What I love about the 2000s

[RoundTheBend]

I think most of my responses will be emotional, which is kind of boring. But here goes me trying/stabbing in the dark on my top 100 albums of the 2000s (I think they are for now at least).

Yes my title sucks. And yes my aesthetic is predictable/basic... but simplicity is something I enjoy and find wisdom in.

EDIT:
Oh, I guess I should say... I love the 2000s because I feel it was a climax of musical identity that really only I associated with... my "greatest" music identity because it is the era that I wasn't really influenced by those older than me. I probably wouldn't have been a Nirvana fan at 10 years old if my older siblings weren't also Nirvana fans for example.

This is an OPINION... if you don't remember what that means, look it up: It also has possibly one of the most interesting/diverse music landscapes, next to the 2010s. For me it is the best of the "big bands" eras and the indie groups... somehow I feel everything just went "indie"... whatever the hell that means anymore, and there is a LOT of chaff to sift through to find the gems... but the gems are very worthy of being called such in the 2010s. While the late 60s/early 70s and late 80s/early 90s probably are my favorite time periods for music, the 2000s seem much more mature.

This started out as an idea to review each decade and I rambled on about this, but I think 0 people care about these thoughts... but hey this is a diary.

I've always been fascinated with music history. What was happening at a certain time in history musically, and why that mattered/who cared/why we still care. What advances were made... what styles came to be.

I am in no way a music historian. I am more like a babbling idiot. I am not a musicologist and I know really very little when it comes to dissecting music. I do, however, consider myself a halfway decent exegete/analyst when it comes to asking questions/dissecting things... I do better when the art forms are film or something with more obvious content. Music, however, I feel is emotional first, then artistic/thematic, etc.,

[RoundTheBend]

1

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In Rainbows by Radiohead

Songs:

1. 15 Step
I was so excited when that beat first dropped to open this album... it was like oh shit, Radiohead done good. The guitar sings beautiful. Then like at about 145 it goes your typical kinda dark Radiohead, then bounce back... then that Bass run... fantastic. Then that "hey" almost sounding like kids screaming... its just fantastic... it almost feels like an agglomerate of all things fantastic that Radiohead does wrapped into one song. Not their best song, but definitely atop their game.

"you used to be alright, what happend?"... ahahaha. String done come undone.

2. Bodysnatchers
Then this mofo breaks loose with some strong guitar and your like, sweet baby jesus, their fantastic guitar playing is back. I'll be honest though, this song goes so many different places, it took me a bit to really dig the flow. Not that it was bad, just unexpected (which is good in the long run). I do love the break down now. And most of all the energy of this is so over the top and if I'm in the right mood I totally explode with it.

"Blink your eyes, One for yes, Two for no"
"Has the light gone out for you? 'Cause the light's gone for me"

3. Nude
This song gives me chills almost every time. Thom's lyrics and voice is absolutely beautiful. Plus that almost muted melodic bass line is to die for, then this guitar comes in almost sounding like a sad motown song... then he changes the picking method and it tingles.

"Don't get any big ideas, They're not gonna happen"

4. Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
My sister told me this song reminded her of me somehow... dunno. Anyway, this is fantastic Radiohead counteracting rhythms of it. To say they are masters of it... eh probably to strong, but they do do it well. It does remind me of this video I saw of theirs (can't find) from Amnesiac single Knives Out... someone swimming in the deep sea. Somehow this gives this amazing energy and excitement, but also at the same time has this feeling of weight and anxiety to it that gives you this feeling like you are sinking to the bottom of the ocean with the weight of the world.

"I'll hit the bottom; Hit the bottom and escape; Escape"


5. All I Need
The bass in this... so smooth somehow. Beautiful song emotionally, but reading the lyrics... I feel a bit like Pearl Jam's Better Man... settling. But I like the ending (It's all right/It's all wrong)... settling isn't always bad, but neither is it always good. And possibly plays with black and white thinking. I love how those cymbals are just hit so hard and how they ring.

"I am holidays; That you choose to ignore"

6. Faust Arp
I like the guitar and singing... I'll just leave these lyrics here. I like it... I just don't have a lot to say about this one.

We thought you had it in you
But no, no, no
Exactly where do you get off
Is enough is enough is enough
I love you but enough is enough, enough

7. Reckoner
This was another song I just immediately shit my pants over. These rhythms and that solemn guitar and then this beautiful falsetto comes in. For a long time, this was by far the best track on here, and then the more I listened, this song still stayed amazing and the rest complimented it well.

This break from the rythm and then lyric... so beautiful:
"Because we separate
Like ripples on a blank shore
In rainbows"

8. House Of Cards
Mellow. Warm. Like taking a bath. Calming. I like reverb used on this.
Oddly, I think this might be about sleeping with someone's wife.

9. Jigsaw Falling Into Place
The build up in this is fantastic.

"The beat goes round and round"

"Words are blunt instruments
Words are a sawed off shotgun"

10. Videotape
Any band that makes reference to Faust levels up.
Then they make RGB references.
I know that's simple, but that kind of puts two interests of mine (tech and literature/philosophy) in one song.
This also kind of gives me this sad feeling someone is taping a goodbye before they commit suicide.


What I liked:
I first heard this album right when it came out. I IMMEDIATELY FELL IN LOVE. I listened to Kid A and OK COMPUTER, and those didn't click as immediately somehow. Somehow, this album has always been the most intimate (meaning quickest for me to digest/fall in love with, yet still stay powerful years later)... it just has always clicked. Kid A and Ok Computer are fantastic too, and have some real brain ticklers, but emotionally, this album... man alive. There just isn't a song on here that isn't fantastic for my aesthetic. Also very happy this is now on Spotify. Also this record... I think why I love it so much, is it has some of the more bright energy on it missing since The Bends. It still has some dark moments, but the fact that I don't want to kill myself after listening to it is a huge plus.

What I learned:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows

This is not the only time Radiohead released "old" material years later. I've read this before for king of limbs, but it is interesting to me how in the creative process you start writing and you get an idea of something, and you know it is good, but it just takes A LONG time to mature. Sometimes it is important to destroy to create (don't hold on to your work forever) and sometimes ideas just need to mature over time.

This was also the first time I actually read the lyrics in almost 10 years. It changed my opinion of some songs and other songs I still didn't care. I mean not in a big way, but still insightful. Sometimes lyrics mean something and sometimes honestly... they don't. They are just emotional phrases.

[RoundTheBend]

2

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Sea Change by Beck

Songs:

1. The Golden Age
I haven't even really paid attention to the lyrics, but I almost feel like the Golden Age we are in is the ultimate isolationism. There was talk about how people moving to the city in the late 1800s/early 1900s created this isolation that really wasn't experienced before and is well said in RHCP's Under the Bridge with the lyric... it's hard to believe there's nobody out there, it's hard to believe I'm on my own, while singing about a city of over 3 million people. Today, it's gone even further, I think, with the internet... families gather round and just look at their phone instead of talk with one another.

So i just read the lyrics and it has nothing to do with I just said.

2. Paper Tiger
I love the high notes on the bass on this... sounds a bit like my Danelectro with flatwounds I have... but played by a better bassist than me... haha. What can I say, Bass work is fantastic. Lyrically this does a really well describing a broken/lost paradigm that maybe you miss, but can never have back again.

"We're just holding on to nothing
To see how long nothing lasts"

3. Guess I'm Doing Fine
Again, a total submission that your world has been rocked and the road ahead is so dark/unknown, you try to hold on to something that used to mean something to you, but know now it has no worth. There is a bit of hope in this song though with this phrase that maybe that old paradigm wasn't the best for you to begin with:

"Press my face up to the window
To see how warm it is inside
See the things that I've been missing
Missing all this time"

But then most of the song is:
"All the jewels in heaven
They don't look the same to me
I just wade the tides that turned
Till I learn to leave the past behind"

4. Lonesome Tears
Have you ever cried so long you physically can't cry anymore and you are just so defeated you don't even know what you are crying about anymore? Well maybe this song can help you feel that way.

"Lonesome tears
I can't cry them anymore
I can't think of what they're for
Oh they ruin me every time
But I'll try
To leave behind some days
These tears just can't erase
I don't need them anymore"

I like the loop of climax at the end. Really good writing, in my opinion (I mean I know that it has been done a million times, but it fits well).

5. Lost Cause
This is possibly the most upbeat song on the record musically? It has a bright vocal and guitar melody, but the words are a bit cutting. Feels like he is telling her good bye instead of the introspective we've heard this far. And it's a bit biting "baby you're a lost cause" and "I'm tired of fighting for a lost cause".

In a mature way, it almost feels like he is giving her advice (because he's felt it too):
"There's a place where you are going
You ain't never been before
No one left to watch your back now
No one standing at your door
That's what you thought love was for"

These words go back to that feeling of a lost paradigm/missing foundation one feels after going through that trauma.

6. End Of The Day
The return of the amazing bass work (imo). The singing in this might be one of my favorites on the album. Compared to anything else he's done, it almost sounds like he just balled his eyes out and then sung this song. And not in a contrived way.

If you've ever been in an abusive situation, you give in easy. It's a coping mechanism. It's easier to give than fight because in the end you'll just feel defeated... might as well start now. I remember something kind of tragic happened to me while I was on my mission (the only recording of my dad's voice got erased on accident) and I just gave in and said, worse things have happened.

"It's nothing that I haven't seen before
But it still kills me like it did before"

7. It's All In Your Mind
This is just a beautifully arranged.

From this I just get this sad... I wish things were still good... I wanted to be your good friend, but you ruined that for both of us. Still a powerful message of longing for the old paradigm.

"And I wanted to be
And I wanted to be
Your good friend"

8. Round The Bend
I LOVE the strings/guitar in this. And his voice cuts through so solemnly. I feel like I'm in a dream. Almost like I'm in this dream where I've lost my mind... a desolate, dark, yet slightly beautiful place.

9. Already Dead
Possibly the biggest 70s influence (how I feel it... wasn't even born then).

Guitar at 1:13 onwards... dig the twang.

This is just beautiful:
"Already dead to me now
'Coz it feels like I'm watching something die"

10. Sunday Sun
Probably the second most musically upbeat song, but still has dissonance. Nothing left to say, but I like it.

11. Little One
A bit of a drunken stupor. Lost in a seachange... the sea has no foundation.

Drown, drown
Sailors run aground
In a seachange nothing is safe
Strange waves
Push us every way
In a stolen boat we'll float away

Little one
Hold on
All of the dreams are wasting

12. Side Of The Road
Got that twang back...done well.

Wrapping up the recognition that life is totally different now... who knew I would be here now after this traumatic event:

"About the kind of life
I never thought I'd live
Till the ugly truth
Showed me what it did"


What I liked:
Have you ever had your entire foundation pulled from underneath you? I have at least 3 times. I can totally relate to this album. Moving to another state in high school after 10 years of friendship, death of my father, and finally losing my religion...literally. The emptiness, the loneliness, the survival state you subconsciously go to... you are just so numb. I think I was kind of born into this state of depression and when I was like 4 years old my family tells me I used to say "who even cares about it anyway". They also claim my first word was "up"... seems positive, but they seem to think I was saying shut up. The world can be too much for sure.

Musically this really does a good job of meeting a classic almost 70s rock with a new sound in it's orchestrations and of course content.

I also really like how holistic this album is.

What I learned:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_Change_(album)

Didn't know It's All in Your Mind was a previously released song. Interesting that Nigel convinced him to re-release it.

Didn't know his dad did/helped with the orchestrations of the strings, etc.

I did know this was about a breakup, but didn't know it was his fiance cheating on him. And I didn't know it was after 9 years.