Loveissucide Dissects the 00's

loveissucide · 03-23-2010, 07:20 PM

Glad there's a good response to this. Up next....
3.

Kid A-Radiohead
10 years after the fact, and when Kid A is a sacred cow/part of the canon of accepted Classic Albums, it seems hard to remember just what a shock to the system Kid A was. What must be borne in mind was that following the huge success of The Bends and OK Computer, Radiohead had seemed poised to become a U2 around the time of Joshua Tree-type megaband. However it didn't quite pan out that way, with Kid A being a terrified, noisy record owing far more to Can and Philip Glass than to Nirvana and REM. This album was also a pivot in the switch from physical format to MP3 following it's leak, with the songs being reduced to a 35-minute download as opposed to part of a cohesive whole.

But what of the music? I, for my part, don't find it anywhere near as inaccessible as it was claimed to be on it's 2000 release, with some bizarrely hostile reaction in the music press from the respected( the New York Times' Nick Hornby claiming it was self-indulgence) to the not(Sharleen Spitieri of Texas lambasting them for supposedly harbouring delusions of being The Velvet Underground). When it comes down to it, the tracks are all melodic, 3-4 minutes in length, mostly vocal driven and contain nothing genuinely abrasive. It remains startlingly millennial, holds up fantastically to repeated listening, and is, if anything, the perfect follow-up to OK Computer. The fact it made it to Number One on both sides of the Atlantic with no promotional videos and a bare minimum of touring only seals my love for Radiohead and their contrary ways, and the success of this album proved the music-listeners were not all reduced to the level of Dad-rock and nu-metal. Tremendous stuff.

loveissucide · 03-24-2010, 04:30 PM

2.

The Moon And Antartica-Modest Mouse
OK Computer set the bar high for late 90's alternative rock acts, making it both visible to a generation of artists that ambition would be rewarded, and that difficult, challenging music could find a massive mainstream audience. Modest Mouse surely bore both these revelations in mind when making The Moon And Antartica, a record which formed part of the successful mainstreaming of alternative rock in the 00's. In addition to being their breakthrough, it was also their major-label debut.

Whilst most alternative rock acts major label debuts previous to this had a somewhat mixed success rate(for every Sonic Youth, who thrived on Geffen, there was a Husker Du, who imploded), this album's clean production actually enchances the material contained therein, and makes it completely accessible. For a record consisting of existentialist despair, paranoia and experimental arrangements and instrumentation, that's quite a feat. Isaac Brock's contrary and alienated worldview has never cohered as well as it has here, with the group's ambition and desire to expiriment making this a fascinating statement on mortality, existence and identity, which manages to embrace styles as varied as indie rock(3rd Planet), alt-country(Brilliant Diguise) and extended symphonic suites(The Stars Are Projectors). That such an album at no point comes across as self-indulgent or pretentious is as sure a statement as is necessary to it's quality, and it will hold up for as long as people value intelligence and inventiveness in music.

loveissucide · 03-28-2010, 10:17 AM

1

So here we have it, the album of 2000. When it was released, OutKast were a critically respected outfit, but this album shattered all expectations. Swinging wildly between moods, and encompassing a staggeringly vast range of music from Public Enemy-styled ranting (Gasoline Dreams), slick commerical R&B(Ms Jackson) to full-on insanity(B.O.B), the record represented a great leap forward of imagination that made everything else look staid. Whilst Snoop and Dre were spitting out the same rhymes about "Bitchez and Hoes" as they had been for a decade, OutKast were creating something far more interesting, fusing letters of regret, suicide narratives and anti-violence cries with tracks which were downright fun. What united this whole record was a sense of excitement, imagiantion and possibility, making it a huge amount of fun to listen to, and a worthy tribute to the likes of George Clinton,Prince and A Tribe Called Quest whilst also breaking a huge amount of ground itself, and for that it's a worthy album of 2000.

loveissucide · 04-04-2010, 12:04 PM

Will be putting this journal on hiatus for a while. The amount of downloading and listening necessary might have to wait a while due to coursework

Bulldog · 04-04-2010, 05:00 PM

I'm pretty indifferent to Radiohead and Modest Mouse (certainly don't mind them though), and I've never quite got round to giving Outkast a good listen. Great list all the same though. Top marks for mentioning Grandaddy and Peej, Primal Scream too (XTRMNTR is one of the most beautifully noisy albums I've ever heard).

loveissucide · 04-04-2010, 06:10 PM

I'll put a year 2000 starter up when my net connection is up to it.

03-23-2010, 07:20 PM	#11 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	Glad there's a good response to this. Up next.... 3. Kid A-Radiohead 10 years after the fact, and when Kid A is a sacred cow/part of the canon of accepted Classic Albums, it seems hard to remember just what a shock to the system Kid A was. What must be borne in mind was that following the huge success of The Bends and OK Computer, Radiohead had seemed poised to become a U2 around the time of Joshua Tree-type megaband. However it didn't quite pan out that way, with Kid A being a terrified, noisy record owing far more to Can and Philip Glass than to Nirvana and REM. This album was also a pivot in the switch from physical format to MP3 following it's leak, with the songs being reduced to a 35-minute download as opposed to part of a cohesive whole. But what of the music? I, for my part, don't find it anywhere near as inaccessible as it was claimed to be on it's 2000 release, with some bizarrely hostile reaction in the music press from the respected( the New York Times' Nick Hornby claiming it was self-indulgence) to the not(Sharleen Spitieri of Texas lambasting them for supposedly harbouring delusions of being The Velvet Underground). When it comes down to it, the tracks are all melodic, 3-4 minutes in length, mostly vocal driven and contain nothing genuinely abrasive. It remains startlingly millennial, holds up fantastically to repeated listening, and is, if anything, the perfect follow-up to OK Computer. The fact it made it to Number One on both sides of the Atlantic with no promotional videos and a bare minimum of touring only seals my love for Radiohead and their contrary ways, and the success of this album proved the music-listeners were not all reduced to the level of Dad-rock and nu-metal. Tremendous stuff. __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

03-24-2010, 04:30 PM	#12 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	2. The Moon And Antartica-Modest Mouse OK Computer set the bar high for late 90's alternative rock acts, making it both visible to a generation of artists that ambition would be rewarded, and that difficult, challenging music could find a massive mainstream audience. Modest Mouse surely bore both these revelations in mind when making The Moon And Antartica, a record which formed part of the successful mainstreaming of alternative rock in the 00's. In addition to being their breakthrough, it was also their major-label debut. Whilst most alternative rock acts major label debuts previous to this had a somewhat mixed success rate(for every Sonic Youth, who thrived on Geffen, there was a Husker Du, who imploded), this album's clean production actually enchances the material contained therein, and makes it completely accessible. For a record consisting of existentialist despair, paranoia and experimental arrangements and instrumentation, that's quite a feat. Isaac Brock's contrary and alienated worldview has never cohered as well as it has here, with the group's ambition and desire to expiriment making this a fascinating statement on mortality, existence and identity, which manages to embrace styles as varied as indie rock(3rd Planet), alt-country(Brilliant Diguise) and extended symphonic suites(The Stars Are Projectors). That such an album at no point comes across as self-indulgent or pretentious is as sure a statement as is necessary to it's quality, and it will hold up for as long as people value intelligence and inventiveness in music. __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

03-28-2010, 10:17 AM	#13 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	1 So here we have it, the album of 2000. When it was released, OutKast were a critically respected outfit, but this album shattered all expectations. Swinging wildly between moods, and encompassing a staggeringly vast range of music from Public Enemy-styled ranting (Gasoline Dreams), slick commerical R&B(Ms Jackson) to full-on insanity(B.O.B), the record represented a great leap forward of imagination that made everything else look staid. Whilst Snoop and Dre were spitting out the same rhymes about "Bitchez and Hoes" as they had been for a decade, OutKast were creating something far more interesting, fusing letters of regret, suicide narratives and anti-violence cries with tracks which were downright fun. What united this whole record was a sense of excitement, imagiantion and possibility, making it a huge amount of fun to listen to, and a worthy tribute to the likes of George Clinton,Prince and A Tribe Called Quest whilst also breaking a huge amount of ground itself, and for that it's a worthy album of 2000. __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

04-04-2010, 12:04 PM	#14 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	Will be putting this journal on hiatus for a while. The amount of downloading and listening necessary might have to wait a while due to coursework __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

04-04-2010, 06:10 PM	#16 (permalink)
loveissucide Himself Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Leuven ,Belgium, via Ireland Posts: 1,325	I'll put a year 2000 starter up when my net connection is up to it. __________________ www.last.fm/user/p-mccusker http://www.mixcloud.com/pmccusker www.valjester.wordpress.com

04-04-2010, 05:00 PM	#15 (permalink)
Bulldog why bother? Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: UK Posts: 4,840	I'm pretty indifferent to Radiohead and Modest Mouse (certainly don't mind them though), and I've never quite got round to giving Outkast a good listen. Great list all the same though. Top marks for mentioning Grandaddy and Peej, Primal Scream too (XTRMNTR is one of the most beautifully noisy albums I've ever heard).