If there’s one thing that annoys me a little about best of lists its the lack of honesty I sometimes feel they have. People seem to spend too much time trying to represent their tastes fully, or spread the items out across the period of time in question. I am holding no claim that this list in any way encapsulates the best of anything, more just a list of albums that I remember most fondly from the last decade.

The List

In no particular order…

Sigur Rós – ()

I don’t think you could actually win an argument claiming that () is Sigur Rós’ best album, but to me it’s what is most unique and intriguing about the band condensed into it’s purest form. Little of the later pop pretences enter the frame, nor do the presence of any words water down the experience; all of the lyrics are sung in imaginary and syllable limited “Hopelandic”. Devoid of any title for the album itself or the track upon it, whatever you want to call it, this is the album that makes me love Sigur Rós.

The Mountain Goats – All Hail West Texas

Actually quite a recent discovery for me. I’d liked bits here and there for a while, but not intil recently had I discovered the brilliance that streaks through this album from beginning to end. Some people don’t like his voice, some even complain about the tape hiss that runs through every track, but no one can deny it’s all about the lyrics. The best ever death metal band out of Denton describes secondary school musicians with a brilliant accuracy, and Jenny, is a happy, almost whimsical song, and one of the rare occasions where the lyrics capture those feelings perfectly.

I am healthy, I am whole
but I have poor impulse control
and I want to go home
but I am home

Bright Eyes – Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground

I’m not quite sure how I managed to listen to this album as much as I did, but it really dominated a sizeable length of time for me. Other Bright Eyes albums came and went (with the notable exception of I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning which competed heavily for this spot), but I’d always come back to this album. I suppose I have to admit that it was the soundtrack to my unrequited love stage of life that every person (well most) must go through. Oh well.

So Michael, please keep the tape rolling
Boys keep strumming those guitars
We need a record of our failures
As we must document our love

Radiohead – Kid A

The most obvious choice on the list. Absence of this album from any applicable “best of…” list would be a complete injustice to the world. A completely eye-opening and mind-expanding experience.

I’m not here
This isn’t happening

Elliott Smith – Figure 8

My two least favourite Elliott Smith albums occurred in this millennia, with all my obvious favourites in the last one, yet I still couldn’t keep him off the list. Sure for Figure 8 he’s scaled everything up, and in the process lost a lot of what I loved, but luckily lots of new things to love appear in the process.

You’ll take advantage til you think you’re being used
Cos’ without an enemy your anger gets confused

The Postal Service – Give Up

Death Cab for Cutie have never done it for me in the same way this oh so briefly lived side project did. I will always dream of the fabled second Postal Service album coming into existence, but at the same time realise that it’s one of those ill-fated things with no chance of meeting the expectations put upon it. Strangely, I’m not sure I understand why I like most of this as much as I do; the electronics are simplistic and almost cheesy at times, and Ben Gibbard’s voice has never done that much to inspire a response in me, but put together with the songs on offer here, it’s a worthy addition to the list.

And I want life in every word to the extent that it’s absurd

Mogwai – Mr. Beast

Less post-rock and more just rock, Mr. Beast made Mogwai a much more accessible act. It’s still beautiful, just a bit well, angrier (in parts).

Los Campesinos! – Hold on Now, Youngster…

Maybe the least obvious item on the list, yet it makes complete sense to me. The twee/punk aesthetic matches perfectly with the catchy tunes and superbly thought out lyrics. It contains a strange mix of songs that hit you as instant classics, and some growers that initially don’t quite seem to hit the mark, but at the end of the day you love every single track on the album.

You should have built have a statue, and so I did of you
And you were ungrateful, and slightly offended at the dimensions of it
You said you looked less like the Venus de Milo, and more like your mother in a straightjacket

Coldplay – Parachutes

Lots and lots of people seem to object to the huge success that Coldplay have achieved, and frankly, I suppose it is a bit of an oversized beast, but Parachutes the album which started the success ball rolling for them, when judged on it’s own merits alone is actually a great piece of work. Maybe, as an album that prodded my music taste in a certain direction for the years that followed, it has an inflated value in my head, but to me it’s much more than just a tribute album to The Bends. The album has this strange, cold melancholy that rules over it from beginning to end. I’m not sure how to describe it more, but it’s that feeling that holds a lot of what I Iove about this album, and is what’s lost in a lot of Coldplay’s following works.

Godspeed You! Black Emporer – Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

A double album of only four tracks sounds like a silly prospect, but each track here is a true feast in itself, and the combination of the four only goes to strengthen what’s on offer. A truly life changing experience it is falling in love with this album, and what it led me on to listen to made it all the more important to me. This is the only album of this list that I have listened to in it’s entirety today, and all I kept thinking was, “oh man, I love this bit”, again and again and again.