My Favorite 100 Albums of the Decade
What an emotional roller coaster this process was. When first asked by Andrew Careaga if I wanted to participate in a collaborative effort among a few other higher ed professionals to rank the top 100 greatest albums of the decade, I was excited. I love music and love to make lists... especially music-related, so why not? Well, I underestimated how much time it would take and the mental endurance it would require. One thing I can point to that helped me get started is that I almost always scrobble my listens to last.fm, which helped me to a solid starting point. There was a little pressure to finish in a short amount of time since I got a late start, but I was able to ultimately persevere... barely. Many times during the process I wanted to call it quits. December 3rd in particular was a rough day for me, as my schizophrenia was on display via Twitter:
10:15pm - "I honestly cannot do this... ranking this many is punishing my soul. I listen to a lot of music but this is just not doable. I'm struggling."
10:37pm - "Over 100 listed, 55 semi-ranked, 30 ranked. I can't take this task anything but extremely serious and it's ultimately going to be my demise."
10:55pm - "I CAN DO THIS! #bestalbumsofthedecade"
I was chatting a little with a friend at the time of my crisis who found it necessary to say things like, "You can do it Steve!" and, "You're the man!" - yes, it was that bad. It was also helpful to get support from others involved in the project. When @ronbronson tweeted that he'd finished his list and it was exhausting, that gave @hollyrae hope, which in turn led me to my top 100 war motto, "Keep fighting the good fight!" - I was now committed and wasn't going to bail.
So this all brings me to presenting the list below, which overall, I feel pretty good about, aside from one major regret. And please pardon the formatting (though it's surprisingly tolerable) since I copy/pasted straight from my Google Docs spreadsheet.
And one more thing. A final thank you to @andrewcareaga, @TimNekritz, @radiofreegeorgy, @ronbronson, @hollyrae, and @MasonDyer, as I wouldn't have tried to create this list without them. You can find that collaborative list here, in which I also produced commentary for most of the albums on my list that made the overall list.
1 Tool 10,000 Days
2 Tool Lateralus
3 At the Drive-In Relationship of Command
4 Nine Inch Nails Year Zero
5 A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms
6 The Dillinger Escape Plan Miss Machine
7 The Mars Volta De-Loused in the Comatorium
8 Deftones White Pony
9 Radiohead Kid A
10 Nine Inch Nails Ghosts I - IV
12 Nine Inch Nails The Slip
13 Telefon Tel Aviv Fahrenheit Fair Enough
14 The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls
15 The Postal Service Give Up
16 Sigur Ros ( )
17 A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step
18 Saul Williams The Invevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardst!
19 Ashes Divide Keep Telling Myself It's Alright
20 The Mars Volta Ocathedron 21 The Dandy Warhols Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
22 Beck Guero
23 The Dillinger Escape Plan Ire Works
24 The Nightwatchman One Man Revolution
25 Death Cab for Cutie Transatlanticism
26 Puscifer "V" is for Vagina
27 Metric Fantasies
28 Autolux Future Perfect
29 Modwheelmood Pears to Pigs Vol. 1 - 3
30 The Mars Volta Amputechture 31 The Mars Volta Frances the Mute
32 The Mars Volta The Bedlam in Goliath
33 Eddie Vedder Into the Wild Soundtrack
34 El-P You'll Sleep When You're Dead
35 Telefon Tel Aviv Immolate Yourself
36 Telefon Tel Aviv Map of What is Effortless
37 Amon Tobin Foley Room
38 Glassjaw Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence
39 Radiohead Amnesiac
40 Godspeed You! Black Emperor Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven 41 Sparta Wiretap Scars
42 Head Automatica Decadence
43 The Dresden Dolls Yes, Virginia
44 Tweaker The Attraction to All Things Uncertain
45 Boards of Canada Geogaddi
46 Autechre Draft 7.30
47 Amanda Palmer Who Killed Amanda Palmer
48 LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
49 Glassjaw Worship and Tribute
50 M.I.A. Arular 51 A Place to Bury Strangers Exploding Head
52 A Place to Bury Strangers A Place to Bury Strangers
53 Death From Above 1979 You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
54 Fuck Buttons Tarot Sport
55 Autecre Untitled
56 The Depreciation Guild In Her Gentle Jaws
57 M.I.A. Kala
58 The Dresden Dolls No, Virginia
59 Godspeed You! Black Emperor Yanqui U.X.O.
60 Scarlet Cult Classic 61 Saul Williams Saul Williams
62 TV on the Radio Dear Science
63 The New Regime Coup
64 Nine Inch Nails Y34RZ3R0R3M1X3D
65 Autechre Quaristice
66 Fuck Buttons Street Horrsing
67 The Bug London Zoo
68 Rilo Kiley Take Offs and Landings
69 Error Error
70 One Day As A Lion One Day As A Lion 71 Deftones Deftones
72 Tweaker 2 a.m. Wakeup Call
73 Passion Pit Manners
74 Josh Freese Since 1972
75 HEALTH Get Color
76 Isis Wavering Radiant
77 Does It Offend You, Yeah? You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into
78* LCD Soundsystem LCD Soundsystem
79 Jus†ice †
80 MSTRKRFT The Looks 81 Peaches I Feel Cream
82 Zoe Keating Once Cello x 16: Natoma
83 Portishead Third
84 A Perfect Circle aMOTION
85 Cat Power You Are Free
86 Beck The Information
87 Marilyn Manson Holy Wood
88 Outkast Stankonia
89 N.E.R.D. In Search Of...
90 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles 91 The The NakedSelf
92 Meshuggah Catch Thirty-Three
93 Aphex Twin Drukqs
94 Isis In the Absence of Truth
95 Emily Haines and the Soft Skeleton Knives Don't Have Your Back
96 Radiohead In Rainbows
97 Amon Tobin Supermodified
98 The Decemberists The Hazards of Love
99 Slipknot Iowa
100 The Dust Brothers Fight Club Soundtrack
*I would probably put Thursday's Full Collapse here, just ahead of LCD Soundsystem.
Since I made this list, there have been several amazing music lists I've come across online which are inspiring me to seek out new music. Most are from your typical big players (Pitchfork, Paste, Last.fm, etc.) but in particular I'd like to draw attention to Ghostly's 110. That's where I'm starting in my music discovery journey.
And speaking of lists, be sure to check out Ty's top 50 albums of the decade.
Filed under //
List
Comments [1]