The individual song list had the gears turning, but it was more about how certain online music writers have changed over the past decade, which was born in a popist versus rockist rivalry back in 2000. It wasn’t worth posting, but it’s amusing that there was some of that thesis, antithesis, and synthesis going on.
The album list? I’m definitely out of step. It would be insane to comment on ever album, but:
- Amnesiac is more enjoyable for me than Kid A. And rated lower than In Rainbows? Madness.
- Sung Tongs should beat the shit out of Merriweather Post Pavilion, which i find bloodless in comparison.
- Never came around on Broken Social Scene. They still bore me.
- Arcade Fire. I’m still studiously avoiding them, although i’ve heard the albums dozens of times by now. The po-faced sincerity was too much back then. My friend Damien has excoriated me several times for not embracing them, saying that i’m in an anti-hype reactionary fit. They are my Neutral Milk Hotel of this decade, but without my ridiculous petty grudge.
- Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Fever to Tell. Number 24? Anyone remember that Pitchfork gave that album a 7.4 back in 2003? I underrated it too. Until just now though, i was waiting for Pitchfork to redress that abysmally low rating for Julian Cope’s Interpreter, only to discover that Pitchfork has scrubbed that review and at least one other from their archives. Thanks, Pitchfork!
- Did i miss something with only one Deerhoof on the list of 200 albums (Apple O) and it’s at 199? And both No Age albums manage to score higher than that single entry?
- Pitchfork’s Top 20. Not bad overall really. Good even. What’s funny is that I’m just getting around to immersing myself in Supreme Clientele. It felt too shiny back then.
- Sufjan Stevens though? Aural equivalent of styrofoam and particle board.
- Someone is very self-conscious about Deerhunter. Surprisingly low placement for both albums considering the breathless reviews.
- Cannibal Ox at 152. Sigh. I think some people forgot about Cannibal Ox or just grew up after 2001 and never got around to hearing them.
- The Beta Band. Hot Shots II. I’ve cooled on this album over the years because i’m in a different mental and emotional place. Deliberately re-explored it this summer, but lost my magic key to access its secrets.
- Franz Ferdinand’s debut at 101. There are quite a few kids in total denial. Sufjan Stevens more important? More popular? Keep dreaming. I wouldn’t have thought to have put it on my ’00 list, but its footprint on the decade is immense.
- Not only two No Age albums, but two Sufjans too? But only one Belle & Sebastian and one Clientele? Hm. Dear Catastrophe Waitress is better than all four of those.
- I don’t meant to bash No Age. i like them well enough. It’s just silly that they become a band with multiple representations for Best of ’00s.
- This sentence from the Hearts of Oak (an album i remain ambivalent about) write-up hit home: “The 2000s were an extremely fucked-up political decade, yet we didn’t exactly get a deluge of trenchant social commentary from our best and brightest indie rockers.” No, we definitely did not. Considering that, why the fuck is indie rock so over-represented then? Oh yeah, in part because the indie rock community were a bunch of complacent motherfuckers and didn’t want to hear anything like that. I would know in that i posted quite a lot of political stuff through the years, and felt like a pariah in the music blogging scene because of it.
- Hey! No Malkmus anywhere! Weird.
- Liars’ first album? Missing?
- That Marnie Stern album is way more fun than a lot of the shit on there too.
- Electrelane. That’s a band that i would have voted for being included as well. Oh well.
- No mention of Black Dice, let alone my fave of theirs, Broken Ear Record.
- Sticking in Tender Buttons too and pushing more Broadcast even higher is probably too much to ask for.
- Tom Waits is a no show.
More if and when i get around to it.
Was it just me or did they leave Van Lear Rose off the list?
i didn’t see it either. To be honest though, i totally forgot it existed until you mentioned it!