Sunday, November 03, 2013

My Favourite Albums of the 00s

I was tempted to bring this right up to date - but good records need a few years to settle down in the memory. The 21st century started pretty poor in many ways - and technology has been the main story. That said there's a diversity of music out there unparalleled; if you like something then you'll find it, whatever the subgenre. Keeping up when you're in your 30s or 40s is a pointless exercise though I can't help but think that Simon Reynolds' view that we're in an age of "retromania" is the correct one - with the whole history of rock at our fingertips (you can buy the complete albums of Bob Dylan this Christmas for about £3 each - convenient I guess, but hardly the somewhat random way we experience music.) That said, there's been some good records; I just think the idea that there are major artists anymore - except maybe in the R&B and hip hop worlds - is somewhat ridiculous. My favourite artists of the decade are probably decent American rock bands like Mars Volta and Hold Steady. British music seems to have been in perpetual slump - though I'm thinking I must have missed someone or something, I kind of think that many of the bands I've gone to see have been from previous decades - and the replacement bands have tended to have one or two hit albums then disappeared or become irrelevant. Who knows? Probably too soon to tell. So a lesser list for the 00s, sixty records (or CDs or downloads) - I'm sure I've missed some along the way, but its what I've listened to, rather than what I've been told I should listen to.

1 Lyre of Orpheus/Abattoir Blues Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
2 Separation Sunday The Hold Steady
3 Sounds of Silver LCD Soundsystem
4 Deloused in the Comatorium Mars Volta
5 The Greatest Cat Power
6 Relationship of Command At the Drive In
7 Fleet Foxes Fleet Foxes
8 Time The Revelator Gillian Welch
9 The Trials of Van Occupanther Midlake
10 Kid A Radiohead
11 Kala M.I.A.
12 Turn on the Bright Lights Interpol
13 The Marshall Mathers Eminem
14 Stories from the City, Tales from the Sea PJ Harvey
15 Hour of the Bewilderbeast Badly Drawn Boy
16 Speakerboxx/The Love Below Outkast
17 Boys and Girls in America The Hold Steady
18 In Rainbows Radiohead
19 White Blood Cells White Stripes
20 For Emma, forever ago Bon Iver
21 Elephant White Stripes
22 Rated R Queens of the Stone Age
23 American Recordings IV Johnny Cash
24 Whatever you say I am, I'm not Arctic Monkeys
25 Greendale Neil Young
26 Since I left you Avalanches
27 Blackout Britney Spears
28 You are the quarry Morrissey
29 No More Shall We Part Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
30 Decline of British Sea Power British Sea Power
31 The Strokes The Strokes
32 45:33 LCD Soundsystem
33 Figure 8 Elliot Smith
34 Oracular Spectacular MGMT
35 Lift your skinny fists to heaven like antenna Godspeed Your Black Emperor
36 XTRMNTR Primal Scream
37 In Ghost Colours Cut Copy
38 Late Registration Kanye West
39 Stripped Christina Aguilera
40 Stankonia Outkast
41 Tasty Kelis
42 Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Gwen Stefani
43 The Woods Sleater-Kinney
44 Funeral Arcade Fire
45 Dangerously in Love Beyonce
46 The Power Out Electralane
47 Echoes The Rapture
48 Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Flaming Lips
49 Crystal Castles Crystal Castles
50 Cuckooland Robert Wyatt
51 Asleep in the Back Elbow
52 Ladyhawke Ladyhawke
53 The Real New Fall LP The Fall
54 The Last Broadcast Doves
55 Back to Black Amy Winehouse
56 Thunder Lightning Strike Go Team
57 Kaleidoscope Kelis
58 Graduation Kanye West
59 Supernature Goldfrapp
60 Silent Alarm Bloc Party

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