okay, i know it’s brutally late, but my thoughts on the decade are nearly complete. well, as complete as they can be.
in the meantime, i have musings on the decade’s music from two pals on offer. first up is marc. enjoy.
MARC’S TOP 10 OF THE DECADE (THE ONE THAT JUST ENDED, THAT IS…)
….Without further delay, 10 records that defined my decade:
1) LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver (2007)
It’ll be easy to attack this pick. For all I know it will be at the top of the dreaded Pitchfork list. What can I say? I’m losing my edge. Couldn’t help it. Anyway, I couldn’t forgive myself if I moved it down to placate Randell and his “it’s all been done before” nonsense. This is the album that defined the latter half of the decade for me: a soundtrack to winter in New York that manages to provoke all kinds of bullshit nostalgia from my too-easily-tricked brain. Cara and I were at the Bowery Ballroom the night he kicked off this tour, we danced to his gay disco tracks at PS 1 in Queens, and this was the album playing on backgammon nights, party nights, week nights, recovery days, and Sundays in my apartment in 2008. An album’s place in one’s record collection relies significantly on factors that have little or nothing to do with the music itself, and so it may be accidental this found its way to the top of my list, accidental it happened to feel so perfect that year. Still, the music’s not bad. “Someone Great” and “All My Friends” remain as spine-tingling as they were the first time I heard them. Anthems, even. “Get Innocuous” may be the finest track Murphy has written to date. “New York I Love You, but You’re Bringing Me Down” still makes me smile without making me squirm. And the whole thing somehow fits together – unlike his debut – as a singular work. An album in an age of singles. An album for North American Scum like myself.
2) Burial – Untrue (2007)
A bit of hyperbole (but isn’t that the point?): Burial’s two albums have made more of an impact on me than any two electronic albums ever produced. True, by and large my consumption of house, techno, dubstep, et al, is in the mix/12” format. In compiling this list I thought about two things: 1) what albums made over the course of the last 10 years do I still listen to regularly? 2) which of those albums significantly influenced my music purchasing habits after its release? It would be hard to deny this album would find its way near the top of both lists. And as I’m writing this very entry, listening to Fred P and DJ Qu’s Bunker mix, I hear the opening vocal of “Near Dark” and am immediately transported to a bus ride, post-party (post-everything) in grey, rainy, gritty London.
3) Theo Parrish – Parallel Dimensions (2000)
I bought this record when Ubiquity re-released it a couple years after it originally came out and it’s fair to say it introduced a world of House music I had no idea existed – the music I listen to more frequently now and enjoy hearing out most (as Cara said at a Jus-Ed party in New York once “this is the only kind of music I want to hear out from now on.”). On first listen I had no idea what I had bought – Parrish’s spare off kilter drums, the lo-fi grit, the other worldliness of it had me completely unsure of my purchase. But by the second listen I was hooked. Not only is this a great record, and one of the few full lengths by my all time favorite House producer, but it was the window to many, many new names, people like Rick Wilhite, Moodyman, Omar S. It remains the album I am most likely to turn to when unsure what to play. And just last night Cara intuitively responded to my request for “something funky” with this one. It’s hard to pick a standout track here, but “Summertime is Here” gets me every time.
4) Ricardo Villalobos – Fabric (2007)
I suppose there are a plenty of productions that vie for the title of Villalobos’s masterpiece, but I’ve listened to none more than his Fabric mix, a “mix” consisting solely of the producer’s own previously unreleased productions and as trippy and experimental as dance music got this decade. With the implosion of mnml complete, it’s easy to dismiss 99% of it as garbage. Villalobos may go down as one of the great producers ever to work within the boundaries of dance music, though the fact anyone was dancing to this stuff is evidence of an open mindedness (or ketamine supply) that exists within the scene that makes me happy. It wasn’t easy work, this one. All that “hard work”, though, is washed away when the Latin drums of “Won’t You Tell Me” begin to tease their way into your ear and when that’s followed by the magic of “Primer Encuentro Latino-Americano” I had already decided to listen again.
5) Herbert – Scale (2006)
I’m not sure this record has ever been topped in the “quirky house producers go pop” category I’ve just made up in my head. Dani Siciliano’s voice makes me want to get naked. You’re welcome for that image. A bit of a pattern here in that memorable shows tend to make the album more memorable, and Cara and I were fortunate to see the whole band on tour for this one, all clad in bathrobes no less. The first three tracks here – “Something Isn’t Right”, “The Movers and the Shakers” and “Moving Like A Train” are stone cold classics. I’m not sure Herbert will ever top this, given his propensity for skewing towards the weird and difficult, but one can hope.
6) The Knife – Silent Shout (2006)
In this, strictly adult rated version of my list, I can admit both of the things that come to mind when the opening notes of this album play: backgammon and [insert vice of choice here – Ed.]. Whatever the implications here, I don’t think the association with drugs is entirely tied to my own actions, nor am I convinced I’m the only one making at least one of those associations. Karin’s steely vocals, the dark, quasi-anonymous vibe….it all lends a nice little druggy vibe to the whole operation. And they scare me a little too. Scandos eh?
7) Radiohead – Kid A (2000)
I may nominate this as the most boring choice on my list, but I can’t bring myself to ignore it either. I also contemplated having “In Rainbows” as my choice here, as I have listened to that one more in the last year, but I stuck with Kid A largely because it’s a record I’ve come back again and again for nearly the entire decade. Can’t ignore that now can you? Anyway, I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t been said already on this one, so I’ll stop now.
8) Daft Punk – Discovery (2001)
It’s funny that in 2009 Daft Punk are given us much credit for their influence on pop music in this country as say, Jay-Z (see our earlier debate over the Sasha Frere Jones piece). For my part, I just love the record, no matter how fashionable it’s become. “One More Time” is one of the tracks of the decade. Another memorable concert to go with this one, at Coney Island in 2007.
9) Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – Naturally (2005)
When I discovered this record (in the aisles of Amoeba like more than a few on this list) I had no idea who Sharon Jones was. Initially I really did think the record was an old soul reissue. On its first play back at the house everyone immediately asked what it was. The hooks made you move, the band was tight as hell, and the voice was the kind of voice I hope to find on, well, on just about any record out there. In the ‘what records do I still consistently listen to’ category this would be right at the top.
10) Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair (2008)
For my money the best long player DFA put out not by LCD Soundsystem. It’s a fitting final entry here as it seems to me a lot of things about this record sum up the decade musically – dance music regaining acceptance in the indie world, disco’s revival, DFA’s domination, a constant obsession with Arthur Russell. This record really just brings me joy though. The camp disco beats (courtesy of Tim Goldsworthy, an underappreciated name in the DFA lineup says me) are offset by Antony Hegarty’s sentimental voice, it’s not so much dance music as folk for disco kids.
