A decade ago, I graduated high school. Shit. A lot was supposed to happen in that time, and I suppose a lot did...to me.
Sometime, thereafter the year of Y2K and Justin Timberlake, my friends and I realized a lot more had changed than our taste in boys. We had grown from wine coolers to beer, fast food to faster and cheaper food (enter advent of the 99 cent menu), and so, so did our waistlines.
This last bit of information was realized and exclaimed for all to know when Heidi and Autumn went shopping one day. While I wasn't there to witness Heidi's shock and disappointment in accomplishing "A TEN?! A mother f*cking TEN??!" I empathize accordingly in this next attempt: whittling down a decades' worth of music to a mere ten.
While not the most radical decade (the sixties) or most electrifying (the eighties), it was, however, as if "those two babies met..."--insert linked scene of Pineapple Express, in which James Franco explains said title. (Franco, ever the intellect, dug deep for this role and therefore scene, and quite honestly, I've not seen a funnier or simpler mergence of nouns.)
So, I give this decade a ten. Ten for the steady maturation of our musical predecessors and to those who influenced a few new kids along the way. A ten to the industry for embracing the many new modes of technology and a big up to the artists who realized you can't put a price on the sound of music. We are after all, by nature, a rogue generation.
So here goes an equal effort in sizing up the most excellent of the decade into ten.
A Mother F*cking Ten.
1) Everything In It's Right Place, Kid A (2000) Radiohead
Synthetic twists, back beat, and a falsified Thom Yorke telling us "Everything (is) in it's right place..." The fourth disc from the acclaimed Brit band, Kid A came to the American public after Yorke expressed open dismay believing his songs had become "background noise: all the sounds you made, that made you happy, have been sucked dry by everything they meant." He suffered writers block and the group differed on the direction of their next release, but eventually agreed on the revolutionary and experimental sound. Yorke introduces us to his new sound, cooing "Yesterday I woke up sucking a lemon..." But something tells you, this is the perfect lemon aid.
2) Don't Know Why, Come Away With Me (2002) Norah Jones
A request or command, the sultry-sweet Norah Jones stole our hearts with her debut album, Come Away With Me. A stand alone channeling jazz, soul and a hint of country with mainstream pop criteria, Jones managed to score five Grammy's in 2003, and two more for subsequent releases proving the decade would have been unmemorable without her. Just as gently as she knows how, "Don't Know Why" answers the most difficult questions of the heart. To have her sound is as if Patsy Cline and Etta James are in your living room, but allowing plenty of room for more.
3) Neon Bible, Neon Bible (2007) Arcade Fire
One of the greatest contributions to the decade was the growing reception to musics' newest and possibly least understood genre: indie rock. Independent rock is just that: a grassroots, underground effort in which the artist seeks to maintain full control, minus the man. The funny thing about indie rock is often times a chicken and egg argument: who and what came first if it's all independent? While Arcade Fire wasn't the first of their genre, they have succeeded in attaining relative commercial success finding their way on numerous Album of the Year lists. In their sophomore release and 2007 title track, Arcade Fire set to challenge what we had always believed to be true, chanting "Not much chance for survival/if the neon bible is right."
4) Beautiful Day, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000) U2
If Bono says it, it must be right, right? Penned detailing a man "who has lost everything but still finds joy in what he does have," All That You Can't Leave Behind blasted a seemingly cryptic message better felt after the 9/11 attacks. Released a full year prior, "Beautiful Day" was the first album single making it no secret the group sought to "reapply as the best band in the world." Maybe they were asking for our hand, but the American public needed theirs with the November 2001 release of "Walk On". A bitter reminder of our national heartache, "Beautiful Day" reminds it's one you must admit gets better with Bono.
5) Maps, Forever To Tell (2003) Yeah Yeah Yeahs
There is a scene from the movie Swimfan in which the stalker (female) antagonist loses 'control' thereby informing her lover unbeknownst "You love me! I know it!" While Maps isn't exactly psychotic, it's the same desperate intensity that Karen O begs you to understand. Craddled with an evenly controlled tempo and electric rift, Karen O's voice dances on the edge of crazy, but it's just crazy enough to lose control.
6) Say, Continuum, Special Ed. (2007) John Mayer
In 2007, Rolling Stone named Mayer one of the "New Guitar Gods" along with John Fusciante, and Derek Trucks. In Malcom Gladwell's 2008 book Outliers, the author suggests--along with a handful of other arguments, no less than 10, 000 hours are committed before one becomes the best his trade. At one point, Mayer declared "Gravity" as his most important work; at another, "Say" was his most prized piece. But Mayer would most likely agree, it is a constant state of dissatisfaction which credits him one of the best of the decade.
7) The Seed (2.0), Phrenology (2002) The Roots, featuring Cody ChestnuTT
An audio visual to the miracle of life (fairly P.C. even so), The Roots laid it on us in 2002 with "The Seed (2.0)". While the entitled album is in reference to the pseudoscience, "The Seed" details a literal effort in creating rock & roll. But we are forced to ask: can one borne rock & roll? Rhetorical or otherwise, The Roots are brilliant lyrical masters and bang it out with each beat of this song.
8) Single Ladies (Put A Rind On It), I Am...Sasha Fierce (2009) Beyonce
Destiny's Child is to Beyonce as Beyonce is to Diva. Er, something like that. That is, the redefining of the best. I find it practically impossible to settle on one frickin' song this woman popularized and it is the simple fact that this particular album has been nominated for 10 (count 'em) ten Academy Awards that I have selected "Single Ladies" as the best of the decade. Beyonce is the epitome of commitment and hard work and to achieve that alone is something fierce.
9) Seven Nation Army, Elephant (2003) The White Stripes
A rift you want to learn, a rift you practice air guitar the moment it comes on. Suddenly, you're Meg White--foot stomping, arms flailing about; then Jack, fist-ro-phone mic, singin' "a seven nation army couldn't hold me doowwn..." A tune in which multiple body parts uncontrollably function? Yeah, it's like that. This lo-fi duo out of Detroit packed a punch in 2003 serving up the Grammy winning album and best Rock Song of the year. While Jack White has since moved on to The Raconteurs and more recently The Dead Weather, the twosome left plenty of room for others proving it takes far less to uncontrollably function.
10) Spirit on the Water, Modern Times (2006) Bob Dylan
According to RS and esteemed voters, Dylan had two placements on the "50 Best Albums of the Decade" as did U2, Jay-Z, Kanye West, The White Stripes, Outkast, and Radiohead. Only difference is, Dylan was on the scene before any of these kids could even spell "U2". Dylan proved top of his game with the 2006 release of Modern Times, an astute throw-back of sorts enveloped in an irony clad, matter of fact title. There may be three chords to the song (I actually don't even know what a musical chord is...) but it's enough to put you cheek to cheek with your love, present or past. That's the charm of Bob Dylan or Robert Alan Zimmerman or any other pseudonym he chooses. It's still him. And he's still for you and me.
*Alternate (C'mon! It's my favourite song ever!)
11) Clocks, A Rush Of Blood to the Head (2002) Coldplay
The opening solo is enough to send me into fits. There is a strange buoyancy teasing in the rift like a euphoric bubble allowing you to drown and ingest all it's glory. Originally thought to be another Brit export or even Radiohead knockoff, Coldplay was coined "melodramatic", and even further so "depressing". But when the group returned with Rush of Blood to the Head, and front man Chris Martin answered critics with "Clocks", a lot more than identity was defined. "A lot of people think that I write depressing songs. If I were depressed, then I never would have written 'Clocks'." Whatever the outlook, "Clocks" went on to beat out Outkast's foot-stomping, finger-snapping "Hey Ya!" winning Record of the Year (Grammy's, 2003).
Now, who's ready for more?
Cheers! to the New Year!
-PCD
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