Category Archives: Best of 2000s

by Michael | December 10, 2009 · 7:02 pm

The Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best Albums of the 2000s

Needless to say, the 2000s presented us with a multitude of amazing records thanks to easier than ever recording and distribution methods. It was a hard task to pair our huge list of nominee’s down to only 25, but we’re pleased with the results. Are you? Let us know in the comments!

25. Grizzly Bear – Veckatimest

Veckatimest is both throwback and forward-thinking. Grizzly Bear dabbles in influences ranging from turn-of-the-century folk and Americana to avant-garde and pop, but on their third record (and second as a full band), they made a record that feels firmly fixed in the here-and-now. Grizzly Bear’s songwriting shows a patience that can, at times, border on sadistic; each note is so deliberate and thought out that it can take several listens to truly appreciate the breadth of what they accomplished. (J)

24. The Streets – A Grand Don’t Come For Free

First and foremost, Mike Skinner is a storyteller. And nowhere on his four lps released this decade was his storytelling clearer than on his ambitious, sweeping A Grand Don’t Come For Free. Skinner took his witty, knowing looks at fuck-ups and petty criminals and expanded it to an album length character study. The titular grand is a MacGuffin, providing a driving urgency that sustains the record’s forward motion, but the intricately realized story is just the cherry on top of Skinner’s delirious word play and deliberate delivery. (J)

23. The White Stripes – White Blood Cells

Jack and Meg White burst on to the scene with this near perfect record of raw garage rock that took them from obscurity to mega stardom really quickly. Jack White would eventually become a prolific songwriter with multiple projects, but on White Blood Cells, he’s at his best. The album fails to fit into any one genre, as White’s virtuoso guitar skills jump around from heavy rock (“Dead Leaves on the Dirty Ground”), country rock (“Hotel Yorba”), stripped down acoustic ballads (“We Are Going to be Friends”), and punk (“Fell In Love With a Girl”). The band’s sound would expand and grow more complicated over time, but there’s just something about White Blood Cells primal drumming and raw guitar lines that make it so enjoyable to listen to. (M)

22. Ted Leo and the Pharmacists – The Tyranny of Distance

Ted Leo’s first full length, The Tyranny of Distance, didn’t capture the aggressiveness that would grow in his music as the decade went on, but it’s perhaps his most fully realized and consistent record to date. From the building, beautiful opener “Biomusicology” through the spare closer, “You Could Die (Or This Might End),” Leo fills the record with a diverse collection of songs that make the record’s nearly 49 minutes fly by. The track “Timorous Me” is one the best songs Leo has written, a reflective narrative of old, forgotten friends and lovers that could have been the positively explodes in the end. Leo is a bombastic performer and songwriter, and Tyranny of Distance is one of the better records you’ll ever hear. (M)

21. Modest Mouse – The Moon and Antarctica
Issac Brock had been working towards becoming more pop oriented by the time Modest Mouse released their major label debut, The Moon and Antarctica, in 2000, and the record stands as the midpoint between the band’s earlier, innovative work and their later, more accessible sound. The record starts with one of the bands best songs, “3rd Planet” and follows through the rest of it’s run with 14 other terrific songs. Some of the band’s most popular songs among fans, including the groovy “Tiny Cities Made of Ashes” and the poppy “Paper Thin Walls” stand out and showcase Brock as one of the most unique songwriters of the 2000s. (M)

20. LCD Soundsystem – Sound of Silver
James Murphy has only released two LPs, but his second, Sound of Silver is a masterpiece of dance rock. We’ve already gushed over our #1 song of the decade, “All My Friends,” but the album is filled with several other really phenomenal tracks. The deliriously fun “North American Scum” picks up right where LCD track “Daft Punk is Playing in My House” left off with Murphy’s trademark blend of humor and upbeat rocking. “Someone Great” is the other big standout on the record, as it’s trace tones fill the background of a song about moving on on your own. The best thing about the record is that it plays like a party, not for one, with it’s ups and downs, fun dancy songs and songs with deep emotional resonance.(M)

19. Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavillion

Animal Collective have been a lot of things this decade – esoteric Brooklyn experimenters, freak-folk weirdos, overhyped, underrated – which can obscure just how great Merriweather Post Pavilion is. The band blends innovative sampling with 1980s electronics, and Afro-pop rhythms to make an optimistic and joyful, yet clear-eyed record that represents yet another bold new identity for a band that wasn’t lacking them.(J)

18. The Decemberists – Picaresque

The Decemberists’ recent success would probably never have come if it hadn’t been for their final album on Kill Rock Stars, Picaresque. Colin Meloy’s lyrics stay true to the album’s name, each song its own contained narrative. The album is different than anything else that came out at the same time, sounding like an indie rock sea shanty for a majority of it. The standout track is easily the deliriously fun “Sixteen Military Wives” (it’s video is also superb), which might be the band’s best song ever. Though Meloy’s lyrics are the high point of the record, the rest of the band couldn’t be in sync anymore, creating instant an instant classic that will delight for years to come. (M)

17. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

Spoon has been so good for so long that they’re in danger of hitting the Yo La Tengo zone, where they’re greatness becomes so consistent that its boring. But, fortunately, Spoon’s eclectic sonic range and constantly shifting persona kept it fresh all the way through their most recent release and our favorite, Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. Ga x5 touches on Billy Joel, Motown, and country, diversifying Spoon’s typical swaggering punk to make a record that sounds both new and timeless. (J)

16. The Strokes – Is This It?

In a way, the story of The Strokes is the story of 2000s music. A band comes along with some new songs, the echo chamber flips out over them and the hype cycle winds up eating the record alive in the process. And yet hidden inside all the saviors-of-rock, backlash-to-the-backlash bullshit is a tightly wound blur of a record that has the same manic, sophisticated energy of the best party you’ve ever been on fast forward. Nothing else they’ve done since has lived up to the lightning bolt that Is This It? was, but nothing has needed to. (J)

15. Jay-Z – The Blueprint

“Where’s the love?” asks Jay-Z on “Heart of the City,” my personal favorite Hova track. Having the audacity to call your record The Blueprint is just par for the course for Jay-Z, but actually being able to pull it off, especially at an age at which he’d be a declining, tradebait MLB player, is something else entirely. Jay-Z’s record is a towering monument to Jay-Z, one that he pulls off with panache and flair, and one that would set the tone for the rest of this decade’s best hip-hop. (J)

14. The National – Boxer

The National had a great record in 2005 with Alligator, but Boxer somehow manages to exceed it. The album perfects the duality of Alligator; there are moments where the band is sending its sound to the rafters and others that are fragile and intimate. Matthew Berninger’s baritone singing acts as a fifth instrument and keeps the songs grounded while the rest of the band weaves in and out of each other. The album doesn’t really have a highlight, as all of it is truly magnificent. From the winter bopper “Aparment Story” to the bubbling “Start a War,” Boxer shows a young band at its best with only good things in its future. (M)

13. Okkervil River – The Stage Names

In The Stage Names, Will Sheff compares touring musicians to characters in bad movies, porn stars, and prostitutes, but this is just one way that Okkervil River’s breakthrough 2007 album picks apart the glamour and mythology of rock and roll. But despite intellectually challenging songs like the allusive “Plus Ones” to the fourth wall breaking “Title Track,” Okkervil River still emphasizes emotion writ large, from the devastating “A Girl in Port” to the angry “Our Life Is Not a Movie or Maybe.” (J)

12. Radiohead – In Rainbows

It’s impossible to talk about In Rainbows without discussing its groundbreaking release, which has in many ways overshadowed the fantastic music contained on it. Radiohead made a conscious effort not to over do it on their seventh LP, and they succeeded in again showing why they are one of the best bands in the world. At 10 tracks, In Rainbows doesn’t overstay its welcome while still managing to satisfy as Radiohead’s most intimate record to date. Powerful rockers like “Bodysnatchers” and “15 Step” act as the perfect compliment to more restrained songs like “Reckoner” and the stunning final track “Videotape,” making In Rainbows a perfectly balanced record by a band that has reigned for 10 years as the creative kings of the music world. (M)

11. Sufjan Stevens – Come On and Feel the Illinoise

Come On and Feel the Illinoise works because of Sufjan Stevens’ complete and total embrace of hokey Americana. With the ubiquitous banjo, horns and strings that nod at Copland and Tin Pan Alley, and lyrics about figures from Abraham Lincoln to Carl Sandburg to Robert Waldow to Superman, Stevens made a record that is a sprawling, ambitious ode to a state and a country with a complex, fascinating past. But Stevens moves beyond that framework making an album so personal and yet so sweeping that it instantly did away with any need to make 48 more. (J)

10. The Long Winters – Putting the Days to Bed

While his Pacific Northwest peers were getting bigger around him, John Rodderick put together one of the most underrated albums of the 2000s in Putting the Days to Bed. Rodderick writes near perfect pop songs that are neither too heavy handed or too aloof. He’s a master wordsmith, and the words are just as fun to listen to as the music itself (“If I hold you now will I be holding a snowball/when the season changes and I’m craving the sun?”). Songs like “Ultimatum” and “Teaspoon” shine so brightly at their highest moments that you can’t help but tap your feet. Even the slower songs are filled with an unmatched gusto. It’s a surprise that The Long Winters didn’t get the same exposure as similar bands, but someday, this album will get its due as one of the best of the 2000s. (M)

9. Kanye West – The College Dropout

Sometimes its hard to separate the person from the artist, especially in a time when technology has tore down a lot of the walls that the person could hide behind. So, yes, Kanye is spoiled, childish, self-absorbed, self-aggrandizing, and suffering for a major messiah complex, but its those qualities that make him such a vital, compelling artist. Kanye has made four records in the past six years, at least three of which are masterpieces, but its his first one, wherein our hero arrives with a still-unsatiated hunger to match his scope and ambition, that still resonates today. (J)

8. Daft Punk – Discovery

It’s not a stretch to say that Discovery the quintessential dance album of the decade, or even of all time. Not bad for a couple of French guys who dress up like robots. It includes two of the most essential party songs of all time in “One More Time” and “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger.” Neither song has grown tiresome and never fail to please a crowd. But the record has so much more to it. To really discount any of the songs on Discovery would be a crime, as each is completely irresistible. To sit here and list highlights would be to describe each song on the record in great detail. Discovery is a brilliant record that every electronic musician afterward owes some kind of debt to. (M)

7. My Morning Jacket – Z

Whatever keyboard setting is making those sounds at the start of “Wordless Chorus,” its definitely not alt-country. Jim James’ voice has never sounded quite so assured and the rest of the band is firing on all cylinders, making a record that veers between rowdy and ambient with confidence and precision. On Z, My Morning Jacket showed that they don’t care about making music that can be labeled or boxed and the result is a spacey, epic record that treads the line between Neil Young and Radiohead, with stops for pop, rockabilly, and reggae. (J)

6. Broken Social Scene – You Forgot it in People

You Forgot it in People starts like an Air album, with docile, atmospheric tones. But when you get to the second track, “KC Accidental,” the band completely let’s go and rips through until it’s midsection, before again exploding, much like the album as a whole. The musicians that make up Broken Social Scene are all part of various other, diverse projects, all of whom shine through at one point or another on the band’s break out album in an amazingly coherent collage of sound. Really, how many other albums do you know have a uptempo, spastic rocker (“Almost Crimes”) AND a low key bossa nova influenced jam (“Looks Just Like the Sun”) without missing a beat? You Forgot it in People is an album representative of the diverse tastes of music fans in the 2000s that manages to cater to whatever sound you want to hear on any given day. (M)

5. The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee

Tallahassee isn’t a concept album; it’s a novel. After a lifetime of lo-fi character sketches, John Darnielle set out to track a single story over the course of a record, that of a bitter married couple (recurring characters from some of his past songs) who purchases a crumbling house in Florida as a last-ditch attempt to save their marriage. Darnielle’s bitter sense of humor and his bottomless empathy combine for a moving, powerful, at time frightening portrait of failed love and desperation, none of which takes away from the musical accomplishment a record that sees Darnielle recording with a full band for the first time while writing some of his most gorgeous and assured music. (J)

[Ed. Note: Check out Michael's long winded adoration of the record on his personal blog here.]

4. The Hold Steady – Boys and Girls in America

There’s a sadness to even the most triumphant Hold Steady songs, like that sucking emptiness you feel in the morning after a night of hard drinking. “Stuck Between Stations” is about throwing yourself off a bridge, “Hot Soft Light” is about crime, and I don’t have to explain to you why “You Can Make Him Like You” is one of the most heartbreakingly tragic songs of the last 10 years. Sure there’s a ton of Bruce Springsteen, but The Hold Steady’s third album also runs through The Replacements, The Misfits, The Band, and Jack Kerouac, who shows up to provide the album’s title and the band’s mission statement: “Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together.” (J)

3. Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

The circumstances for its release aside, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is an absolutely brilliant album and a triumph of early 21st-century music. Coming after the sugary sweet pop of Summerteeth, YHF was an abrupt change in direction for a band that was still living in the shadow of Jeff Tweedy’s first band, Uncle Tupelo. The album is like the sound of a city at 2 A.M. It buzzes at points, but is absolutely low at others. Jeff Tweedy is an incredible songwriter, and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is his masterpiece. The impact the late Jay Bennett had on the record can’t be understated either. Really if you put it all together, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is the crowning achievement of a band that has pushed itself in every direction over the course of its existence. It’s a record that will perplex and endear itself to listeners for many years to come. (M)

2. The Arcade Fire – Funeral

There aren’t many bands who make decade defining records their first time out. The Arcade Fire attained that with Funeral, a stunning collection of songs that hold back no amount of energy or emotion. The record starts with a bubble, in mid sentence, and in the middle of a blizzard before building to gigantic, crashing climax. The album is music catharsis, not just for the band, but for the listener. It’s participatory for those who aren’t too cool to sing along, with yells and “ohs” that ebb and flow, filling even the most passive listener with a sense of excitement. Funeral may dwell on bleak subjects, but its sound is pure joy. (M)

1. Radiohead – Kid A

So yeah, it’s Kid A, but honestly, not only was it the best record of the last ten years, but there’s no more appropriate way to end our tour of the 2000s than with Radiohead’s paranoid, terrifying, visionary look at the dystopia in your backyard. There’s literally nothing new that I can say about it, but even if it hadn’t been picked apart and turned over for the last ten years, Kid A speaks for itself. If things had gone a little differently maybe Thom Yorke would come off as just another crank claiming The End Is Nigh, but instead, on songs like “The National Anthem” and “Idioteque,” he looks downright prescient. Kid A is an album that fractured the music community, alienating half of it from Radiohead forever while turning the other half into True Believers. It may still be just a record, but its hard not hear Kid A as so much more than that. (J)

We could have been shocking and picked something different than everyone’s consensus #1 of the 2000s album, but really, how could we not? In 2000, there was nothing that sounded like Kid A. Radiohead actually changed music with Kid A. The album is daring, filled with tones, drum machines, disco riffs and monster bass lines. Popular music had ever seen anything like it. Alienation was always expressed in music, but it never had an actual sound until Kid A. From the looping vocals and keyboards of “Everything In It’s Right Place” all the way through the spare, haunting “Motion Picture Soundtrack,” Radiohead deconstructed what we expect music to sound like and changed it forever. Like Sgt. Pepper, it’s a stunning feat of originality that showcases a band without a playbook or a care for expectations. Kid A is the sound of the turn of the century. (M)

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Filed under Best of 2000s

Tagged as Animal Collective, Broken Social Scene, Grizzly Bear, Jay-Z, Kanye West, lcd soundsystem, Modest Mouse, My Morning Jacket, Okkervil River, Radiohead, Spoon, Sufjan Stevens, Ted Leo/Rx, The Arcade Fire, The Decemberists, The Hold Steady, The Long Winters, The Mountain Goats, The National, The Streets, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Wilco

by Michael | December 9, 2009 · 4:53 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 30 Best Songs of the 2000s

Let the music listing begin! Today, we have our longest list, the 30 best songs of the 2000s. Feel free to make it into an awesome mix. We did. Sound off in the comments!

30. “Dry Your Eyes” – The Streets
Few rappers show as much vulnerability as Mike Skinner does on the penultimate track of his rap opera A Grand Don’t Come For Free. “Dry Your Eyes” is one of the few rap break up songs out there, and it puts on the display of a musician not content to stay within the boundaries of a genre. (M)

29. “Biomusicology” – Ted Leo and the Pharmacists

As Ted Leo’s solo career moved forward, and the world got worse and worse, his music got more direct, like William Shatner in The Twilight Zone, shouting louder and louder about the gremlin on the wing. But on songs like “Biomusicology,” from 2001’s The Tyranny of Distance, Leo hinted at a much more eclectic sonic palatte. Blending punk with folk, traditional Irish music, sweeping pop balladry, and classic rock, “Biomusicology” was and still is a minor revelation, declaring Leo an intellectually daring songwriter and musician, and there are few songs in his catalog as purely uplifting as this one. (J)
28. “Hey Ya!” – Outkast
There were very few songs to dominate the radio that never grew tiresome in the 2000s, and “Hey Ya!” is one of them. Though Stankonia remains the groups best record to date, this undeniably catchy track from Andre 3000 is a party classic that’s just as fun at the end of the decade as it was in the middle when it was released. (M)

27. “Long Distance Call” – Phoenix

Before SNL and Sophia Coppola, Phoenix were just four French dudes who liked The Strokes so much that they did them one better, making a dancey pop confection so perfect that you can’t help but move around to it. Giving the title to 2006’s Its Never Been Like That, “Long Distance Call” may start off sounding like something from Is This It, but then the spacey synth kicks in and, by the time it reaches its soaring chorus, its obvious that Phoenix may have beat the masters at their own game. (J)
26. “My Girls” – Animal Collective
Beach Boy-esque vocals and pounding base drive one of the decades best songs from one of its best bands. Animal Collective made a name for themselves with their unique sound, but “My Girls” blew them into the mainstream. Above all through, it’s just a really fun song to listen to. (M)

25. “Pushover” – The Long Winters

“Pushover” starts The Long Winters third record with a fake-out. “You’re going to be hearing some pleasant, wintery folk rock,” it says. “This is a Barsuk record.” Then the guitar and drums kick in and “Pushover” becomes a Big Star-esque ode to the ridiculous things we do for the people we love (and who don’t necessarily love us back). While not new ground for John Roderick (see “Stupid”), “Pushover” packages it with a great guitar part and some of Roderick’s finest lyrics, that leave so much unsaid (like “As you wade through the crowd/I sit next to you, the seat still warm”). (J)
24. “Wolf Like Me” – TV on the Radio
With the distortion turned up to 11, TV on the Radio blows “Wolf Like Me” like it’s the last song they’ll ever play. The closing lyrics, “Been howlin’ forever” might as well apply to the whole track, a raw, amped up song that is always fun to listen to. (M)

23. “Skinny Love” – Bon Iver

Somewhere (perhaps, but not necessarily, the backwoods of Wisconsin), a team of scientist gathered in lab and, after months of fierce experimentation filled with numerous setbacks, they created the perfect four minute delivery system for Justin Vernon’s rich, soulful, haunting voice. The result: “Skinny Love.” There’s a guitar on that song, and there’s drums, and even Bon Iver’s distinctively compressed production, but its Vernon’s raw, emotional vocals that make “Skinny Love” such a singular love song. (J)
22. “Someday” – The Strokes
Leader of the garage rock revival in the early 2000s, the Strokes had bigger hits than “Someday,” but few songs that were as catchy. A relatively simple song with driving guitars, bouncing drums, and Julian Casablanca’s howl dominate a track that’s symbolic of the sound the Strokes brought to the first part of the 21st century. (M)

21. “The Rat” – The Walkmen

“The Rat” takes the post-adolescent malaise that dominated so much music in the 2000s and fashions it into a giant mallet. It’s a violent, whirling ode to getting too old to go out every night. Hamilton Leithauser sounds even more manic than usual and that thumping drum combines with the bass and guitar to make a whirling propeller, pushing the song forward at thrillingly dangerous speeds. All of this makes the ending, when everything drops out as Leithauser sings “Can you hear me I’m calling out your name,” hit that much harder. (J)
20. “Hoppípolla” – Sigur Rós
A lush, grandiose song about stepping in puddles, “Hoppipola” is like the sound of the sun emerging from the clouds. Jónsi Birgisson’s falsetto floats over pounding drums, tinkling piano, and triumphant strings and horns as the song builds to a climax that will make you feel warm inside every time. (M)

19. “Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes

As Jack White turned into a Rolling Stone-approved rock god, his music became less and less stripped down. So “Seven Nation Army” stands as a kind of last hurrah for the minimalist rock aesthetic that permeated every element The White Stripes. Building and collapsing around one of the most memorable basslines ever. “Seven Nation Army” is pure rock and roll, distilled to its simplest pieces. (J)

18. “Westfall” – Okkervil River
Before Okkervil River became one of the bigger indie buzz bands on the scene, they Will Sheff and company released this dark and bouncy tune about an unrepentant murder in hiding. The music itself doesn’t suggest such a grisly scene, which makes Sheff’s line, “evil don’t look like anything,” that much more chilling. (M)

17. “Do You Realize???” – The Flaming Lips

After making music for over two decades, The Flaming Lips released a song that sounds like a thesis statement. “Do You Realize???” says that terrible things happen in the world and will continue to happen. Wayne Coyne is a realist, but he’s also an optimist and nothing quite sums up the worldview communicated by his music quite like “Instead of saying all of your goodbyes/let them know you realize.” A cathartic, climactic moment on an album full of them, “Do You Realize???” is a clear-eyed anthem that could be a first dance, a funeral song, or last call at the bar. (J)

16. “One Big Holiday” – My Morning Jacket
Few songs explode with as much energy as “One Big Holiday,” a standout track from It Still Moves. Louisville’s finest rip through the southern rocker so hard on the record, it’s hard to believe that live it’s even more energetic. A phenomenal song by a band unafraid to push itself to higher and higher heights. (M)

15. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” – Wilco

Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’s troubled backstory sometimes overshadows how beautiful and thrilling and weird the actual music contained on that record is. Words like cryptic don’t really begin to describe Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics like “you’re quite a quiet domino” or “take off your band aid because I don’t believe in touchdowns” but feelings of sadness permeate through the beautiful, ambient noise of the song. “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart” serves notice to listeners in the first few moments of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: this record will be unlike anything you’ve ever heard before. (J)

14. “Mushaboom” – Feist
Before she taught us to count and buy iPods, Leslie Feist treated us to a peppy little number about wanting more but being happy with what you have. A song that’s guaranteed to get your toe-tapping, “Mushaboom” announced Feist as one of the decade’s best songwriters. (M)

13. “Digital Love” – Daft Punk

If A.I. taught us anything, it’s that deep down, even robots want to be loved. The concept of a Daft Punk love song sounds, in theory, like it could be creepy or stupid or wildly insincere, but they pull it off, thanks to a gorgeous beat and some legitimately emotive vocals. It starts off wonky, but by the time it builds to its “why don’t we play the game” crescendo, you suddenly realize that you kind of love the robots back. (J)

12. “Paper Planes” – M.I.A.
For a song with gunshots in it’s chorus, “Paper Planes” has done pretty well for itself. Those who knew M.I.A. before the track knew it as a response to her visa being denied to come record in the U.S. For those new to M.I.A., it’s just fun to sing the chorus and pretend to shoot a gun with your hand. Either way, it’s a hell of a catchy song that will soundtrack parties and bars for years to come. (M)

11. “The Funeral” – Band of Horses

The 2000s saw dozens and dozens of blog-approved bands who put out one great song, only to see the rest of their arcs go down in a flame of backlash at not being able to produce anything else that great. When sketched out like that, the story may apply to Band of Horses, but the difference between them and someone like Voxtrot is just how great their one song is. Combining twangy vocals, Explosions in the Sky-esque dynamics, and My Morning Jacket’s soaring guitars, “The Funeral” is a song that reaches its climax in about 45 seconds and then improbably keeps building and building into an anthem that’s still as powerful the 3,000^th time listening to it as the 1^st. (J)
10. “Casimir Pulaski Day” – Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens has a talent for finding beauty and warmth in even the saddest of circumstances, as is evidenced most in “Casimir Pulaski Day,” a personal song about the death of a friend to cancer. The plucky guitar and banjo, combined with horns as the song progress mask Stevens’ sadness and instead add a sense of nostalgia and warmth to an absolutely beautiful song. It’s a fitting tribute to Stevens’ departed friend and a reminder to remember the good things in life in the face of sadness. (M)

9. “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl” – Broken Social Scene
Broken Social Scene, for the most part, takes 90s cornerstones like Pavement and Archers of Loaf and blows them up to orchestral levels. But then where does that leave “Anthems for a Seventeen Year Old Girl,” a jangly slow-burner that features Broken Social Scene’s women contributors like Feist, Metric’s Emily Haines, and Stars’Amy Milian. The answer is that it doesn’t really matter. “Anthems” is a gorgeous, sweeping pop song that lends a sympathetic ear to the troubles of life as a 17 year old girl, one that is lyrically simple but emotionally potent. (J)

8. “Mr. November” – The National
What exactly is this song about? Hanging on to your glory days? Finding the strength inside yourself to triumph? Obama? Who cares? There may have been better musical moments this decade, but there’s nothing as cathartic as screaming along with Matt Berenger’s impassioned shout of “I won’t fuck us over! I’m Mr. November!” Every element that makes the National the National, from the Dessners’ guitar skills to Bryan Devendorf’s thumping, innovative drum rhythms, is in peak form here, making an anthem to whatever the hell mood you’re in right now. (J)

7. “Portions for Foxes” – Rilo Kiley
The narrative of the song is quite simple: Jenny Lewis is a girl that loves too fast and comes to regret it. But there is a sadness in her voice which helps differentiate this song from all the rest exactly like it. The song is indicative of a trend on the whole album, as Lewis ceases being just the pretty voice in the midst of the guitars, instead soars over it. Sennett matches it with a guitar line that weaves through Lewis’ as Pierre De Reeder’s bass and Jason Boesel’s drums anchor them to the ground. The result is a song that is crushing, pulsing, and soaring all at once. It is easily one the catchiest pop songs of the decade. (M)

6. “Stuck Between Stations” – The Hold Steady
The comparisons to Springsteen are obvious, but the opener to The Hold Steady’s third album, Boys and Girls in America, is the band at its best. Craig Finn is easily one of the best songwriters of the decade, and here he is at the top of his game, channeling literary references, hipster plight, and partying into one place. Franz Nicolay’s piano and Tad Kubler’s guitar combine perfectly underneath Finn, who thanks to songs like this, became one of rocks premier wordsmiths of the 2000s. (M)

5. “Maps” – Yeah Yeah Yeahs

On “Maps” the Yeah Yeah Yeahs stopped trying so damn hard and just played music. The drums, the guitar, and Karen O’s voice for once feel united and they form a single force. “Maps” sounds like the end, of a relationship sure, but also of something much bigger than that. Karen O’s voice is open but not exposed, shaky but confident, and the band behind her has never sounded more assured of itself. Its funny listening to this song in the glo-fi, shitgaze context of 2009 and think about a time when everyone was worried about it was “sincere” enough. (J)
4. “No Children” – The Mountain Goats
“No Children” is a song has become a crowd favorite at Mountain Goats shows over the years, with fans merrily singing along at the top of their lungs. But the song is far from joyous, but rather an incredibly bitter argument told through the husband’s perspective. John Darnielle sings of abandoning friends, getting away from the town, and even bleeding all day from a shaving-induced cut. For a song as bitter as it is, it shouldn’t be this fun and highlights Darnielle as one of the best songwriters of his generation. (M)

3. “Rebellion (Lies)” – The Arcade Fire

It starts off simple enough, as the swirling outro to “Haiti” gives way to a bass drum. Then comes that epic bassline and ringing piano. And they never stop. For the song’s entire five-plus minute running time they drive forward, continually pushing as, around them, the rest of the band gets more and more out-of-control passionate. Like the disaffected youth that dominate Funeral, Win Butler is angry, and he’s angry about everything and nothing in particular in the way that we all were in late 2004. Paranoia, sorrow, fear, and anxiety are all in this song and yet, improbably, you feel better about the world when its over. “Rebellion (Lies)” is less a eulogy than a call to arms. It was “yes we can” when Obama was still in the Illinois State Senate. (J)

2. “Idioteque” – Radiohead
It’s important to remember when evaluating “Idioteque” just how different it sounded in 2000. There are no guitars hardly any actual drums, and in their place are atmospheric tones and drum machines. The song draws on trance and early electronic music, while still managing to pull in Thom Yorke’s bleak lyrics about ice ages and the end of the world with ease. Nine years later, the influence of this song is seen in every indie song with a drum machine in it, which can’t be understated. Of all the songs on this list, “Idioteque” is by far the most influential and the one that didn’t so much break the mold as it did completely disintegrate it. (M)

1. “All My Friends” – LCD Soundsystem
James Murphy came on to the scene with his humorous worrying that he was losing his hipster credibility on “Losing My Edge,” but his bleak examination of growing old in “All My Friends” finds him actually feeling out of place the older he gets. He has no regrets, but finds a certain amount of displeasure in growing old (“with a face like a dad and a laughable stand”) while “the kids look impossibly tan.” The song builds strongly despite the fact that it’s driven by a repetitive piano line (which one disapproving listener once told me could be used as torture), until it finally breaks open with Murphy asking “where are your friends tonight?” It’s an amazing song that decades down the road will remain an influential, perfect piece of music. (M)

Trying to put the effect that “All My Friends” has on me in words is pretty much impossible, the thrilling, off-rhythm piano line, the New Order song that springs up around it, James Murphy’s shockingly forthright lyrics. “All My Friends” is about The Scene, sure, but it’s more about the turbulence of life and friends and relationship and the fact that there comes a day when you miss all the bullshit that you complained about when you were going through it. Murphy is a realist and he doesn’t idealize the past but he still knows that its all worth it for all the amazing stuff you go through. “All My Friends” is a song that came along at a particularly turbulent period in my life and has stayed with me ever since. (J)

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Tagged as Animal Collective, Band of Horses, Bon Iver, Broken Social Scene, Daft Punk, Feist, lcd soundsystem, M.I.A., My Morning Jacket, Okkervil River, Outkast, Phoenix, Radiohead, Rilo Kiley, Sigur Rós, Sufjan Stevens, Ted Leo/Rx, The Arcade Fire, The Flaming Lips, The Hold Steady, The Long Winters, The Mountain Goats, The National, The Streets, The Strokes, The Walkmen, The White Stripes, TV on the Radio, Wilco, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

by ulyssesworkman | December 8, 2009 · 4:30 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best Films

The 2000s produced hours and hours of truly great cinema but, after much debate and discussion, Tangled Up in Wires has narrowed it down to our 25 favorites. Not to spoil anything for you, but Michael Bay didn’t make it. Read on to find out who did and then tell us where we’re wrong in the comments.

25. Oceans 11
Less than satisfying sequels aside, Steven Soderbergh’s remake of the Rat Pack classic doesn’t have a bad moment in it. George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and the rest of the class have such great chemistry that the back and forth banter seems incredibly natural and hardly seems forced. Just as fun in the first moments as it is in the last, Oceans 11 is a movie you don’t turn off when it’s played over and over on TNT. (M)

24. Goodnight and Good Luck
Goodnight and Good Luck is a brief, fascinating intellectual and stylistic exercise that doesn’t idealize its protagonist. Instead, director George Clooney takes a journalistic approach to Edward R. Murrow’s fight with Senator Joe McCarthy. It helps when he populates the cast with low-key, naturalistic actors like Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella, and David Strathairn, whose deadpan work as Edward R. Murrow went beyond a mere impression. Similarities to more recent events are irrelevant; more historical dramas should have the rigor and depth of Clooney’s. (J)

23. King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Documentaries can sometimes be tedious, 90 minute arguments for an issue that you become either strongly for or strongly indifferent towards in the end. Then there’s King of Kong, which throws all of that out the window. Documenting the battle for the record for the highest Donkey Kong score between long time champ Billy Mitchell and down-and-out everyman Steve Wiebe, the film takes a look into the cutthroat world of competitive arcade gaming while creating an emotional resonance that literally got me up and cheering the first time I saw it. (M)

22. Pan’s Labyrinth
Fairy tales are as much about tragedy as triumph, and Del Toro includes plenty of the former in his gothic horror film. Pan’s Labyrinth’s layered narrative goes to some extremely dark places, as it depicts the harsh, violent reality of life in fascist Spain in 1944, but still provides moments of tremendous beauty. This contrast is certainly helped along by some of Del Toro’s best effects and creature work ever. (J)

21. Lord of the Rings
It may be cheating to name a trilogy as one entry, but it’s really impossible to separate Peter Jackson’s three perfect adaptations of the classic books. Visually, the films are the most stunning sci-fi films you’ll see. Story wise, the films are extremely faithful to the books, and the strongest devotees have extended DVD versions with even more. The best part is that the films are hugely epic while not going over the top. Definitely classics that shouldn’t be missed. (M)

20. 28 Days Later
Danny Boyle’s anti-zombie film starts with a moment of such showy eeriness that it would have been easy to coast by on just that. But after working through the creepily empty streets of post-zombie apocalypse London, Boyle moves on to tell a story that, like the best bits of horror, is more about the monsters that lurk inside of us. Boyle doesn’t go for easy scares, and instead crafts a deliberate, assured film that’s still extremely terrifying. (J)

19. The Squid and the Whale
Noah Baumbach’s intensely personal film about a family taking sides in a divorce is at times a hard film to watch because of it’s unabashed realism. It’s hard to really side with either of the parents in the film (Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels), and Jesse Eisenberg doesn’t oversell his role as the son stuck in the middle. Though he’d already gotten recognition for his debut, Kicking and Screaming (not the Will Ferrell movie), The Squid and the Whale brought Baumbach to the forefront of a new generation of indie filmmakers. (M)

18. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Despite making millions of dollars from it in the 1990s for his action scripts, its clear (probably some time around The Long Kiss Goodbye) that Shane Black soured on Hollywood. But the result was this completely overlooked near masterpiece, an entertaining, hyperactive, loquacious, hilarious action film with an excellent cast (anchored by Robert Downey Jr.’s typically strong work and Val Kilmer, looking like he’s having the most fun he’s had in year) and a fun, twisty script. (J)

17. Best in Show
Having already perfected the mockumentary with This is Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffman, Christopher Guest took on the world of dog grooming in his hilarious improvised comedy. A cast of fantastic improvisers come together in a film full of goofy one liners and genuine sweetness that produces some of the most memorable lines of all time. That’s really all I have to say, I have to get back to reading American Bitch magazine. (M)

16. Wall-E
Combine Buster Keaton, Arthur C. Clarke, Tex Avery, and Steven Spielberg and you get something close to what Andrew Stanton and the Pixar team achieved with Wall-E. It is not just a children’s film adults can enjoy or an adult film with some elements for children, Wall-E is a film for everyone. Underneath the shockingly dark dystopian view of the distant future and Pixar’s technical wizardry is a film with true heart and emotional heft. (J)

15. Primer
If you want mind blowing science fiction that takes at least a second viewing to fully grasp, then Primer is the movie for you. Shot with a tiny $7,000 budget and written by a former engineer and filled with technical jargon, the film’s take on time travel makes Back to the Future seem absurd as opposed to fantasy. Primer is a cult classic who’s impact on sci-fi will undoubtedly continue to grow in years to come. (M)

14. Lost in Translation
Sophia Coppola’s follow-up to The Virgin Suicides isn’t about story as much as it is about a feeling. Feeling lost, confused, and generally put down doesn’t usually lend itself to cinema, but in Coppola’s hands, Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson’s loneliness takes on a fragile beauty, set against the backdrop of one of the most vibrant cities in the world. (J)

13. Brick
Making an old fashioned film noir picture is one thing, but setting it in a high school, as Rian Johnson did in his directorial debut, manages to make Brick an unpredictable, powder keg of a film, ready to blow at any time. A great performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and a phenomenal script by Johnson make Brick one of the great independent features of the 2000s. (M)

12. The Dark Knight
Such is the nature of Christopher Nolan’s bleak vision for Gotham City that, by the end of The Dark Knight, the heroic Harvey Dent has become a supervillain who needs to be stopped, the vigilante Batman has had to burn the proverbial forest down to catch his nemesis, and half of Gotham is charred and burnt. Sure he catches the Joker at the end, but its cold comfort in a movie that is as much an anti-superhero film as it is a superhero film.(J)

11. The Incredibles
Not the most popular or commercially successful of Pixar’s stream of successful movies, The Increibles is their best. A pulpy, action packed movie that draws on 1950s comics, The Incredibles is just plain fun to watch. In a decade in which film heroes needed to be more human, The Incredibles are revealed as a normal family with the added circumstances of being forced to hide who they really are. (M)

10. Hot Fuzz
We here at Tangled Up in Wires know that Shaun of the Dead is generally the more popular choice, but, unlike Simon Pegg’s by-the-books policemanofficer, we don’t play by the rules! Hot Fuzz’s laughs are more consistent than its predecessor and Edgar Wright’s direction feels more confident, especially as he handles the big finale. Hot Fuzz is the rare movie that’s as funny when you’re shouting the quotes along with it, as when you’re hearing them all for the first time. (J)

9. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
If you could erase certain parts of your memory, would you? That’s the central premise of the Charlie Kauffman penned, Michel Gondry directed film. The film doesn’t so much dwell on the scientific possibilities of such invention as the human use of it. The film’s characters use it not to forget their childhood or embarrassing moments, but rather the ones they have loved or want to love. Great performances from a solid cast make the quirky story work on screen in a film that avoids any sort of classification. (M)

8. Donnie Darko
Appropriately enough for someone with a keen interest in time loops, Richard Kelly’s career has basically consisted of the same thing happening: he makes a movie, it is reviled and dismissed by the public, and then it gets a cult on video. But neither of his follow-ups work on the purely visceral level that Donnie Darko does. Part episode of Lost, part coming-of-age story, part Greek tragedy, and part nostalgic romp through the 1980s, Donnie Darko stretches the limits of science fiction until they rip apart. (J)

7. Memento
Before hitting it big with the Batman reboot, Christopher Nolan made a movie that is just as perplexing to watch the third time as it is the first. A story in reverse about a man with a severe memory condition is a taxing film to watch, but that’s what makes it most enjoyable. The film gets better and better with every viewing, as each time you know something you didn’t before. (M)

6. No Country For Old Men
As of 2006, the Coens’ output for the 2000s consisted of one decent, funny film, one puzzler, and two complete failures. Many had given them up for dead, but like Javier Bardem’s hulking, unstoppable force, they got back up and made one of their finest films yet. No Country for Old Men daringly casts aside narrative conventions, painting an impressionistic picture of the modern west and of people trapped by forces beyond their control. (J)

5. Children of Men
Alfonso Curan’s futuristic film could have veered into the realm of bad science fiction, but with minimal acting and barely even a musical soundtrack, Children of Men is a haunting and beautifully photographed film. The film never dwells on how the world got to be the way it is, instead focusing on what it is and how it can better, and once things are set in motion, there’s hardly a moment to breathe. Fantastic performances by Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, and Michael Caine are punctuated by Curan’s trademarks style in this truly fantastic film. (M)

4. There Will Be Blood
Oil, money, greed, religion, violence. The question is what happens when you combine these forces and the answer is there in the title. There Will Be Blood makes no qualms about wanting to toss the last 10 years in a blender, but it avoids overt politicizing. Instead, P.T. Anderson’s finest film takes a stark, unflinching look at one person and how a combination of those forces mentioned above turned him into something much less. The violent, divisive epilogue to the film plays, especially upon seeing the film a second time, as the only natural conclusion to the preceding three hours. (J)

3. Adaptation
Charlie Kauffman had already established himself as a daring screenwriter, but with Adaptation, he raised the bar for originality in Hollywood. Rather than writing a straight adaptation of Susan Orlean’s The Orchid Thief, Kauffman wrote his struggles as a writer and person into the story, as well as a fictional brother Donald. Throw in director Spike Jonez, Nicholas Cage, Meryl Streep, and a fantastic Chris Cooper, and you have a quirky, thoroughly enjoyable film. (M)

2. Ghost World
Being young sucks. It’s not exactly the newest theme but Ghost World plays it to the hilt, casting Thora Birch and Scarlett Johansson as the most convincing, disaffected youth this side of Neptune High School. But its only after they attempt to prank another outcast, just as lonely and misunderstood as them, that they begin to connect with the world. Ghost World is often hilarious, but there’s a real sadness underneath the laughter that gives the film a weight, boosted by Terry Zwigoff’s assured direction. (J)

1. The Royal Tennenbaums
Wes Anderson became an indie auteur master in the 2000s, but it’s first film of the decade, that is the most fun to watch. Filled with rich characters in an oddly vintage world, The Royal Tennenbaums manages to be a film about disappointment and forgiveness while at times be absolutely hilarious. Aided by a great cast, The Royal Tennenbaums is one of the few films I find I can watch over and over again without getting tired of it. (M)

For Wes Anderson’s third movie, he set out to make a film about Something. The largely ensemble nature, the more openly emotional beats, and the way he cranks his signature stylistic tics up to 11 all point to the high potential for messy overreach. And yet, through the clutter emerges a starkly personal vision of life’s ups and downs, filtered through the candy coating of Anderson’s direction. He borrows from Welles and Salinger (and from Schultz and Konigsberg and Scorsese and Jagger and Smith) like a neighbor borrowing sugar and eggs to bake a cake. Even if you recognize the ingredients the results are something completely unique. (J)

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Tagged as 28 days later, best in show, Brick, Children of Men, donnie darko, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, ghost world, good night and good luck, hot fuzz, king of kong, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, lord of the rings, Lost in Translation, memento, No Country for Old Men, ocean's 11, pan's labyrinth, primer, squid and the whale, The Dark Knight, the incredibles, the royal tenenbaums, There Will Be Blood, wall-e

by Michael | December 7, 2009 · 3:49 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best Film Performances

Our Best of the 2000s coverage returns with a list of some truly incredible film performances. The 2000s was ripe with great acting, and we present to you the cream of the crop. As always, we’d love to get your opinion on the matter in the comments.

25. Jeff Daniels – The Squid and the Whale
Jeff Daniels is a likable guy that usually plays likable characters. But his role as a angry, elitist father turns all of that on its head while showcasing Daniels’ superb acting chops. Daniels manages to make the character completely unlikable while somehow managing to keep the door open on possibility that he’s a good man inside, which makes the performance even more devastating. Daniels makes it very understandable how Jesse Eisenberg’s Walt could put so much faith in his father while constantly being let down. (M)

24. Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James
Playing one of the two title characters, Casey Affleck gives a haunting, multi-dimensional performance, capturing the many facets of a puzzling character. Robert Ford is an enigma – a potent cocktail of jealousy, disillusion, and regret – but Affleck never loses the humanity inside of a man whose actions would turn him into one of the most hated people in the country. (J)

23. Audrey Toutou Amelie
The simplest evaluation of Audrey Tautou’s performance is that she is Amelie. She so perfectly inhabits the character and anchors her naivete that you believe the character fully. Sure, the role is meant to be sweet, but it has to be sold to the audience, which Tautou does quite ably. Tautou has had a smattering of other roles since, yet it’s a testament to her performance that she’s still thought of as Amelie.(M)

22. Robert Downey Jr – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
Robert Downey Jr. gave this same basic performance three times this decade, bookended by 2000’s hilarious turn in Wonder Boys and his work as Tony Stark in 2008’s Iron Man. But it is here, as the fast-talking, self-aware con artist at the center of Kiss Kiss Bang Bang that Downey gives the definitive version of that role. Hilariously sardonic, Downey plays an updated, more offbeat version of pulpy detective heroes, and is the perfect center for Shane Black’s warped view of Hollywood. (J)

21. Adam Sandler – Punch Drunk Love
Who knew Billy Madison could act? If Sandler hadn’t been so likable before Punch Drunk Love, the film probably wouldn’t have worked. Revealing both the desire and ability to play dramatic roles, Sandler takes on such a depressing character without making him a mockery or overplaying it. Instead, he’s sympathetic and the audience can ignore his quirks and inadequacies to genuinely root for him in P.T. Anderson’s film. (M)

20. Helen Mirren – The Queen
The struggle between British monarchy and the government in charge was at the center of the plot of The Queen, but at the center of it all is Helen Mirren’s Academy Award winning portrayal of the title character. Playing someone currently in power is not an enviable task, yet Mirren does it with a respect and understanding that shine through in her performance. She so fully inhabits Queen Elizabeth, that at times your forget you’re who you’re actually watching.

19. Joeph Gordon-Levitt – Brick
If Joseph Gordon-Levitt hadn’t made Brick, there’s a good chance he’d only be remembered as the kid from 3rd Rock From the Sun. But investigating the murder of his girlfriend in the high school film noir, Gordon-Levitt unveiled a new side to his ability and set up a career that is beginning to take off. It’s a dark, emotional performance that manages to stay away from teenage angst while managing to play off it. Gordon-Levitt anchors the film, keeping it believable as it rumbles towards its fantastic conclusion. (M)

18. Clive Owen – Children of Men
How do you go on living when you know the world is ending, slowly, around you? If you’re Clive Owen in Children of Men, the answer is that you kind of don’t. Owen’s minimalistic, subtle work grounds the film in a humanity and becomes eerily relatable when you realize that, in 2009, he’d be 23 years old. (J)

17. Julianne Moore – Far From Heaven
Despite numerous nominations, Julianne Moore is one of the best actresses not to win an Academy Award (yet). Her role as suburban housewife faced with her husband’s homosexuality is one of her best, as she doesn’t oversell the plight of her character while managing to perfectly portray her anger and confusion. Moore brings a power to the screen few actresses possess, and without her, it’s hard to imagine the film without her in the lead. (M)

16. Christian Bale – American Psycho
Christian Bale’s manic, Tom Cruise inspired Patrick Bateman is so creepily empty, so vacant of anything resembling a human personality, that it would take someone with no knowledge of the movie or the book it was based on about 5 seconds to piece together that there’s something very wrong there. Mary Haddon’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ best book wouldn’t have had nearly the impact without such a fixating embodiment of its main character. (J)

15. Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker
There are countless movies that show what “war does to a man,” but Jeremy Renner’s performance in The Hurt Locker stands out. With Renner’s portrayal as a bomb squad technician, you get the sense that it’s not the war that has made him crazy, but instead made him sane and feel actual emotions. In the end, it’s hard to what impression is to be made of him, as he borders between sympathetic, misguided, and obsessed.(M)

14. Paul Giamatti – American Splendo
Like many of the actors on this list, Paul Giamatti has become famous for basically playing this character over and over again. But that doesn’t take anything away from just how good his work is here. Playing a real person (what’s more in a movie where said real person appears) isn’t easy, but Giamatti brings Harvey Pekar to life with an empathetic sadness and anger that totally embodies what was on the page. (J)

13. Phillip Seymour Hoffman – Capote
It would have been easy for Phillip Seymour Hoffman to slip into the familiar caricature of Truman Capote, but instead, he captures a man that becomes obsessed with a brutal murderer, which ultimately changes him. Capote himself never recovered from his involvement in the murder case that lead to his work In Cold Blood, and Hoffman’s performance reveals much more than an impression, instead showing the cracks slowly forming in the facade of a man in the face of his work. (M)

12. Laura Linney – You Can Count on Me
Kenneth Lonergan is an actor’s playwright, so its no surprise that his first (and to-date only) film as a director gave us two of the best performances of this decade. But, while Mark Ruffalo is great, we’ve got to give the edge to Laura Linney for carrying the film with compassion and depth. (J)

11. Forrest Whitaker – The Last King of Scotland
Forrest Whitaker always seemed to be striving for so much more as an actor, and with his portrayal of Idi Amin, he accomplished that. Any sense of the affable Whitaker is completely unrecognizable under the shell of the ruthless dictator he plays. But Whitaker does a more than capable job of showing that Amin wasn’t a Hitler, but more a misguided, self-obsessed ruler who’s early attempts at reform get buried under the trappings of absolute power. A stirring performance that hopefully will lead to bigger things for Whitaker. (M)

10. Adrian Brody – The Pianist
The Pianist very easily could have just been yet another film about the Holocaust. What sets it apart is Adrian Brody’s hypnotic portrayal of Szpilman. His search for dignity in the face of such inhumanity is filled with desperation and sorrow, and his transformation from a young, confident pianist to a hollowed-out shell shows the terrible impact of World War II on a personal scale. (J)

9. Johnny Depp – Pirates of the Caribbean
Among the more iconic portrayals on this list is Johnny Depp’s memorable turn in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Though the second two films declined in quality, Depp’s turn as Captain Jack Sparrow is a delight throughout the entire series, adding much need whimsy and comedy to films that prefer action set pieces to meaningful plot. Depp has made a career of bouncing between playing bizarre characters and tough guys, but he’ll almost assuredly always be remembered most as Jack Sparrow. (M)

8. Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
While Anne Hathaway seemed interested in moving beyond her Princess Diaries public image, it wasn’t until this movie than any of us realized she actually had the chops to do it. Fitting in perfectly with Jonathan Demme’s naturalistic, Hathaway doesn’t overplay her character or descend into junkie cliché. Instead, she finds Kym’s guilt and anxiety filled core and plays it spot-on. (J)

7. Amy Ryan – Gone Baby Gone
Already known for her gritty roles on The Wire, Amy Ryan ably took the role of the mother of a missing child in Ben Affleck’s Gone Baby Gone. Ryan’s break-out role is a stirring supporting performance that outshines those of her higher profile co-stars. Ryan expertly plays a hardened mother accustomed to her life of scrapping by, but also crushed by the loss of her daughter. But she doesn’t play it that way. Instead, she wants her daughter back while excepting that she’s gone. It’s a heartbraking role that showcases the talents of an actress who’s bound for even better work.(M)

6. Naomi Watts – Mulholland Dr.
Mulholland Drive doesn’t make sense in any sort of conventional, narrative way. So it’s a good thing that the film has Naomi Watts around, to ensure that it makes emotional sense. Naomi Watts has to be a number of things in Mulholland Drive and she is convincing as all of them, embodying all the seedy, failed promises of Hollywood. (J)

5. Billy Murray – Lost in Translation
Many were quick to jump on Bill Murray’s performance as being a version of his own career, but that seems to be oversimplifying things. Sure, Murray is playing a washed up actor in Japan to film whiskey commercials, but he’s also playing a middle aged man who hasn’t reached a midlife crisis, but has forgotten how to find joy in life. Murry doesn’t oversell the character, and his chemistry with co-star Scarlet Johansson drive the movie, making it a pleasure to watch time and time again. (M)

4. Sean Penn – Mystic River
Obviously the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Sean Penn in Mystic River is his primal screaming when he comes upon the scene where his daughter had just been murdered. But throughout the course of the film, Penn rediscovers his character’s capability for doing things as hideous. And by the end, when he shrugs off Kevin Bacon’s final, ambiguous hand gesture, its clear that Penn has become comfortable with it. (J)

3. Javier Bardem – No Country for Old Men
Perhaps the best villain of the decade, Javier Bardem stole the show in the Coen Brother’s grisly adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s novel. His performance as a sociopath killer sends chills down your spine every time he comes on screen. Credit goes to McCarthy and Joel and Ethan Coen for the way the character is written, but Bardem executes the role with startling perfection. There are few better performances of such villains. (M)

2. Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger’s Joker isn’t so much a character as an idea. He shows up in the first scene, fully formed: anti-gravity to Batman’s notions of order and justice. But, like any comedian, the Joker makes us take a second look at our value system. Heath Ledger’s commitment to the role builds a psychopath who is all too believable and invest the film with a verisimilitude that is essential to Nolan’s vision of Gotham City. (J)

1. Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
Aside from producing one of the most iconic lines of the decade, Daniel Day-Lewis’ stunning performance as oilman Daniel Plainview is the stuff legend is made of. Completely missing are any sense of the actor, left in his place a character, who, like Wells in Citizen Kane, completely inhabits a man who keeps no friends on his rise to wealth before becoming a wealthy, angry man in his old age, Day-Lewis delivers a performance that every aspiring actor should watch, admire, and study. (M)

In writing this, I’ve had a hard time separating Daniel Day-Lewis’ performance from the film itself. From his first appearance in the silent opening sequence to his now famous punctuation mark at the end of the film, Daniel Day-Lewis dominates all 158 minutes of There Will Be Blood. It is the perfect marriage of actor and material – a part so perfectly suited to what Daniel Day-Lewis can do that P.T. Anderson has said he wouldn’t have even made the movie without the star. Day-Lewis’ Daniel Plainview is driven so mad with greed that he willingly sells off his humanity, fueled with the desire to destroy anyone and anything in his way. (J)

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Tagged as Adam Sandler, Adrian Brody, Amelie, American Psycho, American Splendor, Amy Ryan, Anne Hathaway, Audrey Tautou, Bill Murray, Brick, Capote, Casey Affleck, Children of Men, Christian Bale, Clive Owen, Daniel Day-Lewis, Far From Heaven, Forrest Whitaker, Gone Baby Gone, Heath Ledger, Helen Mirren, Javier Bardem, Jeff Daniels, Jeremy Renner, Johnny Depp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Julianne Moore, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Laura Linney, Lost in Translation, Mulholland Dr, Mystic River, Naomi Watts, No Country for Old Men, Paul Giamatti, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Pirates of the Caribbean, Punch Drunk Love, Rachel Getting Married, Robert Downey Jr, Sean Penn, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Dark Knight, The Hurt Locker, The Last King of Scotland, The Pianist, The Queen, The Squid and the Whale, There Will Be Blood, You Can Count on Me

by ulyssesworkman | December 3, 2009 · 1:57 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best TV Shows

Our best of the decade lists roll on with our list of best TV shows of the last 10 years. In judging these, we looked at the shows quality over its overall run or run up until this current season (our year end list will touch on that), as well as its degree of influence. Disagree and think we’re a couple of idiots who don’t know what real comedy or drama is? Think we’re the greatest people to talk about TV since it was invented? Sound off in the comments section below!

25. House
One of the more popular shows of the decade, House combined ER, CSI, and Scrubs into a consistently satisfying show that produced one of the best TV personalities in its title character. Hugh Laurie’s portrayal of the sarcastic genius Dr. House is worth tuning in for on a regular basis, but the show always manages to keep the tension rising for the full hour before reaching its conclusion. Perhaps the best part of house is that you don’t need an extensive background on the show to watch it, making it easy to enjoy each time you turn it on. (M)

24. Dexter
As time goes on, Dexter has kind of flown off the rails (let’s just not talk about this season’s unfortunate repositioning of Dexter as America’s Favorite Serial Killer: how will he adjust to life in Suburbia?) but even at its most ridiculous, Michael C. Hall is there to ground the show. Hall isn’t afraid to embrace Dexter’s nasty, dark side, but he’s at his best when playing Dexter as an alien thrust into human society; squirming and struggling to pass for normal when surrounded by constant threats. (J)

23. Extras
Ricky Gervais took the cringe comedy he perfected on the The Office and brought it to Hollywood with his fantastic Extras. The premise of the show is simple, Gervais plays an extra who strives for more, while having wacky run ins with celebrities playing themselves. Each episode was essentially a set up for an awkward moment with a celebrity and for Andy, and it usually was incredibly cringe inducing while gut-bustingly funny. Standouts include a graphic Kate Winslet, a childish Daniel Ratcliff, a stoic Ian McKellen, and of course, an perverted Patrick Stewart. (M)

22. The Venture Bros.
The Venture Bros. isn’t really a parody, even though a quick plot summary reads as such. But parodies are generally a loosely strung-together series of one liners and jokes (see pretty much everything else on Adult Swim), whereas The Venture Bros. manages to balance together some extremely intricate mythology, legitimate character development, cultural criticism, and, yes, a very long and very funny series of one-liners and jokes. In episodes like “The Doctor is Sin” the show is at its best, turning the hero-villain dynamic on its head and showing that even superscientists and arch-villains in butterfly suits have feelings too. (J)

21. Scrubs
Though it veered off course towards the end of its run (we’re counting this new season as a spin-off), the first few years of Scrubs were fantastic television. The show never hesitated to add the crushing aspects of working in a hospital, but also never relied on gimmicks seen in hospital dramas. Instead, Scrubs always featured a high degree of goofy humor while highlighting the actual ups and downs of working in a hospital. The characters were all lovable, especially the constantly grumpy Dr. Cox, played to perfection by John C. McGinley. The popularity of the show has grown since it went into syndication, and rightfully so, as it was one of the better, unique comedies of the 2000s. (M)

20. It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia‘s genius lies in how harmless it can seem at first. “A group of friends who hang out in a bar and get into schenanigans? I’ve seen this show before.” But Sunny takes its schlocky tropes in such wrong directions, and with such deranged glee, that it quickly becomes obvious that this isn’t like other sitcoms. Like a 2000s Seinfeld, Sunny stretches the limit of what is acceptable behavior within a sitcom until there are no limits left. (J)

19. Firefly
People forget that there was a time when Joss Whedon was a successful television wunderkind with a JJ Abrams-level ceiling. But that was before Firefly, his difficult, heady sci-fi western about a future that looks a lot more like our past. Whedon cleverly inverts the utopic social order of Star Trek, turning the Federation (actually called the Alliance, but its the same general idea) into the bad guys, making a show celebrating ingenuity and individualism, while avoiding any sort of heavy-handed sermonizing. Plus he recurited a stellar cast, led with Han Solo swagger by Nathan Fillion (who deserves to be a much, much bigger star thanks to this role). Sadly Firefly only lasted one season, but what a season it was. (J)

18. Friday Night Lights
Perhaps the most naturalistic show ever on television, Friday Night Lights quickly grew past its premise of a town obsessed with high school football. In addition to the drama you’d expect, the show has touched on a father in Iraq, racism, class difference, paraplegics, and the enormous expectations placed on high school stars. Rather than just keep the same cast, even after some have graduated, the show hasn’t been afraid to keep its cast revolving, consistently bringing in well thought out characters. As a result, FNL is not just a show for football fans, but for fans of great TV. (M)

17. Big Love
What started as a show with a gimmicky concept, a Mormon man with three wives, evolved to become a family drama about faith and convictions, which has gotten better and better as it has gone on. The show is driven by a terrific cast, most notably the three wives played by Jeanne Tripplehorn, Chloe Sevigny, and Ginnifer Goodwin. While it’s not a show you can just pick up and watch at any point, Big Love is a unique drama that puts the pedal to the floor for every episode and is a pleasure to watch each week. (M)

16. Pushing Daisies
Cheerful whimsy is a hard tone to carry through a 13-hour season, but Pushing Daisies pulled it off by weighting down its twee elements with a genuine sadness. Constructed like a fairy tale and set in a world that looks like a Tim Burton-directed Amelie, Pushing Daisies was an hour of happiness beamed directly into your living room, buoyed by an amazing ensemble without a single weak link or overwhelming personality (although, if I had to pick a favorite, it would be Chi McBride). One of the great tragedies of the strike is that it sabotaged the burdgeoning success on one of TV’s most unique shows. (J)

15. How I Met Your Mother
The only show on our list with a laugh track, How I Met Your Mother started as a sitcom with a clever premise and expanded to become one of the most inventive and hip shows on TV. While the performance of Neil Patrick Harris as ultimate ladies man Barney has drawn the most praise, the rest of the cast is equally as fantastic in their less over the top roles, especially Cobie Smulders as Canadian newswoman Robin. If you remain unconvinced, check out the Season 2 episode “Slap Bet.” There are few episodes of TV in the last 10 years better than that. (M)

14. Flight of the Conchords
Blending deadpan silliness with genuinely catchy songs, Flight of the Conchords turned into a minor phenomenon, as word of mouth spread about just how hilarious the show was. Even as the quality of the music teetered off a little bit in the second season, the show’s hilarious writing and talented supporting cast (including two of the decade’s funniest creations: Rhys Darby’s clueless manager/New Zealand consulate drone Murray and Kristen Schaal’s creepily obsessed superfan Mel) carried it through. (J)

13. The Office (US)
After a lackluster first season, the American version of The Office looked like a flop. But with the Season 2 opener “The Dundies,” The Office started having its own identity and it paid off big time. Rather than stay focused on just a few characters, the show expanded through the offices of Dunder-Mifflin, giving a whole new set of options to the show. It still goes for the cringe humor of it’s British heritage (more on that in a bit), but it has also relied on a deeper emotional depth for its cast of characters, providing more than just laughs to a great show.(M)

12. Battlestar Galactica
Battlestar Galactica had giant “Stay Away” signs posted all over it – like the fact that it was remake, appearing on a channel not exactly known for quality original productions. But Ronald D. Moore and David Eick beat the odds and made a show that, during some of our most turbulent years, directly engaged the political situation with more sophistaction than any other show on TV (inlcuding cable news or, for that matter, most films). While Moore didn’t quite stick the landing, he still made an immensely thoughtful show, packed with characters who transcended their pulpy roots to become genuinely fascinating and empathy-enducing figures. (J)

11. Veronica Mars
The first season of Veronica Mars is an intricately plotted masterpiece that serves as compelling evidence of what television is capable of on a storytelling level, balancing a tightly-wound mystery that would give Sam Spade pause with a fascinating depiction of class warfare in a California high school. While the next two seasons didn’t quite live up to that first one, they were still excellent and all three gave us a chance to see the brilliant work Kristen Bell did in the title role. Balancing a world-weary, sardonic edge with a measure of innocence and idealism, Bell played the most realistic teenager to appear on television since Sunnydale High School’s destruction. (J)

10. Breaking Bad
When it started, Breaking Bad‘s premise sounded awfully familar. But, over the course of two brief seasons, it morphed into a pitch black look at male anxiety, drug trade in the Southwest, and one man’s transformation from an upstanding chemistry teacher into a monster. Giving one of the best performances of the decade, Bryan Cranston guides that transformation by showing that those traits had always existed inside Walter White, it just took something like cancer to bring them out. There have been many antiheroes on TV this decade, but none started seeming as docile only to become as horrifying (in such a convincing way) as Walter. (J)

9. 30 Rock
When 30 Rock debuted, no one had any doubt that Aaron Sorkin’s dramedy Studio 60, also about a sketch comedy show, would be much better. Now, in it’s fourth season, 30 Rock has had 3 more seasons and Emmy’s for Best Comedy than it’s former counterpart. A zainy show that combines the in jokes of Arrested Development with the absurd parts of the The Simpsons, Tina Fey’s show is a weekly laugh fest, even when it’s not at its best. 30 Rock stands out from other sitcoms for it’s joke first, plot later structure. Above all, 30 Rock has proved it’s okay to pander comedy to smart people, and has become a show that doesn’t take its viewer for granted. (M)

8. Curb Your Enthusiasm
No one, not even Larry David, acts like “Larry David,” the main character of Curb Your Enthusiasm. But part of the fun of the show is picturing what it would be like if, just once, you could verbally abuse the people who take too many samples or eat a couple of your shrimp after taking the wrong takeout box. Free of the conventions and restraints imposed by Seinfeld, Larry David was able to run wild and make a show that is so painfully, terrifyingly awkward that you can’t help but laugh. (J)

7. The Daily Show/The Colbert Report
Sticking out from the other shows on this list and forever being tied together, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report were perhaps the most important shows for late night TV since Johnny Carson. Taking aim at not only politicians, but the media and hypocrisies everywhere, both shows became more and more important as the second half of the decade went on. In the 2008 election, both Daily Show host Jon Stewart and the Stephen Colbert took Republican candidate John McCain to task for his remarks about the economy, and the media followed suit. Both shows stood at the intersection between comedy and politics while managing to play both sides. How long they can last remains to be seen, but in the 2000s, they were incredible. (M)

6. Mad Men
There was a recent study that watching TV shows regularly and following the characters has the same effect on your brain as forming actual friendships. While I don’t know this for sure, I suspect that vast majority of participants in the study were Mad Men viewers. Sure the show’s period trappings are beautifully realized, and the central concept of an ad man who is so committed to his craft of building consumerist fantasies that he has sold himself on his lies is compelling and rich, but its Mad Men‘s characters and the humanity with which it treats them that makes it so hypnotically compelling. Mad Men is a collection of little moments that build a larger picture of alienation, depression, and things we do to try to fight them off. (J)

5. Lost
No other show has ever captured the curiosity of its fans while demanding so much attention as Lost. A combination of mystery, adventure, and sci-fi, Lost was a cultural phenomenon upon its arrival, and those that have stuck around have been treated to a show that has grown strongly over time, making its mythology deeper and deeper. Many imitators have tried to steal Lost‘s formula, but to no avail. When the show returns this spring for it’s final season, one of the great TV mysteries will come to its conclusion, but our fascination with it may never end. (M)

4. The Wire
What’s left to be said about The Wire, David Simon’s depressingly realistic portrayal of how the system rewards sloth, greed, and inaction? There are no good or bad guys in The Wire, just people trying to do what they can to get by. Simon’s multi-layered, intellectually taxing storytelling takes a while to acclimate to, but before you realize, you’re sucked into a world spiraling further and further towards bleak, bureaucratic dystopia; and then you turn off the show and realize you were already living in it. (J)

3. The Office (UK)
Before there was Michael Scott, there was David Brent and his band of weary office workers who were perpetually terrorized by the antics of their boss. The original version of The Office really brought together the cringe comedy of Larry David with Sam and Diane, while at the same time presenting the dull drums of the workplace. David Brent is right up there with Ralph Cramden, Lucy, and Archie Bunker in the TV comedy hall of fame. His very presence on screen will make you cringe. Without The Office, who knows what would have happened to sitcoms in the 2000s. (M)

2. The West Wing
While Aaron Sorkin was at the helm, The West Wing Was a show unequaled in quality. Before Sorkin left the show following the fourth season, the show was as much a human drama as it was a political one, thanks in large part to the quality of a cast that made their characters impossible to dislike. Perhaps the most overlooked part of the Sorkin Years was that the show was often hilarious, breaking the seriousness up, and really making for four seasons without a bad episode. When the show changed hands for its final three seasons, it suffered at first, and improved towards the end, but seasons 1-4 remain some of the best television you’ll ever see. (M)

1. Arrested Development
Without a doubt the best comedy of the decade, and possibly ever, Arrested Development is a masterpiece of comic writing and execution. Whether you’re watching an episode for the first time or the tenth time, you’ll always laugh as the jokes pile up. With countless running gags and jokes (Franklin, “Her?”, Mr. F) that continued to pay off as the show went on, Arrested Development is a show that rewarded its small, loyal fan base, and easily won over more after its cancellation. If you haven’t met the Bluths yet, you have no idea what you’re missing. (M)

There are few shows, let alone comedies, that are still as impactful the 80th time you watch them as they were the first. But Arrested Development actually gets better with repeat viewings, allowing you to fully drink in the world that Mitch Hurwitz created. The vividly realized, slightly askew universe of Arrested Development most closely resembles a real-life Springfield, with grotesquely wealthy privilege replacing middle-class ennui, but Arrested Development succeeds by packing it with characters who have beating hearts underneath their cartoonish exterior. Under appreciated in its time, Arrested Development’s cancellation had one positive: it guaranteed that the show’s run ended without a single bad episode. (J)

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Filed under Best of 2000s, TV Review

Tagged as 30 Rock, arrested development, battlestar galactica, big love, breaking bad, Curb Your Enthusiasm, dexter, extras, firefly, flight of the conchords, friday night lights, house, How I Met Your Mother, it's always sunny in philadelphia, Lost, Mad Men, pushing daisies, scrubs, the colbert report, the daily show, The Office, the west wing, the wire, venture bros, veronica mars

by Michael | December 2, 2009 · 3:04 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 15 Best Books

Today we look at our favorite books from the 2000s. Its been a tough few years for the publishing industry, but that hasn’t stopped some of our favorite writers from producing some amazing literature. Before we begin, a warning to readers that, while our choices appear in a numbered order, those numbers are even more arbitrary than usual. That said, don’t hold back in telling us how epically wrong we are in the comments section.

15. Lush Life – Richard Price
If Mystic River is the classic crime novel of the first part of the 21st century, Lush Life is a close second. Richard Price tells the story of a murder from the perspective of nearly everyone effective: cops, the family, a present co-worker, and the murderer. Perhaps the most stunning part of the entire novel is it’s naturalism. It doesn’t have a shocking revelation or constant twists and turns, but instead presents an view into the real world. When the case is close, you move to the next. A powerful work of fiction that could just as easily a true story, Lush Life is an oft-overlooked gem of the 2000s. (M)

14. Mystic River – Dennis Lehane
Dennis Lehane became a master of gritty murder mysteries with Gone Baby Gone and Mystic River, a story about three childhood friends, the roles they inhabit as adults, and the murder of ones daughter. The book separates itself from other murder mysteries with its intricacies and strong characters. Before the novel has a chance to reach it’s climax, it’s unclear as to who is good and bad, keeping the pages turning faster than you can handle. Mystic River is the classic crime novel of the first part of the century. (M)

13. World War Z – Max Brooks Without Max Brooks, zombies may have just been another mid-level meme, fighting with ninjas and vampires for space in the public consciousness. But World War Z moved the zombie apocalypse out of Romero’s intimate locations and tiny groups of survivors and onto a global, geopolitical scale. Brooks’ extensive research and clever structure gives the book a verisimilitude that helps it transcend simple horror and makes it an impactful look at human society (just like Romero’s best films do). (J)

12. Moneyball – Michael Lewis
Few books about sports have ever been as influential as Moneyball. By re-examining the stats that are so highly valued, Michael Lewis made Billy Beane’s once-outlandish concept a strategy adopted by many teams throughout the league. Six years on, teams still put a lot of stock in superstars, but teams like the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays proved Beane’s sabermetric can work. The book really broke the mold on sports books, and nothing yet has been anywhere near as influential. (M)

11. Assassination Vacation – Sarah Vowell
With her second full length, single-topic nonfiction book, Sarah Vowell embraced her nerdy passion for American history and historical tourism, resulting in a compelling book that’s part history and part memoir. Removed from her wispy, public radio delivery, Vowell’s prose flows true as ever and her gifts with metaphor make her quirky stories pop off the page. Self-reflective, fascinating, and unapologetic in its embrace of hokey Americana at a time when real patriotism was hard to come by, Assassination Vacation may not have been an Important book, but it made the 2000s a whole lot more palatable. (J)

10. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – Mark Haddon
Haddon’s book sounds like too gimmicky by half when you hear its concept, but its his empathetic ability to capture the voice of his autistic main character that makes Curious Incident succeed. A triumph of perspective, at times you forget that you’re reading fiction and become engrossed by how Haddon’s main character sees and experiences the world. (J)

9. The Plot Against America – Philip Roth
Philip Roth had a long and established career even before The Plot Against America, an alternate history story of 1940s America with Charles Lindbergh as president, but the book stands out as his best book of late. As he explores the coming of age of a fictional version of himself, Roth also manages to explore the dark underside of American politics and ideology. It’s a fascinating read that manages to highlight just how easy it is to fall to the trappings of ideology. (M)

8. Consider the Lobster – David Foster Wallace
Rather than dwell on the tragic loss of this generation’s finest writer and what could have been, let’s focus instead on the dizzying legacy he left behind. Of his output this decade, nothing matches Consider the Lobster, an insightful collection of Wallace’s creative nonfiction. From the title essay’s unsentimental but still insightful look at the morality of boiling lobsters alive (written, amusingly enough, as an assignment for Gourmet to cover the Maine Lobster Festival) to a look at conservative talk radio to his sprawling review of A Dictionary of Modern Usage, Wallace’s gifts for treating any subject with intellectual rigor and a critical eye shine through, and his mastery of form and style is unmatched. (J)

7. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer broke onto the literary scene with Everything is Illuminated a book that manages to be funny, poignant, and crushing throughout it’s course. Foer jumps around in time and place, meshing together three stories, that of his America obsessed tour guide, his ancestry, and himself. Unlike many novels about Jewish persecution and the Diaspora, this one doesn’t center on the evil, but rather how a way of life was shattered for people. An engrossing, impressive debut from a writer who figures to feature prominently in the the 2010s. (M)

6. The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
You are allowed to be as smug as Malcolm Gladwell is when you’re that smart. In his breakthrough nonfiction look at the way ideas and products spread like viruses. Loaded with fascinating case studies and Gladwell’s hyper-intellectual prose, The Tipping Point is an interesting sociological examination of human nature, and one that has only become more relevant in the age of Twitter and Facebook. (J)

5. Atonement – Ian McEwan
So many novels deal with regret and making up for the past, but Ian McEwan’s Atonementis in a league of it’s own. The novel is the story of a girl who’s childhood misunderstanding stays with her the rest of her life. If the first three sections aren’t heart wrenching enough for you, the final fourth will tear you apart. As much as Kavalier and Clay settles the regret and disappointment of its characters in it’s final act, Atonement makes it’s central character pay for hers. McEwan’s brilliant prose makes the story even more compelling and made Atonement and easy choice for this list. (M)

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince/Deathly Hollows – J.K. Rowling
One of the most interesting parts of the Harry Potter series is that many of the readers grew with Harry as it went on. Those that started reading at the age of 12 in 1998 when the first book hit stateside were 21 by the time the series wrapped in 2007. Those that read during those 10 years (11 if you were in the UK) were treated to two final books that contrasted greatly from the lighter themes of the books of their childhood. In both novels, Rowling dispenses with the boy wizard aspect of her novels and delves into the tale of a young man being faced with a task barely suited for a man. The books are easily the best fantasy books since Tolkien and will continue to enchant for years to come. (M)

3. The Road – Cormac McCarthy
Despite what Zombieland would have you believe, the apocalypse is actually probably going to suck. Cormac McCarthy is the perfect person to make that point with his incredibly bleak look at a father and son trying to survive in the face of the horrors that come with the destruction of society. McCarthy takes an unflinching look at the terrifying things humans are capable of doing to each other (not exactly new ground for Cormac, but still compelling stuff), while grounding it in the struggle of The Man and The Boy to retain their humanity. (J)

2. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius – Dave Eggers
Before James Frey, Dave Eggers was busy putting the “creative” in creative nonfiction. By filling his memoir with fourth-wall breaking asides and creative flourishes, Eggers’ book is simultaneously less than a truthful depiction of his life and something much, much more. Let’s not blame Dave for the flood of tedious and crappy memoirs that followed in his wake and instead celebrate an author with complete command of his craft. (J)

1. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon
Sitting at the crossroads of comic books and literature, of pulp and high art, Michael Chabon’s novel is a celebration of the struggles that go into making even the most disposable of cultural detritus. Chabon’s delirious blend of joyous, golden age superheroes with the tragedies of World War II and the immigrant experience to America could have crushed under the weight of trying to do too much. Instead, he crafted a clear-eyed and moving tribute to the American experience that resonates past its period setting. (J)

A staggering work of fiction, Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is easily one of the most engrossing novels you’ll ever read. Amidst the lushly described landscapes of New York in the 40s and 50s, Chabon sets up an intricate story that doesn’t follow a linear path, but instead branches off in every direction. When early 21st century literature is studied 50, 100 years from now, Kavalier and Clay will be front and center as the defining American novel of the time. (M)

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Filed under Best of 2000s

Tagged as Books, Cormac McCarthy, Dave Eggers, David Foster Wallace, Dennis Lehane, Harry Potter, Ian McEwan, J.K. Rowling, Jonathan Safran Foer, Malcom Gladwell, Mark Haddon, Max Brooks, Michael Chabon, Michael Lewis, Phillip Roth, Richard Price, Sarah Vowell

by ulyssesworkman | December 1, 2009 · 4:49 pm

The 2000s in Gaming: She Said I’ve Lost Control Again

I can’t remember when exactly it was, but sometime in the mid 1990s I saw a report on TV about a movie where the audience could control what would happen. At certain points the narrative would stop and people in the audience would be presented with three choices; they would all vote on what they wanted to see and then that would happen. Shockingly, this idea never caught fire within the world of cinema (Yet, but maybe James Cameron can resurrect it! Avatar 2? Dare I dream?).

Throughout a lot of the best video games in the 2000s (and plenty of the worst) there was a commitment to the illusion that You, The Gamer, could actually Control What Happened in the game in some real, tangible way. “Open-World,” “Sandbox” and “Moral Choice” were all terms used to sell gamers on the notion that they could actually make choices that would change the story and world that their game inhabited (even the decade’s most popular genre (arguably), the first-person shooter, was all about the notion that You are somehow a part of the action. The same with games like our #2 pick, Rock Band). Conceptually, this is not a bad idea for a medium that is based entirely on interactivity, but it was easier said than done. For, while games delivered these mechanics, they never actually followed through on the unspoken promise of those buzzwords: that you can actually control what happens.

First, it might be helpful to establish what we mean by controlling what happens. When you watch a movie, Star Wars for instance, there is a risk of failure. Luke could fail to blow up the Death Star or he could succumb to the Dark Side and, if that happens, the galaxy would never be the same again. But, in the hypothetical video game version of Star Wars, if you, playing as Luke Skywalker, fail to blow up the Death Star or if you decide to team up with the Empire or whatever, the game just resets. There are all sorts of artificial stakes in video games – lives, cities, perhaps entire planets can hang in the balance – but there are no real stakes because whatever is going to happen will happen. If you don’t beat Bowser on the first try, the Princess doesn’t die or remain his prisoner forever or anything, you just keep trying until you beat him.

(I think game designers are aware of this dilemma, and, in addition to what I talk about below, it feels like there has been a lot less dying in general this decade. Whether it’s the healing function in Halo or the (rightfully maligned) Vita-Chambers from BioShock, designers seem to be looking for ways around having your character die a whole bunch, even though the changes aren’t actually doing anything to raise the stakes. This is another discussion for another time, but is it possible for a game, from a dramaturgical perspective, to tell a story that feels like it has actual life-or-death stakes when you know that your character’s death is nothing more than a temporary roadblock? Is Master Chief’s in-story death as impactful when you’ve seen him die thousands of times before?)

So, this decade, gaming has tried two main methods to let you shape your gaming experience, which, for simplicty’s sake, we’ll call the GTA method and the Bioshock method. Grand Theft Auto’s success is due mainly to the open-world, sandbox nature of the game. There’s not just a core story, but also a lot of side missions and subplots that you can either follow or ignore completely, depending on how much you care about them. But this is less about control and more about generating a nearly endless source of content from the game’s strengths, which is causing ultimately harmless mayhem in a city that constantly repairs and replicates itself. In a way, GTA is the Seinfeld of gaming – the specifics of who you’re shooting and why you’re doing it don’t matter, it’s a game about nothing. I don’t mean that as a negative; with this model you basically get to play the game you want; whether that game is just trying to destroy as much as possible, or beat the main story, or become the fastest Vespa pizza delivery boy in Vice City.

Bioshock, on the other hand, is about Something. And it promises that you, yes You!, can control how everything turns out, because you have to make the difficult decision of whether you slaughter innocent girls for experience points or let them live for roughly the same amount of experience points. This is well-worn territory so I won’t go too far into it; just enough to say that, while people in the real world have all kinds of incentives for doing awful things to each other (not all of which involve doing something clearly evil for personal gain) ,the gaming world hasn’t quite caught up yet. And Bioshock is basically the same game no matter which way you choose to play it – with the exception of one cut scene at the end that reflects your choice.

So control still has a long way to come in games. But is it even necessary? Look at the most powerful moment in our number one game of the decade, Portal. GLaDOS tells you that you need to kill your only friend, the Weighted Companion Cube, before the game can continue. How long did you try to find a way to save it? I’ll bet you agonized over killing the Weighted Companion Cube for far longer than you decided whether to Harvest or Rescue. Here’s a moral choice with consequences: you either kill the Weighted Companion Cube and finish this game you’ve heard is so amazing or you save it by quitting and never playing Portal again. It’s an oddly sickening moment – after all you’re sticking a box with some hearts on it in a fire – and yet, it was truly affecting. And what makes it so affecting is that you have no choice (again, outside of turning off the game and selling it to Gamestop). It’s the same with Bioshock’s best moment, the “would you kindly” reveal and what follows.

Which brings me (finally!) to the title of this essay. What does it matter if you can choose what happens in a game? Does that even play to the strengths of gaming as a medium? Intuitively we think it would, but games like Portal and Bioshock have shown that there’s more power in taking that control away. Some time in the next ten years, I predict we’ll see a game that does choice right – that is, your choices will have weight and consequences – but for now it’s clear that games can already make their audiences think without forcing you to choose between slaughtering an evil gang who is tormenting the villagers or slaughtering the gang and the villagers. More importantly, this was the decade gaming realized it can move us – not just scare or entertain us – and on the road from Atari to Art, that may be the most important step yet.

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Filed under Best of 2000s, Commentary

Tagged as Bioshock, choice, GTA: Vice City, Portal, video games

by Michael | · 12:17 pm

Best of the 2000s: The 15 Best Video Games

Our series of the Best of the 2000s formally kicks off today with a list of the 15 best video games of the last 10 years. Comments are of course encouraged. Without further ado:

15. The Godfather

Adapting Francis Ford Coppola’s classic film into a game was no small task. A video game for one of the greatest movies of all time had a certain standard to live up to, which, thankfully, it did. Rather than playing through the plot of the film, the game makes the player their own, new character, who works for the Corleone family and operates on the periphery of major events of the film, as well as taking part in new adventures and stories. Featuring voices of most of the original cast, the game is a must play for gamers as much as it is for film fans. (M)

14. Super Mario Galaxy

Most of the gaming world (including my esteemed co-blogger) will disagree with me on this, but I’ve seen nothing to really convince me that the Wiimote is anything more than a gimmick that hinders gameplay more than helps it. That said, for one glorious moment, everything came together and Nintendo made something that proved games for the Wii can be fun for more than a few minutes at a time. With controls that feel fluid and logical, entertaining physics that vary from planet to planet, and a larger scope than previous Mario games, Super Mario Galaxy was another great entry in gaming’s most storied franchise and not just a simple cash-in to score some quick bucks from a brand. (J)

13. Mass Effect

All video games strive to make you feel like you are part of the action, but Mass Effect went the extra step of actually putting you in it. The emphasis on personalization and noble attempt at trying something new makes up for a lot of the game’s glaring weaknesses (like its over-reliance on cut scenes and, at times, total lack of action). Mass Effect lays the groundwork for video games to find a way of storytelling that actually feels influenced by the gamer and represents an interesting attempt to expand what kinds of stories video games can tell. (J)

12. Psychonauts

Though not a hugely popular or financially successful video game, Psychonauts is easily one of the most original and fun video games of the last 10 years. With a plot about a boy with psychic boy honing his powers to defeat an evil plot, the game instantly sets itself apart from the pack as being a triumph of originality in an industry where genre means everything. Crazy adventures with unique characters makes Psychonauts an incredibly fun and addicting game you’ll play for hours. (M)

11. Left 4 Dead

It’s so simple that it’s a wonder no one thought of it for so long. Combine the team-based mechanics of Counter-Strike with the hectic, running-and-shooting pace of Halo and mix in zombies. Eschewing plot for a series of entertaining scenarios and frights for action, Left 4 Dead is more Snyder than Romero, and for a video game that’s exactly the right tone to strike. By limiting teams to four players, Left 4 Dead makes sure that everyone has a chance to contribute and the innovative “Director” mechanic ups the replayability. (J)

10. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Before Modern Warfare, the Call of Duty series was set entirely in World War II, but the series fourth edition was able to break the mold instantly. Set in a version of the not so distant future, Modern Warfare jumps from character to character, and plays out with an unmatched intensity. Also of important note, the game generated a huge online multiplayer community. Though Halo and other games had already pioneered this, Modern Warfare perfected it, making it a popular game for online gamers. Though Modern Warfare didn’t really revolutionize the genre the way other games on this list did, it’s a near flawless game that set a standard for quality for similar games to follow. (M)

9. EA Sports

We’re kind of cheating here, but the biggest trademark of EA Sports is their consistency, from game-to-game and year-to-year you know exactly what you’re getting. If video games are, at least on some level, about you-are-there wish fulfillment then it’s tough to argue with the allure of a game that lets you finally live out those long abandoned dreams of beating Tom Brady and winning the Super Bowl on a last minute drive. (J)

8. Half-Life 2

It’s hard to imagine video games today without Half-Life 2. Games like Fallout 3 and Gears of War owe a huge debt to the game, which changed the first person shooter and set the tone for such games in the second half of the decade. Innovations in graphics, sound, physics simulation, and artificial intelligence helped the game stand out and rocketed it to huge success. Half-Life 2 upped the ante for first person shooters and video games as a whole, creating a higher standard others need to match. (M)

7. Little Big Planet

The platformer never really died, but Little Big Planet succeeded by recreating the Mario formula of simple gameplay mixed with mechanical innovation and charming, whimsical world-building. The graphics pop-off the screen, thanks to the puppet and crepe paper aesthetic, and the wide range of user-generated content ensures that the game outlives the story mode’s modest running time. By wrapping up innovation in the same platforming box that gave us some of gaming’s most beloved characters, Little Big Planet sits right at the corner of the last twenty years of gaming and the next twenty. (J)

6. The Sims

Talk about a game that changed everything about gaming. When The Sims came out, custom avatars in games was a pretty new thing. The idea of completely controlling a character in a world you create for them was revolutionary, and the game became the highest selling PC game of all time. It’s countless reiterations haven’t really expanded the concept of the game much, but they don’t need to. The Sims changed the notion of avatars and would ultimately lead to one of the biggest phenomenons in gaming, World of Warcraft. If you just look at how many games now have completely customizable characters and worlds, you’ll see just how influential The Sims was. (M)

5. Halo: Combat Evolved

At this point, a burly marine in a suit shooting at monsters has become a cliché, but none of that detracts from what a revelation Halo was in 2001. Sure, there had been first-person shooters before, but few had the scope and imagination of this one, a breeding of Aliens and Black Hawk Down, with a combat mechanic that is still as addicting as it was then. Even the series’ now ridiculous mythology is tight and functional and its online multiplayer made internet connectivity a necessity for consoles, instead of a nice add-on. The Halo DNA has been replicated and diluted, but the original still stands as an example of what can go right when game designers aim big. (J)

4. GTA: Vice City

Upping the ante set by the previous editions in the Grand Theft Auto series, GTA: Vice City helped make the franchise the juggernaut it would become. Rather than relying on a simple story of a hood rising in the ranks of the underworld, Vice City went to the 80′s to do it, allowing for the game makers to insert music, outfits, and the the general lifestyle of the decade into the game. The open-ended nature of it’s predecease, Grand Theft Auto III, was only increased, allowing the player hours of entertainment outside of the story, a trend that would continue in like minded games for years to come. (M)

3. Bioshock

Few video games have produced an hour as soaked in tension and atmosphere as the introduction to Rapture, the steam-punk via Ayn Rand dystopia at the center of Bioshock. I remember coming close to breaking a sweat as I navigated through the first encounters with the Big Daddys, Little Sisters, and Splicers that populate the now dying city. While the plotting loses a little tightness and the gameplay becomes redundant, especially in the lull between the its now-legendary twist and thematically rich climax, Bioshock’s unflinching vision of a world where avarice and creativity combine like gunpowder and a match stays with you long after you beat it. (J)

2. Rock Band

Though it was preceded the similar Guitar Hero, Rock Band broke the video game mold upon it’s debut. Combining karaoke, hand eye coordination, and everyone’s dream of being a rock god, Rock Band became an instant hit. What music fan seriously doesn’t love belting out “Gimme Shelter” or try to keep up with a Keith Moon drum solo. The game transcended the normal controller based games, with guitars, microphones, and full drum kits, setting it apart instantly. With downloadable songs, an equally fun sequel, and the amazing Beatles version that followed, Rock Band stands out as the party game of the late Aughts. (M)

1. Portal

Its rather audacious to end your video game by declaring yourself a triumph, but Portal earned it. Portal gets right so many things that most video games get wrong that its successes make a compelling case for blowing up the way we think about video games from a creative standpoint and starting over. Clocking in at between two and five hours depending how fast you work through the puzzles and how much you like to stop and take in the game’s atmosphere, it may be shorter than most games, but that brevity means it never descends into tedious redundancy. Portal eschews cut scenes and plot in favor of actual, interactive storytelling focused on character. The way GLaDOS’ personality comes through during the course of the game drawing you in bit by bit until, by the end, you actually feel a little bad for her, is nothing short of astounding. Add to that the decade’s single most impactful gaming moment (incinerating the Weighted Companion Cube), complete with its cruelest punchline (“You incinerated your faithful companion cube more quickly than any test subject on record. Congratulations.”) and some lightsaber-sharp writing, and you’ve got not just this decade’s best videogame, but perhaps the best one ever. (J)

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Filed under Best of 2000s

Tagged as Bioshock, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, EA Sports, GTA: Vice City, Half Life 2, Halo, Left 4 Dead, Little Big Planet, Mass Effect, Portal, Psychonauts, Rock Band, Super Mario Galaxy, The Godfather, The Sims, video games

by ulyssesworkman | November 30, 2009 · 3:25 pm

Best of the 2000s: Honorable Mentions

Picking best of lists for a decade is hard enough for one person, let alone two. While our year end lists (which will begin tomorrow) are pretty solid, each of us had at least one thing for each list that didn’t make the cut. So, we present to you, our honorable mentions:

Video Games
Michael: Wii Sports
When Nintendo announced the Wii, the gimmick of the motion sensor controls was revolutionary in gaming. While Nintendo has struggled to keep up with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, there was a time when Wii Sports, the free game that came with the system, was the most popular and addicting video game out there. Using custom avatars to play baseball, golf, bowling, tennis, and boxing, Wii Sports got players off the couch and into heated matches that could go on for hours. The games aren’t too challenging, but the competitive nature of them, combined with the novelty of having actual control over the movements of you characters was a winner, especially with families. Wii Sports has faded a bit as the novelty of the Wii has, but there still are few things less entertaining then holding your own Wiilympics.

Jonah: Katamari Damacy
With its absurdist concept and whacked-out gameplay, Katamari Damacy was an unlikely candidate to become a gaming phenomenon, but its success marked a new chapter in independent gaming, while its sense of humor provided a nice middle ground between dour shoot-em-ups and cartoony Mario games.

Books
Michael: Richard Russo – Empire Falls
Stuck at a dead end in a small town is not a new theme, yet in Empire Falls, Richard Russo makes it his own in a compelling story of a man forced to face his past, present and future through the power of one woman who’s controlled it all. The book centers around Miles Roby, a restaurant owner in a town depressed by the loss of a textile plant, who has a smart and precocious teenage daughter, an eccentric father, a soon to be remarried ex-wife, a millionaire widow, Mrs. Whiting, that controls his life and the town, and dozens of other townspeople. But Russo doesn’t stop there, delving into Miles’ relationship with his dead mother, her relationship with Mr. Whiting, and even high school bullying. In the end, Empire Falls is a profound exploration of life in a small, closed community, and how we handle the disappointment of ourselves and others.

Jonah: Michael Pollan – The Omnivore’s Dilemma
Fast Food Nation has all the flash and muckracking, but Pollan’s more sweeping book, framed as an examination of the preparation of four meals – ranging from fast food to a meal prepared entirely of food grown, hunted, or gathered by Pollan himself – takes a critical look at what we put on our dinner plates and the hidden cost in environmental damage and hormones. Sustainability may have replaced organic

TV Shows
Michael: Undeclared

After Freaks and Geeks was dumped by NBC and before he became the king of late 2000′s comedy, Judd Apatow served as executive producer on the short lived Undeclared on Fox. The show, about an awkward college freshman and his friends, saw Apatow and protegee Seth Rogen honing the one-liners and improvisation that would lead both of them to success with films The 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up. The show is a bit dated in some parts (Seth Rogen bragging about his flat screen monitor, main character Stephen losing an important disc), it rather perfectly captures some elements of college and transition so many students make from their high school to college selves. The show debuted after 9/11, not a prime period for comedy, and was bounced around the Fox schedule before being canceled. But there’s a lot of great material in Undeclared which, especially for fans of Apatow, should not be missed.

Jonah: The Middleman
Marooned on a network that no body cares about and tragically cut short due to a total lack of interest, The Middleman‘s blend of whimsy and nerdiness made for one of the most fun seasons of television ever. With great performances from Matt Keeslar and Natalie Morales, lightning fast dialogue, and a charming b-movie feel, The Middleman was a throwback to an earlier era of escapist television, but with a post-modern sensibility firmly entrenched in the modern day.

Film Performances
Michael: Nicholas Cage – Adaptation
Of late, Nicholas Cage’s career has mostly been full of popular fluff (National Treasuer, Ghost Rider), but with his Oscar nominated role in Spike Jonez’ Adaptation, he shows off some really great acting chops. Playing actual screenwriter Charlie Kaufman and his fictional twin brother Donald, Cage plays both the neurotic and confident characters with the same amount of intensity. So much attention was placed on Kaufman writing himself and his neuroses into the script, but the way Cage takes them in and sheds whatever image you had of him is more impressive. Though Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep also shine through in this movie, Cage is front and center giving it all in a truly memorable performance.

Jonah: Thora Birch – Ghost World
Because its set in such a peculiar, idiosyncratic universe, it would have been easy for Ghost World to descend too far into irony and parody. And it would have, were it not for the brilliant actors who inhabited Daniel Clowes characters. While Steve Buscemi gives the film a heart and Scarlett Johansson gives it a smirk, its Thora Birch who centers Ghost World. Her Enid treads the line between disatisfaction, aimlessness, and yearning, without falling into easy, sneering charicature. The result is a character who is a microcosm of the slightly surreal, but not unrecognizable teenage wasteland that Ghost World is set in.

Films
Michael: Elephant
There were certainly a lot of fantastic films over the last 10 years, and even choosing a honorable mention was incredibly hard, but my choice goes to one of the most haunting movies I’ve ever seen. Directed by Gus Van Sant, Elephant is the story of a school shooting told in the most intimate and minimal way possible. Van Sant moves his camera through the school, following a series of students (played by real high school students) as they go through their arbitrary day to day activities. By the time the shooters appear on screen, the film is nearly half over, and very little explanation as to why they go through with such a terrible act makes the film even more frightening. The roving camera and sparse score intensify the film, filling you with a sense of dread from the first shot until the terrifying last. Van Sant struck gold in the 2000s with Milk, and rightfully so, but Elephant shows an auteur letting his camera try to tell a story that words often fail to.

Jonah: Spirited Away
Most of this decade’s greatest animated films have been influenced by Hayao Miyazaki, so it’s only fair to honor the man himself with what could well be his masterpiece. A tender, whimsical piece of filmmaking that doesn’t condescend or idealize childhood, Spirited Away is in many ways Miyazaki’s most emotionally charged work. The spirit world of the film is richly detailed and fully realized, but the film’s real triumph is building a protagonist who actually resonates with what I was like as child.

Songs
Michael: “NYC” – Interpol
With the guitar echoing and Paul Bank’s deep voice filled with reverb, “NYC” is a song that floats from the speakers rather than blasts from it. Released less than a year after September 11, the song is an ode to hipsters who realize it’s time to resurrect the city they’ve leaned on for so long. This may seem like too deep of a reading into it, but “NYC” is not even a typical song by Interpol’s standards. The guitars float and echo and the song reaches a plateau rather than a peak before descending down again, a resolution of either success in fixing the city or a loss of interest. Either way, the song stays with you far longer than anything else like it.

Jonah: “The Past Is a Grotesque Animal” – Of Montreal
The break-up album is nothing new in rock and roll, but Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyed succeeded due to Kevin Barnes’ naked, emotional honesty, nowhere more so than on the records centerpiece song. He throws himself into chemicals, religion, and, ultimately, a number of unfulfilling sexual encounters, but its the album’s epic, stunning nervous breakdown/dance party that still resonates today. A sprawling ode to alienation, “The Past Is A Grotesque Animal” is an unflinching documentation of clinical depression set in a dance club, the moment where you can hear his psyche cracking and breaking. For just under 12 minutes, Kevin Barnes earned all the over-enthusiastic Bowie comparisons.

Albums
Michael: The Wrens – The Meadowlands
By the time the Wrens released The Meadowlands, even they had begun to give up the dream of rock glory. After their hostile label head halted production of their previous records in the mid-90s, their small following dwindled, and The Meadowlands arrived seven years after their previous record, Seacaus, with most of the band going back to day jobs to make ends meet. These seven hard years produced an album that is equal parts anger, regret, and longing. The Meadowlands is the sound of growing old and realizing not all the same opportunities are available anymore. Many of the songs went through various versions before the ones present on the record, but the final product is powerful and a testament to the greatness of a band that had been off the radar for too long. From the pulsing personal narrative of “Everyone Choose Sides,” to the regret ladden “13 Months in 6 Minutes,” and the bitter “Hopeless,” The Meadowlands is an over looked classic from a band that deserves more than what it got.

Jonah: The Avalanches – Since I Left You
A group of foreigners made a record in 2000 that shook listeners, tore down old walls, and presaged the direction music would move in this decade. No, I’m not talking about Kid A (yet), but instead The Avalanches’ Since I Left You. The record is a hazed-out, dreamy triumph, whose eclectic charm coheres in a way that other sample-based music can sometimes feel too piecemeal. The result is an album that feels like its own creation and not just a spin through someone’s record collection. From the joyous start of the title track to the memorable Madonna sample in “Stay Another Season,” Since I Left You feels like the start to an adventure, and in a way, it was, since it served as a launch pad for a lot of what followed in the next ten years of music.

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Filed under Best of 2000s

Tagged as adaptation, avalanches, elephant, empire falls, ghost world, interpol, katamari, michael pollan, middleman, of montreal, omnivore's dilemma, richard russo, spirited away, the wrens, undeclared, wii sports

by ulyssesworkman | November 23, 2009 · 2:18 pm

Exciting Developments for Tangled Up in Wires

Hey everyone, we’ve got some big site news to share, as well as exciting plans for the future.

First, we are proud to announce that we’ve just gone through the blogging equivalent of getting called up to AA Baseball: we registered a real domain name! So update your bookmarks to http://tangledupinwires.com You can still reach us the old way, but why would you even bother with that?

Moving on, as you know, the year 2009 is about to end and that means its my favorite time of year: listmaking season! Not only is the year ending, but so is the decade (we know, technically the decade runs from 2001-2010, but we don’t want to hear it), so Tangled Up In Wires has prepared a very exciting series wrapping up both the 2000s and this year. We’ll run down our favorite movies, books, records, TV shows, video games, and more. We’ll start our series after Thanksgiving and it will pretty much dominate the blog until the end of the year. Here, for your perusal, is the complete schedule:

Monday 11/30: Honorable Mentions for 2000s
Tuesday 12/1: Best Video Games of 2000s
Wednesday 12/2: Best Books of 2000s
Thursday 12/3: Best Television Shows of 2000s
Monday 12/7: Best Film Performances of 2000s
Tuesday 12/8: Best Films of 2000s
Wednesday 12/9: Best Songs of 2000s
Thursday 12/10: Best Albums of 2000s
Monday 12/14: 2009 The Year in Media
Tuesday 12/15: Best TV Episodes of 2009
Wednesday 12/16: Best TV of 2009
Thursday 12/17: Best Film Performances of 2009
Friday 12/18: Best Films of 2009
Monday 12/21: Best Songs of 2009
Tuesday 12/22: Best Albums of 2009

We’ll still be posting normally until Wednesday, but stay tuned after Thanksgiving for the Tangled Up in Wires Best of the Decade. Thanks for reading!

Category Archives: Best of 2000s

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best Films

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best Film Performances

Best of the 2000s: The 25 Best TV Shows

Best of the 2000s: The 15 Best Books

The 2000s in Gaming: She Said I’ve Lost Control Again

Best of the 2000s: The 15 Best Video Games

Best of the 2000s: Honorable Mentions

Exciting Developments for Tangled Up in Wires

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