Favorite Albums of the '00s

Here's my current take. This could change, as early as tomorrow. I'll try to add some commentary in the days ahead.

It might be worth noting that "Favorites" does not translate to "Best." "Best" would imply some overarching knowledge of the music released in this decade, and I don't have that knowledge. It also would have to account for cultural impact, general popularity, musical innovation, and all those other factors that typically cause reviewers to agonize long into the night. I didn't agonize over this. I also didn't think about jazz, classical, or several other genres of music I like a great deal, but which seem out of place in a list like this. For better or worse, this is a pop/rock/indie list. It's what I focus on the most, although hardly exclusively.

Here's the methodology I've employed: I thought about the music I've played the most, and that has meant the most to me. Hence "favorites." Some of the albums are integrally bound up in personal events in my life, and therefore hold a special meaning that wouldn't apply to anybody else. I'm okay with that. Some of them were hurled out into the great void and barely caused a ripple, selling perhaps a few thousand copies. If you're looking for ripples, read about Britney and the still dead Michael Jackson. But this is the music, minus a few jazz combos and symphony orchestras, that has meant the most to me this decade:

1. Joe Henry -- Tiny Voices

2. Bob Dylan -- Love and Theft

3. The Hold Steady -- Boys and Girls in America

4. Arcade Fire -- Funeral

5. Sigur Ros -- ()

6. Sun Kil Moon -- Ghosts of the Great Highway

7. Beck -- Sea Change

8. Ezra Furman and the Harpoons -- Banging Down the Doors

9. Southeast Engine -- A Wheel Within a Wheel

10. Various Artists -- O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack

11. Caitlin Cary and Thad Cockrell -- Begonias

12. Eels -- Electro-Shock Blues

13. Sufjan Stevens -- Illinoise

14. Lupe Fiasco -- Food & Liquor

15. Jamey Johnson -- That Lonesome Song

16. Art Brut -- Bang Bang Rock 'n Roll

17. Frightened Rabbit -- The Midnight Organ Fight

18. Godspeed You! Black Emperor -- Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven

19. Camera Obscura -- Let's Get Out of This Country

20. The Decemberists -- The Crane Wife

Honorable Mentions

Joe Henry -- Civilians

Joe Henry -- Blood from Stars

Son Lux -- At War With Walls and Mazes

Outkast -- Stankonia

Bettye Lavette -- I've Got My Own Hell to Raise

The Strokes -- Is This It?

Neko Case -- Fox Confessor Brings the Flood

The Thermals -- More Parts Per Million

Willard Grant Conspiracy -- Regard the End

Buddy Miller -- Universal United House of Prayer

Jolie Holland -- Springtime Can Kill You

Al Green -- Lay It Down

Nick Cave -- Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus

Josh Garrels -- Jacaranda

The Clientele -- Strange Geometry

Patty Griffin -- 1000 Kisses

U2 -- All That You Can't Leave Behind

El-P -- Fantastic Damage

Kathleen Edwards -- Back To Me

Ted Leo and the Pharmacists -- Hearts of Oak

The New Pornographers -- Twin Cinema

Over the Rhine -- Ohio

The Black Keys -- Rubber Factory

Interpol -- Turn on the Bright Lights

The White Stripes -- White Blood Cells