Radio Free Newport

Various publications have been compiling “best of the decade” lists for various cultural forms. A music email list I’m on conducted a poll on the best records of the decade. Here are mine, compiled in about 20 minutes. Thank goodness for iTunes, which made this a lot easier.

One caveat is that I restricted myself to one record per artist. (I also didn’t include records from bands I’ve played in, so apologies to Clabbergirl and Messerly & Ewing, both of which would be here otherwise.) There were 195 records in the running.

1. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Streetcore – 2003
2. Ted Leo/Pharmacists – Shake The Sheets – 2004
3. Los Lobos – Good Morning Aztlan – 2002
4. You Am I – Convicts – 2006
5. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind – 2000
6. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising – 2002
7. The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site – 2003
8. Richard Thompson – Semi-Detached Mock Tudor – 2002
9. Chris Whitley – Hotel Vast Horizon – 2003
10. The Constantines – Shine A Light – 2003
11. Elvis Costello – When I Was Cruel – 2002
12. Joseph Arthur – Temporary People – 2008
13. Billy Bragg & Wilco – Mermaid Avenue Volume II – 2003
14. Jon Dee Graham – Hooray For The Moon – 2002
15. Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls – Breeding Resistance – 2004

57 more that just missed the cut…

Bad Plus – These Are the Vistas – 2003
Bob Dylan – Love & Theft – 2001
Buffalo Tom – Three Easy Pieces – 2007
Chris Whitley – Rocket House – 2001
Chris Whitley – Soft Dangerous Shores – 2005
Christian Scott – Anthem – 2007
Chuck Prophet – No Other Love – 2002
Constantines – The Constantines – 2001
Constantines – Kensington Heights – 2008
Constantines – Tournament of Hearts – 2005
Dave Douglas – Keystone – 2005
David Byrne and Brian Eno – Everything That Happens Will Happen Today – 2008
Eleventh Dream Day – Zeroes and Ones – 2006
Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint – The River In Reverse – 2006
Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble – Mean Ameen – 2004
Gingersol – Nothing Stops Moving – 2000
Go-Betweens – Oceans Apart – 2005
Graham Coxon – Happiness In Magazines – 2004
Hensley Sturgis – Cabin Fever – 2001
Hensley Sturgis – Open Lanes – 2000
Hothouse Flowers – Into Your Heart – 2004
International Noise Conspiracy – A New Morning, Changing Weather – 2001
Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros – Global A Go-Go – 2001
Los Lobos – The Town and the City – 2006
Macy Gray – The Trouble with Being Myself – 2003
Matthew Ryan – East Autumn Grin – 2000
Mayflies USA – Walking in a Straight Line – 2002
Paul Weller – Illumination – 2002
Pearl Jam – Pearl Jam – 2006
Pete Yorn – musicforthemorningafter – 2001
Rage Against The Machine – Renegades – 2000
Rancid – Indestructible – 2003
REM – Accelerate – 2008
Scott Miller – Thus Always To Tyrants – 2001
Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On The Bad One – 2000
Solomon Burke – Don’t Give Up On Me – 2002
Son Volt – Okemah and the Melody of Riot – 2005
Sonny Rollins – Sonny, Please – 2006
Spoon – Girls Can Tell – 2001
Starch Martins – Dressing up the Failure – 2001
Ted Leo/Pharmacists – Hearts Of Oak – 2003
Ted Leo/Pharmacists – Living With The living – 2007
The 757s – Tell the Pilgrims It’s a Potluck – 2007
The Waterboys – Book Of Lightning – 2007
Tim Rogers – The Temperance Union – 2001
Tom Waits – Real Gone – 2004
U2 – How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb – 2004
U2 – No Line On the Horizon – 2009
Vigilantes of Love – Audible Sigh – 2000
Wallace Roney – Jazz – 2007
Warren Zanes – Memory Girls – 2003
Weakerthans – Reunion Tour – 2007
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot – 2002
Willie Nile – Streets Of New York – 2006
World Party – Dumbing Up – 2000
You Am I – Deliverance – 2003
You Am I – Dress Me Slowly – 2001