you don't even notice there's a war in my mind
Top 10 Albums Of The Decade
1. Tina Dico - Count To Ten (2008) (LB)
When I was idly compiling this top Ten in my head (well, it was more scientific than that and involved about thirty albums on a large Post-It note) it never really occurred to me that I'd choose anything other than Keane's Hopes and Fears as my number One album of the decade. It just seemed like the automatic and obvious choice.
And then I thought some more, and I found an album that I must have heard nearly a hundred times. An album that I have never grown bored of, never wanted to switch off and one without a bad note, never mind a bad song.
It's funny, really. Out of nowhere, along came Tina Dico with her eighty-odd songs - four 'proper' albums and a series of EPs - and supplanted Keane as the most important artist I have heard in the last ten years. In much the same way as bedshaped has talked about Damien Rice, Dico is in some ways the female equivalent. A singer who uses a non-same-sex vocalist to great effect, making laid-bare acoustic records which wear their heart firmly on their sleeve.
Fuel was a decent enough debut but the album's co-credit of band Sheriff made it obvious that Dico hadn't got free rein on that release. Solo EPs showed promise and the superb In The Red set the tone for what was to come. Some live performances followed and then came the release of Count To Ten in 2008.
It was my album of the year by some distance, and having thought about this at length I can't honestly name an album I have liked more in the last ten years. From the superb title track it launches straight into the great On The Run - a typical Dico number written about her uncertainty about her place in the world. The beautiful Open Wide, the stunning Sacre Coeur and the clever Craftsmanship and Poetry follow but it was on hearing the heartwrenching and emotional Cruel To The Sensitive Kind that I really, really fell for Dico.
Her An Open Ending EP and 2009's Road to Gavle have carried on where Count To Ten left off and as we enter the next decade there is no doubt in my mind that Dico will continue to produce this extra special brand of brilliance that will cement her position as my Favourite Artist Of All Time.
Listen to: Cruel To The Sensitive Kind
1. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002) (Swisslet)
I bought Parachutes and Kid A on the same day. That Radiohead album is now being hailed by many critics as the album of the decade. It’s all very good and all that, but the simple fact of the matter is that I hardly played it. Still don’t really. The Coldplay record, on the other hand, was hardly off my stereo for months and is still a firm favourite of mine. I loved the simple, plaintive quality of the songs and the abundant wide-eyed wonder of their young gangly singer, especially when he was loping after the camera along a beach in the pouring rain in the video to Yellow.
Of course, now that they’re massive, these are very much the qualities that people use to criticise Coldplay generally and Chris Martin specifically: that their songs are full of vague sentiments and a lot of abstract worrying.
They’re so big and famous now that it’s hard to think back to a time when people worried if they were big enough when they were announced as the Friday night headliners of the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 2002. They’re just a little indie band with one album and one famous song behind them. Is that really enough? How are they going to be able to pull it off? The band took to the stage and launched into a volcanic version of Politik. This was Coldplay as we’d never heard them before: famously described as “music for bedwetters”, this was something completely different. It was thunderously loud and the band had clearly taken a quantum leap forward. The release of A Rush of Blood to the Head was still months away, but the bar had suddenly been raised and I could hardly wait. Superstardom beckoned.
It’s an album packed with outstanding songs: In My Place, God Put a Smile on Your Face, The Scientist, Clocks, A Rush of Blood to the Head…. But the greatness of the album for me resides not just in the fact that there isn’t a weak song on the album as the fact that we can actually hear the ambition of the band, the way that they are striving for something far bigger than Parachutes.
Of course, the band’s signature foibles are there for all to see, perhaps written larger now we know them so much better since the subsequent releases of X&Y and Viva La Vida: the piano-led songs, the yearning, worrying and questioning of the lyrics; puzzles missing pieces… all the things that people pillory Coldplay (often unfairly) are all already in place. The Scientist is perhaps Coldplay in excelsis: that nagging piano motif, those yearning Chris Martin vocals with a sense of loss and worry…. It’s a song that fans will hold up as being perhaps the best example of the band’s genius, but their critics will hold up the very same things as the reasons why they hate them. There’s something about them that seems to make people want to criticise: New York Times critic Jon Pareles once said the band’s lyrics can make him wish he “didn’t understand English.” I love the band, but I sort of know what he means…. Or perhaps he’s simply looking to highlight the much-overlooked contribution of Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion to the band’s sound?
There’s a tendency for people to dislike a band simply because they become big, and with this album Coldplay set out on the journey that would soon see them become the biggest band in the world. This album was a marker for things to come, but it stands in its own right as the band’s finest moment. That sheer quantum leap in ambition and in sound that meant that the step to superstardom suddenly seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
My album of the decade by the band my LastFM stats tell me are my most listened to band by miles. It’s not cool to say you like Coldplay, but I tell you what, I bloody well do.
Listen to: In My Place
1. Damien Rice - 9 (2006) (bedshaped)
Well, how the devil did that happen? The top two positions held by the same artist? Well, when I was thinking about compiling this list, I wanted to have albums that not only sat quite happily in the 'brilliant album' category, but also I wanted albums to represent me, and I guess my life over the last ten years. And then of course I also had to consider albums that were never far from the 'heavy rotation' playlist.
Out of all the albums that have caught my attention over the last ten years, Damien Rice's 9 album has been the most heavily played by far. It's also the album that I've found can be played no matter what mood I'm in. It's got me through some bad times, it's helped me ride happy waves. It's an album that has never disappointed, and somehow....even now when I play it, it just....sounds....better.
Once again, this album is driven by an acoustic and intimate feel to it. Orchestrations fold in and out, when they need to emphasize something, but in the main, this is a much more stripped down and bare album than O is. Lisa Hannigan provides more vocal delights throughout this album, and once again, I have to say that she is an essential ingredient to this album's wonderments. Without Lisa's voice, this and O wouldn't have been so....effective.
Damien's stories unfold in his brilliant lyrical style, and I find this album to have a lot more....I dunno....depth and honesty to it, as far as the lyrics are concerned. It's like....he's happy that people accepted him as he was on O, and now he wants to see how far he can push those barriers.
I had tickets to see Damien play live, promoting this album. Just two days before the gig, an announcement was posted on his website, saying that He and Lisa had 'parted company'. I can't even begin to describe how utterly pissed off I was. The gig was good, don't get me wrong. But Lisa's absence was heavily felt in that auditorium that night.
How long will it be before we get another album? Who knows? Will there even be another album? Maybe not. I hope he continues to release stuff and I'll be interested to see how he tackles having such a void to fill.
Damien. I take my hat off to you, sir! You are indeed a super talented fucker.
Favourite track : Accidental Babies. An honest and raw account of a guy's undying love for a past girlfriend who has moved on. The way he recollects things from their relationship, and then wonders if she acts the same, even though she's now with somebody else. It's just piano and Damien's voice. The 'sound' of the piano is lovely. Like an old, out of tune piano found in the basement of somebody's house. And Damien sings with such wonderful emotion, you can almost hear the frog in his throat. Just a lovely, lovely song.
Listen to: Accidental Babies
1. Tina Dico - Count To Ten (2008) (LB)
When I was idly compiling this top Ten in my head (well, it was more scientific than that and involved about thirty albums on a large Post-It note) it never really occurred to me that I'd choose anything other than Keane's Hopes and Fears as my number One album of the decade. It just seemed like the automatic and obvious choice.And then I thought some more, and I found an album that I must have heard nearly a hundred times. An album that I have never grown bored of, never wanted to switch off and one without a bad note, never mind a bad song.
It's funny, really. Out of nowhere, along came Tina Dico with her eighty-odd songs - four 'proper' albums and a series of EPs - and supplanted Keane as the most important artist I have heard in the last ten years. In much the same way as bedshaped has talked about Damien Rice, Dico is in some ways the female equivalent. A singer who uses a non-same-sex vocalist to great effect, making laid-bare acoustic records which wear their heart firmly on their sleeve.
Fuel was a decent enough debut but the album's co-credit of band Sheriff made it obvious that Dico hadn't got free rein on that release. Solo EPs showed promise and the superb In The Red set the tone for what was to come. Some live performances followed and then came the release of Count To Ten in 2008.
It was my album of the year by some distance, and having thought about this at length I can't honestly name an album I have liked more in the last ten years. From the superb title track it launches straight into the great On The Run - a typical Dico number written about her uncertainty about her place in the world. The beautiful Open Wide, the stunning Sacre Coeur and the clever Craftsmanship and Poetry follow but it was on hearing the heartwrenching and emotional Cruel To The Sensitive Kind that I really, really fell for Dico.
Her An Open Ending EP and 2009's Road to Gavle have carried on where Count To Ten left off and as we enter the next decade there is no doubt in my mind that Dico will continue to produce this extra special brand of brilliance that will cement her position as my Favourite Artist Of All Time.
Listen to: Cruel To The Sensitive Kind
1. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head (2002) (Swisslet)
I bought Parachutes and Kid A on the same day. That Radiohead album is now being hailed by many critics as the album of the decade. It’s all very good and all that, but the simple fact of the matter is that I hardly played it. Still don’t really. The Coldplay record, on the other hand, was hardly off my stereo for months and is still a firm favourite of mine. I loved the simple, plaintive quality of the songs and the abundant wide-eyed wonder of their young gangly singer, especially when he was loping after the camera along a beach in the pouring rain in the video to Yellow.Of course, now that they’re massive, these are very much the qualities that people use to criticise Coldplay generally and Chris Martin specifically: that their songs are full of vague sentiments and a lot of abstract worrying.
They’re so big and famous now that it’s hard to think back to a time when people worried if they were big enough when they were announced as the Friday night headliners of the Pyramid Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 2002. They’re just a little indie band with one album and one famous song behind them. Is that really enough? How are they going to be able to pull it off? The band took to the stage and launched into a volcanic version of Politik. This was Coldplay as we’d never heard them before: famously described as “music for bedwetters”, this was something completely different. It was thunderously loud and the band had clearly taken a quantum leap forward. The release of A Rush of Blood to the Head was still months away, but the bar had suddenly been raised and I could hardly wait. Superstardom beckoned.
It’s an album packed with outstanding songs: In My Place, God Put a Smile on Your Face, The Scientist, Clocks, A Rush of Blood to the Head…. But the greatness of the album for me resides not just in the fact that there isn’t a weak song on the album as the fact that we can actually hear the ambition of the band, the way that they are striving for something far bigger than Parachutes.
Of course, the band’s signature foibles are there for all to see, perhaps written larger now we know them so much better since the subsequent releases of X&Y and Viva La Vida: the piano-led songs, the yearning, worrying and questioning of the lyrics; puzzles missing pieces… all the things that people pillory Coldplay (often unfairly) are all already in place. The Scientist is perhaps Coldplay in excelsis: that nagging piano motif, those yearning Chris Martin vocals with a sense of loss and worry…. It’s a song that fans will hold up as being perhaps the best example of the band’s genius, but their critics will hold up the very same things as the reasons why they hate them. There’s something about them that seems to make people want to criticise: New York Times critic Jon Pareles once said the band’s lyrics can make him wish he “didn’t understand English.” I love the band, but I sort of know what he means…. Or perhaps he’s simply looking to highlight the much-overlooked contribution of Jonny Buckland, Guy Berryman and Will Champion to the band’s sound?
There’s a tendency for people to dislike a band simply because they become big, and with this album Coldplay set out on the journey that would soon see them become the biggest band in the world. This album was a marker for things to come, but it stands in its own right as the band’s finest moment. That sheer quantum leap in ambition and in sound that meant that the step to superstardom suddenly seemed like the most natural thing in the world.
My album of the decade by the band my LastFM stats tell me are my most listened to band by miles. It’s not cool to say you like Coldplay, but I tell you what, I bloody well do.
Listen to: In My Place
1. Damien Rice - 9 (2006) (bedshaped)
Well, how the devil did that happen? The top two positions held by the same artist? Well, when I was thinking about compiling this list, I wanted to have albums that not only sat quite happily in the 'brilliant album' category, but also I wanted albums to represent me, and I guess my life over the last ten years. And then of course I also had to consider albums that were never far from the 'heavy rotation' playlist.Out of all the albums that have caught my attention over the last ten years, Damien Rice's 9 album has been the most heavily played by far. It's also the album that I've found can be played no matter what mood I'm in. It's got me through some bad times, it's helped me ride happy waves. It's an album that has never disappointed, and somehow....even now when I play it, it just....sounds....better.
Once again, this album is driven by an acoustic and intimate feel to it. Orchestrations fold in and out, when they need to emphasize something, but in the main, this is a much more stripped down and bare album than O is. Lisa Hannigan provides more vocal delights throughout this album, and once again, I have to say that she is an essential ingredient to this album's wonderments. Without Lisa's voice, this and O wouldn't have been so....effective.
Damien's stories unfold in his brilliant lyrical style, and I find this album to have a lot more....I dunno....depth and honesty to it, as far as the lyrics are concerned. It's like....he's happy that people accepted him as he was on O, and now he wants to see how far he can push those barriers.
I had tickets to see Damien play live, promoting this album. Just two days before the gig, an announcement was posted on his website, saying that He and Lisa had 'parted company'. I can't even begin to describe how utterly pissed off I was. The gig was good, don't get me wrong. But Lisa's absence was heavily felt in that auditorium that night.
How long will it be before we get another album? Who knows? Will there even be another album? Maybe not. I hope he continues to release stuff and I'll be interested to see how he tackles having such a void to fill.
Damien. I take my hat off to you, sir! You are indeed a super talented fucker.
Favourite track : Accidental Babies. An honest and raw account of a guy's undying love for a past girlfriend who has moved on. The way he recollects things from their relationship, and then wonders if she acts the same, even though she's now with somebody else. It's just piano and Damien's voice. The 'sound' of the piano is lovely. Like an old, out of tune piano found in the basement of somebody's house. And Damien sings with such wonderful emotion, you can almost hear the frog in his throat. Just a lovely, lovely song.
Listen to: Accidental Babies
delivered by LB at 9:01 AM
2 Discussions:
Well, well, well. This HAS been an interesting list. Lots of Damien Rice and Tina Dico pipping Keane to LB's no.1 slot. Very interesting. That Tina Dico album is superb, I agree, although I will say that the Keane album is one of those that you listen to again and wonder why everyone made such a fuss about them selling so many records - their sales somehow seemed to obscure how good a band they really are.
(and I don't recall hearing that Damien Rice album at all... clearly something that must be remedied!)
Big thanks to you guys for your thoughts and reviews, and a special shout out to LB for going to all the trouble of pulling this list together in the first place.
Good job everyone! There's some really good writing here.
Conclusion: we like singer-songwriters. A lot.
Here's to 2010!
Yes, huge thanks to you, LB for compiling, retyping, etc. Excellent, my man.
So....yes, brilliant lists this year guys! I have plenty of stuff to listen to, and I shall make sure that I get back to each of you with my thoughts. Can't say fairer than that, huh?
So....our number one albums of the decade....
Tina Dico is indeed a brilliant album. I need to follow up with her later releases.
Coldplay....well, I have to say that I'm pleased you think along the same lines as me when it comes to this album. After that one, well....I personally wouldn't bother.
I really enjoyed these lists.
Thanks swisslet and LB for your thoughts and excellent write ups.
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