This past summer I was invited to contribute to the site
PopMatters in compiling a list of the
Top 100 Albums of the 00s. The idea being
that with time and distance to reflect on the past decade of music, this list
would represent the albums that have held up in the years since and isn’t
simply a quick reaction.
I was asked to submit my Top 10 albums of the decade to be
considered for the master list. Out of my selections, at least two of them were
selected for inclusion, which I then wrote a blurb for (#2 & #3 on my
list).
When I first started this blog, I wanted to write about
music in addition to my other interests which I haven’t gotten around to but
this seemed like a good place to start.
Here is my personal list of the Top 10 Albums of the 00s.
#1
From a Basement on
the Hill by Elliott Smith
Because your candle burns too bright
Well, I almost forgot it was twilight
Even if I think that you are right
Well, I'm tired of being down, I got no fight
Figure 8 receives more attention, as it was Smith’s final
release before his untimely death and for many, the gateway album to the
artist’s back catalog. However,
From a
Basement on the Hill is the punctuation mark on a career cut far too short
and left a haunting final impression of a misunderstood genius. Gone are the
sweeping orchestral instrumentation that his major label efforts afforded. This
is Smith back to basics and quite possibly his rawest. It may require a few
spins to take this one in but it is beyond worth it. Opening with the
polarizing
Coast to Coast and
concluding with
A Distorted Reality is
Now a Necessity to be Free (which sounds like the best song The Beatles
never wrote),
Basement is a
masterpiece from start to finish. Songs like
King’s Crossing hint at a bold new direction of experimentation
while
Twilight is so real and honest
that it’s almost hard to listen to but too beautiful not to. Prolific to the
end, Smith originally intended
Basement
as a double album, and while the castoff tracks are worthy of being sought out,
the ones compiled here are amongst his greatest and cement his status as one of
the greatest songwriters of his, or any, generation.
PopMatters Ranking:
#63
#2
Extraordinary
Machine by Fiona Apple
If there
was a better way to go then it would find me
I can't help it, the road just rolls out behind
me
Be kind to me, or treat me mean
I'll make the most of it, I'm an extraordinary
machine
The
only album Fiona Apple would release during this decade, Extraordinary
Machine was received by a fervent fan base after having been long delayed.
What they got was essentially take two, after some unreleased tracks from
initial producer Jon Brion were leaked before being re-recorded. Either version
would have been fit for inclusion on this list and Extraordinary Machine
makes you wish Apple would cut a new album more often than once or twice a
decade (if we’re lucky). At least you can be assured that when she has amassed
enough songs that she deems worthy of releasing that they’re going to pack an
emotional punch. Everything about this album is completely methodical from the
confessional lyrics on Not About Love to the deliberate sour notes in O’
Sailor, and you can almost hear her heart breaking on Oh Well. It’s
obvious a lot of preparation and thought went into each track yet it still
managed to capture a spontaneous energy as if Apple only had enough studio time
to record each track in one take and whatever came out of those sessions is
what we got. Not only does it stand out for sounding like nothing else released
in the 2000’s, it’s also a welcome departure from Apple’s previous releases,
showcasing her ability to reinvent her sound and continue to evolve without
betraying who she is as a person and as one of the best singer/songwriters of
her generation.
PopMatters Ranking: #11
#3
King
James Version by Harvey Danger
Time passes,
events fall away
(I don't think they'll hurry)
Hurry up, I'm blacking out,
High on the vapor
Cause I was the typo,
You were the liquid paper
The
sophomore album is challenging for any band looking to exceed expectations and
that was no different for Harvey Danger. Riding high off the massive success of
that song, it was a question of whether or not they could maintain that
momentum while continuing to build upon a solid foundation. Despite a noble
effort, King James Version fell through the cracks, not only failing to
recapture their debut album’s mass audience, but essentially fading from
existence as quickly as it landed with the mainstream having decided that
Harvey Danger had worn out their welcome, thus sentencing them to “one-hit
wonder” status. In retrospect, they did exactly what a band is supposed to do
for its follow up. They one-upped their song writing with biting lyrics
offering thought-provoking entertainment value all their own (singer Sean
Nelson remains one of the most criminally underrated lyricists alive), not to
mention killer hooks courtesy of irreplaceable bassist Aaron Huffman, not
afraid to lead the melody. The so-called “alternative rock band” even managed
to sneak a piano ballad in there, highlighting guitarist Jeff Lin’s classical
training, while also serving as a good primer for their (as of now) final album
Little By Little, hinting at the direction their music would take. In
essence, Harvey Danger is everything you think they’re not and King James
Version is definitive proof of that.
#4
Veckatimest by
Grizzly Bear
While
you wait for the others t
to make it all worthwhile
all your useless pretentions
are weighing on my time
Released in the final months of the 00s,
Veckatimest was my first introduction to
the Brooklyn based quartet known as Grizzly Bear. The group was quickly added
to my regular rotation as I absorbed the hauntingly beautiful melodies and
cryptic, yet minimalist, lyrics that encompassed their sound. From the up tempo
opener
Southern Point to the stripped
down and somber piano ballad
Foreground
which rounds out the album, the group takes us on a musical journey quite
unlike any other I experienced that decade. Every song has its own distinct
flavor; the bouncy piano of
Two Weeks,
the soaring vocal harmonies of
While You
Wait For The Others and
Ready, Able
is an acid trip for the ears (and eyes if you watch the stop motion music
video). A handful of these songs also appear in the film
Blue Valentine, which the group wrote the score for, and
considering the deterioration of the relationship onscreen, this album is perfect
breakup music. It’s not happy music, but it permeates the soul. In my humble
opinion, if Radiohead announced the shift in the decade’s musical landscape
with
Kid A, then Grizzly Bear
finished that thought with
Veckatimest.
#5
Gimme Fiction by
Spoon
The
beast and dragon, adored
You been gone so long
Where you been for so long
I went to places unknown
Of all their albums, Gimme
Fiction is quintessential Spoon. It does not get much better than this in
terms of what this band is capable of with their entire prowess on full
display. Whereas Spoon are masters at producing catchy hooks and bouncy
melodies, there’s some added weight to these songs that reveal a moodier side
that suits the band just as easily as the tambourine shaking Sister Jack. No other group today
incorporates piano into the mix quite like this one, eliciting an ominous,
almost dangerous quality on such songs as The
Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine and The
Beast and Dragon, Adored not to mention the pounding groove of My Mathematical Mind. Never has bass
playing complimented the piano quite like this either, standing out as the MVP
instrument on multiple tracks. They’re clearly having fun here experimenting
with their sound while not overhauling it either and in doing so they crafted
some of the best tracks of their career. In nearly a decade since its release,
Spoon have come close to the artistic heights of Gimme Fiction but have yet to
top it. It’s a hard act to follow for them or any band who may attempt to
occupy the same space as Spoon so clearly dominate.
PopMatters Ranking: Spoon's
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga landed at
#95
#6
Elephant by The White
Stripes
Don't
want to hear about it
Every single one's got a story to tell
Everyone knows about it
From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell
Jack and Meg White’s fourth album took both their fans and
the critics by storm delivering their most polished and ambitious album at that
point. While both
Get Behind Me Satan
and
Icky Thump, which followed, are
worthy albums in their own right, they failed to top the duo’s masterpiece,
Elephant. The White Stripes remains my
favorite of the “The” bands that burst onto the scene during the first half of
the decade (The Strokes included) and rightly catapulted frontman Jack White to
rock star status. If there’s one song that defines the band, it is undoubtedly
Seven Nation Army, which is so
deceptively simple in its catchy and instantly familiar melody, it’s
practically a contemporary blues standard by now. And that’s just track one.
The Stripes straddle the line between delivering straightforward garage rock
and slower ballads, such as
In The Cold,
Cold Night, where Meg steps out from behind the drums to take lead vocals.
It was a gamble as she is not the strongest singer but it shows that they were
not afraid to branch out and shake things up from song to song.
The White Stripes are probably never
coming back, but with what they’ve given us here, it’s hard to complain that
they owe us anything more.
#7
I’m Wide Awake It’s
Morning by Bright Eyes
If you
walk away, I'll walk away
First tell me which road you will take
I don't want to risk our paths crossing some day
So you walk that way, I'll walk this way
One of two albums released by Bright Eyes in 2005 (the other
being the electronic inflected Digital Ash
In A Digital Urn), this album was the clear favorite among fans. Digital Ash… was practically an
experiment just to showcase how versatile the group’s members are but the music
on I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning is
clearly what kind of music they were born to make. The folk inspired sound
incorporated slide guitars, mandolin, and even guest vocals from country legend
Emmylou Harris. The result was a collection of timeless songs that sound like
they were written by a world-weary traveler as opposed to a guy from Omaha in
his mid-20s. Conor Oberst’s wears his influences on his sleeve from Townes Van
Zandt to Leonard Cohen and it’s fitting that one track is titled Old Soul Song as I can’t think of a more
fitting description for someone that would create this music than an old soul. The
album’s songs range from the stripped down Lua
which is simply a man and his acoustic guitar singing confessional lyrics softly,
reminding us of Oberst’s humble beginnings making home recordings on a four track cassette recorder in his parent’s
basement, but then ends triumphantly in a chaotic burst of horns blaring as he
screams the album title at the top of his lungs on Road to Joy. It feels like a celebration of life and that’s what
this album represents.
#8
Hazards of Love by The
Decemberists
With this long last
rush of air
We'll speak our vows in starry whisper
And when the waves came crashing down
He closed his eyes and softly kissed her
Out of all the artists represented here, The Decemberists
were the ones I had the most difficult time selecting which album would best
represent them. Her Majesty was my gateway
with its instantly accessible melodies, and The
Crane Wife is a perfect work of art but Hazards
of Love still manages to one up it. Continuing on with the Portland based group’s
exploration into gapless concept albums, Hazards
of Love is something special that can only be described as beautiful. As
with The Crane Wife, it paints a
picture, drawing in the listener in only the way a great storyteller can. As
with Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst, who sings “I could have been a famous singer if
I had someone else’s voice,” the group’s leader Colin Meloy does not have a
traditional polished voice but it suits the style of music to a T with his
distinctive singing. But Meloy is not the only one responsible for the group’s
unique sound as the group is the sum of its parts consisting of several
talented multi-instrumentalists. Put simply, this album deserves you full
attention and cannot be listened to in segments as it is one hour long song
that as soon as it ends you’ll want to hit repeat and experience again and
again.
PopMatters Ranking: The Decemberist's
The Crane Wife was selected at
#86
#9
Our Love to Admire by
Interpol
Wait,
and you froze in the night
You're late, there's a hole in the sky
No haste, no lesson, no lie
Got a taste that I can't deny
It took me a few listens before I really GOT Interpol. I
first saw them 10 years ago as part of The Cure’s Curiosa Festival as they were
part of a lineup of hand picked bands to tour with The Cure which included such
acts as The Rapture, Mogwai and Muse. I had no idea what to expect and hearing
them for the first time in that environment didn’t inspire me to dig any deeper
as I was still deep into my punk/ska phase from my high school days and was
only just beginning to venture out in my tastes on the road to musical
discovery. Five years later I gave Interpol’s
Our Love to Admire another spin and I haven’t looked back since. So
THIS is what I’d been missing out on. Paul Banks’ monotonous vocal range wasn’t
trying to impress you, but was teeming with emotion regardless. Like Television
before them, the band’s sound didn’t revolve around the vocals but the interplay
between the guitars and heavy hitting rhythm section. Is
Our Love To Admire better than the group’s freshman and sophomore
albums that released earlier in the decade? It’s worthy of debate, but for me
this is the album that opened my eyes to what Interpol had to offer and for
that, it scores a place on the list.
PopMatters Ranking: Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights ranked
#27
#10
Black Holes and
Revelations by Muse
No one’s gonna take me alive
The time has come to make things right
You and I must fight for out rights
You and I must fight to survive
When I lived in LA, Muse got a lot of radio play on KROQ. I
mean a LOT. To the point where I was sick of them. But then I noticed
something. I wasn’t switching the station. In fact I was starting to turn it
up. And then after awhile I was singing along at the top of my lungs.
It was THE anthem of 2006 and it’s just as relevant now as
it was then. Then I heard Starlight
and it was all over. These guys were writing music that sounded like it was
recorded on Mars. I couldn’t believe that this much sound could come from just
three guys from England. Then I listened to the full album and was blown away.
It was so powerful that it demanded repeat listens as you couldn’t absorb it
all at once, there was too much going on at once. It bares mentioning that the
follow up album The Resistance
deserves to go in this slot just as much for its ambition and scope (not to
mention its 1984 references) but Black Holes and Revelations edges it out
simply because it was such a turning point for the band.
I put a lot of thought into this list and I started off with
a list of about 100 albums or so before trimming it down to the final 10.
Here’s a few other worthy albums that were considered and are still insanely
listenable:
Funeral by Arcade Fire
Songs for the Deaf by Queens of the Stone Age
Figure 8 by Elliott Smith
Miike Snow (self titled)
Reservoir by Fanfarlo
The Life Pursuit by Belle & Sebastian
Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
Farm by Dinosaur Jr.
Microcastle by Deerhunter
Illinois by Sufjan Stevens
For Emma Forever Ago by Bon Iver
Z by My Morning Jacket
Bring Me Your Love by City and Colour
Rubber Factory by The Black Keys
Untitled by Wintersleep
The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse
Consolers of the Lonely by The
Ranconteurs
Horehound by The Dead Weather
The Flying Club Cup by Beirut
Kid A by Radiohead
In Rainbows by Radiohead
Basically anything by Radiohead.
