I made more of a personal top 5 list.

1. The Smiths - Meat Is Murder
2. Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation
3. Ariel Pinks Haunted Graffiti - Before Today
4. The Pixies - Trompe Le Monde
5. Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer

This song is for sure top 10 favs of mine. This CD is tremendous.

In no order:

The National - High Violet
The Killers - Sam's Town
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
Coldplay - Parachutes

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures
The Smiths - S/T
Mary Onettes- Islands
R.E.M - Murmur
Pixies - Doolittle

The Magnetic Fields' 69 Love Songs has got to be in there somewhere

it's terif

I know this is an old thread, but I am new to this board and wanted to give me 2 cents.

Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea - Very cliche, I know this. But, if you know this record you know it's deserved of its iconic status.

Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams might not be a big presence on the indie radar anymore, but this album was so great when it was released 12 years ago.

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago - Beautiful, heartbreaking album. This is the most haunting album I've heard in a long time. So amazingly simple, yet so deep.

The National - Boxer - The National exploded onto the indie music scene in 2005 with Alligator, and then followed up with Boxer. Arguably one of the best albums of the past 15 years. 2010's High Violet is almost equally as great.

Arcade Fire - Funeral - Perhaps the defining album of the 2000s indie movement. This album alone has propelled Arcade Fire into one of the most revered indie rock bands of all time.

(I'm putting a sixth) Belle And Sebastian - If You're Feeling Sinister - Belle And Sebastian were in a league of their own during the mid-to-late 90s with IYFS, Tigermilk, and The Boy With The Arab Strap. With hints of The Smiths, and The Pixies this album was definitely a huge hit in the 90s indie crowd.

Close Calls - 2011's Bon Iver by Bon Iver, and Fleet Foxes by Fleet Foxes are now staples in the indie community.

For me, indie rock's golden era was the 90s. I see 00s more as a decade of the revival of post punk & new wave even though that's when indie rock really came popular. Although I guess you could and should see a continuum between these decades with lofi aesthetics and the attitude towards singing and playing. On the other hand, 00s indie was much more danceable than in the 90s. But still 00s was more recycling than finding new ideas compared to 90s if u ask me. For me, the most original artists of 00s were Ariel Pink, Animal Collective and Dirty Projectors who really came up with something new. But would you call them indie? I don't know.

And by the way, there is one band that to me seems like a sort of forerunner of how things turned out in the 00s. The Make-Up. A truely awesome DC band (released by K Records & Dischord) that's somehow been almost forgotten. They were active in the latter half of the 90s and really present all the best qualities of what indie rock has been in the new millenium: danceable, retro, dirty, funky, crazy, fun. I wonder if they were a big influence for the Strokes. I wouldn't be surprised.

Document by R.E.M.
Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
Slanted & Enchanted by Pavement
Surfer Rosa by Pixies
Bug by Dinosaur Jr.

Honorable mention: Psychocandy by The Jesus & Mary Chain

Thats a pretty solid list, man.

I love the classic indie and some of the newer indie, but thise five really stand out on my all-time list. All of those are what I would suggest to anyone who is new to indie.