Top 100 Albums of 2000-2009: #100 - #96
It's DONE! Well, I still have to write about 35 of those little synopses, but I've done enough of the lower ranking ones that I can start posting this thing. To give you a bit of a taste, each entry will be accompanied by a youtube clip. If there's a single with a music video, I've gone for that. If there isn't, I've tried to find a song posting or a live clip of something from the album.
Also, I know 100 albums is a lot, and people do have a tendency to not fully register lower ranking albums. Keep in mind that this is a Top 100 spanning a full decade, so almost every one of these albums could be expected to make the top 10 in their year of release. These are all really good releases.
Read on! And please feel free to leave a comment - it's always nice to know that people are reading this stuff :)
---#100---
The Roots - Game Theory
(hip-hop)
2006
Game Theory might be the most finely produced hip-hop album of the decade. The Roots play live musical instruments to back their emcees, rather than relying solely on sampling, giving each track an organic backdrop that shows variation and spontaneity beyond what many other hip-hop groups can ever manage. Combine this with the dense, claustrophobic production and fine instrumental layering that's present on each and every track, along with some logical sequencing and a crucial sense of brevity, and you get something truly special. The whole band have a really solid cohesion to their sound, with guitars, keys and turntables being firmly anchored around ?uestlove's rock-solid percussion and Black Thought's top-shelf delivery, with a generous helping of top-notch guest vocalists rounding out the package. Highlight tracks include opening salvo "False Media", the Eastern-tinged "Take it There", the soulful "Baby" and the exquisite centrepiece "Long Time", which cements its place as the album's highpoint with some sleekly dynamic basslines and some of the smoothest vocal-work on the album.
---#99---
Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
(ambient electronic)
2003
A Strangely Isolated Place isn't a groundbreaking album in the field of electronic music, nor is it especially creative, experimental or challenging. The synths are your basic layered variety and the beats sound like something that any reasonably talented bedroom-producer could make on their laptop. It's the sort of album that flies way under your radar, never really putting itself out there as an important work, content in its aim to merely leave the listener feeling good. In this goal, it passes with flying colours. This is the kind of simplistic, by-the-numbers work that reminds you that, in the hands of the right person, sometimes less is more, as Ulrich Schnauss' musical creations put up no barriers to enjoyment whatsoever, enveloping the listener in buoyant washes of sublime ambiance one track after another. It's absolutely wonderful stuff, seemingly underwhelming for the first minute or two (so make sure you wait those two minutes out), it just gets under your skin and leaves you surprised at just how much you want to listen to it over and over again.
---#98---
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Funeral For a Friend
(New Orleans R&B, Dixieland)
2004
My knowledge of classic New Orleans R&B (like most people's, I'd wager) tends to be limited to what I hear in the odd Louisiana-set film. Despite this, I feel so strongly about the quality of the music contained on Funeral for a Friend that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some authority informed me that it was a leading light in the genre. The old-timey warmth in these songs sounds so authentic, and is so completely free of pretense, that it makes you want to say "they just don't make them like this anymore" - right up until the point where you're reminded that you're listening to something that was released in 2004. This is exciting, jubilant music, the soundtrack to a Dixieland street-parade full of vibrant colour and infused with a sense of life-affirming human spirit - and it begs you to dance and celebrate with every note. The gospel vocals found on a handful of the tracks are an added delight, lifting the songs to truly dizzying heights. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band have been doing their thing for over 30 years now, so it's hardly surprising that they pull of something so wonderful with seemingly so little effort.
---#97---
Nobunny - Nobunny Loves You
(garage-rock, garage-punk, retro pop)
2008
If you decide to check this album out, you're probably going to notice the grainy recording, the kind-of-half-finished songs, the occasionally terrible mini guitar solos, the blatant use of drum machines, the super-short runtime and the general DIYness of it all - it basically sounds like it was written and recorded in the time between knocking off work and hitting the pub - and you're going to say "What the hell? No way is this a 'Top 100 of the Decade' kind of album!" Then you'll listen to it again, because you remember smiling at the crash-landing singalong of "Nobunny Loves You". Then you'll notice that "Boneyard" is wicked catchy and full of fun attitude and addictive vocals. Then you'll be listening to it the third or fourth time and realise that "I Am a Girlfriend" has inexplicably become your favourite song in the whole world. It's not that inexplicable - it's just a really f*cking great song. Then you'll start grooving to "Tina Goes to Work" and "Chuck Berry Holiday" and singing along to their choruses. You'll start noticing the incredibly naive sweetness of it all. Finally, you'll realise that this album has wormed its way under your skin and you simply can't get rid of it. Then you'll understand why it's a 'Top 100 of the Decade' kind of an album.
---#96---
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
(folk, country, singer/songwriter)
2005
After carving out a prolific niche as a subdued, lo-fi, singer-songwriter type, A River Ain't Too Much to Love was enough to make you think that Bill Callahan had been a lonesome cowboy his entire life. The folksy, country boy schtick fits him perfectly, with Bill's ultra-deep, charismatic vocal being surprisingly reminiscent of Johnny Cash, even if he does stick mostly to spoken-word delivery, letting his guitar do all the melodic heavy-lifting. It's really refreshing to hear Callahan sounding mellowed-out and content - even happy at times - as it makes for an interesting contrast against the often dark themes and stark production of his previous works. A River Ain't Too Much to Love feels like a comfortable album, arguably the most natural fit of Callahan's career, but I also consider it his most accomplished. The production is sublime, retaining Smog's usual minimalist style but making it sound dense and layered, which allows for those distant, wistful touches that can be a lot harder to nail when everything sounds equally "up-front". If you combine that with the best songwriting of his career - "Palimpsest", "The Well", "Rock Bottom Riser", "I Feel Like the Mother of the World" and "Let Me See the Colts" are some of the best things he's ever written - you get Callahan's true masterpiece, and it's an under-acknowledged one at that.
Stay tuned for future installments!
Also, I know 100 albums is a lot, and people do have a tendency to not fully register lower ranking albums. Keep in mind that this is a Top 100 spanning a full decade, so almost every one of these albums could be expected to make the top 10 in their year of release. These are all really good releases.
Read on! And please feel free to leave a comment - it's always nice to know that people are reading this stuff :)
---#100---
The Roots - Game Theory
(hip-hop)
2006
Game Theory might be the most finely produced hip-hop album of the decade. The Roots play live musical instruments to back their emcees, rather than relying solely on sampling, giving each track an organic backdrop that shows variation and spontaneity beyond what many other hip-hop groups can ever manage. Combine this with the dense, claustrophobic production and fine instrumental layering that's present on each and every track, along with some logical sequencing and a crucial sense of brevity, and you get something truly special. The whole band have a really solid cohesion to their sound, with guitars, keys and turntables being firmly anchored around ?uestlove's rock-solid percussion and Black Thought's top-shelf delivery, with a generous helping of top-notch guest vocalists rounding out the package. Highlight tracks include opening salvo "False Media", the Eastern-tinged "Take it There", the soulful "Baby" and the exquisite centrepiece "Long Time", which cements its place as the album's highpoint with some sleekly dynamic basslines and some of the smoothest vocal-work on the album.
Click to view---#99---
Ulrich Schnauss - A Strangely Isolated Place
(ambient electronic)
2003
A Strangely Isolated Place isn't a groundbreaking album in the field of electronic music, nor is it especially creative, experimental or challenging. The synths are your basic layered variety and the beats sound like something that any reasonably talented bedroom-producer could make on their laptop. It's the sort of album that flies way under your radar, never really putting itself out there as an important work, content in its aim to merely leave the listener feeling good. In this goal, it passes with flying colours. This is the kind of simplistic, by-the-numbers work that reminds you that, in the hands of the right person, sometimes less is more, as Ulrich Schnauss' musical creations put up no barriers to enjoyment whatsoever, enveloping the listener in buoyant washes of sublime ambiance one track after another. It's absolutely wonderful stuff, seemingly underwhelming for the first minute or two (so make sure you wait those two minutes out), it just gets under your skin and leaves you surprised at just how much you want to listen to it over and over again.
---#98---
The Dirty Dozen Brass Band - Funeral For a Friend
(New Orleans R&B, Dixieland)
2004
My knowledge of classic New Orleans R&B (like most people's, I'd wager) tends to be limited to what I hear in the odd Louisiana-set film. Despite this, I feel so strongly about the quality of the music contained on Funeral for a Friend that I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if some authority informed me that it was a leading light in the genre. The old-timey warmth in these songs sounds so authentic, and is so completely free of pretense, that it makes you want to say "they just don't make them like this anymore" - right up until the point where you're reminded that you're listening to something that was released in 2004. This is exciting, jubilant music, the soundtrack to a Dixieland street-parade full of vibrant colour and infused with a sense of life-affirming human spirit - and it begs you to dance and celebrate with every note. The gospel vocals found on a handful of the tracks are an added delight, lifting the songs to truly dizzying heights. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band have been doing their thing for over 30 years now, so it's hardly surprising that they pull of something so wonderful with seemingly so little effort.
---#97---
Nobunny - Nobunny Loves You
(garage-rock, garage-punk, retro pop)
2008
If you decide to check this album out, you're probably going to notice the grainy recording, the kind-of-half-finished songs, the occasionally terrible mini guitar solos, the blatant use of drum machines, the super-short runtime and the general DIYness of it all - it basically sounds like it was written and recorded in the time between knocking off work and hitting the pub - and you're going to say "What the hell? No way is this a 'Top 100 of the Decade' kind of album!" Then you'll listen to it again, because you remember smiling at the crash-landing singalong of "Nobunny Loves You". Then you'll notice that "Boneyard" is wicked catchy and full of fun attitude and addictive vocals. Then you'll be listening to it the third or fourth time and realise that "I Am a Girlfriend" has inexplicably become your favourite song in the whole world. It's not that inexplicable - it's just a really f*cking great song. Then you'll start grooving to "Tina Goes to Work" and "Chuck Berry Holiday" and singing along to their choruses. You'll start noticing the incredibly naive sweetness of it all. Finally, you'll realise that this album has wormed its way under your skin and you simply can't get rid of it. Then you'll understand why it's a 'Top 100 of the Decade' kind of an album.
---#96---
Smog - A River Ain't Too Much to Love
(folk, country, singer/songwriter)
2005
After carving out a prolific niche as a subdued, lo-fi, singer-songwriter type, A River Ain't Too Much to Love was enough to make you think that Bill Callahan had been a lonesome cowboy his entire life. The folksy, country boy schtick fits him perfectly, with Bill's ultra-deep, charismatic vocal being surprisingly reminiscent of Johnny Cash, even if he does stick mostly to spoken-word delivery, letting his guitar do all the melodic heavy-lifting. It's really refreshing to hear Callahan sounding mellowed-out and content - even happy at times - as it makes for an interesting contrast against the often dark themes and stark production of his previous works. A River Ain't Too Much to Love feels like a comfortable album, arguably the most natural fit of Callahan's career, but I also consider it his most accomplished. The production is sublime, retaining Smog's usual minimalist style but making it sound dense and layered, which allows for those distant, wistful touches that can be a lot harder to nail when everything sounds equally "up-front". If you combine that with the best songwriting of his career - "Palimpsest", "The Well", "Rock Bottom Riser", "I Feel Like the Mother of the World" and "Let Me See the Colts" are some of the best things he's ever written - you get Callahan's true masterpiece, and it's an under-acknowledged one at that.
Stay tuned for future installments!