The Greatest Albums of the Last Decade: A Record Collection in Retrospect

“I can tell you how I got from Deep Purple to Howlin’ Wolf in 25 moves…”

As the first decade of the 21^st century wanes, I am more inclined toward reflection, reconnection and introspection. But apart from channeling the late Johnnie Cochran, I’ve also been sifting through the sandbox of my (digital) record collection, one figurative grain at a time, moving the mountain as it were, and in the process creating a whole new filing system. For instance, if I want to find the song Landslide, by Fleetwood Mac, I have to remember that 'I bought it for someone in the fall of 1983' pile, but didn’t give it to them for personal reasons. It’s comforting. But that’s already too many High Fidelity references for one day. In the last ten years, 950 new releases (give or take a few) have one way or another, at one time or another, found their way into my hands. From this I have chosen to distill the best; the hundred greatest albums of the decade.

As I see it right now, there are two fundamental problems with this idea: one that I can solve fairly easily, and one that you as a reader can solve for me (which also sounds fairly easy). The first problem is that not all albums are created equal, yet all deserve reasonably equal consideration. How can a double disk, 28 track album be weighed equally against an album whose scant ten tracks clock in at barely over thirty minutes? How can two things that are inherently unequal be measured equally against one another? Rather than incite a race riot, I decided to leave the paradoxes to Zeno and have concieved a whole bevy of auxiliary categories, or divisional awards, to recognize the albums that didn't, couldn't, or shouldn’t have made The List. That is the fairly easy solution to the first problem. The second problem is that the pool of potential candidates is so vast that ultimately it’s impossible to keep track of everything that’s come out in the last ten years. Things have fallen through the cracks.

This is where you, the reader, can help. Send me your favorite albums. Not the actual albums, just the names of the artist and the title. It doesn’t have to be more than a few, or even just one. Tell me what's up. What’s moved you the most? What CD did you buy, or download, or hear somewhere that you couldn't get out of your head, that you still listen to, and that hasn’t grown old? Throw your favorites into the mix and see where they fall among the 100 Greatest Albums: 2000-2009. This window for submissions will be open for the next, oh say, 4 weeks. Sometime around New Year's, The List will be posted and all submissions (while just as appreciated) will only be considered for the auxiliary categories. There's no time to waste. Happy listening, and happy reading.