My Top Records of The Decade
Same caveat as before. I’m an artist more than a critic although of course there’s art to criticism. These are the top records that influenced me over the past ten years.
As I review the list, I realize that there’s a lot of dupes from my 2009 list. The perils of being top-of-mind.
Radiohead – Kid A
When Bill first emailed me for my list I had put In Rainbows on it instead of Kid A. In retrospect, I was trying to pose a little too much. There’s much that’s been written about this record. I’ll add that it has the #2 song of the entire decade (for me) in “The National Anthem” and that Radiohead showed the rest of the world how to properly use a Rhodes. The opening notes of “Everything In Its Right Place” slay me every time. I was in Charlottesville when this came out. Me and Hastings driving through the country fields when WNRN played it at midnight. As a follow-up to OK Computer, one of the most important artistic statements in rock since Bowie’s Berlin trilogy.
Spoon – Girls Can Tell
This was the album that introduced me to Spoon. I think most people would say that Kill the Moonlight is a more important record. But this has the better songs, at least for me. Like with Kid A, the record begins on a powerful, magical and mysterious moment with “Everything Hits At Once”. Britt Daniel’s voice is one of the best and coolest in rock. ”Don’t say a word, the last one’s still stingin.” What an opening line. ”Fitted Shirt” is post-modern Zeppelin as far as I’m concerned. Britt’s singing in “Me and The Bean” drips with history, bringing 50s doo-wop into the modern age but dipped in malice and turned on its head. Spoon became my favorite band for a long time after hearing this record.
Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
My favorite memory of this record is listening to an advance copy while the snow fell around me, coasting down a mountain on my snowboard in Maine. ”Radio Cure” against the wisps of snowflakes and the gray overcast clouds and the feeling of gliding across the world. To this day, Jay Bennett does not get enough credit for this record and it’s a shame. The band was not the same after he left. And the trilogy of Being There, Summerteeth and YHF is one of the best in the modern era. The 9/11 symbolism pre-9/11 is weird and haunting. ”Jesus, etc” is the best song about 9/11 that’s ever been written, regardless of when it was penned.
Arcade Fire – Funeral
You always remember how certain records made you feel and how the melodies seemed so joyous and uplifting and you were surprised at how music could still make you feel that way. Song after song. A celebration. A revelation. Incredible arrangements. And a wonderful use of the piano. We need brighter pianos higher in the mix. The tradition of Born to Run but forwarded along to Montreal and then back down to ol US of A. You realize that they could probably never write as powerful and as effortless a collection of songs as those encapsulated on this album.
Trail of Dead – Source Tags and Codes
The greatest mystery in the world is what happened to this band after they released an unprecendented masterpiece. Nothing comes close to this record’s perfection. Everything works. The punk shearing guitar tones of “It Was There That I Saw You” against those beat lyrics and then flowing into those relentless drums of “Another Morning Stoner”. Wonderful melodic songs that combine the best of hard guitar rock and metal with hooks and melody. Aggressive and warm at the same time.
Paul Brill – New Pagan Love Song
I’ve known Paul for almost 10 years now and he’s gone from being some dude to a very close friend of mine. For me, this record represents a lot of different things. First and foremost, it represents the power of a singular vision. Paul retreated from the traditional confines of what he’d been doing (a genre he called “post country heartache”) for something perhaps more modern, but undeniably more personal. I feel like this record is where he really took a step forward as a producer – beyond the restrictive definitions of the label “singer/songwriter”. He dubs this genre “electricana” and that’s about a perfect description. But none of that would mean anything if the songs weren’t there and he was able to deliver not just on a production concept but on a collection of songs that are melodic, and bright, and sunny, and also dark and mournful and all of it with his typically great lyrics attending to the melodies and the production. Matt’s piano playing on “Everything I Believe In” is typically gorgeous. But my favorites are the pop tunes, “Weekday Bender” and the title track. I love the line “Somethings died, it gives life, something else is risen, volcano’s dead, you give thanks for what you’ve got right now.” Paul has an ability to pluck something that might sound pretentious in someone’s mouth and give it its own humble and graceful life.
LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
At this point, I’ve covered two different songs off this record. My crush on James Murphy is fairly well known. Why? It’s something to do with his ability to fuse the electronic and the organic and to fuse synthetic with real emotion. I always thought the point of “Losing My Edge” was not just the humor of it, but the admission of his insecurity, the availability and fragility of his emotions. This is an emotional record and it’s never far from my ears. I listen to “Someone Great” or “All My Friends” a few times a month and then I’ll go back to some of the other tunes on the record, notably singing along to “New York, I Love You”. I remember on an airplane and my friend, Tim, was sitting in front of me and I was shaking his seat because it was the first time I listened to the record and it was blowing me away. From the beginnings that sounded like Science-era Eno to something bigger and deeper in the middle section. Something about love and loss and wistfulness and nostalgia. If you know me, you know how I’m down with that sh*t. These are simple two and three chord songs that speak to something inside of us and you can still dance to them or, in my case, run to them. Along the West Side Highway or through Central Park or wherever.
Broken Social Scene – You Forgot It In People
One of those records that I picked up after reading about it on, where else, P4k. The thing I love about this record are all the gestures of melody. The small little moments. For many years, I didn’t know any of the song names. I’d just start at the beginning and listen to it all the way through and recall all these little pieces of music, these little grooves that seem impossibly embedded into the roots of the album. Little drum sections. Soft little acoustic moments. Some noodling. All of it bursting with melody and with this hummable groove. The handclaps on “Stars and Sons” are the sound of a group of people listening to a whimsical muse and getting it exactly right. This record feels warmer than its origins. I always think of Southern California when I hear this record even though BSS is from Toronto. The next record never feels this effortless and, like the Arcade Fire, you kind of assume that this is something unique in time that probably can’t be recaptured.
The Field – From Here We Go Sublime
I just wrote about this record here. But it was very big for me this year and one of the best continuous pieces of electronic music I’ve ever heard. A major source of inspiration for the second song on my electronic EP that’s coming out this Spring. So electronic and so human at the same time. I think of thousands of birds flying through the air over the fall trees when I hear this music.
Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion
Every artist has their moment. Their pinnacle. When the affectation bends slightly and captures something bigger than themselves or their pose or their own niche of followers and breaks through into something else. Some people can do it over and over. Is it strange to say this is AC’s Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby or Remain in Light. Maybe the best thing to say and hope is that this is their OK Computer. We’ll see what happens next.
Deerhunter – Microcastles
These things are all happenstance. I just ended up listening to this thing over and over and over again on my drives upstate last Winter. I wrote about that already. It’s simply very special. It flows. It’s not too long. It’s very beautiful and melodic. It’s deeply personal. And it’s idiosyncratic. It’s important. At least to me. In my life. KnowwhatImean?
Songs of the Decade:
“Hey Ya” by Outkast
“All My Friends” by LCD Soundsystem
“The National Anthem” by Radiohead
“B.O.B” by Outkast
“Cry Me A River” by Justin Timberlake
“Boy From School” by Hot Chip
“Seven Nation Army” by The White Stripes
“Begin At The End” by Paul Brill
“Broken Bow” by The Flying Change (ed note: dude. seriously?)
“Nothing Ever Happened” by Deerhunter
“My Girls” by Animal Collective
“Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley
“The Way We Get By” by Spoon
“War on War” by Wilco
“Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)” by Arcade Fire
-
Ste
-
theflyingchange
-
P7
