The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s: Numbers 34

The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s: Numbers 34 – 33

December 10th, 2009 MUSIC Cory Maidens

The double oughts are about to be over. Featured author and music obsessive Cory Maidens takes a look back at the first decade of the 21st Century in music, and lists his picks for the 50 best records to be released during its ten years

34. Brand New – Deja Entendu (2003)
Brand New’s Deja Entendu was one of the biggest surprises of 2003. No one could have predicted that this former pop-punk act would translate two years of touring experience into an ambitious and memorable rock record, one that reached Gold sales status four years later. The reasons this indie sleeper has ridden a word-of-mouth wave through most of the decade lie largely in singer/songwriter Jesse Lacey, whose clever lyrics and ear for melody work hand in hand with top notch production and arrangements. If a few of the tracks still contain traces of the group’s poppier past, it’s usually for the best, as in “The Quiet Things That No One Ever Knows,” which contains the disc’s most memorable refrain. Even album-closing ballad “Play Crack The Sky” escapes a lazy R.E.M./Counting Crows comparison by outdoing those bands at their own game. Despite the meaning of its title, Deja Entendu was anything but “already heard,” instead setting a high bar that none of the band’s immediate contemporaries have yet come close to reaching.

33. Decemberists – The Crane Wife (2006)
The Decemberists’ Crane Wife is one of the most brilliant and unexpected musical statements of the last decade. Colin Meloy and company had captured the attention of music fans well outside the die-hard indie rock circles and made the jump from mega-indie Sub Pop to mega-major Capitol. Adoring fans expected the group to release another gentle wave of peculiarly mannered folk pop and instead got beaten about the ears with the band’s brand of psychedelic prog rock, weaving epics like the three part titular song cycle and the keyboard-laden twelve minutes of “The Island.” The individual songcraft of these tracks rivals the best of the group’s previous catalog, while the conceptual strength brings near-perfect cohesion to seemingly disparate elements. Rush-worthy moments of arena prog bring a sudden understanding to Meloy’s oddly affected vocals and his remarkable falsetto. The shocking disco-baiting caper “The Perfect Crime #2″ sounds just right between the buoyant “O Valencia!” and World War II acid ballad “When The War Came.” The Crane Wife asks the listener to engage the music with his or her intellect and imagination and subsequently supplies all necessary tools to ensure success.

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Cory Maidens

Cory Maidens is a proud son of the American Midwest, a man of letters and an incorrigible bastard. Since acquiring his BA in English Literature, he has proudly avoided non-comic books as an apathetic eye-roll at intellectual elitism. He thinks that arguing is highly underrated as sport and engages in it more often than might be advisable to compensate for that perceived deficiency. He believes in gay marriage, The Daily Show and Bruce Springsteen. He enjoys hearing Southern voices read Civil War-era correspondence aloud.

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