Listed below are the best albums of the 2000s as calculated from their overall rankings in over 58,000 greatest album charts. (Chart last updated: 3 hours ago).
"Around December of last year (2014) A Rush Of Blood To The Head was without a doubt my favorite album. Around 6 months later, after hearing around 200 new albums of multiple bands, genres, decades, styles, etc. and only hearing it once since then (just now) it still holds it relatively easily. It...""Around December of last year (2014) A Rush Of Blood To The Head was without a doubt my favorite album. Around 6 months later, after hearing around 200 new albums of multiple bands, genres, decades, styles, etc. and only hearing it once since then (just now) it still holds it relatively easily. It’s sort of funny actually, while I’m hearing massive, powerful, moving post rock songs, and experimental, unique, creative hip-hop albums, I’d say to myself “There’s no way a COLDPLAY album can be better than what I’m hearing right now. No way.”
Yet I find myself sitting in awe at how raw and beautiful this is. It’s an album I don’t really find direct connection to that much now, but that really isn’t the main reason I love it. I don’t love it because it has these challenging lyrics about relevant social and personal themes, I don’t love it because it has some sort of crazy important significance in music history or something like that. I love it because it’s human.
I think a lot of this has to do with point of view and perception. For example, you could easily say the “Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah” that takes up part of the chorus in “In My Place” is unconfident and weak, and I’d agree with you. But the song has a theme of weariness, tiredness, weakness, so it fits. You could say the album has a limited point of view, really only looking through the eyes of one person who is feeling only one thing, and I could agree. But let’s be honest; as people, it’s much, much, much more easy to see things from our point of view than someone else’s. Sure, the lyrics might be occasionally clunky. But don’t we all have awkward moments? We all say dumb things, we all don’t know the exactly right things to say at the exactly right time.
You can view anything in tons of different ways. Those things I listed could easily be negatives for some people, but they obviously aren’t from me. It just depends on how you look at it. You can look at GZA’s “Liquid Swords” the same way you look at Pink Floyd’s “The Dark Side Of The Moon” Well, if you view one like the other, one could seem great and the other could seem terrible. They’re both great albums in their own sense though, you just sorta have to look at it in a completely different set of eyes.
This is why I think people saying Coldplay is a poor man’s U2 or Radiohead is hilarious. Sure they have their similarities, but in other aspects they’re completely different. As much as I love Radiohead’s “OK Computer,” I find it hard to feel to the word choice. I can understand and feel the emotion or struggle in that album, but if you ask me I don’t know too many people that go around using words like “Jackknifed” or “Cattle prods” in a day to day conversation. But you could say it adds this extra feeling of stress and insecurity. That whole perception thing again. Then let’s take a look at “Amsterdam”, which you could criticize for having simplistic and unchallenging lyrics to read through. But on the other side you could say that the simplicity makes it feel more honest and relatable.
For each album and style you need to look at it as its own thing, not let what else you’ve heard be your rule of standard because when you hear something better that’s new and original, since you’ve set the guidelines based solely on one thing that’s different, you’ll dislike it without even realizing what you’re hearing.
So what does any of this have to do with AROBTTH? Any specific album for that matter? I feel the most “me” while listening to this album. It’s the way I view it, not based on anything else besides my own feelings and thoughts. It’s an album, as a person, I just get the most. I understand how Chris feels, what he goes through, how he reacts to things on this album. But it’s not that I only understand it, it’s that I can feel it too. I might not be able to think of a situation in my life that exactly parallels that of the fantastic title track, but I can still feel it because it’s just a normal human being a normal human.
It’s pretty bizarre to think that simply writing down how you feel is much more powerful than thinking as hard as you can about certain metaphors and imagery. But I guess that’s just how I view it.
"[+]Reply
"This is a brilliant album. I can't believe I've forgotten to add it too my chart for so long! So many good influences on it and the lyrics say so much in so little. Always play it before parties to get in the mood, songs like "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" remind me to cherish my time with ...""This is a brilliant album. I can't believe I've forgotten to add it too my chart for so long! So many good influences on it and the lyrics say so much in so little. Always play it before parties to get in the mood, songs like "Someone Great" and "All My Friends" remind me to cherish my time with my friends. I think thats one of the highest compliments I can give an album."[+]Reply
"Ball and Biscuit. I have said enough. I'll continue anyway. This album is killer from start to finish, not a bad song on the it. This is the most rockin' album Jack made with this band, and Ball and Biscuit has his finest guitar work ever."Reply
"Decided to get back into Bon Iver. This is a beautiful album. Justin's voice is so haunting and his falsetto is to die for. The simplicity of it enhances it fully, their second album falls from being over produced. Justin escaped into the Woods for a few months to work on this album and you can h...""Decided to get back into Bon Iver. This is a beautiful album. Justin's voice is so haunting and his falsetto is to die for. The simplicity of it enhances it fully, their second album falls from being over produced. Justin escaped into the Woods for a few months to work on this album and you can hear that perfectly here. The music has this tone and attitude where the wilderness is all you can picture. It sounds as a longing to get free and want to be away.
His vocals on ever song is beautiful, especially the harmonies with himself on The Wolves Act 1 & 2. Musically it's easy and accessible to listen to. The only place this album has some faults is with lyrics. On songs like Lump Sum, Blindsided, and Creature Fear, they are questionable. But at other times they rip through like beautiful poetry, and talent is undeniable.
The Wolves Act 1 & 2, Flume, Skinny Love, and re: Stacks, are the highlight tracks easily. They have the most emotion and power to them and that's where Bon Iver really shines. Sure if you're in a blissful carefree mood, Bon Iver is not the band to go to, but if you need to cry, need to be picked up some, need something nice, this is the perfect place to go.
There isn't too much to comment, because it's an incredible album plain and simple. A must listen to from the last decade.
A-"[+]Reply
"My worthless two cents on Coyne's lyrics... it's all subjective, of course... A lot of bands tackle the themes covered in some of the work of the Lips, but in my opinion few do it in Coyne's unpretentious fashion. I can relate to his musings on life and love far better than any other musician or ...""My worthless two cents on Coyne's lyrics... it's all subjective, of course... A lot of bands tackle the themes covered in some of the work of the Lips, but in my opinion few do it in Coyne's unpretentious fashion. I can relate to his musings on life and love far better than any other musician or lyricist I can think of, simply because it doesn't sound like some self-important, navel gazing rock star wrote it.
And, y'know, then he writes about evil robots and cats killing dogs and shit. So you get the poignant observations on existence as well as the bat shit crazy. He's definitely covered a wide spectrum, if no other credit is given to him."[+]Reply
"If I were to spend a summer night somewhere in the desert boozing and watching semi-nakid ladies getting it on with each other, this would be my choice of music to zoom the night away. I don't think it would be even possible to make this kinda music, say, in downtown L.A. At least these desert ra...""If I were to spend a summer night somewhere in the desert boozing and watching semi-nakid ladies getting it on with each other, this would be my choice of music to zoom the night away.
I don't think it would be even possible to make this kinda music, say, in downtown L.A. At least these desert rats are doing more than just wasting precious water resources in places where humans shouldn't even be in the first place.
Dave Grohl should just fold Foos and bang the drums with a guy who knows instinctively how to write good rock tunes."[+]Reply
"positively stunning. fleet foxes sound like a heavenly folky woodland group on their amazing debut lp. their beautiful harmonies and great instrumentation make it one of the most stellar albums of its kind"Reply
"For those that don't know what Marmite is, basically it's a yeast spread that you put on toast or crumpets; a quite strong and distinct taste. They say you either love it or hate it... Is Amnesiac like Marmite? For me, "Pyramid Song" is very easy to love and the ratio of who love it to those that...""For those that don't know what Marmite is, basically it's a yeast spread that you put on toast or crumpets; a quite strong and distinct taste. They say you either love it or hate it...
Is Amnesiac like Marmite?
For me, "Pyramid Song" is very easy to love and the ratio of who love it to those that don't seems very big from my view: so it's not a marmite song as I've seen someone suggest this.
As for the album, sure I think there's a few songs that are like Marmite such as, "Morning Bell", "Like Spinning Plates", "Pulk Pull Revolving Doors", and "Hunting Bears". Maybe this is why the album isn't as highly rated as some of their other albums but for me there's still plenty of quality and I love most of the Marmite songs.
To end I think this is a very mature album and not something I would expect a young teenager to love, not to say they won't. It's definitely more aimed at adults from my point of view, ending with the lovely, "Life In A Glasshouse". "[+]Reply
"Last summer, LeBron James famously "took talents to South Beach" to form a basketball superpower. Twelve short months later, the mighty Miami Heat suffered defeat to the underrated Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. A lesson was learned: sometimes it doesn't matter if you go all Voltron, you can...""Last summer, LeBron James famously "took [his] talents to South Beach" to form a basketball superpower. Twelve short months later, the mighty Miami Heat suffered defeat to the underrated Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Finals. A lesson was learned: sometimes it doesn't matter if you go all Voltron, you can still be had by one giant superstar with a cast of savvy, well-worn, hungry veterans. Which brings me to Demon Days. Damon Albarn took a supporting cast of musical upcomers and also-rans and made one of the most magical albums of the 21st century. Damon was the first major artist to hire Danger Mouse to handle production efforts, a stroke of genius. Damon and Danger were the ones to introduce me to MF DOOM, not Madlib. He used De La Soul and Shaun Ryder (of Happy Mondays) to create two of the most brilliant pop songs in history. He captured lightning in a bottle to get Ike Turner to lay down a piano track and to get Dennis Hopper to narrate a track. Both have now tragically passed on, with most of Gorillaz' fans probably knowing one for his infamous shoe and the other for being the bad guy in Speed. This album invokes shades of Pink Floyd, Primal Scream, and Portishead among others and is so diverse that trying to classify it under one genre has been proven impossible with tracks jumping back and forth between Hip Hop, Dance, Trip Hop, Alternative, and Gospel. Demon Days is more than an album, it is a collaborative work of art not meant to be duplicated, even though it was tried with mixed results. Plastic Beach was not a bad effort, it was just too clean, too polished, too driven with star-power. Plastic Beach was the Miami Heat, which only served to prove how unique and ridiculously awesome the wonderfully dark and brooding Demon Days truly is."[+]Reply