BMOWP’s Favorite Album of the Decade

December 28, 2009


The Moon and AntarcticaOh, come on. Let’s be honest. You don’t want to read another list. You’re absolutely ecstatic that I chose only one album.

That’s good. I’ve skipped a lot of them this year, understanding that everyone’s “best of the year” or “best of the decade” collections are created through the ether of personal taste. One person’s Kid A is another person’s “How can you choose Kid A as the best album of the decade when it’s barely Radiohead’s third best record overall?”

I was about to enter the fray, actually. My ten favorite albums of the decade:

#1 – Modest Mouse, Moon and Antarctica
#2 – Er… Um…

Well, there was a problem.

Call it a shift in execution. This was the decade in which I started listening to songs instead of albums. My personal trends were driven by college radio and the Internet instead of touring punk bands and my friends’ CD players. My tastes expanded to the point that I could no longer devote enough attention to specifics, looking for the quick fix over the long play.

Which is not to say that I completely forgot the album format. Jets to Brazil, Arcade Fire, Wilco, The Strokes and The White Stripes all threw out great albums that I listened to as a whole. Some of my favorite bands released albums that I certainly paid attention to: bands like Built to Spill and Hot Water Music put forth a great effort, but nothing compared to the albums they released in the 90s. Even recently, MGMT and The Antlers alerted me to defining music that, given another ten years, could rival the albums I’ve already deified.

For me, there’s only one album that stood strong enough for the entire ten years. And it was all rooted in a time and a situation: the summer of 2000. It was a trip to England. It was a realization of whatever I thought my talents would become. It was my first year out of the dorms thanks to a year in limbo and a year as an RA.

And while Modest Mouse’s The Moon and Antarctica works well both as a collection of spacey, intense songs and as a concept album on the meaning of life, it never would have become quite the life-altering force without the situation in which it played a part: the soundtrack to a generational change, from grown-up child to aspiring adult.

The top 10 list wilted, a strong top album unsupported by the willing (though not necessarily able) albums below it. Paired up against #1, no album really stood a chance.

I guess I knew that from the beginning.

Tags: Music, The Top..., Vilhauer |

5 Comments

Comments

5 Responses to “BMOWP’s Favorite Album of the Decade”

  1. Kiel M. on December 28th, 2009 435 pm

    Oop, I see a typo.
    You typed MM’s “Moon and Antarctica” instead of Radiohead’s “In Rainbows.”
    It’s ok, I can see how that happens.

  2. Corey Vilhauer on December 28th, 2009 534 pm

    Top 4 Radiohead Albums of the Decade:

    1. Kid A
    2. Hail to the Thief
    3. Amnesiac
    4. In Rainbows

    So, you see, there you go. To clarify, there’s not a lot of difference in my liking of those four albums, and those four Radiohead albums are better than MOST everything else that was put out over the decade. Just saying – it’s not my first choice – or my second or third.

    Though, here’s another list: Top 10 Greatest FUs to the Record Industry of the Decade:

    1. In Rainbows: name your own price
    2 – 10: doesn’t matter. The In Rainbows thing was awesome.

  3. victor on December 28th, 2009 957 pm

    Radiohead are a great band that no one actually listens to. Face it, they make fantastic records, but who the hell listens to them after a few months. Kiel M go jump in a lake!

  4. Jen on December 28th, 2009 1006 pm

    That’s my favorite of the decade as well. For me it’s the only one that’s held its value – from beginning to end. There have been others – White Blood Cells and Apologies to the Queen Mary come to mind – but none top The Moon and Antarctica.

  5. Corey Vilhauer on December 29th, 2009 846 am

    @victor – You got to be nice to Kiel. I still listen to them all.

    @jen – I started getting into Wolf Parade way too late for them to enter into the equation, but I do indeed love that album.

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