NME picks its top album of the decade: The Strokes?

Year-end lists are a beloved institution with the music press, so you can imagine the excitement among record geeks when an influential rag like Britain's New Musical Express (NME) publishes its list of the top 100 albums of the decade.

NME polled a gaggle of musicians, producers and other biz types, who collectively determined that the best album of the 2000s was... The Strokes' Is This It.

Say wha'?

By the way, indignation is the proper response to any best-of list, which is really just a provocation masquerading as an exercise in curating art. (That's kinda why we put together our decade-in-review package a couple of weeks ago.)

But now I really must protest. The Strokes? Is This It was really more of a moment than a genius piece of art - a moment when the British music press became inexplicably infatuated with a late-'70s New York rock style, aped with studied insouciance by said Strokes. Julian Casablancas, the band's singer, doesn't sing so much as mumble - and he's well aware of that. And the guitar playing is rudimentary. But hey, the band looks great in skinny jeans.

Moving along, NME's list does contain some brilliant discs, including some key CanCon (Arcade Fire, Crystal Castles). Have a look at the top 10:

1. The Strokes, Is This It
2. The Libertines, Up The Bracket
3. Primal Scream, XTRMNTR
4. Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever To Tell
6. PJ Harvey, Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
7. Arcade Fire, Funeral
8. Interpol, Turn On The Bright Lights
9. The Streets, Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead, In Rainbows

The rest of the list is here.

What do you think of NME's picks? What do you think is the best album released in the 2000s?