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Spoon, Sigur Ros, Super Furry Animals Lead Metacritic's Best Reviewed Bands Of The Decade List

6:55 p.m. · December 15, 2009 · by Ethan Stanislawski

While Metacritic's compilation of music reviews is kinda notorious for being essential a scale of 50 and above, it nonetheless is a good barometer of what a variety of critics across various sources (including our own) consider to be merely good, super great, and the best f*cking thing we've heard all year. Considering all that data, it's perhaps no surprise that Metacritic has compiled a list of the best reviewed bands and albums this decade. The list is organized by number of great albums, as well as mean greatness, while fully acknowledging the glaring omissions in Metacritic's database (there's also a drop down option for net metascore).

Topping the list of most "Great albums" is Spoon, a decision that shouldn't be all that surprising, considering how the band had the rep of "quietly" putting together one of the decade's best catalog's even before their 2007 breakout Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Icelandic post-rock leaders Sigur Ros form the second pick.

In a bit of a surprise, Wales' Super Furry Animals also had 4 great albums. SFA have had a lot of deservedly fantastic reviews (I consider 2002's Rings Around The World one of the decade's best) but for whatever reason, they haven't been able to draw in the same kind of generation-wide love that the other two have. These kind of omissions are why lists like these are created.

Most of the others in the top 35 are predictable: The White Stripes, Outkast, The Hold Steady, etc., but there are some other great, semi-under the radar bands included, such as Low, Portastatic, Elbow, and Lightning Boat. Rabid Animal Collective fanboys will think this thing is rigged for only placing the band at #6, even though Metacritic editor Jason Dietz fully admits that his database doesn't include any AnCo albums before 2004.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the list of the 40 best albums is dominated by old-times. Brian Wilson tops the pack, followed in short order by Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, and Tom Waits. Of artists to emerge this decade, Madvillain's Madvillainy tops the list, followed shortly by Dizzee Rascal, The White Stripes, and The Streets. Dietz acknowledges the overwhelming number of "indie/alternative" albums: "if this is indicative of anything, it’s of the types of albums both covered by Metacritic and favored by music critics."

This is actually a fun list, produced by something barely resembling science and a lot of musical obsession, giving it one thing most lists of this kind don't have.