First of all, Merry Christmas and a happy holidays to everyone! I hope 2009 and this decade have been great for everyone, and I hope you all are looking forward to the new decade as much as I am.

You may be wondering where I have been for the past year. Because besides a couple rare one-off posts, I sure haven’t been at Kaini Industries.

True, I’ve been busy with college and work, but that didn’t stop me from updating last year. The truth is that I have been working on this project, which started in its raw forms as early as late 2008. I’ve started and stopped the project more times than I can count, and at times have questioned the point of doing this at all. But eventually I found myself with a good half of a particular incarnation of it done and plowed through the rest and here we are.

When people started cranking out lists like this not just for the 2000s but for other decades as well, I found that they were most useful for getting me to think about my favorite music and why I like all of it. I hope at the very least that it will get other people thinking about great music as well.

I started out writing lists year by year of my favorite releases and I came up with a list of about 200 really good albums. I decided 100 seemed like an appropriate enough number, so with a lot of difficulty I nailed the list down to 10o and started writing reviews. As I started writing, the list changed many times. After giving up the first time, I posted many reviews on the blog from the trashed list, and some of their remnants show up here. There are also some leftover reviews of albums not on the list, older drafts and other goodies I might post later.

This list is by no means meant to be definitive. I understand that I haven’t even come close to hearing all the great albums from this decade (God knows I try) and I’m sure my favorites will change. Above all else considered about this list, it should be considered that it is a list of my favorite albums of the 2000s right now.

I thought about numbering this list but I decided that entire process is arbitrary, and I also decided that ranking one hundred albums, most of which are completely different from one another, is really hard to get right. This list however is also hosted on rateyourmusic.com, so if you want the version with the arbitrary numbering, go here.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/red_atm/off_this_century___my_favorite_albums_of_2000_2009

Please keep comments constructive and respectful. I don’t want any “where’s the ____???” stuff. If you want to give me a recommendation or have a discussion just be civil about it. That should go without saying.

Here we go.

cLOUDDEAD

cLOUDDEAD – cLOUDDEAD [2001]

We could keep asking “what is cLOUDDEAD?” for another decade, and we’ll probably never get a straight answer; the only people who ever even knew the literal answer don’t remember it. Ironically, this is enough to ensure this album is never forgotten, and cLOUDDEAD stands alone as one of the most unique hip hop albums of all time, having no yardstick by which to be measured. However, it’s brilliance is self evident beyond its uniqueness. Consider it’s vaporous fluidity, barely staying in one place for more than a few minutes before it transforms, or its menacing rhythmic lurch and glowing ambience from Odd Nosdam, the hell-raising modernist lyrics from Doseone and Why?… Try to pin it all you want, but in the end, you can only call it one thing.

♦♦♦

The Crane Wife

The Decemberists – The Crane Wife [2007]

The Decemberists have always operated best as storytellers, Colin Meloy’s lyrics delicately working through ancient tales and the rest of the band backing him up with a sweeping confidence, as if their notes are etched in stone. The Crane Wife takes their storytelling to the next level, and though it follows several tales throughout its span, we might still call it somewhat of a modern rock opera. It delivers impressive developments (“Summersong”), segments of mystery (“Shankill Butchers) and stunning climaxes (“O Valencia,” “The Crane Wife 1 & 2″) as parts of a grand whole. Chances are good that there will never be a universally acknowledged Decemberists masterwork; there are just as many fervid supporters of Castaways and Cutouts, Her Majesty the Decemberists and Picaresque as there are for this. I would make the case, though, that Crane Wife is their most focused and humble work, a sublime slice of folklore from a band doing what they do best.

♦♦♦

Drukqs

Aphex Twin – Drukqs [2001]

Though not a completely focused work like its predecessors, Richard D. James achieves a synthesis on Drukqs is an accomplishment nonetheless. And it’s not like the album doesn’t bring its fair share of new styles to the table. A good chunk of the album consists of simple, melodic pieces played on piano and prepared piano, while a converse portion contains his hardest hitting breakbeat/glitch tracks to date. On top of this are shards of styles past such as elements from the Selected Ambient Works series, acid techno and other one off genre experiments. The differentiation between all of these styles should make up for a messy album, which many claim it to be. James himself has stated that Drukqs probably isn’t meant to be listened to all the way through, but he has also expressed that it was meant to be a gift to fans, and it might as well be the best gift he’s given us.

♦♦♦

Heroes to Zeros

The Beta Band – Heroes to Zeros [2004]

The Beta Band were the quintessential indie every-men, and even when they were experimental, it was hard not to relate to not only their music but the band themselves. Their simple, repetitive motifs, their painfully honest lyrics, their ability to laugh at themselves…Whatever it was, people just wanted to sit down and have a drink with these guys, and that made their break up that much more of a letdown. Good thing they went out with a bang, then. Heroes to Zeros might be their most quotable album, a collection of memorable space-pop that is characteristically thoughtful and blunt, but also probably their most fun album to date. Flip on these songs and you won’t sell five copies of Heroes to Zeros but you’ll do better; you’ll feel like you’re sitting in a room with The Beta Band. How’s that for experimental?

♦♦♦

Beyond

Dinosaur Jr. – Beyond [2007]

In 2009, me going to a Dinosaur Jr. concert, getting my ears destroyed and seeing J Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph all on stage at once, and even at one point all smiling at one another, seemed just as natural as it probably felt like in 1989. But let’s rewind about ten years here; in the new century, what the hell were the odds that all the original members of Dinosaur Jr., having at one time barely spoken to one another and slowly broke up do to seemingly irreconcilable differences, get back together, still be awesome, and release a string of albums that ranks with their absolute best? OK, maybe the chances weren’t that low, but we had all sure been hoping for it since Bug, and their reunion felt like a jackpot. This album is more than a surprise; it’s an unprecedented triumph of (*gasp*) teamwork! Beyond is classic Dinosaur Jr., loud as hell and possibly their most emotive record to date. Especially moving: “Can we be the same again?” Altogether now: “AWWWWWW!”

♦♦♦

Threads

Backini – Threads [2003]

Rob Quickenden may not have made the first great plunderphonics album (DJ Shadow and The Avalanches beat him to the draw), but he arguably was the one to make the genre truly sexy and fun. Backini’s debut exhibits a love for both dance music and jazz, and the resulting songs are often fusions of danceable downtempo and luscious jazz. His sampling is surprisingly restrained considering his eclecticism (save the decidedly nostalgic Nick-at-Nite funk of “Company B-Boy”); Quickenden can take a single sample and gently draw out all of its beauty (“Where R U,” “Istanbul,” “Go Go Killer”), and even his dense, fast pieces seem humble (“Dreamer,” “Champagne Flute”). While Endtroducing nailed sampling to a science and Since I Left You made it a party, Backini breathed further life into it by exploring the minute details of the process and crafting them into something instantly memorable.

♦♦♦

Merriweather Post Pavilion

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion [2009]

On their ninth album, Animal Collective tread ground between experimentalism and accessibility like never before, using electronics to craft a challenging but enjoyable psychedelic pop album. You don’t have to think with an open mind to appreciate “My Girls,” “Summertime Clothes” or “Brother Sport,” but they still sound like no other hit singles in the history of pop. They only scratch the surface of this album’s accomplishments, though, and every song here is a gem, some appealing to Animal Collective’s noisier instincts (“Taste,” “Lion in a Coma”) and others more melodic (“In the Flowers,” “Bluish”), but everything here is, shamelessly, really catchy and happy, and that’s probably the reason that Merriweather Post Pavilion has more balls than any other Animal Collective album.

♦♦♦

Univers Zen ou de zéro à zéro

Acid Mothers Temple & the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. – Univers Zen ou de zéro à zéro [2002]

I haven’t listened to every Acid Mothers Temple album such that I can say with certainty that Univers is their greatest achievement, but really, who has that kind of time? Shit, the last time I got an AMT album was 2007’s Crystal Rainbow Pyramid Under the Stars, and apparently they’ve made ten albums since. For a bunch of stoners that make records with a similar noise rock style (many of which are forgettable) what seems like every month, it surprises me that they have made at least one album that is transcendent, a monolith of the Japanese noise scene that touches on all of the band’s strengths within massive suites. Heavy metal, punk, psychedelia, folk, noise, even blues- it’s all here.

♦♦♦

Labor Days

Aesop Rock – Labor Days [2001]

Aesop Rock’s breakthrough album rings disturbingly true for many people in the working world, and the fact that Aesop Rock was working full time as a waiter during the creation of Labor Days makes its overall concept all that more genuine. But it is the execution of the album that is truly impressive. Aesop’s delivery is uncompromising, funny, intelligent, and without match in flow. His brilliant, philosophical, often cross referential lyrics seem endless, and are held up by a rock solid albeit rough foundation of production from Aesop himself. The subtle eastern flavor and harrowing dynamics of the music highlights his mystical, burning representation of the plight of the working person. One would be hard pressed to find a more challenging and rewarding hip hop album than Labor Days, in any era.

♦♦♦

Sea Change

Beck – Sea Change [2002]

With Sea Change, Beck Hansen made his very own Blood on the Tracks; comparing the man to Dylan may seem hasty but there is little doubt that this album did many of the same things for Beck, putting his raw emotion over a painful breakup on display and showing a strong clarity in songwriting. While Beck had made folk songs since the very beginning and advanced them to a higher, more refreshing level on Mutations, those albums felt all over the board and unfocused. Sea Change is unapologetically melancholy and dramatic all the way through, and although it would be a bald faced lie to call it a fun listen like Mellow Gold or Odelay, it is the closest we have ever come to being inside his head, and although we may know him as an Asshole, Loser and Jackass already (in the best ways!), we see him here as as a human.

♦♦♦

Akuma no Uta

Boris – Akuma no Uta [2003]

By 2003, Boris had been hammering the Japanese underground for ten years with a repertoire so diverse that it bordered on ridiculous. Heavy metal, sludge, drone, noise, punk, and experimental music were all par for the course and they had already produced their fair share of cult hits before Akuma no Uta, which pulls all of their interests together into a compact, explosive set of songs. But this is more than a band playing the best cards in their hand or trying to be fully representative. Boris clearly realize the strengths and weaknesses of all of their interests and tailor the album’s structure with subtle cleverness, working its way to an ending for the history books. Akuma no Uta was by no means the first great Boris album, and they would go on to make several more great “anything goes” albums, but it proved that they could go beyond genre and produce music of their own breed.

♦♦♦

In Rainbows

Radiohead – In Rainbows [2007]

Looking back on it, it seemed difficult at the time to separate In Rainbows with it’s now famous pay-what-you-want innovation that has had people chattering about it since. Although it is important to look at this album on it’s own, there was something telling about stripping their music of any stated value (at least for one album). Right about when people were questioning the validity of claims that Radiohead were the most important band of the past twenty years, they had the balls to express that the issue was completely out of their hands. But when they keep releasing albums this cohesive and memorable, they aren’t doing much to argue their dominance.

♦♦♦

The Reminder

Feist – The Reminder [2007]

On Let it Die, Feist showed herself to be a humble yet vital musician, but on The Reminder she’s a full blown star. The album is not a complete departure from the delicate pop music on Let it Die, and we’re still reminded of why we appreciate Feist so much as a vocalist and songwriter. But what sets The Reminder apart is its utter refusal to let up with jaw-dropping highlights. And we can’t just point to the singles for this massive success, although they are certainly an amazing set. Not everything here is as catchy as “I Feel it All” and “1234,” but I’ll be damned if the suite of complementary songs “The Park” and “The Water” aren’t just as memorable, and what else can we call “Brandy Alexander” besides great modern folk music?

♦♦♦

Z

My Morning Jacket – Z [2005]

They charmed country rockers with The Tennessee Fire, came into themselves on At Dawn and won over a wider audience with It Still Moves – It seemed as if My Morning Jacket were unstoppable in 2005, but they were still, perhaps justly, pidgeonholed as the new face of Southern Rock. Without leaving behind their roots, My Morning Jacket became Rocketmen Elton John style and flew to New York, L.A., and everywhere in between before launching beyond the stratosphere. Z is above all its other elements a pop album, and My Morning Jacket give melody ultimate precedence: “Gideon,” “Off the Record” and “Anytime” are obvious choices for some of the 2000’s greatest pop-rock tunes, and their singalong penchant even works its way into possibly the greatest song you can’t sing along to (at least during the chorus) as well as the bossanova shine of “Knot Comes Loose.”

♦♦♦

Sakura

Susumu Yokota – Sakura [2000]

After spending the 1990s producing some of Japan’s most loved underground house music, Susumu Yokota delved into his artier instincts and produced an ambient masterwork, Sakura, which is as possessing as it is soothing. Fitting it’s cover art perfectly, Sakura is both elegant and sparse, natural and meticulously crafted. Though the core of the album is ambient music, what makes it most interesting is that it always can also be called something else: “Genshi” recalls his earlier house style, “Hisen” is whimsically experimental and the jazzy “Naminote” broods with an urban rush, and a vast majority of the album reflects on Yokota’s interest in both Japanese and Western classical music. For ambient music, Sakura is a very uneasy album, and the more you listen to it the more unnerving it sounds while still preserving its stable tranquility. It’s an album that keeps us listening on the edge of our seats in anticipation of something that never really comes, and like all great ambient music, speaks for itself.

♦♦♦

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt II

Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt II [2009]

The first installment of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx was a youthful, raw, head nodding masterpiece presented by rap’s new greats. On Pt II, you can really only sit and listen in fear at the game’s vets; Raekwon now rules his environment more than ever. As efficient as he is, the world of Cuban Linx Pt II is of chaos, and we see it’s ugly cross-section, everything from big business to the actual cooking of crack. The entire crew is in full force here: Ghost sounds like a bull out of the pen on the Dilla produced “House of Flying Daggers,” GZA kills it on his only verse appearance on “We Will Rob You” and Raekwon, with his cool composure and electrifying charisma more than leads the army; he controls and elevates it, drawing the best out of RZA, making the initially crusty Dre productions sound like the work of Pharrell and snaking the audience through the most uncompromising Wu album since Liquid Swords. And we listen with the lights out and eyes wide open.

♦♦♦

Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia

The Dandy Warhols – Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia [2000]

Expanding the Dandy Warhols’ unique brand of glam-psychedelic-pop to an art with their most eclectic album to date, Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia is continuous and cohesive, and for that reason alone it makes how damn fun it is a shocker when considering its ambition. Even the psychedelic jams here that harken back to as early as Dandys Rule OK sound meticulously crafted, and numbers such as “Godless,” “Mohammed” and “Sleep” are successes of both texture and melody. And when the Dandys get playful (“Country Leaver,” “Solid,” “Shakin’”), just try not to get involved. Hell, they even walked away with a radio mega-hit. I’ve always felt that the Dandys have been both loved and hated for their style (you can’t authorize cool, after all), but if there will be any reminder in the future of their standalone musicality, Thirteen Tales will cement their special place in pop music.

♦♦♦

Night Ripper

Girl Talk – Night Ripper [2006]

People like club anthems you can shake your ass to, pop hits you can sing along to and indie rock you can air-guitar to, so why don’t we just combine them all so everyone is happy at once? It doesn’t take a biomedical engineer to figure out that simple math, and Greg Gillis showed up to the mashup scene ten years too late to be groundbreaking. So why is it that Night Ripper is still the quintessential 2000s party album, and why does everyone still yell out “Hell yeah!” whenever they hear one of their favorite samples on it? You can say it’s a number of things: perhaps the speed and enthusiasm with which Gillis constructs these progressive pieces, his adoration for a plethora of genres or his zen-like handling of his and our favorite musical moments. Rationalize this as much as you want, but you’ll still get down to it, because it’s a hell of a lot of fun.

♦♦♦

Rossz csillag alatt született

Venetian Snares – Rossz csillag alatt született [2005]

Who would have thought that one of the most revered electronic albums of the decade would have come from breakcore mad scientist Aaron Funk? Well believe it. Just about the only album in Funk’s discography that truly earns its impact on its own terms, Rossz csillag is a concept album about pigeons that I would argue ranks among the greatest of modern classical compositions. Of course it isn’t the first album to combine breakbeats and classical music (we have Richard D. James Album to thank for that), but Rossz csillag is nonetheless a energizing and moving listen. I am picturing myself at a ripe age in a symphony hall watching a full orchestra take on this album in its entirety, Funk watching with old, wise eyes from a box seat.

♦♦♦

The Eraser

Thom Yorke – The Eraser [2006]

Was there a better idea in 2006 than Thom Yorke making a glitch album? Alright, it seems too easy, and he doesn’t always hit home runs. I can admit that I have no idea what “I want to eat your artichoke heart” means (if anything), but it hits me every time like a wrecking ball. You can make plenty of arguments for pretension here and if you aren’t a Radiohead fan this will only drive you further away, but those of us who followed Yorke up until The Eraser were treated with a startling album defined by subtle gestures. Yorke’s singing takes a backseat to his songwriting and simple but effective laptop productions, which seem at breaking point under the weight of depersonalization and claustrophobia. It’s easy to write off this album when comparing it to Radiohead’s discography and more complex experimental electronic music, but it would be a shame to fail to recognize its brilliance.

♦♦♦

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes [2008]

By the time this album came out, no one needed any reminding that great Americana was still in full force and being made on a regular basis, but Fleet Foxes still felt like a punch to the face. When we came to, it seemed as if folk music was the standard for indie music and the U.S.A. had transformed into the freaking Shire for about a year. It was hard not to be spellbound by this album, with its tender instrumentation, reminiscing lyrics and yeah, those damned vocal harmonies that have been so sadly underused for decades. It was immediately hailed as a Summer classic, but it was the perfect soundtrack to the leaves turning in Autumn, breathed life into the dead winter and felt rejuvenating in Spring. By the time all of the seasons made their rounds with this on our radar, it’s mythological mood and spirited melodies had already solidified it as an American classic.

♦♦♦

Give Up

The Postal Service – Give Up [2003]

It’s easy to acknowledge Give Up for its significance in popular music as opposed to its actual quality, but seriously, just spin this once and it’s easy to hear. This album brought electronic pop music to a wider audience for a damn good reason; it is one of the most consistent indie records of all time, and easily the height of the careers of both artists involved. Jimmy Tamborello’s production perfectly surrounds Ben Gibbard’s aching lyrics, and the two elements turn the potential weaknesses of one another into bonafide successes. It may be a continuous cash-in of one trick (soft electronic beats, airy symphonics, sing-along-able pop melodies), but it’s one hell of a trick, and the excellent songwriting here is what makes this album one of electronic pop’s greatest.

♦♦♦

The Disintegration Loops

William Basinski – The Disintegration Loops [2001-2003]

Placing this album anywhere on this list was terribly hard. William Basinski’s massive, four album set The Disintegration Loops isn’t really something that one likes or dislikes or even assign a value to, so much as something that one experiences and takes for what it is. It does require some background information; Basinksi was digitizing old tape loops that were literally disintegrating (carbon pieces falling from the reel), and he just happened to finish up the recordings on September 11th 2001. He and his friends ran the equipment up onto the roof and the result is a project inseparable from its circumstances and yet still timeless. The technical aspects of the project may mark it as avant-garde that is more important than it is enjoyable, but getting lost in The Disintegration Loops‘ echoes and being touched by their mortality is an incredibly easy process.

♦♦♦

Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix [2009]

When all is said and done, Phoenix have made some of the most loved songs of this decade. On that inevitable day that Best of Phoenix comes out, there is going to be an awful lot of rabbling about the selection, but it’s going to sell (or at least download) like The Eagles’ Greatest Hits. Phoenix are more important as artists and songwriters than as a producer of albums, and having to chose one to best represent them seems arbitrary, but I can’t help mentioning their latest, which is incidentally their most cohesive to date. All this talk of sunsets make me really worried that that Best Of album will come sooner than we would like, but Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix is reassurance that this band will be more fondly remembered than sorely missed.

♦♦♦

Rainbow

Boris with Michio Kurihara – Rainbow [2006]

Boris have made several great albums that consolidate their strengths, but their first collaboration with Michio Kurihara seems to pull together a set of ideas that are completely new. It’s still heavy metal, and to an extent drone, but what is more important here is that Boris and Kurihara are skilled songwriters, and we often forget that behind their production values. What you’ll remember on Rainbow are the tunes, their style retro and delivery spacey. We’ve never heard Boris be nearly as deliberately emotional as they are on songs like the gentle “Rainbow” (Wata SINGS!), the atmospheric “Shine,” the funky build of “Sweet No. 1″ and the ambient glow of “…And, I Want”.

♦♦♦

More Adventurous

Rilo Kiley – More Adventurous [2004]

I barely ever listen to Rilo Kiley in my free time, because their style of music doesn’t interest me, though they are probably beyond being pinned in a particular genre at this point. And yet every time I have listened to any of their albums or seen them live, I’ve had my ass kicked. As far as the albums go, More Adventurous is the one in particular that deserves the brownie points on merit alone of being the most literate and lyrically complex album that I can remember hearing, relentless and challenging in its content. Songs ask innumerable questions and provide evidence that can only lead the listener towards their own answers. Trains of thought double back before reaching conclusions, fairy tales of falling in and out of love are spun, and both life and death are celebrated and mourned. This is an album that I simply could not dismiss how hard I tried, and it didn’t take too long before I didn’t care to anymore. It feels good to be idiosyncratic. I do love this.

♦♦♦

The Tired Sounds Of

Stars of the Lid – The Tired Sounds Of [2001]

In the history of ambient manifestos, the ’70s had Music for Airports, the ’80s had Structures from Silence, the ’90s had the Selected Ambient Works series and now the the ’00s have The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid. What it has to say about ambient music is a little more understated than its predecessors, though; the album moves in hazy, continuous waves of dreamy sound that leave little resolved and even less clearly stated (the wordy titles are the most we get as far as tangible concepts go). But the music is undoubtedly ambitious and sprawling, delivering snapshots in time and space within suites as well as standalone tracks. Naming highlights is a fruitless process, and it’s difficult to nail down essentials to anything less than the full tracklist. By the end of it I always find that it earns its collective impact as a development, it’s astral tones echoing back and forth until they have formed a flawless whole.

♦♦♦

And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out

Yo La Tengo – And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out [2000]

The idea of Yo La Tengo making an album of love songs seems like the most natural thing in the world, so it’s a bit of a surprise it took them fifteen years to actually do it. More than worth the wait though; And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out is yet another Yo La Tengo masterwork comparable to Painful and I Can Hear The Heart… Actually, the title of the latter seems just as applicable as Inside-Out, and it sounds as if the band are pouring out their most intimate, internal emotions. On You Can Have it All, Georgia Hubley gently sings “If you want my heart, take it baby…” I can’t think of a band I could be more flattered by having been given their all.

♦♦♦

You & Me

The Walkmen – You & Me [2008]

The most important place for the Walkmen is of course New York City, but my favorite Walkmen album sees them leaving home. As its title suggests, You & Me album is mostly about love, but like many great stories, this love is viewed from an unusual context: The Adriatic Sea, Cabo San Lucas, Barcelona, the Caribbean. The Walkmen’s classical delivery congeals fantastically with the international styles they explore here, but You & Me is hardly a walk on the beach. Hamilton Leithauser’s yearning vocals and bittersweet lyrics ache with more emotion than he has ever delivered before, and we get the feeling that these songs are fleeting memories more than they are current events. It’s a good sign for an album if you don’t even have to close your eyes to be taken to a different place.

♦♦♦

Crystal Castles

Crystal Castles – Crystal Castles [2008]

What is most impressive about Toronto duo Crystal Castles’ debut is how much ground it covers within its limited genre of visceral 8bit video game techno, shown by its wealth of utterly unique songs and seemingly endless stream of “holy shit” moments. The excellent singles (“Alice Practice,” “Crimewave,” “Air War,” “Courtship Dating”) may be representative of the album’s strengths, but the highlights don’t stop there. The otherworldly vocals on “Untrust Us,” the chopped up aggression of “Xxzxcuzx Me,” the steadily developing groove of “Magic Spells,” the dance floor demon “Black Panther”… And if the final, show stopping “Tell Me What to Swallow” doesn’t slap you in the face and make you believe that Crystal Castles are capable of transcending their reputation, well, something else here probably already did.

♦♦♦

Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots [2002]

The Soft Bulletin may have been the most accomplished album by the Flaming Lips, but it certainly was not the last great album. Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots is the most advanced the band’s sound has ever been, and yet another wonderful set of songs that meld together into a grand, lush album. But also in its possession are some of the bands most immediate and touching  singles, which The Soft Bulletin does not quite deliver in as great a breadth.  “Fight Test,” “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1,” “Ego Tripping At The Gates of Hell,” “It’s Summertime,” and of course the timeless “Do You Realize?” are all in the run for both catchiest and most sophisticated pop songs ever. Only one of the world’s most talented bands could ever make an album about such magical content so heartwarming and human.

♦♦♦

And the Glass Handed Kites

Mew – And the Glass Handed Kites [2005]

Alright, “progressive dreampop” isn’t exactly the most likely genre combo to be successful, but any Mew fan will probably be the first to remind you of that. And that’s probably what makes And the Glass Handed Kites so impressive in the first place; it shows Mew taking disparate ideas, weaving them together and being really passionate about what they are doing. The Danish band love rock music just as much as they love texture, which explains why they can pull off featuring J. Mascis and cranking out catchy riff rockers and name songs shit like “The Seething Rain Weeps for You” on the same damned album, and why we buy into every second of it.

♦♦♦

Let it Die

Feist – Let it Die [2004]

Listening to Let It Die is like an old fashioned practice; Leslie Feist whispers gentle lyrics of love and heartbreak over delicate, mostly piano-based melodies, and we listen intently with a gentle sensitivity. The album harkens back to a time when pop music was either heard on a phonograph or in a piano lounge, and when vocals meant much more. People make albums of music like this all the time, but what differentiates Feist are her distinctive, intimate vocals and her sense of songwriting adventure which takes the listener from somewhere not even on a map to a New York City penthouse and back again with ease.

♦♦♦

Lesser Matters

The Radio Dept. – Lesser Matters [2003]

The Radio Dept. had stiff competition and little chance to really fall into place in indie pop. Trailing the release of The Postal Service’s Give Up by a single month, Lesser Matters is a  humble, sentimental lo-fi electronic pop album of a largely uniform style. The Radio Dept. never hit it big, but Lesser Matters guaranteed a place for them immediately with its warm production and genuine lyrics which outline realistic life problems with a playful sense of adventure. Some dots can be connected to shoegaze and dreampop (“Keen On Boys” sounds like it’s coming live from a sauna), but Lesser Matters is largely a unique, stylized effort that brings genuine gravity to everyday events.

♦♦♦

Supreme Clientele

Ghostface Killah – Supreme Clientele [2000]

On one hand, Ghostface Killah’s borderlilne nonsensical lyrics may make him seem less threatening than his Wu-Tang brethren due to sheer lack of intelligibility, but it’s actually what makes him the most vicious and unpredictable of the bunch, especially when he’s leading the pack. His James Joyce-like free associative lyrics range from playful to apocalyptic, and they meld with his fast paced, caustic delivery perfectly. But we’d known about all that since Enter the Wu-Tang. What’s cool about Supreme Clientele is that while it is still very much a Wu-Tang album, it owes little to nothing to its predecessors and bravely moves from one unique idea, producer and style to another, much like Ghost’s relentless delivery.

♦♦♦

Lamentate

Arvo Pärt – Lamentate [2005]

As a classical musician, Arvo Pärt’s output naturally isn’t exactly album-based, and many of his best releases are compilations. But Lamentate is mostly a single segmented work, save the beginning inclusion of the lovely peace-call “Da Pacem Domine”. “Lamentate” itself is a work of staggering emotion, specifically sadness, crystallized into music. The pieces range from agony to grief to desperation to loneliness, most making use of Pärt’s talent for capitalizing on silence, which resonates here as a destructive force beyond comprehension. An essential composition, Lamentate is proof that even sixty years into his career, Arvo Pärt is still pushing his boundaries and is one of the most talented composers in the world.

♦♦♦

Body Riddle

Clark – Body Riddle [2006]

It’s hardly debatable that Chris Clark was one of the most important electronic artists of Warp’s second decade. Clarence Park and Empty the Bones of You had obvious peaks of genius, but as wholes they felt like fragmented collections of songs. Body Riddle was where Clark’s brilliance found a cohesion, and it is a continuous, fully formed work. The title is appropriate; the album is a cerebral puzzle, one that rewards repeated listens with great rewards, not unlike other more difficult Warp touchstones such as Selected Ambient Works Volume 2, LP5 and Geogaddi. It’s sensible that it was around this time that Chris Clark shortened his name to simply “Clark”; he more than earned the shorthand with this album, his finest achievement and a turning point for his consistently great career.

♦♦♦

Nothing Changes Under the Sun

Blue States – Nothing Changes Under the Sun [2000]

Blue States’ debut album of spacey synths and mountain-high rhythms started off ambient techno in the new millennium with a bang, effectively fusing the genre with jazz and maximizing its appeal for home audiences. Moon Safari comparisons may hold some legitimacy, but Nothing Changes Under the Sun does more than just subtract the French cheese and a couple hundred thousand in sales. Andy Dragazis lets his rhythms run to their full potential and builds jazzy compositions with sweeping harmonies over them, resulting in an album that can’t manage to stop delivering high points while keeping its cool composure. Nearly a decade later it has aged wonderfully, a quiet monolith of new millenium electronica.

♦♦♦

Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend [2008]

Ok, I’ll bite. There really isn’t anything challenging about Vampire Weekend. Maybe the hardest thing is not cringing at the fact that they are singing about punctuation and Louis Vuitton. African Pop? Bait and switch. You need literally no background knowledge of any sort to appreciate what these guys do on this album of Mothersbaugh-esque chamber pop. But I’ll tell you what it is: a punk record. Yeah, that’s right. Sure, no glue is being sniffed and they’re a bunch of cardigan-wearing cream puffs, but making pop music with absolutely no strings attached was just about the most punk thing you could do in 2008, and at its core this is one of the most honest, fearless pop albums of the decade.

♦♦♦

Since I Left You

The Avalanches – Since I Left You [2000]

Picking up where DJ Shadow left off in 1996, The Avalanches expanded on retro sampling with their only album release, Since I Left You. Both albums sound like they resonate from a crackly AM radio, but while DJ Shadow filtered nostalgia through a prism of melancholy, this music is gloriously happy with a touch of longing. It is shamelessly a shimmering pop synthesis of genres that people already look back on with fondness: soul, R&B, swing, hip hop, dance and retro sampling. It’s overall product is a continuous album that is endlessly replayable and fun. While listening to Since I Left You, it is difficult not to regard the album with the giddy excitement with which they themselves regard musical buried treasure.

♦♦♦

XX

The xx – XX [2009]

Talk about greatest album covers of all time: pointed, encroaching blackness behind a pure white figure which dims and warps subtly the longer you stare at it. It easily ousts Merriweather Post Pavilion’s illusory silliness. This album is black licorice, the kind of vintage, no-tricks sexy that you couldn’t get at a burlesque. The xx’s cheap sex and cigarettes are both their greatest strength and their most considerable weakness. This album is a quiet thrill with a unique, bare bones style: With its simple drum machine, pulsing bass tones and Romy Madley Croft’s subtly slurred vocals, XX sounds like it was birthed in a single night. For that reason, it ends up more than just a humble album; it sounds like a peek through a window, revealing only part of a greater story. It’s unlikely that with the modesty the xx have that they will ever rise to stardom, but in that sense they’re ten steps ahead of the game in becoming legends, this album their chilling definitive statement.

♦♦♦

Return to Cookie Mountain

TV on the Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain [2006]

Return to Cookie Mountain might be the aural equivalent of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead: In their claustrophobic, terrifying world of sound, TV on the Radio are their own worst enemies. Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone yowl in anguish of lost love, addiction and terrifying transformation over crashing drums and jagged guitars. But their self-deprecation is hardly sympathy-seeking. What is really weird about this album and what sets it apart from the aforementioned fellow cult-hit is that in the face of all of its conflicts, it seems to find a solution in its conclusion, breaking into a blinding dawn after stumbling through the darkest night. Maybe that was a clever foreshadowing to the invigorating victory lap of Dear Science. They deserved it after this, their toughest battle in their ugliest hour.

♦♦♦

The Glow Pt. 2

The Microphones – The Glow Pt. 2 [2001]

It’s kind of hard for me to believe that this album came out in the twenty first century. I feel like it has been around for longer, gaining trunk-rings and turning leaves for decades. But it doesn’t seem to fit in anywhere in the twentieth century either. With The Glow Pt. 2, Phil Elvrum achieves a superb level of control without sacrificing his free-form style, and the result, not just in spite of its occasional chaos but because of it, feels wholly natural and timeless. The turn of the century was typically deeply concerned with time-crunching, degradation in the face of technology and the fear of creating new legacy; in general, most of these fascinations lay in things unnatural. The Glow Pt. 2, however, is wholly organic, and those themes only exist as distant lights on the horizon. Primarily, Elvrum takes on the most complex and relevant issue of all; the self.

♦♦♦

( )

How can I even begin to describe this, an album that doesn’t even have a title and is allegedly composed of a void (you can even HEAR the parentheses, for Christ’s sake)? It’s not that it’s impossible to describe, just difficult to do justice to. To say this album is full of slow moving, melancholy post-rock is just about the least attractive thing I could imagine saying about any album. But ( ) is all of these things as well as cold, warm, dense, sparse, and much more. Oh yeah, and it contains eight of Sigur Rós’ greatest songs, all of them utterly moving. Listen and then try doing better than I just did, I dare you. I’ll bet Sigur Rós would be proud that this album finds us as speechless as it found them.

♦♦♦

Kill the Moonlight

Spoon – Kill the Moonlight [2002]

Each Spoon album has felt like a systematic advance over the last, but to many their fourth album may have felt like a step backwards. Spoon had always shown that less was more with their music, but Kill the Moonlight took those ideas to the extreme. Songs are subtly built up with simple melodic shards, and at first glance they don’t sound much different than the band’s previous work, but closer inspection reveals their intricacy. “Stay Don’t Go,” for example, may be constructed with the most simple of elements that anyone could have created, but it’s details and sequencing could only be the work of Spoon. Kill the Moonlight is in no way deceptive. It lays all of it’s spirit out on the table and somehow we wait, thinking we’re going to get to some kind of “point” or find an answer. On any other album that would be a sign of weakness, but here it is a great strength, and you only have to listen and find yourself incredibly satisfied by the end to see why that is.

♦♦♦

Akron/Family

Akron/Family – Akron/Family [2005]

One of the most representative artists in the neo freak-folk movement was Brooklyn based Akron/Family, and their self titled debut is one of the most memorable folk albums of its time. The concept is straightforward: accompany simple campfire melodies (some of the best melodies on record, as it happened), with sharp contrasts in delivery and production. The results are intriguing; the often bizarre idiosyncrasies make the songs distinctive and memorable, yet still warm and comforting. From the R2D2 bleeps and bloops of the opening “Before And Again,” to the lush synthesizers in “I’ll Be On The Water,” through the splashes of reverberation and recorded natural sounds on “Afford,” all the way to the crooked horns and vocals on “Franny/You’re Human,” Akron/Family is loaded with highlights that feel like fragments of great folklore with surreal modern contexts. Although quite strange, an album as warm and intimate as this is a rarity.

♦♦♦

Endless Summer

Fennesz – Endless Summer [2001]

For what is certainly one of the most revered glitch albums of all time, it is a natural question to ask, “what would we get if we took the glitch away?” The answer: probably elevator music. Endless Summer sputters and whirs, grinds and distorts the simplest and least interesting of melodies into masterpieces. I’ve heard many claim that at its heart this album is Beach Boys pop, and I wouldn’t argue, but to me its heart is only mechanically important, much less the point than than its brain, which can’t seem to get a full grasp on things. We’ve all experienced this before, revisiting a childhood vacation locale ten years later to realize it’s not half as cool as we remember it. Endless Summer touches people so internally because it imitates the way memory works, scratchy and imperfect. Thus, the real secret of this album is that said “Summer” ended a long time ago, and we just can’t bear to leave it behind.

♦♦♦

Souvenirs d'un autre monde

Alcest – Souvenirs d’un autre monde [2007]

When Souvenirs came out, Neige said that he had never listened to shoegaze before. With that said, any shoegaze fan won’t be able to help raising an eyebrow at this album. It screams influences like Slowdive, Ride and the Catherine Wheel, but then I’ve also heard some people call it Black Metal, which seems ridiculous to me. Whatever the hell it is, it sure is purdy, and Neige has a sublime control over his dynamics and flowing melodies that make up these six multi-faceted epics. There is diversity within these songs too; the title directly translates to “Memories from Another World,” and there are heavenly soundscapes abound here, but the beginning of “Ciel Errant” sounds like the theme to your middle school dance, and we even get some double bass-drum metallic edge on “Les Iris”. Maybe this is some kind of heavy metal after all. If it is, it definitely blurs the line.

♦♦♦

Guero

Beck – Guero [2005]

I’ll never forget my experiences with  Guero, quite possibly my favorite Beck album. I’ve heard it be written off more times than I can count and I’m sick of it. This is, to me, just about the definitive Summer album. Sunny pop pieces like “Girl,” rockers “E-Pro” and “Rental Car,” lazy head-nodders “Missing” and “Earthquake Weather,” hilarious experiments “Que Onda Guero” and “Hell Yes;” all among Beck’s greatest. By this time, the album may have seemed to many to be typical, and I can see why. He makes writing such good, unique tunes sound effortless, and his delivery on Guero is tame, even relaxed with its South-of-the-border style, but Guero is by no means a lazy album. Beck clearly had to work hard to squeeze out so many thoroughly enjoyable songs, simultaneously stylized and diverse. If typical Beck is this fun, then we only have further evidence that he’s one of the greatest songwriters around.

♦♦♦

Vivian Girls

Vivian Girls – Vivian Girls [2008]

Many would claim the Vivian Girls had everything going against them, having blossomed in a time when pop-punk was out of style and hipster backlash could have killed a group with such honest intentions, but this album speaks for itself; It sounds like it could level a city, and the most frequent adjective thrown around to describe it is appropriately “apocalyptic.” Think an atom bomb painted pink; Vivian Girls is noisy and destructive, and any semblance of cute is rendered stark and devastating by its surroundings. But what really shines here is Cassie Ramone’s combination of syrupy sweet vocals and dark lyrics, which perfectly congeal with this album’s instrumental grit.

♦♦♦

For Emma, Forever Ago

Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Ago [2007]

Musically, 2007 was a year of detail and complexity: Kala subverted all expectations on a song by song basis, Untrue unfolded a world of dark secrets and For Emma, Forever Ago…uh, well, actually ended up being exactly what it sounded like, a dude in a cabin in Wisconsin with a guitar. I may have spent more time thinking about those other albums, but I remember every moment on Emma because there aren’t any tricks here. Alright, ambition is important, but the term is often consigned to experimentation and advancement. Justin Vernon was ambitious on this album in the classical sense. We get albums like this once in a blue moon, albums that settle in with you and become an important part of your life for their duration. More than anything, we needed Bon Iver in 2007, because we always need reminding that honesty never goes out of style.

♦♦♦

Stankonia

Outkast – Stankonia [2000]

By now we have recognized Outkast as one of the most important singles bands of the 2000s, and before the turn of the century we already knew they were an important album band, but Stankonia cemented both concepts. The sprawling hip hop funk masterpiece is loaded with memorable songs, a vast majority of which could have passed for singles even though only a few of them did. But what is really special about Stankonia, as well as the interplay of Andre 3000 and Big Boi, is how they function as a whole, resulting in not only one of the most fun albums I’ve ever heard but also one of the most underhandedly affecting. It’s hard to not dance to “Humble Mumble” and “B.O.B.” is possibly Outkast’s most electrifying performance, but the custody war saga “Ms. Jackson” will hit you like a brick wall, and the suicide story “Toilet Tisha” is worthy of discussion in a sociology symposium. Thus, Outkast crafted a fierceley dual-themed album, ironically their last with any real unity as a group. Yes, “Hey, Ya!” is good, clean fun. But great music isn’t always clean or polite. The truth can be unabashedly stanky.

♦♦♦

Night Piece

Shugo Tokumaru – Night Piece [2004]

Miles Davis once said, “Don’t play what’s there – play what’s not there.” Shugo Tokumaru’s debut album Night Piece seems to do just this, perhaps not in the exact way that Davis described his musical philosophy, but much like a wood block painting where musical subtleties are outlined by vast expanses of empty space that jut off into infinity. Night Piece reaches a sort of equilibrium where sweet melodies and subtle irregularities balance each other out. For this reason, the album is completely engaging and ambitious, but simultaneously warm and comforting. The humble melodies are often left bare and full, so that each pluck fills the massive space it inhabits and each rhythm takes confident control. Every song is a musical haiku, completely satisfied with its own simple beauty. Once you get comfortable with Night Piece, it might as well blanket your thoughts and really just make you extremely HAPPY for an indefinite number of plays.

♦♦♦

Geogaddi

Boards of Canada – Geogaddi [2002]

Boards of Canada followed up their masterful 1998 LP Music Has the Right to Children with Geogaddi, a lucid, potentially frightening pseudo-concept album. It’s underlying themes are not stated explicitly, but there is clearly a sonic narrative being told here. On paper, this music is much the same as Music Has the Right’s long I.D.M. pieces dispersed with short vignettes, but in actuality Geogaddi’s warped execution and form is Music inverted. Pieces warp and twist under their own energy, and around every turn the listener peers around, there lies yet another turn. Geogaddi is an album that rewards extended time spent with it and close examination, and every time the bigger picture comes closer, but remains just out of reach.

♦♦♦

Hail to the Thief

Radiohead – Hail to the Thief [2003]

After meticulously crafting the twin albums Kid A and Amnesiac, Radiohead were probably going to get ragged on no matter what they did here, and the fact that Hail to the Thief is as much a collection of songs as it is an album probably didn’t help their chances. Good news? Those songs fit together like jigsaws, and Thief still manages to be a cohesive album. Even better news? It contains many of their best songs, all unique, and none of them weak, although the album echoes of some kind of physical and mental damage. It is still their darkest album to date, and everything from haunting electronics to elegant acoustics to noisy rock resonate of crisis. Greatest news? This is yet another great Radiohead album, and we’ll be listening to it decades from now, parsing through it, just as amazed as we are with the rest. Bad news? Your world is falling apart.

♦♦♦

Microcastle / Weird Era Continued

Deerhunter – Microcastle / Weird Era Continued [2008]

While few albums weren’t effected by the internet in the 2000s, this might be the only album that was truly shaped by it. If Microcastle hadn’t leaked six months early and Bradford Cox hadn’t flipped a shit about it (and reasonably so), we might never have gotten the second disk of this album, Weird Era Continued, which itself subsequently leaked anyway. Make no mistake, Weird Era is no bonus disk; this album is proof that the double album can still pack a wallop, and Deerhunter blaze through two tireless disks of their unique and now perfected style of developmental dream-pop (if you can really call it anything except Deerhunter, dammit), and we’re left slack-jawed. “Agoraphobia,” “Vox Humana,” “Nothing Ever Happened,” “Backspace Century”… Aw forget it, just jump on this train and don’t get off.

♦♦♦

White Blood Cells

The White Stripes – White Blood Cells [2001]

Remember rock music before The White Stripes? Yeah, me neither. OK, I’ve got a little bit of a bias; White Blood Cells was one of the first rock albums I ever bought, and it shaped the development of my personal taste, but there is still something self-evidently brilliant here. It practically sounds like a Greatest Hits album (of course excluding the their two brilliant prior albums), albeit of a really off-the-wall underground band. White Blood Cells is loaded with gems, many of which found their way into American culture through media and radio play very fast (“Hotel Yorba,” “Fell in Love With A Girl,” “We’re Going to Be Friends”), but it is also in it for the long haul, delivering emotive pieces like “The Union Forever” and “This Protector.” The White Stripes proved that great rock bands can still thrive as adventurous, album-based units, and White Blood Cells was their most convincing proof.

♦♦♦

In a Beautiful Place out in the Country

Boards of Canada – In a Beautiful Place out in the Country [2000]

This is the only EP on this list, and it’s really no surprise. Scarcely any EPs from any decade even get close to this one, a collection of four songs from the Geogaddi sessions that perfect Boards of Canada’s style: chilled out, nature-oriented, nostalgic, beat-driven ambient techno. The songs here are not quite as disturbing as the songs on Geogaddi, but they still have their fair share of sonic details that just border between interesting and unnerving. As a result, these songs take on an otherworldly spiritual texture, but are still down to earth in form, structured much like the material on Music Has the Right to Children but advanced in technique.

♦♦♦

Original Pirate Material

The Streets – Original Pirate Material [2002]

Could there be a more appropriate commencement than “Turn the Page”? The Streets’ debut album Original Pirate Material was by no means the first UK garage album, but it felt like both the beginning and the end of big things. Most importantly, though, it showed Mike Skinner in his prime, with the vitality necessary to push garage and grime forward. He shows no hesitation in dressing his productions with aching, dramatic strings and pianos to depictions of typical UK post-rave culture. He elevates mundane situations (chance meetings on the street, trips to K.F.C., drunken stumbling) to near biblical levels of precedence, painting stark portraits of deep-seeded urban decay, not unlike the photograph by Rut Blees Luxemburg titled “Towering Inforno” which adorns the album’s cover. And somehow, interspersed among melancholy and anger, Skinner maintains an intelligent sense of humor and assures us that stars are aligning, weak are becoming heroes and the best thing we can do for ourselves is to stay positive. On one hand it’s easy to say he’s got a lot of nerve, the twerp, but it’s undeniable that he has tapped into something frighteningly close to the human condition, and we’ll likely be repeating his words even when his empire has fallen.

♦♦♦

Los Angeles

Flying Lotus – Los Angeles [2008]

Flying Lotus is not the future of hip hop. Flying Lotus is the future of music, and Los Angeles is the badge to prove it. With his second album, Steven Ellison melts down all of his influences (hip hop, electronic, jazz, among others) into a malleable form and shapes it to his liking to create a masterwork. Los Angeles is, as a result, a left-of-center album of the future, recalling those genres he loves but putting a completely new spin on them, forming a melting pot of ideas like the city from which it takes its name. Beats are off-tempo, sounds are diverse and highly distorted, and songs are unique and fresh. At times productions sound like they are limited by the sound register: “GNG-BNG”’s beats are too huge for their environment, “Camel” is nearly tangible and “Auntie’s Lock/Infinitum” brings Los Angeles to an inscrutable close. It’s not hard to see this being an influential electronic album, not only because it is unique but also because it is so dynamic, and if we still have artists like Flying Lotus pushing the boundaries of what is going on in modern music, the future is bright.

♦♦♦

Rejoicing in the Hands

Devendra Banhart – Rejoicing in the Hands [2004]

There are a couple features which set Devendra Banhart apart from his peers: you could point a finger at his vocals, persistent weirdness or constant show of pubic hair as reasons he’s never going to be forgotten. But what gets him through the day on his second album on Young God is nothing more than sheer excellence in songwriting, and he is without peers in 2000s folk music. Rejoicing in the Hands is loaded with gems that are a pleasure to listen to, only bolstered by his unique vocals, but are for the most part left naked, and they succeed on their own terms. He can make his fingerpicking shine like the sun (“This is the Way”, “The Body Breaks”) or brood like a storm (“See Saw”), and the final product is fully formed and rounded. There is no reason that troubadours at crossroads shouldn’t be singing these songs for hundreds of years.

♦♦♦

Vision Creation Newsun

Boredoms – Vision Creation Newsun [2000]

When people talk about monumental albums, they don’t usually mean it in the literal sense of the word. Boredoms last major album feels like it could be a physical construction, something tangible and awesome. Instead, at least unless you’re on acid, Vision Creation Newsun is an spellbinding musical statement, and we are reminded that The Boredoms are capable of great focus and inspiration resulting in awesome things, here a progressive, free-form rock symphony. Vision Creation Newsun is the album where the Boredoms set a collaborative goal and power towards it with everything they’ve got. They really reach for the sky here, and they most definitely touch it.

♦♦♦

Funeral

Arcade Fire – Funeral [2004]

For me, the definitive moment of Arcade Fire’s debut album has always been the middle stretch of “Haiti” where Regine Chassagne sings over arugably the album’s catchiest hook “in the the forest we lie hiding/unmarked graves where flowers grow/hear the soldier’s angry yelling/in the river we will go.” It seems to embody the spirit of the album, that is, an incident frozen in time, either explicitly explained or implicitly suggested, where someone is there, living, loving and learning. Indeed, this happens on more than one occasion, and Funeral is a continuous string of crystallized humanity. While the album is named “Funeral“, it primarily recognizes death as a necessary component to life, and this puts all of its ambitious goals on a song by song basis into perspective. The love here is completely human, and it might be considered the 2000s’ indie prototype for that reason alone.

♦♦♦

Feels

Animal Collective – Feels [2005]

Feels may not be the first time Animal Collective operated in a certain way (Here Comes the Indian and Sung Tongs typically get high praise for just those reasons), but it sees them in top form, pulling all of their elements together with dazzling results. And interestingly enough, Feels is their album of love songs, and these whimsical pieces pulse with lovely pop sensibility. This doesn’t sound much different than what Of Montreal brought to the table with The Gay Parade, but what sets Animal Collective apart is their innovative pop structures, favoring formless ambient passages and noise influences just as much as they value catchy tunes.

♦♦♦

Hell Hath No Fury

Clipse – Hell Hath No Fury [2006]

Some moments on Hell Hath No Fury will have you believing that the Thornton Brothers find themselves literally invulnerable. They push, shove, and unflinchingly advertise themselves as the top of the coke game. But other times, their ultimate mortality casts its eye on them over piles of keys and cash. They know it’s there, and it’s killing them slowly. In the wake of a damning label controversy, Pusha T. and Malice teamed up with exclusive producers the Neptunes once again, and the result is a violently schizophrenic hip hop album, contrary to its unswerving confidence (thanks in part to Pharrell and Chad Hugo’s dirty, sparse production). Every track is fair game for best accomplishment claims: The middle Eastern burn of “Trill,” the guilty accordion confessional “Momma I’m So Sorry,” the desperate swagger of “Ain’t Cha”… Yes, they’re on a boat wit’cha bitch, but a storm is brewing.

♦♦♦

Ashes Grammar

A Sunny Day in Glasgow – Ashes Grammar [2009]

The latter half of the 2000s had one hell of a run for awesome shoegaze albums. Since 2005 we got at least one knockout a year, and A Sunny Day in Glasgow’s Ashes Grammar was and is the shoegaze album of 2009, in a big way. Their 2007 debut was interesting in its airy experimentation, but it too often found itself stuck in its own rules. Ashes Grammar does create its own musical grammar, syntax and vocabulary, but they are fluid, shifting freely from idea to idea, musical glossolalia. No, not improvisation; this album is meticulously planned, concrete, and pleasingly melodic. It won’t float away from you, and it is oddly familiar, even at first listen. Give these pieces a little time and they become as natural as breathing.

♦♦♦

The Moon and Antarctica

Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica [2000]

In many ways, The Lonesome Crowded West was the left field success of the ’90s, gathering its strength from ideas obscured by situations, both unusual and frighteningly common. Hearing Modest Mouse go from there to The Moon & Antarctica, which wears its dark themes on its sleeves, was understandably a shock and a turnoff to many. Although it might not have the clever literacy of Lonesome Crowded West, Antarctica is an even more ambitious statement, further diversifying Modest Mouse’s sound with instrumentation that varies from warm to harrowingly cold and of course the words of Isaac Brock, one of the most underhandedly brilliant lyricists of all time. This album is of a rare kind, one that wants to be big and ambitious and succeeds with flying colors.

♦♦♦

New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War)

Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One (Fourth World War) [2008]

It’s easy to miss Erykah Badu on the first track of New Amerykah. This is odd, because she sings and speaks throughout, but for some reason she melts into what is around her, a sloganeering p-funk styled boogie. She does this throughout the album, her voice hovering like a specter commanding all that it shares space with. This album has plenty you can shake your ass too, but also a lot you can only really listen to attentively in anticipation at. And then before you know it, it’s over. In short, this album sneaks up on you no matter how much you are paying attention, and somewhere along the line this chain of ambitious but subtle R&B gems becomes bigger than Erykah Badu, bigger than hip hop, religion, America. Most artists pray for that kind of achievement, but Badu steps up to the plate and actually earns it.

♦♦♦

Boris at Last -Feedbacker-

Boris – Boris at Last -Feedbacker- [2003]

Most of Boris’ grand achievements in the 2000s have been syntheses of their greatest elements. Boris at Last has, to me, always functioned as the band’s definitive metal statement despite the fact that it overlooks many of the band’s interests, namely punk and experimental  jamming. But it sure covers all the heavy metal bases: In five sprawling, unnamed suites, Feedbacker is a heavy metal opera, the kind of thing that people crowd around a stereo and nod their heads to in understanding. With massive buildups, walls of drone, cacophonous noise, cathartic screams and rock-hard riffing, this album may not have it all but it’s hard to imagine it sounding any more full. In a word, epic. And it has that timeless cover art too; the album practically gives its listeners a concussion, so I can only imagine what it would do to the creators.

♦♦♦

God Is Saying This to You...

Kurt Vile – God Is Saying This to You… [2009]

Kurt Vile’s most striking album is also his most irregular. God is Saying This to You is said to be a collection of obscurities, and clocking at under thirty minutes, half of these songs are experimental instrumentals. It sounds like it shouldn’t be fully formed, but why does this album hit like a ton of bricks? Vile’s songwriting is the culprit, and he is truly one of the decades finest folk singers. The aforementioned interludes are bitingly cerebral, and this carries over to the folk songs too. Vile is no stranger to good fun, but these songs are of a different breed. They transcend expression through music, because they don’t even sound like expression. They sound downright internal, deeply meditated thoughts and fleeting feelings of love and pain.

♦♦♦

The Ape of Naples

Coil – The Ape of Naples [2005]

Five years later and Coil’s final album, The Ape of Naples, still scares the living shit out of me. I can’t truly say that any other album can really affect me at every listen like that, although some could manage it for multiple listens before the shock wore off. But for some reason, I still can’t shake the vibe this one gives me. John Balance’s consumptive alcoholism was finally the death of him, and we get the feeling that he realized that this was happening. What makes The Ape of Naples so effective is that it is a process. No behind-the-door scare tactics, no twists. You see the degradation happening. It is easy to recognize the subject of it’s narrative arc from the beginning (the opening “Fire of the Mind,” which gave the album its original name, even sounds funereal), but that doesn’t make the following songs any less truly stunning, and I don’t know if there is anything to leave accountable besides frighteningly genuine musicianship.

♦♦♦

Guitar Romantic

The Exploding Hearts – Guitar Romantic [2003]

Please, hold me back now; how else can I help but gush about The Exploding Hearts? People listen to this album and they just know that the Hearts were something special. Granted, it does seem like this could have come out of a time machine from the ’70s, a pop-punk record unafraid to show its influences, but great pop music is timeless and Guitar Romantic is bursting with enthusiasm. “I’m a Pretender” should be instated as the nation’s official drinking song, “Throwaway Style” is a rare song that might actually be comparable to the Beatles and if there is any justice there will be always be High School punks somewhere outside a burger joint smoking to the sounds of “Sleeping Aids and Razorblades”. The rest of the story is painful but necessary to tell; their van flipped and three of them died. What can I say? Guitar Romantic makes me want to throw my hands up into the air, sing and dance. It’s an album that stands alone, not because of legacy but because of The Exploding Hearts’ obvious sheer love for craft.

♦♦♦

Gorillaz

Gorillaz – Gorillaz [2001]

Almost a decade after the fact, the debut album from Gorillaz feels less like a virtual pop experiment than it does an exercise in diversity. Sure, we had plenty of all-over-the-board albums this decade, but none of them as ambitious as this. Throughout the album, the songwriting of primary members Damon Albarn and Dan “the Automator” Nakamura lend themselves to developing ideas within and between their favorite genres like rock, electronic, hip hop, dub and punk over long periods of time spanning many songs each, and in the process blur the lines between all of them. The result, in my opinion, is the most underrated album on this list. It’s understandable that no one found it a masterpiece of any genre in particular; it may be spread out, but it’s spread out damn thick.

♦♦♦

Is This It

The Strokes – Is This It [2001]

My guess is that Is This It will be the first album on this list to be considered “classic rock.” Not because it is in any way antiquated; on the contrary this album still sounds fresh, and isn’t that what a classic is? It proves something that albums have proved for decades; there will never be an end to creative ways of doing rock ‘n roll. Julian Casablancas and company still pop my eyes out of my head on this one: The fast and melodic riffing, the uptempo rhythm section, and of course the heartbreaking vocals. These elements sounded like age-old standards when Is This It came out, and it’s hard to believe that The Strokes were the first to use them. It’s New York punk, definitely, but it sounds like it has been zoned in from somewhere else, although Casablancas even seems to doubt that this all can be pinned down: “In spaceships they won’t understand / And me? I ain’t never gonna understand.” That, my friends, is how classic albums are made.

♦♦♦

Saint Dymphna

Gang Gang Dance – Saint Dymphna [2008]

Saint Dymphna’s defining lyric comes from guest vocalist Tinchy Stryder on “Princes”: “Oh shit, Gang Gang!” From the opening moments of this album straight until the end, it’s clear that no one has their shit together better than Gang Gang Dance in 2008. Dymphna is a synthesis of cultures and sounds as well as a percussive explosion, not unlike the band’s past successes, but Saint Dymphna brings them to a completely different level. Gang Gang Dance are fearless, and no where else in indie or electronic music do you hear anything even remotely like these choice songs: The high-as-the-sky “Vacuum,” the down-the-rabbit-hole “House Jam,” the propulsive hip-swinging “First Communion,” the ethnic ambient pop of “Dust”… “Oh Shit, Gang Gang” indeed.

♦♦♦

Burial

Burial – Burial [2006]

We may have not known who Burial was, but his message was clear; the South London Boroughs are a very dark place, and you probably wouldn’t want to be there. With that said, it’s funny that his debut album and dubstep’s first true knockout is so salivatingly addictive. Burial puts atmosphere at the top of his priorities, and even the 2-step beats, propulsive as they are, are simply used as a catalyst to get to a more vivid ambiance. His sampling is also impeccable: the loading of handguns act as beats, Middle-Eastern strings blossom in fields of dead grass and musical structures teeter on the verge of collapse. It’s a fantastic portrait, but it’s hard to say of it’s really fantasy. In the new millennium, decaying urban grit might have been the most defining environment, and Burial captured that in music like no other.

♦♦♦

Alive 2007

Daft Punk – Alive 2007 [2007]

Without question Daft Punk were among the most important artists of the 2000s: With their larger than life productions and memorable singles they brought dance music and DJ culture to both mainstream and indie audiences. When “One More Time” comes on at a party, who can’t get down? But somehow their studio albums as wholes don’t quite cut it at describing exactly why Daft Punk were so brilliant; their shows, clearly, do. While listening to Daft Punk’s second live album, you may not have the legendary pyramid or the blinding lights, but the energy translates in full and Alive 2007 is an electrifying listen with aural fireworks that their studio albums can’t quite replicate. Though it ignites the hits and energizes many of the obscurities, Alive is much more than a retrospective; it shows a vital band at the height of their power, filling more than mere stadiums with energy and music.

♦♦♦

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot [2002]

I’ve learned an awful lot from spending personal time with Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, and I know I am not the only one. I remember in particular listening to it while riding a city subway just for the hell of it, and it seemed to fit what I was doing perfectly. It moves at a slow, deliberate pace with a sort of grace to it, but it is by no means delicate. On the contrary, it is often fractured and dissonant, and it embodies the concept that music, as well as life, can be perfectly imperfect. For that reason it seems totally in place in the city, specifically Chicago, where at one point you may feel like you are in the center of everything and at other times feel like you are about as far from reality as you can get, slowly disintegrating with impersonal day to day routines. This all sounds pretty depressing, and at times it is, but when I’m listening to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, these themes are undercurrents to a collection of wonderful, experimental pop, rock, and folk music. This is timeless American music.

♦♦♦

Citrus

Asobi Seksu – Citrus [2006]

When it comes to shoegaze in the 2000s, I understand the desire for familiarity. There is warmth in many of the Slowdive and Ride sound-alikes out there, but to score points with me you need to really do something unique. Asobi Seksu’s symphonic sophomore album Citrus bridged the gap between rock, pop and ambitious atmospherics. It expands on the bands self titled debut by widening their sonic palette to be truly immersing, and yet it shreds and bounces, all within the same songs. This can be heard best in “Red Sea,” perhaps the most ambitious shoegaze track since Loveless. Yuki Chikudate’s singalong vocals seem completely at home with James Hannah’s audacious guitar work and flood of feedback. This album succeeds in bringing shoegaze out of itself. It is my belief that Citrus kills the genre by deeming it an unnecessary label, and no other recent band has exercised quite this much freedom with their interests.

♦♦♦

Third

Portishead – Third [2008]

Of all the late decade reunions, Portishead walked away with the best evidence to show. The reunited trip-hop heroes pull no punches here, and unreservedly deliver their most difficult and arguably their most rewarding album yet with Third. These are some of the most genuine songs I’ve heard in a long time, and just about all of them are terrifyingly heavy (even by the time you reach “Deep Water,” you’re most likely cowering in fear of the unseeable). Clearly Portishead have a deep understanding of not only their own musicality but also its effect on their listeners, and they know that exactly what may scare them off can keep them coming back. It’s easy to want to turn Third off when you hear the paranoid trip of “Nylon Smile” or the crawling on the ceiling head rush of “We Carry On,” and don’t even get me started on the utterly concussive “Machine Gun.” I’m convinced that the apocalypse will sound like “Threads.” These are just a few of the reasons that it is so easy to be drawn into Third’s dark energy and so hard to escape its grasp on your psyche. Beware of the rule of three.

♦♦♦

Donuts

J Dilla – Donuts [2006]

I often hear people questioning the true quality of J Dilla’s final album based on the circumstances surrounding its release. Dilla made most of Donuts from a hospital bed, and it was released only three days before his death of TTP. To me, Donuts‘ brilliance has always seemed quite self-evident, and the question of whether it would have gained the popularity that it has had Dilla not passed away is irrelevant; Dilla would never have made an album quite like this, loaded with romantic cut-and-paste soul haiku, emotional flourishes and acknowledgments of his brief time left – all at almost painfully short, bite-sized lengths – had he not only had a short amount of time to do it. It’s no surprise at all that Dilla has become one of the most namechecked artists of the latter half of the decade and that the echoes of Donuts can be heard everywhere. These songs, themselves constructed from lost vinyl gems, sounded like new standards from the beginning, and it’s likely that Dilla’s final statement will be on repeat in the hip hop world for a long time.

♦♦♦

Devotion

Beach House – Devotion [2008]

Although Baltimore-based Beach House haven’t changed their style much since their 2006 self-titled debut, their second album is much advanced beyond its predecessor. Devotion’s songs change frequently, segueing from one pastoral arrangement to another with ease, but frequently surprising with shreds of melancholy. Songs therefore seem to sputter with emotion, flickering lights through windows drenched in rain. At some points, the pieces are hushed tropical lullabies, and at the next moment booming, painful dirges. “You Came to Me” and “Holy Dances” evoke a heartwarming mysticism while others such as “Gila” and “Heart of Chambers” woefully lament. But the ultimate spirit is that of genuine, mature romance, which Legrand articulates so delicately in every song. She sings of love managing to overcome time and space as if reading from a book of hymns with ultimate faith, and she preaches a word we can’t help but hold on to and believe unconditionally.

♦♦♦

Arular

M.I.A. – Arular [2005]

Maya Arulpragasam was not the first artist to capture globalization in music, and by no means was she the first musical activist, but she was the one to garner the most discussion, controversy and popularity in the 2000s. With Arular, M.I.A. brought forth a new wave of dance music, relentless in it’s political and social observations and culturally collaborative in its musicality. You can hear the chaos of the Sri Lankan civil war which M.I.A. so stringently fought against on Arular in both M.I.A.’s lyrics as well as the production which receives assistance the likes of Diplo and Switch. Perhaps what is most amazing about this album is that it manages to be challenging and uncompromising while still being irresistible and fun. The dissonance that results from the inevitable groove elicited by this album’s non-stop energy paired with Arulpragasam’s bitter social observations is more than just discomforting; it takes a special kind of talent to get the masses dancing in opposition to genocide. Cutting edge.

♦♦♦

Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga [2007]

This album is about as habit forming as morphine but without all the negative repercussions. I still need a little taste of it at least every few days (the louder the better), and when I get it I’m immediately happier. Some of the decade’s finest pop songs are on here, all of them simultaneously hummable and innovative. Take “The Ghost of You Lingers,” for instance: It still has the signature Spoon elements of hypnotic repetition and simplicity, but I always get the wind knocked out of me when the warped electronics come in. The song is unique, but its quality and ambition are not. Leave it to Spoon to make the catchiest album ever while still retaining their songwriting maturity; it seemed like the only thing they hadn’t done yet.

♦♦♦

And Their Refinement of the Decline

Stars of the Lid – And Their Refinement of the Decline [2007]

Taking six years to follow up the vastly successful The Tired Sounds Of, Stars of the Lid did pretty much the polar opposite of what anyone would have expected with their eighth album, even considering they had done just about everything else in their long career; they made a pop album. Granted, it is also still an ambient album and a drone album, but the melodies here are more pronounced than anywhere else in their career, and what we find is that when the Stars raise the tempo of their melodies even by just a couple non-existent beats per minute, they are pretty much the most legitimately talented songwriters of their genre. In the end, Their Refinement may not have the benefit of being the first masterpiece that Stars of the Lid made, but it is even more moving, and on a grander scope.

♦♦♦

Takk...

Sigur Ros – Takk… [2005]

If Sigur Rós’ 1999 album Ágætis Byrjun was their defining statement and ( ) showed them at the height of their expressive power, Takk was the album where, as an established band of incredible talent, they could truly do whatever they wanted. Their sound doesn’t dip back into the experimentalism of Von, the hazy psychedelia of Ágætis or the melancholy of ( ), and we have yet another Sigur Rós album that sounds nothing like the rest. Here the band are more emotive than ever, and take on a more uptempo approach to many of the songs (“Hoppipolla,” “Gong,” “Saeglopur”), and craft achingly beautiful developments that take full advantage of accompanying string section Amiina. It’s completely arguable which Sigur Rós album is the best, but Takk is almost unquestionably their most free spirited.

♦♦♦

Amnesiac

Radiohead – Amnesiac [2001]

It’s not really surprising that Radiohead’s headiest album is also one of their most rewarding. Like Kid A, it contains its fair share of willfully difficult and abrasive moments, but it is just as gripping, paranoid and visceral. It digs to deep, uncomfortable places, and begins its ambitious process immediately (“After years of waiting, nothing came / and you realize you’re looking in the wrong place”). People seemed to think that Amnesiac was hodgepodge and messy upon release, and who can blame them after albums such as OK Computer and Kid A, that were meticulously crafted as seamless wholes? One of Amnesiac’s greatest strengths is that it is at times disjointed. Almost every serious Radiohead fan reaches a point of understanding with this album, and then asks themselves the million dollar question: How could they have possibly ever thought that Radiohead didn’t know exactly what they were doing?

♦♦♦

You Forgot It in People

Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It in People [2002]

Alright, so it’s the early part of the millennium and everything already seems stagnant. I’m walking around seeing kids with tight jeans and Fallout Boy t-shirts who are supposed to be emotional, and then there’s this album, by a band called “Broken Social Scene” for Christ’s sake. And then it turns out to be a playful, sophisticated, romantic album made by an ever-changing cast of adults. Yeah, this is an album that, to an extent, celebrates that we are all fucked up, but it is something else too. This is the sound of growing up, I am sure of it. There have been so many albums about the subject, but the reason why Broken Social Scene make You Forgot It In People transcendent is because they portray the process as continuous and collective.

♦♦♦

Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill

Grouper – Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill [2008]

The traces of melody scattered throughout Liz Harris’ previous albums may have made Dragging a Dead Deer Up a Hill a logical next step, but it didn’t do anything to lighten the blow. Here the Portland singer/songwriter makes a full transformation to a folk artist, meticulously crafting a developmental melancholy album of subtle victories. At times we hear the most inviting songs that Harris has made up to this point (“Heavy Water/I’d Rather Be Sleeping,” “A Cover Over,” “Fishing Bird”), but she hasn’t completely left behind her previously utilized drone and noise techniques, and an enveloping layer of reverberation hangs around this album. On the outside is blackness. The most we get from Grouper here are her melodies, barely recognizable lyrics and loosely related song titles. We only seem to get half of the pieces to this puzzle of an album, but we can be content leaving it unsolved, wrapped in warmth and broken beauty.

♦♦♦

Vespertine

Bjork – Vespertine [2001]

In 1997, Bjork released the heated, internal Homogenic, and it was her most violent and dramatic development yet in a career already filled with twists in turns. Her 2001 follow up is comparatively emotional and personal, but in deep contrast to Homogenic’s in-the-moment theatrics, Vespertine sounds aged like fine wine. It is an album from another world, one which is both cold and warm, as indicated by the album’s elegant and icy strings, warm electronic rhythm and skyward melodies. But like all of her other albums, Bjork’s vocals and lyrics demand the spotlight, and she delivers performances that stand among the greatest of her career (listen to the breathy “Aurora” for yet another reminder of why Bjork is your favorite vocalist since Liz Fraser). In the end, it’s our delight to see Bjork doing what she does best yet again: creating a world of her own from scratch and immersing us completely.

♦♦♦

Kala

M.I.A. – Kala [2007]

Kala left a good portion of us silenced in awe regardless of our prior opinions of M.I.A.; the album to fulfill Arular’s most progressive ambitions but in a different dimension. Loaded with innovative pop hits and difficult genre hopping experiments, the album draws ideas from all over the world following M.I.A.s travels. The momentum is unstoppable, even when it hits its downtempo middle section. It’s about as daring as any pop album has ever come, a complete meltdown all the way through. Some scared doubters said that M.I.A. sold out, but when you examine how literate this album is, it becomes obvious what the focus is; If you are listening to M.I.A., be it through an Academy Award winning film, a stoner movie trailer or the radio, it’s that much more time you have to sit down and actually think about things like the genocide in Darfur, the mistreatment of women world over, the Sri Lankan civil war, illegal immigration, the third world, and hell, even that twenty dollar bill in your pocket. M.I.A. has always put the world before herself in her music, and that her bangin’-est album could be so conscious is a testament to that.

♦♦♦

Madvillainy

Madvillain – Madvillainy [2004]

One of my favorite moments on Madvillainy is during “Bistro,” where a relaxed, probably stoned, perhaps suit dressed Supervillain introduces the one and only Madlib, at which point the backing track goes silent. It might just be Madlib staring at us all pissed off as if we’re wasting his time, or for all we know he might be completely absent, backstage smoking a blunt. Both DOOM and Madlib do this disappearing act several times throughout the album, creating a rotating cast of hip hop deviants, but when they decide to grace us with their presence, Madlib provides some of the most sophisticated productions in the hip hop world, and DOOM continuously proves himself to be the most bizarre (“Freshwater trout!”) and skilled (“There will be the chopped off heads of leviathan”) MC of his generation. And dammit, these jackasses make it seem like it’s just another day in the life- while they could have milked just about all of these tracks into radio hits, they keep them all brief and fleeting. This is two incredibly talented artists with great chemistry doing whatever they want and turning up with a classic, unique hip hop album. “So nasty that it’s probably somewhat of a travesty.” Indeed. Be afraid. Very afraid.

♦♦♦

Silent Shout

The Knife – Silent Shout [2006]

Forget electroclash. Forget dance-punk. Forget all the other 80s electronic and dance revivalist bands of the 2000s; Silent Shout is the definitive back-to-basics electronic album of the decade. A decisively determined album, it focuses on its goals without making any concessions, and thus Silent Shout produces no pop gems in the vein of “Heartbeats,” but what replaces the style that the band previously explored is no less engrossing. It’s got everything necessary to make it a classic: The haunting, unique vocals, icy electronics, danceable neck-breakers (“We Share Our Mothers Health” is a rare track that might actually be physically dangerous), melodic burns and dark mystique. Silent Shout both sounds like something completely new and futuristic and yet also somehow antiquated; “The Captain” is a perfect example, sleek and yet frozen, smooth and yet rough as if coated in brine. It only further emphasizes the fact that the album doesn’t quite fit in with anything else of its age, even consciously nostalgic dance music that dominated much of the decades independent scene. If it recalls anything, it’s an alternate reality of the 80s when Antarctica had a thriving electronic scene, but it also sounds cutting edge and advanced. Perhaps this is what makes Silent Shout so timeless; ultimately, it is an album that seems to resound from nowhere, and thus answers to no one, nothing.

♦♦♦

Ágætis Byrjun

Sigur Rós – Ágætis Byrjun [2000]

Okay, I’ll admit it; I made a big, unnecessary stink about this one. Yes, it was initially released in the 1990s, in addition to a few other albums on this list, but these albums are unmistakably millennial, and Ágætis Byrjun especially is an important album for the 21st Century. Some big changes came with its international release, and I don’t just mean that the lovely Icelandic band Sigur Rós were now a part of the lives of millions, although that in it of itself is important. Ágætis Byrjun’s power is completely original because it is devoid of context. Yes, they make music that we might be able to uneasily delineate to “dream pop” or “post rock,” but we only do this because we have no idea what the hell else to call it, because we have never heard anything quite like it. The reality of this album is that it feels like a modern composition, only in part because of its gorgeous backing strings, sweeping crescendos or heartbreaking melodies; what also gives Ágætis Byrjun its spellbinding power is that it is simultaneously unique and gorgeous enough that it completely changed the landscape of music in the 2000s.

♦♦♦

Leaves Turn Inside You

Unwound – Leaves Turn Inside You [2001]

Around the turn of the century, one of the finest post-hardcore bands of the 90s spent years making their own studio, MagRecOne, recorded their final album, and disappeared. Made around the time that indie rock as well as America were about to make important, indescribable changes, the double-album Leaves Turn Inside You, as its title suggests, is about subtle but gravitational changes as well. It reinvents Unwound’s style, keeping their paranoid punk riffing but mixing it with melancholy and mystery. It’s difficult to listen to this record and not think on some level that there is something very wrong going on, but exactly what always illudes, and that’s what keeps me coming back to the surreal build of “We Invent You,” the jagged rock of “Scarlette” and the emotive “Below the Salt,” as well as the rest of this album. It’s rocking, tough, heady, introspective, emotional, scary, and beautiful at once. I couldn’t possibly ask for more from Unwound.

♦♦♦

Untrue

Burial – Untrue [2007]

For what many considered to be a scattershot genre, Burial turned out to be dubstep’s only bonafide superstar, and for a long time no one even knew who he was. While his debut album is more focused on setting, Untrue is instead a personal, internal affair, and the poignancy of this was only bolstered by his anonymity. A favorite example of the genuine but haunting humanity he injects into his music comes with “In McDonalds,” one of the album’s beatless tracks, that even goes so far as to set up a narrative using only its title, some gentle vocal samples and the music’s raw emotional power. This is a melancholy album of confounding difficulty with its fractured, slowly changing rhythms and haunting sampling, and requires repeated listens to get the full effect. Give it a couple spins to settle and pretty soon its nature as a meticulously developed album becomes apparent, and its sounds become second-nature. With its synthesis of interests in creative rhythm, sampling and atmosphere, Untrue is without question one of the most unique and accomplished productions in electronic music of the decade.

♦♦♦

Person Pitch

Panda Bear – Person Pitch [2007]

When all is said and done, a lot of people are going to be making claims that Animal Collective ruled this decade, and it’s going to be hard to argue with them. No other bands were nearly as simultaneously ambitious, prolific and loved. With that said, it was a bit of a surprise that the best album to come out of the Collective was actually a Panda Bear solo album, and it ends up being the most forward thinking as well as accessible in the Paw Tracks library. What’s most striking about it is how unique it is; the only things that sounded anything like it were the subsequent Animal Collective albums which it clearly influenced with its sound collage techniques. What Panda Bear does on Person Pitch is an album of sample based melodies, breaking down disparate sources (everything from choir music, Kraftwerk, Lee Scratch Perry and Cat Stevens to fireworks, bubblebaths and projector reels) then building them up from scratch to make unique developmental pop pieces. It’s no surprise that the album has already gained widespread admiration; as the years roll by, there are only more and more things to say about Person Pitch.

♦♦♦

Elephant

The White Stripes – Elephant [2003]

I’ve always had a difficult time explaining exactly why I feel that Elephant is the definitive rock album of the decade. I blame the tip-of-the-iceberg technique used with not just this album but with the band as a whole. The White Stripes give you some pretty simple, bare bones shit, and you can’t feel like you are missing something, but as soon as it hits your eardrum the flowers bloom. The band did the same with their personae, and we didn’t know what Jack and Meg’s relationship was for years, but after we heard this, we knew immediately that they were stars with much more to offer than a guitar, drums and some amps.  Of course they are still a heavy metal minimalist band at their heart and they show it here in spades, but this proved that they had the ambition to do anything they wanted with whatever tools they chose and still reach incredible heights, pounding through retro pop, ballads, hard Detroit blues, punk and the weirdest, sexiest, most free and irresistible moments I’ve heard from any rock band, ever.

♦♦♦

Turn on the Bright Lights

Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights [2002]

Interpol may or may not have made one of the most influential albums of the decade that you can trace a good portion of indie rock’s elements back to (highly melodic riffing, violent and melancholy dynamics, throaty vocals, dark atmosphere). They may or may not have started that whole chic punk thing, or indirectly birthed everything from The Killers to dance-punk. The fact of the matter is that the best thing Interpol brought us is this album, standing on its own as a powerful melancholy statement. We’ve heard it all before; Interpol aren’t messiahs. They have influences, like everyone else does, and they could never manage to follow Bright Lights properly, but after listening to it, one could never expect them to. It’s songs are deeply personal and resonant: “NYC” is about a specific time and place, but who hasn’t felt that they need some more change in their life? The massive “Stella Was a Diver and She Was Always Down” is similarly intimate and still achieves a haunting reach. And try to keep your feet on the floor during the beautifully cruel “The New.” In my experience with Bright Lights, I first found it to be difficult, and this is completely expected. Then, it became second nature, and then again a wholly uncomfortable experience. I explain the return of It’s a natural arc, and we wait for albums like this for decades, albums that truly connect with their listeners on a deeper level.

♦♦♦

Kid A

Radiohead – Kid A [2000]

I knew this was the album I had to talk about last from the start. This may not be too big of a surprise. With it’s fragmented structure, lush instrumentation and raw emotion, Kid A has stood as a figurehead of music in this decade since its release, but it evades categorization or explanation. Yes, we can talk about it’s high points objectively, of course: From “Everyone is so near” to “I’m not there/This isn’t happening,” how Thom Yorke’s vocals meld with the instrumentation on “How to Disappear Completely” at 4:37, the destructive statement on dance music with “Idioteque,” the communication breakdowns, the looming disaster, and having to face it all alone, regardless of how many people you’re sitting in a room with when you try to break it all down. Other artists have achieved similar heights and even comparable narrative arcs within albums this decade, but none of them have been nearly as involving, and what makes Kid A priceless is that it builds a relationship with the listener, not only in the long term but also on individual spins. I’ve seen it in myself as well as others. While at first listen Kid A almost always seems a mess, given time the paranoid echoes of “In Limbo” become zen, the gentle melancholy of “Kid A” resonates, “Idioteque” sings the body electric and we wait in silence, counting the seconds, for the coda of “Motion Picture Soundtrack.” Kid A has utter command in its atmosphere and the mood of its listeners, and stopping it anywhere before the end just feels wrong. When all is said and done, calling Kid A my favorite album of all time, discussing its strengths and weaknesses or questioning what it all means echoes through empty space. I find myself standing at the threshold of expression when I try to talk about Kid A, mostly because it transcends genre, class, describability. It is an album that has grown to be a fixture in people’s lives because they can sit down with it and, despite all conceivable obstacles and difficulties, achieve a level of trust unlike any other album before has elicited.

So, after a lot of procrastination and seeing a LOT of other lists, I finally took up the courage to start sharing my list with you guys. It’s always a lot of work, but in the end very fulfilling.

First start with my young talents list. Last year, I predicted a bright future for Mumford and Sons, and I turned out to be a visionary man (The year before Bon Iver was my number 1). I must admit that I’m not that sure about this year’s artists or this year’s number one. there aren’t any artists that will go into indie mainstream, which doesn’t mean that they aren’t as great. In my entire list (including my top 50), there is one artist who I think will be spoken of a lot next year. I will tell you if we get to the artist.

But enough blah blah. my top 10 promising artists!

10. The Awful Truth - Object Permanence (The Orchid Collective)

What? Twenties anxiety in songs

Most artists start making music in their teen years, when they are full of teenage angst, screaming to become an adult cause their growing brains are killin’ them. As soon as they’re 18, they realize how stupid their grieving was, and they will put aside their instrument to chase a life full of disappointment. But what do you do with the cynicism or regrets when you’re in your twenties? I guess you would make albums like The Awful truth. It sounds like songs from a grown-up, but not yet adult enough to believe that this is well-thought of. It seems to deal with growing pains, but not in the “fuck man, i wanna kill myself” kind of way. The voice sounds a bit like Destroyer, Thanksgiving and Adam Lipman. And maybe a little bit of Love Letter Band. This could end up to be a great promsie, but ‘Object Permanence’ is already charming enough to deserve your attention.

The Awful Truth – Growin’ Old

9. The Daredevil Christopher Wright – In Deference To A Broken Back (Amble Down Records)

What? Stretch those vocal chords and join the circus

Daredevil Christopher wright is not an androgynous man singing about his days at the circus, although you could think that after a first listen. After closer inspection it turns out to be a trio, with vocal cords being stretched like it’s a carnival act. Especially when he’s doing the falsetto thing, you could – this is gonna be a very bad joke and i’m apologizing already – think someone is juggling his balls. (told you it was bad). The music is kind of like a circus too, cause it bounces around like elephants on little tiny bikes that are bouncing around in big circus tents. If I wouldn’t be feeling the urge of talking about circuses, I’d call the music on ‘In Deference to A Broken Back’ theatre. Well-orchestrated stuff, if you know what i mean. There are quite some references to christian things, and having seen the documentary on Danielson just this weekend, i’m kind of eager to use that band as a reference, although it’s not that extreme.

The Daredevil Christopher Wright – The East Coast

8. The Love Language – The Love Language (Bladen Country Records)

What? Cucumber bubblegum chewed by Lo-fi afficionados

I can imagine you reading the description, and really wondering how cucumber bubblegum tastes. I think it’s kind of edgy. And bubblegum is catchy. This means that The Love Language is catchy edgy music, and with a lo-fi feel. Woohoo, it matches my definition of great music. This debut album gives me the happy wave your hands in the meadows on a hot summer day- feel. It’s hard to come up with comparisons, but some of the songs remind me of what Swedish pop people like Jens Lekman & Suburban Kids with Biblical Names would make if they had to live in a basement. I also saw Wavves & No Age pop up as reference, but this is not even close to their kind of lo-fi noisyness. No, this just has a smile your head off while being shot at on a carnival ride-feel. Boat, they’ve got a bit of Boat. And some band I can’t come up with right now.

The Love Language – Sparxxx

7. DM Stith - Heavy Ghost (Asthmatic Kitty)

What? Cabaret is this year’s trend

We’re four bands far in my year list, and I’m already starting to repeat myself. But well, DM Stith is kind of theater as well. He is the arty farty street performer, who can bring ghouls back to life. How that musically can be defined? Well, you all like Grizzly Bear don’t you? It’s like them, but then more  Department of eagles. It makes you dance in a weird standing still kind of way, falling in between the layers of the songs, and then finding out that your name doesn’t have to be Alice to get in Wonderland. You don’t need drugs to see big toads talking to you. A bit of DM Stith will do the trick.

DM Stith – Pity Dance

6. Caddywhompus – EP (Self-released)

What? Morning Benders and Animal Collective have a Love Baby

While Indie kids are jerking off on Animal Collective and other too cool for fools-bands, I tend to take the time to go out there in the digital jungle to find what’s gonna be hot next. It’s not always easy, swimming in a pool of endless music sources, and drowning because the music at the bottom of the pool is pulling you down. But once in a while you find these bands that look like bubbles. You can inhale them, so that you can swim on for another 15 seconds before Game Over appears on the Screen. Caddywhompus, that sounds like a rough version of “Band that is gonna be big next year because they signed to a bigger indie label” Morning Benders. We’ll see them in 2 years, next to Jumbling Towers. Thank Aninsideoutsock for the early Adopter-opportunities. You can tell your friend you knew bands before they were cool, and call them a fool! Oh, and this EP is downloadable for free on their website!

Caddywhompus –  Untitled #4708

5. Lee Baggett (or lee Gull?)- Burn’r (RAD Records through Marriage Records)

What? Electric guitar slacking on the front porch

Is it weird to find out that Lee Baggett is part of Little Wings? Not really. He’s got that strange charming monotony that only real music lovers love, cause other people think it’s deadly boring (that’s what some of my friends would say). I think Baggett recorded this album while he sat on the front porch, a long extension chord coming from his amp inside. And while watching the sun setting and the three-legged dog slumping to his drinking bowl filled with multiple layers of dust, he just starts jamming and singin’ with his friend.  And without even knowing it, ends up with extremely catchy songs. (Though next time, keep low on the solo instrumentals).

NOTE: he doesn’t seem to have a MySpace. I guess he was too busy jammin’.

Lee Gull – Clover Hill

4. Au – Versions (EP) (Aagoo Records)

What? Experimental is a dirty word if you don’t wash it.

I’ve kept the experimental segment of my musical journey low this year. That has got to do with most indie music becoming more experimental already, and realizing that it’s stuff i just don’t listen to that often, even though I enjoy it. Question is if Au is really that weird and trippy. It’s a bit more offbeat than Animal Collective or Akron/family, but e.g. ‘Ida Walked Away’ is quite standard. Au only tends to freak out once in a while, but does it in a standardly awesome way. If standardly is not a word, It fits a description of Au perfectly. Akron/Family: watch your steps.

Au – Ida Walked Away

3. A Paper Cup Band – Detroit Vs Farming (Anti-Civ Records)

What? I never heard of a band that calls himself after some weird dead object..It’s like calling yourself Pavement, stupid!

Ok, I guess no one will get the What-description, though it means nothing more than that ‘A Paper Cup Band’ sounds like Pavement. But that’s only in one song. In another they sound like The Donkeys, and in another they sound like Of Montreal, and then they sound like a honky Tonky band. It’s as if they’ve been drinking from a glass of spit from all the indie that’s out there, and then tried to guess whose spit they tasted. Actually that’s a rather good concept for an album. Then again, a title like Detroit Vs Farming puts it very well as well. city versus countryside. Pyjama versus sleeping naked.

A paper cup Band – Drunks And Poets

2. Gregory Pepper & his Problems -  with Trumpets Flaring (Fake Four Inc)

What? Someone’s gotta to be the new Unicorns

You know who I hate? Nick Thornburn. For not fully admitting that he wants to make catchy pop songs and instead comes up with artsy fartsy disastrous albums (and some good side projects, okay okay). But from now on, there is no reason for despair anylonger, cause Gregory Pepper & His Problems are here! He’s Canadian, he looks a bit like Thornburn. We can all turn away from Thornburn now and listen to Pepper’s catchiness. Like Peppermint catchy. It’s not his first album, so I’m not sure whether he sounded like the Unicorns on his first album and this is his debut as Islands, but I hopen ot, cause that would mean that his next album would be awful. Still, Pepper is the way to go for now. Go Pepper go.

Gregory Pepper & His Problems – Drop The Plot

1. Squanto – Go Go Gadget Grass Stains (Self-released)

What ? Bedroom robots singing about their home planet

It’s sad to say, but I’m pretty sure that by the end of next year almost no one will know Squanto. That’s because Squanto is untouchable for most people. The music is a ghost with a shadow that no one can see. You only get a hint of something going on there. Layered music in a lo-fi setting, like Mount Eerie makes 23034 cd’s a year. This is perfect competition for the best Of-compilation of that album. I don’t know what it is that Squanto does with me, but I know it’s something I wanna feel flowing through my veins more in my life. That’s worth a number one spot. The album can be completely streamed at Virb, and downloaded for Free at the Collective, whose catalogue keeps to amaze me!

Squanto  - Gumballs, The Fountain Of Truth

All in all, 2009 was a disappointing year for music.  It seemed everything I looked forward to was a bit underwhelming.  Animal Collective (queue the disagreements), Bob Dylan, Neko Case, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Monsters of Folk, Neil Young, etc.  It says something that my three favorite records are from bands I hadn’t heard prior to this year, or in the case of my favorite record, a band that hadn’t won me over with their previous releases.  So, while the old standbys seemed to fall by the wayside there were surprises found in some new places.  Mostly Brooklyn.

Biggest Disappointment

The first Flaming Lips album in well over a decade I haven’t been able to find much in.   I do applaud them for changing it up instead of going back to the well that seemed to be drying up with At War With Mystics, but this record just feels… unfinished to me.  There aren’t really any songs on it.  Which can work, granted, but I don’t find their ‘psychic explorations’ very intriguing.  Certainly not as catchy as the more melodic stuff they’ve been doing since 1993.  It’s not an awful record, but given the high expectations I had, I was more than a bit disappointed.

Honorable Mentions

In alphabetical order, by artist:

Antony & The Johnsons – The Crying Light: I gave I Am A Bird Now more than a few listens, and I could never get past the fact that while Antony’s voice was powerful and emotive, something about it irked me.  On the recommendation of a friend I gave The Crying Light a go, and from the first track I was won over.  Beautiful orchestral pop, and for some reason, The Crying Light seems to have been the key that’s allowed me to go back and unlock I Am A Bird Now.  I get it now.

Andrew Bird – Noble Beast: After The Mysterious Production of Eggs and Armchair Apocrypha, I found Noble Beast a bit of a letdown.  However, the more I come back to it the more I find to appreciate.  It features many of his best songs (Anonanimal, Effigy, Natural Disaster) even if there are some cuts that don’t click with me, places where it feels like he’s reaching a bit too much (Not a Robot, But a Ghost).  But still, a strong enough record to recommend.

Steve Earle – Townes: “Townes Van Zandt is the best songwriter in the whole world and I’ll stand on Bob Dylan’s coffee table in my cowboy boots and say that.”  Steve Earle attempts to back up that bold statement with his latest album, Townes.  And while I don’t agree with it, he makes a hell of a case.  It’s not my favorite Steve Earle record, perhaps because many of Townes’ recordings are better than Steve’s, sorry to say.  But there is something poetic in today’s most underappreciated singer-songwriter recording a tribute to his 70’s counterpart.

Mos Def – The Ecstatic: Not a great album, but such a comeback from the unlistenable True Magic and The New Danger, it’s hard not to feel Ecstatic about it.  It feels like Mos actually cares about making good music again.  There are some really strong cuts here.  And it bodes well for his future.  One that, after the superlative Black on Both Sides and Black Star, I was close to giving up on.

Phish – Joy: Probably the most controversial choice on the list.  Alot of Phish fans have been disappointed with Joy, but I think it is a solid pop record.  Phish’s more progressive compositions and raging jams have never translated well to the studio.  Their best record, and last with Steve Lillywhite prior to Joy, Billy Breathes is also a pop record.  Joy is on par with something like Farmhouse and a huge improvement from Round Room and Undermind.

Jazz Album of the Year

Medeski, Martin & Wood’s first entry in the Radiolarians series didn’t really impress me.  It felt a bit disjointed, unpolished, and I was afraid the subsequent volumes would follow suit.  But with Radiolarians II & III their gamble has paid off and they have put out some of the best music they’ve recorded since their Gramavision days.  Two deep groovy fun records with plenty of replay value.

Top 10 after the break.

Top Ten Albums of 2009

Super Furry Animals have had a hell of a decade, and Dark Days/Light Years puts a nice cap on it.  I think it’s my favorite outing of theirs since Phantom Power.  It’s a bit top heavy, which seems to be a trend this year.  But it’s still a great collection of songs from Gruff Rhys & Co.

Favorite Song: MT

Some people seem to think Built to Spill have lost whatever magic they had in the 90s.  I’m not of this opinion.  Certainly they haven’t made another Perfect From Now On or Keep it Like A Secret, but You in Reverse is some fantastic guitarcentric rock, and There is No Enemy picks up where that one left off, but is a little more song based than jam/guitar based.  This record also houses some of Martsch’s best lyrics, ever.

Favorite Song: Hindsight

Sufjan goes Orchestral and I follow.  The BQE is a surprisingly evocative piece.  Commisioned by BAM and inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, this composition for 40 piece orchestra is pretty impressive.  The package is extensive, much like his Songs for Christmas box, featuring a DVD with the film he shot to accompany the piece, a booklet featuring an essay on the BQE and many photos, and a ViewMaster reel of all things.  The vinyl edition came with a graphic novel following the hijinx of the Hooper Heroes, the… heroines? of the film.  Which is all fun and gives people incentive to purchase The BQE rather than download it.  But what’s important is that the music is good, and it is.

Jim O’Rourke’s latest is a departure from his last big releases, a trio of pop records named after (and inspired by?) Nicolas Roeg films released around the turn of the century.  Here we are presented with a 40 minute instrumental piece. Upon opening the record you are presented with a note from Jim instructing you to please listen to it loudly through speakers.  I was surprised to find it so quiet and reserved.  It’s a guitar based piece that builds slowly, never to an overwhelming climax, but a satisfying one none-the-less.  It is aided by listening to it loudly to pick up all the nuances in the work.  Jim hasn’t released an LP of original material since 2001, but The Visitor was worth the wait.

In retrospect perhaps the last two entries should be switched.  Anyhow, in the wake of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot people seem to be upset Wilco’s records don’t reach that level of innovation anymore.  It’s lamentable, but is it unexpected?  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the kind of peak a band reaches once in a career, and to hold their subsequent records to that standard is unfair.  What Wilco has made with Wilco (the album) is a solid album, consisting of solid songs.  They are focusing on craft rather than innovation and much as the album title suggests it encapsulates who they are as a band right now.  It’s a collection of well-crafted songs and a clear improvement over Sky Blue Sky.  Is that so bad?

Favorite Song: You Never Know

I’ve been a fan of Andy Cabic since he first came up with Devendra Banhart and Joanna Newsom in 2004.  With Tight Knit he continues to move away from the freakfolk sound he helped pioneer and has made an album that wouldn’t sound out of place alongside the more rootsier 70s rock albums.  It’s a modest record, but it’s no less great for that.  The songs are catchy and fun.  It’s solid, possibly his best yet.

Favorite Song: Another Reason to Go

I enjoyed Akron/Family’s first record, Love is Simple was a bit of decline, but with Set ‘em Wild, Set ‘em Free they’ve crafted what is easily the apex of their career.  The album has a few tracks that don’t work (MBF, notably) but the peaks are so powerful it easily qualifies as one of the years few transcendent records.  Get lost in it.

Favorite Song: River

2007’s Marry Me was a good record, but with Actor St. Vincent has made something really special.  She has said in interviews she got started writing this by watching her favorite films on mute and attempting to compose scores to them,  and with Actor she feels like something of an auteur.  Going beyond composing happy songs in major keys and sad songs in minor keys, she has realized the turmoil present in the lyrics in the very fabric of the songs.  Much of Actor seems concerned with the appearances we put on, the fear of our true selves being discovered (what would the neighbors think?), the cognitive dissonance that arises from this contradiction.  Likewise many of the songs embrace this, juxtaposing beautiful Disneyesque clarinet and string parts with fuzz-drenched ugly guitar solos.  It’s the same mindset apparent in the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm realized musically, perhaps summed up best in the title of my favorite song on the album “Laughing with a Mouthful of Blood.”  It took me a bit to warm up to this record but I think it’s one of the great artistic achievements of the year.

Favorite Song: Marrow (Mouthful of Blood isn’t on YouTube)

This is another album I struggled with for awhile before fully embracing.  I kept coming back to it after reading about Dave Longstreth’s talent from many artists I admire (David Byrne, St Vincent, et al) and eventually it clicked.  His intricate melodies and sometimes schizophrenic songs remind me strongly of Of Montreal (which some people love and others find aggravating, I belong to the former group), and while I haven’t dug into their back catalog just yet I think Bitte Orca can stand tall with the best of Kevin Barnes work.  The guitar work alone is very impressive.

Favorite Song: Temecula Sunrise

From the first time I heard it, Veckatimest was my favorite album of the year.  I first gave it a shot for something to do, as I hadn’t been completely won over by Yellow House, but it wasn’t long before I was completely riveted.  I really don’t think there’s a bad song on the album, and there are many great songs.  Apparently Ed Droste and Daniel Rossen used songs they had already written alone on Yellow House and with Veckatimest they composed songs together, specifically for the album.  Not that Yellow House doesn’t have some tremendous songs, but their sound really gels on Veckatimest.  It’s quite easily the album of the year for me.  I’ve been listening to it nonstop since May.

Favorite Song: While You Wait for the Others

Over the past weeks in my Eustachian Ruminations columns, I’ve tried my best to give you what I consider the best albums of a crowded 2009 field.  Although there’s a lot of great music that I didn’t get the chance to mention, we’re into December and I’d like to take the next few Saturdays to spotlight what I consider to be the three top albums of the year.  I don’t think that there’s any benefit to sticking some artificial ranking on these albums, they just stand out from the pack and so deserve special recognition.  We’ll begin with the May release from Akron/Family, entitled Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free.

I’ve heard a lot over the last year or so about the death of the album at the hands of the mp3 explosion and the revival of the single.  I’ll tell you up front that I don’t buy into that line of thinking, even though it looks to have quite a bit of support.  My reasoning can be saved for another post at another time, but if I needed an argument as to why the album shouldn’t die, I’d probably lay Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free down on the table and never say a word.  I think that as opposed to the album dying, what I hope what we’re really seeing in popular music is the slow death of genre.

I tried, somewhat clumsily, to make this point earlier in the week when I reported on The Roots jamming with proggers Dirty Projectors.  But perhaps what I should have done is linked to a perpetual stream of SEW,SEF and let the music speak for itself.  I’ve read a lot of reviews that slammed this album for being too out there or not accessible enough, I’ve even seen the term “mess” thrown around.  And I suppose with a more casual listen SEW,SEF could come off as a bit schizoid.  But I think when you really dig into this album, you find music that is truly genre-defying.

The first track, “Everyone Is Guilty”, is a sprawling 5 minute or so jam that compresses a number of time and style shifts into one song.  You go from Afro-beat to prog to classic guitar rock one right after the other, each stylistic change happening much like a movement shift in a classical piece.  The different instruments were obviously meticulously arranged, even down to the background ”Ooohs” throughout the song.  It is a song that shouldn’t work at all, yet strangely it does.  And when the song fades into trombone, violin and flute at the end, you realize that a statement has been made while you listened:  These boys could care less about the label you stick on their music.  They are going to follow their muse wherever it takes them, and they’re going to follow it boldly whether they succeed or fail spectacularly.

In case the first track didn’t make a solid enough argument, Akron/Family follows up with a pretty straight up electric folk song, “River,” that is carried by the simple yet beautiful melody and the refrain “You and I and a flame make three” whatever that means.  Again, one might be tempted to write this song off as proof that there’s not a lot of substance here, but listen closer to the whistling in the background during the verse that I bet you didn’t hear the first time around.  Check out the bridge and just let the woodwinds that serve as a counter-point to the bass wash over you.  You don’t know what the song would sound like without these seemingly small flourishes, but let me tell you it wouldn’t be the same song without them.

The third track, “Creatures” is a straight-out electronica jam that could go toe-to-toe with anything on Merriweather Post Pavillion.  The next two tracks, ”The Alps & Their Orange Evergreen” and “Set ‘Em Free, Pt. 1″ are pretty straightforward folk songs that are both beautiful without being flashy.  This sets the listener up for “Gravelly Mountains of the Moon”, which starts out with two free-flowing flutes, then adds acoustic guitar, trombone and baritone with a heavy dose of minor chords that create a sense of dissonance.  Then, suddenly at about the 2:30 mark, the boys let the electric guitars go and you have a straight up rock song.  Dueling electric guitars give the middle third of the song an Allman Brothers feel in spirit if not in sound.  The final third of the song is a rollicking train ride where the song is always on the verge of utter collapse.  Then the boys bring it back with something akin to a gospel sing-along and the final refrain sung over solo piano:  “Put me in, let me run with the ball.  Ha!”

“Many Ghosts” is basically a hip-hop track, complete with drum machines.  “MBF” is vintage prog rock a-la Yes or even Rush.  “They Will Appear” starts out psychedelic, morphs into anthemic Springsteen-ish rock, then layers an African-influenced guitar riff and chorus over the rock backbeat.  The final two tracks are the simplest and most beautiful.  “Sun Will Shine” uses basically four notes, 8 words, and some feedback to create a song that will bring tears to your eyes.  The album closer “Last Year” is a simple gospel song with vocal and piano that serves as the dénoument to the whole album.  Clocking in at a modest 1:39, this song serves as Akron/Family’s closing argument that the album is definitely not dead:  “Last year was a hard year for such a long time, this year’s gonna be ours.”

I can’t say much more about SEW, SEF except listening to it is truly an experience.  If you stick with it from beginning to end, you’ll be exhausted, but in a good way.  Akron/Family epitomizes what I find most intriguing about indie music these days, which is the breaking down of these synthetic boxes that we call “genre”.  While I understand that labels have their purpose for some listeners, I also believe that we deaden the listening experience by pigeon-holing music into our own preconceived notions of what it should sound like.  The genius of SEW, SEF is it’s capacity to surprise, even after multiple listenings, and the challenge that it presents to the consumer.  It forces you outside of what’s comfortable into an unfamiliar realm where a genre definition has no meaning.  And for my money, popular music as a whole needs many more artists that aren’t afraid to challenge listeners in the way that Akron/Family has on this album.

Part 4: 5-1
Part 3: 10-6
Part 2: 15-11
Part 1: 20-16

10. Espers – Espers III

Last time out, Espers made a pretty much perfect album. That was a significantly heavier, darker sound than both their debut and The Weed Tree, and they went even darker and proggier for III. It retains many of the elements that made II such a magnificent album, but it somehow feels more modern. As well as the familiar nods to Fairport Convention and the Incredible String Band, there’s a clear King Crimson influence going on, and Greg Weeks shoulders more of the vocal duties than in the past.

It works – they’re still fascinating, and the album has hidden depths which continue to reveal themselves on repeat listens. By underplaying their trump card, Meg Baird’s remarkable voice, it feels like a more balanced album than it might have otherwise. Some of the songs on this record (e.g. “Caroline”, “Colony”, “That Which Darkly Thrives”) are among the best songs they’ve ever recorded. Perhaps the music is a little more assertive this time around, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This album would probably have warranted a top 5 spot had it been their debut, but, since I’ve inevitably compared it to the three previous albums, I’m probably a little less impressed with it than it deserves.

9. Wilco – Wilco (the album)

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that this blog is named after an Uncle Tupelo song, so it won’t surprise you too much to learn that I love Wilco. And I love this new album. From the confidence and bombast of “Wilco (the song)” to Feist’s delicately beautiful vocals on “You And I”, it’s been greeted by many critics as a return to form after Sky Blue Sky. For the record, I really liked Sky Blue Sky too, but the atmosphere on this album most closely represents a cross between that album and Summerteeth, with a few added Being There-style guitars on songs like “Sonny Feeling” and “You Never Know”.

Wilco seem to be more comfortable in their skins than ever, and while this lacks the experimentalism that made them so popular on A Ghost Is Born and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, it does represent the sound of a fantastically talented band at the top of their game. I’d have liked to hear a little more of Nels Cline’s virtuoso guitar work, but that’s pretty much the only criticism I’ve heard of the album. Thousands of bands have been inspired by Wilco, so it’s refreshing to see them changing their own sound yet again in pursuit of freshness, when so many of their contemporaries rehash the same ideas over and over again.

8. Mum – Sing Along To Songs You Don’t Know

When this came out, I thought it was ‘a joy from start to finish’ and ‘their most coherent album to date’. I stand by this opinion wholeheartedly – if anything, it’s grown on me even more. “Prophecies And Reversed Memories” has been a staple on mixtapes in the last few months, and has had a universally positive response from recipients. The ‘nonsense’ songs, “Hullabbalabbaluu” and “Kay-Ray-Hu-Hu-Ho-Hex”, are still irresistibly mesmerising, while “Show Me” and “A River Don’t Stop To Breathe” are upliftingly beautiful.

It’s a bit of an album of two halves. On the first half, the songs have a more orthodox structure, and are generally a bit more lively, while on the second half the band seem to play with more freedom and experimentation. The theme of light and radiance courses through the album, and listening to it is an absolutely joyful experience. I’d certainly recommend this album as a way to get into Mum for newcomers, but I’d be equally happy to give it to hardened Mum fans. After this record, they deserve to be thought of as being in the top tier of Icelandic dreamscapers.

7. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers

Limbo, Panto was one of the few British records of the last few years that I really felt was doing something new and exciting. The obvious selling point for the band is Hayden Thorpe’s falsetto, but, like Espers, Wild Beasts have created something wonderful by deliberately underusing their trump card. Few people can have expected Tom Fleming to be the lead vocalist on the best song on the album, “All The King’s Men”, but it works brilliantly. Opener “The Fun Powder Plot” builds from a faint drone into one of the catchiest tunes of the year, while the two title tracks successfully echo iLiKETRAiNS’ melancholy post-rock.

The general atmosphere of the album is rather gloomy, but this only gives weight to the notion that their alternately cryptic and heart-on-sleeve straightforward lyrics are works of genius. Wild Beasts remain, in my opinion, the most exciting and promising band in the country, and their legions of fans are growing faster than ever as more and more people see their explosive live shows. When I originally reviewed the album, I said ‘Hooting And Howling is the only song likely to soundtrack the dancefloors of indie nights’ – a statement I’m pleased to retract. I’ve now heard three of the other songs played in clubs, and they’ve gone down well every time. If they keeping backing up their burgeoning reputation with records this intense and danceable, they could become one of the biggest bands on the country. Not that you can imagine them caring.

6. Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

When I first put on this album, I loved opener “Everyone Is Guilty” so much that I literally didn’t get past it for the first seven or eight listens. I’m glad I did, because the subsequent song, “River”, is my favourite song of the year. Pastoral and beautiful, eminently danceable, irresistibly rhythmic, desperately romantic, it’s a song about sex that ebbs and flows before twice breaking into joyful choruses so perfect that you can barely help but sing along.

The rest of the album is also very strong, particular highlights being “Creatures”, “MBF” and “Gravelly Mountains Of The Moon”. It resembles Love Is Simple much more than any previous Family album, which might upset those who loved them in the Young God days, but there are certainly parts of the album that they will still enjoy. This album is the sound of Akron/Family in a more confident mood than ever, and it’s a delight to listen to. The closing song, “Last Year”, sees them closing the door to their old identity and paving the way to their new sound. As the repeated mantra of the song puts it, “Last year was a hard year/For such a long time/This year’s gonna be ours”. It really is.

Thanks to the kind donations of some very cool people, I’ve had a massive influx of new music to wrap around my ears this last month or so.  So for a change, a good chunk of my list this month is from not only this decade, but maybe even from this very year! Those of you in the know (I don’t count myself amongst these people) will probably know most of these tracks, but I figure if theres even a few tracks in here you don’t know, then its worth checking out.  Right?

These are in no particular order.  I won’t try and describe why I like each song too much as I’m woefully bad at trying to put my thoughts down on [e]paper.  Enjoy.

1. Roy Ayers – Coffy Is The Colo[u]r - This song is pimp!  If you could somehow convert a literal pimp into song form, this is how he sound – you dig?!  The solo at the end of this song is ridiculous and fantastic.

2. Iron & Wine – Communication Cups & Someone’s Coat - I want to sit in a grassy field and listen to this song while watching insects flutter and crawl around the earth…*sigh*

3. Okkervil River – John Allyn Smith Sails – I like this track.  I listen to it a lot.  I’m not even sure why.  I suspect its the Beach Boys ‘Sloop John B’ section at the end.  Or perhaps I’m starting to like noisier stuff…

4. Pulp – Common People – You wanna live like common people?

5. Eddie Kendricks – Let Me Run Into You Lonely Heart – I love the corny lyrics in this track.  ‘Ooooh baby please, let me be your main squeeze‘ – just awesome.

6. Akron/Family – Everyone Is Guilty – Not my usual kinda thing, but I really like this track.

7. Dennis Wilson – Holy Man (Taylor Hawkins Ver.) – This song was recorded just prior to DW’s death.  Such a waste of a great talent.

8. Neutral Milk Hotel – Holland, 1945 – Its a mess, but in a good way.

9. Nina Simone – Work Song –  I love Nina Simone.  Her voice is just amazing.  My brother introduced me to this song a few weeks back.

10. Tahiti 80 – Unpredictable - Super slick, super commercial French pop music.

11. Ryan Adams – Amy – I thought this guy was Bryan Adams for so long, which is why I avoided him like the plague.  Ryan > Bryan.

12. The Avett Brothers – I And Love And You – Country pop music.  I know everyone likes country music…so enjoy!

13. Air – Dead Bodies – My second favorite Air song (Ce Matin La is my favorite).  Its hectic.

14. Prince – Starfish & Coffee – I Heart Prince.  That is all.

15. The Postmarks – No One Said This Would Be Easy – Many horns and strings.  Makes me think of a Bond film.

Download (82.6 MB)

Zelden gaat Akron/Family voor een doordeweekse show. Dat blijkt uit hun platen, maar nog meer uit hun optredens. De grens tussen chaos en schoonheid wordt voortdurend verkend en om elke hoek loert weer een volgend experiment. Dat houdt het spannend, zowel voor hen als voor het publiek. Of wij met veel verwachting naar dit concert toeleefden, vroeg u?

Lees hier verder.
Foto : deRob

in my opinion the lyrics are absolutely beautiful.

C’est la première fois que je vois Akron/Family sur scène. Pourtant j’aime beaucoup leurs disques, mais suite à des concours de circonstances, j’ai toujours raté leurs concerts.

Leur dernier disque ”Set ‘em Wild, Set ‘em  Free” sorti ce printemps est très très bien. Une sorte de folk débridéequi vire psyché par moments. Comme il est de bon ton pour le moment de classer les groupes par familles, il y a eu la famille Arcade Fire et ensuite la famille Animal Collective, et bien Akron/Familly appartiendrait à la deuxième catégorie. Si je dis ça c’est pour situer un peu le groupe, certainement pas pour les comparer ou dire l’un est tête d’affiche et l’autre est suiveur, clone ou sosie. Très loin de là. Pour continuer la présentation du trio, je propose cette video en live, des images valent mieux que du blabla.

Pour en venir à ce fameux concert d’hier soir : si sur disque c’est assez folk, plus ou moins calme et un peu hanté, sur scène par contre : rien à voir. Ca c’est sûr.

Le set à commencé avec des échantillonnages de sons bizarres, genre chants d’oiseaux et petit à petit ils se sont installés tous les  trois en trio polyphonique au look baba cool plein de poils.  Formation de type guitare, basse et batterie mais aussi sampleurs, claviers, trompette et flutes en plastique plus les indispensables effets qui sont plutôt maitrisés par les deux front men. Les premiers morceaux étaient relativement posés, mais assez rapidement ils ont décliné leurs chansons de format court en longues plages de vingt minutes, avec distorsions, bruits blancs, passages vers la noise carrément, de longs moments répétitifs et totalement tripants, des parties psyché que les amateurs d’Hendrix ne renieraient pas, toujours avec une rythmique maintenue par un batteur infatigable alors que les deux autres se lancent dans des digressions sonores psychédéliques ou bruitistes avec parfois des parties chantées dans un micro déformant. Par exemple, leur rappel a démarré folk avec guitares piquées virant hard rock  puis ils sont passés à du funk gondolant pour revenir à au heavy metal pour terminer quasi a cappela avec une guitare très très discrète du genre “on termine le concert avec une ambiance feu de camp”.

Voilà en gros un résumé de ce concert étonnant . Qui pouvait imaginer un joyeux  bordel pareil après avoir seulement écouté les  disques ?  Pas moi. En plus, bonjour les acouphènes qui m’ont poursuivis jusqu’au bout de la nuit. Qui disait que la folk c’est doux et calme ?
En voici un deuxième exemple live :

Ett för mig helt okänt band har tagit upp hela förmiddagen och större delen av eftermiddagen med deras skiva Apples Acre. Den ges ut av Dead Oceans hem år bland annat gamla favoriter som alt folkrockarna Akron/Family och skräckpsych bandet Evangelicals. Nurses låter lite som ett Animal Collective utan ADHD. Det experimentella finns där och den udda produktionen men låtarna är mycket mer lättillgängliga.

Nurses på Myspace

4 Novembre 2009
B72 – Vienna

Era pure ora che scrivessi su questo blog, non trovate? E che cazzo. Ho deciso di farlo proprio adesso, in un freddo e macabro novembre mitteleuropeo, lontano dalla controversa Roma.

Distrutto dalla mia vita dissoluta, ero piuttosto indeciso riguardo al recarmi o meno allo show: il mercoledì sera è impegnativo, come sapete, e i miei amici locali hanno tutti agilmente dribblato la mia amichevole proposta.
Ma dopo una zuppa gulash in scatola scaldata al microonde, ecco che ho ricevuto l’ispirazione: andare! Sono saltato in modo littorio su una bicicletta gentilmente offerta dal  socialdemocratico comune di Vienna e, appena prima dell’ibernazione,  sono arrivato al B72, un pittoresco ambiente situato proprio sotto all’U-bahn (dove ogni treno fa tremare tutto), giusto in tempo per gustare alcuni brani degli Slaraffenland.
Un Jameson costa 7 euro, e la dose elargita potrebbe essere contenuta in un Mon Cheri ferrero: per questo ho accompagnato la serata con cascate di birra Goesser (una pils low-cost locale).

Gli Slaraffenland sono cinque ragazzi danesi di dimensioni abbastanza ridotte: indossano magliette aderenti con sopra delle ossa e jeans a calzamaglia, zompettano come saltimbanchi, hanno dei baffi ironici, cantano spesso in coro come dei marinai ubriachi (appunto) danesi, e indugiano volentieri sull’utilizzo di tromba e trombone. Fortunatamente gli Slaraffenland sanno scrivere un pezzo prog e sono degli ottimi musicisti: questo rende ciò che potrebbe essere archiviato come una ingenua versione nordeuropea dei Man Man piuttosto godibile. Aggiungo che, e qui so bene che alcuni colleghi dissentiranno, il fatto che le loro voci mi ricordino in qualche modo gli Xtc non è del tutto negativo.

A questo punto sono alla terza Goesser, e quei maledetti hippie rilassati degli Akron/Family iniziano a montare un palco pieno di panni peruviani, ammenicoli tra cui annoveriamo Kazu, corni, flauti dolci, nonché una specie di interno di tenda apache dietro alla batteria. Il chitarrista, appena prima di togliersi un maglione con fantasia di Lama ed indossare una fascetta da Björn Borg mi chiede, con voce da training autogeno buddista, come sto.
“Meravigliosamente, e tu?”"
“Meravigliosamente”.
è un buon inizio.

Quest’estate all’Init me li sono persi (fortunatamente però ho potuto leggere la recensione su Nerds Attack, che è sempre sempre un po’ come essere lì di persona), ma li avevo visti un numero imprecisato di anni fa alla Locanda Atlantide, quando Devendra Banhart era “strano” e a Roma impazzivano ancora  tutti per i Killers: internet era sensibilmente meno diffuso, e i tempi impiegati dalla nostra stampa musicale nel tradurre e copiaincollare pitchfork media erano allora un po’ più lunghi.
Ebbene, quell’anno gli Akron/Family erano in quattro, e mi avevano sedotto con un ritorno al folk (ai tempi ancora non trito e ritrito) che mischiava melodie tradizionali e rumorismi pazzi (se non sbaglio ai tempi hanno addirittura eseguito una toccante “silent night” a cappella, senza microfono). Quanti ricordi!
Oggi gli Akron Family sono in tre. Presumo che qualche altro anno a Williamsburg li abbia temprati nello spirito: la lieta notizia è che in questi anni gli Akron Family, pur non abbandonando le bizzarrie elettroniche e qualche occasionale ritorno alla pastoralità,  sono approdati all’elettricità e alla psichedelia, suonando superbamente, e senza farsi troppi problemi: il comune denominatore rimane il “viaggio” verso un mondo fatto di barbe, droga, sofà morbidi, assoli giganteschi, fumo colorato, fiori e lane esotiche.
L’impressione, peraltro, a è che si tratti di gente a cui non frega un cazzo di niente. Il prodigioso bassista-percussionista-cantante è ad esempio un ometto panciuto con mullet, barba e scarpe da trekking. Non fanno il soundcheck, e quando un fan glielo fa notare rispondono “fattelo tu il soundcheck”. Gli Akron/Family non hanno niente da dimostrare.

Buoni quindici minuti consecutivi di concerto, dopo un’introduzione variegata (quando suonano piano sono a brevi tratti praticamente Crosby Stills & Nash, ma poi subentrano subito drumbeat assassini e voci distorte),  sono stati dedicati al riffaggio selvaggio. Avendo finito la quarta birra e le sigarette, non mi resta che dimenarmi selvaggiamente in prima fila insieme a tre austriaci pazzi (una di loro in effetti è di sesso femminile e in mise discinta). Ad un certo punto, per spirito di emulazione ho gridato “su le mani”, e dubito che qualcuno abbia recepito il mio messaggio di amore e fratellanza in lingua Romanza. Hanno chiuso di nuovo in modo quieto, infischiandosene del bis (che in effetti è sempre un tantino fuori luogo dopo concerti omogenei e intensi come questo).

A fine concerto ho disquisito di vini pregiati col batterista ed alcuni altri austriaci pazzi, dei quali nessuno ha condiviso la mia teoria sulla supremazia assoluta del vino Italiano. E non so bene cosa mi abbia spinto ad acquistare una fascetta per capelli degli Akron/Family (forse il signor Goesser?), fatto sta che verso l’una di notte ero fuori dal locale ed avevo freddo e mi è tornata utile. Ho chiesto un Bratwurst in un chiosco turco, e mi è stato dato un Frankfurter. La frustrazione si è estinta nella ghiottoneria e, concluso il pasto con un sonoro rutto, oplà! Un agile balzo sulla mia bicicletta pubblica e ho preso la via di casa con la mia ridicola fascetta degli Akron Family. Sono caduto un paio di volte, e nonostante il dolore acuto che provo in svariate congiunture sono tuttora soddisfatto della dose di psichedelia assunta.

Attenzione: il 19 novembre verranno anche a Roma (nuovamente alla locanda atlantide), e secondo me non dovreste perderveli. Se il vostro cervello non provvede da se alla produzione di endorfine il mio consiglio è di drogarvi almeno un po’.

Viele grüße,

Il Vento.

Op de laatste twee Castanets albums ‘City Of Refuge’ (2008) en ‘Texas Rose, The Thaw and The Beasts’ (2009) laat singer-songwriter Ray Raposa een breed scala aan freak-country-folk songs op ons los. ‘City Of Refuge’ is een ingetogen fragmentarisch album met een mengelmoes aan op bluesriffs en elektronicariedels gebaseerde sfeertekeningen. (lees recensie in Gonzo (circus) #89) Met ‘Texas Rose, The Thaw and The Beasts’ zet Raposa een album neer dat bol staat van vervreemdende, maar wel volgens de traditionele folkregels gecomponeerde Americana songs. (lees recensie in Gonzo (circus) #93) 

In het Patronaatcafé geeft Castanets een stevige draai aan het materiaal van voornamelijk het laatste album. De country-folk stukken worden opgediend in een post country-rock sausje. Raposa wordt daarbij ondersteund door Jana Hunter, die de achtergrondvocalen en basisakkoorden op gitaar voor haar rekening neemt. Red Hunter voegt op gitaar de nodige psychedelische effecten toe en Lazarus ( Trevor Montgomery ), het boomlange voormalige Tarentel lid en verzorger van het voorprogramma, levert met de slagwerkster de basisingrediënten aan. Ray Raposa, die zelf de meest essentiële gitaarpartijen voor zijn rekening neemt, maakt er een waar muziekspektakel van. Kaal zijn de composities van Raposa eigenlijk traditionele country-folk nummers. Maar het aanwezige Castanets personeel maakt daar gelukkig korte metten mee. De set staat bol van muzikale ‘weirdness’. Qua karakter klinkt het totale optreden als The Black Heart Procession. In de uitwerking staat het dicht bij de podiumpresentatie van Akron/Family. De nummers vloeien ongekunsteld in elkaar over en worden hier en daar omlijst door verstoorde geluiden. Het éne moment vervliegen de klanken, alsof ze in rook opgaan. Even later slaat Castanets keihard terug in je smoel en staat het volume in de overdrive. Wil je net de handen naar de oren brengen om ze af te dekken, volgt er een sprookjesachtige passage. Opnieuw een muzikaal pareltje om bij te schrijven in de boeken van het Patronaat. Ja mensen, en geheel gratis, dus wat wil een mens nog meer in deze tijden van crisis.

The following is a list of the ten albums that I feel, are the best releases in the last 10 years.  None of the decisions were made based on critical acclaim but merely on what I think are the most progressive and meaningful albums from 2000 to the present.  Every band is trying to do something different with their music and the following are examples of success in that goal.  Every one of these has a quality or style that is purely unique and influential.

10: TV On The Radio – Return to Cookie Mountain (2006, 4AD / Interscope)

While Return to Cookie Mountain is not the most recent release by the band it is certainly the most notable.  On this album billows of drum and guitar sound accompany a very vocal-based album that is melodic and sing-able at times and merely a wall of sound at others.  The band, which operates out of Brooklyn, has created a name for itself in its unique genre-less compositions similar only to that of Radiohead and top 40 radio in Mars.

Notable tracks:

03. Province (this track features David Bowie on backing vocals)

06. A Method

9: Akron/Family – Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free (2009, Dead Oceans)

While everything on the album is recognizably Akron/Family, the album spans genres inexplicably.  Starting in a bit of a dirty blues-rock feel and moving through electronic tracks and folk concoctions, the band even hits on some borderline scream punk just to say they did it.  Often, transitions between acoustic and more electronically derived tracks are rough and uncomfortable but this Frankenstein of an album dances gracefully the entire time.  The band, from New York City, remains relatively undiscovered but they ought to be.  Akron/Family has a lot to add to the musical scene and effectively captures the style that many bands strive for.

Notable tracks:

01. Everyone Is Guilty

03. Creatures

07. Many Ghosts

8: The xx – xx (2009, Young Turks)

The xx is amazingly simple but still a sound that’s very rarely made.  The London quartet functions with two vocalists in what seems like a dialogue relationship.  Overall, nearly every song has a calm intensity to it that satisfies repeatedly.  xx is greatly successful for the group’s first release so releases in the future will surely be under radar.

Notable Tracks:

03. Crystalized

07. Shelter

7: The Arcade Fire – Funeral (2004, Merge)

I don’t know what to call The Arcade Fire’s but after I saw a concert on the Neon Bible Tour I was convinced that they were the house band from Eli Sunday’s church in There Will Be Blood. Apparently, living in Haiti leaves you pretty oblivious to American culture and the way music is being made over here because The Arcade Fire has created in Funeral an experience that is completely different than anything…ever.  There is a very eerie vibe surrounding the album and a deep emotion that lies within it.

Notable Tracks:

04. Neighborhood 3 (Power Out)

06. Crown of Love

07. Wake Up

6: Why? – Alopecia (2008, Anticon)

Lead singer Yoni Wolf’s music is disturbingly honest but for some strange reason that is what keeps you coming back for more. Alopecia says everything you’ve wanted to say but haven’t had the guts.  It’s Jewish hip-hop that in all the ways Matisyahu is not.  Whereas most hip-hop is about the ego, Alopecia is about life.  These are stories of bad decisions, failures, and missed opportunities and they are all presented in very honest and effective ways.

Notable Tracks:

02. Good Friday

08. The Fall of Mr. Fifths

10. A Sky for Shoeing Horses Under

5: The Decemberists – The Hazards of Love (2009, Capitol)

With the bands fifth release, The Decemberists delve even deeper into the story-telling style that they are known for.  On this album every track flows seamlessly to the other and themes come and go throughout the duration of the album representing the stories that are interwoven inside it.  The band draws on its resources for The Hazards of Love as Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, Becky Starke of Lavender Diamond, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket are all brought in to play various characters in the stories and provide vocals for the album.  The Hazards of Love is a seamless blend of music steeped in an ancient troubadour tradition and converted by modern themes and musical styles into what can best be described as a musical.

Notable Tracks:

03. A Bower Scene

08. The Wanting Comes In Waves/Repaid

10. The Rake’s Song

4: Architecture in Helsinki – Places Like This (2007, Polyvinyl)

This album is beautifully fucking crazy.  Enough said.

Notable Tracks:

02. Heart It Races

03. Hold Music

08. Lazy (Lazy)

3: Bright Eyes – I’m Wide Awake Its Morning (2005, Saddle Creek)

When Conor Oberst double released Digital Ash In A Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning in 2005 he had officially divided his music in two.  Previous albums, which had mixed darker and more electronically-derived tracks like “Lover I Don’t Have to Love” with folk tunes like “Bowl of Oranges” had given birth to both a pair of very different-looking twins.  While Digital Ash was ill-recieved, I’m Wide Awake its Morning broke into an entirely different well of musical possibilities.  Not only did this album influence every Bright Eyes release since, it also spawned tons of followers in what is now “indie-folk”. Conor Oberst is the Bob Dylan of his time.

Notable Tracks:

04. Lua

06. First Day of My Life

10. Road To Joy

2: Radiohead – Kid A (2000, Parlophone / Capitol)

Kid A marks the transformation of Radiohead from a band to a soulless fucking robot.  Fortunately it is the soulless fucking robot that people prefer.  Its amazing that an album as experimental as this one achieved as much success as it did but even though Kid A debuted without a single or music video, it was able to draw itself enough attention to go platinum in a week.  You know the rest.

Notable Tracks:

01. Everything In Its Right Place

03. The National Anthem

08. Idiotheque

1: Department of Eagles – In Ear Park (2008, 4AD)

You may not have expected this one but I have a strong faith that, although very undiscovered In Ear Park is the greatest album that has been released all decade.  There is a huge difference between bands that record songs and bands that record art.  In Ear Park is not about chords and progressions but about what the music does when it gets inside your head.  While Department of Eagles consists of just Daniel Rossen (also known for work in the band Grizzly Bear) and Fred Nicolaus, this particular album was scored on a huge scale.  Starting out from the very beginning with a pretty simple guitar melody the album soon erupts into a very symphonic experience that will make your hairs stand on end.

Notable Tracks:

01. In Ear Park

03. Phantom Other

07. Classical Records

Right Click Save on Artwork to Download

Blogophilia 12.5
Songs from Blogs September 20 – October 15, 2009
Ripped @ 256k VBR
Run Time: 77:17

Tracklist:
01 Intro
02 The Big Pink – Dominos
03 Bear in Heaven – Lovesick Teenagers
04 Windmill – Ellen Save Our Energy
05 Real Ones – Every Dog Has His Day
06 Headlights – Telephones
07 Akron Family – Everyone is Guilty
08 Vampire Weekend – Horchata
09 Foreign Born – Early Warnings
10 The Clientele – Harvest Mix
11 Jay Farrar & Benjamin Gibbard – Breathe Our Iodine
12 Real Estate – Beachcomber
13 Sweet Serenades – On My Way
14 The Bravery – Slow Poison
15 Death Cab for Cutie – Meet Me on the Equinox
16 Spiral Stairs – The Maltese T
17 Erin McKeown – The Foxes
18 The Static Jackets – My Parents Lied
19 Miss Derringer – Click Click, Bang Bang
20 Tegan & Sara – Hell
21 A Grave with No Name – Open Water
22 Devendra Banhart – Baby
23 Laura Veirs – Wide Eyed, Legless
24 Outro

I wasn’t planning to develop another mix so quickly, but a close friend of mine–let’s call him the Muck Man–was less than impressed with the Volume 12 mix. I liked volume 12, but I also know I’ve been working hard and was not in the best of moods when I was selecting songs for volume 12.  So we have volume 12.5 thanks to a friend of mine who once used this as a pickup line, “Do you like Metallica?”  when we were out club hopping on summer break from college. It was the eighties, what can I say?

Notes for this volume–I really love Breathe Our Iodine from the One Fast Move or I am Gone Soundtrack. I know that the guitar riff is derivative in that it has been used in a few different blues tunes, but Jay Farrar does a nice job of delivering Kerouac’s words.  I have an order in for the One Fast Move DVD and I can’t wait to see it.  I started reading Big Sur again the other night following my last post.

Other highlights from this mix–Real Ones – Every Dog Has Its Day is reminiscent of the Talking Heads. Akron/Family’s Everyone Is Guilty is guilty of being a great tune from an even greater album. Laura Veirs‘ Wide Eyed, Legless reminds me of Suzanne Vega’s Left of Center for some reason. I can’t wait to hear Ms. Veirs’ new album. For a long time, I’ve managed to keep The Big Pink’s Dominos off of the Blogophilia mixes, but I think it’s finally grown on me, and represents a good opening track for this mix. Other quick notes, I find Ellen Save Our Energy by Windmill very endearing; I think that Death Cab has ripped off the Canadian power trio, Rush with Meet Me On the Equinox; and I am glad that the Queen of the California Quail forced my hand and made me check to see if I had any Erin McKeown–she’s great with The Foxes.

Until next time…

DMST's Other Truths will drop from Constellation Records on October 20th

PREVIEW: DOWNLOAD Do Make Say Think’s “Do” MP3
WE GIVE IT: 17/20 Watts

As Toronto’s Do Make Say Think entered the studio to put together their sixth record since the group’s inception in 1995, they’ve made an obvious move back to their post-rock roots. The product, The Other Truths, is easily the group’s finest release to-date, and one that surely sits atop the genre’s seas of Explosions in the Sky-impersonators.

The group has its origins in a sparsely adorned Toronto classroom, where the original members would work out informal instrumental jams. On each of the room’s four walls were the words Do, Make, Say and Think. Not only did the group adopt this as their namesake, but then decided to use the vaguely motivational philosophy as the track titles for their latest four-track LP.

The album has a distinctly natural feeling to it from start to finish. The instrumentals, which are accompanied at times by wordless vocals from Akron/Family, were recorded in a surprisingly hi-fi manner, bringing out every intricacy that the players use to give the album its unyielding feel of solidarity through the LP’s movement.

True to their roots, DMST approaches each of the record’s four tracks in an unpredictably structured way. Yet they manage to allow the songs, which all continue for 8-12 minutes each, to still sound like merely well-executed studio jams. This organic feeling permeates the entire record and makes listening to it effortless, but still incredibly rewarding.

Upon listening to the album, it’s all too easy to lump DMST in with the rest of today’s post-rock instrumental groups, who often take advantage of a glazy-eyed audience to turn out spontaneous jams that too often merely blend into one another when put on a record. Despite the fact that the LP is only four tracks, DMST manages to separate the selections extremely well, giving each a clearly individual drive behind the music. Note the transition from the album’s opener, “Do,” a driving, yet lighthearted track, to the album’s second track, “Make,” which possesses an unmistakably darker, more introspective feel.

From start to finish, the record is a post-rock masterpiece that will continue to define the genre in true DMST fashion. The collection is a must-have for any instrumental fan, and an album to be reckoned with by instrumental rock’s sea of wannabes.

– John Luposello

for Discorder Magazine

Other Truths

Do Make Say Think

(Constellation)

These, and other truths...

Ambient post-rock veterans return to the basics with their sixth album Other Truths, an homage to their tradition of continuous instrumental wall of sound leading to psychic oblivion. Along with musicians from Akron/Family and Lullabye Arkestra, the album sounds much like a live exploration of humanity’s deepest commonality: the process between thought and action.

“Do” starts up optimistically, with catchy distorted guitar riffs, building up to a montage of almost cataclysmic orchestral proportions. The second song “Make” follows the same structure, but is far more emotive and thoughtful, as if it was reaching for authenticity. Not a stranger to brass instruments, the trumpet and saxophone add tremendous sensual texture to “Say.” Like their other albums, Other Truths is nearly entirely instrumental, which gives a sensation of dialogue between the passages and the instrument groups themselves.

The end trails off contemplatively with their fourth track “Think,” a slow meticulous exploration of this other and final truth — the fourth facet of the human condition.

The other day my review of Slaraffenland’s We’re On Your Side ran on Tiny Mix Tapes. I thought I was done with them, at least for a few weeks, and then THIS shows up on my doorstep: A film that accompanies WOYS in its entirety!

A benefit show is being thrown on the day after Christmas as the McAllen Creative Incubator.

They’re asking for a donation of $5.

It’s looking to be a big event showcasing lots of great local talent. (A Beautiful Lotus, And Venus and Lionheart Stanza to name a couple favorites)

If you’re from the valley, try and make it out and show off your new Christmas presents!

Download today’s show by clicking HERE

OR

Check out past shows in the LINKS section

Some of our favorites have come out with new records recently.  A lot of the songs are so good that I can’t decide which ones to play on the show.

Owen, one of our favorites, has a new album coming out September 22.  The album, New Leaves, is packed with beautiful arrangements and the honest lyrics we’ve come to appreciate from Mike Kinsella.  I played “Scared To Move” on the show.  Listen to the strings during the second verse.  It’s really beautiful.

I also played “The Field” by Mason Jennings from his new album, Blood of Man. The album, his second for Jack Johnson’s Brushfire imprint, was recorded in a cabin where Jennings holed himself up and recorded the album himself.

Mason Jennings

The song tells a pretty heavy story.  His stories are one of the main reasons he’s awesome.

A man invited my friends and I into his home when I was in Gainesville two weeks ago.  He had hand crafted all kinds of crazy things and was setting up a recording studio in his home.  He gave me an album by Patrick David Koch, one of his buddies.  The album is awesome.  It’s mostly upbeat, acoustic guitar-driven, tunes with cool vocal melody lines.  I played “Mine and Yours” from Recipe.

Rachel Goodrich is a singer-songwriter from Miami, FL.  Danielle and I had an opportunity to see her play at New World Brewery earlier this year.  She can play her instrument, for sure.  Her music is different, but catchy all in one listen.  She has a great voice and a trippy backing band.  They play it all from toy xylophones to kazoos.  If she ever makes it to your neck of the woods, you should check her out.  I played “Piggy Bank” from Tinker Toys.  Listen to the sweet kazoo action.

I managed to squeeze in some Violent Femmes who do “Gone Daddy Gone” on the show today.   Gnarls Barkley covered this song on their debut album, St. Elsewhere.

If you thought Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst was only capable of slow, sappy songs, then check out “Roosevelt Room” from his latest recording with the Mystic Valley Band.  It is a rocker, and it’s good.

There are also some awesome tunes from bands that I hadn’t checked out like: Kid Cudi, Alberta Cross, Japandroids, and Swollen Members.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for listening.  Please let me know if there is anything that you want to hear.  Up next time: Josh Ritter, David Bazan, Los Campesinos!, Bonjah, and many more.

-Ray

Owen - New Leaves

Playlist for Sept. 29, 2009

Kid Cudi – Man On The Moon (The Anthem) / A Kid Named Cudi (Mixtape)

Chuck Berry – Back In The USA / The Definitive Collection

Patrick David Koch – Mine And Yours  / Recipe

Japandroids – Wet Hair / Post-Nothing

Johnny Cash – A Boy Named Sue [Live] / The Legend of Johnny Cash

Akron/Family – Creatures / Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free

Owen – Too Scared To Move / New Leaves

The Beastie Boys – Paul Revere / Licensed to Ill

Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band – Roosevelt Room / Outer South

The Bens – xfire / EP

Alberta Cross – Old Man Chicago / The Thief & The Heartbreaker

Swollen Members – The Capitol / Monsters In The Closet

Jay-Z – Empire State of Mind (feat. Alicia Keys) / The Blueprint 3

Rachel Goodrich – Piggy Bank / Tinker Toys

Violent Femmes – Gone Daddy Gone / ST

Mason Jennings – The Field / Blood of Man

Je sais, ça a pris du temps!!! Je ne sais trop par où commencer!!! Dans l’ordre?

Jour 1

L’arrivée : on se rend compte que notre chambre est pas trop pire (spécialement comparée à l’an dernier!!!)

Premier show auquel on assiste : Dirty Three : malade! Quel violoniste!

ensuite : Suicide : Johnny Johnny Cheree Cheree rien d’autre à ajouter… ah oui, c’était ben trop fort!!

ensuite Panda Bear : et j’en veux PLUSSS!!! Je suis définitivement fan de Noah Lennox et à ce moment, j’ai hâte à Atlas Sound pour Walkabout…

ensuite Iron and Wine : bien plaisant quoi que environ 150 spectateurs seulement. C’était clairement le show le plus smooth de tout le festival.

The Jesus Lizard ont supposement livré une performance de feu mais ce n’est plus très clair rendu là…

Jour 2

Sufjan Stevens : toujours aussi tights!! bon debut de journée pour un hangover!

Circulatory System : excellents!  …ils nous gâtent un peu plus tard…

Atlas Sound : mmm… je ne sais trop… je suis déçu du show mais j’adore le gars. On se disait qui si Panda Bear jouait la veille il aurait bien pu se joindre à lui pour au moins Walkabout que tout le monde réclamait… non il nous a signifié qu’il n’était pas dans ce mood là et tout le monde a semblé apprécier ce qui resemblait plus à une session jam intime qu’à un show de Alas Sound…  n’empêche qu’il m’est difficile de ne pas trouver ça bon   …et il nous a aussi gâté plus tard…

Akron/Family : …ah je les ai manqués… bouhh pour moi…

Autolux : super! J’était bien désolée l’an dernier lorsqu’ils on annulé… Ils se sont bien repris cette année!

Shellac : vous ne savez pas à quel point je les adore!!! Show qui me rappelle étrangement celui de l’an dernier : Pendant que Steve Albini accorde sa guitar, Bob Weston lui, répond aux questions des spectateurs…

“What’s my favorite band? –  Fugazi.”
“Do I believe in heaven?  –  No.”
“Have I ever fucked any bitches?  — No, I only fuck beautiful women.”

Deerhunter :  Rien de bien époustouflant, rien de nouveau, mais une performance honnête que j’ai adoré!

Animal Collective : Ouf! Moi, personellement, c’est mon show favori de tout le festival… Malgré plusieurs écoutes difficiles au temps de Feels, Animal Collective est rapidement devenu un des groupes que j’aime le plus. Pour ce qui est des performances live j’en était à ma première et j’ai laissé de côté tous les commentaires d’amis mélomanes sur le sujet pour apprécier pleinement le spectacle. Autant visuellement que musicalement, j’ai eu l’impression que le show entier était une sorte de rituel tribal  où tout le monde a su entrer dans un état de transe et se défouler sur le dancefloor!!! “WHO HIT ME??!!?”

Et pour le jour 3, à suivre…

You know how sometimes it’s like:
I just want to be inspired.

I’m sick of sifting through the universe, I just beg that you hand me something that can inspire me

I feel like a bad person whenever I am inspired by evil. Or tragedies. When I use tragedies for inspiration, I feel like I’m somehow taking advantage of other people’s misfortunes.

I’m sorry that this is semi copy-pasted, but I don’t feel I could but the story any better in my own words.

It’s the story of David Reimer

David Reimer was born as one of a set of male twins, but when still a baby, his penis was destroyed due to a botched circumcision. The child was subsequently sexually reassigned as female. This decision was made by John Money, a psychologist and sexologist well-known for his research into sexual identity and biology of gender. However, even though David Reimer was raised as a girl and never knew his early history, he behaved in a masculine way appropriate to a boy while he was a young child. Later attempts to socialize him as a girl failed.

When he finally reached the age to make his own medical decisions, he was so distressed by Money’s demand for further surgery to complete his “female” genitals, that his parents decided to reveal his medical history to him. He immediately re-transitioned to a male gender role and later underwent genital reassignment surgery again, in order to complete his male gender identity with male genitalia. He underwent four rounds of reconstructive surgery to facilitate his reappropriation of the male sex. Towards the end of his life he lost his job, was separated from his wife, failed a financial investment, and mourned the death of his twin brother Brian, who died in a drug overdose.

He committed suicide on May 5, 2004.

When it's all over I'll let you know

Don’t be afraid, it’s only love
Don’t be afraid, you’re already dead

oh wow this post is mobid

okay just pretend i never said any of this
shhhhhhhhhh
keep it a secret

love you
xxx

Released: May 5th, 2009

One word to describe this album: Catchy. I started listening to it and literally caught myself listening to it straight through on repeat…for hours. I honestly enjoy this album so much that I can’t get enough of it. It has an excellent mix of funky beats, sing-song lyrics, uptempo choruses and dance-inducing rhythms. It sounds so complex yet so simple. There is so much going on during each track and yet it never becomes too overbearing…something rather difficult to pull off.

My favorite tracks are the opener “Everyone is Guilty” which resonates with a plethora of percussion-laden beats, the second track “River” which remains simple and subdued in the most perfect way and “Many Ghosts” which relies a bit more on an aesthetic sound almost akin to a track off a Lost in the Trees album. Overall, Set ‘Em Wild,  Set ‘Em Free is a great album and I give it an 8 out of 10.

Summer is on it’s way, which means a whole lot more tour announcements. Rhythm & Vines have just released their second announcement and it’s looking interesting. Their biggest pull? Moby. Strange, but I’m not going to act like I know everything. Also added to the line-up are Editors, 2ManyDJ’s, Future of the Left, White Rabbits, Ajax, Bang Gang and DJ Emerson Todd. The second announcement also sees a few more kiwi acts confirmed with artists such as Dictaphone Blues, Opsensouls, Dane Rumble and An Emerald City set to play.

Bob Marley’s former band The Wailers, Now The Original Wailers, have also announced they will play four New Zealand shows in November. The group led by Junior Marvin and Al Anderson will be playing the classic 1977 album ‘Exodus’ in its entirety, so expect to see an exciting performance from the group. Full tour dates and ticketing information over at Scoop.

Akron/Family, who released their new album ‘Set ‘Em Wild, Set ‘Em Free’ this year, have announced they will play two New Zealand shows later this year. The group will play Tuesday December 15 at the Kings Arms in Auckland and Wednesday December 16 at Bar Bodega in Wellington. Tickets go on sale on September 7 from Real Groovy, Slow Boat Records and Under The Radar.