I just realized it’s been well over a month since I last posted an mp3 and almost 3 months since my last Mike Mix! I sincerely apologize. Now that my year-end coverage is officially complete, I will return to my normal schedule. And I have a lot to write about. Over the past few months, I’ve become obsessed with a handful of amazing albums. I hope to write about each one in the coming weeks. I might even come up with a catchy title for the feature. Stay tuned.

But before I do that, I have a brand new Mike Mix to introduce. A quick glance at the track list (below) reveals that nearly half of the songs come from only two bands: Loney, Dear and Annuals. If you’ve never heard these two artists before, Mike Mix 12 will serve as an excellent introduction to them. Make sure to check out the track “Always Do.” The pedal steel and soaring middle section of the song are truly incredible.

Scattered between these tracks are dusty gems by some of my all-time favorite bands. Highlights include: “Metal Detektor,” an effortlessly cool number by Spoon; “Uprooted,” a slow-burning anthem from The Antlers; and “About Today,” a slice of late-night perfection by The National.

As always, I highly recommend listening to Mike Mix 12 in the order presented below. Download the entire mix here or stream it using the player below! Enjoy!

1	Spoon :: Metal Detektor
2	Loney, Dear :: Distant Lights
3	The National :: About Today
4	My Morning Jacket :: The Bear
5	Annuals :: Always Do
6	Annuals :: Ida, My
7	The American Analog Set :: The Postman
8	Bishop Allen :: I Get Along
9	Loney, Dear :: I Was Only Going Out
10	Loney, Dear :: Summers
11	Annuals :: Sway
12	Devin Davis :: Deserted Island
13	The Antlers :: Uprooted
14	Hayden :: You Are All I Have

Initially I didn’t think I could write this post. It seemed like an impossible task. How on earth was I supposed to come up with and then rank my favorite albums from the past decade? I have enough trouble doing it for just one year. There’s simply too much good music out there (despite my occasional whining to the contrary).

But when I really started thinking about it, I came to the following conclusion: a decade is a terrible thing to waste. In all reality, I may not get another opportunity like this. After all, who knows what I’ll be doing ten years from now. Also, musically speaking, the past decade was an important one for me. Over the course of ten years, my muted appreciation of music gradually transformed into a full-blown obsession. I now spend most of my free time searching for, writing about, and listening to music.

In the end I guess it was a pretty easy decision. I would’ve been extremely foolish to let the decade pass without weighing in on my favorite albums. It was a lot of work, but I managed to compile a list of my 30 favorite albums from 2000-2009. Not necessarily the best or most important albums, but those that had the greatest impact on me.

With all that said, I proudly present the Top 30 Albums of the Decade…

Like I said, compiling this list was no easy task. In the end, tons of amazing albums got axed. Check the comments to see which ones barely missed the cut. And leave comments to let me know which albums I missed completely!

One of the reasons I love eMusic is that I can always count on them having those rare compilation discs put out by my favorite indie labels. Which is great for two reasons: (1) I don’t have to track them down in the stores and (2) I don’t have to spend big bucks on the one or two tracks I actually want.

With that said, there’s not much more I can say about the tracks posted below. Recorded by two of my favorite artists, both songs can only be found on the Kill Rock Stars compilation The Sound the Hare Heard.

Keep your eye on Devin Davis and Jeff Hanson as they are both looking to release new albums sometime soon (I cannot be more specific because they refuse to be more specific). Hopefully the songs below will make the wait more tolerable, or if you’ve never heard of these artists, will serve as a proper introduction.

[mp3] Devin Davis :: When the Angels Lift Our Eyelids In the Morning
[mp3] Jeff Hanson :: Daylight

As the end of yet another year approaches, every music blog and magazine on the planet will rank the best albums and songs of the past year. Will Mike Went West, a blog that prides itself on being different, join the masses?

Hell yes I will. Who would pass up the opportunity to distill all of the year’s music into an intensely-biased list of 10 or so top albums? Clearly not me. But seeing as how the year hasn’t come to a close yet, my list of the top 10 albums of 2006 and my podcast of the top 10 songs of 2006 probably won’t be out until mid-January.

So then why am I even mentioning all of this? Simple: I’ve got some other lists I want to post first. So sit back and enjoy the best albums of 2005 that I didn’t listen to or fully appreciate until 2006.

Jeff Hanson – Jeff Hanson

Yes I know, Jeff Hanson sounds like a girl. If you’ve listened to my second mix tape, you know what I’m taking about. Once you get past that, however, you’ll soon realize he writes some beautiful, catchy songs. He draws lots of comparisons to Elliott Smith for good reason: his melodies and arrangements are immediately catchy, while the lyrics are full of heartache and longing. The track posted below is one of the most upbeat songs on the album.

[mp3] Jeff Hanson :: This Time It Will

Devin Davis – Lonely People of the World, Unite!

I’ve been listening to Devin Davis a lot recently. I downloaded his album a long time ago but never really listened to it. Thanks to my recent laptop upgrade with a harddrive large enough to hold all my mp3’s, I can listen to any song I want with the push of a button. All those artists that got buried in my iPod have been unearthed. Devin Davis is one of them. His music spans many genres, as the two excellent songs posted below demostrate.

[mp3] Devin Davis :: Iron Woman
[mp3] Devin Davis :: Deserted Eyeland

Magnolia Electric Co – What Comes After the Blues

Talk about a grower. I purchased this album in 2005, gave it a few listens, and quickly cast it aside when I didn’t take to it immediately. The problem with What Comes After the Blues is that it is very much an album; tracks distinguish themselves only after you’ve listened to them many times. Now that I’ve given it the proper attention, I love it. I think bleak perfectly describes the mood.

[mp3] Magnolia Electric Co :: Hard to Love a Man

The Joe Beat Experiment – Indie Rock Blues

I initially thought of indie rock as the anti-hip hop: the two genres had nothing in common. Lyrically, that may be true, but recently several indie rock bands have incorporated hip hop elements into their music (listen to “Where There’s a Will There’s a Whalebone” by Islands). And then there’s people who turn indie rock into hip hop. Joe Beats is one of those guys. Indie Rock Blues takes tracks from bands like Neutral Milk Hotel and Songs: Ohia and transforms them into one long indie-rock wet-dream remix.

[mp3] The Joe Beats Experiment :: I (Andrew Bird cover)

Tapes ‘n Tapes – The Loon

I thought it kinda funny that Tapes ‘n Tapes made so many best of lists in 2005 given that The Loon was released so close to the end of the year. I didn’t pick up my copy until April 2006, but thanks to the blogs I’d already heard most of the songs. Despite this, I was still surprised by the quality of the album. It may be typical indie rock, but like Wolf Parade, it is extremely powerful and catchy (see Mix Tape 3 for evidence). The track posted below is the mellow song on the album.

[mp3] Tapes ‘n Tapes :: Omaha

Do you have any albums from 2005 that you’ve only discovered in 2006? Leave a comment and let me know. It may be new to me as well!