40. Olavi Uusivirta: Preeria

There won’t be many major label releases on the list, but I suppose also those big boys need to get the credit when they deserve it. Olavi Uusivirta’s latest album Preeria was a beautiful 70’s kind of pop album. A couple of horrible songs as well, but I can forgive that, because this is mostly either great or really good pop music.

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39. Belle & Sebastian: Write About Love

Oh yes, I know this is a shocking place for Belle & Sebastian. Maybe I just haven’t really listened to this one enough, but you have to earn your ice time on hockey and I suppose an album has to earn the “air time”.  Write About Love is definitely a good album. Even a really good album. It might be a bit unfair, but I always expect something special from Belle & Sebastian and therefore just a good pop album feels like a minor disappointment.

38. The Hold Steady: Heaven Is Whenever

Pretty much the same goes here. Basic goodness from The Hold Steady, but nothing really earth-shattering this time around. Well apart from Soft In The Center and Weekenders. Those two songs are pretty damn wonderful and I love them to bits.

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37. Kim Curly Band: Kim Curly Band

Kim Curly Band’s beautiful debut album has gotten criminally small amount of attention on this blog. It ain’t perfect, but it’s still a pretty convincing debut album. If you are looking for finnish americana, look no further. For example Beauty and Through My Window are such a magnificent songs.

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36. Chatham County Line: Wildwood

Chatham County Line wrote possibly the greatest song of the last decade, The Carolinian. New album Wildwood doesn’t  contain equally stunning songs, but the band is still in very good form and deliver beautiful bluegrass and americana songs.

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35. Kasey Anderson: Nowhere Nights

Kasey Anderson was a new find for me and what a great find he was. A wonderful singer-songwriter capable of writing powerful country rockers and captivating folk ballads. Nowhere Nights isn’t perfect from start to finish, but there’s a bunch of really fantastic songs in here.

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34. Drive-By Truckers: The Big To-Do

Certainly not their greatest album, but the highlights like Fourth Night Of My Drinking and Birthday Boy are freakin’ awesome. I think that this time they really succeeded with those rockin’ country tunes, but some of those slower numbers didn’t quite rise to their standard level.

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33. Topi Saha: Verta ja lihaa

I’ve been waiting for this album since I heard Hämeentie 61 a couple of years ago on myspace. Topi Saha is a young finnish folk singer-songwriter and this is his debut album. It’s mostly gorgeous. Hämeentie 61 still sounds perfect and there’s at least 5-6 almost equally wonderful songs. There are a couple of “just ok” tunes, but hey.. it’s a debut and pretty damn impressive one.

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32. The Gaslight Anthem: American Slang

Maybe the weakest The Gaslight Anthem so far, but still pretty impressive stuff. And I’m not sure is it the weakest either. It could be just the fact that the thrill of finding them is gone and therefore it’s harder to find the same kind of excitement as before. It sounds like they have just one song, but thankfully that one song is so damn good.

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31. Lemonator: Shake, Shake, Shake

Chatham County Line: Wildwood (Yep Roc, 2010)

If I had to choose the best song of the last decade, my choice might be The Carolinian from the previous Chatham County Line album IV. That song might be the only reason that makes this new Chatham County Line album Wildwood feel like a minor disappointment even though it’s actually another very fine release. It’s just that you had hoped that there might be something that could match the brilliance of The Carolinian. Well there isn’t, so get over it man and learn to appreciate this beautiful album from one of the finest bluegrass and americana groups out there right now. Wildwood might actually be even better album as a whole than IV, because I thought IV had a couple of weaker tunes as well (or maybe not weaker, more like the high tempo bluegrass numbers weren’t actually just my cup of ice tea), while Wildwood gives you a steady flow of high quality country music and everything sounds extremely beautiful.

Chatham County Line Website
Chatham County Line at myspace