Top Albums of the Decade

If there's been one emblematic shift in pop since 2000, it has been the digitization of music. The onslaught of the MP3 has forever changed the way music is produced and how we consume it. There are no more labels, aside from the "Big Six" conglomerates, and anyone with access to the Internet can virtually track down and download any song ever recorded for free. Music, in my opinion, has actually benefitted from this. Recording technology has been ripped from the hands of the elite few. Anyone with ProTools and an M-Audio microphone can record full-lengths in their bedroom. The reason I think music has benefitted from this, at least in terms of quality, is that musicians are more obliged to compose the most stimulating songs their private hearts can muster, otherwise their music never rises to the surface of the murky swamp that is the Independent Music. But that's another story. This story is about the albums from 2000-2009 that floated up to the slimy surface and reached my eardrums . Considering I was twelve years old when the century turned, these years have been formidable to say the least, and the albums I list here have all had a profound effect on me. My favorite albums of the last decade aren't necessarily the ones that broke barriers or the ones ones that challenged old formulas, but ones that revitalized old formulas with new Turns. Before you start scrutinizing my list, criticizing my taste, and scouring it for emissions, please know that these were just the first seven that came to mind.


Danger Mouse - "The Grey Album" (2004)
Someone brought this up the other day and I realized it may be the album with the widest influence of the last ten years. This tape was the catalyst that set off the wave a mashup culture, a genre that has become appallingly over-crowded, mostly because of people like girltalk who overindulge the concept. But when an unknown producer named Brian Burton released this for free in 2004, the concept was unheard of. Listening to it now, it is nicely composed, but what's more important is this album's breakthroughs in music distribution, cross-polination of genre, music collage and a style of production so sweet to the ears that even Apple records had to drop their suit.
I mostly wanted to mention Danger Mouse's and his introduction to the music world because his projects since have been nothing short of illustrious--Gnarly Barkely had the pop hit of the decade, his collaboration with MF DOOM is solid gold. His production for The Good, the Bad & the Queen, Gorrilaz, Beck and The Black Keys among others concretized his foundation as the mightiest sword wielding composer of the last ten years. Most recently he collaborated with David Lynch (!?) on the mysterious comp album "Dark Was the Night", which if you haven't heard (most likely because it's never being commercially released) you should take a listen (here)


The Avalanches - "Since I Left You" (2000)
That The Avalanches haven't released anything since this is a true shame, (although a follow-up to "Since I Left You", apparently, is slated for release this year, but i'll believe it when i see it.) The concepts perfected on the album--hyper sampling, micro-sampling, thematic compositional arches, electronic lucidity--all have been adopted and mimicked by producers all over the world. "Since I Left You" is a near perfect stream of songs, ranging from the low-key/down-tempo "Tonight" to the hyped up banger "Live at Dominoes". I keep coming back to this one.

"Live at Dominoes" - The Avalanches


Grizzly Bear - "Yellow House" (2006)
As soon as I heard the salulatory flute runs and haunting piano stabs on the albums opener, "Easier", I knew I was in for a delight. This album transports you instantly to a caustophic realm of rustic poignancy. The fact that they recorded Veckatimest twenty minutes from my hometown, or that the house I grew up is yellow, furthers its resonance with me. An ornate, spooky and elegant journey.

"On a Neck, On a Spit" - Grizzly Bear


Beach House - "Beach House" (2006)
This album inspired me to add the Casiotone CT-360 to my christmas list. So look out for my beach house esque project doing shows at the co-op this semester (along with our surf-rock quartet?) under this name. Beach House is that visual visual visual dusty prom dress ocean-at-night boomchic tattered drum machine plastic jewlery wave pop theatre organ electric twinkle music box. All done with complete sincerity. Victoria Legrand's vocals haunt my dreams and Alex Scally's watery guitar drips are the best supplement to that I can think of. The "sounds like" on their myspace says it is all

Beach House - "Childhood"


Madvillain - "Madvillainy" (2004)
Madvillainy. Discovering MF DOOM in high school (thanks theo) introudced me to Vic Vaugns twisted landscape of catroonish stream of consciousness ear-candy vocab spat over eclectic minimalist beats, and this album is his best, I'd say. Madlib's instrumentations are melodic and decisively simplistic in origin; samples were culled from lost Sao Paulo vinyl using a portable record player, an SP 303 and a borrowed cassette deck. The subsequent remixes by Four Tet and Koushik only add to the album's legend.

Madvillain - "Supervillain Theme"



J Dilla - "Donuts" (2006)
It's hard to get a sense for the weight of this album with out first knowing the narrative behind it. The heart-breaking legend of Dilla's final compositions, the majority of which were conducted in a hospital bed. Donuts, released three days before his death, is beats-making at it's most refined, proof that the hip-hop formula is something permanent. James Yancey's homage brought new validity to the genre, inspiring a new school of producers.

J Dilla - "Don't Cry"



Panda Bear - "Person Pitch" (2007)
I had heard cuts from Strawberry jam, Feels, Sung Tongs, but it was this candy-colored gateway that revealed to me to the strange billiance of Animal Collective's catalog. Bubble-guns of sound, fuzz-soaked samples and pop hooks at once disonant and sugary make this album a blue jewel in the sea.

Panda Bear - "Bros"



Dr Dog - "We All Belong" (2007)
The second I heard the showering grand piano loop and jerky bass thump of "The Way the Lazy Do" while standing in Fuck City's kitchen, I knew I had found something special. Their albums, Toothbrush, Fate, Easy Beat, are all gifts, but it was We All Belong that really touched my heart, chronicling my first love.

Dr Dog - "My Old Ways"