Brainstorming for "Best of the 2000s"

[Josh]

Just finished counting down my thirty favorites. Short version:

1.    Joe Henry, Tiny Voices
2.    Bob Dylan, Love & Theft
3.    Over the Rhine, Ohio
4.    Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Abattoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus
5.    Sam Phillips, A Boot and a Shoe
6.    Andrew Bird, The Mysterious Production of Eggs
7.    Joe Henry, Blood from Stars
8.    Radiohead, Kid A
9.    Tom Waits, Orphans
10.    The Hold Steady, Separation Sunday
11.    Joe Henry, Civilians
12.    Tom Waits, Real Gone
13.    The Hold Steady, Boys and Girls in America
14.    Richard Hawley, Truelove’s Gutter
15.    Josh Ritter, The Historical Conquests of…
16.    Arcade Fire, Funeral
17.    Buddy Miller, Universal United House of Prayer
18.    Sam Phillips, Fan Dance
19.    Outkast, Stankonia
20.    Barry Adamson, Back to the Cat
21.    I’m Not There original soundtrack
22.    Joe Henry, Scar
23.    sthingy, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga
24.    Radiohead, In Rainbows
25.    Solomon Burke, Don’t Give Up on Me
26.    Bruce Springsteen, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions
27.    Buddy and Julie Miller, Buddy and Julie Miller
28.    Over the Rhine, Films for Radio
29.    Bettye LaVette, The Scene of the Crime
30.    Gillian Welch, Time (The Revelator)

[murlough23]

Films for Radio and Kid A are in my Top 100 (which I hope to finish publishing shortly and then link to the whole thing from here). The other OtR album on my list was The Trumpet Child. Josh Ritter's album was under consideration and fell just short of making the list. I have you, Josh, to thank for both OtR and Ritter, and most of the Phorum to thank for putting Radiohead in perspective for me (since my initial reaction to Kid A was quite lukewarm).

Did I mention that I finally got around to listening to Blood From Stars? It's playing right now. Still trying to wrap my head around the music, but I already know I prefer it to Civilians. As is a constant for Henry, the songwriting is top-notch.

[bloop]

I haven't worked on my list at all since posting the rough sketch of it.  I'm a bad person.

[murlough23]

I haven't worked on my list at all since posting the rough sketch of it.  I'm a bad person.

I haven't written any new music reviews in January because I've been focused on my list, so it's a lesser of the two evils thing for me.

[ewok20t3]

Has anyone thought about what your favorite song of the decade might be?

[bloop]

That would probably cause my head to explode.  It's hard enough to pit these albums, all of which are great and well-loved, against each other.

[eatenbytehworms]

Has anyone thought about what your favorite song of the decade might be?

I think I'll make a list for that.

[murlough23]

I've got favorite song lists for most years of the last decade; I could probably compare all the #1s (or the ones closest to the top if I no longer think the #1 should be at the top) and pick a favorite from those without too much difficulty.

[plvarona]

Has anyone thought about what your favorite song of the decade might be?

Actually, I do have a personal chart that I do every week, and I've already compiled the results for this entire decade.  Granted, I only chart "singles", although my definition of that has gotten so liberal that I not only include radio singles, but now video singles and online promotional singles are also eligible.  Also, the chart really only reflects my feelings for the song at around the time it was released, so if there's a song I started appreciating late, that's not reflected in the rankings.  Still, for the most part, my chart is a pretty good indication of the songs I've enjoyed.  I can post my decade-end chart if you guys are interested.  (Probably top 100?)

As for my top albums of the decade, I've decided I'll just go with straight ratings, and not try to rearrange the order from there.  I'll probably take one more pass through my rankings within the next week or so and I'll finalize my list after that.

[Aaron]

I could never be dedicated and make a chart like that, Phil..mostly because I have no clue which songs are radio singles.

[murlough23]

I could never be dedicated and make a chart like that, Phil..mostly because I have no clue which songs are radio singles.

I don't CARE which songs are radio singles, beyond the fact that it increases the likelihood of someone else being familiar with a song. My favorite song in 2008 was a huge chart topper; my favorite song in 2009 will probably never see the light of radio.

EDIT: All right, might as well list 'em.

2000: "Wave After Wave", Iona
2001: "Hanging by a Moment", Lifehouse
2002: "I'll See You", Pax217 (then); "Silence", Jars of Clay (now)
2003: "Bring Me to Life", Evanescence feat. Paul McCoy (then); "Clocks", Coldplay (now)
2004: "Harbor", Vienna Teng
2005: "The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders", Sufjan Stevens
2006: "Hosea in C Minor", The Listening
2007: "A Lover's Charm", Deas Vail
2008: "Viva la Vida", Coldplay
2009: "Hawaii", Mew

Picking a favorite out of all those sure is tough! Hard to pick a single one that would be representative.

[murlough23]

OK. Finally finished up my Top 100 List, and I'm excited to share it with you guys. It was an exhaustive write-up and I'm sure it'll be exhausting to read, but at least skim the list to see what I picked, and zoom in on whatever you're most curious about.

The Best of the Ought Nots, Part I: 81-100
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part II: 61-80
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part III: 41-60
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part IV: 21-40
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part V: 1-20

[Ian]

Has anyone thought about what your favorite song of the decade might be?

1. Animal Collective - My Girls
2. Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely

Two songs that more or less embody the time of my life during which I listened to them.  Not so much lyrically as mood-wise.  I also really love My Morning Jacket - Lay Low, Panda Bear - I'm Not, Porcupine Tree - Trains, and several other Animal Collective songs.

[bloop]

OK. Finally finished up my Top 100 List, and I'm excited to share it with you guys. It was an exhaustive write-up and I'm sure it'll be exhausting to read, but at least skim the list to see what I picked, and zoom in on whatever you're most curious about.

The Best of the Ought Nots, Part I: 81-100
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part II: 61-80
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part III: 41-60
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part IV: 21-40
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part V: 1-20

tl;dr


I keed!

I'm slowly going through and sorting mine, and you can see it as I sort the stuff (I have it broken with a couple spaces sorted-unsorted).  I'm probably still forgetting a few things in there.

[ewok20t3]

I can post my decade-end chart if you guys are interested.  (Probably top 100?)

I would be interested in seeing it.

OK. Finally finished up my Top 100 List, and I'm excited to share it with you guys. It was an exhaustive write-up and I'm sure it'll be exhausting to read, but at least skim the list to see what I picked, and zoom in on whatever you're most curious about.

The Best of the Ought Nots, Part I: 81-100
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part II: 61-80
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part III: 41-60
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part IV: 21-40
The Best of the Ought Nots, Part V: 1-20

Good stuff! I own 9 of your top 20 and enjoy them all. It's really nice to see Mae and Deas Vail in the top 20.

I probably need to check out Eisley's Room Noises album. I like the two songs I have by them and I saw them open for Mute Math and really enjoyed their show.

2001: "Hanging by a Moment", Lifehouse

No Name Face is my guilty pleasure album of the decade, but "Hanging By A Moment" is probably my 6th favorite song on the album. It's possible that because the song was on everywhere I went in 2001 that it made the song seem less appealing to me. It was good to see that album made your top 100.

[eatenbytehworms]

2000: Radiohead "Idioteque"
2001: Tool "Parabol/Parabola"
2002: Sigur Ros "Untitled 8" or Thrice "Deadbolt"
2003: Thrice "Stare at the Sun"
2004: Arcade Fire "Neighborhood"
2005: Switchfoot "Easier than Love"
2006:
2007: Anberlin "(*fin)"
2008: Portishead "The Rip"
2009: Vienna Teng "Grandmother Song"

edited from before, filling in blanks

assorted albums I loved, in no order:
Radiohead, Kid A
Portishead, Third
Thrice, The Illusion of Safety
Sufjan, Illinois

[bloop]

I think I could handle a favorite song by year:
2000:  "How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead
2001:  "Pagan Poetry" by Bjork
2002:  "Paper Tiger", Beck
2003:  "She Sends Kisses" by the Wrens
2004:  "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire
2005:  "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens
2006:  "Wolf Like Me", TV on the Radio
2007:  "Nude" by Radiohead
2008:  "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes
2009:  "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" by mewithoutYou

Even this was harder than I thought.

[ewok20t3]

2003: Thrice "Stare at the Sun"
2007: Anberlin "(*fin)" [my all time favorite song]

Two of my favorites, for sure.

2000:  "How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead
2005:  "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens
2006:  "Wolf Like Me", TV on the Radio
2007:  "Nude" by Radiohead
2008:  "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes
2009:  "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" by mewithoutYou

I love all of these songs.

[Ian]

2000:  Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely
2001:  Radiohead - Pyramid Song
2002:  Porcupine Tree - Trains
2003:  Mew - Comforting Sounds
2004:  Animal Collective - Who Could Win a Rabit?
2005:  My Morning Jacket - Lay Low
2006:  Joanna Newsom - Emily
2007:  Animal Collective - Fireworks
2008:  Shugo Tokumaru - La La Radio
2009:  Animal Collective - My Girls

[murlough23]

Good stuff! I own 9 of your top 20 and enjoy them all. It's really nice to see Mae and Deas Vail in the top 20.

Glad you liked that. It was a challenge figuring out how to explain my reasons for ranking bands that highly who were composing excellent songs/albums within a genre rather than radically busting the genre wide open.

I probably need to check out Eisley's Room Noises album. I like the two songs I have by them and I saw them open for Mute Math and really enjoyed their show.

Hopefully I didn't overhype them. Another example of a band whose style may not be revolutionary, but whose songs are so winsome that I frankly don't care.

No Name Face is my guilty pleasure album of the decade

What's there to feel guilty about? I know they get associated with general middle-of-the-road-ness and the unfavorable lingering popular opinion of the post-grunge genre, but that album's got some solid songwriting.

but "Hanging By A Moment" is probably my 6th favorite song on the album.

That bodes well for the rest of the album. I'm willing to bet "Everything" is one of the higher ones on your list, right? Amazing song.

It's possible that because the song was on everywhere I went in 2001 that it made the song seem less appealing to me.

For some reason, I just can't get sick of that song (though I am sick of it being the only Lifehouse song people are familiar with - same situation with Jars of Clay and "Flood" or Sixpence and "Kiss Me" - it ain't the songs' fault). I don't voluntarily listen to radio, and I had started listening to Lifehouse before they hit it big on radio. On some exceedingly rare occasions, I'm pleasantly surprised when an already established personal favorite catches on with the rest of the world. I'm generally used to my favorite songs being deep album tracks that don't get released as singles or that get ignored if they do, or being by artists the popular music world has never heard of.

[ewok20t3]

That bodes well for the rest of the album. I'm willing to bet "Everything" is one of the higher ones on your list, right? Amazing song..

Yeah, "Everything", "Simon", "Breathing", "Sick Cycle Carousel", and "Cling and Clatter" are all favorites from the album for me. My very favorite is actually "Only One". It's probably not a popular choice for favorite song on that album, but lyrically it's very moving to me. When the album came out that was a song I could really relate to, and it really made it stand out.

[murlough23]

My favorites after "Hanging" are "Everything", "Trying", "Sick Cycle Carousel", and "Breathing". "Only One" never stood out to me musically, but I can see why it's relatable lyrically.

[murlough23]

2000: Radiohead "Idioteque" [also my favorite artist]
2001: Tool "Parabol/Parabola" [that transition!]
2002: Sigur Ros "Untitled 8"
2003: Thrice "Stare at the Sun"
2004: Arcade Fire "Neighborhood" [the whole thing almost exactly matches the fantasies I had as a kid]
2005: Switchfoot "Easier than Love"
2007: Anberlin "(*fin)" [my all time favorite song]
2009: Vienna Teng "Grandmother Song" [as a musician and Chinese kid, I really identify with this]

These are all awesome picks. I didn't know you were Chinese.

2000:  "How to Disappear Completely" by Radiohead
2001:  "Pagan Poetry" by Bjork
2004:  "Wake Up" by Arcade Fire
2005:  "John Wayne Gacy, Jr." by Sufjan Stevens
2007:  "Nude" by Radiohead
2008:  "White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes
2009:  "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate" by mewithoutYou

Love all of these. Interesting to see what you come up with when you have to narrow it down to a song-specific level (I knew you liked all this stuff, but didn't realize how much).

2000:  Radiohead - How to Disappear Completely
2001:  Radiohead - Pyramid Song
2009:  Animal Collective - My Girls

More pwnage. Some of the other stuff you listed probably is, too; I just haven't heard it.

[Ian]

You definitely need to hear My Morning Jacket - Z and Joanna Newsom - Ys.  Ys especially, since her new one, Have One on Me, comes out pretty soon.

[murlough23]

I've heard Ys; wasn't really my thing.

[eatenbytehworms]

I forgot to post an overall list of songs.

1. Anberlin "(*fin)"
2. MeWithoutYou "The King Beetle on a Coconut Estate"
3. Radiohead "Idioteque"
4. Tool Parabol/Parabola
5. Thrice "Deadbolt"
6. Sigur Ros "Untitled 8"
7. Arcade Fire "Neighborhood"
8. Switchfoot "Easier than Love"
9. Vienna Teng "Grandmother Song"
10. Muse "Citizen Erased"
11. Sufjan "You are the Blood"
12. Relient K "Deathbed"
13. Portishead "The Rip"
14. Foo Fighters "All My Life"
15. Jon Foreman "In Love"

[murlough23]

11. Sufjan "You are the Blood"

Where's this from?

12. Relient K "Deathbed"
15. Jon Foreman "In Love"

Songs about death that involve Jon Foreman. Nice!

NP: "You Never Know", Wilco

[bloop]

Where's this from?

The Dark Was the Night compilation.  Song comes in pt. 1 and pt. 2.  I'll pub them.

[plvarona]

Since people are posting song lists, I'll go ahead and post that first.  As I mentioned earlier, I do keep weekly personal charts.  I'll admit I became quite fascinated with music charts when I was young, and I think that's why I still have the "radio chart" mentality these days, even though I don't listen to the radio much anymore.  I will post my top 100 songs of the decade based solely on their performance on my personal chart.  There are a few songs on this list that are nothing more than big guilty pleasures, but I would say a vast majority of this list are songs I still like a lot to this day.

Top 100 Songs of the '00's from Phil's Personal Chart
100. "A Day Late" Anberlin
  99. "Stay" Jeremy Camp
  98. "Ammunition" Switchfoot
  97. "You Lift Me Up" Rachael Lampa
  96. "All The World is Mad" Thrice
  95. "The Motions" Matthew West
  94. "Nuisance" John Reuben f/ Matt Theissen
  93. "Stay With Me" Wavorly
  92. "Chicago" Sufjan Stevens
  91. "Show All The World" Narnia
  90. "My Immortal" Evanescence
  89. "Ocean Size Love" Leigh Nash
  88. "Sanctuary" Kevin Max
  87. "Army of Love" Jake
  86. "In Such a State" Edison Glass
  85. "Washed By The Water" NEEDTOBREATHE
  84. "When Did You Fall?" Chris Rice
  83. "Surrender" Joy Williams
  82. "Breathing" Lifehouse
  81. "Part One" Wavorly
  80. "Rebirthing" Skillet
  79. "Oh!  Gravity." Switchfoot
  78. "The Valley Song (Sing of Your Mercy)" Jars of Clay
  77. "Live For You" Rachael Lampa
  76. "By and By" Jennifer Knapp
  75. "Paperthin Hymn" Anberlin
  74. "What It's Like" downhere
  73. "Outrage" Capital Lights
  72. "Suspension" Mae
  71. "Loss For Words" Tait
  70. "Seattle" The Classic Crime
  69. "Image of the Invisible" Thrice
  68. "Magnificent" U2
  67. "This is Your Time" Michael W. Smith
  66. "In My Arms" Plumb
  65. "Leaving 99" Audio Adrenaline
  64. "Disappear" Bebo Norman
  63. "Learning to Breathe" Switchfoot
  62. "Trying Too Hard" John Reuben
  61. "This is Your Life" Switchfoot
  60. "Imagine Me Without You" Jaci Velasquez
  59. "Lose This Life" Tait
  58. "Flying Blind" Daily Planet
  57. "Tears of the Saints" Leeland
  56. "What Matters More" Derek Webb
  55. "Hand" Jars of Clay
  54. "Breathe on Me" Jennifer Knapp
  53. "A Whisper & A Clamor" Anberlin
  52. "Madmen" Wavorly
  51. "Forgive and Forget" Wavorly
  50. "Sick Cylce Carousel" Lifehouse
  49. "Take Me Away" Sarah Kelly
  48. "Wait For Me" Rebecca St. James
  47. "Meant to Live" Switchfoot
  46. "Dare You to Move" Switchfoot
  45. "Revolution" Jars of Clay
  44. "Hope is Where We're Starting From" Justin McRoberts
  43. "Six String Rocketeer" Daily Planet
  42. "God Will Lift Up Your Head" Jars of Clay
  41. "Dead Man (Carry Me)" Jars of Clay
  40. "Long Way Home" 40 Days
  39. "Be My Escape" Relient K
  38. "Right Here" Jeremy Camp
  37. "Let Go" Edison Glass
  36. "Fly Away" FFH
  35. "Godspeed" Anberlin
  34. "I Still Believe" Jeremy Camp
  33. "Bless The Lord" Shaun Groves
  32. "Twilight" Shaun Groves
  31. "Every Reason" Smalltown Poets
  30. "In The Valley of the Dying Sun" House of Heroes
  29. "Always Have, Always Will" Avalon
  28. "Spotlight" Mute Math
  27. "City of Blinding Lights" U2
  26. "Nervous In The Light of Dawn" Leigh Nash
  25. "I Need You" Jars of Clay
  24. "Invasion" Eisley
  23. "Dying For You" Kepano Green
  22. "Lift My Eyes" Jill Paquette
  21. "No One Loves Me Like You" Jars of Clay
  20. "Carousel" Paper Route
  19. "The End" The Listening
  18. "Starspin" downhere
  17. "Can't Erase It" Jars of Clay
  16. "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" KT Tunstall
  15. "Ruin of the Beast" Steven Delopoulos
  14. "Come and Fill My Heart" Avalon
  13. "Fly" Jars of Clay
  12. "Perform" Monarch
  11. "The Far Country" Andrew Peterson
  10. "Should I Tell Them?" Shaun Groves
    9. "Untouchable" Luna Halo
    8. "Beautiful" Bethany Dillon
    7. "Great Light of the World" Bebo Norman
    6. "Forgiven" Relient K
    5. "My Last Amen" downhere
    4. "Code Name: Raven" House of Heroes
    3. "Cinematic" Cool Hand Luke
    2. "Say Won't You Say" Jennifer Knapp
    1. "Life In These Little Boats" Deas Vail
 

[ewok20t3]

I've made some changes and expanded my top albums of the 2000's.

1. Mae - The Everglow (2005)
2. Life In Your Way - Waking Giants (2007)
3. Anberlin - Cities (2007)
4. Dead Poetic - New Medicines (2004)
5. All The Day Holiday - The Things We've Grown To Love (2009)
6. Jimmy Eat World - Futures (2004)
7. Hands - Creator (2009)
8. Luna Halo - Shimmer (2000)
9. Blindside - Silence (2002)
10. Project 86 - Songs To Burn Your Bridges By (2003)
11. Lucerin Blue - Tales of The Knife (2003)
12. Spoken - A Moment of Imperfect Clarity (2003)
13. Mae - (m)orning (2009)
14. Lifehouse - No Name Face (2000)
15. Copeland - You Are My Sunshine (2008)
16. As Cities Burn - Come Now Sleep (2007)
17. Thrice - The Artist In The Ambulance (2003)
18. Beloved - Failure On (2003)
19. Sufjan Stevens - Seven Swans (2004)
20. Living Sacrifice - The Hammering Process (2000)
21. Further Seems Forever - The Moon Is Down (2001)
22. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans (2005)
23. Saints Never Surrender - Brutus (2008)
24. Lydia - Illuminate (2008)
25. Mute Math - Mute Math (2006)
26. Mae - Destination: Beautiful (2003)
27. Evans Blue - The Melody and The Energetic Nature of Volume (2006)
28. Anberlin - Never Take Friendship Personal (2005)
29. The Accident Experiment - United We Fear (2005)
30. Life In Your Way - Ignite and Rebuild (2005)
31. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005)
32. Project 86 - Drawing Black Lines (2000)
33. Blindside - About A Burning Fire (2004)
34. Life In Your Way - The Sun Rises and the Sun Sets... and Still Our Time is Endless (2003)
35. Mae - Singularity (2007)
36. Copeland - Beneath The Medicine Tree (2003)
37. It Prevails - Capture and Embrace (2009)
38. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)
39. Means - To Keep Me From Sinking (2008)
40. Radiohead - Kid A (2000)
41. Deas Vail - All The Houses Look The Same (2007)
42. Radiohead - In Rainbows (2007)
43. Coldplay - X&Y (2005)
44. Hands - The Sounds of Earth (2009)
45. Dead Poetic - Vices (2006)
46. Between The Buried and Me - Colors (2007)
47. Project 86 - Truthless Heroes (2002)
48. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place (2003)
49. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (aka Jimmy Eat World) (2001)
50. Sufjan Stevens - Michigan (2003)
51. Mae - (a)fternoon (2009)

I have OCD and felt I needed to include all of Mae's releases in this list since they're my favorite band, so I expanded the list to 51 instead of 50. I know that's a little ridiculous.  

[bloop]

Heh - someone else whose #1 is as predictable as mine, finally!  A lot of good albums there.

One thing that stuck out on me:  X & Y on the list but no Viva la Vida.  Just wondering, did you check the latter out? 

[murlough23]

Heh - someone else whose #1 is as predictable as mine, finally!

I was quite surprised to see it ranked so high (knew he was a fan, just not that big of one), but I'm not complaining.

One thing that stuck out on me:  X & Y on the list but no Viva la Vida.  Just wondering, did you check the latter out?

I'll put in a second for VLV. It blows everything else Coldplay's done out of the water, especially the lackluster X&Y.

[bloop]

As I've gone back to revisit them, Parachutes is close, and I have times I even prefer it, but VLV is better, I think.  Parachutes and A Rush of Blood... take turns as my #2 by them, making X & Y sort of the odd man out.

I at least like all their albums, though, so I don't want to knock their junior release too much.  That probably puts me in the minority.

[ewok20t3]

One thing that stuck out on me:  X & Y on the list but no Viva la Vida.  Just wondering, did you check the latter out? 

Yeah, I have it and i like it, but the guitar tone on X&Y is absolutely beautiful to me, and that gives it just enough to push it ahead of Viva La Vida for me. I realize that I'm in the extreme minority that my favorite Coldplay album is X&Y, but I just can't help it. The other three Coldplay albums probably would've landed in my top 100

[ewok20t3]

I was quite surprised to see it ranked so high (knew he was a fan, just not that big of one), but I'm not complaining.

I have a tendency to rate albums I relate to higher than great artistic achievements. That's why you see many albums that are far inferior on an artistic level to albums by Radiohead, Sufjan, and Arcade Fire ahead of them. 

[NinjaRob17]

Here's my list: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/FIFSF59/top_100_albums_of_the_2000s

[ewok20t3]

Here's my list: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/FIFSF59/top_100_albums_of_the_2000s

Lots of my favorites on there! Awesome list!

[murlough23]

As I've gone back to revisit them, Parachutes is close, and I have times I even prefer it, but VLV is better, I think.  Parachutes and A Rush of Blood... take turns as my #2 by them, making X & Y sort of the odd man out.

I'd put them in the exact same order you do (down to sometimes flip-flopping on Parachutes and A Rush...).

Parachutes has a consistently enjoyable style and sound throughout; it's just mellower than other releases, and it was my introduction to the band, so it took me longer to appreciate it. My only real problem with it is that it's too short. 11 songs if you count the hidden track, but the title track and hidden track are really just fragments, and several other songs are short on content. A Rush... has some killer singles and a few lesser-known tracks like "Daylight" that I love, but gets tedious in its back half. Take that same description and add a little more to the tedium, and you get X&Y.

I at least like all their albums, though, so I don't want to knock their junior release too much.  That probably puts me in the minority.

I still gave X&Y[/] a B-. I might put it at a C+ nowadays. It's disappointing, but I still like it. "Fix You" is one of my favorite Coldplay songs; "Square One" and "White Shadows" are up there, too. (And "Twisted Logic" arrived three years too early for the Wall-E soundtrack.) Without the collaboration with Eno on X&Y, VLV might never have happened.

Yeah, I have it and i like it, but the guitar tone on X&Y is absolutely beautiful to me, and that gives it just enough to push it ahead of Viva La Vida for me.

There is something simple but beautiful about that "slow ring" approach that Jonny Buckland often uses. It's not terribly original, but it's well-done, and this is what drew me to the texture of Parachutes even when I thought the songs were a bit undercooked. It's just that things which were subtly enjoyable on Parachutes seemed like old hat to me by the time X&Y rolled around. Maybe I took too seriously the promise that the band seems to make with every album that it will be this big, amazing thing.

I realize that I'm in the extreme minority that my favorite Coldplay album is X&Y, but I just can't help it.

I know what that's like. See my favorite U2 album. And there's something exhilirating about falling in love with an underdog album and being able to defend its high placement on a list of personal faves.

I have a tendency to rate albums I relate to higher than great artistic achievements. That's why you see many albums that are far inferior on an artistic level to albums by Radiohead, Sufjan, and Arcade Fire ahead of them. 

I fully understand you there - I did the same. Radiohead and Sufjan were on my list because they made albums that I enjoyed, not because they did something artistically revolutionary. The fact that they also did something of great artistic merit is a huge plus, but there are plenty of other things that did that, too, and I don't have the space to acknowledge them all, nor do I get personal enjoyment out of them all, so like you, I went with the music that spoke to me the most.

Anyway, you gave VLV a chance and liked it, so while your choice of X&Y is surprising, I'm not complaining about it.

[ewok20t3]

There is something simple but beautiful about that "slow ring" approach that Jonny Buckland often uses. It's not terribly original, but it's well-done, and this is what drew me to the texture of Parachutes even when I thought the songs were a bit undercooked. It's just that things which were subtly enjoyable on Parachutes seemed like old hat to me by the time X&Y rolled around. Maybe I took too seriously the promise that the band seems to make with every album that it will be this big, amazing thing.

I think I went and bought Parachutes and A Rush of Blood To The Head after hearing X&Y so that may explain why I like X&Y the best.

I fully understand you there - I did the same. Radiohead and Sufjan were on my list because they made albums that I enjoyed, not because they did something artistically revolutionary. The fact that they also did something of great artistic merit is a huge plus, but there are plenty of other things that did that, too, and I don't have the space to acknowledge them all, nor do I get personal enjoyment out of them all, so like you, I went with the music that spoke to me the most.

Exactly. If I was making my list based solely on artistic merit, without letting any of my preferences or personal feelings get involved, there's probably only 5 or 6 albums on my list that would still make the cut. Those albums just happened to connect with me on a level deeper than that of pure artistry. The reverse is also true though, I think an album must have at least a touch of artistry to it in order for me to make a personal connection to it. I can relate to the Black Eyed Peas at times. Sometimes I gotta a feelin' that tonight's gonna be a good night, but because they make such generic music, the true personal connection fails.

[bloop]

It's not so complicated for me, since I generally get the most repeat enjoyment from the albums that are the on the more artistically-interesting side.  I'm not even sure if I'd even like relating to some of it on a personal level (I would worry about my psychological health if I did in some instances).