Alex's decade list

The 25 albums I most consistently reach for (click at, in these crazy modern times?) no matter how many times I've heard them. Everything on here I would happily play at any time regardless of mood. All album name links go to a good example via YouTube of why the album's worth listening to. All recaps kept to tweet length because I could go on and on about all of these. For the visually inclined, my favorites from the YouTube videos follow the entries.


25. Handsome Boy Modeling School: White People - An insane collection of talent used to great effect. Even makes me enjoy Jack Johnson and John Oates. The De La, Casual & Del tracks shine.

24. Ghostface Killah: Supreme Clientele - Ghost makes up for several years of Clan oversaturation with the Wu banger LP of the decade.

23. Soulive: Doin' Something - Snappy jazz funk elevated by hip-hop feels, like Tribe Called Quest tribute "Shaheed." Fred Wesley shows what horns should sound like.

22. Morphine: The Night - Sad and beautiful, a poignant posthumous note for the band to end on.

21. Zero 7: Simple Things - As lush and chill as albums come. Mellow late-night perfection.

20. Loveage: Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By - Innuendo at its max, A+ beats and fantastic vox. Shoves trip-hop somewhere sultry, sexy, sleazy, dirty, creepy. In a fun way.

19. Air: Virgin Suicides soundtrack - At times sinister, at times touchingly sweet. Air showing their versatility on an incredible soundtrack.

18. The Sword: Age of Winters - Riff after riff after riff... all sick.

17. Clint Mansell and the Kronos Quartet: Requiem for a Dream soundtrack - The story replicated musically. An amazing score. Harrowing yet enjoyable.

16. Quasimoto: The Further Adventures of Lord Quas - High-pitched raps and odd ball production from Madlib that somehow works. Has a blaxploitation movie soundtrack vibe.

15. Deltron 3030: Deltron 3030 - Tomorrow's raps today. Another brilliant Automator concept album and Del's finest showcase. The future is dope.

14. Madvillain: Madvillainy - Two geniuses at the top of their game. One of many hip-hop classics from Madlib, MF DOOM and Stones Throw in the aughts.

13. Ween: White Pepper - Their last great album with 12 slick, diverse songs, from the sludge of "The Grobe" to the lovey morning of "Stay Forever."

12. The Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles the Robots - Handily reversed my opinion of the Lips. A strong mixture of silliness and earnestness.

11. System of a Down: Toxicity - Responsible for more car rocking than any album ever. I put in much time mastering "Chop Suey!" harmonies in the pre-Beatles Rock Band era.

10. Gorillaz - Gorillaz: Trip-hop evolved. Top notch song writing and production. More Automator magic plus Albarn excellence.

9. MF DOOM: Mm..food - Elite wordplay focused on food and tremendous, innovative beats. Sample-based skits that impress.

8. Tortoise with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy: The Bold and the Brave - Best cover album ever. Their "Thunder Road" is my track of the decade. Amazing reimaginings of songs by Elton John, R. Thompson, DEVO, etc.

7. Tool: Lateralus - Proving "math rock" needn't be a slur. Fibonacci FTW

6. Cannibal Ox: The Cold Vein - A masterpiece. El-P in top production form and two great storytellers turning in the best indie hip-hop LP in a decade chock full of them.

5. Radiohead: Kid A - Obviously I'm not alone on loving this album.

4. Mastodon: Leviathan - Lives up to its Moby Dick whale of a theme, thrashing you sea beast style. Killer riffs and unhinged drumming in a cohesive package.

3. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat - Incredible. Soulful songs bolstered by beautiful harmonies. I still can't stop listening.

2. Mr. Lif: I Phantom - BLif's flow in top form. Great storytelling with a variety of producers turning in one dope track after another. An all time hip-hop fav.

1. Queens of the Stone Age: Rated R - Deceptively complex rock that surprises me after a decade of steady listening. Even the 9-min psychedelic closer is enthralling. The best.

Quick Rec, from PGJ

It's that time of year -- when I dive into the previous year's "Best Music Writing" anthology and turn up some classics, including David Ramsey's "I Will Forever Remain Faithful," originally printed in the Oxford American. In it, Ramsey recounts his year teaching in post-Katrina New Orleans, where Lil Wayne was the common language between the out-of-towner-college-boy-teacher and his Weezy-loving students:

"For some of my students, the questions Where are you from? and Do you listen to Lil Wayne? were close to interchangeable. Their shared currency—as much as neighborhoods or food or slang or trauma—was the stoned musings of Weezy F. Baby.

The answer was, sometimes, yes, I did listen to Lil Wayne. Despite his ubiquitous success, my students were shocked.

“Do you have the mix tapes?” asked Michael, a sixteen-year-old ninth grader. “It’s all about the mix tapes.”

The following day, he had a stack of CDs for me. Version this, volume that, or no label at all.

And that’s just about all I listened to for the rest of the year."

You can read it here.

And for a little memory of a 17-year old Lil Wayne, here's Weezy back in 1999 (at 3:28) rhymin "Drop It Like It's Hot" 5 years before Snoop:

My Decade (Abridged)

1. I think it's fascinating that we still talk in terms of albums... such '90s kids, all of us. Whether it's in exercises like this or just in my general thought process, I've spent the decade trying to figure out how iPods, file-sharing and MySpace impacted music and my love for it. Music is as good (or has the capacity to be) as it's ever been before, but I hate the way we get it. The delivery mechanism for receiving music has forever changed and the value of an "album" is entirely different than its was 15 years ago. There's no going back... and, really, I feel badly for the 13-year old who will never know the genuine pleasure of buying an album.

2. As I mentioned and Mark (Cummins) better articulated, my age has impacted me. I think I understand, better than ever before, why my parents (or anyone their age) could never have loved Radiohead as much as me. So much of the magic of pop music is wrapped up in youth and its emotions.

3. As I mentioned and Mark (Cichra) better articulated, Kings of Leon?? Really? That's where we landed???

25. The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place/Explosions in the Sky

24. The Meadowlands/The Wrens

23. Logos/Atlas Sound

22. White Blood Cells/The White Stripes

21. Late Registration/Kanye West

20. Sound of Silver/LCD Soundsystem

19. In Rainbows/Radiohead

18. You Forgot it in People/Broken Social Scene

17. The Moon & Antarctica/Modest Mouse

16. Up The Bracket/The Libertines

15. Thunder, Lightning, Strike/The Go! Team

14. Amnesiac/Radiohead

13. Grab That Gun/The Organ

12. Agaetis Byrjun/Sigur Ros

11. Funeral/The Arcade Fire

10. Stephen Malkmus/Stephen Malkmus

9. Microcastle/Deerhunter

8. Is This It? (UK Version)/The Strokes

7. The Black Album/Jay-Z

6. Apologies to the Queen Mary/Wolf Parade

5. Turn on the Bright Lights/Interpol

4. Takk/Sigur Ros

3. Silent Alarm/Bloc Party

2. The Grey Album/Danger Mouse + Jay-Z

1. Kid A/Radiohead

13 Songs I loved from the Albums Above...
Motion Picture Soundtrack/Kid A

Neighborhood #1/Funeral

Your Hand in Mind/The Earth is Not a Cold Dead Place
All My Friends/Sound of Silver
Someone Great/Sound of Silver
Hoppipolla/Takk

My 1st Song/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Public Service Announcement/The Black Album + The Grey Album

Walkabout/Logos

Church on White/Stephen Malkmus

House of Cards/In Rainbows

Pioneers/Silent Alarm

Time for Heroes/Up the Bracket

13 Songs I loved from other sources...

The Present/Bloc Party

Roc Boys/Jay-Z

Winters Love/Animal Collective

Paparazzi/Lady Gaga

Hate to Say I Told You So/The Hives

Oil in the Fields/Paul Duncan

C'mon, C'mon/The Von Bondies

What You Know/T.I.

Make It Rain (Remix)/Fat Joe featuring R Kelly & Lil' Wayne

Stadiums and Shrines II/Sunset Rubdown

Staring at the Sun/TV on the Radio

Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)/Beyonce

Romeo/Basement Jaxx

Re-release of the Decade...
Slanted and Enchanted: Luxe and Reduxe/Pavement

Hip-hopera of the Decade...

Trapped in the Closet (Chapters 1-22)/R Kelly

Best Year of Music...

2001

Year I was Most Interested in Music...

2004

Best Year of Pop Music...

2008 (I am... Sasha Fierce/Beyonce, The Fame/Lady Gaga)

10 Films I loved this Decade...
Requiem for a Dream

The Barbarian Invasions

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
I Heart Huckabees
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Inglourious Basterds

Mulholland Drive

Knocked Up

Book of the Decade...
Everything Is Illuminated/Jonathan Safran Foer

Best TV Drama...
The Wire

Best Character on The Wire...
Marlo Stanfield

Best TV Comedy...
Arrested Development

Best Character on Arrested Development...
Franklin

Best TV Reality Series...
Jersey Shore

Best Cameo on Entourage...
Matt Damon

Favorite Sports Moments...
1. Tiger's chip-in at 2005 Masters
2. Vince Carter's dunk on Frederic Weis (G.O.A.T.)
3. Tiger winning the 2008 US Open on a broken leg and torn ACL

Least Favorite Sports Moments...
1. John Terry's Missed Penalty in 2008 Champions League Final
2. Andres Iniesta's Injury-Time Goal in 2009 Champions League Semi-Final
3. The New York Mets (continuous)

Mark's 2009 Paulies List

Hi everyone. I'm Mark; buddy of PGJ since college, Paulies contributor
from the beginning.

First, my metal band Denial Machine released its self-titled debut
album this year. Search for it in the usual places (Amazon, iTunes,
LaLa) or check it out at our myspace
(http://www.myspace.com/denialmachine) or our website
(http://www.denialmachine.net).

Top 25 Albums of the Decade

****************************

First, numbers 25-11 in no particular order:

IDLEWILD - The Remote Part

JOANNA NEWSOM - Ys

RADIOHEAD - Kid A

I think of it as an album closing the last decade, not an album of
this decade, in that it features the culmination of several 90's
influences more than it influenced the next ten years of music. But
it's great and it came out this decade and it needs to be on the list.

BLOC PARTY - A Weekend in the City

GOD FORBID - The Constitution of Treason

The album that re-introduced me to the current state of American metal.

RILO KILEY - More Adventurous

INTERPOL - Turn on the Bright Lights

Remember how much we loved this album? Damn.

THE KILLERS - Hot Fuss

COHEED AND CAMBRIA - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3

COLDPLAY - A Rush of Blood to the Head

ALL SHALL PERISH - The Price of Existence

I play this album for people to show them one kind of metal's
extremes. The technical brutality of this band is unbelievable.

YEAH YEAH YEAHS - Fever to Tell

MODEST MOUSE - Good News for People Who Love Bad News

SYSTEM OF A DOWN - Toxicity

Nu-metal's only worthwhile product.

ISIS - Panopticon

Along with fellow post-metallers Neurosis, Isis defined a genre. Er, subgenre.

10.) MUSE - Absolution

9.) UNEARTH - In the Eyes of Fire

8.) TRIVIUM - Ascendancy

Credibility issues aside, Trivium synthesized the best of metal's
history into a perfect album.

7.) AUGUST BURNS RED - Thrill Seeker

Mathcore's unpredictability made majestic and musical. Breathtaking.

6.) JOANNA NEWSOM - The Milk-Eyed Mender

Have to disagree with Niki on this one. Not since Neutral Milk Hotel
have we heard such a skilled blend of absurdity and earnestness. Only
if she were kidding would she be embarassing.

5.) JIMMY EAT WORLD - Bleed American

The pinnacle of emo, just after it hit the mainstream and just before
it became too much. A sweaty, satisfying, heartfelt album.

4.) THE STROKES - Room on Fire

For me, it was this album and not Is This It that showed the Strokes
in perfect indie-pop form.

3.) THE WRENS - Meadowlands

A statement of failure so true and deep it becomes beautiful and
hopeful in its effectiveness.

2.) COHEED AND CAMBRIA - Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Volume I:
From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness

"Welcome Home" left a small crater in the earth the first time I heard it.

1.) BLOC PARTY - Silent Alarm

The quintessential album of this decade. Indie guitar rock, dance
beats, hints of electronica. The honesty only a British accent can
deliver. Members of various ethnicities, including ethnicities besides
black and white (for a while, until Tiger Woods blew things recently,
multiethnicity was the new black). "Banquet" still sounds like an
pole-dancing steamroller on ecstasy.

A List of Bands I Loved that Blew It
********************************

Hot Hot Heat

Death Cab for Cutie

The Strokes (First impressions of my asshole)

Interpol

Rilo Kiley (indie sexy =/ sexy, Jenny Lewis)

Rapture

Daft Punk

Franz Ferdinand
Idlewild

Discoveries of This Year
*************************

For a few days this year, I thought that all the music I listen to for
the rest of my life should sound like Jesu's Opiate Sun EP. Lush,
full, melodic post-rock pop.

NORTH - What You Were: more post metal. The album I listened to most this year.

Listen to Howlin' Wolf's recording of "Smokestack Lightnin'" and hear
the 60 years of rock history which followed it put to shame.
Everything else becomes embarrassing after hearing the purity of this
proto-rock masterpiece.

General Observations
*********************

I like Paul's idea of having someone smarter than us document the
development of indie rock. But its development in this decade is far
more bizarre than we've considered since it culminated in KINGS OF
LEON. Really? KINGS OF FUCKING LEON? As I write this, they've just won
a GRAMMY for Record of the Year?!? Of all the early to mid 2000's
bands, could anyone have predicted that Kings of Leon would be the
grand outcome of the mainstreaming of indie rock?

BTW, ask Paul to tell his story about how he bitched out the son of
one of the members of Guided by Voices for praising Kings of Leon.

Music Consumption
**********************
In this decade, iTunes surpassed WalMart as the number one music
retailer. But have a look at this graph for a more sobering assessment
of the success of digital music:
http://musformation.com/assets_c/2009/08/musicforweb2-thumb-280x770-2482.gif
I'm not sure what this means. Are people just stealing a lot more
music? Or is it being consumed in more disposable, ephemeral ways
(LaLa streams, MySpace pages)? Again, someone smarter than me could
bring some perspective to this.

***********************
Happy to have been a part of the Paulies for the whole decade. Talking
about music helps us listen to it better; each year I look forward to
the insights shared by the people who participate in this list to help
me find new music and better enjoy the music I listen to already.

Combination Pizza Hut

...and Taco Bell. What an amazing artifact of 2009 -- put it in the time capsule straight away. This is what the naughties sounded like:

-PGJ