When I try to fit so many albums on a list, ranking starts to reach a level of absurdity.
I had about 130 or so that I chose to listen to, and I added a couple here and there as I explored...I did have to sample a lot. But I listened to enough to know what to do. But it did get to the point where it was obvious that five or six albums in a row were of equal quality...so basically, if it's on this list, I recommend it.
I disqualified "Dark Was the Night" for myself even though it is excellent...it's a compilation of various modern indie bands as part of the Red Hot series of albums which benefit AIDS groups. It's simply too hard to know how to rank it, but I DO recommend it.
Why is this list so much longer than my women's list? Put simply, there are simply more male-created artists that I am drawn to. Note though that my number 2 album is really a team effort, men and women together making music. And Matt & Kim...one of each!
Another one I missed: the live Tom Waits album, Glitter and Doom Live. I was leaving out live albums, but I noticed as I was digging up video links that the Steve Vai album was of course live. Obviously Tom Waits never really does wrong, so if I had caught the mistake earlier, I would have removed Steve's album. Anyway, both are excellent as far as live albums go.
1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion (the Fall Be Kind EP is fantastic too, but I'll restrict to one release)
2. The Decemberists - The Hazards of Love
3. Baroness - Blue Record
4. Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle
5. Mastodon - Crack the Skye
6. U2 - No Line on the Horizon
7. The Red Chord - Fed Through the Teeth Machine
8. Mos Def - The Ecstatic
9. Sonic Youth - The Eternal
10. Wolfmother - Cosmic Egg
11. Pete Doherty - Grace/Wasteland
12. Gomez - A New Tide
13. Torche - Healer/Across the Shields EP
14. Wilco - Wilco (The Album)
15. Piano Magic - Ovations
16. Matt & Kim - Grand
17. Mumford & Sons - Mumford & Sons
18. Orthodox - Sentencia
I cannot find a musical sample for you, but you can read about this Spanish Doom/Jazz band here: http://www.thesirenssound.com/2009/09/22/orthodox-sentencia/
19. Flaming Lips - Embryonic
20. Yosh - Fistful of Lies
21. Morrissey - Years of Refusal
22. Les Claypool - Of Fungi and Foe
23. Mowgli - 93
24. Sondre Lerche - Heartbeat Radio
25. NOFX - Coaster
26. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
27. Monsters of Folk - Monsters of Folk
28. Jay-Z The Blueprint 3
29. The Joint Chiefs of Math - You Are Here
(I wish there was a better video for these guys, so listen here: http://www.myspace.com/thejointchiefsofmath)
30. Causa Sui - Summer Sessions vol. 2 and 3 (not sure how to break these up...they are equally good...and volume 1 came out in 2008, and now they have all three out there as a set.)
31. Arctic Monkeys - Humbug
32. The Big Pink - A Brief History of Love
33. The Avett Brothers - I And Love And You
34. Midlake - The Courage of Others
35. El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez - Cryptomnesia
36. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest
Is this the creepiest video ever?
37. Mr. Scruff - Ninja Tuna
38. Mexican Institute of Sound - Soy Sauce
39. The Mountain Goats - The Life of the World to Come
40. Steve Vai - Where the Wild Things Are
41. Megadeth - Endgame
42. Bruce Springsteen - Working on a Dream
43. Moby - Wait For Me
44. Other Lives - Other Lives
45. Marduk - Wormwood
46. Tom Russell - Blood and Candle Smoke
47. Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young
48. For Against - Never Been
Check it out here: http://www.myspace.com/foragainst
49. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Somehow I messed up...this should have been on my women's list. Well, enjoy it and don't complain ;-)
50. Snoop Dogg - Malice in Wonderland
51. The Who Boys - Now That's What I Call the Who Boys!
Couldn't find videos, but you can download the album for free on their website: http://www.zen8003.zen.co.uk/twic/index.html
52. Jay Brannan In Living Cover
53. Bob Dylan - Together Through Life
54. The Barcode Experiment - Yellow Ball, Glass Wall
Not the best video! Check 'em out here: http://www.myspace.com/thebarcodeexperiment
55. Bear in Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
56. Brakes - Touchdown
57. Akron/Family - Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free
58. Jarvis Cocker - Further Complications
59. Girls - Album
60. John Vanderslice - Romanian Names
61. Jay Reatard - Watch Me Fall
62. Ryan Leslie - Transition
63. Napalm Death - Time Waits for No Slave
64. Gallows - Grey Britain
65. Titãs - Sacos Plásticos
66. Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane & Sugarcane
67. Eels - Hombre Lobo
68. Mama Rosin - Black Robert
69. Phish - Joy
70. Meat Puppets - Sewn Together
71. Mariachi El Bronx - Mariachi El Bronx
72. Loney, Dear - Dear John
73. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Road (score)
74. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
75. M. Ward - Hold Time
76. Dinosaur Jr. - Farm
77. Mudvayne - Mudvayne
78. Nox Arcana - Blackthorn Asylum
79. Isis - Wavering Radiant
80. Son O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions
You can hear one of the songs here: http://www.myspace.com/southernlordrecordings
81. Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
82. Aerosol - Airborne
83. Vomit Heat - The Melody Haunts My Reverie EP
http://www.myspace.com/vomitheat
84. With Abandon - Maturation EP
85. Woodpigeon - Die Stadt Muzikanten
86. The Swell Season - Strict Joy
87. Church of Misery - Houses of the Unholy
88. Converge - Axe to Fall
89. Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
90. Drake - So Far Gone
91. The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die!
92. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Pin Points and Gin Joints
93. The Lytics - The Lytics
One I should have probably ranked higher.
94. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
95. Candlemass - Death Magic Doom
96. Calamar Audio - Squid Fluid
http://www.myspace.com/calamaraudio
97. Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
98. Boris - Japanese Heavy Rock Hits (EP)
99. Pains of Being Pure at Heart - Pains of Being Pure at Heart
100. Mark Vidler - Tension (EP)
http://www.myspace.com/markvidlerGHP
http://www.gohomeproductions.co.uk/
101. Lamb of God - Wrath
102. The Devil's Blood - The Time of No Time Evermore
103. Adam Lambert - For Your Entertainment
104. Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear
105. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson - Summer of Fear
106. Coalesce - OX
107. W.A.S.P. - Babylon
108. Hatebreed - Hatebreed
109. The Leisure Society - The Sleeper
I guess this is a re-release. I don't know much about it...
110. Bibio - Abrasion
111. Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions
112. Crystal Method - Divided By Night
113. The Mars Volta - Octahedron
114. Anaal Nathrakh - In the Constellation of the Black Widow
115. My Dying Bride - For Lies I Sire
116. Harlem Shakes - Technicolor Health
117. Robin Thicke - Sex Therapy: The Experience
118. Revocation - Existence is Futile
119. Atlas Sound - Logos
120. Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest
121. The Positives - Person L
122. Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Letting Up Despite Great Faults
123. Holopaw - Oh, Glory, Oh, Wilderness.
124. Amorphis - Skyforger
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Looking at these lists now, in March, I can see how I'd totally re-rank these, but I like that I spent the time because it's kind of a snapshot of the year...please don't take the "order" too seriously...I probably shouldn't have even numbered them...just did this alphabetically or something. Maybe next year!
ReplyDelete