#10 - Phil

Beck

Sea Change

2002

The third shared album on the Rolling Fork countdown comes from Beck, one of the most versatile artists of our generation. I have always been incredibly inspired by Beck’s range, as he has displayed everything from rap to country to jazz to experimental rock throughout his career. And on his fourth record, Sea Change, Beck shows off his talent as a folk singer-songwriter… and succeeds to create one of the most beautifully effectual albums I’ve ever listened to.

Beck wrote Sea Change in the wake of breaking up with his longtime girlfriend. While on prior albums his lyrics had been strange and ambiguous, he becomes extremely vulnerable in presenting his words for this record: “How could this love / Ever turning / Ever turn its eye on me / How could this love / Ever changing / Ever change the way I feel,” he sings on the heartbreaking ballad “Lonesome Tears.” One of Beck’s greatest gifts is that he’s able to write songs that can move you both lyrically and musically, an example being the album’s lead single, “Lost Cause.” Beck’s simple yet lovely finger pattern accentuates the power of what he’s describing when indeed a relationship has lost all hope: “Your sorry eyes, they cut through bone / They make it hard to leave you alone / Leave you here wearing your wounds / Waving your guns at somebody new / Baby, you’re lost / Baby, you’re lost / Baby, you’re a lost cause.”

Ultimately, what makes this record a masterpiece is that it tells a story. If the songs remained strictly about the final moments of the relationship, I would have had issues with its narrow scope. Instead Beck moves from these moments to those months or years down the line in its aftermath, perfectly captured by the barren “Already Dead”: “Time wears away / All the pleasures of the day / All the treasures you could hold / Days turn to sand / Losing strength in every hand / They can’t hold you anymore.” Like the memories of relationships past, these are songs we can hold onto forever. -P.W.

My very favorite Beck record. Beck has managed to craft very unique and diverse records (until the release of Guero). His various genre-bending ventures have been captivating and never fail to disappoint, but it was Sea Change that I fell in love with. Its atmospheric down-trodden beauty is a perfect soundtrack for the fall, watching everything slowly die as we slip into the colder months. These lazy, slightly amorphous pastoral songs are haunting and take me back to the early days of high school. A wonderful album. - Ryan

Comin' back to "Sea Change". Still my favorite Beck album and certainly a record that has permanently burrowed its way into the crevices of my psyche. The universal lyrical themes are only heightened by the gorgeous tunes contained within. As personal as this record was in conception, the results are some of the most broadly appealing music Beck has released. Listen to this one. - Steve

#10 - Ryan & Steve

Electric Wizard

Dopethrone

2000

Easily the heaviest, most weed-drenched record I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I'll always think of this record as the go to for the late night parties at our college place on Brattleboro. During these parties Mike was always the one pushing to hear this monolith again and again - I must publicly thank him for this. My only qualm is that now after this record, most other doom and stoner metal comes across as flaccid and weak. This is the beast.

"When you get into one of these groups, there's only a couple of ways you can get out - one is death and the other is mental institutions." Kickin' it off right with "Vinum Sabbathi" we're immediately drenched in Sabbath-fueled riffage and some of the most pleasingly heavy guitar tones in modern metal. The dense sounds here are overwhelming, seemingly too big to digest. Most of the stuff here is the plodding slow dirge of nightmares, sounding like the shifting of tectonic plates and a billowing bong hit. The record gets finished off with the ten-minute opus, the title track "Dopethrone". Incomprehensible lyrics get slurred and barked while being buried alive under the riffs. No records come close to this and if you're a fan of sludgy metal or even just Black Sabbath, you owe it to yourself to spin this unrelenting behemoth. -S.R.

If you aren’t completely rocking out to this album within its first two minutes you may need to check your pulse, for you might be dying. Dopethrone is a startlingly brilliant achievement that kidnaps you and brings you into Electric’s Wizard drugged-out, trippy world. I would not recommend listening to this album while on any illegal substances, though I’m sure about 90% of Electric Wizard’s fans would strongly disagree with me. At 70 minutes, my only criticism would be that its length is a bit too long for music THIS intense! - Phil

#11 - Phil

Eminem

The Marshall Mathers LP

2000

“Slim Shady does not give a fuck what you think. If you don’t like it, you can suck his fucking cock.” These words that open Eminem’s second record, The Marshall Mathers LP, perhaps summarize the decade’s most successful artist as well as ever. After taking the world by storm with his shockingly brilliant and controversial 1999 debut The Slim Shady LP, the white Detroit rapper set out to release a more personal, introspective, and unapologetically offensive follow-up. Just 15 months later, the result was the best record of 2000 and one of the most discussed rap albums of all-time.

The first song on The Marshall Mathers LP is called “Kill You,” an early indication of how dark and offensive this album really is. One of the themes that Em has touched on repeatedly throughout his career is his hatred towards his mother, and that feeling has never been more effectively expressed than it is here: “Put your hands down, bitch, I ain’t goin’ shoot you / I’ma pull you to this bullet and put it through you / (Ahhh!) Shut up, slut, you’re causing too much chaos / Just bend over and take it like a slut – Ok Ma?” These disturbing images only continue, as the following track, “Stan,” tells the story of a crazed fan who kills himself and his pregrnant girlfriend when Em won’t return his letters. Even the album’s lead single, “The Real Slim Shady,” is about as controversial of a hit pop song as the radio has allowed: “We ain’t nothin’ but mammals / Well, some of us cannibals who cut other people open like cantaloupes.”

The bottom line is this: Eminem was able to make a record that forced the media and the general populous to face him head-on. He was too big to be ignored – stations couldn’t keep these songs off the air, and activist groups couldn’t simply say, “Don’t buy his CD, kids.” He became an icon of unfathomable proportions, and his courage in releasing this album is something I have always strongly admired. -P.W.

The fascinating thing about Eminem is the persona he has created. He has created a character made up of truths and lies. After listening to his stellar albums, The Slim Shady LP and The Marshall Mathers LP, the only question is, what’s real and what’s not? Using his very powerful delivery, his black humor is disturbing and always begs the question, “Is this guy for real?” A perfect example are his notorious tracks, “97 Bonnie and Clyde” from The Slim Shady LP and “Kim” from this one, which are about Eminem committing murder. While these songs are always a huge turn off to me, I find them fascinating when thinking about them in the context of Eminem’s faux persona. - Ryan

Eminem has had quite a decade. Beginning with a whirlwind of acclaim and attention only to end up as something of a late-naughts burn-out. At least in the process we've been given "The Marshall Mathers LP", an electrifying record with a diverse sound and startling tracks of ingenuity, wit, humor, violence, redemptions, satire, drugs and Eminem's enviable flow. This record spits back hard from the jumbled broken-mirror-fun-house of Eminem's mind. - Steve

#11 - Ryan & Steve

Animal Collective

Merriweather Post Pavilion

2009

While Animal Collective may not have always been striving to make a record like this, I feel like one can hear the band’s potential to create it even in their early tribal noise folk album, Here Comes the Indian. The collective (no pun intended) has grown and evolved substantially over the past decade. Here Comes the Indian was a pretty inaccessible affair that makes it clear how they would have collaborated with the likes of Black Dice at one point. Sung Tongs grew more broadly appealing but it was Feels that landed the band in more of a freak folk territory. Strawberry Jam last year was the band’s first attempt at creating a pop record but their use of harsh and piercing electronics was still a bit too alienating.

Finally, their efforts have culminated into one of the greatest musical accomplishments of our time, Merriweather Post Pavilion. The hype and raves around this record were at an all time high before the album had even been officially released. In fact, Merriweather was practically part of the indie canon before it was pressed on wax. This level of exposure is bound to bring out the nay-sayers and those folks who never really liked the band anyway. Usually I can respect others’ opinions on music if well defended, but in this case, they’re just wrong.

This band with their long-standing ritualistic interests, have created a sound that is wholly their own and astonishingly unique. This is an immense accomplishment within the realm of rock/pop. Not only that but they’ve managed to make their tunes friendly to the ears of the masses. Though they’ve been filed as part of the freak folk fold, the band has been shown to have more in common with certain electronic acts. They emulate digital dance music but without electricity. Instead, they utilize acoustics, vocal harmonies and tape loops. Then they inject it all with their own dose of psychfolk shimmer and swirl, sun-spangled melody, and a brilliant kaleidoscopic design. I am confident when I say that it is very difficult to overstate the impact of this album. I don’t believe it could be made at any other time or by another band. -R.C.

I’ll be honest – I had never listened to an Animal Collective album until this year. That still couldn’t keep me from completely falling in love with Merriweather Post Pavilion, a record that seems to almost have a mind of its own in how it paces itself and connects with the listener. The only uncertainty about its greatness is how it will be regarded by generations to come. I have a feeling it won’t be forgotten. - Phil

#12 - Phil

Radiohead

Kid A

2000

If you were playing Family Feud and were asked the question: “Name a band in the last 20 years that has become huge from critical acclaim,” you’d be wise to say Radiohead. The UK’s popular alternative rock band released some of the most respected albums of the 90s, including 1995’s The Bends and 1997’s OK Computer. As the new decade turned, anticipation for the group’s fourth record was sky-high. And instead of regurgitating what they had done in the past, Radiohead decided to move in a completely unfamiliar direction.

This led to the birth of Kid A, Radiohead’s electronic masterpiece. What’s interesting is that although Kid A is viewed as a landmark achievement today, critics were quite divided about it at the time of its release. Some were turned off by Radiohead’s “commercial suicide” approach, while others fell in love with its eclectic and hypnotic atmosphere. Perhaps I was at an advantage in that I had never listened to another Radiohead album before and could not compare Kid A to their previous work. It’s certainly an album that’s taken its time to become part of my listening rotation, but I believe my love and appreciation for it is stronger today because of it.

“Everything in its Right Place” opens the record with a slick synthesized line behind lead singer Thom Yorke’s muzzled, incoherent voice. It slowly climbs to a peak of fast-approaching sounds coming at the listener in all forms and from all angles. The song achieves its intention as it puts the listener in just the right place to experience the transcendence that awaits them. “How to Disappear Completely” sounds like Yorke is singing atop the mountains on the album’s cover, saying repeatedly, “I’m not here / This isn’t happening” while the surrounding instruments cover him like an unexpected storm. “Idioteque” gets me lost completely every time I hear it, with its instilling four-note loop mixed perfectly into an inducing dance beat. And the closer, “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” feels like an epic culmination to a journey where instead of answers, you’re left with questions about where to travel to next. -P.W.

While this album is consistently making #1 (or at least in the top 10) of every other top albums of the decade list, but Rolling Fork likes to keep things interesting. This was actually the last of the Radiohead albums I listened to and while The Bends, Amnesiac and OK Computer convinced me that these guys are rock gods and deserve there place as one of the greatest bands of our time. After their essentially perfect OK Computer, the band did something unprecedented. Not only did they follow it up with an record that is arguably better than their last but they had the balls to not slip into a state of complacency and create a challenging and experimental album. - Ryan

What the hell is there left to say about "Kid A" anymore? It's my personal favorite Radiohead record and actually the first album of theirs to truly resonate with me. As time has gone on, it seems popular consensus is slowly shifting from selecting "OK Computer" to "Kid A" as Radiohead's canonical triumph. While it's a toss-up with records as aesthetically thorough as these, I'll always stick with the electronic, gloomy nighttime sounds here rather than the guitar-strutting alienation of it's predecessor. Essential listening. - Steve

#12 - Ryan & Steve

Black Dice

Beaches and Canyons

2002

It's funny to think that Animal Collective and Black Dice were working so closely together around this time. While they both began by creating noisy cacophonies attempting to stumble upon something wholly new and exciting, they've ended up occupying entirely different words at the end of the decade. After a few smaller releases with Fusetron and Troubleman Unlimited and a couple collaborations with unrelenting noise-dudes Wolf Eyes, Black Dice return with an album as sparse as they've ever made. The tracks here elicit a feeling of gradual progression, an ethereal quiet shifting and eventually resulting in new age musics for noise-heads. I mean, they generously sample five minutes of ocean noises on a song called "Endless Happiness".

With "Beaches and Canyons", Black Dice honed a singular album experience that they have yet to match. The first track, "Seabird" is an aptly named song that's filled with repetitive blips, bloops and various electronic squonks that do sound remarkably bird-like. Track two, "Things Will Never Be the Same" drifts and floats upward in a gentle white noise that slowly incorporates some shouting/screaming and ascending drums only to bleed out into an industrialized drone. During college I had a radio program where I was allowed to play whatever I wanted (this was a short-lived affair at my student-debauched radio station) and on my most adventurous evening I played Black Dice's fifteen-minute opus "Endless Happiness". It's a quiet, tranquil number that gently builds upon some delayed flute noises along subtle synth arpeggios, sampled atmospherics, shimmering bells and unnatural tonal swells. But at five minutes in we're surprised by a full drum kit pounding away as the repetitive looping of the background picks up as a kind of motorik propulsion. It's a beautiful song that was delicately crafted, just as any pop song would. Black Dice have been creating pure abstract music for quite some time, but I can't see them toppling the colossal noise/new-age masterpiece they've concocted here. Brilliant. -S.R.

There are some parts that are interesting, but overall the album really bores me. Track 2, “Things Will Never Be the Same,” feels VERY much the same the whole way through. The fact that each track just gets longer than the one before doesn’t help me through the listening process either. I doubt I will ever have an urge to listen to this album on my own time. - Phil

#13 - Phil

M.I.A.

Kala

2007

“M.I.A. coming back with power, power!” The British hip-hop artist wasn’t joking when she announced these words to the world on the opening track to her second album, Kala. Her debut, Arular, was already one of the most critically acclaimed records of 2005, and just two years later she returned with a force no other artist in the genre – male or female – could match. It didn’t seem fair.

One of the things that makes Kala so unique is that it was recorded in various areas across the world. Due to visa problems, M.I.A. was forced to create the bulk of the album in countries like Trinidad, India, Liberia, Jamaica, and Australia. I can honestly say that few records have blown me away more after one listen than Kala. M.I.A.’s confidence level from start to finish is absolutely off the charts, and her travels to other countries prominently show in her instrumental choices. “Boyz” uses Indian urumee drums and was influenced by Trinidadian soca dance music. In it, M.I.A. sounds like she’s talking over a loud speaker in front of thousands of people, making fun of every boy she sees: “How many no-money boys are crazy? / How many boys are raw? / How many no-money boys are rowdy? / How many start a war?” In contrast, “Jimmy” sounds like M.I.A. has traveled back in time to the 70s, with catchy electronic riffs layered over a club-thumping bass.

And then there’s “Paper Planes,” one of my favorite singles of the decade. M.I.A. somehow managed to make a song about shooting people and taking their money marketable, probably the single-greatest hook I’ve ever heard: “All I wanna do is – BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! – and take your money!” If there’s ever been a greater album put out by a female hip-hop artist, I’m waiting to hear it. -P.W.

M.I.A. really made it big with this record mostly because of “Paper Planes” being played constantly on the trailers for Pineapple Express last year. One thing I always felt was ironic about her was that she complained about her not being considered a legitimately respected producer in her own right, but then she goes and associates herself with pretty big producer names like Diplo and Timbaland on her new album. Regardless, M.I.A. has been one of the few sources of fresh hip-hop electronics ever since her release of Arular in 2005. Kala is an equally good follow-up and I can’t wait to hear what comes next. - Ryan

M.I.A. kicks it up on this record with an album even more hard-hitting and righteous than her excellent debut "Arular". Raking in a lot of delayed-fame with the single from Pineapple Express, "Paper Planes". As far as what this thing actually sounds like - it's something of an amalgam of dub, hip-hop, electronic and dancehall. It's a weird album that has found it's way into the mainstream, quite a feat. - Steve