10 Albums From the ‘Aughts
Rather than attempting to compile a list of the best albums of the past decade (who am I to decide such things, especially when I eschew so many of the artists, from ANIMAL COLLECTIVE to M.I.A., I’m “supposed’ to appreciate?), I decided to put together a list of albums released between 2000 and 2009 that had the most impact on me personally. This is by no means a list of every artist I discovered and fell in love with), nor is it a list of every artist who made an album that’s become a favorite. Instead these are the albums, listed alpha by artist, released in the last decade that opened my ears and my mind to new sounds, or previously undiscovered talents, or in some way have continued to influence my listening. Maybe they’ll affect readers the same way. In that spirit, I’d love to hear what aughties albums had a similar impact on you.
Diamond Dogs – Too Much is Always Better Than Not Enough (Feedback Boogie)
Released 2002. The Diamond Dogs haven’t an original bone in their bodies. The Swedish troop (an ever-shifting ensemble that revolves around singer/songwriter SULO and keyboardist THE DUKE OF HONK) essentially just recycles the standards set by the FACES and the ROLLING STONES. But they do it better than anybody right now, creating music stronger than the Stones have in decades, and playing it as if it’s as relevant now as it was in 1973. Thank to this record, I realized the Faces were more than just a footnote in ROD STEWART‘s career, and I rediscovered my love for this kind of rock & roll. Plus Sulo is probably the best rock & roll singer currently working.
The Dogs D’amour – Happy Ever After (Artful/Universal)
Released 2001. Unfairly dismissed as hair metal also-rans in their 80s heyday (except in their native England, where they had the occasional hit single), the Dogs D’amour played a brand of rootsy, glam-inflected, hyper-romantic drunk rock that had more in common with the Stones, AEROSMITH or even T. REX than the cocaine-and-strippers crowd. This is the final album by the (mostly) original line-up, before singer/songwriter TYLA went solo for good. I picked this up on a whim after reading about the band, and its rough ‘n’ tumble raw-bone rock & roll hit me harder than I expected. I’ve followed Tyla, who continues to make albums that vary from forgettable to brilliant, ever since, and I still wonder why he’s never reached more than a tiny cult audience.
The Lazy Cowgirls – I’m Goin’ Out and Get Hurt Tonight (Reservation)
Released 2003. I saw the Lazy Cowgirls at Gearfest one year and dug ‘em, but for some reason didn’t go out of my way to seek out any records. When I came across this one – their final album, unbeknownst to me – I thought I’d give it a shot. What grabbed me immediately wasn’t just the country and blues elements the band reaffirmed in punk rock, but the high quality of the songs, and PAT TODD became an immediate favorite. I’ve since gone backwards to snap up any Cowgirls record I can find (1981’s Tapping the Source is right up there with Never Mind the Bollocks, London Calling and the first RAMONES record, if you ask me) and gone forward with Todd and his band the RANKOUTSIDERS, who continue the Cowgirls’ fine tradition.
Massive Attack – Collected (Virgin)
Released 2006. I’ve always been dismissive of electronica as anything other than an extended gimmick (KRAFTWERK notwithstanding). But I was burned out on the usual guitar music when this best-of came along, and I thought I’d give it a shot. I’m glad I did – this collection of singles from the pioneering trip-hop act was revelatory, and it lived in my CD players for quite a while. The collective’s combo of synthetic grooves, mysterious atmospheres and actual flesh-and-blood songs made me realize that not all musicians armed with samplers and sequencers were BPM-driven slugs. I’ve yet to find another electronica act I like as much (though GOLDFRAPP and MORCHEEBA have come close), but now I know better than to dismiss an artist out of hand just because s/he hails from this part of music country.
The Music Lovers – The Words We Say Before We Sleep (Le Grand Magistery)
Released 2004. I’ve championed this band almost ad nauseum in these cyberpages, but I can’t stress this enough: leader MATTHEW EDWARDS writes songs better than those coming from 99% of the pens out there. Funny, poignant, literate, challenging and supremely tuneful, Edwards’ tunes (as brought to life by the remarkable musicians with which he surrounds himself) left my jaw scraping earth the first time I heard them. I think I’ve listened to this album, which I picked up thanks to a review written by NIKKI SUDDEN in Bucketfull of Brains, more than any other album in the past decade, with the exception of the PORCUPINE TREE album listed below.
Opeth – Blackwater Park (KOCH)
Released 2001. I’ve followed the occasional metal band over the years, but I’ve never been a huge metalhead, especially not when it comes to death metal – the Cookie Monster-on-angel-dust vocals and extreme dissonance turned me off. So imagine my surprise at becoming addicted to Opeth’s fifth opus Blackwater Park. It’s probably because this Swedish quartet is an old-fashioned progressive rock band in disguise, with a bottomless well of melodic invention that makes them far more than just a metal act. But thanks to the heavy rotation in which I had this album in the early ‘aughts, I finally acclimated myself to extreme music and a whole new world opened up to me. It’s still not one I live in, but I visit a lot more often now that I understand the customs.
Porcupine Tree – In Absentia (Lava/Atlantic)
Released 2002. I’d been a fan of England’s Porcupine Tree for a while when its first major label album arrived. I’d even thought the prog/psych/pop/whatever group had peaked with its prior LP Lightbulb Sun – I didn’t think the band could possibly make a better album than that. I was wrong. In Absentia took everything STEVEN WILSON and crew had mastered, added some new elements and applied it all to the best set of songs Wilson had yet written, and made a record I spun more often than any record I’d ever owned (at least until the Music Lovers album referenced above came out). Hundreds, if not thousands, of listens later I discover new textures every time I listen. Why is this band not famous?
Nikki Sudden – Texas/Dead Men Tell No Tales (Secretly Canadian)
Released 2001. In a way it’s a cheat to list these reissues, as they were originally released separately back in the early 80s. I’d tried Sudden’s music once before, with an album called Red Brocade, and had come away unimpressed. But something made me try again with this two-fer reissue, and suddenly (no pun intended) I appreciated his loose arrangements, seemingly derivative songwriting (to which he cheerfully owned up in the liner notes) and postmodern interpretation of classic British rock & roll. I even found his terminally offkey singing charming instead of annoying. For the next few years his work (and that of his on-and-off again partner DAVE KUSWORTH) became an obsession as I hunted down everything he’d ever done solo or with the JACOBITES. (I’m still on the fence about the SWELL MAPS.) Plus my appreciation for his work made me understand that it’s OK to throw precision out the window if you can make up for it with soul and attitude. These aren’t my favorite Sudden albums, but they were the ones that made me get it at last.
Otis Taylor – White African (NorthernBlues)
Released 2001. I discovered this Denver-based singer/songwriter at a time when I’d decided that the blues as a genre was dead, put in the ground by revivalists who were more interested in copying the old masters exactly (to the detriment of everyone) than in evolving the music. Taylor, however, brings the blues alive in a way I don’t think anyone else on the contemporary scene does, and he does it by both being both experimental (Cello? Jazz trumpet?) and by staying faithful to the spirit of his country blues base. Plus he write some of the most emotionally wrenching material of any genre, and performs it with plenty of passion but little bombast. I’ve yet to hear another modern blues artist who can touch him, but it’s great to know the blues is alive and thriving in at least one musician’s catalog.
Soundtrack – Hedwig & the Angry Inch (Hybrid)
Released 2001. This film and its wonderful soundtrack made me understand two things: that the original 70s glam movement was a rich source of largely unappreciated and misunderstood pop rock, and that the phrase “rock musical” need not be a farce. Possibly the first composer to successfully meld Broadway stylings with rock & roll, songsmith STEPHEN TRASK contributes incredible tunes that artfully balance cleverness with emotional heft, not to mention hooks out the ying-yang. Singer/film director JOHN CAMERON MITCHELL brings them to life with both the proper flamboyance and heart-on-sleeve soul. (It also bears mentioning that BOB MOULD plays lead guitar.) Even more than the previous decade’s Velvet Goldmine, which I also adore, Hedwig & the Angry Inch started a continuing interest with 70s glam that shows no signs of diminishing, as well as hope that the form can be revived without slavish imitation.
