LISTED: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009)
*As the year 2010 is about to draw its curtain close, it is the time of the year (of any year) for many music sites and blogs to come up with a top list of albums of the year. Yes indeed the year 2010 has seen many interesting releases worthy of at least a top 20 list. But here at The Genuine Mind Zine we decided to do things a bit different and take a look at some of the best (of the best) releases throughout the last decade. This may not be the most comprehensive list around, lack of hip hop records for one, but all the albums listed here are indeed the most precious of last decade's precious gems.
21. The Coral - The Coral (2002)
Here at the Genuine Mind Zine, when it comes to music, we're not only on the lookout for genuinely amazing, or artistically challenging albums by bands that the general masses have absolutely no idea about. Sometimes the choices we made had no artistic merit at all, like Dimmu Borgir for example. Sometimes we chose simply by how cool or awesome the album sounds, how it did not sound like any other thing that we could listen to everywhere else - or in the case of The Coral, how mind blowing it sounds. In other words: sometimes we like our music fun and zany.
Fun is the one word that I will be using freely all throughout this article in relation with The Coral's self-titled debut. Fun here is in the sense that, unlike the Tool album (below), the band does not take themselves too seriously. And because of that, the album doesn't feel like it is taking itself too seriously. It felt like as if it was recorded in abundance of gay abandon. It was not tailored too meticulously, yet it does not sound loose - it feels solid as a whole album. It does not cover on any specific theme, yet it fits in pretty easily with the many revivalists 'the' bands that was dominating the headline in the early 00's; you know, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives, The Libertines, The Raveonettes. And yet most importantly, it doesn't let you down every time you need a companion to cheer you up, or to share your joy with. It's like having a friend who is a fun drunk on a Friday night - works every time you're out about town, painting it red.
The other characteristic is zany. The album bursts to life with the pirate-themed psych freak out "Spanish Main", before it calms down with a groggy-headed late evening recollection of sorts in "I Remember When". But be aware, just before you thought that things are starting to mellow out entirely, they break out the Russian Cossack folk chant of "hey-hey-hey-hey" for no apparent reason apparently. Then they drawled further in "Shadows Fall", this time in pop ska, before picking up the energy once again in the infectious Merseyside pop number "Dreaming of You". Never before has anyone listened to so much musical leaning in the relatively short space of just five songs within a single album.
It is easy to label these Scousers as an imitator band, name-dropping their influences whenever and wherever they seem fit, and then wearing it on their sleeve with all their full intent. Just like how all the other revivalists 'the' band of their time were doing. In fact, it is a statement that I am not prepared to counterpoint, judging by how all their subsequent releases turns out to be. But they certainly didn't do anything wrong with this thoroughly, exhilaratingly fun and wacky debut - it sounds like the band were having real fun letting loose in the studio, making do with whatever mashed up stuff that they could produce in the instance; and hence the totally mental "Skeleton Key". It's not an album that was made with the word economy in mind. It's not excessive, just unrestrained.
*As the year 2010 is about to draw its curtain close, it is the time of the year (of any year) for many music sites and blogs to come up with a top list of albums of the year. Yes indeed the year 2010 has seen many interesting releases worthy of at least a top 20 list. But here at The Genuine Mind Zine we decided to do things a bit different and take a look at some of the best (of the best) releases throughout the last decade. This may not be the most comprehensive list around, lack of hip hop records for one, but all the albums listed here are indeed the most precious of last decade's precious gems.
21. The Coral - The Coral (2002)
Here at the Genuine Mind Zine, when it comes to music, we're not only on the lookout for genuinely amazing, or artistically challenging albums by bands that the general masses have absolutely no idea about. Sometimes the choices we made had no artistic merit at all, like Dimmu Borgir for example. Sometimes we chose simply by how cool or awesome the album sounds, how it did not sound like any other thing that we could listen to everywhere else - or in the case of The Coral, how mind blowing it sounds. In other words: sometimes we like our music fun and zany.
Fun is the one word that I will be using freely all throughout this article in relation with The Coral's self-titled debut. Fun here is in the sense that, unlike the Tool album (below), the band does not take themselves too seriously. And because of that, the album doesn't feel like it is taking itself too seriously. It felt like as if it was recorded in abundance of gay abandon. It was not tailored too meticulously, yet it does not sound loose - it feels solid as a whole album. It does not cover on any specific theme, yet it fits in pretty easily with the many revivalists 'the' bands that was dominating the headline in the early 00's; you know, The Strokes, The White Stripes, The Vines, The Hives, The Libertines, The Raveonettes. And yet most importantly, it doesn't let you down every time you need a companion to cheer you up, or to share your joy with. It's like having a friend who is a fun drunk on a Friday night - works every time you're out about town, painting it red.
The other characteristic is zany. The album bursts to life with the pirate-themed psych freak out "Spanish Main", before it calms down with a groggy-headed late evening recollection of sorts in "I Remember When". But be aware, just before you thought that things are starting to mellow out entirely, they break out the Russian Cossack folk chant of "hey-hey-hey-hey" for no apparent reason apparently. Then they drawled further in "Shadows Fall", this time in pop ska, before picking up the energy once again in the infectious Merseyside pop number "Dreaming of You". Never before has anyone listened to so much musical leaning in the relatively short space of just five songs within a single album.
It is easy to label these Scousers as an imitator band, name-dropping their influences whenever and wherever they seem fit, and then wearing it on their sleeve with all their full intent. Just like how all the other revivalists 'the' band of their time were doing. In fact, it is a statement that I am not prepared to counterpoint, judging by how all their subsequent releases turns out to be. But they certainly didn't do anything wrong with this thoroughly, exhilaratingly fun and wacky debut - it sounds like the band were having real fun letting loose in the studio, making do with whatever mashed up stuff that they could produce in the instance; and hence the totally mental "Skeleton Key". It's not an album that was made with the word economy in mind. It's not excessive, just unrestrained.
Labels: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009), the coral
posted by Hafeez at 2:26 AM
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