Pitchfork's Top 200 of the 2000s - Page 5

Also, I like this year's Phoenix album a lot, but I concur that it's not as good as the last one.

I'm somewhat surprised to see that, of what seemed to be the big three indie rock albums of the year (Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors), the Dirty Projectors is the wild card in the year end lists, with the other two nearly always at the top, but Bitte Orca sometimes way up, sometimes way down, and sometimes nowhere to be seen.

I also think it suggests a sort of weak year in music when, with a few variations, there's a predictable uniformity to the inclusions and rankings in these lists. I'm looking for the great-sounding albums I missed and mostly coming up empty.

I gotta get that last Phoenix album, then. I'll probably explode.

And yeah, I'd agree about it being kind of a weak year. I keep thinking of albums that blew me away and realizing that they either came out last year or I just really, really liked them but they're not really revelatory (latest Mastodon, Baroness, Marked Men - though I LOVE Ghosts a lot).

And I know I keep swinging and hoping that more people will fall for it, but that Thao and the Get Down Stay Down album's a lot of fun and pretty musically tight. It'd be in my top ten for the year.

Hadn't realized this thread had gone all 2009. And since I went to the trouble of compiling this for another site, I'll take up some bandwidth here, too:

A good year for me, if not necessarily a great one. Lots of albums I enjoyed, but not that many I really fell in love with. Not enough loud ones, for sure-- where are The Hives when you need them? And I didn't find much jazz that really moved me this year: good stuff from Joshua Redman, Ron Blake, Eric Alexander, and a few others, but not much I found myself returning to regularly.


My Ten Favorites from 2009:

'Cause I Sez So, New York Dolls
Coyote, El Goodo
Floodplain, Kronos Quartet
High, Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, Loudon Wainwright III
Jaggedland, Marshall Crenshaw
Middle Cyclone, Neko Case
Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs), Patterson Hood
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, Elvis Costello
The Sun Came Out, 7 Worlds Collide
Welcome to Mali, Amadou & Mariam

Ten Runners-Up: The Crow, Steve Martin; Easy Come Easy Go, Marianne Faithfull; The Further Adventures of Los Straitjackets; The Hazards of Love, The Decemberists; Hills and Valleys, The Flatlanders; Laughin' and Cryin' With The Reverend Horton Heat; Man Overboard, Ian Hunter; Potato Hole, Booker T. Jones; Together Through Life, Bob Dylan; Willie and the Wheel, Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel.

Ten Honorable Mentions: All In One, Bebel Gilberto; Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women; Electric Dirt, Levon Helm; For All I Care, The Bad Plus; Give Me Fire!, Mando Diao; Honey Moon, The Handsome Family; Horehound, The Dead Weather; No Line On The Horizon, U2; Texas Sheiks, Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks; Working on a Dream, Bruce Springsteen.

Five Fun Live Albums from 2009: Astral Weeks Live at the Hollywood Bowl, Van Morrison; The Dreams We Have As Children, Noel Gallagher; Live At The Olympia, R.E.M.; Live in London, Leonard Cohen; A Positive Rage, The Hold Steady.

(Paul McCartney would have made it in there, but he misses the cut by a)letting Billy Joel sing on his album and b)moaning "Oh yeah" after the line "Everybody had a wet dream" on "Got A Feeling.")

Box Set of the year: Walking On A Wire 1968-2009, Richard Thompson
Runner-Up: Keep An Eye On The Sky, Big Star

Audiobook of the year: American On Purpose, written and read by Craig Ferguson

Indescribable, Unclassifiable Delight of the year: Christmas in the Heart, Bob Dylan

Q Magazine's 100 Greatest Albums of the Decade (I didn't type this, so there's a bunch of spelling and punctuation errors):

1. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
2. The Strokes – Is This It
3. Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
4. The White Stripes – Elephant
5. Coldplay – Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends
6. Arcade Fire – Funeral
7. Green Day – American Idiot
8. Jay-Z – The Blueprint
9. Radiohead – Kid A
10. Johnny Cash – American Iv:The Man Comes Around
11. The Killers – Sams Town
12. Kasabian – Kasabian
13. Kings Of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak
14. Queens Of The Stoneage – Songs For The Deaf
15. Sigur Ros - ()
16. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
17. Alicia Keys – Songs In A Minor
18. The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
19. The Streets – A Grand Don't Come For Free
20. Justin Timberlake – Justified
21. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
22. Missy Elliott – Under Construction
23. Gnarls Barkley – St Elseware
24. Mgmt – Oracular Spectacular
25. Tv On The Radio – Dear Science
26. The Good The Bad The Queen – The Good The Bad The Queen
27. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
28. Lcd Soundsystem – Lcd Soundsystem
29. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
30. Radiohead – In Rainbows
31. Neil Diamond – Home Before Dark
32. Antony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now
33. U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb
34. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
35. Joanna Newsom – The Milk Eyed Mender
36. Elbow – Leaders Of The Free World
37. Tom Waits – Alice
38. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – B.R.M.C.
39. Justice – Cross
40. The Verve – Forth
41. Oasis – Don't Believe The Truth
42. Bat For Lashes – Fur And Gold
43. 50 Cent – Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
44. Peter Doherty – Grace/Wastelands
45. Death Cab For Cutie – Plans
46. Damien Rice – O
47. Jay-Z – The Black Album
48. Bjork – Vespertine
49. Pearl Jam – Riot Act
50. The White Stripes – De Stijl
51. Coldplay – Parachutes
52. Gossip – Standing In The Way Of Control
53. The Streets – Original Pirate Material
54. My Morning Jacket – At Dawn
55. Rufus Wainwright – Want Two
56. The Knife – Deep Cuts
57. Rufus Wainwright – Want One
58. Robert Pollard – Is Off To Business
59. Blur – Think Tank
60. Tinariwen – The Radio Tisdas Sesions
61. Kinney – The Woods
62. Tony Christie – Made In Sheffield
63. Joan As Police Woman – To Survive
64. Cold War Kids – Robbers And Cowards
65. Peaches – The Teaches Of Peaches
66. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga
67. The Libertines – Up The Bracket
68. Jeffrey Lewis – It's The Ones Who've Cracked
69. Queens Of The Stoneage – Rated R
70. Silversun Pickups – Swoon
71. Lykke Li – Youth Novel
72. Adele – Youth Novel
73. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
74. Gogol Bordello – Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike
75. Hush Arbor – Yankee Reality
76. I Am Kloot – I Am Kloot Play Moolah Rouge
77. Liars – Drum's Not Dead
78. Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous
79. The Gaslight Anthem – The '59 Sound
80. Soul Assassins – Soul Assassins Ii
81. Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
82. Stephen Fretwell – Magpie
83. Grace Jones – Hurricane
84. The Fratellis – Costello Music
85. Ray Lamontagne – Trouble
86. Young Jeezy – Let's Get It: Thug Motivation 101
87. Kathleen Edwards – Failer
88. Rtx – Transmaniacon
89. Grinderman – Grinderman
90. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
91. World Party – Dumbing Up
92. Republic Of Loose – Aaagh
93. Morrissey – You Are The Quarry
94. Social Distortion – Sex, Love And Rock 'N' Roll
95. The Moldy Peaches – The Moldy Peaches
96. Sara Watkins – Sara Watkins
97. Weird War – If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bite 'Em
98. The Cribs – The New Fellas
99. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives – Behind The Music
100. Jay-Z – American Gangster

While I'm at it, Q's 50 Best Albums of 2009:

1. Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
2. Florence And The Machine – Lungs
3. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz
4. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
5. Manic Street Preachers – Journal For Plague Lovers
6. Arctic Monkeys – Humbug
7. Muse – The Resistance
8. Lilly Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You
9. U2 – No Line On The Horizon
10. Phoenix – Woulgang Amadeus Phoenix
11. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust
12. Jack Penate – Everything Is New
13. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest
14. Devendra Banhart – What Will We Be
15. Dizzee Rascal – Tongue ‘N Cheek
16. Empire F The Sun – Walking On A Dream
17. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
18. Mika – The Boy Who Knew Too Much
19. Monsters Of Folk – Monsters Of Folk
20. Fever Ray – Fever Ray
21. Jamie T – Kings And Queens
22. The Low Anthem – Oh My Gad, Charlie Darwin
23. The Prodigy – Invaders Must Die
24. Mos Def – The Ecstatic
25. Noah And The Whale – The First Days Of Spring
26. Bat For Lashes – Two Suns
27. The Dead Weather – Horehound
28. Bruce Springsteen – Working On A Dream
29. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
30. La Roux – La Roux
31. Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions
32. Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up
33. Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca
34. White Lies – To Lose My Life
35. Pearl Jam – Backspacer
36. Sonic Youth – The Eternal
37. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport
38. Richard Hawley
39. The Horrors – Primary Colours
40. Cheryl Cole – 3 Words
41. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
42. Mariachi El Bronx – Mariachi El Bronx
43. Tinariwen – Imidiwan Companions
44. The View – Which Bitch
45. Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band – Outer South
46. Golden Silvers – True Romance
47. Madness – The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
48. Ian Brown – My Way
49. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
50. Jarvis Cocker – Further Complication

Ok, I just noticed Q has Silversun Pickups' Swoon listed on their Decade list, but it didn't even make the cut on the 2009 one. Makes sense!

Despite all reports of the world getting smaller and tastes getting homogenized, it's kind of weird how you can still tell a British list from an American one based on the top five picks alone. With this one, I'd almost be tempted to say "based on the top pick," but I've seen a few U.S. lists with Winehouse at the top, too - they're all going to look pretty silly in another ten years.

In the UK, does Q have a rep for being hopelessly out-of-date and populist-to-a-fault like Rolling Stone here? The idea of Sky Blue Sky showing up instead of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Plans being the representative Death Cab album, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb coming in before either of U2's other albums this decade (neither of which were decade-best, but they're at least much better) just screams "out of touch."

I read Rolling Stone's and EW's decade-end and year-end lists yesterday. It was incredibly surreal. Apparently, there's some reality where Springsteen's "Outlaw Pete" is one of the best songs of the year; the Black-Eyed Peas are the most important artists of the year; Dylan's 00's output is damn near on the same level of his 60s work; and Kings of Leon are the Only Rock Band That Matters. Holy shit.

I know, Dave. I know.

Rolling Stone's 2009 list was so preposterous I almost laughed out loud.

Putting U2's No Line on the Horizon on top just screams "clueless and up Bono's ass."

Amy Winehouse? Coldplay? Better than Funeral? REALLY?

I'm amazed that Justice are in Q's top albums of the decade yet Daft Punk aren't.

Going by a similar approach to Rolling Stone's ballot system, here's my top 25 songs of the decade, more or less in order of importance (or just by my gut feeling on this early Christmas morning):

1. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
2. Hey Ya! - OutKast
3. Poker Face - Lady GaGa
4. Toxic - Britney Spears
5. Crazy in Love - Beyonce featuring Jay-Z
6. Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes
7. Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliott
8. Electric Feel - MGMT
9. Maneater - Nelly Furtado
10. SexyBack - Justin Timberlake
11. Hung Up - Madonna
12. Stars and Sons - Broken Social Scene
13. New Slang - The Shins
14. Intervention - Arcade Fire
15. Paper Planes - M.I.A.
16. Idioteque - Radiohead
17. Lose Yourself - Eminem
18. Gold Digger - Kanye West
19. Why Can’t I? - Liz Phair
20. Do You Realize?? - The Flaming Lips
21. Umbrella - Rihanna
22. M79 - Vampire Weekend
23. No One - Alicia Keys
24. Imitation of Life - R.E.M.
25. Incinerate - Sonic Youth

I almost started a discussion of best pop songs of the decade, Ray. My no. 1 would still have to be "Hey Ya!" I think, although "Ignition (Remix)" would come in at a very close second.

Most underrated: "You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve", Johnny Boy

I was gonna start another thread, but I figured we had too many "decade" threads as it was. 'Since U Been Gone' and 'Hey Ya!' could be tied for #1, but at the end of the day (err...or decade), I've listened to 'Since U Been Gone' way more times than 'Hey Ya!'.