It’s that time of the year again. End of year lists are listed and critics pontificate at length about their favourite cultural artefacts of the past twelve months. Normally, I’d be joining in with all this opinionated criticism by compiling a list of my albums of 2009, but I must confess that I haven’t really been paying much attention to the wonderful world of music this year. So, as the end of another decade grinds ever closer and I get ever geekier, I have compiled a list of my favourite albums of the ’00s instead.
Now, this isn’t a list of the best albums of the decade (you can find one of those here – there is some crossover with my choices, but there are also, in my opinion, some glaring omissons from The Observer’s best of list); ‘best’ is such a subjective, relative, personal concept. My list of the best albums would doubtless be very different from yours, and for very different reasons (feel free to let me know yours!).
Instead, this is a list of my favourite albums from the last ten years. And it’s listed in no other order than the one I thought of them in; I haven’t got the mental energy to nitpick them into any sort of hierarchical order and they’re all bloody great anyway.
These are the albums that have taken up residence on my stereo and in my head. These are the albums that make me want to smile and sing and dance and play air guitar along to. These are the albums that keep me company on headphones while I go about my day. These are the albums that have become part of the soundtrack to my life over the last decade. I couldn’t give a stuff what the critics say about my choices – these albums are on the list because I love them.
As a 90’s kid, I may frequently be found in the pub, bemoaning the state of today’s music industry to anyone who’ll listen (and quite a few people who won’t), but the truth of the matter is that the last decade has actually produced some amazing music. And this is my choice of just some of it. Let me know what you think….






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