My Favourite Albums of the 00s

I was tempted to bring this right up to date - but good records need a few years to settle down in the memory. The 21st century started pretty poor in many ways - and technology has been the main story. That said there's a diversity of music out there unparalleled; if you like something then you'll find it, whatever the subgenre. Keeping up when you're in your 30s or 40s is a pointless exercise though I can't help but think that Simon Reynolds' view that we're in an age of "retromania" is the correct one - with the whole history of rock at our fingertips (you can buy the complete albums of Bob Dylan this Christmas for about £3 each - convenient I guess, but hardly the somewhat random way we experience music.) That said, there's been some good records; I just think the idea that there are major artists anymore - except maybe in the R&B and hip hop worlds - is somewhat ridiculous. My favourite artists of the decade are probably decent American rock bands like Mars Volta and Hold Steady. British music seems to have been in perpetual slump - though I'm thinking I must have missed someone or something, I kind of think that many of the bands I've gone to see have been from previous decades - and the replacement bands have tended to have one or two hit albums then disappeared or become irrelevant. Who knows? Probably too soon to tell. So a lesser list for the 00s, sixty records (or CDs or downloads) - I'm sure I've missed some along the way, but its what I've listened to, rather than what I've been told I should listen to.

1	Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2	Separation Sunday	The Hold Steady
3	Sounds of Silver	LCD Soundsystem
4	Deloused in the Comatorium	Mars Volta
5	The Greatest	Cat Power
6	Relationship of Command	At the Drive In
7	Fleet Foxes	Fleet Foxes
8	Time The Revelator	Gillian Welch
9	The Trials of Van Occupanther	Midlake
10	Kid A	Radiohead
11	Kala	M.I.A.
12	Turn on the Bright Lights	Interpol
13	The Marshall Mathers	Eminem
14	Stories from the City, Tales from the Sea	PJ Harvey
15	Hour of the Bewilderbeast	Badly Drawn Boy
16	Speakerboxx/The Love Below	Outkast
17	Boys and Girls in America	The Hold Steady
18	In Rainbows	Radiohead
19	White Blood Cells	White Stripes
20	For Emma, forever ago	Bon Iver
21	Elephant	White Stripes
22	Rated R	Queens of the Stone Age
23	American Recordings IV	Johnny Cash
24	Whatever you say I am, I'm not	Arctic Monkeys
25	Greendale	Neil Young
26	Since I left you	Avalanches
27	Blackout	Britney Spears
28	You are the quarry	Morrissey
29	No More Shall We Part	Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
30	Decline of British Sea Power	British Sea Power
31	The Strokes	The Strokes
32	45:33	LCD Soundsystem
33	Figure 8	Elliot Smith
34	Oracular Spectacular	MGMT
35	Lift your skinny fists to heaven like antenna	Godspeed Your Black Emperor
36	XTRMNTR	Primal Scream
37	In Ghost Colours	Cut Copy
38	Late Registration	Kanye West
39	Stripped	Christina Aguilera
40	Stankonia	Outkast
41	Tasty	Kelis
42	Love. Angel. Music. Baby.	Gwen Stefani
43	The Woods	Sleater-Kinney
44	Funeral	Arcade Fire
45	Dangerously in Love	Beyonce
46	The Power Out	Electralane
47	Echoes	The Rapture
48	Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots	Flaming Lips
49	Crystal Castles	Crystal Castles
50	Cuckooland	Robert Wyatt
51	Asleep in the Back	Elbow
52	Ladyhawke	Ladyhawke
53	The Real New Fall LP	The Fall
54	The Last Broadcast	Doves
55	Back to Black	Amy Winehouse
56	Thunder Lightning Strike	Go Team
57	Kaleidoscope	Kelis
58	Graduation	Kanye West
59	Supernature	Goldfrapp
60	Silent Alarm	Bloc Party