A lot of people are having fun putting lists of the best records of the decade together. As it happens, here is the correct list, until I remember another:
James Blackshaw - the Cloud of Unknowing
Techincal mastery of an instrument is, sadly, all too often allied to poor compositional skills or an inability to know when to stop. James Blachshaw's skill on the 12 string guitar is matched with wonderful, chordal compositions. You Can either stick it on as background music or listen closely to the sounds and the music. It's both impressive and deeply beautiful.
New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
One of the dirty secrets of modern music snobbery is that power pop, the most beloved of anterna-hip genres because of its apparent ordinariness, was for a while pretty popular with teenage girls. McFly, Busted, even Avril Lavigne: basically power pop. But whilst they were selling millions of records and playing to huge crowds, it was still possible to see the bestnew band of the naughties in small clubs (at least in Britain). The New Pornographers not only made power pop - an inherently retro genre - new again, they also acted as a thrilling gateway drug for Neko Case and Destroyer. They would grow on later albums, but Mass Romantic is a perfect debut.
REM - 39 songs
They left it late, but right at the end of the period REM pulled out a great album, after a decade of increasingly annoying fans. 39 songs is a live album that both resurrects the band's past and is a work in progress for what would become Accelerate. After too many years of trying to remake the ballady bits of Out of Time and Automatic, they decided to go back to Murmur and Reckoning as templates. Compare with the Live in Dublin CD released earlier - same city, same band, but touring in support of Around the Sun they sound bored. On 39 songs they sound alive.
Guided By Voices - Human Amusements at Hourly Rates
GBV albums are always patchy - even the best have a fair amount of fragments or filler - but a best of was always set to be one of the best albums of Brtish invasion inspired rock ever. This does not disappoint. It's both a great introduction, and the GBV mixtape you always wanted to make. All killer, no filler.
OutKast - Big Boi and Dre present...
Given that I'm including comps, this edges out Stankonia and Speakerboxx/The Love Below. But only just. Their best record will be the one that includes all the stuff here, plus the later hits, including Hey Ya - the song that owns the 00s.
Go! Team - Thunder Lightning Flash
The Avalanches did this sort of thing first, and in Frontier Psychiatrist did it better, but their album is two great tracks and a load of good ones. This however, is fun from start to end, and rooted in a particularly British sense of popular culture (Junior Kickstart, anyone?). Plus Bottle Rocket is one of those tracks I wish I could hear again for the first time.
Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
Illinoise might be better in some aspects, but this is the breakthrough for me. His most overtly Christian. The title track is wonderful, and it all excites.
Sigur Ros - ()
At the dinner party end of post-rock or whatever you want to call it, but a thrill nonetheless. Their entire career has been constantly teetering on the brink of unbearable pretentiousness, but there's no doubt that they have their stuff together.
GIllian Welch - Hell Amongst the Yearlings
Time (The Revelator) would also do here, but this edges it.
The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
Original Pirate Material laid down a marker for Britain with the line "round here we say birds not bitches" delivered with just the right amount of pride and confusion. But the narrative of "A grand" wins out. It matches the sound and speech of Britain at a particular time and place (i.e. a southern fried chicken hut at about 11 at night) with a touching story. Could Be Well In and Dry Your Eyes exactly capture both the start and end of relationships when you're still young enough to burn through a lifetime's passion in a few weeks.
Honourable mentions: Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Decemberists - Picaresque
Apples in Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder
Vampire Weekend, TV On the Radio, Hold Steady, all of Goldfrapp, Beck - Sea Change
Andrew Bird
Spoon - Ga ga etc.
The National, The Broken West - I can't go on..., anything by Yo La Tengo, Hoew Gelb Sno Angel Like You, Cat Power, The Long Winters, Kingsbury Manx,
Plus a lot more - overall it was a pretty good decade for music. Well done everybody, well done.
