By Anthony Kuzminski
Introduction
Over the last decade, the influence of the album/LP has reverted to what it was in the 1950’s; secondary to the singles. This past decade began with the largest sales of compact discs ever and a mere nine years later, record/CD/full album sales will end at their lowest sales levels in more than two decades. The advent of digital technology and the iTunes music store (and a lot of crappy albums from the 1990’s with one good song) permitted the consumer to pick and choose the songs they wanted without buying the album. While I agree this is the best thing to do for the consumer, especially in the case of pure pop hits where it’s more about the song than the album, it has begun the death of the long play format. This saddens me. A great song lifts your soul and can turn your mood on a dime in under four-minutes, but an illustrious album…it can transform your life. I love the cinematic lavishness that albums can have and they allow the artists to make colossal testimonials that stay with us long after our preliminary eavesdrop. Like a remarkable film, we love to dive deep into the emotional tide that consoles us in ways that inexplicable. This past decade was a great one for the long album format and narrowing my list down to one hundred albums proved to be challenging. In the end, with the exception of one record, I resorted to albums that I returned to time and time again and have each been played dozens upon dozens (if not hundreds) of times. A truly distinguished record reveals something novel with each listen and grows on your over time. It provides you a telescope to the world at large and yet it can also be a tool of revelation teaching you things about yourself you were too scared to confess. Film may be the world’s prominent and most popular art form, but the album is our most singular. You can load an album onto your iPod, take it with you when you travel and even have it in the background of your work. Listening to a great record is a more tangible experience and I can only hope that the artists of yesterday today and tomorrow value the significance of it all and persist not just crafting these indelible masterpieces but do so with the matching love and rage that they have in the past. The albums I have listed below all spoke to my soul in ways I can never put into words, but will try. They accompanied me on my triumphs and consoled me during my tribulations. They were a friend when there wasn’t one and most importantly, they furthered my knowledge of the world and made me ponder my own life and for that, I owe a level of gratitude to each of the acts below for enriching my life. I can only hope that those who read this make one discovery below and that it will inspire your life as much as it has mine. So without further adieu, here are my one hundred favorite long play records of the last ten years.
100. Bon Jovi – ‘100 Million Fans Can’t Be Wrong’ (2004)
Bon Jovi is a great band; it’s just that most of the world doesn’t know it, including the band themselves. This collection of fifty B-sides and unreleased songs is a treasure chest of melodic gems and detours down alternative paths. It showcases abundant sides of the band and a battery of songs that didn’t fit on any of their albums. It’s a shame because of the fifty tracks, there is virtually no filler and not a single song they could be embarrassed by and leaves you questioning some of the band’s song selections on their recent albums. Most importantly, it reveals just how damn talented Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora are as songwriters.
(Read the full box set review here)
99. Gaslight Anthem-‘The ’59 Sound’ (2008)
Hailing from New Brunswick, New Jersey who don’t shy away from writing simplistic four-chord rock weaved with blue collar narratives. "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" features a menacing guitar lick Social Distortion would be proud to call their own paired with lyrical imagery that fastens itself into your brain like a lost Springsteen track. "Film Noir" asserts amping riffs while "The Backseat" twists and turns down the roads of heartbreak and promise that a summer breeze can bring. They remind you of why you fell in love with music in the first place.(Read live review of Gaslight Anthem here)
98. U2- ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ (2004)
A flawed album that is more about distinct songs versus a cohesive collection, yet still, this has the potential to be disastrous; but the band pulled in the reigns and delivered a collection of songs that indeed is as resilient as anything they’ve done before. “City of Blinding Lights”, “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own”, “Original of the Species” and “Yahweh” covers the full U2 landscape, endearing the listener with stadium ready choruses (“Love & Peace or Else”) and anthem (“Vertigo”) after anthem (“All Because of You”). In some ways, this was a Greatest Hits collection of their entire career…only with new songs.
(Read the 'U2 3D' Film review here)
97. Los Campesinos! – ‘Hold on Now, Youngster..’ (2008)
If there was a skit on Saturday Night Live showing this band in the studio, Christopher Walken would stop the session and demand “More glockenspiel!” No matter where I am when a song from this record pops on my iPod, it never fails to elicit a smile with its full speed ahead with romantic abandon…with a dash of glockenspiel tossed in for good measure. I don’t think any artist has utilized the glockenspiel this well since Bruce Springsteen. It’s featured magnanimously on “Broken Heartbeats Sound Like Backbeats” and numerous other songs with just titles just as tongue twisting. Interlocking vocals, a concentrated rhythm section and chiming guitars give the band an almost cartoonish aura, but the music is so wildly contagious, it’s impossible to not smile and shake your head when listening to it. I can’t think of any act in the world that sounds as wholly original or who can distill as much energy on record as Los Campesinos!, I can offer no higher compliment.
96. Lucero- ‘1372 Overton Park’ (2009)
Like the Gaslight Anthem, Lucero’s love of rock n’ roll is so pure you can’t help but fall in love with them. The latest record finds middle ground between the E Street Band and Social Distortion featuring solemn spine chilling lyrics painting pictures worthy of cinema. Nichols gruff voice is an authentic and sincere one. You close your eyes and the music, lyrics and delivery transport you to a new world. It stirs up emotions and like the greatest of art, make one ponder life. (Read the live review of their show here).
95. The White Stripes – ‘Icky Thump’ (2007)
I’m sick and tired of hearing from people who tell me the Stripes are stretching the limits of their music and production. Jack White is an artist of immeasurable enormity and if you doubt me, take one listen to “Conquest” and I dare you to not sit there awestruck and animated at the listening experience. Jack and Meg White have found a way to push the envelope even further proving they are possibly the most unadorned and inventive band in the world at this moment.
94. Jimmy Eat World – ‘Chase This Light’ (2007)
Chock full of thrusting guitars with hyperactive choruses that are equally endearing and jolting. Be careful listening to this while on the freeway. This is a band that has advanced with every release. Best known for the infectious “The Middle” single from 2002, Jimmy Eat World made their best record with Chase This Light which is a staggering testament to their gift of melody and their ability to wear their hearts on their sleeves. “Big Casino” could flatten a stadium while the title-track is made for dreamers the world over. Big hooks, even bigger choruses and a top tier production by Butch Vig elevate this album above standard rock-pop fare. If you love a luscious melody tinged with guitars and bittersweet pop, look no further than this record.
93. Bruce Springsteen – ‘Devils & Dust’ (2005)
I find this record so endearing because ultimately, it was a brilliant stop-gap record, not a perfect one, but a great collection of songs before gearing up for the next big record. Springsteen goes it alone without the E Street Band, but producer Brendan O’Brien straddles Springsteen with more sonic muscle compared to his other acoustic outings. The title track is an urgent plea for peace while on “Jesus Was An Only Son” and “Long Time Comin’”, Springsteen bares his soul, allowing us a sneak peak at his life, his loves and his art. This inner peak at his soul is his most revealing and entrancing since Tunnel of Love.
92. Christina Aguilera- ‘Back To Basics’ (2006)
A double-album that’s possibly too audacious for its own good, but its steadfast assurance in Aguilera’s drive has to be admired, along with its colossal production harking back to the 1920’s. 2003’s “Beautiful” shows Aguilera as more than a pop princess and on Back To Basics she shows us she’s grown up and ready to be taken seriously.
91. Jesse Malin –‘The Heat’ (2004)
Malin’s sophomore solo disc isn’t as melodic as his debut, but it still has its fair share of gruff reflections on life paired with urgent performances about the matters of the heart (“Swinging Man”), political (“New World Order”) and soul bearing(“Basement Home”) . Careening through the peaks and valleys of his own consciousness, the album houses a personal touch hearkening back to the wonderment of albums from the 70’s. (Read a concert review here).
90. Blink 182 – ‘Take Off Your Pants and Jacket’ (2001)
Idiotic power-pop-punk music featuring “First Date”, “Anthem #2” and “Everytime I Look For You” which no matter where I am when I hear it, a smile emerges. Say what you want about Blink 182, but they are an act that evolved with each record and at the end of the day, that alone has to be admired.
89. The New York Dolls – ‘One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This’ (2006)
The New York Dolls not only made an album where there are minimally five or six classic tunes on this album but they took a time machine back to the past and captured the vigor and sentiment of 1975. Anyone who has bought a Strokes, White Stripes or Franz Ferdinand record in the last few years should rush out to stores and buy this album. (Read live review here).
88. Ryan Adams – ‘Heartbreaker’ (2000)
Viewed by many as his best, Adams solo debut is an inspired collection of songs about reconcilement. After a half decade in the alt-country group Whiskeytown, Adams goes solo and the revelation of his clear-cut songwriting here is astonishing. This was the record everyone felt Adams had within him but wasn’t sure if he could pull off. The feel and sound of the record makes you feel they are playing in your living room. “Come Pick Me Up” (featured brilliantly in Cameron Crowe’s Elizabethtown reconciles his longing while facing up to the truth that no matter how profound his love may be, deep down it will never work out, but it won’t stop him for trying to will it to life. This was the beginning of Ryan Adam’s maddening and magnificent decade.87. Glasvegas-‘Glasvegas’ (2009)
Their debut album is soaked in wallowing howls and biting reverb, the song “Flowers and Football Tops” reveals profound passion through the absolute force of their performance. The heart wrenching ballad of a child who dies is delivered with furious sentiment (“My baby is gone…”). In the course of one song, the Scottish alternative band evokes devastation, consoling and ultimately prayer to heal. The song is as epic as “Amazing Grace” with a bit more bite and distortion. Look for this band to shake your foundations in the coming decade. (Read their live review here).
86. Mavis Staples-'We'll Never Turn Back' (2007)
The swampy soul delta blues drenches the songs in this defiant collection from a woman who is nearly seventy. This may be the greatest record of Mavis Staples career, and this includes her time with the Staples Sisters. I’ve been knocked to the ground when hearing tracks like “My City of Ruins” by Bruce Springsteen and “Washing of the Water” by Will Hoge, but an entire album of twelve civil rights tracks provides an emotionally luminous, searing and storming ride. The fist thumping thunderous beat of “99 and a ½” is performed with larger than life vocal dynamics and conviction as is the entire album. This album will entrench itself within you and grow on you with each and every listen and proves that music can be more than just entertainment but provides you with not just historical perspective, but console for the lost soul seeking guidance and most importantly, hope for a better future.
85. Will Hoge – ‘The Wreckage’ (2009)
Every Will Hoge record takes the listener through jarring roads, deceitful lies, cruel truths and ultimately beautifying redemption, ‘The Wreckage’ merely puts these brutal truths up front and center for one to contemplate. Make no mistake, most of the songs on ‘The Wreckage’ harbor bleak topics, but this honesty allows the listener to live in spirit of these songs evoking daunting and undeniable questions to the forefront. The ghosts of our past are never far behind and ultimately, it’s up to us whether we write a new chapter or allow ourselves to wallow in yesterday’s miseries instead of tomorrow’s triumphs. (Read the full album review here).
84. Joan Jett – ‘Sinner’(2006)
Jett’s only full length record released on US shores is full of biting political commentary (“Riddles”), some covers (“Androgynous” & “AC/DC”) and a loud guitars. Easily her best record since the early 80’s,. Jett proved she still has what it takes.
83. Black Keys – ‘The Big Come Up’ (2002)
It’s a tossup between this and thickfreakness as to which I was going to include. Swayed by the use of “I’m Your Man” from the HBO series Hung, I chose this one. Their down and dirty two man band from Akron channel lost bluesman with arrangements that are simple and to the point. Yet Dan Auerbach’s vocal hints at so much more revealing layers of distorted soul. Sometimes pure simplicity reminds you that when you take music to its core, it truly becomes timeless.82. Beastie Boys- ‘To the 5 Boroughs’ (2004)
With every record, the Beasties push the envelope, for better or worse. Their first post 9/11 release found the band bringing the rhythms and rhymes to their most simplistic allowing the lyrics to punctuate you. This may not be their best-selling record, but it’s quite possibly their most personal and worldly.
81. The Alarm MMVI-‘Under Attack’ (2006)
A tour de force album created by Mike Peters who exhibits a sense of who he is, where he’s been and where he’s going. Writing about his fight with leukemia and the terrorist bombings in London in 2005, he manages to pull together the material which is not only anthemic but revitalizing as well. The onslaught of aggression on this album is a hybrid of the early 80’s sound and attitude of U2 and The Clash. The Alarm (notably Mike Peters) has created their most poised, self assuring and hopeful record of their career.
80. Kelly Clarkson – ‘Breakaway’ (2004)
This is a complete sugar high. The five monster singles are illustrations of why I love pop music; they still sound fresh a half decade later and warrant to be screamed at the top of your lungs. Not to mention the array of emotions Clarkson conveys on songs like “Breakaway” and “Because of You” is like a peak into her heart. “Since U Been Gone” has a vivacious chorus paired with a raging vocal declaring her independence that is pure escapism. For someone who found success on a reality television show, this was Clarkson’s shot at the big time flexing her inner strength illustrating that’s there’s more to her than meets the eye. She may not have written all eleven tracks on the record, but her voice is her instrument and her aptitude to channel her life in such a dynamic and meaningful manner is not just remarkable, but rare as well. (Read her concert review here).
79. Nada Surf-‘Lucky’ (2007)
Chock full of aural melodies that are nothing short of fixating, the introspective band finds their groove on a record that is as easy on the ears as anything on the radio today. If this was 1993, this would have been a triple-platinum record. An undercurrent of heartache matched with effortless and beautifying lyrics ‘Lucky’ is a feast for anyone and everyone who loves a good melody. I had rarely listened to this band before this album, but they have pulled me in deep here. “I Like What You Say” is flirting while “From Now On” spirals like a rollercoaster as the band delivers perfectly textured harmonies. This is a wonderfully pensive record that will leave you in a blissful and magical state of mind and if you’re still not sold, listen to “Beautiful Beat” and tell me your life is not better off for hearing it.
78.Warren Zevon-‘The Wind’ (2003)
Upon hearing he had terminal cancer, Zevon entered a recording studio to record his most recognizable work. “Disorder in the House” features Springsteen on guitar, a poignant “Knocking on Heaven’s Door” and the lump-in-the-throat “Keep Me In Your Heart” proves to be a eulogy to his family friends and fans. Faced with death, Zevon went out with a bang with a record that still gives me shivers.
77. Eddie Vedder-'Into The Wild' Soundtrack (2007)
Vedder managed to not just convey the journey of the film’s main character but his own internal one as well. Songs like “Hard Sun”, “End of the Road” and “Rise” are so profoundly personal, you feel as if you’re overhearing a conversation or reading a personal diary. This album should not have been this solid, but it is. It’s truthful, revealing and a revelatory exposition for Vedder and the listener.
76. Radiohead – ‘Kid A’
I didn’t understand the hype behind this record at all in 2000. I’ve always admired Radiohead more than liking them, but Cameron Crowe’s use of “Everything In Its Right Place” in Vanilla Sky sent me back to the record. Some may say this is a band just trying to be peculiar, which I initially agreed with, but with every additional listen I feel like I’m entering a lost world. This isn’t an album I jump to when I go running or when I need to reflect, but I often find myself entranced by the record much the same way I’m enthralled by David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Both works of art initially left me scratching my head, but with here is a work whose layers peel off like a onion revealing something on each listen. A rare record whose luminosity is as a collective whole and while I can’t fully tell you all of its secrets, I discover something new every time I listen close enough. Sometimes a record can grow on you over time and Radiohead and Wilco demonstrated this better than anyone else this past decade.- Read the introduction and #'s 100 to #76 at this link
- Read #'s 75 to #51 at this link
- Read # 50 to #26 at this link
- Read #25 to #11 at this link
Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.
