Being that it’s a rainy day where I am right now and I’ve been meaning to do a few “Best of the 00’s” lists, when I found myself making a playlist of climate-appropriate musical selections it seemed like a good chance to collect some impressions.
Starting with Badly Drawn Boy’s Hour of the Bewilderbeast in 2000 — winner of the decade’s first Mercury Prize. It opens low-yet-still-warm with cello and french horn on “The Shining.” Conversely, “Once Around the Block” is a jaunty-yet-genuine picker-upper.
Then I’ve got Sparklehorse in 2001 with It’s a Wonderful Life. The langorous title track [don't ask me about that fan-made YouTube vid] always bothered me by seeming to try too hard at nothingness, but the damn thing stuck in my head and would come back sometimes a year since I’d heard it. A couple of rockers, “Piano Fire” and “King of Nails,” kept me interested enough early-on.
Then I’m going to go with South’s From Here on In, released in the UK in 2001. I loved this album from start to finish — not so much as an all-around great album, but for certain times, i.e., rainy days, it suited me perfectly. Whenever I put this on, inevitably, by the time it finishes I find I’ve lost track of time (flow!). I don’t know anyone else who liked it, nor did I make any effort to introduce anyone to it — especially not after American Eagle adopted “Broken Head” for their massively annoying advertising campaign (and I definitely kept it to myself after The O.C. got ahold of another one).
Fortunately for that didn’t happen with The Last Broadcast, released in 2002 by Doves (more Brits). I think this is the strongest album of all of these picks so far — not necessarily my favourite, but the best I’ve listed so far — and critics largely agreed… Oops, spoke too soon about The O.C. – looks like “Caught By the River” was the show’s “best music moment #37.”
I think I might be showing my age by assuming there’s a stigma attached to a song that’s featured on a show like The O.C. There was a time when that meant a song had officially ceased being cool, now TV music directors (whether for shows or advertisers) have displaced radio DJs and programming directors as arbiters of cool.
Either way, I started losing interest and my tastes sort of settled while I tried figuring out what “these kids these days” are up to.
Next up is 2004’s Love is Hell, by Ryan Adams. I only just started listening to this a couple of years ago, even though I already liked Adams in theory and I loved Gold and almost put it on this list (but it’s more break-up blue than rainy-day blue). Since then this has remained one of my favourites, and I certainly think it’s the best on this list. I’m not even a huge fan of “Wonderwall” [insert requisite O.C clip which I just found and will add no comment to].”
Out of what passes for me as “recent,” I’m a fan of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago . I thought the ”Skinny Love” performance on Letterman was pretty awesome; then his Black Cab Session with “Creature Fear“ is what finally sold me.
The only other recent ones I can think of are maybe Band of Horses, who I’ve come to really late and haven’t fully decided on yet. Seems like I should mention Wilco too — if only because I know the Amazon and Last.fm recommendo-bots would… And I’m tempted to say Radiohead too, but I think I’ll save them for a “Late-Night Reflection Albums” post or something.
Another honourable mention goes to PJ Harvey’s Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea, which I stumbled on late and was only just now reminded of when a few dots in this post started to connect (won Mercury Prize, she did guest-vocals for Sparklehorse, and her album had Tom Yorke as a guest). It’s more ’between-moods’ than ‘rainy-day.’ There’s some haunting sort of stuff but there are also one or two that rock even harder than any of these dudes.
After all, the point of rainy-day music isn’t to stay in a rainy-day mood forever.
[Final note: I know there are a lot I should've mentioned -- mostly in my 2004 - 2007 gap of pop culture apathy. These are my own picks, I welcome yours [also I can tell you I'm already kicking myself for forgetting a couple].]
