Saturday, January 23, 2010

The 63 Best Indie Albums of the 00's

 Making a list of the best albums of an entire decade is a bit different than doing one for a single year. With single year best of lists, you can just throw whatever albums you feel like in and say "Who cares? It's just a trivial year-end list." but with decade lists you have to be at least partially objective.

  You never realize how long a decade is until you're making a list of albums and you're like, "Should I include Bright Eyes? I mean, nobody listens to it now, but we used to." Ten years is a long time, man.

  Then, there's always that "What really should be considered indie?" question. For this list I've used the "any good alternative music, that's not Radiohead" definition.

  The 00's were crazy. So crazy we don't even know what we're calling it. Some say "naughts", others say "aughts". Me? I'm just using 00's because it works well in text form and is relatively idiot proof. For the first time, you could had unlimited access to all music ever and didn't have to worry about paying for it or anything. You can spend weeks just digging through music websites trying to find something new and amazing.

  That said, I feel like these are my favorite indie albums of the past decade:

(See the full list after the jump.)


63. Everything All the Time - Band of Horses
62. One Beat - Sleater-Kinney
63. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys
60. Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady
59. Domestica - Cursive
58. Summer in Abaddon - Pinback
57. Nouns - No Age
56. Oh, Inverted World - The Shins
55. Murray Street - Sonic Youth
54. Atlas - Battles
53. Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix - Phoenix
52. Microcastle - Deerhunter
51. Give Up - The Postal Service


50. The Execution of All Things - Rilo Kiley
49. Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules and Love Affair
48. For Emma, Forever Ago - Bon Iver
47. Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes - TV on the Radio
46. Too Much Guitar - The Reigning Sound
45. Farm - Dinosaur Jr
44. Castaways and Cutouts - The Decemberists
43. Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
42. Wonderful Rainbow - Lightning Bolt
41. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
40. The Creek Drank the Cradle - Iron and Wine
39. Fever to Tell - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
38. Apologies to the Queen Mary - Wolf Parade
37. The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
36. Boxer - The National
35. I Am Not Afraid of You, And I Will Beat Your Ass - Yo La Tengo
34. Hometowns - The Rural Alberta Advantage
33. Baby, It's Cold Inside - The Fun Years
32. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
31. Twin Cinema - The New Pornographers
30. Z - My Morning Jacket
29. The Glow, Part 2 - The Microphones
28. Drum's Not Dead - Liars
27. Before the Dawn Heals Us - M83
26. The Airing of Grievances - Titus Andronicus
25. You're a Woman, I'm a Machine - Death From Above 1979
24. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
23. White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
22. Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? - Of Montreal
21. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
20. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear
19. Bows and Arrows - The Walkmen
18. Blood Visions - Jay Reatard
17. Illinoise - Sufjan Stevens
16. The Life Pursuit - Belle and Sebastian
15. Oh You're So Silent Jens - Jens Lekman
14. Is This It?- The Strokes
13. Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
12. Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven - Godspeed You! Black Emperor
11. Turn on the Bright Lights - Interpol
10. Source Tags and Codes - ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
9. The Lost in Translation soundtrack
8. Person Pitch - Panda Bear
7. Bang Bang Rock and Roll - Art Brut
6. Ágætis Byrjun - Sigur Rós
5. Hold on Now, Youngster... - Los Campesinos!
4. You Forgot It in People - Broken Social Scene
3. A Place to Bury Strangers - A Place to Bury Strangers
2. Funeral - Arcade Fire
1. Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished - Animal Collective


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