best music year of the 2000s

what music year of the 2000s will 2013 be most like?

^sister poll

I'll have to really think about this, but my first impression is 2002 or 2008.

2007

I feel like we had a discussion about this not so long ago?

Here's my ranking.

2008
2005
2007
2001
2004
2006
2003
2002
2000
2009

went through itunes. they're all pretty good. hell, 2000 is hard to beat: voodoo, dopethrone, pop, down among the deadmen, forevernevermore, stankonia, teaches of peaches, stories from the city, rated r, nightly trembling, all hands on the bad one, OO void, howdy!, de stijl, godlike snake...

2003 or gtfo

bold choice!

i voted 2009 because i liked the chillwave/glo-fi/whatever boom as well as merriwether post pavillion and the first bon iver record. also it was the happiest year of my life, so far, for other reasons, and that probably informs my nostalgia for that year.

2002 was really awesome. Original Pirate Material. MC Pitman. The Boom Selection monster mashup CD. The Eminem Show (the last time he really mattered, man). "Losing My Edge." "House of Jealous Lovers." "Dance to the Underground." Electroclash. The New York dance-punk scene. "Clocks." Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. (). "Can't Get You Out of My Head" and "Love at First Sight." Just amazing stuff.

voted 2001. among other things, Aaliyah's final album.

I went with 2008. Tons of great albums I still play a lot by Portishead, Sebastien Tellier, Solange, Erykah Badu, Wild Beasts, Lindstrom, Cut Copy, Goldfrapp, Robert Forster, TV on the Radio, Jazmine Sullivan, Hercules & Love Affair, Hot Chip, Neon Neon, Ne-Yo, Vampire Weekend, Danity Kane, Air France, Santigold, M83, Gang Gang Dance, Grace Jones, British Sea Power, Supergrass, Sparks, Magnetic Fields, Algebra, J*Davey, The Walkmen, Lykke Li, Tiffany Evans, Cheri Dennis and probably a bunch of others I'm forgetting.

2008, 2005, and 2000 were my favorites.

2007. I hated 2008.

ooh, 2007 was a good one too. or 2006, with M.I.A.'s first album... that was the first ILM thread I ever read and was the beginning of years of lurking/sporadic posting.

2008 probably

It was a tossup between 2001 and 2004. 2001 was when a lot of dance and pop music started to make more sense to me, so went for that

Really baffled by all the people mentioning 2008. I've always thought it was a dog of a year musically. The P4K people's list thing also showed less album spiked from 2008 than any of the years around it.

They were all good years tbh. Its probably my favorite decade after the 70s. Even my least favorite years ( the bookends; 2000 and 2009, respectively) had amazing albums in there.

The P4K people's list thing also showed less album spiked from 2008 than any of the years around it.

lol.

2008 = NuAmerykah pt. 1, St. Dymphna, loads of great psych/freak (Woods Family Creeps, Sun Araw's Beach Head, Paavoharju, Boris, the Farflung album was kind of Monster Magnet-meets-Devo), some decent records that others liked more than me (Meanderthal, Love/Hate). Also, a killer Fall record. It's like all the strange disparate elements of my music interest all decided to weirdly convene and throw a crazy party...

that said, I probably need to get my shit together & finally give real listens to Portishead's Third and the first Vampire Weekend album, like a responsible music connoisseur would :P

admittedly, 2000 probably does give it a run for its money

2008 was p great, imo. suppose it depends on what you're into, but:

actress - hazyville
arthur russell - love is overtaking me
black milk - tronic
a bunch of blank dogs singles & eps
boris - smile
colin stetson - new history warfare 1
erykah badu - nu amerykah 1
fennesz - the black sea
flying lotus - los angeles
grouper - dragging a dead deer up a hill
hammers of misfortune - fields/church of broken glass
harvey milk - life...the best game in town
bunch of jay reatard singles
killer mike - pledge allegiance to the grind II
king tuff - was dead
lil wayne - tha carter III
lindstrom - where you go i go too
nobunny - love visions
oneida - preteen weaponry
paavoharju - laulu laakson kukista
portishead - third
villalobos - vasco
shit and shine - kuss mich meine liebe
skull disco comp (probably less interesting to those who'd been following along)
studio - yearbook 2
several sun araw releases
thee oh sees - the master's bedroom
witch - paralyzed
zola jesus - poor sons & soeur sewer singles

i can't sleep

xp drugs otm

even copped his "nu", apparently

omg, so glad to see all the thoughtful responses! please don't forget to vote in the sister poll:

what music year of the 2000s will 2013 be most like?

they are scheduled to end at the same time.

Why do i always spell it "nu"? Smh

I voted for 2007 and then realised I prefered 2006. :<

2008 = The-Dream, bitches.

the-dream's peak year was 2009 tho

like, that was the year he gifted us with love vs money AND how to be a lady AND memoirs of an imperfect angel

still kinda staggering that all three of those albums came out in the same year

2001 or 2007 going on albums, would have to look through my iTunes playlists to get an idea for singles.

Voted 2008. Also Azeda Booth, Mae Shi and Parts & Labor. And Dear Science is my favorite TVotR.

All years have great stuff but quite a bit of new-to-me stuff I've liked a lot if late has been from 2002

Some of my favourites from 2001:

Aaliyah - Aaliyah
Absu - Tara
Basement Jaxx - Rooty
Björk - Vespertine
Cannibal Ox - Cold Vein
Circulatory System - S/T
Daft Punk - Discovery
Dismemberment Plan - Change
Missy Elliott - So Addictive
Fugazi - The Argument
GBV - Isolation Drills
Janet Jackson - All for You
Jay-Z - Blueprint
Jan Jelinek - Loop-Finding Jazz Records
Low - Things We Lost in the Fire
Microphones - Glow Pt. 2
Jim O'Rourke - Insignificance
Radiohead - Amnesiac
Shins - Oh Inverted World
Spoon - Girls Can Tell
Tool - Lateralus

Lex I meant any 2008 list without him clearly is incomplete.

I thought Love Hate came out in 2007? That was the only reason I didn't include him on my list of great albums from that year.

7 years are always great. 1977. 1967. 1997

2001 > 2004 > 2007 > 2005 > 2002 > 2010 > 2003 > and the rest...

2007 >> 2004 > 2005 > 2003 > 2006 > 2000 > 2002 > 2009 > 2001 >>>>>>> 2008.

Maybe.

Who knows? It's pretty arbitrary.

I thought Love Hate came out in 2007? That was the only reason I didn't include him on my list of great albums from that year.

yeah, i got love hate tagged as a 2007 release

Just looked at my list of albums that came out for each year. I already voted for 2008 but think that 2005 might actually top it.

Art Brut, Antony & The Johnsons, Broadcast, Rachel Stevens, My Morning Jacket, Saint Etienne, Robyn, LCD Soundsystem, Girls Aloud, Erasure, Ladytron, Kate Bush, Maximo Park, Common, Go-Betweens, Junior Senior, Fischerspooner, Elbow, Doves, Kanye West, The Clientele, Go-Kart Mozart, Beanie Sigel, Hold Steady, Sugababes, Goldfrapp, Lil Wayne, Spoon, Boards of Canada, Supergrass, M.I.A, British Sea Power, Kelly Polar, SFA, Teairre Mari, Ellen Allien, Brooke Valentine, Richard Hawley, Final Fantasy, Little Brother and UK releases for Annie and Arcade Fire.

It really was a year for great pop music. A lot of those that I listed are my favourite albums by those artists.

I'm terrible at remembering time but will go with '08 for Paavoharju.

Though I suppose I should rep for '05, being the year of our album release. But nah, we're not as good as Paavoharju.

Here's Bubbachups (motel de moka collaborator) and my top 10 for 2008. I think emily got it right, it was a great year for oddball music. Great albums seemed to come from all corners, not from a particular set of genres.

Moka

1. Paavoharju – Laulu Laakson Kukista (Fonal)
2. Jacaszek – Treny (Miasmah)
3. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (digitalis)
4. Shed – Shedding the Past (Ostgut Ton)
5. Tape – Luminarium (Häpna)
6. Fleet Foxes – fleet foxes (Sub pop)
7. Bruno Pronsato – Why can’t we be like us (Hello?)
8. Grouper – Dragging a dead dear up the hill (Type)
9. Lykke Li – Youth Novels (LL)
10. Zdzislaw Piernik & Piotr Zbrodzki – Namanga (Vivo)

Bubbachups

1. Birchville Cat Motel – Gunpowder Temple of Heaven (Pica Disk)
2. Kazuki Tomokawa – Blue Water, Red
3. Sun Kil Moon – April (Caldo Verde)
4. Dennis González & Faruq Z. Bey with Northwoods Improvisers Septet – Hymn for Tomasz Stanko (Qbico)
5. Scott Tuma – Not For Nobody (Digitalis)
6. Micah P. Hinson and the Red Empire Orchestra (Full Time Hobby)
7. Richard Skelton – Marking Time (Preservation)
8. Fire on Fire – The Orchard (Young God)
9. Kawaguchi Masami’s New Rock Syndicate – Cat vs. Frog (Palindrone)
10. Fred Eaglesmith – Tinderbox (Sonic Rendezvous / Lonesome Day)

Notable omissions: portishead, toumani diabate, beach house, per norgard, the fall, fennesz, philip jeck, deerhunter, flying lotus, big blood, m83, erykah badu, earth... Also according to rateyourmusic, dozens of great metal records I know nothing about.

Emily: paaavoharju released their debut, yha hamaraa, on 2005. So you're clear.

Also the books 'lost and safe' us from 2005 and i love that one.

00-03 is canon and anyone voting otherwise should be immediately thrown off ilm premises

06 was the worst music year of my lifetime so far i think, bit of 05 in there too

Lolwut? 2005 was a very 'user friendly' year. I dont understand how you can think its one of the worst without context.

2004

2001 saw some classics, but it's gotta be 2003, right? Music was great across the board that year. Indie-rock, rap and pop were firing on all cylinders. Killer singles: "Hey Ya," "In Da Club," "Toxic," "Crazy in Love." The Neptunes were at their peak. Dance-punk was fun. Even Blink-182 put out a really nice album.

This Fluxblog mix captures a lot of the highlights: http://www.fluxblog.org/2012/03/fluxblog-2003-survey-mix/

So much wonderful minor indie-rock. The Books, The Unicorns, Beaulah, Azure Ray, The Notwist... everything was incredible that year, even the shit that didn't matter.

really don't know what "user friendly" is supposed to mean but fine yeah, i may have just forgotten 05's glories

By user friendly i meant lots of good, accesible records. A little bit of everything for everyone. I agree with kitchen person upthread, most of the artists he mentions made their highlight albums on 2005.

So what i meant was that it was easier to find a universally loved album on 2005, than say a divisive year like 2008 or 2009.

fuck 2009.

= D

2003 for many of the reasons listed, but I'm leaning towards 2008. I listened to Ne-Yo's Year of the Gentleman last week, astonished it still sounded so good.

2004 and 2006 are the most bleh, according to my lists.

Unrelated note; do ppl still rank Hey Ya? I barely hear it anymore, and no one talks about it but at one time it was easily my favorite song if the decade. Course I loved Gnarls Barkley at the time, and now I don't

"Hey Ya!" still bangs

no comment.

have heard "The Way You Move" ten times for every one I've heard "Hey Ya."

"The Way You Move" also still bangs

Speakerboxxx has held up as an album much much better than The Love Below

2003 gets my vote, but 2008 perhaps the closest contender.

oh yeah I think that was the case in 2003 – at least for me.

xpost

These are a few records from 2005:

Bloc party - silent alarm
Gorillaz - demon days
Devendra Banhart - cripple crow
Edan - beauty and the beat
MIA - Arular
Dungen - ta det lungt
The national - alligator
Beck - guero
Stars - set yourself on fire
Depeche Mode - playing the angel
Isolee - wearemonster
Cocorosie - Noahs Ark
The Go! Team: Thunder, Lightning, Strike
Boards of Canada - campfire headphase
Broadcast - tender buttons
LCD Soundsystem - lcd soundsystem
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The Books - lost and safe
Animal Collective - feels
Kanye West - late registration
Antony and the Johnsons - I am a bird now

haha I was pretty impressed with that list until I hit Cocorosie

I agree with the fuck 2009 sentiment. It was the only year that made me struggle for a top 10. Even nowadays the only records from 2009 that I rate highly are Fever Ray and Moritz Von Oswals and they would barely make it to my top 10 in any other year.

Not my personal favorites from 2005, i extracted them from the top albums at pazz and jop, rateyourmusic and stylus.

Its missing most of the albums that kitchen mentioned upthread, just trying to make a point that it was a good year for pop music.... Maybe cocorosie was indeed a bad choice ha.

Or not...? If i remember correctly it was the year that 'freak folk' became sort of trendy.

i don't care about any of these albums anyone is talking about.

Maxwell and YYYs on 2009.

2008 had some of my absolute favorite albums of the past decade - the-dream's first album, new amerykah pt 1, of montreal, the gaslight anthem, taylor swift

Of montreal wz 07?

2009 was a very strong year for indie-rock-ish stuff. Great albums from Wye Oak, Sharon Van Etten, Grizzly Bear, The XX, Megafaun and Camera Obscura, and really good ones from Double Dagger, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Cursive and Telekinesis.

Mostly all I remember about that year is The-Dream, though. What a year he had.

why is everyone talking about indie rock. wtf.

Of montreal wz 07?

― que sera sriracha (Drugs A. Money), Friday, April 12, 2013 2:39 PM (5 minutes ago)

i liked skeletal lamping a lot too

Lol i wz just coming back to correct myself, k3vin

2009 rocked my house down. Juan Maclean's The Future Will Come (my favorite album of the decade), The Introversy mix by Soulwax, DJ Sprinkles' Midtown 120 Blues (which I don't like quite as much as ILM does, but still felt it was pretty groundbreaking all the same), The Visitor by Jim O'Rourke, and it was an absolutely killer year for pop singles: "Tik Tok," "Bad Romance," "I Know You Want Me," "United State of Pop 2009," the "Medina's Magic"/"Love You Inside Out" single from DJ Cole Medina, "Geto Boys" by Glass Candy and "I Will Come Back" by Holy Ghost, "Love the Night Away," really y'all are smoking crack bitches.

Lol 2009 was when the likes of AmCo, Grizzly Bear, and Dirty Projectors had me scratching my head.

2009 was a better year for singles than albums, imho.

Youre joking about Tik Tok amirite?

Heres p&j list for 2009. The singles list is tight. The albums one not so much.

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/singles/2009/

http://www.villagevoice.com/pazznjop/albums/2009/

GAPDY, iirc?

Gapdy indeed, to be honest theres a few tracks i enjoy from each of those albums (the singles, actually) but felt lukewarm about the rest of the record.. With the exception mayhaps of YYYs which had Soft Shock and Hysteric.

For those who dont understand the reference: (G)rizzly Bear, (A)nimal Collective, (P)hoenix, (D)irty Projectors, or the (Y)eah Yeah Yeahs.

Youre joking about Tik Tok amirite?

I can't speak for Snrub, but I love it.

07, with 02 and 01 close behind

since the internet/filesharing, what year something is released has totally ceased to matter to me (ie I didn't hear the Erykah Badu albums when they came out cuz I was too busy listening to old country stuff or something, and then dipped into them a couple years later and loved them. what year was that? who cares)

2001

Britney Spears - Britney
Janet Jackson - All for You
Destiny's Child - Survivor
Aaliyah - Aaliyah
'N Sync - Celebrity
Alicia Keys - Songs in A Minor
Blink-182 - Take Off Your Pants and Jacket
Jay-Z - The Blueprint
Ja Rule - Pain Is Love
DMX - The Great Depression
Michael Jackson - Invincible
Daft Punk - Discovery
Basement Jaxx - Rooty
Nelly - Country Grammar was 2000, but Ride Wit Me was a single in 2001
Ludacris - Back for the First Time was 2000, but Southern Hospitality was a single in 2001 plus Word of Mouf was released in 2001
Mystikal - Tarantula
Josie and the Pussycats -- OST
Backstreet Boys -- Black & Blue was 2000 but most singles were 2001.
K-Ci & JoJo - "Crazy"
Mandy Moore - S/T
Nas - Stillmatic
Missy Elliot - Miss E.. So Addictive
Ginuwine - The Life
No Doubt - Rock Steady
Sugababes - Singles from One Touch still getting released in 2001
Fisherspooner - #1
Miss Kitten - First Album
Jennifer Lopez - J.Lo
Ja Rule - Pain Is Love
N.E.R.D. - In Search Of...
Kelis - Wanderland
Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Read My Lips (this album!)
Mary J. Blige - No More Drama

It's crazy how much good stuff was going on, and this is just a sort of random sampling.

also so far no thread mentions for either Ghostface or E-40, the most consistent album artists of the decade so fuck all y'all

the thread is about peaks if anything shakes

Fishscale and Supreme Clientele get more listens 'round here than most other albums from their respective years.

omfg how could i forget - Toya!!!

3lw also basically a 2001 album.

Kardinal - Quest for Fire: Firestarter, Vol. 1

sorry, I'll try to stop now.

2001 also had "Ms Jackson" and "So Fresh, So Clean" as singles

debuts from So Solid Crew and Oxide & Neutrino too -- so the pop-garage/2-step giving way to the newer mc driven stuff. crucial stuff happening all around.

xpost the radio could do no wrong all freaking year.

2009 was a better year for singles than albums, imho.

Youre joking about Tik Tok amirite?

― Moka, Friday, April 12, 2013 6:59 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

What? Me? The one who started the Kesha Classic or Dud thread because she wasn't getting enough ILM love?

SNRUB MOTIVATION 103

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, April 14, 2010 4:05 PM (2 years ago) Bookmark

Oops Im sorry about that, snrub. Terribly sorry.

2007 was the fucking worst

What? No! 2007 had person pitch and in rainbows.

we're discussing the best of music

hahah.. thats coming from someone who actually likes both of those albums.

Singles, then?

Paper Planes, Umbrella, international players anthem, young folks, Atlas, All My Friends, rehab?

I still maintain that "All My Friends" is a super weak song

yeah that LCD album kinda encapsulates how i view the most overrated records of 2007... lots of sparkly stuff with little substance.

i've only just recently started enjoying "atlas." the best song from that year was probably "melody day" by caribou.

will anyone defend 2006 then

i like 2006!

dont diss 2006. why you wanna go and do that?

ti can't save a whole year

half of that LCD album is fantastic, it's just that "All My Friends" isn't in the fantastic part

"Someone Great" otoh pwns

2006: midlake "young bride," return to cookie mountain, future sex love sounds, hell hath no fury, "irreplaceable," "poppin my collar," that CSS album, "ridin dirty," yo la tengo "i am not afraid of you..," phoenix "it's never been like that"

I'm looking at the 2006 pazz and jop albums and, yeah, pretty terrible. The Arctic Monkeys were fucking shit.

Yeah 2006 is probably the year with the least world-changing stuff, Silent Shout and "Irreplaceable" and "Me & U" and "In White Rooms" aside.

Sterling's 2001 list is v. good but can I add:

Fever
Iron Flag
Ayia Napa 2001
Broken Silence
Thugs R Us
Dark Days, Bright Nights
Hypercity
Total 3
Revelling/Reckoning
Change
Sound of the Pirates 2
Hot Shots II
The Cold Vein

oh shit broken silence. that's one of my favorite albums of all time! great call on thugs r us too -- somehow i associate it much more with 2002 (i guess i assimilate the singles into the next album).

That ayia napa comp is also amazing. probably the definitive statement on a certain period of 2-step? summer jam. booo! mic tribute.

also 2001 -- Gangsta Boo's Both Worlds. How High OST. Greg Street's Six O'Clock (Can't believe I still haven't ripped my CD of this -- some of my fav tracks from the south here).

What kills me about that period is so much of the great music was from artists that were relatively fresh, or only 2-3 albums in at most.

That ayia napa comp is also amazing. probably the definitive statement on a certain period of 2-step? summer jam. booo! mic tribute.

yep! also some of my favourite underground tunes ever - "Down Down Biznizz", "One By One"...

most great music isn't on albums

i'm surprised 2009 isn't getting more love. for american indie music, i feel like it was a major year.

Lol, yes.

best indie record of 2009 was not any of GAPDY imo but Oneida's Rated O

there's music outside of pazz & jop placements too in case anyone was wondering.

2006 = Thin White Duke Remixes

Entirely subjective but:

2000 - I dunno, kind of a weird one? Like everything that was happening felt *miles* apart from one another, the musical gulf between the US and the UK was absolutely enormous. In my head I still can't quite square the idea of 2-step and nu-metal happening at the same time and being simultaneously huge. That Eminem dude. A lot of 90s overhang as well. Decade still trying to work out what it was. Amazing year personally and music is all wrapped up in that but it feels like a weird year to vote for.

2001 - Embarrassment of riches really, just this ridiculous explosion of amazing stuff. Was any genre not absolutely firing at that time? Also try and imagine the evolution of the late 00s (for better or worse) without 'Discovery'.

2002 - This is totally wrapped up in ILM for me, it just felt that every week the US would throw up an incredible single and ILM just seemed totally united in all these 'OMG best record ever' threads. Supposed that peaked with Work It. Pretty ropey by Brit standards iirc, although we did get 'I Luv U' it felt like the musical discourse over here was descending into the neo-Luddism it took the best part of a decade to get out of.

2003 - Bit like 2002 really but... kind of a plateau rather than a peak. On a more personal level it was peak microhouse and probably peak grime as well, plus yeah massive dancehall goldrush, Sean Paul on every second record that was released. I dunno, there was a slight sense of mainstream pop being about to fall off a bit but astonishing things being turned up in unfamiliar corners.

2004 - This is entirely tied up with starting to go clubbing regularly and the big-room electrohouse boom that probably threw up more of my favourite records of the decade than any other year. Apparently there were some other records made as well but I can't think of 04 in any other terms.

2005 - General sense of the 2004 purple patch falling off a bit? Loads of ropey British rock. Amazing year for British manufactured pop though, probably the best of the decade in that regard.

2006 - I'll defend 2006, it was probably peak era minimal techno and I was off my face for quite a lot of it and records like Silent Shout and Movements fed into that in a big way. In retrospect it was probably the most consistently fun year I can remember and maybe that's causing me to overrate the music of that era, I mostly remember a lot of indie-dance and lot of really ropey blog house that sounded fun for about 30 seconds.

2007 - I honestly can't remember much about 2007 other than a lot of abysmal Britrock. A lot of the records I got a lot out of - West Coast, Blackout, Kala, Sound of Silver, In Rainbows, This Bliss, Umbrella - were the same records everyone was banging on about and it would feel beyond cringeworthy to make a case for 2007 being the best year of the decade based on that lot. Maybe it's just the wrong time for all that stuff. Got the feeling that a lot of the post-minimal dance music fell off hard around this time as well.

2008 - I just listened to a shitload of early UK funky and 'A Milli' and 'Wearing My Rolex' but in Brit terms this feels like a pretty sharp break with everything that was popular before. The British public suddenly started buying records by black people. Looking back it feels like all the foundations for this decade were being put down here.

2009 - So much amazing stuff from 2009 but fuck defining it by GAPDY, although I will rep very heavily for 'It's Blitz'. Nowadays if I put on, say, the Electrik Red album or Hey Playa or any of the Balearic or funky mixes I caned at the time, it feels like a real end-of-the-deacade purple patch.

Really it's 2001 or 2002 though just for the sheer volume of incredible music happening right where everyone could see it.

The fact that the biggest/most anticipated albums of 2013 are by Justin Timberlake, Beyonce and Daft Punk suggests that residual fondness for 01-03 hasn't really gone away, although obviously Beyonce's been an ever-present for most of that.

all the years you think were bad years turn out to be good years eventually you just didnt know it yet

booming mdc post

tend to think of 04 as the plateau to 03's peak but then i suppose electrohouse was always my great divergence from the hivemind

05/06 were really barren wilderness years for uk urban stuffs, nothing going anywhere, no sense of self, totally roadblocked by indie. the promise of grime becoming bitter and lost while still maintaining a choking dominance over related dance. the rise of mavado (even while his tunes were and remain classics) leached the colour from dancehall and turned things insular and doomily reactionary

the good Arctic Monkeys record is the 2007 one imo

even this year i have a nagging latent vigilance than the darkly feeble armies of indie are on the rise once more. next 6 months could be croosh

05/06 were really barren wilderness years for uk urban stuffs

British dance music in general really (although that fallow period had started earlier, probably as early as 2002-03 really). There was a little glut of major label grime albums in 05 that jumped on a glossy Kanye West sound that probably would have been huge four years later and basically just tanked. I think I paid zero attention to most of what was coming out of London until... mid 2007 maybe? Then suddenly there seemed to be this upswing in confidence, then the next year you had Rolex and suddenly boom. Like the more I think about it the more important 2008 seems.

even this year i have a nagging latent vigilance than the darkly feeble armies of indie are on the rise once more

If it happens it's more likely to be a backlash against yr banjos and braces twats though, I'd have thought. There don't seem to be any bands out there with both the ground-up momentum and the tunes. A band like Foals getting on the R1 playlist does not a revival make.

(Haha I have totally written dubstep out of this version of history but even mid-00s dubstep doesn't exactly refute my impression of a Brit dance scene skulking in corners)

in my head I still can't quite square the idea of 2-step and nu-metal happening at the same time and being simultaneously huge

Lol the idea of anyone at the time being able to forecast the evolutionary lines that ultimately ended with the Korn/Skrillex collaboration though.

2009 is being unfairly maligned itt:

audacity - power drowning
baroness - blue record
blues control - local flavor
first christian mistress single
dam-funk - toeachizown comp
demdike stare - symbiosis
dinosaur jr - farm
dj quik & kurupt - blaqkout
emeralds - s/t & what happened
eternal tapestry - invisible landscape & palace of the night skies
fever ray - s/t
fuck buttons - tarot sport
grass widow s/t, demos, etc.
high wolf - incapulco
jacuzzi boys - no seasons
jay reatard - watch me fall
jeff the brotherhood - heavy days
kurt vile - constant hitmaker & god is saying this to you
lady gaga - the fame monster
maxwell - BLACKsummers'night
oneida - rated o
oneohtrixpointnever - russian mind & zones without people
peaking lights - imaginary falcons
sa-ra - nuclear evolution
six organs of admittance - empty the sun, azul split & luminous night
sonic youth - the eternal
st. vincent - the actor
sun araw - heavy deeds
sunnO))) - monoliths & dimensions
the-dream - love vs. money
thee oh sees - help & dog poison
ty segall - lemons & a bunch of excellent singles
the xx - debut
the yeah yeah yeahs - it's blitz
zola jesus - the spoils, new amsterdam & tsar bomba

i mean fuck

how much music should be listed in order to make a case for any given year?

at least 130 albums.

the stuff i still listen to from 2009: beak's 1st album, black dice "Repo," pill "trap goin ham" & "dimes of hard," the XX, washed out "feel it all around," neon indian "should've taken acid with you," panic at the disco "new perspective," a few songs by japandroids ... i still love drake "best i ever had" and idgaf. and a few songs from anco's MPP but not the whole thing.

i think "the stuff i still listen to" is probably a stronger case than a huge list of "this is the stuff i remember enjoying"

oh yeah i forgot DJ Quik & Kurupt. "Poker Face" and "Paparazzi" don't count because I probably wouldn't ever think to listen if they weren't still constantly on the radio.

and i forgot about that beak album

I don't really have strong feelings about this issue--give me the '70s and '60s and even the '90s any day--but taking a look at my Top 10s, I'll go for 2002. "Work It," "Hot in Herre," "What About Us," "When the Last Time," "Fell in Love with a Girl," and "The Samurai in Autumn" make for a pretty great year.

xpost billstevejim, don't forget Logos! i feel like i associate that album, esp. Walkabout, with Panda Bear's Person Pitch (07), and in general 2009 seemed to have a hazy, "washed out" (hehe) fin-de-decennie mood to it that makes it feel more distinctive than the other years. the ducktails album from that year is good too, sort of "ambient" in spirit even though its comprised of "songs." idk. i feel like a really good case can be made for 09.

oh, sorry, i didn't see contenderizer's list. but yeah, 2009 was amazing. the sun o))) record and the dinosaur jr record are both sweet too, coming from a different angle than what i argued was the dominant mood of 09. it's blitz too, i still listen to that one.

I find it odd that I have so little recollection for which year a specific song or album from the '00s onward was. Stuff that is prehistoric for me I can easily peg to a year; I would never confuse 1965 with 1967. Even the '80s and '90s I lived through, I have a good feel for what music was from what year. But the '00s just blend together for me beyond a vague sense of early/mid/late-decade. Without looking at lists, I'd never be able to remember exactly what was released in, say, 2005.

^ this is otm for me too

I imagine it goes hand in hand with buying far fewer physical releases. In the 80s and 90s, I had to go to the store and buy something, and I'd have an artifact lying around as a constant reminder of that trip to the store and that made it easier to remember years and seasons and maybe even months when things were released. Now, I buy some mp3s on Amazon and they just sit on my hard drive, out of sight, until I feel like hearing them. Who knows when I made that purchase, and who cares.

I think part of it for me is that post-graduation there was no longer the clear delineation between years in other aspects of my life

I would never confuse 1965 with 1967.

Absolutely. That's a bit of an exaggerated example, in that those are two of the most famous years in pop-music history ('65 arguably #1), but I do start losing sense of years-as-years at some point in the early- to mid-'90s.

Oh--my #1 reason has to do with getting old, although the move away from physical releases probably figures in too.

after careful consideration definitely 2000

While not necessarily the best year of the decade, I do tend to think of 2009 as one of the more distinctive years what with Merriweather Post Pavilion and the rise of Chillwave/Glo-Fi and emergence of stars like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Drake and Ke$ha as well as events like the death of Michael Jackson and "Immagonnaletyoufinish". It seems to be more a part of the 2010s than it does the 2000s.

I find it odd that I have so little recollection for which year a specific song or album from the '00s onward was. Stuff that is prehistoric for me I can easily peg to a year; I would never confuse 1965 with 1967.

If asked I can tell you when and under what circumstances I bought an album and its year of release, but if you ask, "Name your five favorite 2004 albums" I freeze.

2001. Second place: 2007.

yeah, i am the same way alfred. i can link albums with the year they came out, but i have a harder time linking years to albums.

voted 03 instinctively but it might actually be 01

Probably 2002. Up The Bracket and Songs For The Deaf.

2001. Love & Theft, White Blood Cells and others

2009 also gave us Fever Ray.

2001 was the last time I liked a good portion of stuff in the UK charts, might be an age thing.

How old were you then?

22/23

I'm about a year younger, and have the same affection for 2003 in terms of chart stuff (in the UK); I pretty much completely lose track after that. Which bothered me a little until about two years ago.

Basically me losing interest coincides with the end of the golden era of UK garage, and the decline in quality of Timbaland and the Neptunes' work.

I think I stuck it out for a couple more years cos of Sugababes.

The only thing that really sucked about 2000 was modern rock stations getting flooded with rap-metal and post-Creed. Besides that, Top 40 and hiphop were outstanding. A few "dated" production sounds here and there, but I mostly remember lots of fun awesome singles and a decently-sized list of great albums that I still often listen to.

I'm thinking about 2000 now... I was 16 going on 17... the year I left secondary school and started college. Eminem was massive (I remember a lot of people listening to the Marshall Mathers LP), there was a LOT of nu-metal around (some tolerable, some intolerable):Slipknot and Korn's Issues had come out the previous year, and I remember a lot of people of the same age as myself listening to those albums a lot throughout 2000... Deftones' White Pony came out in 2000, as well as Limp Bizkit's Chocolate Starfish later on in the year. Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile came out late on in 1999, so I knew a lot of folks were still listening to/digesting that (me included). I remember coming across a lot of pop-punk fans too: Blink-182 and The Offspring were probably at the height of their popularity in the UK in 2000, whereas Green Day (weirdly) were going through a bit of a lull (their 2000 album Warning didn't help).

I remember hearing Muse quite a lot (on the back of Showbiz) and Incubus quite a lot (on the back of Make Yourself)... U2 put out All That You Can't Leave Behind in 2000, and I remember people enthusing about that...

Personally though, I spent 2000 mostly listening to old music (mainly '70s prog stuff) and waiting for Super Furry Animals to put out Mwng and Radiohead to put out Kid A.

Oh yeah, and I remember listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins too, because MACHINA/The Machines Of God had come out that year.

At The Drive-In's Relationship Of Command, Eels Daisies Of The Galaxy and The Cure's Bloodflowers were three others I remember listening to a lot as well.

I'll defend 2006, it was probably peak era minimal techno and I was off my face for quite a lot of it

^^^this. Hot summer too! I have opinions about other years but unfortunately I don't know what they are cause who gives a fuck about years

Facts of Life was 2000. Only remembering this because I'm in a black box recorder mood at the moment.

lol i was thinking about typing out a long year-by-year breakdown of the decade tracing what I was doing and what I was listening to, but thankfully I haven't had the time. My listening habits kind of dipped in and out of contemporary music tastes depending on what I was doing at the time. I am p much the exact inverse of Alfred in that I mostly only identify albums from year to year, and oftentimes the favorite albums from any given year will be ones that I only heard later, many times MUCH later...

I was in college in 2000, I was a devoted SPIN reader, but there were not really a lot of places I could get my hands on the hip indie rock albums I read about...in the early part of the year, I was a freshman and everyone in my quad liked Creed and Blink 182 and The Hippos, and I was basically listening to whatever weird altrock CD I could get my hands on. Towards the end of the year, I was a sophomore and living in a fraternity house and I had started smoking marijuana, and there became a specific group of albums that meant a lot to me: Kid A, Mama's Gun, American Beauty, first Remy Zero album, Stankonia, Farmhouse, Play, Loveless (some of these were due to peer influences, others not so much)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

please don't forget the sister poll.

what music year of the 2000s will 2013 be most like?

lol i killed this thread my bad

(my favorite 5 from 2004 = Madvillainy, Oneida's Secret Wars, RTX's Transmaniacon, Paik's Satin Black, Ariel Pink's The Doldrums)

Another 2001 album -- Manic Street Preachers - Know Your Enemy.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I thought 2003 ("The Year Pop Broke") would walk this one. Huh.

2001 really was an amazing year though, both for small pond personal favorites and big pop event albums i actually like

Correct winner. Surprised 02 is so low though.

smh @ 2007

Oh yeah, and I remember listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins too, because MACHINA/The Machines Of God had come out that year.

― The Jupiter 8 (Turrican), Tuesday, April 16, 2013 1:50 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Ha, me too. I probably listened to Machina 20 times that year. Haven't heard it since 2000, though.

Another amazing gem 2001 can add to its crown: Fennesz's Endless Summer

Confield was that year, too.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/14/Staind_Break_the_Cycle.jpg/220px-Staind_Break_the_Cycle.jpg

Would have voted 2001 too for Discovery, Kitten & Thee Glitz, Vespertine, Melody AM, Is This It?, First Album, Ressucitation, Rooty, Fever, amongst others.

i didn't vote but i think it would have been 2000, so many great albums

Aimee Mann - Bachelor #2
Giant Sand - Chore of Enchantment
Montgolfier Brothers - Seventeen Stars
Johnny Cash - American III: Solitary Man
Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Lift Your Skinny Fists...
Lambchop - Nixon
Yo La Tengo - And then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out
Go-Betweens - The Friends of Rachel Worth
David Thomas and Two Pale Boys - Surf's Up
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

Yeah 2000 is really good imo

2009 really was pretty weak.

yeah, easily the worst year since 2000.

there are a whole heap of records from 2009 that i totally adore

i mean ffs love vs money, how to be a lady vol. 1, and blaqkout all came out in 2009

I should probably check out Blaqkout since I liked Book of David a lot. Also looking forward to checking out Quik's forthcoming album in less than 2 weeks!

Blaqkout could be 1/2 as good as Book of David and it would probably still make my top 10 for 2009 due to lack of competition.

2004
2005
2001
2009
2002
2000
2007
2008
2003

with no order:

Kanye west - late registration (2005)
Eminem - the marshall mathers lp (2000)
Justin timberlake - futuresex/lovesounds(2006)
Sparks - lil beethoven (2002)
Animal collective - feels (2005)
Khonnor - handwriting (2004)
Girls aloud - chemistry (2005)
Aaliyah - aaliyah (2000)
Aimee mann - the forgotten arm (2004)
Tweet - southhumming bird (2001)
Sugababes - taller in more ways(2005)
Sonic youth - murray street (2002)
David sylvian - manafon (2007)
Stars of the lid - the tired sounds of the lid(2001)
Scott Walker - the drift(2006)
Fennesz - endless summer(2002)
Kate bush - aerial(2005)
Black dice - beaches & canyons(2003)
Annie - anniemal(2004)
Missy elliott - miss e so addictive (2001)
Amerie - touch (2005)
Ruff sqwad - guns and roses vol. 1(2003)
The streets - a grand don't come for free(2003)
Jay z - blueprint (2001)
Basement jaxx - rooty
Diizzee rascal - boy in da corner
Britney spears - blackout
Outkast - stankonia 
Cassie - cassie
Diddy dirty love - last train to paris 
Morrissey - you are the quarry
Rufus wainwright - poses 
Panda bear - person pitch
D'angelo - voodoo
Wiley - treddin on thin ice
Burial - untrue
Usher - confessions
Ricardo villalobos - fizheuer zieheuer
Omar s - fabric45
Electric red - how to be a lady vol 1
Arthur russell - calling out of context
Kelis - kaleidoscope
200 Km/h in the Wrong Lane – Tatu
Ali farka touré - in the heart of the moon
Liars - drum's not dead
NSYNC - celebrity 
Excepter - ka
Gang gang dance - saint dymphna  
- matt elliott - drinking songs  
- the-dream - love vs. Money 
- sunn 0))) - monoliths & dimensions
- teedra Moses -complex simplicity
-T.I., King 
-taylor swift - fearless
-Ashlee Simpson, Autobiography
-Ciara, The Evolution 
- electrelane - axes
- rachel stevens - come and get it
-oneohtrix point never - returnal
-Lightning Bolt Hypermagic Mountain 
- wolf eyes - human animal
- ben frost - by the throat