13.

Akron/Family & Angels of Light
Akron/Family & Angels of Light
(Young God, 2005)

When Akron/Family created the first half of this split CD they must’ve been aware of the impact it would have on thousands of listeners around the world. I mean how could you listen to it and not immediately mark Akron/Family as your new favourite band of all time? In seven songs, Akron/Family crammed in more creativity, energy and sheer musical bravado than could be heard in 5o full albums from all the RIYL bands that you could throw at them. Bursts of uncontrolled imagination spill all over the band's contribution to this split effort. Angels of Light’s half of the split hangs over Akron/Family like a wise parent, tempering it and revealing some of my favourite songs Michael Gira has put out. The combination is sheer glory and jewels...sheer glory and jewels.

-Thistle

12.

Minus Story
The Captain Is Dead, Let The Drum Corpse Dance
(Jagjaguwar, 2004)

There is something about The Captain Is Dead, Let The Drum Corpse Dance that reminds me of rain. I love rain. I know, I should move to Seattle or something. But why would I need to when I have this album? Obviously this correlation is part of some subconscious memory. Or maybe a conscious one. Like the time Sassigrass went to see Minus Story at Kilby Court in Salt Lake and no one else showed up to the show so the band decided that they better keep on truckin’ to Denver or wherever they were headed. It was raining that night. It was a minor tragedy. Talking about the album specifically, The Captain Is Dead has some of the best recorded drums that I’ve ever heard. They puncture the recording and vibrate everything on the record. As far as Minus Story's sound as a whole on the album: noisy, caustic, sentimental, lush and weird: I love it. Really, one of the most slept on records of the past decade.

-Thistle

11.

cLOUDDEAD
cLOUDDEAD
(Mush, 2001)

Man, what a dream team we had with cLOUDEAD. In retrospect, I probably should have cherished it more. But the splitting of the group hasn’t been all bad. I mean, Subtle and Why? are both super amazing on their own, but it was the teaming of emcees Doseone and Why? together with the brilliant Odd Nosdam which started it all. Their debut reeks of the most inventive, forward thinking “hip/hop” music that has ever been created. Honestly, I don’t consider the misty, tentacled sprawl of cLOUDDEAD to be a hip hop album. It is a cLOUDDEAD album, and as such, a landmark for music as a whole.

-Thistle

10.

Axolotl
Telesma
(Spooky Action, 2006)

Axolotl’s Telesma is the finest example of noise as beauty of which I am aware. Karl Bauer’s ability to turn a violin into anything but a violin is witchcraft, which is probably why I am so bewitched. There are so many layers, Telesma is simply bubbling over with gorgeousness. For fans of Belong, Fennesz or Tim Hecker, this is your new holy grail. I think it is better than any of them.

-Thistle

9.

Ryan Adams
Heartbreaker
(Bloodshot, 2000)

For some reason, at the very least when set amongst the album in my top 20, this album feels the most out of place. It is definitely the most emo album to make the list for sure and, in addition, it’s pretty straight forward country/Americana. Nope, no experimentation here. But there is just something about the emotional heft inhabiting the songs on Heartbreaker that accomplish exactly what the title suggests. The saddest album I’ve probably ever heard and an unfortunate fuel to my adolescent high school depressions. Now that I think of it, I probably wouldn't have been depressed at all if it wasn't for this album. Still, the album is perfect from front to back and one of the most beautiful records that I have ever heard.

-Thistle

8.

The Microphones
The Glow, Pt. 2
(K, 2001)

I received this in the mail along with UNKLE just prior to leaving on a 5 hour drive to vacation in Lake Powell in southern Utah. While I certainly leant some time to Psyence Fiction during the trip, it was The Glow, Pt. 2 which truly enchanted me. I’m sure that I listened to the album twenty to thirty times over the course of that trip and for good reason. The Glow, Pt. 2 is Phil Elverum at his very best. I mean, I’m pretty sure it is better than Mount Eerie, but I’m stubborn in my love for that album. So many little perfections and expectedly perfect album art.

-Thistle

7.

Sunset Rubdown
Shut Up I Am Dreaming
(Absolutely Kosher, 2006)

Following up the amazing debut of by his other “wolf” band (and who doesn’t have an “other wolf band” nowadays?), Spencer Krug set out with this side project to confirm his wonder boy status. Shut Up I Am Dreaming is not lo-fi, but it’s definitely rougher around the edges than Apologies to the Queen Mary. Lyrically, Krug’s work here (and elsewhere) is second only to Ms. Newsom. Krug’s fantastical poetics are transportative and perfectly matched with Krug’s knack for powerfully theatrical rock n' roll hooks. I love more than most things, rocking out on the air guitar to this album.

-Thistle

6.

Red House Painters
Old Ramon
(Sub Pop, 2001)

This is my Saturday-morning-with-nothing-to-do album. Getting up late, I used to turn this album on and just take an hour or so to get out of bed. There isn’t a more relaxing record in my mind.

-Thistle

5.

Eluvium
Talk Amongst the Trees
(Temporary Residence, 2005)

My acquisition of Eluvium’s Talk Amongst the Trees was a chance decision based on spontaneity; however, Talk Amongst the Trees is anything but spontaneous. I don’t think I would have ever guessed how deeply the looped ruminations of this album would penetrate me or how important it would be in my ensuing interest in experimental music, but that's the whole excitement of such purchases: not knowing. With the increasing pervasiveness of downloading, I think that that feeling has been lost a little bit. But I'm not here to worry about that, I am here to say that listening to Talk Amongst the Trees and its endless beauties is so wonderful that it has become a spiritual experience for me.

-Thistle

4.

Joanna Newsom
Ys
(Drag City, 2006)

One of the most consistently majestic, breath taking albums from this past decade. Newsom’s voice burrows so deeply and when laid atop of the incredible orchestration lent to Ys by whoever that dude is that worked on Smile it becomes, in a word, transcendent. Beyond the aural perfections of the album, Ys is chalk full of pitch perfect lyricism that crowns Joanna Newsom as my favourite lyricist of this past decade, if not of all time. I have no idea how Newsom plans to top this, but it may go without saying that her next release is the most anticipated that I can ever remember waiting for. Pure elfish magic.

-Thistle

3.

Animal Collective
Sung Tongs
(Fat Cat, 2004)

I don’t know of any album on this list that was as immediately, shockingly revelatory as Sung Tongs was to me. I mean, how could anyone get past “Leaf House” and not see the world in a completely new light? Along with all the creativity and beautiful musicality that is embodied in this record, one of the most incredible parts of it to me is the childlike wonderment that it invokes. There is just this haphazard, bare foot, running-around-the-neighborhood-causing-beautiful-mischief vibe that no album captures as purely as Sung Tongs does. This is what childhood is. This is the kind of childishness that informs, to one degree or another, all great art.

-Thistle

2.

The Microphones
Mount Eerie
(K, 2003)

The first time I listened to Mount Eerie, I didn’t know the ridiculously convoluted concept behind it. Yet, even without this knowledge, I popped the CD into my portable CD player (remember those), put on some oversized headphones and proceeded to hike up a nearby canyon. Alone with nature and this album, it was perhaps the single most poignant experience I’ve had with any album. Regardless of what you think of Phil Elverum’s nature deifying ideologies, you can’t fault the man for constructing perfect aural accompaniments for the beautiful nature of the northwest. I’ve listened to the album plenty of times since then of course, skipping the lengthy drum intro far fewer times than you might expect, and each time I’m astounded by the communal and artistic energy that the album holds. Is it any wonder why he is now known as Mount Eerie?

-Thistle