The year 2000

As Conan, La Bamba, and a very talented team of writers had predicted for decades, this year was very strange.  I think the musical community kinda blew its collective load in 1999 and did not recover until 2001, as those are much stronger years, and two of the strongest in the last 25 years.  This year is full of albums that most people, including my readers, probably would rate higher than I do.  Still, I almost feel like I might  be entertaining them more than usual with Animal Collective's debut (and best album for many years) does not make the cut and I did not feel right including AIR's Virgin Suicides soundtrack on the grounds of the movie being released the year before.  So here it is, probably not too different from Rolling Stone's...

10.  Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica
Clearly I'm just not the biggest Modest Mouse fan.  Still, this is a remarkable album with some absolutely gorgeous moments that slowly built up the band's reputation enough for their explosive breakthrough four years later.  It has a very down-to-Earth approach to its spacey and science fiction themes with all the beauty of both locales - particularly on opener "3rd Planet."  Like many albums from the CD era, it is a bit long, had it been a bit more concise songs like "The Cold Part," "I Came as a Rat," and the folk "Wild Pack of Family Dogs" would make me never question people's undying love of this album/band.  The band does have a unique cohesion that gives them the same kind of depth in their lush marriage of the dark and psychedelic in a sound that would redefine the standard of Northwestern indie rock.  Closer "What People Are Made Of" brings the energy back up, as a cold reminder of the reality apart from this dream-like record.

9.  The Sea and Cake - Oui
A lot of this year's best albums are unusually chill - as heard at times in the previous entry, but this one probably the most.  This time may  have been the peak of the Chicago post-rock scene and the Sea and Cake have always been on the the city's highlights.  It's a set of clean, brainy jazz rock with relaxing, breathy vocals.  The smooth sounds here with the prominent synthesizers and vibes are the furthest cry from the mainstream at the time, especially coupled with the bright tones and themes around nature's splendor like "Afternoon Speaker," "Two Dolphins" and "The Leaf."  It is a perfectly relaxing album with warm songs that stick with fragments of unusual, indescribable joy and atmosphere, rather than simple tunes.

8.  Blonde Redhead - Melody of Certain Damaged Lemons
This trio of uncomfortably-close foreigners in New York concludes their most prolific era with one of their best works.  Their dark and moody sound hits a new depth that could only go further with a concept album.  Expertly produced, they are seen to be much more than a group of wanna be No Wavers who showed up far too late.  The layers in their arrangement and use of both familiar and radically different sounds gives Blonde Redhead a voice very distinct from anyone else.  Even on the most basic level it is hard to name a contemporary.  With the power of a classical piece and the fragile aggression that could only come from such outsiders, it is a landmark for modern rock.  Noise, samples, and even synths make the album constantly engaging in its range of sounds from "Mother" to "Hated Because of Great Qualities" to "This is Not."

7.  Yo La Tengo - And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
Yo La Tengo sometimes gets too much of a reputation as just being chill, and with it being 2000, that reputation became deserved.  While probably their softest album it is also one of their best and most definitive with their pop culture and literary references coming out most explicitly on "The Crying of Lot G" and "Let's Save Tony Orlando's House" - the latter being Troy McClure telethon show.  Even their closing jam is softer and more raga-like, but its title, "Night Falls Over Hoboken" is the best description, along with the cover, for this album with its essence firmly in the beauty of a New Jersey twilight.  Like their local influences, YLT captures all this beauty in the most quiet and subtle ways possible, as the band dynamics tighten and allow their rare precision to patiently build and build in this 77 minute soundscape.

6.  Radiohead- Kid A
Right, so, like I had said 3 articles ago, I am not a Radiohead junkie, but it is impossible to deny where they excel.  The band shows their unusual genius by investing in a whole bunch of new (or rather, old) toys with all their vast profits from the prior masterpiece and showing what they can do with them.  Naturally, it made a whole lot of people uncomfortable at the time, people who would rather see Jonny Greenwood behind two turntables than even an analogue synthesizer.  However, they became the Radiohead that we all know and anyone with  their head screwed on prefers.  The atmospheric sounds that had been hinted at before have taken over, but the songs and the five-piece dynamic are stronger than ever, clearly not surrendering to electronica (just yet).  Radiohead showed that for the new millennium they were setting their sights on the future, even if it did sound more like it was from the 70s than ever.  Their best album of all, and even I enjoy it.

5.  The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
Some people may have noticed that our neighbors to the North have not made an appearance on these lists until now.  Perhaps being an underachiever of a country (unless you love Rush) up to this point, the Canucks get the brilliant idea of putting all their talents together at once, and this decade it worked.  That all began with this Vancouver project, mostly led by A.C. Newman.  They achieve this by playing  big, full power-pop songs with harmonies from some top-notch vocalists including the great Neko Case - quite a departure from just about everything going on in the US and UK at the time.  The energy and arrangements is also unparalleled making these tracks instantly catchy in more than one way, particularly on the title track, "Letter from An Occupant" and Dan Bejar's "Jackie."  However, it is the three vocalists' combined forces that make "To Wild Homes" the album's centerpiece.  In truth, this may be the year's most influential album, setting the standard for the more positive indie rock that would emerge in the following years.  If you can, pick up the original mix, it's better.

4.  Tortoise - Standards
The Chicago post-rock scene's flagship band created this masterpiece, as usual without even needing the use of vocals.  It's dense, like a sedimentary rock with all its funky rhythms and incorporation of electronics.  This is the group's most studio-based work and its use of layers and manipulation are used to mind-blowing effect that would even make Todd Rundgren jealous.  "Seneca" begins the album with a cinematic explosion of sound, both shaking and hypnotic and the big sound of the record carries an almost narrative quality throughout its perfect 44-minute playing time, achieving what music should in its full range of emotional language, as even just the sound of a perfectly-manipulated drum kit can do more than most lyrics.  Most of the songs' complexity and mood makes them shrouded in a mystery, though at the core, it is pretty happy music, especially on "Monica," one of my personal favorites.

3.  PJ Harvey - Stories From the City, Stories From The Sea

While sometimes criticized for being too clean and commercial - especially compared to her previous work, this is another one of many great albums from Polly Harvey.  The English country girl moves to New York, a seasoned rock star, but still naive apparently, falls in love or something, and leaves - as usual, quite jaded.  The artist has a lot of trouble with this one, and I can imagine it is for personal reasons, it is full of weakness and heartbreak, but resulted in a lot of great music.  Like most of her albums it verges on conceptual with opener "Big Exit" and closer "We Float" being the perfect ends to the misadventures in "The Whores Hustle and the Hustlers Whore" and "Good Fortune."  It is the definitive album about a lost soul venturing into New York City and, of course, leaving more lost than ever, but with a few good stories to tell back in Bumfuck, Wherever-They-Came-From, and that would make anyone who lived it uncomfortable.  Her collaborators on this album are some of the best too with old drummer Rob Ellis and Mick Harvey joining her as a full-fledge band both in front of and behind the mixing board.  Thom Yorke even shows up on several tracks.  Single "This Is Love" should have made her a superstar, especially with that video...

2.  At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command

I thought I had outgrown it too, but this album still stands up.  It is an anomaly though, made up primarily of the worst trends of the time, it somehow ends up perfectly.  The emo and neo-prog sides of the El Paso group that would lead them into the God-awful projects that would follow are in conflict and it somehow works.  The successful blend of screams, pretentiously abstract lyrics, complex arrangements, and occasionally Latin rhythms proved mall metal guru Ross Robinson, making one wonder what he could have done he chosen to work with any other decent groups.  The spirited performances and songs are enough  to overlook any of its flaws, and even make a contribution from Iggy Pop not one of the highlights.  The band's ridiculous aspirations managed coupled with the commercially-minded producer made this one  of the most unique albums of its time and its singles were certainly the most interesting thing on the radio until the Strokes emergence one year later.  It is an album that may only become more confusing in the future, but it will always sound great, as one of the best post-hardcore records of all time, and certainly the best of emo, if you will.  One of a kind, and one of the most exciting things to live through as a kid.

1.  The Apples in Stereo - The Discovery of a World Inside the Moone

Somehow, even as more know about the band this album still does not get its due props.  It is their finest album to date, and the perfect one for right now as the summer approaches.  The band, at this point a quintet featuring Chris McDuffie is at their best and it shows on this album.  Their sound expands wider than ever before, incorporating a lot of funk into their psychedelic pop sound, now with more energy than ever.  The message is clear on opening track "Go," and Hilary Sidnie's "20 Cases Suggestive of..." is the best of the faster punk/hard rock sound they (and she without the rest) would explore in the future.  However, both sides conclude with softer moments "What Happened Then" and "The Afternoon."  Nature themes are all over the place, far removed from the science fiction of the title and the dull album art with songs like "The Rainbow," the funky "The Bird That You Can't See" and of course the idealistic "Stream Running Over."  The romantic undersea fantasy of "Submarine Dream" is still one of their best psychedelic moments, while "Allright/Not Quite," keeps up their tradition of lovable romantic woes.  With this masterpiece, the Apples show that while the rest of Elephant 6 may be fading, they are still one of the greatest bands on Earth and have a bright future ahead of them, though perhaps not on a personal level...

If I seemed less interested in this year it's because I was.  The next few though...