Top Albums Of The Decade: Honorable Mentions (Part 2)

by Vinh on January 13th, 2010

Here’s the second half of our honorable mentions from the past ten years. Featured are fantastic records that sadly did not muster the votes to cut the top 50. However, they’re worthy of some additional praise so here it is. Enjoy, and be sure to check out Part 1 of our honorable mentions as well as the albums that placed higher.

Honorable Mentions (Part 1)
#50-41
#40-31
#30-21
#20-11
#10 / #9 / #8 / #7 / #6
#5 / #4 / #3 / #2 / #1

Joe Mateo:

Fugazi – The Argument (2001)
The last album before their indefinite hiatus finds Fugazi challenging themselves like never before. The Argument is slower and more melodic than what we’ve heard from Fugazi to this point, but that is not to say it lacks the powerful emotional punch we’ve come to expect. Whenever I spin this album, I can’t help but feel a great deal of sadness thinking about what might have been if they continued making music.

Blitzen Trapper – Furr (2008)
The best way to describe Blitzen Trapper’s Furr is that it’s an all-around great time. They try their hand at many styles and the successes greatly outweigh the failures. The title track is undoubtedly the album’s shining moment but other standouts include the Neil-Young-esque ‘Black River Killer’ and the groovy number ‘War On Machines’.

Sun Kil Moon – Ghosts Of The Great Highway (2003)
Ghosts Of The Great Highway is probably my second favorite road trip album and one of the more heartbreaking albums you’ll ever hear. Mark Kozelek’s vocals fit the sound perfectly and his lyrics, especially on standout ‘Duk Koo Kim’, are some of the best this decade has seen.

Sufjan Stevens – Michigan (2003)
Often overshadowed by 2005’s Illinois, Michigan is great in its own right. Stevens handles nearly every instrument imaginable and enlists some vocal assistance on his first entry in the lofty states project. You can tell this is Stevens’ home state too as he pours his heart out in every song and the end result is a haunting experience.

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (2002)
For me, Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is easily the Lips’ crowning achievement. This is quite simply a consistent, emotional concept album that manages to use the Lips’ experimental side to their full advantage. You can have The Soft Bulletin and I’ll take the Pink Robots.

Todd Kearns:

Cannibal Ox – The Cold Vein (2001)
In a decade ruled by over-hyped rhymeducers and braggadocious hype-men as the face of post-gangsta rap, and in a decade that quickly forgot what pre-9/11 New York was actually like, two of the most innovative and literate MCs in the underground came together to uncover a not-so-shining and less-than-unified version of Giuliani-crushed Brooklyn as gloomy atmospherics and psychedelic backdrops engulfed their anger.

Vijay Iyer & Rudresh Mahanthappa – Raw Materials (2006)
Jazz was desperate for new talent in the 00s, as over forty years into the game, Coltrane, Davis, and Rollins were still the faces of the sound, despite the various splinters of experimentation that came about since. Enter Iyer and Mahanthappa — two young bandleaders born of a New York post-bop sound, they came together for 2006’s Raw Materials, in which they infused their shared Indian ancestry to create the quintessential raga bop work while forging a distinct identity for youth in the jazz canon.

Tom Waits – Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards (2006)
Waits had a career rebirth in the 00s, bookmarked by the ambitious quadruple album Orphans, collecting 30 new tracks alongside 24 b-sides. While Dylan and Springsteen were gaining their second (well, third) winds, Waits was beside them, applying his beat-generation sensibilities to issues such as the war in Iraq in a disc filled with upheaval and unrest, or middle-aged awareness of love and death in another segment of the LP.

Muslimgauze – Baghdad (2000)
Bryn Jones was so prolific that, despite an untimely passing in early 1999, he still has material that has yet to be released eleven years later. Of the 90 albums he’s recorded, Baghdad was among the most experimental of the later Muslimgauze works. Inspired by, and touted as the “definitive soundtrack to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, Baghdad is the most restrained of all his efforts, the minimal bleeps and record scratches layer the fittingly paranoid droning ambiance.

Cult Of Luna – The Beyond (2003)
One of the vanguards of the post-metal movement, Cult of Luna’s 2003 effort saw a departure from their doom-heavy plodding pace and aggression without sacrificing their discontent for authoritarian institutions. The Beyond moved toward their sludge beginnings and emphasized a cleaner, more celestial sound.

Max Logan:

Explosions In The Sky – The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003)
If you ask an average music fan to name one post-rock group, the almost unanimous response would be Explosions In The Sky. So that may make you wonder: what has this quartet from Texas done this decade to separate themselves from the rest of the pack? Certainly their prominent role in the soundtrack for the popular high school football film Friday Night Lights didn’t hurt. But they would have never been given that opportunity without people recognizing that these four guys are masters of creating the heartbreakingly beautiful, while not giving in to the self-indulgence that plagues other similar acts. While Explosions In The Sky are far from a pop act, they intend to grab your emotions as quickly and relentlessly as one. On 2003’s The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, EITS wrote a story of love under the hot West Texas sun, without needing any words to tell it. It is up to you to determine what the details of this journey are, whether it is a story of sadness and loss, hope and discovery, or somewhere in between.

Brand New – The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me (2006)
Brand New was one of the many bands from this decade who attempted to make the jump from the emo scene to the world of the indie-alternative-whatever-you-want-to-call-it-rock elite. While most failed in this ambition, Brand New pulled off the transformation with near perfect precision on The Devil And God Are Raging Inside Me. Opener ‘Sowing Season’ is built around the formulaic structure of building verses and exploding choruses, but there is nothing formulaic in the phenomenal guitar work provided by Jesse Lacey and Vin Accardi. The rhythm section shines bright on ‘Millstone’, and Lacey provides one of his stronger vocal melodies to accompany the occasional witty lyric or two. But if there’s one track on TDAG that best signifies the band’s metamorphosis, it’s the near eight-minute epic ‘Limousine’. It’s quite possible that this track, written by a former pop-punk band, is the most emotionally stirring track I’ve heard from this decade.

OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003)
When I’ve listened to Speakerboxxx/The Love Below lately, I’ve tried to imagine Big Boi and Andre 3000 as two drivers on a metaphorical career highway. Big Boi chooses to stay on the route Stankonia was heading with Speakerboxx, and we are treated to the relentlessly irresistible hip hop tunes we have grown to know and love. Andre 3000 chose to drive his car off the road completely with The Love Below, ditching hip hop for songs influenced by funk, soul, pop, and jazz. And while he certainly hits a few bumps along the way, and maybe even experiences a flat tire or two, the record provides enough stunning moments to overlook them. Regardless of which path you prefer, this double album provides something for everyone.

Portishead – Third (2008)
Not many would question that Beth Gibbons has one of the most haunting voices in pop music. But if you raise the idea of pairing that voice with abrasive and contrasting music, the amount of doubters may begin to rise. But to put it simply, Portishead makes this new sound work on Third. ‘Machine Gun’ is the best example of this, pitting blasting drums and hammering electronic beats with those unforgettable tones. This successful change in approach was almost enough to make fans forget about the eleven years they had to wait for it.

The Strokes – Room On Fire (2003)
Let’s be honest here: Room On Fire is basically Is This It Pt. 2. But is that really such a bad thing? While it’s true that almost all bands must progress over time, many do so at the expense of the sound that endeared them to fans in the first place. The Strokes stuck with what they are good at with their second album, writing great garage rock tunes that get buried in your head. And while their lack of progression finally caught up to them on the next album, the rock-out factor is still quite high on Room On Fire.

Rick Southwick:

The Microphones – Mount Eerie (2003)
In 2003, Phil Elverum succeeded in what some people declared impossible; he provided a worthy follow-up to The Glow Pt. 2. As possibly his most ambitious effort to date, Mount Eerie is an experimental concept album about discovering yourself, the universe, and maybe even that you are the universe. Not for the faint of heart.

Battles – Mirrored (2007)
The debut of this supergroup features dissonant vocals entangled within math rock instrumentation. From the powerful, catchy ‘Atlas’ to the thought-provoking ‘Tonto’ to the mind-trip that is ‘TIJ’, Mirrored covers all the bases with highly virtuous instrumentalists out to transform jam sessions into revelations.

The Books – Thought For Food (2002)
Albums centered on sound collage are simply not created very often, and even more seldom are they recorded with the precision, depth, and coherency of Thought For Food. The Books blend their acoustic guitars with trippy, intriguing dialogue with remarkable meticulousness, resulting in their best album to date.

Tyondai Braxton – Central Market (2009)
While Braxton is best known for his work with Battles, he also keeps himself busy recording incredible solo albums. While there are definitely similarities between Central Market and his work with the full band, this album tends to favour intellect over power as he constructs highly whimsical melodies that ebb and flow from start to finish.

The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)
This techno-infused electropop gem is deceptively creepy. Infectious, buoyant beats disguise harsh vocals reciting poetry like “In a dream I lost my teeth again, calling me woman and half man”, but it surprisingly works together to create a beautifully frightening experience that you can even dance to.