Top 10 Indie Albums of the Decade

The first thing to do before presenting a best indie album list is to define "indie". In this list maker's mind the term has more to do with the degree of independence from influences than how an artist's work is distributed. In other words, the originality of the work is the thing. So, without further ado here goes a list of the 10 best "indie" albums of the decade

10. The Promise Ring - Wood/Water

For just about anybody that was in love with the raging youthfulness of The Promise Ring before Wood/Water was released, this album was a heavy disappointment. In fact it ranks poorly among many well respected critics. But for some of us, this record became a soundtrack for the time when we realized simultaneously that we couldn't always be raging youth nor were we anywhere close to being grown up. It is lo-fi at times and hook heavy pop at times, but the constant is Davey von Bohlen's heartfelt vocals that crackle over the peaks and the silences in between.

9. Thievery Corporation - Richest Man in Babylon

Luscious and sublime, Thievery Corporation's Richest Man in Babylon could be called a sonic tour around the world through language, rhythm, and ambiance. T.C. has continually kept the blend so smooth that it would be foolish to have an after party without them. Bringing vocalist together singing in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish, and Persian, the album blends so seamlessly that one could almost see it is a multicultural band of some 15 personnel that have melded their various influences together to create something wholly independent of themselves. Standouts are the entrancing chants of "Omid" laid over a back drop of spaced synthesizer and steady drum beats, and the jazzy trumpeting layered throughout "Liberation Front". This is one that is bound to have people grooving in their skins for years to come.

8. Bon Iver - For Emma For Ever Ago

Already the stuff of legend, the story behind this record, and Justin Vernon's ascent to the hilltop of indie stardom reads almost like Thoreau's Walden experience. After splitting with his mates in DeYarmond Edison, Vernon secluded himself in a cabin in the wilds of Wisconsin, and after three months emerged with For Emma For Ever Ago and apparently with a name for a band that would eventually become Bon Iver. The songs here range from simple to complex, stacked with layers of sound in the guitar strums, drums kicks, horns, and the arresting vocalizations that Vernon creates. It is clear from listening that this work was created in a state of deep reflection. It's as if Vernon accumulated lives of experience before stealing away to that cabin in the woods, attempting to encapsulate them all in nine tracks. An impossible task, but what resulted is almost as good.

7. TV on the Radio - Desperate Youth/Blood Thirsty Babes

The sound of TV on the Radio has continued to evolve throughout the decade and each subsequent record has showed growth and development in their sound. But this record had something so raw, original, and soulful that it came as a needed wake-up call in the lulling middle years of the decade. No one has ever sounded like TV on the Radio and it is a safe bet that no one will. "Desperate Youth" swaggers through the touchy opening of "The Wrong Way", breaks into the full on leaning back belting of "Staring at the Sun", and then pulls down into the nearly a ccapella opening vibe of "Dreams". The album continues on displaying the sound of a group that knows it is different and knows that it is immature, but is confident about what it's about, aware of the path forward and ready to bomb blast the potential pitfalls along the way.

6. Aesop Rock - Labor Days

If only for the production of this record, it was worth it for Hip Hop to have evolved like it did. Aesop Rock and producer Blockhead combined on this joint for some of the most lyrically and bombastically exciting sounds of the decade. To this day anyone that claims to have exhausted spins on this record is not listening. Of Course Aesop does not make it easy. After all the record is called Labor Days, so why would he expect that his listeners are seeking easily consumable hip hop cookie dough. Depending on who you ask Aesop Rock is just too far off on his own to be considered great, but at the very bottom of the madness of Labor Days is a commitment to fight for art for art's sake. Whether you agree or not the passion with which he commits is awe inspiring. Despite whether we can completely understand him he dares us to expand our minds, as in his serpentine ode to starving art, "Battery" Aesop broods that "There's smoke in my iris, but I painted a sunny day on the insides of my eyelids, so I'm ready now. What you ready for?"

5. Weekend Players - Pursuit of Happiness

If ever a recording was made for a late night drive through the desert with a set of friends that you know that you only have a short time with, this is the album. This is how I came to know that Weekend Players would always be close to the top of my play charts. The sultry vocals of Rachel Foster blended perfectly with the enveloping grooves of DJ Andy Cato. The beat of "Best Days of Our Lives" drips through the speakers like slow molasses and Foster's warmth surrounds us as if the song and perhaps the moment could last forever. It still breaks hearts today that this appears to be the only offering from the duo of and many of us still hold out hope that somehow something else will appear on the horizon and we'll know that there will be another trip to take, a further exploration of friendships and loves that we thought had passed through our lives forever.

4. Radiohead - Kid A

To call Kid A "indie", might be silly to some but as far as I'm concerned when an artist consistently breaks new ground, receives universal accolades, influences a generation of fellow artists, and yet maintains the ability to let their own work continue to evolve beyond what it had been, that is the essence of indie. Miles Davis, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, are a few names that come to mind. Since the 90s, there is one. In 2000 Radiohead did the inconceivable. They followed on the hallowed reputation of OK Computer, by spinning it on its head and turning away almost defiantly from the myth of Rock and Roll, creating this introspective and ground breaking collage of sound and mood that would set the bar for the 21^st century.

3. Radiohead - In Rainbows

In 2007 after having already set the music world on fire with the era closing OK Computer and subsequently setting up the framework for the next century of music with the revolutionary Kid A, Radiohead finally gets contractually freed from EMI and drops In Rainbows, a work that steps back from the chaos of transitioning into the technological age, and moves with the confidence of a celebrated craftsmen that have learned over years to create work that exists as natural extensions of themselves. The recording is intimate, nuanced, deeply felt, and dreamlike. Whether growling his frustrations in "bodysnatchers" or moaning his devotion in the enveloping "Reckoner", Thom Yorke's vocal stylings are on display here more vulnerable than ever before.

2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

"I am an American aquarium drinker, I assassin down the avenue" With these words Jeff Tweedy welcomes us to the smoky and vulnerable landscape of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. This album sways along like an all-nighter that is brought on by letting something go. It rings of a battle against solitude self inflicted and begs for something as meaningful as the memories we keep. Sonically, it travels through phases of complex arrangements in the opening "I am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "Poor Places", to the drum charged anthems of "Kamera" and "War on War" and then drops into the skip along playfulness of "Heavy Metal Drummer". The closing "Reservations" follows through with the promise of the opening track, and leaves the listener feeling that odd sensation of having had a great privilege and bounty, but left only wanting more.

1. Madvillain - Madvillainy

Daniel Dumile, AKA MF Doom easily gets the comeback award of the century, and the greatest representation of what Hip Hop can be in the 21st century came through this, his collaboration with the venerable MadLib. The range of the work on this record and how these two potent forces of hip hop complement each other is to the brain like a pair of pursed lips is to a balloon. Like, how do we get from a sample of Steve Reich's minimalist classic "come out" into the completely bugged out party track "America's Most Blunted"? From the verse.verse.verse format established with "Accordian" to the personal message encrypted in "Fancy Clown" to the universal statement of "Strange Ways" (They pray four times a day, they pray five, Whose ways is strange when it's time to survive) this work of art can be consumed almost infinitely on repeat. DOOM and Madlib bring beats and lyrics together in a way that few have done before. The only drawback to this record is the height of the bar that it sets for Hip Hop. Nobody else even comes close.