Here's the second half of the list I started yesterday. Once again, these are alphabetized by artist, not rank ordered in any way.
Artists M-Z
Arular, M.I.A.
Madvillainy, Madvillain
Blood Mountain, Mastodon
Crack The Skye, Mastodon
Leviathan, Mastodon
The Moon & Antarctica, Modest Mouse
Absolution, Muse
Boxer, The National
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Of Montreal
Stankonia, Outkast
Person Pitch, Panda Bear
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, PJ Harvey
A Woman A Man Walked By, PJ Harvey & John Parish
Third, Portishead
XTRMNTR, Primal Scream
We Love Life, Pulp
Lullabies To Paralyze, Queens Of The Stone Age
Songs For The Deaf, Queens Of The Stone Age
Accelerate, R.E.M.
Amnesiac, Radiohead
Hail To The Thief, Radiohead
In Rainbows, Radiohead
Kid A, Radiohead
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, Raekwon
Game Theory, The Roots
Rising Down, The Roots
The Drift, Scott Walker
( ), Sigur Rós
Sonic Nurse, Sonic Youth
Songs In A&E, Spiritualized
Girls Can Tell, Spoon
Kill The Moonlight, Spoon
Original Pirate Material, The Streets
First Impressions Of Earth, The Strokes
Is This It, The Strokes
Illinois, Sufjan Stevens
Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Sunset Rubdown
Mezmerize/Hypnotize, System Of A Down
Toxicity, System Of A Down
The Eraser, Thom Yorke
Dear Science, TV On The Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain, TV On The Radio
Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, The Unicorns
Elephant, The White Stripes
White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
Apologies To The Queen Mary, Wolf Parade
Madvillainy, Madvillain
Blood Mountain, Mastodon
Crack The Skye, Mastodon
Leviathan, Mastodon
The Moon & Antarctica, Modest Mouse
Absolution, Muse
Boxer, The National
Abattoir Blues/The Lyre Of Orpheus, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?, Of Montreal
Stankonia, Outkast
Person Pitch, Panda Bear
Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, PJ Harvey
A Woman A Man Walked By, PJ Harvey & John Parish
Third, Portishead
XTRMNTR, Primal Scream
We Love Life, Pulp
Lullabies To Paralyze, Queens Of The Stone Age
Songs For The Deaf, Queens Of The Stone Age
Accelerate, R.E.M.
Amnesiac, Radiohead
Hail To The Thief, Radiohead
In Rainbows, Radiohead
Kid A, Radiohead
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II, Raekwon
Game Theory, The Roots
Rising Down, The Roots
The Drift, Scott Walker
( ), Sigur Rós
Sonic Nurse, Sonic Youth
Songs In A&E, Spiritualized
Girls Can Tell, Spoon
Kill The Moonlight, Spoon
Original Pirate Material, The Streets
First Impressions Of Earth, The Strokes
Is This It, The Strokes
Illinois, Sufjan Stevens
Shut Up I Am Dreaming, Sunset Rubdown
Mezmerize/Hypnotize, System Of A Down
Toxicity, System Of A Down
The Eraser, Thom Yorke
Dear Science, TV On The Radio
Return To Cookie Mountain, TV On The Radio
Who Will Cut Our Hair When We’re Gone?, The Unicorns
Elephant, The White Stripes
White Blood Cells, The White Stripes
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, Wilco
Apologies To The Queen Mary, Wolf Parade
Fever To Tell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs
This is a solid list! May I ask why you chose "First Impressions of Earth" by The Strokes over "Room on Fire"?
ReplyDeleteAhhh yes, one of the more left-field choices on there, I know...
ReplyDeleteEssentially, "Room On Fire" has always sounded like a by-the-numbers rehash of "Is This It" to me. Beyond the excellent singles, a lot of the tracks on there seem a bit flat or undercooked. "First Impressions" is much more polished than anything the Strokes had recorded before it (which most say is a bad thing), but I think the songs within the album, especially the more prickly ones ("Vision Of Division", "Ize Of The World", "Electricityscape", etc) are more exciting than just more garage rock. The album sounds like the Strokes making a bid to be the big rock stars everyone wanted them to be. I'm still surprised that it backfired so much.
While there are some artists on your list that I can't say I'm a fan of (The Strokes, Fleet Foxes, Eminem to name a few) I do find it impressive that you were able to distill a decade down to 100 albums. I'm struggling just trying to put together a similar styled list for 2009 alone.
ReplyDeleteOne question though: I'm curious as to why Mezmerize/Hypnotize made the list. System of a Down is a great heavy band to be sure and Toxicity is their best album from this last decade in my opinion, but Mezmerize/Hypnotize simply aren't very good. They have their moments (Holy Mountains, B.Y.O.B.) but the problem is with the song writing. On System's self-titled (their best in my opinion) Serj Tankian was the primary lyricist and Daron Malakian was the primary composer. This was a system (har har) that worked. But with Mez/Hyp the lyrics, music and even vocals were dominated by Malakian, who's choice of subject matter and poetry isn't nearly as interesting (Lonely Day) as Tankian's. That, and Malakian's voice is very waring.
Tankian managed to pen both poetic and political and occasionally downright bizarre lyrics. Malakian's lyrics feel like they're hitting us over the head with the political stick or simply don't have enough depth to them (Radio/Video.) The music was also somewhat of a problem with Mez/Hyp, especially when compared to previous efforts. It didn't sound aggressive, dark or even heavy enough. I'm thinking of songs like "Suite-Pee" which sounded scary vs songs like "Hypnotize" which sounded downright poppy, too much so, in my opinion.
So again. What about these albums make them good enough to make this list?
P.S. The Cold Vein For the Win.
Wow. I didn't realize how long that comment looked when I previewed it. Well, you wanted discussion I suppose.
ReplyDeleteOk Andrew, here's my rebuttal...
ReplyDeleteFirst, let me make it clear that "Mez" and "Hyp" only work as one double-album that happened to be released at two different times during the year. I see the whole thing as one cohesive work.
Second, I don't view the album as a particularly great metal album. If I wanted that, I'd listen to "Toxicity". Instead, as you pointed out, "Mez/Hyp" is basically a pop album. Both halves were tremendously successful on the charts and the subject matter is much less focused and detailed, veering towards the broad strokes and slogans rather than "Prison Song", for example.
"Mez/Hyp" impressed me because you just don't hear metal that can be simultaneously heavy and hilarious. Metal, in general, is a very un-ironic genre. Even when you've got the Iron Maiden-school of bands singing about orcs and zombies and the plight of Native Americans, it's all treated very earnestly. What SoaD do brilliantly on "Mez/Hyp", in my opinion, is just go batshit crazy and smile throughout the whole thing. The tracks are so scattershot, covering all kinds of sounds and genres. You point to "Lonely Day", which, at face value, should indeed be horrible. However, I refuse to believe that those lyrics and that insipid melody aren't ironic.
Other songs ("This Cocaine...", "Violent Pornography", "She's Like Heroin") are almost Dada in my mind, with their nonsensical lyrical assault of "scary" words. And then you've got those few moments of serious craft, such as "Question!" and "Holy Mountains", where they finally sober up and be serious. On "Mez/Hyp", SoaD seem to have willing transformed into a cartoon version of a metal band, exaggerating every trope of the genre until everything is absurd and ridiculous. While I can see why that might not sit well with many fans and listeners, I personally believe it's some pretty amazing art.
That, my friend, is perhaps the most coherent argument in the favor of Mez/Hyp that I've ever heard. Nice job. I still don't think I'll ever enjoy them quite as much as Self-Titled or Toxicity (or even Steal This! for that matter,) but I'm willing to look at them differently after being presented with this. "Lonely Day" though... I don't think I'm ever getting onboard with that one.
ReplyDelete