ILM Top 100 2000-2004: ALBUMS

Points: 144
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MAX TUNDRA
Title: MASTERED BY GUY AT THE EXCHANGE
Label: DOMINO
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/masteredguyexchange.jpg

Warped but placid electronica from Ben Jacobs. Often abstract, often pop, usually both...

Comments:
Max Tundra is my Velvet Underground - his music just makes me want to go out and start a band. Or I guess, get a laptop and some software. Dozens of experimental ideas explode from every track, each given something like three seconds before the next one comes along, and yet, the songs are unbelievably catchy. A complete marvel.
Vinnie

Points: 153
No. of votes: 8
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: BOB DYLAN
Title: LOVE AND THEFT
Label: COLUMBIA
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/loveandtheft.jpg

Legendary troubadour drops first album in aeons to mass acclaim - even topping the Pazz & Jop poll two years back.

Comments:
I know "Love and Theft" isn't going to get a lot of votes in this poll, but fuck it. It's one of the best albums of Dylan's career, and let's see what Mike Skinner and Dylan Mills are doing when they're sixty.
Not That Chuck

Recommended tracks: Sugar Baby

Points: 155
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: WILEY
Title: TREDDIN' ON THIN ICE
Label: XL RECORDINGS
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/treddinonthinice.jpg

The Eskiboy himself rises from the depths of London's grimey underground with a raw, confident debut rich with urban commentary, audacious humour and relentless yet inventive beats.

Comments:
On a couple of the songs Wiley reminds me of Mike Skinner in terms of both delivery and lyrics - the ones where he's larking around, where he probably sounds most British ("Goin' Mad" and "Pies"). His voice is really compelling over a whole album - it's kind of underwhelming at first esp. compared to MCs with really distinctive flows like Dizzee and Lady Fury, but there's this kind of laconic, understated refusal to be all hysterical which I like. (read more)
The Lex

Recommended tracks: Pies, I'm Goin' Mad

Points: 156
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: RYAN ADAMS
Title: HEARTBREAKER
Label: COOKING VINYL
Year: 2000

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/heartbreaker.jpg

Petulant icon for both the contemporary and alternative sides of country/folk rock in the US backs up his running mouth with a widely adored collection of heartfelt songs considered by many to be his finest work by some distance.

Comments:
Every tragic figure needs a peak to fall from.
BNW

Recommended tracks: Come Pick Me Up

Points: 157
No. of votes: 6
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: EMMA BUNTON
Title: FREE ME
Label: POLYDOR
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/freeme.jpg

Barnet's finest poplet shakes off the Spice shackles forever with a lively second solo effort plastered with retro charm, consistent songwriting and jaunty hooks.

Comments: How did THAT get in there? (part 1)
sblueski

Recommended tracks: Maybe, Crickets Sing For Anamaria

Points: 160
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: DAVID BANNER
Title: MISSISSIPPI - THE ALBUM
Label: Universal
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/mississippi.jpg

Dirty South by name and nature - newcomer Banner crunks it up in style.

Comments: n/a

Recommended tracks: Cadillac On 22s

Points: 160
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: GOLDFRAPP
Title: FELT MOUNTAIN
Label: Mute
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/feltmountain.jpg

Comments: Walk through the woods, back and forth through time, in and out of loneliness - a poignant, haunting ramble you may never return from. Alright it's just an album...but what a voice, blending remarkably with the enveloping strings and gentle keys ranging between the sinister and soothing in tone. Accusations of being humourless and pretentious seem irrelevant when the scenery is this gorgeous. blueski

Recommended tracks: Human, Deer Stop

Points: 162
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE DELGADOS
Title: HATE
Label: Mantra
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/hate.jpg

Comments: The Delgados do something to me. There's bands I like. Bands I love. But somehow, the Delgados... the Delgados feel like they're my team, y'know? There's something kind of heroic about them. And I've not even listened to their first two albums that much. But there's something deeply human about it all. I think it might be I listened to Hate after the Polyphonic Spree's album, where almost every line felt contrived in its "won-derrr" effect, and The Delgados got the wonder without even trying. Magical realism - the whole lushness of the Flaming Lips, for instance, or maybe Mercury Rev, but not in the 'art' sense. Music being played by human beings, being made by human beings, who don't necessarily want to create art, but something they care about. (read more) William Swygart

Recommended tracks: The Drowning Years, All You Need Is Hate

Points: 163
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: LOW
Title: TRUST
Label: Rough Trade
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/trust.jpg

Comments: "La la la Song" is possibly the sweetest thing they've ever done, and "Tonight" is dreamy and magical enough to be on Loveless. They even manage to raise the pace on "Canada". Who could ask for more? (read more) Kilian Murphy

Recommended tracks: Canada

(I'm loving that you're still up doing this, stevem)

"(That's how you sing) amazing grace" would be my recommendation from that album and maybe from Low's entire catalogue.

Points: 167
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE MICROPHONES
Title: THE GLOW (PART 2)
Label: K
Year: 2001

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/glowpart2.jpg

Comments: This record is easy to like because it is a labour of love - it is a home made record for the sake of recording rather than making good music. Simultaneously, the home recording asthetic is appealing and works well to create a continuous disc of changing ambience (rather than a bunch of singles cut together). Despite this casualness, there is some wonderful musical moments as well: delicate vocals, close overdub vocals, an interesting mix of easy sounds (acoustic intruments), non repetitive form and seemless yet sudden changes in direction. a good study of home recording and beautiful music. (read more) D Barclay

Recommended tracks: The Glow (Part 2)

(Nice elephant tho)

But I expected more albums to be listed by this morning.

Points: 168
No. of votes: 6
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: JOHNNY GREENWOOD
Title: BODYSONG
Label: EMI
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/bodysong.jpg

Radiohead's maverick guitarist (amongst other things) takes time out to score Simon Pummell's lifecycle-themed film.

Comments: The album's opening track, "Moon Trills" seems portentous of some grand celestial event; its elongated Messiaen-inflected piano chords and Ondes-Martenot wails form and reform in a harmonic spectra that travels slowly toward a dark meridian. Later, the starlit melancholy of "Bode Radio / Glass Light / Broken Hearts" unfurls in vivid plumes of glass harmonica and strings, and is shot through with dissonant adornments not unlike those emblematic of Debussy. The drowsy fantasia of "Clockwork Tin Soldiers," reverberates like falling glass marbles aleatorically tinkling a ballet for mechanical dolls. "Convergence" begins with a clash and percolates into a percussive, clattering cacophony, fighting the hegemony of beauty and melody. The banjo-driven "24 Hour Charleston" echoes the adrenalin rush of a thief in the night, as dramatic electroacoustics envelop the discordant melody. And the monistic "Peartree" with its angular, Ligetian organ harmony resonates as though the music were dispersing in the higher vaults of a gothic cathedral. In "Milky Drops From Heaven," a hurried horn takes on an animal character, the music destructing and reconstructing itself from moment to moment, as if the jazz band were tumbling up and down invisible stairs, their tempo varying at the rate of their descent. On the closer, "Tehellet" (the Hebrew meaning of which roughly translates as "hope, expectation") a languid cello is made to sound like a choir of seraphim heralding an ascent.

Perhaps Jonny Greenwood is not one of the luminaries like Messiaen or Penderecki, but here, their light reflects upon him, like the sun upon the moon. Salvador Saca

Recommended tracks: Moon Trills

Points: 170
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MOGWAI
Title: ROCK ACTION
Label: Southpaw
Year: 2001

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/rockaction.jpg

Comments: For all the guff Mogwai took for the alleged monotony of 'Come On Die Young', they craft a perfect counterpart to the
previous album's searing depression with brooding optimism on 'Rock Action'. The album title misleads a lot of listeners, even though its islands of fuzzy warmth are punctuated by rousing, 8+ minute epics. Lee Wang

Recommended tracks: You Don't Know Jesus, 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong

No. 89

Points: 170
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MOGWAI
Title: ROCK ACTION
Label: Southpaw
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/rockaction.jpg

Comments: For all the guff Mogwai took for the alleged monotony of 'Come On Die Young', they craft a perfect counterpart to the
previous album's searing depression with brooding optimism on 'Rock Action'. The album title misleads a lot of listeners, even though its islands of fuzzy warmth are punctuated by rousing, 8+ minute epics. Lee Wang

Recommended tracks: You Don't Know Jesus, 2 Rights Make 1 Wrong

.....

Points: 172
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: EXPLODING HEARTS
Title: GUITAR ROMANTIC
Label: Dirtnap
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/guitarromantic.jpg

Comments: n/a (gmail me some if willing)

Recommended tracks: Rumours In Town

'Jonny In Wonderland Among The Talking Flowers

Jonny Greenwood loves the moon. When he performs as a member of Radiohead, the notoriously soft-spoken guitarist has been known to take a moment at outdoor concerts to silently point out its splendor to the otherwise oblivious audience. The music he composes is like the moon---arcane, otherworldy, and peculiar. Bodysong is infused with the same sense of wide-eyed wonder at the sublime.'

The album's opening track, "Moon Trills" seems portentous of some grand celestial event; its elongated Messiaen-inflected piano chords and Ondes-Martenot wails form and reform in a harmonic spectra that travels slowly toward a dark meridian. Later, the starlit melancholy of "Bode Radio / Glass Light / Broken Hearts" unfurls in vivid plumes of glass harmonica and strings, and is shot through with dissonant adornments not unlike those emblematic of Debussy. The drowsy fantasia of "Clockwork Tin Soldiers," reverberates like falling glass marbles aleatorically tinkling a ballet for mechanical dolls. "Convergence" begins with a clash and percolates into a percussive, clattering cacophony, fighting the hegemony of beauty and melody. The banjo-driven "24 Hour Charleston" echoes the adrenalin rush of a thief in the night, as dramatic electroacoustics envelop the discordant melody. And the monistic "Peartree" with its angular, Ligetian organ harmony resonates as though the music were dispersing in the higher vaults of a gothic cathedral. In "Milky Drops From Heaven," a hurried horn takes on an animal character, the music destructing and reconstructing itself from moment to moment, as if the jazz band were tumbling up and down invisible stairs, their tempo varying at the rate of their descent. On the closer, "Tehellet" (the Hebrew meaning of which roughly translates as "hope, expectation") a languid cello is made to sound like a choir of seraphim heralding an ascent.

Perhaps Jonny Greenwood is not one of the luminaries like Messiaen or Penderecki, but here, their light reflects upon him, like the sun upon the moon.

Points: 176
No. of votes: 7
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: HOT SNAKES
Title: AUTOMATIC MIDNIGHT
Label: Swami
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/automaticmidnight.jpg

Comments: n/a (gmail me some if willing)

Recommended tracks: Salton City

Points: 186
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: CALEXICO
Title: FEAST OF WIRE
Label: City Slang
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/feastofwire.jpg

Comments: So easy to listen to, so transporting. Spaghetti western varmints on the spit and noodling tape-loops never tasted so good.
Swing

Recommended tracks: Sunken Waltz, Quattro (World Drifts In)

Points: 191
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: STEPHEN MALKMUS
Title: STEPHEN MALKMUS
Label: City Slang
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/stephenmalkmus.jpg

A brief "Song by Song" explanation by Stephen Malkmus (as found on the Amazon.co.uk listing!)

1. heavy blindness
2. perky whimsy
3. gawky fun
4. emotional gravestone
5. exile on indie street
6. thin lizzy meets wire
7. spazz out and run
8. protest song against colonialism
9. sad condom ad
10. russian reggae
11. tom petty is always in
12. i said this was supposed to sound like"heroes" when we mixed it

Recommended tracks: Jo Jo's Jacket, Jenny And The S Dog

Points: 191
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE
Title: RATED R
Label: Polydor
Year: 2000

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/ratedr.jpg

The brash guitars and driving drums are present and correct, but where you'd expect snarling venom, you get tuneful howling - Josh Homme a more despondent yet philosophical wolf rather than a raging one. Strangely it kinda works, QOTSA's knack for a catchy retro-metal hook (stuttering is always good) combining with some grim wit, devilish flair and energetic sass for a relatively refreshing debut avoiding most of the cliches atypical of the genre (why...why was I programmed to write PR blab).

Recommended tracks: Feelgood Hit Of The Summer, The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret

Points: 202
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: STEPHEN MALKMUS & THE JICKS
Title: PIG LIB
Label: Domino
Year: 2003

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/piglib.jpg

The naysayers were wrong - Stephen Malkmus just bounces back brighter each and every time. This album was streamlined to the point of perfection, despite being at the very heart of things, a prog album. The subtleties and intricacies of Pig Lib only reveal themselves upon extended listenings, but boy are they worth it. His most solid work since Wowee Zowee and up there in the best releases of his career. dog latin

Recommended tracks: Animal Midnight

carry on

WASHING A-MASCIS FUCK

PS: I think Cadillac on 22s is so overrated. There are such better songs on that album. like a PYAAAAAMP

The music he composes is like the moon - lifeless, pale and when you get up close it's basically a load of rock.

I'm not being defensive, because you have your right to like and dislike whatever you want, but I'm interested in knowing: have you even heard the record? What do you mean by "lifeless" and "pale" (refer to certain pieces or methods of his)? Do you mean "rock" figuratively? I hope so, because the record is "basically a load of modern classical." There are NO traces of "rock music" in Bodysong.

Actually, the critiques of Kiid A and Amnesiac suffered from the same problem of musical ignorance (not to sound arrogant, but if you're going to whine about something formally, at least do your homework / research). People whined about Radiohead "ripping off Aphex Twin, the whole Nothing catalogue" when it BARELY sounded like them, and actually literally STOLE bits from modern classical and jazz. And, to my ears, it worked wonders. And people should get over it. Nothing is completely authentic.

I am glad that Jonny G takes his place among the electroacoustic greats!

Points: 204
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: XIU XIU
Title: KNIFE PLAY
Label: Rue Christine
Year: 2002

http://www.base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/knifeplay.jpg

Comments: ...it is the perfect mix of electronics and acoustic instruments. it has some surprising and perfect breaks (like the ripped up piano falling down the stairs riff and the 'breaking into children's hospitals' dialogue.) it is ambiently put together - to vaguely define what i mean by 'ambiently' is that each song has a feel in the way it was recorded and its instrumentation (see: beat happening's yellow record or go go go airheart 'love my life hate my friends'). this ambientness appeals to the diy asthetic of 'personal' music which is utterly appropriate with the strong emotional aspect of most songs. and finally, the songwriting is good. despite and complex field of sounds and a seemingly random performance, each piece is essentially in pop form and contains at least one really good line/catchy part. plus this record also has amazing packaging (again appeals to diy in all of us)... (here)

Recommended tracks: I Broke Up (SJ)

Points: 206
No. of votes: 8
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: ATMOSPHERE
Title: LUCY FORD
Label: Roule/EMI
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/lucyford.jpg

Comments: '...easily the best undie record of the past five years or thereabouts; really consistent lyrically, excellent beats too' M Matos

Recommended tracks: Nothing But Sunshine

Points: 207
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: NEW ORDER
Title: GET READY
Label: London
Year: 2001

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/tracks/getready.jpg

Seriously, why doesn't everyone adore _Get Ready_?

Recommended tracks: Crystal (album version with gorgeous intro), Close Range

Points: 207
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: NEW ORDER
Title: GET READY
Label: London
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/getready.jpg

Seriously, why doesn't everyone adore _Get Ready_?

Recommended tracks: Crystal (album version with gorgeous intro), Close Range

Points: 209
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: D'ANGELO
Title: VOODOO
Label: Cooltempo
Year: 1999/2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/voodoo.jpg

Comments: Very few men in the R&B game can do, or have done, the kind of sexy that D'Angelo pulls off on Voodoo. I can't think of any other way to say it: it's *feminine*. Each song pulses, builds, relaxes, coils, pushes, pulls, writhes, bucks, but in a template of its own. D's cannot be gratified with verse-verse (foreplay-foreplay), chorus (do it), verse (token fondling), chorus-chorus-chorus (do it do it do it do it), fade out (sound familiar?) He plays with expectations so well - a song you're positive is about to reach its resolution, like Spanish Joint, finds enough in the tank to kick back into another long jam (much like Stevie Wonder's "Runnin"). Another song may, at the height of its ecstasy, simply break off hard, no explanation, a total withdrawal of pleasure. When a classic masculine voice breaks in, like Meth and Redman on "Left and Right" the textural offset sounds great, but their boasting ("drop that ass when i'm finished /and watch it smoke") reminds you of how subtle D plays it. Then again none of this amounts to a hill of beans if you're not down w/the sound but I find the songs just fabulously well-produced, very impressively orchestrated, and if only D'Angelo would stop mumbling you might even be able to sing along. But after a) writing the songs b) singing all the parts c) producing everything I'm willing to cut him some slack and say that it just goes with the indeterminate sexiness that typifies the whole joint. Basta! Tracer Hand

Recommended tracks: Spanish Joint, Left And Right, Untitled (How Does It Feel)

pick up the pace? pleeeeeaase?

Points: 209
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: JUNIOR SENIOR
Title: D-D-DON'T STOP THE BEAT
Label: Mercury
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/dddontstopthebeat.jpg

Junior Senior are garage rock for a world where disco happened, i.e.
our one. On stage Junior is a superstar and Senior is a menace;
offstage Junior is shyly charming and Senior confusedly aloof. But I
love Senior particularly after studying the credits and discovering
that he does ALMOST NOTHING on this record except be his own bad bear
self.

If you really want a reason why this album is (might be) important
('important') then consider that it reclaims the canon for us
frivolous modern pop fans. Bob Dylan made TOTALLY GREAT records but
his imitators simply didn't until JS came and gummified him - bubbling up the Band was probably beyond them so they just sampled "Chest Fever" instead. Elsewhere we're served plastic dayglo Jaggers and inflatable bouncy Ramones and the MC5 run through a Spectrum sprite editor. More importantly though this stuff cheers you up and makes the sun shine.

Recommended tracks: Move Your Feet, Boy Meets Girl, Just Shake It Brother

Points: 210
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE WRENS
Title: THE MEADOWLANDS
Label: Absolutely Kosher
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/themeadowlands.jpg

Comments: Because it's intensely passionate indie rock that makes a strong case for why Pitchfork is still worth reading after all.

Because as soon as I heard "Happy" the first time I made ten comp cdrs for my friends specifically so they could hear it, too.

Because after a week of non-stop listening, "Hopeless" suddenly clicked and may have become my favorite track of the year. I particularly love the piano climax at the end.

Because the synth strings on "Thirteen Grand" remind of Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me-era Cure without making the song sound kitsch at all. turkey

Recommended tracks: Happy, Hopeless, Thirteen Grand

Points: 214
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: MICHAEL MAYER PRESENTS...
Title: IMMER
Label: Kompakt
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/immer.jpg

It's not an album as such but it's a mix compilation that introduces you to a range of artists and tracks you won't have encountered before unless you've been keeping score on the post-millennial contemplative form of dance music dubbed 'microhouse' for it's minimal yet intricate production ethos - squaring tech-house's pulsating parameters (with Terry Francis 'Architectures' as a reference point), stripping the original, deeper American sound of it's more obtuse personalised characteristics (the older vocal-led tracks from Deep Dish and Mood II Swing e.g. 'Stay Gold', 'I See You Dancing') and moving the filter-obsessions of Glasgow's DJ Q and the French crew off centre-stage, replacing them with shuffling beats and tiny clicks, sometimes escaping 4/4 formulas altogether, and wandering into extra spaces not quite explored or dwelled on.

Recommended tracks: Thomas Fehlmann 'Gratis', Akufen 'Psychometry (vol 3)', Frank Martiniq 'Adriano (Michael Mayer mix)'

-- ())(())()()()(()(LASER)()()()LA(Z)E(R)()()()((L)()()(A)(S(E)R()()()) (j.dubz@RoffleStationZero), August 18th, 2004. (later)

You're right. I really wished someone would have followed up my "Things Will Never Be The Same" track nomination with a "Beaches and Canyons" album nomination but it never happened.

Points: 214
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Title: ELECTRIC VERSION
Label: Matador
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/electricversion.jpg

Comments: On their second album, Vancouver?s the New Pornographers take a shot at redemption for the bad artists and their sickly moons. By exalting the shabby (?From Blown Speakers?), making the trivial awesome (?Miss Teen Wordpower?) and generally coming off like an underdog despite having put out one of the greatest debut albums (2000?s Mass Romantic) in Canadian history, they pull off a terrifically nerdy pop album in the tradition of the Cars? Candy-O.
Where their debut instantly made you a fan, with automatic-new-favourite-songs like ?Letter From An Occupant? and ?Wild Homes?, Electric Version isn?t so aggressively addictive. All the same elements are there, even reclusive Dan Bejar (who very rarely appears live the group), but they?re not presented as bombastically as they were before. The softer touch actually bodes well for the long-term enjoyment potential of Electric Version, because while the highs aren?t as exhilarating, the comedown afterwards isn?t as harsh.
Horace Mann

COMING UP ON I LOVE MUSIC'S TOP 100 ALBUMS 2000-2004...

More 90s altrock sell-outsheroes!

Mad Mancs, Beyond Quintegenaridome!

And...HIS favourites...

KEEP IT LOCKED!!!

I am glad that Jonny G takes his place among the electroacoustic greats!

You really are an infantile little brat, aren't you? Maybe you can find someone to buy you a life.

buuuuuuurn.

Radiohead, Belle and Sebastian, the Cure, the list goes on, really.

The countdown will resume tomorrow.

I think it likely that FITEs will arise from this list but it would be nice if they weren't bitter.

Do The New Pornographers still sound like The Wonderstuff?

btw, you must have put an awe-inspiring amount of work into researching the archives for intelligent comments and recommended tracks. Great work!

More like the dBs, I think, but I haven't heard a lot of the Wonderstuff.

Plus Junior Senior's album was total ephemeral pop thrill = people will remember it but only vaguelly = liek Tom said, low votes and lots.

Points: 218
No. of votes: 11
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: SONIC YOUTH
Title: SONIC NURSE
Label: Geffen
Year: 2004

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/sonicnurse.jpg

Comments: ...this thing's so BIG and the guitar's so FLUID and lovely and Thurston's lost a little of his more obnoxious hippy tendencies and Kim's following up on "Sympathy for the Strawberry" w/an even better version of allowing BEAUTY into her voice and songs w/"I Love You Golden Blue" and Steve's caught a dose of FUNK or something (that impression got pretty confirmed live in Ak, I've never found myself unable to refrain from semidancing at an Sy show before), this is just so so good. ONE LISTEN IN, however. Still, for a record a lot of people have called a "grower" (here at least, like I read anyone elses' reviews anyway), that's NOT A BAD THING. Hoohah. Andrew Thames

Points: 221
No. of votes: 16
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: SPOON
Title: KILL THE MOONLIGHT
Label: 12xu
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/killthemoonlight.jpg

Comments: Spoon is one of my favourite bands from the last few years. The band manages to merge (no pun intended) melodic pop with a spare rhythmic sensibility. Britt Danie's voice is a great rock 'n' roll instrument ? expressive and affecting. I don't find him whiny at all. The band used to wear its influences too plainly on its collective sleeves, borrowing from Wire and the Pixies on its earlier albums, but Spoon has sublimated these touchstones with its last two albums. Bruce Urquhart

Recommended tracks: The Way We Get, You Gotta Feel It

So far? Emma Bunton.

So far? Emma Bunton.

Ha ha.

"What's the difference between us guys and Pitchfork? The odd Emma Bunton track"

(joke)

i am kicking myself for not participating in the voting. how american is that???

This was jess complaining that Low and The Microphones didn't come higher.

Points: 227
No. of votes: 10
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: SHELLAC
Title: 1000 HURTS
Label: Touch & Go
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/1000hurts.jpg

Comments: A return to form after the disappointing 'Terraform'. Shellac experiment with other things here (there's a slightly confused jazz fusion part in 'Canaveral'), but ultimately don't deviate too much from the sound that people expect. It's very possibly their funniest album too - who could listen to 'Squirrel Song', and after hearing "And there were squirrels...real squirrels... and there were thousands... this ain't some kind of metaphor, this is real..." not wonder exactly what kind of event was behind it? Essential for all the non-rockist rockists out there. aldo cowpat

Recommended tracks: Squirrel Song, A Prayer To God, Watch Song

Points: 227
No. of votes: 11
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: GORKY'S ZYGOTIC MYNCI
Title: HOW I LONG TO FEEL THAT SUMMER IN MY HEART
Label: Mantra
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/howilongtofeel.jpg

Comments: Most of us have artists we love, and rant about, but secretly know aren't for everyone. It's all very well banging on about how terminally underrated Crispy Ambulance or whatever are, but if you live in the real world you know it will ever be thus.

BUT THEN THERE ARE THE RECORDS THAT YOU KNOW EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WOULD LOVE IF THEY'D ONLY BLOODY LISTEN.

That name, that awful underachiever's name, that's the only thing I can think of that has thwarted Gorky's Zygotic Mynci. That and maybe hearing some teenage stuff of theirs that well, isn't for everyone. On 'How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart' they shot their load.
They pissed gold. They made a perfect album. No wizards, no Welsh
language and no wacky rock outs (not that all three can't be great, but you know - they *tried* to accommodate). Just wave after wave of
classic, elegiac love songs. This isn't about some stupid indie ghetto 'perfect 60s pop' malarky - these songs live and breathe in the real world. I keep imagining Euros Childs or John Lawrence just banging their heads against a wall and screaming "Well what else can we do?"

So err yeah, basically, you are all stupid scum and deserve to die.
Alba

Recommended tracks: Honeymoon With You, These Winds..., Her Hair Hangs Long

Points: 245
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: THE FALL
Title: THE REAL NEW FALL LP
Label: Action
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/therealnewfall.jpg

Comments: their best for 10 maybe 17/18 years - you know it's good when (a) the cover version is the weakest song and (b) they can use it as the basis for their current live set and we don't really mind at all... fletcher dexter

Recommended tracks: Contraflow, Open The Boxoctosis #2, Protein Protection

Points: 252
No. of votes: 11
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: GHOSTFACE (KILLAH)
Title: THE PRETTY TONEY ALBUM
Label: Def Jam
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/prettytoney.jpg

Comments: If you told me 10 years ago that Ghost would be the only real Wu-survivor still puttin out quality product I would've thought you were crazy but here we are... he's really the only one consistently putting out good shit, the one who's done the most to stay "true to the game" so to speak. I thought BW was okay (Supreme Clientele is pure genius) but I'm really lookin forward to this... Ghost is one of those guys I just really want to see succeed and stick around. Shakey Mo Collier

Recommended tracks: Tooken Back, Biscuits, Holla

Points: 252
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: GILLIAN WELCH
Title: TIME (THE REVELATOR)
Label: WEA
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/timetherevelator.jpg

Comments: Gillian Welch

Recommended tracks: April 14th Part 1, Revelator, I Dream A Highway

Points: 254
No. of votes: 15
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: GOLDFRAPP
Title: BLACK CHERRY
Label: Mute
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/blackcherry.jpg

Comments: Sticking a horse's tail on your arse turns you into a sexy hybrid of Kate Bush and Donna Summer - proven by the scientific electropopart extravaganza that is 'Black Cherry'. Avant-garde more in aspirations rather than in execution, if 'Felt Mountain' was a lonely walk in the woods, 'Black Cherry' is a more an effortless glide down a river of Alison's own vaginal juices - tho hardly as bawdy as Peaches, and a world away from the lewdness of Lil Kim. Even if that's not appealing than the tight programming and quirky hooks of Will Alexander should be. Pretentious? Mais naturellement.

Recommended tracks: Strict Machine, Crystalline Green, Black Cherry

Points: 262
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: CORNELIUS
Title: POINT
Label: Matador
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/point.jpg

Comments: Every time Keigo Oyamada returns to recording, he's something different, not necessarily for dilletantism's sake, but because he's borrowed something old and learnt something new - each album (and remix collection) speaks a different language to each other, as it were. In an ever-changing yet cyclical world, he sets his own agenda and he keeps it that way. Point is Keigo at his most
lovely and most loved.

Recommended tracks: Point Of View Point, Brazil, Bird Watching At Inner Forest

Points: 263
No. of votes: 12
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: BIG & RICH
Title: HORSE OF A DIFFERENT COLOUR
Label: Warner
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/horseofadifferentcolour.jpg

Comments: Big & Rich: Album of the Decade?

Recommended tracks: Save A Horse Ride A Cowboy, Wild West Show, Six Feet Town

ah, ok then.

My comments were heavily edited (a bit much so there, Steve, I've seen bigger on this thread than what I ended up with up there), but it was necessary as I went into a shamanic trance after Steve asked me to comment and eneded up with a fucking essay. But Drop was very well delved into and I still really like it. Point is still 3rd best Cornelius rec for me and 4th if I count CM, but it has some great moments still and I may put the original review on my blog soon.

Like I said, it was necessary and anyway, I said you could. Better the microsite than here (space and all), unless the microsite turns out to be a flight of fancy.

fantasma comes out on top. its more varied, like nick said, and comes off a little like odelay in places, if that appeals to you at all.

I still enjoy Odelay, but, uh, no.

* the fact that some like things others do not is somehow indicative of the collapse of civilization

* we have seen the totality of the results yet

As it is, what's going to happen when the final album is announced and it JUST SO HAPPENS that there's both love and hate for it? The sky, oddly enough, will continue to be blue.

Music nerds in being excessively passionate about near-meaningless lists SHOCKAH! It's like watching sports, Ned, you cheer when your favourites win and are violently outraged when the ppl you hate score a point.

(there's a bit more to it than that, too, in that if certain areas of the musical spectrum get ignored here and others get lauded, ppl with certain tastes might justifiably be a bit saddened by this, only cuz it means that there's less of a chance of their faves getting discussed on the forum in general. Tho of course as far as that goes the poll's only telling us what we should already know, and whining won't do much good, and besides only a portion of ppl voted.) But yeah, mainly it's the geek thing.

Oh, quite obviously! But given some of the subtexts and paper tigers swirling around this thread (and elsewhere), the whole thing seems to me potentially (not *definitively," of course) pointlessly polarized. It isn't as simple as Ye Olde Yawnsome Pseudo 'Rockism vs Popism' Split -- at least it better not be, for my sanity's sake -- but sometimes there seem to be these undercurrents that want to rise up and foist life into that.

You must be new around here.

I'm still sorta amused.

Points: 264
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MF DOOM & MADLIB PRESENT...
Title: MADVILLAINY
Label: PIAS
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/madvillain.jpg

Comments: The Madvillain project found an uncanny chemistry between the schitzo pastiche style of Madlib's production and the smoked-out ease of MF Doom's flows, a pairing whose music is full of amazing contradiction - futuristic and rustic, dark and vibrant, a piece equal parts cartoonish fantasy and gripping realism. nickalicious

Recommended tracks: Figaro, Fancy Clown, All Caps

Points: 264
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: SUFJAN STEVENS
Title: GREETINGS FROM MICHIGAN...
Label: Rough Trade
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/greetingsfrommichigan.jpg

Comments: A pretty accessible record; nearly everyone who hears it will take a liking to at least three or four songs simply based on the beautiful vocal melodies. Don't listen to Pfork: it's no political statement, as much as they want it to be. It's a record of love for one's birthplace and a record lamenting it's decline. But it's not impersonal, which is the wonderful thing about the record. Sufjan doesn't treat the state as a _state_, he treats it like a deteriorating family member. A project of love if I've ever heard one. Gentry Boeckel

Recommended tracks: For the Widows in paradise, For the Fatherless in Ypsilanti; Detroit, Lift Up Your Weary Head

Points: 265
No. of votes: 15
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: SONIC YOUTH
Title: MURRAY STREET
Label: Geffen
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/murraystreet.jpg

Comments: ...every time I listen to it I enjoy it more. and that's after initially thinking, oh, sonic youth, chime chime chime, drone drone drone etc. listening more and enjoying more isn't unusual for me with sonic youth...o'rouke's production is nice. and I like his bass playing, at least what I often assume is his. some sonic youth albums, the production feels too flat and dead to me - makes it harder to appreciate the sounds of the guitars. here even the fairly boring guitar parts are more interesting to me because of the production.
...every time I listen to it I love it more. it's my favorite record of the year. it makes me feel stable and rested, and at times it makes me jump around or cry or shiver or smile or swagger or have minor transcendental experiences. Josh

Recommended tracks: Rain On Tin, Plastic Sun

Points: 265
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LIGHTNING BOLT
Title: WONDERFUL RAINBOW
Label: Load
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/wonderfulrainbow.jpg

Comments: The best part about Wonderful Rainbow is that it takes all of the best parts of Lightning Bolt's sound and magnifies them. The songs are, one the whole, a lot catchier than those on Ride The Skies. The production is heavier and emphasizes Gibson's ability to throw down monster riffs. The changes are all tight, showcasing the Bolt's prog side. Combined with the playful and goofy packaging, this is much closer to a funhouse for kids with ADD than it is the soundtrack to the apocolypse (the territory being mined by 90% of "noise" bands today). Ian Johnson

Recommended tracks: On Fire, Two Towers, Duel In The Deep

Points: 266
No. of votes: 16
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE LIARS
Title: THEY THREW US ALL IN A TRENCH AND STUCK A MONUMENT ON TOP
Label: Blast First
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/theythrewusallinatrench.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Mr Your On Fire Mr

Also I had no idea MF Doom had actually made a Dr Doom mask.

All good bracing stuff this, I'm sure.

20. Fennesz - Endless summer
19. NERD - In search of
18. Interpol - turn on the bright lights
17. Radiohead - Kid A
16. Richard X - X factor volume 1
15. Boards of Canada - Geoggaddi
14. White Stripes - Elephant
13. Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
12. PJ Harvey - Stories from the city
11. Radiohead - Amnesiac
10. Kanye West - College dropout
9. Wilco - YHF
8. Fiery Furnaces - Gallowsbird bark
7. Missy Elliot - Miss E...
6. Daft Punk - Discovery
5. Jay Z - The Blueprint
4. Streets- OPM
3. Belle and Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe waitress
2. Dizzee Rascal - Boy in da Corner
1. Streets - A grand don't come for free

Radiohead, Jaxx and Streets suffering from split voting.

Points: 270
No. of votes: 11
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: THE RZA & VARIOUS ARTISTS
Title: GHOST DOG: WAY OF THE SAMURAI (OST)
Label: Epic
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/ghostdog.gif

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Strange Eyes, Walking Through The Darkness, Fast Shadow

Points: 276
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: ROYKSOPP
Title: MELODY AM
Label: Wall of Sound
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/melodyam.jpg

Some albums attract criticism precisely because of how inoffensive they are. Melody AM blends solid if unremarkable beats with pleasant strings and digital quarks for a very modern romance with one eye on the future and the other half closed (let's hope the wind hasn't changed for their forthcoming follow up) as twilight turns to darkness. The funk and disco leans tend to be overlooked but they are there (the closing washed out loops of Poor Leno, the prog-stomp of Royksoppp's Night Out arguably standing up to classic soul interludes like Marvin Gaye's T Plays It Cool or a cinematic Schifrin sweep). Like Air's Moon Safari before it, the soundtrack of choice for hipsters with graphic art tomes littering their coffee tables, saturation taking effect as track after track was used in trailing all kinds of TV programmes. All in all a surprisingly high showing, but it suggests the popularity and often sublime beauty of this album will endure.

Recommended tracks: So Easy, Eple, Royksopp's Night Out

Points: 279
No. of votes: 14
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: THE BETA BAND
Title: HOT SHOTS II
Label: Regal
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/hotshots2.jpg

Comments: The Beta Band were always pretty depressed. If the first album saw their manic obsessive side getting very out of hand, and this year's blanded-out Heros To Zeroes sounded like it was on anti-depressants, then Hot Shots II is their most sucessful balance of profound melancholy with a desire to turn it into something redemptive.

It sounds like a series of intensely lonely love songs sung from the
one-bunk cabin of a rickety spaceship. R'n'b producer C-Swing captures
the music's cosmic reach with a delicate layer of electronic gloss
that transforms a simple folksong like Gone into something celestial
and vast. The more mind-bending tracks (the star-spangled Al Sharp,
the rumbling Life and the bug-eyed kitchen sink dancehall Broke)
become more gloriously futuristic than we had any right to expect from
a guitar band in 2001. Oh yes, and it's all very, very pretty.

Of course, this adventurous, sonically joyful music belies the fact
that most of the songs are about misery, loss and confusion. The Beta
Band had seen something about sadness and they made a record as
gorgeous as this. I love them for it. Peter Brown

Recommended tracks: Al Sharp, Life, Broke

Points: 280
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: ANDREW WK
Title: I GET WET
Label: Mercury
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/igetwet.jpg

Comments: Sincerity redefined as something you can turn up to 11. Tom Ewing

Recommended tracks: Party Hard, She Is Beautiful, I Get Wet

Is there a thread where we talk about why many of us (myself included), probably owing to our bourgeois discomfort about being bourgeois, talk about why we need to qualify and rationalize listening to records that might be considered "the soundtrack of choice for hipsters with graphic art tomes littering their coffee tables"?

Points: 286
No. of votes: 11
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: MCLUSKY
Title: MCLUSKY DO DALLAS
Label: Too Pure
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/mcluskydodallas.jpg

Comments: Mclusky Do Dallas is for me the best mix of melodies, hooks, and insanity from this decade so far. It's just crazy, jumping around the room fun. Even the song titles are best. There's something about the Strokes, the way that all the instruments are in metronome-perfect rhythm and Julian's voice is scrawled all over them, that gets me everytime. It's some kinda weird, inside out, reverse emotion through coolness effect.Maciej Kasperowicz

Recommended tracks: Day of the Deadringers, Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues, Alan Is A Cowboy Killer

20. Boredoms - Vision Creation Newsun
19. Primal Scream - XTRMNTR
18. M83 - Dead Cities...
17. Scissor Sisters - Scissor Sisters
16. Missy Elliot - Miss E...So Addictive
15. Mountain Goats - All Hail West Texas
14. Basement Jaxx - Kish Kash
13. Belle & Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
12. Radiohead - Amnesiac
11. Fennesz - Endless Summer
10. Junior Boys - Last Exit
9. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
8. The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
7. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
6. Basement Jaxx - Rooty
5. Avalanches - Since I Left You
4. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
3. Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
2. Radiohead - Kid A
1. Daft Punk - Discovery

yeah, that looks about right. I guess we'll see.

Points: 289
No. of votes: 14
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: THE NEW PORNOGRAPHERS
Title: MASS ROMANTIC
Label: Matador
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/massromantic.jpg

Comments: I bought this because of Neko Case and stuck around because of Carl Newman. I'm not sure they'll ever do anything better than "The Slow Descent Into Alcoholism", which is constantly about to fall apart as it goes along but somehow never does, and sometimes I'll find myself singing "salvation holdout central" to myself for no reason at all. And the guitars! The piano! All over this album! When emo doesn't suck and therefore is not called emo, it's called whatever the hell this is. Powerpopsupergroupindie? Doesn't matter. I heard this and finally came to love Canada..Gear!

Recommended tracks: Mass Romantic, Letter From An Occupant, Jackie

Points: 293
No. of votes: 9
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LIFTER PULLER
Title: FIESTAS AND FIASCOS
Label: French Kiss
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/fiestasfiascos.jpg

Comments: There is a deeper understanding of the universe that comes from having heard this album hundreds of times. Lifter Puller fans keep it cooped up inside, unable to express it\'s jaw-dropping rockitude more articulately than the thing itself, waiting for opportunities like this list to spread the gospel. Go! Listen! Be one with the nightlife and you will understand.Sonny A

Recommended tracks: Lonely In A Limousine, Lake Street Is For Lovers, Space Humping $19.99

(x-post)

Lifter Puller! 2 albums from my list in a row! Exclamation points!

Points: 305
No. of votes: 14
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS
Title: HEARTS OF OAK
Label: Lookout
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/heartsofoak.jpg

Comments: Hearts Of Oak is wonderful. The reason why I prefer it over stuff like the Pernice Brothers is it's danceable, energetic, enthusiastic, full-bodied pop-rock backing up thoughtful, witty lyrics whose playfulness makes up for any pretentiousness. Ok, evidently some people are bugged by the fact that the guy uses his higher register so much, but I haven't heard "indie-rock" that grooves like this in a long, long time. If ever..Anthony Miccio

Recommended tracks: Where Have All The Rude Boys Gone?, The Ballad Of The Sin Eater, I'm A Ghost

Your description has totally opened up this album for me. It took me ages to get into simply because of the lack of weird Welshiness but taken out of context it's probably one of their best - I can't stop listening to it now!

because of how inoffensive it is you mean?

(I am a bit confused by this bandwagon thing - I always think of myself as far too slow on the uptake to catch any bandwagons)

(is this the place to say thst I have always had my yes-flame pre-doused, BB-wise, by their TRANSCENDENTALLY RUBBISH NAME)

-- mark s (mar...), August 19th, 2001

Which is spot on.

i called hot shots ii my favorite album of 2001, but now i'm not wondering if i overrated it. it's still a fine piece of work. and like time, i also had a bit of beta narcolepsy, yet know it back to front. something afoot there. the self-titled record is one of the great acts of band wilfull-ness ever. (even greater because it - didnt- sink their "career.")

one of those bands where i think the next one will be even better...closer to the "real" beta band. and that's a fine thing indeed.

-- jess (dubplatestyl...), February 12th, 2002.

Well, you know, I was actually gonna nominate "Speakerboxx/The Love Below", but then I was like, naah, surely Nickalicious will take care of that one, he knows no one else will.

i always wondered how people were posting 2-3 times before i had even reloaded the page. For shame!

no shit, OTM

Points: 311
No. of votes: 15
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: FELIX DA HOUSECAT
Title: KITTENZ AND THEE GLITZ
Label: City Rockers
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/kittenzandtheeglitz.jpg

i hadnt kept tabs on what had been up to for a while and when 'Kittenz And Thee Glitz' came out i found it something of a revelation, that this guy had seemingly made a record that wore a broader range of influences on its sleeve than anything before it from the interloping spheres of house and techno. as soon as i heard 'Silver Screen Shower Scene' i felt like it was heralding something and its message seemed to be 'turn around and walk backwards' fixating on the past but still moving forward. It comprises elements of punk (What Does It Feel Like?), disco (Glitz Rock), techno (Harlot and the Detroit stylings of Analog City) and soul (Pray For A Star) amonst other things in a way I had not heard before. I think it's ambition surpasses it's realisation but what it suggests and the ideas floating around within it are for me the stuff of real dance music love.

Recommended tracks: Silver Screen Shower Scene, Pray For A Star, Happy Hour

No. 58

Points: 275
No. of votes: 18
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: AALIYAH
Title: AALIYAH
Label: Virgin America
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/aaliyah.jpg

Comments: n/a (anyone?)

Recommended tracks: Try Again, We Need A Resolution, It's Whatever

(no its not on the album i think it came out the year before)

Points: 321
No. of votes: 15
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LIFE WITHOUT BUILDINGS
Title: ANY OTHER CITY
Label: Tugboat
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/anyothercity.jpg

Comments: Any Other City has made a deep impression on me, deeper than anything since I was a teenager. I almost wish I was seriously depressed again, so that I could use this record to pull me out of it. Mitch Granat

Recommended tracks: Let's Get Out, The Leanover, Sorrow

Points: 326
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LADYTRON
Title: LIGHT AND MAGIC
Label: Telstar
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/lightandmagic.jpg

Comments: It's sharper and perhaps more varied and even experimental than 604, but not entirely at the expense of the pop hooks. Naturally some tracks are stronger than others but the most impressive is perhaps the tactics and techniques the gang employ throughout, several tracks featuring what's becoming a trademark penetrating blast of synth noise, blinded by the lights indeed (Seventeen, Nuhorizons, The Reason Why and so on...). On both the vocal and lyrical side Helen and Mira seem to improve and gain confidence too.

Recommended tracks: Flicking Your Switch, Seventeen, Blue Jeans

I'm in Ghana, doofusWho said it was a good thing?

Points: 327
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: LUOMO
Title: VOCALCITY
Label: Forced Tracks
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/vocalcity.jpg

Comments: the vocal science (not the 2step kind) is astounding. on Vocalcity he takes what sound like normal-enough house a cappella soundbites and flits and filters them through the mix so they impact the way you hear them on a club system; it's the closest I've ever heard a record come to the effect of hearing that kind of live DJ set. and the words are contrary: they double back on themselves, there's an uncertainty at the heart of them and the music both that seems to question the physical pleasure that the music'n'textures provide. that sense of doubt is subtle but all-pervasive--it's a lot of why I keep comparing it to Metal Box and There's a Riot Goin' On and Maxinquaye. M Matos

Recommended tracks: Synkro, Right Wing, Tessio

Points: 335
No. of votes: 20
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: BUBBA SPARXXX
Title: DELIVERANCE
Label: Interscope
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/deliverance.jpg

Comments: In which the best known of Timbaland's roster of underrated proteges hits back against the haters, the shamers and those who'd rather forget he ever existed. The essence of the album is Bubba's on-record character, more roundly developed and emotionally invested in than the previous record, with music and beats to match from Tim (with a little bit of Organized Noize to garnish). Importantly, Bubba's way with a rhyme and a microphone carry equal weight with Tim's suprising yet totally sensible bluegrass funk, country crunk, chase scene torch songs and ever excellent ass-shakers (Tim's diminished presence on the second half prevents this from being 2003's
perfect hip hop album, but when on point, he's ever the hard act to follow - how the hell is 'Warrant' so confidently funky, mysterious and addictive when it's got barely no beats to speak of?). He's got a convincingly guilty conscience on 'She Tried', acts the good time party boy fool on 'Hootenanny' and the ultra-catchy top 10 single that never was, 'Comin' Round' (fiddles! synths! squealing tyres!), and he is straight up convincing about the New South signifier. I believe in Bubba when he's evoking a hard past that may or may not have been on 'Nowhere', because he's mastered the art of convincing soul-bearing on record. And when 'Nowhere', with it's last line of 'If I'm nowhere/let that nowhere/be nowhere near a worry' and the equally underrated Kiley Dean leading a lovely chorus of 'Cry Me A River' (what's done is done, eh, Bubba?), concludes its 5 mins plus of pure symphonic hip hop beauty, Bubba tells us there's nothing he can't Overcome and I hope he's right. Sooner or later, he deserves to have his Deliverance. Barima

Recommended tracks: Comin' Round, Nowhere, Warrant

Points: 337
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: RICHARD X
Title: ...PRESENTS HIS X-FACTOR VOLUME 1
Label: EMI
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/xfactor1.jpg

Oh Richard, you came and you gave without taking, and I did not send you away. Well alright you did take - a hell of a lot of hits from the 80s. He loves them as if that was not painfully obvious. And anyone who thinks it's done with a cynical sneer just has wrong ears. Richard clearly enjoys his puppeteer and curatorial role here, not that Liberty X needed his help in turning their fortunes around. Nor Javine. The Sugababes? Maybe, yet they all shine brighter here than on their own records, and that's the power of X. The great moments are here in abundance. First he somehow manages to make the idea of covering 'Being Nobody' STILL interesting (and these title jokes just never get tired), then there's the fabulous curtain drop for Spandau Ballet's 'Chant No. 1' on 'Rock Jacket', Kelis (well she's been everywhere else, the bankable whore), a good solid reworking of 'You Used To Hold Me', Deborah Strickland-Evans, 'Drums!', Jarvis AND Hope, and an exit theme to rival anything off 'Music Has The Right To Children' for sheer melancholic beauty, all suggesting the man always had a plan that extended beyond the irresistable mash-ups of 'I Wanna Dance With Numbers' and 'Being Scrubbed'. It's an album that fits perfectly with the times as people revive ideas from 20 years ago across the board, having perhaps not quite been explored and developed enough the first time - but at the top of the agenda remains the directive to keep it poptastic right through to the end.

Recommended tracks: Being Nobody, Lemon Lime, You'd Better Let Me Love You

Sarcasm?

Oh, and please take my surname off my comments.

Anyway, 2 of my top 5 records come in together - thought they'd be higher, but this makes it all more interesting for a while. The comments about Lib X and Javine were in reference to the relative lack of commercial clout they have now, tho' I hear Javine's big in Japan.

And Lemon/Lime is as nothing next to Finest Dreams, surely...

Points: 337
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR
Title: LIFT YOUR SKINNY FISTS LIKE ANTENNAS TO HEAVEN
Label: Kranky
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/liftyourskinnyfists.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Sleep

Points: 352
No. of votes: 18
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LOW
Title: THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE
Label: Tugboat
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/thingswelostinthefire.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Sunflower, July, In Metal

Points: 322
No. of votes: 13
No. of #1 votes: 4

Artist: THE CLIENTELE
Title: SUBURBAN LIGHT
Label: Pointy
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/suburbanlight.jpg

Comments: I love the Clientele's songs because they're like
looking at faded photos or grainy film stock, emerging
into the daylight following a matinee, trying to peer
through the fog or the rain, or walking into dusk
after a day inside artificial light. I love the
Clientele's songs because they're evocative and
drenched in reverb, they mark slight shifts in mood,
in time, in atmosphere, capturing moments of
transition or hope, lamenting loss, longing for that
which is just out of grasp, and cherishing flutters of
the heart. I love the Clientele's songs because they
ignore life's grand gestures; instead, they collect
ephemera and extract something unique, nourishing, and
lovely out of the everyday. Most importantly to me, I
love the Clientele's songs because they soundtracked
my falling in love. As I sat atop a Chicago roof
watching night get the better of day they coaxed me
into getting the nerve to phone long distance to a
woman I'd met only once, they held my hand on the
airplane when she wasn't there to do it, they were
among my first gifts to her, and they've made us both
smile, weep, and sigh ever since. Scott Pl

Recommended: Saturday, We Could Walk Together, Rain

Points: 364
No. of votes: 16
No. of #1 votes: 0

Artist: CANNIBAL OX
Title: THE COLD VEIN
Label: Def Jux
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/thecoldvein.jpg

Comments: Back in the summer of 2002 when I was temporarily insane (and imbibing a large quantity of gin every day), I disparaged Can Ox by asking why I needed this stuff when I already owned Organized Konfusion albums. This was pretty churlish of me (I ended up voting The Cold Vein number four here, chart watchers), but not entirely off the mark. Like OK, Can Ox fall between the twin towers of CIA encrypted Afro-mystical hoo hah and THAT REAL-ASS GRIMY-ASS STREET-ASS SHIT, which never really results in ducats and generally means you're too "underground" (in the Fat Beats sense) for the Juicy J fans and too "street" for the Edan novelty-hop guys. The only other
rap album to place in my top 10 was The Blueprint (I'm as surprised as you are...but I'm also working with a list of nominees that doesn't always reflect my personal top ten); my pal Nick once said that it's hard not to see The Cold Vein as the flipside of the Blueprint but actually they're complimentary opposites: Cold Vein is grainy and mottled with system dirt while the Blueprint is sleek, burnished poise, but both are triumphs of carefully constructed production. I've warmed to El-P's work for Company Flow over the years, but much of it still sounds thin and ugly and grating for no real reason other than being thin and ugly and grating. On The Cold Vein he wasn't any prettier but he fattened things up, riddled it with a thousand niggling details, unveiled a flair for melody. It sounds like he's using very expensive equipment (though in reality probably a fairly limited kit) to make something crude and lumbering and cold. (Though no matter how steely things get, most of it is positively WARM compared to the stuff on the radio these days.) (And I still chuckle at the "Mexican Radio" reference.) The reason Vast Aire outshines Vordul is not because he's "more mainstream" but because he's more DIRECT. He'll go off on flights of comic book geekery, but when he wants to hit home he's not afraid to use the blunt tools (or just be blunt: "my mother said 'you sucked my pussy when you came out'", wtf??), and like Jigga he shares a fondness for ripe Del Monte corn and mawkish sentiment that'd have even Bill Mauldin blushing. Still, as anyone who heard Vast's solo album knows, removed from the crucible of Can Ox (and El-P's production), he's not produced anything with half the power of the Cold Vein. Jess/Strongo

Recommended tracks: Iron Galaxy, Pidgeon, Ridiculoid

Can't help noticing that though The Clientele got a modest 13 votes, it got the greatest number (four) of #1 votes so far. Cheers to you other three.

It's weird how the Bubba has passed without comment thus far. My thoughts on it mirror a lot of Jess' too, which gives me cause to either smile or worry...

haha, yeah my anniversary is tomorrow, so I was all sentimental.

I voted for that and for Low, I'll try to write something.

The debut was good. But it wasn't, um ... big enough. It was gloomy, cinematic, and pretentious (duh). One year later, they returned with 641 new members and an ep that sounded like the end of the world. Certainly the only piece of pre-millenium tension worth listening to. Gotta go with the biblical script when you need to make your apocolyptic point.

Then came this album, which has it all. Tantalising, extended intros blasting into screeching strings playing "Amazing Grace" soundalikes, careening into caustic drones and twinkly ambience. And that's just the first track!

That's their pre-9/11 album. Afterward, the focus turned toward proving that Lockheed Martin are destroying the world. Listening to crazy old men ranting about the golden days of Coney Island is somehow far more harmless, and considerably more poignant.

Low were comfortably entrenched in their slow-and-quiet blueprint, and could have continued to duplicate it indefinitely without much protest from a majority of their fan base. They dip into whimisical pop ("Sunflower") and grim, sinister dirges ("Whitetail") but those styles turned out far better on the follow-up album, "Trust". But here, the less they do, the finer they sound. "Lazer Beam" is little more than four repeated twangs of a guitar and Mimi Rogers' haunting vocals. The other 90% of the song is blackened empty space. Overtop of drawling, pleading vocals, "Closer"'s lurching rhythms surge forward again and again, barely moving forward despite the greatest possible effort. And the sweet harmonies of album closer "In Metal" linger on the brain long after the CD stops spinning. A fine cap to an album that achieves maximalism through minimalism so very well.

This is funny because it's true.

GYBE makes me wonder if they were on anyone's top 15 and hated album -- simultaneously.

Points: 365
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: CAT POWER
Title: YOU ARE FREE
Label: Matador
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/youarefree.jpg

Comments: It's the most confident Cat Power record thus far-- there's less frightened wailing and more straight-ahead, self-assured, fleshed-out compositions than on Moon Pix. The production is aces, too; it somehow sounds slick and sparse at the same time. "Accessable" has never been a word I'd associate with Chan, but in a better world, this could be a major-label debut. Joe Folladori

Recommended tracks: He War, Good Woman, Maybe Not

Points: 381
No. of votes: 18
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: THE SCISSOR SISTERS
Title: THE SCISSOR SISTERS
Label: Polydor
Year: 2004

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/scissorsisters.jpg

Comments: And now on to the thing that really annoys me here. People that have decided the Scissors are all style over substance. Would you like me to scan my arse in so you can kiss it? Would you? Well I?m not going to, cos it?s my dad?s scanner and he?d get a bit narked. Yes, they tour incessantly (like Hundred Reasons and Feeder used to do, yeah), and they do get on the television rather a lot. And, as the boy Swales said, ?I couldn?t bear living with them.? However, the boy Swales did also say that he rather liked their tunes, AND THAT IS THE FUCKING THING - the songs are brilliant (mostly). And it ain?t about being fucking fashionable, god no. Take ?Laura?, wherein Jake Shears attempts to get himself some tail by ringing all the women he knows. And he fails. Christ, most of the stuff on the album is about being lonely (?Mary?), loveless (?Lovers In The Backseat?), crap with girls/blokes (?Better Luck Next Time? ? curiously titled ?Better Luck? on the album sleeve), in the closet (?Take Your Mama?), getting fucked over by the music industry (?Tits On The Radio?), finding the big city isn?t all it?s cracked up to be (?Return To Oz?)? Let?s contrast that shit with Franz Ferdinand, who write songs about attempting to pull girls, one song about attempting to pull a man (EDGE!), and just generally being a cool witty debonair Scots gadabout with perfect hair whilst only being able to make the one noise with your guitar + ironic reference to Terry Wogan. Do they cop this ?style over substance? bullshit? No, they get called the future of music.

Well, fuck that. ?Laura? fucking bosses things. The piano riff is, yes, familiar. And the ground-organ riff, yeah, probably. But that?s cos they?re good, it creaks and cranks its way along the line, then Mr Shears drawls his way in: ?Low-ra? can?t you give me some time? I got to give myself, one more chance? to be the man that I know I am?? And in the corr-roose, we get the theatrics: ?C?M AWWN! C?M AWWWN! WHERRRE IS YAW LUV? DON?T YOU GIVE ME YAW LUV? WON?T YOU GIVE ME YAW LUV?? It is fantastic, this huge overblown three-and-a-bit minute pop-opera in one act (with pause). He sings like Elton John? And? Yeah, it sounds like the seventies. What the hell is your problem? Much lesser bands get away with much worse. This is how they sound, that is how they dress, this shit is who they are, and you can moan about how fucking over-marketed and over-hyped and over-dressed the people are, and you?re ignoring that the Scissor Sisters are a bloody fantastic pop group with heartfelt lyrics (not in the irritating way), warm tunes, and an album that appeals right across the spectrum, instantly warm and accessible, not this aloof emperor?s-new-clothes fashionista shit everyone has the Scissors pegged down as being. These are some of the best songs this decade has seen, and the people, they write about the haircuts. Fuck the people. William Swygart

Recommended tracks: Laura (Simone), Tits On The Radio, Music Is The Victim, It Can't Come Quickly Enough

Points: 394
No. of votes: 17
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: FENNESZ
Title: ENDLESS SUMMER
Label: Mego
Year: 2001

ihttp://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/endlesssummer.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Endless Summer, Caecilia, Shisheido

Points: 398
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: PRIMAL SCREAM
Title: XTRMNTR
Label: Creation
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/xtrmntr.jpg

Comments: XTRMNTR is angry as hell and noisy as a plane taking off. Sometimes it's a techno album, sometimes it's a guitar album, sometimes it's a hip-hop album with swearing and screaming on top. Sometimes it's a New Order album (with Barney Sumner on guitar for authenticity), sometimes it's an MBV album (with Kevin Shields on guitar for authenticity), and sometimes it's a David Holmes soundtrack album (with movie samples and er, David Holmes twiddling the knobs for authenticity). What more could you possibly want in an album??? Barry Bruner

Recommended tracks: Swastika Eyes, MBV Arkestra, Shoot Speed Kill Light

Points: 398
No. of votes: 24
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: LAMBCHOP
Title: NIXON
Label: City Slang
Year: 2000

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/nixon.jpg

Comments: Lush, funny, aching... Play it while walking round through the city at night. C'mon progeny! Stewart Smith

Recommended tracks: Up With People, Nashville Parent, The Distance From Her To There

17th best album @ Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/music/bests/

When that XTRMNTR was released certain critics stated that it was the first great album of the 21st century

[even though it blatantly stole sounds from 70s/ 80s/ 90s: it was a case of spot the cool influences, theoughout the album]

how unusual!

Points: 401
No. of votes: 21
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: BROADCAST
Title: HA HA SOUND
Label: Warp
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/hahasound.jpg

Comments: Strangely managing to be at times the most accessible thing they've done and at other times the most advanced, Broadcast's world is one of spinning wheels, frost-covered lake shores, branch lines in Summer haze, distant church towers and Vaudevillian charm. And here they suck you right in through concentrated, refined gumption and melodic interplay. The songs lurch into effect like rickety contraptions (yet built to last) but with operators like these they work to optimum standard, and all for Lonesome Science Girl to swoon over with a reserved but still heart-tugging lucidity.

Recommended tracks: Colour Me In, Valerie, Lunch Hour Pops

i'm imagining mylo's "drop the pressure" with fuckthepeoplefuckthepeoplefuckthepeople instead of motherfuckermotherfuckermotherfucker

where the hell are the techno/electronic nominations? is weiss.mix going to actually place in the top 35? or villalobos? or the soft pink truth? does ilm talk about electronic stuff more than they actually listen to it? or is the ilm personality a purist at heart believing that dance music is a singles genre?

xpost. yay broadcast!

dleone
Would anyone be surprised to see this list published at Pitchfork? So far, give or take 5 records, I wouldn't be.

Get, Ryan Pitchfork to organize a Pitchfork Staff Top 100 Albums of the first 5 years of the 00s - early next year.

Also will Ned be doing his own half decade summary to follow on from his infamous and much loved Ned's 90s feature? or will we have to wait another 5 years ?

(I'm actually amazed at how much rancour I still feel for prml scrm in general and xtrmntr in particular)

only 1 of my top 10 has appeared so far (beta band, far too low obv) so i'm still confidently expecting a top 5 of daft punk/jaxx/dizzee/avalanches/streets in some order, yes, no, yes, hmm?

Points: 403
No. of votes: 18
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: FUGAZI
Title: THE ARGUMENT
Label: Discord
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/theargument.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Argument, Epic Problem, Kill

Points: 436
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 2

Artist: LE TIGRE
Title: LE TIGRE
Label: Wiija
Year: 2001

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/letigre.jpg

Comments: I don't care what the rest of you think, this album means something to me. It has nothing to do with feminism or gay rights, just a simple feeling of muddling through, of contradiction, of trying even though you may well fail.

Deceptacon is about dancing, alliteration and having your sounds stolen by some cheeky scamp; My My Metrocard celebrates the freedom of solo travel through an urban environment (no, it's still got nothing to do with some Mayor of New York!); Les and Ray is all about 'Less' rather than 'Lez', and liking people who are friendly to you.

Kathleen Hanna may be so, like, whatever, ya know (dude)? But Le Tigre are great, and this debut connects with me, it makes me feel. I know I'm not the only one. Meirion Lewis

Recommended tracks: Deceptacon, Hot Topic, My My Metrocard, Les And Ray

didn't you nominate Nixon?

Points: 437
No. of votes: 26
No. of #1 votes: 1

Artist: JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE
Title: JUSTIFIED
Label: Jive
Year: 2002

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/justified.jpg

Comments: Riding on the subconscious remembrance of Thriller's 20th anniversary, the start of Usher's year off, a topless appearance on the cover of Rolling Stone, *NSYNC (WE WERE ON A BREAK!) and all things hot and re-emerging in fashion and music, JT became the second "credible former boyband solo artist" of the new millenium (Jordan Knight got there first, but sadly ran out of steam). Style icons? Michael Jackson, Usher and Carrot Top. Music icons? Same, plus a bit of Usher and Corey Feldman. Vocal icon? Same again,
plus Pharrell Williams. Make no mistake, the dude's a grab-bag. What warmed me to JT was that he'd become a global Michael impersonator on a greater scale than Usher, simply by making his xeroxes and debts more obvious. The 'Like I Love You' debut, with it's terrible JT solo dance at the end is a geeky kid's fantasy homage to 'Billie Jean' on Motown 25, (the video is like 3 old MJ vids in one with Pharrell replacing the dorky poplocker from 'Beat It') and I ate it up because someone needed to remind old MJ why and how he used to be so fucking cool (even though JT hasn't a hope of scaling those heights ever). Musically, there's more influences to disinterr, but the lows (for they are there) come when JT's vocal deficiencies and poor appropriations are exposed (the cheesy ballads, 'Nothin' Else', which is 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' with none of the needed improvements and the borderline testicle-cuisinart match of his infamous falsetto). And there's at least one phone-in from Timbaland (and from the Neptunes, though they're not disasters), but then again, he has 2 tracks that easily overshadow half the disc. And it's these highs that make the whole almost 'justified', if you will. There's 'Senorita', a study in charm vs contrivance (which wins? Up to you), there's 'Oh No (What You Got)', one of Tim's best disposable dance-pop numbers, as club-worthy as you like, and 'Rock Your Body', the most obvious Off The Wall homage (and well done it is) and one to molest Janet to. Alongside 'Rock Your Body' at the top of the list are the very MJ melodic symphonic pop sweetness of 'Last Night', which extends the Neptunes' Quincy Jones credit further and with almost perfect results (it can also do the hustle), and the two lead singles. 'Like I Love You' was one of 2002's best debut singles, is the best minimalist Neptunes track ever with a spot-on meld of pop oddness and pop sensibilities , commands any dancefloor it's on like fine disco magic, and none of the appeal's vanished over time ("Drums", for God's sake). And 'Cry Me A River', well. It was routinely picked up on as the disc's best. We all know why (the song, not the video) and I'm not gonna bore with why I love it so, it's probably the same for anyone else who does. The best compliment you can probably pay Justified was the old early one - why this wasn't Invincible (or at least half of it) is MJ's fault and MJ's alone. Barima

Recommended tracks: Like I Love You, Cry Me A River, Last Night

Steve, call me Lastminuto Savington.

"Who are you people?" - I dunno, my first post was a fair while ago but I've not posted that often before, so well done neurotic s for capturing my imagination.

I really like that Justin and Le Tigre are back to back.

Points: 440
No. of votes: 19
No. of #1 votes: 5

Artist: THE FIERY FURNACES
Title: GALLOWSBIRD BARK
Label: Rough Trade
Year: 2003

http://base58.com/ilx/ilm/top100/20002004/albums/gallowsbirdbark.jpg

Comments: n/a (anybody?)

Recommended tracks: Crystal Clear, Tropical Iceland, Inca Rag/Name Game