Travis Hay of Seattle’s Ear Candy blog drew our attention to Jeff Ament’s participation in Rolling Stone magazine’s Best 100 Albums of The Decade and Best 100 Songs of The Decade. According to the magazine, the panel included artists, journalists and industry insiders. “Each voter was asked to list his or her 25 favorite albums and songs of the past decade, in order of importance. Ballots were tabulated and weighted according to a methodology developed by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, under the supervision of the editors of Rolling Stone.” Amongst those joining Jeff on the panel were Adam Yauch of Beastie Boys, all members of Kings of Leon, Cameron Crowe, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Mary J. Blige, Tom Morello and uberproducer Rick Rubin.
The lists are featured in a special “Best of The Decade” Issue of Rolling Stone; below are Jeff’s picks.
Top 25 albums of the first decade of the 21st Century, according to Jeff Ament:
To this I say “High five, Jeff!” PJ Harvey is a goddess (though my choice would have been ‘Uh Huh Her’ rather than ‘Stories’ for album of the decade, but I digress.) Pearl Jam openers Ted Leo, My Morning Jacket, and Brendan O’Brien produced Mastodon are also notable choices. The man has great, eclectic taste.
Jeff’s Song Choices: 
More PJ openers make the cut here: Sleater-Kinney, Gomez, Idlewild, Dismemberment Plan (oh, how I miss them). Arcade Fire and White Stripes are thrilling picks; Jeff’s eclectic choices surprise and delight (Antony and The Johnsons? Gossip? Who knew?). And now I know why PJ Harvey – The Letter (from Uh Huh Her, thankyouverymuch) was on the mix of songs played in the various arenas around the country prior to Pearl Jam shows on the 2009 tour. I have always enjoyed reading about the music that artists I love choose as their favorites, and I admit to becoming life-long fans of some musicians as a result of someone I am already a fan of mentioning them – so perhaps I’ll check out some of this music Jeff mentions that I’ve yet to hear and listen with an open mind.
Rock!
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Ryan Adams shocked me.
Me too, especially when (IMHO) Heartbreaker and a lot of Whiskeytown is better than Love Is Hell
Oasis?!
*shudder*
Oasis. Really Jeff?! Oasis. I think that Atlanta mugging has effected your music taste.
what? no queens of the stone age?
Elbow on 2!!! Nice pick, man…
rainer maria huh? impressive mr ament…….
Didn’t Pj Harvey have a gid at Pearl Jam before for being a pretend alternative band?Good to know PJ still aren’t as petty as the people who insult them.
Tom Mcrae’s debut at number 4 ! that is awesome. He is defintely worth checking out if you don’t know his music. I’ve seen him in Boston 7-8 times and was an amazing performer and a very engaging and fun guy to have a beer with.