[Closed] Here's one for you all - Best album/s of the 2000's

LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver

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Hi Tech Jazz by Galaxy 2 Galaxy

That was about 1993

Some guilty pleasures for me: 2000-2010 presume not the current decade.

Arctic Monkeys - whatever people say I am thats what I'm not
The Raconteurs - broken boy soldiers
Starsailor - Love is here
Livertines - Up the bracket
Editors - The back room
We are Scientists - With Love and Squalor

Three things I've learned from this thread.

1) I'm old.

2) I don't listen to enough music any more.

3) STW's music tastes consists of a) obscure niche gubbins no-one's ever heard of, and b) radio-friendly shite.

where is the middle ground between a and b then old timer?

The post I've come closest to identifying with is this,

right now it would be either some Joe Bonamassa or some Blackstone Cherry.

I actually cheered quietly to myself when I read it and everything. But then, the last thing I listened to was Lynyrd Skynyrd's 'Gods and Guns' album, so I'm probably not one to talk.

where is the middle ground between a and b then old timer?

's a very good question. I don't know as I've got a very good answer.

Just struck me that the bulk seems to be either stuff *everyone* listens to or stuff *no-one* listens to. It's either the Arctic Monkeys, or it's Brian Smith and his Magic Foo-Foo Band. There didn't seem, on skim-reading, to be a lot of middle ground.

Richard Hawley - Lady's Bridge & Coles Corner
Mew - And the glass handed kites
The National - High Violet
The Shins - Wincing the night away

Coldplay - Parachutes
Muse - Origin of Symmetry
The Strokes - Is This It?
Kings of Leon - Aha Shake Heartbreak
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Grinderman - Grinderman
Goldfrapp - Black Cherry
CSS - CSS
Justice - Cross
The Libertines - The Libertines
Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Daft Punk - Discovery
Dizzee Rascal - Boy In Da Corner
Jay Z - The Black Album
LCD Soundsystem - Sound of Silver
Sigur Ross - Takk
Damien Rice - O
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Etc.

Basically I can't choose. "Since 2000" is almost the whole of my musical experience, there's been a lot in that time.

There is quite a lot of dross here... Coldplay, in any list?!

And I realise this is subjective, but

Kings of Leon - Only by the night

Jay Z - The Black Album

Arctic Monkeys - whatever people say I am thats what I'm not

Correct. Such a good album. Shame the rest of their stuff doesn't live up to it at all.

Cannibal Ox - [i]The Cold Vein[/i]. Out in 2001, would be a cert for top 5 hip hop album of the decade. Of its time, though.

At the drive in, [i]Relationship of Command[/i] squeaks in to the decade (2000) - mentioned already by Margin Walker above. Reading the thread I can't see any hard rock album that comes near it. The Pixies of the OOies.
The Mars Volta sounded like they were going to take it even further, but it all went pear-shaped. Jazz will do that to a rock band.

Gogol Bordello - Gypsy Punk

King-ocelot - Member

Tom Waits - Alice
A great album, but way earlier - 1990 from memory

I managed a record shop in 2002 when Alice officially was released, if I remember correctly most of the album was heavily bootlegged after original recordings had been stolen/leaked in the mid 1990s. It didn't sell as well on official release as we hoped for that reason. Cracking album though.

I Googled, and stand corrected. I would have bet good money on the Alice / Blood Money releases being ten years earlier that this, and I'm a fan (as my user name will show)...must be getting old... 🙂

Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Frank Ocean - Channel Orange
Jezabels - Prisoner

Blackalicious - The Craft
Ben Howard - Every Kingdom
Cold War Kids - robbers & cowards
Deltron - Deltron 3030
Everlast - Eat at Whitey's
Frank Turner - England Keep My Bones
Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American

Cant be bothered to carry on going through my itunes just now - gotta go to work...

Simples

Also possibly one of the best DnB albums of all time.

Streetcore by Joe Strummer
Marshall Mathers Lp by Eminem
England Half English by Billy Bragg
Fat of the land by the Prodigy
and Just Jinjer by Just Jinjer

fat of the land released 1997.

[i]2) I don't listen to enough music any more.

3) STW's music tastes consists of a) obscure niche gubbins no-one's ever heard of[/i]

2) I am sad for you. I can't live without it.

3) a) That's utter bollocks. Have you heard of the Internet?

QOTSA - Songs for the deaf or Lullabies to paralyze
Kasabian - which ever I've just listened to
RHCP - By the way - no BSSM though
KoL - Youth and young manhood - steadily getting worse after this

Rise Against - Siren Song Of The Counter Culture / The Sufferer & The Witness

Million Dead - A Song To Ruin
Sigur Ros - Takk
Dan le Sac & Scroobius Pip - Angles
Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead
Radiohead - In Rainbows

Pedant Alert: Oh and to the people posting Biffy - Joy Discovery Invention - that was a track name, album is Blackened Sky, 'tis awesome.

AlanF... thankyou... you win

QOTSA ... Songs for the deaf

This is a music thread. On STW. Everyone HAS to have a favourite which is suitably obscure.

I'd say it is all terribly mainstream...

Crystal Castles 1 or XX and Animal Hospital, Memory. just because.

Loads of great bands on this thread 😀

fat of the land released 1997.

Thought I was in Retrobike then. OOPS! 😳

bill callahan - sometimes i wish i were an eagle
Santigold - Santogold

I think you'll have to do better than one album by a band whose heyday was twenty-odd years ago

Just struck me that the bulk seems to be either stuff *everyone* listens to or stuff *no-one* listens to. It's either the Arctic Monkeys, or it's Brian Smith and his Magic Foo-Foo Band. There didn't seem, on skim-reading, to be a lot of middle ground.

Sorry Cougar but you couldn't be more wrong - just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they are particularly obscure - most of the stuff people have listed is played on 6 music , posted about on widely read music blogs etc.

Why don't you listen to some of the albums people have listed above and see what you think?

Porcupine Tree - Fear of a blank planet
Steven Wilson - Grace for drowning
Avenged Sevenfold - City of evil
Pain of Salvation - Memory Lane
Beardfish - Destined Solitaire
Transatlantic - SMTPe
Tomahawk - Tomahawk
Bumblefoot - The adventures of bumblefoot
Muse - Origins of symmetry
Jonny Lang - Wander this world
QOTSA - Songs for the deaf
etc

Brake-neck.

Have you listened to Flying Colors: Steve Morse, Casey McPherson, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, Mike Portnoy. Might be right up your alley.

How many, 10?

Buck 65 - Square
The Delgados - The Great Eastern
Smog - Knock Knock
Burial - Untrue
Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar
Aesop Rock - Float
Badly Drawn Boy - The Hour Of Bewilderbeast
James Yorkston & the Athletes - Moving Up Country
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
The Arcade Fire - Funeral

The Delgados - The Great Eastern

Forgot that cd, going for a listen now 🙂

Brake-neck.

Have you listened to Flying Colors: Steve Morse, Casey McPherson, Neal Morse, Dave LaRue, Mike Portnoy. Might be right up your alley.

Yeah, liked a couple of tracks off it but a bit too commercial for me in places. Have you heard Momentum yet, Morse's new solo stuff? Excellent CD with guests from Paul Gilbert and a 33 min epic as well!

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
Bowling For Soup - A Hangover You Don't Deserve
Elbow - Seldom Seen Kid
Green Day - Warning
John Grant - Queen of Denmark
The Lancashire Hotpots - Never Mind The Hotpots
Queens of The Stone Age - Rated R
Rammstein - Mutter
System of a Down - Toxicity

I didn't really twig that QOTSA albums were this century so I'll add both Rated R and Songs for the Deaf to my earlier list. Amazing live band too.

KoL - Youth and young manhood - steadily getting worse after this

+1
The duller they got the more success they seemed to have. The first half of Aha.. was good but I gave up after the disappointment of Because of the Times.

[i]The duller they got the more success they seemed to have[/i]

Well, that's jolly unusual in the music world!! (classic eg: RHCP)
KoL are far from one of the best artists of the last decade though.

Given the accusations being levelled against all of us for both excessive obscuritanism and excessive populism I thought I'd check what I originally posted. It would seem that I tend to evaluate how obscure a band that I like are by how large the live venues that they play are:

The Notwist - Neon Golden

I heard about this album from a review in the Metro, but the only time I've seen them live it was in King Tut's in Glasgow (which is not much bigger than a matchbox) so I'd admit they probably have a niche appeal.

Wilco - A Ghost is Born

While Wilco are probably one of those bands that is more critically acclaimed than generally popular, they've played at the Barrowlands (large club/dancehall) and the Queens Hall (posh concert hall), so they do attract reasonably large audiences.

The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday

I've seen them at the Garage (a not large club) and the O2 ABC (large club/dancehall), so once again they're in the not obscure but not huge category.

Jim White - Drill a Hole in That Substrate and Tell Me What You See

I'm not aware of him ever touring Scotland and he rarely tours in general. 🙁 I've heard that he can't make a full time living as a recording artist so I guess he's pretty obscure.

Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life

I saw them lots of times, and judging by the amount of responses on the STW thread after Mark Linkous killed himself, there's a fair number of fans on here, but they never played anything larger than the Liquid Room (club venue) and on several occasions played at King Tut's.

I've seen Pearl Jam live and they drew a crowd of over 10,000 (Hard Rock Calling 2010), but my favourite albums by them pre-date 2000. After that Muse is the next biggest band that I listen to much, I've seen them at the SECC, which I'd guess is an arena-sized sort of venue.

A lot of the other stuff I see (e.g. Alabama 3, Suzanne Vega, TV on the Radio) generally appears at dancehall or club-sized venues, so comes into the not obscure but not massive grey area. The Flaming Lips are a bit odd, though. Whenever I've seen them it's been at dancehall type places but they've also played at the SECC and the Jodrell Bank festival last year, so they can draw in larger crowds if they want to.

It's been a good decade for new stuff that sounds as good as old stuff...

Paulio - The first QOTSA album was 98 and is very good (recently re-issued with bonus tracks) but obviously can't be in this list.

[i]Given the accusations being levelled against all of us for both excessive obscuritanism and excessive populism[/i]

Really - who gives a flying one what the musically ignorant say?

alanf - Member
Paulio - The first QOTSA album was 98 and is very good (recently re-issued with bonus tracks) but obviously can't be in this list.

That's got one of my favourite openings to any album with Regular John as track 1, haven't heard the bonus stuff though. On a QOTSA vibe, the first few Desert Sessions albums are great too.

Anyway, back to the 2000s!

2) I am sad for you. I can't live without it.

I'll quantify that. I said I don't listen to [i]enough [/i]music, not that I don't listen to any. And I think what I really meant was albums.

I used to buy a lot of CDs. I enjoy, really enjoy, listening to an album as a collected work. These days though, with the advent of things like Spotify and with having a DAB radio in the car, the vast majority of what I listen to is either old albums or new singles. I rarely listen to modern albums any more, and I think that's an oversight I need to correct.

3) a) That's utter bollocks. Have you heard of the Internet?

and

Sorry Cougar but you couldn't be more wrong - just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they are particularly obscure - most of the stuff people have listed is played on 6 music , posted about on widely read music blogs etc.

You both may well be right. My comment was in no way meant to be a sweeping generalisation, I just skim-read the suggestions and often either thought "who?" or "god, really?"

I don't think I've ever listened to 6 Music. Maybe that's something else I need to do something about.

Why don't you listen to some of the albums people have listed above and see what you think?

Difficult to know where to start, but that's probably a very good idea. Might be a topic for another thread.

Faxed Head - [url=