Ray LaMontagneHere are ten albums from this decade (no doubt due to undergo many revisions over the next decade) that I think stand out from the rest. This may well lean toward the start of the decade, since that's when I was a student and when people used to send me free records. In no particular order (well, actually, alphabetical):
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
I am biased towards 'Frank' because of its association with my student radio days, but I have to give 'Back To Black' the nod because of the accomplished songwriting across the album, particularly on 'Wake Up Alone' and the title track.
Gorillaz - Demon Days
One of the more criminally omitted in the current round of lists - hard to think of a more likeable and diverse album in the decade. The end is particularly brilliant, from Dennis Hopper's yarn of 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head' through to the soaring title track.
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Will be in every top 10 everywhere, I can almost guarantee it, and that's because it's the one that best bridges a unique sound and keeping our old friend melody.
Radiohead - In Rainbows
If it is Radiohead's last album, then at least it's a high. It is the most successful fusion of their emotional power and their experimental leanings, exemplified on 'All I Need'.
Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Tough to pick one Sigur Ros album over any other, but this one stands out for me because of the restraint of tracks like 'Íllgresi' and 'Góðan Daginn' alongside the usual expansive numbers like 'Ára Bátur'.
Lambchop - Nixon
Because we all occasionally need to hear something like 'Grumpus', I suppose.
Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
The depth of this album is what sets it apart from the rest of Alicia Keys' albums and everything else in its genre. I refer particularly to the tender closer 'Caged Bird' and, a couple of tracks, the immaculate piano-led ballad 'Butterflyz'.
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
It's hard to imagine how Elbow are going to follow this album. Even among all its epics ('Mirrorball', 'Starlings', 'One Day Like This') they have never reached a peak like 'The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver'. Until they outdid that by adding in the BBC Concert Orchestra.
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
My main incentive for including this is that, for all that M. Ward is perhaps not the most innovative artist of the decade, I'm still listening to and enjoying the songs on this album. And it would be difficult to tire of a song like 'Here Comes The Sun Again'.
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
It's all about the voice. A song like 'Trouble' could sound just silly in the wrong hands, but it, and all the other songs on the album, are delivered with a raspy sincerity that, as many others have commented, sounds like a man who has been through the mill. His other two albums are excellent also, but this debut is still the best.
Honourable mentions to Bon Iver's 'For Emma Forever Ago' and Guillemots' 'Through The Windowpane', both of which reach brilliant peaks ('Lump Sum' and 'Redwings' respectively) but are let down by some much weaker moments, and She & Him's 'Volume One' and PJ Harvey's 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' (current favourites, but I only got them recently so don't want to get carried away a la Q magazine naming OK Computer the greatest album of all time).
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
I am biased towards 'Frank' because of its association with my student radio days, but I have to give 'Back To Black' the nod because of the accomplished songwriting across the album, particularly on 'Wake Up Alone' and the title track.
Gorillaz - Demon Days
One of the more criminally omitted in the current round of lists - hard to think of a more likeable and diverse album in the decade. The end is particularly brilliant, from Dennis Hopper's yarn of 'Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head' through to the soaring title track.
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Will be in every top 10 everywhere, I can almost guarantee it, and that's because it's the one that best bridges a unique sound and keeping our old friend melody.
Radiohead - In Rainbows
If it is Radiohead's last album, then at least it's a high. It is the most successful fusion of their emotional power and their experimental leanings, exemplified on 'All I Need'.
Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
Tough to pick one Sigur Ros album over any other, but this one stands out for me because of the restraint of tracks like 'Íllgresi' and 'Góðan Daginn' alongside the usual expansive numbers like 'Ára Bátur'.
Lambchop - Nixon
Because we all occasionally need to hear something like 'Grumpus', I suppose.
Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
The depth of this album is what sets it apart from the rest of Alicia Keys' albums and everything else in its genre. I refer particularly to the tender closer 'Caged Bird' and, a couple of tracks, the immaculate piano-led ballad 'Butterflyz'.
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
It's hard to imagine how Elbow are going to follow this album. Even among all its epics ('Mirrorball', 'Starlings', 'One Day Like This') they have never reached a peak like 'The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver'. Until they outdid that by adding in the BBC Concert Orchestra.
M. Ward - Transistor Radio
My main incentive for including this is that, for all that M. Ward is perhaps not the most innovative artist of the decade, I'm still listening to and enjoying the songs on this album. And it would be difficult to tire of a song like 'Here Comes The Sun Again'.
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble
It's all about the voice. A song like 'Trouble' could sound just silly in the wrong hands, but it, and all the other songs on the album, are delivered with a raspy sincerity that, as many others have commented, sounds like a man who has been through the mill. His other two albums are excellent also, but this debut is still the best.
Honourable mentions to Bon Iver's 'For Emma Forever Ago' and Guillemots' 'Through The Windowpane', both of which reach brilliant peaks ('Lump Sum' and 'Redwings' respectively) but are let down by some much weaker moments, and She & Him's 'Volume One' and PJ Harvey's 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' (current favourites, but I only got them recently so don't want to get carried away a la Q magazine naming OK Computer the greatest album of all time).
