What are the best albums of the decade so far?

[Kid_A]

Even though the music industry has been in pretty bad shape for the past few years, a few gems managed to slip through their shit filter. These are the ones that I know I'll still be listening to after my grandkids have gone to college.

Radiohead - Kid A (imagine that...)
The Strokes - Is This It
Beck - Sea Change
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Coldplay - Parachutes
The White Strips - White Blood Cells
Outkast - Speakerboxxx / The Love Below
Lucinda Williams - World Without Tears

[nyhuskyfan]

1. Personally...

A New Day at Midnight by David Gray is one of my personal favorites (although I think White Ladder was also after 2000 and is probably the more common selection).

Just my opinion, though.

[bif]

2. I'll second that! Also, Vespertine by Bjork

"Vespertine" absolutely knocked me out the first time I heard it. Songs like "Aurora" are so beautiful and haunting, they could be sung in church.

Also "Steady Pull" by Jonatha Brooke.

[GiovanniC]

17. I Love David Gray

"This Year's Love" is one of my favorite songs, though it's a bit sappy.

[nyhuskyfan]

19. Nothing wrong with a little sap...

"Be Mine" is a terrific song. "The Other Side" is probably one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I've ever heard -- it's the background music when you pull up www.davidgray.com (I think Bush/Cheney could borrow the line about being "sick of hearing my own lies").


THE OTHER SIDE

Meet me on the other side
Meet me on the other side
I'll see you on the other side
See you on the other side

Honey now if I'm honest
I still don't know what love is
Another mirage folds
into the haze of time recalled
And now the floodgates cannot hold
All my sorrow all my rage
A tear that falls on every page

Meet me on the other side
Meet me on the other side

Maybe I oughta mention
Was never my intention
To harm you or your kin
Are you so scared to look within
The ghosts are crawling on our skin
We may race and we may run
We'll not undo what has been done
Or change the moment when it's gone

Meet me on the other side
Meet me on the other side
I'll see you on the other side
I'll see you on the other side

I know it would be outrageous
To come on all courageous
And offer you my hand
To pull you up on to dry land
When all I got is sinking sand
That trick ain't worth the time it buys
I'm sick of hearing my own lies
And love's a raven when it flies

Meet me on the other side
Meet me on the other side
I'll see you on the other side
See you on the other side

Honey now if I'm honest
I still don't know what love is

[Screaming Lord Byron]

20. White Ladder came out in 1998.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

3. Vic Thrill "CE-5"

seriously this group blew me away. most original sounding fun music i have heard in years. check them out.

www.victhrill.com

tina fey from saturday night live is actually working on a movie that details the story of the singer/guitar player of the band and the unlikekly friendship he shared with a hascidic jew. go listen now and show your friends you are the coolest kid on the block.

[DBtv]

4. Stockholm Syndrome-Holy Happy Hour

Jam band supergroup led by the bassist from Widespread Panic, Dave Schools and the brilliant singer/songwriter Jerry Joseph. The album is an awesome stylistic tour de force with songs ranging from afro-pop to lounge music ballads (termed by the band "clownge music"). Go get it.

<http://www.stockholmsyndromeband.com>

[asthmaticeog]

5. Few more

The Liars - "They Were Wrong So We Drowned"
Oneida - "Secret Wars"
Radiohead - "Amnesiac"
Queens of the Stone Age - "R"
Fugazi - "The Argument"
Arab Strap - "The Red Thread"
Hives - "Vini Vidi Vicious"
Wire - "Read and Burn"
Mountain Goats - "Talahassee"

[RandomKoolzip]

23. Was that Mountain Goats album really good?

I kinda gave up on them after Full Force Galesburg. Seemed like Darnielle kept writing the same song over and over.

[asthmaticeog]

31. Yeah, it's very different

from the old lo-fi stuff. Lush production, more diversity in the songwriting, too. Now, with "We Shall All Be Healed," he's back to his same old same old, but "Talahasse" is good stuff.

[Beware the Beast Man]

6. Queens of the Stone Age- Rated R and Songs for the Deaf

[Howardx]

14. agreed! and...

apocalypse dudes...turbonegro

[drumwolf]

41. "Apocalypse Dudes" is a GREAT album, I agree, but it doesn't qualify here.

It came out in the late '90s.

[9119495]

7. Radiohead--Hail to the Thief

[bobbobbins]

8. I really dig that new Modest Mouse

Good News For People Who Love Bad News

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

9. Micheal Franti and Spearhead - Stay Human

[DBtv]

13. Franti is incredible on many levels.

I was honored to see his band recently and they are fantastic. Plus, as a responsible human being, Michael stands head and shoulders above his peers. Truly an inspiring performer and, more importantly, an inspiring cultural leader.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

10. Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Pig Lib

The Magnetic Fields - i
Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Air - 10000 hz legend
The Waterboys - A Rock in the Weary Land
Primal Scream - Accelerator
Radiohead - Hail to the Thief
Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music

[Screaming Lord Byron]

18. Can I just add Spider Jerusalem's post on to mine?

And add Hot Hot Heat's Make Up the Breakdown.

[asthmaticeog]

32. Oh yeah - Dear Catastrophe Waitress.

If all and sundry would please consider that tacked on to my list, I'd be grateful. Thank you.

[XNASA]

11. Moz - You are the Quarry.

I love both RH albums, but Morrissey is back in form. Not a bad song on the disc.

[Spider Jerusalem]

12. I agree with your choice of Radiohead...

and others on my list would be:

The Streets - "A Grand Don't Come For Free"

Tricky - "Vulnerable"

Björk - "Vespertine", "Medulla"

Johnny Cash - "American IV: The Man Comes Around"

Tom Waits - "Blood Money" and "Alice"

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - "No More Shall We Part"

Einstürzende Neubauten - "Silence Is Sexy"

Sigur Ros - ()

[bobbobbins]

16. I think alice was a little better than blood money

but both are some of the best albums so far...good music is getting pretty scarce these days. Alot of digging to find it...

[Tempest]

15. Peter Gabriel - Up

U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Release on November 23rd

[RandomKoolzip]

21. Here ist my list

The Wrens: Meadowlands
Guided by Voices: Isolation Drills
Guided by Voices: Earthquake Glue
Brendan Benson: Lapalco
Soul Junk: 1956
Ted Leo/Pharmacists: Hearts of Oak
The Shins: Oh! Inverted World
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
The Coup: Party Music
The Mars Volta: Deloused in the Comatorium
Hot Snakes: Suicide Invoice
The Bellrays: Grand Fury
Spoon: Girls Can Tell

Oh, I had to add these:

Karate: Some Boots
Geoff Farina: Reverse Eclipse
New Pornographers: Electric Version
Dismemberment Plan: Change

[Lautremont]

22. Those Shins albums would be on my list too.

Lots of other people's lists as well, I guess.

[Magrittes Pipe]

25. Oh yeah. Both fuckin' brilliant.

And the first Thermals record.

[RandomKoolzip]

29. You keep mentioning the Thermals...

Who are they? What are they like?

[Magrittes Pipe]

30. It's hard to say what they're like.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&searchlink=THERMALS&uid=SUB030409161253&sql=11:yhjw7i43g7or~T1

They play pop songs in a raw, loud, fast style. They rock. Um....

[FrankBooth]

27. I love those GBV albums

Their new one isn't too bad either. I saw the Wrens play in Seattle last Feb at a small club, they were fantastic and I love "Meadowlands."

[asthmaticeog]

33. That's a damn good list.

n/t

[RandomKoolzip]

34. Thank you.

It's been a pretty bad decade for music so far...my list from the 90's would be about six pages long.

[nyhuskyfan]

35. If we could explain away Disco under Carter...

I'd be willing to say that music tends to much better under Democrats.

Well, the Nixon years were pretty good, too. Lots of drugs and lots of stuff to protest.

OK, it was just a theory.

[RandomKoolzip]

36. Under republicans, rock music goes underground....

and incubates there, getting better (usually.)

The consensus "best" year of rock and rool, 1969, was the first year of Nixon's reign of terror.

Under Reagan, the best rock was totally independent and under the radar (Flag, Minutemen, Replacements, etc.) Under Bush 1, Rock barely existed in the mainstream (in 1990, NO rock acts went to the top ten of the Billboard charts all year!) In 1991, things started happening in the mainstream again, which really flowered under Clinton. By 1998, you could hear great rock on the radio again...then the encroachment of techno-pop and boy band/bimbo acts and lame-ass hip hop took over the mainstream again, circa 99-2000. Under Bush, there's been almost nothing but shit in the mainstream AND underground. People are demoralized completely, and most musicians have had to find real jobs to survive.

[9119495]

40. Actually, a study revealed that a good economy

meant shitty music and a bad one meant angsty-good stuff.

[FrankBooth]

24. I would add the following to your list

Hail to the Thief - Radiohead
The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow
Stephen Malkmus - Pig Lib
Anything by Iron and Wine
Dr. Dre - Chronic 2000
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
The Postal Service
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
The Dandy Warhols - 13 Tales from Urban Bohemia

[mark414]

26. correction

dre's chronic 2000 came out in '99

and i think the same goes for that DCFC album

[FrankBooth]

28. Thanks, I wasn't 100%

NM

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

37. Ryan Adams -- Gold (nt)

[livinginphotographs]

38. Britney Spears

N Sync
50-Cent
Backstreet Boys
Spice Girls


Ok, seriously, I was just kidding.

Maybe my standards are too high, but I can't really think of anything that's come out in the past four years which I think we'll be able to look back on as a "Nevermind" or "White Album." Lots of good stuff has come out here and there, just nothing historic.

Maybe Mars Volta's "Deloused in the Comatorium" and Mission of Burma's "On Off On." I really thought hard about this, and those are the only two I can come up with.

[drumwolf]

39. I'd like to add Franz Ferdinand's self-titled album to that list

Definitely a fine album from a great new band.