Monday, September 14, 2009

Fave Songs of the 2000s

Laudable post by T. Azimuth. I'm not going to compete with his in-depth analysis. Over the the next couple of weeks, I want to get out my list, but I'm not going to cap it. I'm going to try to do five tracks at a time and add some commentary. The order of these songs does indicate some preferential treatment. They're the ones I remembered first.


Andrew Bird - "Weather Systems"
The exact moment Bird stopped being a frontman and became a chamber-pop maestro. Love the whistling at the track's end. Search out the Blogoteque version of this song with him walking down the streets of Paris with just his violin.

Deerhoof - "The Galaxist"
I really loved two songs off the Friend Opportunity album: this one and "Believe E.S.P." Both have fantastic breakdowns. I chose this one because of its internal variety; it's a two minute forty second mini-suite with compressed dynamics/pop sensibility/crazy uncanny drum figures/killer three note guitar lick in the breakdown.

Mates of State - "Ha ha"
It's in the song's first minute. The drums cut, and the keyboard plays the repeating riff over a changing bass line. The the drums come back in on fire. The day I got this album, I probably listened to that part alone ten consecutive times. Really fantastic live song too.

LCD Soundsystem - "Us v. Them"
Starts taking off about three minutes in when the hi-hat tightens up and starts getting pelted with sixteenth notes. Great bass line in that middle section too. Didn't like this song initially until they led off with it when I saw them at Virgin Music Fest in 07. Then I couldn't get enough. Terrific running song/slow burn/dance groove with intricate percussion.

My Brightest Diamond - "Golden Star"
If you don't like the last minute of this song, you don't like MBD. Her dead on female Buckley impersonation reaches a peak on the album's second track. LOVED this entire album, but would always give people this song first because her strengths are so crystallized here.

1 comment:

Kenneth M. Camacho said...

Not a bad start, Monescu. Once again, I'm envious of the clarity of your prose. You're also already writing more efficiently than me. Color me green.

As for content, I dig the A. Bird shout-out, but that song is a strange choice. I still haven't figured out what you see in "Weather Systems"...can you give me another copy of that record, plus any Bowl of Fire stuff you might have? You mentioned today that we needed to find a more efficient way of sharing music--the obvious answer is waiting until we can load up respective .mp3 CDs with material (what's that? around 10 albums?).

Deerhoof: agree.

Mates of State: I'm not with you MoS--I still think its kitschy and a bit hollow--but I listened to that intro and it does, in fact, rock.

LCD: still not buying the dance thing, but there's no doubt it's been important for you over the last few years. So, I'll grant this, if only because I love the "New York" song off that album.

MBD: Again, I've yet to be totally sold on the artist...but I need to revisit that record. Can you add it to the list of things you should burn for me? You're up to at least 3 records now.

MORE, MORE!!