Please note that while I feel it is and it is for me, this is in no ways a definitive list, this is my personal take. These are the albums amongst those released this decade that I enjoyed that I felt were the best, not some weird pseudo-scientific definitive list. Feel free to list your own.

2000 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2001 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2002 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2003 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2004 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2005 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2006 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2007 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2008 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

2009 ~ Album ~ Artist ~ Reasoning

Please note before listing anything that it cannot be a compilation album, and that, while it doesn't explicitly need to be, it should be of music that was recorded in the decade(ie, things like a live album or concept album that were shelved in 1973 and were released this decade are preferable to be left out. Live albums that were from this decade that include songs from other decades are fine. This is excluding posthumous studio releases of music recorded and shelved, since they contain new material not heard until now. Posthumous live albums however are included in the rule. Tribute and cover albums are fine). And expect a lot of ties from me, this decade had it's fair share of music to my ears.

2000 ~ Brave New World/Riding With The King/Parachutes ~ Iron Maiden/B.B. King and Eric Clapton/Coldplay ~ It's just a good Iron Maiden album. There's really not much else to say since, as albums like Number Of The Beast and Powerslave proved, when Iron Maiden puts out a good album, it is a good album./I love Eric Clapton. I also love The Blues, and loving The Blues without loving B.B. King is like loving chocolate but without loving sweet food; it can't be done because one is the embodiment of the other./This was Coldplay's debut album. Like most debut albums it's either a Magnum Opus or a memorable album that's good but should be left to bigger fans. This was the prior, as long as you don't go in expecting anything that heavy, it's a great album.

2001 ~ Love And Theft ~ Bob Dylan ~ Probably one of Dylan's more notable albums not even a decade after it's release, if you like his three-parts Folk, one-part Blues style, it's hard to fault this album.

2002 ~ Rock In Rio/Electric Tears/Brainwashed ~ Iron Maiden/Buckethead/George Harrison ~ Live albums from Rock In Rio seem to be like albums produced with Eddie Kramer that have Steve Gadd on drums; They're almost always good. This is no exception. Granted Allmusic didn't like it, but Allmusic seems to hate a lot of things that aren't definite in quality./Buckethead is an awesome guitarist. Take Buckethead and give him a mellowy, ambient album featuring only guitars. Such is Electric Tears./This posthumous release was George Harrison's last, and even in death you can still tell he was one of the creative forces behind The Beatles.

2003 ~ Rush In Rio ~ Rush ~ Remember what I said about Rock In Rio albums? Take that, apply it to Rush, which amplifies it, then make it so good that by the sixth of thirty-one songs, you have 40,000 understandably electrified Brazilians singing along. To an instrumental.

2004 ~ American cool dude ~ Green Day ~ A lot of people hate this album for being where they consider Green Day to have become sell-outs, but to me, criticizing a band for becoming popular is just flat-out stupid, pathetic and as elitist as they think they aren't. Anyway, as for the album itself, I don't want to get into the politics of it because I know it was controversial. That said, it's hard to argue that this album didn't embody what a lot of people were feeling, specifically in relation to the US government. When you can embody the feelings of that many people in one album(And make it a Rock Opera at the same time), you have a good record. Two honourable mentions for this year; the first to William Shatner for releasing an album, because whenever William Shatner does something, it seems awesome. The second is to John Frusciante, for, at the same time he was probably getting comfy again with RHCP, who he left in 2009, and therefore had to spend a lot of time with the band, managed to write, record and release four albums and one EP. In the space of one year. Seriously, how do you come up with that much material in that little time and have it all be fairly well-received?

2005 ~ Octavarium/In Your Honor ~ Dream Theater/The Foo Fighters ~ In addition to being the last album to be recorded in The Hit Factory, John says he considers it one of if not their best work, and when you listen to it, you can hear why./If you like The Foo Fighters' style of music, it's hard not to enjoy the first side, and the second CD is all-acoustic, which really gives a nice contrast to the first side's heavyish guitar post-grunge alt. rock style.

2006 ~ Super Colossal/We Don't Need To Whisper/Modern Times/Straight Outta Lynwood/Endless Wire ~ Joe Satriani/Angels & Airwaves/Bob Dylan/Weird Al/The Who ~ 2006 had a lot of good music, didn't it? Right, on to the albums. Super Colossal is one of my favourite instrumental albums, and I think one of Joe's best. Some people don't like him(Particularly after he sued Coldplay), but I really like the guy and his music./It's kind of hard for me to come up with something to say for A&A's debut album, both because of how stark a contrast it is to DeLonge's work with Blink-182, and because other than Alt. Rock, I don't really know what it's supposed to sound like. I know that is sounds good as what it's supposed to though./Remember Love And Theft? This is basically Love And Theft, but better-received, just as good a listen, and platinum./There's something for everyone on this album genre-wise, the fact they manage to parody all these songs, styles and bands is just incredible, and most of it is hilarious./It's not another Tommy or Who's Next, but for a band who only has two of it's original members, it's a good album, and I can attest that when they play material from it live, they give it their all.

2007 ~ Systematic Chaos(Honourable mention)/5th Gear/Sound Theories ~ Dream Theater/Brad Paisley/Steve Vai ~ Honourable mention since it's basically what Dream Theater would sound like as a Thrash Metal band, and managed to be different enough from the rest of their library to expand the band's appeal while still appealing to their main fanbase and sound like them. Not an actual winner though because it just doesn't do the job the others did for me./I'll admit I bought this for three reasons; Online, Mr. Policeman(The song that I saw on Letterman that made me like country, telecasters and this man) and the fact there are two tracks under a minute long just called "Hidden track". But that said, as long as you don't dislike country, you'll find yourself enjoying this. If you're a guitarist, as long as you don't despise country, you'll find something in Brad's playing to dig. I guarantee that./Things always seem more epic and exciting with an orchestra. Steve Vai's music is already exciting and more than a few pieces epic, so when you give Steve Vai an orchestra, it's going to be good, and it is, especially since unlike a lot of modern musicians(Hi!), Steve actually can and has professionally written out and read sheet music and done orchestral scores. Admittedly I do not own this one(I intend to get it as soon as I don't have my money occupied with a new computer anymore though), but that said a friend does, and when I heard it at his house I was blown away by it.

2008 ~ Snakes & Arrows Live/One Kind Favour/Death Magnetic/Chinese Democracy ~ Rush/B.B. King/Metallica/Guns N' Roses Axl Rose ~ With Rush, a live show is something very interesting. Three Canadian gentlemen walk out, you wonder where the singer girl is, one grabs a microphone and begins howling away and freaking you out that he's a guy and can sound like that, and despite only having three instrumentalists, all the studio overdubs, harmonies, extra instruments and everything are there. Plus Geddy Lee will play bass and sing while playing synths and keyboards with his feet at the same time. If you're a musician and that doesn't leave your jaw resoundingly on the venue floor, something is wrong with you./B.B. is the king of the Blues. Every word he sings, every note he plays, every sound he makes at a concert is 100% filled with emotion. He can leave hundreds of thousands of guitarists behind him with one note. As such it shouldn't be too surprising that when he releases a new album while you're alive and you like The Blues, there's no excuse not to have it, and generally Buddy Guy is probably about the only person I think is alive who has a chance against B.B. if he's ever nominated for "Best Traditional Blues Album" at the Grammies, which this was. If you like The Blues, you either have this album, you're a liar or you're getting it./I can sum this up in one sentence; Metallica sounds like Metallica again! A relief too after St. Anger. That said though, the mastering on it is terrible, if you want to hear how it should sound, then my friend Luke has a remaster of it he's giving away(Since he's making no profit off it, there's no huge copyright or royalty issues I believe.), if you want it I'll give you his IM address and vice versa so you can enjoy Remaster Magnetic./This is really just here because it took twelve years to make and oh huzzah finally came out. It's not really a very good GNR album, is a pretty good Axl Rose album, but is neither as bad nor as good as a lot of people say. Again, it's really here just because Chinese Democracy coming out finally is enough to warrant it being a memorable album of the decade, especially with the whole fiasco with the free Coca Cola.

2009 ~ Working On A Dream/Together Through Life/Chickenfoot/21st Century Breakdown ~ Bruce Springsteen/Bob Dylan/Chickenfoot//Green Day ~ As that one guy who seems to be at every Bruce Springsteen concert just to shout this one thing says; BRUUUUUCE! If you're American, you like Bruce Springsteen. You don't have to be American to like The Boss, but you have to like The Boss to be American, and that rule continues with this album./It's not as good as the others this decade, but it seems this decade was very good for Bob Dylan and the neverending tour, as all of his albums from it were pretty good./Take two parts Van Halen, one part RHCP Will Ferrel, spice it up with some chemistry and mix it together with a little Satch, and you get the supergroup some people have called "The Led Zeppelin of this generation". That's a bit of a stretch for me, but even so this album was great, I'm kicking myself for missing their show here in the summer, and I look forward to their return./THis was a mixed bag for a lot of people, especially with the redundancy of osme of the tracks, but you can hear the band experimenting with more and more with different textures and flavours like Spanish music and ballads, moving to a more progressive style while keeping a Punk-centered nature. Plus it's a Rock Opera, albeit more abstract than American cool dude(Though more interesting fi you can figure it out), which always helps with me, especially since nowadays not enough albums are made to be listened to as an album anymore.

So, that would be my take, but again, I really want to see what you guys thought were the best of the decade.