Greetings once again. It's been a while since my last post, but only because I've been debating long and hard over what my favorite music of the past decade is. It's hard to believe the decade is nearly at an end. When it started I was just entering high school, and my favorite band at the time was probably 311.
...Suffice to say a lot has changed since that time, and I've been fortunate to hear a lot of different albums. Looking back over the past 10 years I can confidently say that this has been a decade of music like no other, one defined by an impressive array of different bands and artists. I would even go as far as saying that this has been the best decade of music ever.
So out of this great decade of music, which albums made my top 25? There was a lot of back and forth, but I think I've finally come up with a pretty definitive list. This list has nothing to do with what the public or music critics have deemed to be "essential" albums of the decade, but more with what I still listen to and enjoy today, and expect to enjoy long into the next decade. So without further ado, I give you the first installation of my list, starting with numbers 25-21.
25) “Robbers and Cowards”- Cold War Kids (2006)We’ll kick things off with a fine debut album from this California band. Not sure how to describe this one, it's a, hmmmm, yeah…just listen to it yourself. Trust me.
Ok, I apologize for that commentary on Cold War Kids, or lack thereof. That was pretty weak. Time to step my game up, LES GO!
The first decade of this century may very well be the last decade in which people discuss the concept of “the album.” What I mean is that today’s pop music is being defined more and more by a collection of downloadable singles, and even those singles are becoming broken up and played in one or two minute clips mixed in with other songs, i.e.“mash-ups.” Girl Talk, aka Pittsburgh native Greg Gillis, is probably the single best symbol of this movement. And sure, many out there will say, “oh, he’s not a real musician, he’s just mixing songs together on his macbook,” to which I would reply, “shut your face!” Every time I listen to “Feed the Animals” I can’t help but be amazed by the sheer creativity Gillis uses in seamlessly combining such a wide array of songs which span pretty much every popular musical genre from the 1960s onwards. Not only that, he is able to “mash-up songs” in such a way that the listener almost forgets how the original song was played. Indeed, I’ll probably never be able to imagine Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares to You” without hearing T.I. shout “whatchu know about that??” amongst Sinead‘s beautiful voice. Quite haunting really. So, regardless of what you feel Girl Talk means for the future of music, admit that the guy has an uncanny ear for music and is, without a doubt, a legitimate musician.
23) “The Devil and God Are Raging Inside of Me”- Brand New (2006)This band has certainly evolved a great deal over the past decade. Starting with the more Taking Back Sunday -esque sound of 2001’s “Your Favorite Weapon” the band has evolved into a formidable alt-rock band. While they’ve put out a lot of great material this decade, I think “The Devil and God…” has to be my favorite. It just sounds heavier and more masculine than any of their previous work, and just by taking the instrumentals from songs like “Sowing Season” or “Welcome to Bangkok” you'll have some perfect background music for any shoot-em up, action packed movie trailer. It will get you pumped up, that's for sure. However, what puts this album squarely in my top 25 is front-man Jesse Lacey’s lyrical exploration. Let’s just say that this guy knows a thing or two about loneliness, pain, and guilt. Nowhere is this more apparent than in “Jesus Christ,” the centerpiece of this album, and perhaps one of the most beautiful songs of the past decade.
22) “Hot Fuss”-The Killers (2004)I don’t know if the disappointment of the last two Killers albums has dulled some of the luster from “Hot Fuss,” or made this debut album from The Killers seem more impressive. All I know is that I was obsessed with this album for a while when it first came out (pretty much the soundtrack of freshman year of college, in fact). It’s an album is chock full of lively dance numbers (“Somebody Told Me“), and even the more gloomy themed songs about lost memories (“Smile Like You Mean It”) or murder(“Jenny was a Friend of Mine”) are surprisingly catchy. Plus, when you hear all those ‘80s throwback bands that are currently saturating the indie music scene, bands like Passion Pit for example, please don’t forget that it was The Killers, and this album, that opened the door for that type of sound to become mainstream.
21) “Aha Shake Heartbreak”- Kings of Leon (2005)Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy seeing this band play songs like “Crawl” and “Be Somebody” live and in concert. Those songs and the rest of last year’s “Only By the Night” were written with arenas and huge summer festivals in mind, and that’s where those songs sound the best. But from the perspective of writing an original and compelling album, Kings of Leon’s best work was from the earlier part of their career, when they truly embodied the second coming of the southern, hillbilly rock of the 1970s. Of those early albums, “Aha Shake Heartbreak” stands out. Just an all out fun album from top to bottom, and it really does sound like the type of music the Followilll clan would play for fun after a night of boozing and chasing skirt, unlike their more contrived songs like “Use Somebody” and “Sex on Fire” which ironically propelled this band to super-stardom. Hell, maybe I’m just upset about the boys seemingly “selling out” on me, but just take a listen to “The Bucket” and try to explain to me why songs like this didn’t make these guys superstars years ago. (By the way check out the guys’ hair in the video, you can’t even recognize Caleb!)
to be continued...
Girl Talk is not original music. Would someone who makes sweet mash-ups of movie clips ever win an academy award for best film? I think not.
ReplyDeleteAlso Sam's Town and Day and Age were not disappointments. Sam's Town contained one of the best songs of the decade, When You Were Young, along with a bunch of other great songs; Bones, For Reasons Unknown, Read My Mind, and Sam's Town. Day and Age contained Human, Spaceman, Losing Touch, and the haunting Dustland Fairytale. This performance on Letterman says it all: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-PZV_sbOMY