I heart the 00s
I’ve decided to make a challenging playlist this time. Since we are nearing the end of the decade I’ve compile a list of the top ten best albums of the 00s.
As an added challenge I have done the minimal amount of research for this list and just going off from my memory. I’m doing this because anyone can just look up the charts and album release dates of the last ten years and write some commentary on it. In fact, I’m sure plenty of people already are so what would be the point in adding another one? Does anyone wanna read some made up bullshit for the millionth time about how 9-11 changed the direction of music?
Another reason for doing this is that it’s more organic and hopefully I’ll be providing a less clinical more personal, ground-level perspective on the decade. Now what makes this even more difficult is the fact that I spent the last ten years doing a hell of a lot of drugs and alcohol. The memories of the decade are pretty fuzzy for me. To be honest I actually remember very little of the 00s which means there will probably be a lot of factual errors on this list.
Edit: This turned out to be waaay wordier than I expected. So in addition to the one song posted with every entry I’m including bonus songs to try to compensate for the insane rambling.
So uh, with that, let’s attempt this musical retrospective of the decade with no name.
10. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
To analyze what the 00s meant to music we have to look at the state it was in at the beginning and compare it to the music scene at the end. So where were we in 1999 in terms of music? Well I remember the media was all about the so-called “Latin Explosion” which was comprised of a small handful of entertainers: Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. To me, it seemed kinda racist to group all these people together based on their race because being latin wasn’t really a defining characteristic of their works. It should have been called the “Moronic Asshole Explosion.”
Also, at this time, blatantly manufactured pop acts like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys pretty much dominated every thing musical. They weren’t even trying to be subtle about the fact that these were products. For some reason, it wasn’t embarrassing to listen to, or be in a boy band. Over-produced saccharine music was everywhere. I’m not kidding. There was so much teen pop on the scene there wasn’t room for anything else. All you could ever hear was either Britney Spears or a clone of Britney Spears. It was like science fiction.
Hold Yr Terror Close - The Go! Team
Bonus:
Huddle Formation (RJD2 Mix) - The Go! Team
Gimme More - Team9 (Britney Spears vs Daft Punk vs Dead or Alive)
9. The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s - Fever to Tell
So the 90’s music scene ended, forced and uninspired. And for some reason, that allowed a resurgence of old-fashioned guitar rock back on the airwaves. After years of hearing nothing but nauseating rap and brain-stabbing pop suddenly, rock n roll was in style again. To compliment their music, these bands would take on similarly old-fashioned names. Each band name would be a pluralized word preceded by a “The.”
I actually really liked this trend in music because I like rock. I bought all the albums: Is This It? by The Strokes, White Blood Cells by The White Stripes, that cd with the necklace on the cover by The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. It was just refreshing to me to listen to well made stripped down basic Rock n Roll again. I had thought the genre was dead by then. To represent this musical movement I’ve selected what I believe to be the best album that resulted from it even though the album was released after the trend was over.
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bonus:
Y Control (Faint Remix) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Since U Been Rich - Aggro (Kelly Clarkson vs YYYs)
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I don’t listen to Radiohead. I don’t own any albums of theirs. I think they are a great band and I like all the songs they make. I don’t really have any reason for not listening to them. I just don’t. I guess I feel like everyone else has it covered so I don’t really need to. I have never even heard this album. I’m including it because, to me, it represents a signifigant development in music production that really came to a head in the 00s.
It’s impossible to examine music during that decade and not acknowlege the effect digital distribution and piracy has had on the industry. In Rainbows was released online for free with a series of suggested donations from those who downloaded it. Though this may not have been the first release to adopt this strategy, it was the first one to make headlines. To me, this represented a sort of exasperated tossing up of the hands by the music industry. As if to say “Fine, we know you’re all just gonna download it anyway. Here. We give in.” By then, everyone on all sides of the music piracy wars had been battle-weathered. There were casualties all around: Metallica, Kazaa, The Warehouse. The question “When was the last time you bought a CD?” became fairly common and harder to answer. People weren’t buying music anymore. There was nothing anyone could do about it. Downloading music for free is too much of an overwhelming force for anyone to combat effectively. It’s going to be very interresting to watch the course of music distribution over the next decade.
BTW so how bout it? When was the last time you bought a cd? I just recently purchased the Bob Dylan Christmas album myself.
I don’t have any songs from this album so only bonus songs:
Creep (as Tom Waits) - Jon Brion
Five Step (Overdub Bootleg) - Radiohead vs Dave Brubeck
Karma In The Life - Radiohead vs The Beatles
7. Rhymefest - Man in the Mirror
Ok so what was the state of Hip Hop during the 00s? I admit this is one of the areas my brain struggles through my hazy memories of what was being played at the time. What was happening in rap during the decade? I’m not entirely sure. I remember Eminem had released his second album in which he rapped about how much it sucks to be rich and famous and how he hated everyone who bought his previous album. There was that Outkast album that was insanely popular but if I recall correctly only about half of it really contained any rap. Battle Rap band The Black Eyed Peas gave up on their genre, hired a meth addicted former Disney channel star and started making annoying pop songs. Aparently Kanye West used to rap before he started singing songs like Stephen Hawking. What else happened?
Here’s what a I do remember about hip hop from that time. Rap didn’t seem to be the gigantic monolithic personality it was in the 90’s. The street-level gangsta persona was fading as the genre became more mainstream. Rap fragmented and evolved. It developed in to be a much more complex art than it was given credit before. This gave rise to a term that makes me wince when I hear it: Cerebral Rap. This type of hip hop is supposed to be distinct in that the lyrical content is more clever and the songs have a different theme than the usual “I’m so great and better than everyone else” that you normally hear in the majority of rap songs. I don’t really like that label although I do enjoy most of the acts that it’s attributed to. It’s sorta like the term “College Rock.”
So I include this album as a kind of a biased pick. If you ever seen any of my previous playlists you know that this is one of my favorite albums of all time. But my justification for choosing it is due to the fact that every song on it is built from Michael Jackson samples and this was, after all, the decade that he died. I suppose it could fall under the vaguely racist catagory of “Cerebral Rap” like many other great rap artists of the decade. Busdriver, Blackalicious, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Scroobious Pip, Example, Serengeti, Just Jack, Ludacris, The Coup, MC Chris, Aesop Rock, MF DOOM and Wale are some recommendations I can think of right now. Also I think Tupac made some new albums during the decade.
Man In The Mirror - Rhymefest ft Michael Jackson
Bonus:
Foolin’ Around - Rhymefest ft Dres
Build Me Up - Rhymefest (Feat. O.D.B.)
6. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
OK OK just give me a minute and I can explain why this is on the list. Just hear me out... um... .... OK I HAVE NO REASONING FOR THIS OTHER THAN JT IS FUCKIN AWESOME! HE CAN SING AND DANCE AND HE IS MAGIC!! FUCK ALL Y’ALL HATERZ!!!!
Sexyback (tylerfedchukmix) - JustinTimberlake VS Metronomy
Bonus:
Thundersexy - ToToM (Justin Timberlake vs AC/DC)
Don’t You Love The Closet - King of Pants (Justin Timberlake Vs. Michael Jackson)
5. Gorillaz - Gorillaz
This was the first Gorillaz album. It’s definitely 10/10 from beginning to end. This album is phenomenal but of course, a lot of great albums came out in the 00s. Why is this on the list? Here’s my explanation: Gorillaz are a two-dimentional concept band. They are cartoons. They are designed and drawn by a comic book artist. Their real-life alter-egos are musicians from bands that tend to not appeal to the top 20 crowd (Talking Heads, Cibo Matto, Blur). Basically, in my opinion, Gorillaz are nerdy.
One of the social trends we saw in the 00s, I think, was the rise of the nerd. Things that had previously been considered to be dorky were now becoming accepted mainstream. Art was reflecting this new attitude. We saw a barrage of super-hero movies and the immensely successful Lord of the Rings saga in the theaters, for instance. Fashion as well followed. It wasn’t uncommon to see cute girls wearing shirts that said “I heart nerds” or other clever little dorky things that were found on the internet. And that example speaks to the reason for this trend which, I identify as the expansion of personal technology. Computers and the internet were more available to all classes and all levels of social status. Having your own web page wasn’t just for super genius shut ins. Everyone had one because Myspace made it easy. Tech gadgets like cell phones that took pictures were no longer exclusive to spies and robots. The cool kids had gotten a hold of the toys. It was as if all the cheerleaders started wearing calculator watches.
My point is that I don’t think a band like Gorillaz would have survived in the 90s. Or at least they wouldn’t have had any top 10 songs. Cartoons weren’t cool back then. The Simpsons pretty much had a monopoly on mainstream accepted animation for almost the entirety of the 90s. Toward the end Spongebob and Family Guy started out but didn’t take hold until the 00’s. Now it’s totally acceptable to like Adult Swim shows and anime. Gorillaz made a couple of innovative albums that became very popular and in turn, yielded massive airplay. They headlined insanely successful tours and somehow played on live TV with Madonna. Very impressive for imaginary intangible creatures. I could have easily put this album in the number one spot on this list.
Ghoast Train - Gorillaz
Bonus:
Never Feel Good - Party Ben (Gorillaz vs Cake)
Feel Good Roboto - Victor Menegaux (Gorillaz vs Styx)
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley is a duo consisting of DJ Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. I’m not going to explain how this album was culturally and historically significant. Or how it was unique to the 00s. The fact of the matter is that this album is one of the greatest albums of all time. It is brilliant. Every song is a genre in itself. Outside of a Bob Dylan song, “Crazy” has some of the most insightful lyrics I’ve ever heard from a song on the radio, let alone a chart topper. “The Last Time” is the type of groove you imagine would accompany the cracking open of a fire hydrant on a hot urban summer day. “Smiley Faces” sounds like it could have been plucked from the Motown catalog 40 years ago. Some of the songs are completely hilarious or strange. “Transformer” might just actually be about a robot. But a lot of the songs are very dark and deal with themes of madness, alienation, depression, suicide and even necrophilia. With such a wide range of sound and so much depth this album really defines what a “desert island” album should be.
The Last Time - Gnarls Barkley
Bonus:
Crazy Logic - Arty Fufkin (Gnarls Barkley vs Supertramp)
Crazy - Cat Power
3. The Grey Album - DJ Danger Mouse
I realize that, with this, I’ve just listed 3 musical pies in a row that Danger Mouse had his fingers in. But I had to include this on the list for what it represents. The Grey Album consists of the vocal tracks from Jay-Z’s Black Album set against samples created entirely from The Beatle’s White Album. I believe this album to be important because it really expanded on the concept of the remix and brought it to the mainstream. Up until then, most remixes were pretty pointless (that’s still true today). A remix was essentially a song mildly edited and mixed with dull generic house samples. This album was really creative in the way the Beatles tracks were mixed so that each song had it’s own distinct personality instead of just becoming some indistinguishable cookie-cutter “Beatles Techno” track.
This album elevated the standard for the remix sub-genre: the mashup. As I’ve said many times before, mash-ups are my favorite type of song. At the same time, it’s probably the most hated form of music. I like the concept of harvesting the organs of dead music and using science to reconstruct them in to some twisted frankenstein monster song. If I recall correctly, Jay-Z released his album’s master tracks seperately for the specific purpose of being remixed. I probably got that wrong though. If I could, I would have included Jay-Z’s Black Album on it’s own. I remember when it came out I wasn’t impressed with the songs at all. It’s only been in the last year or so that I really appreciate how clever the lyrics are. He’s really good at making rhymes too. A while ago I started listening to The Pink Album which is Jay-Z’s Black Album mashed with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Listening to that album really made me focus more to Jay-Z’s words since I was already very familiar with the backing music. And that brings me to the next album:
Encore - DJ Danger Mouse
Bonus:
Little Girl (feat. Julian Casablancas) - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
Interlude - Cory Johnson (Jay-Z vs The Flaming Lips)
2. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
What can I say about this album? Everyone is familiar with it. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The more you think about this album the more your mind gets blown. How did an obscure concept album about a samurai girl fighting robots in the future become our generation’s Dark Side of the Moon? What? I think this album belongs on here because I’m very impressed with what it’s accomplished. It’s remarkable that such a bizarre work of art has reached so many people. It’s really hard to not be entertained by the story told throughout the album. It’s also easy to be charmed by the story’s heroine, Yoshimi who is trying her best to train herself and fight off all the evil robots.
Before you know it, though, things start to get weird. You think you’re listening to a sci-fi tale of “man vs machine” and then all the sudden you’re hit with the sound of church bells that lead in to a beautiful and bittersweet ballad asking “Do you realize that everyone you know, some day, will die?” My god, what have I gotten myself in to? Not to mention that the actual battle song has such loud, ugly, jarring sounds that you feel as if your ears are assaulted. By the time it’s over you feel like you’ve been fighting right alongside Yoshimi. This album manages to be %100 effective while being %100 enjoyable. The decade would have been much harder to live through if this album had never been made.
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 (Japanese Bonus Track) - The Flaming Lips
Bonus:
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 - The Section String Quartet
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - The Flaming Lips
1. Discovery - Daft Punk
I gotta admit I have a lot of reservations about placing this album at #1 for this list. An electronic dance album was the best musical masterpiece of the decade? Isn’t this like saying the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the best album of the 70s? Trite and superficial much? (BTW switch around the word “Discovery” and you get “Very Disco”) I went back and forth on this and I ultimately felt it deserves to be at this place on the list. The truth is that this album not only had an unmistakable impact on the decade but was an unquantifiable contribution to music overall.
When I was a kid I used to imagine what music would sound like in the future. I figured it would probably be made with newly invented instruments as technology evolved and the sounds produced would reflect that. I thought music in the future would sound like it was made by robots and I couldn’t wait to hear what that sounded like. Daft Punk is sci-fi nerd’s dream come true. But not only that the music appeals to everyone across the board. Daft Punk has reached people no matter what their taste in music is. It’s become standard club music no matter how hip and trendy the club is (Paris Hilton is a fan). Daft Punk has thoroughly infected all of Youtube. The songs from this album were used in countless commercials. This album is universally loved by all.
You can’t escape this album. It’s everywhere. It was the soundtrack of the decade. It reflected the advancement of technology throughout the 00s. We are living in the future. This is how music should sound. Think about it: an electronic album that almost personifies technology. That is a really remarkable thing especially when you think of what electronic music was in the 90s. To put it bluntly: electronic music sucked in the 90s. It was abysmal. The Chemical Brothers were considered to be the forerunners of the genre. That should give you a clue as to how disappointing it was to listen to techno back then. Everything was just generic house music and dull soundtracks to accompany movie scenes. Daft Punk’s Discovery gave emotion and personality to electronic music. It took a form of music that, at that point, had only appealed to clueless ravers and creepy gamers and made it lovable, accessible. As a result, the progression of all music has benefited and evolved with the times.
Face to Face - Daft Punk (Live in Belfort)
Bonus:
Technologic - Peaches
Daftmissy (xerox soundsystem) - X*rox
Music is different now. The 00s brought about a environment where it’s not uncommon for entire albums are created on a laptop. A person doesn’t even need to be able to play an instrument or sing to make music. There’s even video games that simulate being a rock star playing an instrument (I own three of those, in fact). An artist’s entire lifetime catalog can be downloaded to anyone’s collection over night. Internet radio is customized to the individual listener’s personal tastes. Thousands of songs are commonly carried around in people’s pockets. And, of course, it’s not at all surprising for someone to acquire several days worth of music entirely for free. This is amazing. When it comes to music, I loved the 00s. I don’t even think I can imagine what it will be like in the next ten years. I bet it’s going to get even more strange and fantastic.
That’s my list. Props if you actually read it all. I apologize for it being so goddam wordy. I’m pretty sure the drugs I’m on had something to do with that. As always I ask for feedback. Any type is fine. Tell me how ridiculous my choices are or if you agree with any of it. I would like to know what your list is too. I’m sure I got some facts wrong that should be corrected. By the end of the year I will have another list of the top ten songs of 2009. And hopefully I’ll get a christmas playlist or two posted in the meantime. Then I’ll start posting playlists with more interesting themes. Cheers!
As an added challenge I have done the minimal amount of research for this list and just going off from my memory. I’m doing this because anyone can just look up the charts and album release dates of the last ten years and write some commentary on it. In fact, I’m sure plenty of people already are so what would be the point in adding another one? Does anyone wanna read some made up bullshit for the millionth time about how 9-11 changed the direction of music?
Another reason for doing this is that it’s more organic and hopefully I’ll be providing a less clinical more personal, ground-level perspective on the decade. Now what makes this even more difficult is the fact that I spent the last ten years doing a hell of a lot of drugs and alcohol. The memories of the decade are pretty fuzzy for me. To be honest I actually remember very little of the 00s which means there will probably be a lot of factual errors on this list.
Edit: This turned out to be waaay wordier than I expected. So in addition to the one song posted with every entry I’m including bonus songs to try to compensate for the insane rambling.
So uh, with that, let’s attempt this musical retrospective of the decade with no name.
10. The Go! Team - Thunder, Lightning, Strike
To analyze what the 00s meant to music we have to look at the state it was in at the beginning and compare it to the music scene at the end. So where were we in 1999 in terms of music? Well I remember the media was all about the so-called “Latin Explosion” which was comprised of a small handful of entertainers: Ricky Martin, Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez. To me, it seemed kinda racist to group all these people together based on their race because being latin wasn’t really a defining characteristic of their works. It should have been called the “Moronic Asshole Explosion.”
Also, at this time, blatantly manufactured pop acts like Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys pretty much dominated every thing musical. They weren’t even trying to be subtle about the fact that these were products. For some reason, it wasn’t embarrassing to listen to, or be in a boy band. Over-produced saccharine music was everywhere. I’m not kidding. There was so much teen pop on the scene there wasn’t room for anything else. All you could ever hear was either Britney Spears or a clone of Britney Spears. It was like science fiction.
Hold Yr Terror Close - The Go! Team
Bonus:
Huddle Formation (RJD2 Mix) - The Go! Team
Gimme More - Team9 (Britney Spears vs Daft Punk vs Dead or Alive)
9. The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s - Fever to Tell
So the 90’s music scene ended, forced and uninspired. And for some reason, that allowed a resurgence of old-fashioned guitar rock back on the airwaves. After years of hearing nothing but nauseating rap and brain-stabbing pop suddenly, rock n roll was in style again. To compliment their music, these bands would take on similarly old-fashioned names. Each band name would be a pluralized word preceded by a “The.”
I actually really liked this trend in music because I like rock. I bought all the albums: Is This It? by The Strokes, White Blood Cells by The White Stripes, that cd with the necklace on the cover by The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s. It was just refreshing to me to listen to well made stripped down basic Rock n Roll again. I had thought the genre was dead by then. To represent this musical movement I’ve selected what I believe to be the best album that resulted from it even though the album was released after the trend was over.
Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Bonus:
Y Control (Faint Remix) - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Since U Been Rich - Aggro (Kelly Clarkson vs YYYs)
8. Radiohead - In Rainbows
I don’t listen to Radiohead. I don’t own any albums of theirs. I think they are a great band and I like all the songs they make. I don’t really have any reason for not listening to them. I just don’t. I guess I feel like everyone else has it covered so I don’t really need to. I have never even heard this album. I’m including it because, to me, it represents a signifigant development in music production that really came to a head in the 00s.
It’s impossible to examine music during that decade and not acknowlege the effect digital distribution and piracy has had on the industry. In Rainbows was released online for free with a series of suggested donations from those who downloaded it. Though this may not have been the first release to adopt this strategy, it was the first one to make headlines. To me, this represented a sort of exasperated tossing up of the hands by the music industry. As if to say “Fine, we know you’re all just gonna download it anyway. Here. We give in.” By then, everyone on all sides of the music piracy wars had been battle-weathered. There were casualties all around: Metallica, Kazaa, The Warehouse. The question “When was the last time you bought a CD?” became fairly common and harder to answer. People weren’t buying music anymore. There was nothing anyone could do about it. Downloading music for free is too much of an overwhelming force for anyone to combat effectively. It’s going to be very interresting to watch the course of music distribution over the next decade.
BTW so how bout it? When was the last time you bought a cd? I just recently purchased the Bob Dylan Christmas album myself.
I don’t have any songs from this album so only bonus songs:
Creep (as Tom Waits) - Jon Brion
Five Step (Overdub Bootleg) - Radiohead vs Dave Brubeck
Karma In The Life - Radiohead vs The Beatles
7. Rhymefest - Man in the Mirror
Ok so what was the state of Hip Hop during the 00s? I admit this is one of the areas my brain struggles through my hazy memories of what was being played at the time. What was happening in rap during the decade? I’m not entirely sure. I remember Eminem had released his second album in which he rapped about how much it sucks to be rich and famous and how he hated everyone who bought his previous album. There was that Outkast album that was insanely popular but if I recall correctly only about half of it really contained any rap. Battle Rap band The Black Eyed Peas gave up on their genre, hired a meth addicted former Disney channel star and started making annoying pop songs. Aparently Kanye West used to rap before he started singing songs like Stephen Hawking. What else happened?
Here’s what a I do remember about hip hop from that time. Rap didn’t seem to be the gigantic monolithic personality it was in the 90’s. The street-level gangsta persona was fading as the genre became more mainstream. Rap fragmented and evolved. It developed in to be a much more complex art than it was given credit before. This gave rise to a term that makes me wince when I hear it: Cerebral Rap. This type of hip hop is supposed to be distinct in that the lyrical content is more clever and the songs have a different theme than the usual “I’m so great and better than everyone else” that you normally hear in the majority of rap songs. I don’t really like that label although I do enjoy most of the acts that it’s attributed to. It’s sorta like the term “College Rock.”
So I include this album as a kind of a biased pick. If you ever seen any of my previous playlists you know that this is one of my favorite albums of all time. But my justification for choosing it is due to the fact that every song on it is built from Michael Jackson samples and this was, after all, the decade that he died. I suppose it could fall under the vaguely racist catagory of “Cerebral Rap” like many other great rap artists of the decade. Busdriver, Blackalicious, Del tha Funky Homosapien, Scroobious Pip, Example, Serengeti, Just Jack, Ludacris, The Coup, MC Chris, Aesop Rock, MF DOOM and Wale are some recommendations I can think of right now. Also I think Tupac made some new albums during the decade.
Man In The Mirror - Rhymefest ft Michael Jackson
Bonus:
Foolin’ Around - Rhymefest ft Dres
Build Me Up - Rhymefest (Feat. O.D.B.)
6. Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
OK OK just give me a minute and I can explain why this is on the list. Just hear me out... um... .... OK I HAVE NO REASONING FOR THIS OTHER THAN JT IS FUCKIN AWESOME! HE CAN SING AND DANCE AND HE IS MAGIC!! FUCK ALL Y’ALL HATERZ!!!!
Sexyback (tylerfedchukmix) - JustinTimberlake VS Metronomy
Bonus:
Thundersexy - ToToM (Justin Timberlake vs AC/DC)
Don’t You Love The Closet - King of Pants (Justin Timberlake Vs. Michael Jackson)
5. Gorillaz - Gorillaz
This was the first Gorillaz album. It’s definitely 10/10 from beginning to end. This album is phenomenal but of course, a lot of great albums came out in the 00s. Why is this on the list? Here’s my explanation: Gorillaz are a two-dimentional concept band. They are cartoons. They are designed and drawn by a comic book artist. Their real-life alter-egos are musicians from bands that tend to not appeal to the top 20 crowd (Talking Heads, Cibo Matto, Blur). Basically, in my opinion, Gorillaz are nerdy.
One of the social trends we saw in the 00s, I think, was the rise of the nerd. Things that had previously been considered to be dorky were now becoming accepted mainstream. Art was reflecting this new attitude. We saw a barrage of super-hero movies and the immensely successful Lord of the Rings saga in the theaters, for instance. Fashion as well followed. It wasn’t uncommon to see cute girls wearing shirts that said “I heart nerds” or other clever little dorky things that were found on the internet. And that example speaks to the reason for this trend which, I identify as the expansion of personal technology. Computers and the internet were more available to all classes and all levels of social status. Having your own web page wasn’t just for super genius shut ins. Everyone had one because Myspace made it easy. Tech gadgets like cell phones that took pictures were no longer exclusive to spies and robots. The cool kids had gotten a hold of the toys. It was as if all the cheerleaders started wearing calculator watches.
My point is that I don’t think a band like Gorillaz would have survived in the 90s. Or at least they wouldn’t have had any top 10 songs. Cartoons weren’t cool back then. The Simpsons pretty much had a monopoly on mainstream accepted animation for almost the entirety of the 90s. Toward the end Spongebob and Family Guy started out but didn’t take hold until the 00’s. Now it’s totally acceptable to like Adult Swim shows and anime. Gorillaz made a couple of innovative albums that became very popular and in turn, yielded massive airplay. They headlined insanely successful tours and somehow played on live TV with Madonna. Very impressive for imaginary intangible creatures. I could have easily put this album in the number one spot on this list.
Ghoast Train - Gorillaz
Bonus:
Never Feel Good - Party Ben (Gorillaz vs Cake)
Feel Good Roboto - Victor Menegaux (Gorillaz vs Styx)
4. Gnarls Barkley - St. Elsewhere
Gnarls Barkley is a duo consisting of DJ Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo. I’m not going to explain how this album was culturally and historically significant. Or how it was unique to the 00s. The fact of the matter is that this album is one of the greatest albums of all time. It is brilliant. Every song is a genre in itself. Outside of a Bob Dylan song, “Crazy” has some of the most insightful lyrics I’ve ever heard from a song on the radio, let alone a chart topper. “The Last Time” is the type of groove you imagine would accompany the cracking open of a fire hydrant on a hot urban summer day. “Smiley Faces” sounds like it could have been plucked from the Motown catalog 40 years ago. Some of the songs are completely hilarious or strange. “Transformer” might just actually be about a robot. But a lot of the songs are very dark and deal with themes of madness, alienation, depression, suicide and even necrophilia. With such a wide range of sound and so much depth this album really defines what a “desert island” album should be.
The Last Time - Gnarls Barkley
Bonus:
Crazy Logic - Arty Fufkin (Gnarls Barkley vs Supertramp)
Crazy - Cat Power
3. The Grey Album - DJ Danger Mouse
I realize that, with this, I’ve just listed 3 musical pies in a row that Danger Mouse had his fingers in. But I had to include this on the list for what it represents. The Grey Album consists of the vocal tracks from Jay-Z’s Black Album set against samples created entirely from The Beatle’s White Album. I believe this album to be important because it really expanded on the concept of the remix and brought it to the mainstream. Up until then, most remixes were pretty pointless (that’s still true today). A remix was essentially a song mildly edited and mixed with dull generic house samples. This album was really creative in the way the Beatles tracks were mixed so that each song had it’s own distinct personality instead of just becoming some indistinguishable cookie-cutter “Beatles Techno” track.
This album elevated the standard for the remix sub-genre: the mashup. As I’ve said many times before, mash-ups are my favorite type of song. At the same time, it’s probably the most hated form of music. I like the concept of harvesting the organs of dead music and using science to reconstruct them in to some twisted frankenstein monster song. If I recall correctly, Jay-Z released his album’s master tracks seperately for the specific purpose of being remixed. I probably got that wrong though. If I could, I would have included Jay-Z’s Black Album on it’s own. I remember when it came out I wasn’t impressed with the songs at all. It’s only been in the last year or so that I really appreciate how clever the lyrics are. He’s really good at making rhymes too. A while ago I started listening to The Pink Album which is Jay-Z’s Black Album mashed with Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. Listening to that album really made me focus more to Jay-Z’s words since I was already very familiar with the backing music. And that brings me to the next album:
Encore - DJ Danger Mouse
Bonus:
Little Girl (feat. Julian Casablancas) - Danger Mouse & Sparklehorse
Interlude - Cory Johnson (Jay-Z vs The Flaming Lips)
2. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
What can I say about this album? Everyone is familiar with it. “Epic” doesn’t even begin to describe it. The more you think about this album the more your mind gets blown. How did an obscure concept album about a samurai girl fighting robots in the future become our generation’s Dark Side of the Moon? What? I think this album belongs on here because I’m very impressed with what it’s accomplished. It’s remarkable that such a bizarre work of art has reached so many people. It’s really hard to not be entertained by the story told throughout the album. It’s also easy to be charmed by the story’s heroine, Yoshimi who is trying her best to train herself and fight off all the evil robots.
Before you know it, though, things start to get weird. You think you’re listening to a sci-fi tale of “man vs machine” and then all the sudden you’re hit with the sound of church bells that lead in to a beautiful and bittersweet ballad asking “Do you realize that everyone you know, some day, will die?” My god, what have I gotten myself in to? Not to mention that the actual battle song has such loud, ugly, jarring sounds that you feel as if your ears are assaulted. By the time it’s over you feel like you’ve been fighting right alongside Yoshimi. This album manages to be %100 effective while being %100 enjoyable. The decade would have been much harder to live through if this album had never been made.
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Pt. 1 (Japanese Bonus Track) - The Flaming Lips
Bonus:
Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt. 1 - The Section String Quartet
The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song - The Flaming Lips
1. Discovery - Daft Punk
I gotta admit I have a lot of reservations about placing this album at #1 for this list. An electronic dance album was the best musical masterpiece of the decade? Isn’t this like saying the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack was the best album of the 70s? Trite and superficial much? (BTW switch around the word “Discovery” and you get “Very Disco”) I went back and forth on this and I ultimately felt it deserves to be at this place on the list. The truth is that this album not only had an unmistakable impact on the decade but was an unquantifiable contribution to music overall.
When I was a kid I used to imagine what music would sound like in the future. I figured it would probably be made with newly invented instruments as technology evolved and the sounds produced would reflect that. I thought music in the future would sound like it was made by robots and I couldn’t wait to hear what that sounded like. Daft Punk is sci-fi nerd’s dream come true. But not only that the music appeals to everyone across the board. Daft Punk has reached people no matter what their taste in music is. It’s become standard club music no matter how hip and trendy the club is (Paris Hilton is a fan). Daft Punk has thoroughly infected all of Youtube. The songs from this album were used in countless commercials. This album is universally loved by all.
You can’t escape this album. It’s everywhere. It was the soundtrack of the decade. It reflected the advancement of technology throughout the 00s. We are living in the future. This is how music should sound. Think about it: an electronic album that almost personifies technology. That is a really remarkable thing especially when you think of what electronic music was in the 90s. To put it bluntly: electronic music sucked in the 90s. It was abysmal. The Chemical Brothers were considered to be the forerunners of the genre. That should give you a clue as to how disappointing it was to listen to techno back then. Everything was just generic house music and dull soundtracks to accompany movie scenes. Daft Punk’s Discovery gave emotion and personality to electronic music. It took a form of music that, at that point, had only appealed to clueless ravers and creepy gamers and made it lovable, accessible. As a result, the progression of all music has benefited and evolved with the times.
Face to Face - Daft Punk (Live in Belfort)
Bonus:
Technologic - Peaches
Daftmissy (xerox soundsystem) - X*rox
Music is different now. The 00s brought about a environment where it’s not uncommon for entire albums are created on a laptop. A person doesn’t even need to be able to play an instrument or sing to make music. There’s even video games that simulate being a rock star playing an instrument (I own three of those, in fact). An artist’s entire lifetime catalog can be downloaded to anyone’s collection over night. Internet radio is customized to the individual listener’s personal tastes. Thousands of songs are commonly carried around in people’s pockets. And, of course, it’s not at all surprising for someone to acquire several days worth of music entirely for free. This is amazing. When it comes to music, I loved the 00s. I don’t even think I can imagine what it will be like in the next ten years. I bet it’s going to get even more strange and fantastic.
That’s my list. Props if you actually read it all. I apologize for it being so goddam wordy. I’m pretty sure the drugs I’m on had something to do with that. As always I ask for feedback. Any type is fine. Tell me how ridiculous my choices are or if you agree with any of it. I would like to know what your list is too. I’m sure I got some facts wrong that should be corrected. By the end of the year I will have another list of the top ten songs of 2009. And hopefully I’ll get a christmas playlist or two posted in the meantime. Then I’ll start posting playlists with more interesting themes. Cheers!