MY Top 20 Albums of the Decade

I figure if Pitchfork can do so can I...

20. Burial – Untrue

Burial came to me out of nowhere. I heard a track online was strangely drawn to it. Ever since this has become my number one choose to listen while I'm reading. It's down tempo beats sway between the darkest reaches of sound. While it's not the most notable album part of what I love most about it is how easily it slips through the cracks, while still foments itself in the subconscious. Favorite track: "Etched Headplate"

19. Battles – Mirrored

Definitely one of the best albums to throw on when cleaning. It's fast pace and strange vocals always make me feel like I need to be moving. It has always seemed to me that if you were to find away to express accounts of a DMT trip into sound it would turn out exactly like this. Favorite track: "Atlas"

18. Deerhunter – Microcastle

Microcastle is a perfect example of what I want from "pop" music. Musically its near perfect and when combined with the eerie, sometimes frightening lyrics, this album is ready to stand the test of time. I struggled a lot with where to place this effort and it may very well deserve a higher rating than I gave it. However the middle drags just a tad too long for me, but when it picks up it gets right back into the meat of it. Favorite track: "Saved by old times"

17. TV On The Radio – Dear Science

Here's one that I won't listen to much in the winter, but as soon as the sun pokes out it's guaranteed that Dear Science won't be too far behind. So many great tracks (Dancing Choose, Golden Age, Red Dress) that its hard to pick just one. But whenever I have time for just one track I always seem to pick the same one. Favorite track: "DLZ"

16. Spoon – Gimme Fiction

There are many Spoon records that could have made an appearance on this list, however Gimme Fiction takes the cake. The drive thats initialized right off the bat set the tone for this album that delivers on each track. This was the first Spoon album that I feel in love with, which may also explain why I choose it here. Favorite track: "My Mathematical Mind"

15. Tool – Lateralus

When I first heard this album I hated it. I couldn't understand what they thought they were doing. It took six years before I realized. This album more than any other shows the evolution of Tool from the angry hardcore band that brought us Opiate to the well refined masters they are today. Lateralus is when they seemed to discover the harmony that transformed their sound from metal to art. Favorite track: "Reflection"

14. LCD Sound System – Sounds Of Silver

This is a very strange album to me. The beginning and the end are exactly what I want to hear when I go to the club. As soon as the snare starts up I just want to dance! But not like you might think when you think of dancing. I more just want to flail about with the beat. Then you have the meat of this album that is amazing and really elevates this from dance music to worth of the top 20. Favorite track: "All my friends"

13. Gnarls Barkley – St Elsewhere

When I first heard this album I was blown away. It seems that everything Dangermouse touches turns to gold but when you put him together with Cee-Lo all you'll see is platinum. There isn't a single track on this album that I'd call filler. The way they're able to mix tracks like "Smiley Faces" with one like "Necromancer" and still maintain the flow is amazing. Not to mention the beautiful image that always comes to my mind while listening to the title track. Favorite track: "Storm Coming"

12. Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Love Bad News

Oh Modest Mouse, how I love thee. What can I even say. This album is great. In many places it took the angsty mouse and tamed it a bit, while still letting it run wild at times. It has everything you expect from Modest Mouse, clever lyrics, great rifts, an anger at God, etc. With this album they seemed to realize how to take their indy success and make it slightly more approachable to the masses. Favorite track: "Black Cadillacs"

11. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna

This was by far my favorite album of 2007. Kevin Barnes has described it as a concept album detailing his transformation into Georgie Fruit (*). Which makes some sense but not total to me. There is one track that I really loathe on this album, Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider, which comes right after the transformation. Probably worth saying that I also am not of fan of the follow up to this album. However after avoid Of Montreal for a while due to Skeletal Lamping I came back to this one and found it was just as good as before. Hopefully in the future we'll see the death of Georgie Fruit and the return of great tracks like "Suffer for Fashion", "Gronlandic Edit" and "Sink the Seine". Favorite track: "We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leafling"

10. Deerhunter – Cryptograms

Breaking into the top ten is Cryptograms. This album is a bizarre journey through many phases of life. What I love most about this album is the questions that it poses and how everyone can ask themselves those question and come up with different responses. You may remember the previous post about my greatest fears, well that question originates here. This album reminds me a lot of "White Light, White Heat" in the way that it strikes me as very "avant-garde". Favorite track: Spring Hall Convert

9. Animal Collective – Merriwether Post Pavillion

Oh AC how you've grown since we first met in the aisle at Tower Records, your Sung Tongs enchanting me for reasons I could never explain and now look what you've done! MPP blew me away the first time I heard it. The combination of electronic sounds with the harmonies they create with the human voice are simply unbelievable. This album is a prime example of how you can mix something old with something new to churn out something that is completely original and wholly fantastic. Favorite track: "My Girls"

8. Blur – Think Tank

I hate to admit that I might be a little generous with the placement of this one here, but c'mon now: IT'S BLUR! If this were is to be their last album I'm going to be disappointed but not for it's lack of quality. In classic Blur fashion they intermingle ballads with great pop/dance tracks to create something that is both fun to listen to when you're happy or sad. I think that they captured the duality that exists within the "club" lifestyle of ups and downs, which parallels a lot of their career. Favorite tracks: "Brothers and Sisters" / "Battery In Your Leg"

7. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary

I've been more excited about this band than probably any other. This debut is off the charts. These guys might just be the greatest thing to enter into the world of music this decade, time will tell. Looking at tracks like "You are a Runner" it's hard to run away from them and "I'll Believe in Anything" will make you do just that. I hope these guys are around for a very long time, continuing to put out music of this caliber. Favorite track: "Grounds For Divorce"

6. Gorillaz – Demon Days

This might just be the album I've listened to more than any other. I love everything about it. If I'm feeling down I just throw this bad boy on and it's an instant mood enhancer. It doesn't matter what part of the album either. Many times if I don't have time for the whole thing I'll just pick a random spot and start in with it on repeat. I want nothing more than to see them in concert. I was recently telling a friend that I'd pay almost anything. Favorite track: "Don't Get Lost in Heaven"

5. Outkast – SpeakerBoxx/The Love Below

This is probably the biggest point of controversy on the whole list. "Really, not Stankonia?" Really. That's just how I feel about it. When I want to hear some Outkast this is the one I go to. I think that the breakdown between the two of them is a great thing, especially since they're still working with each other. I guess if I had to compare it to something I'd say it's their sort of White Album, and for those of you who know me you know my feelings about the White Album. Favorite tracks: "War" / "Hey Ya"

4. Radiohead – In Rainbows

Where do I even begin. After Hail to the Thief I was beginning to think that Radiohead would never blow me away like they had in the past, then there was In Rainbows. In many ways it's much more simplistic than their other recent works, but I think this is part of its genius.This album took everything great about Radiohead and used it to make a master piece that expresses everything that is great about being alive. Favorite track: "Reckoner" (I know that one comes as a shock to all of you)

3. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

This album is one of the most influential in my life to date. If there is one thing that the Flaming Lips do well it's explain the mysteries of death through the power of life and this album shows that more than any other. Whenever someone close to me passes the first thing that I do is listen to this album. And while it doesn't remove the feelings of loss it does help me to understand that it's not all bad. I think that even Alfred Tennyson may agree that there has never been a finer expression of love and loss than Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Favorite track: "All We Have Is Now"

2. Modest Mouse – Moon and Antarctica

I will never forget my first experience with Modest Mouse. NESF had bought me a ticket to one of their shows at the Showbox. I had no idea what to expect. Then I found myself in the walkway you enter through staring directly at Isaac Brock as he started into "Third Planet". I was awe struck. And so it began. The Moon and Antarctica has yet to be surpassed by any of their more recent efforts. The raw emotion captured in this album is something that I find hard to explain but often feel myself, whether it be confusion, emptiness, anger, or just that strange sensation of wanting nothing more than to pick up and leave it all behind, it's all here seeping through the notes and tangled up in Brock's words. Favorite track: "A Different City"

1. Radiohead – Kid A

Who else could stand atop this list other than the child who saved the world of music. When Kid A came out I thought that all was lost and we were going to be destine to play out the remainder of our existence listening to Brittany Spears and n'SYNC. OK Computer had been so long ago I'd all but given up on Radiohead. No matter how much I yearned for it the new album never seemed to come. I took to buying every single I could find with even just one new track and downloading every live performance in hopes of catching a glimpse. In fact I did find more than a glimpse in my search. I'd heard tracks like "How to Disappear Completely and Never Be Found" (20+ minutes long!) and "Pyramid Song" which only made me lust more for a new album. Then it came and completely destroyed everything that I thought was real. "This must be what God listens to," I'd thought to myself. Even the tracks that I had heard before were presented in such a new fashion that I hardly recognized them but once I'd heard them I couldn't imagine how else they could ever be assembled. It was unlike anything that had ever been before and nothing would be the same ever again. Favorite tracks: "Everything in Its Right Place", "Kid A", "The National Anthem", "How to Disappear Completely", "Treefingers", "Optimistic", "In Limbo", "Idioteque", "Morning Bell", "Motion Picture Soundtrack"