With December approaching fast we are beginning year-end
list season and with the onset of a new decade it means it is not only time to look
back on the last twelve months but the 2000s as well. Pitchfork already
categorized everything that happened musically in Y2K this summer and Amazon has given shoppers a
head start in the shopping department by giving the top records of ‘09 by genre
but my favourite list to date is NPR’s. Today they published “The Decade’s 50
Most Important Recordings” list and not only is it a really good list but it is
a really fair list.
In their opening paragraph they lay out the guidelines for
the picks and plainly state, “These are the game-changers: records that
signaled some sort of shift in the way music is made or sounds…Favourite records
don't necessarily qualify." The list isn’t bound by genre - country, jazz, pop,
hip-hop, classical, etc. – are all represented. And they roll the picks out in
alphabetical order with side captions as to why the album was relevant this
decade. Sadly, there is only one Canadian album but it’s a good one – Funeral by the Arcade Fire.
Check out the list here.
