell me he didn't back it up? And no matter how cocky Jay got, never forget that the first thing he does on The Blueprint is thank all of the people who bought the record. A nice touch.

The Blueprint marked the torch of East Coast hip hop was posthumously passed from BIG to Hov and this is the one thing I think actually humbled Jay. In "Hola Hovito" Jay says "and if I ain't better than BIG, I'm the closest one". Boastful for sure, but with an overt respect and admiration for the man that ruled the scene prior. I don't think Jay ever assumed he was better than BIG, but he knew, as evidenced in the line, there was no one else even close and truthfully, there still isn't.

Plus there's no fucking skits on it, so that's a million points right there.

16.) PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (2000)

2009-12-22T14:47:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you about college - it's really fun. If you can, you should totally go to one and might I recommend one with an actual campus. Those are super rad. Why even bring this up? Well a number of the records on this list came out while I was in college, but this record, Stories Form the City, Stories From the Sea from one Miss Polly Jean Harvey, is the record that I most associate with college. That's just a personal thing, but it's tough for me to write about this record without mentioning that it scored a particularly great period in my life, much like the Walkmen record a few posts earlier. Is this to suggest that perhaps I overrate these records as a result of them being of a wonderful time and place for me? I don't think so, but say what you will. I mention it only the interest of full disclosure.

When Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea was released a mere three weeks after Radiohead's game changing Kid A, I was two months into my junior year and things were great. 9/11 hadn't happened yet, Y2K never came about and I still had two full years of fucking around ahead of me. I remember Stories From the City so well because I rated it my favorite record of the year in my college paper. Yep. Stories number 1, Kid A number 2 (I think number 5 was Brittney Spears' debut, so take this with a rather large grain of salt). I was probably being a shit stirrer, but my argument at the time was Kid A is amazing, but every time out of the gate I would rather listen to Stories. It's a more pleasant and therefore better record. I know now there's more to it, but I still view it as, at the very least, a valid conversation point.

Anyway, I had been a PJ Harvey fan for a long time when Stories was released, so for me hearing it the first few times was just like hearing PJ Harvey - wonderful. But over time I'd notice something else... PJ Harvey sounds content on this record, shit she may even be happy. That's not to say she wasn't before - there was always some type of joyful abandon in many of her songs even if they weren't "happy" - but this was a different animal altogether. the record opens with what could be a classic rock riff for goodness sake and then the song it begins, "Big Exit", finds a revitalized Harvey cooing to a lover "I'm immortal when I'm with you". Of course the rest of the song is sort of Bonnie and Clyde (though she won't directly reference them until the second track, "Good Fortune") and from what I can gather she really, really "wants a pistol in [her] hand" but you know - we'll take it.

As the record unfolds, these are revealed to be some of Polly's greatest moments on record. "Good Fortune", "This Mess We're In" and "You Said Something" are all to this day in and out of my head on any given day. Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea is just a wonderful record with stellar moments that are forever etched in my brain. When she sings backup with herself on "A Place Called Home", the way the lyric "when we walked through Little Italy" rolls so interestingly off her tongue in "Good Fortune", the grimy seediness of "This Is Love", the way her voice and Thom Yorke's chase each other in "This Mess We're In" until they finally synch up for one glorious moment toward the end to sing the song's title (two of the generations greatest voices mind you), the way "You Said Something" ends just when you think she's going to tell us what was "so important". And these are just a few, there are dozens of these moments. That the record (literally a love letter to New York) would take on a whole new meaning post 9/11 just adds to its majesty. It's one that stays with you and one that I revisit all the time.

17.) Sun Kil Moon - Ghosts of the Great Highway (2004)

2009-12-22T13:54:00.000-08:00

A lot of records have a certain seasonal feel and I tend to enjoy records that feel like winter. Summer music is fun, but you don't pore over summer music the way you do winter music. Summer music is for dancing and playing at BBQs. Winter music is the kind of music that makes you feel warm when its cold, that you listen to by a fire (me nor anyone I know makes fires, but you get the point), that you spend time with. It's substantial music.

Mark Kozelek's first record as Sun Kil Moon, Ghosts of the Great Highway, is the perfect winter record. Just put it on and let it suck you in. It's a timeless record that feels downright vintage at times but without ever feeling old fashioned. It's the whole rip it up and start again mentality. It's folk music certainly (the Neil Young comparisons are warranted) but it's oftentimes sifted through shoegaze and psychedelia to create a style of music all its own.

The songs on Ghosts of the Great Highway are meticulously crafted and unhurried. Virtually all of them exceed the five minute mark, but the joy in the record is that none of these songs get boring. In fact, I find myself wishing they were longer. The centerpiece of this whole thing is the nearly fifteen minute epic "Duk Koo Kim", a song that manages to over the course of its running time surprise and inspire. It's the type of song wherein you'd expect a lull, but it never comes. It's a gorgeous song filled to the brim with different instruments and movements all building to what is one of the loveliest crescendos in rock music this decade.

Mark Kozelek has always been a great interpreter of music and with the Red House Painters (and later with Sun Kil Moon) he would do a great justice to a number of artists. On Ghosts of the Great Highway, Kozelek interestingly and with great success covers himself. The tracks "Salvador Sanchez" and "Pancho Villa" are two wildly different approaches to the same song. The former is awash in electric guitar squall while the former is a straight up acoustic number. Both songs are amazing and a testament to this artist's abilities not only as a songwriter, but as a master arranger.

Listening to Ghosts of the Great Highway is an absolute pleasure. It feels like America at its greatest - Open roads, dusty backyards, porch swings, seeing your own breath in the cold. I love these kinds of records because I love those small, intimate details and I love artists who can make you see them without specifically saying it.

Listening, as I did a lot last year, to the Fleet Foxes record only made me appreciate Ghosts of the Great Highway more. The Fleet Foxes record will not appear on this list, though I think its an admirable achievement and a record I like very much. It's pretty to listen to and the harmonies are impeccable, but it always just made me want to listen to Ghosts of the Great Highway. I just feel Ghosts more. It's in my heart in a way, as silly as that may sound. It's an impactful, gorgeous record that always struck me as very sincere and I think that's why I still listen to it and why I continue to love it more and more each passing year.

18.) The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows (2004)

2009-12-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

If I'm being honest (and I should always be honest, right?) Bows + Arrows could have literally just been "The Rat" ten times in a row (or even just once, just one song - release it as a record and...) and it would have made the list. Most bands never get to make a song like "The Rat". It just doesn't happen all that often. There will be bands that have records that land higher on this list who haven't made a single song as good as "The Rat". It's lightning in a bottle and thank you to The Walkmen for making it. It's a great song. Fierce and passionate and catchy. It made you feel like a kid if you weren't one and, hopefully, made you happy you still were one if you were.

Alright, that's "The Rat" portion of this write-up. Truth is, Bows + Arrows is more than just that one great song. It's ten. It's ten great songs coming together like a music Voltron and beating people up (listen, that was a really stupid analogy because I guess all the records on this list are that, you know? I have half a mind to just erase it all, but I won't - warts and all ya'll!)

Ok. Back to one. I really liked the Walkmen's first record, Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me is Gone, but I thought it meandered a bit. There were some great songs, but as a whole it lacked the impact that Bows + Arrows would have. Where Everyone sometimes stalled, Bows + Arrows fights back. It never lets up. And that's not to say it's a ten song rock 'n roll juggernaut - it's not - there are quiet moments as well, but these turn out to be some of the most focused and best songs on the record. "No Christmas While I'm Talking", aside from "The Rat", is my favorite Walkmen song of all time and it's also one of their most subdued. It's all atmosphere and a slurry Ham Leithauser vocal, but it's an important song on the record, sequenced right after "The Rat" as a sort of comedown track, but the type of comedown track that doesn't let you breath. I hang on every moment of that song. It's still thrilling. That's what makes Bows + Arrows work. It's a record.

Bows + Arrows also finds The Walkmen sounding quite confident in their abilities, not condescending or cocky, just confident. It's as if they know this is a big moment so why not just fucking attack it?

On a personal note, I was 23 when Bows + Arrows came out and I have such distinct and fond memories of that time in my life. It was definitely a transition point for me and without getting into it I was meeting new people and developing new friendships and one of my most important and lasting friendships was scored by this record - others as well, but whenever I hear Bows + Arrows I always think of one of my best friends, Sarah and to me that's what music is about. It's about helping you remember times, good and bad, and the best records stick with you for so long that they become so of a time and place and that's what Bows + Arrows does for me. So this is to NYC roof parties and cold nights waiting to get into SNL after-afters and to lots and lots of beers and lots and lots of fun with my pal, Sarah.

19.) The Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera (2001)

2009-12-22T08:35:00.000-08:00

The Drive-By Truckers' deservedly sterling reputation as a live band sometimes gets them underestimated as a "records" band. Whenever people talk about the Truckers, and I'm guilty of this as well, the phrase "Well, you should really see them live if you haven't" tends to get tacked onto the end of these conversations. And it's true, you should. They're amazing live. But you should also listen to the records. The records are, for the most part, fucking great. And none of them more so than their two disc opus, Southern Rock Opera.

Southern Rock Opera is a big ol ambitious project originally conceived by lead Trucker Patterson Hood as a screenplay. This isn't surprising considering the Truckers' knack for storytelling is top notch, but I'm glad it became a record instead. Basically, SRO studies Southern contradictions, politics, race and rock 'n roll and filters it all through the infamous Lynyrd Skynyrd story. It sounds like a heavy and difficult load, and it is, but the Truckers manage to pull it off with ease.

Whenever you label your rock record a rock opera there are certain expectations. Chief among them - this thing's gonna be pretentious. Southern Rock Opera, thankfully, isn't mired in such trappings. The story on the record is important, hell it's integral to ones enjoyment of it, but first and foremost Southern Rock Opera is rock 'n roll pure and simple. The Drive-By Truckers put on no airs and wear their love of Southern and Classic rock 'n roll on their t-shirts for the world to see. This is music that would sound at home on classic rock radio, but with a depth and a vision worthy of pitchfork level praise.

Southern Rock Opera sounds like it means something. And I don't mean that as if to say it's high and mighty or like it's talking down to you - it's not a U2 record after all - but it sounds important. This is, I would gather, because it meant something to these guys. They have pride in their Southern heritage, but it also gives them pause sometimes. It's a world of contradictions, just like anywhere else, and to understand such things is important in finding comfort. Southern Rock Opera swings for the fences thematically and it scores every time, but what makes it a home run is the music. A record like this, so personal and weighty, could have gotten bogged down in what it wanted to accomplish. That it still accomplishes its lofty goals while simultaneously being some of the best actual music the band has ever recorded makes it a triumph and a record deserving of a high placement on this or any list.

20.) Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)

2009-12-21T12:03:00.000-08:00

Nick Cave has been making music for a while now, technically since 1973. And in that time he's released some great records with his band The Birthday Party and even better ones as the leader of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. I'm talking about some top notch records, records you should hear - From Her to Eternity, Let Love In, The Boatman's Call just to name a few. What's remarkable about this band, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, probably the best and most enduring rock band this side of the E. Street Band is that even after all that time and all those great records, classic records, they wouldn't release their masterpiece until 2004. This is that record, well, those records. Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus.

Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus are two records masquerading as a "double album". They came in a set. You couldn't buy one without the other which thank goodness. If you haven't heard this record then, shit, I'm almost jealous. Abattoir/Lyre is the kind of record that I wish I could hear for the first time again.

I have a very long and fruitful musical relationship with Nick Cave and it all started by mistake. When I was 15 years old I was a member of Columbia House. Remember Columbia House? Get 8 albums for a penny and then buy 3 more at regular price and you get 2 more free or some scam like that? When you join Columbia House you have to check your favorite type of music. I was hip, you know, so I chose "alternative". Now the thing about Columbia House is every month they send you a booklet and in that booklet is your "selection of the month". Based on your taste in music, a record is selected that you should, in theory, like. Now, you are not beholden to the selection of the month, unless of course you don't send a postcard back to them saying you don't want it. Any former Columbia House member can tell you, more often than not we forgot to send the cards back and we would inevitably end up with the selection of the month. You could send it back and I usually did, but then one time I didn't.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads was one of my selections of the month and I didn't send it back. I knew of Nick Cave. I read SPIN after all and had already decided I was a huge PJ Harvey fan by the time Murder Ballads ended up in my mailbox (PJ lends guest vocal to the track "Henry Lee" on the record), so I kept it and I was stunned by it.

I ended up becoming a bit obsessed with Nick Cave - an obsession that continues to this day. When Abattoir/Lyre was released, Cave was nearing fifty and Blixa Bargeld, the Bad Seeds' guitar player for twenty years, had left the band leaving fans unsure of what Cave would come up with.

Cave, at his best, comes across as equal parts preacher and carnival barker (not that there's much of a difference) and a lot of that is all over this record. From the opening salvo of Abattoir's great "Get Ready For Love" all the way through to Lyre's last track "O Children" a full on chorus number with a gospel choir that manages to be, fuck it, inspirational without inducing an eye roll, it's all great.

But, I'm biased. I am a really big Cave fan, but truth is if you've never heard him and you asked me which record to check out, I wouldn't bat an eye. It's this one...well I guess these two, but still...

21.) Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell (2003)

2009-12-18T10:06:00.000-08:00

I'm not even going to try and start this entry without talking about Karen O. Over the decade Karen O has been, without question, the best frontperson in rock 'n roll. I'm not attempting to diminish Nick Zinner's and Brian Chase's roles, but sometimes a star just emerges and from the moment Fever to Tell opens with the exquisite "Rich", everyone listening knew who the star of Yeah Yeah Yeahs was.

Karen O is to this generation what Mick Jagger was to our parents -sexy, dangerous, slinking, powerful and with a coo as affecting as her growl. She may have seemed at first to be a little stand offish - what with the Brooklyn cred and all - but the moment you saw her perform it was a completely different ball game. Karen O has fun up there, man and she wants you to have fun too.

Karen O is everything Lady GaGa wishes she was. Lady GaGa, who I like mind you, is as manufactured and PR tested as any artist working. She's pushed that she's a musician first and performance artist second, but that's all bullshit. Her work is so rehearsed and even though she's not boring, it comes off cold and calculated. It's as if this whole being a musician thing is just a pretentious, and highly self-conscious, ruse. Karen O doesn't give a fuck. She too has been called both a musician and a performance artist, but it's quite clear the music is the inspiration for everything.

There is not one false moment in Fever to Tell, still Yeah Yeah Yeahs best record bell to bell (though this years It's Blitz is pretty fucking great). It's a rush. It was a shot right to the heart of the indie rock scene, which at the time was being dominated by backward thinking dudes. It's the kind of record that goes by in such a whirlwind that you're immediately drawn to listen again...and again...and again. It's the type of record that also just keeps getting better over time. As the punk spirit has been all but sucked out of indie rock, Fever to Tell's relevance just keeps increasing.

While Fever to Tell starts balls to the wall and remains that way until it's second to last track and it's that track that has defined the band and rightly so. "Maps" is a tremendous song. I think it's the best song of the decade. Number one...with a bullet. Beautifully crafted and with a fragile lead vocal that's both heartbreaking and uplifting all within one breath. It's captures the feel of early 2000's NYC better than perhaps any song from that era. Can't you see the hipster couple underdressed for the cold, a little more than slightly buzzed and outside a bar smoking a cigarette fighting and making up all within moments? That's "Maps" to me. That's Fever to Tell to me. It's a time I remember fondly and a record that I simply adore.

22.) Bjork - Vespertine (2001)

2009-12-15T07:30:00.000-08:00

Debut, Post, Homegenic and Vespertine.

Those four records represent one of the greatest back-to-back (to back-to back-not counting the remix record Telegram and the "Dancer in the Dark" soundtrack Selmasongs) creative statements by any artist this generation. Each one of them is different from the one before and each building (or sometimes re-building) on Bjork's legacy as one of the true geniuses of our era.

One could probably write dissertations on each one of the records listed above, but only Vespertine was released this decade, so here we are.

Vespertine, upon its release, was thought to be Bjork's weakest effort. Time, however has proven otherwise. Vespertine was, no doubt, Bjork's quietest and most reflective record. Vespertine is a an intimate record and Bjork's voice, which usually soars to great heights, is very restrained here, making it more contemplative and probably not as immediate as some of Bjork's earlier works.

It's not easy for an artist who works so closely with electronic beats to sound warm. This is the main reason I find myself unable to connect with bands like the Knife. I respect the music, hell I can even tell it's technically masterful, but the humanity is often drained from it. I prefer music that I can connect with. I like to feel as though I'm there with the artist. Bjork has always managed to do this and does it to a great degree on Vespertine despite being a record that relies heavily on the electronic.

Each Bjork record feels like a glimpse into her weird world. It's a world that can't exist yet does because you (or in this case I) can connect so closely with the artist. Vespertine began as a work Bjork was doing on her own - using laptop beats. The collaborators grew, but not by many, and this makes Vespertine a record very close to Bjork and it shows. Again, it's so intimate and listening to it with a good pair of headphones (which is how it should be heard) brings you that much closer to the artist.

Bjork is the sort of artist who is constantly surprising you to the point that it would be even more surprising should she do a record you expected. Does that make sense? Anyway, Vespertine is an easy record to connect with if you give it a chance. It's Bjork at her most naked in some ways, but also at her most comfortable. It's a wonderful and still to this day underrated record.

23.) The Antlers - Hospice (2009)

2009-12-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

I've previously talked about what a great year 2009 has been in music. It's one of the top years of the decade in terms of really great records being released. Having said that, no record had a bigger effect on me then The Antlers' incredible Hospice.

Released independently by the band in March, the record received so much attention that French Kiss records picked it up and re-released it in August. The story of Hospice is one similar to Bon Iver's For Emma... in that lead Antler Peter Silberman took a break from the world and created the record alone and broken. As a result, Hospice is a very personal work that follows Silberman as he deals with the death of someone close to him.

Now, I don't know what's true here and what's fiction and it's unclear who the person is who has succumbed to cancer (it appears to be a young girl), but it doesn't matter - the record is so moving, so raw to the point of shattering but ultimately so hopeful that you need nothing more than the time it takes to hear Hospice to be moved by it.

Hospice isn't always an easy listen. It's literally a chronicle of a man dealing with seeing someone he loves slowly die - not exactly Animal Collective-fun-party-times, but that's what makes it such a triumph. No punch is pulled and frankly the record is so much better for it. It's an emotional ride and Silberman ensures that you feel every moment of it.

Hospice is the type of record that changes people. That's a bold statement, for sure, but it's true. It's a perfectly realized piece of art with scads of memorable pieces. When Silberman's voice first hits the out of control heights it does on the chorus of "Sylvia" - that's the kind of shit you don't forget. Or when you listen to "Two" and you can see the hospital Silberman's singing about or when hope is finally found during "Wake" when our narrator finally find closure and decides not to suffer alone.

I probably overuse the term beautiful when I describe records. I hope, however that doesn't dilute my saying it here. Hospice is an absolutely beautiful record. It's beautiful in its agony and it's hope. It's beautiful in its execution and in its nuance. Its beautiful in its words and its scope. Everything about Hospice is right and harrowing and amazing. It's the best kind of record in that it makes you feel its every moment. It grabs you and once it's through it proves itself as unforgettable.

24.) St. Vincent - Actor (2009)

2009-12-13T14:38:00.000-08:00

I know the exact moment I fell in love with St. Vincent's Actor. Toward the end of the record's third track "The Neighbors" Annie Clark (St. Vincent her-damn-self) sings the line "tomorrow's some kind of stranger who I'm not supposed to see". It's an unassuming moment, but it's her voice right then that breaks my heart in the best way possible. It's so fragile but it's also tense. It's quite beautiful.

Actor has a slew of these moments, these tiny perfect pieces that slowly reveal themselves over time. Actor finds Clark confident following a pretty sturdy debut record. What I love about Annie Clark's records is the balls on them. There are moments when tracks devolve into (calculated) chaos, yet she holds it altogether with that voice and a knack for arrangement.

Of the four record released in 2009 that I've dubbed the holy quadrinity, (that'd be Merriweather, Veckatimest, Bitte Orca and Actor) I find Actor to be the most resilient, focused and ultimately the one I go back to most often. I think this puts me in the minority, but whatever it's not the first time. That's not to take anything away from those other records - they all appear on this list - but there's something so thrilling to me about Actor. I feel like more than any record released in '09, Actor continually surprises me.

I love that Clark can write a song like "Actor Out of Work" - an absolute single if ever there was one - while still managing to put together something as weirdly off-kilter (and sometimes downright spooky) as "The Bed". I love that those songs can exist on one record and you don't bat an eye. I love that she can title a song "Laughing With a Mouth Of Blood" and have a line like "I can't see the future, but I know it's got big plans for me" in said song. I love that Actor never goes where it's supposed to. I love that Annie Clark is one of the most forward thinking artists working today and I can't wait to hear everything she does from here on out.

25.) Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)

2009-12-13T14:03:00.000-08:00

There was an editorial in the latest issue of SPIN suggesting that perhaps Radiohead suck. It was a stupid article designed to do nothing more than stir up come controversy and boost, I would assume, lagging magazine sales. I didn't even read it. I found the whole idea stupid especially when you actually listen to Radiohead's music...it's all fucking great.

Remember when In Rainbows "came out" by way of digital download and the now infamous "pay what you want" format? Yep, you do. Everyone does. It was the last time people actually paid attention to a release date. It was the last time that people collectively woke up earlier than they normally would and listened to an entire record. It was like being a teenager again. Listening to music the way we still should, but never will again.

I will always thank Radiohead for that sense of community. That blast back to 1995 that I needed so badly from music at that point. I heard In Rainbows the way they wanted me to hear it and at the same time as a lot of other people whom I could then talk about how awesome it was with! Great times.

And it is awesome. In Rainbows is a masterpiece. I hesitate to talk about Radiohead going back to any sort of roots or anything like that because it's mostly not true. Radiohead, from their inception, have been a band in flux. They're never what they once were. That's why people love them. It's not necessarily surprising anymore to hear that a Radiohead record doesn't sound like the one before it - it's more or less expected, but it's how they evolve that makes them great.

Is In Rainbows sonically easier to digest than Kid A or Hail to the Thief? Yeah, probably. It's a bit catchy - there are easily spottable singles on it, but it's still a complete work. Radiohead are more than the defining band of this decade - they're actually the defining band of the post-Nirvana generation. That they're not resting on their laurels at this point is a testament to their burgeoning creativity and talent.

26.) Spoon - Kill the Moonlight (2002)

2009-12-11T13:14:00.000-08:00

When a band becomes one of your favorites, it's impossible to forget your first time. For me, Kill The Moonlight was my first Spoon and it marked the beginning of a truly fruitful musical relationship.

Everyone pretty much agrees that Kill the Moonlight is a pretty flawless record. I mean, right? Does anyone object to this. As the relatively minimalist opener "Small Stakes" gives way to what could be the best Spoon single eva - the genius pop sing along "The Way We Get By", the Spoon listening universe must have all turned to one another and said "yes please".

Kill the Moonlight was a watershed record for me in that, as I said earlier, it started me on this band Spoon who would become a band I would follow absolutely anywhere. I say right here and right now, I will purchase every single Spoon record until there stops being Spoon records and ten or fifteen years from now when these records get reissued, I'll probably buy them.

There was something about Kill the Moonlight that made me dive all in almost immediately. The starkness of the record was shocking. Again, Spoon are minimalist almost to a fault. They're doing a whole lot on these songs but it doesn't feel like they're doing very much at all. Take "Paper Tiger", there's the piano, the shudder, the light precussion, probably a guitar and Britt. But, it's a beautiful song. I hadn't heard pop music that sounded like this. At least none that I could remember. I was entranced by Kill the Moonlight - it's so effortlessly likable, but it probably shouldn't be. It's an art-rock record, but Spoon had the brains to construct these songs so that their pretentions fall away and are virtually unnoticeable.

27.) Dixie Chicks - Taking the Long Way (2006)

2009-12-11T07:47:00.000-08:00

Who would have thought at the tail end of the last decade that the Dixie Chicks would go on to become on the most controversial bands in the country? Probably no one, however if all they had going for them was controversy they wouldn't find themselves on this list. That they rode that wave of controversy and challenged themselves to be a better band makes them a story.

Prior to the whole "George Bush fiasco", the Dixie Chicks were a serviceable country group. In fact, their pre "George Bush fiasco" record Home was the best thing they had done up to that point. It was a really good record. Almost great. It wasn't what fans were expecting, but it was certainly something they could understand and digest. It's a nice record and, it just so happens, a record I liked a lot.

I was a Dixie Chicks fan before any of the hoopla. I had dutifully bought their records since Wide Open Spaces (I'm a sucker for good country singers and Natalie Maines is one of the absolute fucking best) and I saw them become something fantastically unfamiliar with Home. They became an honest to goodness no frills country group. I mean home was a bluegrass record for fucks sake. But then Natalie Maines told a crowd in England that she, like so many of us, was embarrassed of the ass we put into office and the Dixie Chicks became something no one would have imagined.

Natalie Maines and the Dixie Chicks deserve a ton of praise for not backing down from their stance...for not apologizing for feeling the same way as more than half of the country and they should be further lauded for recording a song as incendiary as Taking the Long Way's lead single "Not Ready to Make Nice" - for me the official anthem of the Bush administration. These women were flogged by the right and they justified it by claiming it would have been one thing had Maines said what she said on American soil, but because it was in England it amounted to treason. In a long history of slinging bullshit, that's one of the worst. Please! The Dixie Chicks' lives were threatened and they generally feared they would be attacked. All for practicing their right to say whatever the fuck they want about whoever the fuck they want wherever the fuck they want.

Phew. Anyway. Sorry. This isn't a political discourse, this is about a record. Taking the Long Way is a fantastic record and aside from "Not Ready to Make Nice" it's not that political. It's a great representation of what the Dixie Chicks do best and in turn it's their best record. Let me just say Natalie Maines is the kind of artist who, for me, could sing anything and I'd buy in, that she doesn't rest on these laurels only makes the Dixie Chicks more important in my eyes. Taking the Long Way is at it's best in it's quieter moments especially in "Easy Silence", "Silent House" and "Bitter End". Just beautiful songs all three. Sure, they're heart-on-your-sleeve lyrically, but I like that in my country music. Country music when it's done right, should be music you want to listen to with your family, maybe sing along to a few chorus' and then ultimately break some bottles and put on your shit kickers. Taking the Long Way touches all of these nerves and manages to both stay true to and transcend country at the same time. It's a really great record.

28.) Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (2007)

2009-12-10T10:49:00.000-08:00

Here goes - Of Montreal's Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? is the most fun record about a marriage on the brink of collapsing ever recorded. Has their ever been a greater disconnect between the sounds you're hearing and subject matter ever in pop music? I mean, sure "Timothy" by the Buoys is a pop song about cannibalism and there are some sure-fire pathos in "Common People" among other Pulp favorites - but the pure, gut wrenching agony at the underbelly of Hissing Fauna is actually tragic.

Lead Montreal-er Kevin Barnes and his wife have since reconciled, so there's a happy ending, but getting there was not easy. Having said all that, Hissing Fauna still manages to sound like your at a party in a fun house surrounded by carnies and people in masks clad only in pink and purple. Eschew the lyrics and this record is a back to front dance party, but it's not a dance record. Its a psychedelic rock/pop record of the highest order. In fact, it's one of the best. It rivals the best Flaming Lips records. Of Montreal are operating at that level, at least for me.

Though the theme of the record is difficult at times, Of Montreal refuse to wallow in the pity. When things get tough, fuck it let's dance! No band can make a line like "I spent the winter on the verge of a total breakdown while living in Norway" as fun as Of Montreal. There are certain records that I'll hear and think "how can someone not like this record?" and Hissing Fauna is one of those records. How can you not enjoy this record? Are you alive? Do you not like Prince either?

Of Montreal sound like aliens. Fun party-time aliens... you know aliens who are nice and just want to drink your Goldschlagerr, eat all your pills and have sex with you. But aliens nonetheless. Hissing Fauna sounds like all of that. And though the record is technically twelve songs long, it's really just one long piece of pop music heaven. It's best to just put it on and hang back, it'll do all the work even if at points it may make you want to cry.

29.) The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)

2009-12-09T12:59:00.000-08:00

Please don't blame The Shins for Zach Braff's ill advised hyperbole. Here's the deal - The Shins probably won't change your life, unless your an adorably eccentric epileptic in her mid-twenties - but they'll sure as hell make it better.

The Shins' first record, Oh! Inverted World, was a good record. A fine record. A record worthy of faint praise and strategic placement of its songs in films. A nice record. Want to know a secret, though? Apart from the singles, I don't remember it. Chutes Too Narrow, on the other hand, I can recite line for line and lick for lick. It's a record I have consistently gone back to years after its release. I listen to it, in full, a few times a month and on the off chance that I'm going to be driving somewhere, it's a record I always take with me.

This is all about personal preference - there are scores of people, I'm sure, who never got past Oh! Inverted World. That's their choice. Those people, however, are missing out on Chutes Too Narrow, a record that takes all the good parts of O!IW and make them better.

The Shins, by default, are probably the band that made indie rock safe for mainstream tastes. Who cares? Chutes Too Narrow is such a pleasurable listening experience. It's the kind of indie rock record that nerds hear and say "if there was any justice in the world this would be a hit record" and it was and then everybody turned on them. That backlash stuff is stupid.

Anyway, stepping off my high horse for a moment - I love the Shins and their brand of indie pop. It sounds great, it's well done - almost seamless - but it's quite the contrary. It's a complex record both musically and lyrically that masquerades as the most instantly likable record you've ever heard. That's the joy of The Shins - a band destined to feel the pangs of a sophomore slump but who not only avoided it but spit in it's face.

30.) Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker (2000)

2009-12-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

I find Ryan Adams is at his best when he's being romantic. I don't mean romantic in the "boy meets girl, boy woos girl" way either. In fact I mean the complete opposite. I mean romantic in terms of absolute misery. In fact one could say Ryan Adams romanticizes the unromantic. There isn't an artist who has made sadness sexier than Ryan Adams and this, his greatest skill, is all over Heartbreaker.

Heartbreaker establishes it's tone very early on, right after the crackerjack opener "To Be Young" in fact. This is going to be a sad record. A record about heartbreak (natch) but also homesickness and that great mid life crisis sticking point - general malaise. It's all very juvenile in some ways and if you weren't that age when it was released, you may find it all a bit gross. But I was and I still can't help but get choked up when I hear "Amy", "Oh My Sweet Carolina" and of course, Adams' greatest moment, "Come Pick Me Up."

The subject matter is rote and passe, but the lyrics aren't. Adams has a way with words and his voice is what really makes the whole thing feel transcendent. It cracks and it's lived in and in those vulnerable moments can be so beautiful. "My Winding Wheel" still breaks my heart everytime I hear it ("Cause I feel just like a map/without a single place to go of interest") and it's general message of "go ahead, find someone better than me, see if I care" just goes to prove that there is very little difference between being 25 and being 15. Ryan Adams knows this better than anybody and with Heartbreaker he made a record full of nostalgia even if you had never heard it before.

Another favorite moment of mine comes in "Oh My Sweet Carolina", a song about Adams missing his southern home of Kentucy while he's living in New York. I've lived in New York my whole life, so I shouldn't get it but when he says "Now up here in the city/It feels like thing's are closing in/the sunset's just my lightbulb burning out" I do. That's his genius. He makes you relate. It's a beautiful moment. And a fucking amazing line.

I love, love, love this record. Still. I can listen to it and it immediately puts me back in my teeny tiny apartment on 63rd street (which had no natural light and therefore led to that "lightbulb" line having so much meaning for me) where I wore Heartbreaker out and would listen to "Come Pick Me Up" on a loop. No matter what becomes of Ryan Adams, and we all know he's become a punchline-in my opinion an undeserved one - he can always hang his hat on having written that song. I still get goose bumps when I hear that opening harmonica bit. "Come Pick Me Up" is proof positive that every man should have his broken like that at least once. If you never feel that pain, that song won't work the way it should. And that's Ryan Adams. Making pain sexy.

31.) Morrissey - You Are the Quarry (2004)

2009-12-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

Ol' Mozzer sure has had one helluva decade. Among the typical hero worship he always (and happily) endures, he's managed to launch quite a comeback with regard to his recorded output. Since 2004 Moz has released three great records, a live record, a dvd and countless b-sides which have landed on their very own compilation, not to mention a few great tours and an on-stage collapse. He's had a truly prosperous aughts and the best part about the whole thing is that he has not devolved into parody.

Morrissey's 2000's studio output of You Are the Quarry, Ringleader of the Tormentors and Years of Refusal is the best 1,2,3 punch of his career. I'm not saying they're his best records ever but as far as in a row, they can't be beat (NOTE: This is Morrissey solo I'm talking about). Blame Kill Uncle for getting in between Viva Hate and Your Arsenal/Vauxhall. As it stands You Are the Quarry is the best of the lot. It had been seven years between Maladjusted and You Are the Quarry, so I had no idea what to expect. Now, as someone who worships at the altar of all things Moz, I was excited but also prepared for disappointment.

I wasn't disappointed. No one was. In fact, it was something different altogether. This wasn't a changed Moz, we wouldn't be able to stand it if it was, but it sure as shit seemed like a revitalized one. Quarry turned out to be part one of a trilogy of great records that found Morrissey settling into his role as an elder statesmen of indie rock - but he wouldn't settle in quietly. He's an angry young man on "America is not the World" a sniveling little brat on "The World is Full of Crashing Bores" and his normal petulant self on "How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?".

I understand people hating Morrissey, but I prefer to think those people just don't get him. Most critics hate that he's so "depressed" all the time, but truth is he's not. He's actually really funny and all the depression stuff, at least now, is mostly done with a wink. I sort of buy in whole. I find him endlessly amusing and tend to see the fact that this is the kind of record he's making 25 years later is pretty amazing. And I always feel justified in my unending devotion to Moz when I hear songs like "Irish Blood, English Heart" and "First of the Gang to Die" because they're absolutely perfect songs. And that's something.

Plus, the album covers. Come on, guys!

32.) The White Stripes - Elephant (2003)

2009-12-08T14:34:00.000-08:00

Damn, Elephant is a really great record. Elephant signified the moment when the garage rock revival that began in '01 became solidified. Seeing as how none of the other "the" bands would live up to their potential, it fell on the White Stripes to ensure that the whole movement wouldn't end up being a punch line. Elephant did just that.

I remember how excited I was for the release of Elephant. It was akin to my excitement regarding the release of In Utero nearly a decade earlier. There's probably something to that - there's a good possibility that there wasn't a band I had been more excited by than the Stripes since Nirvana. Hmmm. Could be. At any rate, Elephant is quintessential rock 'n roll - steeped in the blues but electrified and plugged in. It's basically a classic rock record. I wondered if Jack White sold his soul to the devil to play guitar like that.

Jack White loves his heroes. He idolizes them and he pays tribute to them all over Elephant - from Robert Johnson to Jimmy Page, Dusty Springfield and Burt Bacharach. The hodgepodge of influences make Elephant an exciting ride. There's something for everybody and it all felt so big. For a band that was cutting their teeth in an indie scene (and they were a two piece!), their sound was so full. They became rock stars on this record and deservedly so. What they were doing wasn't new, but at the time it was fresh. Rock 'n roll, I mean real rock 'n roll, had dipped out of the mainstream but Elephant made it sexy again.

Since Elephant Jack White has become a ubiquitous force not just in rock music, but in the zeitgeist itself. He's everywhere. He has a million bands, he's been in movies and I'm not sure any of that would have happened had Elephant not been so damn good. I'd have to point to Jack as being the musician that most defined this decade for me - with Jay-Z a close second. He never took a break and every record he's been involved in, from his work with Loretta Lynn down through The Dead Weather and the Racontours, has had something interesting in it. As for the White Stripes - they've been consistently good since Elephant. Maybe not as top to bottom perfect on record, but still damn good and incredibly important. I know the legacy doesn't start with Elephant, but it was firmly planted by it.

33.) The Avalanches - Since I Left You (2000)

2009-12-08T10:36:00.000-08:00

Let me tell you a little bit about the person I was when The Avalanches released Since I Left You in 2000 - I was the kind of person who would have never, ever sought out The Avalanches Since I Left You. Never. I was an indie kid and I didn't really know the first thing about what could only be described by me at the time as dance music.

I was assigned to review Since I Left You by my college paper and I decided to approach it with an open mind. I didn't not like this type of music, I just didn't know it. Needless to say it didn't take much to get me on board. In fact, anyone who hears Since I Left You, for the most part, loves it. It's impossible not to love.

It plays like the greatest mix-tape ever made. The record is stacked with something like 900 samples, which is nuts. Even Girl Talk, who've made two records I like a lot, still can't hold a candle to Since I Left You. Whereas Girl Talk relies on songs you know, the Avalanches fill their record with samples of songs you've never heard. And it's not just songs. There's pieces from old comedy shows, spoken word stuff...horses. Sonically, it's an amazing feat and one that hasn't been matched. It's wonderfully constructed and there are no boring moments to be had. It's a great record to put on at a party and just let it go.

The Avalanches haven't put out a record since Since I Left You was released almost ten years ago. Rumors have been swirling that something's coming up soon but, as expected, there has been difficulty getting the rights to many of the samples. Hopefully by 2010 we'll have another Avalanches to love for the entirety of the next decade.

34.) TV on the Radio - Return to Cookie Mountain (2006)

2009-12-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

Return to Cookie Mountain is a terrible album title. It's trying really hard to be memorable by being nonsensical. At least, I think so. Unless it's a thing and I just don't know it in which case, it's still a fucking horrible title. Having said that, Return to Cookie Mountain is a brilliant record. It's fantastic, in fact, from start to finish - whether you're listening to the leaked version that opens with "Wolf Like Me" (which, shame on you if this is the case - BUY MUSIC!) or the actual record which is sequenced differently and begins with "I Was a Lover" - it doesn't matter. The impact's the same. And it's real good.

Because we, as a music culture, spend so much time putting bands in boxes, when a band can't be boxed in it's exciting. If you had never heard of TV on the Radio and asked me what they were like, I would have no idea what to say. Take "I Was A Lover" Cookie's proper opening track. What the fuck is it? It's a loop and then something comes crashing, or is it a passing train? I honestly don't know. The track is so off-kilter. Compositionally it makes no sense. Frontmen Tunde Adipempe and Kyp Malone trade vocals, I think... or is that only one of them? I have no idea. Noticing a pattern here? Yet, "I Was a Lover" is a great pop song and in a lot of ways it defines the band.

You see, when the record was leaked "Wolf Like Me" was sequenced to be the opener and that makes sense. It's a barnburner. "Wolf Like Me" is a song I get. That everybody gets - it's a simpler introduction to a record that's going to veer of course a thousand different times and in a thousand glorious ways. But, "Wolf Like Me", though the record's first single, would ultimately not be the opening track...because it was too logical a decision, so therefore it couldn't be right.

Return To Cookie Mountain isn't afraid of being weird, in fact TV on the Radio relish in it, but they manage to rein it in long enough to make the record anything but a chore. Most people like TV on the Radio. Their music is strange, but upon first listen it's just good. Their quirks are organic, part of the package and not manufactured which makes it palatable. Return to Cookie Mountain is their mission statement. If you don't like it, I don't know what to tell you. I can't really explain why you should like it. I just know that I do. A lot.

35.) Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning (2005)

2009-12-07T11:34:00.000-08:00

Conor Oberst seems like he might be a pissant. I don't think I've ever used that term before but as I sit here thinking about him, that was the one that came into my head. His early records as Bright Eyes were spotty, heart-on-his sleeve affairs from a kid who was told by everyone he was a genius. He's a good songwriter on those records, especially on Fevers and Mirrors, but he's not great. But, if you want to find Conor Oberst the great songwriter look no further then I'm Wide Awake It's Morning.

As Oberst gets on in years, it seems as though he's taking himself less and less seriously. He's finally having a semblance of fun. I'm Wide Awake finds him somewhere in the middle. The proverbial happy medium between pretentious pissant and fun musician who travels the world and plays music with his buds. The suit fits well. I'm Wide Awake starts with "At the Bottom of Everything", but it really starts with a story about a woman about to die in a plane crash and how her fellow passenger, in order to make her smile, sings her the song. It's pretty heavy stuff, but for the first time in Bright Eyes history, you can hear Oberst smiling through the song. That happens a lot on I'm Wide Awake. It's the record that finally found Oberst shedding that seriousness, where he allowed himself to find joy in what he was doing, even when the material was a bit dour.

the result is Oberst's best record. It's truly a classic. What's stunning about it is how lived in it feels. I'm Wide Awake could have been released next to a Dylan record and no one would bat an eye. The record is not rock 'n roll and it's not country. I guess it's a folk record, but even that's limited. It's Americana. It's warm and you want to pore over it. These songs never get old, they just get better and "Lua" could very well be the best Bright Eyes song ever written. It's a perfect example of Oberst being a completely great songwriter. The attention to detail in the lyrics, the spare arrangement - my man can create a mood and that last lyrics "what was simple in the moonlight by the morning never is" is something special.

Then there's the MVP of I'm Wide Awake - Emmylou Harris. What a brilliant choice on Oberst's part to have her on hand, especially in "Land Locked Blues". Her world weariness sets the tone for those songs and allows Oberst to realize what I presume he set out to do - make a timeless record that sounds old, but also brand new. It's a spectacular feat and a beautiful record.

36.) Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine (2005)

2009-12-03T16:27:00.000-08:00

Extraordinary Machine has a long, torrid history which I don't necessarily want to get into. If you don't know it go to it's wikipedia page. I'll say this though, there are two versions of the record which are readily available and which you may have heard - I prefer the Mike Elizondo produced version and that's the one that finds itself here at number 36.

I often call Fiona Apple an underrated artist, but I'm not sure whether or not that's true. Critics usually praise her records and few artists inspire such devotion from fans as she does, but you never hear Fiona come up when talk turns to pantheon artists of her generation and I tend to think this has more to do with her personality than it does her music. Apple has had a few highly publicized meltdowns and yeah, she seems a little nuts, but fuck that - have you heard the records?

It's obvious I'm pro-Fiona. I like her because I think she's a little nuts and because she doesn't give a shit about it. She embraces it and if that's how she manages to be able to write songs like "Oh Well" and "Not About Love" than so be it. I think that no matter where we think we are in this country as it relates to women, we still have a hard time with balls out female artists who don't abide by some code set for them by an antiquated society. Not to be the one to toot the feminism horn here, but when dude artists are nuts they're usually considered geniuses while women are deemed difficult.

And difficult Fiona Apple is, but not in that way. She's difficult because she's challenging, emotional, puzzling and brave. She's a tried and true artist working in a world of phonies, a proud basket case amongst a bunch of pr trained "celebrities" and Extraordinary Machine is her masterpiece.

Extraordinary Machine opens with the title track and de facto Fiona Apple manifesto ("Be kind to me or treat me mean/I'll make the most of it/I'm an extraordinary machine) with chamber pop orchestration from Jon Brion (one of two tracks that carried over from the original sessions). It's one of Apple's best songs - arty and fussy without being over the top, which seemed to be the record's mantra.

She never takes the easy way out and that should be respected and since the finished product is so awe-inspiring it should damn well be praised. Extraordinary Machine is a record that I heard at a particular moment in time where it really stuck out. I was going through some shit, Fiona was going through some shit and we sort of met in the middle. I won't get into it, but I'll say I hold a very special place in my heart for Extraordinary Machine. That it has stood the test of time all these years later and with me in a completely different place, is a testament to the artist herself and artist who I sincerely hope we'll be hearing from again. A pantheon artist.

37.) Kanye West - Late Registration (2005)

2009-12-03T16:21:00.000-08:00

Late Registration marked the last time that Kanye really tried. Sure, the pop sheen of Graduation is pleasant to listen to and some of the singles on that record are top notch ("Stronger" and "Can't Tell Me Nothing" being chief among them), but as a whole that record isn't exactly challenging. It doesn't stick with you. It's not "art." And lets not even talk about 808s and Heartbreak. Yuch.

Let me put Late Registration in perspective, Kanye enlisted Adam Levine to sing the hook on the record's first track and not only does it not suck, it's fucking gorgeous. Late Registration was one of those records that built on what worked the first time around and ultimately exceeded expectations. While The College Dropout is a great record with few missteps, Late Registration is a perfect one with none (well, there's still skits but I've just resigned myself to ignore them).

While most of the praise deserves to be doled out to Kanye, his inspired choice of co-producer, Jon Brion, must be mentioned as well. Brion, famous for soundtrack composing as well as some amazing work with Fiona Apple brought a knowledge of orchestration to Late Registration that has, in effect, set the record apart from virtually any other hip-hop record.

Late Registration is a full record and one that almost defies categorization. Take "Crack Music", an aggressive track with a guest vocal from The Game that is supported by a chorus of soulful "la la las" and a beat driven by an orchestra. It makes for an eerie, uncomfortable listen - but if that comes off as negative, it's anything but. The song's great. But it's unconventional. So, is the record. Everyone remembers "Gold Digger" and with good reason it's a helluva single, but the genius is in the nuance with Late Registration - the seven minute plus epic "We Major", the vulnerable, heart-on-his sleeve "Hey Mama" and the "who would have thunk this could be a hit single, "Diamonds From Sierra Leone."

Late Registration is a sophisticated record, but still an accessible one - a difficult feat but one that was pulled off in a masterstroke.

38.) Neko Case - Middle Cyclone (2009)

2009-12-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

I'm saying this right now Middle Cyclone is the most underrated record of this decade not released by Fastball or Harvey Danger. Middle Cyclone has been criminally slept-on by virtually everyone and while no one will necessarily speak ill of it, it's still Neko Case after all, no one's talking about in the glowing terms they should be.

Middle Cyclone is sequenced to perfection. Sequencing is something you usually don't notice, unless it's done to a T and then you can't help but. The record unfolds over time like so many great records do. The first few times you listen it sounds like it might be a filler-full (not a real term) record, which could be why it didn't get the attention it warrants. There are a few immediate classics - "This Tornado Loves You", "People Got a Lot of Nerve", "Middle Cyclone" and "I'm An Animal" - spread across the record and in-between there's some quieter tracks that sort of fade away as well as some covers. These tracks only serve to allow those bangers to stand out. They grab you and pull you in, no doubt, but it's after repeated listens that those quieter, more subtle tracks reveal themselves to be the true backbone of this flawless record.

Tracks like "Polar Nettles", "Fever" and Neko's gorgeous cover of Harry Nilsson's "Don't Forget Me" may not grab you by your throat immediately, but Middle Cyclone absolutely does not work without them. I tend to listen to records as whole statements. After a while favorites will no doubt emerge, but to start I like to think of a record as a whole. When Middle Cyclone revealed itself to me I was listening to it on a walk home from work and I found that I knew all the words to "Vengeance Is Sleeping" - one of the records quietest and most seemingly non-descript moment. I wasn't paying attention to it, yet it had slowly sunk in. From then on I heard the record with new ears and thankful ears as well.

I may not be explaining this as well as I'd like, but trust me if you whittled Middle Cyclone down to just a few songs, do yourself a favor and give the whole record another chance. It truly sneaks up on you. Lastly, I know I mentioned the Nilsson cover, but what Neko does with other people's songs is truly astounding and her cover of Sparks' "Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" very well could find it's way onto my list of favorite covers ever.

39.) Sleater Kinney - The Woods (2005)

2009-12-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

Shit, I love Sleater Kinney. They are easily one of my top 10 favorite bands of all time. They are a band that I feel lucky to have been around for. I feel lucky to have seen them (more than half a dozen times), lucky to have been able to buy most of their records on their actual street dates, lucky to have been able to pore over such a great recorded output before the internet destroyed the way we consume music. They're just great.

As of now they are on a indefinite hiatus and if they never come back (which, shit I hope isn't the case) they left this world on a high note few could hope to reach.

I remember reading something about how Sleater Kinney were my generations Clash. That's one of the truest music journalism statements I have ever read. They were. In fact, no one else even registers. But what then of The Woods, a straight-up, balls-out classic rock record? This fucking thing was, and still is mind you, arena ready. What made the women of Sleater Kinney take a break from punk and indulge their inner rock god? A change of pace perhaps. Maturity maybe. Honestly, I don't care.

As a huge fan of the band, I can say I was not expecting The Woods. Not at all. But I was never mad at it either. It wasn't the Sleater Kinney that I knew and I loved at the time, but it was one I was damn sure gonna grow to love. While The Woods, especially the 11 minutes opus "Let's Call It Love" and the guitar solo into breakdown of "What's Mine Is Yours", seemed to be the antithesis of the Sleater Kinney mantra, it also proved something we should have known about Sleater Kinney all along and that's fuck the mantra, man. The mantra doesn't matter. Things change, tastes change, people change. That's life.

Sleater Kinney proved with The Woods that they were the baddest motherfuckers in the world. This is a damn fine rock 'n roll record and one I play with almost the same regularity as Dig Me Out. So, change is good sometimes and if this is the last we ever hear of Sleater Kinney (please don't let this be the last we hear of Sleater Kinney) then at least they went out firmly on top.

40.) Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (2009)

2009-12-02T13:31:00.000-08:00

Full disclosure here - up until this year, I had heard a lot more about The Dirty Projectors than I did any of their actual music. For music geeks and rock blog trollers like myself The Dirty Projectors have certainly been on the radar for a better part of the decade. For me, however, they became a band I was defiantly not pursuing. It was an act of pretension masked as an act of battling perceived pretension, if that makes sense. But hey, at least I can admit it.

But, their glowing write-ups were insufferable for quite a while. Young Brooklyn hipsters. Ugh. Artsy, disjointed and playing with sounds. No thanks. Then they went and released their own re-worked version of Black Flag's classic Damaged. Absolutely not. Spoiled art school kids are going to come in here and cover one of the greatest statements of suburban anger and aggression? I don't think so.

But despite everything, I caved when Bitte Orca was released. I succumbed to the glowing reviews and all the hype and I bought it and you know what? I fucking love it. I even think the band comes off charming. I like them. They're okay as far as I'm concerned. This does not mean I'm going to listen to their Damaged. Never. And I'm not going into the back catalog either because I still think it's going to be too art-school pretentious for my taste. But, Bitte Orca, while not completely pretension free, is a lovely little record and it's just the right amount of weird for me.

What really strikes me when listening to Bitte Orca is it's not your typical indie rock record. Not by a long shot. Sure there are guitars here but a lot of these songs are R&B joints, fam. "Useful Chamber" sounds like an off-kilter auto-tuned slow jam for the first two minutes (then the guitars kick in and it becomes a tolerable and rowdy mess - but still) and one of the record's many highlights, "Stillness Is The Move", could have been a Beyonce song. Not a Beyonce single, but certainly a Beyonce song. In fact, her sister Solange covers the damn thing and it kind of kills. Then there's "Two Doves", which sounds like something Rufus Wainwright would have recorded when he was fucking flawless in the late 90's, so you win Dirty Projectors.

More than any of that, though, Bitte Orca's a fun record. I think. I guess I've been proven wrong. Maybe The Kids Are Alright after all.

41.) M.I.A. - Kala (2007)

2009-12-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

Let's get this out of the way first - "Paper Planes" is a great fucking song. It's basically perfect. There. Enough about that.

Let's get this out of the way second - M.I.A. can be annoying. There is no question about this. She's a true to the scene "hipster" who doesn't want you to know how badly she wants to be famous, even though you already know because how could you not?

And let's get this out of the way third - M.I.A's hazy, and more than likely hazy understanding of, politics is polarizing.

Alright, so now that we've gotten that out of the way...

Kala is a great record from a confident artist really and truly hitting her stride. Politics aside, Kala sets out to be a great dance record and it delivers in spades. It's a record full of left turns and odd textures and BEATS! It's a helluva thing.

M.I.A for all her flaws is a charismatic artist who, with the release of Kala, has now become a justly deserved star. I say justly deserved because Kala is really a fantastic record - it's superbly produced and brilliantly conceived. There are no lulls and it just so happens to contain three tracks that could each vie for track of the decade ("Jimmy" and "Boyz" joining "Paper Planes"). I like that M.I.A. is a bit of a conundrum and shit at least she ain't boring (a tag that Lady GaGa's been coasting on for quite some time). But, it's more than that - M.I.A. is supremely talented. For all the people on board for Kala (and more so on her first record, Arular) you never get the sense that she's anything but in total control. She owns every single moment and she does so with force. She's not afraid to be in your face and it's not a false confidence either and whether you love her or you don't you should respect it and if you don't, well then your missing out on something spectacular.

42.) Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele (2000)

2009-12-01T11:17:00.000-08:00

One would assume that if early on one was going to speculate on who would be the best Wu-Tang solo artist, Ghostface Killah would have found himself out of the running. Maybe fifth? Certainly behind Meth and ODB and probably behind Chef and GZA and it the time, that would have been correct. But time has been very kind to Ghost and from my perspective he is unchallenged in the race right now.

Ghost is number one. Every one else is behind him (though Raekwan is making a case with the fantastic, and unfortunately ineligible for this list, Only Built 2 but even that record probably wouldn't be as good without Ghost). Supreme Clientele was Ghost's second solo record but it was also his announcement. The "listen motherfuckers, it's me Ghostface muthafucking Killah. I'm ready to own this shit."

And own it he would. Supreme Clientele was released in the first month of this decade and Ghost has been going strong now for this entire time. Ghostface Killah is a weird dude and the thing that was brilliant about Supreme Clientele was that it was weird, but it was undercover weird. It's like he saw into the future of hip hop, but didn't necessarily want everybody to be in on it.

Ghost's lyrics are just nuts. All over the place crazy. Oftentimes they seem completely nonsensical. The stream of consciousness thoughts of a madman. That's pretty exciting, honestly. But his delivery is so engrossing and no one in hip hop samples classic soul music better than Ghost.

Supreme Clientele is Ghost's best album because no one really saw it coming. This wasn't "Shimmy Shimmy Ya" and as far away from "All I Need" as you can get. There aren't pop singles here. This is a record, best enjoyed as a whole. Further, it solidified Wu- Tang as still being a force. They'd lost a step, but Ghost was gonna bring 'em back to glory, oh and also record "Malcom" which is the craziest hip-hop character study ever made. Thanks, Ghost.

43.) The Fiery Furnaces - Blueberry Boat (2004)

2009-12-01T10:49:00.000-08:00

The Fiery Furnaces have been, without a doubt, one of the definitive bands to emerge this decade even if they aren't necessarily the most beloved. Having said that, I respect the hell out of them. Sonically, there have been few bands as risky and even when I don't particularly like a record of theirs, I can still find merit in it somewhere.

The Fiery Furnaces have been polarizing by often attacking their work less as music and more as one long continuous art project. Pretentious as hell, but when it clicks it can be something truly mesmerizing and beautiful. I don't, however, think they've yet managed to eclipse the weird majesty of their second record, Blueberry Boat.

I really fell for the Fiery Furnaces first record Gallowsbird's Bark and while it was clear by that record this was certainly a quirky band, it didn't quite prepare me for the grandeur of Blueberry Boat. It doesn't surprise me that some people have had hard time with Blueberry Boat and further it doesn't surprise me to hear that people downright hate it. It's that kind of record. The Furnaces seem to be peddling whimsy, but it's the kind of whimsy they take very, very seriously. I can see how that seems false. It's difficult to have it both ways, but for me it worked immediately.

Blueberry Boat was not an exercise for me. I got swept up very quickly. In fact, Blueberry Boat is a record I distinctly remember listening to with a certain expectation and when I got something else, I immediately went back and listened again. In fact, I listened to Blueberry Boat back to back four times on that first day...and it's a long record, but it's a record with so much going on that if you don't pore over it you'll miss most of it.

If you've ever seen the Furnaces live you know they weave songs together, oftentimes in snippits, to create one large soundscape - a movement of sorts. Of their records, Blueberry Boat is the most representative of that missive. There are epic mini-operas on this record that oftentimes have three or four different ideas going on, but somehow they manage to bring them all together to create something that feels anything but disjointed.

The Fiery Furnaces have a spotty cannon for sure, but for a moment on Blueberry Boat they managed to create something challenging for sure, but also rewarding. It's a modern day masterpiece.

44.) The New Pornographers - Electric Version (2003)

2009-11-25T12:32:00.000-08:00

What can I say about The New Pornographers that I haven't already said in the previous two entries (and what will I say later, when I, spoiler alert, have to do it again)? For me, The New Pornographers' output is probably the strongest of any band this decade. There aren't any bad songs across their four records. Sure, some aren't as good as others but you could put on all four records in a row and I'd be hard pressed to find a track to skip.

Electric Version is TNPs second record and one that found them really sounding like a fully functioning band rather than just a group of friends getting together to just "try some shit out." So, Electric Version is a bit more streamlined and focused and maybe not as surprising as Mass Romantic was, but I still think all in all it's a stronger record.

Electric Version was the record that saw The New Pornographers cease being a side project for many of its members and it's that "we're all in" attitude that seemed to have led the band to a greater heights. A "we can make something of this" attitude, if you will. The songs on Electric Version are so tightly constructed and fun as hell and AC Newman proved himself as a truly ace songwriter with Electric Version. "From Blown Speakers", "The Laws Have Changed" and "July Jones", just to name a few, are pop bliss complete with sing along choruses and cascading arrangements.

Of course Bejar comes in with perhaps the record's oddest track, but incidentally also one of its best with "Testament To Youth In Verse." Hearing the band members come in at the end imitating the sound of ringing bells is a truly magical moment. And of course there's Neko who, in typical Neko fashion, slays the shit out of "All For Swinging You Around" a track that almost (yes, almost) rivals "Letter From An Occupant."

All in all, Electric Version is a record that really announced that The New Pornographers were not a fluke, not merely a collective, but a super group in the truest sense of that term.

45.) The National - The Boxer (2007)

2009-11-24T14:37:00.000-08:00

"Showered and blue blazered. Fill yourself with quarters."

Yep that's a National lyric and there you have it. You either go with it or you don't. I do. I really do.

Everyone I know likes The National. Across the board. It's at a hundred percent and I've come to find that difficult to understand. I don't mean that a diss either. I should clarify. I get The Shins. I know why everybody loves The Shins. They're great, but they're accessible. The National, though. I stand slack-jawed. Their records are all serious growers with lyrics that sometimes make no sense and music that can be downright dour. I've even heard people who like them call them boring. Yet, they're one of the most commonly accepted good bands of the decade.

While I might not totally get it, I have a theory. The National, especially here on The Boxer, sound like your twenties and who doesn't love their twenties? To pinpoint it a bit more, The National sound like your twenties in New York. They sound like discovery.

When I listen to "Ada" I can imagine being a first timer to New York standing in the middle of Times Square late at night when it's not miserably crowded, right before it really becomes winter and just looking up and taking it all in. When I hear "Mistaken For Strangers", it sounds like getting drunk in some lower east side bar and "The Apartment Song" is the one playing in the cab on the ride home. "Start A War" is that first big New York break-up. The one that's so utterly miserable, but when it's all said and done is actually pretty romantic in its own right. And "Squalor Victoria" finds you somewhere you never intended to be, too fucked up too care, but still with enough sense to recognize you're gonna regret it in the morning.

So, The Boxer is a sexy record in that regard. It sounds a bit dangerous, but not overwhelmingly so. It's not so much that you can't handle. Enough can't be said for spending your twenties in New York - even though from a financial standpoint no one should - and my ears hear that joy, angst, fear, depression, uncertainty etc. etc. in The Boxer. It's all those mixed emotions and all those jittery late nights the record so successfully captures that, I think, makes everyone like it so much. Including me.

46.) The Mountain Goats - Tallahassee (2002)

2009-11-24T13:57:00.000-08:00

In 2002, John Darnielle decided to change some shit. Up until the release of Tallahassee, Darnielle's work had been done mostly by himself and recorded to tapes - as lo-fi as lo-fi could be. For Tallahassee he enlisted the help of an honest to goodness band. He also decided to sign with an actual label - that being the famed 4AD and this resulted in what I perceive to be Darnielle's best work.

Tallahassee sees Darnielle flesh out two characters he'd written about before - a couple simply known as "The Alpha Couple" - a couple always on the verge of divorce. Tallahassee can be bleak at times, but sometimes bleak is beautiful. Darnielle is, at heart, a storyteller (if you haven't read his entry in the 33 1/3 book series for Black Sabbath's Masters of Reality you really should). His pre-Tallahassee output had some of the most defined characters in modern song, but these were snapshots. The equivalent of short stories. Really good ones, but short stories nonetheless.

Tallahassee is Darnielle's first attempt at writing a musical novel and it's a home run. I hesitate to call it a concept record, even though it technically is, because in my mind concept record really mean prog-y theatrics and characters no one really relates to..."it's all about the music, man. You know? Tune in and trip out. Shit". Maybe that's ignorant but what can you do.

Tallahassee isn't like that. "The Alpha Couple" seem so real and vivid that they could live next door and actually may if you live in, well...Tallahassee. It's more reminiscent of David Gates' wonderful novels "Jernigan" and "Preston Falls" than it is of Tommy (thank god) or Kid A. If you don't know the record, I hesitate to reveal anything other than what I already have. "The Alpha Couple" are unhappy but it's not only morose as sometimes there's humor in the sadness. Tallahassee is full of those wonderful surprises. And that's all I'll say. It'll mean more when you listen to the record the first time.

Tallahassee literally reads like a great novel (have I overstated this yet?) and one that you won't want to put down. Don't listen to single tracks (though if you must every Mountain Goats fan will tell you listen to "No Children". It's a masterpiece). Sit with Tallahassee. Pour a glass of wine and soak the record in. Appreciate the details and the nuance of Darnielle's lyrics and be swept away in the story and the melody - while Tallahassee is mostly about the words, the music is first rate as well - and be bowled over by the most interesting and best record from one of the decades truly indispensable artists.

47.) The Dismemberment Plan - Change (2001)

2009-11-23T15:39:00.000-08:00

Over the course of my lifetime, music I like has been stupidly classified into genres that either don't exist or don't make sense. From alternative to trip-hop and beyond, but none of these "labels" holds a stupidity candle to "emo." Here's a tip, stop calling music emo. You can call people emo, but the minute you start moving the term over into the realm of music, more often than not you'll be wrong.

Case in point - the Dismemberment Plan. The emo tag has long followed TDP and it's never had an more ill fit. The Dismemberment Plan are not emo and if for some reason hearing they were turned you off from exploring them, please rethink that. Thank you.

The Dismemberment Plan came and went in a flash. Well, maybe not a flash - it was a few years - but it felt fucking quick. 2001's Change was TDP's fourth official full length, but it was the follow-up to their flawless 1999 record Emergency and I. Emergency and I is a revered record - a loud, fast, electro teenage manifesto - that was going to be tough to beat. I'm not saying Change beats it either, but after the dust has settled on both records I find myself going back to Change with more frequency than I do Emergency and I.

Change wasn't simply an arbitrary title as the record is baring witness to the band actually changing. Change is a more ruminative record, and it announced the arrival of a more mature Dismemberment Plan - a band that unfortunately wouldn't last much longer than the record. I still love Emergency and I, but I was 21 when I spent a good portion of a year poring over Change and, looking back 21 was pretty much the perfect age to be when a record like this was coming out.

I can vividly remember listening to Change for the first time out and being shocked that this could be the same band who made Emergency and I. And it really took some getting used to. But once I was able to separate the fact that they had made such a different record and just accept it on its own merits - that's when it took off. Change is heavily dependent on Travis Morrisson sometimes off-the-wall, sometime too earnest, but always interesting lyrics. But, mostly this is an indie rock record of the first order. It's a top to bottom keeper and it just gets better with age. I saw TDP on the tour for the Change record and when I think about bands I'd love to see reunite they're right up. They just came and went too quickly and I really miss them.

48.) Cat Power - The Greatest (2006)

2009-11-20T14:56:00.000-08:00

As I've been reading some of the already published lists of the best records of the decade, I've been puzzled by the omission on many of them of Cat Power's The Greatest. Prior to The Greatest Chan Marshall (Cat Power) released a number of records admired by music geeks, but in truth they were uneven. They had great moments but there seemed to be an inability to create something wholly satisfying.

Enter The Greatest. Like most Cat Power, The Greatest is a bit dour - you know there's sadness and heartbreak and... well you know the drill, but The Greatest also has something that had been missing from Cat Power's records up to this point...hope. Some have argued that she'd lost her edge on The Greatest and have likened the record to adult contemporary. Stupid. The Greatest is most certainly not the damaged Chan Marshall some had grown to love, but my mother's not listening to this record any time soon I can assure you.

The Greatest introduced the world to a confident Cahn Marshall. An artist who wasn't going to fall apart the second she hit the stage. A musician, not a train wreck. Some people wanted the train wreck, which seemed weird to me. They prefer an unhappy Chan Marshall because they like the music better? Gross.

Anyway, the record. It's gorgeous. Marshall enlisted the help of some Memphis soul legends to work as her backing band for the record and the result is a different kind of Cat Power. Way less indie-rock pretentious and colored with a different, but wholly fitting sound for her fragile and beautiful voice. The title track is one of the best in Cat Power's entire catalog, complete with an effectively haunting string section and just a few tracks later "Lived in Bars" is even better. And that's how The Greatest unfolds. It's powered by this magnificent band but anchored in Chan Marshall's world - evident by the closing two tracks "Hate" and "Love and Communication" - and that happy medium turned out to be the recipe for Marshall's best and most accessible work yet.

49.) The Decemberists - Picaresque (2005)

2009-11-20T12:37:00.000-08:00

I am something of a Decemberists apologist. I have yet to waver in my dedicated affection for their over-the-top theatrical pop music even going as far as to place their maligned The Hazards of Love on this very list (I still stand by that, by the by). If there's one Decemberists record I have never felt the need to defend, however it's Picaresque. Sure, it's still a bit pretentious, but that's par for the course and also part of the joy. The Decemberists aren't the least bit self conscious as it relates to their pretentions and it gives their music a certain confidence that I've always found refreshing.

Colin Meloy has always had a flair for the dramatics and they're certainly evident here. These songs are almost all ambitious narratives and yet they're not connected so they don't get bogged down in the details the way they may have on The Crane Wife and yes, even my beloved The Hazards of Love. The important thing, though is the songs and Picaresque is the Decemberists greatest batch of songs ever.

Opener "The Infanta" is one of the great moments in the bands history - a train chugging type of song that builds to a fevered climax. It's my favorite first song on a record since The Geraldine Fibbers' opened Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home with the stunning "Lilybelle." The there's "Eli the Barrow" boy - another of Meloy's gorgeously sad and desperate love songs. "The Sporting Life", "Sixteen Military Wives" and the epic "The Mariner's Revenge Song" are all essential.

Then there are, for me, the two peerless Decemberists tracks - "On the Bus Mall" and "Of Angels and Angles". Lyrically, Meloy has never written a better song than "Bus Mall" which follows a group of young boys who make a living as prostitutes. It's a sad song, but a beautiful one and proved Meloy was more than just a spinner of whimsical yarns about rogues and pirates. He understands the sadness inherent in these boys' lives and is able to convey it in one of his best vocals as well. Then there's "Angels" a track that I think only I hold as dear as I do. I can remember replaying this song over and over again when I first got the record. I think it was how delicate it was that got me - it felt like any second it would break yet it never did. I still get that same feeling listening to it now. It's remarkable as is Picaresque.

50.) Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer (2009)

2009-11-20T09:45:00.000-08:00

I have had a real rollercoaster of a relationship with Spencer Krug. I have both loved and loathed him at various points over the past decade (with one particularly volatile falling out after an underwhelming Sunset Rubdown show) but I have to say I have a sinking suspicion the man may be a genius. I love his records with unabashed fervor and though I am a big fan of Wolf Parade, I prefer his side project, Sunset Rubdown - which actually has more recorded output now than Wolf Parade. Does this make it safe to say Wolf Parade is his real side project at this point?

Regardless, Dragonslayer is one helluva record. I can't stress enough how put off I was by a Sunset Rubdown show I saw a few months before this record was released. Krug was cold and seemingly unfriendly on stage, like it was a chore for him to be there, but when I heard Dragonslayer it was as if he had been renewed. There is such a sense of wonder and, weirdly enough, fun on Dragonslayer, a record wherein Krug put it all together and made his masterpiece.

Dragonslayer is Sunset Rubdown's easiest record to like. The melodies are sweeping and the songs triumphant - orchestrated, but not necessarily fussed over the way they may have been on their last record, Random Spirit Lover. I can also bestow upon Dragonslayer one of my highest compliments - most of the songs are quite long and every time out I wish they were longer. As cliched as this is, each song on Dragonslayer is like a little journey. They take unexpected, but not unpleasant, twists and turns along the spectrum. Standout track "Idiot Heart" actually feels like three different songs all culminating in one glorious finale and one of the great lyrics of the decade - "I hope that you die/In a decent pair of shoes/You've got a lot of long walking to do."

2009 has been one of the strongest of the decade with regards to great records and I fear that Dragonslayer may have been slept on what with being released among some other sexier records. If it slipped by you for some reason you should rectify that and take a listen - it's one of the best of this year and of the decade for sure.

51.) Miranda Lambert - Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2007)

2009-11-19T09:11:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting thing about music criticism that you probably already know - it's insufferable. This is especially true of indie music criticism and the standard bearer - the almighty pitchfork - is the worst offender and if you need proof look no further than the fact that they couldn't be bothered to review any of Miranda Lambert's three stellar records.

Listen, I get it. Miranda Lambert's a country singer - gross - who was the runner-up on the first season of USA's craptastic Nashville Star - grosser - so why touch it, right? Couldn't possibly be worth anybody's time. False. Miranda Lambert is one of the most exciting young artists working today and as far as I'm concerned, pitchfork can keep their Lykke Li's and their Santigold's...I'm picking Miranda every time.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is Miranda's second record and it is truly remarkable from start to finish. (NOTE: Miranda's latest record, Revolution, was released after I made this list, but holy shit is it fantastic) It is, literally, the sound of an artist growing up and becoming essential. I guess it would be easy to dismiss Miranda - she's beautiful and unfortunately we live in a world where that means you have to work extra hard to be taken seriously. Plus, critics have said she leans a bit too hard on her "outlaw" image singing about guns and drinking and smoking (again, topics that if a man tackled no one would bat an eye at). I'm here to say that's all bullshit. Miranda Lambert is a top shelf singer and songwriter with layers and truth is she sings what she knows. She just happens to be a beautiful country singer who shoots guns and likes to drink, but she's also vulnerable and isn't afraid to show that side as well - most notably on the fantastic ballad "More Like Her."

For all intents and purposes Miranda Lambert deserves to be as popular as Carrie Underwood, but she's not and probably never will be. She's not polished and packaged the way Underwood is. You get the feeling it just wouldn't work. She doesn't give a shit. She's a legit country girl and doesn't care who knows it - in fact, she revels in it. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend may just be THE definitive country record released this decade, an old school scrapbook type record that rewards repeated listens, yet still managed to have four hit (and by hit I mean by country standards) singles. In short, it's actual country music - the way country music was in it's glory days - raw, honest and a little dangerous. Pop music it's not. So, suck it Underwood!

52.) Broken Social Scene - You Fogot It In People (2002)

2009-11-19T08:44:00.000-08:00

If you like music, chances are there's something you'll like on Broken Social Scene's second record, You Forgot It In People. The band swelled from a two piece to a ten piece for record number two with a whole bunch of other guests thrown in the mix as well. So, it shouldn't be a big surprise to hear that You Forgot It In People is a bit all over the place - but, like in a really good way. Usually when you hear that a record sounds like a bunch of friends hanging out and jamming together, it means it's uneven and sloppy and though it may have its moments, it's ultimately a self-indulgent disappointment. You Forgot It In People certainly sounds like a fun Sunday with a group of friends jamming, for sure, but a disappointment it is not.

This record is ramshackle and at times it may even seem a bit messy (there's a moment in standout "Looks Just Like the Sun" when you can hear Kevin Drew -or is it Brendan Canning? I never know -telling his band mates when to sing) but upon further listens it will reveal itself as one of the truly great indie pop releases ever. It's a record that has spawned many imitators (even among the band members themselves) but one that's quality one would be hard pressed to match.

What further separates You Forgot It In People from the pack is just how effortless it actually sounds. It's complex, but never sounds forced which is a difficult thing to do. In the end, this is pop music and songs like "Cause = Time" and "Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl" are two of the best examples of a band nailing it on all cylinders. You Forgot It In People is communal, but not in a cheesy Polyphonic Spree way, but in a super cool rock star way that's difficult to pull off and they introduced the world at large to the magnificent Leslie Feist, so points for them.

53.) The Thermals - The Body, The Blood, The Machine (2006)

2009-11-17T10:00:00.000-08:00

Ah, The Thermals. I love The Thermals.

The Body, The Blood, The Machine is one of the most immediate, loud, raucous "motherfuckers- of- a- record" released in the aughts. The Thermals speak very much to my teenage self. Now, don't get me wrong The Thermals are smarter and more thoughtful than say Screeching Weasel or The Queers (though Screeching Weasel and The Queers are still fucking awesome), but it's that sound - that raise a middle finger, fuck you, bratty, pop punk sound that brings me back to the old days. It's not just nostalgia that makes me love this band. They're just a great band.

The Body, The Blood, The Machine is a concept record of sorts with songs connected by characters who are trying to flee an America taken over by evil, fascist "Christians". Sound familiar? The lyrics are angry and the music is aggressive, but the choruses still take flight - the production is really stellar here thanks to Fugazi's Brendan Canty. The Body, The Blood, The Machine is, in a lot of ways, the bratty yet wordier and probably more intelligent, stepchild of Green Day's American Idiot.

The Body, The Blood, The Machine is a concise screed of a record. Clocking in at under forty minutes it barrels out of the gate with the fantastic "Here's You Future" and it never lets up. This is as political a record as has been released this decade and it sometimes dips into preachy and pretentious territory, but in the end The Thermals win because what they've crafted is so damn catchy. You can pogo the shit out of this record whether you agree with the politics or not. It's punk rock, baby.

The real MVPin all this is lead singer Hutch Harris whose vocal delivery is a weird mix between John Darnielle and Craig Finn - he doesn't sing so much as recite. But, it works. In fact, it's perfect. He packs as many words in as he can, but it never comes out forced it's actually quite clear. His delivery turns these songs into lefty sing alongs that translate perfectly to a live setting.

If The Thermals would stop sticking it to the religious right and taking on the bible and right-wing politics in general they could be a hugely popular rock band - that they won't makes them a wonderfully refreshing splash of exuberance and moxie in the world of rock 'n roll.

54.) Portishead - Third (2008)

2009-11-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Everyone knew what to expect when it was announced that Portishead would reunite some eleven years since their last record and record something new. But then the record, Third, came out and everyone was like "What? That's not what we expected at all."

Portishead were a beloved band from a long since dead moment in popular music known as trip-hop. Their 1994 record Dummy is one of the true classics of the genre (if you ask me there was only one other - Maxinquaye by Tricky - but that's just me) and it would have been perfectly acceptable for Portishead to go back to the well and do something similar. That they didn't only added to their reputation. In fact, re-uniting bands should all look to Portishead when planning their comeback.

But how are they different? How is this Portishead Version 2.0 exactly? For starters with Third they swell now and they have synths and the drums kick in hard and fast at points and I'm pretty sure that's a ukulele driving the Beach Boys-esque harmonies in "Deep Water"! It's still a bit moody, but you can't expect Beth Gibbons voice is still in tact though - as vulnerable as you remember it, but also as beautiful. Third is really a triumphant second act for Portishead as it's a nuanced yet accessible record and "The Rip" could slug it out with but a handful of other songs to take the prize for track of the decade.

55.) Deerhunter - Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. (2008)

2009-11-11T10:59:00.000-08:00

I absolutely hated Deerhunter's breakthrough record, Cryptograms. Chalk it up to personal preference, but to me Cryptograms was a mean-spirited record. It was cold and I felt like Bradford Cox didn't want me around. It was as if he was actively daring me to like this music and as it turned out I flinched. It felt like a record that people said they liked but truthfully listened to a few times and then shelved. It was really cool for a time to like Cryptograms.

So, imagine my surprise when Deerhunter released Microcastle along with its companion piece Weird Era Cont. and I loved it. There were melodies! These were pop songs. Yeah, they were a bit fuzzed out, but I could spot them. I could sift them out, something I couldn't (or maybe didn't want to) do with Cryptograms.

To be honest, Microcastle/Weird Era Cont. did not make me revisit Cryptograms, so I don't know maybe they're not so different. I couldn't tell you. Maybe I'm totes wrong about Cryptograms, but I've made my piece with it. There just aren't enough hours in the day, you know?

Microcastle - which I can't even believe I gave a chance - has these moments of pure pop bliss. "Never Stop" and "Little Kids" and "Nothing Ever Happened" are just flawless songs. Songs that I actually like. Songs that I want to revisit over and over again. In fact, almost all of Microcastle is that way. Microcastle was never a chore to listen to.

Neither was Weird Era Cont. Released in tandem with Microcastle (my CD version has both of them) Weird Era Cont. was far from some directionless extras disc. It played like a fully formed record, a little bit more art-damaged and experimental than Microcastle, but every bit as good. "Vox Humana" cribs the melody from The Ronettes' "Be My Little Baby" and turns it into this spooky, PJ Harvey esque moment. I probably should hate it, but I don't. I actually think I've spent more time with Weird Era Cont. than Microcastle which probably proves that I should have given Cryptograms more of a chance. I don't know. Maybe the more off-kilter Weird Era Cont. was easier to swallow when paired with the poppier Microcastle. Had Weird Era Cont. been it's own disc maybe I would have hated it. Or maybe tastes just change...

Yeah. I'm going with that.

56.) Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)

2009-11-10T15:11:00.000-08:00

I have been staring at this Wolf Parade entry for the better part of a week and for some reason I can't fucking write it. I don't know why. I just have nothing to say. I like Apologies to the Queen Mary. There were only 55 records released in the past ten years that I like more than Apologies to the Queen Mary, yet I've been a drawing a week-long blank on what to say about it.

Maybe this will be fun - here's what I remember. Apologies to the Queen Mary came to the us in 2005 riding a wave of hype as big as an Arcade Fire. They had a nice EP prior to it and a lot of those songs were going to show up on the full length. They were from Canada and were, apparently, friends with the aforementioned Arcade Fire who had just finished taking over the world (or at least the small corner of it which is owned by people in tight jeans) a few months earlier. So, inevitably they were compared to Arcade Fire which was stupid because they were a different band, but then they were compared to a lot of bands. Great bands like the Pixies and Modest Mouse. I agreed with the latter but not so much the former.

Wolf Parade have two leaders (which maybe in some way means they have no leader) named Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner. They work really well together. One is considered a bit more experimental of the two - that would be Spencer Krug even though it's a Krug track - "Grounds For Divorce" - that is the catchiest one on Apologies to the Queen Mary. A lot of people called them the indie rock Lennon and McCartney which is another stupid and ill-advised comparison, but what can you do?

I don't know why I don't remember much from the time I spent with this record apart from I didn't spend much time with it initially. In fact, I heard it thought "OK" shelved it and didn't revisit it until 2007 when I was blown away by Krug's other band Sunset Rubdown's second record Random Spirit Lover . Then I fell in love with Apologies to the Queen Mary, which, as it would turn out, I would end up loving more than Random Spirit Lover. Is anyone following this?

Anyway, Apologies is a ramshackle affair and it ebbs and flows for sure - it's got that kitchen sink mentality that can be either really interesting or incredibly off-putting - here it's almost always positive. And...the songs are good. I really enjoy listening to them.

So, it's a great record. One of the best of the decade for sure.

Thanks.

57.) The Streets - Original Pirate Material (2002)

2009-10-29T13:40:00.000-07:00

I remember listening to Original Pirate Material incessantly in winter of 2002. I was, inexplicably, teaching seventh grade and living at home at the time. I'm not sure what these things have to do with Original Pirate Material's impact on me - but there you have it. I'm setting a scene, you know?

Maybe I was a pleeb as it related to hip hop at the time, but Original Pirate Material was like nothing I had ever heard. It was sparse - you couldn't actually dance to it. It was amateurish, like couldn't anyone do this? Well, maybe - but Mike Skinner (The Streets) had this innate charm about him. He seemed like he was your pal.

I used to go to this local pub in my hometown a lot during that winter. I would just show up. I wouldn't necessarily make plans to meet people there, I'd just go and more often than not there was someone there to talk to. It was kind of great. I am always reminded of this time when I revisit Original Pirate Material and not just because it was sound tracking that time of my life, but rather because that's the scene Skinner paints. Original Pirate Material, at its core, is a record about a guy and a scene - but not necessarily an extraordinary guy - just a regular one who smokes cigarettes and drinks pints with his mates (Skinner's British). That's basically what I was doing too and who I was. I could really relate to it at the time.

I've loved other Streets records, most notably A Grand Don't Come For Free, but OPM was just one of those records that I found at a time when I needed it. I wasn't unhappy - far from it actually - but it was certainly that transition period in my life. 22 and unsure of what to do. I could have kept going and there would have been nothing wrong with that - but I didn't and I'm still not sure if it was the right choice. I love OPM because it reminds me of the kid I was at 22...and because it's really quite awesome.

58.) Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat (2006)

2009-10-29T12:43:00.000-07:00

I had been nursing a pretty serious crush on Jenny Lewis since the first time I saw her in "The Wizard" oh about 100 years ago. Then she started Rilo Kiley and every indie rock boy in the world followed suit. Jenny Lewis just has it. That intangible thing that makes people fall in love with her. Granted, she's very attractive and that certainly has a lot to do with it, but it's more than her looks. She's just, she's just I don't know...she's just great.

I have stuck by Jenny through thick and thin as a fan of her band and as a solo artist (I happen to think Under the Blacklight is a tremendously underrated record and though not as smitten with Acid Tongue as I expected, I still managed to whittle it down to a pretty classic EP) but upon my first listen of Rabbit Fur Coat I, and many others, knew this was an artist that was sticking around no matter what.

I went to see Rilo Kiley on their More Adventurous tour and after they played "I Never" (a beautiful ballad that is a highlight of the band's output) an older guy turned to me and said "now why don't they just make a record of songs like that?" Well, they never made that record, but Jenny did and it's called Rabbit Fur Coat. Rabbit Fur Coat owes as much to blue eyed soul as it does country. It's a record of twists and turns and it was a truly star making turn for Jenny Lewis. The comparisons to early Linda Rondstadt are apt, but if you ask me Jenny's better.

Jenny's decision to employ backing vocals from the Watson Twins was a brilliant one and their contribution to the record cannot be overstated, as they make an already sparkling record shimmer. While Jenny's the star of the show, of course, it's refreshing to see her share billing with the Twins as they make Rabbit Fur Coat the classic I believe it is.

59.) Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2007)

2009-10-27T13:40:00.000-07:00

For Emma, Forever Ago is a record so steeped in lore that it's story has become an integral part of ones enjoyment of it. You probably know this already, but should you not, For Emma, Forever Ago was recorded by one dude, Justin Vernon, in his father's Wisconsin cabin after a particularly difficult break-up (or two, he also broke his band up in this process) in the dead of winter. Making For Emma was supposed to be a cathartic experience for an audience of, well, a few. Regardless of Vernon's intentions, the record ended up becoming one of the most buzzed about of the decade and made an unlikely superstar out of the man that made it.

And, make no mistake about it, For Emma, Forever Ago is a gorgeous record and the heaps of praise bestowed upon it are more than justified. For Emma was an absolute phenomenon - originally self released where it gained some buzz and then picked up by indie label jagjaguar shortly after and immediately becoming THE indie rock record of 2007.

For Emma, Forever Ago may make you sad, I'm sure it's had that effect on some people, but ultimately it's transcendent in its sadness. I have this weird desire to be able to feel that sad. To be able to tap into these feelings the way Vernon does. It just seems so cathartic and in many ways, romantic. Imagine just taking months out of your life to hole yourself up in a cabin and then coming away from that experience with these songs...with a bona fide masterpiece. It takes guts to do that. And the fact that that wasn't even his plan...well, artists you know?

I've listened to For Emma, Forever Ago quite often since it's release and it never ceases to impress me. Most records that go through the hype machine the way this one did emerge a bit worse for wear, but For Emma never does. I think it's because it's so raw. It's so honest. The content is the very definition of beauty and you can see it when you close your eyes. The snow turning to ice on the trees. The wind knocking against the windows. These songs feel like that, they feel like winter and I guess if you don't love that, you may not love this record quite as much as I do.

60.) Ghostface Killah - Fishscale (2006)

2009-10-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

Ghostface Killah is my favorite rapper.

There you have it. No one, to me, is as adept at creating what could be cinema with his rhymes. I've often thought of Ghost as the Martin Scorcesse of rap. I can see his stories play out in vivid pictures in my head when I listen to a great Ghost track and Fishscale is chock full of them - what he calls on "The Champ" "verbal street opera".

Ghost's shit is grimy, never pretty but it's also wonderfully offbeat and witty. The samples and beats are good, but they take a sure-fire backseat to Ghost who is always the star of the show as he should be. He's got a way about him. He's a star. He can be scary as shit, but he's also lovable as hell. Ghost has a sense of humor and is one of the few rappers unafraid to be vulnerable - a truly ballsy thing in the very dick swinging world of hip hop.

Ghost is absolutely nuts on Fishscale. "Kilo" has a sing-along alphabet-like chorus that explains how to measure coke for distribution. "Shaky Dog" is an absolute masterpiece - the story of a robbery gone bad that concludes with Ghost warning the listener that it's "to be continued" and I'm still waiting for the sequel. There's "9 Milli Bros" - the best Wu Tang track since their first record. There's "Back Like That" a Ne-Yo guesting slow jam that shows the softer side of Ghost and of course "Underwater" wherein Ghost sings about fucking a mermaid long before The Lonely Island and T-Pain did.

One of the most unique things about Ghost is his love of and subsequent use of soul music in his recordings. It gives Ghost's records a timeless feel and it's all over Fishscale. The shades of music past are present and it makes for a better and more interesting listen than most hip hop full lengths released this decade, that it's not even the best record he released in the 2000s is almost impossible to believe...but it's true.

61.) Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News (2004)

2009-10-22T13:26:00.000-07:00

The fact that Modest Mouse, a left of center rock band with a lisped lead singer, managed to have a bona fide Billboard hit "Song of the Summer" candidate was strange enough, that said song was a wholly unironic suggestion that in the end everything will turn out alright is one of the most wonderfully weird things to happen in pop music this decade.

"Float On" is a killer single. It works on every level and absolutely deserved to be the hit song that launched Modest Mouse into countless living rooms, but I always wonder what those "Float On" people thought when they brought Good News For People Who Love Bad News home and put it on for the first time.

They were probably on board to start. "The World At Large" is inoffensive enough and "Float On" is the barnburner and second single "The Ocean Breathes Salty" is darker, but doesn't really sound it, you know? But then it gets fun as "Bury Me With It" is a blistering assault with a trademark Isaac Brock lung shredding chorus (especially on the word "PLEASE!!!")

This is where Modest Mouse newbies either jumped off or went along for the ride. If they stuck around they were rewarded with one of the most twisted pop records of that year. "Dance Hall" is a what-the-fuck-should-have-been-a-throwaway but somehow has managed to define that record for me because it's so immediately uninviting with it's staccato arrangement and indecipherable lyrics, but fuck if it's not catchy as hell.

And from there it goes on. Good News For People Who Love Bad News is a typically reliable Modest Mouse record. It's a funhouse of left turns, quotable lyrics and definitive moments like "The View" and "Black Cadillacs." Modest Mouse, like Spoon, don't make duds. They come to play and are constantly looking to best themselves. For me personally, they are this generations Pixies only (gasp!) better. Good News may not be their best record but it still manages to find pretty good placing on this list which is about all that needs to be said in it's favor.

62.) John Vanderslice - Cellar Door (2004)

2009-10-21T12:52:00.000-07:00

From one of the catchiest and easy-to-like pop gems of the decade to one of the strangest.

Cellar Door was my first John Vanderslice record and since then he's become one of my favorite artists - but there's a special place in my heart for Cellar Door. I cannot tell you why I bought this record. I'm sure there was press and I had read it and it probably sounded like something I'd like, so I bought it. But previously John Vanderslice was not on my radar even though he was associated with bands that I already grown to love.

Listening to this record was something of a revelation. It was pop music, but it wasn't any kind of pop music I had been previously associated with. It's weird...and dark and meticulously crafted which at times makes it feel sort of cold, but not in a bad way if that makes sense. It's highly produced, but not over produced. There's a lot going on but it feels spare. It's a record full of wonderfully strange contradictions.

What was most appealing to me about Vanderslice at the time was what a great storyteller he was. He paints vivid pictures of characters, most notably the unhappy man held in check by his powerful family in "They Won't Let Me Run" as well as a group of men sadly fighting their own demons while also fighting in various wars in "Heated Pool and Bar." These songs are so effective in putting the listener somewhere and as a lyric guy myself, I was so intrigued by them.

I have very vivid memories of falling in love with Cellar Door. I was a Page at NBC when the record came out and still lived at home. I had about a three hour round trip commute and this was the beginning of 2004 and believe it or not, I didn't yet have an ipod. I would lug a discman on the train and literally listen to Cellar Door over and over and over again - something people tend to not do very much anymore. It was also the dead of winter (the record was released in January). Cellar Door immediately drops me back in those moments and there are only a few records that still do that for me. These are the records that are so of a place and time for you personally that they always have some emotional effect on you. Cellar Door is a record that while I don't necessarily relate to many of the characters is still an incredibly personal one for me.

I was 23.

Fuck.

63.) The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (2000)

2009-10-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

Mass Romantic the record opens with "Mass Romantic" the song - an immediate hook-filled pronouncement by a band with enough chops that they would go on to more or less preside over the indie rock world for this entire decade. In 2000 though The New Pornographers were just a cleverly titled side project of some yet to be all that successful Canadian pop-heads. They were, and still are, led by Carl Newman who can best be described as this generations (add your own old pop genius here. I like Robyn Hitchcock.) So, in short The New Pornographers are awesome.

Mass Romantic was a refreshing return to pop for indie rock - a world that had become saddled by a whole lot of sad sack-y moping and if not that exactly then just a general lack of fun. But The Pornographers were certainly fun while still taking their arrangements seriously. These songs are superbly crafted pop gems that should have all been hits. "The Slow Descent into Alcoholism" may not sound like the sunniest topic to write a song about, but holy shit - it's one of the catchiest things I've ever heard.

When Mass Romantic was released in 2000, I was a junior in college and I was just finishing up a pop punk phase that had steered me through high school and right about up to that point (mostly Fat Wreck Chords, Epitaph and Lookout bands - things like that). Mass Romantic sort of re-invigorated a love of indie rock and more importantly, pop music, that was always there, but had been laying a little dormant. They are, in my opinion, so much more than just a supergroup, so much more than a side project - they're probably one of the top five bands of this decade and certainly one of my faves period. That this, their debut, sounds as good today as it did nearly nine years ago is amazing. It hasn't aged a day. It's gotten better.

Mass Romantic is also the home of the definitive New Pornographers song, the one that - if you're only gonna be able to listen to one - would probably it...the great, "Letter From An Occupant." It's rollicking and driving and the harmonies are seemingly off-kilter but at the same time absolutely perfect and it's Neko...oh Neko. What can I say? "Letter From An Occupant", like the rest of Mass Romantic and the whole New Pornographer canon is more than a song. It makes you want to be a New Pornographer. It makes you feel like you're at a party with these people who are having more fun than any other group of people has ever had in the history of fun and times, which is the greatest feeling a band can give you.

Plus the lyric, "I've cried five rivers on the way here/Which one will you skate away on?"

64.) Jay-Z - The Black Album (2003)

2009-10-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

The Black Album was, famously, supposed to be Jay-Z's last record. His retirement record. Regardless, there wasn't much fear from Hova's fans that this would actually be it - meaning we didn't feel like we were going to be hearing Jay's last record...until we heard it.

I'm not saying Jay fooled us - he didn't - but what he did do was a craft a record that felt like a swan song and had he actually hung it up, it would have been a high note to go out on. He would have, effectively, quit while he was ahead.

But, of course the Jay-Z retirement was like many retirements before it - all hype and Jay has since returned with records both triumphant (American Gangster) and disappointing (Kingdom Come), but The Black Album was the last time that Jay put together something completely and totally brilliant. In 2003 Jay was the best rapper alive. Bar none. No arguments.

Only Jay could open a record with his mother speaking about how he was the only one of her children to not give her any pain, which made her know that he was "a special child." It's so self-important and bragadocious and in any other hands it would have been as eye-rolly as possible, but here it works. I still can't explain why, but it does. "Encore", "Change Clothes", "Dirt Off Your Shoulder", "99 Problems", "PSA", "What More Can I Say"- all classics. All indelible, unforgettable moments on a record filled with them.

My favorite Jay-Z song happens to be The Black Album's "Threat." It just feels truer than anything else. It's spare, relying on the beat and a single piano loop and puts the spotlight on Jay the storyteller. It's a song about a famous guy who has it all, but still - even then - he's got to be on his toes. It's as paranoid a hip hop track as has ever been recorded thrown smack dab in the middle of an otherwise triumphant victory lap. It's a weird, but ultimately bold choice that sums up the artist - wonderfully complicated

65.) Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose (2004)

2009-10-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

Country music is a funny thing. It's not cool, you know? A lot of people talk about how they hate country music. You know these people, they're the same people who when asked what kind of music they like they say something along the lines of "I like everything...except country" (some of these people also say "I like everything except country...and rap" but they're just racist).

Anyway.

These people who blindly hate country music have probably never listened to country music. Sure, they may have heard a Brad Paisley tune or some Big and Rich and Faith Hill, but come on?! Country music is the single most misunderstood genre of music period. When country is good, I'd argue, it's some of the best music there is, but when it's bad it's Shania Twain - so it's a tough road to navigate. But if you're interested Loretta Lynn is not a bad place to start.

Country music is so uniquely American and Lynn is one of it's greatest treasures. She's always written and performed with raw and honest emotion and it's no different here on what may be the best record of her career. Jack White has always made his fondness for Lynn's music known, covering her classic "Rated X" in concert and dedicating The White Stripes' whitebloodcells to her and as a producer he's managed to bring out the absolute best in this heralded artist.

Van Lear Rose was certainly a comeback record for Lynn, but novelty it is not. This is not an artist phoning it in and trying to make a buck, rather it's one with a invigorated sense of creativity and she's used it to make a classic country record. It's at time a lot of fun ("Portland, Oregon") and others emotionally wrought ("Miss Being Mrs.") - but it's all around brilliant. It's Loretta Lynn in rare form making a record not because she has to but because she was inspired and that makes all the difference.

66.) Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)

2009-10-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

Interpol are annoying. What with their outfits and hair and Carols D and everything. But in 2002 they made a record. It was really, really great.

They were still annoying, but they managed to be annoying second and pretty awesome first. Living in New York I, of course, grew to eye roll when someone would bring Interpol up and I've had bouts of revisionist history where I've convinced myself that even Turn on the Bright Lights was an overrated record. It's not.

Some of my favorite bands are Joy Division and Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure and The Psychedelic Furs - yes, I love 80's "new wave." I love it a lot. It didn't soundtrack my youth, but yes, it did. It's timeless teenage mope music. I bring this up because you couldn't read a sentence about Interpol in 2002 without stumbling across a Joy Division comparison. Do Interpol sound like Joy Division and the other bands I mentioned? Yes. But in a good way. And "Subway, she is a porno" so...

Turn on the Bright Lights is often talked about as being very "of a particular moment." I don't know what that means seeing as how this sound was very "of a particular moment" almost 20 years before Turn on the Bright Lights was even conceived. I will say this, listening to Turn on the Bright Lights brings me back to that specific time and place in my life more than most records, so maybe they're right.

It was 2002. I was 22. I had just graduated college and was teaching seventh grade and living back at home with my parents in Queens. On the weekends, I would head to the city and sleep on my friend Mike's couch. He lived on west 8th street, across the street from the Grey's Papaya. We were young. Had no real worries yet. It was a great time. Turn on the Bright Lights was one of the records that soundtracked that year. That these were New York guys singing about New York and hanging out in the same bars that I was added a bit to the mix, I'm sure.

My affection for Turn on the Bright Lights isn't only sentimental, I still happen to think it's a great record. Songs like "NYC", "PDA" and "Obstacle 1" are some of the best and most enduring of the decade. It may not be the most original record of the aughts, but whatever. If it was, I doubt I'd like it as much anyway.

67.) Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)

2009-10-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

Because I'm not British, I came late to the Arctic Monkeys party and by late I mean not six months before they released their spectacular debut, Whatever People Say I Am That Is What I'm Not. I was there when the record came out, but in this day and age that still makes you a latecomer.

"You haven't heard the EP's?!!!"

No.

Anyway, I probably should have been predisposed to hate Arctic Monkeys. The signs were all there - stupid band name, the fact they're kids (hardscrabble kids, yes but kids nonetheless) and then, of course there's the hype machine. But what they also had was a great record and in the end that's the most important thing.

Say what you want about Alex Turner, but you can't deny he's one a helluva lyric writer. His songs are filled with minute details that make them pop and the thing I like most about Arctic Monkeys is they write what they know - getting into fights, hanging out at clubs, run-ins with the cops, misadventures with girls - and this gives these songs an energetic authenticity that their actual youth compliments.

Alex Turner has proven to be a very prolific diarist - releasing two more good to great Monkeys records and one with his side project The Last Shadow Puppets since Whatever People Say's release in2006, but it's still Whatever People Say that captures the moment more than any other. Here are a bunch of blue collar raised kids going from zero to a hundred in a blink of an eye while singing about being blue collar kids. It's a great story and so far no one's fucked it up, so that's adds an extra level.

The only thing working against them is the fact that Whatever People Say concludes with "A Certain Romance" and it's not going to be easy for the boys to best that song. It's the standout on the record and of the band's entire catalog. It's a truly great moment as it's the most mature song on the record and a sure sign that they can wax a bit intellectually about all the fights they're getting into. They know it's not always sexy, but (and perhaps more importantly) they also know that sometimes it still is.

68.) Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

2009-10-07T14:25:00.000-07:00

Eminem has always elicited, in me, contradictory feelings. On the one hand at his best (here) he's a gifted artist and as technically proficient a rapper as has ever been and on the other hand he's still these things but he's also a misogynistic homophobe who relishes in tales of murdering his wife.

Hmmm... What to do. What to do

I've certainly had a hard time with a lot of Em's work, but even as brutal as it gets, and it can get brutal (I always have a particularly hard time with "Kim") I have a certain fondness for The Marshall Mathers LP. For my money, It's Em's best work as an artist and as a producer. As a whole it works better than anything he's ever done and "Stan" will always stand as being one of the greatest, and certainly most interesting rap singles ever released.

Back in 2000 when The Marshall Mathers LP was released, Eminem was a controversy courting and very polarizing artist whose work was simultaneously lauded and derided. Now, no one really cares. That's amazing to me. I know he still records and his last record went number 1 and all, but shit, it didn't register a blip on my radar. I hated that single.

I figured Eminem was an artist that was going to be reckoned with for a long, long time. An artist that would challenge the public constantly by using his flaws to point out ours, but instead he's still writing Mariah Carey diss tracks in 2009. While it's clear I've struggled with his work, he was at least doing that - causing me and others to struggle to like his music despite the sometimes unsavory topics.

Now, he's just boring.

But, there was a moment back in 2000 when Slim Shady was it and I can't take that away from him. Listening to The Marshall Mathers LP today, it is clear that despite what's become of Mr. Mathers, he had at least one sharp, devastating, classic record in him. The Marshall Mathers LP hits the same marks today that it set out to nearly ten years ago and that's the mark of a truly great record.

But it still looses points for "Ken Kaniff."

69.) Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies (2006)

2009-10-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

"Dueling cyclones jackknife/They make eyes at your wife/And the blood that lives in her/Heart"

WTF?!!!

So begins "Rubies" the opening track to Destroyer's greatest achievement to date Destroyer's Rubies and, incidentally, the single best almost ten minute song of the decade. A lot can be made of "Rubies" - for starters if you don't like it, well then you won't like Destroyer. It's lyrically dense and long and probably a little bit self indulgent. It takes no clear course, but rather it unfolds in directions one may not expect, but if you deconstruct the track it's actually a really great pop song.

That's Destroyer. Come in and join the part or don't. Either way.

Destroyer's Rubies is Dan Bejar's strongest full length album as statement (though you mat get a mouthful from those die-hards who will hear of nothing other than Streethawk: A Seduction) and also his most easy to like. Dan Bejar's a weird dude and so is a lot of music. He's rubbed me the wrong way at times just for coming off, and I'm coining a term here, "way-way-hipster" and that's not to say it doesn't exist on Destroyer's Rubies, it does, but it's toned down a bit. Take "Painter in Your Pocket" - it becomes a goddamn sing-along by the time it reaches it's climax. Also, "European Oils"? Come on...

I've had a very difficult time trying to get people behind this record and I have one friend in particular, Sarah Walker I'm looking at you, who when I make a record request now meets it with "It's not like that fucking Destroyer album is it?" And I can't fault her for that. I get that it can be off putting, but I also remember how enraptured I was by "Rubies" when I first heard it . There are times that I think I may overrate the record as a whole because of how much I love that song. This may be the case, but the fact that I still listen to the whole thing after that strong an opening track alleviates those fears just a bit.

And also, the cover is great.

70.) LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver (2007)

2009-09-25T13:14:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago, I saw James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) on 13th street and 1st Avenue. It happened quickly and I had no time to prepare (we were crossing the avenue on opposite sides with a yellow light) and all I said was "James Murphy!" and he turned and smiled.

That was it. He was probably confused. He probably thought I was some weird dude he went to high school with rather than an ardent fan of his work as LCD Soundsystem, but that's his charm. James Murphy doesn't look like a rock star and he certainly doesn't look like a guy who would be one of the most important and interesting names in dance music period. In Murphy's world fashion and music do not go hand in hand. It doesn't matter. I think that's why he makes great music.

LCD Soundsystem is often called dance-punk and while I'm not usually one for broad labels, that one actually works. What I love about Sound of Silver is that it is, first and foremost, dance music, but when you think of dance music you think of singles and not fully realized records. That's where Sound of Silver confounds. It is a fully formed dance record and as such it is sequenced to perfection from the opening salvo "Get Innocuous!" through the sublime middle of "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" right until the closer - Murphy's subdued and beautiful tribute of sorts to his city - "New York I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down."

I was a fan of the early LCD singles and, consequently, of the first record, but I feel like even those didn't prepare me for how clear and concise a record Sound of Silver was going to be. I immersed myself in it, initially and it was incredibly easy to do so. Records came and went that year, and I like a lot of them, but I kept finding myself going back to Sound of Silver. I think I related to it a bit. Murphy stares getting older in the face and spits in it. You don't have to just pack it in because you're not supposed to have fun in your thirties. Fuck that.

Here's the thing about Sound of Silver, as I sit here listening to it while writing this it's clear to me it's not positioned right. This fucking thing is a stone cold classic. I'm gonna be listening to this thing for weeks now. It's even better than I remember it and I remember it really fucking fondly. Unfortunately reordering and shuffling things around on the list isn't really in the cards right now. But if you're reading this know that I've made a huge mistake. And obviously it's "Someone Great" blaring in these headphones that's making me realize it.

I literally chucked everything I was going to say about the record to say this - it's probably a top 20. I'm embarrassed by it's placement on this list now. Sound of Silver fucking rules.

71.) The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America (2006)

2009-09-23T12:41:00.000-07:00

In your life there are bands and there are BANDS! For me The Hold Steady is a BAND.

The Hold Steady are without question my favorite band of this decade. I love everything about them and I love them all-in. There's nothing they can do that will change the admiration and adoration I have for them.

By the time Boys and Girls in America was released, my relationship with The Hold Steady had been well established so I wasn't surprised when a wider audience followed suit and fell in love with this great, great band.

When you love a band as I do The Hold Steady you want to tell everyone about them. You want to shout their praise from rooftops, you want to grab people on the street and shake them and say "this is the stuff that you've been waiting for. It will make you happy." and I think I kind of did that and in some cases it worked.

The Hold Steady make music because it makes them happy to make music and further it makes them happy when other people are made happy by the music they make. This is why The Hold Steady are so hard not to fall for. If you haven't seen The Hold Steady live, it's unlike anything in the world. It's a community of like-minded grown ups congregated in one place to act like kids again - to clap along, to shout along, to dance along and to smile along. There are no airs. It doesn't matter what kind of clothes your wearing or how old you are, we're all friends at a Hold Steady show.

If this sounds like some sort of utopia, it kind of is and if you're not on board yet, don't worry there's always room.

Anyway, I realize I've said a whole lot, but I haven't said much about Boys and Girls in America. It's their third record. It's amazing. It was, probably, their big breakthrough album and it has some of their most popular songs. They play a lot of these songs if you should see them live. Learn the words, so you can sing along and learn the parts where you should clap and you'll be fine. It doesn't disappoint at all. It's completely unpretentious and melodic and there's big chorus' and E Street bravado and guitar solos and songs about horses and John Berryman and kids partying at the party pit on massive nights in the chillout tent.

It's all very great. It's all very Hold Steady.

72.) Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (2007)

2009-09-23T12:05:00.000-07:00

Well what the hell were they gonna do?

All the accolades, press and buzz that came with the release of Arcade Fire's debut record Funeral made Neon Bible the most anticipated second record of the decade and as far as I'm concerned they did a pretty damn good job with it.

How does one criticize Neon Bible really? Arcade Fire were scrutinized to no end and turns out they made a fine, dare I say, a great record. The fact that it's not as good as Funeral is mostly irrelevant. There weren't many records released this year as good as Funeral so... who cares? They certainly fared better than co-blogosphere heroes Clap Your Hans Say Yeah when it came to that second record - shit, CYHSY didn't even survive it.

Neon Bible avoids all traces of a "sophomore slump" because It's an entirely different type of record than Funeral. First of all it's themes are wildly public and less personal, which explains why it feels, at times, a bit colder than Funeral. While Funeral (and I'll stop the comparisons after this I promise) sounded like nothing else, Neon Bible sounds like Bruce Springsteen, which at the time seemed crazy but as it turns out was actually a really great fit.

Springsteen -at his best- wrote about bleak topics but arranged the music in a way that clouded what was actually going on in the song. He was often boisterous - and Arcade Fire have done that in spades on Neon Bible. As a matter of fact if you burned someone, who has never heard it, a copy of Darkness on the Edge of Town and shoehorned "(Antichrist Television Blues)" in there somewhere that person wouldn't bat an eye. They'd think it was Bruce. And that song's about Joe Simpson, so it just goes to show how timeless Springsteen's sound is.

But let's talk about Arcade Fire. Again, they were given an impossible task the second pitchfork wrote that first sentence about Funeral (not to mention the night David Bowie started showing up at small NY clubs to see them) and if they managed to simply not embarrass themselves this second time out, it would have been a success. That they made a tough, insightful record about despair and corruption on a widescreen level that works and sounds great is a miracle.

Every record Arcade Fire make will be compared to Funeral. That's their cross to bare, but they're aware of it. After all, they named the record after John Kennedy Toole's less successful second novel. As long as they can keep figuring out new ways to sound this good, they're poised to be one of the great bands of this generation.

73.) The Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South (2004)

2009-09-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of this list talking about great songwriters and even recently called John Darnielle the Albert Pujols of contemporary songwriting. And I certainly stand by that. He's an amazing songwriter. But he's just one guy.

By the time The Dirty South was released in 2004, The Drive-By Truckers boasted three superb songwriters in their line-up - Patterson Hood, Mike Cooley and the since departed Jason Isbell - and though they were together for only a short while (three records) the legacy of that line-up lives on in their records.

I'm a guy from New York who loves country music. But, there's a caveat because I'm a real snob when it comes to the genre. I hate when pop singers try to pass themselves off as "country" so they can have a number one record and I hate slickly produced country music when it should be down and dirty and it should tell a story. The Drive-by Truckers have probably been more countryfied on previous records, but The Dirty South is still country music at it's best.

The Truckers tell fourteen stories on this record, some loosely tied together others bonded by a specific theme and characters. The themes are dense and heady, but the songs are played with an abandon that renders them accessible.

The Dirty South is a record fully and truly about the South. That's probably the most important thing about it. It's a record captures something because that is what it sets out to do. The designs were grand, but they were met full on.

In their lyrics the Truckers give voices to characters most artists wouldn't even attempt to write about. Whether writing about a man who has to turn to selling drugs after loosing his job at the Ford plant in the Reagan era (the classic "Puttin' People on the Moon") or turning the Buford Pusser saga on its head by telling the story from the gang that beat him's point of view (the three songs suite "The Boys From Alabama", "Cottonseed", and "The Buford Stick"), no one is left out in the Truckers universe and songwriting in this decade is richer for it.

I am a huge DBTs fan. Huge. They are one of my favorite bands and The Dirty South was not a surprise to me. I have come to expect to hear great things whenever the Truckers release a new record and that has consistently been the case since I started listening to them back in 2002.

Having said that, The Dirty South feels like a watershed moment for the band. The record stands alone in the canon as the time when this particular line-up jelled in a way they maybe hadn't before and wouldn't again. For a full seventy minutes (an eternity for a record these days) you're in and you're with them because they don't give you a choice. They wrote some of their finest songs for this record and presented them as a fully realized work about a place, but no specific time. It's an epic record that spans decades and looks at what is truth and what is fiction and how sometimes fictionalized truth is the truest truth of all (jeez - pretentiobot much!)

Also, The Dirty South has "Danko/Manuel" and "Goddamn Lonely Love" and if Jason Isbell ever writes a better song than either of them I won't know what to do.

74.) Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)

2009-09-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Well, would you look at that - two Neko Case-related entries in a row. Huh?

Neko Case is, without a doubt, one of the premier artists of this decade. As noted in just the last post, her work with The New Pronographers has been nothing short of sublime, but her solo output has been just as strong (As a matter of fact, when all is said and done I think Neko will be the most represented artist on this list). Prior to the release of Fox Confessor in 2006, Neko released, up to that point, her strongest solo studio effort with Blacklisted in 2002. A couple of Pornos records as well as a nice little live record in between and then this...which saw Neko take her game to the next level and she hasn't relinquished her spot at the top since.

Blacklisted is good, but Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is incredible. You can call Neko's solo work alt-country all you want and I don't frown on "alt-country" as a rule its just Fox Confessor is not alt-country. I don't know what it is really. It's a woman with a strong point of view and, what I assume to be, some serious creative control making records that sound (cliche alert-apologies) like a little bit of everything and then ultimately nothing else.

Someone, somewhere (I think AllMusic) said that Neko is part Patsy Cline, part David Lynch. I'm not going to try and describe her any better than that. There's an eerieness that runs through Fox Confessor and, for whatever reason, it's not off putting in the slightest - in fact it's intriguing. It feels like there's a mystery in there that needs to be unraveled and maybe that's why I keep going back to it. The joy, though, is in not uncovering the mystery because once you do there's no need to go back.

All told, Neko's got one of the strongest weapons in music and that is her voice. I love it so much because it's strong and still subtle. She never beats you over the head with unnecessary runs even though she could. I think she respects the music too much.

Fox Confessor Brings the Flood is not a pop record (she leaves that to her work with the Pornos). I like to call it backwoods Americana. It's haunting, but it's sexy too. If that makes sense. It's the kind of record that would sound right at home playing while you sit in the dark fending off flies on a bayou somewhere while you sip moonshine. If that even exists. If it doesn't this record could sure as hell score a great fictional movie about it.

75.) The New Pornographers - Challengers (2007)

2009-09-18T09:54:00.000-07:00

Challengers. Hmmm...

For the most part this list isn't adventurous. You can probably guess what's going to be on it and probably have a good idea as to what will show up in the top 10 or so. That's how it goes. There aren't many truly great records. There's a lot of good ones, but great ones are often hard to come by, especially in this digital age. So, with the exception of a few wild cards (most of which have already been played) the best records of the decade are the best records of the decade because, well because they're the best records of the decade. Does that make any sense? In a long winded way, I'm trying to say there won't be a whole lot of underrated records on this list. Most of them will be rated exactly right as being great four or more star records.

Challengers is underrated. Criminally underrated. It's a great record and for some reason it didn't get a lot of love. It's a difficult task to follow up a "breakthrough" record and though the New Pornographers had been making great records for a while, it was their third record, Twin Cinema, that really proved they were one of the best bands working. So, what to do with the fourth.

I call these records the come-down record. The record where you've got to reassess everything. You've got to come correct this time out, it's important, but it's equally important to try and do something different and The New Pronographers did just that on Challengers. Traditionally come-down records are just that - come-downs. They're usually a little slower in tempo and speed and have that feel of insecurity. Well, the Pornos certainly scaled it back a notch, but it's anything but insecure.

Challengers shows a band so assured of their own abilities and comfortable enough in their own skin that they don't feel the need to write "Twin Cinema 2". Challengers is certainly a more subdued affair, but it's an incredibly impressive one. To be fair it's certainly not dour - there are some barn burners here- but it definitely shines a new light on the band.

Challengers boasts the best Dan Bejar composition for the band to date in "Myriad Harbour", Neko's best NP vocal in "Challengers", Katherine Calder coming into her own as a band member with a bravura performance on "Adventures in Solitude" and for my money, the best run of three consecutive songs in pop music this decade - "Go Places", "Mutiny, I Promise You" and the aforementioned "Adventures..."

Ok, so there's nothing as immediate as "Bleeding Heart Show" on Challengers - good. We don't need one every time out and if there was one people would probably complain about that as well. Here's the deal - Challengers may feel like a let-down to start - it's not an immediate pop masterpiece - but it's their most complex record by a mile and I hope it wasn't people's short attention span that hindered them from realizing this.

76.) The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree (2005)

2009-09-17T11:56:00.000-07:00

I should start this entry by saying John Darnielle, who essentially is The Mountain Goats, is the best songwriter of this decade. I have and will continue to reference a slew of great songwriters on this list, many of whom play in the same league as Darnielle but who are not, in fact John Darnielle. If songwriting were Major League Baseball, Darnielle would be Albert Pujols. He's got competition, but he's still the best.

Anyway, The Sunset Tree was a different type of Mountain Goats album in that it was really the first time Darnielle got personal. He spent a career crafting characters and setting the trials and tribulation to song and, more often then not, singing them into a boom box and spearheading a second coming of the lo-fi movement.

The Sunset Tree was a huge risk. Darnielle stepped out of his comfort zone and began singing songs about himself -more specifically about his abusive childhood at the hand of his stepfather. Tough topics, but Darnielle approached these songs the way he did his character studies and created a record so vivid you felt like you were there. You could smell the liquor on a young Darnielle's breath in "This Year" (Darnielle's greatest song and a Top 5 song of the decade) and you feel his fear when he wakes his stepfather up in "Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod."

The record plays like a novel, sad and emotional but hopeful. It's about the importance of music in all of our lives. Darnielle uses music to escape the screams of his stepfather and the abuse (in "Tetrapod" while his stepfather hits him his only hope is that he doesn't break his stereo). And I understand that. Not the "getting beat up by someone you should trust" part, but the "music can heal most anything" part. Most of us can, I'd imagine. Music is a retreat for so many of us. It's gotten us through hardship and been there during times of happiness and ultimately that's why it's so important. It's why I make these lists. I want to celebrate it. It's my constant.

It's interesting to think of some kid listening to The Sunset Tree while going through something similar to Darnielle, but it's probably happened and I'm sure that kid finds hope in the record. That's pretty great. It's a really beautiful record and Darnielle is really a fantastic artist who has managed to make consistent great records for a long time. He's an artist who I look forward to hearing every single time out. The Sunset Tree is not the exception as much as it's the rule.

(NOTE: While I am not an advocate for listening to songs vs. records, I'll say this - if you've never heard a Mountain Goats song listen to "This Year" - it's about as perfect a song that has ever been written and then just think about how good all the rest of them must be.)

77.) Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy (2005)

2009-09-14T13:20:00.000-07:00

There are about a half dozen bands that I've discovered this decade that have managed to make the leap into the "some of my favorite bands" conversation. Okkervil River are one such band.

Black Sheep Boy was my first Okkervil River and therefore it's a record I have a strong attachment to. I bought Black Sheep Boy on a whim. It had sort of been on my radar for a while before I actually bought it, but for one reason or another I just kept forgetting about it. It wasn't that it didn't sound interesting or sound like something I wouldn't immediately fall in love with, but I guess there were just other things.

But then there are times when you can vividly remember getting something and how that something remained a part of your life for a long, long time. I used to be able to buy records at a greater pace than I am now and would love to go to the record store and just browse and this is how I came to own Black Sheep Boy.

I didn't even remember what it was exactly, but I knew I had heard of it and had meant to get it that someone somewhere talked about it being pretty great. So on a high of that wonderful lost thing called disposable income, Black Sheep Boy made its way into my collection. And then I heard WIll Sheff's voice tear through "For Real" (which is still my go to Okkervil song) and I was under the spell of Black Sheep Boy.

Black Sheep Boy is one of those records I'm thankful I got to hear and even though I would go on to like subsequent Okkervil River records better, none of them can match the feeling of discovery I had with Black Sheep Boy. That moment where I looked around my room and thought "Holy Shit, I'm sad no one else is here to hear this. Why doesn't everyone know this exists? Why did it take me this long to find this?" It was not unlike the first time I heard In The Aeroplane Over the Sea, another one of my favorite records which I sadly came to very late.

Will Sheff sings with a lot of heartache - words drip out, even in the uptempo songs - and I can understand how that can be a bit much for people. Some of Okkervil River's critics have mislabled them as being a bit emo, which is quite absurd as they are one of those bands that you can't easily fit into a category. Will Sheff writes literate songs that, at their best, resemble great short fiction and a lot of the best fiction is devastating. Okkervil River are no different.

Black Sheep Boy certainly provided the doorway for me but my relationship with the band would progress a great deal from there as I would move backward through the discography and forward as new records were released and it's turned out to be one of the most fulfilling relationships I've had all decade long.

NOTE: An EP was released following Black Sheep Boy called Black Sheep Boy Appendix and the record itself was reissued with said EP called Black Sheep Boy:Definitive Edition. I prefer the record without the appendix, though said appendix is a nice companion piece it's the record itself that I fell in love with.

78.) Panda Bear - Person Pitch (2007)

2009-09-11T13:07:00.000-07:00

The thing about Person Pitch is that it's really, really lovely. I'm sure I'm not the first person to say this, but the record reminds me of what it's like to look through a kaleidoscope. It's weird and a bit trippy, but also really beautiful in it's own singular way and Person Pitch is a very singular work. Yes, there are influences (you can't write about it without obligatorily mentioning The Beach Boys, so done) but it's the type of record that couldn't come from any other artist and on top of that it's the kind of record that you can tell almost immediately was being made and crafted by that artist alone, singularly and probably in his bedroom. Which is actually pretty amazing.

Person Pitch is hippie music updated for the 2000's. It has the familiarity of its melodies sitting side by side with more experimental soundscapes created by samples and the thing that holds it all together - Noah Lennox's (Panda Bear) lush, warm and inviting vocals. It's interesting that a record so insular in the way it was crafted could be, in its finished product, such a populace experience. I like to listen to Person Pitch on headphones and I think in some ways it's meant to be listened to that way - on account of the nuances and the thousand different things going on that you won't pick up when listening from speakers - but it oftentimes feels more like a record you should play for your friends...at a picnic...on a hill...made of grass...and probably while your high.

There's a loose feel to Person Pitch even though it's not loose at all. It's a very structured affair, but it couldn't feel any less so. This a testament to Lennox and Lennox only. The cover of the record, as well as some photos inside are very telling of Panda Bear's process. They're images cut and pasted where children are flying flowers and humans sit in an inflatable pool with bears and lions. These images reflect the theme of the record - "Well why the hell not?" It's Panda's style - whose to say disparate things don't belong together? - and he uses both the aural as well as the visual to convey his bright themes.

Buy records, people. The actual media. You can't get this shit from a computer.

Anyway, there's no discussing Person Pitch without discussing it's centerpiece - the beautiful "Bros". If Person Pitch was released and "Bros" was the only track on it, it would still be here on this list - the fact that there are other almost equally stunning songs on it is just gravy. "Bros" is the song of the decade - a kitchen sink look inside the brain of one of the most interesting artists making music today. It sounds like what crazy must sound like, but good crazy - the kind that's free and unencumbered by what's supposed to be. The kind of crazy that every now and again we all wish we were.

I'm closing this with an itunes user review of "Bros" that really sums it up best...

"If you've been good in life this is probably the song you will hear when you die."

79.) Titus Andronicus - The Airing of Grievances (2009)

2009-09-10T15:09:00.000-07:00

Titus Andronicus' debut album, The Airing of Grievances, is pretty close to exactly what rock 'n roll should sound like - young, vital, rollicking, imperfect, pretentious and sometimes reckless. The Airing of Grievances is not a masterpiece. In fact, it's kind of a mess. But it's one of the few records released this decade that feels alive. That's not to say it's a tossed off affair, it's not, but it is first and foremost a punk rock record for the kids...the smart kids, but the kids all the same.

Titus Andronicus have been compared favorably to bands like The Clash and Bright Eyes, but it's no secret that they owe the greatest amount of debt to a man who shares their home state - Mr. Bruce Springsteen. A lot of the better rock 'n roll released in the latter part of this decade has been dipped in E-Street sauce. This is great as Springsteen is a stellar artist and his band one of the best in rock 'n roll for sure, but it's interesting that a genre like indie rock - which was once so fond of irony and keeping fans at arms length - would embrace someone so devoid of those thing. It was a nice turn for the indie rock world as bands learned how to actually rock and, more importantly, smile.

When I first heard the Titus Andronicus record I loved it. I loved it for it's immediacy and, for better or worse, it's familiarity. Titus Andronicus aren't re-inventing the wheel here, but you get the feeling they just might be cocky enough not to realize that.

The kids in the world desperately need Titus Andronicus. They sound like you felt when you were sixteen - when you were smarter than anyone would give you credit for, but you were also drunk singing along to these choruses at a basement show. The Airing of Grievances has no airs (despite the innate pretention in the bands name) and it aims to kick your ass in the way Nirvana did in 1991 or the Libertines in 2002. This record should (and hopefully has) change(d) lives. We're probably too old for that, but if there's a fourteen year old in your life and you care about that person buy him or her this record. It'll make them start a band or at least start loving bands and their music and their tangible recorded output.

And that's what is really important.

80.) Kanye West - The College Dropout (2004)

2009-09-09T09:39:00.000-07:00

I think hip hop has suffered in the 2000's. As a genre it has gone away from being about records and has become more about the single. Whereas in the 90's you had Pac, Nas, Big, Jay, PE, Tribe, De La, Dre, Snoop,Wu Tang, Black Star, Lauryn Hill, Cube and a host of others making statements with full lengths, the 2000's have brought only a handful of artists willing to go at it for the long haul.

One of those artists is Kanye West whose recorded output in the 2000's I'll put up against virtually any other artists. Kanye, love him or hate him, is probably the most vital artist of this decade period. The College Dropout, which could have simply been a top producer's vanity project, is a classic from start to finish. Kanye would go on to release better records, but The College Dropout still feels like a statement. Sure, Kanye isn't a great rapper, but he's a great crafter of beats, melodies and songs and The College Dropout has some of his best. The singles "All Falls Down" and "Jesus Walks" are, obviously, brilliant but the record is stacked from top to bottom. There's almost no filler here (unfortunately Kanye does find himself indulging in one of the worst traits in hip hop records - the infamous "skit" and "The New Workout Plan" is as sexist and boring a track as Kanye has ever released).

Those missteps aside, The College Dropout has always reminded me of one of my favorite records of all time, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill. Like that record The College Dropout is a fully realized snapshot of a life. The record always struck me because Kanye, at the time, wasn't afraid to be insecure (especially in "All Falls Down" and more subtly in "Spaceship") and in an age where hip hop became all about the boast that was refreshing. Kanye would of course go on to become one of the cockiest artists working, but I always think that the Kanye we hear from on The College Dropout is the real guy.

I still like Kanye. He gets a pass from me, probably forever. He's such a passionate artist and it never feels as though he's half assing it. He certainly believes his own hype, but when a popular artist is as interesting as Kanye whose to say he shouldn't. There's a reason why he's emerged as the definitive artist of this decade - everyone from hip hop purists to jaded rock critics to indie kids and old school rock guys like his music. He's universal. Your mom probably even knows the refrain to "Gold Digger."

In a decade where it seemed early on that Eminem would be the big hip-hop star, Kanye pulled the rug out from under him by being adventurous and challenging and, unlike Em, he never rested on his laurels. And The College Dropout was just the beginning.

81.) David Byrne and Brian Eno - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (2009)

2009-09-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

Well, this record was certainly a surprise.

Eno and Byrne hadn't worked together since 1981 when they collaborated to record My Life In the Bush of Ghosts, a sonically adventurous, but not necessarily appealing amalgam of found sounds, ambient noise, world rhythms, and various levels of electronic elements...all in all not my thing.

And then twenty seven years later, they make this. A pop masterpiece. A record on par with the best of their Talking Heads collaborations for sure. Though Everything That Happens is certainly a collaboration between these two men, they weren't together through much of the process. Eno took care of the music and Byrne the lyrics and melody and wow, does it work.

Everything That Happens is unpretentiously uplifting. It's Byrne and Eno settling in and not concerning themselves with anything but making good, pleasant music. But here pleasant does not mean innocuous by any stretch. Everything That Happens isn't exactly bubblegum. Eno and Byrne found a very nice in-between here. The music is adventurous, the production stellar and it is one of Byrne's best vocal performances ever. It's a warm and hopeful record without ever being cheesy.

Byrne and Eno are famous for pushing the envelope a bit and it's no different here. Except this time they're pushing it by not pushing it too much. Everything That Happens is a record that will be enjoyed by anyone who likes music... basically. And that's a huge left turn. Other artists have out-bush-of-ghosts'd Bush of Ghosts by this point, so why do that again? Instead they opted to write a better pop record than virtually anyone else. A record that has provided a lot of enjoyment for me and certainly one of my most listened to records of the last few years.

I spent a good few months being addicted to Everything That Happens and found myself needing to hear certain songs (I'm feeling that way about The Antlers record right now). I don't want to say I've cooled on it because that's not the case, but I haven't been as obsessed as I was initially. But every time I play it or hear one of the songs, it brings me back to that place where last year I was scrolling through my ipod and almost always landing on Everything That Happens and almost always playing "I Fell My Stuff" over and over...and then "Home"...and then "Poor Boy" and on and on.

That's the mark of something truly great.

82.) Beck - Sea Change (2002)

2009-09-04T09:01:00.000-07:00

Beck has always been an interesting artist and one worth following, even if his tastes and constantly fluctuating styles can produce hit or miss results. But, it's hard to knock an artist so willing to take risks with his work.

It's silly to even discuss the influence Beck had over both popular and indie music by the time he released Sea Change in 2002. It was huge. He was responsible for Odelay, a record so good and important it should have it's own wing in the Hall of Fame reserved for game changers. He was massive and deservedly so.

In between Odelay and Sea Change he released Midnite Vultures which was a record best enjoyed at a party. Sea Change on the other hand is probably best enjoyed in the dark.

I remember listening to Sea Change the first time and being floored. I didn't know he had it him. This is the same guy who made "Sexx Laws?" I know it's overstated now, but Sea Change was a daring record for Beck to release at that specific time. Turned out, it was the only record he could have released at that time.

Our man is an artist, first and foremost and that's always come through in his work. As an artist, he makes music that he feels at the time and it's been widely noted that Sea Change came on the heels of a pretty tough break up for Beck. What could have been a self indulgent mess turns out to be just the opposite. It's affecting and poignant and sad and it never lets up. It doesn't give you a break. There's no samples or dance grooves to be found anywhere. It's a simple, acoustic record from a man who never suggested he could, or would even want to, make this kind of music. As sad as Sea Change can be it's never depressing, which is difficult for a project like this. It never made me want to cry. I actually enjoy listening to Sea Change.

Sea Change was Beck allowing his audience in, an audience he always kept at arms length. Prior to, and to a great extent since, Sea Change Beck's music, though great, could be construed as a bit cold. We didn't really know who Beck was. A white boy with soul and boogie who loved a good party, but that was it. Because of that Sea Change was a very brave record.

After Sea Change, which aside from Odelay is my favorite Beck record of all time, I decided he could do no wrong. Even if his records weren't going to be perfect from here on out he's earned the right to do whatever he wants and I will be there. I have and will continue to purchase every Beck record until he stops making them and if they continue to be as good as the last one, Modern Guilt, well then I've made the right decision.

83.) Spoon - Gimmie Fiction (2005)

2009-09-03T07:41:00.000-07:00

I am of the opinion that we indie rock fans tend to take Spoon for granted. For the better part of this decade, Spoon have been reliably releasing great record after great record and sure said records have been consistently selling better, they've been on Veronica Mars and SNL, but still you don't often hear people saying their favorite band is Spoon. People fawn over bands like TV on the Radio and (yikes) Radiohead and as much as I like both of those bands (they will each have records that rate higher than any Spoon record on this list) as far as 2000's output goes, I'd say Spoon bests both of them (and tons of others as well).

Having said all that, I think Gimmie Fiction is Spoon's last five star effort (which isn't saying too much since the only subsequent release has been Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga which rates a solid four stars). Gimmie Fiction, like all Spoon, is instantly likable - sing along choruses abound and the guitar is front and center. But, Gimmie Fiction finds Spoon exploring some new territory.

My favorite song is the opener, "The Beat and Dragon Adored", a relatively subdued track announcing the bands intentions for this record - "Will you believe they call it rock 'n roll?" Gimmie Fiction is a rock record, but not in the traditional sense. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Prince inspired "I Turn My Camera On." Yeah it's a rock song, but shit it's got soul with a Britt Daniel falsetto that borders on monumental. Gimmie Fiction feels timeless. This thing could have been made in the 70's and no one would have batted an eye.

But for some reason the record is severely underrated, even by me. In the initial stages of this listing (which topped out at somewhere between 250 and 300 records) I pulled each of the four Spoon records released this decade and then quickly eliminated all but one (and yes that includes Gimmie Fiction). As I started building the list, Gimmie Fiction's absence nagged at me. Why isn't it on this list? I loved that record. I know every word to every song on that record.

I really spent time cultivating this list and Gimmie Fiction isn't the only cast-off that found it's way back on, but now when I think about this list and I look at it, I can't believe it almost didn't make it. I look now and I think it probably should be in a better ranking than it is. But, that's the charm of Spoon I guess. They're not in your face about anything. They exist to make near flawless records. Records that challenge and reward repeated listens while still being immediate and poppy.

But it still feels as though Spoon are destined to be taken for granted. Maybe it's because they're not loudly laying stake to any claim. They're not pretentious. They're just solid. They're making visionary records without feeling the need to beat you over the head with how visionary they are. I think our kids will love Spoon (and even our moms - mine was all about "The Underdog" when they performed it on SNL last year). I think that's their legacy. Undervalued in their prime, but destined to be listened to forever.

Or maybe I'm totally wrong. After all Spoon are one of the more talked about indie bands. One of the more popular indie bands, right?

I just feel as though people like Spoon but they don't love them (which they should), they're not passionate about them and though they've found some mainstream success, they're not Kings of Leon (and they should be).

84.) Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)

2009-09-02T07:59:00.000-07:00

Animal Collective had become one of those bands that I'd resigned myself to being in the "I just don't get it" camp. They first caught my attention because of some great notices for their 2004 record Sung Tongs, which I bought and quickly filed away.

It wasn't my thing. I was fine with that. I don't have to love everything, you know? But then Panda Bear (one of AC's founding members) released Person Pitch in 2007 and I was enamored. Maybe it was time I gave Animal Collective a fair shake. I knew enough not to delve too much deeper into the catalog and stayed with what was new which, at the time was just Feels. Again, eh. I loved "Grass" and The Purple Bottle", but it didn't possess that intangible that Person Pitch had.

Undeterred, I bought Strawberry Jam and again, mixed results. A strong first half, but a dwindling second (though "Peacebone" and "Fireworks" are pretty close to perfect). I had decided that was it for me and Animal Collective. I didn't dislike them, I just didn't like them enough to justify buying more of their records.

But then I did anyway. Call me a sucker, but sometimes hype just gets me and the early press on Merriweather Post Pavilion was that this was the one. This was the masterpiece people like me have been waiting for Animal Collective to make...and they were right.

They finally got the formula right, a little less weird and a little more melody and Beach Boys inspired harmonies (courtesy of Panda Bear I'm sure). MPP is a record of classic upon classic. from the sublime "My Girls" (perfect amount of "freak folk" thank you very much) through "Summer Clothes" "Bluish" and "Taste" - just not a dud on this record. It was the perfect summer record even though it weirdly came out in January. It just felt right. Like it all came together. The soundscapes created on MPP were staggeringly beautiful and never pretentious.

It's tough to think of Merriweather Post Pavilion without comparing it to Veckatimest (#88 on this list). They're forever linked - two Pet Sounds channeling "freak folk" buzz bands with varying levels of roots in Brooklyn releasing their strongest achievements in the same year with wall to wall glowing notices. I actually toyed with the idea of including these two records on this list as a tie because choosing one over the other didn't seem fair.

But in the end, I chose one over the other and while both records are stunning achievements I've found myself going back to the Animal Collective record more often. I mentioned this in the Veckatimest post as well, MPP gets the nod because it feels looser, like it was more fun to record and, in the end, a tiny bit more fun to listen to. But just a bit. Plus there's the whole "I just want four walls and adobe slats for my girls."

There were four records released in 2009 that I've dubbed the Holy Quadrinity of Indie Rock this year. Four records that came in with a shit ton of buzz and though The Holy Quadrinity was meant to take the piss out of these records, all four achieved stellar heights. They lived up to the hype. Merriweather Post Pavilion and Veckatimest are two of those records. The other two are still to come.

85.) Wilco - A Ghost Is Born (2004)

2009-09-01T07:47:00.000-07:00

Being a devout Wilco fan - and admitted Wilco apologist - I have always managed to find something to love about each and every one of their records, but I don't understand the hindsight scorn leveled at A Ghost is Born.

Released after their ridiculously brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, A Ghost is Born had a lot to prove and that it's a bit of a comedown from that record is not necessarily a bad thing. Having said that I'm not sure A Ghost is Born is a worse record, it's just different. Whereas Yankee certainly had an express theme and was sequenced to play as a single entity, Ghost is a bit all over the map. People have called it uneven, I'd say unfocused, but even so all the songs are great.

A Ghost Is Born was something of a middle ground between the classic rock of Summerteeth and the experimentation of Yankee. Sure there are a lot of guitar solos, but they're fucking great. They don't feel forced - they're integral to the success of early tracks like "At Least That's What She Said" and "Muzzle of Bees."

A Ghost Is Born also has some of the bands most accessible (in a good way) moments. I'm thinking specifically about "Hummingbird", "Handshake Drugs" and "Company In My Back."

And then there's the wild cards. "Spiders (Kidsmoke)" and "Less Than You Think."

I wholly support the former and tolerate the latter.

I think "Spiders" is a really great song. For a band who did a lot of unexpected things on Yankee, "Spiders" was a left turn no one saw coming - a ten minute krautrock jam with a circuitous hook that goes on, seemingly, forever. On the A Ghost Is Born tour, "Spiders" was a highlight of the shows and I will always remember it fondly.

As for "Less Than You Think" which concluded with nearly twelve minutes of noise...what can you do? I remember when the record came out I said I thought it was Jeff Tweedy railing against the death of the mixtape. Had you wanted "Less Than You Think" on your mix, you could do it easily with a cassette - just hack of that last twelve minutes, but you couldn't do that on a mix CD or ipod playlist. As someone who still laments the loss of the mixtape, I still like to think that's the truth (even though it's more than likely not - Tweedy's stated it was supposed to be the aural equivalent of the migraines that forced him to abuse pharmaceutical drugs).

I happen to love the way A Ghost Is Born ends, not with twelve minutes of noise but with a nice inoffensive two and half minutes of pure pop bliss (and a song lamenting the record industry and the radio, a hint that maybe my mix tape theory holds some water) "The Late Greats." That's Wilco for you. And I will more than likely love them forever. No matter what they do.

86.) Bob Dylan - Love and Theft (2001)

2009-08-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

Bob Dylan's 1997 release, Time Out of Mind, was a true comeback. A haunting and beautifully scarred record that would garner Dylan a Grammy as well as be the impetus for the infamous "Soy Bomb" performance on the same show.

Dylan waited until 2001 to deliver his follow-up, Love and Theft, which, against all odds, was actually a better record than Time Out of Mind. Love and Theft, infamously released on September 11th 2001, was a true return to form and the best Dylan record of the decade (probably his best record since Blood on the Tracks which is saying a lot.)

Where Love and Theft was dark and moody, Love and Theft was, for lack of a better term, freewheelin' Bob Dylan.

The aughts has been kind to Dylan as it's easily been his best decade in decades - first Love and Theft followed by the "almost as good" Modern Times and the underrated Together Through Life. Add to these a number of absolutely prefect additions to his "Bootleg Sessions" and a well-received memoir that spawned a first-rate documentary by Martin Scorcesse and you could point to this as the most important decade in Dylan's career since his 1960's heyday.

But, it was Love and Theft that kicked it off and it's the perfect place to start. Love and Theft is all over the place in the best way possible with Dylan indulging his love for various musical stylings on one record. There are a myriad of highlights through the record - the rollicking "Summer Days", the bluesy "Lonesome Day Blues", the contemplative "Sugar Baby" and of course, "Mississippi" which ranks up there with the best in Dylan's entire canon.

A few weeks after the release of Love and Theft, The Strokes would finally release their long awaited debut, Is This It?, a game changer if ever there was one. But it still stands as a testament to Dylan's strength that - and even if it was only for two weeks - the best new rock release would be a Bob Dylan record in 2001.

87.) Cursive - The Ugly Organ (2003)

2009-08-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

I've spent a lot of time thinking I'm against the idea of concept records only to realize that we're only fourteen records into this thing and this is the third concept record...unbelievable.

I guess I'm not against them after all.

I like Cursive. Of all the self-important, melodramatic, "woe is me bands" I think they're my favorite. I'll tell you this, disc for disc, I like them better than Bright Eyes. There you have it.

The Ugly Organ is my favorite Cursive record and I think it's probably because it was my first Cursive. I know that Domestica tends to get most people's votes but truth be told that's not even my second favorite Cursive record (which, if you're interested, is actually their latest Mama, I'm Swolen).

Before I move on I want to discuss the term "emo". Emo is a stupid fucking label that essentially means nothing. It's basically any music wherein the lead singer is male and shows emotion? I think. I guess the music has to be fast? But then Pinkerton is almost always referred to as one of the premier emo records. I just don't get it. Cursive are often called emo as are bands like the All American Rejects (who suck) and Fall Out Boy (who don't, but they're simply a pop band), so I refuse to use the term.

Okay. Back to one.

I like The Ugly Organ for a lot of reasons. The first being - it's ballsy. For all the stupid talk of Cursive being an emo band, I think The Ugly Organ is quite simply one of this generations great punk rock records. Sure, it's not punk rock in the traditional sense which (duh) is what makes it punk rock.

I also like The Ugly Organ because I didn't like it at first. As a matter of fact, I hated it. I thought it was just self indulgent meta bullshit. I hated it for the same reason I hated Dave Eggers at the time. I didn't want to care about these people and their lives. Shut up! But then, for some reason I did. Almost inexplicably. A switch went off and here we are. The Ugly Organ, I came to realize, was actually a compelling journey and for all it's navel gazing there was a story in there that I could relate to, that anyone could relate to really.

Looking back I don't necessarily think The Ugly Organ is all that autobiographical (especially after hearing Domestica - released first, but heard by me after). It's peppered in here and there, but with great success. And so what if it's a little self absorbed. Aren't we all?

88.) Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest (2009)

2009-08-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Veckatimest is a great record.

No question about it. In fact, it's a really great record. It's basically a technical masterpiece. A lot has been made about how labored over Veckatimest feels - a fact that has been restated over and over as both criticism and appreciation over the ole' review circuit.

I happen to feel like it's a bit overstated personally and when used as criticism it's a bit unfair. Yes, Veckatimest lacks that sort of loose feel that it's spiritual brother Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion achieved - but so does Pet Sounds.

Anyway enough of that technical shit.

Veckatimest came out at an interesting time for Grizzly Bear. The internet had declared them an "it" band after their second album Yellow House was released to a ton of fanfare and they had a lot to prove here. The most impressive thing is not that this, their third, record is head and shoulders better than Yellow House it's the fact that Grizzly Bear basically sideswiped any real backlash - though there's still time hipsters so get ready!

They managed to avoid said backlash the old fashioned way - by making a wonderful record that while certainly benefitting from continuous listens also comes out of the gate swinging and basically buries itself in your head from the first note. In fact at this point it's hard to even imagine a world wherein "Two Weeks" doesn't exist - it has become that indelible.

The interesting thing about Veckatimest is that I'm pretty sure I could play it for my dad and even he'd like it. What's not to like? Gorgeous harmonies abound over meticulous arrangements and amazingly it's a fucking pop record.

The thing that astounded me personally about Veckatimest is that "Two Weeks" aside Grizzly Bear saved the best songs for last. The final three songs ("While You Wait For Others", "I Live With You" and "Foreground") are the stars of the show. And in an age when no one listens all the way to the end of a record anymore and if they do hear the songs it's probably out of sequence on some mp3 blog somewhere. If this is the case for you and you haven't heard these three songs side by side, do yourself a favor and do just that. It's a purely sublime twelve minutes - maybe the best in pop music all year.

89.) Green Day - American Idiot (2004)

2009-08-27T15:11:00.000-07:00

American Idiot is, without a doubt, the best mainstream rock release of the aughts. And I don't mean for the term to be taken as a slight. It just means the best rock record that sold a lot of copies. That's it.

No one predicted American Idiot, but someone should have. In truth Green Day, up to the point they released American Idiot, were one of the most underrated bands in rock 'n roll. Sure they hit big with Dookie, and rightfully so that record is snotnosed brilliance, but their career was on a "mainstream" slide for all the years that followed until, of course, American Idiot. This was criminal, especially when this is a band who released a record like 1997's Nimrod - which could be the best thing they've ever done.

But, I digress. This is supposed to be about American Idiot. I'm going to sidestep the politics of the record, as they're well documented, and focus on the music.

"Jesus of Suburbia" is nothing short of astounding. It's one of those moments that you imagine a band having when they realize everything has fallen into place. Pure magic. Unable to be duplicated. Though they would try on their next record - the inferior yet still worthy - 21st Century Breakdown.

American Idiot also had, well, "American Idiot" a real return to form for a band who wouldn't be very concerned with returning to form for the remainder of the record. It was almost like the last gasp of the old Green Day and a welcome hello to the new one in a single three minute gasp of loud, punk simplicity.

A lot of people have compared this, as I put it, new Green Day to The Who. Ok. I guess. I just like to think of them as grown-up versions of those kids who meant so much to us when we were kids and who continue to mean something to us all these years later. Green Day are a band that I feel like I saw grow up and with whom I also grew up.

I was there for their exciting infancy of 1039 and Kerplunk, watched them move on to "high school popularity" with Dookie and then through their awkward phase with Insomniac to their "college" experimental years with Nimrod and then when they moved back home and kind of fell into the old routine with Warning and ultimately through early adulthood and a new found sense of confidence and purpose with American Idiot.

The record is just as much a story about a band as it is about America (which, I guess in the grand scheme of things is as American as it gets), you just have to really care about the band to see it.

90.) Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs (2009)

2009-08-26T08:19:00.000-07:00

While I was never one to hate on Death Cab For Cutie (I think a good majority of their records have good to great moments), if you were to tell me that come 2008 they would make a stone cold classic, an absolute masterpiece, I would have laughed. But fuck if it didn't happen.

When Narrow Stairs came out my friend, Mike Torpey, and I used to joke that Ben Gibbard must have called a meeting with his fellow Death Cabbers and it must have gone like this.

Ben: Hey guys, thanks for coming. Listen, I had an idea. It's pretty radical so bare with me for a second. Why don't we make a new record and make every song on it awesome.

Other Guy: What?

Ben: You heard me.

Other Guy: Every song?

Ben: Every song.

Other Guy: Awesome.

Ben: Awesome.

And it would go on like this for a while. It was funny because we didn't expect it. Every song on Narrow Stairs is awesome and it fits together so nicely as a whole which was something in short supply last year (although I should say 2009 has really brought the ruckus as the kids are wont to say).

And then there's "I Will Posses Your Heart." Wow. What a killer. The creepiest and without a doubt best moment in the Death Cab canon so far and, I'd imagine, to come. I'm not usually one to go for eight and half minute songs, but I was sold the first time I heard it. It's a perfect centerpiece (even though it falls second in the tracklist) to, basically, a perfect record and one no Death Cab bias should preclude you from hearing.

91.) Elliott Smith - From a Basement on a Hill (2004)

2009-08-25T08:06:00.000-07:00

Elliott Smith was a great songwriter. Elliott Smith was a sad guy. Elliott Smith's sadness probably made him a great songwriter.

As someone who could have been labeled a huge fan of Elliott's, news of his death on October 13th, 2003 hit me with a wave of sadness but ultimately not a lot of shock. I do remember where I was in that way our parents remember where they were when JFK died or, to make it more modern, they way most of us remember where we were when we heard about Kurt Cobain. (I was in the Page office and was informed by a fellow page.)

At the time I guess it was marginally surprising in that in the months leading up to it there were all these articles being written where the thesis was "Elliott Smith is actually okay, you guys and his new record is going to be the greatest thing he's ever done." To most of us, those articles only served to make us skeptical. If they're yelling this so loudly it can't be true...and unfortunately it wasn't.

The record being discussed in all those articles was this one, From A Basement on a Hill and it's great, but not the greatest thing he's ever done (that's still Either/Or). But who knows really what it could have been. From A Basement was left unfinished, though it's often said not by much. It's rumored that the From A Basement that we own is pretty close to Elliott vision of the thing and it's a pretty beautiful record. Of course, it's haunted by the ghost of its creator. The last relic of what could have been an even more brilliant career than it already was. And in that respect it was difficult for me to listen to at first (it being released almost a year to the date of his death didn't make it any easier) and it sat on my shelf for a while. And then a year plus after its release I sat down and listened to From A Basement and I kept doing so for a long time after.

It was an Elliott record and I had come to miss Elliott's records and I especially missed being able to hear songs that I hadn't heard before. It didn't feel like an ending, which was what I feared. It felt like the next logical step in the progression of an artist I had grown to adore. There weren't any hints in the lyrics, or at least no more so than on any previous record, of what was to come. There was melancholy, of course, but there were also pop guitars and that voice. I loved that voice and still do. I was lucky enough to see Elliott live a half dozen times between "Either/Or" and "Figure 8" and that's what I miss the most about him. I'll always have the records, but I miss seeing him on stage where supposedly he felt uncomfortable but where, in truth, he was at his best.

I still miss Elliott like I knew him. And I guess -no matter how cliched this sounds- through his records I, and all his fans, did a little bit. So, this one's for Elliott.

92.) Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (2008)

2009-08-21T12:36:00.000-07:00

Based solely on their name it's pretty clear that Fucked Up aren't necessarily looking to become a household name, but who says they shouldn't be?

On the surface, it seems easy to describe the music of Fucked Up. It's hardcore. Pure and simple. Except it's not. Fucked Up are loud, for sure, but they're also terrific composers and musicians who add layers upon layers of guitar track over each song - not unlike the way Johnny Marr used to do in the Smiths - and though lead singer Pink Eyes doesn't really sing at all, his howl is undeniably powerful.

The Chemistry of Common Life was released on Matador and scored high on pitchfork's hipster scale almost in spite of itself. It's as if Fucked Up are saying "Come on. We dare you to like it." But you want to know a secret? It's far from being an impossible task...yes the lyrics are at times indecipherable - but take a look at them, they're smart, deep and spiritual- and the music often comes at you at 100 miles per hour all while threatening to spit you out all over the road, but when you strip all that away The Chemistry of Common Life is actually a pretty catchy record, even if they'd probably kill me for saying so.

"Crooked Head" and "Black Albino Bones" could have been played on radio if there was a different vocalist and the chorus on the epic opening track (incidentally one of the best opening tracks in recent memory) "Son the Father" is virtually impossible to shake.

What's even better about The Chemistry of Common Life is I like it ten times more today than I did three months ago and three months ago I liked it twenty times more than I did the three prior. It's one of those records. It didn't even make my "25 favorite records on 2008" and now it blows away at least half of them. Hindsight, you know?

The Chemistry of Common Life is a tough record to get through the first few times (maybe even the first few dozen) but stick it out. I hate referring to a record as a "grower" because, truth be told, all records are growers but sometimes you're more willing to stick with one over another. Make sure The Chemistry of Common Life lands firmly in that category.

93.) Cee-Lo - Cee-Lo Green...Is the Soul Machine (2004)

2009-08-21T11:14:00.000-07:00

In between the time he helped put "Dirty South" hip-hop on the map with Goodie Mob and the time he became an international, multi-platinum superstar with Gnarls Barkley, Cee-Lo Green released two peerless solo records. This is the second.

The first was titled (brilliantly) Cee-Lo Green and His Perfect Imperfections and it was weird. Like, really, really weird. All over the place weird. Proudly weird. His second, Cee-Lo Green...Is the Soul Machine is weird too, but it's a helluva lot more accessible.

Fill disclosure - when I was a Page at NBC I used to have to work audience for Last Call With Carson Daly and that's how I discovered this record. Cee-Lo performed on that show one night and was fucking nuts. I loved it. I went out and bought the record and it became one of my favorites for a long time. So, essentially I owe Carson Daly for Cee-Lo. I guess I would have found about him sooner or later regardless, but I can't say for sure. So, thanks Carson Daly. Thank you very much.

Cee-Lo Green...Is the Soul Machine (by the way, there's something so wonderful about his declaring himself THE soul machine as opposed to say, A soul machine) is a varied record for sure and it has it's share of quirks, but with the help of producers like Timbaland and The Neptunes he managed to focus just enough to create a left-of-center R&B masterpiece. Cee-Lo's basically the R&B/Soul version of Captain Beefheart. Cee-Lo Green... Is the Soul Machine didn't crossover the way it should have and it remains a lost gem, a record that I hope more people gave a chance to after the success of Gnarls Barkley because though Gnarls are great they have never recorded anything as absolutely perfect as "The Art of Noise" and yes, that includes "Crazy."

94.) Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions (2006)

2009-08-21T10:49:00.000-07:00

And speaking of The Boss...

We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, for me, ranks right up there with Darkness, Born to Run and Nebraska. I love this record. That these are not Springsteen originals means nothing to me seeing as how they are such a perfect fit for him. The project itself feels very Mermaid Avenue, and it is to a point, but I actually think that Bruce's execution is even better.

Springsteen was quite prolific in the aughts and he's put out some really good stuff, but none of it felt as free-wheeling, old-Bruce fun as We Shall Overcome. While both The Rising and Devils and Dust had some really great moments, they were kind of a downer - which is fine - it needed to be done, but We Shall Overcome has a very loose, ramshackle feel about it that those records didn't.

That Springsteen tackled these songs with such abandon at a time when who the fuck thought anyone wanted to hear some remakes of some old campfire slabs of Americana makes it's triumph that much greater. I know a lot of people revere Seeger and Springsteen actually didn't. He was, for all intents and purposes, a newcomer to Seeger's work at the time. He liked it and decided to record it. That he may not have necessarily felt beholden to the music probably allowed him to make, at it's core, a Bruce record.

And a damn fine one at that.

95.) Against Me! - New Wave (2007)

2009-08-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

I know a lot of people are really, really attached to Against Me! and those people while they don't necessarily hate New Wave, they don't love it - preferring the stripped down sound of their early records like Reinventing Axl Rose and As the Eternal Cowboy...

Not me. I happen to like those records fine, but for me if I can only have one Against Me! record, I'm proud to say it's the polished sheen of New Wave every single time.

New Wave is awesome, but it's also stupid. The thing about Against Me! is they cling to their ideals which makes them a "political" band which is fine but it also produces songs with banal lyrics like "Stop/Take some time to think/Figure out what's important to you/You've got to make a serious decision." That a song with those lyrics turns out to be super fucking rad is the perplexity of Against Me!

I want to roll my eyes at how earnest and delusional they can be, but I just can't because the music is too much fun. New Wave always reminded me of one of those early Weezer records. Ten songs in thirty minutes played with abandon and an overwhelming desire to get you jumping up and down. All good things.

I saw Against Me! (I haven't even mentioned the absurdity of the exclamation point yet...just did I guess) twice on this tour and I had never seen them previously. I was amazed to see they smile. A lot. I had thought they were this angry band, but it's the opposite. They were having fun which is exactly what New Wave is for me. It's fun. A lot of fun. And at times, much like a lot of rock 'n roll in 2007, it sounds like Bruce Springsteen.

96.) Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2 (2000)

2009-08-17T14:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a record I don't feel the need to defend in any way, which is nice.

In 2000 Aimee Mann was a woman without a record label despite fronting one of the good so-called 80's bands and releasing two really great (and in one case close to perfect) solo records. Undeterred, Mann self-released Bachelor No. 2 and it became the biggest selling record of her career.

Bachelor No.2 certainly feels like somewhat of a companion piece to her work on the Magnolia soundtrack (a few of the songs can be found on both records) but if you're going to go with just one, Bachelor No. 2 would be the choice. I've always loved a good singer/songwriter and Mann is one of our generation's best and this is still her best record, her masterpiece, her Car Wheels on a Gravel Road if you will.

There's not a bad song on here, in fact there's no song here that isn't pretty goddamn great. Mann's post-Bachelor output has been spotty (though there are still some gems) and she's never managed to be this cohesive again. Bachelor No. 2 felt like a statement. She'd been wronged by the music business so she poured her heart into these songs and came to play and not just lyrically - there is some really nice production work here and the arrangements and melodies are a stand out which wasn't necessarily the case before.

I was 19 when Bachelor No. 2 came out and it was a big college record for me and in compiling the list I was nervous that I was including it for nostalgia reasons, but then I listened to it again...and again...and again and I proved myself wrong. It's still as compelling today as it was when I was listening to it on a Discman walking to Keating Hall. It's one of the forgotten gems, which is kind of Aimee Mann's style anyway.

97.) Tegan and Sara - The Con (2007)

2009-08-11T14:50:00.000-07:00

Tegan and Sara are not cool.

They don't even want to be.

I mentioned in my Rock 'N Roll post a few days ago about how uncool a record it is and, trust me, it is - but I think that's probably why Ryan Adams dismisses it. At one time he thought it was cool.

Tegan and Sara harbor no such delusions and their lack of pretension made The Con their best work to date and a record that has left me excited to hear what they do next.

Before The Con was released, Tegan and Sara started a viral marketing campaign that showed them working with producer Chris Walla in short videos about each song on the record. I saw these videos first and they probably played a part in my loving the record. Tegan and Sara are really wonderful - sarcastic, funny, tough, playful, self-depricating - it's virtually impossible to not fall in love with them and this was a shrewd business move. I remember watching the "Hop a Plane" video (if you haven't seen it no one liked "Hop a Plane" except Tegan, who wrote it) and coming out of it fully in the Team Tegan camp and as a result, "Hop a Plane" became my favorite song on the record.

Do I like The Con because of how much I like Tegan and Sara as people? Sure. But, I also like it because of the melodies and the harmonies and the hooks - it's pop music and I tend to like pop music. Would this record make the list if not for their personalities? I think so.

It's not a perfect record by any means (I personally can't stand "Are You Ten Years Ago"), but it's highs are really, really high (the title track and "Dark Come Soon" are particularly spectacular) and this record was a really big one for me in the summer of 2007, one I still revisit often and I guess in the end that's the test of a great record. It came out two years ago and I just listened to it last weekend.

But I skipped "Are You Ten Years Ago."

98.) The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love (2009)

2009-08-10T14:15:00.000-07:00

Way to follow up a divisive record with another, huh?

Whatever. 2009 has seen me become smitten with The Decemberists prog-rock-opera, The Hazards of Love and though there are a bunch of records released in '09 that I like more, I don't think there's one that I've listened to more than Hazards.

People knock the Decemberists for being pretentious and it's a valid knock, they are. Colin Meloy writes lyrics with big words and literary aspirations - that's never been a secret, but the thing that sets Hazards apart (I mean, besides it being a song cycle about woodland queens, rakes and shapeshifters) is the fact that the thing fucking rocks.

What I love about the record is you can throw the story away. It doesn't matter. I still don't really know what happens, but I love the shit out of these songs. In fact, I consistently find myself listening to "Hazards of Love 2" hoping that maybe this time it won't be sad and could reasonably make for a good wedding song. It never does. But it's still pretty damn beautiful.

Aside form that there's "The Wanting Comes in Waves/Repaid" with an MVP vocal performance from My Brightest Diamond's Sharah Worden, not to mention "The Rake's Song" which, for my money is right up there with the very best in the Decemberists entire canon.

The songs individually are great, but The Hazards of Love really works as a fully realized piece of art. Whether or not you care about the story is your business, but the sequencing here really works to take you for a ride.

I love the balls of the whole thing. It shouldn't work. It's completely ridiculous, but for some reason it does. And I'll say this, as far as "rock operas" go, The Hazards of Love is a whole lot easier to stomach than Tommy that's for sure.

99.) Ryan Adams - Rock 'N Roll (2003)

2009-08-09T21:46:00.000-07:00

Alright, so it only took two entries for everyone to decide I'm full of shit. I know the rap Rock 'N Roll gets, but I don't care. I love this record.

I'm a Ryan Adams fan. For better or worse, I like the guy and his music. Ryan is a perfect example of my whole "once I decide I like something, I'm just going to continue to like it regardless" (I still argue in defense of those last two seasons of Gilmore Girls, so...) and I like Ryan Adams. In fact I was a fan since Whiskeytown and my fandom has never subsided.

But (and this is a spoiler alert) only one other Ryan Adams record will be finding it's way onto this list, meaning that I think that Rock 'N Roll is Ryan Adams' second best record (yep, better than Cold Roses). And that's true. I do. I love all the songs. I love that Rock 'N Roll never tries to be cool. I love that "So Alive" is the best U2 song that U2 never wrote (in fact it's mostly better than most songs U2 actually did write). I love that Rock 'N Roll is all over the place.

Because, that's rock 'n roll.

I'm pretty sure Ryan Adams himself even dismisses this record. Well that's dumb. And wrong. Adams is, for the most part, a hack. A good songwriter, but still a hack and he's at his best when he's being hacky...when he's relying on influences to shape his sound, and Rock 'N Roll is Ryan at his hackiest and best. Listen to "Luminol", "Burning Photographs" and "This is It" people. Those songs are as good as it gets.