Albums. OF THE DECADE!
I decided that I would try to list my personal top albums of the decade here on my lil' ol' bloggity blog.
Why do this, you ask? Well, if you know me, then you will know that this is what I like to do.
So first I decided to try to create a short-list. I ended up creating quite a long short-list. In fact there are over 50 albums on it. And to make it more fun I broke it down into three tiers. Tier 1: Albums which are basically indispensible and undeniable Cam classics. Tier 2: Albums that I love sooo much it hurts, and which were important at the time I was super into them, but aren't quite in the same class as Tier 1. Tier 3: Albums from which I have tons of mp3s, and which I love, but don't own.
What are the albums of the decade, in my opinion?
Here is the Shortlist
First Tier:
(2001) The Strokes - Is This It?
(2001) The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
(2004) Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
(2004) Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
(2001) Weezer - Green
(2001) Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
(2001) Evan Dando - Live at the Brattle Theatre
(2002) Ben Kweller - Sha Sha
(2000) The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
(2001) Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
(2001) Tenacious D - Tenacious D
(2001) The Hives - Your New Favourite Band
(2006) Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
(2001) The Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches
(2003) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
(2001-2003) The Fergusons - Hurting the Hitchhiking Sinner (EP Compilation of Hurting The Washing Machine, Never Too Young To Hitchhike, & Sinner Is Red)
(2000) The White Stripes - De Stijl
(2003) Kings Of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
(2003) Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Second Tier:
(2001) The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
(2007) The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
(2003) The Darkness - Permission To Land
(2007) The Wombats - Proudly Present: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
(2008) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
(2002) Queens of The Stoneage - Songs For The Deaf
(2001) Muse - Origins of Symmetry
(2008) Flight Of The Conchords - Flight of The Conchords
(2000) Outkast - Stankonia
(2003) The Strokes - Room On Fire
(2005) The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
(2006) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
(2006) The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
(2006) Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
(2004) The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
(2002) The Vines - Highly Evolved
(2002) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot
(2008) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
(2003) The Thrills - So Much For The City
Albums that should be in the list (cause I love multiple songs from them), but I don't own and so can't, in good conscience, put on the list(i.e. Tier 3):
(2002) Interpol - Turn on The Bright Lights
(2000) At The Drive In - Relationship of Command
(2002) Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story is in The Soil, Keep Your Ear to The Ground
(2005) Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
(2001) Ryan Adams - Gold
(late 1999, does it count? I suppose not) The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
(2002) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(2002) …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead - Source Tags and Codes
(2003) The Postal Service - Give Up
(2004) Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender
Definitely not a bad start. I wonder if there are any that I have forgotten?
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I feel the strange need to associate these albums with numbers.
My Top Ten
It was kinda easy to come up with a short list, but it has been undeniably hard to come up with an order. Especially for the 6-10 positions. So hard to leave anything out.
1. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
I remember listening to this album all the time when I still lived with my parents. I would bring it through and put it on Dad's big stereo in the loungeroom. I would dance. I would sing along. Mum thought that Jack's voice sounded a lot like Paul McCartney. Especially towards the end of the record. A few months before hearing this album I tried to learn the guitar, but basically failed and put it away. Listening to these songs inspired me to try again, and the songs were so easy to play that it gave me great confidence. I have this album to thank for being able to play the guitar, and that is a huge thing. I still enjoy putting this record on, whipping out my old beat up acoustic and playing along.
2. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
This album has been a bit of a fast mover up the charts. I bought at first because I thought that Portions For Foxes was a pretty cool song. Then I listened to it and realised that this whole album is incredible. I think the moment I fell for this album was when I listened to it for the first time, and I heard Jenny Lewis singing "baby I love you, And I'll leave her and I'm coming out to California". It just grabbed me.
3. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
My friend Dave Swensen was basically my spirit animal for a few years in the middle of this decade. He was so wise, like a taller buddha, that wasn't covered in fur. He was awesome because we could talk about anything from philosophy, to how to pick up girls, the suckitude of being a slave to the wage, and music. We would talk about different bands, analyse lyrics, tell each other about songs we were excited to learn on guitar, and try our best to introduce each other to cool new things. We occasionally email now that he lives in Germany, but it isn't the same. This is an album that Dave introduced me to. And it is amazing. I often feel that after listening to it, the language portion of my brain has been stretched, massaged and warmed up, and I can just sit and write for days. Also, the breadth of this album is simply stunning. It contains simple ranting and screaming songs like Dancehall. And deep, complex songs like Blame It On The Tetons. It blows me away. Dave also suceeded where others had failed in convincing me that Augie March had some redeemable value. In fact, he was a little bit like Anneke.
4. The Strokes - Is This It?
I worked in Target for 7.5 years. In that time I mostly worked on checkouts, but it would an amazingly joyful experience when I got to venture out onto the floor, lay-by or (the holy of holies) the soundbar. When I worked the soundbar I would basically always follow the same procedure. Go to the CD player. Remove whatever was in there (100% Hits, Britney Spears, Dido), and replace it with this album. Then I would re-arrange the CD's and try not to make eye contact with the customers while bopping around. I absolutely LOVED this CD. I could NEVER decide which song was my favourite, and it basically helped define the sound of my generation.
5. The Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches
This album is basically crude, vulgar, inventive poetry. It is also incredibly sweet, and I think it wouldn't work if it wasn't so heartfelt. Back in the good old days I used to download music from a cool site called audiogalaxy. I remember the Strokes and The White Stripes got hyped on the forums of that site a lot. I tried them out and liked them, but when the Moldy Peaches got the same treatment I was reticent to listen to another band that had been hyped so much on the internet. I can make my OWN decisions dammit! But then I downloaded Nothing Came Out and it said so many of the things that I wanted to say as an awkward post-teen. "I'm just an ass in the crack of humanity. I'm just a huge manatee. A huge manatee."
6. Evan Dando - Live At The Brattle Theatre
I bought this album at the merch shop at the Perth Concert hall, accompanied by the incomparable Ricky, just before going to the Beck's Verandah to watch Evan Dando perform with Bob Evans and Tim Rogers. It was a great show, but so was the one that was recorded on this CD. It basically cemented my man-crush for Evan Dando. I probably like The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray more, but that didn't come out in this decade. This recording is so great, has some awesome songs - like Down About It - and really showcases Mr Dando's amazing voice.
7. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
I remember reading an article that stated that this album was gonna eventually be remembered as the greatest of the year 2001, and perhaps the most important album of the decade when all is said and done. They said that The Strokes were a flash in the pan. And at the time it seemed quite reasonable. Because this record is that good. I remember seeing these guys at the side stage of the Big Day Out and being blown away by how incredible they were live. The Sweetness is a fantastic driving song (which may have been responsible for a speeding ticket or two in the past). And A Praise Chorus is one of the most romantic and very best songs ever written.
8. Kings Of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
I used to be a fixture at the Rosemount. And so were all of my friends. And so was this album. When the bands finished for the night and we made our way into the beer garden, there was a period of about a year where they always put this album on. We swigged our Hoegaardens and our Carlton Draughts and learned about Trannys and the shooting of your cheating girl and her other man. It was a sexy album, with swagger and energy, even if it was really hard to make out what Caleb was saying.
9. Weezer - Green
I remember thinking that this was the first album I had ever bought that didn't contain a single filler track. It was allllllllll gold. And not just pretty good, but fantastic. I had found something amazing in the crunch of Hashpipe, the catchiness of Photograph and the simplicity of Smile. I remember being at university and telling Ryan that I had bought this amazing album. He was not as excited as me, but was pleased. The other great thing about Green was that it's awesomeness led to my purchase of Blue and Pink. And my world was never the same again.
10. Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
This is the kind of album that you play really loud in your car while singing along loudly, and speeding to the Galleria to catch a charity screening of American Pie 2 that you were invited to by Aidos. It is great to join Mark, Tom and Travis in being funny, dirty, needy, lonely, sad and deliriously boppily happy. It may not be the most 'trendy' album ever, but it is a big slice of fun, and I think that in general that is what the Noughties was for me. A big slice of fun.
I wonder if there are somehow any albums that I have forgotten about. I have spent a lot of time considering this. But feel free to tell me that I am wrong. In fact I might come back and comment on this in three months and tell myself that I am wrong.
So, here is the breakdown of my favourite albums, by year. Currently 0 from 2009, but I am sure that they will make it in eventually, they might just need some time to grow on me.
RED 2000: 4 ~ 8.7%
BLUE 2001: 12 ~ 26.09%
GREEN 2002: 8 ~ 17.39%
YELLOW 2003: 7 ~ 15.22%
MAGENTA 2004: 4 ~ 8.7%
CYAN 2005: 2 ~ 4.35%
ORANGE 2006: 4 ~ 8.7%
BROWN 2007: 2 ~ 4.35%
PURPLE 2008: 3 ~ 6.52%
Why do this, you ask? Well, if you know me, then you will know that this is what I like to do.
So first I decided to try to create a short-list. I ended up creating quite a long short-list. In fact there are over 50 albums on it. And to make it more fun I broke it down into three tiers. Tier 1: Albums which are basically indispensible and undeniable Cam classics. Tier 2: Albums that I love sooo much it hurts, and which were important at the time I was super into them, but aren't quite in the same class as Tier 1. Tier 3: Albums from which I have tons of mp3s, and which I love, but don't own.
What are the albums of the decade, in my opinion?
Here is the Shortlist
First Tier:
(2001) The Strokes - Is This It?
(2001) The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
(2004) Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
(2004) Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
(2001) Weezer - Green
(2001) Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
(2001) Evan Dando - Live at the Brattle Theatre
(2002) Ben Kweller - Sha Sha
(2000) The Dandy Warhols - Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
(2001) Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
(2001) Tenacious D - Tenacious D
(2001) The Hives - Your New Favourite Band
(2006) Jenny Lewis and The Watson Twins - Rabbit Fur Coat
(2001) The Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches
(2003) Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism
(2001-2003) The Fergusons - Hurting the Hitchhiking Sinner (EP Compilation of Hurting The Washing Machine, Never Too Young To Hitchhike, & Sinner Is Red)
(2000) The White Stripes - De Stijl
(2003) Kings Of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
(2003) Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
Second Tier:
(2001) The Shins - Oh, Inverted World
(2007) The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
(2003) The Darkness - Permission To Land
(2007) The Wombats - Proudly Present: A Guide To Love, Loss & Desperation
(2008) Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
(2002) Queens of The Stoneage - Songs For The Deaf
(2001) Muse - Origins of Symmetry
(2008) Flight Of The Conchords - Flight of The Conchords
(2000) Outkast - Stankonia
(2003) The Strokes - Room On Fire
(2005) The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree
(2006) Belle and Sebastian - The Life Pursuit
(2006) The Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
(2006) Regina Spektor - Begin To Hope
(2004) The Black Keys - Rubber Factory
(2002) The Vines - Highly Evolved
(2002) The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robot
(2008) MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
(2003) The Thrills - So Much For The City
Albums that should be in the list (cause I love multiple songs from them), but I don't own and so can't, in good conscience, put on the list(i.e. Tier 3):
(2002) Interpol - Turn on The Bright Lights
(2000) At The Drive In - Relationship of Command
(2002) Bright Eyes - Lifted or The Story is in The Soil, Keep Your Ear to The Ground
(2005) Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
(2001) Ryan Adams - Gold
(late 1999, does it count? I suppose not) The Get Up Kids - Something to Write Home About
(2002) Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
(2002) …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead - Source Tags and Codes
(2003) The Postal Service - Give Up
(2004) Joanna Newsom - The Milk Eyed Mender
Definitely not a bad start. I wonder if there are any that I have forgotten?
Now that we have gotten that out of the way, I feel the strange need to associate these albums with numbers.
My Top Ten
It was kinda easy to come up with a short list, but it has been undeniably hard to come up with an order. Especially for the 6-10 positions. So hard to leave anything out.
1. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
I remember listening to this album all the time when I still lived with my parents. I would bring it through and put it on Dad's big stereo in the loungeroom. I would dance. I would sing along. Mum thought that Jack's voice sounded a lot like Paul McCartney. Especially towards the end of the record. A few months before hearing this album I tried to learn the guitar, but basically failed and put it away. Listening to these songs inspired me to try again, and the songs were so easy to play that it gave me great confidence. I have this album to thank for being able to play the guitar, and that is a huge thing. I still enjoy putting this record on, whipping out my old beat up acoustic and playing along.
2. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
This album has been a bit of a fast mover up the charts. I bought at first because I thought that Portions For Foxes was a pretty cool song. Then I listened to it and realised that this whole album is incredible. I think the moment I fell for this album was when I listened to it for the first time, and I heard Jenny Lewis singing "baby I love you, And I'll leave her and I'm coming out to California". It just grabbed me.
3. Modest Mouse - Good News For People Who Love Bad News
My friend Dave Swensen was basically my spirit animal for a few years in the middle of this decade. He was so wise, like a taller buddha, that wasn't covered in fur. He was awesome because we could talk about anything from philosophy, to how to pick up girls, the suckitude of being a slave to the wage, and music. We would talk about different bands, analyse lyrics, tell each other about songs we were excited to learn on guitar, and try our best to introduce each other to cool new things. We occasionally email now that he lives in Germany, but it isn't the same. This is an album that Dave introduced me to. And it is amazing. I often feel that after listening to it, the language portion of my brain has been stretched, massaged and warmed up, and I can just sit and write for days. Also, the breadth of this album is simply stunning. It contains simple ranting and screaming songs like Dancehall. And deep, complex songs like Blame It On The Tetons. It blows me away. Dave also suceeded where others had failed in convincing me that Augie March had some redeemable value. In fact, he was a little bit like Anneke.
4. The Strokes - Is This It?
I worked in Target for 7.5 years. In that time I mostly worked on checkouts, but it would an amazingly joyful experience when I got to venture out onto the floor, lay-by or (the holy of holies) the soundbar. When I worked the soundbar I would basically always follow the same procedure. Go to the CD player. Remove whatever was in there (100% Hits, Britney Spears, Dido), and replace it with this album. Then I would re-arrange the CD's and try not to make eye contact with the customers while bopping around. I absolutely LOVED this CD. I could NEVER decide which song was my favourite, and it basically helped define the sound of my generation.
5. The Moldy Peaches - The Moldy Peaches
This album is basically crude, vulgar, inventive poetry. It is also incredibly sweet, and I think it wouldn't work if it wasn't so heartfelt. Back in the good old days I used to download music from a cool site called audiogalaxy. I remember the Strokes and The White Stripes got hyped on the forums of that site a lot. I tried them out and liked them, but when the Moldy Peaches got the same treatment I was reticent to listen to another band that had been hyped so much on the internet. I can make my OWN decisions dammit! But then I downloaded Nothing Came Out and it said so many of the things that I wanted to say as an awkward post-teen. "I'm just an ass in the crack of humanity. I'm just a huge manatee. A huge manatee."
6. Evan Dando - Live At The Brattle Theatre
I bought this album at the merch shop at the Perth Concert hall, accompanied by the incomparable Ricky, just before going to the Beck's Verandah to watch Evan Dando perform with Bob Evans and Tim Rogers. It was a great show, but so was the one that was recorded on this CD. It basically cemented my man-crush for Evan Dando. I probably like The Lemonheads - It's a Shame About Ray more, but that didn't come out in this decade. This recording is so great, has some awesome songs - like Down About It - and really showcases Mr Dando's amazing voice.
7. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
I remember reading an article that stated that this album was gonna eventually be remembered as the greatest of the year 2001, and perhaps the most important album of the decade when all is said and done. They said that The Strokes were a flash in the pan. And at the time it seemed quite reasonable. Because this record is that good. I remember seeing these guys at the side stage of the Big Day Out and being blown away by how incredible they were live. The Sweetness is a fantastic driving song (which may have been responsible for a speeding ticket or two in the past). And A Praise Chorus is one of the most romantic and very best songs ever written.
8. Kings Of Leon - Youth and Young Manhood
I used to be a fixture at the Rosemount. And so were all of my friends. And so was this album. When the bands finished for the night and we made our way into the beer garden, there was a period of about a year where they always put this album on. We swigged our Hoegaardens and our Carlton Draughts and learned about Trannys and the shooting of your cheating girl and her other man. It was a sexy album, with swagger and energy, even if it was really hard to make out what Caleb was saying.
9. Weezer - Green
I remember thinking that this was the first album I had ever bought that didn't contain a single filler track. It was allllllllll gold. And not just pretty good, but fantastic. I had found something amazing in the crunch of Hashpipe, the catchiness of Photograph and the simplicity of Smile. I remember being at university and telling Ryan that I had bought this amazing album. He was not as excited as me, but was pleased. The other great thing about Green was that it's awesomeness led to my purchase of Blue and Pink. And my world was never the same again.
10. Blink 182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
This is the kind of album that you play really loud in your car while singing along loudly, and speeding to the Galleria to catch a charity screening of American Pie 2 that you were invited to by Aidos. It is great to join Mark, Tom and Travis in being funny, dirty, needy, lonely, sad and deliriously boppily happy. It may not be the most 'trendy' album ever, but it is a big slice of fun, and I think that in general that is what the Noughties was for me. A big slice of fun.
I wonder if there are somehow any albums that I have forgotten about. I have spent a lot of time considering this. But feel free to tell me that I am wrong. In fact I might come back and comment on this in three months and tell myself that I am wrong.
So, here is the breakdown of my favourite albums, by year. Currently 0 from 2009, but I am sure that they will make it in eventually, they might just need some time to grow on me.
RED 2000: 4 ~ 8.7%
BLUE 2001: 12 ~ 26.09%
GREEN 2002: 8 ~ 17.39%
YELLOW 2003: 7 ~ 15.22%
MAGENTA 2004: 4 ~ 8.7%
CYAN 2005: 2 ~ 4.35%
ORANGE 2006: 4 ~ 8.7%
BROWN 2007: 2 ~ 4.35%
PURPLE 2008: 3 ~ 6.52%