50 Songs Of The Decade (2000 – 2009)

(photo by dcdead)

I released my 50 albums of the decade list two years ago with all intentions to follow it up with a matching songs list. Days turned into weeks and weeks into months. No such list ever materialized and I kindof gave up on the idea. That is until earlier this summer when I took a weekend trip to visit some friends in Chicago and decided to soundtrack the drive with a playlist of my favorite songs from 2000-2009. I thought the mix turned out pretty good so I chiseled it down to my absolute favorite 50 songs, gave them a mostly-arbitrary ranking and now I’m sharing it with you. Of course, belating this list for two years has given me the necessary perspective to narrow this list down to only the essentials. These are the tracks that I play over and over and never get tired of, the songs that always make me turn the volume up when they shuffle on my iPod, basically the songs that are “really, really ridiculously good looking” and not just “so hot right now”.

A few words of about this list, I’m not claiming to have made an end-all be-all “greatest songs of the naughts” list, just my personal favorites. A few folks took offense to the lack of  some genres (ahem, hip hop) on the albums list but hopefully this one will counterbalance that woeful underrepresentation somewhat. Furthermore, I didn’t do full reviews of each track, because seriously, who has that kind of time, but I’ve created a Spotify Playlist where you can listen to all of the tracks (there’s also vimeo/youtube videos linked to each one). In keeping with my yearly songs lists I’ve limited myself to one track per artist.  If you scroll all the way down you’ll see some songs that “just missed” and some per-year stats (‘05 reins supreme again in my book). So here it is, the long overdue top 50 songs of the decade according to me. Feel free to dispute or agree with my choices in the comments. Enjoy!

music for kids who can’t read good presents: 50 Songs Of The Decade (2000 – 2009)

Most easily found on: The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place

Most easily found on: The Execution Of All Things

Most easily found on: Bows + Arrows

Most easily found on: Veckatimest

Most easily found on: Sticking Fingers Into Sockets

Most easily found on: Black Sheep Boy

Most easily found on: White Blood Cells

Most easily found on: Let It Die

Most easily found on: Shut Up I Am Dreaming

Most easily found on: Give Up

Follow the jump to see the rest!

50 Albums of the Decade

(photo by dcdead)

I told myself I wasn’t going to do a decades album list. I mean how can you really rank all your favorite albums over a period of ten years that isn’t even completed yet? Over the last couple of months though, I found myself slowly beginning to compile a list of my albums from the 00’s that I loved and I then I began chiseling the list down to around 50 albums. I guess my love for making lists got in the way of the logic and reasoning I had for not making a list. Also since, I started this blog around the middle of the decade I thought only fair that I share this list to acknowledge those great albums that I wasn’t around to write about or put into a fancy EOY list.

A few words of about this list, firstly, these are my personal favorites of the decade and not the end-all be-all of decade-end lists. I realize that some genres (ahem, hip hop) are being woefully underrepresented because of this. Secondably, I would have liked to do full-scale reviews for each album but life kept getting in the way so instead for each album I’ve linked reviews that I feel capture the spirit of the album (click the album cover to go to there). Scroll all the way down to see some albums that “just missed” and some per-year stats (if you want to know which year is best, it’s between ’02 and ’05). So without any further ado, here’s the top 50 albums of the decade according to me. Feel free to dispute or agree with my choices in the comments. Enjoy!

music for kids who can’t read good presents: 50 Albums Of The Decade

Key track: “Beautiful Dreamer”

Key track: “Two Weeks”

Key track: “Postcards in Italy”

Key track: “Hotel Yorba”

Key track: “Consolation Prizes”

Follow the jump to see the rest!

2007: Revisited!

As I’m continuing working on my lists, I decided to revisit my Favorite Albums of 2007 list.  There’s a few new albums I’d add (hello Kanye, Caribou, M.I.A., Justice) a few that got sadly had to be bumped (sorry Bloc Party, Klaxons, Shout Out Louds, Office).  Radiohead, Panda Bear, Of Montreal, and LCD Soundsystem leaped up a bit as well.

() notes previous rank

1. Of Montreal – Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? / Icons Abstract Thee EP (#3)
2. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (#4)
3. Cloud Cult – The Meaning of 8 (#1)
4. Iron & Wine – The Shepherds Dog (#3)
5. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (#7)
6. Okkervil River – The Stage Names (#5)
7. Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (#8)
8. Andrew Bird – Armchair Apocrypha (#6)
9. The National – Boxer (#9)
10. Radiohead – In Rainbows (#13)
11. Sunset Rubdown – Random Spirit Lover (#11)
12. Panda Bear – Person Pitch (#21)
13. Bodies of Water – Ears Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink (#10)
14. Kanye West – Graduation (New!)
15. Windmill – Puddle City Racing Lights (#12)
16. Caribou – Andorra (New!)
17. Dear and the Headlights – Small Steps, Heavy Hooves (#14)
18. Beirut – The Flying Club Cup (#16)
19. Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position (#15)
20. Battles – Mirrored (#17)
21. MIA – Kala (New!)
22. Broken Social Scene presents Kevin Drew: Spirit If… (#23)
23. Wilco – Sky Blue Sky (#18)
24.Justice – † (New!)
25. The White Stripes – Icky Thump (#20)

I’m not planning on revisiting my Top 50 Songs of 2007 list,  but if I had to do a re-do I would have “Paper Planes” in my top 10.  Totally dropped the ball on that song.

MP3 M.I.A. – Paper Planes
MP3 Of Montreal – Heimdalsgate Like a Promethean Curse
MP3 Caribou – Melody Day
MP3 Spoon – You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb
MP3 Cloud Cult – Take Your Medicine

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The Music For Kids Who Can’t Read Good group wall has been a bit feeling a bit lonely since about August of this year, so why don’t you shake things up a little by posting your top 5 albums of the 2008 for everyone to see.

The "08 Covers" Mix

Today’s mix is comprised entirely of covers of songs that were released in 2008, because we here at musicforants.com are big fans of covers and we like getting stuff fast.  What’s more instantly gratifying then hearing an artist cover a song that was released just a couple months before (except maybe a Weird Al parody of that song)? 

Whether it’s performed on British radio (Mystery Jets, Katy Perry, The Kooks), part of a full album covers project (Okkervil River), or recorded by a legendary band during some backstage downtime (Radiohead), all these covers have made their way onto the internet, and I compiled a mix of 8 of my favorite “insta-covers” from 2008* for you.  Let me know if there’s any more out there that I don’t about.   Enjoy!

MP3 Radiohead – The Rip (Portishead Cover)
MP3 Dirty Mittens – White Winter Hymnal (Fleet Foxes Cover)
MP3 Holy F*ck – Balloons (Foals Cover)
MP3 The Kooks – Violet Hill (Coldplay Cover)
MP3 Katy Perry – Electric Feel (MGMT Cover)
MP3 Ola Podrida – Calling and Not Calling My Ex (Okkervil River Cover)
MP3 Panda Riot – Paper Planes (M.I.A. Cover)
MP3 The Mystery Jets –  Blakes Got A New Face (Vampire Weekend Cover) 

*and yes “Paper Planes” counts because according to my sources the single was released in February 2008.

 

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The "good albums with really bad album covers" Mix

Back when compact discs were all the rage, if you didn’t care for the album art, it really didn’t matter. You probably just took it out of it’s cover and threw it in a giant CD Holder or used a CD-R that your friend burnt for you (probably with the incorrect tracklisting) anyway. In the age of iPods and iPhones though, the album cover is what identifies the track, you look at it everytime the song plays and often browse albums by art. So if I shuffle to one of my favorite tracks and I look down to see some crappy looking album art staring back at me, it causes the equivalent of a mental train wreck. It’s an internal battle of good vs. bad that I’d rather not have to deal with.

While most bands seem to create generally appealing and sometimes fantastic cover art some just really stand out, in a bad way. Here’s some of the worst album covers that were created by some of my favorite artists. I plead to you, hire some better graphic designers! Sound off on your least favorite album covers in the comments.

The Mountain Goats have generally been pretty lo-fi with their album covers but Get Lonely just took it too far. I’m not at all a fan of the all-caps, italics text and the whole cover is ridiculously off balance. There had to be a better way to frame that boxing guy then with that crappy looking marble stuff. The album ranked high on my list of favorite albums of ’06, but the album cover was one of my least favorites of the year (unfortunately I didn’t make that list). Even a messy stack of undeveloped camera film is better than this.

MP3 Woke Up New

This one probably disturbs me the most since The Execution of All Things is such a great album, definitely my favorite of Rilo Kiley‘s career (assuming they don’t make a miraculous comeback). The album cover though looks like it’s trying to be artsy but just turns out as a muddy mess. The worst thing is that it doesn’t fit the music at all, which is anything but bland and actually exhibits quite a bit of youthfulness.

MP3 The Good That Won’t Come Out Of Me

The album cover for Cat Power‘s The Greatest was trying to make a simple statement with the gold chain, but it turns out looking really cheap and kitschy. Also, the whole boxing gloves thing takes away any subtlety that the album cover could have had. I don’t know what the idea going into the pink background was but it doesn’t match the warm tones of the album at all. Thankfully, a new cover was released that was much more fitting featuring Chan in sepia tones.

MP3 Lived In Bars

This album art for …And The Glass Handed Kites is so bad that it’s disturbing. It could almost be put in the horribly awesome category, but that might be giving it too much credit. The photoshop work here is just offensive, it looks like something a junior-higher would do for a few laughs before throwing it away. What the hell does Mew think eating each other represents? I love the epic dream-pop sound, but I can’t get over how bad this cover is.

MP3 The Zookeeper’s Boy

I love the art for their newest album but Cloud Cult‘s creepy album cover for Advice From The Happy Hippopotamus doesn’t appeal to me at all, even if the album is thoroughly awesome. The frame really clashes with the rest of the cover and I don’t understand why they needed to put a boy on the front, when showing an empty room could have been a much stronger statement. What really tops it all off is the stupid looking hippo in the background. Come on!

MP3 Transistor Radio

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin somehow manages to make a plain black background with some dead flowers boring. How did they do it! Seriously though, for quirky fun pop music this has to be the worst idea for a cover ever. With such a wacky band name you would think they could come up with something funner than some dead ugly flowers for Broom, what does that represent anyway? The horribly bland all-caps serif font just puts the nail in the coffin.

MP3 Oregon Girl

Kala hasn’t even been released yet, but the cover is so bad that I felt like it had to be mentioned. Usually you don’t want to feel like you’re going to vomit when you look at an album but that seems to be the thing that M.I.A. is going for here. There’s something truly awful about those color patterns and you can barely read the blocky words on the front. M.I.A.’s first album used some of the same repetition and eye-grabbing color themes and made it look cool. This cover though, really can’t get any worse.

MP3 Jimmy