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: 4 hours ago).
"Going back and listening to this now it seems strange to think this is the same band that conquered the world with Sex on Fire. It's ramshackle homespun southern country rock but it's their ability to fill the songs with so many little hooks that elevates this. Talihina Sky may well be my favouri...""Going back and listening to this now it seems strange to think this is the same band that conquered the world with Sex on Fire. It's ramshackle homespun southern country rock but it's their ability to fill the songs with so many little hooks that elevates this. Talihina Sky may well be my favourite hidden track ever and that they had the confidence to hide this wonderful little piano song away shows the strength of the album."[+]Reply
"This is a non-stop, if I listen to a track of it I listen them all. Each one is so well crafted, the productions are flawless, her vocals are beautiful, the dance euphoria of the first 3 are insane and Music has my favourites Madonna's compositions. I love how she moves throught such diferent sty...""This is a non-stop, if I listen to a track of it I listen them all. Each one is so well crafted, the productions are flawless, her vocals are beautiful, the dance euphoria of the first 3 are insane and Music has my favourites Madonna's compositions. I love how she moves throught such diferent styles in between the tracks. Most experimental and thrilling Madonna's."[+]Reply
"Wonderful album! Definitely one of my favorite electronic albums. I consider it one of my top 100 as well. It's trippy, it's chill, it's upbeat and peaceful all at once."Reply
"This is dance pop at its finest. Top tracks are opener "feel the love", "out there on the ice", "lights and music", "hearts on fire" and "far away". The opening tracks feel both synthetic and warm. cut copy has a pet shop boys quality to them of putting out these processed dance pop tunes with so...""This is dance pop at its finest. Top tracks are opener "feel the love", "out there on the ice", "lights and music", "hearts on fire" and "far away". The opening tracks feel both synthetic and warm. cut copy has a pet shop boys quality to them of putting out these processed dance pop tunes with somewhat flat vocals that still have a warmth and heart to them. Hits "lights and music" and "hearts on fire" typify this sound at their best. Both songs are like subtle party jams -- they don't blast out like basement jaxx or rivet like daft punk, but make you wanna dance in a new order -sorta way. Very groovy album in an understated kind of way."[+]Reply
"My favorite of theirs, by a decent margin. The perfect balance between their super heavy sludgey stuff and the progy sound they evolved to later. Full of great riffs, and Brahn Dailor's drumming is as top notch as ever."Reply
"You're welcome, Precedent. Just glad you appreciated that, it took me a few listens to. With that, disregard my previous comment, there are so many peaks that make up the album and make it so extra-special."Reply
"Damon Gough's greatest album. It's an eclectic record, full of fantastic songs and is an excellent musical journey through different moods and styles. A modern day British classic."Reply
"If "blacklisted" tried to seduce you, then neko's "fox confessor brings the flood" tries to speak to your mind. Of course, it's that sultry voice that i keep coming back for and by the time "hold on, hold on" kicks in, my mind's mush. It's the devil she loves, singing "I leave the party at three ...""If "blacklisted" tried to seduce you, then neko's "fox confessor brings the flood" tries to speak to your mind. Of course, it's that sultry voice that i keep coming back for and by the time "hold on, hold on" kicks in, my mind's mush. It's the devil she loves, singing "I leave the party at three a.m. / Alone, thank God / With a valium from the bride / It's the devil I love" with a place in her heart for strangers. (i'm coming, neko!) There are some beautiful, echoing self-provided harmonies (like on "a widow's toast") that give more credence to her producer's claim that she's one of only 2 he's worked with (neko & nelly furtado) that have never used any form of auto-tune. She has a majestic voice that can just as easily swoon you into bed as it can pile-drive a knee into your groin. The desperation is shallow, but palpable when she sings "I don't care if forever never comes" holding out for "that teenage feeling". "john saw that number" is a jaunty little number with an actual chorus-sounding bit about an angel sent from God to check on John the Baptist: "So he flew from the pit with the moon round his waist / Gathered wind in his fists so the stars round his wrists / Cryin' holy, holy to the lord ". Other highlights include "dirty knife" and the beautiful "maybe sparrow" ("Maybe sparrow / It’s too late / The moonlight glanced off metal wings / In a thunderstorm above the clouds / The engine hums a sparrow’s phrase "). "[+]Reply
"HOMEGROWN You're a poem of mystery You're the prayer inside me Spoken words like moonlight You're the voice that I like (Faded From The Winter) Sub Pop almost didn’t make it. No. I don’t mean the grunge years. That was a given. No matter how improbable it seemed at the time. You just couldn’t kee...""HOMEGROWN
You're a poem of mystery
You're the prayer inside me
Spoken words like moonlight
You're the voice that I like (Faded From The Winter)
Sub Pop almost didn’t make it. No. I don’t mean the grunge years. That was a given. No matter how improbable it seemed at the time. You just couldn’t keep that much talent - Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice In Chains in particular - from going big. Seattle was going to blow. It was just a matter of time. Hair metal beckoned a correction. Metal had gone adrift way too far into the seas of cheese. A hard tack was in the cards.
No. I’m taking about the rebirth. In the late 90s. Sub Pop was on its knees. Internal mutinies were plotted. Hell, even co-founder Bruce Pavitt wanted to call it quits.
But not Jonathan Poneman. Poneman’s a lot like us. A music junkie. Addicted to the process of discovery. Finding that next musical high. That next big thing. That new sound. That’s right. Poneman of Sub Pop fame is a music addict just like us. And in the late 90s, he was desperately trying to jumpstart his once proud grunge behemoth Sub Pop. And by being a super music geek, Poneman pulled off one of the most successful rebrands of a record label in rock history. First came the The Shins Oh Inverted World. But no industry rests and Poneman needed to prove that Sub Pop was no longer just a grunge label. After all, with the Nicklebacks splashing in Puddles of Mudd 3 Doors Down, grunge or Sub Pop was hardly hip anymore. Quite the opposite.
And he found it. After countless hours of listening to demo after demo after demo. He got that rush all over again. Finding Sam Beam baring his soul on an old demo tape. And there was magic there. No studio trickery. No band. Just Beam channeling Appalachalia into his bedroom. Channeling a campfire that never was. And this is the power of imagination. He made an a lo-fi Appalachian album. Call it lo fi indie if you want. The setting tell us to do so. The record label tells us to do so. Hell Allmusic compares it to Sebadoh. But the songs. The voice. The slide guitar. That banjo. They tell us differently.
Reality check: I am NOT like Poneman. AT ALL. I just think I am. I let other people do my dirty work. You won’t catch me going through random demos looking for gold. EVER. It’s never happened. It never will happen. Shit, I didn’t even have any patience with those CMJ comps that would get mailed to my door back in the day. There’s tons of undiscovered gems out there. I just let other people find them for me. Thanks, BEA! Thanks, Spin! Thanks, Pitchfork! Thanks, Trouser Press and all the other countless lists I've scoured for the next fix. (Luckily, for all of us, I possess something called INSIGHT. That means I’m aware of my own shortcomings. I can see and more importantly smell my own pile of bullshit. Some people do not have this! They do not even realize that they shit! But more on this at another date.)
Allmusic tries to connect this album to Sebadoh/Sentridoh and the lo-fi indie rock of the early 90s. But that’s bullshit. Sebadoh always felt neatly nestled in the indie rock universe. A logical and necessary part of it. This doesn’t. This is all its own. Even more so than Oh Inverted World.
The problem with a lot of projects on this scale - one man bands in a bedroom- is that the songs can start to sound a like. Which is understandable. I mean it’s just one guy after all. In his bedroom. But this album completely bucks that notion as each song sounds distinct. Unique. The whole album somehow growing stronger as it travels along. Beam sent Poneman two albums worth of demos, and Poneman chiseled them down to this one record. A good editor is so underrated!
Grade: A+. I really don’t know how Poneman did it back it the early 2000s. First the Shins and then this. He definitely deserves more credit since both albums sounded like nothing else at the time. Now we take the whole Indie Folk scene for granted. Plus they each came with their own identity. Their own mystique. Hell even the album title - The Creek Drank the Cradle - sounds like an old fable. Biblical in nature. It has this recorded in obscurity home vibe mystique to it. And neither The Shins nor Iron & Wine would ever quite capture that again despite continued success. Something other worldly. Like from an old radio station left behind by the Dharma Initiative. Something that would be playing down in that old hatch while Desmond waited around to push the button. To save the world. It was like you were being let in on this secret world. Something apart yet parallel to our own. And this album climbs out of that hatch an into the sunshine. No longer Lost on a desert island, a desert bedroom but rising high among the indie greats to number 16. "[+]Reply