1. Brian Wilson: “Smile”
2. Loretta Lynn: “Van Lear Rose”
3. OutKast: “Stankonia”
4. Ali Farka Toure: “Savane”
5. Madvillainy: “Madvillainy”

…And of course, that list doesn’t begin to reflect album sales.

“Most Influential” might be marginally more do-able; but at this point in history, can we really say how influential Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” — which came out this year — will be in the long run, as compared to Radiohead’s “Kid A,” which came out in 2000? Let alone the albums released in the past week or two…So that, too, seems like a pretty slippery way to frame a list.

This is kind of a tangent and kind of not; but I have long believed that objectivity is a hopeless illusion and impossible fantasy when it comes to writing about the arts. In fact, I believe it’s an illusion when it comes to writing, period. Even in the realm of sports, I think that our culture’s obsession with stats and standings serves as much to obscure as to illuminate greatness.

All that said, I’d love to hear your list of 90s bands that you think everybody would agree are the “best.” I have a feeling that’d be the start of a serious flame war….Which is great for blog traffic. :^)

Number one bestseller of the decade? ‘N Sync’s “No Strings Attached.”

So, yes, this is most definitely a “favorites” list. My actual intent in writing it was less to quantify or enumerate music that I think everybody “should” hear, and more to give readers insight into what moved me most deeply in the past decade.

In that sense, it’s primarily an attempt at enumerating my biases, which I feel is actually a far more fruitful and honest approach to journalism in general than trying to hide behind a pretense of objectivity.

just my opinion, of course. i look at albums i have in my collection that i consider to be the “best” of their genre, and invariably, there is a consensus of this over a wide range of audiophiles. Willie Nelson’s “Stardust”, Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon”, the Beatles’ “Sergent Pepper” , Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue”…all land on someones “best” list at some point or another.

my “favorites” list would probably be a bit different, and include…like Joe’s list here, some music a lot of people have never heard. i respect Mr. Nickells’ taste in music….that is why i read his posts. by his own admission, these are songs stuck in his head, and most of us haven’t taken THAT ride, so to speak.

i agree that lists are hard to live by, and you can no sooner make one than you will realize you missed something……as for my preferring 90s music over this decade’s choices. i tend to view music much the same as you do. if it sticks with me, if it makes an impression. unfortunately, there has been too little music from this decade that has impressed me enough to want to rush right out and buy it.

don’t get me wrong, there has been some…..but compared to what i was buying in the 90s, my new music collection hasn’t grown much. i kinda blame the internet. with it, you can cherry-pick what you want to hear, but this unfairly takes away the power of some songs to “grow” on you….not like what would happen if you were to HAVE to listen to an entire album.

I sort of got into Radiohead in reverse chronological order so I don’t have your problem with “In Rainbows” which I also loved. I know it’s hard to imagine but I never really heard any Radiohead until about a year ago.

Also love the Bad Plus.

You’re the first person I know who prefers Radiohead’s earliest stuff to later albums; but to follow your point, I will say that my complaint about “In Rainbows” is that it’s the first one I’ve heard where I thought, “this doesn’t sound like anything new.” I like it, but don’t feel like it’s a major step for them. Anyway, I think it’s pretty amazing to note how many different Radiohead albums show up on people’s best-of lists: my coworker Michael Moore listed “In Rainbows,” while Rolling Stone put “Kid A” at the top of its list. So did Pitchfork.

Ultimately, I completely agree with you that doing lists — especially numbered/ranked lists — is a total minefield (that’s why, despite promising to do so yesterday on the blog, I’m still hesitating to attempt a local-release list). I find it a fun personal exercise ultimately, and I actually feel like I learned some things about myself and my tendencies through this process. For example, I had an alcohol-fueled argument the other night with my cousin about whether Regina Spektor’s latest album belongs on this list. In talking about it, I realized that I seem to have an unintentional and unspecific dislike for female artists of her ilk — I never got into Ani DiFranco completely, and felt even less interested in the work of Kate Bush and Tori Amos (both of whom are closer to Spektor than Ani). It’s not that I dislike strong women singers; Joni Mitchell is a top-5-of-all-time artist for me, and I’ve loved the work of Gillian Welch, Abigail Washburn, k.d. lang, and others. So I don’t know what the deal is.