1992: Slanted and Enchanted - Pavement
My favorite Pavement album, so I'd say it definitely deserves its spot here. Its songs may not be as catchy as Crooked Rain's, and Jesus Christ is the recording a sloppy mess, but it's things like this that give the album a special kind of charm. Gary Young, where art thou?
1993: Icky Mettle - Archers of Loaf
This album is kind of like the drunk, unemployed cousin of Slanted and Enchanted; it sounds somewhat similar, but the lyrics are angrier and Eric Bachmann's vocals are gruffer and meaner than Malkmus'. Regardless of the overall malcontented tone, so many of the songs are so damn catchy that you just can't help but love it. I dare you to not sing along with the chanting "all I ever wanted, all I ever wanted" part of "
Web in Front", I fucking dare you. You will lose.1994: There's Nothing Wrong With Love - Built to Spill
This is my favorite album by Built to Spill, but it isn't their best; this is a theme that will continue throughout this list. Once again, the songs are catchy as all hell, probably amongst the catchiest I've ever heard. While Doug Martsch's mastery of the electric guitar isn't as evident as it is on later albums, he still manages to melt collective listener face with tracks like "
Some" and "Distopian Dream Girl". And c'mon, who doesn't like "Car"? I know guys who listen to nothing but death metal and ska who like "Car", and that is no lie.1995: The Bends - Radiohead
For years after I first bought this album, I considered it my favorite of all time. While I'm not so sure I can give it the overall top spot anymore, it's still definitely up there, and it will always hold a special place in my heart. Without The Bends, I would not be the person I am today. During a period of time where I listened to almost nothing but radio-friendly pop-punk and psuedo-emo (I was thirteen, shut up), this album was like nothing I'd ever heard, and my horizons were drastically broadened because of it. Becoming a Radiohead fan indirectly led to me becoming a Flaming Lips fan and a Modest Mouse fan, and becoming a fan of those two led to me becoming a fan of other bands...almost entirely indirectly, but regardless, it all started with this album. For that reason (and because it's a fucking incredible album, one I can still listen to from beginning to end on a regular basis), my copy will never leave my collection.
1996: Richard D. James Album - Aphex Twin
As a guy who doesn't listen to very much electronica at all, I have no idea why I love this CD so much. Regardless, Richard James' self-titled album is one of the highlights of my library, one I truly can say that I'm very proud to own. The story behind how I came to buy it is kind of a strange one; my friends and I loved the David Firth animated music video for "
Milkman" (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/190638), and when I actually found the album that had the song on it, I had to buy it. I did so kind of as a joke, just to show it to my friends as "the album with that Milkman song on it", but after getting it home and listening to it, my mind was blown; the fact that I really had no idea what to expect when I first popped it in just added to how amazing most of the songs sounded to me. Plus, it has the best fuckin' album art I've ever seen.
C'mon, that's just awesome.
1997: The Fury of the Aquabats! - The Aquabats!
Just like the Aphex Twin album I just went over, The Fury of the Aquabats! might seem kind of out of place amongst all these alternative rock and indie rock albums, but just the fact that I really don't own too much else like it just makes it all the more lovable. For anyone not in the know, The Aquabats(!) are a ska/punk band (their sound is more new-wave influenced now, but I digress) who dress like superheros and write songs about being superheros, fighting villains and saving the day and whatnot. Besides having some of the funniest lyrics I've ever heard, the majority of the songs are so happy and bouncy that I actually have to make an effort not to stand up and dance whenever I listen to them. Furthermore, all the guys in the group are actually really talented musicians, and it shows with the ripping guitars, Travis Barker's complex drum lines (yep, he was in this band for a few years) and the old sci-fi movie-influenced synth. God damn, I love this album so much.
Also, this is completely irrelevant, but these guys put on the best live show ever, complete with fighting monsters onstage, concertgoers arriving dressed as heroes/villains for no good reason, and engaging in conversation with the audience in between songs. Seriously, you need to see these dudes live.
1998: Downward Is Heavenward - Hum
This is something of a tough one, mainly because this album really isn't that important to me at all. I mean, I like it plenty, and it really is a shame that shortly after releasing this, their magnum opus, the group broke up, but I could definitely live without it. I guess I just don't own very many albums from '98. Regardless, this is definitely a superb record. Their sound is kind of like a more shoegaze-influenced The Smashing Pumpkins, with super-distorted guitars and songs about floating in space and lyrics like "your hand looks so nice in mine" and "I'm thinking of your failing green eyes", but it still manages to sound really unique. Matt Talbott practically speaks of most of his lyrics, but when he tries, his voice really is something amazing; it fits the sound of his band perfectly. I really hope these guys get back together and release something new at some point, it'd really be interesting to see what they have to offer.
1999: The Soft Bulletin - The Flaming Lips
Even though I vastly prefer their fuzz-heavy alternative rock sound to their more recent experimental work, The Soft Bulletin is still my favorite album by the Lips. While the lyrics are pretty much of the same variety as they were in the band's earlier albums (mostly about life, death, love, and drugs), they fit in much better with the symphonic, synth-heavy music. The album has this overall epic tone to it, deserving to be played loud. The songs offer a variety of things to the listener: hope ("
Waitin' for a Superman", "Race for the Prize"), a pretty decent lovey-dovey kind of mood ("Buggin'", "Slow Motion"), plus a number of other emotions. It really depends on how the listener interprets the songs' meanings; no two people with get the exact same effect from the album. 2000: The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Wow, where do I start with this one? I bought this one after months and months of procrastination; seeing it in the store but choosing something else over it (but always reassuring myself "I'll get it next time I see it"), having it recommended to me by people who already owned it, seeing the glowing reviews online and telling myself "Wow, I really should get that", but it took me until December 2006 before I finally got my hands on a copy.
Within the first day of owning it, I listened to it nearly four times over, and for the next few weeks, it was practically all I listened to.
What's my favorite thing about it? Isaac Brock's introspective lyrics? Maybe. Jeremiah Green's fucking masterful drumming? Could be. The fact that the whole album flows like water, leading seamlessly from one song into another for pretty much the whole thing? Perhaps. Even more difficult to decide is which song is my favorite. It could be “
3rd Planet”, the song that convinced me to buy the album in the first place. It could be “The Stars Are Projectors”, the 8 minute 47 second epic that bounces from one mood to another, finally ending with a mind-blowing orchestral meltdown that's both terrifying and uplifting at the same time. Maybe it's “Lives”, an acoustic track that uses a folky-sounding string section to rocket the already high emotional level of the song sky-high. I could debate what facet/song of the album is my favorite for hours and maybe even come to an eventual conclusion, but for now, I'll just leave it at this: The Moon and Antarctica is Modest Mouse's best album, the best album to come out during 2000, and one of my favorite albums of all time. It has so much to offer, ranging from chill-out songs to fuck-this-life-I'm-pissed songs. You simply must own it.2001: Sad Sappy Sucker - Modest Mouse
Two Modest Mouse albums on the same list? Hell, in a row? Yes, and I have good reason to do so. While the album was released in '01, it was recorded in the early 90's, back when some of the members of the band were still in/fresh out of high school. Originally meant to be their first album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About was chosen over it, and S.S.S. sat on a shelf collecting dust for years until K Records finally released it. Despite being shoddily recorded and having songs that rarely last more than two minutes or so, the album still somehow manages to be one of my favorite Mouse albums. Brock was still a pretty damn great lyricist even then, Jeremiah Green could still hold his own as a drummer, and Eric Judy...was nowhere to be seen on most of the songs, but John Wickhart was a pretty decent bassist. The majority of the songs are simple in structure and have nowhere near the emotional depth of their later work, but at the same time, the album has this overall despondent mood, one I can't really describe. It might have something to do with knowing the band's backstory, how Isaac was living in a shed outside his mother's trailer during most of the recording, but that's not important. The album sounds dirty and melancholy, a portrait of white trash culture recorded entirely in lo-fi. I wouldn't recommend it to a first-time Modest Mouse listener or even a second-time, but hardcore fans shouldn't ignore it for a minute.
2002: You Forgot It in People - Broken Social Scene
Ugh, goddammit. I'm literally having a hard time coming up with the right words to describe this. It's a waste of time just sitting here typing a few sentences, deciding that what I just typed doesn't do it justice and then starting over again, so I'll just keep it brief. This album is a masterpiece, one that you must hear for yourself. Its songs represent almost every kind of mood a song can represent (without going to extremes, of course). The whole thing has a lovelorn, almost dreamy kind of atmosphere to it, the kind of album you just put on and relax, and think. Still, I feel my words are inadequate for a record of such excellence; it defies description, at least based on my writing experience. It's not for everyone, but if you dig atmospheric, deeply layered baroque pop, this should be your next purchase.
2003: The Ugly Organ – Cursive
I'm a generally happy guy, and a pretty decent amount of the music I listen to is light-hearted; good-mood music, so to speak. However, when I'm feeling depressed, angry, and in some cases, suicidal (okay okay, it never really gets that bad), I turn to Cursive. Tim Kasher's frenzied screams are the perfect prescription for such a mood, and while not my favorite album by them (that would be 2000's Domestica, but The Moon and Antarctica deserves the “best of” honor for that year), The Ugly Organ is still pretty terrific regardless. New member Gretta Cohn's weeping cello adds a whole new dimension to Cursive's already desperate sound, using it almost like a third guitar in some songs, weaving crooked and harsh noises in with the chaos surrounding them. While it doesn't seem as personal an album as Domestica (The Ugly Organ is a concept album following a fictional character with songs about (I'm assuming to be) fictional events, where as Domestica was a concept album following events based on Kasher's real life), it still can fill even the most cheerful a listener with despair. The final track, “Staying Alive”, lifts that emotional weight, filling you with hope as a chorus chants “The worst is over”. The worst may be over for the time being, but let's hope it doesn't stay that way for Kasher for too long (that sounds just horrible to say, doesn't it?); otherwise, we may never hear a great Cursive album ever again.
2004: I'm drawing a blank here. Don't get me wrong, I own albums released in 2004; hell, I even like the majority of them. But none of them seem good enough to talk about here. None of them left a big impression on me, none of them changed the way I look at life of introduced me to a slew of other similar artists who later became some of my favorites. Nope, nothing along those lines here. This may be cheating, as I'm certain I could easily write about one of the albums I own released during that year, but it'd be like lying; I could praise it as much as I want, but they'd be nothing but empty compliments. Sorry, everyone. I let you down.
2005: Silent Alarm - Bloc Party
Silent Alarm is without a doubt one of my favorite albums ever. I'd rank it within my top ten, easily. Between Kele's super unique vocals and heartfelt lyrics, Russell's sharp, biting solos, Matt's complex and fast-paced drumming and Gordon's simple yet fitting basslines, the album just works. The members of the band all have fantastic chemistry, and it completely shows on Silent Alarm. One thing the album especially excels at is variety; it features your standard love song fare (“
This Modern Love”, “So Here We Are”...Jesus, referring to these songs as “standard' just seems wrong), moody dance-punk (“Banquet”, “Luno”), and some truly breathtaking atmospheric ambient tracks as well (“Plans”, “Compliments”). Although only appearing on some versions, hidden track “Every Time Is The Last Time” is so fucking incredible it's worth mentioning even though the chances that your copy has it are pretty bad. If your copy doesn't include it, download it somewhere and put it on repeat. It's one of those songs where no matter what kind of mood you're in, it just makes everything feel right. Those kind of songs are hard to come by these days.2006: Fuck me. Once again, I don't feel any of the albums I own that came out in '06 are worth talking about. I'm ashamed.
2007: Spirit If... - Kevin Drew
Although not a particularly important album to me, it's still definitely worth mentioning. Les Savy Fav's Let's Stay Friends came so close to taking this year, but Kevin Drew's “solo” album (that term has to be used loosely, as Kevin is nowhere near the only musician present on the album) is not only a really really good listen, oh no; at least not to me. I had known about Broken Social Scene for some time when I finally got around to getting Spirit If..., but I never really felt motivated to run out and get one of their albums. After listening to Drew's album way too many times, I finally felt that motivation; I figured that his full band must sound like this, only better. That was indeed the case, and then some.
I'm not saying that the only reason I regard this album so highly is because it was my gateway to Broken Social Scene; trust me, it's still fantastic. Like I said before, very few of the songs feature Kevin and only Kevin; in fact, I don't think any of them do. Not only do bandmates from B.S.S. make appearances, but a number of other musicians also drop by to say hello in certain tracks; most prominent is Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, who provides some pretty fucking excellent guitar work on “Backed Out On The...”, making it one of the album's strongest tracks. Overall, Spirit If... sounds kind of like a stripped down Broken Social Scene album, except minus the “stripped down” part; only a handful of songs feature anything less than say, five or six individual musicians at a time. Even still, it's hard to fault this one; Broken Social Scene fans, and indie rock fans in general, owe it to themselves to pick this one up.
2008: Saturdays = Youth – M83
Anthony Gonzalez's latest release is my favorite album of 2008, thus far at least. It combines what I like about their older albums – intense, multi-layered electronic chaos – with a number of elements straight out of 1980's dream pop. Heavy (and cheesy, but that's not really a bad thing here) synth, angelic female vocals, and piano-driven ballads are all commonplace here. It's a bizarre move on Gonzalez's part, but it ends up working much better than one might think. It literally sounds like it could've been released during the 80's; if I didn't know any better, I'd probably think it was. Almost any of the tracks could easily fit in the soundtrack of a classic John Hughes movie. While not M83's best, it has a unique sound that I doubt too many other bands could match nowadays. I'm not sure if I'd want them to make more albums like this, but if they do, then so be it. I'll buy a copy and listen avidly just the same.
