2000: Albums 1-8
Buck 65 Vertex (Four Ways to Rock; January 17, 2000)
Voted by: Aaron
The first hip hop album to name-drop David Lynch was a rabbit-hole to the Whateverland under Rich Terfry�s bed. Recorded, written, and produced during one weekend of classical eccentric�s isolation, Vertex was spilled onto a four-track IV�d to two turntables, one SP 1200 and a shunt in Buck�s dirty daydreams. This is the great Buck 65 album that no one knows ever happened. Originally issued as a 200-copy cassette-only release while Terfry still had roots left to pull from his Stinkin� Rich �rapping mc� persona, Vertex is the sound of frustrated artist cocky with ability but frustrated with boundaries. What that means to you: Skratch Picklz-quality juggles and vocal cuts, looped breaks so nice that Mr. Dibbs left voice mail tough-guy-begging for record swaps, writing where clever punchlines meet tales about inflatable dolls and mythological creatures, and the darkest, eeriest, most delicately-crafted mid-tempo hip hop masterpiece that will likely ever leak from this continent. Best Moment: BSc. –Aaron Newell
Yo La Tengo And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out (Matador; February 22, 2000)
Voted by: David, Bryan
Although barely making this list temporally, musically it’d be difficult not to have a “best-of” list without YLT making at least one appearance. As a follow-up to 1997’s brilliant I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One, ATNTIIO is only slightly more of a complex listen. YLT is one of those bands that always gives their fans a lot of musical bang-for-the-buck, and with a nearly eighty-minute running time, ATNTIIO gives the patient listener layer-upon-layer of everything from hard rock to dreamy-pop-meets-jazz type folk. As with most records on this list, ATNTIIO will, in time, continue to reveal something new and exciting; take, for instance, the albums last track — the whopping 18-minute opus “Night Falls On Hoboken.” An enthralling listen, even five years after its release, it’s well worth the time investment, and much like “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House;” the dreamy “Everyday,” the power-pop of “Cherry Chapstick” and the pure fun of “You Can Have It All:” it’s a testaments to not only the continued songwriting prowess of YLT, but their ability to merge seemingly disparate musical flavours and pull it off. ATNTIIO is for anyone interested in something different and remarkably interesting. –Bryan Rowsell
Neko Case & Her Boyfriends Furnace Room Lullaby (Mint; February 22, 2000)
Voted by: Scott, Candice
Neko Case has an unmistakable quality ingrained in her music — a kind of vibe you get when you listen to any of her albums, something as prominent in her own material as her fan-favorite covers. Furnace Room Lullaby is her second collection of consistently great songs that carry every possible emotion with them — from twisted tales of love to a title track that has its protagonist murder and torch her (former) lover. Even with its darker edges, it’s very much a country album at its musical heart, delivering several unbelievable ballads (“Porchlight” is easily one of her finest; “Furnace Room Lullaby” and “Bought and Sold” are even better), all accompanied by a voice so evocative, it can’t help but become the main focus of any song, no matter how beautiful or haunting they may be. Many seem to think that Case “arrived” with Blacklisted, but it was here that she become a major talent, making her successive accomplishments less a shock than the fulfilling of a promise she made years ago with The Virginian. –Candice Osmond
Primal Scream XTRMNTR (Astralwerks; May 2, 2000)
Voted by: David, Matt
If raves had existed in 1980 and Greg Ginn had frequented them, this is exactly what Black Flag would have ended up sounding like. An astonishing 180 from anything Primal Scream had touched before, XTRMNTR has lost none of its shock value in the ensuing five years, remaining as aggressive and vindictive an album as has ever been made. It takes a great deal of sonic muscle for a band to make lines like �everyone�s a prostitute� or �you�ve got the money, I�ve got the soul� even palatable, but Primal Scream makes them sound righteous, with Bobby Gillespie�s ferocious diatribes about beheading fascists and mounting violent insurrections, despite seeming barbarically stupid on paper, sounding like the most exciting and important thing ever to come out of anyone�s mouth. As an added bonus, XTRMNTR features the triumphant return of Kevin Shields, spinning webs on �MBV Arkestra� and �Accelerator� that are arguably equal to anything found on Loveless. Word to the kids: never, never play this album at any kind of protest: terrible things will happen. –Matt Stephens
Modest Mouse The Moon & Antarctica (Universal; June 13, 2000)
Voted by: Scott, Matt, Peter, Chet, Aaron, Dom
Isaac Brock is not paranoid. In fact, he knows he�s being watched; from behind walls, from the roots of the trees that surround his trailer park, from the dogs that skulk under his porch, from the ends of the cosmos, eyes follow his every move, shaking hands and plotting conspiracies of ravenous vigil.
But The Moon and Antarctica is not a record of fear. Under Brian Deck�s deft bayou machismo, Modest Mouse sprayed a lecherous masterpiece over the neo-millennial buzzwords of �faith� and �freedom.� It can get ugly, sure, but flanking the stern of the Good Ship Epic, M & A is the grandest of revolting, a consuming cloud of strings, backwards chord changes, and some of the most stultifying yelps Brock has ever slapped on tape. Jeremiah Green�s drumming is spare and ferocious while Eric Judy�s rhythm is, well, spare.
And there�s more love than anger here: Brock doesn�t want you to be alone down there, and he sure as hell isn�t going to beg for mercy. Threaded in and out of his own concoction, he seems a man strangled by his art, ready for a personal Apocalypse. At times both gorgeous and frustratingly shallow, The Moon and Antarctica could be biblical if God didn�t treat the Mouse like such a bunch of sissies.
–Dom Sinacola
Sigur Rós Agætis Byrjun (Fat Cat; August 14, 2000)
Voted by: Matt, Peter, Aaron, Dom
The best album to curl up to at 2:00 AM, period. I saw Sigur Rós open for Radiohead in Paris in 2000 shortly after the European release of this disc; and, after finding a French fan who knew the bizarre quartet�s name and could yell in not-intelligible-enough English over their chillingly gorgeous bowed guitars and rolling bass drum, set out in vain on a mission to tear up France�s every Fnac until I found music by �Ziggerruh Hoss.” Frustrated, fatigued, and stupid, I paused to collect myself at a listening station, found an interesting cardboard-sleeve with a metallic-ink winged alien angel-baby on the cover, and abandoned the Hosses for Sigur Rós, instead. One of a handful of times that I�ve been blown away by a live show only to have the recorded work fully eclipse that experience in intrigue and sheer pleasure. Frozen, barren, dark, bright, gentle, and heartwarming, Agaetis will be on lists like this in 2010. Best Moment: �Svefn-G-Englar.� –Aaron Newell
Radiohead Kid A (Capitol; October 3, 2000)
Voted by: Sean, Matt, Peter, David, Chet, Aaron, Dom, Amir
There’s very little that I could possibly write about Kid A that hasn’t already been said elsewhere, except that history seems to have forgotten that it hardly met with universal acclaim upon its release. While a healthy number of publications did hail it as the accomplished follow up to OK Computer that so many wished it to be (and was), complaints were many; ranging from complexity for its own sake, to the lack of guitars, to the fact that there’s simply not enough hours in the day to listen to an esoteric electronic album when you can be rocking out to Marah (here’s looking at you, Hornby). Favoring vintage keyboards, incredibly deep production and Aphex Twin-style programming over anything resembling a stringed instrument, Kid A still functions as a single album far better than anything else released in the past five years. Proof positive that Radiohead was determined to never repeat themselves; it was clearly the most eagerly awaited album I’d experienced in my lifetime, and probably the best. –David M. Goldstein
Godspeed You Black Emperor! Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennae To Heaven (Constellation; October 27, 2000)
Voted by: Matt, Peter, Dom
The end is coming: this is nothing new: the end hast always been on its way! Yet, it is more than you think! The undulations of Apocalypse will course from Storm to Static to Sleep to Euphony, as logical as the swells of thine own heart! As thine own breath! A cello and a violin will unwind the silk of the world’s funeral shroud! Two percussionists will tap out the thundering hoofbeat of Death’s grand march! Street prophets will needlessly complain against the anthems of electronic Anti-Christs! The End will last until lasting is no longer understood, and then it will continue! God hath saved us, but plead for more! Salvation can always be rescinded! –Dom Sinacola
