Best Albums of the 00s?

[Dr. Drum]

Here’s a 100-odd, in alphabetical order, that I’d pick as the best of the decade so far.:

54.40 – Goodbye Flatland
American Music Club – Love Songs for Patriots
Tori Amos – Scarlet’s Walk
Laurie Anderson – Life On a String
The Arcade Fire – Funeral
Bjork – Medulla
Black Box Recorder – the Facts of Life
Luka Bloom – Keeper of the Flame
British Sea Power – The Decline of British Sea Power
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People
Buck 65 – Talkin’ Honky Blues
David Byrne – Look Into the Eyeball
John Cale – Hobosapiens (The 5 Tracks EP is great, too.)
Neko Case – Furnace Room Lullaby
Neko Case – Canadian Amp
Neko Case – Blacklisted
Johnny Cash – American IV
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
C’mon – Midnight Is the Answer
Bruce Cockburn – You’ve Never Seen Everything
Leonard Cohen – Dear Heather
Holly Cole – Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Lloyd Cole – The Negatives
Elvis Costello and the Imposters – The Delivery Man
Death From Above 1979 – You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
The Delgados – Hate
The Dirty Three – She Has No Strings Apollo
Gord Downie – Coke Machine Glow
Steve Earle – Jerusalem
Kathleen Edwards – Failer
Eels – Daisies of the Galaxy
Bryan Ferry – Frantic
The Finn Bros. – Everyone is Here
Neil Finn and Friends – 7 Worlds Collide: Live at the St. James
Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs
Peter Gabriel – Up
Bob Geldof – Sex, Age and Death
Nina Gordon – Tonight and the Rest of My Life
Green Day – American Idiot
Patty Griffin – Silver Bell
Emm Gryner – Girl Versions
Sarah Harmer – You Were Here
P.J. Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Juliana Hatfield – Beautiful Creature
Hot Hot Heat – Makeup the Breakdown
Idlewild – The Remote Part
Interpol – Turn Out the Bright Lights
Joe Jackson – Night and Day II
James – Pleased to Meet You
Jane’s Addiction – Strays
Rickie Lee Jones – The Evening of My Best Day
King Crimson – The Power to Believe
Annie Lennox – Bare
Low – Things We Lost in the Fire
Low – The Great Destroyer
Aimee Mann – Bachelor No. 2
Carolyn Mark and the Room-Mates – Terrible Hostess
Maria McKee – High Dive
The Mekons – Journey to the End of Night
The Mekons – OOOH (Out of Our Heads)
Natalie Merchant – Motherland
Metric – Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Joni Mitchell – The Beginning of Survival
Muse – the Origin of Symmetry
Muse – Absolution
New Order – Get Ready
New Pornographers – Mass Romantic
Pedro the Lion – Control
Grant-Lee Philips – Mobilize
Grant-Lee Philips – Virginia Creeper
Ford Pier – Pier-ic Victory
Joel Plaskett – Down At the Khyber
The Pleased – Don’t Make Things
Pretenders – Loose Screw
Primal Scream – XTRMNTR
Pulp – We Love Life
Radiohead – Kid A
Radiohead – Hail to the Thief
Razorlight – Up All Night
The Reputation
The Rheostatics – 2067
Rush – Vapor Trails
The Russian Futurists – The Method of Modern Love
Ron Sexsmith – Blue Boy
Sleater-Kinney – All Hands On the Bad One
Sleater-Kinney – One Beat
Sloan – Action Pact
Patti Smith – Trampin’
Stars – Set Yourself On Fire
The Strokes – Is This It?
The The – NakedSelf
Martin Tielli – Operation Infinite Joy
Tragically Hip – In Violet Light
Trans Am – Liberation
The Waterboys – A Rock in the Weary Land
The Weakerthans – Left and Leaving
The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site
Dar Williams – The Green World
Lucinda Williams – Essence
Hawksley Workman – (Last Night We Were) The Delicious Wolves
Hawksley Workman – Lover/Fighter
Robert Wyatt – Cuckooland
XTC – Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol. 2)
Warren Zevon – The Wind

[Kensterberg]

Great picks Drum. Look Into the Eyeball and Bare were both on my "longer" list as well, but I was in danger of simply listing every album I'd bought in this decade, which I thought would be bad form.

I have got to pick up both The Delivery Man and You've Never Seen Everything ... have a feeling that they'll both make my cut as well.

Hey Drum, how about telling us at least which ones comprise your top ten?

[Mary]

All right I'm attempting a top 10 - but this really reflects my current musical mood, which is pretty weird....

1) Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
2) Diamanda Galas - La Serpenta Canta
3) Neko Case - Blacklisted
4) Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues
5) Neurosis and Jarboe - Neurosis and Jarboe
6) Sleater-Kinney - One Beat
7) Black Heart Procession - Amore del Tropico
8) Interpol - Antics
9) Fugazi - The Argument
10) The Dirty Three - She Has No Strings Apollo

I can't even believe how much I've fallen in love with GYBE! though - that album has become the soundtrack to my dissertation.

Cheers,
M

[Dr. Drum]

This will inevitably reflect my current musical mood to a degree too, but here’s a rough go at a top 10, Ken.

1. Low – Things We Lost in the Fire
2. The Weakerthans – Reconstruction Site
3. The Arcade Fire – Funeral
4. Emm Gryner – Girl Versions
5. Tori Amos – Scarlet's Walk
6. Nick Cave – Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
7. Black Box Recorder – The Facts of Life
8. Stars – Set Yourself On Fire
9. Patty Griffin – Silver Bell
10. Martin Tielli – Operation Infinite Joy

That's a bit like the 100m dash – not a whole lot separating first place from tenth!

One addition to my list from yesterday – 2000's Hasta La Vista, Baby. A live album and a bit of a toss off as a record, perhaps, in that it merely documents a pay-per-view TV special but the one U2 record of the 00s that I do keep going back to...

BTW, need that Godspeed album. Also need to check out Diamanda Galas a bit more. Plague Mass is undeniably powerful but it's such a monument - a little does for a long time. Are all her records like that, Mary?

[Mary]

Dr. said:

BTW, need that Godspeed album. Also need to check out Diamanda Galas a bit more. Plague Mass is undeniably powerful but it's such a monument - a little does for a long time. Are all her records like that, Mary?

No, not at all - I agree, Plague Mass is not something you just pop in the stereo on a regular basis and listen to while you're, like, cleaning up the house. It's a fucking task to listen that album, you almost have to prepare yourself emotionally.

Now, of course, Diamanda is never gonna release anything that won't be a "niche" album, to say the least. But there is one album I can recommend to almost anyone here with mildly adventurous tastes - and that's Malediction and Prayer (from 1998, I believe). It's all live, and it's a collection of covers of old blues tunes, spirituals, traditionals, stuff like that. She tones down the histrionics considerably, if not completely (The Thrill is Gone is really the only place on the entire album where you get the trademark Diamanda glass-shattering demonic wail that's all over Plague Mass) and instead lends her insanely powerful voice to drama and melody. Apparently her interpretations of these songs was heavily inspired by her listening obsessively to tango at the time, so that gives you some sense of what it sounds like. It also reminds me a lot of Nina Simone.

At times it's beautiful - she occasionally sings in this high, fragile, broken-sounding soprano that is almost angelic, completely not what one expects from Diamanda, and totally heartbreaking. Her version of My World is Empty Without You will simply slay anyone who has ever gotten their heart broken. The only downside to this brilliant album is that the version of Gloomy Sunday is markedly inferior (but still amazing) to the version on The Singer, which has to be the definitive interpretation of that song, and Diamanda's finest moment to boot. But that's ok, overall, Malediction and Prayer is great - and totally listenable - from beginning to end, which makes it pretty unique in Diamanda's catalog. It's essential. Buy it NOW.

Cheers,
M

[Dr. Drum]

Thx Mary, will keep an eye (ear?) out for it.

[ScottsyII]

I'm revisiting Source Tags and Codes by ...And You Shall Know Us The Trail of Dead, darn fine album, and worthy of a mention in any list of good albums of the 00's I dare say! First three tracks on this are a killer punch I say!

[pattentank24]

As a longtime Trail of the Dead Fan Scottsy
I disagree and think's it's the end that makes such a statement

"Days of Running Wild"
"Relative Ways"
Instrumental
"Source Tags and Codes"

But yes it's clearly one of the best of the decade so far
#38 on my 100 list

[maarts]

I'd dare say you agreed to Scottsy's point that it was a 'd worthy of a mention in any list of good albums of the 00's', patten ....

[PC]

Mary said:

4) Nick Cave - Abattoir Blues

What, you didn't like The Lyre of Orpheus as much? I know it was the "quieter" album, but from what I've heard that double album was supposed to be his best in years.

[ScottsyII]

No disagreement there Patten, the ending of the album is as stellar as the beginning, in fact it's strongest moments are pushed towards the beginning and the ending... it's one hell of a solid album all through really. Definitely worthy of a good mention!

[pissin2]

Bouncing Souls - Anchors Aweigh

[Thorngrub]

[glow=green,2,300]I can't even believe how much I've fallen in love with GYBE! though - that album has become the soundtrack to my dissertation.

[/glow]

Mary, you should look into acquiring EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY. Either album. Both.

[Thorngrub]

But I will say this much - - EITS can't touch "Raise yer skinny fists like antennaes to heaven", that's for sure. I got that on vinyl, and it is quite obviously the crown jewel in my post-rock vinyl collection.