10. Gnarls Barkley – St Elsewhere (2006)

One of the best musical collaborations ever. This band (group?) was like catching lightning in a bottle.  First you have Cee-Lo Green, who is actually one of the better R&B vocalists out there that no one had heard of, and then Danger Mouse, who in my opinion is the best hip-hop producer since the late J Dilla. And then you get them to mesh on a certain vibe that highlights both their strengths, and whammo…instant classic.

9. Beck – Sea Change (2002)

Love, love, love Sea Change. This album kinda flew under the radar, I guess because it didn’t sound like Odelay, which is what some people still want Beck to sound like, I guess. For Beck though, since he had already made a career pushing the envelope musically, evolving his sound could only go towards more traditional songwriting…and guess what. Turns out he’s a once-in-a-generation type talent at songwriting, who knew? Seriously, listen to “Already Dead” for example, and try to argue with that last sentence.

I will not make a Scientology remark, I won’t do it….ahhh LORD XENU!!! Ah, I’m sorry, it was like trying to hold in a sneeze.

8. Eminem – The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

Yes, this is going this high on the list. This is the album where Eminem really became a cultural force, basically because he truly did not care. At all. About anything. Everything gets set on fire on this record, society, his family, himself, and everything else that has existed before or since. And he has the charisma and lyrical skill to pull it off in an artistically impressive way. This is a classic rap (not hip hop) album, which should appeal to hardcore rap fans, as well as backpackerish hip-hop fans (like me) equally.

The song “Kim” is still one of the most emotionally honest and truly passionate things ever created by anyone in any genre of art to date.

7. Sigur Ros – Agaetis Byrjun (2000)

This has to be in my Top Ten. It was released right at the cusp of the decade, but still features some of the prettiest sounds ever put to record. Sigur Ros, which means “Victory Rose” in Icelandic, is the only noteworthy non-Bjork music ever to come out of Iceland, as far as I’m aware. They make use of e-bows, sing in a fictional invented language known as “Hopelandic”, and are the only band to have their music described as “glacier-like” on a regular basis. Theyalso toured with Radiohead (not how I found out about them) and are heard in the movie “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”.

They have put out a few records since this one which are also quite good, but feature a drastic change in their sound. I’m all for evolving musically, and can’t wait to see what they do in the future, but “Agaetis Byrjun” will stand alone as a fantastic achievement which I’m not sure they, or many bands at all, can outdo.

6. Outkast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)

Dan has Stankonia on his list, which is also great, and probably the best “actual” Outkast album. But this double disc masterpiece goes beyond even trying to define it with mere words.

Basically, Big Boi and Andre 3000 had hit a point where they were having “creative differences”, but instead of just quitting like most people would have, they just said, “How about we each make an album that plays to our strengths, without the other one coming in to screw it up?” The result is Big Boi’s Speakerboxxx, which could stand alone as one of the best hip-hop albums of the decade, and then Andre’s “The Love Below” , where he just basically morphs into some mutant combination of Prince and George Clinton, and starts doing every genre of music you could ever imagine all at once… and (mostly) pulls it off in an incredible fashion.

5. Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005)

Hey, you can’t put Gorillaz this high! They’re not even real, they’re cartoons. Oh, yes I can. Unless the sounds that come out of their CDs are also just drawings, then Gorillaz is a real band with real musicians. This album is also a LOT better than their first, self-titled album, which I also loved. The main difference is the presence of Danger Mouse, (who apparently i’m not done verbally molesting yet). The songwriting is a lot more advanced here, and it dips its toes into a wide variety of genres without ever really picking one for long enough to get boring. But this is a completely cohesive album at the same time, and the unique sound that it creates makes it easily one of my favorites.

4. Ben Harper – Diamonds on the Inside (2003)

What can you say about Ben Harper? I’ll quote myself…from a review of a live show in Ames that I saw a few years ago.

“Harper’s enthralling performance never gave the crowd a chance to lose interest. Drawing inspiration from musical kindred spirits Jimi Hendrix, Marvin Gaye and Bob Marley, Harper flowed effortlessly between genres while never seeming out of his element.

From his Marley-esque reggae anthem “With My Own Two Hands” to his lusty rendition of Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing,” Harper wore his influences on his sleeve while still managing to carve out a distinct musical niche for himself, making it clear why he has such a devoted following.

Harper also showed musical versatility throughout the night, picking up and playing a wide variety of instruments. Even while sitting down, he commanded the attention of every pair of eyes in the coliseum as he played his trademark slide guitar, seeming to channel his soul directly through the horizontal instrument.”

Yeah, he does stuff like that.

3. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)

You either have or haven’t heard Wilco, and rather than try and make clumsy comparisons to other good bands, I’m just going to use a piece of dialogue from the movie “Funny People” instead.

“Do you like music?”
“That’s like asking me if i like food.”
“Do you like…Wilco? I have tickets to Wilco.”
“Yeah, I guess. I’d be into that.”
“So I guess we…Wil Co to the show together?”
“Not anymore.”
“Are you serious?”
“No…I’ll still go.”

Liking Wilco is kind of like liking food. You do. Even if you don’t want to admit it, you do. It’s part of our biological makeup as human beings. I know that wasn’t at all what that quote was about, but I’ve written nearly 100 mini-reviews now, and I don’t care.

2. Postal Service – Give Up (2003)

Argh! I love this album. Such Great Heights is one of the best songs ever written in my opinion. Basically, Postal Service is Ben Gibbard from Death Cab and Jimmy Tamborello. So it’s like Death Cab meets electronic pop, and by the way, that equals musical bliss. Not liking this album is an indefensible position. Even it’s just your personal opinion, you’re wrong. Wrong about your own opinion. That’s how good this album is, not liking it is not even a logical conclusion.

1. Perfect Circle – Mer De Noms (2000)

This album will forever stand as a glorious musical accomplishment. It’s nearly perfect. Of course, that’s a relative term, depending on your tastes in music. But for me, this is a nearly perfect album. I’m actually okay with it being in the number one spot, even though i didn’t plan it that way. It sat there at the top of the list for a while, and I kept expecting something to pop out at me that would jump it for the #1 spot, but nothing really did. I guess that says something.  My fear is that this album, and Perfect Circle, and even Tool for that matter, will be underappreciated historically. Well, I’m doing my part at least.

Conclusions:

The kind of sad part is that the majority of the best (most-liked-by-me) albums this decade came out a lot closer to 2000 than “now”. If I had to theorize, I’d say it’s a combination of the fact that it takes awhile for an album to sink in as a classic for me (like still listening to it years later), the fact that I don’t voraciously consume new music like I used to (which sucks), and the fact that music is going mostly downhill lately (may not be true, but sounds good to say).

Overall though, there’s been enough good music this decade to come up with a Top 100, and (mostly) not feel weird about any of my choices (at least not yet).

If you’re reading this (and you are) please leave comments and feel free to criticize my list, and point out any obvious omissions, mistakes, and oversights. (If no one does, I’m going to assume the rest of the world agrees with my list 100%.)

If you jumped into this list near the end, why not check out the Top 100 from the beginning? And if you already did, why not go around again (like a rollercoaster with no line?)

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