Top 100 Albums of 2000-2009: #45 - #41
---#45---
Ned Collette - Future Suture
(singer/songwriter, folk)
2007
Future Suture feels like a logical progression from Collette's debut, Jokes and Trials. Retaining that first album's sense of intimacy and warmth, Collette expands his sonic palate, fleshing out his guitar-based sound with extra instrumentation - not merely touches of strings, woodwind, brass, etc, though these are present, but also with full-band arrangements that give these songs a really broad, vivid sound, pushing the album in a more outward-reaching direction that makes for an interesting variation from the more insular approach of his debut. The recording is also significantly more crisp and professional, and this complements the fuller sound well. As with Jokes and Trials, Collette's Cohenesque lyricism is a major selling point, and lines like the slightly sinister "Until you show your cards we'll sing your praises" ("Show Your Hand") and the weary resignation in "I'll swap with you right now a good plan for a fling" ("Sell Your Life", also my favourite track) are really sharply affecting. With just nine tracks - perfectly sequenced and without the slightest dip in quality - Future Suture is very pleasingly economical, and with its poetic lyrics and the fine musical details littered generously throughout, it's one of the most highly replayable albums of the decade. I've had a lot of time for Collette's work over the last five years, and Future Suture is further evidence that he stands out as one of Australia's finest musicians, and a leading light in the singer-songwriter genre.
---#44---
Beck - Modern Guilt
(psych-pop, psych-rock)
2008
Upon its release in 2008, it was so nice to have another album by my favourite artist that I could unreservedly say was just all-around great. I definitely enjoyed Sea Change, Guero and The Information, but there were always little nitpicky things I wanted to change about them - overlong runtimes, occasional filler tracks, poor sequencing and the like. Not so on Modern Guilt. This is Beck's most consistent, well-structured, infectious and replayable album since his 1990s prime, and boy have I gotten a lot of mileage out of it. "Replayable" is the keyword, there - Beck, along with producer Danger Mouse, whose contributions are invaluable, is so to-the-point and economical in the way he delivers Modern Guilt's gauzy retro-pop that it's often hard to resist restarting it right after it concludes. Through sticking to conventional song structures, focusing on melody and concise lyricism and keeping his artistic indulgences firmly in check, he manages to completely avoid any misguided errors of excess for the duration of the album. The songs rate amongst his career's best, too - whether it's the blissful psychedelia of "Orphans" and "Chemtrails", the chugging guitar lines of "Gamma Ray", the blasting energy of "Profanity Prayers", the jaunty strut of "Modern Guilt" or the mellow, contemplative drift of "Volcano", Modern Guilt delivers again and again. After a few minor stumbles (but, I must say, no falls), it was the shot in the arm Beck's career had been waiting for.
---#43---
Madvillain - Madvillainy
(hip-hop)
2004
The timing was simply perfect - it was early 2004 and both M.F. Doom and Madlib were in the midst of their musical prime. Less than a year earlier, both artists had put out exceptional projects, Madlib's Shades of Blue, a retooling of the Blue Note catalogue, and Doom's brilliant Vaudeville Villain, a blazing hip-hop spectacle released under his Victor Vaughan alias. The result of their collaboration was Madvillainy, an album already widely canonised as one of, if not the greatest hip-hop album of the noughts. The duo simultaneously counter the hip-hop pitfall of excess while falling straight into it, delivering a convoluted mess of 22 micro-songs that clock in at a mere 45 minutes, an album where songs stand in for skits and skits themselves are (thankfully) absent. Madlib's sampling and production is some of the most inspired of the decade, pulling bits and pieces liberally from jazz, Saturday morning cartoons, informational film footage, classic movie scores and spliced up dialogue and mushing them together to create a noirish, comic book atmosphere that's totally absurd and wildly entertaining, and goes the extra step of maintaining it seamlessly throughout the album's duration. This makes Madvillainy one of the most thematically consistent hip-hop albums I've ever heard, and when you combine this backdrop with the villainous personae adopted (and regularly referenced) by Madlib and Doom, it means that the album feels like it has an ongoing narrative, even though that's honestly never really the case. I love the fact that my personal highlights are scattered across the album very evenly, plus the songs are over so quickly that the so-called "second tier" tracks never really have enough time to cause anything close to a lull, thus making this a really great "single sitting" listening experience. "Accordian" is an impressive lyrical showcase atop a killer sample of the titular instrument, and features one of my favourite hip-hop similes in "slip like freudian". the ode-to-weed "America's Most Blunted" and the brain-melting "Shadows of Tomorrow" allow Madlib to unleash his Lord Quasimoto persona for some surreal, stoned-out fun. Meanwhile, "Figaro", "Strange Ways" and "All Caps" are punchy, direct numbers that trim away any excess fat to showcase the strengths of both emcee and producer with no extraneous distractions whatsoever. It might not quite be my number one hip-hop album of the decade, but I can certainly see why it is for so many others.
---#42---
Konono N°1 - Congotronics
(African music, electronic)
2005
Konono N°1 are a Congolese percussion group, active since sometime during the 1970s, who until quite recently were totally unknown outside of their home country. After decades of obscurity, the group were catapulted to international success following the release of their second internationally-distributed album Congotronics. They are noteworthy for a number of reasons outside of their impressive career lifespan - to bring their music to life, they create their own instruments and amplification gear entirely from trash and old automobile parts, including homemade thumb-pianos, a scrap-metal amplifier shaped like a giant horn and microphones made blocks of wood and car batteries. The result is a rough-yet-bubbly explosion of lively thumb-piano, trashcan percussion - most noticeably a dense layer of very reedy sounding snares - and exciting call-and-response vocals, formed around looping melodies and long-form compositions that make the album seem a lot like one enormous song. Despite initially sounding a bit thin (due mostly to the stripped back nature of the instrumentation and the lack of fully fleshed-out production), it quickly becomes apparent that this music is played surprisingly hard and heavy, making for some of the most unrelentingly energetic music I've ever heard. The album might take some getting used to for unaccustomed listeners - they may find it to be unfamiliar and scattershot, not to mention repetitive - but after a handful of listens don't be surprised to find yourself really warming up to it. Those repeating themes aid familiarity to keep you afloat, while it's all underpinned by a very rigid backbone of unwavering percussion. Once it gets under your skin - and assuming you have a pulse, it will - the addictive rhythms and communal vibes are going to compel you to move. Don't put it on if you're about to perform brain surgery because, honestly, it's too damn hard trying to keep still while Congotronics is playing.
---#41---
Greg Ashley - Medicine Fuck Dream
(psych-rock, lo-fi, singer/songwriter)
2003
Greg Ashley, the talented young Oakland-based singer/songwriter and leader of critically acclaimed side project The Gris Gris, was just twenty one years old when Medicine Fuck Dream, his debut album of sleepy psychedelic folk, was first released. I usually try to exercise a bit of caution when it comes to praising debuts by young artists, as there's a culture of "next big thingism" in online music criticism that, as far as I'm concerned, tends to do more harm than good, burning out promising groups with unnecessary hyperbole and unreasonable expectations for followups that'll never measure up. Having given Medicine Fuck Dream plenty of time and attention, however, I can honestly say this is one of the best debuts of the decade, and Ashley really deserves to be getting a lot more attention than he currently receives. Combining stripped-back, acoustic instrumentation with authentic vintage recording equipment, Ashley has achieved a very well-realised tone on this album, creating a warm, gauzy sound that's immediately reminiscent of first-wave psychedelic acts of the mid-1960s, such as Skip Spence and The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. What's important to note, though, is that this approach doesn't completely tie the record down to a particular time-period. There's a lot of personality and creativity in this music, and the result is an album that actually sounds quite displaced and timeless. Medicine Fuck Dream commences with the quartet of "Karen Loves Candy", "Medicine Fuck Dream", "Mona Rider" and "Deep Deep Down", all drowsy numbers that sound very contemplative in their lysergic slumber and combine beautifully to establish a desolate, late-night atmosphere. The remainder is divided between comfortable psych-folk cuts (the breezy "She" and "Legs Coca Cola" both sound like long-lost classics), a detour into dusty country balladeering with a lovely cover of Hank Williams' "Lost Highway" and the contrasting levity of "I Said, 'These Are Lonely Days'" and "Apple Pie and Genocide". Worthy of special mention is the title-track, which includes a memorable arpeggiated guitar riff and some nice ghostly harmonica touches floating in the background. It's definitely my favourite track on the album and one of the decade's finest psych-folk songs.
Ned Collette - Future Suture
(singer/songwriter, folk)
2007
Future Suture feels like a logical progression from Collette's debut, Jokes and Trials. Retaining that first album's sense of intimacy and warmth, Collette expands his sonic palate, fleshing out his guitar-based sound with extra instrumentation - not merely touches of strings, woodwind, brass, etc, though these are present, but also with full-band arrangements that give these songs a really broad, vivid sound, pushing the album in a more outward-reaching direction that makes for an interesting variation from the more insular approach of his debut. The recording is also significantly more crisp and professional, and this complements the fuller sound well. As with Jokes and Trials, Collette's Cohenesque lyricism is a major selling point, and lines like the slightly sinister "Until you show your cards we'll sing your praises" ("Show Your Hand") and the weary resignation in "I'll swap with you right now a good plan for a fling" ("Sell Your Life", also my favourite track) are really sharply affecting. With just nine tracks - perfectly sequenced and without the slightest dip in quality - Future Suture is very pleasingly economical, and with its poetic lyrics and the fine musical details littered generously throughout, it's one of the most highly replayable albums of the decade. I've had a lot of time for Collette's work over the last five years, and Future Suture is further evidence that he stands out as one of Australia's finest musicians, and a leading light in the singer-songwriter genre.
Click to view---#44---
Beck - Modern Guilt
(psych-pop, psych-rock)
2008
Upon its release in 2008, it was so nice to have another album by my favourite artist that I could unreservedly say was just all-around great. I definitely enjoyed Sea Change, Guero and The Information, but there were always little nitpicky things I wanted to change about them - overlong runtimes, occasional filler tracks, poor sequencing and the like. Not so on Modern Guilt. This is Beck's most consistent, well-structured, infectious and replayable album since his 1990s prime, and boy have I gotten a lot of mileage out of it. "Replayable" is the keyword, there - Beck, along with producer Danger Mouse, whose contributions are invaluable, is so to-the-point and economical in the way he delivers Modern Guilt's gauzy retro-pop that it's often hard to resist restarting it right after it concludes. Through sticking to conventional song structures, focusing on melody and concise lyricism and keeping his artistic indulgences firmly in check, he manages to completely avoid any misguided errors of excess for the duration of the album. The songs rate amongst his career's best, too - whether it's the blissful psychedelia of "Orphans" and "Chemtrails", the chugging guitar lines of "Gamma Ray", the blasting energy of "Profanity Prayers", the jaunty strut of "Modern Guilt" or the mellow, contemplative drift of "Volcano", Modern Guilt delivers again and again. After a few minor stumbles (but, I must say, no falls), it was the shot in the arm Beck's career had been waiting for.
---#43---
Madvillain - Madvillainy
(hip-hop)
2004
The timing was simply perfect - it was early 2004 and both M.F. Doom and Madlib were in the midst of their musical prime. Less than a year earlier, both artists had put out exceptional projects, Madlib's Shades of Blue, a retooling of the Blue Note catalogue, and Doom's brilliant Vaudeville Villain, a blazing hip-hop spectacle released under his Victor Vaughan alias. The result of their collaboration was Madvillainy, an album already widely canonised as one of, if not the greatest hip-hop album of the noughts. The duo simultaneously counter the hip-hop pitfall of excess while falling straight into it, delivering a convoluted mess of 22 micro-songs that clock in at a mere 45 minutes, an album where songs stand in for skits and skits themselves are (thankfully) absent. Madlib's sampling and production is some of the most inspired of the decade, pulling bits and pieces liberally from jazz, Saturday morning cartoons, informational film footage, classic movie scores and spliced up dialogue and mushing them together to create a noirish, comic book atmosphere that's totally absurd and wildly entertaining, and goes the extra step of maintaining it seamlessly throughout the album's duration. This makes Madvillainy one of the most thematically consistent hip-hop albums I've ever heard, and when you combine this backdrop with the villainous personae adopted (and regularly referenced) by Madlib and Doom, it means that the album feels like it has an ongoing narrative, even though that's honestly never really the case. I love the fact that my personal highlights are scattered across the album very evenly, plus the songs are over so quickly that the so-called "second tier" tracks never really have enough time to cause anything close to a lull, thus making this a really great "single sitting" listening experience. "Accordian" is an impressive lyrical showcase atop a killer sample of the titular instrument, and features one of my favourite hip-hop similes in "slip like freudian". the ode-to-weed "America's Most Blunted" and the brain-melting "Shadows of Tomorrow" allow Madlib to unleash his Lord Quasimoto persona for some surreal, stoned-out fun. Meanwhile, "Figaro", "Strange Ways" and "All Caps" are punchy, direct numbers that trim away any excess fat to showcase the strengths of both emcee and producer with no extraneous distractions whatsoever. It might not quite be my number one hip-hop album of the decade, but I can certainly see why it is for so many others.
---#42---
Konono N°1 - Congotronics
(African music, electronic)
2005
Konono N°1 are a Congolese percussion group, active since sometime during the 1970s, who until quite recently were totally unknown outside of their home country. After decades of obscurity, the group were catapulted to international success following the release of their second internationally-distributed album Congotronics. They are noteworthy for a number of reasons outside of their impressive career lifespan - to bring their music to life, they create their own instruments and amplification gear entirely from trash and old automobile parts, including homemade thumb-pianos, a scrap-metal amplifier shaped like a giant horn and microphones made blocks of wood and car batteries. The result is a rough-yet-bubbly explosion of lively thumb-piano, trashcan percussion - most noticeably a dense layer of very reedy sounding snares - and exciting call-and-response vocals, formed around looping melodies and long-form compositions that make the album seem a lot like one enormous song. Despite initially sounding a bit thin (due mostly to the stripped back nature of the instrumentation and the lack of fully fleshed-out production), it quickly becomes apparent that this music is played surprisingly hard and heavy, making for some of the most unrelentingly energetic music I've ever heard. The album might take some getting used to for unaccustomed listeners - they may find it to be unfamiliar and scattershot, not to mention repetitive - but after a handful of listens don't be surprised to find yourself really warming up to it. Those repeating themes aid familiarity to keep you afloat, while it's all underpinned by a very rigid backbone of unwavering percussion. Once it gets under your skin - and assuming you have a pulse, it will - the addictive rhythms and communal vibes are going to compel you to move. Don't put it on if you're about to perform brain surgery because, honestly, it's too damn hard trying to keep still while Congotronics is playing.
---#41---
Greg Ashley - Medicine Fuck Dream
(psych-rock, lo-fi, singer/songwriter)
2003
Greg Ashley, the talented young Oakland-based singer/songwriter and leader of critically acclaimed side project The Gris Gris, was just twenty one years old when Medicine Fuck Dream, his debut album of sleepy psychedelic folk, was first released. I usually try to exercise a bit of caution when it comes to praising debuts by young artists, as there's a culture of "next big thingism" in online music criticism that, as far as I'm concerned, tends to do more harm than good, burning out promising groups with unnecessary hyperbole and unreasonable expectations for followups that'll never measure up. Having given Medicine Fuck Dream plenty of time and attention, however, I can honestly say this is one of the best debuts of the decade, and Ashley really deserves to be getting a lot more attention than he currently receives. Combining stripped-back, acoustic instrumentation with authentic vintage recording equipment, Ashley has achieved a very well-realised tone on this album, creating a warm, gauzy sound that's immediately reminiscent of first-wave psychedelic acts of the mid-1960s, such as Skip Spence and The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. What's important to note, though, is that this approach doesn't completely tie the record down to a particular time-period. There's a lot of personality and creativity in this music, and the result is an album that actually sounds quite displaced and timeless. Medicine Fuck Dream commences with the quartet of "Karen Loves Candy", "Medicine Fuck Dream", "Mona Rider" and "Deep Deep Down", all drowsy numbers that sound very contemplative in their lysergic slumber and combine beautifully to establish a desolate, late-night atmosphere. The remainder is divided between comfortable psych-folk cuts (the breezy "She" and "Legs Coca Cola" both sound like long-lost classics), a detour into dusty country balladeering with a lovely cover of Hank Williams' "Lost Highway" and the contrasting levity of "I Said, 'These Are Lonely Days'" and "Apple Pie and Genocide". Worthy of special mention is the title-track, which includes a memorable arpeggiated guitar riff and some nice ghostly harmonica touches floating in the background. It's definitely my favourite track on the album and one of the decade's finest psych-folk songs.