This thread on the best rock album of all time got me thinking - what’s the best rock album of the '00’s so far? Some have said that rock is dead - what albums of the Bush Generation prove them wrong?
Wilco’s Yankee Hotel Foxtrot?
The New Pornographer’s Mass Romantic?
Modest Mouse’s Good News For People Who Love Bad News?
The White Stripes’ Elephant?
Yo La Tengo’s I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass?
Throw all suggestions out here.
Radiohead - Kid A should definitely be included. I second Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I do love that Yo La Tengo album, but I’m not sure if it’s quite yet on my best of the decade list.
I also nominate:
The Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Hold Steady - Separation Sunday
Sleater-Kinney - The Woods
My Morning Jacket - Z
…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead - Source Tags and Codes
Until this thread, I hadn’t noticed how few new (post 2000) rock albums I own!
Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Stadium Arcadium deserves some consideration.
No, I take that back. Stadium Arcadium has some great songs, but it also has about thirty wasted cuts. The best rock album of the last 8 years is Lily Allen’s Alright Still. Every song on that one is killer.
Post 2000 stuff I own and still play:
Armchair Apocrypha by Andrew Bird
The Crane Wife by The Decemberists
St. Elsewhere by Gnarls Barkley
Gulag Orkestar by Beirut
Am A Bird Now by Antony And The Johnsons
The Mysterious Production Of Eggs by Andrew Bird
The Woods by Sleater-Kinney
Howl by Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Abattoir Blues / The Lyre Of Orpheus by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine by Cee-Lo
Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins
American Idiot by Green Day
Streetcore by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
Welcome Interstate Managers by Fountains Of Wayne
The Eminem Show by Eminem
A Rush Of Blood To The Head by Coldplay
When I Was Cruel by Elvis Costello
*Gorillaz * by Gorillaz
Transcendental Blues by Steve Earle
Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven by Godspeed You Black Emperor!
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf is the ‘best’ for me, really high quality that endures. Their two albums before were epic, but not sure if they qualify for 2000 and onwards. RaTM ‘Battle for Los Angeles’ just misses the 00 cut as well.
C’mon man, Lily Allen? I know rock is a broad church and all but it surely disnae include Lily’s musical nursury rhymes.
You don’t bat an eye at Cee-Lo and Steve Earl described as “rock,” but Lily Allen is somehow outside the gate? Yeah, we draw the line in different places.
Talking about straight-up rock, some contenders (in no order):
Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
all three Hold Steady albums
New Pornographers, Electric Version
The White Stripes, White Blood Cells or Elephant
Spoon, Kill the Moonlight
Death Cab for Cutie, Transatlanticism
Fountains of Wayne, Welcome Interstate Managers (in a pure summertime confection sort of way)
Slightly more out there:
The Arcade Fire, Funeral
Radiohead, Kid A
If we’re expanding it enough to include Lily Allen, I’d have to throw in:
Sufjan Stevens, Illinois
Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Strictly from a rock perspective:
The Black Parade, My Chemical Romance
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3, Coheed and Cambria
Cities, Anberlin
We, the Vehicles Maritime
I’d like to second FoW and Modest Mouse, too.
There’s a bunch of other stuff I’d add, too, although they’re qualified thru emo, pop, and/or techno rather than thru their rock chops alone:
Hopes and Fears Keane
Building a Better ____, Park.
Give Up, The Postal Service
A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, Panic! at the Disco
Either In Absentia or Deadwing, by Porcupine Tree.
I’ll second
Yoshimi by The Flaming Lips and
American Idiot by Green Day
I’ll add
Wolfmother by Wolfmother.
Audioslave by Audioslave
and a nagging feeling that I’m leaving off something obvious. . .
I’ll toss in All That You Can’t Leave Behind by U2. MUCH better than How to dismantle. . .
No Franz Ferdinand, “Franz Ferdinand” love?
Three that occur to me are:
Dungen:* Ta Det Lugnt *
Hot Snakes: Audit in Progress
Broadcast: Tender Buttons
I don’t mean to derail this thread, but is Lily Allen really all that? I loved “Smile,” but I’m having a hard time believing the whole album delivers that much. And yet, I remain intrigued…
My top two are pretty firm:
After that, it’s hard to rank them, but the rest of my top ten would probably consist of:
Arctic Monkeys: Favourite Worst Nightmare
The Futureheads: News and Tributes
The Libertines: The Libertines
Maxïmo Park: A Certain Trigger
Oasis: Don’t Believe the Truth
Radiohead: Hail to the Thief
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
Wilco: a ghost is born
And as for me, I’ll vote for:
Belle and Sebastian: Dear Catastrophe Waitress
New Pornographers: Electric Version
Rilo Kiley: More Adventurous
The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow
White Stripes: White Blood Cells
The Decemberists: Picaresque and/or The Crane Wife
Dresden Dolls: Self-titled
Tom Waits: Real Gone
Without listing albums anything by the Arctic Monkeys, White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Coldplay, Raconteurs, Fallout Boy or Radiohead is what comes to my mind.
I think “Smile” is one of the weakest songs on the album. “LDN” and “Knock 'Em Out” are the real winners.
It’s one of the best albums of this year, no doubt, but I wouldn’t call it a rock album.
Oh, and add Sleater-Kinney to my list above–definitely The Woods, and All Hands on the Bad One if we’re counting albums released in 2000.
Couldn’t agree more. Don’t forget Fear of a Blank Planet! (Just saw the tour for that one! ;))
I’ll second:
American Idiot - Greenday
Give Up - The Postal Service
And add:
In Your Honor - Foo Fighters
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Anything by Falconer
Haughty Melodic - Mike Doughty
With Teeth - NiN
Steal This Album! - System of a Down
Lateralus - Tool