Si Hart's Albums of the Decade

[SiHart]

Join me on a personal trawl year by year of the albums that have meant the most to me over the last decade. I shall be selecting my album of each year from 2000 through to the present day and trying to explain why it means so much to me.

I'd love it if after I've done my choice you join in with your choice for that year so we can build up a good look back at the music of this century so far.

Si xx

[SiHart]

2000



I toyed with Buzz by Steps, but really I have to be honest and chose Figure 8 by Elliott Smith, as it is one of my all time favourite albums.

I'd heard Elliott Smith first on the Marc and Lard in the Afternoon show on Radio 1 at work back at the end of 1998. I bought the singe of Waltz #2, but never really followed him up.
Then one day in 2000, there was this album, Figure 8 in the shops. On a whim I bought it and I've listened to it over and over again ever since. There's just something about it, the yearning melancholy of the music, the wonderful lyrics and the quiet acoustic songs where it's just Elliott and his guitar that makes it feel intimate and special.
It's been the soundtrack of my decade and probably will be an album I carry on listening to for the rest of my life.

That's my choice for 2000. What's yours?

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Tricky - time is a kind of wierd and fluid thing. An album released in 2000 you might not actually discover until 2008, and so you associate it more with 2008 than 2000.

So sitting in the lotus position, I've slowly regressed my mind back ...



I think for me it has to be the sadly final album Paper, Scissors, Stone by Catatonia. It was an odd beast - two weeks into it's release the band split, and it seemed to be sucked back from the shelves. I borrowed a friends copy, but it was about a year until I found my own.

It's a great album, the thing about Catatonia is they were evolving as a group, so songs on this album feel like they're from the same band, but very different to say International Velvet. And with successive albums, there were darker themes creeping into the songs.

[WhiteCrowNZ]

In a side note - of course 2000/2001 marked the end of a musical institution for me - the Our Price record store (although many would continue under the V-Shop name). But to me Our Price was the place you went to look for and discover artists and albums, and if possible try to chat up one of the girls who worked there.

The weekly trip to Our Price was a kind of institution whether by yourself or with friends, so you can't help but think of those places with the cosy glow of nostalgia.

When they relaunched as V-Shops they were more about selling mobile phones (still in relative infancy) than providing a range of CDs.

[SiHart]

2001



REM: Reveal
I've been in a quandry all day about which album to chose, as 2001 was a really strong year for the music I love with great albums from Ash, Neil Finn and the Super Furry Animals to name a few, but ultimately, this was my choice.
Reveal is one of the greatest albums REM have ever done. Full of sunshiney classics, and some great singles, this album sparkles in the summer sun and reminds me of a strangely happy summer that year.
I've listened to it lots, as it's a favourite album of a boy not a million miles away from me, and there's nothing better on a hot summer day on a car journey to put this album on and sing along.

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

I love REM - some sometimes I feel when you've heard one album you've kind of heard them all though.

For 2001 - I'd have to go with the Gorillaz.



I heard Damon Albarn talk about this and think "what the hell are you going on about". He kind of can take a cool concept and explain it in a way that's really dull.

But the album is a stroke of genious. This was my favourite album to turn up the sound on and do the dishes (yeah that's so rock and roll). It's just kind of funky and fun - not perhaps a genre I usually like, but I do this album.

[SiHart]

I didn't really like the first album all that much. The singles were tremndous, but I always felt that the album was quite patchy in too many places. The second album was far better.

Si xx

[Dino]

2001 for me is a direct tie between:

and

Mind you, I also heard "Here Come The Warm Jets" by Brian Eno this year and that more or less topped both?

[SiHart]

Rings Around the World is a truly superb album, and almost topped Reveal. I was still debating right up until when I posted.

Si xx

[SiHart]

2002



Lemon Jelly: Lost Horizons.

OK, I didn't buy this until early 2003, but I still think this was the album of 2002. There's nothing else quite like it- a beautiful mix of incredibly well chosen samples, spoken word, dance beats mixed with an almost childlike naivity add up to one of the most amazing albums I've ever heard. I love it to bits, especially Ramblin' Man and Nice Weather for Ducks both of which make me smile just thinking about them.
The album closes with the epic Curse of Ka'zar which is really uplifting.

Someone once said Lemon Jelly make nursery rhymes for adults. This album goes way beyond that description and is still one I love to come back to time and again.

Si xx

[Carol Baynes]

Intersting choices! Ok, hopefully somebody on these forums will agree with some of my choices. In my view I see these as not just being much personally loved favourites, but also very important albums that moved music forward in some way that perhaps a new album by Travis might not do (nothing wrong with Travis but all the same...)

2000-

PJ HARVEY
Stories from the city, stories from the sea.

Uncompromising as ever, PJ finally makes an album that actually has cross-over appeal; the nearest she's come to a pop album you might say. Great lyrics and music and great attitude combine to produce a wonderfully potent offering, that remains catchy and incredibly punk rock at the same time. The middle-finger salute of songs like "Big Exit" and "Kamikaze" sit well next to more introspective numbers with Thom Yorke making a guest appearance. Plus "This is love" is the best testament to desire any female artist has created while making a number that really rocks.


2001-

THE WHITE STRIPES
White blood cells

For me, it's near impossible to imagine the decade without this Detroit duo and their gradual ascent from underground heroes to commerical rock hit makers. Bringing much needed originality and adding untold mileage to the guitar and drums format, Jac and Meg's 2001 effort is a prime example of why music in the early 2000s suddenly became exciting again. The combination of punk, rock and blues was a winner from irresisitable hit "Hotel Yorba" to the sentiment of "We're going to be friends".
Plus finally here was the first band in many a long year who had style and were worthy pin-ups. Original and musically muscular they were, but with their red and white colour styling they also looked cool as ****.

For 2001, I was also tempted to say THE STROKES' "This is it" or PULP's final studio album "We love life"...tough to call.

2002-


THE STREETS
Original pirate material

Mike Skinner's debut album is certainly as original as The White Stripes' effort above, but from a very different genre. Taking Hip-hop and rap to a place that the average Briton could relate to, "Orignal pirate material" probably spoke to me more about urban life in the 2000s than upteen guitar bands with lads in skinny jeans. Add to that the fact that Skinner's words are extremely witty and often laugh out loud funny, and "Orignal pirate material" attracted more fans than Skinner probably thought was possible..

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Some good choices there Carol, actually some very credible choices!

I'm struggling to work out what I was listening to in 2002. I remember doing some serious coding, and having a pile of CDs by my desk in those pre-iPod days. But many spanned backwards.

I'd like to cheat a bit and select Radioheads Amnesiac which is actually a 2001 release. However I so hated Kid-A from 2000 that I didn't buy it when it first came out (so going on personal timeline here).



If OK Computer was an album of quirky songs, this is a full on descent into darkness. There is something kind of absolutely dispairing and haunting about the Pyramid Song, which I've seen in news reports used as background music to set the song on reports about September 11 and when Newsnight did a piece about discovered genocide (can't remember the country though).

[SiHart]

2003



Some of my favourite albums of the decade came out in 2003- Grandaddy's Sumday, belle and sebastian's Dear Catastrophe Waitress, Blur's Think Tank, but the choice of favourite was easy- Phantom Power by The Super Furry Animals.
This is an amazing album that has songs all the way from ballads to pop to instrumentals to full on rock and full on techno, but never do any of them feel out of place. The slightly twisted SFA view of the world is really intriguing to me and their lyrics betray an intelligence that id often missing from music. They've never been better than this album for me- Piccolo Snare, hello Sunshine, Golden Retriever and Slow Life stand up as some of my favourite songs they've ever done. It's quite awesome.
Aside from the sheer variety and loveliness of the music, this album means so much to me because it uis quite possibly the first album that me and Steve got at the same time and loved together. The weight of those memories- singing along to it in the car during the wonderful long hot summer of 2003 is very dear to me.

Si xx

[cullsoft]

I was expecting you to choose this for 2003... though having checked the copyright date it was apparently released way back in 2001!

Röyksopp - Melody A.M.


On the whole, it's 45 minutes of eccletic electronic bliss. Many of the tunes have a very soothing feel that helps you wind down at the end of the day (such as "Sparks" and "In Space"), whilst there are enough with a slightly more upbeat feel to keep your head bobbing along (such as "Röyksopp's Night Out" and "Remind Me"); when I was doing nightshift work, it'd often be my "6-7am end of shift" album. Because of this mixture I generally prefer it to their more recent albums which have far more of the upbeat and "poppy" tracks.

Sadly, my only problem with the album is because of a recent documentary on the HMS Coventry - because they used the final track "40 Years Back\Come" on a personally emotional scene, I struggle to listen to that track without tears welling in my eyes!

The reason I say 2003 is because that was when they seemed to start coming to my attention - I'd heard "So Easy" on an advert that involved billboards with baby pictures (I forget what on Earth that was for), and loved the music from it, but didn't find out what it was until later when I listened to the whole thing at a friends house when doing group project work. Also, Upon it's release a short while later, "Eple" would be in regular rotation in another friend's car when giving me and a housemate lifts to and from uni. Oddly, it wasn't until around 2005 or 2006 that I finally picked up my own copy of the album in one of the "everyone's got this album, so why haven't you?" sales!


Thought sprung to mind about favourite albums... can we include compilations/mix albums here?

[SiHart]

Thought sprung to mind about favourite albums... can we include compilations/mix albums here?

You can include whatever you like Ashley! I don't mind.

I bought Melody AM in 2003. It's a great album (in fact I have it in the car at the moment and again it should probably be on the list. It's got a greta mix of tracks as you say- Eple, So Easy and the astonishing Royksopp#'s Night Out are ones I love. I once described it as what it would be like if The Radiophonic Workshop made dance music. That sums it up nicely for me

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Now when it comes to the Spice Girls, they were a 90s fad, and I can pretty much take or leave 80% of them ...

But one I've really enjoyed as a solo artist. For that reason I'm selecting Melanie Chisholm's Reason for 2003 ...



I was actually quite surprised when Mel C went solo to find she's got a pretty good voice. The album is a kind of wierd mix, it kind of straddles over multiple genres, but at her best Mel C has an inner rock chick trying to escape from her pop career expectations.

Songs which really stand up on the album are,
* Positively Somewhere
* Let's Love
* Yeh Yeh Yeh - which to me is the song of the album

[Carol Baynes]

2003-

YEAH, YEAH, YEAHS
Fever to tell

Quite uncompromising and full of energy, the NYC trio's debut album certainly blew the cobwebs away and offered another captivating alternative from the same old indie rock dirge. Karen O was born to front a band, but Nick Zinner's accomplished and experimental guitar work and Brian Chase's wonderfully expressive drums give this album it's backbone. From the joyfully decadent ("Date with the night"), downright dark ("Black tongue"), perversely sexy ("Cold light") to all out emotional ("Maps"), "Fever to tell" is certainly a fever I'm very happy to tell people about.

[Pip Madeley]

Great choice Carol, really takes me back to those days at Oldham Sixth Form didn't like 'Golden Lion' as much, but the new LP is a return to form, really love 'Heads Will Roll'

[Anthony Williams]

I've chosen to look at this from the perspective of what I was listening to at the time, rather than what I listen to now that was released in those years (if that makes sense).

2000: Iron Maiden - Brave New World
In realistic terms, it was Brave New World that first got me interested in heavy metal, when the Irons were playing The Wicker Man on Top of the Pops. I was hooked by its catchy chorus. Most of the album isn't quite as accessible as its lead track, often venturing into prog metal. It took me a while to get into, but once I was into it - WOW. I loved this! I knew nothing about Iron Maiden at the time, so I had no clue that it was the "triumphant" return of a former singer and a former guitarist to the band. But it was fantastic, and I still love it now, although for differerent reasons now!

2001: Muse - Origin of Symmetry
The best album that Muse have ever produced. They've yet to better it, and I'm beginning to doubt whether they ever will. Superb then, superb now.

2002: Blaze - Tenth Dimension
Some of you on here know that I was webmaster for a short period for former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley. This was the album that got me into him, and ended up with me getting that position. A heavy metal concept album, based around a sci-fi story involving the scientific discovery of a new Dimension, and a government's attempt to use that discovery for it's own means. It's harsh critique of politics, along with it's sci-fi story and some absolutely fantastic guitar work (excellent solos, and some truely killer riffs) means that this is still a favourite of mine.

2003: Area 54 - Beckoning of the End
2003 was probably the year in which I really experienced teenage angst. I was 15/16, and boy did it show! Beckoning of the End is a fantastic slice of heavy metal, with some wonderfully angsty lyrics (example, on Living a Lie: "And all the people in my hometown say that I don't belong, One cold instinct to survive this, From this cruel world I hide") - obviously, I'm nothing like I was 6 years ago, but this album absolutely fills me with nostalgia, and it's got me through two messy break-ups since 2003. Musically, it sounds like a cross between Iron Maiden and Megadeth, who were two of my favourite bands at the time.

2004 is all change for my musical tastes, as you will see when we move on!

Ant x

[WhiteCrowNZ]

2001: Muse - Origin of Symmetry
The best album that Muse have ever produced. They've yet to better it, and I'm beginning to doubt whether they ever will. Superb then, superb now.

Indeed a brilliant album!!! Alas I didn't discover it until a few years later.

[SiHart]

2004



Everyone is Here: The Finn Brothers
The long awaited reunion of Neil and Tim Finn didn't disappoint at all. New Zealand's finest came together and produced an album of beautifully crafted songs with a yearning nostalgia for their fomrative days and moments of melancholy for people they'd lost along the way, including, for a while their own relationship. The cover reflected this with the two of them standing on opposite sides of a river, but finding a way to come back together.
Absolutely superb stuff and I hope, once again, it's not too long before they make music together once more.

This could well be my album of the decade.

Si xx

[WhiteCrowNZ]

Brothers who don't always get along - sounds like an album I should seek out!

I was going to pick out Muse's Symmetry album for 2004. But Ant is right, their Origin of Symmetry is a much better album, working on all cylinders.

I think an important thing that happened to me in 2004 was I switched radio stations. Driving to work and back, I found myself increasingly distant from Radio One, especially the increasingly tiresome Chris Moyles, and the evening shout outs of "yeah biggin' it up for all my crew in the Harrowgate massive!". Huh!?! WTF! My wife would still listen to them though - but I found the DJs increasingly retarded/moronic. The Smiths got it right ...

Yeah so I embraced my oldie-ness and turned over to Radio 2 this year, finding to my surprise they played "good music" = "music I remember".

[Anthony Williams]

2004: Marillion - Marbles
ALL CHANGE! 2004 was the first year in about five years where I started listening to music that wasn't heavy metal or hard rock again. And this album is what I would describe as one of my "life changing" albums, beginning my love affair with Marillion. I'd first heard of the band on Doctor Who message boards, and had tried some of their earlier material, which I didn't really like at the time. However, I decided to give Marbles a try, and was blown away. Gone was Fish, with his screechy voice, and gone was the stereotypical overblown progressive rock. What I found here was a modern-sounding double album, with deep songs, excellent musicianship and Steve Hogarth's soulful voice. This is definitely in my top 10 albums of all time, and it gives me great pleasure every time I revisit it. God knows how much money I've spent on Marillion since!

Ant x

[Jon Masters]

2004: Marillion - Marbles
Gone was Fish, with his screechy voice
Ant x

I believe I may have to have a tough yet civilised debate with you on this point tomorrow, Mr Williams. Probably involving beer and thrown pieces of furniture.

[Dino]

2004-Scissor Sisters/ Scissor Sisters

Although every one raves over their second album (or should that be everybody bums their second album?) I prefer the first as I saw them grow from "Laura" entering the charts low and general Zane Lowe distrust to one of the biggest bands of the time within a year?
Still a mistake playing a new song at next year's Live8 show.
And there are at least four songs that were better or just as great most of the songs they released as singles? ("It Can't Come Quickly Enough" for a start) The weakest link is "Mary" and I hated on first listen to their "Comfortably Numb" cover but the chorus sold me.
I remember them this way.