decade list! - kate miles

I know it's down to the wire, but after four drafts, I finally put down the pens and highlighters and felt at peace with who stayed and who went in my decade list. When it was all over, I realized that the decade was a great one for the ladies. Whether it be folk (Gillian Welch), shake-your-booty music (Beyonce), indie (Feist), rock n roll (Heartless Bastards), many dissimilar genres were, from 2000-2009, represented by multiple dominating females, something I don't think happened quite so forcefully in the 90s where you might say ladies were either Riot Grrl Bikini Kill/Sleater Kinney types or the gals who wore floral jumpers and had soft-focus music videos (Sophie B. Hawkins).

And speaking of Sleater Kinney, The Woods was the first no-brainer for my decade list, and like Niki Pop, I was also lucky enough to catch them on tour for it in 2005. I know fellas who love SK who don't like The Woods, and so I agree that gentlemen are afraid of how they [brilliantly] take rock n' roll and turn into, as Nicki said, a "creepy deep female thing." (I believe the aggressiveness of Janet's drumming make boys run for the hills.) Now that Sleater Kinney are done, I'm glad that bands like The Organ and The Gossip are doing a fabulous job of filling that "angry gal music" void that some of us crave though "angry gal" is a label that does a disservice to the quality of the music, it's more - as Christian from Project Runway would say - fierce.

And so here is my decade list, organized by year:

[2000]
'Kid A' - Radiohead
'Puzzle' - Tahiti 80
It's been ten years since I first heard Tahiti 80's "Heartbeat" and yet it still is the thing I go to in my iPod when I need something hopeful and lovey-dovey. 'Puzzle' is filled with happy gems that put you in a good mood without any corniness or sugary fakeitude. I think 'How to Disappear Completely' and 'The National Anthem' being on the same album made 'Kid A' the winner of the obligatory 'which Radiohead?!" battle.

[2001]
'Time (The Revelator)' - Gillian Welch
'When It's All Over We Still Have to Clear Up' - Snow Patrol
It has to be said that before Snow Patrol became the go-to band for crappy television dramas, they actually made three really good albums. "Olive Grove Facing the Sea" is not a song everyone will like, but I think it's the best arranged indie-ballad of the decade, more memorable than any of Death Cab's slower numbers, which is saying something!

[2002]
'Kill the Moonlight' - Spoon
'A Rush of Blood to the Head' - Coldplay
'Lost in Space' - Aimee Mann
'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot' - Wilco

[2003]
'Elephant' - White Stripes
'Meadowlands' - The Wrens
'Chutes Too Narrow' - The Shins
'Give Up' - The Postal Service
'Speakerboxxx/The Love Below' - Outkast
Unfortunately I think that when we're in our 50s the oldies radio station is going to be playing "New Slang" from 'Oh, Inverted World' even though the songs from 'Chutes Too Narrow' are more interesting.

[2004]
'7 Swans' - Sufjan Stevens
'Grey Album' - Jay-Z/Danger Mouse
'Antics' - Interpol
'Funeral' - Arcade Fire

[2005]
'Fisherman's Woman' - Emiliani Torrini
'Confessions on a Dance Floor' - Madonna
'The Woods' - Sleater Kinney
'Strange Geometry' - The Clientele
I don't think any of us can deny being freakin floored when "Hung Up" came out; 'Confessions' is certainly when Madonna is at her most godmother-to-Lady-Gaga best. 'Fisherman's Woman' came out before Regina Spektor was all over the radio and Torrini definitely just sounds 1000x better, more mature, etc (at least to me).

[2006]
'The Letting Go' - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
'The Life Pursuit' - Belle & Sebastian
Trying to decide which Will Oldham to highlight for the decade is kind of insane, but I went for it to highlight how gorgeous the whole pairing with Dawn McCarthy thing is.

[2007]
'The Reminder' - Feist
'Night Falls Over Kortedala' - Jens Lekman
Of all the awesomeness put forth by Jens in the 00's, this album is the one that can be listened to from start-to-finish with the most ease; his albums are all expensive booze and this one is the smoothest.

[2008]
's/t' - Fleet Foxes
'Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust' - Sigur Ros
Sigur Ros gets major high fives for making music that you can listen to at the gym, or when you have a swing in your step.

[2009]
'Vecktamist' - Grizzly Bear
Not sure how to approach including 2009 in the decade list, so I went with Grizzly Bear because perpetually annoying Paul with Grizzly Bear praise is fun, plus the album is freakin amazing.

I used the thingamabob at the top of the post to include some of the stuff from my list, and some of the stuff from the decade that I liked that isn't on my list.

A Decade of Regrets, by Niki Pop

Going through my listening history of the past 10 years is a useful exercise in more ways than one. Not only did the process yield a list of nineteen best albums. But I also discovered a whole trove of stuff that I loved very much once, and now, can no longer listen to. It's embarassing; it hurts my ears; it isn't very good; it's hokey and cute in a way that dates it; all of the above.

True, this isn't really part of the Paulies. But I wanted to share these gems with y'all. What did you used to love that now makes you cringe? How have your tastes evolved in the past 10 years?

In no particular order:

(1) Babyshambles, and anything else involving Pete Doherty. There was a point in my life when I imagined myself very obsessed with Pete Doherty. He was cute, kind of, in a vulnerable I'm-in-a-band sort of way. And the music sounded enough like rock to get me through the day. But five years later, I can confidently say: This guy is a schmuck! What's more, he can't sing, and his lyrics are just plain dumb, and the music overwrought and uninspired. Fail, Niki. Fail.

(2) CoCoRosie. The song "Ohio" is very good, but that's because someone else wrote it. Everything else is them playing with toys in their bathtub while high on ketamine. The concept is better than the execution. Ah, kitsch doesn't age well.

(3) Princess Superstar. I needed some electronic music, and loved the idea of a hard-rocking female MC, which is probably why I suffered her 2005 album, "My Machine" for at least a year before I gave up. Today she has the same cutesy/edgy quality that makes Vice magazine abhorrent.

An example from "The Classroom:"

My, um, um, ancient speaking report
Is on my great-to-the-50th-power grandmother whose name was Superstar
I am the descendant of a duplicant
A cycophant from a cloning plant*Pause* (no telepathing, Coke Is It!)
Right, uh, the year of her was 2080
Understandably illusive since we don't count time anymore maybe
It's a bit hazy, but Superstar was crazy
An entertainer back when there was entertainment, pleasure for payment
So that everybody would stop their complainin'
She was very very bad, and I don't mean bad meaning good
I'll explain how bad Superstar was if I could

(4) Ted Leo and the Pharmacists. Sorry, Ted. This guy will disapper. I kept putting songs like "Where Have All the Rude Boys Gone?" on mixes for people, but when they came onto the mix I'd skip them and feel guilty.

(5) Scout Niblett. Another one where I loved the idea of her so much I probably forgave the fact that she was kind of awful. A tiny British girl who plays the drums (only) and very cutely howls along about death in a reedy little girl voice. Everyone I knew tried to stop me, but I wouldn't listen. Internet research reveals that Jens Lekman covered "Your Beat Kicks Back Like Death," which I guess might give her some legitimacy to some, but artiness aside - aaaargh! Thoughts?





(6) Death Cab for Cutie/Transatlanticism (2003)
I've probably heard this album 1,000 times, if not more. Today it makes me want to kill myself. Not only is it maudlin and overwrought, but it’s bleak. That it’s so well-crafted musically makes it all the more dangerous. I can't keep it down for this:
The glove compartment is inaccurately named and everybody knows it, so I’m proposing a swift orderly change:
‘cuz behind its door there’s nothing to keep my fingers warm, and all I find are souvenirs from better times.

(7) Joanna Newsom. See my earlier post re: our generation will never be forgiven for Joanna Newsom. Quirk, novelty, and technical talent shouldn't be viable substitutes for listenability. Right? I mean, it is cool that she can play the harp and everything, but how long can you stay in the room when "The Milk-Eyed Mender" (2004) is playing? Don't lie.

Mike D's Best of the Decade

Sorry this is so late. Here are the albums I enjoyed most in 2009:

Lady Gaga - The Fame Monster
Mason Jennings - Blood of Man
The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You
Tegan & Sara - Sainthood
Metric - Fantasies
Passion Pit - Manners
Regina Spektor - Far
Micachu and the Shapes - Jewellery
Arctic Monkeys: Humbug
The Swell Season - Strict Joy

I also started listening to the Tiny Desk Concert series from NPR's
"All Songs Considered," and quite a few of those are worth a listen.

Best of the decade:

The Magnetic Fields - Distortion (2007)
Regina Spektor - Begin to Hope (2006)
Glen Hansard & Marketa Irglova - The Swell Season (2006)
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not (2006)
The Hold Steady - Almost Killed Me (2004)
Stellastarr - Stellastarr (2003)
The Shins - Chutes Too Narrow (2003)
Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below (2003)
Andrew Bird - Weather Systems (2003)
Tegan And Sara - If It Was You (2002)
The Postal Service - Give Up (2002)
Cory Branan - The Hell You Say (2002)
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
The White Stripes - White Blood Cells (2001)
The Royal Tenenbaums Soundtrack (2001)
The Strokes - Is This It? (2000)