Best Albums of the Decade: #1 - 20

20. Spoon Kill the Moonlight
Few bands have had the impact and the staying power that Spoon have had over the last 10-years. While many buzzed about bands fizzle out in an album or two, these Austin natives have consistently churned out solid records that have slowly gotten bigger over time. The band were never better than they were on their 2002 release Kill the Moonlight. Once again the band delivers its standard indie rock affair, with perfect lyrics and sounds to match them. Following closely in the footsteps of Girls Can Tell the band didn't attempt to redefine their sound or add any special tricks, instead they tightened up their playing and allowed Britt Daniels to continue to work his magic.
Spoon - "Stay Don't Go"

19. The Fiery Furnaces Blueberry Boat
Quirkiness has long been a part of the pop world but few acts have ever taken it to the level that The Fiery Furnaces have. With lyrics that are as surreal as an Dali painting and a fine attention to their orchestrations, The Fiery Furnaces blend of pop music is a delight to behold. It can get a little too weird at times, like the record they did with their grandparents, but on Blueberry Boat the band walked the tightrope between the weird and acceptable beautifully defying convention and taking a genre to a different place.
The Fiery Furnaces - "1917"

18. Madvillain Madvillainy
The combination of Madvillain and MF Doom provided a few amazing moments as songs slowly dripped out during 2003, but when they released their full length in 2004 they proved that they were saving it all up for one grandiose album. Madvillainy shows an amazing combination of MF Doom's impressive word play with Madvillain's attention to detail. It makes for one of the most exciting rap albums of the decade even if it never attained the kind of commercial success other rappers were privy to.
Madvillain - "Money Folder"

17. Various Artists Tropicália
Kurt Cobain used to name drop Os Mutantes all the time but we never really paid attention because the band had been defunct for years prior to that. Thanks to this wonderful compilation of Brazilian tunes we finally had our eyes opened to the wonders of Tropicalisimo music. The songs here had all been around for years but they were new to us and truly expanded our musical world exponentially.
Os Mutantes - "A Minha Menina"

16. Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
This year's second best record also happens to be the wildly influential Animal Collective's best record. Loaded with their most accessible music yet, Merriweather Post Pavilion, moves the band closer to pop than they have ever been but it also maintains the band's experimental nature and expands their already expansive palate of sounds to something well beyond most artists. When we look back at the last 10-years we're gonna see that they touched a generation of future artists.
Animal Collective - "Brothersport"

15. The Antlers Hospice
I acknowledge that The Antlers Hospice probably won't be ranked too high on many other decade end lists, but here at Pop Tarts Suck Toasted we have a real affinity for these three guys from Brooklyn and genuinely feel that this is the best record of the last year of the decade. For us it belongs in these illustrious ranks and even if it shows a slight bias towards a friend's rock band we don't really care. The songs here are touching statements from a young songwriter who should only get better throughout his career. It's epic in it's sound and we definitely feel comfortable placing it this high up on the list.
The Antlers - "Shiva"

14. Dizzee Rascal Boy In Da Corner
Debut records aren't supposed to sound this important and this seasoned, but right from the outset Dizzee Rascal proved he had a bit more than most rappers of this age. Boy In Da Corner often walks a line between making you smile and making you want to cry, with boastful, witty, and worried lyrics that immediately distinguished Dizzee from his UK peers. His style is often reminiscent of some of the best American rappers, but the accent and production style stands well above most of them.
Dizzee Rascal - "Round We Go"

13. M.I.A. Kala
I resisted M.I.A.'s Kala when it was first released, often saying that Arular was a much better record, but over time my feelings towards this brilliant release changed and even my cynical nature had to admit that M.I.A. had fully trumped her breakout record. This one is once again full of genre defying hits, but the lyrical maturation and improved production is miles ahead of Arular and should have been acknowledged from the outset. Sorry, we all make mistakes sometimes and once again hindsight is proving to be 20/20.
M.I.A. - "Jimmy"

12. Ghostface Killah Supreme Clientele
Individual members of the Wu have made some really great records. RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, even Method Man have all had their successes, but none of them have been as consistently great on their own as Ghostface Killah. Supreme Clientele is an album that took any and all expectations and raised them to heights no one could have foreseen. Ghost's flow, his rhymes, even his production trumps every one of his fellow Wu members and if I had to choose there are few rap albums I would rather listen to than this one.
Ghostface Killah - "We Made It"

11. The Knife Silent Shout
For most of its history electropop has provided us with peppy, upbeat songs meant to make our bodies move more than our heads think, but The Knife took that theory and said fuck it. Instead they took the genre and made one dark, depressing, and beautiful record. It's music that will send a chill down your spine, not necessarily the best thing for the dance floor but incredible to listen to nonetheless.
The Knife - "We Share Our Mother's Health"

10. The Strokes Is This It?
You cannot deny the fact that The Strokes appropriated the New York City sound of the 70's and turned it into their own. They took the music of Television, The Stooges, and The Velvet Underground and turned it into their own, distorted version of punk for a new millennium. It made them instant critical darlings, but it also resulted in music that was instantly classic and crafted for the long haul. Their later records may not have reached the same lofty heights, but on their debut record the sound was fresh and vibrant and 9-years later it still is.
The Strokes - "The Modern Age"

9. TV on the Radio Return to Cookie Mountain
The promise and potential of TV on the Radio landed them a major label record deal and a world of expectations for their first record on the label. Thankfully Interscope didn't try to make the band make their music anything but what it was, and TV on the Radio went out released a perfect melding of pop and indie rock in the form of Return to Cookie Mountain. The album is an end-to-end joy to listen to, with varied styles, expert production, and a musical prowess that has almost no peer.
TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me"

8. LCD Soundsystem Sound of Silver
LCD Soundsystem has always had a sound that made you want to dance, but Sound of Silver took that sound and added a world of emotion to make a deeper and far more enjoyable record than DFA has ever released. The songs on Sound of Silver are absolute perfection, with the perfect blend of rock, electronic, and pop music but it's the lyrical depth that really sets the album away from the rest of their contemporaries. Emotionally charged songs like "All My Friends" and "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" are mixed by straight up dance floor hits and it makes for a record that must be heard beginning to end to be truly enjoyed.
LCD Soundsystem - "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down"

7. Sufjan Stevens Illinois
Sufjan Stevens had slowly been building up a steady following thanks to his quiet, emotional tunes until he released Illinois in 2005. This record and it's gorgeous orchestration launched Sufjan Stevens to the upper echelon of the indie ranks. His album was beautiful right from the very start, with quiet, slow building songs mixed with bombastic overtures that would be fit for a symphony if not for Stevens' delightful lyrical wordplay. The combination makes this one of the best records of the last 10-years and one that will have a place in our hearts for years to come.
Sufjan Stevens - "The Man Of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts"

6. Kanye West Late Registration
Following the success of his debut album, Kanye West truly took off with his second release the dynamic Late Registration. The record is loaded with hit singles, skits, and filler tracks that all seem to fit together like pieces of a puzzle to create a brilliant final product. The album is mostly focused on West's trajectory towards stardom, with brash boasts, a lyrics that demand you pay attention to the man spitting them. But the production on the record is what's truly special. With Jon Brion offering a more orchestrated approach, Late Registration takes hip hop and turns it into a far more expansive world than the one full of samples. Of course this has it's samples but mixed them nicely with the classic style of Brion. This is one of those genre defining records that will inspire for generations.
Kanye West (feat. Lupe Fiasco) - "Touch the Sky"

5. Radiohead Kid A
Chances are this record will take a lot of top spots in the lists of the coming weeks and deservedly so. It's a record with no true flaws. Following on the heels of the widely adored OK Computer, Radiohead took their experimental nature and ratcheted it up even further for an album of electronic guitar music that soars well above most records. Personally it is just inches below the next four records for me, making it #5 and not #1 on my personal list. I hope you Radiohead diehards understand and don't try to crucify me for placing it "so low" on the list.
Radiohead - "The National Anthem"

4. Jay-Z The Blueprint
For all the commercial appeal of hip hop there have been a lot of cries that "hip hop is dead" lately, and I think a lot of that has to do with living in the shadow of the legendary Jay-Z. Few rappers can match his initelligence, his varied flows, or his instinctive wordplay. The man is a modern day Shakespeare that can turn a phrase in the blink of an eye or create a new language for the sole purpose of defying expectation. The Blueprint is his manifesto, loaded with can't miss hits and songs that glow in between the radio friendly tunes this record defines his career as an artist. He may have spent the rest of the decade helping to define the business side of music, but with this record he also defined the genre for the decade.
Jay-Z - "Hola' Hovito"

3. Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
If you have spent the past 10-years worrying about the state of the music business then you most likely work at a major label. The world of music has been as vibrant and imaginative as it has ever been in the past decade, the problem is the records aren't selling as well as they used and major labels have been forced to make tough decisions - like Reprise Records mistake of letting Wilco walk away with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot under their arms. Though the record would eventually be released by one of their imprints (Nonesuch) you have to believe that the execs at Reprise were kicking themselves, or counting their severance checks, once this dazzling record was released. Intricate, passionate, emotionally charged, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the great record of Jeff Tweedy's fantastic career. It was one of the pushing forces taking indie from the underground to the main stream, and it still sounds just as good today as it did when it was released.
Wilco - "Heavy Metal Drummer"

2. Arcade Fire Funeral
Independent music has spent the last ten years growing in stature as a wider audience has come to the genre for a more varied and deeper brand of pop and rock music. A lot of that has to do with the role the internet has played in developing new bands and breaking new acts thanks to blogs, websites, and bulletin boards that spread the legend of these records well beyond the radio stations that don't play them and aren't listened to anymore. Funeral might be the first true success story that started down in the blogs. The buzz surrounding Arcade Fire was built on the internet's pages and as it grew the anticipation for their debut full length pulsed to extraordinary heights. It still took some work after it was released but Funeral quickly exploded into something of a phenomena thanks to the depth of the songs here. It was unlike any of the rock music being peddled at the time, with strange instruments and passionate vocals harmonies making it soar far and above everything else.
Arcade Fire - "Crown Of Love"

1. Outkast Stankonia
When I set out to make my list of the best albums of the decade I sincerely thought my indie taste buds would lead to one of the many fantastic indie rock or pop albums to the top spot, but as I poured through the albums listening to each one I realized that only one record truly stood out above the rest. That of course was Outkast's Stankonia, a record that would defy classification if all the lyrics weren't rapped. Bits of soul, rock, R&B, and of course hip-hop course through this record. The lyrics are poignant, emotional at times, humorous at others, and genereally defining of a brilliant record. Andre 3000 and Big Boi were at their best on this record, cranking out three standout singles, "Ms. Jackson", "So Fresh, So Clean", and "B.O.B.", but sprinkled in between those songs are some stellar tracks themselves. This album is head to toe, a record that can be listened to straight through or divided into individual songs for whatever your listening tastes may need. It may not be your #1 record but there's no denying the impact, importance, and greatness of Stankonia.
Outkast - "So Fresh, So Clean"