Top 100 Albums of 2000-2009: #90 - #86
The countdown continues...
---#90---
Belong - October Language
(drone, ambient)
2006
Too minimal and unstructured to be shoegazer. Too fuzzy to be 100% ambient. October Language is virtually impossible to classify, and it's challenging, enthralling listening from start to finish. Occasionally bearing a very slight resemblance to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works: Vol 2, Belong's debut release consists entirely of guitar drone, distortion and glitch, which combine to create an overall soundscape (a cliched term, I know, but it definitely applies here) that will absolutely immerse you. While Aphex Twin's masterpiece had repeating motifs for you to cling to, Belong offers no such luxury - the tracks drift and flow in a seemingly random manner, with elements of the instrumentation withering away without warning, only to reemerge (with just as little warning) at a later point. All this makes the album sound organic and totally directionless. This is unique, unpredictable and haunting music, and it's quite unlike anything else you've heard before.
---#89---
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Umsindo
(neo-soul, funk, hip-hop)
2009
To me, this album feels a lot like a spiritual companion to Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part 1 (4th World War), so it's hardly surprising that I adore it, given that Badu's release is a major favourite (one you can expect to see higher up the list). Georgia Anne Muldrow's biggest drawcard here might be the unpredictability of her songwriting, as her half-soul-half-hip-hop vocals lead each of these twenty four (!) tracks along various unforeseen pathways and surprising, meandering detours. The music, which consists of a dense melange of bubbling basslines, neo-soul vocal harmonies, strutting percussion and a host of influences derived from funk, hip-hop, electronic and world music, ebbs and flows in her wake, popping through unexpected stylistic shifts which never conform to your expectations yet always reach infinitely satisfying outcomes. Plus, there's a handful of instantly graspable cuts, like the super-groovy "Daisies", to keep the listener from losing themselves in the depths completely. Umsindo is complex, but it's a truly rewarding album - an immense, sprawling work of bold creativity that rewards repeat listens with rich detail and masterful musicianship.
---#88---
Autechre - Confield
(electronic, IDM)
2001
For a long time I felt that Autechre were my least favourite of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) crowd, with their well regarded 90s output (including the highly lauded Amber and Tri Repeatae) never really grabbing my interest. It was only recently that I bothered to check out their work from the following decade, and it left me asking "why the hell didn't anyone tell me they got so much better?" Confield is everything I wished those earlier albums were - an electronic album that perfectly harnesses the balance between the mechanical and the organic, leading to the application of descriptors which seem contradictory yet all equally apply. Throughout its nine tracks, Confield somehow finds common ground between the meticulous and the chaotic, the melodic and the avant-garde, the distant and the emotive, the precise and the unpredictable, the discomforting and the inviting, all-together making it an record of very impressive breadth and depth. I regard it as their career highpoint.
---#87---
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
(soul, funk)
2007
Sharon Jones might well be the coolest vocalist on the planet right now. Totally self-assured, with wicked attitude, stunning range, depth, maturity and a fantastic sense of humour, she's a complete package of a singer who's virtually without peer. When you back her up with the Dap-Kings, one of the tightest groups currently making funk and soul music, the results are pretty much unbeatable. My introduction to them was with 2005's slow 'n' smooth Naturally, an album I loved, but thought was lacking a little too much in upbeat floor-shakers, an area where Jones really comes into her own. Where that album narrowly missed the mark, 2007's 100 Days, 100 Nights succeeded spectacularly, and at least half the tracks grind away with an irresistibly funky abandon. The slower numbers are still there too, including a couple of beautiful gospel turns, and they're better than ever before. This is deep-down, authentic soul music that could easily convince a casual listener that they're hearing to something from the late-60s, yet it never drops into being an outright retread. Sharon Jones and her fabulous Dap-Kings leave their mark on every track, making for an album full of lively spirit and soulful personality.
---#86---
Neko Case - Blacklisted
(country, singer-songwriter)
2002
All the gusto, confidence and vocal prowess that made 2000's Furnace Room Lullaby such an immense delight were delivered two-fold on its followup, the exceptional Blacklisted. On her earlier works, it would've been a ridiculous understatement to claim that Case's voice "showed promise", yet Blacklisted saw her surge upward to an unexpected echelon that few vocalists ever reach. With Case's voice demanding such attention, however, it's important not to overlook the instrumentation and song structures upon which it's anchored, with lonely slide guitar, banjo, acoustic strums and ghostly percussion providing a lush, Southern twang that's filled with nostalgia and warmth, yet also a hint of noir. Case's songwriting has definitely taken a step upward as well, with songs like "Deep Red Bells", "Lady Pilot", "Stinging Velvet" and her lovely covers of "Look for Me (I'll Be Around)" and "Running Out of Fools" displaying an impressive grasp on the craft, often trading in twisty melodies and multi-part complexity, while still retaining their accessibility and a full emotional charge. "Deep Red Bells" deserves special mention for being possibly a career-best performance.
---#90---
Belong - October Language
(drone, ambient)
2006
Too minimal and unstructured to be shoegazer. Too fuzzy to be 100% ambient. October Language is virtually impossible to classify, and it's challenging, enthralling listening from start to finish. Occasionally bearing a very slight resemblance to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works: Vol 2, Belong's debut release consists entirely of guitar drone, distortion and glitch, which combine to create an overall soundscape (a cliched term, I know, but it definitely applies here) that will absolutely immerse you. While Aphex Twin's masterpiece had repeating motifs for you to cling to, Belong offers no such luxury - the tracks drift and flow in a seemingly random manner, with elements of the instrumentation withering away without warning, only to reemerge (with just as little warning) at a later point. All this makes the album sound organic and totally directionless. This is unique, unpredictable and haunting music, and it's quite unlike anything else you've heard before.
Click to view---#89---
Georgia Anne Muldrow - Umsindo
(neo-soul, funk, hip-hop)
2009
To me, this album feels a lot like a spiritual companion to Erykah Badu's New Amerykah Part 1 (4th World War), so it's hardly surprising that I adore it, given that Badu's release is a major favourite (one you can expect to see higher up the list). Georgia Anne Muldrow's biggest drawcard here might be the unpredictability of her songwriting, as her half-soul-half-hip-hop vocals lead each of these twenty four (!) tracks along various unforeseen pathways and surprising, meandering detours. The music, which consists of a dense melange of bubbling basslines, neo-soul vocal harmonies, strutting percussion and a host of influences derived from funk, hip-hop, electronic and world music, ebbs and flows in her wake, popping through unexpected stylistic shifts which never conform to your expectations yet always reach infinitely satisfying outcomes. Plus, there's a handful of instantly graspable cuts, like the super-groovy "Daisies", to keep the listener from losing themselves in the depths completely. Umsindo is complex, but it's a truly rewarding album - an immense, sprawling work of bold creativity that rewards repeat listens with rich detail and masterful musicianship.
---#88---
Autechre - Confield
(electronic, IDM)
2001
For a long time I felt that Autechre were my least favourite of the Intelligent Dance Music (IDM) crowd, with their well regarded 90s output (including the highly lauded Amber and Tri Repeatae) never really grabbing my interest. It was only recently that I bothered to check out their work from the following decade, and it left me asking "why the hell didn't anyone tell me they got so much better?" Confield is everything I wished those earlier albums were - an electronic album that perfectly harnesses the balance between the mechanical and the organic, leading to the application of descriptors which seem contradictory yet all equally apply. Throughout its nine tracks, Confield somehow finds common ground between the meticulous and the chaotic, the melodic and the avant-garde, the distant and the emotive, the precise and the unpredictable, the discomforting and the inviting, all-together making it an record of very impressive breadth and depth. I regard it as their career highpoint.
---#87---
Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights
(soul, funk)
2007
Sharon Jones might well be the coolest vocalist on the planet right now. Totally self-assured, with wicked attitude, stunning range, depth, maturity and a fantastic sense of humour, she's a complete package of a singer who's virtually without peer. When you back her up with the Dap-Kings, one of the tightest groups currently making funk and soul music, the results are pretty much unbeatable. My introduction to them was with 2005's slow 'n' smooth Naturally, an album I loved, but thought was lacking a little too much in upbeat floor-shakers, an area where Jones really comes into her own. Where that album narrowly missed the mark, 2007's 100 Days, 100 Nights succeeded spectacularly, and at least half the tracks grind away with an irresistibly funky abandon. The slower numbers are still there too, including a couple of beautiful gospel turns, and they're better than ever before. This is deep-down, authentic soul music that could easily convince a casual listener that they're hearing to something from the late-60s, yet it never drops into being an outright retread. Sharon Jones and her fabulous Dap-Kings leave their mark on every track, making for an album full of lively spirit and soulful personality.
---#86---
Neko Case - Blacklisted
(country, singer-songwriter)
2002
All the gusto, confidence and vocal prowess that made 2000's Furnace Room Lullaby such an immense delight were delivered two-fold on its followup, the exceptional Blacklisted. On her earlier works, it would've been a ridiculous understatement to claim that Case's voice "showed promise", yet Blacklisted saw her surge upward to an unexpected echelon that few vocalists ever reach. With Case's voice demanding such attention, however, it's important not to overlook the instrumentation and song structures upon which it's anchored, with lonely slide guitar, banjo, acoustic strums and ghostly percussion providing a lush, Southern twang that's filled with nostalgia and warmth, yet also a hint of noir. Case's songwriting has definitely taken a step upward as well, with songs like "Deep Red Bells", "Lady Pilot", "Stinging Velvet" and her lovely covers of "Look for Me (I'll Be Around)" and "Running Out of Fools" displaying an impressive grasp on the craft, often trading in twisty melodies and multi-part complexity, while still retaining their accessibility and a full emotional charge. "Deep Red Bells" deserves special mention for being possibly a career-best performance.