FT50: Albums of the ’00s
What? You still listen to THAT album? That record is so 2004! Well, that’s okay, because we really like that one too, which is why we decided to come up with a list of our favorite albums of the last decade (2000-2009). Sure, these might not be YOUR favorite records, or the most critically acclaimed, but we sat down and really thought out every record from the past ten years that we keep coming back to in our collections. You’re likely to disagree with some of these, and we won’t tell you we’re absolutely right we just know that these happen to be OUR favorites. If you think we totally blew it here, feel free to tell us so, but be nice, as our egos are kind of fragile. Follow the jump for more.
50. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf – I don’t smoke pot, so stoner rock makes me feel connected
49. The Dutchess and the Duke – Th e Dutchess and the Duke – Destined to haunt your spellcheck forever.
48. New Pornographers – Electric Version – What wasn’t good about this album?
47. Magnetic Fields – I – While not their best, it made me realize how sad it could be to walk around town, alone, as a circus clown.
46. Ted Leo and the Rx– Hearts of Oak – Consistently awesome, consistently Ted. I’d do him.
45. Of Montreal – Sunlandic Twins – This is when things got weird, and we loved it.
44. Antony and the Johnsons – I am a Bird Now – Antony made it cool to be transgendered and beautiful.
43. Rilo Kiley – Execution of All Things – The most solid album for the group, though not one of their better known.
42. Band of Horses – Everything All the Time – I still listen to Funeral at least once a month.
41. The Killers – Hot Fuss – Don’t lie, not only do you own this, but you know all the words.
40. Bright Eyes – Lifted, or the Story is in the Soil – Back when he cried on stage, Conor Oberst wrote this gem. It was also part of the Christm -akuh starter package.
39. Q and Not U – No Kill No Beep Beep – They made it okay to use handclaps in post-punk.
38. Beck – Sea Change – Beck goes acoustic? Yep, and he’ll make you cry.
37. Les Savy Fav – Go Forth – Dear Tim, you can sweat on me anytime.
36. Unicorns – Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone – Their break-up spawned a hydra-head of indie bands, most of which we love.
35. Nada Surf – Let Go – This convinced us that indie rock was “Popular”.
34. Postal Service – Give Up – The UPS went to war with this band, and we haven’t heard of them since.
33. Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – Brilliant album until Wayne decided to walk in a big rubber ball at every show the rest of the decade.
32. Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights – Remember when Carlos D thought he was some sort of soldier? I still wear my holster, but thats it.
31. The Knife – Silent Shout – This is the album to convince your friends you are not normal.
30. Belle and Sebastian – Dear Catastrophe Waitress – Everyone hated on this record, until they realized that it totally ruled.
29. The Decemberists – Crane Wife – Japanese folk tales? Yes please.
28. Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism – You bought this as soon as Seth gave it to Summer for Christm-akuh.
27. My Morning Jacket – Z – Jim James rock opera prepares them for an appearance in Elizabethtown.
26. The Walkmen – Bows and Arrows – This record booked them a tour with Incubus, it was that good.
25. Iron and Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days – Does this guy still live in Dripping Springs? Can I stop by sometime?
24. At the Drive-In – Relationship of Command – The next Rage Against the Machine imploded and made records for people in a coma.
23. Okkervil River – Black Sheep Boy – The band grew up here, “For Real”.
22. Camera Obscura – Lets Get Out of This Country – “Lloyd I’m Ready to be Heart Broken” is still kicking in my head.
21. Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mary – Our apologies to Wolf Parade for not making this higher.
20. Sun Kill Moon – Ghosts of the Great Highway – Don’t listen to this if you’re a cutter; you’ll die.
19. TV on the Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes -Everyone prefers Return to Cookie Mountain but they are wrong.
18. Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand – We danced to this all year, still do.
17. Grizzly Bear – Yellow House – Better than Veckatimest, solid all the way through.
16. New Amsterdams – Worse for the Wear – This is Emo for grown ups.
15. Trail of Dead – Source Tags and Codes -Pitchfork gave this a 10, so we had to put it on here.
14. White Stripes – White Blood Cells – Pleased to meet you Mr. White. Is that your sister/wife behind the drums?
13. Explosions in the Sky – The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place – Not just for those Friday Night Lights.
12. Modest Mouse- Moon and Antarctica – The last album before they got shiny and clean.
11. The Wrens – Meadowlands – Start to finish, this record wins on every song.
10. Bloc Party – Silent Alarm – Back in the day, they used instruments and made you dance.
9. The Shins – Oh Inverted World – Did they “Change your life?”
8. Radiohead – Kid A – I hear this band puts out decent albums, but I never heard of em’.
7. The National – Boxer – Mid-life crisis indie rock certified awesome by NPR.
6. Spoon – Kill the Moonlight – Four records could make this list, but this one works.
5. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker – Brilliant Americana by a guy that decided to suck later.
4. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it In People – It was nice to meet Feist, Amy Milan, and Kevin Drew for the first time.
3. Arcade Fire – Funeral – How many times did you freak out when you first listened to this?
2. The Strokes – Is This it – These guys brought back rock n’ roll, or at least Rolling Stone told us they did.
1. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – This is the right answer.
How about the South Hill Project?
To say that Ryan Adams sucked after Heartbreaker is loony. The only thing that he did that sucked post Heartbreaker was marrying that waste of flesh mandy moore.
I don’t know. 29, Cold Roses, Cardinology all come to mind as horrid wastes of recording tape, though I’m sure he did it all digital. Maybe Mandy will break his heart and he’ll write a good album again for once.
This albums lacks British bands. Parachutes was a classic and Up The Bracket might be the best album from the UK and it is not even here. Think Tank was great too. The first Arctic Monkeys… I don’t know. Also, there is no BRMC…a top ten American band in the USA from the 00s. I feel like it lacks classic 00s bands. But that’s just me. Maybe you guys were just trying to be different and I like that. Everyones top list of 00s look the same anyway, this one is different but not very accurate. But that’s just my taste. Everyone has a different one.
Chuy…did you not see Bloc Party (British), Radiohead (British), Camera Obscura (sort of British). We tried to represent the whole isle, but alas, only certain bands met our fancy.
Not bad)))
wait, really can we talk about sufjan. huh?
Jill-
Sufjan was on one of our lists. Unfortunately, we couldn’t agree upon him being in our top 50. I actually think it was me who couldn’t put him in because I think Illinois was far too long and over-indulgent. Some great songs mind you in there, but over all it just weighed me down. That being said, our list was just opinions, so disagreeing is accepted and encouraged, as long as its mature and healthy.
“39. Q and Not U – No Kill No Beep Beep – They made it okay to use handclaps in post-punk.”
This list is incredibly bland overall, but this might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read.
Sean – thanks for the comment despite it’s negattivity.
Maybe want to explain why this is bland?
Also, the quick comments after each album weren’t really meant to be taken too seriously.
What about Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin ~ Pershing? or Stars ~ Set Yourself On Fire??
Fucking shame on you for not including 2003’s De-Loused in the Comatorium. Sure, Relationship of Command was the pinnacle of 90’s Alt-Rock/Post-Rock intentions, but De-Loused made a pretty damn good case for the revival of classic rock laden progressive music we see now.
In fact, i’d venture to say that without TMV and various other prog acts we wouldn’t have The Fall of Troy, The Sounds of Animals Fighting, or MGMT. Granted, The Flaming Lips and likewise Muse have a large part of the mainstreaming of prog, but goddamn, credit where credit is due.
Philistine.
Cant say i agree with your list ! Considering you haven’t heard of Radiohead, God knows what else you havent heard !
@Baillie…. Uh #8?
This list totally sucks. Minus a few bands here and there that are worth while, the rest of this list is pop rock dribble. I can give 2 shits less about band of horses and franz ferdinand! Those bands suck! even when I was a pre-teen I thought those bands sucked!
Tell ya what, grow some balls and listen to some real music, then maybe you can make a better list. Till then, don’t talk about music like you listen to it. Because according to this list, you really don’t.
The music of the last 10 years overall was terrible. Nothing really great came out of it. The first half of the 90’s were awesome and then it kind of fell apart when the boy bands started taking over the charts. The best decades of music though are the 60’s and 80’s overall. 70’s would have been in it but they had disco and lets face it, disco still sucks. Pretty much every band on this list is an indie rock pretentious annoying worthless piece of shit. I really wish better music would come out again.
While I agree mostly with this list, I have to say they gave some pretty piss poor reason as to why some albums were on here. i.e. “Pitchfork gave this a 10, so we had to put it on here.” Pitchfork also just gave Kanye’s new album a 10 and it’s nowhere near deserving of that.
That was supposed to be tongue in cheek. As in, ha, P4K did it, so we haaad to do it too. I guess hyperbole and our attempt at banter don’t come across via the Internet.
YIKES! i dont understand how there is no Kanye
Who?
Pretentious indie list is pretentious.
I do believe a little more thought should have been put into this. I saw Demon Days and Deltron 3030 mentioned and easily should have made the list. Also, I believe Oracular Spectacular by MGMT should have made this list. I’ll admit I have tastes in music that aren’t exactly popular so I’m not going to mention everything I think should go on here and the top 50 of anyone commenting on here would be quite different, but those are a few that have been popular enough and awesome enough for this list. Also, I heard Fugazi’s The Arguement was mentioned and that should definitely be on this list.
@Liam Smith
I’m not sure if that’s sarcasm or not, but I hope it is.
I’ve just been reading this and i cant believe that Mogwai – Mr Beast has not at least been mentioned.
I would also suggest Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell, The Subways – Young For Eternity as well as a Built To Spill album.
just saying I listen to Funeral by Band of Horses at least once a WEEK! it is a truly amazing piece of music.
You just became my new musical taste Hero!
No built to spill albums, so this list is somewhat wrong. Also, I like the clean Modest Mouse, and the dirty, and the strange.
i feel like this list is great until you say you’ve never heard of radiohead? rendered this whole list irrelevant.
We kid, we kid. Please understand, we think we’re funny.
Where is Brand New – The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me on this list!?
Hiding behind the best Brand New record they had, Deja Entendu?
It’s a hipster’s/emo’s paradise =/
Even for such a indy-hipster biased list (which I’m fairly okay with), I’m shocked at the lack of Madvillainy. Even those that keep clear of hip-hop entirely usually recognize that album’s originality, fun, and brilliance. It certainly needs to be in there somewhere…
Hoogy-
I’m sorry, but one of the reason’s we didn’t include the work was that I don’t think any of us has actually listened to it, at least not in its entirety. It’d be silly of us to include something that we hadn’t given a fair chance, just because it’s already adored. That being said, maybe I’ll go back and revisit it on your suggestion.
Awesome list – missed a big one though, and it’s a doozy:
The Avalanches, “Since I Left You”, 2001.
The Antlers
Local Natives
and The Last Shadow Puppets
belong on this list.
I like many of these selections…but you have to admit- this is a music dream list for Hipster douche bags.
Little more love for The Killers and New Pornographers, both albums were amazing listens. And why no Taking Back Sunday or Brand New?
It’s tough to fit three people’s opinions into one list of 50 albums, that’s our only excuse Freta. But, that being said, I think, as popular as a lot of the bands on our list were, the majority of those records stand up.
Mezmerize/Hypnotize? Wolfmother? Elephant? The Big Come Up? LCD Soundsystem?
Anyone?
Those all look kind of mundane standing next to these. In my opinion.
I like the list, but I think American Idiot, REM’s Acellerate and Pearl Jam’s Backspacer belong on it also. I’d put Is This It at the top, it’s one of my all time favorite records. Oh and Wincing the Night Away is an amazing album too
For me blink-182’s self titled is top ten, it showed such an astronomical change in blink.
also, The Cool by Lupe Fiasco, on of the top ten as well, one of my favorite hip hop/ rap albums period. Boxcar Racer’s album was also pretty rad, I love it, and can’t think of another album like it, except maybe blink 182’s aforementioned self titled, which is similar in little ways. The Eminem Show, by Eminem, which i know can be a touchy subject, is also one of my favorite ever, a great example of a great rapper at his peak. His new stuff is good, but a lot comes across as preachy. And all three of Brand New’s albums that came out that decade. Each one a huge change from the last. That’s my two cents anyways.
I have to say, I haven’t heard of 90% of the bands on this list, so I looked them up on YouTube. A lot of them weren’t to my taste, but I’m happy you put The Postal Service up here.
Wilco is overrated as shit.
Wilco isn’t that good. The fact that Wilco is above Radiohead in anything is baffling. Also, they completely forgot Arctic Monkeys, all 3 of their albums from that decade are better than anything Wilco or The Postal Service has or will ever do.
You got everything right. FINALLY! The top 3 are definitely still the best 3 in my book.
Wilco is, and always will be, my favorite band of all time. Live=incredible. Same with Arcade Fire.
The only two things that could have made this list perfect would be if you added The Antlers’ Hospice, Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago, and Fleet Foxes’ self titled debut. I’m okay with you leaving Vampire Weekend off.
Oh, you also forgot Illinois by Sufjan Stevens.
Sin Radiohead In Rainbows ninguna lista de los ’00 se puede completar!!