Kevin's Music Blog

2000’s Top 12 Albums (1-4)

2000’s Top 12 ALBUMS (1-4)

1) The Strokes: Is This It [2001]

This is it!!! (okay maybe not that funny…) The #1 album of the 2000’s. I remember seeing The Strokes’ video for “Last Nite” on MTV’s 120 Minutes back in 2001 (when MTV still played music videos). I was blown away by how EFFORTLESS the music MOVED me and bought This Is It as soon as it was released stateside. After all these years, I would have never known how important it was to me until I made this list… This is art.

Key Track: “Hard to Explain”

2) Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worse Nightmare [2007]

The most hyped about band in 2006 by everybody but Americans. The Arctic Monkeys had the task of creating a followup to Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. With expectations at an all time high, The Arctic Monkeys do the impossible and deliver the good plus then some. Who knew that these four British lads could rock harder than their American contemporaries?

Key Track: “Brianstorm” (BRIAN NOT BRAIN PEOPLE)

3) Eminem: The Marshall Mathers LP [2000]

Nobody fucked with Eminem during the year 2000. He was untouchable. One of the last instances in recent pop culture memory where a star was born that had credibility and brought his art to the masses because of how powerful his lyrical content and flow was. Eminem became the Elvis of hip-hop.

Key Track: “Kill You”

4) System of a Down: Toxicity [2001]

I was a fan of SOAD before their debut. Then “Chop Suey!” was released and I immediately assumed they were sellouts. I couldn’t stand my friends and classmates singing lyrics to the song as well as the title track. Boy was I wrong, I should have gave the album a chance. Now that my friends and classmates musical tastes have moved on, I finally had the chance to hear the album a couple months ago and have been listening to it since. It’s never to late to enjoy good metal!

Key Track: “Aerials”

2000’s Top 12 Albums (5-8)

2000’s TOP 12 ALBUMS (5-8)

5) Radiohead: In Rainbows [2007]

No Kid A?! Yup. In fact, this is easily Radiohead’s strongest effort in the 2000’s and maybe the only one I personally liked to be quite frank. Don’t get me wrong… I’m a huge Kid A fan, but In Rainbows simply has higher quality songs. Radiohead’s infamous marketing strategy (pay whatever you want) to sell the album changed the rules of the game too.

Key Track: “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”

6) Jay-Z: The Blueprint [2001]

Released on 9/11 and followed by two sequels, The Blueprint stands as the pinnacle of Jay-Z’s career. 8 years later it’s still fresh.

Key Track: “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)”

7) Outkast: Stankonia [2000]

What ever happened to Outkast? Please come back!

Key Track: “B.O.B.”

8) Queens of the Stone Age: Lullabies to Paralyze [2005]

With Nick Oliveri gone, Josh Homme remained as the only original member of QOTSA. Who knew he would regroup and come up with this behemoth?! Lullabies to Paralyze represents mischievous metal mysticism at its best.

Key Track: “Little Sister” (more cowbell!)

2000’s Top 12 Albums (9-12)

2000’S TOP 12 ALBUMS (9-12)

9) The White Stripes: Elephant [2003]

When “Seven Nation Army” came out everybody suddenly liked The White Stripes. The rest of the album proved to be equally enjoyable, but the attention it garnered gave way to criticism by the indie scene. Still, a great album is a great album.

Key Track: “Seven Nation Army”

10) Pearl Jam: Backspacer [2009]

Easily Pearl Jam’s best album since Ten. I personally doubt that it’ll ever get recognized by critics and fans since the band reached its critical and commercial peak in the early 90’s.

Key Track: “The Fixer”

11) M.I.A.: Kala [2007]

Sadly, mainly remembered for the song “Paper Planes”. Kala combines electronic beats with a hip-hop delivery while M.I.A.’s world view is integrated into multicultural overtones.

Key Track: “Jimmy”

12) Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavilion [2009]

Maybe the hardest album to describe on this list. Imagine the Beach Boys mixed with electronic and indie rock influences. If you stare at the album art you’ll see a cool optical illusion too!

Key Track: “My Girls”

2009 Year in Review (Part 1 Girl Power!)

The Grammy Nominations are out…

Beyonce and Taylor Swift have the most nominations, that’s fine. 2009 was dominated by female artists, from Susan Boyle breakthrough album (which accomplished many great feats in terms of crunching numbers for female artists and 2009 slump in record sales) to Fergie’s voice being the only song on the radio. Great stuff for women.

Of course there were scandals. The most immediate one was from Rihanna’s abusive boyfriend Chris Brown. I could’ve told anybody he was full of shit before he touched her, the next “Michael Jackson” more like the next Bobby Brown. Lets not forget Kanye (probably the most hurtful thing we can do is ignore him, but he’s Kanye he likes to smell his own farts so I’ll include him) and Taylor Swift…. definitely a bad year for male superstars.

Thoughts?

Refilled, Reloaded… all Monsters!

I never understood modern marketing strategies pop stars use today. There has been an increase in repackaged albums that offer a couple new songs, but require you to buy the same songs you already own all over again.

Last year Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad: Reloaded added THREE new songs and forced her fans to buy old material for the new songs. This year has been one of the worse for exploiting fans, especially during a recession…

Eminem’s Relapse: Refilled comes out on the 18th adding 7 new songs… Eminem insists he has to get the new material on the streets now… but also admitted earlier during the completion of Relapse that he had enough completed material for two new albums and planned on originally releasing Relpase 2 at the end of the year.

Lady Gaga comes across as less greedy to me. The Fame Monster offers both new and old material (8 new songs), but the new songs can be purchased separately in non-dexlue editions.

In an age where CDs are dead technology, maybe it is more economical to purchase these songs digitally without the old material.

-Kevin

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