R. Kelly | Jump Back Jake and the Echo-Friendly

5 of my Favorite Records of the Decade

I’ve been reading a lot of these kinds of lists, some of them claiming to be objective and some of them very personal. I will not claim these as the best records of the decade, particularly because I haven’t included any hip-hop or r&b records on here and I realize that this decade was defined by some amazing records in those genres. Jay-Z’s Blueprint and Black albums for example or several of R. Kelly‘s hits are as good as anything I could think to put on this list.

Truthfully though, as a guy that plays in Rock bands and writes songs, I just don’t think I’m qualified to discuss that music in any kind of intelligent way even though I enjoy it. So I will talk about Rock records, posting one that I deem important every day or so.

: Cover of Is This It

5) The Strokes: Is This It
The first time I saw the Strokes was at Pearl St. in Northampton, Mass. I was 19 and we drove up from Wesleyan to see a band that everyone was talking about whose record had not yet even been released in the US. I hated the show. They dressed like me and my friends, only better and cuter. I wanted to be what they were more than anything in the world and I wanted to be better than they were. In retrospect, that was a sure fire sign that this band was pretty fucking good. Then the record came out and I loved it. It became the soundtrack to the days following 9/11 and was the last tribute to the New York that existed before that day and would never exist again. 40 oz bottles of malt liquor from the bodega, bad pot, and pretty girls from private schools no longer seemed to be the center of the universe, but we could listen Julian Casablancas sing about it and morn the loss of simpler times. Now when I listen to that music, the only nostalgia I feel is for a time when people were recording rock records instead of post-rave electronic indie-mush for the Brooklyn kids. Mainly I just think the songs are great, the riffs are strong, and the rhythms are contagious, I certainly can’t say that about many NY bands today.

Best Track: The Modern Age