My 50 favorite albums of the past decade.
 

The decade's coming to a close. I've got another website where I list this stuff, but I felt I might as well list it here, too. I go five at a time, randomly, so don't expect regular updates.

This is just for me, so feel free to let this thread slide.

Thanks for any comments, though.

50. Earth, Hex; or Printing in the Infernal Method (2005)

Hex is to be lost in the woods. It is the sound of resignation. It is the sound of a knowing traveler, with any destination as his destination, and civilization nowhere close. Yes, it does tease the imagination: if you were perpetually lost, what would you become? Exactly how much of your humanity can you retain, isolated and hopeless? Hex is a hell of a concept album: it strips down the notion of rock music to such extreme measures that the songs barely exist. It's an awfully nihilist sound, and it's incredibly easy to fall into when you're depressed. This is the music you look forward to when you have nothing else to look forward to.

49. Man Man, Six Demon Bag (2006)

If there were ever a bar that was so fiendishly cool as to ritually use Man Man as their cheery drinking songs for every patron to swing their pints to, I don't know if I'd ever go home. Six Demon Bag is, for my money, the best Man Man album. Full of nickolodean madness, genuine humor, and a little piss and vinegar, the band also dials up the pathos on this album. Their usual clown car antics aside, Six Demon Bag shows that while they may not have a way with words, Man Man are truly great lyricists. Perfect combination of oddball music and good ol' American heart 'n' soul.

48. Feist, Let It Die (2005)

"The saddest part of a broken heart, isn't the ending, so much as the start. Losing your mind for the sake of your heart." In a decade of ADHD, it's lyrics by the likes of Feist that are worth slowing down for. Let It Die's gentle rock explores the grey lines that surround any relationship, successful or fleeting. The time you start to let go. The snowballing effect of two people engrossed with one another. Attempting to put Humpty back together again. Before the limelight engulfed her, Feist's words were what mattered. And when all the attention fades, her lyrics will be there to buoy her.

47. Prefuse 73 / The Books, Prefuse 73 Reads the Books EP (2005) [EP]

For a fleeting twenty minutes, this union between an experimental hip hop producer (Prefuse 73) and experimental doo-dadders (the Books) is nothing short of magic. The Books' constant knick-knacking with their various found sounds turns out to be a great canvass for Prefuse 73 to play with and rearrange like magnetic lettering on a refridgerator. Prefuse underscores the entire venture with conventional 4/4 beatwork to keep everything from straying too far, and the result is a pop album that sounds like virtually nothing else. There are not two boring seconds on Prefuse 73 Reads The Books, one of the best pure listens of the past 10 years.

46. Lali Puna, Tridecoder (1999)

Tricoder, Lali Puna's debut, is one of the most incredibly intimate albums where you have absolutely no idea what's going on. Though the indie-tronica outfit meticulously calculates their albums, they always tend to have a stream-of-consciousness aspect to them. As a result, you don't listen to their music as much as you do absorb it. The album is punctuated throughout with miniature beats and Valerie Trebeljahr's whispered, 6-inch voice, as if you're almost listening in on a secret. You'd never notice this tiny, quiet band if you weren't actively seeking them out, but their sound is capable of cradling you, like a beanbag chair, when discovered. "If you want to know who I am, just ask me."

I do an annual top 10 list (the last few years of which are searchable here on CP, I think), but I've never bothered ranking each year's list against the other to make a top-whatever over multiple years. Its too much like choosing favorite children for me.

0/5 so far in bands that I've heard of.

Apple sez EVERYONE has heard of Fiest.

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must be age but there wasn't much that comes to mind, lots of albums by bands I was already hooked back in the beginning. Also it's real hard to list albums when I stopped buying full albums at around 1999.

tool 10 thousand days
Red hot chili peppers staduim arcadia
limp bizkit significant other
the urge too much stereo
zebrahead playmate of the year
Dr dre the chronic 2001
Eminem Marshell Mathers
Pepper Kona Town
metallica death magnetic
modest mouse good news for people who like bad news
kanye west college drop out

deathcab for cute narrow stairs and plans

LMAO ****in terrible.

I can't even name 50 albums, much less have 50 favorites. And of the past decade?

I'm starting from 1990

Metallica - Black Album
311 - Transistor
Dave Matthews Band - Crash
Dr. Dre - Chronic 2001
Creed - My Own Prison
Pearl Jam - Ten
Nirvana - Nevermind
Eminem - Marshall Mathers
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadia
Kanye West - Graduation

You call Death Magnetic terrible yet you name a Creed album? GTFO

That makes me sad. :( Really, it does.

No Nickelback? ROFL

itunes and mp3's make it tough i probably only have 10 albums left. got tired of my ass getting robbed or them falling on the floor of the old tempo.

yep me too