ILM Top 100 2000-2004: ALBUMS

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!