What music has shaped this decade for you?

[23 Daves]

So, what have I liked? Primal Scream were one of my favourite bands throughout the nineties, and started the decade by releasing the marvellous 'Xtrmntr', which I'd probably put in my top ten records of all time. But then it all went downhill. 'Evil Heat' had its moments (particularly the Neu! influenced 'Scanner Darkly'), but the last two albums have been utter cack.

Absolutely, completely agreed.

Super Furry Animals have also gone downhill in my eyes, but at least they started the decade well, with the low-key 'Mwng' and my personal favourite of their albums, 'Rings Around The World'. 'Phantom Power' was the last album I really liked, and then they were hit with the Curse Of The Best Of - everything they released after the singles compilation didn't grab me as much as everything they'd done before. (See also Saint Etienne a few years earlier.) Then they succumbed to the other Curse, that of the Side Project, which spread too few ideas over too many records (see also Jack White.)

But here we must part company.  I agree with you that "Rings Around The World" is one of their finest albums - although I know many CaBbers disagree - but there was plenty of life in the old dog after the "Songbook" album, as evidenced on "Hey Venus" which (coincidentally enough) I finished listening to before reading this post, and thought still stood up really well despite my over-familiarity with many of the tracks.  "Dark Days/ Light Years" was much more of a let-down, and I'd agree they were spreading their ideas around too many different projects by this point - but I'm confident they'll get over it. 

As for the rest of the decade, I've found that I very rarely consciously think about when records were released now.  In days of yore I'd make a real effort to listen to as much new music as possible, whereas these days it's a case of just listening to whatever good material drifts under my nose, whether it was made in 1958 or 2009.  New artists?  Fuck 'em, if they're any good, I'll usually find out from somebody sooner or later.  They'll get my money eventually.  It's not a race.  I know I should care much more than I do, and I am kind to struggling musicians usually, but really, there are only so many pigging hours in the day, and there's decades and decades of brilliant music out there I haven't heard which I also wouldn't want to cut myself off from.

I have liked a great deal of stuff besides the material I've mentioned above though.  Boards of Canada, Misty's Big Adventure, David Cronenberg's Wife, Chris T-T, The White Stripes, Neon Neon, The Fall, and Pulp have all released albums which have jolted me in some way and will probably be remembered by me as standouts in this decade for years to come, and there's been a ton of other good material besides which I wouldn't want to spend a long time singling out, but has livened life up a little or at least made it more interesting.  I liked Art Brut's inept cheekiness but would never single them out as a "classic band".  Dufus were (are) weird, disjointed, and startling live, but a bit flawed on record.  And so it goes.  One thing which has become apparent to me recently is how many great live bands there are at the moment who can't seem to cut it on disc.  I have to wonder if it's due to them not having as much spare cash to splash out in studios, or some other problem entirely. 

Ask me again in another ten years, I suppose, I'll probably have a better idea then.

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

which might be why Im now listening to delta 5, peking opera, and relics of detroit techno.

See, where would you be without me to guide you? ;)

slit my wrists and pass the first suede album please.... Im ready for this decade of music to end.

Aw hell ya. Lets take it back to 1993 - acne, sexual frustration, and nihilistic hopelessness. Oh wait...that's me now.

this really sparked my quest into the varying soundscapes of world music, whether it be thai pop, indian ragas or african field recordings. world music seems a bit wide as a genre, but perhaps thats why I can say it has consistenly provided me with the most satisfying listening experiences over the last several years.

Agreed. I need to find some authentic african drumming though, most of the stuff i come across seems to be more fusion-based - guitars, violins, fuzz boxes et al. I need some proper stripped down riddims that go on for 20 minutes at a time. Hmm ive pretty much talked myself into joining a drum circle here havent i?

[El Unicornio, mang]

For all his occasional solipsism Mark Kozelek (under the name Sun Kil Moon) found, with April, something of a career high.
Sun Kil Moon - Lost Verses

I really liked this song by Sun Kil Moon, but struggled a bit with the rest of the album

Carry Me , Ohio - Sun Kil Moon

[Whellybob]

I really liked this song by Sun Kil Moon, but struggled a bit with the rest of the album

Even the sprawling 14 minute Duk Koo Kim? As many minutes as rounds fought by the songs namesake before he died. I find that to be quite bold formally. The song requires a form of endurance to listen to, though, of course, the feat of listening to the record is massively insignificant in comparison to the actual feat of the fight itself - I think it's that thought process that informs the poignancy of the 14-minute form.

The allusions to boxing (Salvador Sanchez, Pancho Villa) seem to exemplify Kozelek's understanding of the allegorical relationship between those track lengths and his songs subjects too...

I'm thinking out loud here but... there seems a more evident and consistent connection between the long song form and the thematic material in the Sun Kil Moon work than there was in the days of the Red House Painters.

In fact... perhaps Ghosts of the Great Highway is a better album than April. I don't know.

[The Boston Crab]

FUCK ALL YOU GUYS

etc.

[The Boston Crab]

I don't mean it, you guys.

[Serge]

In days of yore I'd make a real effort to listen to as much new music as possible, whereas these days it's a case of just listening to whatever good material drifts under my nose, whether it was made in 1958 or 2009.  New artists?  Fuck 'em, if they're any good, I'll usually find out from somebody sooner or later.

This is pretty much true of me, as many, if not more, pre-2000 records have captured my imagination in the last ten years as contemporary records have. In fact, for a couple of years in the middle of this decade, I all but gave up on new music. But having spent the last three years working in record shops, my interest in new bands has resurged, though I'm still as likely to listen to reissues as anything new. One recent development in my life that surprised me is my starting to buy vinyl again, and vinyl becoming such a big deal for people buying new records again, which I think is fantastic.

[confettiinmyhair]

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco and Bows + Arrows by The Walkmen were real slow burners for me, it took me a long time before I could appreciate their merits. On a personal level I really identified with Up The Bracket by The Libertines, it certainly altered my attitude to life at the time, I couldn't really buy into the later soap opera fallout and the hoopla that surrounds Pete Doherty but some of the songs on that album seemed genuinely uplifting, having said that I couldn't spin that album even if you paid me.

In my opinion the single most influential album on a wider scale is Funeral by The Arcade Fire, the amount of albums I've heard this year alone that draw that album as an influence is unreal. I think this will go down as one of the all time great albums.

[Serge]

Arcade Fire are another one of those bands that people rave about that I just don't get. I've heard both 'Funeral' and 'Neon Bible' on more than one occasion, and they seem like the dictionary definition of 'nothing special' to my ears.

I do keep thinking of other artists I've liked from the past ten years though, one really obvious name missing from my list being Sufjan Stevens. 'Michigan', 'Illinoise' and 'Seven Swans' are all fabulous records, and parts of 'The Avalanche' are great too. Has anyone heard his new album 'The BQE' at all?

[Vitalstatistix]

Call me excitable and kneejerk, but over the past three days I've discovered my new favourite band of this decade! Just in time!!

Why didn't you guys tell me how freakin awesome The New Pornographers are!? Every song's a hit right in the sweet gooey pop spot.

[Vitalstatistix]

Arcade Fire and Sufjan (I always called him Suff Jan, but I recently discovered it's Soof ee an, d'oh!) are both artists I caned when Funeral and Illinoise came out respectively, but I just don't find myself going back to them. "Casimir Pulaski Day" still makes me want to cry though.

[ThickAndCreamy]

The music that has shaped my decade changes every week. Just this week I've realised the brilliance of Richmond Fontaine who nearly moved me to tears. Last week was Sonic Youth and nearly every week has been Grandaddy.

To be honest it's mostly been a mix of 90's and 00's music but I really can't say bands that have shaped this decade or I'd just be listing my favourite bands.

[trotsky assortment]

Call me excitable and kneejerk, but over the past three days I've discovered my new favourite band of this decade! Just in time!!

Why didn't you guys tell me how freakin awesome The New Pornographers are!? Every song's a hit right in the sweet gooey pop spot.

I discovered these guys a couple of months back.  I'm still not familiar with lots of their stuff, but there are three or four songs from their 'Twin Cinema' album which are absolutely superb.

[Vitalstatistix]

I discovered these guys a couple of months back.  I'm still not familiar with lots of their stuff, but there are three or four songs from their 'Twin Cinema' album which are absolutely superb.

'Twin Cinema' is just such a brilliant rush of hooks and surprising melodies. The first album, 'Mass Romantic', has a more ramshackle production feel, but it's equally brilliant, and gets better on each listen. The climax of "Exectution Day" gives me shivers. I'm going to check out the second album 'Electric Version' now.

[klaatu!]

'Twin Cinema' is just such a brilliant rush of hooks and surprising melodies. The first album, 'Mass Romantic', has a more ramshackle production feel, but it's equally brilliant, and gets better on each listen. The climax of "Exectution Day" gives me shivers. I'm going to check out the second album 'Electric Version' now.

Electric Version is my favourite, and possibly in my top ten albums of the decade (which I'm trying to compile, but it's proving a difficult task). It's slightly tighter and less ramshackle (great word) than Mass Romantic, but they've really upped the pop element. Superb melodies, some lovely Neko harmonies, just perfectly constructed songs. They have this tremendous knack of teasing a chorus before launching into it, 'From Blown Speakers' is a good example. It also has my two favourite Dan Bejar songs on it - 'Chump Change' and 'Testament to Youth in Verse', which have two of the most joyful codas ever.

In other news, Pitchfork have announced their top 20 albums of the '00s

http://pitchfork.com/features/staff-lists/7710-the-top-200-albums-of-the-2000s-20-1/

No real surprises with the number one album.

[Artemis]

I'm always left a bit bewildered by concepts like "the best album" or single or whatever. First of all, how can one person, or even a collection of people, possibly hope to convince me what the "best" anything is? I'll decide that for myself, thanks very much. What's best for me is what is best for me. While it's interesting to read other people's opinions on stuff, ultimately it's beyond irrelevant. I don't have the time or inclination to listen to bucket loads of music just in case I might like it, nor do I have any particular desire to ensure I'm listening and enjoying what some jumped up 2:2 media studies graduate thinks is especially "hot" this month (or this decade).

At this point I'm tempted to share what I think is some of the greatest music of the decade, but seriously - what on earth is the point?

[Squink]

While it's interesting to read other people's opinions on stuff, ultimately it's beyond irrelevant.

If you trust someone's opinion, I don't see how their recommendations would be irrelevant. There are writers and friends who have similar tastes to me, and if they enthuse about something, I'll go and check it out. I've discovered plenty of great music that way.

... nor do I have any particular desire to ensure I'm listening and enjoying what some jumped up 2:2 media studies graduate thinks is especially "hot" this month (or this decade).

Yawn. That 'jumped up media studies student' cliche about music criticism has been slung about since the dawn of time. To borrow another cliche to respond: there are good and bad writers working as music critics, just like there are in every field. I pity you if you've never read a really terrific piece of writing about music. In fact, there's a whole thread on here somewhere, which is stuffed to the gills with great examples of music writing.

[Artemis]

If you trust someone's opinion, I don't see how their recommendations would be irrelevant. There are writers and friends who have similar tastes to me, and if they enthuse about something, I'll go and check it out. I've discovered plenty of great music that way.

And that's why sites like Last.fm are so great. Look, I'm not suggesting that musical 'journalists' are by their very nature worthless, but to try to compile some kind of objective list about "things that are the best", well, it doesn't make any sense to me. My point was more about charts of this kind rather than people writing about music in a general sense.

I pity you if you've never read a really terrific piece of writing about music. In fact, there's a whole thread on here somewhere, which is stuffed to the gills with great examples of music writing.

I must have missed that. I'd like to see it, genuinely. I don't go looking for other people's opinions on music at all so I tend to avoid magazines where I'm going to spend ages reading what somebody I've never met happens to think. That said, as in any field I accept there are bound to be people who know what they're talking about more than others, so you're going to get people who are worth listening to. But I can't imagine any of those people would bother attempting to tell anyone else what was "best", because then they'd come across as a twat.

[her?]

Sufjan Stevens, Jens Lekman and Rufus Wainwright made some of my favourite music of the decade. But the one album that really knocked my socks off was Ys by Joanna Newsom. I see Pitchfork only put it at number 83 the idiots.

[vx]

At this point I'm tempted to share what I think is some of the greatest music of the decade, but seriously - what on earth is the point?

b/c maybe some of us might be genuinely interested in your opinions _{you self-centered twat}?
good a reason as any really...

[Sony Walkman Prophecies]

Well, there are objective ways to measure the importance of music - for instance looking at the amount of artists who name-check a particular band or group as a primary influence. That's usually a pretty safe way of gauging the kind of cultural impact an artist may have had. And if you look at most top 100 album lists, youre usually find that's the exact criteria theyre using.

Ok, some music journos may think that the bootleg remix of Otto & his Flying Turnip Truncheons is the best piece of music theyve personally ever heard, but its not like theyre going to claim its one of the most genre-defining pieces of music ever written. Those lists are often far more objectively complied than you'd typically assume.

[thehungerartist]

Yann Tiersen, Elliott Smith, Clinic, Queens of the Stone Age, Radiohead, Iron & Wine, Animal Collective, The Go! Team, Fleet Foxes.

[ThickAndCreamy]

I spent an hour writing a 10 paragraphed essay on this decade for myself and then the website lost connection. Gah.

[confettiinmyhair]

I completely understand what Artemis is saying, but often the finest pieces of Music Journalism aren't even articles about music. Paul Morley's dissection of the mind of Ian Curtis, Lester Bangs talking about Altamont etc. etc.

[brand_new_modems]

p.s. I fucking loathe pitchfork. it highlights everything that is wrong with modern music crit. it is unmatched in its ability to arise in me complete and utter disgust, along with the impulse to inflict violence on whichever pompous trustfund hipster fucks are writing the reviews.

woah calm down, philip sherburne sometimes does 'this month in techno', i think. also "jeff mangum went to shops; buys MILK (I.E. LIKE THE NAME OF HIS BAND!)" news transcends importance

my last.fm page probably shows you best what music shaped my decade, i entered it sans pubic hairs, got those, then a degree, leaving me now ready to confront the next decade from a position where no one wants to employ me but i've got to somehow work off this 20k debt, yeh cheers everyone

[The Boston Crab]

Shit, best not look at my last.fm page. You can fuckin guess it easy enough.

[23 Daves]

Clinic

Ooh!  A good choice, but I think their best material was in the nineties, really - by this decade, they were repeating themselves and it seemed as if their best work was behind them. 

The Go! Team

Yeah, I forgot to mention them.  But it was a case of one good album, then one that left me seriously underwhelmed, so I'm still licking my wounds about that a bit.

Fleet Foxes.

I cannot make up my mind about this lot, I think because the hoo-ha surrounding them is a bit too offputting at the moment.  They have moments which make my hair stand on end, and there's something tremendously primal about their use of traditional choral and folk stylings, but there again, there were Christian folk bands in the early seventies pulling very similar stunts to get people into the idea of Jee-sus (it was almost propaganda by that point - trying to convert the hippies using pagan melodies, if you will).  I'm just not sure if all the people shouting "but it's genius!" are drowning out the fact that it's just very deftly done indeed, rather than tremendously original or sweeping all that came before it.  One of my friends actually used the phrase "better than anything the Beach Boys ever did" the other day which may be the final straw for me. 

Oddly, I took the Fleet Foxes CD back to my parents today to see what they thought, and my Dad said "Is this another one of your obscure sixties bands?"  He was convinced it was another one of my "great lost album" debates brewing.  By the end, however, he said "actually, I suppose it's a bit more interesting than that".   If any of you want my Dad to review any of the other albums mentioned on this thread, I'm sure he'll oblige.  He's not got much else to do at the moment.

[The Boston Crab]

Fleet Foxes have come up with some beautiful melodies but the overall impact is so flat for me. I'm not asking for edgy or experimental for the sake of it, just some unbridled euphoria to occasionally break through. They threaten a lot but then...<poof>...plod plod plod.

Punch your friend in the face, by the way.

[23 Daves]

Fleet Foxes have come up with some beautiful melodies but the overall impact is so flat for me. I'm not asking for edgy or experimental for the sake of it, just some unbridled euphoria to occasionally break through. They threaten a lot but then...<poof>...plod plod plod.

Yep, there's what could only be described as 'filler' on the Fleet Foxes album, which was the thing that struck me most when I first listened to it, having been told loads of times that it was a 'classic album' (by friends more than the music press, in fairness).  There's also the sense towards the end that the template is too limiting even across 35 or so minutes (which isn't actually long for an album at all) - you find yourself wanting them to change the pace or deliver some sort of conclusion.  A greater band would have managed that.  Individually some of the tracks sound much better than they do buried in the whole of the album amidst the endless 'woahs' and the vocal harmonies - stick them on random artist shuffle on an iPod and that seems to be when they have maximum impact, when they suddenly interrupt other material.

But this is the problem when bands are raved about, and you get to find out about them after the point when all the superlatives have been spewed out everywhere - they rarely seem to deliver quite what you'd expect.  I sometimes wonder if I'd have been shrugging about "The Stone Roses" debut and calling it retro-psychedelia if I'd heard it at the point where the music press did their about-face and started calling it 'classic'.  I doubt it, but you never know.  It might have depersonalised the listening experience for me if I'd stumbled on it when it was a national phenomenon - like the Fleet Foxes effort, it was actually a very slow-burning album sales-wise.  In fact, one of the big problems with music journalism generally is the amount of risk that goes into making statements like that.  Use the word 'classic' at regular intervals to keep your readers interested, and you'll probably only be right one in four times (if that).

[El Unicornio, mang]

I actually thought the Fleet Foxes album was lacking in filler, and for a debut from people in their early 20s, a massive achievement. And I like the Beach Boys a lot but even their best album Pet Sounds has a good amount of filler amongst the gems, and I would pick FF as an overall more well-rounded, satisfying record. (and on the subject of filler, going back through The Beatles back catalogue I'm reminded that, yes they produced more great songs than probably any other band, but not one of their albums doesn't contain at least a few mediocre tracks)

Also, on the subject of originality, I'm not sure I'm bothered. Everything stops being original once it's been listened to anyway, I'd rather have songs that I enjoy listening to over and over than ones that sound fresh the one time then lose their novelty.