I originally posted this as a thread on The Stirrer but then it occurred to me that this is exactly the reason I own a blog which I rarely update. So I’ve plagiarised my own work.
I like a good list. I particularly a good list of things at the end of a decade.
There is nothing quite like judging things on an entirely subjective criteria and placing that within the confines of an entirely arbitrary time frame.
The NME have come up with their list of the 50 best albums of the last decade.
I think it’s a really good list and shows what a really good period we seem to be in for music at the moment.
I’m a little annoyed that The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots didn’t make it in there at all. I would have had them in the top ten. Though I’m a little bit Flaming Lips crazy today as I’m going to see them tonight. Go me.
I’ve bought 25 of their 50 and will certainly look at getting more.
So for no apparent reason here are my top 10 albums of the last decade, largely using their list to remind me when things came out.
1) Sufjan Stevens – Illinoise
2) Grandaddy – Sopftware Slump
3) Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
4) Acoustic Ladyland – Last Chance Disco
5) Jaga Jazzist – What We Must
6) Muse – Absolution
7) The Bees – Free the Bees
8) Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
9) Avalanches – Since I Left You
10) Cinematic Orchestra – Man With a Movie Camera
Hmm there is more jazz on there than I expected.
It’s a shame that you can only get away with lists in multiples of 5 or 10 as I would like to include the fantastic The Trials of Van Occupanther by Midlake, I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes and Want Two by Rufus Wainwright.
Technically that’s two Bright Eyes albums which would have given me 14 in total. I don’t think you’re allowed to have a list with 14 things on it.
So… it’s been a really good decade for music.
Nice list – Some great stuff here which fits into my tastes too. I promised Editorialgril I’d chip in my in some of my faves which I think you’ll dig as well. Not all of them are within the last decade but they’re all pretty damn fine if you ask me.
Current top 10 (in no particular order):
Calexico -Feast of Wire
Rilo Kiley – The Execution of All Things
Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner
The Leisure Society – The Sleeper
Jonathan Rice – Trouble is Real
Dusty Springfield – Dusty in Memphis
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Buck 65 – Talkin’ Honky Blues
The Cramps – Off the Bone
Ella Fitzgerald + Louis Armstrong – Ella and Louis
Honorable Mentions:
Ryan Adams- Heartbreaker
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – Rabbit Fur Coat
Devendra Banhart – Nino Rojo
The Magnetic Fields – 69 Love Songs
Ben Folds Five – Ben Folds Five
The Last Shadow Puppets – Age of the Understatement
Bjork -Homogenic
Arcade Fire – Funeral
Portishead – Dummy
Aim – Cold Water Music
Daedelus – Exquisite Corpse
Cocorosie – La Maison de Mone Reve
Kings of Convenience – Versus
Sigur Ros – Takk
Lambchop – Nixon
Tinariwen – Aman Iman
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Dig,Lazarus Dig!!!
Well – if I were you, I’d rid myself of the restraints of multiples and simply write the list you want. Which it seems like you did anyway, just without 4 of the numbers.
I think the phrase ‘My Top Ten’ should still be appropriated – for convenience (i.e., so a new one needn’t be coined) and to signify a context to others, though the amount of actual entries ought to be entirely arbitrary. At any given moment, mine would have anything from 1 to 25 albums in it.
I’ve been really resisting trying to make this list, but your post has pushed me into it. Foals’ eponymous debut would be top for me, followed by Interpol’s debut ‘Turn on the Bright Lights’. Sufjan Stevens, Joanna Newsome’s ‘Ys’ and TV On The Radio’s latest Dear Science would make up the next 3. That leaves another 5… OK then, Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Fever to Tell, Amon Tobin’s Foley Room, Bonnie Prince Billy Sings Greatest Palace Music. Arctic Monkeys’ debut. The Futureheads’ debut. Now let that be an end to it.