My Twenty Favourite Albums Of The Decade

>> Tuesday, 15 December 2009

Replaying these records over the past few days confirmed it: my ears had a ridiculously great decade.

1. Sigur Rós - Ágætis byrjun

Sigur Rós - Svefn-G-Englar from Sigur Rós on Vimeo.

Ágætis byrjun is an aural masterpiece.

The unedited version of the stunning “Svefn-g-englar” video featured several insightful quotes about music (not in above vid...sorry). These included Henry Miller’s “In the end I think of music as saving grace for all humanity,” and Leopold Stokowski’s “A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence.”

Stokowski's quote was the source for my blog title.

2. RadioheadKid A

Challenging, subversive, pioneering, sublime, essential….the parade of important adjectives is endless. My favourite Radiohead release to date.

3. Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
4. WilcoYankee Hotel Foxtrot
5. Iron & WineThe Creek Drank the Cradle
6. Broken Social SceneYou Forgot It in People
7. The NationalBoxer

Fake Empire - The National from Scott Cudmore on Vimeo.

8. The Arcade FireFuneral
9. M83Saturdays = Youth
10. Postal ServiceGive Up



11. múmFinally We Are No One
12. The StrokesIs This It?
13. The BooksThe Lemon of Pink
14. Kanye WestGraduation
15. RoyksoppMelody A.M.

Poor Leno from Röyksopp on Vimeo.

16. Kings of ConvenienceQuiet is the New Loud
17. InterpolTurn on the Bright Lights
18. SparklehorseIt’s a Wonderful Life
19. Flaming LipsYoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
20. Modest MouseThe Moon & Antarctica

Honourable Shout-Outs

CalifoneHeron King Blues
TV on the RadioReturn to Cookie Mountain
Peter Bjorn and JohnWriter’s Block
ManitobaStart Breaking My Heart
PinbackS/T
Bloc PartySilent Alarm
Vampire WeekendS/T
StarsHeart
Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
The XX
S/T

What are some of your favourite albums from the past ten years?

Infinite Playlist: Royksopp – Melody A.M.

4 comments:

jgraff,  16 December 2009 at 09:34  

This is the kind of undertaking that just begs to take up an entire week of evenings, so i'm not sure i could even attempt it. Nice effort

I'd swap Summerteeth for Hotel Yankee Foxtrot (and I almost said the same about OK Computer for Kid A until I remembered that was 97'-lord I'm old)

Nice call with It's a Wonderful Life - I hope it's not overlooked when all the big fancy pants sites make their lists.

hell, now I am going to have to do this. Thanks.

Young Icelander,  16 December 2009 at 13:04  

I agree with so many of these choices- Sigur Ros, Kings of Convenience, Iron and Wine, Stars, The Strokes, The National...

I would also add (since the list is lacking some strong female voices):
Lost in Space- Aimee Mann
Acid Tongue- Jenny Lewis
Blacklisted- Neko Case
The Greatest- Cat Power

Rieds 16 December 2009 at 16:22  

What an insanely impossible task! Do artists who've had a *real good* decades deserve 2 slots? And how can you avoid the bias of recent memory? Forget putting them in order... here she goes:

the Arcade Fire – Funeral
the Awkward Stage - Heaven Is for Easy Girls
Architecture in Helsinki - In Case We Die
Björk - Volta
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It in People
Caribou - The Milk of Human Kindness
Daft Punk - Alive 2007
Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
Feist - The Reminder
Final Fantasy - Has a Good Home
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Iron & Wine – The Creek Drank the Cradle
Modest Mouse – The Moon & Antarctica
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
Postal Service – Give Up
the Rural Alberta Advantage - Hometowns
Sparklehorse - Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Tapes 'n Tapes - The Loon
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

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