Some say we will look back at the 00’s as the decade when the full length album died, and for the most part they will be right. Sure albums will never go away as long as there are people stupid enough to plop down ten dollars for an album with only a good song or two. But the album as an event has long passed. In this instant gratification day and age, we just want to get to the three minutes of musical joy instead of having to spend a whole album digesting an album. I cannot remember one album I sat around with a bunch of friends last decade dissecting it with friends like I did back in the ninties (granted this may be an age thing).
So my list of the 100 Greatest Albums of the 00’s is less about a cohesive album (which there were very few of in the 00’s) than just a collection of twelve good to great songs. I’m sure there can be griping of albums I left out, but when compiling a list of albums for consideration, I only included albums I actual spent money on (or had someone else buy for me, with the obvious exception of two albums on the list), and when it comes down to it, if I didn’t even bother to drop ten dollars (or even less at discount prices), it is not something worthy of my list anyway. Here is how my list broke down by the numbers.
Artists with Multiple Albums
Dave Matthews (Band) – 5
Jack Johnson – 4
John Mayer (Trio) – 4
Ryan Adams (and the Cardinals) - 4
Alicia Keys – 3
Coldplay – 3
Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) – 3
Kanye West – 3
Michelle Branch (The Wreckers) – 3
The Roots – 3
U2 - 3
In my youth I hated country with a passion, I believed that just listening to it would lower ones IQ. Then in college I was listening to a Dave Mathews Band live album and heard an amazing version of Long Black Veil, a heart wrenching tale of a convicted murderer who won’t clear his name because he was with his best friend’s wife. Since I was not familiar with the song and cracked opened the liner notes to learn more about the song and saw it was written by Johnny Cash and had to check out the original. After that I became a huge Cash fan and softened my stance on the genre as a whole (though I still find a majority of mainstream country IQ reducing). Below are both versions that should find their way to your iPod.
Even though music dying, that isn’t going to stop them from be self congratulatory. And even though the awards themselves are worthless (Hilary Clinton has more than The Beach Boys; Neil Young won his first ever this year… for album packaging), there are still plenty of great performances, here are my thoughts on last night’s festivities.
- Remember when opening the Grammy’s was a big thing. Prince being join Beyoncé, Madonna being backed by the Gorillaz performing in 3-D for the first time, the reunited Police, U2 even got things started last year. This year we get the most overrated thing in music possibly ever. Well at least Lady Gaga only covered herslf in soot instead of fake menstrual blood for this performance. So there’s that.
- In lieu of an actual host yet again, we get Stephen Colbert for a pseudo-monologue trashing the music industry (and they still laugh) all but pointing out how Susan Boyle managed to sell more albums than anyone in the audience (sans Taylor Swift) in less than a month then they did all year). But his bit with his daughter was the highlight, if only the cameraman was a little quicker with the reaction shot.
- Just a reminder, Song of the Year is a songwriting award. Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It) won a songwriting award. Whoa-oh-oh Oh-oh-oh Oh- oh-oh-oh.
- Who invited Jennifer Lopez? Was it just to memorialize the ten year anniversary since she wore “The Dress”? (If so, where was the twentieth anniversary memorial to Milli Vanilli winning Best New Artist?) It’s been eight years since she put out a song anyone cared about or a movie anyone wanted to see.
- And even odder, she introduces Green Day and the cast of American Idiot which didn’t really work. Had there been distractingly bad lip-syncing, it could have been something out of Glee.
- And cheesiest idea award goes to Lincoln who wants you to vote on which artist will perform in their next commercial.
- You know you are in for a great performance when before a note is played and you go “Oh snap.” That was my first thought when I saw Beyoncé standing in front of her futuristic SWAT team. Granted my second thought was “If they start doing the Single Ladies dance, I’m throwing my remote at the television.” Luckily the SDTV was saved as we get a interesting medley of If I Were a Boy and You Oughta Know. Although I could have done without the crotch grab.
- Interestingly Best Comedy Album gets a primetime spot. I cannot remember that happening before. And finally daughter Colbert finds her dad cool.
- Kings of Leon wins Best Record. Wow, for the first I think ever, I agree with the winner of this category.
- Most actors show up with the Grammy to shamelessly shill their latest movie or their CBS show, but Robert Downey Jr. is just there to call himself, “The Most Self Important Actor of His Generation.”
- Sure Blame It is one of the worst songs in recent memory, but it is hard not to like that performance. They just kept pulling out random people like Doug E. Fresh and Slash who for whatever reason starts shredding the solo from November Rain. Love it.
- Maybe not a good sign for the Dave Matthews Band for Album of the Year when they couldn’t even win the genre specific award. Which begs the question, how does Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas get nominated for the big award over Green Day and U2?
- Why tease that Taylor Swift is going perform with one her idols only to show video of her singing with Stevie Nicks. Huruph. The Rhiannon performance was decent enough, but hearing Nicks singing the kiddie lyrics of You Belong with Me was almost as disturbing as Def Leppard singing Swift's tenth grade poetry.
- Please stop with the 3-D television events until you perfect the art because the Michael Jackson performance was less 3-D and more just a redder version of the performance. At least it was just a couple minutes unlike the hour long Chuck episode that gave me a headache. And Earth Song may be one of Jackson’s most underrated songs along with Will You Be There. And are Jackson’s kids really that old? The boy looked like he is already in Middle School and the girl is starting to look like Amanda Bynes.
- No Kanye West to accept the Rap-Sung Collaboration. Maybe he was banned (nor was invited to perform on the Drake track). Sure he is a douche, but award shows are a little less interesting without Kanye’s ego.
- For those who want to download the Haitian relief song by Mary J. Blige and Andrea Bocelli, go to iTunes.com/target (why Target, I have no clue).
- Old dude alert! And we get our yearly lecture on why downloading is bad. Yawn.
- Adam Sandler introducing the Dave Matthews Band: it like that did that just for me. Beyoncé made a valiant effort, but Dave and the boys, had the best performance of the night.
- Quentin Tarantino may be able to make some entertaining movies but his painfully uncool and his introduction was really cringeworthy.
- Note to Grammy producers, stop inviting artists to perform songs with copious amount of profanity. No one is enjoying these performances where the censors fall asleep on their mute button for most of the song. And did Lil Wayne pull out his Lil Wayne because my screen went yellow for about thirty seconds during the performance.
- One has to wonder if Taylor Swift wins this award for Album of the Year if Kanye West doesn’t turn her into America’s Sweetheart. I thought it was going to come down to Beyoncé edging out Dave Matthews Band with Swift just as a darkhouse (and Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas with zero chance).
At the end of every year since 1996, I have gathered up my favorite songs from that year for a countdown of my favorite. I was interested in seeing who were the artist that appeared most on those list over the past decade and here are the top 25 (well since there was a tie there are actually 31). I counted any song of which they were listed as a featured artist, not just when they were the lead artist. Also keep in mind this list has nothing to do with my upcoming Greatest Songs of the 00’s which I promise to release before the next decade ends. I also included a list of the number 1’s of the past twelve years as well as Mr. Irrelevant (the song that was last that year). For the full list for the past five years, click the Best Songs label at the bottom of the post.
When Michael Jackson passed away, like most people I went back and listened to the music of his on my iPod which included We Are the World. That got me to thinking it that there was still plenty of poverty in Africa and it may be time to remake the song for a newer generation (especially considering Do They Know it's Christmas? is already on it'd third version). While doing research, I realized the twenty-fifth anniversary was this year so I sat on the suggestions I made at the time so I could release it to coincide with the anniversary. Then new came out last week that the co-writers of the song Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones (along with Jackson) were planning on doing so after the Grammy’s next week to benefit Haitian relief (so I guess they will be renaming the group USA for Haiti). So here are my suggestions next to those that did the original part. And as a point of reference, here is the original song:
Lionel Richie – Ne-Yo
Stevie Wonder – Maxwell
Paul Simon – John Mayer
Kenny Rogers – Taylor Swift
James Ingram – John Legend
Tina Turner - Beyoncé
Billy Joel – Norah Jones
Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson
Diana Ross – Christina Aguilera
Dionne Warwick – Alicia Keys
Willie Nelson – Keith Urban
Al Jarreau – Justin Timberlake
Bruce Springsteen – dude from Green Day
Kenny Loggins – dude from Fall Out Boy
Steve Perry – dude from Maroon 5
Daryl Hall – Robin Thicke
Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson
Huey Lewis – dude from The Fray
Cyndi Lauper – Lady Gaga
Kim Carnes – Kelly Clarkson
Bob Dylan – Dave Matthews
Ray Charles – Jamie Foxx
Stevie Wonder – Stevie Wonder
Bruce Springsteen – Bruce Springsteen
Dan Akroyd – Adam Sandler
Jackson Family Chorus – Jonas Brothers and other Disney stars Chorus
Naturally the hardest singer to recast was Michael Jackson himself and came I up with three alternatives; Bono, who technically is not American; Prince, who was actually supposed to duet with Jackson in the original but didn’t show up the first time; or have a chorus do all his part. But maybe it would be best to just pipe in his original vocals. And even though I recast their earlier parts, I still have to bring back Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder to recreate their duet which was the highlight the orginal. Not bringing them back would have been like not asking Bono to sing "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you" for the new Do They Know it's Christmas? versions.
Every year I like to end my year in review with a quick wrap of some minor lists and some stuff for stat geeks like me of yearly states of most viewed 9th Green pages et al. Below you can find those as well as my top artists of the year with where they landed on my various lists of the year (check the Best of 2009 label at the bottom of the post for those), and for those of you that like making CD, there are the top 20 songs from my 100 Best Songs of 2009 list that fit nicely onto one CD.
Top Artists
1. Taylor Swift (Songs: 15, 70; Readers: 11, 22; Performances: 7; Videos: 30)/Kanye West (Songs: 2, 4, 69; Readers: 4, 17; Mash Ups 10; Videos: 6, 21, 50): Ironically last year, this duo went two and three respectively for Top Artists of 2008 and this year they became forever intertwined for which Swift will be indebted to West because she became America’s Sweetheart overnight simply because a black dude stole her spotlight. As for West, after taking Jay-Z’s advise to get back to rap, your T-Paining too much, his verses landed in two of the top four songs of the year.
2. Dave Matthews Band (Songs: 5, 8, 83; Videos: 41; Albums: 4): After the death of a bandmate, Dave and the boys put out their best work of the decade in tribute to LeRoi Moore.
3. Jay-Z (Songs: 4, 47, 96; Readers: 4, 8; Performances: 3, 15; Videos: 6; Albums: 19): Speaking of J Hova, with Run This Town finally made a post retirement song that stood up to the rest of his catalogue.
4. K’Naan (Songs: 65, 68, 79; Albums: 6): Ever since the Snow debacle of 1992, us American have refused to listen to any Canadian rapper until Drake came out this year. But the real rapping export from the Great White North us Yankees should have been paying more attention to was K’Naan who dropped the best rap album of the year.
5. The Roots (Songs: 93; Performances: 1, 4, 8, 14, 23, 25): Thanks to being the Jimmy Fallon house band, The Roots dominated the Best Live Performance of 2009 list. Here’s hoping there are more inspired collaborations in store for 2010.
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