Top 50 Albums Of The Decade
Here it is, a music nerd’s list of my Top Albums Of The Decade, from 2000-2009.
I had originally planned to simply create a Top 10, but after I started pouring over all of the eligible contenders I realized that restricting my list to only ten albums was virtually impossible. I’ve enjoyed so many albums this past decade that choosing ten albums just didn’t seem fair.
One of the problems I encounter when making a favourite album list is my wide range of tastes. I love rock, punk, metal, alternative, indie, and jazz all the same; so it’s hard for me to place a Slayer album next to a Norah Jones album on the same list.
So to remedy this situation I’ve created two lists: a Top 25 for Hard Rock and a Top 25 for Alternative & Indie. Each list is below.
This isn’t your typical music critic’s list. This is a list of albums which I’ve simply enjoyed the most over the past ten years. It doesn’t represent those albums that had the most success, sold the most albums, had the most critical acclaim, or had the most creative inspiration. It’s simply a list of those albums which I spun more than any other.
You also won’t find anything resembling hip hop, rap, pop, or dance in this list...’cause everyone has their limits and those are mine. And lastly, I’ve excluded any albums from Thorny Bleeder artists, since that’d be a little too biased...
So without further delay, here it is!
1 Deftones - White Pony (2000)
2 Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs For The Deaf (2002)
3 Tool - 10,000 Days (2006)
4 Incubus - Morning View (2001)
5 Billy Talent - Billy Talent (2003)
6 Seether - Finding Beauty In Negative Spaces (2007)
7 Atreyu - The Curse (2004)
8 Killswitch Engage - The End Of Heartache (2004)
9 Lamb Of God - Ashes Of The Wake (2004)
10 Velvet Revolver - Contraband (2004)
11 Alexisonfire - Watch Out! (2004)
12 Foo Fighters - In Your Honor (2005)
13 Rise Against - The Sufferer & The Witness (2006)
14 Disturbed - Indestructible (2008)
15 Bullet For My Valentine - The Poison (2006)
16 Slipknot - All Hope Is Gone (2008)
17 Mastodon - Leviathan (2004)
18 Thrice - The Artist In The Ambulance (2003)
19 3 Inches Of Blood - Advance and Vanquish (2004) 
20 Metallica - Death Magnetic (2008)
21 ...The Trail Of Dead - Worlds Apart (2004)
22 Them Crooked Vultures - Them Crooked Vultures (2009)
23 Alice In Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue (2009)
24 Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory (2000)
25 Green Day - American Idiot (2004)
1 Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
2 Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
3 Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002)
4 Kings Of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak (2005)
5 Interpol - Antics (2004)
6 Ray LaMontagne - Trouble (2004)
7 Bloc Party - Silent Alarm (2005)
8 Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago (2008)
9 Amy Winehouse - Back To Black (2007)
10 Muse - Absolution (2003)
11 Sam Roberts - We Were Born In A Flame (2003)
12 Matt Mays & El Torpedo - Matt Mays & El Torpedo (2005)
13 Elliot Smith - Figure 8 (2000)
14 Johnny Cash - American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002)
15 Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)
16 My Morning Jacket - Z (2005)
17 Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes (2008)
18 Damien Rice - O (2003)
19 Eddie Vedder- Into the Wild (2007)
20 Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (2004)
21 U2 - All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)
22 Kings Of Leon - Only By The Night (2008)
23 Thievery Corporation - Mirror Conspiracy (2000)
24 St. Germain - Tourist (2000)
25 Tragically Hip - We Are The Same (2009)
I originally planned on writing up a little bit of commentary on each album, but that was when my list was only ten albums long. Since it grew to fifty albums in length, I just didn’t have the time to write about each one.
Anyways that’s it...another decade has passed us by. So what do you think? Have you put your Top 10 together yet? Share it in the comments section below!
Happy New Year!
-- Brian Thompson
