Your Favorite Albums of the Decade

Yeah, I'm gonna do it.

I'm simply going alphabetically by band name, that's all.

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Godflesh - Messiah (2000)

A great release from a unique band. This is actually an EP, but those count too, and I like it slightly better than the other album Godflesh put out during this past decade. This has a little bit of both of the band's polarizing styles - a little bit of grinding, death-marching industrial sludge metal, and a little bit of metal-infused hip-hoppy/breakbeat stuff. The title track is probably my favorite Godflesh song ever.

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Isis - Panopticon (2004)

This is the only Isis album I've heard, but if the others are anything like this, then I might have to add these guys to a "favorite bands" list. It's vaguely like Tool, but not. It's got a big sludge/doom sound to it, and it's really atmospheric. The sparse vocals help the soundscaping - though at the same time, I miss the vocals sometimes too. He sounds like a much cooler version of Eddie Vedder. Speaking of his voice, one of the drawbacks of this album is the guy's pathetic attempt at a death-growl he does in some tracks. If he didn't do that for a few lines, "So Did We" would be one of my favorite songs ever. Well, it already is, actually, but I'd like it even more just the same. But, the rest of the album is fantastic enough to make up for it.

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Clint Mansell - Requiem for a Dream (2000)

When I saw this movie (which is one of my favorites,) the score really stood out to me. I went out and bought the soundtrack in a heartbeat. It's beautiful; it's a great mix of neoclassical string arrangements (courtesy of the Kronos Quartet) and electronic drones and soundscapes. It reminds me a little of the instrumentals on the calmer songs on NIN's The Fragile and, to a lesser extent, Still. Which is always good. Anyway, fucking beautiful, buy it, etc.

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Marilyn Manson - Holy Wood (2000)

Manson is a bit of a chameleon, and had really kinda polarized people and lost a lot of fans between the two albums to come before (he'd changed more before that but they had been his most popular at that point), with their absolutely massive sound and stylistic differences. Antichrist Superstar sounded grimy, dark, glitchy, and sinister as hell, with a more metal sound to it. Mechanical Animals was 'shiny', polished, more conventional in its use of synths and sequencers, and had a more rock-and-roll sound. So what does he do for his next album? He goes for a happy medium between those two. It's kind of hard to explain, but it's obvious when you hear it. Like all previous Manson albums (and no subsequent Manson albums,) there's not a single track I don't like. The concept and storyline, concluding the story carried in the previous two albums (and at the same time beginning it, since it's supposed to be a prequel-of-sorts,) is really interesting, and the political commentary is nice (the album was largely inspired by Manson's epic facepalming at the American media's immediate reaction and subsequent handling of the Columbine massacre.)
This is actually one of my very favorite albums, period. I *like* everything Manson did afterwards, but his little trilogy (Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals and [/i]Holy Wood[/i]) was definitely his creative peak.

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Ministry - Animositisomina (2003)

Everyone hates this album. I don't know why. I think it's one of Ministry's best, a fairly big improvement over the previous album, Dark Side of the Spoon, and a fine send-off for Paul Barker. IMO, this was Ministry's last album before becoming mediocre as hell (though I did kind of like a lot of stuff on The Last Sucker.) The songs are great ("Broken" is probably the best song ever written about kinky sex) and the production has a really unique quality to it that really brings out the electronics - it's kind of atypical of Ministry, from any point after The Land of Rape and Honey, to really embrace the synths and electro-industrial noise as anything other than an underline to the traditional instruments. Also, the cover of "The Light Pours Out of Me" is one of my favorite Ministry songs ever.
I truly cannot believe that so many Ministry fans are willing to say with a straight face that Houses of the Mole or Rio Grande Blood are better than this [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero (2007)

Now, I'm not one of those bitter ex-NIN fans who hates everything after The Downward Spiral because Trent quit trying to sound like the bastard child of Ministry and Skinny Puppy and started writing marginally less-dark lyrics. I like The Fragile. I even really like With Teeth (and I'm convinced I'm the only NIN fan who does.) That said, I don't think anything after TDS lives up to the greatness of that album. I accepted it and moved on, and happily continued listening to the new stuff. Then Year Zero came out, and I was blown the fuck away. I was expecting it to at least be good, but this is *almost* as good as The Downward Spiral.
For one thing, the lyrics are finally about something other than depression and suicide. I like lyrics about depression and suicide, and think Trent is great at writing about that stuff, but it is pretty nice to hear him change them up. Year Zero is a concept album about a dystopian future n' stuff (and if you were on the internet at any point during 2007, you are probably aware of the fucking massive alternate reality game/viral marketing campaign based around the storyline of the album.) Another thing I'm thankful for is the return to a more electronic sound, as opposed to the more organic sound of With Teeth. But Trent isn't retreading with his sound either; rather than the classic 80's/early 90's industrial sounds and programming/production styles, we've got a more literally computerized-sounding, glitch-based style that's extremely refreshing as well.
I think the final two albums that followed this were good too, but they didn't match this one in quality at all.

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Gary Numan - Pure (2000)

Oh, Gary Numan... Most of you probably know his as the one-hit wonder who sang "Cars" in the 70's and then faded into obscurity. Well, he actually has recorded albums pretty much nonstop since then, and he gradually started moving away from his new wave stylings into a darker sound with darker lyrical themes. Then when the 90's came about and all the other established acts like Bowie, Danzig, Alice Cooper, etc. were trying to jump on the industrial bandwagon to replicate NIN and Manson's success, Numan figured, "Why the bloody fuck not? I'm an arm's-length away from it at this point anyway." So, Numan adopted a new gothic image and started writing dark, brooding, NIN-esque industrial rock/metal songs about killing angels and other such common subjects within the genre. The thing is, though, that Numan was actually really, really good in this style. He had been getting ridiculed and poo-pooed and treated with a total lack of respect until that point, when people finally started saying good stuff about him for the first time since "Cars". He started getting fantastic reviews and some people were even saying he was more or less on par with NIN. The new style fit like a glove. And this album? This album is what he's been working at his whole life. Every song is pure gold here. There's a power in these songs that I really don't even know how to explain in words. Most notable are two songs - one a tear-jerking ballad, and one that has Numan questioning God and starts out quiet and mournful and then halfway through becomes explosive and angry - about the daughter that Numan and his wife lost.
This is another of my favorite albums ever, and it cemented Numan as one of my favorite musicians.

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Ozzy Osbourne - Black Rain (2007)

What can I say here? There are a few clunkers, but in the end I think this is Ozzy's best album since the 90's and one of his best overall. PROTIP: Get the 2-disc edition, the bonus tracks are some of the best ones and should never have been cut from the album.

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Pig - Pigmata (2004)

...and here we have the solo project of former KMFDM mainstay Raymond Watts. He's been doing this particular band since the 80's, and Trent Reznor made an attempt to get Pig a bit better-known in the mid-90's, but for the most part, nobody but hardcore rivetheads and KMFDM fans who pay attention seems to really care about poor Pig.
I've listened to pretty much all of his previous albums except for maybe one or two, and I think this is by far his best. It's industrial metal with an electro-industrial edge to it, and even though it nixes the symphonic elements that characterized Watts himself for the longest time, it's still fantastic. Some of the songs are powerful and furious. Some of them are draggy, spooky, and at times Skinny Puppy-esque. There are one or two tracks here that just plain bore me, but all the other kickass songs make up for it.
Now I'm waiting for that next album Watts promised us a few years back. Last I heard he was doing music for fashion shows, so I'm not holding my breath at the moment [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Skinny Puppy - Mythmaker (2007)

The last Puppy album I thought was truly great was Last Rights in 1992. After that, they started trying to sound more mainstream and radio-friendly, and produced 1996's The Process (which I thought was *pretty good* but still kind of disappointing) and, after a temporary split-up and reconfiguration, 2004's The Greater Wrong of the Right (which I still think is their worst by far.) Then came Mythmaker. It doesn't sound like any of their earlier, "classic" era stuff, so a lot of the fans hate it, but I think it is easily one of their very best, and as it stands it actually comes in a close second as my favorite SP album (only being beaten by Bites from 1985.)
I think the album sounds a lot like The Greater Wrong of the Right (which makes sense) but the difference is, this is so, so much better somehow. I love every track, and am hoping that the Kevins can hold onto this magic for that new Puppy album that should be chugging on out any time now.

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Throbbing Gristle - The Endless Not (2007)

Hmm... Well this sure is interesting. See, as much as I like Throbbing Gristle, I admit that they really didn't know what they were doing for their first incarnation, which existed in the 70's and early 80's. They did create a few masterpieces, but overall you could tell they were just fucking about their synthesizers and exotic instruments and trying to produce sounds that they thought were cool or that they thought could annoy or frighten people. After TG broke up, all of its members went of to form their own industrial splinter-groups that would achieve varying levels of recognition. The most famous was Sleazy Peter Christopherson's band, Coil. They did some awesome shit (including a beautiful melancholy version of "Tainted Love", and the NIN remix from the opening credits of Se7en.) But what I'm trying to get at is that they were much more "pretty" and melody-based next to TG's nightmarish cacophony. And that leads into this, the first proper album from the reborn version of Throbbing Gristle. You can still tell it's them, but there's much more order to this chaos, which in TG's case turns out to be a very good thing. I really do think that this time, Christopherson has more reign than the frontman, Genesis P-Orridge, because this sounds like a more sinister and "industrial"-sounding version of Coil, basically. And I like it. I think it's TG's best album by a country mile.

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Tool - Lateralus (2001)

There's really nothing I can say about this that hasn't been said already.
fucking masterpiece

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Devin Townsend - Ki (2009)

This was my first exposure to Townsend, and so far nothing else has lived up to this, but I've still got a lot more to listen to. The only way I can describe this is by saying it's a rather schizophrenic prog-rock album that periodically goes into metal and, in one case, rockabilly territory. I love it though.

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Ulver - Lyckantropen Themes (2002)

Apparently, Ulver used to be a black metal band. I haven't heard any of their old stuff, but I will definitely get to that someday. For now, I've got this. It's a beautiful, calm-and-relaxing yet dark-and-spooky electronica album. Not electronica as in Aphex Twin or the Prodigy, but a sort of... well, this is actually the score to some artsy gothic-horror film, so just imagine something like that.

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Wolf Eyes - Burned Mind (2004)

Wa-hey, Wolf Eyes. Yeah, they're a noise band, but I find them more tolerable than a lot of noise bands because they actually have something resembling a melody, instead of just weakly-manipulated white noise and the sound of someone periodically scraping their teeth against a brick. I mean, I could even listen to that, I'd just have to be in the right mood.
Wolf Eyes reminds me of a really fucking angry version of 70's Throbbing Gristle, which is cool. This album is friggin' insane, man. Even if you don't like noise albums, but you do like industrial stuff, give this a go. I'll understand if you hate it, because noise music is just one of those things you either love or hate. And right now, I'm actually kind of loving it (seriously, I heard a Merzbow track a couple of years ago that made me physically ill every time I listened to it. If that's not badass, I don't know what is.)

And there we are. Anyone else up?

I'll bite, Darth.

Bishop Allen – The Broken String (2006)

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Bishop Allen is kind of an indy band, and I’m not all over the indy scene or anything, but I do like to find bands randomly like I did them. They’re simply adorable. I was watching Nick and Norah and this guy comes out and says, “Hi, we’re Bishop Allen” and the band starts to play, and they’re on for all of three seconds before they’re gone, but I went and found them. I was glad I did.

Bishop Allen – well, they’re happy. And upbeat. And cute. And foot-tappy. They often utilize xylophones in their pieces, and occasionally toss in their female singer to get some good effect. I have heard oboes, trumpets, piano, maracas, and ukuleles in their songs. They are a musical flavor-blast, and when I listen to them, I see colors. Sometimes I don’t even know what they’re talking about, but it still sounds inspiring. I love this band and went out of my way to buy their album to support them. Give them a listen.

The Black Keys – Attack & Release

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I used to feel the Black Keys relied too heavily on cheap gimmicks like overly distorted guitar and their singer’s strange vocals. In this album released in 2008, they overcame these beginner trips and created something truly unique and enjoyable.

Every song on this album has its own unique sound and lyrics, and its own unique use of the instruments at the two band-mates’ disposal. I often put this album on while I’m writing something chaotic – the noise change-ups spur me on. All of these awesome songs culminate in one grand finale – the “Fight For Air Mash-up” at the end. I listen to that one the most.

Jason Mraz – We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. (2008)

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If you’ve listened to the radio anywhere at all in the past year or so, you’ve probably grown sick of Jason Mraz’s hit “I’m Yours.” (Don’t worry, so have most of his older fans. It’s really overplayed.)

Don’t go forming an opinion of the man too fast, though. With a voice like butter and an impeccable band to back him up, he’s got it going on. This album has a jazzy, new feel to it that I relish – exquisite use of brass and electronics to get a great fusion going on. His songs actually make me want to get up and dance when I hear them. I think Jason Mraz is a musical and lyrical pro, and if you haven’t heard him past “I’m Yours,” you should check out this album and Tonight, Not Again right now.

Mason Jennings – Boneclouds (2006)

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Describing Mason Jennings to people, the first thing I usually say is, “Do you like Jack Johnson? Well, Mason Jennings is like him, only way better.”

Mason Jennings has a laid back, warm feel to him. His voice is not beautiful, it’s not buttery and soulful like Jason Mraz’s by any means. It’s the voice of a normal guy singing his heart out, and I find that endearing. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve listened to the sad story of the boy and the girl in “Jackson Square” or the simple, innocent religious questions in “Jesus Are You Real.” Each of his songs has something to celebrate and something to question, with lyrics that I think can touch anyone.

Michael Franti & Spearhead – Yell Fire! (2006)

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Spearhead is very… well, live-and-let-live freedom singers. This appeals to me (maybe not to some). What also appeals to me is their reggae/rock/rap feel. They are catchy. My itunes classifies them as “Pop” but that’s not what they are. They often have commentary about the wars in the Middle East, about loving your fellow man, about revolution, and about loving your fellows and rejoicing in music. It’s almost a little spiritual, and I love it. My dad actually told me to stop playing it about three days after I got the album because I was getting on his nerves with it.

Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much (2009) and Life in Cartoon Motion (2007)

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Chances are, you’ve heard Mika’s hit “Grace Kelly.” He’s a lot more than falsetto pop radio hits, though. He’s candy and rainbows and unicorns and glam and dance all mixed into one very cheerful, flirty bundle. I love him. I’ve got both these albums here because I love them both. I think they are similar and different and full of cotton candy awesomeness. Mika can hit high notes that would make Freddie Mercury proud and I am really jealous of his style. He can be equally sad and happy in different songs, and he’s a hit for a reason. He’s great.

Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (2009)

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I’m that lame-ass who’s coloring pretty cutouts of Neko Case’s lyrics to tape on the top part of my dorm room wall because those lyrics make almost no sense but really really appeal to me. Neko Case isn’t really that well known, but she’s got such an easy acoustic sound, with such a mellow, husky voice and such mysterious words that she’s a must-listen. My favorite song is probably “Fever” – a lyrical encounter with death in a factory, it took me five or six listens to really discern what she was talking about, but they were enjoyable listens, and she’s become one of my favorite artists since my best friend brought her to my attention last year.

The Offspring – Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace (2008)

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I love The Offspring. My dad let me listen to them when I was ten years old and had no idea what their lyrics meant or really what they were saying most of the time. (“The world loves wannabees, yeah” = “the world loves water pizza” to my ten-year-old ears.) This album was just another that I love that came out very recently, and it’s been a big hit, if them playing “Kristy, Are You Doing Okay” at my retail jobsite is anything to go by. I don’t really know what to say about the Offspring or their genre except that they’re awesome and you probably already know who they are.

OK Go – Oh No (2005)

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You probably know these guys from that video – you know, the one where they’re dancing on treadmills? Yeah, I found them from the dance routine that came before that. Surfing Yahoo videos one day, I found these same four guys doing a routine to another song of theirs “A Million Ways.” They were performing it in their own backyard, and they were hysterical and brilliant and best of all, their song was catchy as hell. I immediately went to see what else they had out there.

As of right now, they’ve released three albums, their most recent this year, and they get more and more awesome. Their vocals and backups are excellent, and their funky poppy style is right up there with Mika to me. I listen to OK Go when I run, when I dance, when I clean my room. They are a perfect beat for any energetic moment.

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend (2008)

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Once again, someone I didn’t know until my best friend brought them to my attention. Their name is ridiculous, and they’re indy (but getting big fast), and I didn’t initially like the way they sounded. Then I listened to “M79” and fell in love. They are strange, they are new, they are awesome. Their lead singer is interesting, their melodies and beats are catchy. I don’t really know how to describe them. They are just great, and once again, up there with OK Go and Mika.

Wolfmother – Wolfmother (2005)

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Now, I haven’t listened much to Wolfmother’s newest album, Cosmic Egg but my family can tell you I have played the fuck out of their first album. “Joker and the Thief” was one of my favorite tunes before it started being played in every movie soundtrack ever, and I love their ridiculous vocals and distorted guitar. Sometimes the wailing gets to be a bit too much, but they’re fun. I love this album.

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Anyone else?

Guess I'll give it a go, although I probably seem incredibly boring with my selections.

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Silverchair - Young Modern (2007)

I really love this band. I've had the pleasure of hearing them play live when they went on their Great Divide tour with Powderfinger (they played at a showground near my home so I spent about 2 hours leaning out the window to listen) and it was fantastic. Their songs always have a fresh new angle to them compared to most other rock songs.

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Eskimo Joe - Inshalla (2009)

Another Aussie band, but out of all the great acts that have come out of Western Australia, these guys are at the top for me. The first song on this album, 'Foreign Land' sounds fresh to me every single time I listen to it. It was also written in dedication in Heath Ledger who was also born in WA.

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Foo Fighters - In Your Honor (2005) and Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007)

And another Aussie band. Foo Fighters is probably my favourite out of all the Aussie bands though and they consistently bring out good, interesting songs. Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is the better of the two I've listed, but the song 'Best of You' on the In Your Honor album is one of my all-time favourite songs.

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Matchbox Twenty - Exile on Mainstream (2007)

This is a compilation album, but hell if I care. It's got all my favourite songs from their career on it along with a few new ones I've come to adore.

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Michael Bublé - Michael Bublé (2003)

I secretly love big band music and I fell in love with Bublé's voice the first time I heard it.

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SR-71 - Tomorrow (2002)

I discovered this band when after I got into anime and found AMVs. This band has the kind of lyrics you could cry over or laugh at, and I can't get enough of them.

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Abingdon Boys School - Abingdon Boys School (2007)

I didn't realise just how muany of my favourite albums were released in 2007 until just now... Abingdon Boys School's is my favourite J-rock band out there at the moment and I adore the lead singer's voice. They released a new album just this year, so I can't include it here but it's really good.

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Sigur Rós - ()
Their music got twinklier as the decade went on, but this album captures Iceland's non-Bjork band at their rawest peak. There's a bit of filler here, sure, but for the most part it's a pitch-perfect blend between hopeful and devastating. Props are especially due to "Untitled 8", which features the most emotionally cauterizing guitar riff ever uncovered.

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Charalambides - A Vintage Burden
Charalambides are a Texas brother/sister guitar duo with an insanely complicated discography full of "experimental" records that mainly exist to prove that the female voice can, indeed, crack; thankfully, they turned down the histrionics for this one and the result is the greatest lying-in-bed album ever made. "Two Birds" features the best solo of the decade, and I'm sticking by that.

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Stars Of The Lid - And Their Refinement of the Decline
Ambient music done right. The last disc is like a magic express pass that dreams awesome when you fall asleep to it.

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Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig
Nick did enough drugs in the 80's and 90's to preserve his organ systems in a gelatin-like mold that will sustain them for centuries, say scientists, so it's good that he's putting his nigh-immortality to good use. Tighter and rawer than most anything he's put out in the past ten years, it's also funnier - bitter old Uncle Cave is pissed off about everything, and boy is he going to tell you how.

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Fleet Foxes - s/t
It's an "indie" album that a) wasn't beat with the twee stick and b) has singers that don't sound like someone shoved a whisk up their noses. Check it out.

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Various - Hand/Eye
A fucking kickass sampler from a label that specializes in weird, scary DIY freakfolk music, this is a must for anyone that plans on taking a long walk through the woods at some point in their lives. A few of the songs degenerate into long noise-and-noodle-fests, but the rest are exquisitely haunting.

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Ween - Live At Stubb's
This band is pure Zeiss fuel, and this massive 3-disc set captures them at their best. Hard to find in physical form and sadly lacking any of the bizarre conversations that one typically hears at Ween concerts, but it dents my balls in the wall nonetheless.

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Magma - K.A.
The only band with the chops and composition skills to actually justify making up their own language and singing about interplanetary holy wars returns from the void to make a truly great comeback album. Anyone whose tastes reside on the "weird" side of the musical spectrum should check this out, and even if yours don't, well, it's goddamn Magma and Magma on a bad day is still better than John Mayer/Dragonforce/whoever-you-damn-kids-listen-to on their best.

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Radiohead - Kid A
EYE CRUSTS

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven
One of the select few "post-rock" bands worth the time at their most bombastic and subtle, this is their best work of the 00's. I don't know how else to sum it up except by saying that I went on a late night Walmart expedition with my best friend blasting this in the car the whole way round, and I was pretty damn spooked by the end of it.

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Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Barbeque Choir & Upholstery Ghostbusters - "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing
A GY!BE side project that manages to be consistently awesome despite having Brak for a lead singer, this album is a searing indictment of pretty much everything developed after the Van Buren administration and features the most bad-ass choir part I've ever heard on a record that didn't have the Magma logo on it.

Honorable mention - Tom Waits, Orphans: I don't know how many of the songs on here were actually written this decade, but it's a brilliant look inside the only musician who rivals Nick Cave in earnestly bitter drunkeness.

ETA: Discovery, Vespertine and that Panda Bear guy's album were cool too.

But Zeiss, what about Ken?

Ken is eternal. He exists in a multidimensional leisure suit outside time.

No particular order here...

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Kala by MIA:
MIA could already call me a fan when I heard the song "Bucky Done Gun" off her Arular album, but when she dropped this bit of globe-trotting pop excellence, I knew MIA was here to stay. With her breakout summer hit "Paper Planes" she seemed to make gunshots and the Clash sound like the funkiest damn things on the planet.

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Sea Change by Beck
Who would've thought one of music's best genre jugglers simplest album would also be one of his best?

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Grey Britain by Gallows
They made hardcore punk awesome again. This album is their best so far.

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21st Century Breakdown by Green Day
"American Idiot" may have won a grammy, but "21st Century Breakdown" offers a more complete, streamlined vision than its predecessor. Combining Bruce Springsteen-esque grandeur with their signature Ramones drenched, bubblegum-with-teeth sound, Green Day offer their best album since "Dookie". Sure the plot of this "rock opera" may be impossible to follow, but what "rock opera" does have an understandable story line?

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the Marshall Mathers LP by Eminem
Shocking and controversial in a way Alice Cooper hadn't been in years, and that Marilyn Manson would similarily soon fail to be, Eminem seemed on top of the world when he dropped this album in 2000. And just because he was too "mainstream" for me than, I didn't listen to this entire album until recently. This will probably be seen as a rap/hip-hop classic in coming years, and not just because Eminem has managed to be the first relevant white rapper.

I've only recently gotten into actually listening to music so all of this is stuff I've discovered within the past year or so. Most of my favorite albums are from the 90s, too.

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Reel Big Fish - Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album (2006)
Hell, I'm not even too big a fan of Reel Big Fish, but this stands as my favorite live album this decade.

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braveSaintSaturn - Anti-Meridian (2008)
The side project of christian ska-punk band Five Iron Frenzy, BS2 returned from five years of radio silence for what ended up becoming one of my favorite albums of all time, much less the decade. Anti-Meridian completes the concept album trilogy started by So Far From Home and The Light of Things Hoped For..., but outshines them to a completely ridiculous level.

I was also going to have Mika - Life In Cartoon Motion on this list, but it appears someone's already beaten me.