A Decade in Music: The best of 2000-2009

On the final day of the year and of the decade, I finally get around to sharing with you all what I consider the stand outs, the dare I say classics to be, of the decade that is about to be.
The albums speak for themselves. Each one, I can go back to again and again. Every one has a moment or moments that I associate it to, and whether the moment was great or not, they are locked to my memories. Each one is artistically impeccable.
The singles are those that get stuck in your head and are still rattling around years later. They are tracks that when I hear them when I’m at a party or at a bar, I’m giddy. They are the most played in my collection, some I will just listen to on repeat depending on the mood.
Ok, enough preamble. Here they are:

The Best Albums of the Decade
1. Arcade Fire, Funeral (2004)

2. Doves, The Last Broadcast (2002)

3. Radiohead, In Rainbows (2007)

4. Bloc Party, Silent Alarm (2005)

5. Interpol, Turn On The Bright Lights (2004)

6. Cut Copy, In Ghost Colours (2008)

7. M.I.A., Kala (2007)

8. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna Are You The Destroyer?(2007)

9. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver (2007)

10a. The Killers, Hot Fuss (2004)

10b. Scissor Sister, Scissor Sisters (2004)

Singles of The Decade
(other than my top three, not necessarily in order. Maybe. Not exactly)
1.Daft Punk, One More Time (2000)- Everytime I hear this I just want to dance. Sheer joy.

2.Arcade Fire, Neighborhood #1 (2004)

3. Bloc Party, This Modern Love (2005) – reminds me of the summer Alan and I trained for the North Shore Century, riding our bikes through the forest preserve.

M.I.A., Paper Planes (2007)

Doves, There Goes The Fear (2002) – January ’02 after the Super Bowl, sitting in Alan and Erin’s kitchen above the funeral home;Alan introduced me to this for the first time. Still amazing.

Interpol, NYC (2002)- The guitars get me everytime, just the ache of the song. Brilliant.

Ladytron, Destroy Everything You Touch (2005)- Venomous and electric. Janada and I bonded over this at Big Chicks one nights.

James, Hey Ma (2008)- I think this video that a YouTuber made completely embodies the meaning of the song.

Kelly Clarkson, Since U Been Gone (2004)- bubblegum and still delicious.

Fischerspooner, The 15th (2003)

Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye (2006)- Billy Corgan wishes he was as good as this song…Thanks Frank for the intro.

MGMT, Kids (2008)

Ting Tings, Great DJ (2008)- Another Big Chicks Wednesday night memory.

Saint Etienne, Stars Above Us (2005)

Avalanches, Since I Left You (2000)

Lady Gaga, Bad Romance (2009)-No apologies about this. She is spectacle, she is artistic, and damn is this song the catchiest thing ever (even more than Poker Face)

The Killers, All These Things That I Have Done (2004)

Madonna, Hung Up (2005)- The best thing she has done in years.

Chemical Brothers, Star Guitar (2002)

Coldplay, Lovers In Japan (2008)- The original video is terrible, but someone made one using Lost In Translation, check it at You Tube…

Jurgen Paape, So Weit Wie Noch Nie (2004)

Missy Elliot, Work It and Gossip Folks (2002)- couldn’t make up my mind on these two, they are both genius. Wednesday nights before euchre, Chris C and I loved these two tracks. Good times. Love Ludacris’ rhyme!

Modest Mouse, Float On (2004)

Basement Jaxx, Romeo (2001)

The Rapture, Out Of The Races And Onto The Track (2001)

Mew, Comforting Sounds (2003)- Epic. To hear this track live literally brought me to tears.

Nine Inch Nails, Beside You in Time (2005)

Pink, So What (2008)

Underworld, Two Months Off (2002)- Euphoric.

Phoenix, 1901 (2009)- My favorite of ’09 deserves a spot in the best of the decade too…

And with that we say goodnight to a decade gone by. Here’s to the next one…

A holiday gift…

A very Merry Christmas to all… wanted to share a very amusing story from EW.com.

Is Rudolph Gay?

The final installments of my favorite music from the decade that is about to be will post this week, with the best singles of the entire decade and the final installment, the best discs of the decade 2000-2009.

Enjoy!

The Decade in Music, part 8: The Best of 2009

As we wrap up this decade, it’s time to finally rewind the past 11 1/2 months and listen to what knocked my socks off this year. Welcome to the best music of 2009:

The Best Discs of 2009
The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart/ Higher Than The Stars EP
Franz Ferdinand, Tonight
Lady Gaga, The Fame Monster
The Horrors, Primary Colours
Mew, No More Stories Are Told Today
The Editors, In This Light And On This Evening
Basement Jaxx, Scars
The Big Pink, A Brief History Of Love
Lily Allen, It’s Not Me It’s You
Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

The Best Singles of 2009
Phoenix– 1901

Lady Gaga– Bad Romance

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart– Young Adult Friction

The Big Pink– Dominos

Basement Jaxx– Raindrops

Silversun Pickups– There’s No Secrets This Year
Lily Allen– Fuck You
Franz Ferdinand– Ulysses
Kelly Clarkson– I Do Not Hook Up
Radiohead– These Are My Twisted Words
Muse– Uprising
Metric– Help I’m Alive
Polvo– Beggars Bowl
Yeah Yeah Yeahs– Zero
Pet Shop Boys– Love Etc
Thom York– FeelingPulledApartByHorses
Atlas Sound featuring Noah Lennox– Walkabout
The Gossip– Heavy Cross

Best Reissue: Jawbox, For Your Own Special Sweetheart
Best Guilty Pleasure: anything by the cast of Glee
When Mediocre Albums Happen Award: (Tie) Doves, Kingdom of Rust & Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe. Both had such promise…Sorry, Alan.
The WTF?, or Just Go Away –Forever– Award: (Tie) Kanye West, Miley Cyrus and U2

Next time: The best of the best for 2000-2009.

A Decade in Music, part 7: 2008

It was exactly a year ago today that I posted my best of 2008 on this very blog. And to be honest, I really can’t improve upon it much at all. It also gives me the chance to get my 2009 list finalized, as well as prepare the ultimate list, the Best of the Decade overall.
So with that being said, take a quick look at these videos, and then hit the link below to a take a look back at what I though of music in 2008. Enjoy.

http://jonathanmvogel73.wordpress.com/2008/12/12/the-best-of-2008-in-music/

A Decade In Music, part 6: 2007

We’re in the final stretch of my trip down melody and noise lane as I share and expound some of my favorite music bits from the past decade, year by year.

It’s was only 2 short years ago that I wrote the following list and shared it with my friends. It was a pretty spectacular year in music: Radiohead did the unthinkable, said fuck you to the labels and released ‘In Rainbows’ all on their own. MIA’s Kala was named Rolling Stone’s Album of the Year, and this was still months before ‘Paper Planes’ REALLY took off and the whole Slumdog Millionaire phenom. The Fiest/ iPod commercials were everytime you turned on the TV, while Peter, Bjorn and John got a big push when ‘Young Folks’ popped up on Grey’s Anatomy. And then there was the freak show that was Of Montreal, that released a brilliant and mindblowing concept album about love and depression. Pretty damn good year, definitely one of the best of the decade.

So once again, with only one more year left before we hit this year’s list, I bring you Flashback: 2007.

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jon’s best of 2007

Discs:
1. Radiohead, In Rainbows
2. Of Montreal, Hissing Fauna Are You the Destroyer?
3. Arcade Fire, Neon Bible
4. LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
5. MIA, Kala
6. Interpol, Our Love to Admire
7. Feist, The Reminder
8. Nine Inch Nails, Year Zero
9. Stars, In Our Bedroom After the War
10. The Sea & Cake, Everybody
11. Bloc Party, A Weekend in the City
12. Lily Allen, Alright Still
13. !!!, Myth Takes

Singles:
We Were Born the Mutants Again with Leafling, Of Montreal
All My Friends, LCD Soundsystem
All I Need, Radiohead
Object of My Affections, Peter Bjorn and John
Songs for Clay (Disappear Here), Bloc Party
Neon Bible, Arcade Fire
1234, Feist
Love Today, Mika
Umbrella, Rihanna
The Beat Goes On, Madonna
Black Mirror, Arcade Fire
God Given, Nine Inch Nails
Knock Em Out, Lily Allen
Do It Right, the Go! Team
Atlas, Battles
Paper Planes, MIA
Australia, the Shins
The Weight of The World, the Editors
The Night Starts Here, Stars
No I in Threesome, Interpol
Is There a Ghost, Band of Horses
Pictures Of You, The Last Goodnight
Fucked Up Kid, Kevin Drew
Someone Great, LCD Sounsystem
She’s A Rejecter, Of Montreal
Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Radiohead
I Feel It All, Feist
Young Folks, Peter Bjorn and John

Best Track Not from this Year:
Ceremony (Joy Division cover from Webcast), Radiohead

The WHY, or WTF Award:
Smashing Pumpkins, Zeitgiest

When bad discs happen to good Artist:
Tie: Underworld, Oblivion with Bells/ The Chemical Brothers, We Are The Night

Overrated, or Sick of it by February Award:
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black

Next time… we’ll step back just a year ago and remember what made 2008 so great.

A Decade in Music part 5: 2006

We’re going to keep this train rolling along…

As we approach the last few years in this decade, my best of music from those years get easier and easier to post. Mostly because I was already blogging them on MySpace or sharing them via email with my friends, and for some reason I kept the documents on my computer. So while to some this is cheating, to me this is actually like opening a time capsule. There are things I disagree with now, of course, but I think this is a best way to capture a snapshot of what i really was listening to back then: from my own words, thoughts and writings from that year. So like 2005, I present a re-post of my favorite discs and tracks from 2006.
Let’s hop in the way back machine, Mr. Peabody…

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Jon’s Best of 2006
In a year saturated with so much, it was hard to narrow things down to a top 10, so I went with 15. Here is my best of the best.
Some of you will hate my decisions and my taste, so all I can say is… fuck off, I like what I like.

1. Scissor Sisters, Ta-Dah
2. Silversun Pickups, Carnavas
3. CSS, Cansei de ser Sexy
4. Thom York, The Eraser
5. Belle and Sebastian, The Life Pursuit
6. Band Of Horses, Everything All the Time
7. Keane, Under the Iron Sea
8. Mew, And the Glass Handed Kites
9. Yo La Tengo, I Am Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass
10. I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness, Fear is On Our Side
11. The Flaming Lips, At War With The Mystics
12. Goldfrapp, Supernature
13. Pink, I’m Not Dead
14. The Knife, Silent Shout
15. Junior Boys, So This Is Goodbye

The Honor Roll….

Best Reissue of the Year that you must own:
Chavez, Better Days Will Haunt You
Biggest Disappointment of the Year, or the WTF award:
the Killers, Sam’s Town
Cool disc that was so hyped and overexposed so I hate it now:
Gnarls Barkley, St. Elsewhere
Best Bootleg of the Year that will be fierce IF and when it ever gets released:
Guns and Roses, Chinese Democracy (Here’s hoping the March 6, 2007 release date actually holds) (authors’ 2009 note: LMAO, we know what a bomb this ended up being!)
Best disc of the year… not from this year:
Mew, Frengers (from 2003- and it’s almost better
than And the Glass Handed Kites)

Jon’s Best songs of 2006:

So these don’t necessarily have to be singles, single the concept of radio friendly singles is bullshit. But these are songs that definitely grooved me this year:

1. CSS, Alala / Let’s Make Love and Listen to Death From Above
2. Scissor Sisters, I Don’t Feel Like Dancin’/ I Can’t Decide
3. Silversun Pickups, Lazy Eye
4. Madonna, Jump
5. Arty Fufkin, Atoms for Idols (Thom York vs. Kelly Clarkson mash up)
6. Band Of Horses, The Funeral
7. Lady Sovereign, Love Me or Hate Me
8. Keane, Nothing In My Way
9. Yo La Tengo, Mr. Tough
10. Belle and Sebastian, Act of the Apostle
11. Basement Jaxx, Hush Boy
12. Nelly Furtado, Maneater
13. Muse, Starlight
14. Goldfrapp, Ride a White Horse
15. Paul Oakenfold featuring Brittney Murphy, Faster Kill Pussycat (just because of Brittney)

Honorable mentions (Not really from this year but loved them anyway):
Chavez, the Guard Attacks
Mew, Comforting Sounds
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Noticably missing from my track list, and in hindsight would have been on it:
Amy Winehouse- Rehab
Gnarls Barkley- Crazy
Gossip- Standing in The Way of Control
Hard Fi- Hard to Beat
Thom York- Harrowdown Hill

Getting closer every time…

A Decade in music, part 4: 2005

Welcome to my latest edition of my favorite music from the past decade. As we approach the end of 2009, I’ve been busy checking out tunes and tracks, listening and re-listening to what rocked me this year, so I’ve been a little sidetracked. As a result, I’ve been remiss in getting my previous years’ flashbacks posted.
Then in searching through and making lists, I stumbled upon blog posts I had made on MySpace way back when, and I must admit, it’s too good to pass up and not share…again. In retrospect, I definitely see and know their were tracks and albums that didn’t make my top 10 that so should have, and of course I added those after the initial list. but for shits and giggles, and in true continuation of my posts on the decade, here from December of 2005 is my best of list:

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The drum roll please folk… it that time of year, time to document my favorite bits of music for the year. And the winners are…

1. Bloc Party, Silent Alarm(Vice/ Dim Mak) – Probably the most stunning new band to emerge from the UK, the disc is politically charged and the tunes violently dynamic. From the throbbing opening track Like Eating Glass to the aching This Modern Love, the tracks are tight. Love it. Thanks Frank for the heads up again.
2. The Go! Team, Thunder Lightning Strike (Columbia)- A definite surprise for me… it’s trippy, it’s almost kitchy, it’s definitely catchy. Like Sesame Street and the Jackson 5 on a breakbeat acid trip.
3. Doves, Some Cities (Heavenly/Capitol)- the third full length from the Manchester trio is another work of success… thematically titled, epic and sprawling in texture and sound. Stand out tracks include the title track, the Motown infused Black and White Town and the haunting One of These Days. And if you get a chance, see them live.
4. New Order, Waiting for the Sirens Call (Warner Music)- Sorry Alan, but I disagree with you… definitely the strongest work from the original Manchester club band in a long time. Krafty is bouncy and euphoric, the title track is hands down their best song since Your Silent Face, and it sounds like they been hanging out with Doves a whole lot when they came up with the so not electronic Working Overtime.
5. Franz Ferdinand, You Could Have It So Much Better (Domino)- Overcoming the sophomore slump that the Strokes never, Franz’s second disc is just a bit tighter than the debut. Towards the back half of the disc, Beatles by way of Great Escape-era Blur influence bleeds in a bit here and there.
6. Madonna, Confessions on a Dancefloor (Warner Music)- Like it wasn’t going to make my list!! What’s not to love… non stop electronica, ABBA sample, a ode to NYC, it’s all solid gold.
7.Nine Inch Nails, With Teeth (Interscope/ Nothing)- Anger is never more cathartic than with Trent Reznor, i’ve always said. The disc is all over the map: Only takes us back to Pretty Hate Machine, while Beside You In Time feels like the best parts of the Fragile … without the endless sprawl.
8.Fiona Apple, Extraordinary Machine (Epic)- We all know the back story (Shelved disc, angry fans unite to get it released, Fiona crys at all of the love and remixes it Snoop Dogg’s producer, disc released), but here’s the truth… Nora Jones hasn’t got jack on this piano enchantress. There’s sorrow, passion, whimsy and anger all over the place, and never has it been a more beautiful mess.
9. Gorillaz, Demon Days (Virgin)- Gotta love it when a cartoon band with a Clint Eastwood fetish and excellence pedigree (Damon Albarn, DJ Danger Mouse) can rock the house. You can hear a distinct segue to this disc from Blur’s last effort, Think Tank… the dank dark yearning with the hip hop club edge. And who doesn’t love the fact you can hear both Shaun Ryder mumble and Dennis Hopper ramble within moments of each other?
10. Six Feet Under Volume 2, Everything Ends TV Soundtrack (Astralwerks)- As one of the best shows in TV history became history this year, it was given a very appropriate send off with this compilation of tracks featured over the past three seasons. Not one track is a miss here: Nina Simone’s Feelin’ Good kicks things off, and sure it’s great to hear two very fine Coldplay and Radiohead classics. But Sia’s Breathe Me, Interpol’s Direction, Jem’s Amazing Life and the Arcade Fire’s Cold Wind are all new, and absolutely stunning. It’s so elegant to listen and remember the moments when these tracks graced the series.
and the honorable mentions go to…
Annie, Anniemal
Depeche Mode, Playing the Angel
Death from Above 1979, You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
Ladytron, Witching Hour
Oasis, Don’t Believe the Truth
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It’s funny to see how I judged and compared music back then. I know, it was just four years ago, but still. I probably would restructure that list significantly if I were to do it today. As hindsight is always 20/20, I also missed a great disc or two, like Maximo Park’s A Certain Trigger, and Ladytron would now be in my top 5, especially since The Go! Team’s disc actually hit in 2004 (a bit of history repeating). But it’s interesting to look back and actually see how things may change over a matter of four years. It’s cool I stumbled across this, and glad I got to share.

oh, and for those keeping track, here’s my list of memorable tracks from ’05:

Twin Cinema, The New Pornographers
Dakota, Stereophonics
Na Na Na Na Naa, Kaiser Chiefs
This Home on Ice, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Your Heart is an Empty Room, Death Cab for Cutie
Oh Well, Fiona Apple
This Modern Love, Bloc Party
Dare, Gorillaz
Test Transmission, Kasabian
Destroy Everything You Touch, Ladytron
Gone Missing, Maximo Park
Only, NIN
Stars Above Us, Saint Etienne
Waiting for the Siren’s Call, New Order
Cold Wind, The Arcade Fire
Dream About Me, Moby
Number One, Goldfrapp
Breathe Me, Sia
Hollaback Girl, Gwen Stefani
I Believe In You, Kylie Minogue
Daft Punk is Playing At My House, LCD Sounsystem
Hung Up, Madonna
Jetstream (Richard X Remix), New Order with Ana Matronic
Rental Car, Beck
King Of The Rodeo, Kings of Leon
One of these Days, Doves
Thinking About You, Ivy
In the Crossfire, Starsailor
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Faultline and Keane
Wordless Chorus, My Morning Jacket
Precious, Depeche Mode
Lyla, Oasis
Wake Me Up Uhen September Ends, Green Day
Over and Over, Hot Chip
7/4 (shoreline),Broken Social Scene

Only three more years to go…