With the impending end of the first decade of the century looming in the distance, all one can do is take a look back at the last 10 years in music and create another list, this one ranking the best 30 albums of the last decade (With a sentence of explanation for each).

1. The Arcade Fire – Funeral

This album made baroque pop cool again, something that seemed unachievable after the Beach Boys fell apart.

2. Ryan Adams – Gold

Gold is alternative country at its very best, chocked full of sublime instrumentation and sentimental lyrics.

3. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions

The Boss sings Pete Seeger and brilliance results; there is something fantastic about the combination of Springsteen’s voice and Seeger’s lyrics.

4. Yeasayer – All Hours Cymbals

All Hours Cymbals is an album for the decade lyrically, thematically, and instrumentally.

5. Jonsi and Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

Jonsi and Alex’s post-rock/ambient masterpiece is an album to listen to all the way through (8+ times) to really catch it’s flavor.

6. Radiohead – In Rainbows

Radiohead offered this album to the public using a “Pay what you want” system; this album is by far the most cost-effective offering of the last decade.

7. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Indie pop with depth and from France? Sounds like a winner to me.

8. David Sanford & The Pittsburgh Collective – Live at the Knitting Factory, NYC

A Jazz album of famous classical songs, it is bizarre at first but develops into hands down the best live album I heard over the past 10 years.

9. Seabear – The Ghost that Carried Us Away

Simple melodies and thoughtful lyrics make this an album to listen to again and again and again.

10. DJ Danger Mouse – The Grey Album

The Grey Album brought the Mash-Up genre to forefront and paved the way for many other artists, such as Girl Talk and Super Mash Brothers, to craft what might amount to the music of the decade.

11. Lil Wayne – Tha Carter III

Tha Carter III is a Hip Hop opus. It’s really everything I look for on a rap album.

12. Bjork – Vespertine

Since the breakup of the Sugarcubes, Bjork has morphed her music into a alt-dance-pop genre that is all her own, this album is a true testament to that.

13. Jens Lekman – Night Falls over Kortedala

Soft and low-fi, Jens Lekman’s awkward lyrics, high tenor vocals, and orchestral instrumentation are a beautiful combination on this album.

14. Sigur Ros – Takk….

The name of the album means “Thank You.” Indeed this album is worthy of thanks from all of mankind.

15. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

This is dream-Pop’s finest offering – ever.

16. Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali

Afro-Pop, a product of the 1990s, was thriving this past decade and Amadou & Mariam’s Welcome to Mali is an excellent example of this genre’s potential to reach across cultural boundaries.

17. Gui Boratto – Chromophobia

This Brazilian electro album makes one both dance and contemplate.

18. Sufjan Stevens – Come on Feel the Illinoise

Stevens covers a lot of ground in this album dedicated to the Land of Lincoln.

19. The Hold Steady – Stay Positive

Stay Positive takes elements of grunge, indie, and alternative to craft a sound that is all their own.

20. The Shins – Wincing the Night Away

It’s surf rock with a modern sensibility, for fans of hi-fi rock, there is nothing better.

21. M83 – Saturdays = Youth

Anthony Gonzalez’s slow motion electro album is surprisingly capable as party music, it’s magic.

22. Brian Wilson – Smile

This actually happened.

23. Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago

Low-fi, depressing, but filled with emotion that makes For Emma, Forever Ago a really special album.

24. TV on the Radio – Dear Science

An opus for everyone, you can dance, you can listen, you can feel the rhythm; it’s indie, but there is much more there.

25. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Austin’s music scene and SXSW are still a force to be reckoned with.

26. Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes

Start to finish one of the most sublime albums of the decade.

27. Yelle – Pop Up

Feminist themed French pop with a universality that resonates from Reykjavik to Rennes.

28. Gregory and the Hawk – Moenie and Kitchi

An organic and pared down album full of emotion.

29. Sin Fang Bous – Clangour

This part folk, part electro, part alt rock, and part ambient album is all Icelandic.

30. Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

The First Days of Spring is a concept album for a new generation.

Honorable Mention:
Beach House – Devotion; Death Cab for Cutie – Transatlanticism; Familjen – Det Snurrar I Min Skalle; Feist – The Reminder; Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova – Once; Justice – Cross; Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are; MGMT – Oracular Spectacular; Okkervil River – The Stand Ins; Ray LaMontagne – Gossip in the Grain; Tokyo Police Club – Elephant Shell; Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend; Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the co-host of Saltimbocca & Escargot, Sundays at 8-10 PM Eastern Time on WRBC.

Now, just 10 days remain in the decade, and as such, another top ten list is in order. This time, I am looking at what I think are the ten best albums of the past year.

1. Jonsi and Alex – Riceboy Sleeps

This is one of the finest ambient albums ever made. This album is both enigmatic and idiocyncratic; it really grows on the listener such that it may be true that each time one listens to it, Riceboy Sleeps feels like a whole new album. Despite being produced by Sigur Ros lead singer Jón Þór Birgisson and his boyfriend Alex Somers, this album has a unique quality to it that fans of post-rock should hope continues in the future with Jonsi’s upcoming solo release, Go, which is due out early in 2010

2. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

It’s light and poppy; it’s deep and lyrical; it’s Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. This album is about contradictions and while that might not normally make for a stellar album concept, French rockers Phoenix have really produced a piece on indie-pop gold in this, their fourth full-length studio album.

3. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Delightfully weird, as one should come to expect from the Animal Collective, Merriweather Post Pavillion is a tour-de-force of the dream-pop scene, which is developing in and around Baltimore of all places.

4. Karen O and the Kids – Where the Wild Things Are

The Soundtrack to Where the Wild Things Are by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O and her consortium of friends and band mates is a beautiful tribute to the emotional connection we hold to our inner children, in this sense, it mirrors the film for which it was made.

5. Noah and the Whale – The First Days of Spring

I cannot stop listening to this album (literally); Charlie Fink dug deep into his own emotion to write this album, and to fantastic results. Watch the accompanying film if you have 45 minutes to spare.

6. Fuck Buttons – Tarot Sport

Tarot Sport is not for everyone, but give it a listen. It is minimalist electronica at it’s finest; it remains true to its roots but also has something there for the casual listener, which does not happen often in this genre.

7. The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You

The Avett Brothers beautifully blend bluegrass instrumentation with pop melodies and thoughtful lyrics to create an album that transcends multiple genres and arrives at something close to indie-folk perfection.

8. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear touches on several genres of the course of the 52 minutes of Veckatimest, expertly crafting an album that is a departure from their earlier work, but still is ultimately a tribute to the music they have been producing since they put out Horn of Plenty in 2004.

9. Phish – Joy

Joy should be considered among the best ever for the reformed Vermont-based jam band. Phish proves through this disc that they are not just for hippies.

10. Au Revoir Simone – Still Night, Still Light

Au Revoir Simone, despite using exclusively electronic instruments like keyboards and drum machines, produce something that feels organic and with glorious three-part harmonies evoke something more reminiscent of the 1960s acoustic folk scene, which is fairly unbelievable.

Honorable Mention

Air – Love 2; Ben Harper and Relentless7 – White Lies for Dark Times; David Guetta – One Love; Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca; El Perro del Mar – Love is not Pop; The Flaming Lips – Embryonic; fun. – Aim and Ignite; Great Lake Swimmers – Lost Channels; Matt and Kim – Grand; Morrissey – Years of Refusal; Mum – Sing Along to Songs You Don’t Know; Regina Spektor – Far; Royksopp – Junior; The Swell Season – Strict Joy; Yeah Yeah Yeahs – It’s Blitz; Yo La Tengo – Popular Songs

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the co-host of Saltimbocca & Escargot, Sundays at 8-10 PM Eastern Time on WRBC.

With just 16 days remaining in 2009, and the music calendar winding down, its time to look back at the year in music as I provide you with my picks for the 10 best songs of the year.

Usually when you are awakened three hours before the alarm goes off, it’s a sign that you might be having a bad day. However, when I received such a call one morning in October while on a trip in San Francisco, the opposite was true.

The call alerted me to the lineup of the annual Miracle on Tremont Street sponsored by Boston’s WFNX, which featured three of my favorite indie rock acts, in concert order, Passion Pit, Phoenix and Spoon, and the concert was to be held in Boston’s historic Orpheum Theater.

With some luck my friends and I were able to procure some tickets to this explosion of semi-independent musicians. After several months of anticipation, December 4 finally arrived and down to Boston we went.

PASSION PIT (♥♥♥)

We arrived just as local favorites Passion Pit were taking the stage. To be honest, I was expecting much more from the Cambridge natives. Their set seemed marred by the fact that they were out of practice in being an opening act. That being said, it was a good set and got the crowd warmed up for the night. Although the Orpheum is a seated venue, everyone in attendance was on their feet and trying as best they can to get a bit of dancing in, which was a bit complicated.

Their set took the basic form of their 2009 release Manners, and I kind of felt like they could have plugged in an iPod with their album and played it really loudly to get the same basic effect.

Here is a section of when they played their popular single “Sleepyhead”

PHOENIX (♥♥♥♥♥)

I have been fortunate to have seen many epic shows in my life, but Phoenix’s performance at The Miracle on Tremont Street was about as close to a perfect concert experience as I could possibly imagine. The French band began with the single of their most recent release Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, “Lisztomania” and followed it up with hit after hit from the breadth of their discography. The crowd was, in my opinion, there to see Phoenix and the mood was jubilant and celebratory. Every song built off of the momentum of the last and the interplay between performer and audience member was unparalleled. They closed with an absolutely epic version of “1901,” which bled into a pseudo-encore with an additional three or so minutes tacked on to what was already a really original reworking of the track.

If you can see Phoenix now, do it. You will not be disappointed. In the meantime, enjoy this video of them playing “Lasso” at the Miracle on Tremont Street

SPOON (♥♥♥♥)

At long last, Spoon took the stage and played a set that was decidedly different from the previous two bands. They opted to play a show that I thought was geared more towards their most devout fans than just the errant listener that thought Ga Ga Ga Ga was a fun album to listen to once or twice a month. Their set featured a lot of slow tempo deep album cuts, and the audience, who had been going wild for Phoenix only moments earlier was much more subdued, not really sure how to react to the music in front of them.

That being said, as a pretty big fan of Spoon when I was a Senior in high school, I thought their set was a good sampling of the variety of Spoons repertoire and a good concert over all. However, if I had been the concert’s promoter, I would have probably not even booked Spoon, it seemed extraneous and the juxtaposition between the sets of Passion Pit and Phoenix to that of Spoon was just too great.It was not until their last song of their encore, the ever-popular “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb,” that the audience really got into their set, which was unfortunate considering the quality of the performance overall.

Here is a section of “You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb:”

-Doug Ray

Doug Ray is the co-host of Saltimbocca & Escargot, Sundays at 8-10 PM Eastern Time on WRBC.