A Decade in Music: The best of 2000-2009

On the final day of the year and of the decade, I finally get around to sharing with you all what I consider the stand outs, the dare I say classics to be, of the decade that is about to be.
The albums speak for themselves. Each one, I can go back to again and again. Every one has a moment or moments that I associate it to, and whether the moment was great or not, they are locked to my memories. Each one is artistically impeccable.
The singles are those that get stuck in your head and are still rattling around years later. They are tracks that when I hear them when I’m at a party or at a bar, I’m giddy. They are the most played in my collection, some I will just listen to on repeat depending on the mood.
Ok, enough preamble. Here they are:

The Best Albums of the Decade
1. Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)


2. Doves, The Last Broadcast (2002)

3. Radiohead, In Rainbows (2007)

4. Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (2005)

5. Interpol, Turn On The Bright Lights (2004)

6. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours (2008)

7. M.I.A., Kala (2007)

8. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?(2007)

9. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver (2007)

10a. The Killers, Hot Fuss (2004)

10b. Scissor Sister, Scissor Sisters (2004)


Singles of The Decade

(other than my top three, not necessarily in order. Maybe. Not exactly)
1.Daft Punk, One More Time (2000)- Everytime I hear this I just want to dance. Sheer joy.


2.Arcade Fire, Neighborhood #1 (2004)

3. Bloc Party, This Modern Love (2005) – reminds me of the summer Alan and I trained for the North Shore Century, riding our bikes through the forest preserve.

M.I.A., Paper Planes (2007)

Doves, There Goes The Fear (2002) – January ’02 after the Super Bowl, sitting in Alan and Erin’s kitchen above the funeral home;Alan introduced me to this for the first time. Still amazing.

Interpol, NYC (2002)- The guitars get me everytime, just the ache of the song. Brilliant.

Ladytron, Destroy Everything You Touch (2005)- Venomous and electric. Janada and I bonded over this at Big Chicks one nights.

James, Hey Ma (2008)- I think this video that a YouTuber made completely embodies the meaning of the song.

Kelly Clarkson, Since U Been Gone (2004)- bubblegum and still delicious.

Fischerspooner, The 15th (2003)

Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye (2006)- Billy Corgan wishes he was as good as this song…Thanks Frank for the intro.

MGMT, Kids (2008)

Ting Tings, Great DJ (2008)- Another Big Chicks Wednesday night memory.

Saint Etienne, Stars Above Us (2005)

Avalanches, Since I Left You (2000)

Lady Gaga, Bad Romance (2009)-No apologies about this. She is spectacle, she is artistic, and damn is this song the catchiest thing ever (even more than Poker Face)

The Killers, All These Things That I Have Done (2004)

Madonna, Hung Up (2005)- The best thing she has done in years.

Chemical Brothers, Star Guitar (2002)

Coldplay, Lovers In Japan (2008)- The original video is terrible, but someone made one using Lost In Translation, check it at You Tube…

Jurgen Paape, So Weit Wie Noch Nie (2004)

Missy Elliot, Work It and Gossip Folks (2002)- couldn’t make up my mind on these two, they are both genius. Wednesday nights before euchre, Chris C and I loved these two tracks. Good times. Love Ludacris’ rhyme!

Modest Mouse, Float On (2004)

Basement Jaxx, Romeo (2001)

The Rapture, Out Of The Races And Onto The Track (2001)

Mew, Comforting Sounds (2003)- Epic. To hear this track live literally brought me to tears.

Nine Inch Nails, Beside You in Time (2005)

Pink, So What (2008)

Underworld, Two Months Off (2002)- Euphoric.


Phoenix, 1901 (2009)- My favorite of ’09 deserves a spot in the best of the decade too…

And with that we say goodnight to a decade gone by. Here’s to the next one…

The Decade in Music, part 8: The Best of 2009

As we wrap up this decade, it’s time to finally rewind the past 11 1/2 months and listen to what knocked my socks off this year. Welcome to the best music of 2009:

The Best Discs of 2009
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart/ Higher Than The Stars EP
Franz Ferdinand, Tonight
Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster
The Horrors, Primary Colours
Mew, No More Stories Are Told Today
The Editors, In This Light And On This Evening
Basement Jaxx, Scars
The Big Pink, A Brief History Of Love
Lily Allen, It’s Not Me It’s You
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

The Best Singles of 2009
Phoenix– 1901


Lady Gaga– Bad Romance

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart– Young Adult Friction

The Big Pink– Dominos

Basement Jaxx– Raindrops

Silversun Pickups– There’s No Secrets This Year
Lily AllenFuck You
Franz FerdinandUlysses
Kelly ClarksonI Do Not Hook Up
RadioheadThese Are My Twisted Words
Muse– Uprising
Metric– Help I’m Alive
PolvoBeggars Bowl
Yeah Yeah YeahsZero
Pet Shop Boys– Love Etc
Thom York– FeelingPulledApartByHorses
Atlas Sound featuring Noah LennoxWalkabout
The Gossip– Heavy Cross

Best Reissue: Jawbox, For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Best Guilty Pleasure: anything by the cast of Glee
When Mediocre Albums Happen Award: (Tie) Doves, Kingdom of Rust & Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe. Both had such promise…Sorry, Alan.
The WTF?, or Just Go Away –Forever– Award: (Tie) Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and U2

Next time: The best of the best for 2000-2009.

A Decade in Music part 5: 2006

We’re going to keep this train rolling along…

As we approach the last few years in this decade, my best of music from those years get easier and easier to post. Mostly because I was already blogging them on MySpace or sharing them via email with my friends, and for some reason I kept the documents on my computer. So while to some this is cheating, to me this is actually like opening a time capsule. There are things I disagree with now, of course, but I think this is a best way to capture a snapshot of what i really was listening to back then: from my own words, thoughts and writings from that year. So like 2005, I present a re-post of my favorite discs and tracks from 2006.
Let’s hop in the way back machine, Mr. Peabody…

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Jon’s Best of 2006
In a year saturated with so much, it was hard to narrow things down to a top 10, so I went with 15. Here is my best of the best.
Some of you will hate my decisions and my taste, so all I can say is… fuck off, I like what I like.

1. Scissor Sisters, Ta-Dah
2. Silversun Pickups, Carnavas
3. CSS, Cansei de ser Sexy
4. Thom York, The Eraser
5. Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit
6. Band Of Horses, Everything All the Time
7. Keane, Under the Iron Sea
8. Mew, And the Glass Handed Kites
9. Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
10. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Fear is On Our Side
11. The Flaming Lips, At War With The Mystics
12. Goldfrapp, Supernature
13. Pink, I’m Not Dead
14. The Knife, Silent Shout
15. Junior Boys, So This Is Goodbye

The Honor Roll….

Best Reissue of the Year that you must own:
Chavez, Better Days Will Haunt You
Biggest Disappointment of the Year, or the WTF award:
the Killers, Sam’s Town
Cool disc that was so hyped and overexposed so I hate it now:
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Best Bootleg of the Year that will be fierce IF and when it ever gets released:
Guns and Roses, Chinese Democracy (Here’s hoping the March 6, 2007 release date actually holds) (authors’ 2009 note: LMAO, we know what a bomb this ended up being!)
Best disc of the year… not from this year:
Mew, Frengers (from 2003- and it’s almost better
than And the Glass Handed Kites)

Jon’s Best songs of 2006:

So these don’t necessarily have to be singles, single the concept of radio friendly singles is bullshit. But these are songs that definitely grooved me this year:

1. CSS, Alala / Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above
2. Scissor Sisters, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’/ I Can’t Decide
3. Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye
4. Madonna, Jump
5. Arty Fufkin, Atoms for Idols (Thom York vs. Kelly Clarkson mash up)
6. Band Of Horses, The Funeral
7. Lady Sovereign, Love Me or Hate Me
8. Keane, Nothing In My Way
9. Yo La Tengo, Mr. Tough
10. Belle and Sebastian, Act of the Apostle
11. Basement Jaxx, Hush Boy
12. Nelly Furtado, Maneater
13. Muse, Starlight
14. Goldfrapp, Ride a White Horse
15. Paul Oakenfold featuring Brittney Murphy, Faster Kill Pussycat (just because of Brittney)

Honorable mentions (Not really from this year but loved them anyway):
Chavez, the Guard Attacks
Mew, Comforting Sounds
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Noticably missing from my track list, and in hindsight would have been on it:
Amy Winehouse- Rehab
Gnarls Barkley- Crazy
Gossip- Standing in The Way of Control
Hard Fi- Hard to Beat
Thom York- Harrowdown Hill

Getting closer every time…