So...time to do a best of the decade albums post. This is hard--hard to choose....and hard to remember. I scratched out some notes. Rankings are next to impossible, but it's easier if I don't take this too seriously, even though granted, this is a very serious matter. My ultimate standard will be to list that which I listened to a lot, which I suppose is a little different than something meaningful. My cousin Paul went out of his way to belittle my opinion on music yesterday at X-mas, so be warned, but then all he listens to is NIN, Jack Johnson, and that Donvan F. guy.
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After my first foray into a list, I looked around, and sure enough, others are out there publishing. Some lists are better than others, and I had a real hard time mining the country music scene, maybe because country music listeners are less concerned about such things, as opposed to the indie/alt/pop scene. Country and hip-hop had a big decade, and sold the most, if Itunes is any place to judge. The country awards shows are tops. But Taylor Swift and Kenny Chesney don't make the list for me, and my respects to the Black Eyed Fleas and the well received Arcade Fire, but no dice here.
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Rolling Stone has a list--I do not like Radiohead, but they do. I have that one disc, and it just does not interest me. Paste Magazine has a really good list though. And I'd never heard of Glide, but their list is great too. Pitchfork is ok, but they're into Radiohead too, and I've totally given up on Pitchfork as a music reference. Country was less list-friendly, but there's Country Universe and No Depression, the latter of which is a little too Wilco crazy. I felt like I was reading a list from Stuff White People Like, but No Depression is a cool site and used to publish a great alt-country magazine.
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So, here's the OFFICIAL Before The Deluge Top 10 Albums of the DECADE:
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10. Mountain Soul by Patty Loveless. Somewhere around the time O Brother Where Art Thou and the whole bluegrass thing went big, this came out, and I listened to it a lot. If you're an Itunes person, I'd suggest You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive--you can feel that good ol' Appalachian destitution with every line. Brad Paisley does a nice version of this too, dedicated to the coal miner community.
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9. Twin Cinema-The New Pornographers. I got on a New P's kick for quite sometime, listening to KEXP for a while, and some friends and I caught them behind the Pyramid Brewery at a Surfrider benefit, and then later at the Nightlight. A bunch of Canadians and Neko. Every track grows on you. Start with The Bleeding Heart Show. Mass Romantic is good too.
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8. Rainy Day Music-The Jayhawks. Another favorite band, and this is pure alt-pop/country delight. Caught them at the Winery at a Costco managers only show. Ridiculous--about 500 people with a private show. Try Angelyne or Save It For A Rainy Day, or any of their older albums too, like Hollywood Town Hall or the album with Blue on it.
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7. Home-Dixie Chicks. Contemporary country radio stations never play the Dixie Chicks anymore, which is way overreacting. The Dixie Chicks got in a fight with Toby Keith, and made a whole movie out of the experience. This album predates all that, and has Travelin' Solider, Landslide and a bunch of others. (I'd favor the Mac on Landslide, and this video is weak.) They made some very smart albums this decade--not just pop-country hits, and I listened to them a lot for a while. I'm also partial to their later album Take The Long Way Home.
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6. Is This It-The Strokes. I might've been persuaded a bit by the critics on this one, but I know this album still sounds fresh as a daisy--this kid was playing it at the cleaners a month ago, and I was like, wow, that's the Strokes.
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5. Brighter Than Creation's Dark-Drive By Truckers. This is one of the coolest bands of the decade. They made a two disc rock opera about Lynyrd Skynyrd. Let There Be Rock is really worth checking out from Southern Rock Opera, or My Sweet Annette from Decoration Day. Creation's Dark is the album I listen to the most by DBT. That Man I Shot blew me away at the Showbox, and Three Dimes Down is another good one.
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4. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-WILCO. Love this album, and it tops a number of other lists too. My memory on this one is listening to it five times straight after taking a wrong turn and getting lost for a few hours on dirt roads in the Flathead Reservation in Montana, coming back from Glacier. The whole album is genius, as far as these things go, but Jesus, Etc. and Pot Kettle Black are the catchy tunes.
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3. Murray Street-Sonic Youth. A lot of attempts were made to address 9/11 through the arts in the ensuing years. 9/11 was such a huge deal for everyone, but it really hit me hard because of my immigraton work and the post-9/11 reports I was daily taking in related to immigrants, hate crimes, and government "busts." Don Delillo wrote a book--Falling Man--I didn't really take to that. Springsteen's The Rising is really good, but it seems a little forced sometimes. Thurston and company make a mournful noise with Murray Street, and yet it sounds great--I played this a lot for a year or two. No one song stands out--it's an album.
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2. The Woods-Sleater-Kinney. This one is a little hard to listen to, but it is an out and out rock record in the vintage of hard 70s punk meets Hendrix. Really tough. Pearl Jam started doing a couple covers from it immediately. Friend Steve and I caught them at the Nightlight before they broke up. Modern Girl is probably the typical one to look for, or the ripping Entertain, but this also is more of an album than just a bunch of Itunes releases. The eleven minute Let's Call It Love sounds like Led Zeppelin with Chrissie Hynde or Susie Sioux singing.
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1. Fox Confessor Brings The Flood-Neko Case.-A true American gothic. Very dark and windy. Reminds me of The Band or Dylan. I listen to it all the time.
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TTFN
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