The Most Memorable Albums of 1999 (Part 1)

PopMatters is 20 this year -- until October when we are 21 -- and a 2009 special section celebrates the popular music that defined the year of our birth. Today we kick things off with albums from January through March, highlighted by Eminem's debut and stellar pop from XTC and Blur.

                                      
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The 60 Best Albums of 2009

PopMatters turns 20 years old this October and we're beginning to celebrate our history by taking you back in time a decade ago. Obama was in the White House and the musical times were very good indeed. Revisit 2009 through its best albums.

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PopMatters is 20 this year -- until October when we are 21 -- and a 2009 special section celebrates the popular music that defined the year of our birth. Today we kick things off with albums from January through March, highlighted by Eminem's debut and stellar pop from XTC and Blur.

PopMatters turns 20 years old this October and we're beginning to celebrate our history by taking you back in time a decade ago. Obama was in the White House and the musical times were very good indeed. Revisit 2009 through its best albums.

Ahead of Record Store Day, a never-before-heard duet between Woody Guthrie and Wilco's Jeff Tweedy comes to light.

Wilco's de facto leader Jeff Tweedy releases his very first solo album of all-new material, and it's a quiet, powerful statement from one of America's greatest living songwriters.

More than two decades later, Wilco's first two albums are remastered and reissued with an expanded track list. Together, they paint a picture of a new band struggling to find themselves only to do it in an exceptional manner.

On their tenth studio album, Wilco dial down the noise but remain compelling, edgy and tuneful.

Saying "What's more fun than a surprise?" Wilco drops their shortest, barest album in their career, and it feels fresh and new.

These top 20 records of the '00s feature some familiar faces, but also several that, over time, have grown more fondly in memory.

Despite their canonical status, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Oracular Spectacular, and White Blood Cells lack the staying power of truly great albums.

Tweedy father and son combo journey down a road of reflection and introspection.

Ten years after the release of A Ghost Is Born, the songs still just aren't there.

If you can imagine Paul Westerberg and Rodney Crowell starting a band, something approaching Blue Rodeo is probably what you’d end up with.

This year saw the release of many truly stellar box sets and re-issues from the Holy Grail of Western pop music (the earliest Louis Armstrong recordings and the Beatles remasters on vinyl) to indie heroes like Sugar and folk pioneer Woody Guthrie. Here's ten of our faves.

Wilco's latest video is an animated one directed by Peter Glantz and illustrated by Nathaniel Murphy. The video is timed perfectly to the resumption of Wilco's U.S. tour, which will see them in Berkeley tonight and tomorrow.

Pitchfork's end-of-the-summer experiment, a global vote called "The People's List", resulted in a final list that was unsurprising to most and enraging to others. PopMatters examines five things we can take from this list, not just about Pitchfork but about contemporary indie music as a whole.

The band tries a bit of everything and the crowd eats up every bit of it. The whole love.

Despite some early sound problems, Wilco rocked.

PopMatters' explores the relationship between the Hangout Festival and the impact the Gulf oil spill had on the locals. Hangout also provided the best overall festival experience of the three years.

Sure, you may believe that it's not cool to like Train, but with the release of the unabashedly infectious California 37, the San Francisco trio brings fun back to pop music.

Genre-hopping jazz violinist's new Nels Cline-enhanced ensemble is a little bit rock 'n' roll, all great.

The 71st Most Acclaimed Album of All-Time is an American aquarium drinker that may be trying to break our hearts. Will it work? Counterbalance checks in.

Speak Into the Rose is the perfect primer for Wilco.

At the largest show in a five-night run, it is easy to believe a smaller crowd won’t roar like this opera house audience did when the house lights dimmed.

Predictions on who will be honored on “music’s biggest night”, based on a mixture of rumors, critical acclaim, and the academy’s voters.

Hellraising fans of the raucous electric Bottle Rockets live show may be taken aback by the stripped down revisitations here, but the snapshots of life and love on Not So Loud are all the more poignant in stripped-down form.

The threat of rain didn't prevent Wilco from playing to a sold-out crowd in Central Park last Thursday night.

With the upcoming September 27th release of Wilco's The Whole Love, the band’s eighth studio record, it's worth going back and revisiting the group’s impressive discography.

Bon Iver's "Beth/Rest" is just the latest song that beguiles as many fans as it detracts.

BB&C is Tim Berne, Jim Black and Nels Cline. Not beef, bacon and cheddar.

Each of these songs, in my mind, would fit Alison Krauss and Union Station’s unique blend of bluegrass traditionalism and progressionist spirit.

Weary of Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” for the 567th time? Here's an alternate selection of songs to consider spinning during the holiday season.

Primavera never stops growing. There are now more stages than ever before, a whole week of live music before the festival even begins, ad-hoc stages set-up in parks all over the city, as well as the obligatory closing party.

Don't let the man's tender tenor fool you: he's got a dark side. And the juxtaposition of the sweetness and menace are part of what makes the music so compelling.

Wilco pulled out one of their classic, epic, three-hour sets in Hartford, CT.