"Spiders are singing in the salty breeze ... spinning out webs of deductions and melodies"

Precursor Ramblings To Bobby B's 50 Albums of the Decade...

It's hard to believe that we're already 10 years into this millennial decade. It seems like only yesterday we were all in fear of Y2K and all of the nonsense associated with that. I always assumed that by this time I'd be flying around in my fuel efficient time machine Delorean, paying $400 for a Coke and fighting intergalactic battles with Wilma Deering by my side. It was 100 years ago that Ottawa won its first Stanley Cup as the Ottawa Senators and it was also that same year when the first commercial flight took place. We're just shy of two years away from the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's massive sinking and just four years away from the 100th anniversary of WW1. We're currently also about 51 years away from Halley's Comet's next appearance.

But random wikipedia stalkings aside, at this here blog it's all about the music, and the internet age of this last decade has seen music become more and more accessible to the masses, as the general public is finally in a position where they get to choose for themselves what they're going to listen to. Sadly, the large majority still hasn't taken advantage of this newfound freedom, opting to put money in the pockets of all of the Theory of a Nickelcreeds and Taylor bleedin' Swift's out there, but I don't think that we'll be seeing that for too much longer. The foul stench of the music industry's rapidly decaying corpse is becoming stronger than ever, and the public will soon have no other choice but to look to podcasts, blogs and other independent sources to feed their musical appetite which means gaining recommendations from people who actually enjoy music. What a novel idea! We're inching that much closer to an era where the important thing will no longer be what a singer's midrift looks like or what music some stuffed shirt has slapped into the pretty person's teen drama of the moment, but it will finally depend on the actual sounds coming through your speakers. OK, maybe I'm dreaming, but when has dreaming ever hurt anybody?

Still, in the meantime, for those who actually care, we have access to more music than ever before, which means that, to my ears, music has never sounded better. I'm sure that hundreds would disagree with me, but I feel that the "oughts" have been the best decade for music since the 1960's, and I've found it downright impossible to keep up with every band, genre and artists that appeals to me; a problem I've never encountered before. However, this is a fun problem to have as I've been spending the last couple of months revisiting all of the music that I've been introduced to since the year 2000 in an effort to compile a list of my favorite albums of the decade. And I'm happy to say that, by George, I think I've got it!

Starting tomorrow, I'll be taking you on a two week journey through my top 50 albums of the decade. I don't think that there'll be a huge ton of surprises, especially for those who have been following my blog at all over the last few years. I worked hard to be as objective as I can be though, not allowing myself to be swayed by popular opinion or common thoughts on what is "hip" or "cool" or (ugh) "indie." There are a few choices that are pretty much exclusive to my own personal list, not because these albums are that much better than everyone else's, but more because I've grown a personal attachment to them. Of course, there are other albums that are making all of the "decade end" lists simply because they deserve it, and you're gonna find these ones on my list too. (Yes, of course Arcade Fire made my list because I'm not an idiot, but it's not number one nor is it in the top ten.)

So I hope you enjoy my ten day foray into self indulgence (eleven days if you include this wordy rambling) as I will have album's 50 - 46 posted early tomorrow morning.

The title lyric is from the song 'Spiders (Kidsmoke)' by Wilco (pictured above), an artist that makes a couple of appearances on the list.