100 Greatest Albums Of The Decade (5-1)

5. White Stripes - Elephant: As we wonder whether they will ever release a new record amidst Jack White's numerous side projects, all that is left to say about the White Stripes is that they were the decade's best American band. They made five brilliant uncompromising records using outdated equipment and only two people. They sold millions of records and made "Seven Nation Army" into a new standard for college marching bands. But most of all, they somehow expanded the possibilities of modern music by looking decades into the past.

Everything they did sounded 10 times louder, unrestrained, and urgent on Elephant. "Black Math" and "Hypnotize" made it clear who the king and queen of this "garage rock" movement was, while "There's No Home For You Here" showed that imagination could trump modern studio equipment any day. If there was a more thrilling rock record in the past ten years, I sure didn't hear it.

4. Jay-Z - Blueprint: This decade had a little of everything for Shawn Carter: three brilliant albums, three mediocre albums, a relationship with Beyonce, partial ownership of an NBA team, his own clothing and liquor lines...I could go on. But with this record, there were no gimmicks or explanations needed, just 13 perfect hip-hop tracks with pop hooks and a new standard in innovative production (some of which was by a then unknown Kanye West).

What makes this album stand out in his vast catalog is a laid back feeling that he isn't trying too hard. In "Ain't No Love" he jokes "sensitive thugs, you all need hugs" like there really wasn't anything to be upset about in the rap game. After this, he ruled rap for the rest of the decade, but he'll never beat this one.

3. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: "Tall buildings shake, voices escape singing sad sad songs..." The words of "Jesus, etc." were written and recorded prior to September 11 and felt even more unnerving after it. Due to a drawn out record label battle that warranted its own movie, this album didn't hit stores until 2002 after being streamed on the internet by Wilco for over a year. When it finally hit the masses, everybody knew that Americana music had just turned a corner.

Starting as a straight-forward alternative country band, Wilco went on to release four records this decade that covered more ground than most any American band. With its studio experimentation and alienated lyrics, none of them topped the beauty of this one. "War On War" and "Pot Kettle Black" showed that you could layer sounds into simple pop-rock songs without wearing them down, and atmospheric mood pieces like "Radio Cure" and "Reservations" fit right in to make this album just as OK Computer as it was American Beauty. This was the highlight of American rock music this decade and will be talked about decades from now.

2. Radiohead - Kid A: In late 2000, when I heard this album for the first time not on CD but on Napster a few weeks before it's release (a sign of the times already), I had never been so confounded or confused in my life. It sounded like a incomprehensible mess of random noises. The first track tells you that "everything is in its right place", and it only took a few listens for me to agree. Every note of every second of this record is planned carefully and perfectly, whether its the scrambled voice on "Kid A" (hello, auto-tune!), the free-form jazz horns on "National Anthem", the acid freakout at the end of "Optimistic", or the apocalyptic disco beats of "Idiotique".

But the track that really holds it all together is "How To Disappear Completely". Radiohead had become the masters of guitar-drowned alienation on OK Computer, but now they were writing modern compositions that were without peer. Closer to an opera or a Scott Walker track than actual rock, this song used swirling layers of guitar, keyboards, and violins to intensify the lyrics "I'm not here, this isn't happening" to breathtaking effect. The result is a feeling of sorrow, dread, and paranoia that resonated through the record and, in the aftermath of 9/11, through the decade.

1. Arcade Fire - Funeral: Every year, a dozen or so great albums come along that play on strengths and display something we haven't quite heard before. But really, what makes music worth investing our time and money is albums like this: joyous, cathartic expressions of human emotion, hope, and possibility. Pet Sounds. Born To Run. Joshua Tree. The Soft Bulletin. Funeral.

Released in 2004 and largely unavailable in stores until 2005, the debut record by the Arcade Fire is the kind of record that could only be sold by word-of-mouth praise and live performances. No radio or video station was about to promote a band who dressed like they were from the 1920's or played accordions and xylophones in their songs. And yet, they were on the billboard and primetime TV just three years later.

Their live shows captured the spirit of early Springsteen and U2 shows like no other band this decade. They believe in rock music not as a series of catchy tunes, but as a communal, enlightening experience that is equally personal (three members of this band had deaths in their family during the recording of Funeral) and universal (the video for "Rebellion (Lies)" appropriately displays masses marching in the street shouting lyrics in unison).

Five years later, not a second of this album has lost its power. The anthemic choruses of "Power Out" and "Wake Up" will sound as fresh and relevant 30 years from now as "Born To Run" does today. Perhaps the defining lyric of this record is "the power's out in the heart of man, take it from your heart, put it in your hand", implying that in 2004, we needed a reason to believe again, in music or in something greater.

This record showed us that music still has endless possibilities to be explored and there will always be a reason to keep exploring because, if only once every then years, your ears will fall upon something like this. That sounds like the album of the decade to me.