MALLINation

75. MGMT – Oracular Spectacular

Working with Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann initially tagged these Brooklyn dwellers with a junior vibe to the venerable Oklahoma City band. The slow-building success of this album and the audaciousness of the songs inside though proved that MGMT were doing their own thang – from the 80s pop sounds of “Electric Feel” to the rock star fantasy building of “Time to Pretend”.

74. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Grizzly Bear transcended easy psych-folk labels with their second album, extending on and improving their synthesis of Beach Boys harmonies and tangled melodies.

73. Morcheeba – Charango

Morcheeba began life as a bunch of trip-hop wannabes – a femme fronted producer-driven group. Yet on Charango their sound is broadened to include guests like Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner and Slick Rick, taking them into new territory both comical and musical.

72. Kanye West – Late Registration

Kanye’s second album found him building on the pleasures of the first one, with a touch less aggrandizing and a bit more songcraft.

71. M. Ward – Post-War

M. Ward’s very consistency makes him easy to overlook. I could have picked almost any of his 00 albums here, but it also limits me to just one on the list as they are fairly representative of each other. Post-War gets the most play at Chez Mallin however and Ward’s gifts for a tune and canny arrangements are well evidenced here.

70. Lovage – Music To Make Love to Your Old Lady By

Lovage is the demon child of Dan the Automator (nee Nathaniel Merriweather), ex Faith No More singer Mike Patton, singer Jennifer Charles, and guests ranging from Damon Albarn to Afrika Bambaataa and Prince Paul. The results are a steamy, tongue in cheek hip hop album that finds the erotic in song titles like “Stroker Ace” and a trio of Hitchcock nods (another master of queasy lovemaking hangups) “Lifeboat”, “Strangers on a Train” and “To Catch a Thief”.

69. The Postal Service – Give Up

The twee revolution will be heard! A side project of Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello The Postal Service became ubiquitous hipster go-to music in 2003 -04 and is the genesis for chart-topping sound jackers like Owl City. Yet the songs here have a warmth and immediacy lacking not just in the band’s imitators but also in the principal’s day jobs.

68.  The Roots – Game Theory

The Roots had an odd and sometimes rocky decade, ending as the house band on a late night talk show. Along the way they made some great music though, the strongest of which was on this fierce, rollicking hip hop album which is nearly the masterpiece that 1999′s Things Fall Apart was.

67. Lambchop – Is a Woman

Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner takes it slow and easy – smart considering the sometimes 20-plus band members Lambchop shows up with at any given time. His strange avuncular mumblings are combined with expansive arrangements most effectively here as the band builds their own unique sonic world.

66. The National – Alligator

The National slid Alligator well and truly under the radar but those who heard it filed them away as a band to keep an eye on. Oddly humorous and nostalgic lyrics are underpinned by a wide range of expertly executed indie rock stylings.

65. Decemberists – Picaresque

This is the last of the Decemberists albums that finds them in their classic mode and it embodies all their strengths of wordplay and melody beautifully.

64. Super Furry Animals – Phantom Power

The Furries had a hard time in the 00s reconciling their experimental, rock, and classic rock bents. On Phantom power they wisely go back to letting it all bleed into each other with songs about “Venus and Serena” (apparently they are turtles) next to George Bush baiting tunes like the title track.

63. Eminem – The Eminem Show

Eminem’s third finds him angrier than ever – cleverly drawing parallels between his detractors in the media nd the same media’s obedience to George W. Bush in the run-up to the Iraq War. Give him credit for calling the Bush White House on their lies at a time when it was quite unpopular to question such things. It also helps that Eminem could out-rap any of his contemporaries save Jay-Z and was aided by another solid set of Dr. Dre beats.

62. Neil Young – Are You Passionate?

Much derided this grab bag of tracks recorded with Booker T. and the M.G’s, at least one live track recorded with Crazy Horse and with the audience applause brutally edited from the end and various and sundry others was Young’s strongest of the decade and stuffed with hidden gems. “Let’s Roll” is Young’s typically patriotic (for a Canadian) recounting of United 93, the title track also alludes to the ongoing war in Afghanistan and the one then-brewing in Iraq, and the sense of Autumnal reflection feels earned, never forced.

61. Caribou – Andorra

Caribou’s blend of psychedelia and electronica is nearly perfect on Andorra, with tracks like “Melody Day” sounding like vintage Zombies crossed with Fatboy Slim.

60. RJD2 – Deadringer

RJD2 emerged as one of the most talented producer/DJs of the decade, transmuting crate dug old soul records into resoundingly fluid dance jams.

59. Frank Black and The Catholics – Dog in the Sand

The Catholics were Frank Blacks garage band bid to add distance between himself and The Pixies and by mid-decade he would immerse himself in americana with them. Dog in The Sand suggested the balance between the extremes of his old band and the more conservative approach this direction would take with one of his best sets of songs. By decade’s end the pendulum would swing back, the Pixies would reunite (at least as a live band) and Black would change back into Black Francis.

58. Neko Case – Blacklisted

This is Neko Case’s breakthrough as a songwriter rather than as an interpreter of country classics. As such she finds an aching atmospheric territory somewhere between Billy Holliday and Patsy Cline.

57. Interpol – Antics

Interpol further distanced themselves from Joy Division comparisons with this, their second album. The sound revolves more than ever around the crack rhythm section which whipsaws and pushes the lovelorn lyrics and heavily textured guitar around the map.

56. Thermals – Now We Can See

The Thermals suggested they were more than a run-of-the-mill punk band on their epic takedown of religion The Body, The Blood, The Machine but they improbable topped that with this, their masterpiece. A punchy tuneful heartfelt record about life and how it ends – go figure.

55. Dangerdoom – The Mouse and the Mask

A collaboration between two of the leading lights of underground hip-hop, Dangermouse and MF Doom brokered by who? The Cartoon Network? And it works magnificently – fittingly since both are cartoonish in their own ways.

54. Bob Dylan – Modern Times

Dylan continued his decade-long purple patch with this vital, engaging album that ranks among his best. With shout-outs explicitly to Alicia Keys and implicitly to Hurricane Katrina it shows him both of and outside our times, one of the greats just getting better with age.

53. M.I.A. – Arular

M.I.A. took listeners on a global dance tour with beats and tunes galore on her audacious debut.

52. Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones

Yeah Yeah Yeah’s succumbed to the familiar overhyped expectations surrounding the follow-up to their debut and like fellow New Yorkers the Strokes, had a very fine album overlooked as a consequence. Some of the bands best and most intricate songwriting is on this glorious breakup album.

51. Beck – Sea Change

Hailed by some as Beck’s best (it’s not), the quirky genious backs away from the Prince-like loveman poses of the glorious Midnight Vultures and gets vulnerable with a break-up album of his own. Mirroring the baroque arrangements of his underrated Mutations album and adding his most direct lyrics yet (or since) Sea Change didn’t really mark a new Beck, just another version of the same one we know.