GranolaBox

My 10 Favorite Albums of the Last Decade

Here they are, in no particular order.

The Jane Does - You Bring the Devil
This is perhaps my most obscure pick of the decade, and my freakiest find. The Queen of My Universe was showing me the tremendous hoax of a video blog called Lonely Girl or something, and she had a Jane Does song on the background. The Jane Does are a fabulous LA club band and I hope they someday get the national recognition they deserve. This is the best album for “gettin’ busy” ever done by a group of white men. You can get their stuff in itunes or their website.

Dwight Yoakam - Dwight Sings Buck
If you’d told me 30 years ago I would enjoy listening to Buck Owens music, or any form of country music for that matter, I would have requested you shoot me at the conclusion of the 29th year. Buck Owens music was the horrible stuff that came out of Uncle Ray’s speakers while he and dad drank Carling Black Labels and overcooked the food on the grill. But that was before I discovered how honest and catchy country music could be, thanks to Dwight Yoakam. This is a collection of quirky and endearingly catchy songs lovingly recreated by Dwight Yoakam. Cheers Uncle Ray.

Patty Griffin - Children Running Through
This has been the decade where I fell head over heels musically in love with Patty Griffin, and this album cemented my fandom forever. More than any of her other albums, this shows her tremendous musical versatility and range of vocal styles, from mousy folk to near brassy soul.

Todd Snider - The Excitement Plan
Todd Snider is now my “go-to” guy for quirky and often hilarious alt folk/country or whatever. Move over Dan Bern. How could an album featuring a song about a major league pitcher throwing a perfect game on acid not make the cut here at Granola Central. And… it’s a true story.

Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic
Most people probably don’t consider this to be Ben Folds’ best album, but I do. It’s stripped down, funny and downright vulgar. The high point is his extremely white version of “Bitches Ain’t Shit.”

Kings of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
These guys are an amazing combination of CCR and the Jim Carroll Band. (rest in peace Jim… sigh) I don’t what what the fuck they’re saying most of the time, but they’re real sincere about saying it.

MIA - Kala
My favorite Clash song is “Straight to Hell.” I have formed instant lasting bonds with other like-minded people. Since she chose to sample the song for her mega-hit Paper Planes, I instantly got a musical crush on MIA. She also samples “Where is my Mind” by the Pixies, another of my favorites. She also digs Jimmy Carter. Although the album is slightly outside of my musical comfort zone, it rocks my socks.

Green Day - American Idiot
This masterful concept album lays bare everything that was fucked up about Bush’s America. It was also the first album my oldest daughter and I both absolutely love. Although many of the teeny-boppers of my daughter’s ilk probably don’t know what Billy Joe is singing about… someday they will, and it will make my job of encouraging kids to subvert the dominant paradigm just a little bit easier.

Billy Bragg and Wilco - Mermaid Avenue Volume II
This is the second volume of Billy Bragg’s collection of Woody Guthrie songs. Guthrie’s daughter Nora found thousands of songs he’d written down but never put to music, mostly because he was succumbing to a form of Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Of the two volumes, this is my favorite, mostly because of the rocking “All You Fascists” which was my “go-to” song when I was angry at the Bush administration.

Indigo Girls - Come on Now Social
Although this album came out in 1999, it came out in LATE 1999, so I’m including it anyway. It’s the Indigo Girls most powerful album. It also marks the last Indigo Girls before Emily Saliers got dumped by someone, leading off the most depressing decade of Indigo Girls albums which thankfully seems to have come to a close with their latest effort. The album encapsulates where we should have gone politically and socially in the thousands… but didn’t.