Irish Times' top twenty albums of the decade

loveissucide

thetonynator wrote: »

The Blizzards - A Public display of affection.
Brilliant album!!!

Not very indie/alternative,never mind listenable.

Ruire

thetonynator wrote: »

The Blizzards - A Public display of affection.
Brilliant album!!!

I agree with loveissucide, it's a terrible album. Then again, the Blizzards are quite dreadful. Trust me, I'm a doctor? Not a chance, mate. And then there's that single of theirs named after Ireland's most popular free-ads newspaper, Buy and Sell.

KCAccidental

i never think broken social scene - you forgot it on people will make these lists, but i am always disappointed that they dont because it should be in any top 20 list of the decade

jill_valentine

Not to be, y'know, one of those people, but I'm continually outraged at the glaring absence of Death From Above 1979 from all these end of decade lists.

Spiritoftheseventies

mal1 wrote: »

Happy to see Arcade on top. Not sure about Fleet Foxes and Bon Ivor being in the top 10.

Fleet foxes a great album

Valmont

OI wrote: »

It's been said a million times, particularly on the IT blog, but Kid A is the most beautiful album of the last decade aswell as being the most progressive and arguably important. The complete change in sound from ok computer, the high concepts involved and the musical representation of isolation that kid a brought make this easily my favourite album of all time and probably the only album of the last decade that I still listen to regularly. It's non inclusion makes this list completely irrelevant.

With that review, I am buying it this instant!

SligoBrewer

Loveless wrote: »

where the feck is... and Snow Patrol "Eyes Open"

Are you serious?

Funeral is very meh and if that's the best this decade has to offer it's be en a very poor decade, although the nod to Avalanche's Since I Left You is well appreciated by yours truly.

Although since they seem to be going for albums that opened new subgenres on that list (Funeral, WPSIATWIN, Back to Black) the omission of Crystal Castles is gaping imo.

List also is lacking The Rising.

Spiritoftheseventies

SligoBrewer wrote: »

Are you serious?

Funeral is very meh and if that's the best this decade has to offer it's be en a very poor decade, although the nod to Avalanche's Since I Left You is well appreciated by yours truly.

Although since they seem to be going for albums that opened new subgenres on that list (Funeral, WPSIATWIN, Back to Black) the omission of Crystal Castles is gaping imo.

List also is lacking The Rising.

Are you serious. Funeral an instant classic

RastaRed

1.Kings Of Leon-Aha Shake Heartbreak
2.Badly Drawn Boy-The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast
3.Arctic Monkeys-Whatever People Say It Is
4.The Strokes-Is This It
5.Daft Punk-Discovery
6.Doves-The Last Broadcast
7.Elbow-The Seldom Seen Kid
8.The Killers-Hot Fuzz
9.Kasabian-West Pauper Luantic Asylum
10.The Streets-A Grand Don't Come For Free

SligoBrewer

bayviewclose wrote: »

Are you serious. Funeral an instant classic

Classics are never instant.

L.T.D

Muse - Origin of Symmetry

Spiritoftheseventies

SligoBrewer wrote: »

Classics are never instant.

this one was

blow69

Yeah Yeah Yeahs?

insinkerator

no sigur ros?

lol never mind, musta missed it


While i love for emma forever ago, im not too sure on it being that high on the list. Definitely within the top 20 though

rcaz

OI wrote: »

It's been said a million times, particularly on the IT blog, but Kid A is the most beautiful album of the last decade aswell as being the most progressive and arguably important. The complete change in sound from ok computer, the high concepts involved and the musical representation of isolation that kid a brought make this easily my favourite album of all time and probably the only album of the last decade that I still listen to regularly. It's non inclusion makes this list completely irrelevant.

It's my favourite album of the decade too, and I'd put it way ahead of everything else, but I think it's important to discuss these things with balanced views/opinions. I love the album, but I can see why others are so skeptical about it; it's very easy to see where the influences came from, and some of it is very derivative.

The electronic stuff, especially Idioteque and Kid A, is straight outta Autechre, the strings in How To Disappear Completely are heavily influenced by Penderecki/Ligeti (and the rest of the song is a pretty normal acoustic ballad), Optimistic and In Limbo are very Radiohead-y guitar rock, Motion Picture Soundtrack is fairly usual organ music...

Radiohead brought a lot of different influences together, and did so immaculately, making a perfect album IMO, but it's still a meshing of lots of different influences stuck together. That's where the skepticism comes from.

OI

@ el pron

it's a superb post in fairness, particularly the first half of the final paragraph, which I wholeheartedly agree with. I haven't listened to a lot of autechre so I can't really comment there. You may very well be right. I can hear an aphex influence on idioteque and there is clearly a big nod to jazz on national anthem. But they make it their own and the songs are so painstakingly crafted that the artists mentioned were merely sound influences not songwriting if that makes sense.

It was nice to see kid a top the pitchfork list though.

PhiliousPhogg

…and I would say Thom Yorke’s vocals work really well with the whole feeling of angst and isolation throughout the album.

2 I think should be in that list:

Bjork – Vespertine. She is of course a powerful singer and always surrounded herself with top notch producers, but the production on this album really is exquisite.

Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest. Again superb production and attention to detail. Saw them live and all 4 have input into vocals at different times. Great songs, very delicate but a really rich gorgeous sound.

Carter96

What the hell are Elbow doing on that list? Boring and seriously overrated.

You and Me by The Walkmen and Primary Colours by The Horrors are much better than some of those on that list.

Cathy Davey? WTF? P1ss off.

I hate lists like this anyway but, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart deserve a mention at least.

Scubadevils

El Pr0n wrote: »

It's my favourite album of the decade too, and I'd put it way ahead of everything else, but I think it's important to discuss these things with balanced views/opinions. I love the album, but I can see why others are so skeptical about it; it's very easy to see where the influences came from, and some of it is very derivative.

The electronic stuff, especially Idioteque and Kid A, is straight outta Autechre, the strings in How To Disappear Completely are heavily influenced by Penderecki/Ligeti (and the rest of the song is a pretty normal acoustic ballad), Optimistic and In Limbo are very Radiohead-y guitar rock, Motion Picture Soundtrack is fairly usual organ music...

Radiohead brought a lot of different influences together, and did so immaculately, making a perfect album IMO, but it's still a meshing of lots of different influences stuck together. That's where the skepticism comes from.

I must listen again to Kid A - I believe a lot of people got into Autechre on the strength of that album. For me I bought it as I heard Radiohead had been influenced by Autechre and being an Autechre fan I was keen to hear it... I listened once over a family meal and it didn't hit me, the wrong scenario though I'll admit to give a new album the once over - I may have listened again since then but can't specifically remember as I went through a stupid phase of buying way too much music and some albums have got lost in the blur of it all!

Think I'll dig it out and stick it on tonight again with a more focused listen...

Scubadevils

Tried it again but got impatient during the first track and turned it off His voice annoys me for some reason, maybe another time...

g5fd6ow0hseima

Felixdhc wrote: »

Tried it again but got impatient during the first track and turned it off His voice annoys me for some reason, maybe another time...

I'm surprised you didnt write back saying thats youve been converted
I find the first track to be one of the best, if not the best.

Scubadevils

Judah Refined Certificate wrote: »

I'm surprised you didnt write back saying thats youve been converted
I find the first track to be one of the best, if not the best.

In fairness the first track reminds me of a time I'd rather forget which might be part of the problem - it was on a mix CD by Unkle which I played a lot back in 2002.

http://www.discogs.com/UNKLE-Sounds-Do-Androids-Dream-Of-Electric-Beats/release/107111

I should get over the memory and just listen to the music I suppose!

The Pontiac

Daithio wrote: »

6 Gillian Welch

Time (The Revelator) (2001)

In creative cohesion with partner David Rawlings, Los Angeles singer-songwriter Welch recorded this stark fusion of old-time mountain music and hymnal country on vintage equipment in Nashville’s famed Studio B (Elvis Presley’s preferred studio, apparently, as referenced on Elvis Presley Blues).

Heritage and ghosts intact, Welch delivered a batch of songs that had little lyrical warmth but were glimpses into lives mired in austerity. Musically it’s sparse, yet it has an irresistible hypnotic quality that sets Welch miles apart from her contemporaries. TCL

I got a loan of this a few days ago and it hasn't left the cd player in my car since. I'd already heard a few songs from the album, but only when listening to it in its entirety you really appreciate how great it is. A future classic..

ntlbell

Felixdhc wrote: »

Tried it again but got impatient during the first track and turned it off His voice annoys me for some reason, maybe another time...

Heh, He used to annoy the **** out of me too.

Do you like any of the albums?

Give the bends a few spins and come back to kid a IMO

rcaz

Felixdhc wrote: »

Tried it again but got impatient during the first track and turned it off His voice annoys me for some reason, maybe another time...

If you're an Autechre fan, start with the title track or Idioteque, I reckon

I'm one of those people that got into Autechre through Radiohead. Now I can see that Radiohead aren't doing anything particularly innovative with electronics. But I really like the types of sounds they use, love the songs (obsessive Radiohead fan btw :P), and it opened up a whole new type of music which I would've previously written off as "uns uns uns uns" music.

applehunter

If Ash's album had 10/13 potentially hit songs then why isnt it the No.1 album.

ntlbell

El Pr0n wrote: »

If you're an Autechre fan, start with the title track or Idioteque, I reckon

I'm one of those people that got into Autechre through Radiohead. Now I can see that Radiohead aren't doing anything particularly innovative with electronics. But I really like the types of sounds they use, love the songs (obsessive Radiohead fan btw :P), and it opened up a whole new type of music which I would've previously written off as "uns uns uns uns" music.

You might enjoy Biosphere also.

Blisterman

How can you have a list of albums of the decade without any hip-hop. I realise not everyone's a fan, but it's clearly been the main genre of music this decade.

It's like having a list of best albums from the 60's comprised entirely of jazz albums.

ntlbell

Blisterman wrote: »

How can you have a list of albums of the decade without any hip-hop. I realise not everyone's a fan, but it's clearly been the main genre of music this decade.

It has?

News to me.

rcaz

Blisterman wrote: »

How can you have a list of albums of the decade without any hip-hop. I realise not everyone's a fan, but it's clearly been the main genre of music this decade.

It's like having a list of best albums from the 60's comprised entirely of jazz albums.

I like a lot of hip hop, but as far as I can tell, almost all the hip hop I really like is from the 90s. The one exampled I can think of off the top of my head from the 00s is Deltron 3030 which was released in 2000. I think hip hop got corrupted in the 00s more than anything.

And you could make a damn fine list of 10 jazz albums from the 60s.