100 Greatest Albums Of The Decade (20-6)

20. The National - Boxer: After Alligator, they probably could have made an anthem-filled rock record and gone platinum. Instead, they made a haunting suite of urban alienation that sounds like an indie update on Automatic For The People. The brooding vocals, paranoid lyricism and driving rhythm section make this album late-night perfection.

19. My Morning Jacket - Z: How was this album not bigger? With its catchy choruses and multiple guitar attack, it seems like this should have been this decade's Led Zeppelin 4. It did earn them some share of a spotlight and make them one of America's favorite alternative bands, and their string of great records never got more perfect than this one.

18. Kanye West - Late Registration: Let's put the intolerable awards show freakouts aside - this was one of the decade's most important pop artists. When he decided to team up with Jon Brion and add complex orchestrations to simple rap tracks, one of the greatest hip-hop records ever happened. When I hear the ambition on tracks like "Crack Music", I can only hope he ever tries this hard again.

17. Brian Wilson - Smile: It only took four decades to finish, and here it is. Never mind the complaints about how he never finished it with the Beach Boys and how it would have been better in 1968. Just let your ears be blessed by a piece of true pop imagination. Could anybody else have put together and sung pieces like "Wonderful" or "Surf's Up"? In any decade?

16. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning: His prolific output can be frustrating to wade through, but this was his one truly perfect album. Images of war and failed relationships become indistinguishable and guitars and trumpets tell stories as well as Connor Oberst does. Jim James and Emmylou Harris lend their voices at just the right time, and this album revitalized protest music in indie rock.

15. The Strokes - Is This It?: They came in went in almost a blur, just like a great punk band should. In just one 30 minute album, they opened the door to hundreds of minimalist punk bands and rode a massive wave of hype to become the "next big thing". OK, they never sold what Nirvana did, but it was nice while it lasted and we will always have this breath of fresh air to remember.

14. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago: By the end of 2008, this album was a secret to everyone. Written and (mostly) recorded in the isolation of a log cabin, this record sounds as lonely and personal to every person who spends time with it. A year later, he's jumping around to different projects and has critics hanging on his every move. Do we have a new Sufjan Stevens already?

13. Eminem - Marshall Mather's LP: Whether you would like to admit it or not, this could be this decade's Thriller. This album was bigger than all of us. Everybody knows the chorus to "Real Slim Shady" and everybody watched Eminem and Elton John on the Grammy's. There is no escape. Anybody who claims they hate this album is trying to sell you something.

12. Hold Steady - Boys And Girls In America: Several of their albums could go on this list, but this is the one that lyrically stuck with me. Sounding like a bar band and telling the stories of desperate suburban lowlifes is nothing new, but why doesn't anybody else do it like this? Even when it slows down, this is a party album, and it makes you with more bands worshipped at the alter of Bruce Springsteen.

11. Radiohead - In Rainbows: In case they weren't there already, this album ensures that Radiohead is one of the most innovative and important rock bands that ever existed. If the bizarre distribution scheme and complete lack of prior advertising didn't shock you, the quality of the heartfelt songwriting and musicianship will. What could this band possibly pull off next?

10. TV On The Radio - Dear Science,: Most of the albums on this list sound like the pinnacles of modern music, but this album is how we can only hope music sounds ten years from now. They make no regard for the boundaries between rock, rap, soul, and blues, just like they make no regard for what music is personal and what is political - there is something for everybody here, just like the song "Golden Age" promised.

9. Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine: Even if you want to argue about which version is better, let's agree that Fiona's only album of this decade was an art-pop stroke of genius. In fact, she seemed to have crammed all of her ideas into a small space knowing that another record wasn't going to happen. "Red Red Red" and "Waltz (Better Than Fine)" sound even more bizarre and bewildering the tenth time you play them. Please, give us more.

8. Outkast - Stankonia: No song sums up this decade in music, politics, and the shear possibilities of creativity than the song "B.O.B.". This track is a thrill ride at 120 mph, much like the album surrounding it. This album rode the popularity of a few hits to make Outkast household names in rap and pop music, and they never looked back: in the following years, they got more ridiculous and less focused until they imploded. Until then, what a ride we enjoyed.

7. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion: This album is the kind of pinnacle you always hope a band with reach, but most never do. After years of turning great ideas into almost-cohesive records, they realized that voices and songwriting were their strengths more than layers of instrumental loops. The results is bliss. "My Girls" and "Summertime Clothes" explore adulthood by filling it with the joy and simplicity of childhood, and the result is something that we can only hope is the future of indie music.

6. Sufjan Stevens - Come Feel The Illinoise!: Although it set off a wave of neo-folk imitators, there is still nothing that sounds like this album. Only any track here, there is almost more going on that the human brain can comprehend: vocal interplay, shifting time signatures, lyrics about historical figures, and more than 40 instruments. But something about every track will stick with you, whether it's the pleating chorus in "They Are Night Zombies", the heartbreaking trumpet solo in "Casimir Pulaski Day", or the heavenly choral at the end of "Chicago". There are more gorgeous moments on this album than I can count - so many that I don't care if we ever get a sequel.