Dec30 |
 |
My Top 10 albums of the decadeI know. I’m not a music blogger. And I’m not as cool as Goldberg. Sue me. I listen to music. This is the stuff I liked the best. In no particular order… • Gogol Bordello, Underdog World Strike. These guys put on one of the best live shows you’ll ever see… • Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, 100 Days, 100 Nights. …unless you see Sharon Jones, a fiftysomething woman, jump and slink her way across a stage. Amy Winehouse can go to hell. • Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I can’t remember why this record seemed so weird to the record companies. Maybe it’s not easily genre-classifiable, but it’s good music. And unintentionally resonant in the aftermath of 9/11. • Sufjan Stevens, Illinois. Perfect. I’m not a Christian, but the song “John Wayne Gacy Jr.” comes as close as any sermon or piece of art ever has to making me reconsider. • Deep Thinkers, Necks Move. (KC rappers, friends of friends, and a ton of fun to listen to.) • Radiohead Kid A/Amnesiac. (I realize that this isn’t technically a double album, and that they were released some months apart. But conceptually and sonically they fit together. They even have one song – “Morning Bell” – in common.) • White Stripes, Elephant. Much as I love Radiohead, Jack White is probably the rock n’ roll artist of the decade. • The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. The Lips toured on this album by opening for Beck on his Sea Change tour. Totally blew him off the stage, revealing him (too me, at least) as the poncey too-precious music curator/archivist he is. • Neko Case, Blacklisted. She’s gone on to bigger venues and album sales since this disc, but the first time I saw Neko Case was in a small packed Kansas club when she had two backup musicians: An upright bass player and steel guitarist Jon Rauhouse, one of the best players ever. I’d never heard her music before that night – a friend dragged me along – but somehow we got pushed to the front where I could see the roof of her mouth as she reared back her head and belted “Deep Red Bells.” What is this album? Americana? Alt country? It sounds like something you’d find in a David Lynch film trying to convey the skewed “normalcy” of rural American life. And it’s amazing. • Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Fever To Tell. Short, punky and soulful. I can’t not listen to Karen O when she sings. I know, I know. Embarrassingly caucasian. There ought to be some Outkast or Jay-Z or Lil Wayne on here, right? Probably. But this is the stuff I loved and returned to, again and again. It’s the stuff I like so much, in fact, that I’m almost afraid to play it too much — afraid that I’ll accidentally ruin a transcendent experience for myself if I bleed it out of the CD or iPod too quickly. Crazy, I know. But that’s what good music does to you. |
|
|
PhillyNow | PW Style | Make Major Moves | The Trouble with Spikol
A few points:
1. Am I the only person on the planet that likes indie music but loathes Radiohead? Someone tell Thom Yorke that men crying went out when Tom Hanks stopped making rom-coms.
2. I liked Wilco and even Sufjan, but everybody picks those.
3. I think you picked the wrong Jack White album. The Raconteurs’ Broken Boy Soldiers is the best pure rock album of the decade.
4. Arcade Fire? Doesn’t help with the Caucasian thing, but thought I’d mention it.
You had to go and post about music — haven’t you learned anything from blogging? Remember the Buzz 96.5 series (which I couldn’t find)?
Anyway, this is all just one man’s opinion. I’m sure your new usual crowd will be along with their own (wrong) opinions shortly.
1. Am I the only person on the planet that likes indie music but loathes Radiohead? Someone tell Thom Yorke that men crying went out when Tom Hanks stopped making rom-coms.
Probably not. I personally love them though.
I bet you could beat up Thom Yorke, right?
Great list overall though. Some Animal Collective would’ve been nice though.
JD: You might’ve noticed that a few of my old regulars are also my new regulars. So stick around and tell me why *I’m* wrong about stuff.
Anyway: Amused that you roll your eyes at Wilco and Sufjan, but then push Arcade Fire. Everybody has “Funeral” on their list, from what I can tell. And deservedly so. It almost made my cut. But my list is weighted, as you can probably tell, toward bands I also got to see live during the last decade. (I missed White Stripes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs on this list.) That probably accounts for the disparity.
As for Jack White: the Raconteurs album has some really great moments. It also has some really boring moments. He did his most compelling work with the White Stripes, I think.
And you’re wrong about Radiohead.
Actually, he’s right about Radiohead. (Wrap you head around that, JD.)
Also: The Strokes’ Is This It?. This song was suppose to be on it in the U.S.; was pulled for obvious reasons. Don’t know how many people have heard it.