#1: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
Seven years after Wilco's 1995 debut A.M., Jeff Tweedy, through the multitude of changing band-mates and inner turmoil, crafted (with the visionary assistance of Jay Bennett) Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album comprised of the tender alt-country folk that Tweedy made famous with the group's first three records and collaborations with singer/songwriter Billy Bragg, and a creative virtue that combed and cultivated one of, if not the decade's greatest records. By far the most jarring and bleak records Wilco ever produced, songs like "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart" and "Poor Places" were briskly profound in that they teetered on the border of heart-clenching and metaphorically uplifting.
"Distant has a way of making love understandable," Tweedy croons on "Radio Cure," making an unmistakable assurance that love, or at least the idea of it, can be as disconnected as the rest of us, but at the same time simple as anything. The same goes for "War on War," when Tweedy proclaims "You have to learn how to die/If you want to be alive," which can transplant the listener to the end and right back to the beginning again. It's not as if these ideas aren't completely contingent on the album; each song parlays some images of hope, loss and distance, while still keeping everything on track.
Quite possibly, it's all explained in "Jesus etc.," one of the most beautiful and harrowing songs of the decade. "Tall buildings shake/voices escape singing sad, sad songs," Tweedy writes, confirming the tilt of humanity's beauty and hopelessness in a short three minutes. Almost every song on the album, away from the touchy electro-blips, chrome sounds and shaky but appropriate drum beats hits the listener's nerves, both touching and relative to everyone.
For those wondering why so many people consider Wilco to be America's best band, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot gives it all away -- their ingenious creativity and Earthy tremble are everything that defines a band at their peak. And this record is portrait of not only the band, but the era itself.
#10: Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon
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