2001 in music. • Page 3

Green has the benefit of hindsight haha. At least it's bland and samey instead of all over the place seems to be the main defense.

 

1. Tortoise - Standards
2. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
3. Bjork - Vespertine

Standards I heard relatively recently; the last few years. And every time I listen to it, it grows that bit more on me. The combination of a tight, technically accomplished human performance, put through such a sprawling, electronic blender of sounds is done in such a way that I've never quite heard elsewhere. Sometimes it feels subtle, sometimes anything but, sometimes minimalist, sometimes really dense. What they do with the drums is the primest example of the human with the electronic - the clipped, staccato processing with the drumming on Eros being my favourite showcase of this, but also the way they split the drums out across the two channels on quite a few of the tracks. There's an aspect of this record that feels almost antagonistic in its intention to pull a song apart just as it gets going - the track Monica might be the best example of it - but somehow they do it in a way that draws me in further each time. I don't think I've ever heard an album that feels so calming yet so intense but without many straightforward examples of either. I barely believe in the concept of genius but when a record clicks with me in a way that I can't really understand or express, and even does so in ways that might usually put me off, I think that might qualify. Fucking love this album.

A lot of people on this site are bigger fans of Jimmy Eat World than I am - I don't really go back to anything post-Chase This Light - but the run of records they went on around this time is almost flawless. And I still think Bleed American is the best of those. I'm probably spoilt by not engaging in much culture that would have made The Middle or other songs ubiquitous, but I can listen to the entirety of this record and never get the urge to skip. Hooks for days, and never feels too insular either. It's a perfect summer record.

Bjork's great and Vespertine's one of her great albums. Not much more to be said. I love the warm tenderness of this record. Cocoon is breathtakingly gorgeous. Homogenic used to be my favourite of hers but I think I prefer the tone of this album these days.

Honourable mentions:

Tool - Lateralus
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
Quantic - The 5th Exotic
Converge - Jane Doe
M83 - M83
P.O.D. - Satellite (I have to mention this album; I got into "heavy" music through it when I was about eleven years old. And though I rarely listen to it now, I still think it's got a bunch of good tracks on it).

 

Haha, I might end up appreciating it more in comparison after hearing some of the more hated albums but I can't see myself wanting to revisit it much.

 

I’m kind of bored by time the revelator as a whole, but the title track is an all timer.

 

Jay Z- The Blueprint
Slipknot- Iowa
Incubus- Morning View

 

1. American Nightmare - Background Music
2. Converge - Jane Doe
3. Atmosphere - Lucy Ford

 

1. Propagandhi - Today’s Empires
2. Hot Water Music - A Flight and a Crash
3. Rx Bandits - Progress

Honorable Mention

Bigwig - Invitation to Tragedy
Toadies - Hell Below, Stars Above
Mad Caddies - Rock the Plank
Tool - Lateralus
Fenix TX - Lechuza
Rufio - Perhaps I Suppose
Saves the Day - Stay What You Are
Strike Anywhere - Change is a Sound
Michael Jackson - Invincible

 

I never got into Rufio but when I was deep in middle school love one of my friends recommended One Slowdance and Tears to me…I enjoyed those. But I’m also pretty sure the version of Tears I had was an unmixed demo haah

oh and my ex def put “above me” on a mix for me

 

1. Incubus - Morning View
2. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
3. Muse - Origin of Simmetry

 

2001 was the first year that music wasn't just background noise to growing up and discovering new things to listen to became an active interest of mine, (largely following whatever my brother was digging), so my picks will become a lot more personal/sentimental rather than just quality based from here on out.

1. Slipknot - Iowa
2. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American
3. Nickelback - Silver Side Up

Slipknot scared the fuck out of me when I first watched the video to Left Behind on Kerrang! It was the heaviest thing I'd ever heard, and the aesthetic made me feel like I'd snuck into a horror film, and that's always stayed with me. The album is great - catchy, heavy, and fucking weird, and was the coolest thing in the world.

I prefer other Jimmy albums, (Clarity, Futures), but Bleed American is a better pop rock album than anything else released in 2001, with some of their greatest bops (Sweetness, Get It Faster, The Middle).

Nickelback are probably my most egregious pick, but this was the first full length I ever bought so I will always have an attachment to the album, but I will also fist fight you over maintaining that songs like Hangnail, Too Bad, and Good Times Gone are A+ Post-Grunge songs, (if that's even a thing).

 

1. Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
2. John Mayer – Room for Squares
3. Pete Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter

Wrote a bunch about Bleed American last year when that album turned 10, so I won’t belabor the point here. But I’ll always be impressed at how stellar the hooks on that record are. I love that they made Clarity, got dropped by their label, did Bleed American on their own dime, and then immediately had a bunch of major labels knocking on their door – including Capitol, the label that dropped them. Also, shouts to “If You Don’t, Don’t,” my favorite 2001 song.

Room for Squares isn’t my favorite John Mayer album, but it’s such an effortless display of songwriting craft that I can’t help but feel like it’s underrated. Breezy, catchy, thoughtful pop music with little hints of his guitar heroics peaking in around the edges. Wrote about it a few years back.

Musicforthemorningafter is one of the great underrated classics of this era. Yorn melted classic rock influences into early 2000s pop-rock in a really interesting, unique way. What I wrote about this one a few years ago when I ranked my favorite albums of the 2000s was: “He had shades of Springsteen’s anthemic Jersey-rooted rock ‘n’ roll, but he also had the road-weary grit of an alt-country singer, the genre-hopping restlessness of a trendy indie-rocker, and the brand of foot-tapping hooks that might have landed him on the radio in the mid-1990s—perhaps alongside the likes of Jakob Dylan and The Wallflowers.” He never hit these heights again, but this album will always hold up.

Honorable mentions:

Dashboard Confessional – The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most: A slight refinement and ultimate perfection of the Swiss Army Romance sound. It’s got a few tracks that still hang with Carrabba’s very best (“The Brilliant Dance” will never not transport me back to my teen years). Fun revisiting this one having heard his latest, which is very much a Places-style record with 21 extra years of perspective and experience.

Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs: My favorite Ben Folds record. Six legitimately perfect songs on this album, including a couple (“The Luckiest,” “Still Fighting It”) that are up there with my favorite songs ever.

Michelle Branch – The Spirit Room: Hard to think of a more propulsive hook than the chorus of “Everywhere.” Branch’s teen pop is ridiculously catchy, beautifully intimate, and sneakily influential. A lot of the Taylor Swift blueprint in these songs.

Death Cab for Cutie – The Photo Album: A slower burn in the Death Cab discography for me, but a record I’ve really come to love over the past few years. Back when they still felt like a band you could imagine writing love songs in their teenage bedrooms.

Jay-Z – The Blueprint: One of my favorite rap records, full of terrific samples and killer beats. “Heart of the City” is a top-tier running song.

Better Than Ezra – Closer: This idiosyncratic pop-rock band always had a way with hooks and really elevated to something special after they stopped caring about trying to score another hit. “A Lifetime” is one of the most unique bits of pop writing I can recall, and “Closer” could be a U2 song.

Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: “I’ve got reservations about so many things/But not about you.” One of the greatest lines ever, on an album that is rightfully celebrated.

Will Hoge - Carousel: Rowdy, hooky southern rock 'n' roll. Hoge would make much better records in the future, but a lot of what ultimately made him one of my favorite artists is already in place here on his debut.

 

Ah yeah The Luckiest is one of those songs I knew but never bought the album it was on. Really is up there with favorite songs ever. Another one my ex put on a mix CD for me lol. Definitely transports me back to a certain time and place in my life when I hear it.

 

One of the first songs I ever taught myself how to play and then performed live accompanying myself. Definitely a lot of memories in that song for me, too.

 

I'd kill to be able to play that on piano....or really to play piano in general lol. I'm self taught in the "Hey I can play that one part of Canon and those intro chords to Konstantine and that Linkin Park riff" lmao

 

I am so bad with remembering the few pop-radio albums that I would include on my lists, and this is a great example of that. I would say this cracks my Top 30 for sure even though I was a bit embarrassed to admit I liked it as a 15 year old.

 

Ah damn how could I forget about that Michelle Branch album! Probably would've closed out my top 10.

 

It's funny: I took piano lessons for 10+ years growing up, mostly playing the same boring stuff every kid plays. Then I switched teachers when I was in middle school to this awesome jazz piano guy who had his own recording studio and all that. We stayed the course with the classical stuff for a year or two, but I think he realized I was getting bored with that and eventually just suggested we work on pop/rock stuff with vocals. Definitely helped make a lot more enthusiastic about playing the piano.

Also, I definitely learned "Konstantine" back in the day, but they wouldn't let me perform that one because it was so fucking long. Oh well.

Anyway, here's a recording I did back in my piano lesson days, playing and singing "The Luckiest." I think I was 16 on this recording.

Dropbox - 01 The Luckiest.mp3 - Simplify your life

It's so dumb to look back and realize how much I liked those Michelle Branch/Avril/Vanessa Carlton/Kelly Clarkson songs/albums at the time and how I was probably in denial about that for years. I went back to that Branch album a bunch last year when it turned 20, though, and it really holds up. Same with the follow-up. And her comeback album from a few years ago is pretty great too.

 

Anyone listen to Pinback at all? I feel like they are one of those underrated/forgotten 00s indie acts. But I listened to a lot of their music in college.

Blue Screen Life in particular is still a great album to come back to on a snowy winter day.

 

Love Pinback. You can thank The OC for turning me on to them lol

 

Yep Vanessa Carlton too for me - perfect pop songs and such a pleasant voice.

 

Okay though y'all I'm not going to lie .... "My Sacrifice" by Creed just came on my '01 playlist on shuffle, and I did not skip it. Lol send help.

 

my wife loves pinback

 

BTE has a really interesting second life after their hits dried up by constantly touring and maintaining a dedicated fanbase (particularly in the Southwest). I believe the reason they re-recorded "A Lifetime" for their 2005 release was because the label they were on in 2001 folded and that was meant to be the second single after "Extra Ordinary".

 

I actually don't mind Creed these days. "Higher" came up on a workout playlist and I was...kinda digging it (particularly the bridge). Since those songs aren't being drilled into my head on the radio every 45 min, I can step back and appreciate the craft. I listened to Weathered the other day and while I still think "My Sacrifice" is basically "Higher pt 2", there are some cool well-constructed songs on there as well as some good riffs.

 

I've been a Nickelback apologist for a while and I think they are actually a LOT better than a lot of shitty bands that clog up the Rock On The Range-type festival lineups. Silver Side Up is still pretty solid but the album before that (The State) has some excellent and almost experimental-type grunge songs like this one: