Top 50 albums of the decade

On the back of a taunt from Ed, I am going to try write up my "Best of the Noughties" list. Given that at the turn of the millenium I was listening to nothing but hip-hop and garbage trance, you can consider this a personal, yet very incomplete attempt, heavily skewed towards albums since 2005! Some albums are included for their sheer brilliance, others are highly rated for their hugely influential role in defining or shaping a genre (Kid A, Hot Chip, LCD Soundsystem, Balance 005, The Eraser), while some are there for the utter dominance of my ipod over a prolonged period of time (In Rainbows, Boxer, (), Takk...). I decided to try to rank a top 20, and to leave the next 30 in no particular order, as it would have become ridiculously arbitrary ranking 42 vs 43. Kid A wins for the sheer daring of it given what had come before. Arguably never before has a band taken such an obscure turn after producing two of the top ten albums of all time (according to all those lists on TV). And never before has it sounded so good. If I did a top 50 tracks of the decade, Idioteque would win, and Everything in its right place and The National Anthem would both be high up, which is heavy going for one album indeed! The Postal Service make the top 20 almost uniquely for The Natural Anthem, which is easily one of my top 5 songs of the decade, but also for injecting something very different into the world of electro-pop, including two of the most remixable anthems of the decade in The District Sleeps Alone Tonight and Such Great Heights. The Knife make the top 20 for a similar contribution both in the delightfully eerie and atmospheric tracks they have offered us, and for the ease in which they have been transformed into a must-have for any techno DJ in remixed form. So.... here goes.

The Top 20

1. Radiohead - Kid A
2. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
3. Radiohead - In Rainbows
4. The National - Boxer
5. Sigur Ros - ()
6. Arcade Fire - Funeral
7. Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
8. The Libertines - The Libertines
9. James Holden - Balance 005
10. Final Fantasy - Has a Good Home
11. Sigur Ros - Takk...
12. Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
13. Donal Dineen - Small Hours, Summer Mornings; compilation for Foggy Notions
14. LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
    
15. Hot Chip - The Warning
16. Thom Yorke - The Eraser
17. The Postal Service - Give Up
18. Four Tet - Rounds
19. Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
20. The Knife - Silent Shout

Numbers 21-50, in no particular order

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times
Interpol - Antics
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Moderat - Moderat
Apparat - Walls
Ellen Allien and Apparat - Orchestra of Bubbles
Paul Kalkbrenner - Berlin Calling OST
Various - Dark Was the Night
Air - Talkie Walkie
Beirut - The Flying Club Cup
Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Modeselektor - Hello Mom!
Tiefschwarz - Fabric 29
Ewan Pearson - Sci.Fi.Hi.Fi
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
Jurassic 5 - Power in Numbers
The Whitest Boy Alive - Rules
Foals - Antidotes
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Gui Boratto - Chromophobia
Jape - Ritual
Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye
Matthew Dear - Asa Breed
Milosh - You Make Me Feel
Royksopp - Melody AM
Sigur Ros - Agaetis Birun
The Streets - Original Pirate Material
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Daft Punk - Discovery
The Field - From Here we go Sublime
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm