Rodrigo: A Life In Music

2005: Bloc Party – Silent Alarm

The past decade had great indie rock/punk bands emerging. Bloc Party’s Silent Alarm album was easily one of the best albums from 2005.

2006: Lily Allen – Alright, Still

Three UK acts in a row now. Can’t ignore Lily Allen because I lol’d a lot with the Smile video when I saw it on MTV one day while zapping through channels. Plus, for a pop album, Alright, Still was very good.

2007: Babyshambles – Shotter’s Nation

Blimey, four UK acts in a row! I love Pete Doherty’s voice, despite the guy drugging his ass off a la Charlie Sheen. And yes, The Libertines are much better than Babyshambles. But it was with Babyshambles that I first noticed Doherty and ended up with me enjoying Shotter’s Nation and The Libertines later on.

2008: Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend

Mainstream music in the States wasn’t my cup of tea at the time. Soulja Boy, Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Lil’ Wayne… they all make me rage only by existing. On the other hand, the indie music scene had Vampire Weekend making their debut album and it was refreshing to hear them.

Runner-up: Oasis – Dig Out Your Soul. Okay, Oasis is a big name, but I liked Dig Out Your Soul for the most part and the best part of it was that Oasis came to my country a few months later. I was glad to see them live before they broke up.

2009: The Asteroids Galaxy Tour – Fruit

During the second half of 2009, I was doing an internship at a hospital. When I didn’t have my iPod, I had no other choice than listening to whatever the radio was broadcasting. I can tolerate  and enjoy Salsa music only at parties nowadays, I’ll let you know that. When I had the radio in my control, it was radio Doble 9 for me. One day, I heard this song called The Golden Age and it made me smile. I thought The Asteroids Galazy Tour was from England at first, but it turned out that they were from Denmark. Fruit was an acid jazz/psychedelic pop album, but one that stood out to me the most that year.

Runner-up: Silversun Pickups – Swoon. Sure the band’s singer sounds like Billy Corgan, but they were one of the best acts from 2009 I’ve heard. Substitution [MV] was a sweet track to listen.

2010: Arcade Fire – The Suburbs

The Suburbs was easily 2010’s best album. 2010 wasn’t a good year in my life, but Arcade Fire helped me through it (first time I was exposed to AF was during 2010) and The Suburbs is simply beautiful to listen to. Although, the video can be depressing to watch at first sight.

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And it’s done! I hope you had fun going through this list. Definitely not an easy task when you look back in time and try finding something that you might either like or identify with. Selecting wasn’t exactly easy due to certain years of my mind playing tricks on me, making criminal omissions and whatnot, etc. I have different kinds of reasons for picking these and most of them are albums I liked, but some of them have a connection to my life. If you know me, you will find some odd picks here and there, but it is what it is. I’m not exactly sure what you’ll think about me after checking this, but I hope you enjoy it.