Over the past month or so, as most of the major publications, music magazines, and NPR programs have taken the occasion of the decade's end to look back at the best music of this year and the nine before it, the Nonesuch Journal has been making note as dozens of these best-of lists have included Nonesuch artists and albums. Now, as we prepare for our holiday break, and wish you a very happy holiday, we recap these accolades in this year- and decade-end review, and, in the image at left, remember all of the Nonesuch albums of the '00s.
Over the past month or so, as most of the major publications, music magazines, and NPR programs have taken the occasion of the decade's end to look back at the best music of this year and the nine before it, the Nonesuch Journal has been making note as dozens of these best-of lists have included Nonesuch artists and albums. Now, as we prepare for our holiday break, and wish you a very happy holiday, we recap these accolades in this year- and decade-end review, and, in the image at left, remember all of the Nonesuch albums of the '00s.
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When Wilco made its Nonesuch debut in 2002, it did so with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album that came with a much-discussed story, later documented in the film I Am Trying to Break Your Heart, and an even greater critical and fan response. Nearly eight years later, after three more studio albums, a live recording, a concert DVD, and the reissue of the band's three albums from the '90s on vinyl, Wilco finds its latest release, Wilco (the album), a Grammy nominee and on many year's best lists and its three earlier studio records declared among the decade's best.
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was named as one of the best albums of the '00s by The Times of London, Rolling Stone, NME, Uncut, NPR, Paste, Pitchfork, The L, and No Depression. Rolling Stone names the album track "Jesus, Etc." one of the top 100 songs of the decade (as it did Randy Newman's "A Few Words in Defense of Our Country") and also includes Sky Blue Sky on its album list. Uncut and No Depression both include A Ghost Is Born and Sky Blue Sky on their lists as well. Q took things a step further and lists Sky Blue Sky as one of the Albums of the Century.
This year's Wilco (the album), a Grammy nominee for Best Americana Album, was named the best album of the year by The Independent, a status that was recently reiterated in the paper's complete year in review, which wrote that "Wilco continued to push the cutting edge of American rock with this dazzling amalgam of styles and sounds, wrapping Jeff Tweedy's emotional autopsies in arrangements ranging from intimate country laments and burly rockers to pulsing electronics and expressionist avant-garde guitar barrages." The album was also included on best-of lists from AP, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, NPR's World Cafe, Sunday Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Mojo, American Songwriter, Paste, PopMatters, Q, the editors at Amazon, Uncut, MTV, Music OMH, and Prefix.
Time Out New York and Uncut both named Wilco shows as year bests.
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The Washington Post's Anne Midgette chose John Adams as the Composer of the Decade and said it was On the Transmigration of Souls, Adams's musical response to 9/11, that "cemented his place as the decade's reigning contemporary American composer." For WNYC's Soundcheck, she included his Dharma at Big Sur as among the decade's best albums. NPR's All Songs Considered placed On the Transmigration of Souls among the 50 Most Important Recordings of the '00s.
The Times of London declared this year's release of his Doctor Atomic Symphony as the No. 1 classical album of the decade. The Boston Herald and Denver Post thought it among the year's best (along with Richard Goode's recording of the Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos). The recording of Doctor Atomic Symphony, performed by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and conductor David Robertson, was produced by Steven Epstein, who was nominated for a Grammy as Producer of the Year (Classical).
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Alarm Will Sound's Nonesuch debut, a/rhythmia, is on the best-of lists from the Washington Post and the Boston Herald; its performance at the New Hazlett Theater in Pittsburgh this past March was included among the year's best classical performances according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (as was John Adams conducting of the Pittsburgh Symphony at Heinz Hall in January).
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Both of Amadou & Mariam's two Because/Nonesuch releases, 2005's Dimanche à Bamako and this year's Welcome to Mali, are represented. The earlier release, produced by Manu Chao, was named among the decade's best by the Times (which also included albums by Orlando "Cachaito" Lopez, Orchestra Baobab, and Youssou N'Dour), Sunday Times, Rolling Stone, and Observer Music Monthly. Their latest has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album and is on year-best lists from The New Yorker, the Amazon editors, Chicago Sun-Times, and MTV.
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Dan Auerbach's solo debut, Keep It Hid, out on Nonesuch in February, is on best-of-the-year lists from Mojo and NPR's World Cafe. The Black Keys' latest release, 2008's Danger Mouse-produced Attack & Release, is among the decade's best albums, according to Rolling Stone. (Paste named Danger Mouse the No. 1 Producer of the Decade.) The Boston Globe included BlakRoc, the band's collaboration with Damon Dash and hip-hop's finest MCs, among the year's best.
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Ry Cooder's Chávez Ravine, the first in his California Trilogy, which also included My Name Is Buddy and I, Flathead, was named among the Top 10 Albums of the Decade by The Independent (which also included Laura Veirs's Carbon Glacier) and among the Top 150 as per Uncut (which included albums by Emmylou Harris and Scritti Politti, in addition to others mentioned here).
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Christina Courtin's self-titled Nonesuch debut earned the No. 6 spot on Time Out New York critic Jay Ruttenberg's list of the Best of 2009.
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Bill Frisell's East/West was named among the Top 10 Jazz Albums of the Decade by the Times (as was Brad Mehldau's Live in Tokyo). Tucker Martine, who engineered the East half of the recording, was named one of the Top 10 Producers of the Decade by Paste magazine. Frisell's most recent two Nonesuch releases, Disfarmer and The Best of Bill Frisell, Vol. 1: Folk Songs, are included among the albums of the year as per Jazzwise magazine.
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Gidon Kremer's recording of the complete Mozart Violin Concertos, with the Kremerata Baltica, is among the best classical releases of 2009 according to the Boston Herald.
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Kronos Quartet's most recent Nonesuch album, Floodplain, earns inclusion in best-of-the-year lists from the Sunday Times, Boston Herald, Jazzwise, and Songlines.
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The Low Anthem's Nonesuch debut, Oh My God, Charlie Darwin, was named among the Best of 2009 by The Independent, Boston Herald, Q, Mojo, Music OMH, Paste, and Uncut, which also placed it at the No. 1 slot for Best Americana Album. Glide named the album track "To Ohio" among the Top 20 Songs of the Year (along with "One Wing," off Wilco (the album)). Baeble named the video for Charlie Darwin's title track the year's best.
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Oumou Sangare's latest World Circuit/Nonesuch release, Seya, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary World Music Album and was named among the year's best by the New York Times (which included Rokia Traoré's latest, Tchamantché, as well), Boston Globe, Mojo, Time Out New York, and Afropop Worldwide.
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Ali Farka Touré posthumously released solo recording, Savane, is on the decade's best lists from Observer Music Monthly and WNYC's Soundcheck (which also included Youssou N'Dour's Egypt). Touré's collaboration with Toumani Diabaté, In the Heart of the Moon, was named one of the 50 Most Important Recordings by NPR's All Songs Considered. (Its follow-up is due out from World Circuit/Nonesuch in 2010.) Diabaté's performance with his Symmetric Orchestra at New York's Poisson Rouge in April makes Time Out New York's list of the year's best shows.
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Allen Toussaint's Nonesuch debut, The Bright Mississippi, has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. The record, produced by Joe Henry, lands on the Best of 2009 lists from the Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, Sunday Times, NPR's World Cafe, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and PopMatters.
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And finally, Brian Wilson's long-awaited SMiLE, released some four decades after its original conception, is among this decade's best according to The Times of London, Rolling Stone, NME, and Uncut.
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