So as someone that writes about music, it turns out I’m contractually obligated to make a “Best Albums of the Decade” list. I was unaware such fictitious contracts existed, but I fear the faux, so here we go.
A quick explanation on the ranking criteria:
This list is very much my own. You be able to tell because almost nothing on here will match in the slightest with most best of lists you read. But I want this to be authentic in a way I don’t find a lot of those countdowns. To me these types of lists should be based on a combination of two main factors: listenability/enjoyability and pure artistic merit (in that order).
To explain that in simplest terms, you won’t find Radiohead on this list. Why? Because even though there music is hyper-intelligent and brimming with artistic aesthetics, do I often find myself sitting down to listen to Kid A? No. That music doesn’t keep me coming back again and again, I don’t connect with it, so why should I put it above things that I listen to constantly?
With that in mind, here are the first 10 (plus one) of my top 50 albums of the 00s.
Honorable Mention
The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show – Blink-182
I left Blink-182′s live album off my list for two reasons: It made it so that all 50 albums are of the studio vareity and, secondly, because I would probably rank it too damn high. If you weren’t in middle school when this came out it is almost impossible to explain how perfect this album is at capturing that confused and immature time period. Boasting some incredibly slick live production, the album blends Blink’s best early pop punk tunes with a consistent barrage of stage banter jokes bandied about between Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge. While the jokes are dirty and dumb, it’s hard not to laugh if you don’t take yourself to serious. Add in hits like “Adam’s Song” and “Dammit” (along with the underrated studio track “Man Overboard”), and The Mark, Tom, and Travis Show is a total entertainment package.
50. Detox – Treble Charger
Lost in the great white north of Canada, Treble Charger was a pop punk act with no desire to reach anyone in the states. As a result, very few Americans have had a chance to hear Detox, which is just a shame. Beginning with the blitz of “Hundred Million” the album delivers a fierce blend of pop punk that is a slice above many of the band’s more well know American “peers.” Could most deliver something a sneakily sinister as “The Downward Dance”? Something as ambiently sprawling as “Drive”? Nope. Detox is a proud feather maple leaf in the Canucks’ caps.
49. Patent Pending – Heavens
What if Alkaline Trio’s Matt Skiba fronted Interpol? You’d get something akin to Heavens. Consisting of Skiba and Josiah Steinbrick, the duo only released one record but they made sure it counted. Steinbrick’s instrumental arrangements paint a dark and intricate background which Skiba was able to tease details out of. His lyrics are at his macabre best (especially on “Counting,” “Another Night,” and “Leave”) and his vocals gently float across the soundscape in a way that wouldn’t fit with Alkaline Trio. Patent Pending is simultaneously haunting and inviting exhibiting an ability to draw in a listener into its world again and again.
48. Tenacious D – Tenacious D
Some albums are just so epically self-aware of their epicness that there’s point denying it. When Jack Black and Kyle Gass combined forces to become Tenacious D the world was forever shaken (or at least, I believe that’s how they’d put it). Utilizing a two acoustic guitar attack in accord with Black’s powerful vocals, The D rips through songs and skits mainly about how badass and sexual they are. It’s easy to forget how much this album penetrated (yes, penetrated) pop culture. If you don’t think the majority of young adult males have a working familiarity with “Fuck Her Gently,” well you don’t know many young guys. Sure the whole album is completely ridiculous, but who ever said everything has to be so serious? Long live Tenacious D.
47. All Killer No Filler – Sum 41
All Killer No Filler represents a kind of pure about pop punk. Made by four of kids from Ontario, the album overflows with youthful bliss. They don’t try to hard to be anything they are not, they’re kids making songs about being kids. The topics of songs are refreshingly straight forward, be it sleeping in (“Heart Attack”) or how adult pressure leads to laziness (“Motivation”). The idea of them doing a rap song (“Fat Lip”) or an 80s speed metal tune (“Pain For Pleasure”) doesn’t seem absurd because, well, they aren’t trying to impress or appeal to adults in the slightest. It all works because the bands melodic chops (and occasional guitar shredding skills) are honed on a level that defies the band members’ ages. This isn’t youth in revolt, it’s youth in acceptance of who they are.
46. Autopilot Off [EP] – Autopilot Off
Sure it’s short, but Autopilot Off’s self-titled EP packs a wallop into a fleeting few songs. Armed with singer Chris Johnson’s bass-baritone vocals, the group tears through powerful pop punk tracks including “Long Way To Fall,” “Nothing Frequency,” and “Wide Awake” on their way to the best EP of the decade. Chunky power chord riffs rule the day here, as passion and an authentic feel make Autopilot Off the band that the early 00s pop punk surge forgot.
(Full review here.)
45.Take Off Your Pants and Jacket- Blink-182
Naysayers will never admit how big an impact Blink-182 had on this decade in music. The group may not have been the most talented, but who else inspired more people to take up an instrument and form a band? Again not to pick on Radiohead (because the band is great) but virtually no one would listen to Kid A and go, “Hey I should pick up an (insert instrument here) and try and make a band like that!” Blink-182 did (and does). Take Off Your Pants and Jacket is Blink’s best studio album, finding the group more dialed in with their sound a their internal variety (from “First Date” to “Story Of A Lonely Guy”). It’s the premier music of a band that was one of the decade’s populist kings.
44. The Used- The Used
Screaming and pop rock don’t seem like pieces of a congruent puzzle, but they were on The Used’s self-titled debut. Every moment on this record plays on the constant contrast of these two elements. At its hardest (and best), on the uncompromisingly rough “A Box Full Of Sharp Objects,” harsh screams are at home with uptempo (almost bouncy) guitar parts. At its poppiest, on the anthemic “Taste of Ink,” yelps are strewn across a near perfect pop rock back drop. While The Used went off the creative deep-end soon after (there’s a chance that producer John Feldmann had more to do with this albums success than anyone in the band), this gem is a fantastic testament to how to contrasting ideals can blend perfectly into one.
43. More Parts Per Million – The Thermals
Lo-fi on a higher level. The Thermals debut album sounded like it cost under $100 to record, probably because it did. According to vocalist/guitarist Hutch Harris, the entire album was recorded for $10-15. As mindbogglingly as that is, it’s more astounding how fantastic the cheap sound is. In a decade when Auto-Tune came around an made everything it touched sound fake, having pure punk craftsmanship documented in it’s simplest form is a well-needed slap in the face to wake us all up. The band blisters through a slew of terrific tracks (including the lo-fi rally cry “No Culture Icons”) without ever hitting the brakes. More Parts Per Million sound like it may be headed for a wreck, but listeners are too busy enjoying the ride to care.
42. You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine – Death From Above 1979
It’s still baffling that such a huge sounding album could come from a bass/drum two-piece. You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine oozes sex. Be it overt (“Pull Out”) or implied (“Romantic Rights”), Death From Above 1979 was intently focused on getting busy. While Sebastien Grainger pulls off the combination of drumming, singing, and yelping better than anyone prior, the key to it all is the bass tone. It’s is so unique and full that it’s hard to imagine someone not being rocked from their spine their soul when it hits the ear canal. If this album where to be summed up in one word, the choice is not even a difficult one; orgasmic.
41. Shipwrecked On Shores – 1090 Club
In 2006 a landlocked little band from Montana made a little gem that dreamed of far away off coast where, presumably, the people would suck less. Carried by the strength lovely group vocals and the atypical set-up of having keys and a violin instead of the bass and lead guitar, 1090 Club sharply sing of annoying me-first types (“…It Starts With”), outcasts (“Hooray”), and over-thinking relationships (“Gypsea”). The album is able to express a sentiment that immediately connects with people who live outside the hustle and grind of big city life; one of frustration and longing for more interesting places and people to interact with. However sound or misplaced these notions are is not important, it’s just nice to have an album like Shipwrecked On Shores to let them calmly wash over us and let us drift away to another place.
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