The Best Albums of the 2000s

Radiohead albums bookend the finest musical releases of the last ten years.

New Year's Eve 2009 will see the end of one of the most politically charged and aesthetically challenging decades in human history. What easier way to make sense of the endless ricochet of event and analysis than with a list?

Our contributors have chosen their top ten creative works of the decade, from artworks to albums, which we will publish on a daily basis.

Radiohead, Amnesiac (Capitol), 2001
Fans of Radiohead tend to fit into one of three categories. They either like "all Radiohead" or "pre-Kid A Radiohead" or "the Radiohead of Kid A and beyond." If you’re of the last group, chances are you favour Kid A or Amnesiac -- the two most similar albums the band has made. It is illegal to not have a favourite between them. Personally, I like “all Radiohead” and prefer Amnesiac to Kid A. I said it.

Hayden, Skyscraper National Park (Hardwood Records), 2001
This record was big for me - especially because it hit just when I was really starting to write songs and play gigs. I'd been into Hayden’s earlier recordings but this is his strongest album to date. “Dynamite Walls” and “Bass Song” alone make a case for a place on this list, but the whole record is great.

Broken Social Scene, Feel Good Lost (Arts & Crafts), 2001
"You Forgot It In People" holds most of my favourite BSS songs (“Lover's Spit” especially), but it never played like an album to me. I'd listen to it in sections, or play a few tracks and move on. Feel Good Lost is really an album for album's sake - one cohesive piece of musical art. It was made before their label Arts & Crafts even existed, and is mostly instrumental, but it got me through a lot of paper-writing at university.

M. Ward, End Of Amnesia (Future Farmer), 2001
I’ve lost count of the number of people I've raved about this album to. I don't understand why M. Ward isn't horrendously famous. In a sense, he is, in that he keeps company with horrendously famous people, but he's like this ongoing secret, no matter how many critically acclaimed albums he makes. End Of Amnesia is my favourite of his. Grizzly Bear and Fleet Foxes have probably been on to M. Ward for ages - all three artists mix traditional styles with genre pushing production in all the best ways.

Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch/WBR), 2002
A masterpiece. I loved this album long before I saw the documentary I Am Trying To Break Your Heart, about its making, but I must have seen that movie half a dozen times now, and I feel like the music and film are intertwined without either being tarnished by the other. The story with Warner Bro's, the mix of great songwriting and noise-making, and emotional trauma that went into this album. Typically, it's easier to make good sad music than good upbeat music. “I Am The Man Who Loves You” could have been a Lennon/McCartney tune. This album is stunningly personal, yet cool. Love it forever.

Ryan Adams and The Cardinals, Jacksonville City Nights (Lost Highway Records), 2005
People rag on Ryan Adams because he gets upset easily and dated Winona Ryder. This album tends to get lost in the mix because he released it in the same year as two other albums (one of which was a double album), but it's his best work in my opinion. Gold and Heartbreaker have some great songs, but were too long, and needed some fat-trimming. Jacksonville City Nights is to Adams what Nashville Skyline was to Dylan - different than the rest of the catalogue, an experiment, sonically vintage. I dig.

Jason Collett, Idols Of Exile (Arts & Crafts), 2005
It's like a clinic in songwriting and producing. “Almost Summer” is simply brilliant - a song about going to a high school dance from the perspective of an anxious teenaged girl, coming from a 30-something Toronto male who sounds like a drunk Tom Petty. Collett is a master of playful lyrics and producer Howie Beck's work is clear here. The record just feels good all the time - well arranged, fresh sounding songs, clear dynamic shifts.

The National, Alligator (Beggars Banquet), 2005
People would say "Boxer!" And I'd respond, but alas, "Alligator!" It's just better. Start to finish. A little less refined than Boxer, but with better lyrics.

Bon Iver, For Emma, Forever Ago (Jagjaguwar), 2007
Even though his lyrics are unintelligible and nearly non-existent, Justin Vernon could be one of my favourite songwriters ever. As Shad K once said, "He's my favourite non-English-speaking artist." This album is so perfectly flawed and brilliant. Anyone who knows me well knows how hard this record hit me because I'd never shut up about it. Desert island kind of stuff.

Radiohead, In Rainbows (Warner/Chappell Music), 2007
Radiohead has demonstrated that two decades and seven studio albums deep, they're still completely on top of their game. Even with wives, children, and forty-ish years of life experience, the band is still informing 20-something music nerds of what's amazing and hip. This is my second favourite Radiohead album (behind OK Computer, which is too old for this list, and the best album made since I was born).

Honourable mentions go to Plants and Animals' Parc Avenue, Arcade Fire's Funeral, Beirut's The Flying Club Cup, Chad Vangaalen's Soft Airplane, The Daredevil Christopher Wright's In Deference To A Broken Back, Death Cab For Cutie's Transatlanticism, Grizzly Bear's Veckatimest, Interpol's Turn On The Bright Lights, Mark Berube's What The River Gave The Boat, Bright Eyes's I'm Wide Awake It's Morning, and anything by Spoon. I also wanted to put something by Sigur Ros on this list, but Ágætis Byrjun was too old, and out of spite for the inconvenience, I decided not to go with any of their more recent albums, even though they probably deserve it.

Photos by alterna2, Hardwood Records/H. Desser, Arts & Crafts/Justin Peroff/Milk, tammylo, Nonesuch Records/Chris Gorman, 6tee-zeven, Arts & Crafts/Louise Upperton/Victor Tavares, Beggars Banquet, Jagjaguwar, and rick