Top 100 Albums of 2000-2009: #60 - #56
---#60---
Sunburned Hand of the Man - Jaybird
(free-folk, psych-rock)
2001
Jaybird, the debut by prolific free-folk collective Sunburned Hand of the Man, is an exceptional work. The group have found some very rich middle-ground between psychedelic-rock, folk, improv, drone and funk, which sees them float their way through half a dozen lengthy tracks of drowsy astro-folk. Each of the album's pieces sounds fundamentally similar, yet they all establish their own distinct balance between the building blocks of ethereal vocal hollers, jangling tambourines, multi-layered guitar (acoustic and electric, including some lovely touches of slide), flanged sound effects, whistling pipes, "faux-loose" percussion and solid basslines, with tiny, subtle differences from track to track (or sometimes within sections of a single track). While the druggy opener "Featherweight" is one of the album's slower, sleepier affairs, followup "The Jaybird" tightens the basslines way up and adds a very slight funky edge to push the song into groovier territory, and so it continues throughout the album, alternating between consistently shallow peaks and troughs. I'd rate this one very highly within the psych/free-folk canon.
---#59---
Sir Richard Bishop - While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
(American primitivism)
2007
While My Guitar Violently Bleeds, by prolific ex-Sun City Girls guitarist Sir Richard Bishop, is a curiously disjointed album. It showcases two pieces of highly accomplished American Primitivism - one lengthy ("Zurvan") and one extremely lengthy ("Mahavidya") - separated by a ten minute palate-cleanser of dense electric guitar noise ("Smashana"). Bishop proves himself to be a learned and versatile student of the six-string, as he incorporates a large variety of different styles of folk music, drawn from all over the world, into his guitar playing. "Zurvan", which clocks in at just shy of seven minutes, is a quick-paced piece, functioning primarily within a neo-flamenco style, and it showcases some really great rapid fire passages that integrate very loose strumming with rising and falling arpeggios and exciting fingerwork. "Mahavidya", on the other hand, is a gradual, contemplative, twenty-fire minute long slow-boiler, shifting through sparse, repeating guitar lines before finally reaching it's exciting and dynamic finale. It fills its massive runtime surprisingly effortlessly, definitely feeling like a much shorter track than it actually is, plus it stands as one of the most distinctly emotive instrumental tracks I've ever heard. American Primitivism is a genre renowned for its expert fingerwork, and this album is definitely no exception - Bishop is stunningly nimble in his guitarwork, displaying a level of dexterity so proficient that it strains one's belief. This plays beautifully off the album's "up close" style of recording, which not only creates an intimate atmosphere but also allows the listener to better appreciate the complex movements involved as every strum, slip, slide, drop and hammer is captured in crisp detail.
---#58---
Various Artists - Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
(video game soundtrack, j-pop, jazz, lounge, electronic)
2004
Vocoders, electronica, samba, jazz, goofy hip-hop, latin dance passages, titanic horn sections, j-pop, a capella, piano overtures, carnival sounds, mambo, lounge music and a whole bunch more, all wrapped up in infinite feel-good vibes and a sense of sheer unrelenting mayhem. The soundtrack to Katamari Fortissimo Damacy is a hyperactive delight, fearlessly sampling genres with total abandon throughout its generous 21 track runtime. If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to exist inside a video game, then this is about the closest you'll ever come to finding out. Even if you've never played a Katamari game (tip: you should), the music still carries a giddy, animated vibrancy all on its own, one which delights without the merest hint of context. There's also some highly irreverent humour to enjoy throughout the album, from the ultra-sincere piano version of the game's cheesy theme tune ("Overture") to the robotically monotone, looping singalong of "You Are Smart", which functions as a wonderfully patronising reward for performing well during the game itself. The bottom line is this - this album is just so lovable, in all of its glitchy, can't-sit-still glory, that I can't imagine any lover of good pop music not getting down to it. By the time the ridiculous sweeping horn section of "Katamari on the Rocks" hits, anyone who isn't pogoing around their loungeroom has to admit that they're secretly an android.
---#57---
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
(metal, stoner-metal)
2000
An exceptionally cool album of hard rocking, Sabbath-worshiping doom metal that's so stoned out the band members could probably hardly stand up while they were recording it. If you find something appealing in the idea of music where the guitars are so ridiculously downtuned that they'll drill you into the ground through the power of bass alone, then Dopethrone is the album for you. It's just deliciously evil music - like wading through a vast expanse of muck, only to be bludgeoned to death with a gigantic guitar (only, you know, in a good way). There's plenty of great individual tracks here, and I'm particularly fond of the opening duo "Vinum Sabbathi" and "Funeralopolis", but there's no doubting that the title-track is the album's speaker-trembling highpoint - opening with a sinister laugh and one of those slow, rumbling, guitar lines, "Dopethrone" immediately establishes itself as a menacing delight. As the thunderous percussion emerges, it grows further into a lumbering juggernaut of riff-tastic power, concluding the album with an immense stretch of hazy, unrelenting intensity.
---#56---
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
(rock)
2006
Their inescapable hooks, bar-band swagger and E-Street Band piano fireworks might initially hook you in, but it's Craig Finn's literary-minded storytelling that'll keep you coming back for more. Boys and Girls in America sounds deceptively shallow when you first spin through it, with its big, dumb pub-rock sound being extremely satisfying but never overly challenging. It's only once you start to really tap into Finn's lyrics that the conceptual, dense, multi-layered nature of the album becomes apparent, with its small cast of detailed characters who spend their nights drifting between house parties, cars, concerts, makeout sessions, alleyways, drinking binges, drug experimentation and seriously flawed relationships. These stories are portrayed in a manner and tone that sways between contemplation (often regret) and celebration, and it always rings with truth and poignancy. The album opens with a Kerouac-referencing ode to poet John Berryman, entitled "Stuck Between Stations", which is arguably the album's highlight, outdoing anything on the band's two prior records and thus setting the bar extremely high for the remainder of Boys and Girls in America. Thankfully they continue to deliver, and this is definitely one of those well-sequenced albums which boast a very even level of quality and consistency across their runtime - all of my personal favourite tracks ("Stuck Between Stations", "Hot Soft Light", "Same Kooks", "First Night", "Massive Nights" and "Chillout Tent") are very evenly spaced, keeping my excitement and enjoyment peaked throughout. For anyone who spent a decent portion of their late teens and early twenties lost, confused and partying (or anyone who finds character studies of these people fascinating), you'll definitely find plenty here that not only makes you shake it, but also keeps you thoroughly engrossed.
Sunburned Hand of the Man - Jaybird
(free-folk, psych-rock)
2001
Jaybird, the debut by prolific free-folk collective Sunburned Hand of the Man, is an exceptional work. The group have found some very rich middle-ground between psychedelic-rock, folk, improv, drone and funk, which sees them float their way through half a dozen lengthy tracks of drowsy astro-folk. Each of the album's pieces sounds fundamentally similar, yet they all establish their own distinct balance between the building blocks of ethereal vocal hollers, jangling tambourines, multi-layered guitar (acoustic and electric, including some lovely touches of slide), flanged sound effects, whistling pipes, "faux-loose" percussion and solid basslines, with tiny, subtle differences from track to track (or sometimes within sections of a single track). While the druggy opener "Featherweight" is one of the album's slower, sleepier affairs, followup "The Jaybird" tightens the basslines way up and adds a very slight funky edge to push the song into groovier territory, and so it continues throughout the album, alternating between consistently shallow peaks and troughs. I'd rate this one very highly within the psych/free-folk canon.
Click to view---#59---
Sir Richard Bishop - While My Guitar Violently Bleeds
(American primitivism)
2007
While My Guitar Violently Bleeds, by prolific ex-Sun City Girls guitarist Sir Richard Bishop, is a curiously disjointed album. It showcases two pieces of highly accomplished American Primitivism - one lengthy ("Zurvan") and one extremely lengthy ("Mahavidya") - separated by a ten minute palate-cleanser of dense electric guitar noise ("Smashana"). Bishop proves himself to be a learned and versatile student of the six-string, as he incorporates a large variety of different styles of folk music, drawn from all over the world, into his guitar playing. "Zurvan", which clocks in at just shy of seven minutes, is a quick-paced piece, functioning primarily within a neo-flamenco style, and it showcases some really great rapid fire passages that integrate very loose strumming with rising and falling arpeggios and exciting fingerwork. "Mahavidya", on the other hand, is a gradual, contemplative, twenty-fire minute long slow-boiler, shifting through sparse, repeating guitar lines before finally reaching it's exciting and dynamic finale. It fills its massive runtime surprisingly effortlessly, definitely feeling like a much shorter track than it actually is, plus it stands as one of the most distinctly emotive instrumental tracks I've ever heard. American Primitivism is a genre renowned for its expert fingerwork, and this album is definitely no exception - Bishop is stunningly nimble in his guitarwork, displaying a level of dexterity so proficient that it strains one's belief. This plays beautifully off the album's "up close" style of recording, which not only creates an intimate atmosphere but also allows the listener to better appreciate the complex movements involved as every strum, slip, slide, drop and hammer is captured in crisp detail.
---#58---
Various Artists - Katamari Fortissimo Damacy
(video game soundtrack, j-pop, jazz, lounge, electronic)
2004
Vocoders, electronica, samba, jazz, goofy hip-hop, latin dance passages, titanic horn sections, j-pop, a capella, piano overtures, carnival sounds, mambo, lounge music and a whole bunch more, all wrapped up in infinite feel-good vibes and a sense of sheer unrelenting mayhem. The soundtrack to Katamari Fortissimo Damacy is a hyperactive delight, fearlessly sampling genres with total abandon throughout its generous 21 track runtime. If you ever wanted to know what it feels like to exist inside a video game, then this is about the closest you'll ever come to finding out. Even if you've never played a Katamari game (tip: you should), the music still carries a giddy, animated vibrancy all on its own, one which delights without the merest hint of context. There's also some highly irreverent humour to enjoy throughout the album, from the ultra-sincere piano version of the game's cheesy theme tune ("Overture") to the robotically monotone, looping singalong of "You Are Smart", which functions as a wonderfully patronising reward for performing well during the game itself. The bottom line is this - this album is just so lovable, in all of its glitchy, can't-sit-still glory, that I can't imagine any lover of good pop music not getting down to it. By the time the ridiculous sweeping horn section of "Katamari on the Rocks" hits, anyone who isn't pogoing around their loungeroom has to admit that they're secretly an android.
---#57---
Electric Wizard - Dopethrone
(metal, stoner-metal)
2000
An exceptionally cool album of hard rocking, Sabbath-worshiping doom metal that's so stoned out the band members could probably hardly stand up while they were recording it. If you find something appealing in the idea of music where the guitars are so ridiculously downtuned that they'll drill you into the ground through the power of bass alone, then Dopethrone is the album for you. It's just deliciously evil music - like wading through a vast expanse of muck, only to be bludgeoned to death with a gigantic guitar (only, you know, in a good way). There's plenty of great individual tracks here, and I'm particularly fond of the opening duo "Vinum Sabbathi" and "Funeralopolis", but there's no doubting that the title-track is the album's speaker-trembling highpoint - opening with a sinister laugh and one of those slow, rumbling, guitar lines, "Dopethrone" immediately establishes itself as a menacing delight. As the thunderous percussion emerges, it grows further into a lumbering juggernaut of riff-tastic power, concluding the album with an immense stretch of hazy, unrelenting intensity.
---#56---
The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
(rock)
2006
Their inescapable hooks, bar-band swagger and E-Street Band piano fireworks might initially hook you in, but it's Craig Finn's literary-minded storytelling that'll keep you coming back for more. Boys and Girls in America sounds deceptively shallow when you first spin through it, with its big, dumb pub-rock sound being extremely satisfying but never overly challenging. It's only once you start to really tap into Finn's lyrics that the conceptual, dense, multi-layered nature of the album becomes apparent, with its small cast of detailed characters who spend their nights drifting between house parties, cars, concerts, makeout sessions, alleyways, drinking binges, drug experimentation and seriously flawed relationships. These stories are portrayed in a manner and tone that sways between contemplation (often regret) and celebration, and it always rings with truth and poignancy. The album opens with a Kerouac-referencing ode to poet John Berryman, entitled "Stuck Between Stations", which is arguably the album's highlight, outdoing anything on the band's two prior records and thus setting the bar extremely high for the remainder of Boys and Girls in America. Thankfully they continue to deliver, and this is definitely one of those well-sequenced albums which boast a very even level of quality and consistency across their runtime - all of my personal favourite tracks ("Stuck Between Stations", "Hot Soft Light", "Same Kooks", "First Night", "Massive Nights" and "Chillout Tent") are very evenly spaced, keeping my excitement and enjoyment peaked throughout. For anyone who spent a decent portion of their late teens and early twenties lost, confused and partying (or anyone who finds character studies of these people fascinating), you'll definitely find plenty here that not only makes you shake it, but also keeps you thoroughly engrossed.