The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s: Numbers 16

The 50 Best Albums of the 2000s: Numbers 16 – 15

December 23rd, 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

16. Girl Talk – Night Ripper (2006)
Greg Gillis took most of the music world by storm with his album Night Ripper in 2006. This largely illegal and self-released work built so much word-of-mouth support that it wound up on the year-end best lists of magazines as big as Rolling Stone. While creating new works entirely out of previously existing material was hardly new (Negativland had been doing it for nearly three decades) his style of exuberant pastiche turned Pixies songs into club bangers and gave Elton John & Biggie more in common than collaborating with Eminem well after their respective primes. Night Ripper‘s sonic histrionics border on irritating so often that certain passages are difficult to listen to casually, but as a self-contained dance party, the album is absolutely flawless.

15. Cursive – The Ugly Organ (2003)
Cursive’s The Ugly Organ is a supremely executed meditation on the relationship between art and artifice. The Nebraska group had established themselves as talented songwriters and performers but the added strength of accomplished storytelling add new facets to a well-mined premise. Early highlights “Some Red Handed Sleight of Hand” and “Art Is Hard” set the stage in a confrontational tone, but the album rewards patient listeners with nuance and insight. Structural organ interludes tastefully progress the conversation without ever forcing the concept. Tim Kasher’s pained vamping resembles a less sedated Robert Smith, still mad at the world for all the shit luck and not quite ready to resign himself to loneliness. If the idea occasionally feels a bit bloated, the music more than compensates. Interesting compositions and dramatic arrangements are this record’s secret weapon; It’s much easier for an artist to feign apathy when their creations back up their attitude and Cursive’s certainly do.

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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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