Part I: #28-16
If a certain website that shall remain nameless can throw together an arbitrary list of top 500 songs of the decade that decides the ultimate of which is Outkast “BOB”, I feel pretty justified in making an overly-calculated list of relevant albums of the past decade.
This isn’t exactly a proud moment, reflecting the fact that this wasn’t a particularly proud decade. With the explosion of the internet and file sharing, genres of music have crossbred and spawned the bastard categories such as “laptronica”, “dubstep”, and “Radiohead”. This clearly has contaminated a large portion of the music, most of which manifests itself in the cesspools of Myspace and YouTube.
There have been some last death rattles of the art form that we know and love. Though there weren’t any giant movements such as grunge in the 90’s, we still received some offerings from the aural gods that there may be some hope left.
That being said, a number of these albums are representations of a group of albums that I found relevant, with the one listed standing for the most relevant. No, that’s not how these elitist charades work, but it’s how my list works, so love and accept it, because it’s from your local charmingly jaded music elitist… BlytheRocks!
Here is the first 12 selections of 28 albums I have important opinions on:
28. The Avalanches ‘Since I Left You’
This album still astounds me, purely for the transitions. This is turntabilism like it should be, graceful segues between cult vinyl junkie standbys, and without the safety net of “phat beats” looped. The only other time I’ve heard this style so tactfully executed has been on DJ Z-Trip and DJ P’s ‘Uneasy Listening Vol. 1”. However, with a track titles like “Frontier Psychiatrist” and “Two Hearts in ¾ Time”, how could you omit a mention of the Avalanches? Not me, my friends, not me.
27. Isis ‘Panopticon’
This is a combination of postrock and metal… one of my favorite examples of mixing. The instrumental bits could be an album on their own, but the superb automation of the vocals and heavier parts are stunning. Fun fact: The album cover looks exactly how the music sounds.
26. Death From Above 1979 ‘You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine’/The Icarus Line ‘Penance Soiree”
I debated whether to put The Icarus Line or DFA1979 here, which holds the spot for chaotic but calculated raw rock, and as I write this I am still undecided, so they both
win. They 
are both very solid records for what they stand for… insanely emotional and chaotic phases in one’s life. Both of these albums possess the raw gritty analog feel that is easily pulled off through incomprehensible lyrics and distorted guitar. Fantastic.
25. Modest Mouse ‘The Moon and Antarctica’
So this one took a lot of effort… mostly because of the abomination that was “We Were Dead…”, quite an accomplishment to fuck up a major label record when you have just acquired the coveted Smiths guitarist JOHNNY FUCKING MARR. Really? You’re going to release that? Ugh.
Despite all of my rage at fucking up something that should have been handed to them, and some other built-up agitation at the inebriation level of Brock on two separate performances on two separate tours in two separate cities that I may have attended, yes, despite this and this run on sentence, I will allow Modest Mouse to appear on my top decade list.
‘Moon’ was like a photograph, it was a place in time where this music fit in, and it fit well. I love MM “This Is a Long Drive For Someone With Nothing to Think About”, their first official release and debatably their most raw. I think it is my appreciation for that record that has led me to the fond feeling that this record conjures up in my music elitist soul.. When you take this album as a single entity in space, it works and is moving and raw. So much so, that I have begun consideration of letting the prior grudges slide.
24. The Field ‘From Here We Go Sublime’
Another placeholder I wrestled with, was Stars of the Lid ‘And Their Refinement of the Decline’. Both of these artists represent what I interpret as awesome experimentations with psychoacoustics. It’s almost post rock, but with possibly too much attention to the layering of the horizontal axis us nerds call “frequency”. Brilliant. Intricate. Quaint. I adore this.
23. Beirut ‘Gulag Orkestar’
I feel like this album should be played on a dusty phonograph in a musty loft in Amsterdam. Though released in 2005, it has such a beautiful warm and vintage feel to it, everything from the instrumentation to the processing on his voice. It’s what I always wanted the Decemberists to be, until they sold out to the Colbert Report crowd.
22. New Pornographers ‘Twin Cinema’
I can’t believe I am admitting this to the internet, but I was absolutely floored by this album when I downloaded the leaked version from Oink (RIP). At the time, this felt like the apex of pop music. The album starts out with an adorably anticipated album title track song, of course heavily featuring Neko Case’s vocals right up front with Carl Newman. After that, it’s a bi-polar journey through dark serenades, epic buildups (‘Bleeding Heart Show”), peppered with silly pop music all the way through. So yes people, I do like the New Pornographers, but only up until this album.
21. Cut Copy ‘Bright Like Neon Love’
I don’t care how this sounds, but this album is absolutely adorable electronica pop music. Bright pulses and catchy rhythms, and a little restrained. I think I like this album even more since “In Ghost Colours”, their sophomore album, was released in 2008. While that album is more aggressive with production and song writing, this is a modest look at what was to become, and it makes it better every time I listen to it.
20. Wolf Parade ‘Apologies to the Queen Mary’
This was one of those show-off bands were their EP being the talk of P-fork town… not to mention they had TWO lead singers, both scraggily and Canadian, even before the LP came out they had it made! Luckily they didn’t pull what I like to call a “Bloc Party” (have an awesome EP and then follow up with an embarrassing full length). Despite the fact it was produced by Isaac Brock, it was actually good! Fantastic instrumentation, catchy songs, and a perfect balance between the guy with the good voice and the one I can only stand because the next track has the guy with the good voice. As loyal music nerds will note, these two kids went on to do their own projects…. Sunset Rubdown (crap voice guy) and Handsome Furs (good voice guy). The sad outcome of this branching off is that Sunset Rubdown has some cool music, but I can’t stand every track of that guys voice. Ironically, the Handsome Furs has the guy with the good voice, but the music is intolerable. So I’m just planning on playing dumb that either of these P-fork darlings ever did anything else, and appreciate this one album gem from Wolf Parade.
19. Les Savy Fav ‘Go Forth’
I love this band, just because of the lyrics married with the vocal delivery. It has ample supplies of sass AND swagger that are the catalyst for my endless adoration. It also has really articulate guitar and drum lines that seem to respond to what the lyrics are saying. “Let’s Stay Friends” was also a great album, but with a cleaner sound. The Hold Steady totally wishes they were these guys…. but won’t be, so give up.
18. Vitalic ‘OK Cowboy’
Some may call him the “sophisticated Daft Punk of any music connoisseur worth their weight in pretension”. Wow! Whoever said that certainly IS worth their weight in music pretension! Oh wait, that was the brainchild of me. Damn I’m good.
Regardless, this record still has the edgy French harshness of electronica, but with a format and enough variation that even the people NOT spaced out on [insert any drug preference here] can enjoy! Not to mention a radio-friendly single that should have been, ‘My Friend Dario’, this should have been so much bigger than it was.
17. Andrew Bird ‘Armchair Apochrypha’
Damn you Andrew Bird! Damn you for your gimmicky whistling with your gimmicky indie stage name! And damn you for ever releasing this album! It was too good for me to ignore any longer, and too good for me to not acknowledge its’ existence. I have to admit, I MAY have been guilty of getting you confused with Antony and the Johnsons… but to be fair, you both have that shy if not slightly ambiguous solemn voice, and in your defense you are not nearly as whiney. You got me with your words, your stupid clever words and vast vocabulary. Ok, you win. I bought your album, and have listened to it much more than just a passing whim. Yes, the whole thing. You had me when you asked us to “quantify”… oh and the lush strings. Sigh. Welcome to number 17… jerk.
16. Tool ‘Lateralus’
I don’t even want to hear any “but’s” followed by something that rhymes with… shit… well rhymes with ‘Aenema’ or anything related to ‘Aenema’ the album itself. Lateralus stands on it’s own. It has a cleaner sound overall, while still retaining the complexity that all of us nerds know and love about Tool. If I could pick Lateralus, plus the 2 tracks on ’10,000’ days that weren’t bullshit filler with a random noise generator, I would put that here. Alas, filler tracks are unforgivable, so… sorry. Lateralus it is.
** BlytheRocks #15-1 albums of the decade soon to follow... stay tuned!! **
Posts
