Working Up To It: Twofer Also-Ran's of the Aughts

I've compiled a largely personal, largely random, and mostly just large list of the albums that I consider to be the best of the aughts. And this isn't it! Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of solid candidates that didn't quite make the final cut, so, by way of practice, I offer them up to you here, my five also-ran's of the last ten years, in loose chronological order.

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JACK JOHNSON



Jack Johnson's "Brushfire Fairytales" & "On & On," released on January 29, 2002, and May 6, 2003, respectively, are a pair of lovely, ramshackle albums crafted from Mr. Johnson's presumably low-key, pre-fame life in Hawaii. They are thematically surfer/hippie, anti-progress, anti-consumerist. "Symbol in my Driveway" rivals Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" for best snap! on those who live and die by status symbols, and "Flake" is an unqualified classic.

Flake - Jack Johnson - Brushfire Fairytales
Symbol in my Driveway - Jack Johnson - On & On

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RUFUS WAINWRIGHT



Released a scant two weeks after "Brushfire Fairytales," Rufus Wainwright's "Poses" is very nearly its antithesis. Overproduced, metropolitan and glorious, "Poses" is a fantastic rumination on the many facets of an eminently talented man. "Want One," which followed a year and a half later, pushes the theatre envelope even further. With tracks like "Oh What a World" and "My Phone's On Vibrate For You," "Want One" is self-referential and fun to the extreme.

The Consort - Rufus Wainwright - Poses
Oh What a World - Rufus Wainwright - Want One

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KATHLEEN EDWARDS



Kathleen Edwards owned a little piece of my heart in the mid-Aughts. With "Failer," released in January of 2003, and "Back to Me," which followed in March of 2005, this alt-country Canadienne explored the timeless territory of love & loneliness, breakups and other-womanhood, with just the right amounts of strength and sadness mixed in.

One More Song the Radio Won't Like - Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Somewhere Else - Kathleen Edwards - Back to Me

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THE WEAKERTHANS



Although I didn't discover them until the September 2007 release of "Reunion Tour," The Weakerthans had of course been in action for years before then. John K. Samson pushes all my buttons, male singer/songwriter wise, and, though I usually prefer the earlier works of any given artist, 2003's "Reconstruction Site" and 2007's "Reunion Tour" both contain enough gems to keep me convinced I'll never have to look backwards for this band's best work. "Civil Twilight," in particular, has become something of a personal anthem for me, and would definitely make my top tracks of the decade list, should I ever decide to make one.

One Great City! - The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site
Civil Twilight - The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour

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WHY?



I can't quite figure out how Why? got bumped off my Best of the Aughts list. "Elephant Eyelash" and "Alopecia" are two of the strongest, most unique records I've heard this decade, but here we are just the same. We've twice trekked to see the brothers Wolf, and have yet to be disappointed by same, although "Alopecia" and the "Eskimo Snow" produced two very different shows. Yoni Wolf in particular is starting to look a bit like a first term president, as though the pressures of success are wearing on him. I'm just happy they're still producing.

Gemini (Birthday Song) - Why? - Elephant Eyelash
These Few Presidents - Why? - Alopecia

Not looking forward to country and western though.

I once had a discussion with someone, and I honestly can't remember if it was in real life or on the internet somewhere, but any way this guy was arguing that you couldn't call yourself a real David Bowie fan unless you liked everything the guy had done. Even the weird industrial-esque Berlin albums. At the time I disagreed strongly, but I've been reconsidering my position of late. I think it's not that you have to like everything by an artist to be a real fan, but rather you have to have given everything a real chance. I consider myself a "real" John Lennon fan, hell I even have a tattoo of the guy, but I know that some (a lot, even) of his solo stuff is a little less than awesome.

I've been applying this opinion to music in general. See, I've always discounted entire genres because I didn't like them. Hip hop and jazz being the main ones here. And that's fine, there's no law that says one has to like every style of music, but he thing is I'd never really tried to like them. And how can I call myself a lover of music when there are whole genres out there I'd never even tried?

So, I turned my attention to hip hop first. I started out with Aesop Rock, because he did that one track with JD of the Mountain Goats. Wasn't really my thing. I could appriciate what the guy was doing and the sheer skill it took to do it, but it didn't work for me. I like clear, structured and literate lyrics, and it seemed that so much of hip hop is more concerned with the sound of the words as opposed to the words themselves. (I'm not saying that's a bad thing, it's just not my thing). I tried Buried, an artist who gets a lot of exposure over at emusic (bah, emusic. I'm still bitter) but while the actual music of his songs was pleasing, again the lyrics left me wanting.

I was just about to give up. To say, well, I tried, and now I can say without guilt that I do not like hip hop. And then. Tucked away in a dusty corner of some obscure Live Journal music community, I found this:

Why? - Alopecia

Holy shit.

This is everything I wanted from hip hop, that I didn't even know I wanted. The music is interestingly arranged. The hip hoppy beat is there, but it weaves in and out and around pianos and strngs and hell is that a glockenspiel I hear? Some of the songs are gritty like Buriel, but then some of them rival Sufjan Stevens for sheer prettiness.

But if you know me at all you know there's really only one thing needed to win me over; the lyrics. Does this album deliver? Yes, holy fuck yes, yes, once again yes, it most definitely does! Not since I heard Going to Georgia for the first time (and dear god Jess, do you realise it's been almost four years since you hooked me up with that song) and heard John Darnielle sing "the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it's you, and that your standing in the doorway" has my mind been so immediately taken with a singer's words. And they are whole, complete words. Making up whole complete sentences. And not one ounce of rhythm or cadence is lost.

Religion and death seem to be to be main themes here, although it will take a few more listens on my part before I'll be ready to discuss that with any real confidence. Jonathon "yoni" Wolf skips easily from darker stuf, like the line "In Berlin I saw two men fuck in the dark corner of a basketball court / Just a slight jangle of pocket change pulsing" from 'The Hollows' to more precious indie one liners, like in 'FatalistPalmistry' where he sings, "I sleep on my back because it's good for the spine / and coffin rehearsal." But perhaps my favourite line (at the moment) comes from 'These Few Presidents;' "yours is the funeral I'd fly to from anywhere." I mean, come on people. Have you ever seen indie hipster love summed so well as that?

Having been so rewarded for my forays into hip hop I'm actually looking forward to what I'm going discover when I turn my sights on Jazz, or ambient, or techno. (And you know you guys are going to be hearing all about it).

Song of the Sad Assasin
"i'll suck the marrow out / and rape your hollow bones yoni"

These Few Presidents
"i thought, there is no paved street / worthy of your perfect scandanavian feet"

A Sky For Shoeing Horses Under
"and look at the sidewalk in front of me / and my tennis shoes go in and out of the frame"