Best Albums of the Decade

50. M83 - Before Dawn Heal Us
Total Points: 145
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #16 by Dan

49. Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam

Total Points: 148
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #16 by Blake

48. Spoon - Gimmie Fiction

Total Points: 151
On List: 2
Highest Placement #25 by Blake

47. Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand

Total Points: 151
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #36 by Blake

46. Okkervil River - The Stand-Ins

Total Points: 152
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #38 by Blake

45. Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
Total Points: 153
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #15 by Michael

44. The Walkmen - You & Me

Total Points: 156
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #11 by Blake

43. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Total Points: 159
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #19 by Austin

42. Elliot Smith - Figure 8

Total Points: 161
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #20 by Michael

41. Jay-Z - The Black Album
Total Points: 163
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #14 by Austin

40. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People

Total Points: 164
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #8 by Michael

39. Beck - Sea Change

Total Points: 165
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #4 by Michael

38. Jens Lekman - Oh You're so Silent Jens

Total Points: 168
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #28 by Blake

37. Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Total Points: 169
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #15 by Blake

36. Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

Total Points: 171
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #11 by Michael

35. M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts

Total Points: 181
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #3 by Dan

34. Burial - Untrue

Total Points: 183
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #6 by Dan

33. Sigur Ros - Ágætis Byrjun

Total Points: 186
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #28 by Austin and Nick

32. Tom Waits - Alice

Total Points: 190
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #3 by Austin

31.The Knife - Silent Shout

Total Points: 191
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #19 by Dan

30. Jay-Z - The Blueprint

Total Points: 191
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #3 by Nick

If modern day me had the chance to go back in time and visit pre-millennium me to tell him just one thing, I'd probably just use it for a laugh and whisper into his ear that he'll grow up, against his will, to be a huge Jay-Z fan. It's not a casual appreciation, "I don't really like rap, but this Jay-Z song is okay", but a full blown, know-every-lyric kind of obsession. One that would lead to a search for any other album that could match its perfection.But it's hard. It's so much better than everything else. Even Jay-Z couldn't equal it. As unbelievable a talent as he is, he isn't actually all that great at making albums. Though everyone of them has hit number 1, I don't think that many people are lining up to defend Kingdom Come or the Blueprint 2. What's so astonishing about the Blueprint, and why I've listened to it repeatedly over the decade, is that appears to have been some kind of perfect confluence talent. He found the best producers, who laid down their best beats, and he walked tall over it all without fear. Nearly every song here could have been released as a single. I know this is the default Jay-Z album for people to like, but that's just because its that good. I mean, I kind of this it's underrated. Why doesn't everyone love this thing?

29. Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
Total Points: 191
On List: 2
Highest Placement: #1 by Austin

This album makes we weep over things I haven’t—and probably won’t—experience. I understand that perhaps they became a tighter and perhaps “better” band on subsequent albums but I can’t get over the raw intensity and lonely desperation of this album. It almost makes me want to have more pain in my life because it sounds so beautiful here. I still can’t listen to “A Stone” without completely stopping anything that I am doing. That includes driving…I don’t’ listen to this album much in the car.

28. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
Total Points: 192
On List: 3
Highest Placment: #33 by Austin

Spoon finally clicked with me on this album. I understood the aesthetic and I really caught on to the songs. I don’t know how many times I’ve played this in my car.

27. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning

Total Points: 194
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #13 by Austin

Sir Oberst is on my list too much I know. This album I feel is timeless and I recognize that it’s better than the album of his that I’ve placed higher but it’s too emotional at this point.

26. The Rapture - Echoes
Total Points: 202
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #8 by Dan

25. Spoon - Kill the Moonlight

Total Points: 210
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #10 by Blake

24. Madvillain - Madvillainy

Total Points: 211
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #22 by Blake

23. Brian Wilson - Smile

Total Points: 214
On List 3
Highest Placement: #1 by Michael

22. The Books - The Lemon of Pink

Total Points: 225
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #9 by Blake

21. Radiohead - Amnesiac

Total Points: 229
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #4 by Austin

Yes, I have it higher than Kid A. I make no apologies. Amnesiac is not an album that I came to eventually. It was, for some odd reason, immediate for me. I’ve been a staunch defender of every single one of these songs since the beginning. I even love “Hunting Bears” and Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors.” And in my opinion “Life In a Glass House” is the best album ender ever.

20. White Stripes - White Blood Cells

Total Points: 243
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #24 by Nick

Rock singers have been pissed for ages, but while most might rail against the man or something lame, Jack White is just really mad at you. You're lazy. You aren't a gentleman. You should be a better person. That he makes it rock so hard is a singular achievement.

19. Hot Chip - The Warning
Total Points: 251
On List 4
Highest Placement: #16 by Michael

18. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
Total Points: 253
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #2 by Blake

17. Jens Lekman - Night Falls over Kortedala
Total Points: 254
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #6 by Blake

16. The Strokes - Is This It?

Total Points: 268
On List: 3
Highest Placement: #5 by Nick

I was one of those kids that was convinced that the Strokes were here save rock. It's hard to grow up with a style of music and watch it devolve into the idicocy of Limp Bizkit and whateverthefuck Nickleback is. I used to have nightmares about the latter sucking all the life out of my skull. Serious! So I hung all my hopes on this New York quintet to bring back to the basics. And I realize now, the Strokes had something far different in mind. It's all about the beat here. Every song is anchored with drum machine precision. There's hardly an unscrubbed moment to be found. So what does the whole thing come off like the wildest night you can barely remember? I think that's why I became so taken up with them, why I drove all over the country to see them play, and snatched up every single I can find. And when they stopped having a good time, around album three, I started to wonder why I cared at all in the first place.Luckily whenever I question that I just need to listen to the first ten seconds of "Someday" and the world is right again. Nothing here means anything beyond whatever it takes to have a good time. And that was sort of revolutionary at the moment.

15. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

Total Points: 272
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #4 by Blake

14. Hercules & Love Affair - Hercules & Love Affair

Total Points: 289
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #14 by Nick

What can I say, other than that I was wrong? I ranked this guy as the number four album of 2008 last year, but it should have easily been number one. But how do you think it makes me feel dropping a true disco album up there? It's a little embarrassing if the album weren't so unbelievably tight. It's trance only gets more addicting as I listen to it.

13. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Total Points: 291
On List: 5
Highest Placement: #9 by Austin

Just an unreal album that sounds like it was recorded somewhere else. These guys must experience a reality different than the rest of us, the receptors on their eyes must pick up different wave lengths.

12. Junior Senior - Hey Hey My MY Yo Yo

Total Points: 311
On List: 5
Highest Placement: #3 by Michael

Yes, it has staying power. Every song on this album (besides the into, but I like that too) has been my favorite song. I have choreographed dances to these songs in my bedroom. One of my favorite capital-P Pop albums ever.

11. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

Total Points: 312
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #6 by Nick

At first I just loved the ridiculous songs, the ones that closesly mimicked the irreveant nature of "Losing My Edge", but in the middle of this album something changes. Instead of describing what the perfect situation might be, the songs start becoming them. It's liked he realized the prophetic nature "Yeah" and started geting it done himself. It's easy to be the critic, to yell out against the tide. It's another thing to actually do the work. It's a miraculous transformation.

10. Daft Punk - Discovery

Total Points: 313
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #1 by Dan

9. Animal Collective - Sung Tongs
Total Points: 321
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #5 by Austin

The only appearance they’ll be making so I figured I’d make it a good one. To be honest I can’t get into anything they’ve released since the album. I know they are saviors or something but I just want everything to sound like album. In fact, if all music could sound like “Winter Love” I would be content.

8. Panda Bear - Person Pitch

Total Points: 333
On List: 4
Highest Placement: #2 by Nick

It's as mysterious today as the moment I first pressed play. A progression of sound that always seems out of reach, and beyond understanding. It feels startlingly human, and yet never manages to touch the ground. It's the sound of old movies, sepia toned family photographs, and forgotten cartoons from childhood. It seemingly exists and yet could disappear back to where it came from without a moments notice. You'll always remember the experience, but never the specifics. But that doesn't really explain why I listen to this album so much, and how it always seems to be on in my apartment. And I really have no answer.

7. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

Total Points: 346
On list: 4
Highest Placement: #7 by Austin and Michael

The only album I’m including from this prolific artist. He has several terrific and worthy songs not on this album, but this is the only really solid effort I feel he has produced. Reinforced by recent rides through the recession-ridden Midwest and south.

6. Radiohead - In Rainbows
Total Points: 354
On List: 5
Highest Placement: #12 by Nick

Sometimes talent seems like an accident the individual doesn't know how to handle. But you never wonder that with Radiohead. It's scary, because they know how to wield power for their own purposes. When they want to wallow in the pain and muck of every day existence, they can. And when they want to make a warm subdued album that rips away most of the beats of their previous albums, they know exactly how to get it done.

5. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Total Points: 356
On list: 4
Highest Placement: #1 by Blake

4. The Avalanches - Since I left You

Total Points: 374
On list: 4
Highest Placement: #2 by Dan

3. Wolf Parade - Apologies to Queen Mary

Total Points: 379
On list: 5
Highest Placement: #11 by Austin

Before I fell completely in love with everything Spencer Krug shitted on tape there was this album that introduced me to him. The simmering, yet often falsetto-ed aggression never ceases to appeal to me. For some reason I connect with so many lyrics without having any idea what they mean.

2. Arcade Fire - Funeral

Total Points: 397
On List: 5
Highest Placement: #5 by Blake

1. Radiohead - Kid A

Total Points: 473
On list: 5
Highest Placement: #1 by Nick

Yeah, it's the most important album of the decade, and terribly influential to me personally as a music fantatic and human being, but what is it, exactly that makes Kid A so good? It's the easily the best album of the decade, as I've found out, but why?

I struggled for weeks trying to place another album at number one. Because, while I realize the importance of this album, I wanted to get past it. Panda Bear's Person Pitch is much closer to my mood, than the horror hallways of Kid A. But all arguments ended the moment the first few seconds of "Everything in its Right Place" entered into my brain. Kid A is so emphatically better than any album released this century that it is hard to talk about.I realize without it I'd be nowhere. The shift in direction coincided with the jump off the deep end into a world of the unexplained. I feel like this list should be dedicated to Kid A, because it directly influenced every other pick. I'd probably still hate techno, all electronic music, rap, ambient, jazz...It made Jay-Z and Wilco sound perfectly normal. There is nothing this album can't do.

Most of this decade was fought trying to make sense of chaos, moral posturing, and endless wars. Instead of celebrating, the best albums found beauty amongst the chaos, digging deep within to try and reconcile the problems. And no one really did it better than Radiohead.