Best of 00's 49-59

• 49)She And Him-Volume One, She and Him's release is unique because it's an actor putting out a album that doesn't suck (Shatner's was spoken word so that doesn't really count as for the rest, sorry Scarlett Johansson) Zooey Deschanel's collaboration with M. Ward has yielded an album that (like much of Ward's solo efforts) draws from the pop memory of the past. There are musical refrences here to early R&B, classic country, and 50's and 60's vocal pop. Deschanel's unique alto has character but can be surprisingly pretty. It's a nostalgic album for a time that never really existed and it's worth the trip down memory lane.
• 50)MGMT-Oracular Spectacular, MGMT's debut album is clever genre bending music that is laced with clever quips, irony, and musical references as diverse as Prince and The Beatles. It keeps you on your ears and never sounds stale from start to finish.
• 51)The Black Keys-Thickfreakness, Bluesy and Raw, This Black Keys release is stripped of any pretense and just plays hard driving blues. This type of sincerity and rawness is so rare in our Rick Rubin-Timbaland produced music world that, although, the blues is always derivative, it sounds fresh and enjoyable.
• 52)LCD Soundsystem-LCDSoundsystem, LCD Soundsystem is a great electronica album that enfuses the genre with Rock n' Roll, and not in some heady kraut rock way but in a stonesy rock your socks of want to dance way. It's fun fresh and well produced. It's a great way to enjoy club music if your NOT into glow sticks!
• 53)Vampire Weekend-Vampire Weekend, This young band inflects rock with african rhythms and guitar styling, and then adds moments of pretty to all that, to create a fun album that never sounds stale or boring. It makes you want to dance. It is reminiscent of a good Clash album, clever but it won't distance you, Raw but not too raw, it's a great balance.
• 54)Bruce Springsteen-Magic, The Boss has still got it. I actually enjoyed almost all of Bruce's work this decade (although his latest, working on a dream was a disappointment) but magic stood out. Perhaps that's due to his overdue reunion with the E-street band. This album sounds like a classic E-street band album, but you sense Springsteen's realization that he is becoming one of Rock's elder statesmen. The album deals with subjects of love, commercialization, politic's and mortality, and hints at Bruce's age, and thats a good thing.
• 55)Nine Inch Nails-With Teeth, Trent Reznor, a fixture of the last decade proved with teeth that he still has what it techs to make a cogent well produced record. With Teeth follows in the line of Reznor's earlier work of surprisingly innfectios and catchy heavy electro pop, Yes I did say pop, NIN fans, you can cringe and threaten me with violence but the songs have clever hooks and you can hum the melodies sooooo....
• 56)Feist-The Reminder, The Reminder was Feists commercial breakthrough album, spawning the hit 1234, beyond that it is a collection of fine songcraft, sincere performance and smart arrangements. Leslie Feist's success has created an army of immitators, every corner you turn you here a commercial or radio song trying to immitate her style, but none have caputured her daring in arrangement or sincerity.
• 57)Mates Of State-Bring It Back, Bring It Back is fun always. Even the touching balad to this married couples young child has a light sincerity that is easy to listen to and pleasant. The bright pop rock is reminiscent (like so much of this past decade), of the 80's new wave movement. It's bright and sunny and well put together.
• 58)Frou Frou-Details-The combo of Guy Sigworth and Imogen Heap only put out one album but it is a beautiful marriage of Heap's at times ecclectic mix of electronica and barouque pop and Sigworth's straight ahead pop asthetic. Frou Frou yielded a fun yet intelligent pop album that doesn't really sound like anything else.
• 59)Iron And Wine-Our Endless Numbered Days, Our Endless Numbered Days is a delicate and emotional album, that invokes the sleepy southern landscapes that Sam Bean so expertly crafts. The greater production value of this over The Creek Drank The Cradle actually helps this message to effectively flow in a simple beautiful folk style.