Top 40 2000-2004

I’m posting this list in the interest of providing visitors an idea of what I’d consider my “canon”–for the last five years, at least. Any music aficionado would agree that a list like this actually goes together pretty quickly, by sorting one’s iTunes by year and taking a glance at the CD rack. My main criterion for inclusion and ranking was shelf-life–how much an album holds up to multiple listens for me. Granted, it’s only been a maximum of five years, but there are plenty of albums not included because they aged much too quickly, or because I haven’t been able to listen to them enough. The “for me” qualifier is important here–I’m not making any objective value judgments as to a record’s quality as judged by others, just myself. And I understand the arbitrary nature of this type of ranking system–could 14 and 15 be switched without upsetting the celestial balance? Sure. Maybe. These are albums here I have profound memories associated with–all of them came out during my immediate post-college/first taste of adulthood years, and so it stands as a very personal list, and one that will no doubt change with passing years.

1. Guided by Voices-Isolation Drills (2001, TVT) (buy)
I chatted briefly with fellow GBV freak David (from largeheartedboy) over IM a month or two ago about how I saw Guided by Voices concerts as an aural equalizer of the band’s legendarily erratic (don’t say “lo-fi”) recorded sound quality, and how, for me, it was only in a live setting that “Echos Myron” or “Game of Pricks” could get the full, beer and whiskey-drenched dynamic treatment that four tracks and a living room could never provide. Robert Pollard has always, of course, been an arena screamer on a budget, and the band’s step to “major” label TVT for 1999’s Do the Collapse offered promise toward widening his sound, but ultimately resulted in Ric Ocasek flattening it enough to slide it to Bob under the studio door. Then, two years later, came Isolation Drills, with multi-tracking Tom Dowd acolyte Rob Schnapf at the dials, which, for me is both the perfect “mainstream” realization of the Guided By Voices sound, and the last truly great GBV record. Power pop, riff-rock and jangle rule the day here, and songs are given the space of an airplane hangar to expand and explode. The drumming is remarkably melodic, and possibly the most memorable element of the album. I get flak about it from purists, but Isolation Drills is my favorite GBV album, by far.

2. Wilco-Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002, Nonesuch) (buy)
3. Wu-Tang Clan-The W (2000, Columbia) (buy)Initially disregarded by most because of the long post-Forever drought and the decision to scale back its grandeur for the batshit theatricality of 36 Chambers, The W is long overdue credit as a solid hip-hop record that rewards repeated listens. Sure, it’s all over the place, but when it hits, as on Raekwon’s stream-of-consciousness drug-game verse on “Hollow Bones,” irresistable club tracks “Protect Ya Neck,” “Gravel Pit, “Do You Really (Thang Thang),” and life-altering, genre-defying Ghostface/Isaac Hayes dirge “I Can’t Go to Sleep,” it’s unforgettable. Pot emerges more than ever (!) as Wu-Tang’s sixth man, and accordingly, tracks blend into one another, verses and entire songs start and stop erratically, and ODB (RIP) spits the immortal line “What a waste/I’m up in your face like ‘what!’”

4. New Pornographers-Mass Romantic* (2000, Mint) (buy)
5. OutKast-Stankonia (2000, LaFace) (buy)
6. Spoon-Kill the Moonlight (2002, Merge) (buy)
I drove in the dark 45 minutes from Greencastle to Bloomington, Indiana to buy this record. I waited until I got home to listen to it, lit some candles, and settled in. The robotic, almost motorized rhythms of “Small Stakes” jarred me into uneasiness and forced me to concentrate, which is what Spoon does better than any band around. Their sound is slightly off-kilter without becoming isolating, and their productions are meticulous. Kill the Moonlight was the perfect follow-up to attention-getting Girls Can Tell, stripping that record’s pure, joyous indie rock to its rhythmic essence. Kinks update “The Way We Get By” followed “Stakes,” as did the pummeling, cathartic “Jonathon Fisk” and the left-handed piano and drums one-two punch of “Someone Something” and “Don’t Let it Get You Down.” Moonlight finally established Britt Daniel as a remarkable songwriting force, able to synthesize influences without being derivitive and incorporate emotion and truly romantic yearing without mawkishness.

7. PJ Harvey-Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
(2000, Island) (buy)
8. Radiohead-Kid A (2000, Capitol) (buy)
9. Constantines-Shine a Light (2003, Sub Pop) (buy)
I’m actually surprised that, after everything fell into place with this list, Shine A Light didn’t end up higher. One of the central criteria for inclusion and ranking here was “re-listenability,” and the Constantines’ second record has seemed to actually get better over time, instead of levelling out as most of the others on this list have. My favorite track from this album has switched more than any of the others; originally “Poison,” then the title track for a while, then “Young Lions,” and now “On to You.” The sound that Constantines create on this album is one of pure, loud dramatic inspiration.

10. Modest Mouse-The Moon and Antarctica (2000, Epic) (buy)
11. Belle and Sebastian-Fold Your Hands, Child, You Walk Like A Peasant (2000, Matador) (buy)
As has been written hundreds of times since its release, Fold Your Hands is far from Belle and Sebastian’s best work–in fact, it ranks 4th in my book, behind, well, their first three records. It’s spotty, indeed, but it also contains my all-time favorite B&S track, “Women’s Realm,” a soulful male/female tradeoff that explodes into a glorious string coda–the main reason for the high ranking of the album. The band has been known to experiment with genre, and its best work is that which disguises the seams between songs–something that didn’t happen here. But if Fold Your Hands doesn’t add up to more than the sum of its parts, those individual components are great–the delicate soul of “Don’t Leave the Light On, Baby,” the baroque flourishes and impressionistic lyricism of “The Model,” and the gently psychedelic Biblical overtones of “Beyond the Sunrise.” Uneven, yes, but, come on, it’s got “Women’s Realm!”

12. The Arcade Fire-Funeral (2004, Merge) (buy)
13. Deltron 3030-Deltron 3030* (2000, 75 Ark) (buy)
The concept was retarded, something to do with interplanetary rap battlers (Deltron Zero, The Cantankerous Captain Aptos and Skiznod the Boy, known on this planet as Del the Funkee Homosapien, Dan the Automator and Kid Koala) struggling against a dystopian corporate oligarchy, or something to that effect. But the execution was brilliant, allowing Del to once again showcase his virtuosic, run-to-the-dictionary non-stop flow over beats as nerdy as they were funky. It was the return of Parliament, only with Arthur C. Clarke replacing George Clinton: “Verbal war with weapons, installation/Blowin the star dust, distance twelve parsecs/Enthuse your phalanx with my literary talents/Just a bit of balance, rip the silence/in space, all-star systems are our victims/Atomics, anonymous with ominous/implications of information, or information, and entertainment/Cyber-tech dialect, you gotta earn my respect/I’m like Gamera to amateurs, hit em with a cannonball.” Still the best work any of the three has done.

14. Queens of the Stone Age-Rated R (2000, Interscope) (buy)
15. The Decemberists-Castaways and Cutouts* (2002, Kill Rock Stars) (buy)
16. Super Furry Animals-Phantom Power (2003, XL) (buy)
17. Of Montreal-Satanic Panic in the Attic (2004, PolyVinyl) (buy)
Prior to Satanic Panic in the Attic, I knew about Of Montreal, but chalked them (or him, really) up to an Elephant 6 also-ran–able to craft a catchy melody, but slowed by sketchy ideas that never seemed to fully flourish. Aldhills Arboretum was always on the verge of being recommendable for me, and I played it enough trying to make it work, but I couldn’t figure out exactly why it wouldn’t. Then I bought Satanic Panic on a scorching summer day, and everything clicked. Kevin Barnes finally, and fully, allowed electronics (analog synths, handclaps) to sharpen his sound without losing the neo-psychedelic gleam, and allowed many of his songs to follow a disjointed, suite-like structure that caused the listener to forget at the end where the song started–the “heart attack on the dance floor” ending to “My British Tour Diary,” and especially the Polyphonic Spree/Langley School children’s choir at the close of standout “Lysergic Bliss.” I didn’t take it out of my car until November.

18. Blackalicious-Blazing Arrow (2002, MCA) (buy)
19. Blonde Redhead-Misery is a Butterfly (2004, 4AD) (buy)
20. Kanye West-The College Dropout* (2004, Roc-A-Fella) (buy)
21. The Shins-Chutes too Narrow (2003, Sub Pop) (buy)
22. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists-The Tyranny of Distance
(2002, Lookout!) (buy)
23. Dandy Warhols-Thirteen Tales from Urban Bohemia
(2000, Capitol) (buy)
This one surprised me. The Dandy Warhols are perenially flogged, especially post “DiG,” for being poseurs who co-opt ideas, sounds, looks, and styles that took the progenitors entire careers to establish. True. But here, they do it really well, if for the only time. Opener “Godless” steals its guitar from George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” but makes up for it with a great Eric Matthews trumpet part. Single “Bohemian Like You” could be arrested for posing as mid-period Rolling Stones, but it’s so damn catchy, you forget about authenticity. The constant drug references get old quickly, as does the freshman year existentialism, but when an album’s liner notes consist of a picture collage of the band, who are clearly very good friends, partying, it’s time to dispense with the arch criticism and listen to the hooks, which this record has plenty of.

24. Ween-White Pepper (2000, Elektra) (buy)
It often gets lost in the frequent mentions about their seeming failure to take their music seriously, but Ween is a great band. Their knack for goofiness aside, these guys have mastered genre and can write an effective song in nearly any style, demonstrated on White Pepper. In order: “Exactly Where I’m At” and “Flutes of Chi” (psych-pop), “Even if you Don’t” (piano-based traditional pop), “Bananas and Blow” (Jimmy Buffett), “Stroker Ace” (hardcore), “Ice Castles” (New Age instrumental), “Back to Basom” and “The Grobe” (prog), “Pandy Fackler” (elevator/lounge pop), “Stay Forever” (light rock), and “Falling Out” (country-rock).

25. Spoon-Girls Can Tell (2000, Merge) (buy)
26. Enon-High Society (2002, Touch and Go) (buy)
27. Stereolab-Sound-Dust (2001, Elektra) (buy)
28. My Morning Jacket-It Still Moves (2003, ATO/RCA) (buy)
29. Dismemberment Plan-Change (2001, DeSoto) (buy)
30. Self-Gizmodgery (2000, Spongebath) (buy)
Almost as a rule, I don’t like instrumental gimmickry. Conceptual gimmickry, sure (see number 13), but when I heard that Self’s Matt Mahaffey had recorded an entire album using nothing but children’s toy instruments, I was determined to hate it. Until I heard it. And really liked it. Without the copious liner notes (which listed every toy instrument used), I would have assumed nothing had changed from his previous release (on Dreamworks) Breakfast With Girls–the production work and attention to detail was that thorough. And you can’t make an album with toys without a sense of humor, and “Trunk Fulla Amps” brings it, riffing on songs incorporating the word “mother” to hilarious effect. The cover of the Doobie Brothers’ “What a Fool Believes” strips the original of its layers of gloss, leaving the sentiment intact, and, one could argue, more potent. The rest of the record offers bright, quirky pop (”5 Alive,” especially) and slinky white-boy funk that conjures memories of a childhood spent no doubt tinkering with the same “instruments.”

31. Interpol-Turn on the Bright Lights* (2002, Matador) (buy)
32. New Pornographers-Electric Version (2003, Matador) (buy)
33. Radiohead-Hail to the Thief (2003, Capitol) (buy)
34. The Twilight Singers-Twilight as Played By the Twilight Singers
(2000, Sony) (buy)
35. Badly Drawn Boy-The Hour of Bewilderbeast*
(2000, Twisted Nerve/XL) (buy)
36. Grandaddy-Sumday (2003, V2) (buy)
37. The Beta Band-Hot Shots II (2001, Astralwerks) (buy)
38. Jurassic 5-Quality Control (2000, Interscope) (buy)
39. Super Furry Animals-Rings Around the World (2001, Epic) (buy)
A rather drastic change of sound for the band from Radiator, Rings saw the Super Furries shack up with High Llama and Sean O’Hagan to create a lush, dramatic piece of pop art. What most had come to recognize as the SFA sound was still present, in the hyperkinetic wordplay of the title track, single “Juxtapozed with U,” and “Sidewalk Serfer Girl,” but was buffered on all sides by extended ELO-influenced “Presidential Suite,” “Run Christian Run,” “No Sympathy,” “Shoot Doris Day,” and album opener “Alternate Route to Vulcan Street.” The unquestionable highlight of the album, however is the song-suite “Receptacle for the Respectable,” ostensibly an ode to a certian zaftig bethonged intern from an American administration past. Beginning in an uptempo acoustic frame, the song segues three times, first into a slower, layered section, alternating falsetto “tell me” with Gruff Rhys’ angelic chanting, then to an even slower 20/20 era Beach Boys singalong section, then, gradually, buoyed by Rhys’ elastic/satanic voice, into a torrential metal finish, which I once witnessed them perform live, flawlessly.

40. Gorillaz-Gorillaz* (2001, Virgin) (buy)

*=debut album

Filed under: Arcade Fire  Badly Drawn Boy  Belle and Sebastian  Blackalicious  Blonde Redhead  canon creation  Constantines  Dandy Warhols  Decemberists  Deltron 3030  Dismemberment Plan  Enon  Gorillaz  Grandaddy  Guided By Voices  Interpol  Jurassic 5  Kanye West  Modest Mouse  My Morning Jacket  Of Montreal  Outkast  PJ Harvey  QOTSA  Radiohead  Self  Spoon  Stereolab  Super Furry Animals  Ted Leo and the Pharmacists  The Beta Band  The New Pornographers  The Shins  Twilight Singers  Ween  Wilco  Wu-Tang Clan