DISCUSSION :::: The obligatory best albums of the decade argument

We’re coming to the end of 2009 and like the lazy hacks we are, we’ve decided to fill some column inches with an argument about the best CDs of the decade.  Those of you who read the dead-tree version of Felix Music will have seen the editor’s decision, winnowed down from all our favourites – these were my choices.  I’ve left all the tedious landfill indie that has dominated so much of the music scene for others to pick through – anyone suggesting Keane or Coldplay below will be treated with the contempt they deserve.  Likewise Radiohead – they’ve been omitted for being amongst the worst live bands in the world, thus rendering anything they commit to CD null and void.

So, in no particular order, these were my favourite albums of the last ten years.  See what you think…

Your mother wouldn't like it.

Deftones – White Pony (2000)

The best album the American experimentalist have produced so far, this is by no means an easy listen – it’s harsh andcomplex, and downright unsettling in places.  However, it still sounds ahead of its time now, and has long outlasted the pop-metal that dominated the genre in 2000.

OutKast – Speakerboxxx/The Love Below (2003) / Stankonia (2000)

Kanye West – The College Dropout (2004)

Lupe Fiasco – The Cool (2007)

The noughties were the decade when hip-hop went mainstream.  It’s got the same signal-to-noise problems its always had as a genre, but these were some of the stand-out albums of the decade, proving you didn’t have to wave your wallet, handgun and/or dick around the whole time in order to record a decent CD.  Eminem also deserves an honourable mention here, but his Slim Shady LP (1999) was released too early to be counted in this chart.

Like a boy-band, but shoutier

Linkin Park – Hybrid Theory (2000)

Although derided nowadays as the first nu-metal boy-band, Linkin Park’s first album is still worth a listen.  While they didn’t invent the field (that dubious honour probably goes right back to the Run DMC’s cover of ‘Walk This Way’), Linkin Park presented a genuinely new take on a sound, simultaneously tighter and more accessible than either Slipknot or Korn, their one-time competitors.  Still, I wouldn’t touch any of their recent stuff with a shitty stick.

Lamb of God – As the Palaces Burn (2003)

Mastodon – Leviathan (2004)

Doing to nu-metal what Outkast did to hip-hop, these two acts cut through a lot of the stereotypical bullshit that went with the genre, in diametrically opposite ways.  Lamb of God produced albums of searing intensity and aggression, with nary an unnecessary note between them; Mastodon instead explored a more intelligent, complex and nuanced sound than had been heard before in metal, with staggering technical skill.  Again, neither are exactly easy listening, and Mastodon have since disappeared into their own egos to record a concept album that would embarrass Rick Wakeman.  As a demonstration of the best of the decade in metal, though, these two are hard to beat…

Tool – Lateralus (2001) / 10,000 Days (2006)

…with one possible exception.  Tool have produced one of the best albums ever recorded, but unfortunately spread it over two discs, filling the remaining space with electronic fuzz and noodly navel-gazing.  Still, when they’re good, they’re very, very good.  Ignoring the random crackling, mystical chanting and random monologues in German, the complexity of the bass-lines, intelligent lyrics and unusual, chopping time-signatures more than qualify them for this list.  The closing (or at least, last real) track of 10,000 Days, ‘Right in Two’, simply cements that.

To be fair, it could only improve her drumming.

The White Stripes – Elephant (2003)

Deserves an inclusion simply for originality – some of the best and most diverse sounds ever to come from a two piece band.  Even if they are both fucking weirdos.

The Streets – Original Pirate Material (2002)

If you don’t fit into a music scene, start your own.  Even if you don’t like Mike Skinner’s spoken-word Mockney style, you can’t dispute that before Original Pirate Material, no-one was doing it; afterwards, you were tripping over urban beat-poets all over the charts…

Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not (2006)

Such as, for example, the Arctic Monkeys.  Although there sound wasn’t in itself a revelation, the lyrics were clever, punchy and sharply delivered.  One of their major contributions, though, was to show that you didn’t need the chart delivered to you by some all-powerful record label: with a little patience and a little luck, your band could hack out a niche for itself on its own terms.

Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid (2008)

Beat poetry taken almost to its logical extremes, the music is largely there as a crutch for the exposed emotions of the lead singer on a trip around his difficult relationships, late night drinking, and post-late-night-drinking philosophy.  Genuinely beautiful in places.

System of a Down – Toxicity (2001)

Another nomination based on originality, System’s mixture of angry politics, manic energy and Armenian folk music generated a huge fan-base for them in the 2000’s, mostly off the back of this, their second album.

Right, over you to you lot.  There are bound to be omissions – after all, I wrote this after a Christmas party, with a hangover – but what were your CDs of the decade?

~ by Casey on December 22, 2009.