Here’s a quick recap previous installments: #50-41, #40-31, #30-21, & #20-11.
Without further ado, here’s the very best of the decade…
10. With Love And Squalor – We Are Scientists
The brilliance of With Love And Squalor might seem confusing at first. Everything clashes, but it sounds like noting clashes. That is to say, none of the musical elements are similar parts; the drums tap a certain rhythm, which varies from what the bass plays, which sounds nothing like the guitar part. Yet, when all these pieces come together, the result is some of the most fun dance rock in existence. Over backdrop, frontman Keith Murray muses about the proverbial “scene” and all the troubles and hook-ups that go along with it. The album does have some moments of clarity amongst the late night antics, be it the sense of being slighted (“Inaction”) or the realization of a desperate need for companionship despite what others might think (“Lousy Reputation”). However, the album’s essence is really found in tracks like “Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt” and “It’s A Hit,” which are just too fun to ignore. With Love And Squalor is one scene that never grows tired.
9. Nightmare Of You – Nightmare Of You
On a list of overlooked gems from the ’00s, Nightmare of You’s self-titled debut has to rank near the top. The group delivered a blissful collection of jaunty tunes in the vain of The Smiths. There’s a certain pop sweetness that prevails throughout the album (especially on songs like “The Days Go By Oh So Slow”), but there is also nuance beneath the surface. Each song has a devilishly wry smile about it, as if its a little more cunning and devious than it want to let anyone realize at first glance. This aspect really pops out on ditties like “I Want to Be Buried in Your Backyard” and “Dear Scene, I Wish I Were Deaf.” The mix of atmospheric instrumentals and sharp lyricism really do the trick. Case in point, it’s to find a better lyrically simple chorus than “My Name is Trouble”‘s “This is the last time that I’ll hold your hand, I want to kiss you on the mouth an tell you I’m your biggest fan…” It is things like that that make new biggest fans out of those that listen to Nightmare Of You.
8. Stay What You Are – Saves the Day
Laying the direct groundwork for the emo boom, Saves the Day’s Stay What You Are is just about as much as anyone could ask from an emo/pop punk album. There’s well-worded hate (“At Your Funeral”), hyperbole of the pain a relationship can cause (“See You”), and tender shyness (“Freakish”). The emotions are all allowed to shine thanks to a sundry set of catchy instrumentations. By the time Stay What You Are burns out on “Firefly,” Save the Day’s Chris Conley manages to get the heart he wears on his sleeve to find a little place inside the listener’s own ticker. Stay What You Are is aptly titled. It would be foolish to want these songs to ever change.
(Full review here.)
7. Relationship Of Command – At The Drive-In
Aggressive and otherworldly, 2000′s Relationship Of Command is like a mule kick to the jaw (which appropriately enough is frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s signature moves in concert) Each song still feels like it’s way, way ahead of anything that’s currently being released, and it dropped in 2000. The band’s hardcore spirit mixes with instrumentals that manage to be simultaneously crazily cacophonic and yet smoothly grooving. As the guitars wildly cascade from track to track, Bixler-Zavala shifts his vocals from the hyper spoken word verses of “Invalid Jitter Dept.” to the aggressive yelps on “Enfilade” and “One Armed Scissor.” The bottom line is Relationship Of Command has an inherent life-force; an energy which makes it seem vital. With the At The Drive-In long since split, this station may be non-operational, but with the signals that people can still pick up anyone would be crazy to touch the dial.
6. Control – Pedro the Lion
Control is portrait of married life and accompanying adultery which makes the notion of wedded “bliss” sound like the worst thing imaginable. David Bazan takes this concept and runs with it, finding the sordid details of a relationship gone awry. The opener “Options” sets the tone, taking one of Pedro the Lion’s signature single note riffs and weaving it into a story of halfhearted love that both parties begrudgingly accept (“And I told her I loved her, and she told me she loved me. And I mostly believed her, and she mostly believed me.”) That moment of sad, solemn togetherness is quickly broken by “Rapture” and it’s unguarded words of infidelity’s physical bliss. As the husband’s cheating ways become more and more evident (“Rehearsal”), the tensions eventually escalate until the reach a tumultuous end (“Priests And Paramedics”). Even the couple’s children, and their brief period of youthful innocence, complete with blissful unawareness of the crumbing situation around them, is broached on “Indian Summer.” All of these pieces of the story are matched perfectly by each tracks instrumentals, from electronic hums to harshly plucked acoustic strings. But the thing that stands out most is not the tale itself, but the underlying question of “why” things like this happen. Is it lustful instinct? Sheer stupidity? An insatiable urge to simply escape the monotony of everyday life? And where is the supposedly loving God in all of this? Control leaves the listener with more than just intricate tunes, it leaves them with philosophical quandaries.
5. Highly Refined Pirates – Minus the Bear
The sonic realm that Minus the Bear created on Highly Refined Pirates is still a breathtaking as it was on first listen. It’s a tour de force of musicianship, and the star of the show is guitarist Dave Knudson. His playing on the album is almost entirely tapped leads, ones that lack the harsh buzz often associated with the style. It is a truly unique and fascinating sound that is immediately inviting. That’s not to say the other band members don’t play a vital role in the amazing musical landscape of Highly Refined Pirates. Erin Tate is easily the one of the best drummers alive, Matt Bayles electronic touches are perfectly placed, and Cory Murchy’s bass playing is just understated enough to fit like the last puzzle piece. There’s a little bit of everything on Highly Refined Pirates: lively songs (“Thanks For The Killer Game Of Crisco Twister” and “Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!”) and somber ones (“Get Me Naked 2: Electric Boogaloo”), frenetically energetic tracks (“Spritz!!! Spritz!!!”) and beautifully paced slow burners (“Absinthe Party At The Fly Honey Warehouse”). The album always keeps the ears alert for new flourishes as it takes the listener to its wonderfully picturesque audio worlds.
4. Reinventing Axl Rose – Against Me!
Reinventing Axl Rose isn’t just an album, it’s a punk rock doctrine. The combination of Tom Gabel’s throat-scratching vocals and the band’s hooks that ooze pop sensibility prove to be the perfect match, and make a musical pulpit from which the message can be preached. The crux of the album is staying true. This is most evident on the title track, “Reinventing Axl Rose,” which gets down to the core of what it means to be a band. Against Me! attempt throw out the notion of the Axl Rose prima donna rock star in order to get the focus back on the joy of the music (“We want a band that plays loud and hard every night, and doesn’t care how many people are counted at the door…”). Other numbers address staying true to the love of your life (“Pints of Guinness Make You Strong”) or even staying true to your fundamental beliefs even if it leaves you alone (“Baby, I’m an Anarchist!”). But nothing quite matches the passion on display during the “us against the world,” underdog sing-along anthem “We Laugh at Danger and Break All the Rules,” which overflows with a union of out of energetically unkempt backup singers and clapping hands. Over the course of eleven tracks, Against Me! manages to refocus what the punk rock ethos is all about. It’s not the clothes you wear, the people you hang around with, or even your favorite bands. It’s all about heart.
3. The Body, The Blood, The Machine – The Thermals
If The Body, The Blood, The Machine had a subtitle, it would probably be “Jesus, We’re Fucked.” The Thermals tale of a future United States governed by fascist faux-Christians doesn’t hold anything back as it forges forward with punk rock power chords in hand. Armed with massively catchy hooks and Hutch Harris’s tricky, but elegantly simple, wordplay, the band blazes through songs that take dead aim at the religious lot. Be it the downside of destiny (“Here’s Your Future”), the fear of fleeing the flock (“A Pillar Of Salt”), or the manifest tyranny being the chosen people can reap (“Power Doesn’t Run On Nothing”), The Thermals leave no stone uncast. And why should they? They didn’t throw the first ones.
(Full review here.)
2. American Idiot – Green Day
No single album (not even #1) had a better grasp of the 00s than American Idiot. It is the album to place in a time capsule as the most pitch perfect musical interpretation of this last decade. Finding Green Day at the band’s most aggressive and poignantly insightful, American Idiot is a loaded gun of an album; one that is targeted directly Bush era and the suburban malaise that accompanied it. The album’s punk rock opera styling lends perfectly to telling the coming of age tragedy of Jesus of Suburbia, his anarchistic alter-ego St. Jimmy, and the girl that got away, Whatshername. “Jesus Of Suburbia” sets the scene of the lazy, TV addicted hero, and piece by piece, song by song his world fleshes itself out. It’s one of heavy depression (“Boulevard Of Broken Dreams”), aggressive American foreign policy “Holiday,” and escapism through self-medication (“Give Me Novacaine”). By the time Jesus’s story comes to its conclusion on the sprawling 9-minute epic “Homecoming,” he has gotten nowhere, lost the girl, and both his alter-ego and his hope are lying dead by the bay. And just when one might think the worst is behind, it becomes clear that these were actually the good times. All that’s left is the sorrow of mortality and fading memories on the epilogue “Whatsername.” American Idiot isn’t the album of the American dream, it’s the album of the American reality.
(Full review here.)
1. Deja Entendu – Brand New
Never has the prospect of love (and, more specifically, sex) sounded less appealing than on Brand New’s Deja Entendu. In a decade where the over-sexualization of culture reached its saturation point and then sprinted beyond it, Jesse Lacey’s lyrics of fear, loathing, longing, lusting, and loss land with pointed poignancy. But Deja Entendu‘s focus goes beyond love. At its core it’s an album about human weakness and the various ways it manifests itself in our lives. “I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light” deals with the insatiable longing for home and inability to detach from the places and people in our past in order to focus on facing today. “Guernica” is an angry and brutal look at our body’s own frailty and betrayal in the form of cancer and the toll the disease can take on loved ones. Opposing viewpoints get explored as “Sic Transit Gloria…Glory Fades” addresses the terror of being pressured into sex when all you’re looking for is love, while “Me Vs. Maradona Vs. Elvis” disquietingly discusses the way people use each other as nothing more than vacuous vessels of coition. Even our words misguide our course in life (“Play Crack The Sky”). And lest we forget, pride has its own self-destructive tenancies, which is addressed with pitch perfect bravado on “Okay I Believe You, But My Tommy Gun Don’t,” which happens to be the best song of the decade. Each of these songs highlights an imperfection in the human condition and takes an unrelentingly honest and close look, teasing out details in areas where most people would prefer to avert their eyes and ignore the flaws. And while Lacey lyrics are astonishingly amazing (he is undisputedly the premier lyricist of the decade), it’s a whole lot easier to shine with such a diverse set musical arrangements backing up your words. There are so many ways and words to describe how magnificent Deja Entendu is, but all that needs to be said is this – it’s the best.
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