I’ll admit it. I read Rolling Stone…often. Kinda like how I watch Saturday Night Live – in hopes that it will once again be what it was back in the day (or how it was in my mind at least).
I took a look at their Top 100 records of the decade (January 1, 2000-December 15, 2009) and I have to say, I had a very diferent decade musically. I’m sure we all have.
Following is my Top 30 for this decade. No Best of records, no live records, no box sets, no lost albums, no reissues.
I expect plenty of disagreement from my fellow Townspeople (and specific disagreement with specific Townspeople).
(In alphabetical order.)
1. AC/DC – Black Ice
2. Bob Dylan – Love and Theft
3. Bruce Springsteen – Magic
4. Bruce Springsteen – We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
5. Dan Baird – Homemade Sin
6. Drive By Truckers – Dirty South
7. Gary Louris – Vagabonds
8. Gaslight Anthem – The 59 Sound
9. Green Day – American Idiot
10. Jet – Get Born
11. John Melencamp – Trouble No More
12. Mark Olsen – The Salvation Blues
13. Mark Olsen & Gary Louris – Ready For The Flood
14. Motorhead – Motorizer
15. Mudcrutch – s/t
16. Pretenders – Break Up The Concrete
17. Robert Plant – Mighty ReArranger
18. Steve Earle – Jerusalem
19. Steve Earle – The Revolution Starts Now
20. Steve Windwood – Nine Lives
21. The Black Crowes – Warpaint
22. The Killers – Hot Fuss
23. The Killers – Sam’s Town
24. The White Stripes – Elephant
25. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
26. Tom Petty – The Last DJ
27. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
28. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky
29. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
30. Wolfmother – s/t
You certainly had a very different decade, j-man, it’s just that yours wasn’t the oughties. All of your records may have come out in the 00’s, but almost all of the artists are from another era, and even the newer artists are throwbacks. If I’d been asleep for the last 30 years, I don’t think any of the music on this list would surprise me in any way if you played them for me after I woke up.
You’re certainly free to like any kind of music you like, and I actually like a lot of the music on your list, but it would give me pause if Rolling Stone was hipper than I was.
30. Air-Talkie Walkie
29. Girl Talk-Night Ripper
28. Lightning Bolt-Wonderful Rainbow
27. Fiery Furnaces-Blueberry Boat
26. Andrew W.K.-I Get Wet
25. PJ Harvey-Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea
24. Jack Rose-Kensington Blues
23. The XX-The XX
22. The Rapture-Echoes
21. M.I.A.-Arular
20. The Streets-Original Pirate Material
19. Interpol-Turn on the Bright Lights
18. Photon Band-Oh The Sweet, Sweet Changes
17. LCD Soundsystem-Sound of Silver
16. The Avalanches-Since I Left You
15. Radiohead-Kid A
14. Radiohead-Amnesiac
13. Outcast-The Love Below
12. Neon Neon-Stainless Style
11. LCD Soundsystem-LCD Soundsystem
10. The Streets-A Grand Don’t Come for Free
9. Super Furry Animals-Rings Around the World
8. Clinic-Walking With Thee
7. The Strokes-Is This It
6. Nick Cave ATBS-Dig Lazerus Dig
5. Kilroy-The Neon Gate
4. Kilroy-Thai Stick Dragon
3. Shawn Kilroy-Hessian Love Songs
2. Amy Winehouse-Back To Black
1. The Sleepy Jackson-Lovers
I’m not really into the best-albums-of-the-decade thing. For whatever reason, I feel my best-songs playlist on iTunes better captures the things I most treasured musically this decade. In (roughly) chronological order:
1. “Big Exit,” PJ Harvey
2. “The Cigarette Girl From the Future,” Beauty Pill
3. “Honeymoon with You,” Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci
4. “Bought Your Ghost,” The Bigger Lovers
5. “Paint’s Peeling,” Rilo Kiley
6. “The Reasons,” The Weakerthans
7. “There She Goes, My Beautiful World,” Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
8. “First of the Gang to Die,” Morrissey
9. “Good Weekend,” Art Brut
10. “Feel Good Inc,” Gorillaz
11. “Star Witness,” Neko Case
12. “I Will Kill Again,” Jarvis Cocker
13. “Pink Steam,” Sonic Youth
14. “Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix),” Beyonce
15. “Rigor Mortis,” Wussy
16. “Paper and Glue,” Emma Pollock
17. “Key to the House,” Mono in VCF
18. “The World is in the Terlet,” Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
19. “Esketa Dance,” Mulatu Astatke and the Heliocentrics
20. “Norman Bleik,” I Was a King
Here’s my Top 10 of the decade:
http://www.bigtakeover.com/top-ten/Matthew-Berlyant-091129
Sorry, I forgot how to post hyperlinks here. Mr. Mod, can you fix this please?
Linked as requested, Berlyant! You actually can’t forget how to activate a hyperlink in the Comments section: the site is set so that people cannot do that. It’s unfortunate, but it prevents against spammers doing their evil deeds.
Here goes – I don’t expect anyone to agree with me! In no particular order…
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
What’s left to say about this album? Sure, it’s overshadowed by its story and surrounding drama, but it’s still a great album.
Rufus Wainwright – Poses
A tough choice, but this is my favorite of his, where the smart writing is balanced by the arranging, not as bombastic or self-important as later albums.
Doves – The Last Broadcast
Why this band is relatively unknown and Coldplay is massively famous is completely beyond me.
My Morning Jacket – Okonos
Kind of a token-entry for the hillbilly version of Radiohead, perhaps should choose Z, but this album shows them in all their live glory.
Ron Sexsmith – Retriever
The poppiest album yet from one of the best writers of melodies around
Death Cab For Cutie – Transatlanticism
It captured a moment.
Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2
I hope she can make another album that approaches this someday, and beyond the music, she was one of the first musicians to strike out without a label, so good for her.
Spoon – Girls Can Tell
Still my favorite of theirs. “Anything you want” is a song I can play repeatedly and it is always exciting and fresh.
Radiohead – Kid A
Again, I have to choose one of their albums, I’ll go with this. A big point of departure, right at the beginning of the decade.
Jennifer Jackson – So High
A sleeper album maybe not too many know, reminds me a bit of Todd Rundgren in 70’s songwriter mellow mode. Just a smart, tuneful album with loads of good arrangements and good vibes.
Feist – The Invitation
A deserved success.
Elliott Smith – Figure 8
Sonically his best album, and certainly his last solid effort. His death was a really sad loss for me.
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible
I think this album really caught the spirit of post-9/11 desperation, disposable culture and alienation. One could argue for “Funeral,” but this is the one I am emotionally attached to.
Wired All Wrong – Break Out The Battle Tapes
Super-hooky music somewhere between industrial and hip-hop, a collaboration between members of Self and Gold Lives Underwater.
Joseph Arthur – Come To Where I’m From
Deep, dark and engaging.
Beth Orton – Comfort of Strangers
Beth goes organic and wins!
Sufjan Stevens – Come On Feel The Illinoise
Just a great achievement.
Self – Gizmogetry, Ornament and Crime
Two albums, one artist. Gizmodgetry is a fun album made on toy instruments, then they ducked into record company hell, making the rejected album “Ornament and Crime,” which is unreleased but floats around the web. It was some winning tunes, but you can also hear how they were trying to be commercial. Still, at his worst, Matt Mahaffey is smarter than 96% of the other folks out there.
Mike Viola and Candy Butchers – Hang On Mike
I always liked Mike Viola, even though he tends to crib from the Costello stylebook a bit much (and what’s wrong with that?) but I think he really found his own style here. Also, this album is deeply autobiographical, where before he may have written somewhat superficially before. I think he knew this would be his last major-label album, and he closes with the song, “Hunker Down,” which asks, “Whatever happened… to all those people… in all those bands?” An artist I always knew could deliver a solid album finally did so.
Brian Wilson – Smile
Maybe I’m just including this on principle, but the man pulled it together enough to finish this.
Gillian Welch- Soul Journey
Great songs, great voice.
Fountains of Wayne – Welcome Interstate Managers
Just a fun album, escapist pop music at its best.
Patti Griffin – 1000 Kisses
Stark at times, and beautiful. “Making Pies” is sublime and sad.
Neil Finn – One All
When a songwriter leaves behind a successful band, struggles to re-invent himself with a new sound and achieves it with the help of the great songs he is always capable of writing. “Last to know” and “Anytime” are killing, killing tunes.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion
Hypnotic, catchy and making electronics feel organic.
Kronos Quartet – Nuevo
Not a rock album? Maybe. But one of the most demented albums I’ve ever heard (and that’s saying something). Within the context of classical music, this is as rebellious as any punk album. A collection of works by Mexican composers, the string quartet is distorted, warped and heard through a funhouse mirror and loaded with tequila.
Raymond Scott – Manhattan Research
Forward thinking electronic music from the man who treated musicians like machines. You wouldn’t believe some of these pieces dated from the 50’s.
Shugo Tokumaru – Exit
Eccentric music from this Japanese musician, it’s enveloping, rhythmic and energizing. Eclectic instrumentation, acoustic and electronic, and a very hypnotic feel.
Phoenix – It’s Never Been Like That
Have you noticed that I like fun music? Good.
Inara George with Van Dyke Parks – An Invitation
Lowell George’s daughter teams up with Van Dyke Parks and gives him reams of latititude to do his thing. Perhaps not groundbreaking or the best songwriting, but the combination of her alluring voice and Parks’ distinctive arranging style add up to an album very different from anything else around. For fans of Nilsson, Newman, et al, this is a must-have.
I’ve been meaning to get to this for weeks!
25. Mr. Airplane Man – C’mon DJ (2004)
24. The Forty-Fives – High Life High Volume (2004)
23. Buffalo Killers (2006)
22. The Trainwreck Riders – Lonely Road Revival (2006)
21. Dirtbombs – Dangerous Magical Noise (2003)
20. Steely Dan – Two Against Nature (2000)
19. Coffinberry – God Dam Dogs (2007)
18. Radio Moscow (2007)
17. Boston Spaceships – The Planets Are Blasted (2009)
16. Rocket From the Tombs – Rocket Redux (2004)
15. Two Cow Garage III (2007)
14. Harvey Danger – King James Version (2000)
13. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleroes – Streetcore (2003)
12. Kings of Leon – Aha Shake Heartbreak (2005)
11. Ladyhawk – Shots (2008)
10. Deadly Snakes – Ode to Joy (2003)
9. The Izzys (2004)
8. The Bloody Hollies – If Footmen Tire You (2004)
7. The Black Keys – Rubber Factory (2004)
6. The Reigning Sound – Time Bomb High School (2002)
5. Paul Westerberg – Stereo (Mono) (2002)
4. The Exploding Hearts – Guitar Romantic (2002)
3. The Dexateens – Red Dust Rising (2005)
2. Lucero – Tennessee (2002)
1. Sleater-Kinney – The Woods (2005)
cherguevarra –
I a a big fan of Self’s Subliminal Plastic Motives but I can’t say I have bought anything since. I met Matt when I was an intern at RCA and he signed my copy of SPM. Also saw them in Atlanta the night of the Olimpic Bombing (less than 3 miles from it). Is his/their 2009 stuf like his debut?
I have to say that music that was influenced by music of the last 15 years does not interest me much anymore (aka College/Alternative Music). That may be what drives me to bands that are “out of time” (Wolfmother)or have “been around a while” (Robert Plant).
Most of what I listend to in the 00’s was from the 60’s and early 70’s (Byrds, Badfinger,CSNY, Big Star, 60’s Stones) or pre-rock.. Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters.
Another SNL connection. “New” bands appearing on SNL helped me decide NOT to buy their records, they were all horrible
I don’t know that I could list any particular faves from the last decade, but there are some bands who came along that I really enjoyed. They include: The White Stripes, The New Pornographers, The Decemberists, and Ben Kweller. Among others, I know there’s more. Some of my 90s folk who stuck around for me to enjoy would be Radiohead, Weezer, and Ben Folds. It was cool that Bob Dylan began “releasing some of the strongest music of his career, beginning in the late 90s.” Love and Theft may well be my personal favorite of the decade. The funny thing, it’s sort of timeless record in terms of placing the song’s origins. Some fo the old guard had some decent moments of the 00s. Besides Bob, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney and Neil Young put out some decent records. SMiLE was a delight and I still listen to it with great satisfaction. It was also cool to get new Pete Townshend music under The Who guise. It’s hard for me to call it “The Who”, but I do like the songs.
TB
Re: Self… i think the story of “subliminal plastic motives” was that Matt was not confident with his guitar playing, so he asked his brother to do those parts. But once they started that process, the album became much more guitar heavy, which was apparently not the original direction (though it turned out pretty good, imho).
So… Is the last album like the debut… It’s probably more like it in that the songs are more concise and “commercial.” I personally think, “Breakfast with girls” is great, but it seems to be a love it/hate it kind of album.
If you surf over to the Self fansite, which I think is called “selfies” you might find a link to download a rough mix of a song from a new album (in progress). Actually, there are two, but I’m thinking of the one called “Monogomy,” which is a pretty happening tune, in a Prince-like kind of way. If it’s not there and you want, maybe I can post it *ahem* somewhere.
I’ll drop a dime on the new Self if you are giving it the thumb’s up.
I saw two shows in ’96. The first had Matt and his brother both on guitar, the second had just Matt on guitar and his brother on Bass. I was sure they would be a big hit band (though I also thought the other band on the bill The Verve Pipe would be the next U2)
It is unreleased, but I it looks like you can download it here:
http://unheard78.blogspot.com/2009/06/self-ornament-crime.html
Also, there is a shitload of stuff to download from here:
http://self-centered.org/