20.

Wolf Parade
Apologies To The Queen Mary
(Sub Pop, 2005)

Remember how early associations of Wolf Parade with Modest Mouse had the mainstream media constantly comparing the two bands? It’s a pretty ridiculous comparison, but whatever, it can be hard for Rolling Stone to distinguish between two bands that both use guitar, bass and drums. On my first listens I remember being intrigued but unable to grasp the album as a whole. I don’t think I knew then that there was two vocalists/songwriters in Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner. And so, Apologies To The Queen Mary unfolded itself to me slowly, but fold by fold, triangle by square, Wolf Parade became THEE wolf band of the day and, as it now turns out, of the decade. Wolf Parade’s debut is rich with grand songwriting at every fold, and still unfolding.

-Thistle

19.

The Knife
Silent Shout
(Rabid/Mute, 2006)

I came to Silent Shout way after the fact and, on my first listen, I didn’t get what all the fuss was about. However, on my second listen I tripped and fell deep into the bizarre electronic rabbit hole excavated by this genius brother/sister duo. Sassigrass and I almost solely listened to this album on a cross-country road trip from SLC to D.C. and back. I don’t know what type of Scandinavian bewitching powder these two used on Silent Shout, but it has kept me entranced and increasingly ensnared after every listen. One of the creepiest, kitschiest…you know what? I really don’t know. It simply it is what it is. There is nothing quite like it. In other breaking news, and in an effort to continue my ill-fated habit of pre-emptively announcing an albums placement on a best of list before hearing anything else: after having heard “Colouring of Pigeons,” the new track off of Tomorrow, In A Year, I think Sassigrass and I both are prepared to announce the album as the best of next decade. Seriously, If you haven’t heard it yet, you best get your priorities straight. Check it here: http://www.theknife.net/

-Thistle

18.

Animal Collective
Feels
(Fat Cat, 2005)

Feels is the first album from Animal Collective that started to receive the tag of accessibility, which is funny, because now each successive release has been their ‘accessible’ record. Who cares if it’s accessible when it's this incredible? Absolutely and totally amazing and imaginative and surprising. Sassigrass and I and a couple other friends roadtripped out to San Francisco in order to see Animal Collective shortly after this came out and it was definitely one of the best shows I have ever seen. Talking to their road manager at a show a couple years later in SLC, he remarked that that San Francisco show was the best show (the “quintessential”) Animal Collective had ever played. I think they were just feeding off the good vibes established with Feels. So many great moments, it’s almost too good.

-Thistle

17.

Cannibal Ox
The Cold Vein
(Def Jux, 2001)

The laconic delivery and undeniable chemistry of emcees Vaste Air and Vordul Mega as set to psychotic/futuristic production of El-P is, simply put, the best hip hop album of this decade (of course, IMO). No one else has pinned together such a consistently resilient lyrical exposition, nor has anyone delivered it with such a handsome array of aural paranoia. Simply astounding.

-Thistle

16.

Andrew Bird
The Mysterious Production of Eggs
(Righteous Babe, 2005)

Andrew Bird is a model of consistency. He doesn’t have a single album under his name that isn’t worth a listen. However, it was The Mysterious Production of Eggs that really convinced me that he was more then just a consistent songwriter. The delicacy of this album’s instrumentation coupled with the grace of Bird’s voice is probably one of the most charming things I’ve ever heard. His songs on this album are simple, subtle concoctions of lemonade happiness. This is the way I want my life to sound.

-Thistle

15.

Lightning Bolt
Wonderful Rainbow
(Load, 2003)

Wonderful Rainbow holds an unexpected romantic sentimentality for me. When Sassigrass and I first started dating we shared a bunch of music with each other and of the truckload of CDs I flung at her, Wonderful Rainbow was the first to stick. Later while playing the album in her room, I jumped atop her bed and proceeded to play a ridiculously technical air-bass line (I believe it was during “Crown Of Storms”) with all the proper punk swagger that is understandably missing from Brian Gibson’s statuesque live performances to the laughter of Sassigrass and, unexpectedly, the slightly embarrassing laughter of my future mother-in-law as she entered the room unannounced. Cute huh? Perhaps the cutest story ever to accompany this deathly pummeling monument of noise and rock that is Lightning Bolt’s Wonderful Rainbow.

-Thistle

14.

Arcade Fire
Funeral
(Merge, 2004)

What can I say about this album that hasn’t already been said? Nothing. This is indie rock at its most emotionally transparent and very best. Oh, and on a super side note, I loved Where The Wild Things Are (the movie, but also the book).

-Thistle

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