The Top albums of the Last 15 years

[troutman]

It would be tough to rank my top albums, so in alphabetical order:

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
Arcade Fire - Funeral, The Suburbs
Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
Black Lips - Arabia Mountain
Built To Spill - You In Reverse
Destroyer - Destroyer's Rubies, Kaputt
Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Doves - Some Cities
Drive-By Truckers - The Dirty South
Bob Dylan - Love And Theft
Feist - The Reminder
Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes, Helplessness Blues
Flight Of The Conchords - Flight Of The Conchords
Futureheads - The Futureheads
Grant Hart - Hot Wax
Hold Steady - Stay Positive, Heaven Is Whenever
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Lonely Island - Incredibad, Turtleneck & Chain
Los Lobos - Good Morning Atzlan, The Ride
M.I.A. - Arular, Kala
Magneta Lane - Gambling With God
Mariachi El Bronx - Mariachi El Bronx (II)
Metric - Fantasies
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular, Congratulations
Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
Thurston Moore - Trees Outside The Academy, Demolished Thoughts
My Morning Jacket - Z, Evil Urges
New Pornographers - Mass Romantic, Electric Version, Twin Cinema, Together
Outkast - Stankonia
Pavement - Brighten The Corners
Pearl Jam - Backspacer
Peter Bjorn & John - Writer's Block, Gimme Some
Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
R.E.M. - Accelerate
Radiohead - OK Computer, Kid A, Amnesiac
Rage Against The Machine - Evil Empire
Rainer Maria - A Better Version Of Me
Raveonettes - Raven In The Grave
The Roots - Phrenology, Game Theory, How I Got Over, Undun
The Shins- Oh, Inverted World
Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
Sleater-Kinney - Dig Me Out
Sonic Youth - Murray Steet, Rather Ripped, The Eternal
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
Sufjan Stevens - Come On Feel The Illinoise!
Strokes - Is This It?
Mark Sultan - $
Surfer Blood - Astrocoast
Tragically Hip - Phantom Power, In Between Evolution
TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain, Dear Science, Nine Types Of Light
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend, Contra
Tom Waits - Mule Variations
Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site, Reunion Tour
Ween - The Mollusk, White Pepper, Quebec, La Cucaracha
Wilco - Summerteeth, The Whole Love
Wild Flag - Wild Flag
XTC - Apple Venus, Wasp Star
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell, It's Blitz
Yo La Tengo - Summer Sun

[DementedReality]

where is Justin Timberlakes - Sexy Back? its gotta be in most top 10.

[Lobotroth]

Good stuff Troutman, I like your style.

[YYC in LAX]

I know I'm a metal homer, but it's pretty sad that not a single metal album made that entire list. It's not music for the masses and probably outside the Pitchfork demographic, but it would be nice to see the great composership and instrumental precision that comes with good metal be recognized.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by DementedReality

where is Justin Timberlakes - Sexy Back? its gotta be in most top 10.

futurelove/sexsounds or what ever the albums called is on there somewhere. Sexy Back was just a song.

[Table 5]

Admittedly, I tend to listen to mostly older music (60s-90s), and just can't quite connect with a lot of newer stuff, but there have been some great things put out in the last decade and a half.

To me the best albums, bring something new to the table to make you appreciate music in a whole new fashion. The best albums wow the crap out of you from the first listen on. They are the albums you can't help but listen to over and over and over again when you first get it…..but can still stomach it later too. For me, the "game changer" albums of the last 15 years were the following:

• Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
This was probably the most original album of the last 15 years. Was there anything even close to this sound before (and perhaps even after)? Awesome stuff.

• Magnetic Fields - 69 Love songs
Talk about amazingly witty lyrics. So smart and catchy.

• Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
One of those "college years" albums I've probably listened to 200 times and could recite in my sleep.

• Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Yes, they're probably a bunch of annoying hipsters, but man are the songs great.

• Ratatat - Ratatat
This album made me run out and buy a Korg. Pretty sure it's still in some closet somewhere…..

• M83 - Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts
Hard to pick an M83 album, they are all pretty much the same and pretty much awesome.

• Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
Can't ever seem to get enough of this album, no matter how many times I listen.

• Neil Young - Greendale
The old fart is hit and miss, but this was fantastic.

• Radiohead - Ok Computer.
Yes, it's expected. But that doesn't mean it's not awesome.


Oh and best title of the last 15 years:
Belle and Sebastian - Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant.

.....and if I never hear Arcade Fire for the rest of my life, I'll be ok with it.

[Finny61]

Just off the top of my head, I can think of a few CDs in the past 15 years that were great.

Coldplay: Rush of Blood or X&Y
Our Lady Peace: Happiness or Gravity
Killers: Hot Fuss
Matthew Good Band: Beautiful Midnight (all time fav album)
Weezer: black or green album
Metric: Fantasies
All American Rejects: Move Along album

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Given what the top 10 looks like, I'm surprised that Wilco's A Ghost is Born didn't make the Top 200. Especially since Being There did.

[gottabekd]

Some great music on that list.

I'll add a write-in for Mars Volta - De-loused in the Comatorium. It seems like a pretty notable omission.

I'd also have Elephant in my top 10, and also bump up Songs for the Deaf to somewhere near there.

[octothorp]

My top 10 in no particular order:

And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out - Yo La Tengo
Mule Variations - Tom Waits
Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus - Nick Cave
Lonesome Crowded West - Modest Mouse
Tiny Voices - Joe Henry
Boys and Girls in America - The Hold Steady
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey
Leviathan - Mastodon
Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun
Funeral - Arcade Fire

[flizzenflozz]

Throw The National- Boxer and Sixteen Horsepower- Sackcloth and Ashes onto Troutman's list for me.

Agreed with Table 5's assessment of Arcade Fire. Do not understand the rabid obsession people have but I guess Radiohead are in that department for me too. Loved OK Computer but man that other stuff just leaves me cold.

[Senator Clay Davis]

I'm guessing if I thought about this more it might be different, but whatever.

1. Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star
2. OutKast – Aquemini
3. Radiohead – OK Computer
4. Queens of the Stone Age – Rated R
5. Mos Def – Black on Both Sides
6. The White Stripes – Elephant
7. The Strokes – Is This It?
8. Mr. Bungle – California
9. Mastodon – Leviathan
10. Opeth - Blackwater Park

Guilty Pleasures

The Darkness – Permission to Land
Slipknot – Slipknot
Sugar Ray – Floored
Kid Rock – Devil Without a Cause
Austrian Death Machine – Total Brutal

It also amazes me what 1 year would do to my list. If this was 1995-2010, at least 3 of my albums would be different

[DementedReality]

Originally Posted by MattyC

futurelove/sexsounds or what ever the albums called is on there somewhere. Sexy Back was just a song.

you are right, great collection, every song is intereasting.