Four More Albums

2010.05.30 in thoughts

I wrote about six "perfect" albums about a year and a half ago, and added another to my list in August. Using the same definition, I have four more to share! These are different because they're all recent — all four were released long after I was born; three of the four were released within the last decade.

None of these will be a surprise to anyone even remotely familiar with modern music... quite the opposite; at least three of these are considered by many people to be among the best albums of their year (or decade, in one case). But some people (Dad!) might not be familiar with new stuff but might still want to listen...

Without further ado:

	Wilco — Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002) This was initially "The Mike Album" to me, but it's taken on a life of its own over the course of the last few years. It's almost impossible to listen to just one song, it's a start-to-finish-style epic album.
Phoenix — Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (2009) I recently stumbled upon this album accidentally, and have listened to it with ridiculous frequency since then, something which seems to perplex Nate — who also loves the album, but doesn't expect me to — constantly pointing out that Phoenix has other albums (someday, Nate, someday!). Countdown and 1901 are my favorites, if you make me choose, but the whole album is fabulous.
	Sufjan Stevens — Illinois (2005) The second album in Sufjan Steven's now-defunct Fifty States Project, this is one of the few albums I've experienced with songs (click the link, listen to the lyrics, it's a beautiful song — but only if you're alone) that can quite literally make you cry. I got into it through Chicago, like most people probably did...
Oasis — (What's the Story) Morning Glory? (1995) One of the stereotypical albums of the decade of my childhood (99.999% due to Wonderwall), I didn't even acnowledge the existence of the other songs until Carol played the last track for me one day; since then, I've listened to the album in its entirety many times, convinced each time that I've heard the whole thing somewhere before — I think that's the 90s calling!