21. Young Jeezy - The Recession
(Def Jam Records, 2008)
This album is just a monster, I know a lot of people would rep for his first album or Trap Or Die as the definitive Jeezy record but in my opinion he really obliterated his early stuff with this one. “Who Dat,” “Circulate,” “Put On,” Word Play,” “Don’t Know You,” man, just bangers for days. There’s a reason this is the only major label rap album from the past 2 years on this list.

22. Fall Out Boy - Folie à Deux
( Records, 2008)
The arc from Fall Out Boy’s 2005 mainstream breakthrough, From Under The Cork Tree, to their current state, with several consecutive flop singles and the band taking a ‘hiatus’ that everyone is speculating is really a breakup, is lined with bad decisions and indulgences in tabloid celebrity culture that helped to alienated the band from their fanbase. But along the way, they actually rapidly improved as a band, going from being an emo band with ridiculous lyrics and better than average vocals to an omnivorous power pop band with an incredible way with bombastic hooks. There’s not really anything Folie à Deux does that 2007’s Infinity On High doesn’t (pianos and strings, drum machines, famous rapper cameos, R&B influences), but it takes that step forward and improves on it in every way, and there aren’t many songs I’ve listened to more in the past year than “The (Shipped) Gold Standard” and “The Disloyal Order Of Water Buffaloes” and “Coffee’s For Closers.”



23. Wye Oak - If Children
(self-released, 2007; reissued by Merge Records, 2008)
Sometimes covering a local music scene, you wonder if you’ve got blinders on, or whether the whole geographical filter colors your ability to tell the good stuff from the good-for-local stuff, and I grappled with that a lot when figuring out what Baltimore artists to include on this list. But this was one of those albums that I never had to think twice about including, and never thought twice about whether it was good enough to sit next to any indie record any band in any other city was putting out, even well before the little band called Monarch that I saw in some hole in the wall right before in early ‘07 changed their name to Wye Oak and got signed to Merge and started to become a sorta-kinda big deal.

24. Kanye West - Late Registration
(Roc-A-Fella/Def Jam Records, 2005)
Every phase of Kanye’s career as a rapper has had its own impediments, whether it was the Ma$e-like delivery and overeager punchlines on his early stuff, to the dumbed down U2 stadium rap approach to lyrics on Graduation, to the insufferable poop joke wannabe Wayne phase of his last couple years of guest verses. But right around Late Registration, he was as close to a great rapper as he’ll ever get, still trying too hard but actually getting somewhere. Add to that some of the most ambitious beats he’s ever made, with or without Jon Brion’s embellishments, and this is damn near the complete package, even worse fake Bernie Mack skits than the first time aside.

25. Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse
(Geffen Records, 2004)
After long jammy tracks like “Wildflower Soul” and “Rain On Tin” made for some of my favorite moments from the second half of Sonic Youth’s long career, my favorite band continued their unlikely 21st century hot streak with even more long jammy tracks like “Dripping Dream” and “New Hampshire.” The last two albums were really good too, but I wish they never started moving back towards more concise songwriting, as far as I’m concerned they can keep stretching out like this forever.

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