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.
3. Beck - Sea Change (2002)
With all seriousness, failing in a romantic relationship is about as common as catching the flu. You need to be an absolute loser, or a social outcast, or a mental patient to not go through a rough patch in a relationship. The way I see it, the only difference is on how people cope with the loss, whether you can take it on the chin and move on, or it will kill you. Well, sort of. Most people (reasonable people) I assume fell in the 'a whole week/month gloom & doom moping' patch before the sun starts to shine as brightly as ever again; and in that so-called healing process, there will always be something, a catalyst, to help them go through it as painless as possible. Some will look for it in the company of close friends, some find better comfort being on their own, and some will find it in things like a good book, or (boxes of) chocolates. I've had my fair share of the rough and tough, and this album at number 3 was the magic potion.
In the year 2002 where the whole world had went literally crazy, something profound happened that prompted everyone to sit up and take notice: Beck Hansen, the wacky-headed musician whose music has never sounded any more serious than Patrick Starfish & Spongebob Squarepants going jellyfishing, released a straight-faced sober serious record. Before Sea Change was released, it is hard for anyone to take Beck seriously, whatnot with his balmy sense of humor and his cryptic lyrics. Just pick any record from the 90's, any album by Beck and I guarantee you that your brain will have been rearranged by the time you finish listening to it, and you will forgot what's your name. Sorry to exaggerate that part a bit but my point is, Beck is the torch-bearer of eccentricity. Yes, read that statement again carefully and Japan only comes in second place.
To really understand the impact of this record (and one Hell of an impact this album did made), you just need to go back to 1999 where he released his eighth album entitled Midnite Vultures. Simply put, it is an orgiastic electro pop record that mashes together the fun, the hip and the ludicrous. It sounds like a party at some swanky club, and it is, but everyone on the dance floor is looking like Steve Urkel. But then, after the terrorists struck down the WTC and everyone went mad, Beck broke-up with his long-term girlfriend and he went sober. And the result was the 2002 album.
The album kicked off with a crisp, Autumnal acoustic guitar strum and Beck singing "Put your hands on the wheel, let the golden age begin" in "The Golden Age". It has that distinct sound of perfect clear-headed sureness and sobriety, but tinged with the coarse voice of a weary man who had gone through many nights of senseless boozing, and the lyrics feels like it was scribbled on some coffee-stained paper written in a fit of a mix of anger and sadness. It sounded both calm and turbulent. It sounded down-trodden but not hopeless at the same time. It sounded exactly like a soul embroiled in an internal dilemma - something that you would normally go through after a break-up. There is no other album that sounds as realistic as this because it perfectly captures and encapsulates that exact emotional turmoil that one goes through after a break-up.
Before you go on and think that this album might look like a very bleak album, Beck then dishes out "Guess I'm Doing Fine". This time he sounded resplendent and perfectly at ease with the quagmire (if it can so be called) that he is currently in. At first it may seem a little defeatist, with Beck claiming "All the jewels in heaven, they don't look the same to me"; but then he made his intent clear: "It's only lies that I'm living, it's only tears that I'm crying, it's only you that I'm losing... Guess I'm doing fine". He clearly pointed out that the bygones had been let to be bygones, that right now I'm okay, everything is okay, and life must go on, and so do I. That line has got to be one of the most sincere, open-hearted admission of a broken-hearted man, ready to move on with life. I am sold - you would have to have a heart of gold to not be moved by this record. It is genuinely astonishing.
P/S: I've included as well a video to Beck's equally amazing cover of "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime", which was not available in the album but was for the also amazing film entitled "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".
*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.
3. Beck - Sea Change (2002)
With all seriousness, failing in a romantic relationship is about as common as catching the flu. You need to be an absolute loser, or a social outcast, or a mental patient to not go through a rough patch in a relationship. The way I see it, the only difference is on how people cope with the loss, whether you can take it on the chin and move on, or it will kill you. Well, sort of. Most people (reasonable people) I assume fell in the 'a whole week/month gloom & doom moping' patch before the sun starts to shine as brightly as ever again; and in that so-called healing process, there will always be something, a catalyst, to help them go through it as painless as possible. Some will look for it in the company of close friends, some find better comfort being on their own, and some will find it in things like a good book, or (boxes of) chocolates. I've had my fair share of the rough and tough, and this album at number 3 was the magic potion.
In the year 2002 where the whole world had went literally crazy, something profound happened that prompted everyone to sit up and take notice: Beck Hansen, the wacky-headed musician whose music has never sounded any more serious than Patrick Starfish & Spongebob Squarepants going jellyfishing, released a straight-faced sober serious record. Before Sea Change was released, it is hard for anyone to take Beck seriously, whatnot with his balmy sense of humor and his cryptic lyrics. Just pick any record from the 90's, any album by Beck and I guarantee you that your brain will have been rearranged by the time you finish listening to it, and you will forgot what's your name. Sorry to exaggerate that part a bit but my point is, Beck is the torch-bearer of eccentricity. Yes, read that statement again carefully and Japan only comes in second place.
To really understand the impact of this record (and one Hell of an impact this album did made), you just need to go back to 1999 where he released his eighth album entitled Midnite Vultures. Simply put, it is an orgiastic electro pop record that mashes together the fun, the hip and the ludicrous. It sounds like a party at some swanky club, and it is, but everyone on the dance floor is looking like Steve Urkel. But then, after the terrorists struck down the WTC and everyone went mad, Beck broke-up with his long-term girlfriend and he went sober. And the result was the 2002 album.
The album kicked off with a crisp, Autumnal acoustic guitar strum and Beck singing "Put your hands on the wheel, let the golden age begin" in "The Golden Age". It has that distinct sound of perfect clear-headed sureness and sobriety, but tinged with the coarse voice of a weary man who had gone through many nights of senseless boozing, and the lyrics feels like it was scribbled on some coffee-stained paper written in a fit of a mix of anger and sadness. It sounded both calm and turbulent. It sounded down-trodden but not hopeless at the same time. It sounded exactly like a soul embroiled in an internal dilemma - something that you would normally go through after a break-up. There is no other album that sounds as realistic as this because it perfectly captures and encapsulates that exact emotional turmoil that one goes through after a break-up.
Before you go on and think that this album might look like a very bleak album, Beck then dishes out "Guess I'm Doing Fine". This time he sounded resplendent and perfectly at ease with the quagmire (if it can so be called) that he is currently in. At first it may seem a little defeatist, with Beck claiming "All the jewels in heaven, they don't look the same to me"; but then he made his intent clear: "It's only lies that I'm living, it's only tears that I'm crying, it's only you that I'm losing... Guess I'm doing fine". He clearly pointed out that the bygones had been let to be bygones, that right now I'm okay, everything is okay, and life must go on, and so do I. That line has got to be one of the most sincere, open-hearted admission of a broken-hearted man, ready to move on with life. I am sold - you would have to have a heart of gold to not be moved by this record. It is genuinely astonishing.
P/S: I've included as well a video to Beck's equally amazing cover of "Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime", which was not available in the album but was for the also amazing film entitled "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind".
Labels: 30 Best Albums of the Last Decade (2000 - 2009), beck
posted by Hafeez at 3:08 AM
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