Sunday, January 2, 2011

Best Music of the '00s?

You all know how up-to-date I am: NOT AT ALL. My "current music" sense froze-up sometime around 1989, if not earlier.
& yet as near as I can tell, I purchased, borrowed, overheard or otherwise obtained more than 2 dozen then-current albums & CD's over the last decade.
This MUST qualify me 2 write a "decade's best" post, since practically every other music blogger I read regularly has been posting something of that sort over the past week or so -- the guilty parties know who they are. 1 of them took a YEAR 2 count down his Top 20 of the Decade....
Many of these CD's from the decade-past were grabbed by me 4 just 1 great song or 2, & more often than not I NEVER got all the way thru them -- Avril Lavigne's LET GO, Anna Nalick's WRECK OF THE DAY, Jewel's THIS WAY, Train's DROPS OF JUPITER, Bowling for Soup's A HANGOVER YOU DON'T DESERVE, U2's HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB, etc.
The list below is in no way intended 2 represent The Best Of The Decade -- in no way am I even remotely qualified. Let's just say it's a handful of CD's issued during the past decade that mostly held my attention from start 2 finish. Altho a few of them DIDN'T....
* Jordin Sparks: 1st (2007) -- Solid, entertaining, enjoyable over&over, covers a variety of pop/urban/R&B/hip-hop, & man can she SING. Only a track or 2 miss at all. "Tattoo," the quiet & intimate "Worth the Wait" & especially the brilliant, dramatic "Now You Tell Me" R classics. No idea what she's done since....
* Fleet Foxes: 1st (2008) -- SMILE-era Beach Boys meets early '60s folk music. "Blue Ridge Mountains" is still my favorite, & summa the lyrics R a little silly -- but I love the way the songs flow in2 each other, & the 1st time I listened 2 this, I played it straight thru 2wice more. It's bn a LONG time since NE music's affected me enuf 2 do that. Only 1 dud. & man can THEY sing. Has there bn a follow-up?
* Brian Wilson: SMILE (2004) -- Brian's voice is shot, but the rest of this was an amazing re-creation. & the songs we hadn't actually HEARD B4 were pretty freakin' GREAT, especially "On a Holiday" & "In Blue Hawaii." Musically gorgeous. & like a lotta fans, I'd bn waiting 30+ yrs 4 this. But I'd still like 2 hear the original....
* Bare Naked Ladies: ALL THEIR GREATEST HITS (2001) -- Sure almost all the songs came out in the '90s, but the collection was released this decade, & a coupla songs R brand new, so whatthehell. They coulda included almost all of 1998's brilliant & hilarious STUNT, but they held off -- I missed "I'll Be That Girl," "Light Up My Room," "Alcohol," "In the Car," "Who Needs Sleep?," "Never is Enough," "Some Fantastic".... But what's here is pretty great, especially the new&rockin' "It's Only Me," the cover of Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous Time," the charming "If I Had $1,000,000," & the outrage of "Brian Wilson." & the live version of the moving "What a Good Boy" is an amazing performance.
* INXS: BEST OF (2002) -- Same rules apply here, only moreso. If "Elegantly Wasted" had been included, this woulda bn perfect. As is, "Disappear," "Mystify," "This Time," "Don't Change," "Bitter Tears" & 1/2adozen others R all killer. & "The Gift" is great noise.
+ Keane: HOPES AND FEARS (2004) -- 4 great songs here: the hit "Somewhere Only We Know," "This is the Last Time," the dreamy "Your Eyes Open," & especially the wailing "Bend and Break." But the rest drifts. & the follow-up, UNDER THE IRON SEA, had an Xcellent opener that was over WAY 2 quick -- then it plunged in2 some murky art-rock w/ Xtra guitar. I wanted the bouncy piano-based pop band back.
+ Fleetwood Mac: SAY YOU WILL (2003) -- Thank Ghod Lindsey Buckingham was still following his weirdness just like in the old days. There is some truly strange, twisted, wonderful stuff here. Check out the chaotic "Murrow Rolling Over in His Grave," "Miranda," the spooky "Red Rover," the 6-minute epic "Come," the sinister "Peacekeeper." I wasn't that impressed by Stevie Nicks' work -- she's often needed an editor -- but her title song is charming, & the transformation in2 the children's chorus at the end is magical.
+ Norah Jones: COME AWAY WITH ME (2002) -- The hits got overplayed, but "Shoot the Moon" is marvelous & "The Long Day is Over" could Bcome a jazz classic.
+ King Crimson: THE POWER TO BELIEVE (2003) -- Powerful & super-efficient, but not life-changing. "Level Five" is massive, forceful noise. "Happy With What You Have to Be Happy With" is hilarious.
= Coldplay: A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD (2002), X&Y (2005), VIVA LA VIDA (2008) -- Pretty good singles band. "Clocks" is great, "Talk" is marvelous, & the title track of VIVA LA VIDA has bn slowly growing on me since I 1st heard it. But what's all the fuss about? When they're good they sound as anthemic as U2. When they're less inspired, there's no reason 2 listen 2 them at all -- RUSH OF BLOOD has 10 REALLY dull songs on it in addition 2 1 great 1.
I heard some other stuff. Thanx 2 my son I got all the way thru Coheed & Cambria's album that had "The Road and the Damned" & "Feathers" on it -- I've forgotten the name of the album (NO WORLD FOR TOMORROW?) -- but Xcept 4 those 2 Xcellent songs, I didn't like it all that much.
Animal Collective's MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION (2009) had some nice keyboard-wash sounds & group-chorale vocals, but I couldn't seemta find a handle 2 pry my way into it -- maybe it's not 4 me. Television Personalities' MY DARK PLACES (2006) was WAY more primitive than I Xpected -- intresting, but not the pop band I'd Xpected. Imagine a not-as-sweet Brian Wilson at his most childlike....
I occasionally listened 2 the radio. I thot the single of the decade was Sarah McLachlan's "Stupid" -- it spoke 2 me onna lotta levels. Runner-ups included Matchbox 20's "Unwell" & Linkin Park's "Numb" (it was that kinda decade 4 me) & "What I've Done," Outkast's "Hey Ya," My Chemical Romance's "Teenagers" ("scare the living shit out of me...."), Jewel's "Standing Still," Bowling for Soup's "1985," Coldplay's "Clocks," U2's "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own," Avril Lavigne's "I'm With You," Train's "Drops of Jupiter," Anna Nalick's "Breathe," Liz Phair's "Extraordinary," Blue October's "Calling You," Five for Fighting's "100 Years," Nickelback's "Photograph" (appealed 2 my nostalgic side), The Killers' "Mr. Bright Side," Green Day's "Holiday" (do they sound JUST LIKE the Sex Pistols on this 1 or is it just me?) & that high-speed remake of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" by that band who's name I can NEVER remember... & probably at least a few other things I can't remember right now. I hate getting old, can't remember SHIT.
Please feel free 2 respond with your choices 4 The Best, or your Top 10 Reasons Why This Post Was A Bad Idea....

4 comments:

rastronomicals said...

I felt really let down by Coheed and Cambria. I was reading some ridiculous thing that compared them to Rush, and then a comment somewhere by some fan compared them to Led Zeppelin.

Whoa, had to try it, right? Well, I downloaded more than an album's worth of stuff, and disappointment was the order of the day. People had said they were PROG, but prog bands no matter else they might be are usually imaginative, and Coheed & Cambria were not that at all. Run of the mill, BOE-RING. Overrated.

Animal Collective's album, phwoosh, that was the sound of it going over my head. Not for me. My Animal band of the 2000's is Animals as Leaders, who made a good prog-metal-guitar album out of their debut in 2009.

I should probably listen to a Coldplay song one of these days, but haven't yet. . . .

drewzepmeister said...

It's a great list Tad! What matters that it comes from YOU! I'll admit that the 2000's were not the best in music. The focus of the decade seemed to be aimed towards hit singles than towards whole albums. To me that's a shame! Yet underneath of it all, there has been some excellent music.

Some music that you have mentioned here, I've never heard. Some I've have. U2 to me, is always great, no matter what album they do. I've only heard Fleetwood Mac's Say you Will album maybe twice. Coldplay is OK...

Perplexio said...

Might I recommend My Chemical Romance's The Black Parade (released in 2006). I'm not generally a fan of that band but that album is brilliant.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Dream Theater's Train of Thought (2003), OSI's Free (2006), and Disconnected (2000), The Cat Empire's self-titled debut (2003), and Porcupine Tree's In Absentia (2002).

TAD said...

Plex: I've heard THE BLACK PARADE -- that's where "Teenagers" came from ... I think. I think My Chemical Romance has some talent, but it seems like almost all their songs have an emotional climax EVERY 30 SECONDS ... which is ... exhausting....