A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
As much as I loved the ’80s, I can’t say the ’90s holds as much sentiment. I feel more affinity for the Aughts than I do the ’90s. That said, 1998 has proven to be rich with favorites, and I would consider it the pinnacle year in the decade. This list has gone through extensive revision from the original.
Neutral Milk Hotel, In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Madonna, Ray of Light
Lauryn Hill, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lucinda Williams, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road
Fastball, All the Pain Money Can Buy
Patty Griffin, Flaming Red
SUPERCAR, Three Out Change
Various Artists, For the Masses: A Tribute to Depeche Mode
Bruce Robison, Wrapped
Cocco, Kumuiuta
Other favorites from the year:
Shakira, ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones?
Wendy and Lisa, Girl Bros.
Midnight Oil, Redneck Wonderland
8 1/2 Souvenirs, Happy Feet
UA, Ametora
Kronos Quartet, Alfred Schnittke: The Complete String Quartets
the brilliant green, the brilliant green
Bang on a Can All-Stars, Music for Airports
Craig Armstrong, The Space Between Us
Julieta Venegas, Aquí
Aterciopelados, Caribe Atómico
Macha, Macha
Idlewild, Hope Is Important
Pansy Division, Absurd Pop Song Romance
Orgy, Candyass
A number of titles that held positions in the Favorite 10 switched places with ones in the extended list.
I didn’t give Fastball much credit 10 years ago because the album had been all over Austin at the time of its release. I got caught up in that hype, then dismissed it as such later. I was wrong. All the Pain Money Can Buy needs to be in the Favorite 10.
For the Masses actually turned me into a Depeche Mode fan. Some of the covers on the tribute album rival the originals. In the case of “Shake the Disease” and “Everything Counts”, they straight up improve them.
Madonna dominated the top position of this list for 10 years before Neutral Milk Hotel nudged her down a notch. SUPERCAR makes another revisionist ranking, pushing 8 1/2 Souvenirs off.
Idlewild makes an appearance with a debut album that’s at times bratty and tuneful. It’s a mess compared to its follow-up, 1000 Broken Windows. But it’s a riveting mess.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
Here’s my matrix of the most important years in music for the last 4 decades:
2010s: 2015 (so far)
2000s: 2002
1990s: 1998
1980: 1987
The years adjacent to the ones listed are also pretty pivotal, which is the case for 1999. The list doesn’t change much, but a lot of great music came out that year.
NUMBER GIRL, SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT
Shiina Ringo, Muzai Moratorium
Utada Hikaru, First Love
ACO, absolute ego
Nina Hynes, Creation
SUPERCAR, Jump Up
The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin
Port of Notes, Complain Too Much
Mandy Barnett, I’ve Got a Right to Cry
The Kiss Offs, Goodbye Private Life
Other favorites from the year:
L’Arc~en~Ciel, ray
Jordan Knight, Jordan Knight
eX-Girl, Kero! Kero! Kero!
NUMBER GIRL, DESTRUCTION BABY
OBLIVION DUST, Reborn
UA, turbo
Moby, Play
Maná, MTV Unplugged
Dr.StrangeLove, Twin Suns
The Roots, Things Fall Apart
Fantastic Plastic Machine, Luxury
Asylum Street Spankers, Hot Lunch
Café Tacuba, Revés/Yo Soy
A retrospective addition of SUPERCAR bumps L’arc~en~Ciel to the extended list. Futurama was the first SUPERCAR album I owned, and I liked it so much, I was hesitant to explore the band’s early work, out of fear it wouldn’t live up.
As it turns out, Futurama was the last of SUPERCAR’s great albums. The first two albums are classics in their own right. I’ve yet to dig into Ookeah! and Ooyeah!
I’ve only added Moby, The Roots and Fantastic Plastic Machine to the extended list, but albums by Wilco, Rage Against the Machine, Built to Spill and Mos Def could have made it on there. I just wanted to avoid the kind of crowding we saw in 2002 and 2003.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
I’m flabbergasted by the idea that, as of this writing, the year 2000 is nearly 20 years ago. As much as I lionize the music I heard in high school, the music of my late 20s has been incredibly influential, perhaps professionally as well as personally. Thus, we don’t see much change from the original list.
Shiina Ringo, Shouso Strip
Cocco, Rapunzel
NUMBER GIRL, SAPPUKEI
SUPERCAR, Futurama
eX-Girl, Big When Far, Small When Close
Sleater-Kinney, All Hands on the Bad One
Idlewild, 100 Broken Windows
FEED, Make Every Stardust Shimmer!
Tomosaka Rie, “Shoujo Robot”
Sade, Lovers Rock
Other favorites from the year:
Do As Infinity, Break of Dawn
Yaida Hitomi, daiya-monde
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
OBLIVION DUST, Butterfly Head
At the Drive-In, Relationship of Command
L’Arc~en~Ciel, REAL
Bonnie Pink, Let Go
MISSILE GIRL SCOOT, Fiesta!
Smashing Pumpkins, MACHINA/The Machine of God
m-flo, Planet Shining
Juanes, Fíate Bien
Emmylou Harris, Red Dirt Girl
U2, All That You Can’t Leave Behind
La Ley, Uno
Sinéad O’Connor, Faith and Courage
Soundtrack, High Fidelity
BBMak, Sooner or Later
At the time of its release, I was just glad All That You Can’t Leave Behind was not a continuation of Pop. The recent vinyl reissue of the album, unfortunately, reveals its shortcomings. Thus, it loses its original ranking in the Favorite 10.
Plot twist: I panned 2004’s How to Build an Atomic Bomb, but that album has endured far better than All That You Can’t Leave Behind. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Idlewild’s 1000 Broken Windows takes the spot vacated by U2.
Do As Infinity probably could have held onto its place in the Favorite 10 on the strength of “Raven” alone. At the time, most J-Pop I had encountered relied heavily on keyboards and drum machines, so a karaoke-ready band with crunchy guitars felt novel to me.
I can’t say I love Break of Dawn as much now. It’s rare that singles displace albums for the Favorite 10, but all three tracks on “Shoujo Robot” hint at an awesome album I wish Shiina Ringo and Tomosaka Rie recorded.
The extended list is really just all the titles that could have legitimately competed for that bottom spot on the Favorite 10.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
As I mentioned in the original entry for the 2001 list, 75 percent of the year was actually really decent, especially where music was concerned. The Favorite 10 from that year remains unchanged.
AJICO, Fukamidori
fra-foa, Chuu no Fuchi
Quruli, Team Rock
eX-Girl, Back to the Mono Kero
ACO, Material
the brilliant green, Los Angeles
Cocco, Sangrose
Res, How I Do
Utada Hikaru, Distance
Onitsuka Chihiro, Insomnia
Other favorites from the year:
Hajime Chitose, Kotonoha
MONO, Under the Pipal Tree
Fugazi, The Argument
Low, Things We Lost in the Fire
Death Cab for Cutie, The Photo Album
bloodthirsty butchers, Yamane
Kicell, Yume
Shea Seger, The May Street Project
Rufus Wainwright, Poses
Semisonic, All About Chemistry
Missy Elliott, Miss E … So Addictive
Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)
The Shins, Oh, Inverted World!
soulsberry, The end of vacation
Sigur Rós, Agætis Byrjun
Guided By Voices, Isolation Drills
Like 2002 and 2003, the extended list for 2001 overruns with quality stuff, and I’ve only added to it.
I got Gillian Welch’s Hell Among the Yearlings as part of a gift bag from a Waterloo Records holiday party. I didn’t get around to listening to it till about 15 years later, and I had to play catch-up.
I’ve known about Low for years, but I didn’t hear them till MONO shared a bill with them in concert.
The annual Friends of the Library Book Sale hooked me up with Fugazi’s End Hits for $1, so I sought out The Argument to round out my collection. I vaguely remember the news of Fugazi’s hiatus upsetting my Waterloo coworkers. I hadn’t yet jumped on the bandwagon.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
… And You Will Know Us by the Trail Of Dead, Source Code and Tags
Kronos Quartet, Nuevo
The Streets, Original Pirate Material
Hajime Chitose, Hainumikaze
NUMBER GIRL, NUM-HEAVYMETALLIC
Quruli, THE WORLD IS MINE
Zoobombs, love is funky
Hatakeyama Miyuki, Diving into your mind
Patty Griffin, 1,000 Kisses
Other favorites from the year:
UA, Dorobou
Queens of the Stone Age, Songs for the Deaf
Damien Jurado and Gathered In Song, I Break Chairs
Pedro the Lion, Control
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Missy Elliott, Under Construction
The Decemberists, Castaways and Cutouts
Sonic Youth, Murray Street
Sleater-Kinney, One Beat
Kylie Minogue, Fever
The Roots, Phrenology
ISIS, Oceanic
The White Stripes, White Blood Cells
The Hives, Veni Vidi Vicious
Catilin Cary, While You Weren’t Looking
BUGY CRAXONE, Northern Hymns
N.E.R.D., In Search Of …
The Books, Thought for Food
Nappy Roots, Watermelon, Chicken & Gritz
Minako, Suck It till Your Life Ends mata wa Shine Made Sono Mama Yatte Iro
The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robot
Shiratori Maika, Hanazono
The Back Horn, Shinzou Orchestra
Joan Jeanrenaud, Metamorphosis
I picked up Original Pirate Material for $1 at Lifelong Thrift Shop, and now I understand why it was all over the place in 2002. I couldn’t open a music magazine without seeing Mike Skinner mentioned in it. I’m pretty sure the sample of Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 sealed my admiration for the album.
THE WORLD IS MINE is something of a mea culpa. At the time of its release, I recognized the album as being Quruli’s most complex, but I just couldn’t get into it. I probably felt that it didn’t go far enough if it was going to be ambitious.
Well, the joke’s on me. I listened to it again before its reissue on vinyl, and I really dug it, much more than Antenna, which I praised effusively at the time. So it knocked Minako’s one and only album off the Favorite 10. UA also had to make room for the Streets.
The extended list includes albums I originally dismissed: Murray Street by Sonic Youth and One Beat by Sleater-Kinney.
I remember stocking Nappy Roots during my shifts at Waterloo Records and wondering what the big deal was. A $1 copy from Lifelong Thrift Shop 16 years later educated me. I probably wouldn’t have been exposed to Nappy Roots, The Decemberists or ISIS without having worked at Waterloo.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
Back in February, I argued 2002 was an important year in music of the 2000s. 2003 is no slouch in that regard either. The list from that year sees no major changes.
Shiina Ringo, Karuki Zaamen Kuri no Hana
ACO, Irony
Molotov, Dance and Dense Denso
Café Tacuba, Cuatro Caminos
ART-SCHOOL, LOVE/HATE
Sasagawa Miwa, Jijitsu
bloodthirsty butchers, Kouya ni Okeru bloodthirsty butchers
Bonnie Pink, Present
downy, untitled third album
Explosions in the Sky, The Earth Is Not a Cold, Dead Place
Other favorites from the year:
Outkast, Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism
Bleach, Bleach
The Postal Service, Give Up
NUMBER GIRL, Sapporo OMOIDE IN MY HEAD Joutai
Onitsuka Chihiro, Sugar High
Original Cast Recording, Avenue Q
Emmylou Harris, Stumble Into Grace
NIRGILIS, Tennis
Rufus Wainwright, Want One
Hayashi Asuca, Saki
Caitlin Cary, I’m Staying Out
The Bad Plus, These Are the Vistas
DJ Krush, Shinsou ~Message from the Depth~
Benjamin Gibbard / Andrew Kenny, Home, Vol. 5
The Wrens, The Meadowlands
Longwave, The Strangest Things
The only change is switching out Explosions in the Sky for Outkast, and the extended list adds the Wrens and Longwave.
I was working at Waterloo Records in 2003, and legitimate download services hadn’t gotten off the ground yet to stem the tide of rampant file sharing. So I was discovering a lot of great music through word of mouth and on the job.
While I’ve added a number of 2003 titles to my collection in the following years, few have edged their way into this already crowded field.
So I guess I’m pretty set where 2003 is concerned.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
The first half of the 2004 list has remained unchanged. The last half has undergone extensive revision.
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Eluvium, An Accidental Memory in Case of Death
Kicell, Mado Ni Chikyuu
Dylan Rice, Wandering Eyes
The Killers, Hot Fuss
Madvillain, Madvillainy
Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
The Streets, A Grand Don’t Come for Free
Mindy Smith, One Moment More
STRAIGHTENER, LOST WORLD’S ANTHOLOGY
Other favorites from the year:
Pinback, Summer in Abaddon
SUPERCAR, ANSWER
Kanye West, The College Dropout
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Solfa
Bonnie Pink, Even So
Fuji Fabric, Fuji Fabric
Sacha Sacket, Shadowed
m-flo, Astromantic
The Butchies, Make Yr Life
Scissor Sisters, Scissor Sisters
ZAZEN BOYS, ZAZEN BOYS II
A lot of these revisions are retrospective. I listened to SUPERCAR’s ANSWER when it was reissued on vinyl, and I didn’t find the album as engaging as I originally thought. I’ve come to like Hot Fuss more as time has passed, and I don’t feel as much attachment to Van Lear Rose.
My growing appreciation for hip-hop means Madvillain and The Streets knock Quruli’s Antenna off the list entirely.
I’m still a bit skeptical about keeping Mindy Smith in the Favorite 10, or bumping STRAIGHTENER into the upper echelon. I picked up Pinback’s Summer in Abaddon from Goodwill out of curiosity, and I have a sense that in short time, it will nudge Smith or STRAIGHTENER down to the extended list.
As we go further back to the start of the Aughts, the extended list grows longer. A lot of great music came out at the start of the century. If the Internet hadn’t splintered the mass market, it might have been a galvanizing golden age of popular music.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
I remember not being much impressed with 2005. So much so, I made a half-arsed attempt at a Favorite Edition list and didn’t even call it such. It’s taken a lot of sifting to arrive at the present form of the list.
Sigur Ros, Takk …
Antony and the Johnston, I Am a Bird Now
Ann-Sally, Brand-New Orleans
Kate Bush, Aerial
… And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Worlds Apart
Bob Mould, Body of Song
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
Yorico, Cocoon
Duran Duran, Beautiful Colours
Kawai Kenji, TV Animation BLEACH Original Soundtrack 1
Other favorites of the year:
Enya, Amarantine
Grizzly Bear, Horn of Plenty
Levi Kreis, One of the Ones
Madonna, Confessions on a Dancefloor
The list goes through much shuffling due to some late discoveries. I didn’t pick up Anthony and the Johnsons till 2006 and Ann-Sally much later. BLEACH wouldn’t be appointment viewing till the following year.
The extended list gets pared down a lot. Fuji Fabric, Sasagawa Miwa and toddle make room for Grizzly Bear and Levi Kreis.
I was so desperate to find entries, I included catalog titles from Gang of Four and John Zorn. In hindsight, that was the signal my priorities were starting to shift.
Toward the end of 2005, I relaunched this site as a traditional blog instead of the interactive zine it had been. My interest in Japanese popular music started to wane, and I reached an age where the music of my youth was being reimagined — some would say misinterpreted — by up and coming bands.
2005 marked the beginning of the end of Musicwhore.org ver. 1.0.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
At the time, SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS edged Utada Hikaru for the top spot of 2006, but Ultra Blue has proven far more durable. This list has gone through quite a number of changes.
Utada Hikaru, Ultra Blue
SLOTH LOVE CHUNKS, Shikakui Vision
VOLA & THE ORIENTAL MACHINE, Waiting for My Food
Furukawa Miki, Mirrors
Tokyo Jihen, Otona (Adult)
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Boris, Pink
The Roots, Game Theory
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson, Neruda Songs
Nick Lachey, What’s Left of Me
Other favorites of the year:
ACO, mask
J Dilla, Donuts
Hajime Chitose, Hanadairo
Now It’s Overhead, Dark Light Days
Envy, Insomniac Doze
The Gossip, Standing in the Way of Control
ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, Fan Club
I’ve known about Boris for as long as I’ve been following Japanese music, but I never made time for them until I picked up Pink at Goodwill for $2. Well, hell …
I wouldn’t have listened to the Roots or J Dilla at the time. Hip-hop had diversified to have its own underground, and that was just so much history that I wasn’t willing to unpack. I’ve only started exploring hip-hop with any seriousness in the last year.
Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson was quite the late discovery. I didn’t pick up Neruda Songs till 2008, but it quickly became a favorite, dislodging Ex-Boyfriends completely off the list.
When I was first introduced to ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION, I dismissed them as “eastern youth lite”. The joke was on me — I don’t even own an eastern youth album anymore, and I’ve purchased ASIAN KUNG-FU GENERATION on vinyl.
A decade ago, I wrote a series of entries ranking my favorite albums from 1985 to 2004. My collection has expanded greatly since then, particularly in the last five years. So I wanted to see what has changed in 10 years.
The further we get from the present day, the more we’ll find retroactive changes to the Favorite Edition lists. The 2007 list sees a lot of shifting in the Favorite 10, and a number of retroactive additions.
Explosions in the Sky, All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone
UA, Golden green
The Dead Betties, Nightmare Sequence
Björk, Volta
unkie, the Price of Fame
Nico Muhly, Speaks Volumes
Stephen Sondheim, Company (2006 Cast Recording)
Once, Music from the Motion Picture
Sasagawa Miwa, Mayoi Naku
Tokyo Jihen, Goraku (Variety)
Other favorites from the year:
Synapse/Elliott Cole, The Oracle Hysterical
Tommy heavenly6, Heavy Starry Heavenly
Kawai Kenji, Seirei no Moribito
Office, A Night at the Ritz
M.I.A., Kala
The National, Boxer
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
Jason Isbell, Sirens of the Ditch
The cast recording for 2006 production of Company gets a retroactive boost, missing the Favorite 10 the first time out. A PBS broadcast of the revival directed by John Doyle went a long way in raising its ranking.
I didn’t discover the Dead Betties till a year and some change after the release of Nightmare Sequence, and it would have shot up to the Favorite 10 had I known about it. The album doesn’t lose its punch more than a decade on.
Rufus Wainwright’s Release the Stars and Smashing Pumpkins’ Zeitgeist fall of the list entirely. I think those albums earned their place on the Favorite 10 because I was not paying attention to what was happening in 2007, if the expanded list is any indication.
I’m not sure I actually like The National, but I remember catching the band’s appearance on Live from the Artists Den and thinking Matt Berninger was a tall drink of water. Boxer is rather fine album, nonetheless.
I would not have picked up Band of Horses without Renée Fleming. I get them mixed up with the Band of Heathens and Band of Skulls.
I didn’t actually like Sirens of the Ditch the first time I listened to it. I was just starting to explore Jason Isbell’s work after hearing Southeastern, and I wanted everything to sound like it. I had no context about his work with Drive-By Truckers. Sirens of the Ditch is closer to his work with the Truckers than his more recent albums, and that understanding goes a long way to building appreciation for his solo debut.
![[Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/NeutralMilkHotelIntheAe48874_f-293x300.jpg)
![[SUPERCAR - JUMP UP]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/SupercarJumpUp-300x300.jpg)
![[Tomosaka Rie - Shoujo Robot]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/200032388_f-300x267.jpg)
![[Fugazi - The Argument]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/FugaziTheArgument2001185734_f-300x300.jpg)
![[Quruli - THE WORLD IS MINE]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/QuruliTheWorldIsMine-300x265.jpg)
![[The Wrens - The Meadowlands]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/TheWrensTheMeadowlands-300x300.jpg)
![[Madvillain - Madvillainy]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/MadvillainMadvillainy2004167285_f-300x300.jpg)
![[Antony and the Johnsons - I Am a Bird Now]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/AntonyandtheJohnsonsIAm30497_f-300x300.jpg)
![[BORIS - PINK]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/BorisPink2006191101_f-300x300.jpg)
![[The Dead Betties - Nightmare Sequence]](https://musicwhore.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/TheDeadBettiesNightmareSequence-300x300.jpg)