Lists: My Top 100 Albums of the 2000s - 90 to 81

Albums 90 to 81, here's the Spotify playlist, let's go:

90: Dodos - Visiter (2008)

Killer songs are generally abound on Dodo's debut, 'God?' and 'Ashley' are lovely and they go somewhere. At least, by the end of the record, it feels like you've been moved some place else. Blistering acoustic guitar thrumming and rim splatter pitter patter with the sticks.


89: Ponytail - Ice Cream Spiritual (2008)

Dustin, Ponytail's manic rhythm guitarist, typified the creative process for the band as building a bridge outward rather than some towering mass upward. It's the perfect simile for a band that really need to be experienced live to be experienced at all. 'Late for School' is an anthem for kids who just got out of bed and realised it's past nine o'clock. 'Oh! No! I'm late for schooooool!'


88: Why? - Alopecia (2008)

Probably the best first 5 songs on any record in 2008, Alopecia is the most interesting record of that year, and possibly the wittiest and generally most brilliantly written of the past few years. 'If you grew up with white boys who only look at black and Puerto-Rican porno because they want something that their Dad don't got/then you know where you're at/murdering your earholes shut with wet coke in a Starbucks' bathroom with the door closed/...Sending sexy SMSs to my ex's new man/cause I can'. Kurt Vonnegut would have rejoiced.


87: Italians Do It Better - After Dark (2007)

The perfect introduction to a range of artists both melodic in sound and conscientious in mind. Mirage's cover of 'Last Night a DJ Saved My Life' is my favourite, but Glass Candy's 'Miss Broadway' is a should-have-been for many critical 500 songs of the decade.


86: Andrew Bird - The Mysterious Production of Eggs

Do Andrew Bird's songs feel like hard work? Maybe they do, but it's only because he offers a good deal of investment, if you can wait out the beautiful parts of his songs. A bit like any Wolf Parade off-shoot, Bird's compositions are sneaky buggers that are fuzzy at first but soon enough they're ingrained on your psyche and inhabit a period of your memory. 'Sovay' is an instant stamp, though. 'Sovay, so vain', I think.


85: Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (2008)

Summaries of this record in 2008 end-of-year lists referred to 'haters' a lot, but there weren't too many from what I could see. Maybe a few people who'd grown a bit tired of decent American indie guitar bands. Nevertheless it was the winter 2007 tour with the Shins that opened Vampire Weekend to the broader British public. I remember laughing at the name, 'what a stupid name', but was quickly shut up by 'Cape Cop Kwassa Kwassa' which is a ridiculously simple ergo brilliant song.


84: Iron & Wine - Our Endless Numbered Days (2002)

It's pretty incredible what Sam Beam has done with the Iron & Wine sound, it's never grown stale. The man has a wonderful, very powerful voice that can reach out into an auditorium perhaps as you might not expect. On The Shepherd's Dog Beam expanded the band and the sound, but Our Endless Numbered Days is Beam's folk at its most refined. The Creek Drank the Cradle feels a little too meek sometimes.


83: St. Vincent - Actor (2009)

Yes, Annie Clark is beautiful, but that would count for nothing if she didn't have the persona. What's most attractive about Clark's style is her sense of suppleness, the damaged air that's carried over from her debut Marry Me. Clark shares Phil Elverum's sort of candidness but in a popular format that is entirely rivetting and diverse on Actor. 'All of my old friends aren't so friendly/and all of my old haunts are now haunting me'.


82: The Ruby Suns - Sea Lion (2007)

Sea Lion has the same sort of effect as Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. You end up saying to yourself, 'Why don't I listen to this more often?' The Kiwis shake things up no end, 'Adventure Tour' and 'Mojave' are remedies for those of us drowning in an age of plodding British 'pop' and 'rock' music. Exciting song structures and soulful ambience make Sea Lion a real diamond of a disc.


81: The Field - From Here We Go Sublime (2007)

The Field showed me that dance music was OK. You don't have to be white, bald and English to like it and, at their heart, songs like 'Everday' possess a transcendence that is of the genre of electronic music only. Lots of room to jump up and down with eyes closed. You don't need drugs for music this good.