Favourite Album For Each Year Of The 2000s

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Yeah, if it was ‘best album’ of each year, I would have gone The Killers or Arctic Monkeys. But as far as favourite? I just love this one, and still listen to it right through pretty often.

Nothing ground breaking, or impactful… Just fun pop-rock with this strange mix of country and blues. And they can write a poppy hook. Flathead was used in an iPod ad, and Chelsea Dagger gets used for Triple M promos and teasers all the friggin time.

Check out track one ‘Henrietta’ which sets the tone. If you like that, you’ll most likely dig the rest of it.

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I’m an odd one out, I really like the second half of the decade. I guess if you like rock it was crappy but if you were into the pitchfork/hipster view of bands it was really good.

2000 - Eminem- Marshall Mathers EP. My true favourite is probably (Radiohead: Kid A). But i cant believe Eminem hasn’t got a nomination yet. One of the biggest artist of the decade and this album is his best.

2001 - Daft Puck- Discovery + Tool: Lateralus. 2001 was a very very good year. I cant split these 2 albums.

2002 - 2 Many Dj’s - As heard on Radio Soulwax. Redefined what a mixtape could be and brought electronic, hip hop and rock back together which would redefine music to come.

2003 - Ben Harper - Diamonds on the Inside - Not his best album but really struggled with 2003. I know i listened to this a lot that year though.

2004 - Arcade Fire - Funeral

2005 -LCD Soundsystem- LCD Soundsystem

2006- Trentemoller - The Last Resort. An underground gem but one of the best electronic albums ever.

2007 - Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

2008 - Fleet Foxes- Fleet Foxes

2009- Florence & the Machine- Lungs. A star was born with this album, a great songwriter and performer.

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2000: Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
2001: Whiskeytown - Pneumonia
2002: Coldplay - A Rush of Blood To The Head
2003: Ryan Adams - Love is Hell
2004: Epicure - Goodbye Girl
2005: Kanye West - Late Registration
2006: Decemberists - Crane Wife
2007: Lupe Fiasco - The Cool
2008: Teddy Thompson - A Piece of What You Need
2009: Jen Cloher - Hidden Hands

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I agree. There was some great stuff released in the later part of the decade but it just became harder to find the pearls amongst the sheer volume of stuff out there. This was the decade I moved o.s and lost track of what was happening back home. For what it’s worth here’s my take.
2000 : The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic. Have a listen to Letter From an Occupant.
2001 : Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance , almost went with The Dismemberment Plan - Change, The Shins - Oh Inverted World, Spoon - Girls Can Tell. A strong year!
2002 : The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (HM: Wilco - Yankee Hotel)
2003 : The Wrens - The Meadowlands sadly overlooked but brilliant work
2004 : Arcade Fire - Funeral but I think I may have actually been obsessed that year with The Mountain Goats -We Shall All Be Healed.
2005: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois. His collective output is the match of any artist in my collection. Love Sufjan. Carrie & Lowell from a couple of years ago is even better than this.
2006: Destroyer - Destroyer’s Rubies. Dan Bejar is also a former member of New Pornographers. His stuff is well worth checking out, particularly Kaputt from 2011 which has a real Roxy Music thing going on. This album reminds me a bit of Television, you have to let it seep in. This one didn’t have a lot of rivals for me, not a great year overall for consistently strong albums but I stand by this one as a great record.
2007: The National - Boxer, My introduction to what has been a staple for me ever since. An incredibly consistent band. The documentary made by his brother is fantastic as well if as nothing more than a great commentary on sibling rivalry.
2008: The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound . I get the same vibe from these guys as I do from The Killers but I prefer this album to anything I’ve had from the Killers but I haven’t listened to Sam’s Town. Some might say they’re second rate Springsteen but hey I liked Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s take on Born to Run as well.
2009: The Antlers - Hospice. Can’t really listen to this without welling up by the last track, well this and Tank Park Salute by Billy Bragg.

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That Fugazi one is an absolute cracker, forgot about that one

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Love Sufjan, Destroyer and The National as well.

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I pretty much stopped listening to music around 07/08 (for reasons nothing to do with the quality of what was out there), so i won’t do a full list. Good to see some White Stripes and Florence and the Machine making a few lists though. I’d probably put in a good word for Up All Night by the Waifs, Comfort Eagle by Cake, and the Dresden Dolls self-titled album too.

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Ok, so I’ve done an ‘Honorable Mentions’ list, because I’m jealous of people like Dell who did this in full essay form, including all the runner ups.

2000: Millencolin - Pennybridge Pioneers / A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms

2001: The White Stripes - White Blood Cells / Tool - Lateralus

2002: Front End Loader - How Can we fail when we’re so sincere / Sparta - Wiretap Scars

2003: The White Stripes - Elephant / The Mars Volta - deloused in the comatorium

2004: Green Day - American Idiot / Modest Mouse - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

2005: Franz Ferdinand - You Could have it so much better / Kaiser Chiefs - Employment

2006: The Killers - Sam’s Town / Butterfingers - The deeper you dig

2007: Arcade Fire - Neon Bible / MGMT - Oracular Spectacular

2008: Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours / The Killers - Day & Age

2009: Franz Ferdinand - Tonight / Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

These have been really cool threads @swoodley, and I’ve quite enjoyed the trip down memory lane, and going through some albums i hadn’t so much forgotten about, but maybe forgotten how much I liked them. (there were also a few I went back to only to discover… boy, this didn’t hold up at all!)

I turned 20 in 2000, so this era (particularly the first half) was when i was buying the most music and saw the most live performances. so it’s a sentimental favourite of mine.

And it was a really strong era. Sure, it didn’t have the same groundbreaking movement that the 90’s had, but it was far more diverse and far less pretentious imo. The second half of the decade wasn’t as strong for me, but as others in the thread have demonstrated, if you were willing to diversify your tastes a bit, there was still plenty of great music doing the rounds.

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I revisited this album on the weekend. Around the world/harder, better, faster, stronger is bass thumping, goose bump inducing, spine tinglingly good.

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Should a similar singles/songs theme start once these album threads are done, I’d be heavily invested in that too wink wink

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That track in particular, is in the conversation for my all-time favourites.

To have been there…

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That seems like really difficult proposition.

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Definitely. But we’d all try.

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Listened to it last night. Got about half way through the album then decided to listen to trail of dead for the first time in years…

Chelsea Dagger is a song I’ve heard 100’s of times just never knew who sung it.

Of your listen Relationship of Command would be my favourite. I just loved that album.

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No love for Interpol- turn on the bright lights?
That and arcade fire’s funeral were my favourites for the decade.

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Both excellent. I think I had them as honourable mentions, but Funeral is one of the best albums of the decade hands down.

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Well, Source Tags and Codes is by far the better album of the two :slight_smile: Gets better every time you hear it, too.

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I feel like there’s a bunch of stuff that I should have in this thread, but I’m struggling.

2000 Stories from the City, stories from the sea - PJ Harvey. Probably her best album and an all time favourite. HM Relationship of Command - At the Drive In. I go back to this a fair bit. Great album.

2001 Wires - Art of Fighting. I completely forgot about this, and was really struggling for this year until my memory was jolted. Clearly a problem with my methodology for finding release dates that this one didn’t pop up. Fantastic album and one of my favourites.

There were a bunch of other albums that I thought we ok from this year, but nothing comes close for me. Gold by Ryan Adams was probably the defining album of the year, but whatever…

2002

() - Sigur Ros

A year where I struggle a bit and almost chosr Barricades and Brick walls by Kasey Chambers, until I remembered this album

I’m finding this challenging, not so much due to the lack of good music, but due to where I was at in life and how I experienced (or didn’t) music for the decade. I don’t there’ll be stuff I’m passionate about from here until about 2012

2003
Pig lib - Steve Malkmus and the J. I listened to this a lot back then, but probably haven’t heard it in years.

2004
Good news for people that love bad news - modest mouse. Very good album

2005
Laura Viers - year of meteors. With a newborn this year pretty much was a blur

Edit: just realised Broken Social Scene should have been my choice for this year

2006
Nil see above

2007
Nil

2008
Portishead - third
I’m surprised by this choice, but I rate this album and still listen to it. Other option might have been Who killed Amanda Palmer at the time, but I don’t listen to it much now.

2009
Yeah yeah Yeahs - it’s blitz.

Really enjoy this one, and I feel I was starting to pay attention again around here.

A tough decade for me. Interesting the is more on the next decade that I absolutely love, so I’ll put this I’ve down to life and move on.

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2000
PJ HARVEY - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
One of my all time favourites. Also a huge fan of “Whoa, Nelly!”, by Nelly Furtado, as well as “The Mirror Conspiracy” by Thievery Corporation. Couple of beautiful albums.

2001
MANU CHAI - Próxima Estación: Esperanza
Love this sort of music, this is another good one from Manu Chao. 16 year old me would’ve said Muse’s “Origin of Symmetry”, or Daft Punk’s “Discovery”. Good year for music. “Genetic World” Télépopmusik is also nice.

2002
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE - Songs for the Deaf
I actually thought this was 03, so fills a void.

2003
MUSE - Absolution.
Although I really struggle to listen to Muse now, this stands out for me.
Also a fan of “Deep Cuts” by The Knife, and “Lovers” by The Sleepy Jackson

2004
FRANZ FERDIAND - Franz Ferdinand
Only because I have to list one, but I really do love “Hot Fuss” just as much. Mark Lanegan’s “Bubblegum” is good also.

2005
GORILLAZ - Demon Days
Big fan of “The Understanding” by Royksopp, and “Lullabies to Paralyze” by QOTSA.

2006
ARCTIC MONKEYS - Whatever People Say I am…
“Back to Black” has some great songs obviously, but I think the above is a bit more well rounded. Justin Timberlake - Futuresex/Lovesounds was good for a pop album I thought, but can’t stand him now.

2007
RADIOHEAD - In Rainbows
Close behind “Alive 2007”, "Oracular 2007 by MGMT and of course “Favourite Worst Nightmare”. 2007/08 had some great albums. I’m sure there’s some I’m forgetting…

2008
LAST SHADOW PUPPETS - Last Shadow Puppets
Closely followed by “In Ghost Colours”, by Cut Copy. I also love “Midnight Boom” by The Kills and “Third” by Portishead.

2009
ROYKSOPP - Junior.
Close seconds “Humbug” by Arctic Monkeys, and “Pop Crimes” by Rowland S. Howard.

EDIT: Just thought I’d add, that I’m really enjoying people’s contributions in this thread. :sunglasses:

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There is a fantastic website which I use to catalog all my music called https://rateyourmusic.com/
You can look up the vast majority of music ever made, rate your albums and write reviews as well as look up charts for different years and genres of music which has averages of what other people rated.

Absolutely fantastic for keeping track of your own discography and also finding new gems :ok_hand:

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