one more for my list:

ass ponys - lohio

Queens of the Stone Age - "Rated R"

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

here's what I had as the best album of each year when I did this last year:

2000 - Radiohead - Kid A
2001 - Jay-Z - Blueprint / The Strokes - Is this It?
2002 - Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People
2003 - Exploding Hearts - Guitar Romantic / Bonnie Prince Billy - Master and Everyone
2004 - Junior Boys - Last Exit
2005 - Eluvium - Talk Amongst The Trees
2006 - Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
2007 - Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
2008 - Sam Amidon - All Is Well
2009 - Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion

Now, putting these in order is always changing. I generally think that the 3 best are Radiohead/Jay-Z/Strokes but for years I thought Guitar Romantic and Master and Everyone were. When I did all of these last year, I even claimed that Merriweather Post Pavillion was. Lately, I've been leaning towards The Strokes again, falling out of love with The Blueprint for the first time ever and really starting to obsess over "All Is Well" too.

Who the fuck knows

I feel like the years are too unbalanced to do it that way, but that's an interesting approach.

i'm not necessarily "doing it" that way but those are basically my favorite 12 or so albums of the decade, maybe throw in a couple others, but I'm basically saying that by single favorite would be one of those.

First and foremost, this is too damn hard to do. Fuck it. Is what it is. Y'all know way more than me.
This alphabetized list shows 30 records I reached for most during these times of economic downturns, foreclosures, bailouts, ever-changing cross pollination of sound, yields of 50 basis points, the exploited and the downtrodden.

Best Records 2000 - 2009

aimee mann | bachelor #2
amy winehouse | back to black
beck | sea change
bobby bare jr | young criminals starvation league
boston spaceships | zero to 99
chuck prophet | the hurting business
deadstring brothers | starving winter report
devin davis | lonely people of the world, unite
drive-by truckers | southern rock opera
el goodo | coyote
fleet foxes | fleet foxes
giant sand | chore of enchantment
gillian welch | time (the revelator)
jay farrar | terroir blues
jim white | no such place
joe henry | scar
joe pisapia | daydreams
jon brion | meaningless
m. ward | transfiguration of vincent
marah | kids in philly
my morning jacket | at dawn
neko case | furnace room lullaby
pernice brothers | the world won't end
peter bruntnell | ends of the earth
rufus wainwright | poses
songs: ohia | didn't it rain
sparklehorse | dreamt for light years in the belly of the mountain
spoon | gimme fiction
the strokes | is this it
the red button | she's about to cross my mind

Fucking horrible trying to do such a thing. I pared your list down to ones that I know and am in general agreement.

For several more that got my attention hard,in no order:

16 Horsepower~ Folklore
Songs: Ohia~ Magnolia Electric Company
Handsome Family~ Singing Bones
Guy Clark~ The Dark
Mary Gauthier~ Mercy Now
Al Kooper~ Black Coffee
Chuck Prophet~ Age of Miracles
Josh Ritter~ hard to know which one to pick
Springsteen~ The Rising
Loudon Wainwright III~ High, Wide, and Handsome- The Charlie Poole Project
Willard Grant Conspiracy~ Regard The End

Pared down even further, I'm a buyer.

16 Horsepower/Secret South & WGC/Mojave = winners as well.

agreed. should have been on my list.

Easily in my top 10 of the decade.

I'm changing mine to

very surprised at the exclusions here

andrew bird - ...and the mysterious production of eggs (my #1)
the mountain goats - tallahassee
the new pornographers - electric version
okkervil river - black sheep boy: deluxe edition
sufjan stevens - illinois
the national lights - the dead will walk, dear
the format - dog problems
the weakerthans - reconstruction site
the antlers - hospice
the libertines - up the bracket
drive-by truckers - decoration day
lucero - tennessee
josh ritter - the animal years
the national - alligator
john vanderslice - cellar door

Pretty sure Electric Version is in my top 25 for the decade. I thought we were doing our #1 or short-list... although i should have known that rarely ever works.

50 Cent - Get Rich Or Die Tryin'
Avila Brothers - The Mood: Soundsational
Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
Black Milk - Tronic
Bobby Valentino - Bobby Valentino
Britney Spears - Blackout
Bubba Sparxxx - Deliverance
Burial - Untrue
Calibre - Second Sun
Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury
Common - Like Water for Chocolate
Consequence - Live for Never
dBridge - The Gemini Principle
Diamond District - In The Ruff
Enigma - The Screen Behind the Mirror
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Kanye West - The College Dropout
Madlib - The Beat Konducta, Vol. 1-2
Missy Elliott - Miss E: So Addictive
Nelly Furtado - Loose
Reflection Eternal - Train of Thought
Rich Boy - Rich Boy
Ryan Leslie - Transition
The Dream - Love vs Money
The Game - Doctor's Advocate

That Mercury Rev is from 1998.

They kinda sucked in the '00s. (All Is Dream wasn't too bad, though.)

After perusing some of my best of the year lists over the past decade I came to the realization that it was an amazing decade for music and incredibly diverse.

I could make a case for probably a couple dozen records but in the end this album became more a part of the fabric of my life as much as any other. I know some won't even rank it as their favorite MMJ album but for me, this is their crowning achievement. Just so all over the place. Indie without being precious. Rocks without being dumb. Twangy without being alt-country. Guitar heroics and vocal heroics. All clocking in at over 71 minutes. So much to chew on. Hell, 9 songs over the 5 minute mark and 3 or 4 over 6 minutes.

Much like how people don't listen to the Beatles catalog much simply because their albums are just part of their DNA at this point. Kind of how I feel about this record.

The merits of this one have been debated ad nauseum around here but I love this album. The ONLY Beck album I still listen to.



Also, I'll never get the love of The New Porn's "Electric Version" over "Mass Romantic".

I still remember Fast'n'bulbous saying It Still Moves lacked songs. Love this record and is easily my favorite MMJ album. Their catalog was building up to It Still Moves and everything since has been deconstructing it.

When I'm on the highway alone, It Still Moves is easily my favourite road album. Paired with the right scenery, it's truly majestic.

The Format - Dog Problems is definitely up there for me, too.

Unwound-Leaves Turn Inside You

I recently was surprised to learn that according to my iTunes playcount I have listened to this album almost 300 more times than anything else on my computer (next in the count is Fugazi-Argument surprisingly, though it is only five plays ahead of Six Organs-Dust and Chimes). This can partially be attributed to the fact that this came out early in the decade, but it is still something I play at least every few days. It's just a great record, nothing more to it.