2001: Favorite Music
I'm definitely forgetting some music, and some I haven't heard yet, but here are my favorites from 2001.
Favorite Tracks of 2001:
1. Xploding Plastix - Single Stroke Ruffs
2. Mercury Rev - The Dark is Rising
3. Tenacious D - Wonderboy
4. Radiohead - Knives Out
5. White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl
6. Magnitude 9 - Far Beyond Illusion
7. Creed - One Last Breath
8. Strokes - Hard to Explain
9. Torben Floor - Ahead of Your Time
Favorite Albums of 2001:
Xploding Plastix - Amateur Girlfriends Do Proskirt Agents
Holy crap. This album rules. Not only does it kick ass, it never stops kicking ass. It's varied and unpredictable enough to listen to over and over and over. For that reason, if there were 10 non-compilation albums I could take with me to a desert island for the rest of my life, this would be one of them.Track Listing:
1. Sports, Not Heavy Crime
2. Funnybones and Lazylegs*
3. 6-Hours Starlight*
4. Behind the Eightball*
5. Single Stroke Ruffs*
6. Treat Me Mean, I Need the Reputation*
7. Relieved Beyond Repair
8. Tintinnamputation*
9. More Powah to Yah*
10. Having Smarter Babies
11. Far-Flung Tonic*
12. Happy Jizz Girls
13. Doubletalk Gets Through to You
14. Comatose Luck
Mercury Rev - All is Dream
This is my favorite Mercury Rev album. The songs aren't as imaginative or daring as on previous albums, but they aren't as weak and uninteresting as their latest stuff. So, this album is where I think they struck the perfect balance. Each song is richer than chocolaty chocolate-covered chocolate chocolates.Track Listing:
1. The Dark Is Rising*
2. Tides Of The Moon
3. Chains*
4. Lincoln's Eyes*
5. Nite and Fog*
6. Little Rhymes*
7. A Drop In Time*
8. You're My Queen*
9. Spiders And Flies*
10. Hercules
System of a Down - Toxicity
It's a big drop from 'All is Dream' to 'Toxicity.' I had a blast with this album when it was released, but it hasn't aged well. Still, the soft-loud explosions and crushingly simple riffage always get my head banging.Track Listing:
1. Prison Song*
2. Needles
3. Deer Dance*
4. Jet Pilot
5. Toxicity*
6. Chop Suey!*
7. Bounce
8. Forest*
9. Atwa*
10. Science
11. Shimmy
12. Toxicity*
13. Psycho
14. Aerials*
Radiohead - Amnesiac
I belong to the crowd that thinks this was a huge step down from Kid A, and it definitely feels more like a selection of leftovers than a real album, but Radiohead scraps are better than most people's best effort.Track Listing:
1. Packt like sardines in a crushd tin box
2. Pyramid song*
3. Pulk/pull revolving doors
4. You and whose army?
5. I might be wrong*
6. Knives out*
7. Amnesiac/Morning bell
8. Dollars & cents
9. Hunting bears
10. Like spinning plates*
11. Life in a glass house*
The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
You know, it's weird: I almost never have a 'craving' to hear The New Pornographer's music, but if I happen to start listening, I really enjoy it.Track Listing:
1. Mass Romantic*
2. Fake Headlines
3. Slow Descent into Alcoholism
4. Mystery Hours*
5. Jackie
6. Letter from an Occupant*
7. To Wild Homes
8. Body Says No*
9. Execution Day*
10. Centre for Holy Wars*
11. Mary Martin Show*
12. Breakin' the Law
Vangelis - Mythodea
Yes, it's opera. But it's Vangelis! It's nothing special, but it's that certain brand of dense, epic, stirring LordoftheRings-esque music that I love.Track Listing:
1. Overture
2. Movement 1*
3. Movement 2
4. Movement 3
5. Movement 4*
6. Movement 5*
7. Movement 6
8. Movement 7*
9. Movement 8
10. Movement 9*
11. Movement 10*
Magnitude 9 - Reality in Focus
Back in 2001, this was easily my favorite album of the year. I listened to it for several hours each day. Naturally, such overuse has worn it out a bit, but a good year or so of not listening to it at all has allowed it to enjoy it once again. This is great prog metal/guitar virtuoso, with catchy melodies, great riffs, blistering solos - you know, all that good stuff.Track Listing:
1. No Turning Back*
2. What My Eyes Have Seen*
3. Far Beyond Illusion*
4. Afterlife
5. End of Days*
6. Lost Along the Way*
7. Flight of Icarus*
8. Temples of Gold*
9. Quiet Desperation*
10. Mind over Fear*
Honorable Mentions (no order):
Yann Tiersen - Amelie
Hayseed Dizie - A Hillbilly Tribute to AC/DC
Opeth - Blackwater Park
The Shins - Oh! Inverted World
The Strokes - Is This It
Eels - Souljacker
Labradford - Fixed::Context
Dntel - Life is Full of Possibilites
Aerosmith - Just Push Play
Mum - Yesterday Was Dramatic, Today is OK
Creed - Weathered
Die Anarchische Abendunterhaltung - Life Transmission
Faint - Danse Macabre
Tenacious D - Tenacious D
Sonata Arctica - Silence
Garbage - beautifulgarbage
Stereolab - Sound-Dust
Torben Floor - Matinee
Explosions in the Sky - Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever
White Stripes - White Blood Cells
ELO - Zoom
Ben Folds - Rockin' the Suburbs
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - B.R.M.C.
Spiritualized - Let it Come Down
Tool - Lateralus
JJ72 - JJ72
Not My Thing (mostly):
!!! - !!!
Aphex Twin - Drukgs
Weezer - Weezer (Green Album)
Autechre - Confield
Prefuse 73 - Vocal Studies + Uprock Narratives
Microphones - The Glow, Pt. 2
Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
Bjork - Vespertine
Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera
Jay-Z - The Blueprint
Daft Punk - Discovery
Lucinda Williams - Essense
Alas, Haven't Heard:
Stephen Malkmus - Stephen Malkmus
Ryan Adams - Gold
My Morning Jacket - At Dawn
Fugazi - The Argument
Four Tet - Pause
Hamster Theatre - Carnival Detournement
Guided by Voices - Isolation Drills
Sparklehorse - It's a Wonderful Life
Beta Band - Hot Shots II
Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance
Les Savy Fav - Go Forth
Mouse on Mars - Idiology
Circulatory System - Circulatory System
Unwound - Leaves Turn Inside You
Fennesz - Endless Summer
Air - 10,000 Hz Legend
Basement Jaxx - Rooty
Low - Things We Lost in the Fire
Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Mogwai - Rock Action
Steve Wynn - Here Come the Miracles
Excepting the Xploding Plastix and Mercury Rev albums, this was a pretty weak year for music judging by what I've heard. But that's okay, since 2000 was probably the best year for recent music, in my opinion.
