Once upon a time, almost ten years ago, I rang in the new millenium from Times Square. It’s funny to think that, by flashing forward 10 years, I’ll basically will have only moved cross town. Of course, the journey to get here – that cross town traffic, if you will – has combined for an amazing series of events that I can’t help but want to be introspective about. With me, introspection always is accompanied by music. After all, I wrote in a lonely, long lost blog on December 25th, 1999 – “They say the sense of smell is the most nostalgic. “They” never had my music collection.”

I know, I know – that’s a bit cheesy but it’s apropos to what I have always attempted to convey with my personal blog writing. Whether it was old journal entries with song quotes as a forward, my Wurtzelian style was predicated on the fact that, while I may have a certain strength as a wordsmith, I am only offering a glacial tip to the emotive mass that lay behind those keystrokes. For those of you who have been reading me for the past ten years, for those of you who have conversed with me about personal things, for those of you who have actually helped me through it all – you know what I’m talking about.

Carlos Santana once said that Music is all around us, and the musicians were just translators. What about those of us who fail to create music? I feel immersed in the language and, while I am not conversational, perhaps I find a deeper meaning being lost in translation?

My taste for music has definitely changed over the past decade. In 2000, I was enjoying the musical meanderings of Phish, the rebellious positivity of Blackstar, the organic hip hop of The Roots. My love for Hip Hop would swell and grow while I cast aside the Jam Band love that I had. I soon discovered real roots in the americana sound of Alt-Country – with the Tweedy lilt leading the way via Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, and the various bands he’s worked in. Indie Rock shortly morphed from there to where I basically stand today. I carry all of these timbres within me – I still listen to many of the albums that I loved during each year of my life. I think that’s a good metaphor for life. You carry with you the things from you past. You may change your perspective on how you view them, but ultimately they morph into a part of you. Here is my “off-the-top-of-my-head” list of albums for each year of the past decade:

2000: D’angelo – Voodoo
2001: The Strokes – Is this it?
2002: Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
2003: The Postal Service – Give Up
2004: Arcade Fire – Funeral
2005: Sufjan Stevens – Illinois
2006: Girl Talk – Night Ripper
2007: Radiohead – In Rainbows
2008: She & Him – Volume One
2009: Dirty Projectors – Bitte Orca

Are these the best albums of the decade? No – many of them don’t even represent the best albums of the year for their respective years. But they are a glimpse into my head, into my heart, to a place where music has a personal connection to certain parts of my life. Each of these albums I still listen to very frequently. They are part of my collective subconscious because I have listened to them so many times. Other albums from the past decade have joined their ranks. The catalog runs deep and, one day, when I have a lot more time to write and contemplate, perhaps I will share my breakdown of music by the year. If you want to get to know me a bit more, get to know these albums. You won’t be disappointed.