Top Albums of the Naughtiest Decade

[corianderstem]

Cori's top 25 Big Dumb Pop Songs of the decade (yes, they need their own list):


Kylie Minogue - I Believe In You
Madonna - Hung Up
Girls Aloud - Call the Shots
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone
Robyn - With Every Heartbeat
Sugababes - Freak Like Me
Beyonce - Crazy In Love
Lady GaGa - Paparazzi
Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue - Kids
Annie - Heartbeat
Britney Spears - Toxic
Gwen Stefani - What You Waiting For
Little Boots - Remedy
Duran Duran - (Reach Up For The) Sunrise
Rachel Stevens - I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)
Mika - Love Today
Margaret Berger - Robot Song
The Saturdays - Lies
The Veronicas - 4 Ever
Josie and the Pussycats (soundtrack) - 3 Small Words
JC Chasez - Blowin' Me Up With Her Love
Emma Bunton - Maybe
FeFe Dobson - Don't Let It Go To Your Head
Blake Lewis - How Many Words
Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick

 

[corianderstem]

Last one:

Cori's favorite 30 songs of the decade (not counting the Big, Dumb Pop Songs):

Arcade Fire - Rebellion (Lies) *it was nearly impossible to pick just one off Funeral, let me tell you
Muse - Hysteria
Sufjan Stevens - Chicago
Kanye West - Jesus Walks
Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??
Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
Elbow - One Day Like This
Outkast - Hey Ya!
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc
Coldplay - In My Place
Liz Phair - Extraordinary
LCD Soundsystem - All My Friends
Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You
Yeasayer - 2080
Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
The Killers - All These Things That I've Done
U2 - City of Blinding Lights
Green Day - American Idiot
Chris Cornell - You Know My Name
The Bangles - Tear Off Your Own Head (Doll Revolution)
Neko Case - Deep Red Bells
The Long Winters - Cinnamon
White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
The Cardigans - You're the Storm
Rilo Kiley - Portions For Foxes
Silverchair - Straight Lines
Angie Aparo - Spaceship

 

[If you shout...]

Dandy Warhols - Bohemian Like You

Holy fuck, I love this song. A shame that these punks could never make a full album as good as songs like this one, "Be-In," "Ride," "Boys Better," "Not If You Were the Last Junkie on Earth," etc..

 

[corianderstem]

When I fell in love with the song, I heard the whole album and was really disappointed. I have not found one other song by them I like. (Granted, I've only heard two of their albums.)

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I love their their song "We Used To Be Friends" but that's mostly because it was the opening credits song on Veronica Mars.

Great lists, Cori. I fail to see, though, why there should be a segregation of the "Big Dumb Pop Songs" from all the others. What's the difference, really? They're all songs. Are "Hey Ya!", "Extraordinary", "Take Me Out", "In My Place", "All These Things That I've Done", etc. not big, dumb pop songs in essence? I believe they are.

I just get disillusioned sometimes with the whole placing music into certain genres/boxes thing. I mean, really, what's the difference between Robbie Williams and Coldplay, for example? Not much, when you think about it. One of them might have more of a traditional "rock" sound at times and be more readily accepted as a legitimate artist, but they both write big, dumb pop songs when it comes down to it. That might be a bad example. I don't know.

Most everything on both of those lists is "pop." I guess that's what I'm trying to say. Or maybe I don't know what the fuck I'm trying to say.

 

[corianderstem]

You're overthinking it, my dear darling Gaffer. I made a separate list only because I wanted to. I spent so much of the past decade waxing rhapsodic about my favorite big, dumb pop songs, I felt they deserved their own list.

I had the same thought about Hey Ya and some of the other songs on the larger list, though. But I wasn't going to sweat over it. I just wanted to list stuff I loved without spending two hours trying to decide if Robbie Williams went on list A or list B.

 

[Dalton]

You're overthinking it, my dear darling Gaffer.

Can we all take a moment and acknowledge that this statement has probably never before or will ever again be uttered.

 

[Irishteen]

The Cardigans - You're the Storm

Long Gone Before Daylight such a great forgotten album

 

[lazarus]

Cori's 30 favorite albums of the decade (more or less in this order):

Madonna - Confessions On a Dance Floor
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Bruce Springsteen - The Rising
Dixie Chicks - Home
Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
U2 - No Line On the Horizon
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
Green Day - American Idiot
The Strokes - Is This It
Keane - Hopes and Fears
Fiona Apple - Extraordinary Machine
Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
Bruce Springsteen - We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
kd lang - Hymns of the 49th Parallel
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Joan Osborne - Righteous Love
Tori Amos - Strange Little Girls
Interpol - Antics
Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
The Cardigans - Long Gone Before Daylight
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
LCD Soundsysem - Sound of Silver
Elbow - Leaders Of the Free World
The Killers - Hot Fuss

I'm kind of shocked to only see one Shuttlecock album on here.

 

[If you shout...]

Not the right decade, but I wanted to be sure to post this, before bidding farewell to the Dandys (I mean, big + dumb pop doesn't get much better than this, if you ask me):

YouTube - The Dandy Warhols - Not If You Were The Last Junkie On Earth (HD Official Video)

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

You're overthinking it, my dear darling Gaffer.

Yeah, definitely.

I'm blaming it on New Year's Eve stress. I always get really antsy and anxious on NYE. It's actually Dick Clark's fault for inventing the holiday.

At least I'll be drinking a bunch of cheap champagne later.

 

[Dalton]

NYE is the most overrated night of the year for me. I can have a night that would be considered awesome if it were any other night of the year, but because it's NYE it seems a little flat. Always.

 

[lazarus]

This may be disappointing to some, but I really, really don't feel like ranking. So here's a bit of a free-for-all, but some of the more important ones will be closer to the top:

Super Furry Animals, Rings Around the World
Bob Dylan, Love and Theft
Radiohead, Amnesiac
Bruce Springsteen, The Rising
Spoon, Gimme Fiction
Los Campesinos!, Hold On Now, Youngster
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Pig Lib
Bettie Serveert, Log 22
Phoenix, It's Never Been Like That
Shuttlecock, No Net on the Horizon
Phoenix, Alphabetical
Radiohead, In Rainbows
The Twilight Singers, Blackberry Belle
PJ Harvey, Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Sleater-Kinney, The Woods
Kanye West, Late Registration
The White Stripes, Elephant
Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, Real Emotional Trash
My Morning Jacket, At Dawn
My Morning Jacket, It Still Moves
Madonna, Music
Steely Dan, Everything Must Go
The Arcade Fire, Funeral
LCD Soundsystem, Sound of Silver
Justin Timberlake, Futuresexxx/LoveSounds
OutKast, The Love Below
Cat Power, The Greatest
Shuttlecock, How to Manhandle an Atomic Serve
Loretta Lynn, Van Lear Rose
Jay-Z, The Blueprint
Elvis Costello, When I Was Cruel
Dirty Projectors, Bitte Orca
Super Furry Animals, Love Kraft
David Bowle, Heathen
Radiohead, Hail to the Thief
Nelly Furtado, Loose
Beck, Sea Change
Peter Gabriel, OVO
Blur, Think Tank
Amy Winehouse, Back to Black
The Raveonettes, Lust Lust Lust
Sleater-Kinney, One Beat
The Avalanches, Since I Left You
Christina Aguilera, Back to Basics
The Format, Dog Problems
Supergrass, Life on Other Planets
Emergency Music, Kiss the Culprit
Johnny Foreigner, Waited Up 'til it Was Light
Van Morrison, Down the Road
Nick Cave, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
Okkervil River, The Stage Names
Prince, 3121
Tom Waits, Alice

 

[HCL]

#1) No Line on the Horizon - U2
No particular order from now on... but the first nine complete my top 10:
Lost Souls - Doves
The Seldom Seen Kid - Elbow
In Rainbows - Radiohead
All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2
Faded Seaside Glamour - Delays
XTRMNTR - Primal Scream
Here Comes The Tears - The Tears
Supernature - Goldfrapp
American Idiot - Green Day
-------
Felt Mountain - Goldfrapp
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants - Oasis
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea - PJ Harvey
Kid A - Radiohead
"Love and Theft" - Bob Dylan
Pleased to Meet You - James
White Blood Cells - The White Stripes
The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay
Heathen Chemistry - Oasis
A Strangely Isolated Place - Ulrich Schnauss
Elephant - The White Stripes
Honkin' on Bobo - Aerosmith
Funeral - Arcade Fire
Kasabian - Kasabian
Hot Fuss - The Killers
Around the Sun - R.E.M.
Bone - Tim Booth
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2
The Runaway Found - The Veils
Demon Days - Gorillaz
Employment - Kaiser Chiefs
Confessions on a Dance Floor - Madonna
Tragedy Rocks - The Crimea
A Bigger Bang - The Rolling Stones
Get Behind Me Satan - The White Stripes
You See Colous - Delays
Empire - Kasabian
Black Holes & Revelations - Muse
Riot City Blues - Primal Scream
Broken Boy Soldiers - The Racounteurs
She Wants Revenge - She Wants Revenge
Magic - Bruce Springsteen
Secrets of the Witching Hour - The Crimea
We'll Live and Die In These Towns - The Enemy
Across The Universe - Music from the Motion Picture [Deluxe Edition] - Various artists
Super Taranta! - Gogol Bordello
† - Justice
Rock N Roll Jesus - Kid Rock
Oracular Spectacular - MGMT
Era Vulgaris - Queens of the Stone Age
Raising Sand - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
Ghosts - Siobhán Donaghy
Go Home: Live from Slane Castle Ireland CD - U2
Icky Thump - The White Stripes
Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay
Everything's the Rush - Delays
Glasvegas - Glasvegas
Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp
Chinese Democracy - Guns N' Roses
Hey Ma - James
Day & Age - The Killers
Midinight Boom - The Kills
The Fame - Lady Gaga
The Age of the Understatement - The Last Shadow Puppets
Dig Out Your Soul - Oasis
The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
Sun Gangs - The Veils
Hands - Little Boots
West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum - Kasabian
The Seldom Seen Kid Live at Abbey Road - Elbow and the BBC Concert Orchestra


There's a few things I should add maybe... but then, who cares...

 

[corianderstem]

I'm kind of shocked to only see one Shuttlecock album on here.

I struggled with putting even one album on there. The first two albums didn't hold up for me throughout the decade, and it almost seems too soon to put No Line on a best of the decade for me.

I almost put ATYCLB on the list instead, since I did love it when it came out, it seemed more representative of the band in the decade ... and then I said "fuck it, this one's my favorite of the decade, it's going on the list."

Yeah, definitely.

It's funny - I was doing some overthinking of my own after I had posted that, and was walking to my car to go home (WHOOT HALF DAY WHOOT), and it probably came across like I was segregating my pop songs from the rest of the list, but it's really far from it: I love them so much, I wanted to call them out separately. Which is kind of dumb and weird, but I decided I didn't care.

Just wanted to put it out there to say that I wasn't putting them separate because I didn't feel like they belonged with the rest of the "real" songs or anything. Far from it.

Upon further reflection, Hey Ya should be on the pop list. But in my head, I think Outkast = hip hop, and not lumped in with my Big Dumb Pop stuff. But whatever. Overthinking = I does it well.

Oh, and to tie all of that into laz's comment, U2 is such a separate beast for me, it's hard to list U2 albums and songs in any lists of favorites. I feel like I spend so much time obsessing over them, they need a separate list of their own. So maybe I should do a top 10 U2 songs of the decade or something, too. But probably not now ... probably later, when I'm bored out of my gourd and nicely buzzed on a drink or two.

 

[corianderstem]

Ghosts - Siobhán Donaghy

Also really liked Goldfrapp's last one - maybe that should have gone on my list.

Nice to see some Madonna love on other lists as well.

 

[mikal]

it's hard for me not to consider all 3 U2 albums as some of my favorite of the decade. i just listened to them too much for them not to be considered. i can honestly say that i really enjoyed all 3 even though the 90's is still my favorite U2 era. other considerations:

Doves - all of their albums, really.
Radiohead - Kid A/Amnesiac
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
Animal Collective - MPP
Deerhunter - Microcastle
Coldplay - Parachutes
Pearl Jam - Riot Act
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Pineapple Thief - Variations

 

[corianderstem]

it's hard for me not to consider all 3 U2 albums as some of my favorite of the decade. i just listened to them too much for them not to be considered. i can honestly say that i really enjoyed all 3 even though the 90's is still my favorite U2 era.

After I typed my last post, I had this same thought. Maybe the other two U2 albums should be on my list even though they didn't hold up over time.

Oh well. Maybe having some lunch would stop all the overthinking going on in my head.

 

[mikal]

After I typed my last post, I had this same thought. Maybe the other two U2 albums should be on my list even though they didn't hold up over time.

Oh well. Maybe having some lunch would stop all the overthinking going on in my head.

i've been trying to step back a lot lately and enjoy the moment. i can honestly say that i love HTDAAB. i loved it when it came out, kind of got sick of it, and now love it again. i realize that it may not be the smartest thing to say here, but i don't care. U2 are my favorite musicians, and they get a lot more slack from me.

 

[lazarus]

I struggled with putting even one album on there. The first two albums didn't hold up for me throughout the decade, and it almost seems too soon to put No Line on a best of the decade for me.

I almost put ATYCLB on the list instead, since I did love it when it came out, it seemed more representative of the band in the decade ... and then I said "fuck it, this one's my favorite of the decade, it's going on the list."

I understand how you feel. In my mind, I know that much of No Net is some of the best music I've heard this year, and this decade as well. But that odd detour in the middle gives me pause to give it such decade classic status.

ATYCLC and HTMAAS don't hit the same peaks, but they're more consistent in what they're attempting, and yet that itself isn't quite enough to be enshrined either. I do know that I get a hell of a lot of pleasure listening from the latter from start to finish, and nothing on there bugs me as much as Cock Crazy and Stand Up Referee. Of course, nothing floors me like Moment of Service, either.

It's a conundrum.

 

[phillyfan26]

NLOTH is the worst "executed" as far as the plan going into the album was (be experimental), though Bomb isn't really much better (straight guitar rock). ATYCLB is the most well executed, but by far the weakest (the second half is more boring than any stretch of songs in the band's career).

NLOTH is still the best of the three.

 

[Dalton]

If only there were a thread to discuss U2's output in the decade ...

 

[lazarus]

...with people who aren't insane.

 

[corianderstem]

If only there were a thread to discuss U2's output in the decade ...

Don't you have a wife to force into labor or something?

 

[Dalton]

I can only do so much. I'm only one man!

Actually we're heading out on the town in a little bit. We rented a room at nice restaurant for a steak and lobster meal and then we're heading downtown to watch the ball drop and then heading back to someone's hotel room. I don't know much about the hotel room or if she'll make it all the way to that point, but it should be a fun night with fun people. Plus my wife who is ready to give birth at any moment will be in an evening gown. I write "evening gown" because I'm a good husband. In my mind it sounds like "circus tent".

 

[corianderstem]

Awesome. Have a lovely evening!

 

[Jive Turkey]

Heres my favourite 25 albums of the decade, unranked. Each one meant something to me at a certain time in my life, so I have a hard time putting them in order

Arcade Fire - Funeral, Neon Bible
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say...,Favourite Worst Nightmare
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake its Morning, Cassadega
Depeche Mode - Sounds of the Universe
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights, Antics
The National - Alligator, Boxer
Radiohead - Kid A, In Rainbows
Ryan Adams - Love is Hell, Cold Roses
Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
The Streets - A Grand Dont Come for Free
Sufjan Stevens - Michigan
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, Forget the Night Ahead
U2 - All That You Cant Leave Behind, No Line on the Horizon
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
The Walkmen - You and Me

I suppose if I had to choose a top 5, the ones that had the most influence on me in no order are (I also think I'm too subjective with U2 to include them here)

The Walkmen - You and Me
Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Interpol - Turn on the Bright Lights
The National - Alligator

Thats six. deal with it

 

[lazarus]

Actually we're heading out on the pueblo in a little bit. We rented a spot at a nice adobe kiva for a corn and squash meal and then we're heading down-reservation to watch the arrow fly and then heading back to someone's teepee. I don't know much about the teepee or if she'll make it all the way to that point, but it should be a brave night with brave people. Plus my squaw who is ready to give birth at any moment will be in an evening gown. I write "evening gown" because I'm a good husband. In my mind it sounds like "buffalo hide".

Fixed.


Sounds like fun. WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!

 

[Dalton]

Fixed.


Sounds like fun. WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!

 

[Jive Turkey]

Fixed.


Sounds like fun. WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP!

I fucking lol'd