The “00’s” and the advent of the computer and Internet as our primary source for information made music easier to hear about, make, produce, sell, share and remix. It is more than downloading a song or torrent; this new era has been a cultural and artistic revolution. The albums listed below, and many others, are so good that it reaffirms my belief that the best music will still never be on traditional radio (another dying institution), so why bother with the expectation. Be happy you were here for it.
1.
Broken Social Scene –
You Forgot It In People (2003)
Broken Social Scene is a collective of musicians who each bring something special to You Forgot It In People. Instead of getting a structured rock album, we are given a statement of each musician’s expression like a declaration of love of his or her music and, in fact, life itself. What comes from this community is raw rock music that is emotional and passionate. It feels grandiose and orchestral like an opera, even when it is just a meager handful of voices and instruments. The whole album (as many of these albums do) play out best beginning to end, like a movie or a great TV series where you can’t start watching in the middle of second season. No surprise that many of these songs were used in one of the best movies of the decade, Half Nelson. The songs hit a wide range of emotions. Sometimes the songs are sweet and tender like a kiss on your neck and a whisper in your ear. Other moments they are breaking bottles and tear soaked cuss words after a passion-fueled fight. This album has half dozen virtual instrumentals as well that say more with the distant hums and wails, percussive piano and insistent drums than most lyrics can. It moves me every time I listen.
Standouts: Stars and Sons, Anthem for a Seventeen Year Old Girl, Almost Crimes (Radio Kills Remix)
Purchase the album here.
2.
LCD Soundsystem –
Sounds of Silver (2007)
I am reminded of that classic Dave Chappelle (please come back!) skit where he tackles why white people can’t dance. It isn’t that we can’t dance; we just need the right kind of music. Of course, he ventures of into silly rock stereotypes, but the sentiment rings true. White people can dance and here is Exhibit A. Sometimes disco, sometimes techno, sometimes dub, sometimes punk, James Murphy brings it all together in a package of flashing lights and cowbell. All of the songs are great, but the standouts are epic lengths of 6 to 8 minutes, which is how long you wish all of your favorites songs were. The topics of the songs, however, are often far from dance anthem material. Getting older, being proudly ashamed to be American or aching to be with another (ok, that is pretty common) is where he takes us, but quickly puts us right back on the dance floor where we belong. I can’t even remember why I ever stopped dancing, but looking at 40 coming like a freight train, I want to make sure I can dance as long as I am able. Children of all nations, please join me there.
Standouts: All My Friends, Get Innocuous, Us Vs. Them
Purchase the album here.
3.
Interpol –
Turn on the Bright Lights (2002)
Blah, blah. Joy Division was better. The truth is that they came along suddenly and ended too soon, so why not try and pick up where they left off? There has been a wave of Joy Division inspired music recently and not unlike the grunge explosion of the 90’s, not a lot of it is worthy of comparison. Interpol’s first full length takes that obvious influence and dresses it up in a $1000 suit. The post-punk jabs and stabs are undeniable, the bass and drums relent for our attention, the vocals are deep, brooding and abstract and the keyboard washes over it all like midnight surf and smoke. Turn on the Bright Lights is dim, hazy and steely cool yet comfortable like your empty bed after a late night. This album proves that imitation and influence, when done right, makes greatness.
Standouts: Untitled, Obstacle 1, The New
Purchase the album and preview a song here.
4.
The Arcade Fire –
Funeral (2004)
I am going to say it; this is the album U2 wishes they could still make. Ever since Bono got people to sing along about “a mole digging in a hole”, I could see the bottoming out of popular radio rock rapidly approach. Thus we are given The Arcade Fire’s Funeral, an album that is passionate and earnest without a moment of embarrassment for doing so. They have gotten a lot of backlash and bad press recently, but if I stopped listening to a band because they were found to be pretentious, my life would be a quiet one. This band loves their music and wears it on its rolled up, sweaty collective sleeve. You can almost picture them crying as they play and sing their hearts out. Man, if I could do what they do, I would weep as well from the sheer joy. You all can shell out the $100+ for the light and stage show covering up the aging rock star; I will be at the Arcade Fire concert saving my money and time for something better.
Standouts: Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), Wake Up, Rebellion (Lies)
Purchase the album and preview a song here.
5.
The National –
Alligator (2005)
A fine example of how Pitchfork can often be dead wrong. Luckily they admitted it in their later posts that they missed the mark by calling this a “grower”. To me, that description still discounts the watershed moment for a truly great band. This is the most tuneful and musically straightforward album in my Top 10 and could easily play next to anything in someone’s classic rock catalog. However, there is a lot going on here beyond the traditional. These songs are aching, upset love songs soaked in booze and turmoil. The music is uncomfortable and tense and sweeps you away from your comfortable home to the nearest forlorn bar. However, the true gem is the vocals: deep, masculine with the confidence of a man who has been hurt many times. If you like your lyrics poetic and picturesque, strap on your headphones and shut your eyes.
Standouts: Secret Meeting, Karen, All The Wine
Purchase the album here.
6.
Radiohead –
Kid A (2000)
If everyone says it is great, then it must be great. I try not fall into the trappings of rock critics and taste-making bloggers who have already listed their faves and sung the praises time and time again of Radiohead. Here is my take. Radiohead is quite simply the best band over the past 15 years with no one else coming close. Most groups ebb and flow between solid and suspect or have one remarkable album to then succumb to the expectation. Yet Radiohead rolls out a new album every few years while never failing to reach that level of greatness. And Kid A is their best album. Some will argue for the prog-rock, standard setting OK Computer, some even speak of The Bends or In Rainbows are their crowning achievement. But where OK Computer reinvented the rock concept album, Radiohead went ahead and reinvented it again. That is the stuff of the Beatles. If they manage to not get too serious or pressured by this whole greatness thing (and there is no sign of that), they might just do this for a long, long time.
Standouts: Everything In It’s Right Place, Optimistic, Morning Bell
Purchase the album here.
7.
Girl Talk –
Night Ripper (2006)
A lot of people hate Andy Warhol. His exploitation and blatant stealing of mundane items and events for his own personal statements on culture makes many question whether it is viable art. I argue that the purpose of art is to invoke those polarizing discussions and that in itself makes it the most important kind of art. Enter Greg Gillis, a guy who loves all music; rock, hip hop, new, old, beautiful, profane; so much that he wants it all together in one song and, damnit, he wants everyone who feels the same way right next to him. Like many great artists, he takes a pseudonym, in this case the disarming title of Girl Talk. He then takes pieces of his favorite songs and lays them over a drum machine beat and makes a joyfully blurred barrage of music without the borders of culture or genre. It is equal parts social commentary, methodical trashing of fair use laws and boundless dance party. Sure, there are arguments and lawsuits over Girl Talk, but that is just one more instance on the growing list of how the dinosaurs of music distribution and ownership will never get it, even as they are sinking in the tar pits of their own making. When the big record companies eventually crumble, we can play Girl Talk at the funeral so it won’t be so sad.
Standouts: Smash Your Head, Bounce That, Overtime
Purchase the album here.
8.
TV on the Radio -
Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes (2004)
Have you ever watched a sci-fi movie or a film takes place in the future and they try to define the ultramodern setting with REALLY BAD INDUSTRIAL/HARD ROCK MUSIC? Think of the final Matrix film or Strange Days. I know, ugh. Your heart need not yearn any longer, for TV on the Radio is that futuristic music and it is happening right now. They have been picking up fans and critical accolades over the more recent albums, but this is the one that has captured the most spirit, energy and intensity. Their sound is the bastard mix of space age trance and doo-wop harmonies that causes each new listener to sit back upon first listen. They are taken aback when they hear shards of each song’s surrounding ambience: bleating horns, machinery hums, bass and guitars interweaving like car crashes. Just when it is almost too intense, those reassuring, soulful vocals rise above the thump and grind. And it is beautiful.
Standouts: The Wrong Way, Dreams, Ambulance
Purchase the album here.
9.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs –
Fever To Tell (2003)
Sometimes music just has to be nasty. It could be John Lee Hooker growling “boomboomboomboom” or John Lydon spitting on you with utter disdain. Whether the crotch grabbing, bedroom groaning vocalist is Peaches or David Lee Roth, you sometimes need a little raunch in your rock. That is what this album is, strutting, seedy and sexy music to sink your teeth into. The songs are short and straight ahead, a stripped down drum and guitar combo fronted by Karen O, exotic and glamorous as she coos and howls like an overheated sports car. There is no time wasted as the lyrics and music dually plunge into each track to bring up taboo topics such as rough sex, incest and ambiguous gender roles sung about without a hint of shame over a pummeling beat. Even the calm tracks still glisten with the sweat of long, hot evening that went so right, even when it went a little wrong.
Standouts: Black Tongue, Maps, Y Control
Purchase the album here.
10.
Sleater-Kinney –
The Woods (2005)
The final choice on a list is always the most difficult. All considered albums have such strong qualities, but none had the sledgehammer of emotions of this swan song from the best all female rock band ever. By the time The Woods came out, Sleater-Kinney was well respected and had grimy handfuls of indie cred. Like all great bands they wanted to push their boundaries to play and sing in a whole new way. With the help from some seriously overdriven production, they bore this album of edgy stress and dark fury. The best example is on the first track, where the lyrics are as simple as a child’s nursery rhyme but are delivered with an overt display of unrestrained anger as the instruments pummel in their best attempt to cause you pain. There is such blatant anger here that I am literally scared to consider what personal demons were summoned for this album. Maybe they were close to breaking up when they recorded this album or maybe this album literally drove them apart, but I am hard pressed to find a better way for a seminal band such as Sleater-Kinney to leave the stage.
Standouts: The Fox, Rollercoaster, Steep Air
Purchase the album here.
