I’m late on getting you my list of the best albums of the decade, but it’s taken some time to dig through all of the incredible pieces of work that we’ve been hit with over the past 10 years. Since 2000, my ears have become keen to the inner workings of song and sound and it is partly due to the music below that I listen the way that I do. This decade has been an exhilarating one with bands like Animal Collective, Modest Mouse, Broken Social Scene, Death Cab For Cutie, and Sigur Ros solidifying their reach with monumental releases, and acts like Amy Winehouse, Norah Jones, Ray LaMontagne, Vampire Weekend and Bon Iver astonishing listeners with their debuts. I can’t resist including a few albums from smaller artists that are personal favorites, those of Leslie Helpert and The Slip. Dive in.

Death Cab for Cutie – The Photo Album (2001)
Death Cab weave together perfectly conceived indie pop songs, stunning in both their simplicity and beauty, permeated with vivid lyrics and visceral, rocking guitar on their 4th release.
mp3: Death Cab For Cutie – Blacking Out The Friction
mp3: Death Cab For Cutie – Coney Island
mp3: Death Cab For Cutie – Steadier Footing
Buy The Photo Album
MySpace | Website

Pinback – Blue Screen Life (2001)
The melodic subtle sonic journey of Blue Screen Life mixes lullabies and groove-laden ruminations into a superb genre of indie rock.
mp3: Pinback – Concrete Seconds
mp3: Pinback – Penelope
mp3: Pinback – Prog
Download Blue Screen Life
MySpace | Website

Zero 7 – Simple Things (2001)
The album combines an alluring mixture of sounds – electronica, jazz, soul, world music – featuring three talented vocalists (Mozez, Sia Furler, and Sophie Baker) to ride the top of these Air-like waves amid deep compositional swirls.
mp3: Zero 7 – I Have Seen
mp3: Zero 7 – Destiny
mp3: Zero 7 – Likufanele
Download Simple Things
MySpace | Website

John Mayer – Room for Squares (2001)
This is a lover’s album, perfect for wintertime snuggling with your honey. Mayer’s pop tunes have a certain depth, each filled with moving vocals and nakedly honest sentiment. Rooms for Squares is completely infectious and increasingly gratifying with each listen.
mp3: John Mayer – No Such Thing
mp3: John Mayer – Why Georgia
mp3: John Mayer – Back To You
Download Room For Squares
MySpace | Website

The Slip – Angels Come on Time (2002)
From the intricate bass/guitar grooves of “Get Me With Fuji” to the inspiring poetry and exploratory highs of “Sometimes True to Nothing”, Angels Come On Time peaks as one of my all time favorites. It was the soundtrack to my year.
mp3: The Slip – Get Me With Fuji
mp3: The Slip – Sometimes True To Nothing
mp3: The Slip – Nellie Jean
Purchase Angels Come on Time
MySpace | Website

Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People (2002)
This loose collective of wildly creative Canadian indie-rockers create a tattered, huge, unafraid, freewheeling sounds that are insatiably curious, effortless, fluid, textured, and inventive. Each tune glimmers with sheer radiance.
mp3: Broken Social Scene – Looks Just Like The Sun
mp3: Broken Social Scene – Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl
mp3: Broken Social Scene – Lover’s Spit
Download You Forgot It In People
MySpace | Website

Leslie Helpert – Thirteen Songs (2002)
This is when I first fell in love with Leslie and her music and it’s been a long journey since then. The gorgeous tamber of her voice, the poetic narratives, and her embodied guitar playing permeate these exquisitely crafted songs.
mp3: Leslie Helpert – Honey Pot
mp3: Leslie Helpert – Penny The Hen
mp3: Leslie Helpert – A Serpentfly’s Dream
Purchase Thirteen Songs
MySpace

Norah Jones – Come Away With Me (2002)
A seductive quality pervades the simple yet sophisticated and intimate ambience Jones creates with her music. It’s heart-warming, romance inducing, and brilliantly charming. The impeccable musicians she chose to record with don’t hurt either.
mp3: Norah Jones – Don’t Know Why
mp3: Norah Jones – Seven Years
mp3: Norah Jones – Turn Me On
Download Come Away With Me
MySpace | Website

The Postal Service – Give Up (2002)
Myself and so many others fell in love with the unlikely combination of Ben Gibbard and Dntel. Their truly innovative blend of indie pop and electronica just feels right and invites numerous listens.
mp3: The Postal Service – District Sleeps Alone Tonight
mp3: The Postal Service – Nothing Better
mp3: The Postal Service – We Will Become Silhouettes
Download Give Up
MySpace | Website

Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002)
This album intimately spoke to me and ever reminds me of what I was feeling during the fall of 2002. Anthemic, expansive stadium rock, moody and emotional equipped with booming crescendos and perfectly placed string arrangements. Pop ballads with a deep core.
mp3: Coldplay – In My Place
mp3: Coldplay – Green Eyes
mp3: Coldplay – Warning Sign
Download A Rush Of Blood To The Head
MySpace | Website

19 more albums to come…

After I heard “Concrete Seconds” off of Pinback’s Blue Screen Life (2001) in early 2006, I began to fall for the band. It’s ethereal rainy day music, inspiring you to float along, deep in thought, intertwined in their lilting rendition of indie rock. The consistency of their sound is comforting and travels through each of their albums. Each song moves with minimalistic keyboard parts, doleful dual vocals, soaring guitar lines, and meditative drum beats. Within them is a certain warmth.

It all started in 1998, when Pinback’s founding members found some time on their hands. Armistead Burwell Smith IV and Rob Crow, both singers, songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, began putting together songs that evolved into their ’98 self-titled debut, a 10-song thrust into dreamily controlled strangeness. They named the band after a spaceship crew member from the 1974 sci-fi comedy Dark Star: The Spaced Out Odyssey. Sergeant Pinback is actually fuel engineer, Bill Fruge, who puts on Pinback’s space suit when trying to rescue Pinback from suicide from wading into a fuel tank before the start of the ship’s mission to destroy unstable planets. Fruge inadvertently takes the place of Pinback and adopts the ship’s mascot, a mischievous alien “beach ball with claws”, that refuses to stay put in the food locker and forces Pinback to chase it all over the ship. Does it get any stranger?

mp3: Pinback – Good To Sea – Autumn of the Seraphs (2007)
mp3: Pinback – The Yellow Ones – Summer In Abaddon (2004)
mp3: Pinback – My Star – Offcell EP (2003)
mp3: Pinback – Concrete Seconds – Blue Screen Life (2001)
mp3: Pinback – Loro – Pinback (1998)

Pinback’s most recent album, Autumn of the Seraphs, was released in September 2007. The band is currently on tour with dates across the U.S. They play the Ogden in Denver on November 6th.

Nov 5 – Granada Theatre, Lawrence, Kansas
Nov 6 – Ogden Theatre, Denver, Colorado
Nov 7 – The Depot, Salt Lake City, Utah
Nov 9 – Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, British Columbia
Nov 10 – Neumo’s Crystal Ballroom, Seattle, Washington
Nov 11 – Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, Oregon
Nov 12 – Humboldt State University The Kate Buchanan Room, Arcata, California
Nov 13 – Bimbo’s 365 Club, San Francisco, California
Nov 14 – El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, California
Nov 15 – Belly Up Tavern, Solana Beach, California
Nov 16 – The Casbah, San Diego, California

Pinback | MySpace

Download through Amazon:
Autumn of the Seraphs | Summer in Abaddon | Offcell | Blue Screen Life | Pinback