1999

Perhaps it was the conclusion of all those arbitrary measures of time - the millennium, the century, and most importantly, the decade, but 1999 turned out to be a real stellar year.  Just think about what's missing.  A few of  these artists I really think were putting all they  had in just in case the world did end.  Either way it was enough to prove the 90s as vital a decade as most of the others in its last chance.  I would say this was a year for the ages as a certain artist who is not on the list had once predicted.

10.  Robert Pollard with Doug Gillard - Speak Kindly of Your Volunteer Fire Department
The Dayton crew put out a lot of great releases this year and the highly underrated Do the Collapse almost made the list as did the now Travese City-based Tobin Sprout with Let's Welcome the Circus People.  This one gets the inclusion for being the most unique and possibly least-known.  Two years "I am A Tree" proved these two to be some top-notch collaborators and after Jimmy, Sprout and producer Todd Tobias, Gillard is probably Pollard's greatest partner.  The music was mostly composed and performed by Gillard with Pollard adding vocals and lyrics afterward.  It is full of some of the greatest riffs of all time and expands the  GbV sound with longer songs and more hard/prog rock influence.  "Pop Zeus" may be the greatest rock song of all time and is worth the price of admission alone, but as usual, it is full of other incredible songs such as opener "The Frequent Weaver Who Burns" and "Tight Globes."  Just another sign of how infinitely deep the GbV well runs.

9.  Pavement - Terror Twilight
With the acrimonious breakup that followed, Pavement's final album is too often overlooked and underrated.  I have even gone through phases where I have cited this as my favorite album of theirs.  Maybe even while writing this as it had occupied a higher position in earlier drafts.  Still, it's phenomenal, even though the band dynamic is clearly diminishing and the album has the flavor of a Malkmus solo effort.  There is a lot less eccentricity and sloppy charm, but the songs are as strong as before and the looseness remains.  From opening track "Spit on A Stranger," the album's atmosphere is established with these songs that are slower and spacier than ever, shrouded in a certain darkness at its peak with "The Hexx."  The band's performances matched this and the title with their stage lit only with holiday lights (I highly recommend the performances on the Slow Century DVD).  Some other highlights are the simple ballad "Major Leagues" and the lovably quirky closer "Carrot Rope," leaving the proof that Pavement's final and "weakest" album is still fantastic.

8.  Wilco - Summerteeth
The first of Wilco's trilogy of masterpieces being only at 8 shows just how remarkable this year was.  With multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett's contribution at its peak, the group moves into more Brian Wilson-esque territory.  They beautifully realize what Being There only hinted, that the Chicago group is more than a talented group of traditionalists, but that an artist can expand into new territory while retaining on root in their Americana roots.  The pop songs are tighter and catchier than ever too with songs like "ELT" and "Nothing'severgonnastantinmyway (Again)" perfectly balancing classic pop, country and their incorporation of synthesizers.  The production is likewise lusher and lusher with layers of guitars, vocals, keys, and percussion giving incredible depth to these timeless songs, like a Midwestern SMiLE.  While less concise and cohesive than some of Wilco's other releases, it is long and adventurous, with every moment as sweet as the last, just like a summer should be, and the album more than lives up to its title, ideal for hot moonlit nights.

7.  The Apples in Stereo - Her Wallpaper Reverie
Including this was a tough call as it could be considered an EP.  I would argue that it is not, but I will not argue that the countless toy piano pieces are anything but obnoxious.  Despite their outnumbering real songs, said real songs are some of the band's greatest.  Like most Elephant 6 releases it's just what you would want from more psychedelic Beatles, perhaps more than ever on "The Benefits of Lying With Your Friends" and "Strawberryfire."  Well, with so few songs it can be hard to write about, but had this been a better-realized album with nothing but real songs I would say it would be the Apples' best.  While it may not be their most future-oriented, the songs are at their best and so is the band.  If you don't mind skipping around this is a perfect place to start with them, especially with "The Shiny Sea" being a definitive example of Robert Schneider's fascination with deep-sea fantasy.

6.  Built to Spill - Keep It Like A Secret
Perhaps Built to Spill's best album, the trio focuses all their talents in at once.  These songs are much shorter than on their previous effort, yet with their dynamic arrangements they achieve and even bigger, symphonic sound.  Far from pop, these songs still do not sound like jams, with every not being so perfect in its gigantic swirl of sounds, that is still as immediate and memorable as anything on There's Nothing Wrong With Love.  Martsch's lyrics are also their most whole as the dark themes on the last album are still there, though mixed with his sense of humor and nostalgia adding in a more abstract and expressive form.  Standout "Carry the Zero"manages to pack that all in, and "You Were Right," is a dismal take on life, yet played out with classic references that are too sincere to be funny, too clever to be depressing, and just too good to be corny.  Everything one could want from Built to Spill all at once, through these ten tracks, including the closer "Broken Chairs," their best and longest epic that shows just how much of a powerhouse this talented band really is.

5.  The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
The Lips really became the band that the world knows today on this album, still considered by many to be their best.  From "Race For The Prize," the group establishes their new dedication to spreading hope to humanity.  Most of best songs are about overcoming the impossible, with "Waitin' For Superman" and "A Spoonful Weighs A Ton" even tacking the idea of taking on the great star around which our world literally revolves.  After the group's dive into pure madness on Zaireeka and evidenced on "The Spiderbite Song," the trio has found a way to harness their huge ambitions onto only two speakers and function like brothers with endless wisdom to offer mankind.  Like Gene Roddenberry before them, the Lips gave their fans a bright vision of a future that can happen if the people of the  world work together to overcome the impossible with love.  After a decade of very grim music, this embrace of science fiction on prog they created a true landmark to take the world into the 21st Century and made themselves the band that will surely be most fondly remembered of their time.

4.  Beck - Midnite Vultures
He was probably planning this all his life.  Beck lays it all out in the perfect party album that takes all the depraved insanity of Hollywood nightlife and makes it enjoyable for people with taste, intelligence, and integrity.  "Hollywood Freaks" is of course the definitive track with its sounds still probably haunting every hip-hop producer at night and proving Beck can rap outside of the Gen X slacker persona.  While most of this porno-funk is hilarious, it is not without its more sincere moments with "Beautiful Way," one of the many successful integrations of country into this retro dance party and "Broken Train" a fair and clear-headed take on the album's big theme.  Still, he decadent hedonism is the most fun and songs like "Get Real Paid" and "Milk and Honey" are the perfect odes to the shallow pleasures.  "Sexx Laws" and "Mixed Bizness" miraculously broke through, and I can attest, made all the people scream.  Beck for once put all his talents into creating something fun and what is probably the final great album of the century (released in November 19) is also the feel-good record of the decade.  While disowned by its creator, closer "Debra" is still one of the best and many Angelenos owe their love of the city's greatest restaurant to that song.

3.  Jim O'Rourke - Eureka
In the middle of his devilishly-titled Nicholas Roeg trilogy Chicago's boy genius puts all his unfathomable talent into the masterpiece.  His pop talent meets his compositional genius in this expansive musical adventure that has an unwavering flow as it moves from minimalist folk to Eno-esque cinematic ambience, to touches of samba and beyond.  As the title implies, it is pretty eye-opening, like a revelation and with the first two tracks in particular carrying the same kind of hopefulness for the next millennium as the Flaming Lips.  His cover of "Something Big," surprisingly true to the Bacharach/David vision takes this idea even further and shows that O'Rourke is an incomparable musical force willing to share with others.  No surprise as most of his appearances here are at the side of others.  In a lot of ways this is as much a pop album as anything else he has made, though it sounds like nothing else and he usually lets the music speak louder than the words, such as on "Please Patronize Our Sponsors," and while many of these songs are quite long, "Happy Holidays" with its horns and Wilson-esque vocals concludes the album in a bite-sized form reminiscent of Guided by Voices.

2.  Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Just when you think you had Iceland's sound figured out, this album emerged with some of the most otherworldly sounds ever recorded.  I feel like I have no right discussing this band as someone who has never seen them based on what I have heard from people who have, but this album is enough to suggest its power.  The four musicians function like a single mind wired into a divine channel flowing from the geothermal energy source that powers their island home.  Their Viking force is used both to pummel with Thor's hammer and capable of unimaginable delicacy with singer/guitarist Jonsí's voice and the band's melodies seemingly only native to heaven.  Even with only months to prove itself the Icelandic people regarded this as the finest recording of the century, and their reasoning are unquestionable as this is 70 minutes of beautiful transcendence.  It speaks for itself, it's like returning the whom, but with all the wisdom of the ages to bring with you.  My favorite is "Olsen Olsen."

1.  The Olivia Tremor Control - Black Foliage:  Animation Music, Volume 1
After creating one of the biggest and best albums of all time OTC goes even further and invites ALL their friends into the studio, including most prominently Neutral Milk Hotel members Julian Koster and Scott Spillane who were necessary in live performance, along with a second drummer and  cellist.  Also, it is the first with keyboardist Pete Erchick who contributes one  of the group's greatest songs "I Have Been Floated," with everyone on vocals.  With the grand concept finished (despite inclusion of "California Demise 3") the subject matter gets even more abstract, even as the songs get even catchier with "A Peculiar Noise Called 'Train Director" being the best example.  As dense as its arrangement is it could be outdone on "Hideaway" their perfect slice of folk pop with I believe 40 acoustic guitar tracks.  As catchy as those, and many other songs are the album is psychedelia above all else, and songs like "Another Set of Bees in the Museum," and the Floyd-esque "Paranormal Echoes," being some of the trippiest songs recorded since the 60s heyday.  The album is indeed dark at time, though more mysterious than really black, and the title theme places around the album along with the various "Combinations" tracks serving as glue keep the large and unpredictable album together through its many turns.  The darkness hits its peak towards the end, but this band's final album concludes on a bright note with the whole Elephant 6 collective joining in the "Hilltop Procession" sing-along.  Bill Doss claimed that it too, I believe 86 listens to hear everything going on.  It is much higher for someone not so involved with its creation (I still have a ways to go with probably more listens than that), but it is not hard to get there.

Should get to 2000 tomorrow, so long 20th century!