The decade list (finally)

There was a serious lost of adolescence that took place last night. Everyone celebrated with an extreme enthusiasm but my bottle of champagne and I merely stared at the screen like we were watching something offensive or shocking on the television. It was the moment I realized that no longer was my lack of spontaneity and discipline something amusing or funny. It felt like a punch to the chest.

It took my breath away to realize that everything I accepted as the status quo, my immaturity, my passive observation to everything around me, everything, is no longer going to my life. It was, in fact, gone.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time meticulously cultivating this list. But it was my last hurrah to a bygone era. While confusion will never leave my body, nostalgia would be the minimized cognitive file for years 2000-2009, and this is that proof.

This list is in not chronological to release dates, but to my personal chronology. The only limitation was that they had to be indeed released within the decade.

I was asked a year ago by a political science professor what three albums to take with me to a hypothetical desert island. This exercise was rendered useless, as these are all to be airlifted to me on this desert island.

Ladies and gentlemen, every album that mattered (to me) in the last decade:

Middle School 2000-2002ish

-Dashboard Confessional A Mark, A Mission, A Brand, A Scar
-The Strokes Is This It?
-N.E.R.D. Fly Or Die
-Radiohead Hail To The Thief
-Red Hot Chili Peppers By The Way
-Green Day Nimrod
-Kings of Leon Youth & Young Manhood
-Stellastarr Stellastarr
-The White Stripes Elephant & White Blood Cells

-Hot Hot Heat Make Up the Breakdown
-Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights


High School 2003-2007:

Freshman Year:

-Modest Mouse Good News for People Who Love Bad News
-Jet Get Born
-Weezer The Blue Album
-Franz Ferdinand Franz Ferdinand
-The Strokes Room On Fire
-OutKast Speakerboxxx/The Love Below
-The Darkness Permission To Land
-Jack Johnson Brushfire Fairytales
-The Shins Oh, Inverted World
-Elliot Smtih From a Basement on the Hill
-The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
-The White Stripes Get Behind Me, Satan
-The Zutons Who Killed The Zutons?

Sophomore Year:

-Scissor Sisters Scissor Sisters
-Saul Williams Saul Williams
-Kings of Leon Aha Shake Heartbreak
-The Secret Machines Now Here Is Nowhere
-The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
-The Killers Hot Fuss

-Snow Patrol Final Straw
-Rilo Kiley More Adventurous
-Shout Out Louds Howl Howl Gaff Gaff
-Bright Eyes I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
-The Hives Tyrannosaurus Hives
-Yeah Yeah Yeah's Fever To Tell
-Garden State soundtrack
-The Decemberists Picaresque
-The Postal Service Give Up

Junior Year:

-Matisyahu Live at Stubb's
-Damien Rice O
-Clap Your Hands Say Yeah Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
-Death Cab For Cutie Plans
-My Morning Jacket Z
-Sigur Ros Takk...
-Spoon Gimme Fiction
-The Thrills So Much For The City & Let's Bottle Bohemia
-Wilco A Ghost Is Born
-Wolfmother Wolfmother
-The Go! Team Thunder, Lightning, Strike!
-We Are Scientists With Love & Squalor

-The Black Keys Magic Potion
-The Flaming Lips At War With The Mystics
-Sufjan Stevens Illinoise
-Beirut Gulag Orkestar
-Arctic Monkeys Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I Am Not
-New Pornographers Twin Cinema
-OK Go Oh No
-Jose Gonzalez Veneer

Senior Year:

-Feist Let It Die
-Cold War Kids Robbers & Cowards
-M. Ward Post War
-Silversun Pickups Carnavas
-The Raconteurs Broken Boy Soldiers
-Iron & Wine The Creek Drank The Cradle
-Jenny Lewis & The Watson Twins Rabbit Fur Coat
-Gnarls Barkley St. Elsewhere
-Peter Bjorn & John Writer's Block
-Coldplay Parachutes
-The Unicorns Who Will Cut Our Hair When We Die?
-Arcade Fire Neon Bible
-Islands Return To The Sea
-TV On The Radio Return To Cookie Mountain
-Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Living With The Living
-Band of Horses Everything All The Time

-The Futureheads The Futureheads
-The Thermals The Body The Blood The Machine
-Belle & Sebastian The Life Pursuit

Summer Between Graduation & Freshman Year Of College:

-Apples In Stereo New Magnetic Wonder
-Earl Greyhound Soft Targets
-Lily Allen Alright, Still
-Danger Doom The Mouse and The Mask
-Okkervil River The Stage Names
-Amy Winehouse Back to Black
-Spoon Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
-Oh No! Oh My! Oh No! Oh My!
-Tokyo Police Club A Lesson In Crime
-Rilo Kiley Under The Blacklight
-Wilco Sky Blue Sky
-Shout Out Louds Our Ill Wills
-Grand Ole Party Humanimals

Freshman Year:

-Jens Lekman Night Falls Over Kortedala
-The Kings of Convenience Riot on an Empty Street & Quiet is the New Loud
-Les Savy Fav Let's Stay Friends
-Maplewood Maplewood
-Seu Jorge The Life Aquatic – Studio Sessions
-The National Boxer
-Ghostland Observatory Paparazzi Lightning
-Kanye West Graduation
-Mono You Are There
-Kimya Dawson Remember That I Love You
-Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago
-Neko Case Fox Confessor Brings The Flood
-MGMT Oracular Spectacular
-The Moldy Peaches The Moldy Peaches
-Cat Power The Greatest
-Fiery Furnaces Widow City
-Fionn Regan The End of History
-The Rosebuds Make Out
-Juno Soundtrack
-Two Gallants What The Toll Tells
-Rilo Kiley Take Offs & Landings
-Flight of the Conchords Flight of the Conchords
-She & Him Volume 1
-Vampire Weekend Vampire Weekend
-My Morning Jacket Acoustic Citsuoca Live! at the Startime Pavilion EP

Summer In Between:

-Dr. Dog We All Belong
-Devendra Banhart Nina Rojo
-The Hold Steady Boys & Girls In America
-My Morning Jacket Evil Urges
-Albert Hammond Jr. Como Te Llama?
-The Format Dog Problems
-Beck Modern Guilt
-No Age Nouns
-Daft Punk Discovery

Sophomore Year:

-King Khan & The Shrines The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines
-Jay Reatard Matador Singles ‘08
-The Mountain Goats All Hail West Texas
-The Black Keys Thickfreakness
-Cold War Kids Loyalty to Loyalty
-Animal Collective Merriweather Post Pavilion
-Cadence Weapon Afterparty Babies
-Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
-Neko Case Middle Cyclone
-Deer Tick War Elephant
-Starfucker Starfucker
-Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings 100 Days, 100 Nights
-The Pains of Being Pure at Heart The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
-Cake Comfort Eagle

Summer In Between:

-Dinorsaur Jr. Farm
-The Black Keys The Big Come Up

Junior Year (Until Now):

The XX XX
Dirty Projectors Bitte Orca
Neon Indian Psychic Chasms
Girls Album

The Avett Brothers I and Love and You
Jay-Z The Blueprint 3

Phoenix Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix