So when my friend, Ralph Klein, told me about NPR’s project, The Decade’s 50 Most Important Recordings, he admitted that he was not familar with some of the recordings. Musically pompous fellow that I can be, I thought to myself–well I’m sure I’ll be able to ID all 50 of them fairly easily. Boy was I wrong. I own under five of the 50 and I only recognize about 35 of the recordings.
Consider this list (which NPR conveniently breaks down into smaller chunks with sample recordings for each artist), which I provide after the “more” link.
01. John Adams: On The Transmigration Of Souls
02. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion
03. The Arcade Fire: Funeral
04. The Bad Plus: These Are The Vistas
05. Beyonce: Dangerously In Love
06. Bon Iver: For Emma, Forever Ago
07. Bright Eyes: I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
08. Burial: Untrue
09. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: S/T
10. Kelly Clarkson: Breakaway
11. Coldplay: A Rush Of Blood To The Head
12. Danger Mouse: The Grey Album
13. Death Cab For Cutie: Transatlanticism
14. The Decemberists: The Crane Wife
15. Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP
16. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
17. Osvaldo Golijov: La Pasión Segun San Marcos (Saint Mark’s Passion)
18. Green Day: American Idiot
19. Iron And Wine: Our Endless Numbered Days
20. Jay-Z: The Blueprint
21. Norah Jones: Come Away With Me
22. Juanes: Fijate Bien
23. LCD Soundsystem: Sound Of Silver
24. Lil’ Wayne: Tha Carter III
25. Little Brother: The Listening
26. M.I.A.: Kala
27. Yo-Yo Ma: Silk Road Journeys: When Strangers Meet
28. Mastodon: Leviathan
29. Jason Moran: Black Stars
30. OutKast: Stankonia
31. Brad Paisley: 5th Gear
32. Panda Bear: Person Pitch
33. Robert Plant & Alison Krauss: Raising Sand
34. The Postal Service: Give Up
35. Radiohead: In Rainbows
36. Radiohead: Kid A
37. Shakira: Fijación Oral, Vol. 1
38. Sigur Ros: ( )
39. Britney Spears: In The Zone
40. Sufjan Stevens: Illinois
41. The Strokes: Is This It
42. The Swell Season: Once Soundtrack
43. Ali Farka Toure & Toumani Diabate: In The Heart Of The Moon
44. TV On The Radio: Return To Cookie Mountain
45. Various: Garden State Soundtrack
46. Various: O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack
47. Kanye West: The College Dropout
48. The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
49. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
50. Amy Winehouse: Back To Black
These kinds of lists are almost always created to foster discussion, more than anything else. At first glance, I wince at the inclusion of Amy Winehouse, as I think Winehouse’s album is so effective because many of the recordings feature the Dap-Kings. And to NPR critic Meredith Ochs’ credit, she does say: “And, of course, it helped that the funk/soul revivalists in The Dap-Kings were there to make her songs pop.” But still I wish one of the Dap-Kings’ recordings had made the list rather than Winehouse. I may revisit this topic in the coming weeks, as I give some of the unknown (to me) artists a listen. Meanwhile, be sure to follow the link yourself and enjoy the listen.
Thanks to Ralph for giving me the heads-up on this gem of a list.