We have entered the closing weeks of the Decade Without a Name (I’m partial to the “Stupidies,” though it might be confused with, say, every other decade of human history), resulting an onslaught of lists detailing the best, favorite, and/or “important” albums released during the past ten years.
I’d normally leave this kind of cred-flashing exercise to the soul-patch-and-distressed-ironic-t-shirt crowd, but seeing as I’ve got time to kill and nothing else to write about today, I might as well have at it.
The albums I’ve chosen are single artist affairs released within the past ten years. Compilations or reissues of older material, no matter how worthy, were not considered for inclusion. Here are my final selections in no particular order:
The Damned – Grave Disorder
(2001) - A nice return to form by Dave Vanian and Captain Sensible after a series of rotating line-ups, legal hasslesm and a fifteen year sojourn in the creative wilderness. While it may lack the balls-out manic punk of The Damned’s early days, the 60s tinted pop-punk of Grave Disorder came off as a logical evolution of the band’s sound. Suggested track: “W”
Ladytron – Witching Hour
(2005) - Until the release of Witching Hour, Ladytron was a band I wanted to like a lot more than I did. All the right ingredients (synths, dispassionate female vocals) were there, but the music lacked that intangible quality separating “good” from “oh, fuck, more please.” I went into Witching Hour expecting more of the same, but came out dumbstruck with adoration for a damn near perfect album. Suggested track: “International Dateline”
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
(2003) - The WB’s pagan-lite soap opera Charmed would normally be the last place I’d take a music recommendation from, but this album of sultry, sexy synthpop turned out to be the exception to the rule. One of my wife’s purchases, it was soon adopted into my own rotating playlist of albums where it retains a cherished place to this day. Suggested track: “Hairy Trees”
Camera Obscura – Let’s Get Out of This Country
(2006) - The lovefest for Belle & Sebastian’s brand of twee pop largely passed me by, but this album by another retro-jangly Scottish outfit sunk its melancholic hooks into me but deep. Suggested track: “If Looks Could Kill”
The Soviettes – LP III
(2005) - The past ten years saw a lot of great female-fronted (and now defunct) punk acts, and The Soviettes were the best of the lot. Suggested track: “¡Paranoia CHA CHA CHA!”
Tiger! Tiger! – The Kind of Goodnight
(2007) - If there’s one thing I’m most grateful for my music blogging days, it was that it brought this Atlanta-based garage rock outfit to my attention. The band displays devil’s cauldron of influences ranging from X to Richard Hell to the Cramps, yet through killer sound that is entirely their own. Suggested track: ” So You Won’t Deceive Me”
Daft Punk – Discovery
(2001) - Yeah, “the one with the anime videos,” but more importantly it is the closest thing retrology has to a grand opera. It was also the official soundtrack for the summer of 2001 — an innocent time of miniature golf bachelor parties for my brother, bootleg Dreamcast games, and zero knowledge of the shitstorm soon to come. Suggested track: “Aerodynamic”
Fischerspooner – #1
(2001) - “Electroclash” came and went in the flutter of the hype machine’s eyelid, but it did leave behind this occasionally irritating, extremely enjoyable practical joke passing as a dance album. (Or is that vice-versa?) Suggested track: “Sweetness”
The Epoxies – Stop the Future
(2005) - Speaking of regrettably short-lived genres, synthpunk’s failed for mainstream attention in the early part of the decade also left some remarkable pieces of flotsam in its wake, the Epoxies’ two albums being the finest example of such. Both are fantastic, but the band really shines through on their sophomore effort. Suggested track: “Radiation”
Marsheaux – e-bay Queen
(2004) - In which a Greek duo manage to recreate — and often surpass — everything that made early 1980′s synthpop a thing of haunting beauty. Suggested track: The whole damn album.
So there you have it — an incomplete list of the albums that made my musical decade. I trust this knowledge will now enable you to sleep in peace.
Related posts:
- Albums That Meant Something – Part 12 – What I need I just don’t have
- Still alienated after all these years
- Albums That Meant Something – Part 14 – Anger is an energy
December 10th, 2009 at 2:54 am
I loved the Epoxies and hated that their renown seemed to focus on how much scene guys wanted to bang Roxy.
Good list but man, I beg to differ on Goldfrapp. It’s like it was genetically engineered in a lab to appeal to hipsters.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Goldfrapp tends to be polarizing. A lot of the hipster-ish folks I know dislike her because she sounds too much like Lamb.
December 10th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
I kept seeing all these lists appearing without thinking too much of it before the whole 09/10 thing dawned on me. Now I’m fed up of them. An onslaught, like you said.
December 11th, 2009 at 5:45 am
The decade won’t be over until 2011. Did we go through the Millennium Party wars for nothing people?!1!
December 13th, 2009 at 4:25 pm
Marsheaux is so great, thanks for hepping me to it! Did you post “Promises” at some point, Andrew, or is it just so lovely a 80s simulanachronism that I merely imagine I’ve heard it before?
December 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
“The Promise” is cover of a late 80′s track by When In Rome, so that might account for the deja vu!