Best album in the decade 2000-2009

Maybe I mistake most important album with most important band.
Maybe the album isn’t even their major masterpiece, that one was released in the 90ies.
Maybe half of you who read this disagree, but my choice is far that controversial as the release of the album.
To me it is a “safe choice”. Maybe many of us are wrong, when we pick an album of the last decade so close after leaving the former decade.
But this album is a landmark. Their so-called masterpiece from ’97 promised an inheritor to U2. Not extrovert, rather introvert and sneering. And while Ok Computer is facing backwards, Kid A is forward-looking into the new decade, maybe even century.

I met with a couple of guys, just the same from the previous “Night before New Years Eve”, and we played two songs from albums within three categories:

Most important album from a musical perspective.

Most important album from a personal perspective.

And most important album from Denmark.

As introduced above I chose Radiohead “Kid A” from a musical perspective. My friends chose the following albums:

Scott Walker – The Drift
Elbow – Asleep in the Back
Modest Mouse – Moon & Antarctica
Eels – Blinking Lights and other Revelations
The National – Alligator
Battles – Mirrored
Kevin Drumm – Sheer Mellish Miasma

From the personal perspective I have been very fond of Thee Silver Mt Zion. But if I should bring out an album that has meant the most to me I’d say Man’sbestfriend “New Human is Illegal”. The poetry, the aggression, the samples, the humor, everything is just a perfect ‘unit’. My friends chose:

Ilyas Ahmed – Between Two Skies / Towards the Night
Interpol – Turn on the Bright Lights
Sigur Ros – ()
Christian Kjellvander – Songs from a two-room chapel
Beirut – Gulag Orkestar
The National – Alligator
Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy – More Revery

In the last category I and one other chose Efterklang “Tripper” to be the best album from Denmark in the same decade. Other picks were:

Manual – Azure Vista
Moi Caprice – The Art of Kissing Properly
Tiger Tunes – Absolutely Worthless Compared To Important Books
Decorate Decorate – Normandie
Speaker Bite Me – If Love is Missin It must be Imposed
Mikael Simpson – Bsider, udtag og meget triste radiomix

Oh my a lot of albums have not even been mentioned above. But if you like some of the choices above, do check out Pitchfork > P2K. Maybe you find your own favourite there.

Part 3: Smells like dedication. 1992 – 1994

The 3rd CD in my humble collection was Sophie B Hawkins “Tongues and Tails” and I don’t remember what the 4th was. (I have a friend (blog) who from the beginning has written down the chronological order, when every album he owns has been bought).
Maybe it was Metallica. It doesn’t really matter. My 5th CD became one of the most important albums I have ever listened to. My first experience with Nirvana was on MTV the same year as I listened to “More Powers Ballads”. At first I didn’t like the single “Smells like teen spirit”. I turned the TV off a couple of times (it was on heavy rotation). But I began to like it more and more. And when starting in school after summer holiday, my musical taste got a fast forward direction.
Namedropping: Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, Breeders, some Sonic Youth, Stina Nordenstam, Radiohead, Tori Amos and the Danish Dizzy Miss Lizzy (preferred above Psyched up Janis and Kashmir). Most of the influence came from the radioshow “Det elektriske barometer”, but music was suddenly something I could talk about in school – not just listen to what other spoke about and thought was cool. Indeed an identity was built on music and style. But as I had no knowledge on fashion. And my power of judgement regarding cloths was on the one hand terrible. And on the other hand I did my shopping with my mom. How was she supposed to understand the fashion of grunge artists and sloppy teenagers from independent boarding schools for lower secondary students (there must be a better word)?
Still I had a lot to learn. As Incesticide was put on to the shelves of HMV (later M&M Shop and then Fona 2000), I thought it was a brand new record, not knowing the meaning of b-sides and demos fully.
Going to high school improved the musical direction and my dedication to – not only grunge -but music in general. Going to concerts, night clubs (Dancecore at Stengade 30) or just listening to the records of my new friends added a social and extroverted dimension to something that first and foremost had been something I listened to in my bedroom.
The Grunge wave got me. And I while some records were left behind I continued to play “Nevermind” and “In Utero” when my attention shifted from Seattle, USA to Britain with bands like Pulp, Oasis, Radiohead (once again) and Garbage.