Rolling Stone lists Top 100 of decade

British alt-rock band Radiohead and its 2000 album Kid A has topped Rolling Stone's list of the decade's best albums, while Gnarls Barkley's infectioustune Crazy topped the music mag's corresponding tally of best songs.

The two lists figure largely in the magazine's special print issue and web package examining the past 10 years in music and pop culture.

"It was a decade in which we saw our leaders squander the peace and prosperity of the previous decade.Yet music offered shelter from the storm, even if it was just for one three-minute song at a time," Rolling Stone music journalist Rob Sheffield writes in the new issue.

To compile the lists, Rolling Stone staffers queried a wide panel of music industry experts, critics and artists, including Coldplay, Metallica, Lil Wayne, Kings of Leon and M.I.A.

Participants were asked to name and rank their favourite 25 albums and songs of the past decade, with the results tabulated via methodology developed by accounting firm Ernst & Young.

Rock music returned to the forefront in the 2000s, as shown by the host of rock bands landing in the magazine's album Top 10, including Canadian ensemble Arcade Fire. However, it shared the limelight with hip hop, with rappers like Jay-Z, Eminem and M.I.A. scoring highly.

Rolling Stone's Top 10 albums of the past decade are:

1. Radiohead, Kid A
2. The Strokes, Is This It
3. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
4. Jay-Z, The Blueprint
5. The White Stripes, Elephant
6. Arcade Fire, Funeral
7. Eminem, The Marshal Mathers LP
8. Bob Dylan, Modern Times
9. M.I.A., Kala
10. Kanye West, The College Dropout

Arcade Fire's 2007 album Neon Bible also made the cut for the Top 100 (landing at No. 75), while other Canadians on the list include the New Pornographers, for the 2003 album Electric Version (No. 79), and Leonard Cohen, whose 2001 albumTen New Songs squeezed into the No. 100 slot.

Some of the same artists figured into Rolling Stone's run-down of best songs, with each of the Top 10 representing widely appealing chart-toppers that rose above their respective genres to capture the attention of the general public.

Rolling Stone's Top 10 songs of the past decade are:

1. Gnarls Barkley, Crazy
2. Jay-Z, 99 Problems
3. Beyonc, Crazy in Love
4. Outkast, Hey Ya!
5. M.I.A., Paper Planes
6. The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army
7. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Maps
8. Amy Winehouse, Rehab
9. U2, Beautiful Day
10. Eminem, Stan

Once again, Montreal-based Arcade Fire offered a Canadian component to the tally, with the band's tunes Wake Up and Rebellion (Lies) charting at No. 42 and No. 75, respectively.

A full list of the 100 top albums and songs is available on the Rolling Stone website.