This was much harder than the “My 50 Favorite Television Shows of the 00s” list. When I started the television list, I singled out 70 shows or so and cut it down to 50. It took me three days to come up with a first draft of albums and I ended up with 185! I was going to just do a list of 100 but I like consistency so I whittled the list down to 50.  The closer I got to 50, the sadder I got as I had to delete albums I loved off the list. After how depressing it ended up being bringing this list down to 50, a) I won’t even try to single out a top 10 (although I think “Kid A” would be my favorite album) and b) sorry, Karen, I won’t even attempt a 50 Favorite Singles list.

A couple of notes:

• Just a reminder, I am not saying these are the 50 BEST albums in the last decade, these are the ones I am most fond of
• Apparently my best years for music was 2000 and 2002 as nine albums from each year made the list.
• Nothing released this year made the list and only two albums from 2008
• Only Jay-Z and Radiohead have more than one album on the list (unless you count Jenny Lewis twice for her solo and Rilo Kiley)

Continue reading →