Spending the younger days of my life in an incredibly small town, it’s a wonder that I could be exposed to even a tenth of the albums included on this list. Let’s just say that the music I listened to then… well, let’s just not say. It wasn’t until a year or two before I graduated high school in ‘01 that I began to familiarize myself with music outside of the radio world. Before I drag on and get entirely too nostalgic… it just seems fitting that our first list of an entire decade happens to be one where I started to explore music from it’s beginning.
The three of us (Nate, Jordan, and Ryan) joined forces, created our own lists, and then duked it out to whittle things down to fifty. Although this is the product of three individual’s distinct opinions, we were finally able to come to a general consensus. Fortunately, no one was hospitalized in the process. We felt that a decade was too long to have any less than fifty albums, but that any more than fifty would require too little thought. We also noticed how easy it is to spout off the number of artists that should be here, but how difficult it is to say why any of these artists shouldn’t. While some may think we (as well as other list-making bloggers) are doing this for ‘mad hits’/ ‘shitload of comments’, it’s hard to argue with how much fun it is to sit down with good friends and talk music. This blog may be too young for people to render our opinions “valid”, but in being young, this list can help to define us. So, take it for what you will, these are the albums that we have dug the shit out of in this ten year period.
HAVING MP3 ISSUES…HEAD TO OUR HYPE M PAGE TO LISTEN TO THE TRACKS FOR NOW
Okkervil River – Unless It’s Kicks
Les Savy Fav – Tragic Monsters
Fever Ray – When I Grow Up
The Shins – New Slang
Jens Lekman – A Postcard to Nina
No Age-Eraser
Elliott Smith – Everything Reminds Me of Her
Cannibal Ox – The F-Word
Broken Social Scene – Stars & Sons
Liars – Houseclouds
Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming
Clipse – Dirty Money
The Books – Take Time
Grizzly Bear – Ready, Able
Ryan Adams – Oh My Sweet Carolina
Dizzee Rascal – Jus a Rascal
Wilco – Ashes of American Flags
M83 – Graveyard Girl
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead – Another Morning Stoner
Deerhoof – Spirit Ditties of No Tone
The Strokes – Hard to Explain
McLusky – To Hell With Good Intentions
Songs: Ohia – Farewell Transmission
The Hold Steady – Your Little Hoodrat Friend
LCD Soundsystem – All My Friends
The Knife – We Share Our Mothers Health
My Morning Jacket – One Big Holiday
The Exploding Hearts – Jailbird
Panda Bear – Bros
Radiohead – Pyramid Song
Madvillain – All Caps
Grizzly Bear – Knife
Deerhunter – Nothing Ever Happened To Me
Jay Z – U Don’t Know
The Strokes – 12:51
The Avalanches – Since I Left You
The Unicorns – Jellybones
Modest Mouse – 3rd Planet
The White Stripes – Dead Leaves and The Dirty Ground
Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
The Walkmen – The Rat
Circulatory System – The Lovely Universe
Spoon – Small Stakes
Animal Collective – My Girls
Sonic Youth – Empty Page
Interpol – PDA
Outkast – B.O.B.
Sigur Rós – Svefn-G-Englar
Sufjan Stevens – John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
Radiohead – How To Disappear Completely
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This ewas written by , posted on September 4, 2009 at 8:16 am, filed under lists and tagged 00s, decade.Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
mad hits doggg
EXPLODING HEARTS YES
This rulez zo hardz.
Great, great, list! All very solid picks!!
I gotta get around to this soon!
Sweet list! Glad to see my boys and gals made number 42!
YO! where is Sea Change? I’m saddened
[...] This post was Twitted by erellis [...]
rad list…but, “is this it” after “room on fire”….the fuck?
strokes, radiohead, and sufjan stevens <3333
thanks, awesome post!
totally awesome list….songs: ohia, sleeper pick of the decade
i second the comment on you forgot it in people. gorgeous record.
so sweet that sigur ros made it so high in the list. that is a heavy, beautiful one, agetis byrjun.
ultimate classics of the decade: funeral, moon and Antarctica, and oh inverted world.
thanks for compiling this!
when’s the WTD listening party in honor of this list?
[...] scares the shit out of me. Not only has Fever Ray’s debut LP haunted it’s way into my favorites, but it’s third video/single, “Seven”, has found a way to visually chill me to [...]
This post makes me happy. I too grew up in an itsy bitsy town, and am still surprised by the amount of music I was exposed to in my last two years of highschool. It didn’t hurt that I had a friend with the largest library of musical good taste that I’ve ever come across, to this day. I owe my own exploration of music to him, and eptionic.com (the way it used to be, in those days).
34 of these artists are now part of my library. Aside from the obvious choices, I can’t tell you how happy it makes me that you included Les Savy Fav(the first good band I ever downloaded), The Books, Deerhoof, and Sonic Youth in this list. Kudos.
liza, glad you enjoyed the list. a lot of time was involved, but it was nothing but fun. nothing like a six pack, good friends and good tunes.
Finally someone gives The Avalanches some love. Great list all around.
Awesome list. Stand outs are The Knife – Silent Shout, Interpol – Turn On the Bright Lights, Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner and Jay-Z – The Blueprint.
Gonna do more lists? One from the 90’s could be awesome.
i was loving the list, brilliant stuff, then oh no – the most over-rated cliche of a suffering outsider artist – i’. talking thom and Radiohead of course. but still – much more good than shite site.
radiohead? overrated? really?
Half of the mp3s arent working =[
I know…read the top of the page. There is a link to our hypem where you can listen to the tracks, but they will not be available for download.
It’s missing “Hissing Fauna, are you the Destroyer” for sure.
no pearl jam…that’s an oversight, my man
nice list.
no libertines or arctic monkeys? also i think radiohead’s in rainbows should’ve been up there, but nevertheless a good list
[...] blogs (especially when hunting for all things sun-pop and bro-fi!) Weekly Tape Deck has compiled their favorite releases of the 00’s. I have made a mental note to check out the albums I missed on the [...]
Amazing list. Close to being definitive. I would personally suggest MGMT’s “Oracular Spectacular” and throw out The Strokes’ “Room on Fire”. Number 1# is a no-brainer too.
I feel like of Montreal and Bright Eyes should both have at least one album on this list, and I also think 14-11 were probably the best, but this is one hell of a list! In the past few weeks I have made this a guide of what albums to listen to because I love all the ones that I have, so I am hoping the ones I haven’t listened to yet are just as amazing (so far they have been).
beautiful.
Dang! Gotta say I’m very impressed with the selection, esp: Animal Collective, Liars, & No Age. Kudos, kudos.
Just another list of somebody trying to impress the world with how far off the beaten path they have been. Always includes quite a few from Radiohead. Pass.
Well, Don, I’d rather be on my own path than the one you’re on. Yeah, Kid A could be considered a cliche pick. And for the list, I/we can’t/couldn’t justify any other album taking it’s place at the top. But with millions of fans world wide, how far off the beaten path are they really? I dunno, maybe when Rolling Stone produces their list you can smile in unison with everyone else who likes what they are told to.
ZING!
very very good stuff…of course everyone will nitpick and make their own gripes, but overall I think this is a great collection. really happy to see Animal COllective, Panda Bear, Avalanches, M83 on there. I think my main issues would be outkast and sufjan taking 2 of the highest positions. I’d probably remove both altogether, maybe to be replaced by Quiet Village and Supergrass-Road to Rouen. Other justifiable additions would be Wilco-A ghost is born, The Black Keys- The big come up, Royksopp- Melody AM, Rogue Wave-Descended like vultures, Midlake-Trials of van occupanther, Rose Hill Drive-Moon is the new earth, Josh Rouse-1972, and Flaming Lips-Yoshimi (or At war with the mystics). I know no one asked, but hey, just tossin those out there! Again, great list guys, keep up the good work.
oh, and don barnett, you need to get your head out of your ass before that giant stick will come out. just a friendly tip.
You people are suggesting they should have put in Pearl Jam, The Libertines and The Arctic Monkeys? Did you even read the rest of the list? You might as well walk up to The Grates and say, “LOL, nawt a bad album Patience, but I think u should play sum stuff liek Kanye becos he’s so hawt right now…”
I’m sure Eminem or the Spazzies would have written very different lists again, but so what? These people are aiming the list at a target demographic and that demographic will probably love the list. I know I do.
And Don/Roo? Seriously? Did it occur to you that maybe you are the only ones who write this sort of blog to build up your cool facades? Could it possibly be that these guys wrote the list not as a carefully constructed web of lies to manipulate faceless internet nobodies into liking them, but as an accurate portrayal of their favorite albums?
I know, trollbait, etc.
Cool list though. I’m going to research the bands I don’t know to enhance my musical knowledge, then I’m going to introduce my friends to them and seem like a player. I hear if you collect enough cool points you can cash them in for a teddy-bear.
FUCK YEAH SONGSOHIAAAAAAAA! Dont see too many people singing his praises but the mans a genius, go buy this one!
great list, but where is 69 Love Songs?
you guys are great. love your taste.
Amnesiac and Kid A are amazing cd’s. Yet, Thom Yorke’s The Eraser was awesome in my opinion. Thought that should be up there. Also how is Radiohead overrated? Anyways great list!
Great to see you guys give love to Bows +Arrows. My body rocks out uncontrollably when the guitar kicks in on “Thinking Of A Dream I Had.” Then when the drums start, my head starts shaking, and by the time the song’s done I take a breathe and realize I just shit myself. Bows + Arrows has cost me many pairs of pants.
Fantastic list. Gonna keep me busy over the holidays.
I’m particularly glad to see some Doom on the list. I enjoyed The Mouse and The Mask more, to be sure, but still love me some Madvillain. I would’ve stuck in Dark Night Of The Soul and some Lupe Fiasco somewhere, but that’s just me.
someone else listens to the unicorns in the world?!?!?!
this makes me so happy!!!
i love all of these bands and i am so glad you listen to le savay fav and the unicorns :)
you made my night. thank you. <3
sorry savy* i can’t spell, also forgot to mention panda bear, i love him.
Wow.. this list is beautiful.
I recognized a bunch of my favourite albums and a few other artists I had intended to look into. I have already downloaded a couple albums from your list and am loving them. Thank you for this guide :).
Although I do agree with the other poster that In Rainbows should have made this list, I personally would have put it on before Amnesiac, but that’s just me :).
Awesome, more lists!!
Why would you have any trouble hearing about these bands in a small town? Was the small town in Siberia or something? Most of these bands are anything but obscure.
we only had 5 radio stations, dude and i never said anything about obscure. radiohead? quite far from obscure. outkast? not obscure. basically, i lived in a closed minded town that wasn’t accepting to anything different from brooks and dunn. but thanks for being a dick about it.
isn’t songs: ohia’s album called pyramid electric co.? not magnolia electric co. which is a country band?
nope…it is most definitely Magnolia Electric Co.
but Songs: Ohia did eventually morph into Magnolia Elec. Co.
This list is fucking gay and a crock of shit. Eat shit indie rock fans.
thanks for the input joe. yr opinion really matters. any more witty commentary you’d like to add?
someone once told me if you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all… so I won’t say anything… ef.
[...] Afternoon Naps have a single song that caught my ear because of the relativity of sound is has to the Unicorns. Korg and boyish murmuring intact. I cant speak for the other songs by this band and like I said I [...]
Awesome list!
Nice inclusion of Cannibal Ox, overlooked on every other list I’ve read
Kid A number 1? wtf?
I love this completely
Actually, I didn’t know most of it, which was a complete surprise.
It was a lot by artists I knew but specific albums/songs I hadn’t heard, which was amazing. Thanks!
this is beautiful.
actually love it.
Great collection…not sure I agree with the order! But it’s cool!
loves it! hehe not sure I agree with the order… but i liked it. still a lot of great stuff that’s not on the list! like røyksopp, casiokids, moby, beck(!) hehe maybe someone like norwegian music? :P (einar stray – arrows, maria due – hagerty square) ?? :P whatever your list rocks! :D
every radiohead album should be on this list :P
AWESOME WORK GUYS(:
radiohead, animal collective, shins, strokes <3
I love the list, thanks for putting it together. It might have been nice to see a little Bright Eyes, but overall pretty spot on.
Considering i was most likely in high school and early college about the same time you guys were, this list makes me feel very nostalgic and isn’t far from being a complete collection of some truly foundational albums for the 2000s. Thanks for taking the time to put this together in an honest and thoughtful way, it reminded me of some albums that i’d like to dust off.