Send-Off

Well here we are, the final day of Rolling Fork countdown! It’s been an awesome experience reliving my favorite albums, responding to Ryan and Steve’s picks, and reading all of your various comments over these past seven weeks. Let’s take one last look at our favorite albums from the past ten years:

PHIL
50. The Darkness "Permission to Land"
49. The Dirty Projectors “Bitte Orca”
48. Lupe Fiasco “Food & Liquor”
47. Liz Phair “Liz Phair”
46. The Killers “Sam’s Town”
45. Ghostface Killah “Fishscale”
44. The Distillers “Sing Sing Death House”
43. The White Stripes “De Stijl”
42. Nas “God’s Son”
41. Wilco “A Ghost is Born”
40. Fiona Apple “Extraordinary Machine”
39. Franz Ferdinand “Franz Ferdinand”
38. Clipse “Lord Willin’”
37. Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins “Rabbit Fur Coat”
36. 50 Cent “The Massacre”
35. Scissor Sisters “Scissor Sisters”
34. Drive-by Truckers “Decoration Day”
33. Wolf Parade “Apologies to the Queen Mary”
32. T.I. “Trap Muzik”
31. TV on the Radio “Return to Cookie Mountain”
30. The-Dream “Love vs. Money”
29. The Strokes “Room on Fire”
28. The Knife “Silent Shout”
27. Sleater-Kinney “The Woods”
26. Missy Elliott “Under Construction”
25. Coldplay “Viva La Vida”
24. The White Stripes “Icky Thump”
23. David Gray “White Ladder”
22. Talib Kweli “Quality”
21. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead “Source Tags & Codes”
20. Modest Mouse “Good News for People Who Love Bad News”
19. Bubba Sparxxx “Deliverance”
18. TV on the Radio “Dear Science”
17. Jay-Z “The Black Album”
16. Justin Timberlake “FutureSex/LoveSounds”
15. Queens of the Stone Age “Rated R”
14. Arcade Fire “Funeral”
13. M.I.A. “Kala”
12. Radiohead “Kid A”
11. Eminem “The Marshall Mathers LP”
10. Beck “Sea Change”
9. Outkast “Speakerboxxx/The Love Below”
8. Loretta Lynn “Van Lear Rose”
7. The White Stripes “White Blood Cells”
6. Wilco “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot”
5. Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavilion”
4. Jay-Z “The Blueprint”
3. System of a Down “Toxicity”
2. Kanye West “The College Dropout”
1. Damien Rice “O”

RYAN & STEVE
50. Max Richter “The Blue Notebooks”
49. TV on the Radio “Dear Science”
48. Deerhunter “Microcastle”
47. Mogwai “Happy Songs for Happy People”
46. The North Sea “Exquisite Idols”
45. Pocahaunted “Peyote Road”
44. Junior Boys “So This is Goodbye”
43. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds “Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
42. Ultralyd “Conditions for a Piece of Music”
41. Why? “Alopecia”
40. Jay-Z “The Blueprint”
39. Paavorharju “Yhä Hämärää”
38. Panda Bear “Person Pitch”
37. Edan “Beauty and the Beat”
36. Yo La Tengo “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out”
35. Shuttle 358 “Frame”
34. Dizzee Rascal “Boy in Da Corner”
33. Supersilent “6”
32. Beck “Sea Change”
31. Zomes “Zomes”
30. Burial “Untrue”
29. The Knife “Silent Shout”
28. Liars “Drums Not Dead”
27. The Dead Texan “The Dead Texan”
26. Tortoise “Standards”
25. Wet Hair “Dream”
24. Scott Walker “The Drift”
23. Valet “Naked Acid”
22. Lil’ Wayne “Tha Carter III”
21. Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas “II”
20. The Fiery Furnaces “Blueberry Boat”
19. Sigur Rós “( )”
18. Lightning Bolt “Wonderful Rainbow”
17. Low “Things We Lost in the Fire”
16. Interpol “Turn on the Bright Lights”
15. Harvey Milk “Special Wishes”
14. Kemialliset Ystävät “Kemialliset Ystävät”
13. The Blood Brothers “Burn, Piano Island, Burn”
12. Black Dice “Beaches and Canyons”
11. Animal Collective “Merriweather Post Pavilion”
10. Electric Wizard “Dopethrone”
9. Archer Prewitt “Wilderness”
8. Radiohead “Kid A”
7. Sun Araw “Heavy Deeds”
6. Madvillain “Madvillainy”
5. Blues Control “Puff”
4. Giddy Motors “Make It Pop!”
3. The National “Alligator”
2. Earth “Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method”
1. Sunburned Hand of the Man “Fire Escape”

What I am most proud of about Rolling Fork is how different Ryan and Steve’s list is compared to mine. Hip hop composes nearly a third of my countdown while there are just a handful of rap albums to be found on Ryan and Steve's. Conversely, there’s not a single voiceless album on my list while over 20 albums on Ryan and Steve’s have little to no vocals. It’s what makes discussing and sharing music so wonderful and fascinating – that a record which does nothing for one person still has the power to completely captivate and thrill another.

As we close the book on this wonderful decade of music, let’s share with each other albums Ryan, Steve, and I may not have included in our countdown but deserve to be remembered going into the 2010s. We’ll be checking back into the blog throughout the day and are eager to hear your final thoughts!

Thank you everyone – I hope you’ve enjoyed reading our blog as much as we’ve enjoyed putting it together. As a gift, here's a link to download a free Rolling Fork Greatest Albums playlist, created by our very own Steve Rosborough: http://www.mediafire.com/file/d0nyzzr2tny/Rolling%20Fork%20Compilation.zip

Here's to a new and exciting decade of music ahead of us!
-Phil Welsh, Rolling Fork

#1 - Phil

Damien Rice

O

2003

So here it is – my #1 Album of the Decade! And for those of you keeping track at home, yes, this is the NINTH album from 2003 to appear on my countdown, the greatest musical year of the last ten in my opinion. Damien Rice is an Irish singer-songwriter who got his break when he sent a demo to his second cousin, producer David Arnold, and impressed him so much that he bought Rice a mobile studio to record his debut album, O – the most tenderly beautiful collection of songs I’ve ever heard.

If one were to evaluate O’s production from a traditional standpoint, there could be lots of criticisms made. Rice’s vocals move from extreme ends of soft and harsh volumes, and the strings often come in quite jarringly. But for this album, it works astonishingly well. Rice has a really authentic and vulnerable voice; it’s not one you could hear in the background and not be distracted by. However, the passion of his voice gorgeously complements the powerful strings and percussions that enter his songs, creating intensely romantic pieces that seem as though Rice is sharing his most personal feelings with all who wish to listen.

I’m very much a person who stresses the “bookends” of albums, and so it’s no surprise that my two favorite songs on my favorite album this decade are the first and the last. The opener, “Delicate,” is the album’s most acoustic track, featuring just Rice’s vocals, his guitar, and an accompanying cello. It’s a beautiful song that any girl alive would wish her lover could write for her. The final track, “Eskimo” is my favorite closing song of all-time. Rice opens the song with a set of dark, introspective lines: “Tiredness fuels empty thoughts / I find myself disposed / Brightness fills empty space / In search of inspiration.” As strings enter, the song steadily grows to marvelously epic heights, culminated by an opera singer repeating the line “I miss my Eskimo friend.”

No album this decade has connected with, moved, or inspired me more than O has. And that is why it's the one I'm sharing with you all on this final day of the Rolling Fork countdown. Simply magnificent. -P.W.

Wow, it’s been a long time since I have listened to O. This was literally one of the first ten CDs I ever purchased once I got into the indie realm of music. So, this album definitely reminds me of the emotional highs and lows of a typical teenage high schooler. O is very melodramatic and a bit cheesy at times. But Damien Rice is, nonetheless, a talented song writer. Once again, I’m surprised this is being ranked so high amongst the decade’s best albums so I’m assuming this has some very special personal relevance for Phil. - Ryan

A deeply confessional and heartfelt record, "O" is a good album that suffers a bit from Rice's melodramatics. Aside from some of the intrusive string elements, I tend to forgive the overt sentimentality with melodies and songs as engaging and tender as these. The contemplative, gradual progressions of the songs give them a sense of space and grandeur that isn't easy to attain with such meager means. Worth checking out to at least understand a little piece of Phil. - Steve

#1 - Ryan & Steve

Sunburned Hand of the Man

Fire Escape

2007

Sunburned Hand of the Man are a Massachusetts collective of revolving musicians who've been releasing a plethora of music since their 1994 inception. As their frontman, John Moloney has shaped Sunburned's sound by working almost entirely via free improvisation, working with psychdelia, noise, free-folk and shambled-jazz. They have some unbelievably great and transcendent recordings ("Headdress", "Jaybird" & "The Pegadrift" immediately come to mind) but they've also put out their share of throwaway CD-r schlock. It simply comes with the territory when a band attempts to perpetually progress publicly by releasing the entirety of their musical output. The group hit their popularity peak in 2003 when covered by Wire magazine dubbing them one of the leaders of the so-called "New Weird America".

So what makes this record especially unbelievable was the inclusion of Kieran Hebden (of Four Tet & Fridge fame) as producer and facilitator of musical ideas. Working with Hebden, Moloney and Sunburned were able to hone and control the experimentation, first and foremost by shortening the compositions when they began to drag and extending the jams when the grooves aligned. Beyond just compositional aid, Hebden was also there to expand the sonic palette of Sunburned beyond trippy and fuzzed-out acoustics and into the otherworldly noises from Hebden's live electronics. His inclusion certainly adds to the eclecticism of "Fire Escape".

"Fire Escape" is a free and loose record with an unapologetic freedom and fervor for new sound. The second track here, "Nice Butterfly Mask" rides along its quick groove of bass and drum as horns blare atop and guitar rumbles up from beneath. After a one-minute atonal electronic-noise bridge, the song returns into a noisy and fiery free-folk version of something off of the Stooges "Fun House". The next song, "What Color Is the Sky in the World You Live In?" is a soft, delicate and traditionally beautiful song of piano balladry, swarms of flutes, toy woodwinds and bells. Overall the songs here bounce and play relentless, rarely resting and forever innovating. It's an album that simply has no time for stagnation. Impossible to define and undeniably fresh, "Fire Escape" is an unparalleled creative success and one of the best records of the naughts. -S.R.

I only need one word to describe this album… badass! As soon as the second track, “Nice Butterfly Mask” begins, you’ll feel like you’re starring in the best gangster flick you’ve ever seen. And that mood just continues all the way to the record’s finish. This band does not care about consistent length for its songs – they range anywhere from 45 seconds to 15 minutes – but they do know how to make kick-ass music that’s unlike anything you’ve probably heard before! - Phil

#2 - Phil

Kanye West

The College Dropout

2004

My favorite rap album of the decade and the most well-produced record I have ever heard, Kanye West’s The College Dropout is a testament to years of dedication and hard work. After growing up in my birth city of Chicago, West got his big break when he met Jay-Z and was asked to help produce Jigga’s hip hop classic, The Blueprint. West’s work on the record garnered him an incredible amount of respect, leading to some of the biggest hip hop and R&B artists requesting his services. In fact, EIGHT of the albums on my countdown West has had a hand in producing! Combine this with his gigantic solo career, and one could make a very convincing argument that no person has had a greater impact on pop music this decade than Kanye.

With The College Dropout, West took every image, every stereotype, and every assumption of what a black rapper should look and sound like and buried it away in his funny-looking backpack. The songs address subjects such as working at the Gap, making fun of weight-watching women, and praising Jesus – not exactly the most gangster album pumping through your speakers. Even West admits he’s a softie, though he uses this image to sometimes make fun of general hip hop trends: “First nigga with a Benz and a backpack / Ice chain, Cardi lens, and a knapsack / Always said if I rap I’d say something significant / But now I’m rapping ‘bout money, hoes, and rims again.”

Although I will admit that this is easily Kanye’s strongest album lyrically, what makes it my second favorite hip hop album of all-time (just behind Biggie’s Ready to Die) is its conceptual cohesion. A common knock on rap albums is their use of skits, but West uses each of his to brilliantly emphasize his theme of college being unnecessary: “These guys are making money all these ways, and I’m spending mine to be smart. You know why, buddy? ‘Cause when I die, you know what’s going to keep me warm? That’s right - those degrees!” A flawless debut. -P.W.

Right off the bat I have to say that I prefer Late Registration. But, The College Dropout is an excellent album from the now seemingly universally hated producer and MC. After several high profile guest appearances and being able to produce tracks for several big names (such as his friend Jay-Z), West burst onto the hip-hop scene with an amazing debut highlighted by his not-so-surprising ability as a producer. However, it was his lyricism that was unforseen. “Never Let Me Down” is still one of my favorite rap songs of all time. Late Registration was a phenomenal follow-up. I was so excited to see him complete his trilogy of records with Graduation, only to be disappointed by more than a few missteps. He was perfectly capable of recovering from Graduation, but instead decided fall further down that slippery slope. Regardless of where his career goes from here, The College Dropout will always remain as part of our modern hip hop canon. - Ryan

While I'll still mention the excessive length and the occasionally eye-rolling skit, this record is a lot of fun to listen to. Sure, Kanye isn't an especially skilled emcee, but his consistently engaging production and his varied songwriting gives the album a smooth flow and a beautiful cohesion. An excellent album that only furthers my disbelief that "808 and Heartbreak" was made by the same man. I suppose celebrity like that does do its damage. - Steve

#2 - Ryan & Steve

Earth

Hex: Or Printing in the Infernal Method

2005

Earth started their career in the early '90s creating monolithic doom metal. Dylan Carlson, frontman and only constant member, was once a good friend of Kurt Cobain as they were both from the northwest, Seattle and Olympia. This connection gave Earth a segue for putting out their debut EP, "Extra-Capsular Extraction" on Sub Pop records. While they never made much of splash during the first half of their career, fourteen years later the band has experienced a resurgence in popularity and accolades due to their modern influence on slow, plodding stoner/doom metal. In the wake of this, Earth reform and release "Hex: Or Printing In The Infernal Method", their new vision of doom.

While the riffs aren't as sonically huge or over-amplified as they once were, the songs have instead found a comfortable niche in the slow, brooding Western-tinged mood on display. At once sounding like the bloody wind-dusted shoot-off and the imminent funeral procession. The command and the restraint over the course of these carefully selected 46 minutes is what especially shines, as the songs build and the tension grows, we find release through lap-steel soaring highs and carefully crafted melodic resolution. About two and a half minutes into "An Inquest Concerning Teeth" the lap-steel kicks in alongside a quiet organ and sustained guitars recreating a religious-epiphany of a sound. It's beautiful, life-affirming music of the highest order. And while it's certainly not a record for the impatient, its gloomy stasis can be transportive and transcendent. An unclassifiable record that forms the bridge between Neil Young's "Dead Man" and the plodding riffage of Sabbath. Essential listening. -S.R.

To say that this album has a consistent sound would be a gross understatement. Earth opens the album with some really cool guitar lines that seem primed to take the listener to an epic climax. But it turns out there is no climax – the album never goes anywhere else. I’m all for a cohesive atmosphere, but there is little to no change from song to song in its instrumentation or even its key. The result is a long, drawn-out, boring album that makes me completely forget how great it sounded at its start. - Phil

#3 - Phil

System of a Down

Toxicity

2001

“They’re trying to build a prison / For you and me to live in!” Just one week before Jay-Z’s The Blueprint was released, Toxicity – the second album from the California heavy metal group System of a Down – hit the shelves. The record received mass acclaim for its progressive sounds and political themes, being named Album of the Year by Spin Magazine. Only 15 at the time, I had never been exposed to intense hard rock before listening to this album. But after hearing lead singer Serj Tankian’s operatic voice sing those opening words at the start of this paragraph, I was instantly drawn to the band’s fearless “Fuck You” message towards the U.S. government.

Although System of a Down was certainly not the first band to challenge authority, they were one of only a few to do so this heavily while obtaining massive pop radio exposure. Toxicity’s lead single, “Chop Suey!” is one of the decade’s most surprising radio hits, a screaming song explicitly about suicide that you can hear today on your child’s Rock Band video game: “Well I don’t think you trust in my / Self-righteous suicide / I cry / When angels deserve to die!” Suicidal and drug-infested themes can be found all over this record, such as my favorite track, “Needles”: “I’m sitting in my room with a needle in my hand / Just waiting for the tomb of some old dying man,” followed by John Dolmayan’s stabbing drum line and Tankian and guitarist Daron Malakian’s repetitious chant “Pull the tapeworm out of your ass – HEY!”

Every time I play this record I feel a little bittersweet, as one of the decade’s greatest and most influential rock bands agreed to go on an indefinite hiatus three years ago. While I truly believe they will eventually reunite, there are hardly any guarantees in this industry. The one guarantee I do have is that Toxicity will always be regarded as the pinnacle of nu-metal and one of the most important rock albums of the 2000s. -P.W.

Interesting choice for Phil’s list. Toxicity is probably an album that the rest of the nu metal bands of the time wished they could make. In fact, as I’m thinking about it, System of a Down could possibly be the best thing to come out of nu metal (not that that’s a particularly impressive accomplishment). Their fast-paced political/social commentary is especially biting and the stuff revolutions are made of. While an excellent hard rock record, I have a hard time viewing this as one of the best albums of the decade. - Ryan

I gotta say I love this album too. It's something of a nü-metal Zappa with an extra dollop of metal's patented self-seriousness. Tankian politics might be a little simplistic, all of his maddening shouts are at least soundtracked by varied and progressive riffing and of course an ample amount of angst. It's a fun album from a band that can somehow get away with chanting "Pogo/pogo/pogo-pogo-pogopogopogo" "BOUNCE!" - Steve

#3 - Ryan & Steve

The National

Alligator

2005

When Steve and I were putting our list together, he sent me the first draft of his own rankings. When I looked at the top 10, they mostly made sense to me and I agreed with the choices for the most part. However, now that we’ve been writing about these records for over a month, I’m looking at album #3 of the decade and I’m a little surprised. This isn’t an album that has reached some sort of musical milestone. It will not shock you with bizarre soundscapes or mind-bending experimentation. It doesn’t necessarily try to be progressive within the genre of rock. Instead, the only reason this album could possibly be agreed upon in the lofty #3 position is because how deeply personal this record is to both Steve and myself.

This album is full of powerful twilit melodies constructed by the highly technically proficient Dessner and Devendorf brothers. Laid overtop are the haunting gossamer vocals of Matt Beringer. While these are generally superficially simple songs, they have immense emotional depth to them. Not that other artists don’t give their all in their music, but when I listen to Beringer, I am completely convinced by his raw passion. Alligator is full of mellifluous and hungover brooding that has been the soundtrack of stressful summers, failed (or ill-conceived) relationships and emotional struggles.

This band is able to translate their emotive songs into their live performances as well. My most moving concert-going experience was three years ago. The National was in a middling position on the bill at the Pitchfork Music Festival that year. They were one of my most anticipated bands to see live that summer and they delivered. Their set was so moving I got choked up during their renditions of “Abel” and “Mr. November.” Just this last summer, The National was able to play the Pitchfork Festival again. This time they headlined one of the nights and proved that they are very capable of adapting to a more arena rock atmosphere. This band is going places and despite my mixed feelings about altering their sound for larger venues I’m glad to see these guys getting some much deserved success. -R.C.

I try not to compare bands’ albums when reviewing, but it’s hard not to in this case. Compared to Boxer, the National’ s most recent album, this record has a lot of things going for it: it’s more varied, it paces itself well, and, above all, its production decisions are much stronger. But, as a whole, the lyrics are not nearly as smart as those on Boxer, and most of the melody lines are just ok. The extremely strong production makes this an album that I like listening to… but it will never be an album that I LOVE listening to. - Phil

#4 - Phil

Jay-Z

The Blueprint

2001

On September 11, 2001, the most successful rapper of all-time unleashed the most experimental and economically daring album of his career. Filled with instrumental beats, soul-based samples, and harsh insults of some of hip hop’s most prominent figures, on paper Jay-Z’s The Blueprint had just as much opportunity to flop as it did to succeed. But once people heard the record, its magic was undeniable.

“The Takeover, the wait’s over, nigga / God MC – me – Jay-Hova / Hey lil’ soldier, you ain’t ready for war / R.O.C. too strong for ya’ll / It’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight, pen to a test / Your chest in the line of fire with your thin-ass vest / You bringin’ them Boyz II Men, how them boys goin’ win? / This is a grown man, bia, get you rolled in the triage, BIOTCH!” These opening lines from The Blueprint’s second track, “Takeover,” are a small sample of the lyrical brilliance Jay boastfully displays throughout the record. His clever use of visual analogies and syllabically intricate rhymes instill an incredible amount of creative confidence in my brain, as though rapping is no longer work but rather a liberating skill as free-flowing as water. He captures everything from women he dates – “I got this young chick, she’s so immature / She like, ‘Why you don’t buy me Reeboks no more?’” – to friends he’s lost: “Good dude, I know you love me like cook food / Even though a nigga gotta move like a crook move / We was together on the block since free lunch / We should’ve been together having 4 Seasons brunch.”

A track that’s always stood out to me is “Renegade,” which features Eminem as Jay’s only guest on the album. I’ve always seen this track as one of the landmark songs in hip hop history, as the decade’s two greatest lyricists united for the first time ever to deliver an absolutely phenomenal joint. If I had to select one rap album that inspired me more than any other to write my own rap songs, it would unquestionably be The Blueprint. -P.W.

If you enjoy hip hop at all, this record is a necessity for a list like this, especially if your name is Phil. While we may disagree how this record compares to other rap albums of the past ten years, it is undeniable that The Blueprint is perhaps the most broadly and highly respected hip hop albums of our time. As I have reviewed this album before, I think it’s clear Phil and I both have love for this one. - Ryan

Probably the best Jay-Z record, which also puts it up there as one of the greatest rap albums of all time, hell, I could see Phil putting this at number 1. And even if he doesn't, it would deserve such acclaim. During this point of his career it was just a pleasure to listen to Jay's flow, but here we also get the additional highs of Kanye West and Just Blaze's excellent production across this record. Sounds like a classic on the first listen. - Steve

#4 - Ryan & Steve

Giddy Motors

Make It Pop!

2003

Another record that harkens back to my early explorations in music. This album always reminds me of an argument that it incited between a good friend, Chris, and Steve. Steve had us listen to this post hardcore record and Chris was slightly annoyed that Steve loved this album but not Disturbed’s new record, Believe. Make It Pop! may be a generally hard hitting affair but the comparisons that can be drawn between the two albums end there.

Giddy Motors has some readily apparent influences. Most notably, the raving derelict vocals, jagged drum chops and dissonant strumming often evoke thoughts of The Jesus Lizard. Personally, I don’t believe Giddy Motors owes anything to their predecessors as they’ve accomplished something on their own merit. The band manages to meld the power of punk, universality of pop and the intricacy of jazz all with an undeniable manic energy. Impressively, none of these juxtapositions feel forced or unnatural. My favorite part of Giddy Motors is probably the unstable, primal vocals of Gaverick de Vis. Make It Pop! finds him whispering as well as letting loose throat-shredding screams and sometimes these are in succession. At various points on the album the percussion and bass lines are the only things keeping this record from going into complete disarray at the hands of de Vis.

Make It Pop! begins with a drum roll and Gaverick de Vis already starting with his maniacal war cries in the background. “Magmanic” begins the album with a blistering attack and on the following track “Hit Cap” there is an addition of a saxophone and a more jazzy feel that culminates into an epic crescendo. “Bottle Opener” is a striking ramble with an infusion of funk. One of my favorite songs on the record, “Sassy” actually employs somewhat of a pop beat amidst its abrasive insanity. A bizarre finding is the quiet “Venus Medallist” amongst a collection of songs that are so willfully abrasive. This instrumental track actually has acoustic guitars and even a cello. But the album still manages to end with a glorious discord though it is with a reduced pace. Make It Pop! is incredibly ambitious and doesn’t outstay its welcome. It is brief, brutal and incredibly poignant with a coruscating (and yet bestial) style. Unfortunately, this album is still largely overlooked. -R.C.

By the time this album is finished, you’ll feel like you just attended the greatest basement concert of your life! The tracks on Make It Pop! are so infectious that I’m not sure a paraplegic could keep his body from moving while listening to them. And at just over a half an hour, there’s no exhausted feeling at any point on this record… just the listener begging Giddy Motors for more! - Phil

#5 - Phil

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

2009

Once in a great while, I will purchase an album by an artist or band I’ve never listened to before based on recommendations from friends and/or music critics. This was the case with Merriweather Post Pavilion, the eighth album from the Baltimore-based experimental band Animal Collective. I was only vaguely familiar with the group prior to this year, occasionally hearing Steve play one of their records during junior and senior year of college. But the hype surrounding this album was too great to ignore, and fortunately all of it was warranted… as I believe Merriweather Post Pavilion is the greatest album to be released by anyone in the past five years.

My favorite thing about MPP is the incredible amount of control Animal Collective exhibits. By “control” I do not mean restraint; I mean the overarching command they possess for every element of every song. The opening track, “In the Flowers,” feels like a full-body transcendence, accentuated by Noah Lennox’s description of dancing with a spirit in the middle of a field. As Lennox says to the spirit, “If I could just leave my body for a night…” the soft ethereal music that opens the song is transformed to another world, one of overwhelming and incomprehensible capacity. Choruses surround Lennox’s echoing chants, guiding the listener to unearthly heights of escape. Then, when the appropriate moment arrives, the spirit lets go of us and we are ready to experience the rest of Animal Collective’s life-changing masterpiece.

Merriweather Post Pavilion is an especially important album for me personally because it resurrected my trust in the state of today’s music industry. As some of you may have noticed, the majority of the albums represented on my countdown were released in the first half of this decade. As a whole, the latter half just hasn’t generated many albums that have deeply resonated with me. With this record, Animal Collective has reminded me that music’s power can lead me to places of sanctuary I never knew existed. -P.W.

One of the greatest musical accomplishments of the year and even the decade. Over the course of the decade the band has evolved from a noise folk group with Here Comes the Indian to psych-pop with the pinnacle of their career thus far. As I’ve already written a review of this record I’ll leave it at that and just say this is an excellent pick by Phil. - Ryan

Has this been raised up to "OK Computer" status yet? Certainly the most cohesive statement from one of the most defining progressive bands of this generation. It's exciting to watch Animal Collective, at the height of their abilities and their popularity, put out consistently new and innovative sounds to an ever-growing audience. A massive accomplishment and a testament to the enduring strength and elasticity of pop music. - Steve

#5 - Ryan & Steve

Blues Control

Puff

2007

Easily the lowest-fi this list goes, "Puff" is the deranged and minimal debut from Queens submerged psychedelic droners, Blues Control. Working as a duo with Russ Waterhouse on guitar and tape-loop drums and Lea Cho concentrating on the sublime organ tones. This album in particular inspired me to create my own music. I saw the looseness here, the freedom and transcendence that can occur through minimal and obscured means, it opened my eyes to new ways of creating an engaging sound. It's an important record for me because of this.

The album begins with the title track, beginning with delayed/reverb-laden percussive strikes that gradually ascend to be complemented by the trippy organ arpeggios during the back half. It's a broken and bizarre introduction to this depth-defying psych excursion. "End Zone" begins with a breathy reverb drone only to be immediately replaced with an ambient synthscape. As the song continues Waterhouse's guitar lines creep their way into the mix and eventually overtake the entire sound with a wailing and noisy ferocity that the front half never hinted at. "Always On Time", the longest track here, plays to the group's strengths and loops a gorgeous piano line that is repeatedly buried and obscured as other elements jut inward to occupy the newly cleared space. Then on the final track we're treated with one of the more elegant tunes, "Call Collect". Subtle and with a clock-like hypnotism, the track sways along with Waterhouse's delayed tape-based percussion and Cho's organ swells and synth ambience. Appropriately for the sound, the song eventually burns out on itself and fades away. Hypnotic transcendence is the goal for all of these tunes and Blues Control have the ideas and the sonic wherewithal to accomplish just that. This record is a private and subtle transcendence made on the smallest of scales. Simply otherworldly. -S.R.

This is one of the best voiceless albums I’ve ever heard (it reminds me a lot of your music, Steve). With its brilliant mixing of unique sounds, it never ceases to keep the listener engaged. For those of you interested, I would strongly recommend listening to Puff on your iPod while performing some activity that wouldn’t normally excite you. You’ll feel much cooler than you would have otherwise. - Phil

#6 - Phil

Wilco

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

2002

An unfamiliar rocket ship-like sound is blanketed with a light drum tap and soft snare hits. Gradually these noises dissolve, leaving the ringing of alarm clocks to fill the space. The piano hides in the background, slowly making its presence felt. Finally, the guitar strum enters and prefaces the grand entrance of Jeff Tweedy’s elegantly lucid voice.

I just described the first minute of Wilco’s magnum opus, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and if one desired they could write pages and pages reliving this album’s countless parts. A record that has become a unanimously recognized milestone in modern music, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot veritably altered the way I conceptualized albums. Before I believed they were simply nice compilations of songs under one umbrella; since I have learned they can challenge and confuse us by not always fitting nicely into prescribed rules and structures.

“Radio Cure” is a track that’s embedded itself into me since our first meeting. It’s driven by a deep drum pound and encircled by natural instruments entering and leaving in sporadic fashion. Tweedy’s lyrics are as ambiguous as ever, “My mind is filled with silvery star / Honey kisses, clouds of fog,” yet the raw intensity of the song makes us feel that we understand just what he’s saying. In a much different way, the same could be said for “Jesus, etc.,” the record’s simplest but most captivatingly beautiful piece: “Tall buildings shake / Voices escape, singing sad, sad songs / Tuned to chords strung down your cheeks / Bitter melodies, turning your orbit around.” Tweedy’s imagery is stark, but the way he entangles it together is what makes the songs so rich. It sill dazzles me that this album became as popular as it did, and it’s reassuring proof to me as a musician that rules and structures are not a necessary ingredient to moving large audiences. Thank you, Wilco, for courageously demonstrating this for me. -P.W.

Jeff Tweedy and company have not put out many albums that I would outwardly criticize, but Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was definitely an amazing departure from their more standard-fare alt-country style of previous records. These iridescent country songs are fully realized and utterly brilliant. But I must admit, it took me a while for this record to really set in. Not that I didn’t enjoy it on first listen, but I guess it took me a while to completely understand these phenomenal pop songs pieced together after being fractured into sometimes dissonant soft-spoken epics. - Ryan

Hearing this record now just reminds me of when I used to cut my folk's lawn and listen to "I'm The Man Who Loves You". After the last couple of Wilco records, an image as suburban as that only seems all the more fitting. I digress, "Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is a great album. Filled to the brim with excellently crafted tunes showcasing the group's strength in combining enchanting melodies and accessible experimentalism. This record will forever remind me of this decade, my high school listening habits and the sheer volume of Wilco records I sell everyday at the Fetus. - Steve

#6 - Ryan & Steve

Madvillain

Madvillainy

2004

“One of America’s two most powerful villains of the next decade is turned loose to strike terror into the hearts of men.” So here it is - our greatest hip hop album of the decade. I have always related well to MF Doom because of his nerdy love for pulp comic books, super heroes, and - most importantly - super villains. Doom’s records never lack the utilization of super hero cartoon voiceovers and Madvillainy is no exception. The other half of Madvillain, Mad Lib, is one of my favorite producers often melding electronic and jazzy elements creating fresh beats with residual time travel particulate. The synergy between these two indie hip hop behemoths is unprecedented as Madlib’s imaginative style with his various personalities (including the jazzy Yesterday’s New Quintet and the completely drugged out Quasimoto) fuses with the masked MC’s own production along with his narrative tongue trickery.

This record breaks down the boundaries of hip hop making it one of the most unconventional rap albums I have ever heard. It cuts out lame R&B choruses, dispatches typical hip hop skits, maintains a sense of spontaneity, and (heaven forbid!) it stays under the 45 minute mark. One of the most striking things about Madvillainy is the fact that the track lengths make it look like a punk album. The songs are short and sweet and never allow anything to get stale as they cut off and transition unexpectedly. Ultimately, when you go to listen to this record, try to avoid expecting a hip hop album because Madvillain has crafted something wholly unique and set apart from convention. -R.C.

Believe the hype. Madvillainy is a tour de force of a record in which Madlib’s beats and MF Doom’s lyrics come together like a princess who’s just found Prince Charming. I have never been a big fan of Doom’s flow; I often find it somewhat boring due to his monotonous tone. But on this album his lyrics are so good he could have tracheal cancer and would still sound great. The best underground rap album I’ve ever heard! - Phil

#7 - Phil

The White Stripes

White Blood Cells

2001

Merry Christmas everyone! Your gift today is a familiar one – another album from The White Stripes! While it may seem a bit much to feature three of the duo’s records on one list, it should be noted that I didn’t include their most popular and critically-praised effort, Elephant, or Steve and Ryan’s favorite, Get Behind Me Satan. In one decade this band has put out five albums, and each one has been fantastic. Add it up, and you have my winner for Greatest Artist of the Decade!

White Blood Cells is the record that first introduced me to Jack and Meg. After seeing their award-winning music video for the album’s lead single, “Fell in Love with a Girl,” I instantly became a first-class passenger on the group’s accelerating bandwagon. The song was catchy, but it also had an edge – specifically Jack White’s striking lo-fi vocal delivery. Once I purchased the record, I immediately knew this band would impact mainstream music for a very long time.

If there is one album on my countdown I wish I could turn into a Broadway musical, it would certainly be White Blood Cells. Each of these songs has a strong theatrical atmosphere, albeit in rather off-beat ways. “The Union Forever” is a dark, Quentin Tarantino-esque ballad where White digs into the deepest portals of his brain, unleashing all the anger from a broken relationship in one condensed cry: “It can’t be love / For there is no true love!” This probing only continues further into the record with stranger images. “I Think I Smell a Rat” finds White on a personal prowl to find the nearby rodent: “Walking down the street, carrying a baseball bat / Oh, I think I smell a rat!” Yet there are moments of relief, such as the quirky acoustic number “We’re Going to be Friends.” Sung from the perspective of little boy, this cute story I’ve always believed is Jack’s love song for Meg, as he repeats the line, “I can tell that we are gonna be friends.” Wouldn’t you want to see this play?! -P.W.

The third time a White Stripes album has made it onto Phil’s top 50 list and this time it’s their junior endeavor. While I’m disappointed my favorite, Get Behind Me Satan, didn’t get any love this is still an excellent band. Now that I’ve listened to all of the duo’s records I can now say with confidence that Jack and Meg can do no wrong. This is another excellent blues and garage rock album showing more signs of the more expansive eclecticism that they would explore in subsequent releases. - Ryan

White's emphasis on analog certainly paid off with "White Blood Cells". This album has a blistering guitar tone that's like nothing else. This list has made me listen to a lot of White Stripes material and while it's added to my respect of Jack White, it hasn't made much of a lasting impression on me. I like what he does and he certainly takes the craft seriously, I've just had my fill of bluesy revivalists - but if you want to hear one of the best, I'd certainly recommend these Stripes' records. - Steve

#7 - Ryan & Steve

Sun Araw

Heavy Deeds

2009

Sun Araw is the solo moniker of Cameron Stallones, the frontman for psych-rockers Magic Lantern outta southern California. Beginning in 2008 he struck out on his own creating dark and dubby psych music, and after a few excellent and promising releases ("The Phynx" and "Beach Head") he's unleashed his first proper full length onto the world with "Heavy Deeds". It feels a tad premature to be putting this record so far up an end of the decade list, but Stallones has created a swirling and enchanting new world to inhabit, grabbing from a multitude of sources yet still ending up somewhere fresh altogether. As part of the recently christened 'hypnogogic pop' movement, it's an excellent argument for the vitality and sincerity of the sound.

As far as the sounds here, we're mostly dealing with looping dubbed-out organ lines, repeated vocal phrases and Stallones loose and thrilling wah-wah guitar dancing across the backdrop. Deeply psychedelic and certainly drug-inflected, the individual musical elements bounce and repeat until an endless soundscape collage is formed. While likened to Panda Bear with his loop-obsession and summery sensibilities, these tunes prefer to lay back and soak into themselves as opposed to Panda Bear's melodic clarity. As excellent as his work is in the Magic Lanterns, Stallones has stumbled upon something truly exciting with "Heavy Deeds". A musician that I'll be looking forward to hearing more from in the '10s. -S.R.

Why can’t more jam bands sound like THIS? This album has only five tracks – and some of them do drag on a bit too long – but mostly it just rocks out due to Sun Araw’s crafty skill of bringing together sounds to form really trippy/psychedelic moods. With that said, I only care for jam bands so much…. and this band certainly is one. - Phil

#8 - Phil

Loretta Lynn

Van Lear Rose

2004

There were lots of things going on in my life in the spring of 2004. I was graduating from high school, I was starting my first relationship, and I was NOT listening to country music. But soon that all changed (well, the part about country music - I still graduated and dated the girl). I read in Blender magazine about veteran country singer Loretta Lynn’s new album Van Lear Rose. The reviewer gave it a perfect 5-star rating, calling it “a brave, unrepeatable record that speaks to her whole life.” But what really grabbed my attention was that it was produced by my favorite rock star ever, Jack White (which you may have picked up on). I had to give it a listen!

These songs are indeed brave, as the 69-year old Lynn fully immerses herself in the various storyteller roles they each possess. My favorite song, “Family Tree,” finds Lynn coming face-to-face with her children’s stepmother: “Woman, you don’t know me / But you can bet that I know you / Everybody in this whole darn town knows you too / I brought along our little babies / ‘Cause I wanted them to see / The woman that’s burnin’ down our family tree.” Gripping and raw, it’s a song that I can relate to from my own experience with parental divorce and remarriage.

I would not be doing this album justice, though, if I did not give Mr. White his proper due. Jack’s instrumental support to Loretta’s tender voice is a work of mastery – no wonder he produces all of his own records. “Woman’s Prison” is one of the production highlights, as Lynn takes on the role of a woman about to be executed. It begins softly as Lynn describes why she was sentenced to death, for shooting her lover after catching him with another woman. Then, as the warden brings her to the chair, the drums pick up and cymbals crash, culminating in Lynn whispering the words to “Amazing Grace” over a held keyboard note. Still the finest country album I’ve ever listened to. -P.W.

I recently read that The White Stripes dedicated their album, White Blood Cells, to this country legend long after Loretta Lynn had retired from the music world. In response, Loretta Lynn met with Jack and Meg and Jack ended up producing this album. It’s a cool story and after listening to this album and knowing very little about the back story of Loretta Lynn, I also find it to be a bit of a strange pairing. I was worried to listen to this because I have great distaste for the pop country of today, but this was pretty great. Coming from a contemporary of Johnny Cash, this is true country music and I dig it. - Ryan

With a long career behind her, Loretta needed to find a way to stay relevant in the age of bottom-dwelling mainstream country music, so she hooked up with Jack White as producer and found the perfect crossover audience. The end result is something of an overhyped fusion of classic country and White's bluesy garage sound. I can appreciate the uniqueness of this record as not too many 70 year old country musicians can put out music as fiery as "Have Mercy", but it just never quite comes together for me. - Steve

#8 - Ryan & Steve

Radiohead

Kid A

2000

Kid A was the last of the Radiohead records I listened to. My love for these guys grew exponentially. I began with Hail to the Thief and Pablo Honey, my least favorite of their albums. Amnesiac and The Bends showed me what everybody loves about Radiohead. And then there was OK Computer, and I knew there couldn’t possibly be another Radiohead record I would like more. How could one of the most revered records of our time be topped by the same band? When I heard Kid A was their next album my first assumption was that the band would be slipping into a complacent state after such a massive success like OK Computer. I figured they would most likely just rehash previous endeavors in their new tunes and I could not have been more wrong.

What makes Kid A so successful is that it completely sidestepped the massive hype and expectations Radiohead fans had for the band after the acclaimed OK Computer. This is because it is very difficult to compare this album to any of their previous releases musically. On Kid A, Radiohead abandons their primarily organic sound found on other releases and instead electronically distort their mostly unrecognizable guitars and drums into melancholy electronic atmospheres. This record is cold and fragile with the occasional flickering glow of warmth. It’s the sound of human blood flooding the cavernous thorax of a machine; flowing through the wires and microchips and bringing to life what Radiohead has been looking for.

I don’t completely buy into the notion that Radiohead has abandoned the typical rock paradigm on this record. Yes, they have a primarily electronic sound with ambient moments and amniotic soundscapes with the occasional industrial gristle. But hints of rock remain. If anything, with Kid A, Radiohead has redefined what pop music can be. Because of this, Radiohead has engraved their names permanently into the annals of music history. -R.C.

This is quite possibly the most universally praised album of the decade, and I’m certainly not going to be one to argue with its acclaim. Radiohead pulls off the incredibly difficult feat of offering ten tracks that each have their own unique sound, yet fit together perfectly to form one cohesive mood. Few albums I’ve ever heard do this as well as Kid A does. - Phil

#9 - Phil

Outkast

Speakerboxxx/The Love Below

2003

The most original and progressive rap group of all-time were faced with perhaps their greatest challenge at the decade’s start – to write an album that could surpass their most popular and universally praised work ever, 2000’s Stankonia (“B.O.B.,” “Ms. Jackson”). Much like Radiohead, Outkast’s Big Boi and Andre 3000 knew there was no way they could move forward after such an acclaimed record unless they did something radical. So they made Speakerboxxx/The Love Below, a double-disc album just under 2 hours and 15 minutes in length, with each rapper handling one of the discs. Radical enough for ya?

Speakerboxxx is Big Boi’s album, a jazzy-electronic infestation of his most catchy rhymes and hooks. “Ghetto Musick” is one of the most unique-sounding rap songs I’ve ever heard; its robotic discotheque chorus could have only been contrived by an artist this out-of-the-box genius. “The Way You Move” became a #1 hit for a reason, as Big Boi’s integration of trumpets and Sleepy Brown’s soulful voice are perfectly complemented. There’s even a track where Big Boi’s son comes in for a freestyle verse!

Andre 3000’s The Love Below throws every rule for what a hip-hop record should sound like out the window. He hardly raps at all, focusing solely on building an atmospheric escape of sex-crazed dreams. “Prototype” alludes to Jimi Hendrix’s psychedelic acid rock, as Andre confesses “I hope that you’re the one / If not… you are the prototype.” Just to give you an idea of how spicy this record is, some of the other tracks are named “Spread,” “She Lives in My Lap,” and the hilarious skit “Where Are My Panties?” Yet thrown right in the middle of this musical porno is my favorite single of the decade, “Hey Ya!” I was at a wedding reception this summer and the entire place went crazy when this song came on – kids, grandparents, and college grads. From its funky beat to its absurdly addictive chorus, I truly believe “Hey Ya!” will be remembered as one of the greatest songs of our generation.

Best. Double-disc. Ever. -P.W.

I don’t think this album is an exception to the rule that double albums are a bad idea simply because of the sheer length. These guys just can cut their albums down to a proper size. Aquemini, Stankonia and this double album are all praise-worthy but none of them manage to clock in even close to under an hour, which deters me from revisiting them very often. Regardless these guys have a series of amazing records under their belt that really culminated with this double album. I have to say though, that I’m not as much of a fan of the Speakerboxxx half as I am with the more funk-driven The Love Below. - Ryan

If you were so inclined, you could sit for 2 hours and 14 minutes listening to Big Boi and Andre 3000 spin their disjointed web of early-'00s hip-hop. It's a fascinating listening culling a number of huge singles (one of the biggest crossover hits, "Hey Ya"), but I can't help but always feel exhausted by this listen. If this double album was reduced to a single 45-60 minutes of the best stuff, it would be the ineffable high point for Outkast. Instead it's a good record with just too many damn leftovers. - Steve

#9 - Ryan & Steve

Archer Prewitt

Wilderness

2005

Down to the single digits. "Wilderness" is the genius of Archer Prewitt, a member of jazzy, melodic post-pop group the Sea and Cake. Here Prewitt composes some of the most elegant and sophisticated pop music of the decade. While his solo endeavors are always overshadowed by the work of his main group, I find his solo material to be even more satisfying. "Wilderness" is permeated with a sense of melancholy in Prewitt's hushed, elegant vocal lines. Then of course the music here is a blend of folk-pop alongside lush, carefully detailed arrangements of strings, slight tonal swells, piano strikes, twinkling bells and quiet organ. When I'm listening to this record I'm always struck by the clarity of vision and sound found here. Everything here was rigorously mulled over and refined, quite an admirable work ethic present.

Even though I've been riding high on this record since 2005 (my favorite record of that year), I'm always amazed with the emotional power and the sophistication here. An unsung gem to be sure. This record is one that soaks into your being, transcending the time in which it was made resulting in one of the few timeless records on these lists. With a record as unassuming and understated as this, throwing a plethora of superlatives at it won't do much good. Instead I urge you to take a quiet moment, brew some coffee and sit down with this recording. This classic will return the favor ten-fold. -S.R.

Although I am not particularly moved by this album, I could see how someone else could be. The songs are well written and are given very nice arrangements. Archer Prewitt has a very welcoming voice to new listeners as well. Personally, I find the album a little boring – the sound just doesn’t resonate with me much. But I still have respect for Prewitt as an artist. - Phil