Best of Decade (2000s) Album Lists

my eyes literally went O_O when i stopped to check what roman numeral was next to Tha Carter. the guy has his own taste, can't take that away from him, but fuck I didn't think anyone was crazy enough to put that album was up their on their end of decade list.

his choice of Wayne albums isn't nearly as o_O as his choice of Wayne tracks

Everybody who makes lists fucking sucks and all music sucks too.

I don't know if this counts as major media, but it's

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/6-most-underrated-japanese-albums-00s-702098#ixzz0afFFD6QS

True, it does happen to list my favorite album of the decade, but the youtube clips for four of the five other albums mentioned here also sound good to me. (I think they've all been mentioned on ILM before, too, but they were new to me.)

And here's another list of Thai albums, but all but one of the songs I clicked didn't sound so hot:

http://www.cnngo.com/bangkok/play/10-bands-made-thai-music-cool-noughties-562161

x-post

Both Xgau & Jody Rosen list that Brad Paisley song "Then" (Xgau for decade, Rosen for '09) which was pretty much the worst song on the album.

I used to like to criticize Christgau back when he was still the "Poobah." But people, come on, the man lost his main gig and is 68 years old, give him a break! How many people do you know over 65 who listens to new music they can't find at Walmart, or even listens to anything from the past 30 years? Do any of you twentysomething fucks really think your tastes will be even remotely relevant in 2040??

I wish I were twentysomething.

Chill. I was just observing that two prominent critics who like Brad Paisley (this is more about Rosen, who spent much of a Slate podcast drooling over him) picked what I see as his lamest single for their lists.

I was responding to those talking specifically about our ex-Dean. And yes, I know there's some geezers on here pushing 50.

Or perhaps it's best you not attempt it.

very ducasse, this, also very silly.

Do any of you twentysomething fucks really think your tastes will be are even remotely relevant in 2040 now??

I like the Brad Paisley album, too, btw. (Enough to give it P&J 5 points, 10th place.) Don't like "Then" much, though.

Actually, that's not fair -- there are a few twentysomethings whose writing about music is as interesting as Xgau's these days. I don't want to be ageist, just because I'm pushing 50 myself. Just don't see how his list is any more clueless than most other ones on this thread.

it's christmas, so merry christmas

<3 u all

the only album on xgau's list that i would listen to now is the go-betweens one. cuz i love that one about the surfing magazines. i don't care how old he is its a pretty boring list. to me. obviously. i'm sure there are plenty of people who still jam out to stankonia or love and theft at the gym whilst doing their cardio workouts or during a power walk thru the park.

The Dean has turned me on to more good music than any other person on planet Earth. Anybody who tools on him is a douche, objectively.

Scott, you might like that Brad Paisley album if you heard it! I know you have liked songs by him before. I've never loved his stuff before, but that's a really good album. Those Gogol Bordello ones are good too -- Not Top-20-of-Decade good, for me anyway (neither is Paisley), but still good. So are a few other ones he named. And like I said, it's not like anybody else's best-of-decade lists are inspiring me much, either. Plus my tastes haven't aligned with Xgau's for the past quarter-century. (I never even liked the Go-Betweens! And he totally picks the wrong Drive By Truckers album! I don't know if I've ever head Wussy; what do they sound like???) But if everybody else gets to make boring lists, he should be able to, too. Anyway, Merry Xmas to you and yours!!

Wussy is the guy from the Ass Pony's new band. He and his girlfriend share vocals. They're pretty heavy alternative rock, much less rootsy than the Ass Ponys. Some of their best songs are Shunt, Rigor Mortis and Airborn, all easy to hear online.

merry austin xmas to you too! and yours!

i can't remember xgau ever turning me on to anything, to be honest. he hates soooooo much stuff that i dig. and i've never been that big on the stuff he loves. AND i realize that LOTS of people like a lot of those records a bunch. that's fine. still pretty boring though. i like oddball lists. what can i say, i'm an oddball. i'm not hating on the guy. he's still one of the only people writing about music that i can read with (some) interest who differs so totally from me and my tastes. (mostly cuz i think he's a good writer.)

he is sorta one of those opposite critics for me. if he hates it, i'm interested. if he loves it, i'm not all that interested.

but also, admit it scott, he is an oddball too!! (just a different kind of oddball.)

he's kind of a crank. does crank equal oddball? as far as what he likes, he's in line with a lot of other trad/boring critics, isn't he? putting two wussy albums on your list is like putting two hold steady or two paul westerberg albums on your list. the only people who ever listened to ass ponys were rock critics and the long-suffering women who loved(tolerated) them.

it's BECAUSE he listens to so much music that i wish his lists/likes were a little more left field. not saying he doesn't champion stuff that nobody knows about... i dunno, after all this time and after a zillion records listened to and the moldy peaches album is one of the greatest recordings of the decade? okay, he's an oddball. he's perverse anyway.

can't believe fluffy didn't make the list. they WERE the greatest punk group since wire after all:

Black Eye [Capitol, 1996]
Am I forgetting somebody, or is this the most unrelenting (and, not to hedge any bets, best) punk debut since the glory days of Ramones-Pistols-Clash? OK, Wire, but really. When the big loud production by Clash/Pistols veteran Bill Price, tweaks classic riffs for hard rock oomph, the riffs carry the power surges, and except for the fame one, the songs live up to the underlining. Amanda Rootes's sex life is at best a draw, but she knows its garish details thoroughly enough to convince anyone willing to stand up there while she spits them out that sooner or later she'll walk away with a victory. Her rage doesn't mean she's strong--it means she's hellbent on getting there. A

oh wait 1996. sorry. hahaha. did they make his best of the 90's list? probably. wow, i don't remember that album being so long ago!

northern state were definitely robbed though.

i wouldnt argue that xgau's taste is largely average but i think it's wrong to assume that if you listen to more records you should be championing more obscure stuff

the odds are good that if you listen to lots of records you will hear, like, 20 records better than a moldy peaches album. if you are sane.

or 30 records, even.

but that's just me. i listened to hundreds of records that came out this decade and LOTS of them were better than that moldy peaches album. or even that shadow album.

right, i'm not saying the moldy peaches don't suck. i'd be fine with the list being all obvious choices, as long as they were good records.

I know I was ragging on his pics upthread but, you know, taste is a motherfucker.

basically

I'm sure my taste will be irrelevant in 2040 -- and maybe already is today -- but that is one weird list.

Is Xgau the only critic who still admits he likes the Moldy Peaches? I mean, that record did well P&J right.

I think Momus has defended them in the past.

I still like them fine.

The Dean has some uh, unique pet artists that he champions. Amy Rigby, Northern State, Moldy Peaches/Kimya Dawson, Fluffy, Buck 65, Imperial Teen, etc. But out of all his A or A- records in a given year, at least 70% are right up my musical alley, which makes the consumer guide essential reading.

I do wish, just for the sake of this exercise, Xgau had limited himself to one album per artist. Then again, since his annual top tens are online and he doesn't second-guess himself much, there's no way a decade list of his could be surprising.

he's kind of a crank. does crank equal oddball? as far as what he likes, he's in line with a lot of other trad/boring critics, isn't he? putting two wussy albums on your list is like putting two hold steady or two paul westerberg albums on your list. the only people who ever listened to ass ponys were rock critics and the long-suffering women who loved(tolerated) them.

it's BECAUSE he listens to so much music that i wish his lists/likes were a little more left field. not saying he doesn't champion stuff that nobody knows about... i dunno, after all this time and after a zillion records listened to and the moldy peaches album is one of the greatest recordings of the decade? okay, he's an oddball. he's perverse anyway.

― scott seward

basically otm

the 2000s stopped at 2001, I see

― abanana, Wednesday, December 9, 2009 7:33 PM (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

even if you look at the rest of the list there's like nothing from the past few years. apparently music died sometime in 2005?

What are the ethics of making a top 100 list with an extra 20 or 40 albums on it? I CANNOT CHOOSE AND IT IS DRIVING ME KRAZEE.

Well, some people have always done that weird thing where they have a top "ten," but with, say, three albums (or movies -- a NY Times film critic did this last week I think!) tied for sixth place, and three more tied for "seventh," etc.; in other words, they just pretend ties have no effect on what the next placement would be. Totally unethical, if you ask me (plus it looks weird), but hardly unprecedented. That way, 120 or 140 albums in your top 100 should be easy!

I'm already hella cheating by only having one album per artist. Might as well go all the way.

See, I totally believe in the one-album-per-artist rule. The last thing I want to look at is a list filled with the same artists over and over again. Just tell me which album is the best, how much you like it, and move on. If you can't come up with 100 artists who you think were relevant over the course of a decade, you should lose your list-making privileges imo.

Better yet: One album per record label! (If you're gonna make arbitrary limitations, go whole hog, I say!)

This museum has too much Picasso.

http://www.madaboutmadrid.com/photos/uncategorized/reina_sofia.jpg
This museum has too much Picasso.

putting multiple albums by one artist can have an effect. i finially listened to wussy just cuz he had two on his list. one probably wouldn't have done it.

i don't know how much more wussy i'll listen to, but at least he got me to do that. pretty much the most any enthusiast can hope for.

The double Wussy had the same effect on me too, with the same results. (Although I complained about Dylan being on the list twice, I don't have anything against critics listing one artist more than once on lists like these. I don't think Dylan deserved it for those albums, one of which I regret to say I actually bought, but I'm not much of a Dylan lover.)

It was pretty much just for my own self-preservation, as I would have melted down trying to decide between albums by artists I love. I will guarantee that Wussy will not be on my list.

I've avoided doing a best of the decade list, partially for that reason. (I submitted an unordered Top 50 and an ordered Top 20 to a couple places that asked for them, and one of those is actually seeable in some remote corner of the Internet, but ever since I sent them in all I'm thinking of is all the albums I haven't listened to for eight years that might've been good enough for the lists. So I'm finally relistening to those. I'll have a definitive list in, like, 2020 maybe.)