99. Belle & Sebastian – The Life Pursuit (2006)
98. Toots & The Maytals – Light Your Light (2007)
97. Antipop Consortium – Arrhythmia (2002)
96. Echo & The Bunnymen – Siberia (2005)
95. Sleater-Kinney – The Woods (2005)
94. Mark Eitzel – Invisible Man (2001)
93. Ben Harper – Both Sides of the Gun (2006)
92. Ani DiFranco – So Much Shouting, So Much Laughter (2002)
91. Kings of Leon – Youth & Young Manhood (2003)
90. Mark Eitzel – Music for Courage and Confidence (2002)
89. Ani DiFranco – Evolve (2003)
88. Beck – Guero (2005)
87. Ryan Adams – Cardinology (2008)
86. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells (2001)
85. Radiohead – In Rainbows (2007)
84. Franz Ferdinand (2004)
83. Cowboy Junkies – One Soul Now (2003)
82. Otis Taylor – Respect the Dead (2002)
81. Beck – Modern Guilt (2008)
80. Black Keys – Rubber Factory (2004)
79. Pearl Jam (2006)
78. Ben Harper – Diamonds on the Inside (2003)
77. Balkan Beat Box (2005)
76. Neil Young – Silver and Gold (2000)
75. Flaming Lips – At War With the Mystics (2004)
74. My Morning Jacket – iTunes Live at the Palms (2009)
73. White Stripes – Icky Thump (2007)
72. Bettie Serveert – Private Suit (2000)
71. Neko Case – The Tigers Have Spoken (2004)
70. Cowboy Junkies – Open Road (2001)
69. New Pornographers – iTunes Live from Soho (2008)
68. Frank Black – Dog In The Sand (2001)
67. Probot (2004)
66. U2 – No Line on the Horizon (2009)
65. Elliott Smith/Iain Matthews – La Terre Commune (2001)
64. Tarbox Ramblers (2000)
63. Neko Case – Middle Cyclone (2009)
62. Various – Down in the Promised Land: 5 Years of Bloodshot Records (2000)
61. Cowboy Junkies – At the End of Paths Taken (2007)
60. Dennis Brennan – Rule No. 1 (2001)
59. Neil Young – Are You Passionate? (2003)
58. Radiohead – Hail to the Thief (2003)
57. Ryan Adams - 29 (2005)
56. Fleet Foxes (2008)
55. Neko Case – Fox Confessor Brings the Flood (2006)
54. Various – Reggae Gold 2003
53. Songs:Ohia – Magnolia Electric Co. (2002)
52. Queens of the Stone Age – Era Vulgaris (2007)
51. Circus Devils – Sgt. Disco (2007)
50. Nick Cave – Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! (2008)
49. Keller Williams – Laugh (2002)
48. Zero 7 – When It Falls (2004)
47. Kelly Joe Phelps – Sky Like A Broken Clock (2001)
46. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Live from Mars (2001)
45. The Mars Volta – The Bedlam In Goliath (2008)
44. Various – Rooftop Roots II (2006)
43. Jon Rauhouse – Steel Guitar Heart Attack (2007)
42. Drive-By Truckers – Decoration Day (2003)
41. Ani DiFranco – Revelling/Reckoning (2001)
40. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Abbattoir Blues Tour (2007)
39. Dave Matthews Band – Live at Piedmont Park (2007)
38. Pearl Jam – Binaural (2000)
37. Celebration – The Modern Tribe (2007)
36. David Gilmour – On An Island (2006)
35. Joss Stone – Mind, Body And Soul (2004)
34. Stephen Marley – Mind Control (2007)
33. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Abbattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus (2004)
32. Pearl Jam – Live at Benaroya Hall (2004)
31. Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (2000)
30. Red Hot Chili Peppers – By The Way (2003)
29. Farmer Dave Scher – Fast Forward to the Good Times (2009)
28. Bob Dylan – Modern Times (2007)
27. Radiohead – I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings (2001)
26. My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges (2008)
25. Pearl Jam – 16-6-00 Krakowice, Poland (2000)
24. The White Stripes – Get Behind Me, Satan (2005)
23. Dr. Dog – Passed Away, Vol. 1 (2008)
22. Ryan Adams – Gold (2001)
21. Neko Case - Blacklisted (2002)
20. Eddie Vedder – Soundtrack to the Motion Picture “Into the Wild” (2007)
19. Cowboy Junkies - Open (2001)
18. Dr. Dog – Fate (2008)
17. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss – Raising Sand (2007)
16. Over the Rhine – Films for Radio (2001)
15. Drive-By Truckers – Southern Rock Opera (2002)
14. Ryan Adams – Easy Tiger (2007)
13. My Morning Jacket – At Dawn (2001)
12. The Cat Empire – Two Shoes (2006)
11. Ray LaMontagne – Gossip In The Grain (2008)
10. Conor Oberst (2008)
9. Bob Dylan – Love & Theft (2001)
“The Man Behind The Shades” has made some of the best music of his life after his 50th birthday. He knows the whole idea of “song.” He is still a master to study and respect entering his sixth decade as a professional musician.
8. Dr. Dog – We All Belong (2007)
Those weirdos from Philadelphia come at you with a wistful two-singer attack with a mindful mix of the old and the new. And, boy, do they know how to have fun. “My Old Ways,” “Alaska” and the title track are titles I could never get tired of.
7. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends – Furnace Room Lullaby (2000)
My introduction to my favorite female (and favorite overall solo) artist of the decade hit me like a brick thrown directly in my face from point-blank range, and it left the sweetest aftertaste imaginable. I’ve heard her voice so many times, it’s tough to remember what I remember thinking the first time I heard this album, the product of a random search while looking for new music.
6. The Drive-By Truckers – The Dirty South (2004)
A band that truly hit their peak right damn here. Their next album was a fall-off, but it was unfair to even judge any album of theirs after this pretty much perfect suite of sweaty, muddy and symphonically beauteous paeans to the lower half of our country. Each of the three singer/songwriters documented their masterworks – Mike Cooley with “Cottonseed” and “Daddy’s Cup,” Jason Isbell with “Danko/Manuel” and “Goddamn Lonely Love” and Patterson Hood with “The Sands of Iwo Jima” and “Puttin People On The Moon.”
5. My Morning Jacket – It Still Moves (2003)
There aren’t too many songs on this album that aren’t still concert classics. “Run Thru” whips the audience into a frenzy every time. “Steam Engine” is in a dark, sultry space all its own. “Dancehalls” playfully tricks with an introduction that seems to start a different song than it ends up as. “Mahgeetah” is up there with the ultimate My Morning Jacket song, “One Big Holiday” as true anthems of the 2000s. But nothing gets us Jackheads going like screaming out “Waking up feeling/Good and Limber/When The Telephone it rings…” until our lungs bleed.
4. Beachwood Sparks (2000)
This one was a hidden gem. I bought it in 2000, and was happy (not yet blown away) by their nods to Gram Parsons (before I even really knew who that psychedelic country innovator was, and before I really knew there was such a thing as psychedelic country). These songs were of a world I knew no longer existed. They were well-written, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready. It turns out, when you read No. 1, that this was just a warm-up. A hell of a warm-up. “Desert Skies,” “Canyon Ride” “Old Sea Miner” are as ingrained now in the soundtrack of my life as, say, “Stairway to Heaven” or “Pinball Wizard.”
I know every dazed, sunsplashed word and note like my own name.
3. Neko Case – Live in Austin, Texas (2007)
Who knew, that with all of her recorded output and hard work (which all paid off) in studios around the country, a one-night show for a national television audience with two string players and a golden harmony singer (hello, Kelly Hogan!) would speak to me the most?
The outright purity of her songs gets to shine. Tom Ray holds the fort on stand-up bass, while Jon Rauhouse tries his damnedest not to upstage Neko Case. Still, he’s not holding back, whether it be on banjo, lap steel or hard-strung electric (“Knock Loud”).
Oh, as for Neko herself - You’ve never heard her so on the mark as on that night, Aug. 8, 2003, in that TV studio in Austin. The power of the night, hurt, pride, girl power, vulnerability and romantic hypnosis all were packed up and then released one by one, in no particular order, sometimes one, two, three or all of these in one song, while still gliding confidently through a Texan night watched over by the spirits of Hank, Patsy and so many other angels of rising and falling notes.
2. My Morning Jacket – Z (2005)
How the hell are they going to follow up “It Still Moves”? Actually, before I heard this album, My Morning Jacket was a band I simply liked. They could write a damned good song, but I’m sure some other musical act was holding my attention in 2005 (well, that or getting married). Yeah, it was a busy 2005 and to tell you the truth, it wasn’t until 2006 that I heard this album! Then, it all made sense.
They weren’t following up shit. They were starting over, as they would three years later with “Evil Urges.” They go in whichever direction the wind of their inventiveness will take them. But this album, with the current lineup solidified, stands tall above all their other fine works of the 2000s because of its great value of “What the hell are they thinking?”
I challenge anyone to find another song like “Wordless Chorus” – who writes these songs? I know, Jim James, but where is he getting these ideas? Like the best of The Who, Zeppelin, The Band and Dylan, they’re creating a new style every time they lay down a track. The lovelorn thunder of “It Beats 4 U” threads its way through the middle of the night like a horny heartbeat. “Lay Low” is a mini-opera that takes off with all the grace of a pterodactyl. “Off the Record” gets you wondering “Hey, what’s this popish break?” but before the song ends, you’re lodged somewhere between Radiohead and Pink Floyd wondering “How the hell did I get here?” as in your weirdest and favorite dreams.
“Dondante” was a Pandora’s Box made for the concert stage. It’s back into the blacklight velvet world here for James & Co., and they ride out the journey on a crooning sax …
Again, where the hell am I and how did I get here?
No. 1:
Beachwood Sparks – Once We Were Trees (2001)
OK, people – let ‘er rip! “Not White Stripes?” “Not Radiohead?” “Not Coldplay?” (OK, the Coldplay guy should just bury himself right now – I’ll buy the shovel).
While Jack White and Thom Yorke’s cohorts certainly are artistes that the masses will remember and keep loving, rightfully, I exist in my own little world. I make my own musical rules, which I alone care to follow, and those rules have a hell of a lot to do with paying heed to those who came before. Beachwood Sparks were unashamedly retro, and I am a sucker for that approach. “This sounds like something out of the 60s or 70s” – “yeah, yeah, it sure does, man, it suuuure does.”
I first heard this album in a Newbury Comics, actually. I had bought their first record, but didn’t even put two and two together. It might as well have been a different band – they had risen, simply put. They found a crack in the ceiling of a sunlit sky and followed it into a space filled with rainbows, lava lamps, tumbleweeds, and a special light that can’t even be given a name.
On the surface, some may say “it’s country” or “it’s hippy.” Well, yes, it’s both those things like a cheeseburger is cheese and burger, but billions of those have sold, right?
Follow the crests and troughs of Farmer Dave Scher’s steel guitar, Chris Gunst’s “dude, like, just relaaaaaaax” vocal delivery, and Brent Rademaker’s and Aaron Sperske’s crisp rhythm moving things along like some golden, enchanted axle on an otherwise creaky VW bus.
I can’t lie – I do love the anti-city, pro-nature undercurrent to the lyrics on this oh so worshiped album (by myself, alone, probably). I’d much rather be driving down an open valley following a river than going to another store or restaurant in New York City. These guys understand me, and that’s why I love this album. "You take the gold and I'll take the forest." Amen.
And they know that sometimes, the consciousness of this world can get tedious. Were these guys on drugs when they made this album? It’s perfectly fine if they were, but I’m a clean-living man (a beer or two if I’m out with friends, but mostly I’m toxication-free by choice). Still, I have more than a tolerance, I’d call it a hankering, for the whole idea of psychedelia – mess with the listener’s head as much as possible. Sign me up.
Oh, and not one of the 1970s greatest can match the title track for sheer fucking awesomeness – they step on Pink Floyd’s head, stomp on Zep’s feet and raise a fist in the air. Then they end it all with destruction. A punk sneer just peeks through the calico at the end before it all gets swallowed up in an electric storm of feedback, like a masochistic artist reaching back and destroying everything he’s just spent hours, days, years to create.
Ladies and gentlemen, I love this album because I love a blue sky and a clear night. Because I pay attention to sunsets. Because I love the smell of salt in the air when you’re by the ocean. Because I love this world.
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