TPTT's Top 5 Albums of the Decade

My friend and fellow blogger (although I am horribly out of practice) over at LastBestAngryMan had an idea for the two of us, as well as our other friend at Soul Kerfuffle, to create several "Top 5" lists for this past decade as, you know, it's coming to an end in less then a month! No, I didn't really think about that either.

Needless to say, this should be very interesting. While the three of us have similar tastes in many things including books, video games, music and movies, we tend to respectfully disagree a lot. And by "respectfully disagree" I mean make fun of (read: lambaste) each other's opinions. Well, they have opinions, I have truths. The sooner they realize this, the better (for them).

So without and further delay, I give you my top five albums of the 2000s...

5. Tweekend by The Crystal Method


Released in 2001 at the beginning of my club-going "party" years (read: not finishing my engineering degree), this album blew my frickken' mind. While I had enjoyed electronic music since first hearing Orbital's Halcyon (required listening), this triggered some switch in my mind, forcing me to buy turntables and start trying (not very well) to spin.

Highlight: The song Wild, Sweet and Cool gives me chills. I feel like I'm in my early 20s again when I hear it.

4. Stankonia by Outkast


This album was introduced to me by none other than Soul Kerfuffle while he was DJing back in the day (when we were both cool - ok not really, but we thought so). Stankonia single-handedly got me listening to rap again and I think illustrates just how creative and impressively performed it can be.

Highlight: I distinctly remember Soul Kerfuffle putting on B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad) in our apartment's living room. I didn't know how fast a human being could speak. Now I do. The Wikipedia article says the song is "high-tempo" which could be the single greatest understatement ever.

And now it gets ridiculously difficult as the next
three are among my favorite albums ever.

3. Black Holes and Revelations by Muse


Do you know what it would feel like to lovingly run head first into a beautiful wall of sound? Listen to this album and you'll know. It's a huge, epic, layered sound adventure filled with aliens, conspiracies, cowboys, robots and mariachi trumpets.

Highlight: The song Knights of Cydonia defines this album and the video is probably one of the best I've ever seen (link to the video here). My wife says that's how I do martial arts. No one's gonna take me alive.

2. Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle


Another one I got from Soul Kerfuffle. This album is beautifully composed and powerfully performed. I'm not sure there are too many song writers out there who can hold a candle to Maynard James Keenan's lyrics and ability to really convey emotion. You listen to the song Judith and you want to break something in a powerful rage. You listen to 3 Libras and you want to cry. This album is a rollercoaster in every possible way an album can be.

Highlight: Either of the previously mentioned songs are like direct-injection aural emotion.

1. Matter + Form by VNV Nation


Matter + Form is not just a dark, brooding electronically-laced industrial album. To me (since this is my list and all), much like Mer de Noms, it can bring out several powerful emotional responses from anger to sorrow to hopefulness both through the lyrics and the music composition. In my opinion that's what determines and separates incredible albums from good albums.

Highlight: The whole thing is impressive. Chrome is a great song to beat a punching bag or aggressively ride a bike to. Perpetual is downright uplifting (for VNV Nation). The song Endless Skies however, reminds me of my wife and my friends every time I hear it which probably makes it my my favorite song of all time.

Runners Up:

Futureperfect by VNV Nation
Inhuman Rampage by Dragonforce
Kid A by Radiohead
Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer by Of Montreal
The Used by The Used
From Here to Infirmary by Alkaline Trio
Bunka by Paul Oakenfold
George is On by Deep Dish
Discovery by Daft Punk
Word of Mouf by Ludacris
8 Diagrams by Wu-Tang Clan
St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley
Kala by M.I.A.