Best of the decade: 41-50

50.

Band: Wale
Album: The Mixtape About Nothing

In making the list, I said I wasn't going to put any mixtapes on this list -- Lil Wayne would've been a bigger presence, for sure -- but I just couldn't put a list of great music of the 2000s without this record. Living here in DC, Wale is a big fucking deal. He's really talented and is a huge part of the DC hip-hop scene, whatever that is. He calls himself Wale Ovechkin, echoing the city's one great athlete.

Best of the decade: 51-60

60.

Band: Outkast
Album: The Love Below/Speakerboxx

OK, complete honesty here: I don't love Outkast. More and more I think they fit my Kanye West/Lil Wayne theory of white journalists liking hip hop: it's graded on a certain curve. The dudes in OutKast are, essentially, hipsters (not unlike Common, see below) and journalists fancy them more than, say, Jay-Z. Jay, by the way, is infinitely more talented.

Best of the decade: 61-70

70.

Band: Tara Jane O'Neil
Album: Peregrine

I admit I'm too much of a slave to my own tastes. TJO is an early musical crush of mine and I saw her touring this record in college. The "City in the North"/"City in the South" diad is beautiful and TJO's voice sounds as delicate and pretty as it ever has on this record.

Best of the decade: 71-80

The series continues after the jump.

Best of the decade: 81-90

90.

Band: Nelly
Album: Country Grammar

There's something invariably important about the music that soundtracks our existence. In writing up this list, I knew I had to put Country Grammar on here somewhere; I'm not even close to OK as to the placement of this record here at 90.

Best of the decade: 100-91

Introduction here. I'm starting to use jumps, as the LaLa.com previews are messing with load times.



100.

Band: The Flaming Lips
Album: Embryonic

The Flaming Lips' latest album is less focused than others the band has released, but far less cutesy or maniacal. The band's other efforts from the decade are nice, but sound forced and, often, obnoxious. Embryonic is sprawling and lovely. It's crazy and subdued. It's the band's best work since The Soft Bulletin

Embryonic [Deluxe] - The Flami...

Best of the Decade: Introduction

As the decade of the MP3 draws to a close, I am jumping on the "let's make a list" bandwagon. Take this list (spoiler alert: the whole list is here, in a really boring HTML table) with the usual mountains of salt:

1. I am not an expert in anything, least of all music. Just because I write about music on the Web via a free blogging service doesn't mean a damned thing. Need I remind you, I am a fool. I spend one day a week dressed like this.


2. I did my best, but I surely forgot something. I have a nice collection of music, but I do not remember ever record that's come outin the last 10 years.


3. The more recent stuff has probably gotten short shrift. Timing is like that, I guess.


4. My tastes are my tastes and they probably don't reflect your tastes. Please don't e-mail me with something about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, U2, the Hold Steady or whatever. I like Sufjan Stevens, Mogwai, etc.


5. As such, I don't listen to enough hip-hop. Take that for what it is.

I've already written about a lot of these records, including (sorta spoiler alert, if you're a detective) four of the top five and seven of the top 10. In the interest of keeping your suspense, I will post this list in 10 separate posts, over the course of the final 10 weeks of the year. Two albums came in just under the wire (including no. 100), having been released just a few weeks ago.

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The 2000s are my decade, in a lot of ways. I spent my 20s -- my defining decade -- during this decade. I fell in love. My family situation, uh, changed. I went through college and spent four years giving a lot of effort toward the greatest college radio station in the world. A scant four months before Jan. 1, 2000, I moved away from home and started college. Four years later, I left the womb of the University of Missouri for the East Coast.

When the decade began, I was 18. I am 28 now. Despite being raised Jewish, I didn't become a man in March 1994 (my Bar Mitzvah); one becomes an adult in his or her 20s. Living on one's own for the first time. It was the first time I'd had a roommate; later I had two and had to play mediator between them. I got my first job, got my first promotion and changed jobs for the first time. I

Maybe I say this because I'm in it now, but this was my defining decade. No, my favorite album of all time didn't come out in this decade; that record was released before I was born. But, the years 2000-2009 define me and will have the most lasting of all memories for me. This is the music that soundtracked those memories.

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So, without any further nonsense, I present my top 100 albums of the decade. I welcome any and all comments, of course.