oh man I forgot about that album but I had some great times with it. discovered it when I was 13 and Wolfgang was the hottest record, reminds me a lot of the summer going into high school FUNKY SQUAREDANCE
@phaynes12 I'm going to request that you don't count my #1 vote. I'm not going to lie about what my favorite album of the year is or whether I'll continue listening to it, but I don't want to support them with any votes/points if that's okay.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhh shit I think I know what it's gonna be. Goddamn. I'm going to have a similar problem in a few years.
1. Radiohead - Kid A The best Radiohead album. One of the best albums of all time. Easy #1 pick for me. 2. Death Cab For Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes The best Death Cab album. One of my favorite albums of all time. Would be an easy #1 in many years for me, but well it's up against a powerhouse, what can you do. 3. At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command It's funny I forget this band exists a lot of the time. I also think the last 3rd of this is a not insignificant step down from the first like 7ish tracks. But this album is just massive at its best and I knew when I started seeing the earlier albums show up on lists that I would have to consider including it in its year. Greatest late night performance of all time. Honorable Mentions: The Avalanches - Since I Left You: Can't believe this didn't make my list, it rules. The Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water: Is there a better mood setter of an album title ever? I say no. Modest Mouse - Building Nothing Out of Something: This really shouldn't count, it's a compilation of EPs. And moon came out this year. But this is the best Modest Mouse collection of songs to me and the best distillation of their weirdness at its best. Swiss Army Romance rules and Fevers and Mirrors is good. Probably my 4th favorite Bright Eyes album. Yellow is still a top 2 song on Parachutes for me, which sounds like I'm underselling what is a tremendous album. I've never really given Figure 8 it's full due which makes no sense based on how much I love everything else Elliott. And last but not least Art of Drowning is pretty far below the rest of these as a whole record, but Days of the Phoenix is a really great song.
1. Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines 2. Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker 2. Elliott Smith - Figure 8 Excruciating cuts: At the Drive-In - Relationship of Command Others I love: D'Angelo - Voodoo The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving Good ones: Eve 6 - Horrorscope Coldplay - Parachutes Warren Zevon - Life'll Kill Ya U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind Emmylou Harris - Red Dirt Girl The Juliana Theory - Emotion Is Dead The Anniversary - Designing a Nervous Breakdown Deftones - White Pony Radiohead - Kid A Outcast - Stankonia Merle Haggard - If Only I Could Fly The Wallflowers - Breach Finger Eleven - The Greyest of Blue Skies Green Day - Warning Dashboard Confessional - The Swiss Army Romance Everclear - Songs from an American Movie Vol. One: Learning How to Smile Hanson - This Time Around Sade - Lover's Rock Phoenix - United New Found Glory - New Found Glory 3 Doors Down - The Better Life Dwight Yoakam - Tomorrow's Sounds Today Matchbox Twenty - Mad Season A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms Erykah Badu - Mama's Gun Waxwing - One for the Road Fuel - Something Like Human Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030 No Doubt - Return of Saturn Onelinedrawing - Always New JanJune00 EP Charles Aznavour - Aznavour 2000 The Avalanches - Since I Left You Common - Like Water for Chocolate The Cure - Bloodflowers Various Artists - Mission: Impossible II Soundtrack Boyz II Men - Nathan Michael Shawn Wanya Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory Brandi Carlile - Room for Me EP Averi - At Wit's End EP Not a fan: Disturbed - The Sickness Full Devil Jacket - Full Devil Jacket Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP Really need a relisten: Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica Targets for listening: A.F.I. - The Art of Drowning Cold - 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage Death Cab for Cutie - We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes Everlast - Eat at Whitey's Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele Don Henley - Inside Job The Lawrence Arms - Ghost Stories Midtown - Save the World, Lose the Girl Shawn Mullins - Beneath the Velvet Sun Pearl Jam - Binaural Phish - Farmhouse Rage Aginst the Machine - Renegades Reflection Eternal -Train of Thought Josh Rouse - Home Jon Scofield - Bump The Smashing Pumpkins - Machina Sunday's Best - Poised to Break Air - The Virgin Suicides Badly Drawn Boy - Hour of the Bewilderbeast M.J. Cole - Sincere Doves - Lost Soulds Giant Sand - Chore of Enchantment Bebel Gilberto - Tanto Tiempo Goldfrapp - Felt Mountain P.J. Harvey - Storees from the City, Stories from the Sea Mike Ladd - Welcome to the Afterfuture Lambchop - Nixon Ute Lemper - Punishing Kiss Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water Madonna - Music Red Snapper - Our Aim Is to Satisfy Steely Dan - Two Against Nature Paul Simon - You're the One Cave In - Jupiter Queens of the Stone Age - Rated R Bright Eyes - Fevers and Mirrors Cursive - Domestica Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious Nelly - Country Grammar MxPx - The Ever Passing Moment The Movielife - This Time Next Year Orgy - Vapor Transmission Fatboy Slim - Halfway Between The Gutter and the Stars Good Charlotte - Good Charlotte Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
I have. It's pretty damn good, actually. Has no business calling itself SMII other than the interludes, but whatever. Also a slight return of the old, weird, falsetto on a song or two made me kinda emotional.
1. Ghostface Killah - Supreme Clientele 2. The song Ante Up by M.O.P. 3. Deletion 3030 - S/T other cool albums Weakling - Dead as Dreams (the lead singer of deafheaven cites this as an influence on the band) OutKast - Stankonia D’Angelo - Voodoo Ryan Adams - heartbreaker (in a vacuum it’s great )
1. At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command 2. Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven 3. Deftones - White Pony Also, as an 8 year old in 2000, that Limp Bizkit album was definitely my shit.
1. Britney Spears - Oops!…I Did It Again 2. Cursive - Domestica 3. H.I.M. - Razorblade Romance 4. Modest Mouse - The Moon and Antarctica 5. Lil Kim - Notorious K.I.M. 6. *NSYNC - No Strings Attached 7. Linkin Park - Hybrid Theory 8. Trina - Da Baddest Bitch 9. AFI - The Art of Drowning 10. Deftones - White Pony
Or at least sell them to me who can give you easy access when some obscure EP disappears from streaming haha
1. U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind 2. Marvelous 3 – Readysexgo! 3. Matchbox Twenty – Mad Season All That You Can’t Leave Behind is one of my go-to “comfort” albums. For a variety of reasons, every song on that just feels like a nice warm blanket to me. I wrote about it pretty extensively in 2020 for the 20-year anniversary. Not quite on Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby level, but a close third in my U2 rankings, with some of their very greatest songs. Readysexgo! is big grandiose arena rock with some of the best hooks of the 2000s, plus some ace skyscraping production from Jerry Finn. If it had come out a few years later, I feel like Marvelous 3 might have been able to ride the pop-punk wave to superstardom. Instead, it triggered huge label drama that ultimately made the band break up. But it’s a masterful, grandiose rock record that closes out with a huge level-up moment in Butch Walker’s songwriting, “Cigarette Lighter Love Song.” Mad Season is probably overlong by a few tracks, but has a trio of solid-gold radio singles (“Bent,” “Mad Season,” and “If You’re Gone”), plus a bevy of terrific, underrated album tracks (“The Burn,” “Leave,” “Rest Stop,” “Black and White People,” “Last Beautiful Girl”) that really hold up. Of the first three Matchbox albums, this one was probably always my least favorite, but all three of those records were so formative to me that I still love it a ton anyway. SO CLOSE The Wallflowers – Breach: Where Jakob Dylan writes some fascinating songs about being the son of Bob Dylan. “Hand Me Down” and “Sleepwalker” are so catchy, but also so dark and cutting. Fucking love this record. HONORABLES Dashboard Confessional – The Swiss Army Romance: This record always felt to me like a “rough sketch” of what Chris Carrabba ended up perfecting on The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most and then expanding on the full-band records. Some all-timers here, though, especially the original “Screaming Infidelities” and the deep cuts “A Plain Morning” and “Age Six Racer.” Fastball – The Harsh Light of Day: A follow-up to a big radio album that never got the credit or airplay it deserved. Some incredibly sharp pop songs on this record, though (“You’re an Ocean,” “Dark Street”) as well as some cool Costello-esque tracks that really darken their sound a bit (particularly “Whatever Gets You On,” a great lost classic). Green Day – Warning: I remember when American Idiot came out and this album was cast as the “failure” that Green Day needed to come back from. A damn good-sounding failure. Coldplay – Parachutes: I like most of the Coldplay albums that came after more than this, but I’ve actually gained some new appreciation for Parachutes over the past year or so. I especially love how much Chris Martin wanted to be Jeff Buckley on “Shiver.” Five for Fighting – America Town: Feel like this guy kind of got “punchline status” for his super earnest, kind of cheesy radio hits, but I come back to this album a surprising amount. Some absolutely gorgeous piano balladry (“Jainy”) and some surprisingly dark (albeit, extremely catchy) highlights like “Easy Tonight” (about suicide) and “Love Song” (one of the saddest, frankest songs ever about being a child of divorce). Sister Hazel – Fortress: These guys put together a run of really solid pop-rock records in the 2000s that were really important to me as a kid/teenager. This is the start of that run. Highlight is the amazing “Champagne High,” about watching an ex you’re still in love with get married to someone else.