Belated Favorite Albums of the Decade List 2000-2010
Posted on Monday, January 18th, 2010Vangelis - Bladerunner Anniversary (2007)
As totally sweet as this soundtrack clearly is, I still was surprised when I listened to it as much as I did since this three-disc set came out a couple years ago. First of all, Bladerunner is the best. Duh. Second, massive sweeping 80’s synths and square wave pads painting a grimy, defeated world of future noir in broad, majestic strokes is ALSO THE BEST.
Björk - Vespertine (2001)
I had a really hard time choosing between this album and Medulla. I mean I realize that I am not accountable to anyone’s rules but my own when making a Favorite list that no one is going to read, but I like to pretend that I can only feature one album per artist on this list, regardless. Medulla is a more important album than Vespertine, but to me, the latter is more emotionally potent.
João Gilberto - Voz e Violão (2000)
I listened to a lot of bossa nova in this decade, and since I can’t put down records released in the late 50’s/early 60’s, I am going to put down this one, which, as the name explicitly describes, is just solo Gilberto on voice and guitar. At its best, bossa nova is a subtle music, and this record strips away all possible ornamentation and reveals Gilberto’s meticulously honed and singular style at its core essence.
Sleep - Dopesmoker (2003)
Let’s talk about this album for a minute. As the story goes, Sleep’s record label gave them a large cash advance to make this follow-up to “Holy Mountain,” their unashamed love letter to Black Sabbath which, as far as I can tell, is an album about druids, magical potions, and flying to Mars on what can only be described as a dragon. Allegedly, Sleep spent half the advance on vintage amps (like you do) and the other half on a staggering amount of kush. They then recorded this album, which is a single track over an hour long. Shockingly, their record label said “what the fuck, you guys?” and dropped them. When the first vocals appear over ten minutes into the song, it is a line delivered in a Gregorian monotone: “Drop out of life with bong in hand.” Amazing. This album is the logical conclusion–and deconstruction–of stoner metal.
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement (2008)
I guess this band is made up of one of the guys from Arctic Monkeys and some other dude and a third guy doing all the orchestral arrangements who is from Final Fantasy I guess? I don’t know, I still have no idea what the Arctic Monkeys or Final Fantasy sound like. I don’t care though, because this album is a really fun attempt to make an early 60’s spy record akin to John Barry, except with two British rock brats instead of Shirley Bassey. Please note that all songs contained herein are about Dames and possibly Broads. If you are making a spy record, please be advised: there is no other acceptable subject matter.
Andrew WK - I Get Wet (2001)
Andrew WK is a genius. That is all.
M.I.A. - Arular (2005)
Dear everyone who said Kala is her best album: you are wrong and also stupid. I know you like the cool song with the gunshots in it. I do too. But this album is way fucking better. It is fresh, un-self-conscious, and fun. I realize fun is a pretty meaningless term but I mean if you are at a party and this is playing super loud and you’re having a drink or whatever, what kind of monster wouldn’t have a good time? A terrible monster. That’s what kind.
Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
Whatever, I’m not going to say anything new or insightful about this record. But to everyone who was blind-sided by Radiohead’s change in style: at no point while listening to “OK Computer” did you get the hint that they were not going to make another “The Bends?” Were you just not paying attention or something? There is a spoken word track performed by a fucking Apple computer, for Christ’s sake. Would it have helped if they had named it “Thom Yorke Likes Electronic Music Now?” Come on!
The Pillows - Fooly Cooly 1/2 (2000)
I snuck this in even though technically all this music was written in the 90s, but you know what? The Pillows is the best rock and roll band ever!!!!!!! Do you see all those exclamation points? Think of each one like a nail in a coffin, and within that coffin is the immutable Truth, and I’m like, keeping the truth in there with each use of punctuation. Not because it’s dead though. That’s just where the truth lives, I’m guessing. I’m right, is what I’m trying to say with this metaphor.
Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto - Insen (2005)
I could say things like “this is an ambient glitch album” and you’d probably yawn a lot, but reconsider! Because I’ve been listening to it regularly and frequently since it came out almost (apparently) five years ago. Here’s how we’re going to break it down: Sakamoto plays a gorgeous piano, and Noto chops it up into a solemn meditation on negative space. Noto also decides that fades are for assholes, and instead samples the digital pop as a rhythmic device, which means that he wins at glitch for the entire decade.
Envy - Insomniac Doze (2006)
Envy is very dramatic and sometimes formulaic, but if that means 10 minute songs that consist basically of crescendos that coalesce into about a million guitars playing massive power chords in a lumbering, agonizing dirge, then I guess I like dramatic and formulaic music.
Jóhann Jóhannsson - IBM 1401, A User’s Manual (2006)
Speaking of dramatic crescendos, Jóhannsson is basically Envy except Icelandic classical, and not Japanese metal. The line is admittedly thin.
Aphex Twin - Drukqs (2001)
Aphex Twin always ignores the rules about how to make dance music, and electronic music in general. When I say that, I don’t mean that he does the opposite of what one is supposed to do in electronic music. I mean those rules just don’t interest or apply to him, and it’s for that reason Richard D. James became the most compelling electronic artist of the 90s. In “Drukqs,” it appears that he decided to ignore the rules about what Aphex Twin itself is supposed to do, and created his most emotional work, which is a two-disc set featuring a more focused and sophisticated approach to his frenetic, so-called IDM beats, buffered by stark and meditative treated piano and organ pieces. His song titles are still stuff like “Hy A Scullyas Lyf A Dhagrow,” though, just to let you know that he is still batshit crazy.
Mastodon - Crack The Skye (2009)
I already waxed superlative over this in the favorite music post, but it still stands. This album is like your uncle’s rare butterfly collection, except instead of butterflies (lame), they are riffs (awesome).
Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
Real Fact: Neko Case is everything true and good about country music. Unlike every asshole reaching into the ten-gallon hat of Americana and pulling up clichés, Case is making what has and might always be the music she really loves, and you can hear the unrestrained affection in every spring reverbed note. This album is only 36 minutes, apparently?
Mars Volta - Deloused at the Comatorium (2002)
Do drugs, buy effects pedals (all of them), write an album about a meta-psychological voyage. It worked in the 70’s and it works now, god damn it. I think this is better than all their other albums because it still bears the sheen of naivete given to those trying something new and exciting.
Mouse on the Keys - Anxious Object (2009)
I already talked about this one too, but this is one of my favorite new bands, so I’m pretty pumped about it. The drummer is so sickhouse.
Jimmy Eat World - Futures (2004)
You can laugh. If you want to miss an album full of pop songwriting gold. It was a toss-up between this and “Bleed American,” but “Futures” is more mature and has a better killer-to-filler ratio. Just don’t bring up “Chase This Light.” Ugh.
Chavela Vargas - Chavela Vargas En Carnegie Hall (2004)
This cross-dressing, gunslinging, hard-drinking, cigar-smoking lesbian who sings boleros written by men about women is Godzilla. Katy Perry is Japan.
Raúl Picaporte - Conversations With Prostitutes (2003)
This album was made by my friend Raúl during his tenure in Hong Kong, and is not technically a commercial release. It’s not just one of my favorite recordings of the decade. It’s probably my favorite recording period.
OTHER SWEET ALBUMS I’M NOT GOING TO WRITE A SPIEL ABOUT BUT YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY AT LEAST CONSIDER LISTENING TO
DJ Krush - Jaku (2004)
Tokyo Incidents - Adult (2006)
Dungen - Tio Bitar (2007)
M83 - Before the Dawn Heals Us (2004)
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf (2002)