411 Music Ten Deep 10.23.09: Top Ten Albums from 2001

Posted by Andrew Moll on 10.23.2009

From The White Stripes' White Blood Cells to Radiohead's Amnesiac to Jay-Z's The Blueprint see what made the list of the Top Ten Albums from 2001 in this week's edition of 411 Music Ten Deep!


(Disclaimer: All opinions are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of 411 Music and its staff.)


Welcome everybody to the fourteenth edition of 411 Music Ten Deep as we continue the weekly countdowns of the top ten albums from each year this decade. We are now at 2001 which I discovered was actually a pretty good year for music overall, at least in terms of the albums that were under consideration and ultimately made the final list. Before we get to that though, let's go back to last week when Ten Deep reminisced about the great albums of nine years ago and the Top Ten Albums of 2000.





Binaural is extremely underrated
Posted By: Jcon (Guest) on October 15, 2009 at 11:12 PM

Yeah, I'm surprised you pushed Binaural out of the Top 10. And I agree, it probly is their most underrated album.
Posted By: YepYep (Guest) on October 16, 2009 at 01:13 AM

I also expected to see Binaural on here. Fantastic album.
Posted By: Nick (Guest) on October 16, 2009 at 01:06 PM

I'm not the biggest Binaural fan myself at least in comparison to the other Pearl Jam albums, so I wasn't too surprised that it didn't find its way into the final top ten. Add in "Sad" and take out one of the lesser songs and maybe it's a different story.

F*ck Radiohead...I consider myself a music lover of all sorts of genres...but I have never liked Radiohead...

oh well, I guess that's why we're all different. I just wonder sometimes what people hear in certain acts...
Posted By: Ser Drake (Guest) on October 16, 2009 at 09:56 AM

Sonofabitch! How are dare you besmirch Radiohead's great name! But seriously, Radiohead seem to be pretty divisive, which surprises me. To echo what you said, I wonder sometimes what people don't hear in certain acts. It's all opinion, anyway.

Looking at the top selling albums of 2000, I guess I can see why on some things...wow, there's a lot of crap that ends up selling.
http://allcharts.org/music/years/usa-albums-2000.htm

I would put Vertical Horizon on my list, its a great album.
Blue by Third Eye Blind is a very good album as well

Looking at this list...I realize its opinion but some of the statements are very heavy handed

At least label it 'My Top 10' or something...

I'll try to check out a few of the bands I don't recognize...but often times I find there's a reason I don't recognize them. I don't consider myself 'mainstream' but I'll admit I don't know alot of indie-rock etc. So maybe this will broaden my horizon a bit
Posted By: Ser Drake (Guest) on October 16, 2009 at 10:12 AM

I've gone over some of this stuff before, but I believe the idea of "My Top Ten" is somewhat inherent in the column itself. Personal opinion will always be as big of a factor in what makes the list as anything else. I understand some sort of larger context has to be included as well but I won't put on stuff I think sucks just because most people like it. That's just my approach, but I think it's the best way to go.



Top Ten Albums from 2001



2001 may end up being remembered for a lot of things, but everything that happened that year, and even now really, exists in the shadow of one horrific day. The albums on the list aren't any different as some of them, fairly or unfairly, are connected to that day through various ways. Not all of them are connected, but all ten albums do feature some great songs that help make for one extremely good year for albums, as some of the records that just missed the cut could very well make the top ten in some other years. Speaking of those records, before we get to the top ten, we'll go over the honorable mentions that were just outside of the top ten.


Some Honorable Mentions: A Silver Mt. Zion - "Born Into Trouble As Sparks Fly Upward"; Broken Social Scene - Feel Good Lost; Liars - They Stuck Us in a Trench and Stuck a Mountain on Top; Major Organ and the Adding Machine - Major Organ and the Adding Machine; Mogwai - Rock Action; The Shins - Oh, Inverted World; System of a Down - Toxicity



10. Death Cab for Cutie - The Photo Album


Death Cab for Cutie have always been an exceptional pop rock band and their sound developed and matured with their third studio album The Photo Album, the record where lead singer and songwriter Ben Gibbard began to perfect his evocative and literary approach to pop songs. It takes real talent and a keen sense of words to write lines like "I let you bum a smoke, you quit this winter past/I've tried twice before, but like this, it just will not last," as Gibbard sings in the opener "Steadier Footing." He's aided by the tight performance of the band who give the songs real rhythm and bounce that only enhance Gibbard's natural and welcoming melodies. He also instinctively takes the role of the heartbroken or something close to that, and his nice-guy voice only enhances the emotions his lyrics have. There's a real sense of longing in "We Laugh Indoors" when Gibbard sings, "This city is my home/Construction noise all day long/And gutter punks bumming change/So I breed thicker skin/And let my lustrous coat fill in/And I'll never admit that/I loved you Guenivere, I loved you Guenivere, I loved you."





It's not all Mr. Nice Guy, though as Gibbard gets plenty worked up in songs like the anti-Los Angeles anthem "Why You'd Want to Live Here" or "Styrofoam Plates," his diatribe against a deadbeat father. You can literally feel the bitterness and anger when at the end of that song, Gibbard sings, "I won't join in the procession that's speaking their peace/Using five dollar words while praising his integrity/And just because he's gone, it doesn't change the fact/He was a bastard in life, thus a bastard in death, yeah!" The Photo Album runs the gamut of emotions with all ten tracks telling an individual story, with all of them combining for a cohesive album that is full of pop rock gems that also led the way to bigger success and even better output for Death Cab.





9. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists - The Tyranny of Distance


The first proper album from Ted Leo and the Pharmacists, The Tyranny of Distance is a remarkably beautiful record highlighted some classic riffs and hooks and Leo's emotive voice that wrenches all the emotion out of each word without sounding like he's straining to do so. This is the way pop-punk should be done with plenty of energy and melody to spare. The songs are equal part Thin Lizzy, The Clash, punk, pop, folk, Celtic and more; as Leo himself puts in "Parallel or Together," "So I gather around me/All the little pieces of a song/And fit them where they belong." Leo is a pop craftsman in the best sense of the word, creating one of the most infectious albums of the decade, indie rock or not. On previous works with earlier bands, Leo had seemingly attempted to be more experimental than maybe his natural inclinations would have you believe. But with the Pharmacists and The Tyranny of Distance puts any experiments to the side and instead delivers a straight-forward rock record the results are astounding.





There are a number of songs on the album that, in a perfect album, would dominate rock radio with their catchy hooks and driving riffs. Maybe they didn't find a larger audience or make it to the airwaves, but songs like "Biomusicology" and "Timorous Me" will remain in your head for days if you're not careful. Leo sounds like he's doing what he does best all throughout the album, which is writing catchy rock songs meant to provide as much enjoyment for the listener as he gets from making the songs. These types of tracks seem somewhat effortless to him all while he reaches back to his favorite bands and influences to create a great rock album. Even with the MTV-aping "My Vein Illin, the epic "Stove by a Whale" or the reserved "The Gold Finch and the Red Oak Tree," Leo knows how to write a great song as well as any pop star could. He just adds some welcome guitars and hooks to the proceedings better than most rockers, too.





8. The Microphones - The Glow Pt. 2


The Glow Pt. 2 is such an ambitious album, one that expanded The Microphones' lo-fi sound to areas that were somewhat unimaginable, even after the expansion of their previous album. The band's mastermind Phil Elvrum still maintained a sense of minimalism, but each song opens up to something new and beautiful, creating a majestic album that honestly needs to be listened to multiple times to fully appreciate. Navigating your way through the twenty songs and sixty-six minutes is truly an adventure and the rewards for taking that journey are numerous, as each song reveals beautiful sonic textures and grand moments, combined with restrained sections that make for an album that allows new treasures to be found with each listen. The Glow Pt. 2 is a kaleidoscope of an album that touches on a number of sounds and feelings with many songs bleeding into one another making for a continuous experience.





It's easy to write the album off as pretentious and indulgent and those accusations probably aren't completely false; but keep in mind that pretentious and indulgent aren't always bad things. Elvrum is unafraid to reach for grandiose heights, making for a fearless album that manages to be both dense and emotional. Tender ballads like "I'll Not Contain You" and "I Felt Your Shape" are balanced by more epic fare like the title track and "Map." With this album, Elvrum threw everything he had into it and the result was an accessible album of lo-fi density and emotion. It's no surprise the album was released on K Records, previously home to Calvin Johnson's unapologetically fey pop group Beat Happening as that same youthful sense is all over The Glow Pt. 2 and is part of what makes it so exciting.





7. Spoon - Girls Can Tell


Much like Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon solidified their sound in 2001 and set the stage for future success this decade, in Spoon's case with their third album Girls Can Tell. While the band spent their formative years playing similarly to bands like Wire and the Pixies, this album saw them and songwriter Britt Daniel finally establish their own sound, a tight pop rock with real groove. Tracks like "Everything Hits at Once" and "Lines in the Suit" are as good as that genre can get; as sparse as they are catchy, the songs capture the band and Daniel in a great middle point between the band that they were and the band they'd become. Those earlier influences are apparent on a song like "Take a Walk," in the three years between their last album and this one, Daniel become a much better and more mature songwriter, crafting great melodies and lyrics.





Spoon have never been a band that represented anything more than the music they produce. They're not part of a large scene or genre and don't immediately recall a certain time period as their hooks and melodies are timeless, sounding like something Lennon and McCartney could have come up with. Instead, Spoon have always been a solid band making consistently solid pop rock with Daniel in place as the man leading the way. Eventually the band would have their songs in movies and video games and appear on Saturday Night Live, but it's on Girls Can Tell that Spoon became the band they are today. From the bouncing "Take the Fifth" to the haunting "Chicago at Night" to the soulful "Me and the Bean," this is one of the most solidly pleasing albums of the decade and one of Spoon's best.





6. Daft Punk - Discovery


Listening to Discovery can actually be a little bit of a weird experience, especially if you haven't heard it in a while. Daft Punk's songs always seem like they kind of just exist, like they were created out of thin air simply for enjoyment at clubs and parties. Then you put on the album and "One More Time" is playing like any regular track on an album might and not blaring out of speakers on a crowded dance floor. You might think this lessens the song's quality and excitement, but no such thing occurs. In fact, you're able to better appreciate the song's greatness as you hear every little thing that makes the song so irresistible, from the auto-tuned vocals the epic horns to that build at the end that implores you to feel free and dance. The French duo wasn't afraid to embrace disco and synth-pop and the result was an album of complete joy devoid of any irony. There's no way to listen to Discovery without having an absolute blast and just enjoying what you're listening to.





At the time the group was making the album they began donning futuristic helmets and suits, and whether the effect was intentional or not the get-up gave the impression of Daft Punk as our robotic party masters, here to make sure everyone has a good time. The music on Discovery does nothing to challenge that idea, as each iconic song from "Digital Love" to "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" to "Face to Face" takes electro-pop to another level and brings it to the masses via the dance floor. Thomas Bangalter once said the whole album is about the simple relationship we have with music when we're young and is meant to be playful and fun. You'll get no argument from me as Discovery is pure enjoyment for each of its sixty-one minutes, in addition to putting Daft Punk at the top of the electronic pyramid.





5. Radiohead - Amnesiac


When Kid A came out in late 2000 it's sparked a bit of a debate over its quality and just what exactly Radiohead had done as their follow up to OK Computer. So naturally Amnesiac had quite an uphill climb when it was released just eight months later. First off it was supposed to be the "return to rock" for the group after the electronic leanings of their previous album, but the opening track "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box" ended those discussions immediately. Then it was written off as the Kid A b-sides album since the two were recorded at the same time. Ultimately, Amnesiac committed the ultimate sin of either not being as genius as Kid A, which for most albums would be quite an accomplishment, or being too much like Kid A which again would be an accomplishment for most albums. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between those two arguments, but in reality Amnesiac is another great Radiohead album that while not as great as its predecessor, it is still an amazing work.





It's not as cohesive as the group's previous album and proves to be a bit of a hodgepodge, but that quality in my opinion benefits the album. Instead of making another concept album or something of the sort, the band took the best of the rest that they had and put them together that is in some ways more challenging than Kid A. While it doesn't have the surprise value of that record, at least it had the raucous and exciting "The National Anthem" as its third song; Amnesiac has "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors" which features Yorke's computerized voice leading the way over a meandering electronic beat. There are still triumphant and brilliant moments on this album, from "You and Whose Army" and "I Might Be Wrong" and others. In the end, whether it's just also-rans or what have you, Amnesiac is able to stand on its own as a great album regardless of what may have come before it.





4. The Strokes - Is This It


When you think back to 2001 and the Strokes' debut album, it's easy to forget the hype that came along with hit as critics were practically salivating at the thought of the band. With its cool effortlessness, Is This It harkened back to the Velvet Underground and other great New York City bands and ushered in the garage rock revival, of which the Strokes were to be the leaders. Time has a funny way of changing things since in the years since there was one great follow-up, another mediocre album, some solo projects and plenty of questions about the future of the band. All of that, however, doesn't change the compact brilliance of the band's debut, an album full of cocky songs and plenty of bravado. The band had some great songs in their back pocket and play like they know just how good they are.





The Strokes spent literally no amount of time trying to reinvent the wheel with Is This It and instead continue the grand tradition of underground NYC rock. Songs like "Last Nite," "Barely Legal," and "Hard to Explain" would have sounded just as fine in 1977 as they did in 2001. At a time when rap-rock/nu-metal dominated the rock charts and even Radiohead were busy toiling away with electronic beats, there was a void that the Strokes filled with their down and dirty, booze-filled, simplistic guitar/bass/drum take on rock and roll. It's possible, but unfortunately unlikely, that the band will ever each this level of greatness again since it's impossible to recreate effortlessness. But that shouldn't impact the quality of the songs on Is This, still one of the most fulfilling and best debuts of the decade.





3. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells


Just as it is with the Strokes, it's interesting to compare our conceptions of the White Stripes now with what those conceptions were when they burst on the scene in 2001 with their third LP White Blood Cells. Their first two albums were critically acclaimed but their third made them stars with the help of the Lego video for "Fell in Love with a Girl." Of course most media stories focused on either their color scheme or mysterious relationship, be they husband and wife or siblings or whatever. What we all missed though was the breakthrough for what would become one of the preeminent rock bands of the decade. White Blood Cells is the blues updated through the mind and guitar of Jack White, making his most confident and assured album up to that point. All he and Meg need are guitar, drum, and an album full of great songs that mix sweetness with bitterness and loud blues with soft, childlike ballads as expertly as anyone could do.





Jack White as become as enigmatic a rock star as we have today and this album proves it, as one moment he's wailing "It can't be love, for there is no true love" in the Citizen Kane tribute "The Union Forever" and then later in "We're Going to be Friends" sings, "Tonight I'll dream while I'm in bed/When silly thoughts go through my head/About the bugs and alphabet/And when I wake tomorrow I'll bet/That you and I will walk together again/I can tell that we're going to be friends." It seems as if the White Stripes are all about contradictions, from the conflicting reds and whites and blacks, to the confusing stories about their relationship to each other, to the strength and volume of many of the band's songs, to the tenderness in other songs and in many of Jack's lyrics. Ultimately though, White Blood Cells is just a great blues/rock/garage album that opened the door for where the band would go next and establish them as one of the best rock bands in the world.





2. Fugazi - The Argument


Fugazi's last stand together may also have been their most complete album while serving as a fitting final statement for the post-punk legends. Starting with "Cashout" and ending with the title track, the entire album takes the Fugazi formula and mixes it up in different ways, by incorporating strings or even a second drummer to the proceedings. Don't be fooled, though as this is still a Fugazi album full of righteous fury and loud, pounding rock. Normally the band's lyrics delivered by Ian MacKaye and Guy Picciotto are political in a precise manner, but that's not really the case here. The political lyrics are more elliptical than on previous albums, but as any Fugazi fan knows the political and personal go hand in hand so the vocals are still as passionate as ever. I really don't think there's been a more earnest band in the history of rock than Fugazi and that commitment shines through on each song as they play each note with amazing purpose like they always did.





For The Argument the band wisely added some melodies that immediately made for a different album than fans were used to hearing. Songs like "Epic Problem" and "Life and Limb" are restrained at times and add another wrinkle to the band's sound. Their dual guitar attack is still in place while the rhythm section is still amongst the best ever put to record and the new sounds and approaches make for the best Fugazi album in years. Unfortunately it will probably also be the last Fugazi album as they've been on hiatus since 2002 but with The Argument the band made one last great statement that they shouldn't be written off and that they still had some tricks up their sleeves fifteen years after their start.





1. Jay-Z - The Blueprint


I suppose there's something to be said about the fact that New York City's prominent rapper released his best album and the best album of 2001 on September 11th, but really it's just an unfortunate coincidence. On the other hand there is a marked difference between the bravado, swagger, energy and at times jubilation of The Blueprint and our collective feelings that day. But the fact is if this album had been released on September 4th it still without a doubt would be number one on the list because it is the best realization of everything that makes Jay-Z great. From his evisceration of Prodigy and Nas on "Takeover" to the ladies man anthem "Girls, Girls, Girls" to Eminem's great cameo on "Renegade" this is one of the best hip-hop albums of the decade and one that revived the art of sampling 1970s soul classics and made it pretty much an art form. The Kanye West-produced tracks are among the best on the album and evident of the style that would make him a star, but in the possession of Jay-Z, they're taken to a different level.





Even if the album was just one song long and consisting of "Takeover", the Kanye track with a Doors sample, it would still have to be considered a classic. Jay-Z sounds like he's delivering his diss off-handedly, like his brilliance and confidence come so naturally that he need not worry himself too much with those beneath except to tear them apart. That lack of focus would hurt him later on but on The Blueprint his swagger would be more than enough; the fact he delivers amazingly with his vocals, allegedly written in just two days, just makes the record that much better. On "Hola Hovita", he raps " And if I ain't better than Big, I'm the closest one" and it's tough to argue with him considering the quality of this album. There's no pop hit, no attempt at a massive crossover on the record. Since Jay-Z is the one "runnin' this rap shit" then he just does what he does best and in the end creates a hip-hop classic.



That'll do it for this week folks, thanks for reading. If you have any questions, comments or concerns feel free to let me know, and make sure to leave your own lists in the comments. I'll see you all next week. And if you're out on your bike tonight, do wear white.