I’ve loved the 2000s. I’ve loved the music, I’ve loved the fashion, I’ve loved witnessing the impact of our move to digital everything. Yes, we’ve seen a lot of rehashing of styles and sounds, but there was a lot of “making it new” à la Ezra Pound -- taking old classics and molding them to be relevant, fresh, sometimes lame, other times awesome, always intriguing. I’ll save my favourite trends, films and moments of the decade for a another blog, though. For now, it's music.
The thing with Top 10 (20, 100) lists is that they're never truly comprehensive. Particularly when you're trying to sum up the best of a whole decade. Where do you start? Fundamentally, the picks will always be subjective because musical tastes are a very personal thing. So for this list, I decided against simply putting what I thought were the most revolutionary and influential albums of the 2000s and chose, instead, ones that were memorable and landmark for me. Self-indulgent? Maybe. But isn’t that the best part of being a college radio DJ?
Note: sometimes I just couldn’t choose between two albums from the same band so I just put both down. F*ck that.
Note2: this started off as a Top 20 list. Oops.
Top 100 Albums of the Decade- Zero 7 – Simple Things
- Wolf Parade – Apologies to the Queen Mother
- Beck – The Information // Modern Guilt
- Radiohead – Kid A
- TV On The Radio – Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes
- The Strokes – Is This It
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
- The Arcade Fire – Funeral
- Boards of Canada – Geogaddi // Campfire Headphase
- Death From Above 1979 – You’re A Woman
And in no particular order… - The White Stripes – Elephant / White Blood Cells
- The Shins – Oh, Inverted World
- The Dandy Warhols – Welcome to the Monkey House // Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia
- Handsome Furs – Plague Park
- Air – Talkie Walkie
- Mindless Self Indulgence – Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy
- Groove Armada – Goodbye Country (Hello Nightclub)
- Ladytron – 604
- Justice – Cross
- Swan Lake – Beast Moans
- Metric – Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
- Sunset Rubdown – Shut Up I Am Dreaming
- The Killers – Hot Fuss
- Mount Sims – Wild Light
- The Postal Service – Give Up
- Daft Punk – Discovery
- The Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever to Tell
- Thievery Corporation – Cosmic Game
- The Kills – Midnight Boom
- Autolux – Future Perfect
- Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
- Vitamins For You – I’m Sorry for Ever and for Always
- Sinewave – Unity Gain
- MSTRKRFT – The Looks
- Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
- Caribou – Andorra
- The Rapture – Echoes
- Black Lips – Good Bad Not Evil
- M.I.A. – Kala
- Does It Offend You, Yeah? – You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into
- Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future
- Jackson and His Computer Band – Smash
- Peter Bjorn and John – Writer’s Block
- Sam Roberts – We Were Born in a Flame
- Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles
- Wintersleep – Untitled
- Destroyer – This Night
- Digitalism – Idealism
- Edit – Crying Over Pros for No Reason
- Feist – The Reminder
- Modest Mouse – Good News For People Who Like Bad News
- Le Tigre – This Island
- The Go! Team – Thunder, Lightning, Strike
- Grizzly Bear – Yellow House
- Midlake – The Trials of Van Occupanther [Bonus CD]
- Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
- The Horrors – Primary Colours
- M83 – Saturdays = Youth
- Bellavista – Bellavista
- Broken Social Scene – Broken Social Scene
- The Blood Brothers – Crimes
- The Black Keys – Thickfreakness
- The Chemical Brothers – We Are the Night
- The Von Bondies – Pawn Shoppe Heart
- Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights
- Hexes and Ohs – Goodbye Friend, Welcome Lover
- John and Jehn – Amour Ne Nous Dechirera Pas
- You Say Party! WE Say Die! – Hit the Floor!
- Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah – Clap Your Hands and Say Yeah
- I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – Fear is on Our Side
- All India Radio – Permanent Evolutions
- Dungen – Ta Det Lugnt
- Coldplay – Parachutes
- Giant Drag – Hearts & Unicorns
- Goldfrapp – Black Cherry
- The Hives – Tyrannosaurus Hives
- Beef Terminal – Anger Do Not Enter
- Ulrich Schnauss – Far Away Trains Passing By
- Eagles of Death Metal – Death By Sexy
- Frog Eyes – The Folded Palm
- Vinyl Republik Compilation – Fear of a Digital Planet
- Peaches – Teaches of Peaches
- Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
- Wolfmother – Wolfmother
- Madonna – Confessions on a Dance Floor
- We Are Wolves – Total Magique
- Bloc Party – Silent Alarm
- Tokyo Police Club – A Lesson in Crime
- The Knife – Deep Cuts
- T. Raumschmiere – Radio Blackout
- Supergrass – Life on Other Planets
- Miles Tilmann – Xenon EP
- The Presets – Beams
- Calvin Harris – I Created Disco
- Alphawezen – L’après midi d’un microphone
- The Organ – Grab That Gun
- Nouvelle Vague – Bande a Part
- Nathan Fake – Drowning in a Sea of Love
- Hot Chip – Rarities and Remixes
I’ll finish off with one of my favourite songs of the decade: Louis XIV – “Finding Out True Love is Blind”
AND a huge thanks to somafm.com’s “Groove Salad,” last.fm and CJLO Radio for getting me through many a late-night paper session, to all the cool people I’ve shared music and musical moments with over the years (you know who you are), to iPod playlists, to CMJ marathon, Pop Montreal, Mutek, Piknic Electronik, RESFEST and the dozens of great festivals, shows and venues (RIP Spectrum), to Montreal artists period, and finally, to the blessed Internets, with your discographies, lyrics, band info, set lists, Myspaces, Facebooks, Wikis, Youtube vids [making a music videophile not ever have to videotape another music clip (15 tapes of videos is enough, right?)], and just your, like, everything.
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