We need a new thread around here, so here goes. Make the case for your personal absolulte best album of the decade so far. No lists, just one. And don't go with what the critics like the best or find most important. What absolutely blows your own personal socks off and gives you chills everytime you hear it?

Here's mine: The Wrens - Meadowlands.

They're not breaking any new ground here, just a flat-out sensational rock & roll album. There's not a single note, riff, or hook out of place, everything leads into one another perfectly. Half of the songs would be on my best song of decade list. There's such feeling and emotion here. Its just a great collection of songs and narrowly my personal favorite album of the decade (so far).

Do I blow up if I list my Top Three Contenders? I'm sure I'm the only one who'd list TWO of the three.

Endless Summer - Fennesz.

I swear it got me through my thesis...

quote:

Originally posted by mark f:
Do I blow up if I list my Top Three Contenders? I'm sure I'm the only one who'd list TWO of the three.

Thats cool, I just didn't want to read a bunch of top 10 or 20 lists. There will be a time for that in another 3 years.

quote:

Originally posted by Platypus Quest:
Endless Summer - Fennesz.

I swear it got me through my thesis...

I read a lot of great things about this on these boards. I mean to pick it up one day.

I'm naming two, but only because they're by the same band. A tie between Spoon's Kill The Moonlight and Gimme Fiction.

Yeah, we already have multiple threads for top lists of the decade. This flippin' General Music now has 8 pages!!

quote:

Originally posted by Hophead:
What absolutely blows your own personal socks off and gives you chills everytime you hear it?

By this criteria, I have to go with Beck's Sea Change. This one is so painstakingly beautiful, it gives me goose bumps and chills at just how perfect it is.

I'm a half-hearted Beck fan and never warmed to Sea Change. I love Mutations. I'll give Sea Change another chance one day, though. Its been since around its release that I've listened to it.

The album I never tire of is Sigur Ros ( )

Today, i choose.........

Deathprod : Morals and Dogma

Eeerie, delirium inducing drones which take me to the surface of a long dead planet staring at a universe of dying stars... (thats a lot of dying I know)

quote:

Originally posted by FragileKidA:

quote:

Originally posted by Hophead:
What absolutely blows your own personal socks off and gives you chills everytime you hear it?

By this criteria, I have to go with Beck's Sea Change. This one is so painstakingly beautiful, it gives me goose bumps and chills at just how perfect it is.

Yeah, while I wouldn't name it as my album of the decade, Sea Change is definitely an awesome album.

My pick for Album of the Decade is the Notwist's Neon Golden. That album never fails to amaze me. Every single song is amazing. Every damn one.

The Strokes - Is This It?
definitely.

This is a pretty tough question since I'm most familiar with music from this decade. The obvious answer is Kid A, but for the sake of making it interesting I'm not going to use that one.

Murder by Death - Who Will Survive and What Will be Left of Them?

There are many things that put this album at the top for me, but the bottom line is that it simply kicks ass. How could an album about shooting Old Scratch in the back, drinking your fear of retribution away, and ultimately gaining the resolve to fight against your own demons not? Songs about zombies, fire, brimbstone, whiskey, and of course the Devil talking all kinds of shit make for one of the more creatively written albums I can think of.

Of course the music is great as well. The Cello sounds like it came out of the original Resident Evil. The guitars are heavy when the need to be and tranquil when it's necessary. Piano lines sound lifted right out of a saloon.

The bottom line is that this might be song for song the best album around. Every track is good - there are no throwaways whatsoever. Every song is a piece of a whole vision.

'Transatlanticism'- Death Cab For Cutie. The entire album describes a (or several, I'm not sure) long-distance relationship. Though I've never really been in one, Ben Gibbard writes so eloquently that I can empatise with him. The band are all good musicians as well, so that helps the mood.

From 2000 and on, (so far) it's pretty easy for me: Modest Mouse - The Moon & Antarctica. Now, I'm going to talk at length about why it's remarkable, since it's been a while and I've never really gotten it down, so here goes.

When I first started to really get into good music, it was a few years ago. I was sixteen, I thought Pitchfork was really cool the first few times I went there (my friend vouched for them and Modest Mouse in general, he kinda started me on a path) and Brent D's review as much as I hate it today, was pretty gripping when I first read it, talking about it being the next big thing since OK Computer and et al blah blah blah. The post even says not to talk about critical whatnots, but that's not really why it had such an impact on me. The Moon & Antarctica was the first album I really listened to as an album, before that it was a lot more song based, Kazaa and all. The fact of the matter is, I'm a very idealistic person, much more so than most people I find, in that the idea of something really makes or breaks art for me (for instance, I had built Prince's Sign 'O' The Times up so much in my head, I thought it was great going in, only to be tremendously disappointed.) But when it works, it's infinitely more rewarding. I noticed I listen to music differently than most people, especially in the mp3 age. I always have this one album I put on a pedestal, and it changes my life for a while and then when I've sucked out all the goodness I move on. It's heartbreaking to tire of excellent music so quickly, but I get the same impact just in short, concentrated bursts of euphoria. The Moon & Antarctica was the first album that really did this to me, the way I listened to it and everything. As one whole listen, it's hard to beat. It's kind of broken into three big parts I think, "3rd Planet" through "A Different City", "The Cold Part" through "The Stars Are Projectors" and finally "Wild Pack Of Family Dogs" through "What People Are Made Of". It's been criticized for this middle section in which the mood changes drastically and then returns to the more song based feel of the first part. I never had a problem with this. Actually, I had an idea about it I haven't seen anywhere else: The first part is life, ("your hands and knees felt cold and wet on the grass to me", I wanna live in a city with no friends or family" etc, more existential kind of stuff); the middle section is death, the ethereal feeling of the trilogy, especially "The Cold Part" with the eerie strings reminds me of what I think I'd feel like if I had just died and were a ghost, seeing the Earth from below in the stars ("The Stars Are Projectors"); and the final part is an after-life, meditation and regret of what's happened after it's sunk in ("It's hard to remember to live before you die", "I could have told you all that I loved you", the emotional tale of reincarnation and death-as-an-illusion of "I Came As A Rat"). I say it's an album instead of a collection of songs, which is true, but not to discount the songs themselves, which are all very good at least. And part of what I think makes a great album is the shifting of the songs after you hear it a few times; how the immediately accessible ("Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes") start to fade, and the subtler songs you didn't pay as much attention to the first time ("Lives", "Life Like Weeds") really start to make an impression after a few listens, really reveal themselves.

And I know this is as pretentious as anything Brent DiCrescenzo ever wrote, but I'll be damned if I care over this album. It means the world to me.

I would have a hard time coming up with one of my own, but I can't argue with some of the picks so far:

The Wrens - Meadowlands; Indeed, what a masterful slab of songwriting. You may be right.

Beck - Sea Change; Boo-yah! This albums rocks. Even got me layed.

Notwist - Neon Golden; This music changed my real day-to-day life. Such a georgous album.

Good chioces, cool thread!!!

Going just by metacritic score it's Smile by Brian Wilson.

I don't know if I can pick just one...so many great ones already mentioned here.

This is really hard, I think I'll have to choose 4...
TV on the Radio- Young Liars EP (I know it's not an album)
Lambchop- Nixon
GYBE!- Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Sigur Ros- Agaetis Byrjun (If it counts)

Shit, I forgot Stankonia