Great lists guys. Some (expected) overlap but also many that I’ve either heard of and haven’t had a chance to hear (Scott Merritt, Over the Rhine, Leisure Society, The Teeth) and others that I bought and maybe didn’t listen to enough (Rosebuds, Field Music), and still others that I’m thinking that in retrospect should have been on my final list (Headlights, Andrew Bird, Archer Prewitt, the last Elliot Smith).

A few observations thus far:

1) seems that people are having a hard time narrowing down their lists, which suggests to me that a) there’s a lot of good music from which to choose in this decade and b) as a group, we’re doing a pretty decent job of keeping pace with the volume of new and interesting stuff being released each year
2) despite persistent rumours of the death of the album and the re-ascendency of the single (and its shape-shifting cousin, the remix), it’s comforting to know that there are still some great artists who still manage to a) come up with finely crafted albums that are worth listening to all the way through and b) be very clever when naming these long play pieces of art (see The Good, the Bad and the Cuddly, Quiet is the New Loud), so much so that I'm now going to have to compile a list of the best album titles of the decade.