My favorite 10 albums from the 2000s, when it was the 2000s, in the order I discovered them (limit one per artist)

As I attempt to document hazy recollections of my youth. . .

--- haze--- haze --- haze -- BRITTANY-- NELLY -- haze

1. Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights (first "indie" ablum)

2. The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

3. Radiohead Hail to the Thief (first one I owned)

4. Arcade Fire Funeral (still exhilarating)

5. Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in the People

5. Kanye The College Dropout 

7. Spoon Gimme Fiction

8. Clipse We Got it for Cheap Volume II

9. The Hold Steady Separation Sunday

10. The Strokes Room on Fire (I came around late)

-- age ---

Notes:

- in the Year of Our Lord 2011, I caught Dan Bejar-fever and now I have to fit Streethawk: A Seduction in there somewhere (or others)

- a lot of these were crystalline debuts followed by subsequently disappointing careers (Arcade Fire, Interpol, The Strokes, increasingly The Hold Steady)

- Everyone knows about Radiohead's stellar 2000's run, but you have to put Spoon up there too.

- You could make a compelling argument for The Blueprint, The Fix, Stankonia, Madvillainy, Be, or even the Marshall Mathers LP, but I didn't really connect with any of these at the time except Eminem, and had mostly soured on him by 2005 anyways. Weird to see him re-emerge as a self-help coach. Rap had a weak decade; Nas didn't release anything at all (or so we should pretend).  

- I'm probably blanking on something. I think Spencer Krug of Wolf Parade was a major thing in my life at some point (one of those Canadian singers who can't sing).