1-10

 

10. Manishevitz - City Life
My favorite album of the decade that no one else seems to have heard (its use in the background of an episode of The O.C. notwithstanding).

 

9. Daft Punk - Discovery
For all the sounds of the decade's top 40 that this album previewed in 2001, how come everyone gives Daft Punk a pass for the use of auto-tune?

 

8. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Well, I guess that makes this my album of 2009.

 

7. Herbert - Bodily Functions
Matthew Herbert's albums tend to get crushed by the weight of his many roles as electronic musician, house/techno DJ, jazz composer, political polemicist, adherent to the PCCOM ethos, big-band arranger, um, cross-dresser—am I forgetting anything? This one got the balance just right.

 

6. The Walkmen - Bows + Arrows
All their records feel like reunions with old friends: sentimental, bittersweet, a little too loud. This album was like the old friend you want to share with everyone.

 

5. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans
That's right, this one and not either of the "state" albums. And re: the Christianity, the austere, unexuberant tone of his third-person vignettes is a hundred miles away from "praise music." Call it rock's constant quest for authenticity, but it give gravitas to his extraordinary gifts as musician, songwriter and arranger.

 

4. LCD Soundsystem - LCD Soundsystem
For all the ways this album embodies the decade's signature "sound"—what would you call it, indie dance rock?—how come no one gives James Murphy credit for rehabilitating the gratuitous use of cowbell?

 

3. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
She made great records all decade; this one was probably the most consistent.

 

2. Radiohead - Kid A
It took me a few years to listen this album, since I started the decade a little turned off by all the Radiohead adoration (did the same thing about 10 years before with Sonic Youth, BTW). Obviously, I came around.

 

1. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
Don't know if I would have named this album of the year back in 2003. But for those who want to dwell in the heavy metal parking lot but also want a new sound, QOTSA were the only hard rock band that mattered this decade, and this was their best album.

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