100 Best Albums of the Decade

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Technically, the decade isn’t over ‘til next year but don’t tell that to the list-makers. Since I’m a list-maker too, I needed to get in on this.

I took the liberty of sampling a few other “Best albums of the decade” lists assembled by critics and magazines and decided, quite naturally, that they were mostly terrible. Was the decade in music really THAT bad? I had trouble believing it. And that’s what inspired me to jog my memory, peruse my iTunes collection and make my own list. When you surrender to your own biases and preferences and compile your own list, suddenly the decade looks quite a bit better. I highly recommend the experience.

So here is my own purely subjective list. There is no attempt to be fashionable, hip, culturally diverse, well-rounded or representative of different musical genres. Without further apology, here are my favorite albums of the first decade of the 2000s:

1. Green Day – American Idiot
2. The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America
3. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising
4. U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
5. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
6. Brian Wilson – Smile
7. Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera
8. Bob Dylan – Love and Theft
9. Amy Winehouse – Back to Black
10. The Avett Brothers – I and Love and You
11. Ryan Adams – Gold
12. Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man
13. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
14. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive
15. My Morning Jacket – Z
16. Wilco – Wilco (The Album)
17. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone
18. The Strokes – Is This It
19. Elliott Smith – Figure 8
20. U2 – No Line on the Horizon
21. Arcade Fire – Funeral
22. The White Stripes – Elephant
23. Norah Jones – Come Away with Me
24. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker
25. Pete Yorn – Music for the Morning After
26. Radiohead – In Rainbows
27. Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South
28. The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday
29. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
30. The Jayhawks – Rainy Day Music
31. O Brother Where Art Thou – Soundtrack
32. Beck – Sea Change
33. Green Day – 21st Century Breakdown
34. Coldplay – Viva La Vida
35. Wilco – A Ghost is Born
36. Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake it’s Morning

37. Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
38. The National – The Boxer
39. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin
40. The Gaslight Anthem – The '59 Sound
41. REM – Accelerate
42. The Felice Brothers
43. Old 97's - Satelite Rides
44. Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around
45. The Walkmen – Bows + Arrows
46. Marah - Kids in Philly

47. Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
48. Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous
49. My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade
50. Ike Reilly – Salesmen and Racists
51. Josh Ritter – The Animal Years
52. Belle and Sebastian – The Life Pursuit
53. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago
54. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
55. Lucinda Williams – Essence
56. The Raconteurs – Consolers of the Lonely
57. Radiohead – Kid A
58. Alejandro Escovedo – Animal
59. Ryan Adams – Love is Hell
60. Bruce Springsteen – The Seger Sessions
61. Beck – Guero
62. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
63. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
64. Elliott Smith – From a Basement on a Hill
65. The National – Alligator
66. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
67. The Avett Brothers – Emotionalism
68. Corinne Bailey Rae
69. Bob Dylan – Together Through Life
70. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood
71. Pearl Jam – Backspacer
72. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
73. A.A. Bondy – When the Devil’s Loose
74. Bruce Springsteen – Working on a Dream
75. Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of This Country
76. Glasvegas
77. Lucero – 1372 Overton Park
78. Paul Westerberg – Stereo
79. Oasis – Don’t Believe the Truth
80. Vampire Weekend
81. Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers
82. Death Cab for Cutie - Transatlanticism
83. Ryan Adams – Rock N Roll
84. Okkervil River- Stage Names
85. Son Volt – The Search
86. Elvis Costello – Delivery Man
87. The Killers – Hot Fuss
88. Shelby Lynne – I am Shelby Lynne
89. Rancid – Indestructible
90. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
91. Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris – All the Roadrunning
92. Ben Folds – Songs for Silverman
93. The Whigs – Mission Control
94. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block
95. Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond
96. Nada Surf – Lucky
97. Patty Griffin – 1,000 Kisses
98. Beck – The Information
99. Modern Skirts – Catalogue of Generous Men
100. Warren Zevon – The Wind

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