Your favorite decade sucks

December 10, 2009 12:10 PM

Rolling Stone's Top 100 Albums/Songs of the decade
posted by Brodiggitty (142 comments total)

Page 1 of 44

-cough-
posted by Dr-Baa at 12:12 PM on December 10, 2009 [7 favorites]

For the non-clicky types, the full lists: Albums / Songs
posted by jabberjaw at 12:13 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

What, no Goddess In The Doorway?!?!?!? I can't believe Wenner didn't pull rank to have that shoehorned in.
posted by The Card Cheat at 12:15 PM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

The Hold Steady come in at 99 and the album they picked is Almost Killed Me? This list sucks.
posted by dortmunder at 12:19 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Your favorite decade sucks

Totally. It doesn't even have a name we can agree on.
posted by gman at 12:20 PM on December 10, 2009 [8 favorites]

Also, conspicously absent are the Drive by Truckers, who put out several excellent albums in the past ten years. Double suck.
posted by dortmunder at 12:21 PM on December 10, 2009 [7 favorites]

No.
posted by mpbx at 12:22 PM on December 10, 2009

Jabberjaw's songs link is incorrect. This is the full songs list.
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:27 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I was looking at the song list, and I saw Mississippi by Bob Dylan pretty high up there. Just above it was In Da Club by 50 Cent. How is it that you even rank those two things against one another and determine that one is better?

It would be like ranking a Nissan Sentra ahead of peanut butter, but behind denim jackets.

Also, I hate when people say that the movie wasn't as good as the book.

Really? Was the poster better than the commercial? Was the song better than the movie?
posted by flarbuse at 12:27 PM on December 10, 2009 [9 favorites]

While the album listings are a little better, this top songs list seems based more on earworm-ability than anything else. Hey Ya!? Poker Face? Milkshake?
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:29 PM on December 10, 2009

Well, I liked it slightly better than the NME list. So there's that.
posted by muddgirl at 12:29 PM on December 10, 2009

--------------------BEGIN COPY-------------------------
What, no ___________________ ? Everyone knows that ________________
was the greatest album of the century!
--------------------END COPY---------------------------
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 12:31 PM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

See, y'all are making the mistake of reading this as a simple best-of list. It's not. It's a think piece about a mid-level decade struggling with its own limitations in the harsh face of stardom.
posted by gompa at 12:31 PM on December 10, 2009 [9 favorites]

Bob Dylan and White Stripes are 4 of the Top 20. Rolling Stone, you are so hidebound that you make dead Ed Sullivan look hip and with it.
posted by blucevalo at 12:32 PM on December 10, 2009 [5 favorites]

Jabberjaw's songs link is incorrect. This is the full songs list.

Thanks.
posted by jabberjaw at 12:32 PM on December 10, 2009

top songs list seems based more on earworm-ability than anything else

Isn't that kind of the point of pop music, though? It's got a good beat and you can dance to it (and sing the hook after the first listen).
posted by uncleozzy at 12:32 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

The comments are great. People calling Rolling Stone out for being too cutting edge...

"I am so clearly out of touch with what Rolling Stone considers "The Best" it is daunting. The magazine that turned me on to the first Elton John, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Chicago Transit Authority, etc......has long been a facsimile of itself. "

Honestly though, I kinda like those lists - the singles more than the albums. A bit safe, a bit too much Coldplay and U2, but better than I was expecting.

(Or maybe I'm just turning into RS's target audience.)
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:33 PM on December 10, 2009

Full links with commentary/listen links: albums / songs
posted by zsazsa at 12:35 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

This tops my list of worst designed Top 100 lists.
posted by Corduroy at 12:37 PM on December 10, 2009 [6 favorites]

Isn't that kind of the point of pop music, though? It's got a good beat and you can dance to it (and sing the hook after the first listen).

One factor, but keep in mind that this list just says "best songs". Can we dance to "Everything in its Right Place", "Yellow", "Beautiful" "Maps" "Boulevard of Broken Dreams"?

Many people make the mistake that "pop music" is some kind of throwaway, when there are many songs that have some honest lyrics and can have a lot of meaning and also be in this amorphous category of "pop music".
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:38 PM on December 10, 2009

(Including all those songs I mentioned and more)
posted by cmgonzalez at 12:39 PM on December 10, 2009

Before following the links or reading any of the commentary, my prediction was essentially, "I'm going to have to click a lot of things, and there aren't going to be any women artists included."

Okay.

So. There are single-page versions of the lists themselves. There are some 29 women or ensembles-fronted-by-women on the singles list, 15 women or ensembles-fronted-by-women on the albums list (seventeen if you want to include New Pornographers and Yo La Tengo. I didn't).

That's marginally better than I would have anticipated, and that's kind of pathetic, but it's Rolling Stone, so whatever.
posted by wreckingball at 12:44 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I agree with some of these and disagree with some of these!
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 12:45 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I don't understand why people keep rating Yoshimi higher than The Soft Bulletin.
posted by scrowdid at 12:45 PM on December 10, 2009 [10 favorites]

Disagree
posted by Burhanistan at 12:47 PM on December 10, 2009

Holy shit I'm old.
posted by punkfloyd at 12:48 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I don't understand why people keep rating Yoshimi higher than The Soft Bulletin.

It's sort of confusing to me, too, until I remembered that some people think Yoshimi is a better album than The Soft Bulletin. That's a pretty good reason for rating it higher.
posted by muddgirl at 12:49 PM on December 10, 2009 [6 favorites]

Snore.
posted by Dee Xtrovert at 12:49 PM on December 10, 2009

On the other hand, Johnny Cash's "Hurt" is right about where it should be, on anyone's list, except for maybe "People Who Hate Johnny Cash On General Principle", but they don't really count, anyhow.
posted by Slap*Happy at 12:53 PM on December 10, 2009

(I should point out that I wasn't disparaging pop music. I should also point out that I'm only vaguely aware that songs have lyrics that are often more than just pleasant strings of syllables for the voice instrument.)
posted by uncleozzy at 12:53 PM on December 10, 2009

I don't understand why people keep rating Yoshimi higher than The Soft Bulletin.


Soft Bulletin came out in 1999. Definitely a better album than Yoshimi, though (IMO).
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:55 PM on December 10, 2009

The Rock n' Roll Establishment, like Rolling Stones, RnRHoF, etc., are all well known for spurning whole genres that explicitly re-embrace any degree of classical music, ala metal, progressive rock, etc. All while explicitly focusing upon silly criteria for being "Rock", like earworm-ability, aesthetics, and songs that concern relationships. So I'd take any reviews, lists, etc. from explicitly "Rock" sources with considerable salt.
posted by jeffburdges at 12:56 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Is This It, Stankonia, and The Blueprint seem to show up in the top five on most lists I've seen so far.
posted by codacorolla at 12:56 PM on December 10, 2009

Didn't we already go through this?
posted by jmd82 at 1:00 PM on December 10, 2009

Man I love The Blueprint. I listen to it all the way through at least a couple of times a month. If you've never done that, do it. I also like The Black Album. Surprisingly enough, the song that got my partner interested in Jay-Z was "Death of Autotune", one of his more mediocre efforts.

Pitchfork does this kind of thing better, I think. NPR's version was surprisingly enjoyable.
posted by kathrineg at 1:04 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Guess what's not on my Top 100 Relevant Music Rags of the Decade list?
posted by Wolfdog at 1:05 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I have to say, their top ten and my top ten are identical, with the exception of Eminem (not my thing).
posted by kathrineg at 1:06 PM on December 10, 2009

I'm quite pleasantly surprised they mentioned Sigur Rós though! :)
posted by jeffburdges at 1:09 PM on December 10, 2009

Can we take a break from hating for a second and recognize how totally brilliant Chip Kidd's cover for this issue is?


...


Okay, back to hating: U2 does not belong any "best" list that encompasses the last 20 years. If there was, like, a terrorist watch list for music, they could go on that.
posted by eggplantplacebo at 1:10 PM on December 10, 2009 [11 favorites]

There are some 29 women or ensembles-fronted-by-women on the singles list, 15 women or ensembles-fronted-by-women on the albums list (seventeen if you want to include New Pornographers and Yo La Tengo. I didn't).

That's marginally better than I would have anticipated, and that's kind of pathetic, but it's Rolling Stone, so whatever.

What's the percentage of artists in these genres are women or ensembles-fronted-by-women in the first place though? I like female vocals more than I like male vocals, but my music collection has a pretty high percentage of male artists. They covered most of the great albums by mainstream female acts I could think of (like Cat Power's and The Yeah Yeah Yeah's), and although they left out some of my personal favorites like Mirah, they also didn't include similar male artists like The Microphones/Mt Eerie.
posted by burnmp3s at 1:12 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I prefer this to that other list that was kicking around here awhile back (Pitchfork?) maybe because it has more female singers and more old-people-compatible music for old-people like me. It's a bit light on the alt-folky side for me, and that's been a pretty big part of the 00's, but this is Rolling Stone, I suppose.

Also, it's nifty that they include a list of the voters. They even show some of the ballots.

No write-ins for the lizard people, as far as I can see.
posted by rokusan at 1:13 PM on December 10, 2009

This list really brought home to me exactly how many life changes I've experienced in the last ten years. So many times looking at this list I found myself thinking "There is NO WAY that song came out after 2000! I remember listening to that in sophomore year of high school - " before realizing, yes, I was a sophomore in high school a decade ago. Yikes.
posted by crinklebat at 1:14 PM on December 10, 2009

I kinda like those lists - the singles more than the albums.

Blame filesharing, I guess. But the 2000s will always be a singles decade for me. I wonder if I even consciously listened to 100 albums from beginning to end over the past ten years. I know I listened to more than 5,000 single different songs. My itunes tells me so.

Okay list, I think. Better than I suspected.
posted by philip-random at 1:17 PM on December 10, 2009

I like a lot of these and even own quite a few of them which I assume means that RS is as hopelessly out of touch as I am.
posted by octothorpe at 1:18 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

What, no Hella?
posted by swift at 1:19 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Honestly, I'm more interested in MeFi members top 10/top 100s, mostly because I know them. A solid B list from a C+ magazine doesn't really excite me.
posted by klangklangston at 1:19 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

Highlights from the ballots: Jarvis Cocker voted for "Who Let the Dogs Out" and only heard 19 good albums this decade, and Tom Morello votes for himself (#14). Sadly they did not show Yoko Ono's ballot. I was kinda curious.
posted by Endure You Are Not Alone at 1:22 PM on December 10, 2009

Surprised that "Daydreamin"' by Lupe Fiasco didn't make it...and shocked to see Brad Paisley's "Alcohol". What a banal example of pop-country. Even Ticks or like 5 different Toby Keith songs are better than that (example, "Who's Your Daddy"). Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy. 5 or 6 songs by the Dixie Chicks (not just "Ready to Make Nice"). All better! BAH! HUMBUG!
posted by kathrineg at 1:27 PM on December 10, 2009

Okay, back to hating: U2 does not belong any "best" list that encompasses the last 20 years. If there was, like, a terrorist watch list for music, they could go on that.

All That You Can't Leave Behind was a great album and I expected to see it in the top 20. No Line on the Horizon is fuckawful and being anywhere on the list is ridiculous.

Same thing with Magic and The Rising being so close to each other on the list. Rank Springsteen anywhere you want in terms of general goodness but saying those two albums were remotely close to each other in quality? WTF?
posted by XQUZYPHYR at 1:32 PM on December 10, 2009

wreckingball: 15 women or ensembles-fronted-by-women on the albums list (seventeen if you want to include New Pornographers and Yo La Tengo. I didn't

Well, they do better than Pitchfork in that they have two solo female artists in the top 20 (Pitchfork had none) but the first band that is more than half female is Sleater-Kinney and both are at roughly the same place (Sleater-Kinney for both, #70 here and #72 on Pitchfork). NME also had only one female artist in the top 20 but it was the highest placed one, PJ Harvey at #6. On the other hand NME didn't have a single female majority band in the top 100. I find all that weird but then the stereotype of the music critic is young male so I suppose it's not too weird that young males like art by other young males.
posted by Kattullus at 1:32 PM on December 10, 2009

#9 "Beautiful Day". U2. The song that re-established U2 as the world's biggest band looked backward, reviving the skyscraping sound of their Eighties classics. But the lyrics — "See the canyons broken by cloud/See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out" — were more ambivalent than the title suggested, a prayer for transcendence in a wounded world.

...
posted by fleacircus at 1:33 PM on December 10, 2009

Okay, back to hating: U2 does not belong any "best" list that encompasses the last 20 years. If there was, like, a terrorist watch list for music, they could go on that.

Agreed. Rolling Stone seems to exist solely for the purpose of carrying the torch for U2 and Green Day. The nineties are over, guys.
posted by ekroh at 1:36 PM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

Well, they do better than Pitchfork in that they have two solo female artists in the top 20 (Pitchfork had none) but the first band that is more than half female is Sleater-Kinney and both are at roughly the same place (Sleater-Kinney for both, #70 here and #72 on Pitchfork). NME also had only one female artist in the top 20 but it was the highest placed one, PJ Harvey at #6. On the other hand NME didn't have a single female majority band in the top 100.

If you want a 100-best-songs-of-the-decade list that's about 40% female, I posted mine in Projects a few days ago. Also, no U2.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:40 PM on December 10, 2009

Haterz in tha house!
posted by Nabubrush at 1:41 PM on December 10, 2009

It's nice to see that, though the end of the decade means that I'm precariously close to being in a protected class under the ADEA, I'm still young enough to a) recognize the music listed in a Rolling Stone "best of" list and b) disagree with it for actual music reasons and not just because I don't "get it." Of course, maybe that's because I'm turning irrelevant right along with RS.
posted by The World Famous at 1:42 PM on December 10, 2009

(For the visually enclined: best 50 or 101 of the decade's music videos.)
posted by progosk at 1:42 PM on December 10, 2009

NME also had only one female artist in the top 20 but it was the highest placed one, PJ Harvey at #6.

Hm. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think of PJ Harvey as the name of Polly Jean Harvey's band, which is mostly men.
posted by The World Famous at 1:44 PM on December 10, 2009

Aren't there a lot more male artists/bands/musicians releasing albums period, or is that evening out?
posted by ODiV at 1:46 PM on December 10, 2009

Jaltcoh: If you want a 100-best-songs-of-the-decade list that's about 40% female, I posted mine in Projects a few days ago. Also, no U2.

Without looking at it too closely my impression of the songs lists was that they had a much more reasonable distribution between male and female. I like your list, jaltcoh, and especially that you explained your criteria at the outset.
posted by Kattullus at 1:47 PM on December 10, 2009

Well, they do better than Pitchfork in that they have two solo female artists in the top 20 (Pitchfork had none)

Can Pitchfork help it if there are no good female solo artists?

Joking, of course. My girlfriend gives me a lot of shit for not having more females in my music collection (she says Bjork doesn't count), and I don't really have a good response. It seems like musical preferences would be a gender-neutral thing, but I listen almost exclusively to male artists.

I've often wondered whether women have a hard time relating to men singing about other women (or whatever), but the women I've asked assure me this is not the case.

And when I do like a female artist or a band with female vocals (jj, the xx), it doesn't seem that I'm responding to the female-ness, just the good music-ness. So I can't account for it.
posted by ekroh at 1:49 PM on December 10, 2009

ekroh: she says Bjork doesn't count

o O
posted by Kattullus at 1:53 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

There is a top 100 list of top 100 lists, isn't there? I need to know if Rolling Stone's opinion matters more than those of NME, Pitchfork, or AV Club.
posted by hijinx at 1:55 PM on December 10, 2009

ekroh: she says Bjork doesn't count

o O

Bjork is a space alien of indeterminate gender, so she does not count.
posted by dortmunder at 1:57 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I'm always sort of surprised when I hear men say that they don't listen to a lot of music with female vocalists. My spouse used to be that way, but it seriously only takes a few seconds to find tons and tons of great music produced or performed by women. It's sort of a self-fulfilling prophesy, actually.

Nowadays, I tent to skim through the album reviews in RS or Spin magazine and specifically look for the 2 or 3 reviews of woman-led indie-rock or dance-rock bands.
posted by muddgirl at 1:57 PM on December 10, 2009

(Or maybe I'm just turning into RS's target audience.)

Please don't make me link to the Family Matters opening again.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:59 PM on December 10, 2009

Also, for my spouse and I it started with blended groups like The New Pornographers, which have two amazing woman vocalists who share lead vocals as well as harmonies.
posted by muddgirl at 1:59 PM on December 10, 2009

Agreed. Rolling Stone seems to exist solely for the purpose of carrying the torch for U2 and Green DayBob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. The ninetiessixties are over, guys.

Same as it ever was.
posted by dw at 2:03 PM on December 10, 2009

Now now, Rolling Stone keeps Matt Taibbi in print.

They talk about music too? Can't say I've noticed.
posted by JHarris at 2:04 PM on December 10, 2009

Alex Petridis has a pretty interesting Review of the Decade in The Guardian. His main point is that, really, not much changed, popmusicwise, in the 00s.
posted by Kattullus at 2:05 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

"People Who Hate Johnny Cash On General Principle"

Who are these people?
posted by Artw at 2:09 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Can Pitchfork help it if there are no good female solo artists?

Fact is, as far as modern POPular music goes, the boys have been at it a lot longer than the girls (that is, more culturally enabled, less culturally restricted, probably way more driven and desperate to be heard). But things are definitely changing. I haven't done the metrics on my own collections and favorites (nor do I care to) but I'm pretty damned sure there's WAY MORE female artists represented now (to the 300-400 percent level) than there would've been ten or twenty years ago.

Slow revolutions are always the most effective ones.
posted by philip-random at 2:10 PM on December 10, 2009

I do commend Rolling Stone for not listing a bunch of Songs The Kids In Williamsburg Danced To In 2007 (aka most of the Pitchfork list), but five Coldplay songs? Just a bit excessive.
posted by dw at 2:14 PM on December 10, 2009

Currently we have a subscription to Rolling Stone because some dude came to the door* and guilted my wife into buying a magazine subscription, and the list was mainly things we had no interest in and it seemed like RS might kind of, sort of be interesting bathroom reading.

It’s a very puzzling magazine, as I’ve mentioned elsewhere they mainly seem to exist to promote U2, but I really can’t figure out who it is aimed at asides from that – people in their 40s still trying to be cool maybe? It’s all so very alien to me.

Still, the lists not entirely bad. Actually TBH I’m surprised I recognize as much of it as I do. Also they give some heavy props to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Maps in particular, and that’s my favourite song of the moment, so good on them for that.
posted by Artw at 2:20 PM on December 10, 2009

Albums of the Decade

1 | Radiohead: Kid A

Yep.

2 | The Strokes: Is This It

Nope.
posted by four panels at 2:21 PM on December 10, 2009

Also MIA appears to exist so people who make lists can say “well that’s Electronica and people who do not fit into the American binary race dialogue sorted”.
posted by Artw at 2:22 PM on December 10, 2009 [4 favorites]

> My girlfriend gives me a lot of shit for not having more females in my music collection (she says Bjork doesn't count)

If you split bands-fronted-by-Autotune out into its own gender category the male-female ratio improves.
posted by jfuller at 2:23 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

Can we dance to "Everything in its Right Place"?

And how! Note: crowd shot video, nsf the easily nauseated
posted by jokeefe at 2:24 PM on December 10, 2009

* Really not sure to what degree the whole door-to-door subscriptions/charity thing is a scam. Should probably AskMe on that sometime
posted by Artw at 2:25 PM on December 10, 2009

still all dylan, all the time I see, which is strange because he's totally irrelevant.
posted by four panels at 2:29 PM on December 10, 2009

"People Who Hate Johnny Cash On General Principle"

Who are these people?

People whose planet earth citizenship is immediately hereby revoked.
posted by tkchrist at 2:30 PM on December 10, 2009

He does a very strange Tom Waits impersonation for everything these days.
posted by Artw at 2:31 PM on December 10, 2009

I defy anyone to explain to me how This Year is not a better song than Viva la Vida. The Top 100 songs list is some kind of unholy fusion of Actually Great Songs and Middling Bog-standard Crap.

Last Nite? Mr. Brightside? Use Somebody? These are songs I would put on the Top 10 most normal and unnotable songs of the decade, not greatest. They should have gotten honest with themselves and made two top 50s: one list of songs of actual musical accomplishment, and one list of songs that made us feel like they might have been written 20 years ago when we were on the high school football team and popular.
posted by 0xFCAF at 2:34 PM on December 10, 2009

Songs The Kids In Williamsburg Danced To In 2007 (aka most of the Pitchfork list)

You've got it backward. The kids in Williamsburg danced to them because Pitchfork liked them.
posted by ekroh at 2:34 PM on December 10, 2009

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think of PJ Harvey as the name of Polly Jean Harvey's band, which is mostly men.

You are mistaken. She writes the entirety of the music.

I dislike a great deal the convention that Bjork is some sort of crazy alien. She's not insane, she's a female musician and performer; if she's nuts, where does that leave Wayne Coyne?

The list of Best of the Decade may be lighter on female artists (ho tend to have a heavier presence in Best Singles rather than albums) but 2009 certainly isn't: St. Vincent and motherf*cking TuneYards and Julianna Barwick and Rodgrigo and Gabriela and The xx and Michachu and Dirty Projectors are all on my list.

Also: GRAR GRAR U2 GRAR GRAR THE STROKES GRAR GRAR GRAR

And: Rolling Stone, whatever, meh.
posted by jokeefe at 2:36 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

still all dylan, all the time I see, which is strange because he's totally irrelevant

Dylan's rejects on the bootleg series are better than 90% of every other working band's A-titles.

Relevance? Dude, your favorite album of the decade is the same one chosen by a rag that's most recent cover article was about Taylor Lautner. Thanks for the laughs.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 2:38 PM on December 10, 2009

Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I think of PJ Harvey as the name of Polly Jean Harvey's band, which is mostly men.

You are mistaken. She writes the entirety of the music.

"She" meaning Polly Jean Harvey, who is the lead singer and songwriter of a band called PJ Harvey. And PJ Harvey is a band consisting mostly of men but fronted by a woman named Polly Jean Harvey.

if she's nuts, where does that leave Wayne Coyne?

I don't have firsthand knowledge of this, but I'm pretty sure Wayne Coyne is a dude.

And: Rolling Stone, whatever, meh.

Amen.
posted by The World Famous at 2:39 PM on December 10, 2009

PJ Harvey is a band consisting mostly of men in roughly the same way that The White Stripes are a band consisting mostly of session musicians not named Jack or Meg White.
posted by Artw at 2:41 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]

It's uncanny. This is like the fifth and sixth top 100 of the '00's list where I not only agree with every single song and album choice, but would have ranked them at exactly the same spot. I haven't even heard of some of these songs and I'd have still ranked them exactly the same.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:42 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

You're doing it wrong.
posted by Artw at 2:45 PM on December 10, 2009

BTW, I would totally recommend checking out the works of John Parish, who collaborates with PJ Harvey on some-but-not-all of her projects.
posted by Artw at 2:47 PM on December 10, 2009

I don't have firsthand knowledge of this, but I'm pretty sure Wayne Coyne is a dude.

A bit obtuse today? I'm 100% sure that jokeefe's meaning was something along these lines: If we throw out Bjork as "a great female performer" because she's sort of crazy, then we have to throw out Wayne Coyne as "a great male performer" because he is also sort of crazy. Impeccable logic.
posted by muddgirl at 2:47 PM on December 10, 2009

It was a joke, muddgirl.
posted by The World Famous at 2:49 PM on December 10, 2009

Yes, which is... um... why I pre-emptively called myself a bit obtuse? Or something? :)
posted by muddgirl at 2:51 PM on December 10, 2009

/sets up boombox, plays U2, heals the thread.
posted by Artw at 2:52 PM on December 10, 2009

/sets up boombox, plays U2, heals the thread.

But their early stuff, right? I only like their early stuff.
posted by ekroh at 2:54 PM on December 10, 2009

U2, of course, being a woman who is a little-known member of a band called "Yough Tiiu," which is comprised primarily of robots.
posted by The World Famous at 2:55 PM on December 10, 2009

Only their later stuff has the power to heal the world. I'm sorry, it's a sacrifice your ears will have to make.

/turns up volume.
posted by Artw at 2:57 PM on December 10, 2009

Thanks, Kattullus
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:57 PM on December 10, 2009

"She" meaning Polly Jean Harvey, who is the lead singer and songwriter of a band called PJ Harvey. And PJ Harvey is a band consisting mostly of men but fronted by a woman named Polly Jean Harvey.

What the fuck is this? PJ Harvey is the woman named Polly Jean Harvey. What's this crap about her band?
posted by xmutex at 3:00 PM on December 10, 2009

"She" meaning Polly Jean Harvey, who is the lead singer and songwriter of a band called PJ Harvey. And PJ Harvey is a band consisting mostly of men but fronted by a woman named Polly Jean Harvey.

I don't mean to belabour this, but when Polly Harvey performs as a solo artist, she still uses the name PJ Harvey. The band name and her name are the same. She doesn't record with a band called PJ Harvey, and then do solo work as Polly Harvey. [/belaboured]
posted by jokeefe at 3:00 PM on December 10, 2009

Oh well, fuck you later era U2, turns out you are useless for anything.

/kicks over boombox.

(IIRC U2 were also amongst the panelists who decided the lists. Somehow I have a very hard time imagining them voting for anyone other than U2. )
posted by Artw at 3:05 PM on December 10, 2009

Lars Ulrich of Metallica also gives a big up to U2s latest album. Um, fuck you Metallica. Go get a time machine and travel back in time so the band you used to be can kick your asses.
posted by Artw at 3:06 PM on December 10, 2009

The kids in Williamsburg danced to them because Pitchfork liked them.

But Pitchfork liked them because the kids in Williamsburg danced to them.

And yes, there's only one way to explain this contradiction -- Pitchfork is entirely written by the kids in Williamsburg's parents' servants.
posted by dw at 3:06 PM on December 10, 2009

Also MIA appears to exist so people who make lists can say “well that’s Electronica and people who do not fit into the American binary race dialogue sorted”.

One thing I love about MIA's work is that when I make a playlist, she fits perfectly between something like Slipknot and the Black Keys.

But then, I believe that listening to music in my car should be the psychological equivalent of trying to shoot a minigun at a dragon that is having sex with a pickup truck; Confusing, exciting, terrifying, and just a little bet sexy.
posted by quin at 3:10 PM on December 10, 2009

She doesn't record with a band called PJ Harvey, and then do solo work as Polly Harvey. [/belaboured]

Actually, sometimes she does solo work as Polly Jean Harvey (or has in the past). The band was originally a 3-piece that was expressly called, as a band, PJ Harvey. Then the band broke up and she did solo work variously as either PJ Harvey or as Polly Jean Harvey. It's sort of like the situation with Alice Cooper, but complicated by the fact that the original band and the singer's actual name were very similar. [/even more belaboured]

The really important thing, though, is that Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea belongs somewhere in the top 5, and not clear down in the 30s.
posted by The World Famous at 3:13 PM on December 10, 2009

"People Who Hate Johnny Cash On General Principle"

Who are these people?

I don't know, but that is one fucked-up general principle.
posted by FelliniBlank at 3:15 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

I think they need to be put on that pickup truck that's being shot at with the minigun and humped by a dragon, on general principle.
posted by Artw at 3:17 PM on December 10, 2009

Let's just agree that the most important part of PJ Harvey the band is PJ Harvey the person.

And then further agree about Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea. What a fine piece of work that album is.
posted by jokeefe at 3:20 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Seems like this is more a list of songs/albums that define the decade, not necessarily the best ones. I mean, Madonna's "Hung Up"? Sure, it's catchy, but I'd never call it a great song. What I would say is that it is very much a song of the 00's, and one that will be remembered as such. (I'll certainly remember it, if only for that day a few years ago when I was doing Christmas shopping and every single shop I went into was playing it. Having Madonna follow you round all day is more than a little disturbing.)

The only truly bizarre part of the list, so far as I can see, is that although they've included a lot of Springsteen they've unaccountably missed out his Seeger Sessions, which is one of the best albums I own.
posted by ZsigE at 3:28 PM on December 10, 2009

Absolutely.

(Though I refuse to allow U2 to take credit for our agreement. Obama, and not Bono, is the one who created this peace between us.)
posted by The World Famous at 3:28 PM on December 10, 2009

It's okay, after I kicked the Boombox over I extracted the U2 iPod from it and crushed it under my heal.
posted by Artw at 3:32 PM on December 10, 2009

And so the healing has begun...
posted by klausness at 3:41 PM on December 10, 2009

HEEL THE WORLD.
posted by Artw at 3:42 PM on December 10, 2009

Top 10 ways to troll in the 2000s

1. 9-11 changed everything.
2. liberal media
3. inside job
4. why do you hate america?
5. IMMA GONNA LET YOU FINISH BUT
6. LOLMUSLIMS
7. Intelligent Design
8. Wake up SHEEPLE
9. the "fail" meme
10. Make a top X list.

posted by idiopath at 4:33 PM on December 10, 2009 [3 favorites]

damn put all the work into setting value= for each li to make a count down list and mefi strips the formatting
posted by idiopath at 4:34 PM on December 10, 2009

Well apart from the why-does-no-one-else-agree-with-me element of these lsist, I thought the one interesting thing was that the Streets original Pirate Material was number 97 for Rolling Stone, but number 1 with the Observer Music Monthly (the music mag with the Observer, in the UK for all you USAians), which I think is about right. It's an album of huge importance in the UK, but I guess it means very little elsewhere.

(and before all the 'what do you mean huge importance I h8 it' type posts - you don't have to like it but a huge amount of what came after was informed by that album, and not just in music)
posted by ciderwoman at 4:50 PM on December 10, 2009

Pff. They're basically a less fun Goldy looking Chain.
posted by Artw at 4:54 PM on December 10, 2009

I loved GLC (I had to interview them once and they made me laugh all afternoon) but that streets album did a) give a voice to a section of youth sub culture that had been pretty quiet until then and b) influenced an awful lot of music that came after it. All of a sudden in the UK rap was more British than American, and it was more confessional. Like I said, you may not like the album (and I'm not a huge fan) but you can still see how everything that came after it knew it had happened.
posted by ciderwoman at 5:04 PM on December 10, 2009

It's an album of huge importance in the UK

I'm curious. What's important about it?
posted by The World Famous at 5:16 PM on December 10, 2009

I''ll take a go at this-- because it articulated a new kind of voice in British music; both working class and one which had completely assimilated American rap and created something new and, most importantly, recognizably English. (I'm only British by decent, so tell me if I'm doing this wrong.)
posted by jokeefe at 5:28 PM on December 10, 2009

Urgh. "descent".
posted by jokeefe at 5:28 PM on December 10, 2009

Cool. Thanks. I like the album quite a bit more than recent U.S. rap, and I think the English-ness of it is one of the reasons for that.
posted by The World Famous at 5:33 PM on December 10, 2009

"See the canyons broken by cloud/See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out"

Jesus spelunking christ, bono can't write lyrics to save his life anymore, can he? I suppose it could argued that he never could, but the first 4 or 5 albums had some good stuff, I thought, back in the day.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 5:44 PM on December 10, 2009

Any best album list without Blind Pilot's "3 Rounds and a Sound" is wrong.
posted by you're a kitty! at 5:45 PM on December 10, 2009

Jesus spelunking christ, bono can't write lyrics to save his life anymore, can he?

"I can't live/With or without you"

If only.
posted by Sys Rq at 5:57 PM on December 10, 2009

Original Pirate Material is awesome. Too bad the last two Streets albums are garbage.

It's not a wholesale operation - It's just some 1/8ths and some Playstations is a GREAT line.
posted by porn in the woods at 6:12 PM on December 10, 2009

Those first two Streets albums were so damn great I don't really care that he's been drifting aimlessly since.
posted by Kattullus at 6:37 PM on December 10, 2009

Quick browse of my iTunes for albums that should be on the list but aren't (Control-F for Fail):

Aaliyah—s/t
Annie—Anniemal
Deerhoof—Apple O
The Quails—Atmosphere
Comets on Fire—Avatar
Racc-oo-oon—Behold Secret Kingdom
Black Mountain—s/t
Jay Reatard—Blood Visions
Boris—Feedbacker
Working for a Nuclear Free City—Businessmen and Ghosts
Fucked Up—Chemistry of Common Life
Cannibal Ox—Cold Vein
Missy Elliot—Cookbook
High on Fire—Death is this Communion
TV on the Radio—Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes (far better than their later stuff)
James Kolchaka Superstar—Don't Trust Whitey
Ghostface Killah—Fishscale
A-Frames—S/t
Indian Jewelry—Free Gold!
Fiery Furnaces—Gallowsbird's Bark
Nomo—Ghost Rock
Rihanna—Good Girl Gone Bad
Exploding Hearts—Guitar Romantic
Hercules and Love Affair—s/t
Andrew WK—I Get Wet
Black Mountain—In The Future
Indian Jewelry—Invasive Exotics
Nomo—Invisible Cities
Asa-Chang and Jun Rae—Jun Ray Song Chang
Mastodon—Leviathan
Goon Moon—Licker's Last Leg
The OhSees—The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending the Night In
McLusky—McLusky Do Dallas
Vampire Hands—Me and You Cherry Red
Deerhoof—Milk Man
Cylob—Mood Bells
Jeans Team—Musik Von Oben
No Age—Nouns
Deadly Snakes—Ode To Joy
Paris Hilton—Paris (just kidding. Paying attention?)
Om—Pilgrimage
Rogers Sisters—Purely Evil
Jurassic 5—Quality Control
Otis Taylor—Recapturing the Banjo
Adult.—Resuscitation
Robyn—s/t
Viva L'American Death Set—Sangre Libre
M83—Saturdays=Youth
Of Montreal—Skeletal Lamping
Boris—Smile
The Long Blondes—Someone To Drive You Home
El Guapo—Super/System
Ghostface Killah—Supreme Clientele
The Breeders—Title TK
Need New Body—UFO
UGK—Underground Kingz
Vivian Girls—s/t
Studio—West Coast
Wooden Shjips—s/t

And that's ignoring the several Ann Arbor records that I always rep for (because they're spectacular) but leave off because they're hard to find and not many folks heard them the first time. But since we're sharing:

The Rants—Get Back Into It
Twitchy power pop between Feelies and Elvis Costello

The Waxwings—Shadows of the Waxwings
Shimmering psych harmonies between Byrds and Spiritualized.

The High Strung—Moxie Bravo
Cheap Trick's "Southern Girls" as modus operandi.

The Avatars—Never a Good Time
Great girl pop like Rezillos, X-Ray Specs or Blondie's first albums filtered through Detroit punch.

Saturday Looks Good To Me—All Your Summer Songs
Wall of Sound girl pop plus indie sensibilities make for gorgeous music.

Dabenport—s/t
Boy-girl country with super-warm production, the whole album's like a hug.

Tribe of Zoe—Fall from Grace
Fine Young Cannibals falsetto with minimal dub background.

Tim Monger—Summer Cherry Ghosts
Absolutely beautiful pop suite about lower Michigan.

Great Lakes Myth Society—s/t
If the Pogues sailed the Great Lakes.

Seriously, every one of those albums is better than Is This It.
posted by klangklangston at 8:09 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh yeah, Dabenport is the shit. Thanks for turning me on to them.
posted by Kattullus at 8:27 PM on December 10, 2009

I wanted to find a link to buy their album, but the best I can do is their myspace page.
posted by klangklangston at 8:52 PM on December 10, 2009

It's what I listen to when I'm alone in airports.
posted by klangklangston at 8:52 PM on December 10, 2009

Did you ever see The Darvocets? They're a band I'm somewhat fascinated by. They were an Ohio band but I think they had some sort of Lansing connection. They wrote music almost exclusively about aliens, i.e. Roswell, abductions etc.
posted by Kattullus at 9:15 PM on December 10, 2009

This list makes me really glad the decade is over.
posted by fshgrl at 10:16 PM on December 10, 2009

No A Perferct Circle. gtfo with your Strokes. What crap.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:17 AM on December 11, 2009

Albums of the Decade

1 | Radiohead: Kid A

Nope.

2 | The Strokes: Is This It

Yep.
posted by juiceCake at 8:18 AM on December 11, 2009

And I'd go right back to the 90s if had to rely on Rolling Stone to tell me what to listen to.
posted by Brocktoon at 8:18 AM on December 11, 2009

Interesting to see what other musicians, pop/commercial or otherwise select. A bit surprised it is so mainstream but perhaps they had to choose from a list RS gave them (I obviously didn't dig deep to find that out).

In the end it's all very subjective of course and doesn't offend me at all since my sensibilities are my own.
posted by juiceCake at 8:20 AM on December 11, 2009

And I'd go right back to the 90s if had to rely on Rolling Stone to tell me what to listen to.

Make that the 70s and you might be on to something.
posted by philip-random at 9:55 AM on December 11, 2009

Tim Monger—Summer Cherry Ghosts
Absolutely beautiful pop suite about lower Michigan.


Why are there so many pop suites about Michigan.

Also, there's no My Bloody Valentine or Paper Chase on this list.
posted by saysthis at 5:36 PM on December 11, 2009

And "Float On" is #39? Eat me.
posted by saysthis at 5:37 PM on December 11, 2009

"Why are there so many pop suites about Michigan."

Nostalgia for industrial glory? Anyway, it's better than Sufjan's—the only beef is that while it's like 11 songs, the whole thing is only about 35 minutes. It's Van Dyke Parks music at Guided By Voices pacing.
posted by klangklangston at 6:50 PM on December 11, 2009

This year The Guardian's Bob Stanley listened to every UK #1 song of the decade.
posted by Kattullus at 2:02 AM on December 28, 2009