#319 My Favorite 2001 Albums (Since 2001, more or less)
Hey folks!
Well, we’re halfway through the 1989 tournament, so it’s time to start thinking about the next tournament, which will be for 2001. The following is a list of albums I Love or Like/Love[1] that I’ve been listening to since 2001 or maybe shortly thereafter — the point is I’ve lived with these for some time now. I’ll be nominating all of them, even that one guy. In a few weeks, I’ll provide a list of favorites that are relatively new to me, but for now, the old standbys. This isn’t a hipper-than-thou list; very little on it should surprise you. In fact, I’m willing to bet the eventual 2001 Best Album winner is here. Still, the list is the list; it is what it is.
If you’re not in the market for listening to entire albums right now, I’ve provided what I think are the best 3-4 tracks from each, as well as Spotify and YouTube links for each. Enjoy!
[1]: My rating system for those that don’t know: Love, Like/Love, Like, Interesting/Like, Interesting, Lukewarm, Leave. (In some situations, I’ll simply use the four Ls: Love, Like, Lukewarm, Leave.) Generally, I’ll nominate anything Like or higher, but reserve seed votes for Like/Love or higher.
Ryan Adams, GOLD
Wow, alphabetization screws me once again. Look, I don’t expect anyone to vote for this creep, but I did re-listen to this a month ago, and honestly, I still love it, so I’d feel remiss in not mentioning it. So there, I’ve mentioned it. Moving on.
Top Tracks: “New York, New York,” “When the Stars Go Blue,” “Enemy Fire”
Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire, THE SWIMMING HOUR
One thing I’m going to try and do with each of these blurbs is at least suggest what they sound like, because I know there are people who want/need that kind of head’s up before diving in. So naturally, this one is different with nearly every song. The wiki page for this mentions jazz, gospel, and Latin, among other things. I’ll say that my three selections could be called, respectively, indie rock, orchestral pop, and a bizarre little number I can only describe as Lawrence Welk via David Lynch. If you don’t like a track, just wait four minutes.
Top Tracks: “Two Way Action,” “11:11,” “Dear Old Greenland”
Converge, JANE DOE
If this is your first time with JANE DOE, um, sorry! Unless your ears have marinated in metal/hardcore/noise for years, this’ll probably be a tough listen. Just know that after an opening 8 minutes that feels like drowning in the deep end, it slows down and opens up. (It reminds me of the first episode/rest-of-series dichotomy of the anime FLCL.) Still, this is mostly screaming in order to elicit an adrenal fight-or-flight response, the overall effect being like having a mouth sore that you chew on just to make it hurt a little more. That’s its own kind of pleasure.
Top Tracks: “Concubine,” “Hell to Pay,” “Bitter and Then Some,” “Jane Doe”
Daft Punk, DISCOVERY
I’ve talked about this before, but I’m going to say it again anyway. I first heard Daft Punk on the 1997 WIPEOUT:2097 compilation, which was a video game soundtrack full of EDM/IDM/Big Beat tracks. Daft Punk, brand new at the time, were stuck in the back half of the album with the other second stringers (Photek, Source Direct, Leftfield), away from the front-loaded big names (Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Prodigy). And the track they provided, “Musique,” was one of the most incredibly annoying things I’d ever heard. Now, I kinda sorta liked it, but its annoyingness was an objective material quality. (If you’re familiar with “Rollin’ & Scratchin’” from HOMEWORK, it’s in that ballpark.) So I like to joke how if I got back to ’97, I’d ask my younger self to guess which artist from WIPEOUT eventually won Album of the Year at the Grammys, and my younger self would literally guess every band before naming Daft Punk. My point is that I had no idea they had those four albums, HOMEWORK to RANDOM ACCESS MEMORIES, in them. And while HOMEWORK is a natural outgrowth of “Musique,” DISCOVERY is a whole ‘nother level. It sounds and feels like the quicksilver on the cover, and might be the only album on this list I can throw on anytime and it’ll work. This where they also leveled up their sample game —- here’s a great breakdown of how the breathtaking “Face to Face” was likely put together. DISCOVERY: good album!
Top Tracks: “One More Time,” “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger,” “Face to Face”
Destroyer, STREETHAWK: A SEDUCTION
You’ve probably heard Dan Bejar. He’s that guy that for awhile contributed three weird songs to each New Pornographers album, until he managed to make the best New Pornographers song for that particular album. (That would be “Myriad Harbour” from CHALLENGERS.) Anyway, his earlier albums as Destroyer are… not easy to get into, imho at least. Not great production quality, sometimes just him and acoustic guitar (not my favorite set up), spiky, unfriendly songs that seem to go out of their way to smack your hand. Anyway, a year after The New Pornographers’ debut came out, he released STREETHAWK: A SEDUCTION, and I have to believe that the band’s power pop rubbed off on him. This isn’t power pop, more like Bowie-esque rock, but he’s definitely reaching across the aisle: “If I couch my songs in warm production and accommodating melodies, will you tour my weirdo brain?” Yes, Dan, I will. Hey, perhaps that’s why it has the subtitle of “seduction.”
Top Tracks: “The Bad Arts,” “Beggars Might Ride,” “The Very Modern Dance”
I Am Kloot, NATURAL HISTORY
Mellow indie pop-rock trio, guitar/bass/drums, delivered (I believe) mostly acoustically, with terrific lyrics. There’s at least one person out there who hasn’t heard this and is going to love it. There’s also at least one person out there who hasn’t heard this and would love it but won’t be able to get past bandleader John Bramwell’s voice. (UK Nasal, to be clear; cf. John Lennon, Neil Tennant, that one Gallagher brother. Canadian division: Bejar, Dan.) I guarantee you’ll be humming at least one of these songs long after you hear it.
Top Tracks: “To You,” “Morning Rain,” “Dark Star”,” “Twist”
Idaho, LEVITATE
One album that’s very likely to make it into the tournament is Low’s THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE. For my slowcore dollar, though, I’m nominating LEVITATE by Idaho. (At least, they’re slowcore according to Wikipedia. This is comparatively pacey compared to Low. Call it mediumcore.) Dry, delicate, yet also chewy; not exactly hook-y on the surface, but it’ll get stuck in your teeth. I’m making it sound like a artisanal locally-sourced granola bar, and you know what? It kinda is. Fear not. The journey is worth it.
Top Tracks: “Wondering the Fields,” “20 Years,” “Santa Claus is Weird”
Life Without Buildings, ANY OTHER CITY
So I’ll describe this how I’ve been describing it since 2001: Imagine if Harriet Wheeler of The Sundays just up and decided she wanted to be Mark E. Smith, and the rest of the band responded by… not changing their music one bit. The Mark E. Smith descriptor is a little deceptive — what vocalist Sue Tompkins is doing is actually even more radical, turning language into pure rhythm. And if comprehensible meaning from that language is missing, comprehensible emotion is most definitely there. (“Feeling neo,” indeed.) Look, I’m not going to sugarcoat this: this is probably going to be difficult album for some. But please give it a try. For added context, here’s a great 20 year retrospective article at Stereogum — apparently “The Leanover” was a TikTok fad at one point. I should be surprised, but I’m not.
Top Tracks: “PS Exclusive,” “The Leanover,” “New Town”
Pernice Brothers, THE WORLD WON'T END
Joe Pernice is a master of crafting catchy tunes that are lyrically some of the most depressing shit you’ve ever heard.
Top Tracks: “Working Girls (Sunlight Shines),” “7:30,” “Our Time Has Passed”
The Shins, OH, INVERTED WORLD
I think I prefer their later albums? (Especially CHUTES TOO NARROW, which is definitely superior in every way.) But this kinda was indie rock at the time, and fortunately a pretty good example. Please keep in mind that in 2001, we technically weren’t sick of “New Slang” yet. (That wouldn’t happen until 2004.) Mercer was just getting started with his “I’m going to cram as many words into this song as I can while keeping it coherent and melodic” thing, but it’s pretty good out the gate. The one album on this list that’s “merely” Really Good.
Top Tracks: “Caring is Creepy,” “Girl Inform Me,” “New Slang”
Spoon, GIRLS CAN TELL
My first Spoon, which, like a lot of stuff in the mid-2000s, I heard because, circa 2004, a good friend let me copy over their entire iPod onto my computer. I would only learn later (by exploring that virtual iPod) that this was a pretty transitional album for them — before this, they were a fairly noisy rock outfit, and then with GIRLS CAN TELL, turned into, well, Spoon as we know them. Instruments that sound like they were exquisitely recorded in separate satellites and then beamed together. Lots of what I call “black space.” The steadiest drums known to man. Britt Daniel whispering breathily in your ear. My understanding is that Daniel was at the time listening to a lot of R&B, Stax, that sort of thing, and I think you can feel the spirit of that here, if not the sound exactly. Anyway, I’m genuinely thankful I was able to be on the ground floor for the Spoon Renaissance (GIMME FICTION would drop a year later and I was ready for it), so thanks for the iPod music, Mary!
Top Tracks: “Everything Hits at Once,” “The Fitted Shirt,” “Anything You Want,” “Take the Fifth”
The Strokes, IS THIS IT
Years ago, someone, a critic, music I think (Chuck Eddy? Chuck Klosterman? Chuck Entertainment Cheese?) described The Strokes as five guys trying to sound like one guy. I’m not sure if that holds today, but that’s a pretty accurate description of IS THIS IT. The production flattens each member so everyone’s on the same plane, if that metaphor makes sense. (It’s hard to explain.) While I’m sure this causes some to bounce off it, it really is one of my favorite aspects of this album. Despite being a guitar rock album, there’s almost a kind of electronic, metronomic thing going on — I swear to god “When It Started” is a almost Kraftwerkian. (That’s the “won’t decide, won’t debate” song, see if you, like me, can imagine those four German robots bending at the waist while you hear it.) I don’t know why I’m going off on this; 95% of you have heard IS THIS IT. Take it or leave it, just don’t take it for granted.
Top Tracks: “The Modern Age,” “Soma,” “Hard to Explain” (Never been much of a “Last Night” fan, sorry. I think the reason is in the blurb above.)
System of a Down, TOXICITY
Didn’t catch up with this until some years later — I was a grown-ass adult when nü-metal hit, and it just didn’t seem like something for me. Then I remember catching part of the video for “Chop Suey!” and the band did that thing where they roll their eyes upward while performing, a cringy affectation it seemed like a lot of nü-metal bands did, so I noped out. Then one day when I was in L.A. heading back from the beach, “Chop Suey!” came on the radio — KROQ, I presume — and I had to admit to my own consternation there was something there. Eventually I heard the album and fell in love with it. I think what I responded to was that they replaced a lot of nü-metal’s annoying masculine bullshit — both the macho and the self-pitying aspects — with leftist politics and surreal humor. They take the world seriously but not themselves, and the music reflects that, willing to get weird and zig instead of zag. Anyway, if you’ve never, I invite you to do so.
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Top Tracks: “Chop Suey!,” “Bounce,” “Shimmy”
Tenacious D, TENACIOUS D
Yes, it’s a comedy album, yes there are skits and yes there are too many of them. It still manages to make me laugh really hard, twenty-four years later, particularly Jack Black’s “JB,”, whose pissy entitledness and knowingly-obnoxious use of language (“Western bacon chee”) creates a character that’s somehow both unique and universal. But none of that would matter if the D didn’t know how to write a tasty little bit of tuneage.
Top Tracks: “Kielbasa,” “Tribute,” “Wonderboy,” “Dio”
The White Stripes, WHITE BLOOD CELLS
That same critic I mentioned earlier in the IS THIS IT blurb also described The White Stripes, in counterpoint to The Strokes, as two people trying to sound like a hundred. Yeah, that tracks. This album’s so well-known, very likely a top 4 seed, that I’m not sure there’s anything I can add. This is where they blew up in the mainstream, and while I don’t think, like some people, that their two previous are footnotes, this might be the album where, instead of playing “garage rock” or “the blues” they start playing White Stripes music. Which of course incorporates those other two things, but isn’t just that. One of the lowkey best tracks is “Expecting,” which sounds like if Black Sabbath were from Birmingham instead of Birmingham.
Top Tracks: “Fell in Love with a Girl,” “Expecting,” “The Same Boy You’ve Always Known,” “I Can’t Wait”
Andrew W.K., I GET WET
If The Strokes are five guys trying to sound like one, and The White Stripes are two people trying to sound like a hundred, here’s one guy trying to sound like a thousand. Can something be both minimalist and maximalist? This is W.K. smashing through the wall like the Kool-Aid Man, a cyborg Kenny Loggins amped up on who knows what, arriving from the future and announcing “Come with me if you want to party.” It’s just the usual rock instruments, but recorded and mixed so it sounds like a black tidal wave you can’t outrun. It’d be suffocating if it wasn’t so goddamn catchy. Nothing sounded like this then, nothing has sounded like it since; even W.K. couldn’t repeat it after several tries.
Top Tracks: “Party Hard,” “I Love NYC,” “She is Beautiful”
Rob Zombie, THE SINISTER URGE
Scrape away the horror imagery and the metallic sheen and industrial grime and underneath it all are little Monkees/Archies pop nuggets. Zombie would even (inadvertently?) name what he’s doing nine years later — “Sick Bubblegum.” Everyone knows “Dragula” but maybe everyone should also know “Never Gonna Stop.”
Top Tracks: “Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy),” “Bring Her Down (to Crippletown),” “Scum of the Earth”
What’s the final takeaway here? If I had my way, the next tournament would tell us that caring is creepy and Santa Claus is weird.
We’ll be revisiting 2001 albums again soon, both from my perspective and from you the readers/voters, so stay tuned!
Kent