Best Albums of the Decade: Part 2 (25-1)

Okay, here comes the last half of that list. Get ready, it's coming after the jump...

Best Albums of the Decade: Part 1 (50-26)

I like making lists. I find list making shallow, but I'm okay with that. It's faster. It saves time. Making a list like Fifty Best Albums of the Decade is a pretty impossible task, and I think I shot myself in the foot right at the beginning by laying claim to the albums I'm about to toss at you as the 'best' as opposed to 'favorite' or something like that. I'm no professional, I didn't hear everything that was released in the past ten years. So that 'best' designation should be taken with a grain of salt. But, that being said, I'll stand by this list, so there's that.

I should probably say something about my methodology, but I'm not going to. All I'm going to say is this: over the course of the past ten years this sort of list making has become incredibly ubiquitous. So, needless to say, I saw this list coming from a mile away and prepared myself accordingly. What that really means is I've been thinking about this for a while. So, don't think I did what would make the most sense, which is to get really drunk and just vomit this list onto the internet. That way its over really quickly and you don't think about what you list and how it's ordered, which would hypothetically mean that the list is a more honest representation of your musical intuitions. Like I said, I didn't do that. In any case, here is the list along with a few thoughts on each album.

Okay, so let's try a re-boot...

Let's not kid ourselves. This whole end of the decade festivities thing was a debacle. Once a day? Who were we kidding? So, I'm ending it right here because it is forcing me to not write about other things, even though I really want to. So, it ends at number forty-something. I'm going to post the Best Albums of the Decade lists that I've come up with right now so they're here then we're starting off the year fresh.

I mean, a move to the big, scary city should be enough to re-boot this crazy inactive blog, right? Especially if I'm going to be, you know, riding on subways a lot and stuff. Tons of music to talk about and tons to listen to. Let's get started, yeah?

Best Songs of the Decade: #47-- "The End's Not Near" by The New Year

Who'd have thought that a song about the end of the world would end up on a list like this? And yet, here it is. Touch & Go residents The New Year released "The End's Not Near" as the (nearly) title track of their 2004 sophomore released "The End Is Near," and what a way to start off an album. The simple acoustic guitar picking and piano playing by brothers Matt and Bubba Kadane (formerly of slowcore pioneers Bedhead) offers a haunting beginning before the vocals bubble slowly to the surface; and what vocals they are. Matt Kadane sounds even more despondent than usual as he offers up lines like, "The end's not near/It's here/Allelujah, spread the cheer" without a hint that me might be kidding, not even a little bit. About halfway through the track he is joined by a heavily reverbed guitar that provides the song with all the desolation and despair one can imagine. (more business after the jump)

Best Songs of the Decade: #48-- "Good Woman" by Cat Power

Cat Power has had a relatively up and down decade. The two covers albums that she released were incredibly hit and miss, but the original material on 2003's You Are Free and 2006's The Greatest showed why Miss Chan Marshall is one of the best female singer-songwriters of her generation. Hell, why bother pigeonholing her like that? One of the best singer-songwriters of her generation. Over the course of her 15 year career she has had fewer highs than You Are Free's track "Good Woman."(More talk plus music after the jump!)

Best Songs of the Decade: #49-- "A Song for Starlit Beaches" by Yndi Halda

Man, another day and another British band that's on the best songs of the decade list. But Yndi Halda couldn't possibly be more different from Hot Chip. Taking their cues from the great post rock bands like Godspeed!You Black Emperor and Mogwai, Yndi Halda are a very young band. At the time of this (2007's Enjoy Eternal Bliss) album's release all five members were nineteen years old (or, in some cases, younger), and it shows. They wear their influences proudly, but have a hard time stepping out of their shadow. Most of the time. "A Song for Starlit Beaches," the albums twenty-minute long centerpiece, is the song where Yndi Halda stop becoming amalgamations of their influences and begin their own musical exploration and it is thrilling. The song has five different movements, starting with a lonely violin, guitar, and banjo melody which slowly give way to the darker second movement, which layers on pianos, more guitars and a healthy dose of drums. This would have been enough for most Mogwai songs, but Yndi Halda push on to a piano based third movement that functions more as interlude than movement. What is so remarkable about this track is how effortlessly these sections flow into one another. Unlike a G!YBE song, where the different movements are demarcated very clearly, Yndi Halda allows these movements to segue into one another gently, delicately. (more writing and music post-jump)

Best Songs of the Decade: #50-- "Over & Over" by Hot Chip

I need to be very upfront about something; I don't dance. I can't dance, I don't like to dance, and I am always in semi-awe at those who can and do dance. However, that being said "Over & Over" makes me want to dance. A lot. The big single from their 2007 offering, The Warning, "Over & Over" was a perfect concoction of guitars and synthesizers. Drum machines and bells. The song shot these Londoners from semi-obscurity to near the top of the indie electronica heap, and for good reason. You cannot hear the song without at least vigorous toe tapping. More (and music!) after the jump.