Brian Wilson, Smile
Radiohead, Kid A
White Stripes, White Blood Cells
The Wrens, The Meadowlands
Steely Dan, Two Against Nature
Kanye West, Late Registration
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Pig Lib
Portishead, Third
Bob Dylan, Love and Theft
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Tom Waits, Alice
Honorable Mention (not in order):
In Ear Park (Department of Eagles); Illinois (Sufjan Stevens ); Is This It (Strokes); Middle Cyclone (Neko Case); Vampire Weekend; Sea Change (Beck); Veckatimest (Grizzly Bear); The Blueprint (Jay-Z); Chutes Too Narrow (The Shins); Silent Shout (The Knife); All That You Can't Leave Behind (U2); Send (Wire); The Woods (Sleater-Kinney); Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (Paul McCartney); Tha Carter III (Lil' Wayne); Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer? (Of Montreal); Frantic (Bryan Ferry); Kala (M.I.A.); Ecstasy (Lou Reed); Twin Cinema (New Pornographers); Fleet Foxes; Vespertine (Bjork); Return to Cookie Mountain (TV on the Radio); There Will Be Blood Original Score (Jonny Greenwood)... plus more albums by Radiohead, White Stripes, Tom Waits, Kanye West, and Stephen Malkmus, too many to name.
Intriguing, but I need to hear them a few more times:
Microcastle (Deerhunter); Kill the Moonlight (Spoon); Bitte Orca (Dirty Projectors); Untrue (Burial); Person Pitch (Panda Bear); Harps and Angels (Randy Newman); The xx
Visit this blog's older, fatter sibling to see my favorite songs of the decade, as well as a pained exploration of why we shouldn't create such lists in the first place.
