2005: Spoon Gimme Fiction (Merge)
Texas gave us numerous great bands in the last decade, from The Black Angels to Midlake to Explosions in the Sky, but none of those bands have given us a truly great pure rock album that stays fresh from start to finish with every listen like Gimme Fiction, Spoon’s fifth album. After about a decade suffering in bargain-bin purgatory, Brit Daniels & Co. emerged with Gimme Fiction, a hypnotic sonic accomplishment that became a hipster classic. You might remember the head-bopping poise of “I Turn My Camera On” from a Simpsons episode, or the thumping wisdom of “My Mathematical Mind” from the (great) movie Stranger Than Fiction, but Gimme Fiction is best appreciated as one seriously cool piece of melodically and lyrically thematic smart-rock.
Honorable mention: Animal Collective Feels (Fat Cat)
Adam Perry 