To conclude my three-part wrap-up of the year and the decade, we come to the part of this exercise that was the most fun for your Rockologist.
This is where I got to go back and relive a lot of memories from the past ten years by listening to my favorite albums from that same period. Not all of those memories were good ones mind you, but even during the bad times these were the records that helped get me through them.
So right about now, I need to be clear about one thing. I'm not saying these were the best albums released during the past ten years — only that they were my personal favorites. I also need to add that what a lot of you may be seeing as artists or bands missing in action — including people like the White Stripes, Amy Winehouse, Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket, and the Killers — would be here if I were to expand this list to twenty.
But since I've already spent quite a bit of time on this whole end-of-year, end-of-decade business, I thought it best to keep this list somewhat short in the interest of brevity. The last thing I want to do here is bore all of you to death.
That said, I'm also going to cheat a bit here.
Although I've decided to limit my choices to one album apiece from each artist, please don't shoot me if I slip a few of their other albums under some of these entries. Some rules are just made to be broken — especially when I'm the one who is making them. With that said, here we go:
10. Porcupine Tree - Fear Of A Blank Planet (2007)
PT were my personal major new musical discovery this decade, and this album represented that point of entry. I've since gone on to the rest of their catalog, which includes many albums better than this one — including this year's The Incident. Nonetheless, FOABP is always going to be a little special for me, because it was my introduction to a band I have since come to believe may be the single most underrated in all of music. The songs "Anesthetize" and "Sentimental" alone qualify this one for inclusion.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Minus Coldplay, this is a very good list.
8. Neil Young - Living With War
I'll let Mookie know. Brace yourself.
7. Wilco - Sky Blue Sky
After catching them on "ACL" and hearing how essential Cline was to their sound, I couldn't imagine them without him all the previous years. When in rock history has that ever happened where someone has come in and become the signature part of a band's sound?
2. Bob Dylan - Modern Times
Dylan's best record since "Blood On The Tracks"
Really? That would be "Time Out of Mind" for me.
2 - Glen Boyd
Cline fits Wilco like a glove. Its like he was always there from the beginning, especially when you see them live. If you don't already have the Ashes Of American Flags concert DVD, I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I like Time Out Of Mind (and for that matter Love & Theft) a lot too, but for my money Modern Times is the best of the trilogy (yes, I said trilogy), and one of Dylan's best ever.
Thanks for chiming in Bicho.
-Glen
3 - Glen Boyd
Oh, and for God's sake don't let the Mookster know I brought up his favorite album again...LOL...
-Glen
4 - zingzing
kid a/amnesiac definitely deserve a place near the top. smile as well, although i'd bet it'd be edged out of my top 10 by a slim margin. i love it, but it's hard to consider an album that's almost 40 years old. especially since most people listening to it have been hearing it for a long time on bootlegs. wilco and the flaming lips might make it in, but probably on other albums.
that said, my music taste has gotten so scattered this decade (last song i played was some 1930s georgia gospel blues, this one is some early 80s ny disco funk) that any top 10 i tried to make would be have to be a top ten of top tens by genre or something.
(song after that is japanese experimental metal.)
5 - Glen Boyd
But this recording of Smile isn't forty years old Zing. The music has been in Wilson's head that long, but the recording here, made with all of these fabulous musicians is as fresh as the year it was made...which was 2004 by the way.
It also puts all those half-finished bootlegs from the sixties to shame.
Just for the record, I'd also love to see a list from you...you do still have a BC account, correct?
Every now and then, even your grizzled old Rockologist likes to make a left turn down fucked-up avenue, and I've no doubt a list from you would make for one hell of a road-map.
-Glen
6 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Hmmm... A Top Ten List for a whole Decade? Tis one hard task:
(Here's another one of my lists,Glen):
Attention Deficit - The Idiot King(2001)
O.S.I. - S/T(2003)
Tomahawk - S/T(2001)
Cynic - Traced in Air(2008)
Porcupine Tree - In Absentia(2002)
Alkotrio - Baranina(2008)
Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe(2000)
The Bad Plus - Prog(2007)
Strapping Young Lad - S/T(2003)
Opeth - Blackwater Park(2001)/Damnation(2003)
7 - zingzing
"It also puts all those half-finished bootlegs from the sixties to shame."
thing is though, that it doesn't. someone named "purple chick," who also remastered the beatles' discography in stereo and mono a few years ago, put together a disc that follows the 2004 recording for its structure, but uses mostly 60s recordings to make it. wilson didn't add much new to the production or the songwriting, and other than some song placement, about 95% of it could be sourced directly from 60s stuff.
go look it up--smile (purple chick mix) is what it's called--and marvel. smile was finished, at least if you believe wilson in 2004. it just wasn't sequenced. it's possible that this (both purple chick and the 2004 version) represents wilson's thwarted vision, and he would have added much more to it.
either way, the 60s recordings, dodgy sound quality and all, represent the genius at his peak, working his own incredible voice and production methods in with one of the greatest harmony groups of all time. no offense to the wondermints, but they're no beach boys. and no offense to brian wilson, but 37 years does nothing for one's voice. there's a sluggish quality to both his voice and some of the recordings on the 2004 version that just isn't there in the 60s. and maybe it was the tapes i'm used to hearing, but there's this constant nagging swirl of psychedelia to the original recordings that just doesn't show up on the cleaner recent recordings.
as for a list... i just checked my itunes, and there are well over 10,000 songs (so "well over" that it's either impressive or embarrassing...) that are tagged with years between 2000-2009. i'd have to imagine there are another 2-3,000 songs that aren't tagged. my itunes is a mess. just the idea of trying to do a list makes me sick to my stomach. but i have been writing about music here and there for the entire decade, and this is the first full decade that i've been aware of music, so it might be interesting to try. would have to wait until after christmas.
8 - Glen Boyd
I'm with ya on In Absentia Brian. Outside of PT and Opeth though, I haven't heard a single thing on your list. Which I'm sure doesn't surprise you.
Zing, I'll try and locate the Purple chick's Smile. If nothing else, you've got intrigued about it.
-Glen
9 - Mark Saleski
glen, i think you'd like Tomahawk. also, that Bad Plus record is great. actually, so is there current one. usually, when an instrumental group adds a vocalist, i'm ready to run away. this time though, it was a brilliant move.
10 - Glen Boyd
I'll have to find a download of Tomahawk I guess. And any group who calls their album "Prog" has me interested, so Bad Plus gets added to the list as well. Thanx guys.
-Glen
11 - Greg Barbrick
A few disagreements, but nice list overall Glen. I have to say that personally I kind of fall into the "zing" category, that of listening to music just all over the place these past 10 years.
I know that The Soft Bulletin does not count, as it is '99 release, but that and Kid A were all that got me through Y2K. There has never been as much boy-band shit out there as that year, IMHO.
Although I could probably put together a list of 10 records for what will be remembered as "The Bush Years," I honestly think I could not find 10 I liked released in any of the individual years.
That's pretty rough, but think about it, were there actually 10 albums released in say, 2003 that you simply cannot live without?
Good Rockology though Glen.
12 - Brian aka Guppusmaximus
Hey, Glen, you should also give Attention Deficit & Alkotrio a shot as well. Especially, if you like spicy instrumental blues/fusion, the first of those two bands being a brilliant explosion of "structured improv" and the latter is just a blazing cauldron of electric bliss.
I have to agree with Mark about The Bad Plus' latest release but I had to go with "Prog" because they did such a killer job on "Tom Sawyer" from RUSH and it was my first experience with them(like yours w/FOABP). Mark was also the guy who introduced me to them... Much Props!
13 - Tan The Man
Where's Bruce's "The Rising"?
14 - Glen Boyd
Read under the entry for Bruce's Devils & Dust a bit more carefully...