Dougie Diamond's Top Ten Albums Of The Decade!
I actually started writing this in December, but as can be expected, Christmas reared it's fat, jolly head and got in the way of pretty much everything not directly related to it. So I am fully aware that my decade-end list is coming a few weeks/months later than most people's, but I really, REALLY struggle to care. It's my blog and I will do whatever I want. So there.
I haven't even tried to put these albums into any kind of order, it was hard enough whittling them down to ten in the first place, let alone actually ranking them within that ten. Having said that, I will have to make at least some kind of 'special mentions' to albums that almost made the cut. I've tried not to fall into the trap of picking albums that 'deserve' to be in the list based on how critically acclaimed/on everyone else's list they are, and simply on how important they've been to me. As such, some albums I super love havn't made the cut, simply because they didn't impact my life as much as other albums have, hence the 'special mentions'.
Anyway, no more prefacing, here we fucking go...
Mastodon - 'Blood Mountain'
My first choice is doubtlessly a controversial one. Not that it's Mastodon, god knows they're just about my favourite band of the last few years, and mainstays on pretty much every year/decade end list I've seen compiled. No, no, no, the controversy lies with the fact that I havn't picked 'Leviathan', 'Remission' or even this year's mind-blowing 'Crack The Skye' (which did make my year end list, I might add.) Y'see folks, while the band's catologue is packed with nothing but pure gold, I've gone for what may be their most overlooked release. 'Leviathan' saw the band transcend their underground shackles and enter metal's A-leagues, but it was on 'Blood Mountain' that I believe they are at their creative pinnacle; a choppy and swirling mix of buzzsaw riffing, soaring psychadelic wigouts and skyscraping song-craft. Though 'Crack The Skye' unarguably pushed Mastodon's sound further into progressive territories, BM is the more eclectic and challenging piece. Highlights for me include the rabid attack of opener 'The Wolf Is Loose', the whirling guitar-histrionics of 'Capillarian Crest', the dusty croon of Josh Homme-assisted single 'Colony Of Birchmen' and, well, I could single out any track from the album if I so chose. Mastodon will go down in history of one of the greatest bands of the decade, and this album deserves to be regarded up there with '...And Justice For All' as the less talked about, but equally-if not superior-album in the band's canon.Deftones - 'White Pony'
This is truly one of the first albums I completely fell in love with. It is one of the most complete and perfect albums-and I mean that in the classic sense-I can honestly say I've ever heard. 'White Pony' isn't a concept album in the sense of it having a cohesive lyrical narrative, but the way it musically ebbs and flows is sublime, and I can't imagine ever wanting to hear the songs contained within in another order. Not that the songs don't stand up for themselves when taken out of the context of their parent album. From the icy groove of 'Digital Bath' to the teeth-rattling agression of 'Elite', the cool and skittering electronica of 'Teenager' to the muscular Maynard James Keenan collaboration 'Passenger', each and every track is worthy of praise and close attention. But not right now. Because, hell, I don't have to answer to you, go read up on it on Wikipedia or something. Or better yet, just listen to it, and no explaination will be neccessary. Despite those who would have you believe that Deftones have spent the last 13 years disappearing up their own jacksey following their genre-defying breakthrough 'Around The Fur', THIS album is the be-all-and-end-all for this band, and all (deep breath) 'Intelligent nu-metal' (and exhale) full stop.Baroness - 'Blue Record'
I was all set for 'Red Album' to be on this list. It knocked me on my arse 2 years ago, and made a dent on me like few other new bands/albums in the last few years. So why, you may ask, is it's barely-out-of-the-box younger sibling here instead? I certainly havn't had nearly as much time for 'Blue' to sink in as 'Red' had, but that is the kicker- it doesn't need it. I'll be honest and admit that upon first listen, 'Blue' didn't overwhelm me, and I definately didn't feel that Baroness had progressed very much since their groundbreaking debut full length. Sure, I liked it straight away, but it wasn't an obvious leap forward in the way that Mastodon's 'Crack The Skye' was. But in a very short time I became hooked, and once it had a hold of my full attention, 'Blue Record' sank it's roots deep into my brain. It became clear to me that the progressions from 'Red Album' are subtle at first, but become more pronounced after repeated plays; the songcraft on display throughout is absolute in it's power-'The Sweetest Curse', 'Jake Leg' and 'A Horse Called Golgotha' all among the best songs I have EVER had the fortune to hear, and that is not to discredit the rest of the album. Everything about this record feels complete, and it is as fine an example of 'Album as an art form' as I have ever heard.Glassjaw - 'Worship And Tribute'
It would have been easy to put Glassjaw's classic debut 'Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Silence' on this list-it came along at just the right time and following on from the transcendent experience that was Deftones' 'White Pony' continued to push me towards a harder, deeper musical future than I could've had without it. But instead I bring you my case for 'Worship And Tribute' as an album of the decade, and here it is: though maybe not as directly influential, it is by far the better album. Whilst 'EYEWTKAS' laid a solid foundation, Glassjaw became something far more on their second album. Cuts like 'Tip Your Bartender', 'Pink Roses' and 'Stuck Pig' refined their razor-edged sonic pummelling into a sleeker, deadlier attack, whilst 'Ape Dos Mil' and 'Must've Run All Day' polished up what the band started on older songs like 'Piano'. The true aces in the album's pack, however, come in the final three tracks on the record; 'The Gilette Cavalcade Of Sports' introduced a sound unlike anything the band had presented up to that point, all winding basslines and breathless spoken-word passages culminating in a sky-scraping chorus. 'Trailer Park Jesus' prides itself in wrapping the listener up in shimmering guitars and almost-tribal percussion. The real gut-punch of the record comes in the shape of album closer 'Two Tabs Of Mescaline', an almost ruthlessly huge song that showcases Darryl Palumbo's acrobatic vocals better than anything else he's ever put to tape.Sigur Ros - '( )'
This album served as my introduction to the vaguely-defined genre of 'post-rock', and boy, what an introduction it was. I've spent much (if not all) of my time from the age of 15 onwards listening to metal and pretty much nothing but, so at the time I felt like I was taking a pretty huge leap of faith by buying this record (As a side note: remember when people actually bought records they hadn't heard before rather than just downloading them for a shiny bugger all from a blogspot?! Boy, those were adventurous times). My whole impetus for the purchase was the prominent use of 'The Nothing Song' (or 'Untitled #4' as it finally appeared on the album) in the final scenes of Tom Cruise's 2001 psychological-crisis-fest 'Vanilla Sky', a movie accused of wringing emotion unfairly from viewers through it's unflinchingly evocative soundtrack. It clearly worked. Upon popping '( )' into my cd player I was transported to a musical landscape unlike any other I had ever experienced, full of reverb-washed guitars, haunting falsetto and delicate piano tinkling. A coherent musical journey unlike any other, there is a delicate yet definate sense of movement, beginning with the feather-light organ drones of 'Untitled #1'(AKA 'Vaka') and ultimately self-destructing in the climactic and towering crescendos of 'Untitled #8'(AKA The Pop Song'). '( )' is regarded by many to be Sigur Ros' 'experimental album', eschewing the comparatively traditional song-structures of the albums it is sandwiched between (99's 'Agaetis Byrjun' and 05's 'Takk...'), but for me it was the absolute pinnacle of their career so far, and a complete game-changer for them.Converge - 'Jane Doe'
Much as I enjoyed taking the road less travelled for my Mastodon and Glassjaw picks, I am afraid I have to side with pretty much every extreme music journalist in all of history ever in selecting 'Jane Doe' as not only Converge's greatest achievment, but as the defining article in the entire noisecore genre. Not to discredit all of the stellar work on the 'verge's later offerings ('You Fail Me' and last year's 'Axe To Fall' are both only a gnat's pube away from such awe-inspiring greatness), but 'Jane Doe' is another one of those perfectly written/produced/sequenced albums that has so few legitimate peers it makes even the thought of trying to create something to stand shoulder to shoulder with it pants-pissingly rediculous. The opening barrage of 'Concubine' and 'Fault And Fracture' could strip the paint off the inside of a nuclear submarine from 5 miles away, and things barely let up for the duration. Every single track on the album is a stone-cold killer, from the rock-and-roll ankle-snapper 'Homewrecker' to the second double gut punch of the record in the form of 'The Broken Vow' and 'Bitter And Then Some'. One of 'Jane Doe's greatest assets is the flow of the record-it's hard to hear a single song from it and not want the next one. It all comes crashing to a majectic end with the 11 minute plus title track, a masterclass in soul-scarring post-metal that puts bands who base entire careers in that style to shame with ease.Intronaut - 'Prehistoricisms'
This is one of two albums that managed to sneak into my list at the last minute. I had something of an internal struggle as to whether an album released only a year or so ago really has any right being in this list, but then I figured, Hey! I put 'Blue Record' on the list and that only came out last October, so a large 'Fuck it!' and we're on with our way. Intronaut are a band I'd heard much about over the last few years, mostly from 'pretentious' art-metal snobs claiming them to be the best thing since sliced-Mastodon, so considering what a pretentious art-metal snob I am, it's a minor miracle I hadn't checked any of their records out before. After a brief tone-setting intro, the album kicks off proper with the monolithic beast that is 'The Literal Black Cloud'. Grounded by a hefty power-groove, this track perfectly showcases exactly what it is that sets Intronaut apart from the post-metal pack: is it the gliding, shimmery guitar leads? Nope, not quite. The thick, roaring vocals? Mmmm, not that either. Maybe, just maybe it's the OH MY GOD HOW IS HE MAKING THE BASS DO THAT?!?!?!?!?!?! Yes, the reason is that for the most part Intronaut are one of about, oh say, -3 bands in the world who treat the bass as the lead melodic instrument, and oh boy does it make me creamy. Not to discredit the rest of the band, the whole package is for sure greater than the sum of it's parts, but dang, no other band has ever made me air-bass before. Oh, the songs on this record are unfairly-to-every-other-band-ever awesome too. 'Cavernous Den Of Shame', 'Sundial' and 'Australopithecus' are all incredible slabs of cerebellum-stroking smart-core that could give everyone from Meshuggah to Isis a run for their money, and mind-bending/melting/de-atomising finale 'The Reptillian Brain' is 16 minutes of tabla-happy musical head-fuckery and unlike anything you you have ever heard.Torche - 'Meanderthal'
Rounding off my double header of 'slippery bastard albums that slid their way into the list without me noticing' is the 2nd full length from Floridian 'thunder-pop' kings and maestros of all that is sunny in my musical world, Torche. Another band, like Intronaut, that I was aware of for a long time before I actually heard them, Torche make the kind of music everyone in the world that isn't terminally grumpy and stuck-inside-their-own-cobweb-incrusted-bum'ole should embrace with open arms. Undoubtedly Torche are a heavy band, and plenty of moments on 'Meanderthal' showcase this, none quite so potently as the tarpit-thick sludge-fest of the title-track. However, whilst I come for the sludge, I stay for the shimmering pop-rock mastery. Seriously, if The Beach Boys had grown up in the 90's and listened to The Melvins, this is what would've happened. 'Grenades' is a contender for my song of the decade, all posi-vibed riffs, sublime harmonised vocals and a wigged-out guitar solo that would make a paraplegic cry....because he has no arms and can't air guitar, obviously. 'Pirana' kicks things up a few notchea, and has a little more bite (PUN). The centrepiece of the album is singles 'Healer' and 'Across The Shields', the former a blizzard of choppy guitars and 'whoa-ohs', the latter the kind of song that in a perfect world would permeate the charts with ruthless efficiency. And I couldn't write about this album without mentioning 'Fat Waves', another summer-pop rockathon with incredibly peppy vocals, that makes a sharp 90 degree turn halfway through and becomes a massive wall of pounding drums and guitars until it's sublime climax. Yessir ladies and gentlemen, Torche are amazing and should be the soundtrack to every sunny day you ever have. Ever.Death Cab For Cutie - 'Plans'
I had copies of all of DCFC's albums sat on my mp3 player for a long time, yet never really got round to listening to them. My impetus to finally get clued in was through being introduced to and subsequently falling in love with The Postal Service, Ben Gibbard's electro-pop sometimes-band with Dntel mastermind Jimmy Tamborello. Though rather than going back over the albums I already had, I dove headfirst into Death Cab's then new album 'Plans', a record which grabbed me by the lapels and, well, gave me thousands of tender kisses on the forehead and told me everything was going to be alright in gentle whispers. Maybe it was just a case of right-time, right-album, but I was going through something of a lady-crisis at the time, and Gibbard's gentle musings on the nature of love, betrayal, and mortality struck an incredibly too-close-for-comfort chord with me. Though since then I have personally moved onto much greener relationship pastures, and the lyrics aren't quite as starkly biographical as they once were, what remains is an incredible album filled with beautiful songs that make me feel just melancholic enough to feel affected, rather than dragging me into pits of self-despair, as many of DCFC's less subtle peers have a tendency to do.Cave In - 'Jupiter'
And so we reach the end of the list and with it comes the oldest record in it. Cave In's is a well worn tale, the trials and tribulations of their 'We're metal...now we're not...now we sort-of are again' being pretty common knowledge to anyone worth their salt in the alt/metal community. Or maybe I'm just so obsessed with them I just assume everyone knows all about this. Either way, my delusions nonwithstanding, Cave In are a band that have seemingly delighted in throwing their fanbase curveball after curveball, and following the progressive metal juggernaut (ahem...) that was 'Until Your Heart Stops', few could have imagined that this band could create a record like this. I have to this day yet to see anyone accurately capture the essence of what 'Jupiter' is in a review, and lordy knows I'm probably not about to buck that hackneyed trend, but gosh darn I'm going to have a crack at it.So, what is 'Jupiter'? Is it emo? Not really. Prog rock? In the sense that it is rock music that is progressive, I guess so, but certainly not in a Genesis/ELP/Yes kinda way. Post-hardcore? Again, in that this is a record made by a band who used to be pretty hardcore, then yes, that fits too. In reality it is all and none of these things all at once. A masterclass in epic songwriting (and I mean legitimately epic, not just in that 'our songs are 10 minutes long and have a fuck ton of delay' kinda way), 'Jupiter' is the kind of album that truely transcends genres like Chuck Norris dispatches enemies-with little regard for the consequences. And roundhouse kicks? Well that analogy sucked fat balls. To take a more personal tack, 'Jupiter' was the kind of record I'd always wanted, nay, NEEDED to hear, full of towering riffs, huge choruses, and generally more good ideas than most bands have in an entire career. Tracks like 'Jupiter', 'In The Stream Of Commerce' and 'Innuendo And Out The Other' are all incredible slabs of graceful, empowering music, whilst 'Big Riff' is an almost perfect song (at least in my humble opinion). Though their melodic sensibilities got the better of them on major-label follow up 'Antenna', on 'Jupiter', Cave In were a precise and life-changing prospect, and this album looms large above their entire discography, much like the planet whose name it bears.So, there it is! A controversial list, maybe, but a list nontheless. Just incase you've read it and thought, 'Wait just a gosh darn rootin' tootin' minute you crazy cracker, where's .......... on the list! Why I outta box your ears you lollygagger!' Well, first of all, what are you, a middle class English victorian cowboy? Secondly, this is MY list you buttcrack, based on MY opinions, and no-one else's. Nevertheless, if it placates you a little, allow me to present..
The Next Ten Albums That Almost (but not quite) Made The Cut!
Between The Buried And Me - 'Colors'
Poison The Well - 'You Come Before You'
Every Time I Die - 'Gutter Phenomenon'
The Black Dahlia Murder - 'Unhallowed'
Feist - 'The Reminder'
Killswitch Engage - 'Alive Or Just Breathing'
The Postal Service - 'Give Up'
At The Drive-In - 'Relationship Of Command'
Darkest Hour - 'Undoing Ruin'
Pelican - 'The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw'
Well, this has taken about 3-months longer to write than it had any right to, and it doesn't necessarily even remotely resemble the list I might have produced had I actually written the full thing in December like I bloody well should've, but well, there you go. That's life folks. See you all in 3 years when I probably get around to writing something else on this godforsaken blorg. Kapow.
DD x
p.s. you have something to read now Uncouth Youth! Use it wisely.
