The Off-Colored Officer - Gifts From the Aughties (Pt.3)


Here's the third installment to the series...

Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Release date: April 23, 2002
Label: Nonesuch

For a while, this could have achieved what Radiohead did with In Rainbows six years later - earmarking the future format for music. Although it was only streamed live and not made available as a download, and for a brief moment before they could find a label willing to release it in physical format. Surprising indeed when as it turns out Reprise Records was the one who refused to release it in the first place because Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is by far still is Wilco's finest record ever. This is not the most important record for the past century - it is the most important record for the whole of Nonesuch's imprint.

The Streets - Original Pirate Material
Release date: May 25, 2002
Label: Locked On

It was a very short phenomenon UK Garage is but Mike Skinner's debut will long be remembered as the finest record ever released for that particular music style.

Beck - Sea Change
Release date: September 23, 2002
Label: Geffen

It's a totally dramatic album which opens up with a crisp, autumnal acoustic line and Beck Hansen singing: "Put your hands on the wheel/Let the golden age begins". That line really sums up the whole feel of the album - it's a revolution, it's a withdrawal, it's a sea change. Gone are the ironic lyrics and replaced with simpler, straight-from-the-heart honest musings penned from the pained heart of a man who had just gone through a break-up. Plus, "Guess I'm Doing Fine" is (among) the saddest song ever written.

Kanye West - The College Dropout
Release date: February 10, 2004
Label: Roc-A-Fella

Rolling Stone named the album the tenth best album of the 2000s decade. So Kanye West was actually some kind of a genius before this after all. He also won two Grammy in 2005 but nah, that's not important.

Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand
Release date: April 20, 2004
Label: Domino Records

Allmusic applauded Franz Ferdinand as being the more rewarding and exciting band than the current crop of Garage Rock/Post Punk revivalists. Which includes the most "The" band of them all: The Strokes, and The White Stripes. This album was listed in the 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die book. It won this Scottish band the coveted 2004 Mercury Music Prize Award, which the alumnus member includes Radiohead, PJ Harvey, and Elbow.

Radiohead - In Rainbows
Release date: October 10, 2007
Label: -

Forget about the accolades Radiohead got from the press with this album. Forget about the achievements in terms of sales figure or general acceptance from the public. This album is among the most important album of the previous decade, and could be the most important for the coming decade, all for the simple fact that it was a glimpse into the future of the acceptable format for albums: digital. Because it shows that the current generation are ready to embrace a whole new format for a music record. If they can manage to sell more than a million record through internet download, why not everyone else? Metallica, in their infamous showdown with Napster users, was sadly fighting for a wrong cause because, as much as they were correct about copyright infringement and protection, they were wrong for fighting against the internet. Nobody would have predicted this, not even Nostradamus, but the internet nowadays have become the single most powerful tool for music marketing. What Radiohead have achieved with In Rainbows is basically a really sarcastic, huge middle finger to Metallica because by embracing the internet, and not fighting against it, they got a handsome reward in return.