Top 30 Albums of the Decade- Part 3

20. The White Stripes- Get Behind Me Satan- 2004

Instantly earning points for having the coolest album name ever, most would agree that Get Behind Me Satan is Jack and Meg’s most unorthodox album, and not necessarily the most loved. But I appreciate what they were trying to do and I think they a did a great job of it. For a band that had at the beginning of the decade been praised along with The Strokes for being rock and roll’s great white hope, The White Stripes seemed to be starting to tire of the genre that they done so much to save. As a result we have less grainy spontaneous indulgences in Jack’s guitar, and instead we get a bluesy piano and bass orientation for much of the album. Lyrically it is more submissive and less frenetic, as evident in tracks like “Forever for Her is Over for Me”, and “Take Take Take” to name a few. When Jack dose return to the guitar, it is more often than not acoustic. With this album, the pair tried to approach music with a different style and set of instruments to go with it. The problem is that this style isn't as conducive to a two person band as the electric guitar and drums are. As a result certain songs feel incomplete or with gaps like “The Nurse” or “White Moon”. But When it works, its extremely compelling and fun to see a more thoughtful and deliberative side of Jack White. And “Little Ghost” is a classic, it alone makes the album worth it. A few tracks in previous albums gave hints of what the group wanted to attempt, but in Get Behind Me Satan, they finally did it. Even though they returned to a more traditional, but still satisfying formula with Icky Thump, much of their ambition here would be continued by The Raconteurs.

Best Tracks- Blue Orchid, Little Ghost, The Denial Twist, Take Take Take

19. Metric- Old World Underground, Where Are You Know?- 2003

I think this album is extremely interesting, lyrically speaking. Throughout the album Emily Haines and co. explore how the vapidness of consumerism has swallowed and distorted real problems of war and globalization, reducing them to nothing more than trends only to be cynically invoked when relevant and ignored the rest of the time in favor of the superfluous. Superficiality and malcontent over what’s important are warped and twisted around each other until you can’t tell what’s what like in tracks like “Combat Baby” (now its all cafine free/ faux-punk fatigues) and “Succexy” (Follow the pattern, the hemlines, the headlines). Haines addresses how music has also suffered from this glossy homogenization of all things cultural. What I like about this album so much is that while all these issues are confronted, this album isn’t some call to arms to change things and make them right, as musical acts so often and naively think they can accomplish. Rather this album mourns the loss of substance in the world and instead tries to figure how to live with it and even regrettably integrate into it. This, through a voice that manages to be angered but nonchalant at the same time. Haines has really great vocals, it’s very soft and flighty, but also deep and penetrating. Musically it’s crafted in a somewhat simplistic and archaic way (at least as far as post-punk-whatever-pop goes) but its catchy as hell. I really like the flowing wave form aesthetic created by the keyboards. It’s also really well paced, as groups of songs growing more and more cynical and synth heavy are punctuated by tracks like “Calculation Theme” and “Love is Place”, which are slower and change the tone to something more personal and reflective. As a result its album that’s really easy to listen from start to finish without it growing tiresome or laborious towards the end.

Best Tracks- IOU, Succexy, Love is a Place

18. The Walkmen- Bows and Arrows- 2004

All you have to do is listen to “The Rat”- one of the best rock songs of the decade. The drumming is fantastic, and its just so scathingly mean. Hamilton Leithauser says exactly what we’ve all wanted to say to people at one point or another, but he fucking screams it. Luckily, the rest of Bows and Arrows is also really great. It’s hard to describe any sort of prevailing tone in it. The only consistent aspect to the album is that it has this sort of slumberous element to it. Many of the songs have a sense of finality or conclusion to them, as if its music best listened to at the end of the day when you go to sleep. For example, listen to “Thinking of a Dream” and you'll notice the keyboards are somewhat foggy and off focus for lack of a better description. At times though, the songs just sort of wander from one tangent to the next, but it works here, giving a fairly traditional rock album a sense of spontaneity and freshness. Its all held together by the fact they group is made of really darn good musicians. And Leithauser has this great graininess to his voice without being too abrasive on the ears.

Best Tracks- The Rat, Little House of Savages, Thinking of a Dream

17.Radiohead- Hail to the Thief- 2003

After the seemingly alien and alienating directions that Radiohead went in with Kid A and Amnesiac, the group returned to somewhat more comprehendable waters with Hail to the Thief. But that's not to say they were treading the same waters. While they were always moody and full of angst, this album is certainly their darkest album in terms of tone. It's gloomy, mysterious, morose, full of imagery that was encapsulated in the video for “There There”. “2+2=5” lulls you into this sense of slight discomfort before exploding with animosity. “Where I End and You Begin” wants to assure you that you are indeed alone and you are not safe. “Sit Down, Stand Up” builds an impending yet exciting sense of dread, only to surprise you in the end. “Myxomatosis” is a cathartic cocktail of neurosis and dementia. “Wolf at the Door”, utilizes an array of simple keys that create a haunting atmosphere. So it's fun stuff. But as always, its preformed by an incredible set of musicians. Hail to the Thief strikes an excellent balance of the strange and bizarre, with more traditional tracks like “Go to Sleep”, which wonderfully transitions from a quaint acoustic piece into a jarring stomper. “Punch up at a Wedding”, shows an unexpected more bluesy side of the group. Fun side note: the name Hail to the Thief actually had nothing to do with Bush, despite what was often though at the time of the albums reales in in 2003. It's actually a name the group came up with many years before.

Best Tracks- 2+2=5, Sit Down Stand Up, Where I End and You Begin, Myxomatosis

16. The Rapture- Pieces of the People We love- 2006

The Rapture's first album Echoes showed everyone that they could take shallow, not terribly thought provoking pop and make it incredibly layered and free it from the trappings of petulant whiners who only sang about the same things. The Rapture took that fun kind of music, but applied it in a more jaded and cynical way, resulting in really a really great album. In this album they are much more refined and in control, rather than franticly hammering out beats and lyrics with abandon. It's a bit of a slower album with a more waveform and fluid sound to it- hear “The Devil” and “Don Gone Do It” for examples. Of course one notable exception is “Woo! Alright Yeah Uh Huh”, which is as blinding fast paced as they come. It's a great song about how pop music used to be about having fun instead of the pretentious sanctum of emo brats its been perverted into. And if adults are too concerned with image to wave their arms and dance, then The Rapture will just have to find a bunch of kids to party with. The entire album benefits from Luke Jenner's slightly sour and just short of falsetto voice. There is great variety to the album from brassy horn sections in “Get Myself into It”, to low bass club beats in “First Gear”. The high point is “Pieces of the People we Love”, with its blend of funk, blues, pop, and dance. Here we see Jenner at his most genuine and sincere; no matter how much he and the group love this stuff, it can't last for ever and it won't get you what you really want. But it's a fun ride while it lasts.

Best Tracks- Pieces of the People we Love, Get Myself into it, Don Gon Do it, Whoo! Alright-Yeah...Uh Huh