Their second best record miles behind Midwestern Songs of the Americas; but it was the record I played the shit out of in the summer of 2000.




http://www.mediafire.com/?gvov13ki0hhcde2

2 of my favorites came out that year

Along with a ton of shit that was already mentioned like Deftones, Kid A, etc.

A ton of good shit released this year...

I was about ten years late on this one, better late than never:



Zevon's later period work was often very uneven, but this one has always sat pretty well with me and gets a surprising number of plays:

Excellent choice.

some good 'uns not yet mentioned:






songs: ohia also released Ghost Tropic this year along with the previously mentioned The Lioness. both terrific albums.

That Cat Power is hot garbage.

That's one of my favourite YLT albums.

Some things I like a bunch that haven't been posted yet:

Peter Bruntnell – Normal for Bridgwater

England's answer to Joe Pernice? Maybe although he's a little less poppy and more melancholy. All his albums are really good. I couldn't begin to rank them.

Laura Cantrell – Not the Tremblin’ Kind

One of the better current female alt country singers.

Chappaquiddick Skyline – S/T

Imo, this is Pernice's best album from 2000 but I'm going to have to pull Big Tobacco out for another listen soon.

Richard Davies - Barbarians

Not his best but still plenty to like here.

Dolly Varden - The Dumbest Magnets

They are near the top of my favorite alt country acts

Fala Mansa – Deixa Entrar…

Easily my favorite Brazilian album of 2000. Great forro which is a genre that has a lot in common with zydeco.

Kevin Fowler – Beer, Bait & Ammo

I was turned on to Kevin Fowler by the title track to this album being played on the Sirrius Outlaw Country Channel. Pretty fun boozy redneck country music.

The Insomniacs – Get Something Going?

I'd put these guys in the top tier of power pop/garage acts of the last decade

Damien Jurado – Ghost of David

Pretty much what you'd expect from Damien Jurado.

Last Forever – Trainfare Home

Large Ensemble project exploring traditional folk which was the Brain Child of Dick Connette who was Loudon Wainwright's partner on the "High, Wide & Handsome" album of Charlie Poole covers. The vocalist, Sonya Cohen, is Pete Seeger's neice. I discovered this through wondering who the hell Dick Connette was after reading the liner notes to "High, Wide & Handsome" and looking up his prior credits. I'm still digesting it but would say it's worth checking out if you were a fan of that album.

Moreno + 2 - Máquina de Escrever Música

Debut album of Moreno Veloso, Caetano's son. Pretty good modern brazilian album.

Van Morrison [with Linda Gale Lewis] – You Win Again

Not a VM album you need to own if you are only going to buy a few but this one is pretty good for a more recent one. VM sings duets with Linda Gale Lewis (JLL's sister) who also plays piano. It's mostly covers but pretty fun ones.

Ojos De Brujo – Vengue

Their debut album mixes flamenco, rock, scratching, etc. I'm a big fan but like their followup more.

Jair Oliveira – dis’Ritma

Jair is the son of Jair Rodrigues and this is his debut album. He has a pretty good voice and plays guitar well. His style is a fusion of samba, bossa nova, soul music and electronica.

Peret – Rey de La Rumba

Not sure if this is 2000 or 2001. RYM says 2000, AMG says 2001. Peret was a rhumba player from the 70's. He modernizes and electrifies his music here with guest contributions from David Byrne, Tanino Carotone and a long list of members from rock en espanol bands such as Sergent Garcia, Ojos de Brujo, Dusminguet, and El Gran Silencio. RIYL: Manu Chao

Virginia Rodrigues –Nos

Think of her as a Brazilian counterpoint to Cesaria Evora

South – From Here On In

Not the sort of album I should like but I somehow I do.

Randy Weeks – Madeleine

Gifted alt country singer/songwriter that deserves much more love than he gets. This is his best album.

Deathray Davies – Return of the Drunk Ventriloquist

Catchy, fun alt pop/power pop album.

Agreed. They're all good. His newest will certainly land somewhere in my 2011 Top Ten. That said, I believe this is from 1999.




Both are very good.



...and we're the better for it.

Here are two selections. One obvious, the other not so obvious.



I haven't seen this mentioned. Still, one of the better records from PJ.
Dunno, I've tried & tried with Let England Shake, each time, barely able to stay awake. This years' gig at The Warfield in SF, actually put me to sleep. Maybe the pundits are giving her a pass on this, cos she is, after all, PJ Harvey. But I digress.....




Slaid understands the value of musical economics. Ten songs, no filler.

RYM said 2000 so maybe it got US release in 2000 after UK release in 1999. I just saw it on my list of albums from 2000 in their database and went with it but you might very well be right on that.

RYM also said Belleville was 2000 and I was going to list that but I noticed Amazon said Dec. 1999 for that and I figured Amazon must be right.

The new Bruntnell will likely be near the bottom of my top 10 too.

YES

Several of my favorites have already been mentioned: Deltron, Modest Mouse, Kid A, Shellac, Yo La Tengo, Songs: Ohia - The Lioness, Ghostface, Outkast, and QOTSA. Big yes to all of those especially YLT, Shellac, and Songs: Ohia.

At the time, my favorites were probably - 1. Kid A, 2. Bjork - Selmasongs, 3. Deltron, 4. PJ Harvey... something like that. I've hardly listened to that PJ harvey album since then, though. And I hated that Badly Drawn Boy album.

My favorite now:

Jackie-O Motherfucker - Fig. 5
(This is the reissue cover, not the original. Hard to find a decent-sized image of the original one now, but it's pretty similar.)
I didn't start listening to JOMF until 2002, a little after their album Change came out. I ordered Fig. 5 and its follow-up Liberation directly from the now-defunct Road Cone label not long after downloading and really getting into Change. This album, Fig. 5 is arguably their defining work. They were lumped in with the New Weird America "movement" by Wire magazine along with bands like No-Neck Blues Band and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Sort of shambolic, junkyard, neo-jam-band stuff. But JOMF stands way above those other bands in my mind and fortunately they transcend that whole "scene". There's much more in the way of songs in their ambling compositions and improvisations. More soul, more melody, more grit, more drama, more payoff. This isn't for everybody, but I love it.

Others not yet mentioned (unless I messed them):

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven
Didn't think I'd be the first one to mention this. It seemed pretty huge at the time. I didn't really start listening to it until a few years later, but I certainly heard plenty about it when it came out. This is sort of taking the big cinematic, huge crescendo take on post-rock to its ultimate conclusion as far as I'm concerned. There's still some room for more melodic and immediately memorable stuff like Explosions in the Sky (and the other, completely different takes on "post-rock"), but most of the rest is rendered obsolete by this album.


Enon - Believo!
Super underrated album. I guess most people either prefer the poppier, later Enon stuff or the more manic Brainiac. This might be an unsatisfying middle ground for many, but for me it's the perfect medium. In a lot of ways it still sounds "cooler" than Brainiac to me, and while I like the more refined pop of Enon's following albums, I miss the wilder, darker side on display here.


The Microphones - It Was Hot, We Stayed in the Water
The precursor to their best album, it still has some excellent moments, mainly album centerpiece "The Glow" which is probably my single favorite thing Phil Elvrum (or however he spells it now) has done. A rough-hewn psychedelic mini-epic that foreshadows the sprawling full-on epic of The Glow, Pt. 2.


Avey Tare & Panda Bear - Spirit They're Gone, Spirit They've Vanished
Later re-branded as an Animal Collective release and packaged along with Danse Manatee, this really hints at all of the directions Animal Collective would head in over the following decade, all the way to Merriweather Post Pavilion. It's considered one of their "noisier" releases, and it does have that in common with other early Animal Collective offerings. But the pop sensibilities of their more recent stuff is evident on tracks like "April and the Phantom" and "Chocolate Girl". Still one of my favorite things they've put out.

There's lots more I could post about, too. Great year.

This definitely did seem huge back then. I don't have much interest in post-rock so I agree with you, and perhaps that's why I never cared to explore the "genre" much more.

The presence of Ghost on this helped them out. I like this better than their other albums. Saw them tour with Ghost in support of this, very good show.


Maybe this album captures a time and place for me and satisfies me to the point that I don't care about hearing other Blonde Redhead albums. Because, 11 years later, I still haven't. Still like this a lot.


At the time I had just discovered The Field Mice so I got this. "Sometimes I Still Feel the Bruise" is great but overall not a stupendous album.


I forgot I had this. Alt-country kind of band from Austin. Haven't listened to this in years so don't really remember its worth. Seems like it might interest some folks here though.


A little more polished sounding than his other stuff. Introduced me to Darcy Clay, so worth noting just for that fact.


An obvious one I didn't see so far.


Great album of dream pop/whatever

It was 1999. Much appreciated Bill, thanks.

I forgot about this. Definitely my favorite Enon album.

This too. Particularly "Cheyenne"

edit: Slim Cessna's Auto Club

SFA always had songs on every album that they sang in Welsh, but this is the first album that they did where they sang in Welsh, and only Welsh. Of course, the music is as brilliant as it ever was. Because, you know, it's the Furries.

Finally getting to this thread. Great year. Huge fan of the albums already listed by Yo La Tengo, Radiohead, Blonde Redhead, Crooked Fingers, Enon, Neko Case, PJ Harvey

Some slightly lesser things I don't remember seeing over the past few days (apologies if already listed):

That Papas Fritas record is pretty great.

Most of y'all have probably already heard this one. But, if you haven't you should. It's really the only one that I've needed to hear (so I guess that this should go in that other thread, too). But it's a good'un.

My two favourite albums of 2000, not yet mentioned -- SELF Gizmodgery would prolly be number three -- are gross oversights on the part of any music fan, let alone Obners:

Eminem -- The Marshall Mathers LP
Damien Jurado -- Postcards & Audio Letters

& if only the two could combine with an Eminem cover of "Our Kid Is Getting Hurt" backed by some acoustic plucking by DJ.