Tag: The Libertines
Ten Years!(?)(!?!) A Guide to the Best of the Decade: 2002
by Dion on Dec.05, 2009, under Uncategorized
Historical Context
A large section of the Antarctic Larsen Ice Shelf begins to disintegrate. Climate change experts believe that the 3250 km area of the ice shelf crumbled to make room for Bono’s ego. Saddam Hussein is accused of harbouring weapons of mass destruction. In unrelated news, the Cheeky Girls form. Meanwhile, Ted Nugent continues to roam free on the savannah, feasting on the occasional gazelle. Also, just a quick reminder that I’m sticking to a ‘one album per artist’ rule and I ran into my first real judgment call here. So, for those of you wondering where Doves Last Broadcast is (as I sort of am), well, I already know it’s been bumped in favour of this year’s Kingdom of Rust. It was a hard one to drop though, as The Last Broadcast is one of my favourites.
10. Foo Fighters – One by One
As the reviews for this year’s Greatest Hits show, a lot of people see Foo Fighters as a singles band. This is true to a great extent, as many of their albums have some pretty inessential tracks. They came pretty damn close to a cohesive whole with One by One though, where even the non-single tracks pack a punch. It saw them back in full-on rock mode with songs like ‘All My Life’, ‘Disenchanted Lullaby’ and ‘Halo’, along with excellent slow-simmering album closer ‘Come Back’. It also produced one of their best pop songs in ‘Times Like These’ though, making the whole 55 minutes a pretty satisfying experience.
9. Feeder – Comfort in Sound
Written in the wake of drummer Jon Lee’s suicide, the album acted as catharsis and tribute for singer/guitarist Grant Nicholas and bassist Taka Hirose. An album with such a painful start has every right to be depressing, but Feeder craft something more complex out of the tragedy. ‘Come Back Around’ and ‘Forget About Tomorrow’ are relatively upbeat, and ‘Helium’ stomps along like T.Rex. However, the real treats are songs like ‘Just the Way I’m Feeling’ and the title track, which perfectly encapsulate the melancholy that I’m sure the band felt, while also leaving room to believe that things would eventually get better.
8. The Libertines – Up the Bracket
To be honest, I’m not completely convinced that Pete Doherty is the wasted genius people seem to think he is (his post-Libertines output is spotty at best, as is Carl Barat’s) and the legend of the Libertines is played up a bit too much for a band that, while good, hardly broke any new ground. That’s not to say they weren’t a breath of fresh air in a British musical scene that was still a little bit too indebted to Britpop days that were getting past their sell-by date. The Libertines were scrappy but tuneful, shabbily beautiful and safely dangerous (and no, that’s not an oxymoron – Pete Doherty seems to be the heroin user it’s okay for even your mum to like). They reignited the ‘Albion’ days of proud Britannia, something closer to the Kinks than Blur. 2004’s The Libertines was a more mature affair, but tensions within the band could already be felt. Their debut more captured the excitement of a band that, at the time, still seemed to believe they could take over the world, or at least the British Isles. Sorry boys, you failed, but your albums are still a lot of fun.
7. Sarah Slean – Nightbugs
Sarah Slean is a bit of a musical crush for me, with her music occupying a wonderful world that’s equal parts sadness and silliness, and Night Bugs is the album where she perfectly combined these volatile elements without getting bogged down in either.
6. Bruce Springsteen – The Rising
Springsteen reunited with the full E Street Band when America needed him most (like Spiderman, but with more sax). An album mostly about the 11 September attacks, this album ran a high risk of becoming overly jingoistic or overly maudlin, but Springsteen avoided both and crafted a fitting tribute and a rollicking musical trip too. ‘Empty Sky’ and ‘Paradise’ capture the sadness of the time, ‘Further on Up the Road’ captures the anger and songs like ‘Mary’s Place’ remember the good times and give you reason to believe they might come back. ‘Worlds Apart’ even stands as a sensitive reach out to the Muslim community, as discontent was already starting to foment in sometimes unsavoury ways (for example, the ‘freedom fries’ thing may have been amusing, but it’s also somewhat scary and sad). I’m not American (as far as I know), but this album made me understand the intelligent and thoughtful members of that country a bit better.
5. Steve Earle – Jerusalem
Almost everything I just said about Springsteen applies equally to Earle’s Jerusalem. This album was also written in response to 11 September, but ol’ Steve takes a bit more of a shit disturbing approach than amenable and conciliatory Bruce. ‘John Walker’s Blues’, written from the perspective of the titular American Taliban, was particularly controversial. Seen by some as anti-American, the song stands more as an attempt to understand what John Walker found so wrong with America to turn to his own country’s worst enemies. Altogether, it painted a darker picture than Springsteen’s, but even Earle had belief that things would improve, as evinced by the title track.
4. Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
Shit man, things are getting a little depressing, so let’s turn to a good ol’ heavy slice of stoner rock. 2000’s Rated R got QotSA noticed for the (almost novelty) hit ‘Feel Good Hit of the Summer’, but Songs of the Deaf saw them playing with the big boys. The album married sludgy riffs, rock hard drumming (courtesy of Dave Grohl, having a very good year) and surprisingly catchy songs to good effect, and produced some of the year’s most memorable songs.
3. Lucero – Tennessee
Lucero are sadly overlooked and deserve a bigger fanbase than they have. 2009 saw them release their major label debut, so here’s hoping their time has finally come. Still, for me their high-water mark is 2002’s Tennessee, a boozy mix of raging punk and country. Sure, alt-country was nothing new by this point, and the genre (if there ever was such a unified thing as ‘alt-country’) had already expanded into more experimental territory, led mostly by Wilco. However, by 2002, few ‘alt-country’ (a label that forever deserves inverted commas) bands had the energy and rough edges of Lucero. The sheer emotional heft of Ben Nichols’ sandpaper vocals makes you feel this music from the gut, not from the head.
2. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells
This was actually the third White Stripes album, but the first one to get them serious notice in the presses. Sounding like it was recorded directly by Thomas Edison, Jack White’s raw and dirty blues brought back some Zep-sized stomp and intensity to liven up the Velvet Underground-aping Strokes’ detached cool in the garage rock revival. While she gets some stick for being a pretty basic drummer, Meg White’s simple percussion fits perfectly with White’s guitar blast. ‘Hotel Yorba’ and ‘Fell in Love with a Girl’ provided the breakneck singalongs, ‘Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground’ and Citizen-Kane quoting ‘The Union Forever’ (which eventually landed White with a plagiarism lawsuit) added the gothic atmosphere and ‘We’re Going to be Friends’ showed his sensitive, old-school gentleman side. The Strokes brought back the off-the-cuff scrappiness of rock, but the White Stripes were the ones who made it fun again.
1. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Born out of a troubled story, YHF was the album where Wilco established itself as THE alt-country band to which everyone else should aspire. The genesis of this masterpiece nearly destroyed the band, and saw the departure of multi-instrumentalist Jay Bennett (RIP – he died earlier this year), a somewhat unsung presence in the band (he did play on YHF though). This album also saw them dropped by Warner, who stupidly felt the album was too uncommercial. The joke was on them and the glory went to Wilco, when YHF became their biggest seller under a new record deal with Nonesuch, ironically and hilariously a division of Warner (for a more in-depth history of the album, see the excellent documentary, I am Trying to Break Your Heart). I still honestly can’t see what Warner’s problem was. Sure, YHF is a growth from 1999’s Summerteeth, but it’s an evolution, not a revolution. In fact, I think it includes some of their most radio friendly songs, like ‘Heavy Metal Drummer’ (although the reference to getting stoned might hurt its chances of getting much airplay), ‘War on War’ and weepy ‘Jesus, Etc.’ Sure, it has the odd atonal moment or tape manipulation, but the album is a cohesive and breathtaking whole that, in many ways, summed up the mood of a somewhat wary and somewhat bruised world.
Feeder - Just the Way I’m Feeling
The Libertines - Time for Heroes
Sarah Slean - Drastic Measures
Bruce Springsteen - Worlds Apart
Steve Earle - John Walker’s Blues
Queens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow
