*My Top 25 albums of the 2000s*
1. TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (2006): TVotR put out three top-notch albums during the decade and their second release succeeds at many different levels. All of the guitars, effects, percussion, bass lines, and vocals are in just the right place to my ears. But what seals the deal? The most awesome, twisted lyrics set inside the great music. My good friend David Bowie and I both give this our album of the decade designation.
2. The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee (2002): John Darnielle has been called the “best non-hip hop lyricist writing today” by Sasha Frere-Jones in
The New Yorker, while others have compared him to Raymond Carver. Regardless, this album and its tale of two married alcoholics and love gone wrong in Florida is literary, brutal, spare, and evokes Carver’s
Cathedral and Russell Banks's
Trailer Park in its simple, haunting beauty.
3. Drive-By Truckers – Decoration Day (2003): This album is a great introduction to one of the finest and hardest-working bands in the land today. Yes, it is bold and raw in its description of the “Southern thang” and the human endeavor in general, but it is also badass rock-n-roll. [
Note: I almost put "The Dirty South" by the Drive-By Truckers in this slot.]
4. The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls of America (2006): Craig Finn and the boys maybe didn’t set out to make [wait, maybe they did] several outstanding albums that perfectly capture many nice and not-so-nice facets of upper Midwestern teen & 20-something life, but they sure pulled it off. This one is the best of their consistently strong output. [
Note: I almost put "Separation Sunday" by The Hold Steady in this slot.]
5. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001): An album that still sounds fresh 8+ years on. Proof that sometimes a good band actually gains widespread popular acclaim every once in a while. I listened to this album nearly every day for many months while living in India in 2001/02 after having them recommended to me by a fellow music fan at a Guided by Voices show in 2000. Jack White will always make me think of the northern Indian plains and my growing fear of rickshaws.
6. Bob Dylan – Love & Theft (2001): A nice change of direction for Robert Z. Or is it a return to the roots? Or is it a multi-leveled guidebook to the River of American Song? There is some good New, Weird America to be found here on this album that was released 9-11-2001.
7. Molotov – Dance and Dance Denso (2003): This politically-charged Mexican, rock/rap/metal/punch/roots band delivers a masterpiece. This is an album meant to be played very loud, pinche gringo puñeteros. Be ready to lower your shoulder and let those heads bleed.
8. Wilco –Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002; but circulating widely in 2001 due to record company dispute): Sure to be near the top of many lists. It is quite the perfect album. Hard to believe even now that Reprise refused to release it. It was originally supposed to be released on 9-11-2001 before it got shelved by the label...but in many ways it became the album (along with Dylan's L&T) most associated with 9-11 for me and plenty of other people anyway.
9. PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea (2000): Float away with Polly Jean. An album that should be listened to on a state highway in the Southwest as the sun begins to set on a crisp autumn day. Turn it up.
10. Alejandro Escovedo – The Boxing Mirror (2006): While
No Depression named him the “Artist of the Decade” in 1998, it is his 6th album that puts everything in the right place in the new decade. Only a few years before this album we almost lost him as he collapsed on stage in Phoenix and then battled the effects of untreated Hepatitis C. Then he rises again with this release. Outstanding.
11. The Fall – The Real, New Fall LP (formerly Country on the Click) (2004): Mark E. Smith doesn’t like you. And he doesn’t give one flying fuck whether you like this album. Go away now. Seriously, go away now. Get out of here.
12. Gillian Welch – Time (The Revelator) (2001): Gillian and David Rawlings made the most efficient, best album of the decade. Gorgeous, wonderful music. What more can be said? Play it while sitting on your back porch. Or in front of a fire. Or better yet, on your back porch and in front of a cast iron fire pit fire.
13. Mclusky – Mclusky do Dallas (2002): What a band, etc. What a legend, etc. A great album that starts kicking you and keeps kicking you to the curb. Should be required listening for all that have forgotten how to rock (and write clever lyrics).
14. Scott H. Biram – The Dirty Old One Man Band (2005): An amazing guitarist. An amazing lyricist. This album alone is worth more than the last 10 years of everything that has been played on pop country radio. An album that should be sold with its own bottle of house whiskey taped to the cover.
15. Gogol Bordello – Gypsy Punks Underdog World Strike (2005): All your sanity and wits they will all vanish. I promise.
16. Ry Cooder – Chavez Ravine (2005): An album that plays out like a novella. In a good way. In a very good way. I have sat in the outfield bleachers at Dodger Stadium and this album tells me how that came to be. Plus Ry Cooder brings the chops and the guest players to this wonderful concept album.
17. Super Furry Animals – Dark Days/Light Years (2009): Take the trip with SFA. There are many stops along the way. Inconvenience. What the fuck?
18. Warren Zevon – Life’ll Kill Ya (2000): The last truly great Zevon album. The album that would take on much more real life significance a few years later for Zevon, but not in a good way. RIP Warren.
19. Peter Rowan and Tony Rice – Quartet (2007): Nothing much new here overall, but still.... Two wizened veterans come together to make yet another bluegrass album of covers, standards, and their own compositions. But the sound, oh the sweet, wonderful sound! Tony’s guitar and Peter’s voice are so good you are going to have to scrape the sugar burn off your woofers and tweeters after listening to this incredible recording.
20. Robyn Hitchcock – Spooked (2004): A newer era Hitchcock album that harkens back to the earlier days of the Egyptians in terms of the richness of the sounds, though this album has the fine pickin’ and singin’ of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings throughout. Only Robyn can apologize to his television for TV-infidelity and make the numerous scatological references seem so comforting.
21. Billy Joe Shaver – The Earth Rolls On (2001): An album about and for Eddy and Brenda — Billy Joe’s son and on-again-off-again wife — who had both died (heroin overdose and cancer respectively) in the recent years before this album came out. It is a strong statement from an artist, a father, and a human being. Billy Joe is criminally unknown as a songwriter and musician.
22. Sleater-Kinney – The Woods (2005): While some folks didn’t much like this offering from the women of S-K, I really liked the crunchy riffs and volume 11 mentality of this scorcher of an album. Nothing quite rocked the mid-decade like this swan song from one of the best rock bands of the modern era.
23. The Black Keys – Rubber Factory (2004): Some more minimalist guitar and drums on the list. Raw and digs at you like abrasions on the knuckles of your fingers. Just don’t bump that hand.
24. Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Master and Everyone (2003): A sparse and open release from Will Oldham. Quiet and contemplative and haunting and focused—the usual from this former Palace Brother.
25. Johnny Cash – American III: Solitary Man (2000): The last of the great Rubin-produced releases. While there would be moments of brilliance on #4 and #5 (and the Unearthed box too), American III found Johnny with a near-full voice and a consistently strong batch of songs.
*The Next 150 Albums Deserving Honorable Mention (alphabetically-ordered)*
• 16 Horsepower – Secret South (2000)
• Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (2000)
• Ryan Adams – Jacksonville City Nights (2005)
• Amadou & Mariam -- Dimanche a Bamako (2005)
• The Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004)
• The Bad Plus – These are the Vistas (2003)
• The Bad Plus – Give (2004)
• Blind Boys of Alabama -- Spirit of the Century (2001)
• Bobby Bare Sr. – The Moon is Blue (2006)
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy – Sings Greatest Palace Music (2004)
• Bonnie “Prince” Billy -- The Letting Go (2006)
• Scott H. Biram – Graveyard Shift (2006)
• Scott H. Biram – Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever (2009)
• The Black Keys- Thickfreakness (2003)
• Billy Bragg and Wilco, Mermaid Avenue Volume II (2000)
• Richard Buckner – Dents and Shells (2004)
• Built to Spill -- Ancient Melodies of the Future (2001)
• Built to Spill -- You in Reverse (2006)
• T-Bone Burnett – The True False Identity (2006)
• Kate Bush – Aerial (2005)
• Bjork – Vespertine (2002)
• David Bowie – Heathen (2002)
• David Bowie – Reality (2003)
• John Cale – HoboSapiens (2004)
• Glen Campbell – Meet Glen Campbell (2008)
• Neko Case & Her Boyfriends – Furnace Room Lullaby (2000)
• Neko Case – Blacklisted (2002)
• Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
• Johnny Cash – American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds -- Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
• Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! (2008)
• Centro-Matic -- South San Gabriel Songs/Music (2000)
• Centro-Matic – Love You Just the Same (2003)
• Manu Chao -- Proxima Estacion: Esperanza (2001)
• Les Claypool's Frog Brigade – Live Frogs: Set 1 (2001)
• Ry Cooder – I, Flathead (2008)
• Cracker – Forever (2002)
• Cracker -- Countrysides (2003)
• The Dandy Warhols – Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia (2000)
• The Decemberists – Her Majesty, the Decemberists (2003)
• Dengue Fever -- Venus on Earth (2008)
• Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera (2001)
• Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South (2004)
• Drive-By Truckers – A Blessing and a Curse (2006)
• Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2006)
• Alejandro Escovedo – A Man Under the Influence (2001)
• Alejandro Escovedo – Real Animal (2008)
• Firewater – The Golden Hour (2008)
• The Fall – Reformation Post TLC (2007)
• The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002)
• The Flatlanders – Now Again (2002)
• Bill Frisell – The Willies (2002)
• Bill Frisell – The Intercontinentals (2003)
• Future of the Left – Travels with Myself and Another (2009)
• Garage a Trois – Emphasizer (2003)
• Garage a Trois – Outre Mer (2005)
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore – One Endless Night (2000)
• Jimmie Dale Gilmore – Come on Back (2005)
• Gogol Bordello – Super Taranta! (2007)
• Guided by Voices – Isolation Drills (2001)
• Guided by Voices – Earthquake Glue (2003)
• Merle Haggard – If I Could Only Fly (2000)
• Merle Haggard -- Roots, Vol. 1 (2001)
• PJ Harvey – Uh Huh Her (2004)
• PJ Harvey – White Chalk (2007)
• Levon Helm – Dirt Farmer (2007)
• Levon Helm -- Electric Dirt (2009)
• Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 – Olé! Tarantula (2006)
• Robyn Hitchcock & the Venus 3 – Goodnight, Oslo (2009)
• The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious (2000)
• The Hold Steady – Almost Killed Me (2004)
• The Hold Steady – Separation Sunday (2005)
• The Hold Steady – Stay Positive (2008)
• Iron & Wine – The Creek Drank the Cradle (2002)
• Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days (2004)
• George Jones — Hits I Missed And One I Didn’t (2005)
• Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings -- 100 Days, 100 Nights (2007)
• Salif Keita – Moffou (2002)
• Kinky – Kinky (2002)
• Kings of Leon – Youth and Young Manhood (2003)
• Lambchop – Nixon (2000)
• The Libertines – Up the Bracket (2002)
• Lhasa – The Living Road (2003)
• Bob Log III -- Log Bomb (2003)
• Loretta Lynn – Van Lear Rose (2004)
• Los de Abajo -- Cybertropic Chilango Power (2002)
• Los Super 7 – Canto (2001)
• Los Super 7 – Heard it on the X (2005)
• Charlie Louvin -- Charlie Louvin (2007)
• Low – Things We Lost in the Fire (2001)
• Luna – Romantica (2002)
• Stephen Malkmus -- Face The Truth (2005)
• Stephen Malkmus – Real Emotional Trash (2008)
• The Mars Volta – Deloused in the Comatorium (2003)
• The Mars Volta – Frances the Mute (2005)
• Del McCoury – Del and the Boys (2001)
• James McMurtry – We Can’t Make it Here (2005)
• Medeski/Scofield/Martin/Wood – Out Louder (2006)
• Medeski, Martin, & Wood – Radiolarians II (2009)
• Morphine -- The Night (2000)
• The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas (2002)
• The Mountain Goats – We Shall all be Healed (2004)
• The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree (2005)
• Willie Nelson & Ray Price – Run that by Me One More Time (2003)
• Willie Nelson -- You Don't Know Me: The Songs of Cindy Walker (2006)
• Randy Newman – Harps and Angels (2008)
• Robert Pollard – Choreographed Man of War (2001)
• Robert Pollard – From a Compound Eye (2006)
• The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic (2000)
• The New Pornographers -- Electric Version (2003)
• John Prine & Mac Wiseman – Standard Songs for Average People (2007)
• O’Death – Broken Limbs, Hymns, and Sin (2008)
• Plastilina Mosh – Juan Manuel (2000)
• Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
• Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
• Jay Reatard – Matador Singles ’08 (2008)
• Peter Rowan and Tony Rice – You Were There for Me (2004)
• John Scofield – Uberjam (2002)
• The Shins – Oh, Inverted World (2001)
• Silver Jews – Tanglewood Numbers (2005)
• Silver Jews – Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea (2008)
• Sleater-Kinney – All Hands on the Bad One (2000)
• Sleater-Kinney – One Beat (2002)
• The Sleepy Jackson – Lovers (2003)
• Elliot Smith – Figure 8 (2000)
• The Soft Boys – Nextdoorland (2002)
• Sonic Youth – Murray Street (2002)
• Son Volt -- Okemah and the Melody of Riot (2005)
• Spoon – Kill the Moonlight (2002)
• Spoon – Gimme Fiction (2005)
• Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome/The Seeger Sessions (2006)
• Super Furry Animals – Rings Around the World (2001)
• Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power (2003)
• System of a Down – Toxicity (2001)
• Trio Beyond – Saudades (2006)
• Richard Thompson – The Old Kit Bag (2003)
• Richard Thompson – Front Parlour Ballads (2005)
• Richard Thompson – Sweet Warrior (2007)
• Tinariwen – The Radio Tisdas Sessions (2001)
• Tinariwen – Aman Iman: Water is Life (2007)
• Tool – Lateralus (2001)
• TV on the Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)
• TV on the Radio – Dear Science (2008)
• Townes Van Zandt – In the Beginning (2003) [posthumous release]
• Various Artists –
O Brother Where Art Thou? [soundtrack] (2001)
• Various Artists --
Team America: World Police [soundtrack] (2004)
• Julieta Venegas – Bueninvento (2000)
• Tom Waits – Alice (2002)
• Tom Waits -- Blood Money (2002)
• Tom Waits —Real Gone (2004)
• Gillian Welch – Soul Journey (2003)
• Paul Westerberg/Grandpaboy – Stereo/Mono (2002)
• Whiskeytown -- Pneumonia (2001)
• Wilco – A Ghost is Born (2004)
• The White Stripes – De Stijl (2000)
• The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)
• Woven Hand – Consider the Birds (2004)
• Woven Hand – Ten Stones (2008)
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell (2003)
• Yo la Tengo – And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (2000)
• Warren Zevon -- The Wind (2003)
List out the Jams, Mofo!
