If any band is qualified to represent (willingly or not) what we've got to say for ourselves as the end of this, the most destabilized decade in recent memory, perhaps it's Animal Collective — who so comfortably (and prolifically) dwell in that space between intention and accident, direction and digression. Their latest, Merriweather Post Pavilion (Domino, January 13) is even trippier than its eye-crossing album art. Their carefully concocted abandon, relentless pursuit of busted beauty, and rapturous revelry in nothing more than their own uncertainty might be the closest we can come to a tidy vision of ourselves at this moment — and it's not so tidy.
Dan Deacon might also be a fitting ambassador to future generations trying to get us: awash in the sound of electro-wreckage, writhing to party against the collapse, his newest, Bromst (Carpark, March 24), promises to take a darker, "more mature" approach than was demonstrated in the neon lo-tech jamz that committed him to the YouTube canon. Of course, if all you need to make it to the next decade is a beautiful voice to follow, Neko Case will be back with Middle Cyclone (Anti-) on March 3. If anything can light the way, she can.
Related:
WFNX's top 101 songs of the decade, 2009: The top 10 in pop music, 52 ways to leave 2009, More 
- WFNX's top 101 songs of the decade
Video of WFNX's top 101 songs of the decade
- 2009: The top 10 in pop music
Hmm, lots of women, a few old dudes, and some African banjo (not to be confused with Steve Martin's Hollywood banjo).
- 52 ways to leave 2009
Your usual lackadaisical approach to New Year's Eve — just see what happens and go with the flow — is not going to cut it this year. Sure, the end of this decade may not have the same kind of new-millennium pressure riding on it as the last one, but the plunge into 2010 is a milestone nonetheless.
- Flanagan’s empire
Once a staple of the pages of The NewPaper (original incarnation of The Providence Phoenix ), Warwick-born Bill Flanagan went on to become a prominent rock journalist whose credits include U2: At the End of the World , the definitive portrait of one of the world's biggest bands.
- Spring clearance
I've seen the best music snobs of my generation destroyed by downloading — instead of savoring full albums the way one might enjoy a vintage claret, they're slamming down random shots of bands with stupid names, passing out, and blanking on what they heard the night before.
- The Big Hurt: Bieber fever
Of the 45 headlines on mtv.com’s music-news section, nine are about JUSTIN BIEBER . That’s precisely 20 percent.
- Talking ’bout a revolution
It takes a theatrical genius like Tom Stoppard to come up with Rock ’n’ Roll, which merges the pulsing spirit of both until they feel like one. And it takes a theater of the caliber of the Gamm to make history feel like a Stones concert that becomes a political rally.
- Yule logs
From $16 paperbacks to $120 collector’s items, we’ve come up with a range of selections that should cover everyone on your list — from former classics majors and music fans to future art critics and lovers of high-fashion soft-core.
- U2 | No Line On the Horizon
You don't need me to tell you whether the songs on the new U2 album reflect the social, political, economic, and religious turmoil that seems it's been defining global affairs since before we can remember.
- The Big Hurt: Crashing Pumpkins
I recently had the "was that real, or did I dream that?" feeling about the upcoming Spider-Man musical featuring songs by U2, and I happily concluded that it was a dream.
- The Big Hurt: Broken bones and stripper poles
Only a few weeks ago, I was making fun of Aerosmith for their inability to present Aerosmith in their Guitar Hero: Aerosmith Presents Aerosmith tour.
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Music Features
, Timbaland, Celebrity News, Antony and the Johnsons, More
, Timbaland, Celebrity News, Antony and the Johnsons, Pharrell Williams, Missy Elliott, Franz Ferdinand, Franz Ferdinand, Linda Perry, Morrissey (Singer), Will.I.Am, Less
