Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

"Ha Ow! Ow!" yes with those words the greatest dance track of 2005 and one of the greatest albums in recent memory kicked off and took the world by storm. The track itself Daft Punk Is Playing At My House needs no description, I know it's awesome, you know its awesome, it might has well have been an ironic statement because as of 2005 its not

Daft Punk that everyone wants to play their house party its James Murphy. Seriously how cool is this man? He can't be real can he? No one human can make records this slick, this cool, and this credible its not fair is it. I'm listening to Tribulations as I write this and it's just better than everything else. Seriously BETTER electro/dance no one can touch this man, it's got the cool vocals of the Eurythmics and one of those nonchalantly ice cool beats that Murphy seems to have copyrighted its incredible. Does the album have weaknesses? Yeah a couple, like all dance records the tracks are looooooong (especially towards the end) but not pointlessly so, and Murphy doesn't appear to have that much to say or much of a voice, however both these issues would be washed away by Sound Of Silver and now as a companion piece LCD Soundsystem stands out as his ice cool ironic party record. But let's not end on a weakness lets end on a strenght, Losing My Edge could there be a better track than this? No its awesome, and as Murphy of course knows he's not losing his Edge he's miles ahead of the nearest competition.

There's a golden rule when it comes to rap music: rappers should never produce, and producers should never rap. It holds pretty true just look at Timberland and Doctor Dre, but Kanye broke the mold, not only is he one of the world's greatest producers, for a three year patch he was the greatest rapper alive. This his debut album showed thatt not only did he have mega slick production, cool and crazy skills on the mic but Kanye was someone with something to say. Before he was slamming President Bush he was telling us heartbreaking stories none better than the sublime Behind The Wire. Finally we had our replacement Eminem someone would could give us a party stomper just as easily as he could give us a scathingly vital work of songwritting genius. Whatsmore, just like Em he could do both at once, and he did it sublimely on the earth shaking Jesus Walks a contender for rap track of the decade. Even when Kanye was being silly he still provided scathing social comentary, see Workout Plan, Kanye gives us a bouncy singalong while simultaniously critiquing the Heat magazine/gold digger/weight loss society. Kanye had it all, and he came flying out of the blocks and overtook all the competition.

Noah Lennox of Animal Collective fame is one of those guys who can't just settle for being in one mind blowingly awesome band he has to step out on his own and blow our minds all over again. Person Pitch is a masterfully created work, tying together some intriguing loops of music to created some beautiful sun drench psychodelia. The vocals are reminiscent of the Beach Boys, seriously on a side note if your American psych you have to sound like the Beach Boys, if your British its Beatles or Bowie, seriously someone has to create a new vocal style for this genre. Anyway back to topic this is a true artistic album, and that does start the alarm bells of inaccesibility ringing, and it isn't the most engaging album ever, but it is very uplifting and the arrangements and the way the samples come together are very special. Take a listen to Search For Delicious it starts with a down pour of rain and ends up as a huanting ghostly spectre stuck inside a video recorder, trippy as hell but utterly brilliant. The fact that that mind trip then blends straight into the hazy sunny folk of Ponytail is beyond delightful. Person Pitch will be a tough nut to crack for some but believe me its worth the investment.

So who won the Brit Pop War? Who was the best band? The Best Artist? Well the answer is simple BLUR by a country mile and in particular Damon Albarn (although Graham Coxon's solo albums beat anything Oasis have done in the last ten years hands down). It's not even close after the mediocre start of Leisure all those years back, Damon has never released a bad album, everything he's done has been awesome. He knew Brit pop and lame lad rock had had its day by 1996 and in 13 and Think Tank produced two great albums, he was being Radiohead before Radiohead were Radiohead. Damon didn't stop their he created Gorillaz and set about reshaping pop music with what seemed like a novelty concept A Cartoon Band but it was genius, he could stop being Damon Albarn of Blur and start doing whatever the hell he wanted. This of course had mixed results and ups and downs but on Demon Days the hits really stacked up and he brought us some of the best pop music of the decade, whether it was concouring the dance floors with Shaun Ryder or blending Rap and electronic beats or whether it was the genius of whatever the fuck Feel Good Inc. is supposed to be. Depressed lyrics + Del A Soul + beautiful melodic chorus = Mind Boggling Genius. Results may vary, but they vary from Brilliant to awesome.

What were we (well not me, I was smart) smoking in 2003? How did this album go underapprecaited? Too samey they said, not enough development they said, it came around too fast? Honestly what the fuck? Well they all look like fools now because beyond the Strokes backlash, because God knows if a band is great, save music and put out a killer album, 50% of people have to suddenly start disliking them, because shock horror their not my little secret anymore, well those scenester deuches have all turned around seemingly, as when a DJ drops Reptillia the dance floor goes from deserted to filled in less time than it takes Amy Winehouse to shoot up. Anyway rant over, the dust has settled and what remains is a mind blowing album, that perfectly compliments Is This It. The grass roots cool production is still there, this feels like a proper indy record. Julian has certainly learnt some new tricks, that's right he fancy himself a soul crooner (Between Love Hate, Automatic Stop, Under Control). Nick in the meantime continues to lay down some cool arse riffs, on an album that really kicks hard. What Ever Happened? Is possibly my favorite album opener of all time, it so immediate and so well written "I wanna be forgotten, And I Don't Want To Be Reminded" Julian has a knack of dropping these killer cuplets out of nowhere. He still has pretty much nothing to say though, he subsequently admitted and parodied himself on Ask Me Anything crooning "I've Got Nothing To Say". However on Room On Fire this is beside the point, what the Strokes produced is a sharp, minimalist and suprising soulful record. A true classic that flew under the radar.

Its a tough job but if I had to pick the best Rap act of the decade but for me Outkast win it hands down and its mostly because of this album. This was a total electic suprise of an

album, it has seemingly bottomless death, they can go from a viseral audio assualt to a funk pop odyssey in the space of two tracks. This is apparently from the world go you put the album on and you get your electro intro and then WHAM!!! you get punched full pelt in the face by the raw primal rage of Gasoline when Big Boi and Andre get angry and have something to say no one can stop these guys, but before you can get your moshing boots on they slide right into the

ridiculously sublime So Fresh So Clean and you'll be finger clicking and sliding with a big wide smile on your face. The album is full of contrasts going from the pop gem of Ms. Jackson to that gangsta ragga of Snappin' and Trappin'. Its great stuff, throughout but while Outkast are pretty much awesome at whatever they turn their hands to they remain at their best when they have fire in their belly and Gasoline and Bombs Over Baghdad remain their best tracks. Its a real tragedy that the aggressive element has slowly dissapeared from Outkast records. This was a career high

watermark.

Some times you have to go backwards to go forwards, or more accurately, in Justice's case, sometimes you have to go backwards to stop other people from going forwards in the wrong dirrection. When Justice started lighting up the world in 2006/7 with the remix of Simain Mobile Disco's We Are Your Friends there was a certain air of familiarity, two french dudes with ice cool stainless steel beats tearing up the dance floors of the nation with the coolest beats around. Yes there's is absolutely no secret that Justice's biggest influence is those loveable french Robots Daft Punk, and while normally this fargrant lack of a originality would be a weakness, this is dance music where everything is recycled and everything ultimately ends up back with Kraftwerk anyway. While Daft Punk were away making Avante Guard art house films Justice got on with rocking our socks with some of the hotest dance music ever dropped, just like Daft Punk they loved the cheesey hooks and D.A.N.C.E, DVNO and Flithy Party became instantly bedded in anyself respecting Deejay's setlist. However it was the Robot Rock of Phantom Part II that really thrilled us, with its siving steaming beats. So they may not be all that original but thank the lord for Justice they saved our beloved dancefloors from Cascada, and for that we will be forever grateful.

It must be so frustrating for Oasis, Blur, Arctic Monkeys and hell even Kings Of Leon that no matter how hard they try, how big popular and brilliant the records they make are, over the pond in US they just don't care, they can't really catch fire for more than a month here and a fortnight there. What must make it even more frustrating that out of all the great bands in the world, the American's chose to get Radiohead. It's a suprise really, it's not at all American, its very subtly, moody, depressing and paranoid, I mean it's hardly Creedence. Even more baffling the US loved Amnesiac more than they love Whatever People Say and Parklife. Why exactly? I'm not exactly sure, everything about Radiohead and thier 21st Century output says its inaccessible it shouldn't be liked, the mainstream shouldn't embrace it, but they do. Ultimately it comes down to two things, one Radiohead are bloody brilliant, but secondly Radiohead are universally cool. No I'm not joking Radiohead are cool, trust me tell someone you love Amnesiac and you get instant cool points, they same way you get kudos for slamming whoever the current media darlings are. How many people really get Amnesiac no one really knows, but the sparse and beautiful sister record to Kid A is filled with delights for those willing to commit. It's chaotic, detached and has an uneasy flow seperating it from the brilliance of Kid A however this record is far beyond inaccessibly. One listen to the sublime guitar hook of I Might Be Wrong and you instantly become a slave to the rythem, then of course there's Pryamid Song possible Radiohead's best song, and certainly there most beautiful. Amnesiac will always be the ugly stepsister of Kid A but if you spent the time to get to know her she's got a great personality and true inner beauty.

This has been a pretty sorry decade to be a metal fan. Look around survey the scene where have all the heroes gone? The world straddling alchohol fueled pomp of hair metal died long ago when Axl Rose went insanse, the heart wrenching honesty of Grunge burnt out with a shotgun blast, and Rap metal, well rap metal was anything but heroic. I'm mean sure Limp Bizkit were heroes to some (and I'd be lying if I tried to deny accusations of having done the rollin' dance in a club or two) but honestly can you really glorify idiots shouting "I did it all for the Nookie, so you can take that cookie and shove it up your arse"? No of course not, to make matters worse the heroes of old either became embarsingly bad (see Metallica) or become reality TV parodies of themselves (see Ozzy Osborne), the new crop showed some promise but never quite delivered Linkin Part were big enough but not good enough, and Bullet & Trivium for all their promise never threatened to be great. However in the background a series of hard working talented bands just got on with doing what they do and producing great records until people were forced to take notice. Mastadon are the perfect example of this, their too weird, to be as big as Linkin Park or My Chemical Romance but by churning out consistantly awesome albums; Megalodon, Blood Mountain and finally Crack The Skye they've made it as close to the big time as their ever going to get. Finally a band Metal fans can love and respect, by all rights Blood Mountain should have made the list on merit but it's their most resent opus that sees them take top spot among (non emo) metal bands in the top 100. With there isnanely techinical guitar playing, expansive prog and some non screamy and suitably widescreen vocals they've craved out a niche atop the metal mountian. This is their most accesible record to date with the prog reigned in on singles Oblivion and Divinations to dare I say it make for catchy songs, and then the prog is free to roam free on the albums centrepeice The Czar which serves as a microcosm of the album as a whole. The decade started badly for metal but it ended on a high note thanks to Mastadon.

So here's a question for you? How do you go from cooky critic's favorites to mainstream superstars without losing a jot of credibility? How do you get pretentious Camden scenesters and loud mouth football fans to sing your anthems in the same breath? The answer? Release Elephant. Because with this release Whites Stripes did all of the above and much much more. It seemed improbable coming out of the 1990s that a guy who looks like he hasn't seen the sun in his entire life, who has a fancy for old school blues and ye olde country/folk music and his wife/sister/lover who can't drum a lick would end up the world's biggest rock superstars and be headlining Glastonbury without a single descenting voice. It's was a truely amazing occurance. But then again the White Stripes are a truely amazing band. Jack White's haunting voice that can display tender fragility, aggresive wrath or jokey sing along irony ticked all the boxes. Pop fans could sing along, metallers could mosh or roar and the critics could reveal in his soulful song writing. Then there was Jack's guitar, whether it was primal blues, supersized riffing or relentless shredding, it always hit the spot. Jack White is this decades guitar hero, he doesn't wank off like Slash or Hammett, Jack just rocks with dirty bluesy passion. On Elephant the Stripes sandwhiched classic song writing inbetween monsterous pop anthems everytime their was an eloquent There's No Home For You Hear or I Want To Be The Boy there was a poptacular Seven Nation Army or Hardest Button and if the album was getting a bit slow a ligthening bolt in the form Black Math or Hypnotize was ready and waiting. Elephant: how to make friends without alienating people, or comprimising your intergrity.

Nu-Metal didn't go down without a fight, and when the Strokes rolled around with Is This It nu-metal sent out its biggest and boldest to fight the good fight, and Slipknot's Iowa beat the Strokes to the top of the album chart. In hindsight it seems like absolute madness but at the time it was just a mark of the times, Nu-Metal was big Indie Rock not so. While we may look back and scratch our heads it should be remembered that Slipknot beat the Strokes in the charts with a damn good album. A dark, agressive, and in many ways uncomprimising album but you could already see the seeds of world domination being shown. Iowa was loaded with smash hits (well the metal equivalent of) Heretic Anthem, Disaster Piece, Left Behind and People = Shit firmly established Slipknot as Metal's new hit makers. While this was the last of the near inaccessible Slipknot albums it was also the first spark of what was to come. Iowa showed the world that while Slipknot were still perfecting the formula that they could and would over come rap metal wankery and become a genuine phemoninon in there own right.

Sometimes a lady comes along with a voice so tremendous and powerful everyone has to take notice, in 2001 Norah Jones was that lady. However she was packing a one two punch not just a gorgeous voice but a great song writting talent. Come Away With Me is a wonderfully crafted album supplying us with some of the greatest ballads in recent years including the title track and the stand out single I Don't Know Why I Didn't Come. Norah's greatest gift is her minimalism, the arrangements a subtly, she never over sings, this is cool cold relaxed soul, the way it should be. There's no horrible warblings, it's a straight up album with real soul, unlike then soulite pop filling the charts, unlike Duffy this is a lady who actually has something to say. Was their a better line written this decade than "My Soul Is Drenched In Wine", I think not. One Dimensional, yes, brilliant, you better believe it.

Once in a while a special talent comes along who is outside the tradition boundaries of the mainstream but whose work is so undeniable, so strong and ultimately so special that it cannot be denied. I Am A Bird Now nearly escaped the public eye despite raving five star reviews but thankfully the Mercury panel proved that once in a while they get it right. Before the show many were scratching there heads wondering who and why Antony Hegarty was sitting aside Kaiser Chiefs and Bloc Party but when the lights dimmed, Antony cut an uncomfortable and brooding sitting at his piano and he delivered one of the most spectacular performances in BBC history. By the time Hope There's Someone last note had sounded with his piercing ghostly falsetto had silenced any critics, all the doubters were silenced. The album consists of ten tender ballads, each more powerful than the last, and with those ten tracks he proved that on his day even the most unlikely underdogs can win it big and become a mainstream star.

Biffy Clyro had had a long and moderately successful career, carving there way through the Hard Rock ranks with some big tunes, cool riffs, thundering drums and some classic rock vocals, however they never quite managed to put it all together. They always fell slightly short, a snipet of a great riff here, and big chorus there, but they never quite came together and it seemed that Biffy had plateaued. This was until Puzzle when it all fell into place (argh bloody puns), the guitars thrashed, the drums crashed and Simon laid down some of his biggest and best vocals, everything just clicked as if by magic. Biffy rewrote their entire back catalogue they had their new Epic (Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies), the chart smash sing alongs (Whose Got A Match, Semi Mental) and a huge power ballads (Machines). This wasn't just a collection of big singles this was a fantastic fully formed hard rock album brimming with stonking great tunes, finally hard rock was making it presence felt in the decade.

Dave Sitek is a genius right? I don't think'll I'll get many arguments with that asserstion, song writer and producer extrodianare as well as general arty type (he's a photographer and painter as well). So we all knew what to expect from TV on the Radio's latest album nothing short of brilliance, and they absolutely delivered. A tremendous album that stretches it artistic wings in many dirrections but never feels overstretched or unnatural, this is an album that hangs together well, with an overidding theme of frustration and melocholy. The production is superb but that's a given what really impresses here is the accessiblity of the record. Dear Science is not an art piece to listen to once, be amazed by and then put away in favour of the latest (yawn) Kasabian record, no this is an album you can listen to again and again and again. It has some fun stomping tracks (Dancing Choose, Red Dress, Lovers Day), an epic centre peice (Golden Age) and some beautiful haunting ballads (Stork and Owl, Family Tree). An album that strikes the perfect balance between arty excellence and accesible awesomeness.

When any genre goes supernova as Indy did in 2001 you get alot of new bands riding the wave into the mainstream, sometimes allowing for brilliant creativity, great

albums, and big stars but most of the time alot of bland uninteresting copycats get an undeserved audience. Bloc Party certianly fall into the former catagory, a multi-cultural band of highly intelligent dare I say nerds (well the king of the Bone Heads Liam Gallagher does) they burst onto the scene in 2004 with the amazing lead of single Helicopter and it was a sign of what was to come. Sharp jerky guitars, huge primal chantable choruses and a thundering rhythm section. Silent Alarm was loaded from top to bottom with anthems, still to this very day you could play any track of this album in a rock club and fill the dance floor in a second. Honestly how do you pick the singles on this album it's all killer. However rock stompers aside this is an album of subtly and grace, behind the bluster of Helicopter, Banquet, Positive Tension and the rest, lay tracks of true beauty and brilliance. The superb Price Of Gas a track that for some bizzare reason they never play live and their first hit single the wonderful So Here We Are showed that Kele and co were not just hit makers but superb musicians and songsmiths in there own right. They may have ended up a band of diminishing returns but in 2005 Bloc Party were the perfect band.

When people look back at music in twenty years they will likely remember the Libertines far more for their style and infulence than the music they made, I mean we all probably overated them a little at the time, desperate for our own British Strokes, and who could blame us. The self titled second album is the bands farewell peice (reunion pending), and across the album you could see the divide between the destructive tension of the band, displayed on lead of single Can't Stand Me Now and the semi romantic songwriting comeradery that held the band together, best seen on final single What Became of the Likely Lads. In hindsight its amazing that in the height of George Bush and Gordon Brown era the country fell for the Libertines romanticised views of old Albion, in many ways they seem so silly now, compared to the bleak reality presented on Whatever People Say I Am That Is What I'm Not. Dated or not, the Libertines had a great songwritting chemistry and had the knack for the great three minute pop song, and their final album was filled to the brim with great sing along tunes, it almost feels like reminiscing on fond memories of long ago when listening to the superb Last Post On The Bugle. Ah the good old days, so maybe they weren't so good, but memories were always better than reality anyway.

It was so hard to pick which Basement Jaxx album would make the top 100 I really couldn't justify two, so it was either Rooty or Kish Kash. I plonked for Rooty, ironically not because it's the better album, Kish Kash hangs together better and has less of the clunkers that inevitably come along with dance albums but simply put Rooty had more BIG tunes. Ultimately that is what a dance record is all about, they are rarely listened through in their entirity, people pick out the big tracks, they mix them into sets, and sample them. Now this isn't universally true, I'm sure Justice and Daft Punk are enraged by the thought that their albums are not listen to in full, but for Basement Jaxx it is. The Jaxx are wonderfully creative, they never follow trends even to this day rather than making a lame Euro dance track or a Van Helden stomper in the style of Bonkers or Wearing My Rolex they bring out the wonderfully ecletic Raindrops. The same was true back in 2003 Basement Jaxx weren't ahead of the game they were playing a completely different game all together, don't believe me go back to Romeo, Just 1 Kiss or the barn storming Where's Your Head At and then try and tell me the Jaxx are on the same planet as (shudders) FreeMasons.

I always doubted Jay Z's claim to be the greatest of all time, but I'm quite clearly in the minority. While I still think Jay is very much overated after seeing his live shows and his triumphant performance at Glastonbury, I turned around on him somewhat. I'd already turned around and become a fan when he dropped The Black Album it was Jay Z's mainstream masterpeice, sure he had had hits before but he'd never been the centre peice of the industry when it came to number one slots and dancefloor fillers but that all changed with this album. He had a string of aces hiding up his sleeve 99 Problems, Encore and best of all Dirt Off Your Shoulder these were tracks that stomp and rocked and were danceable but most importantly they were lyrically and musically sharp as a tack, he proved that the dancefloor and intellengence go together. Had this been his last album it'd of been a master stroke, but he couldn't resist, and that taints this album a little, but not much, it remains his mainstream masterpeice.

Well I've already written about the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Dave Sitek but for many reasons this remains their career defining work, the moment that both could say they were apart of the coolest record on earth, because back in 2003 Fever To Tell was the absolute zenith. I remember when I first heard Y Control I couldn't believe it the guitar line was hypnotic and Karen O's voice was so amazing, powerful and cool, I thought she had to be the sexiest woman on the face of the earth. Unfortunately I was bitterly dissapointed, but she does have a sexy cool voice, and incredible cool factor. As I alluded to earlier there are two cornerstones of this band Karen's voice/primal energy and Nick Zimmer's guitar. Seriously whenever this man touches the guitar (or keyboard as we'd find out later) great riffs and sexy guitar lines ring out endlessly. But let us not forget for all the animalistic punk and sexy riffs of Tick, Man and Date With The Night it was Maps that stopped the music world dead in its tracks. A ballad so perfect, it has yet to be topped by the latest wave of indy popsters. Maps looks destined to take its place alongside Love Will Tear Us Apart as one of the greatests alternate love songs. A tremdous highlight to a stunning album.

When Funeral turned the music world on its head in 2004 it seemed impossible that music could possibly have existed without Arcade Fire. Come 2007 the whole world is ready, and the whole world is waiting, could they do it again, dare I say it could they top it? Of course not, not even close, how could anybody, but what Win Butler and co did do is release one hell of an album. It was darker, it was grimer, an at times it was terrifying. One listen to Black Mirror and I bet alot of Guardian and Telegraph readers where thinking what the fuck? But stick around give it a few spins and a jabbing, thursting, bludgoning anthem was revealed. Neon Bible was a perfect title, as this album, combined with the live show, saw Win Butler become the wild eyed preacher deriding the neon house of flith. Now you might be thinking this sounds pretty insane, but fear not the beautiful arrangements and monsterous anthems that turned us on to the Fire in the first place are still there in the form of Keep The Car Running, Intervention and No Cars Go. They made not have shined so bright, but how on earth do you shine brighter than a supernova? Funeral or not this is a worthy successor and in Windowsill they had a track that could sit along shoulder to shoulder their best work.

When this album came out it seemed improbable to think just how far Kings Of Leon would go, they seemed doomed to always be the brides maid, playing below Muse and Razorlight twice! But one listen to this album and it was apparent that these boys were going places. Whether it was the southern stomp of King Of The Radio, the shout-scream-pogoathon of Four Kicks, the subtly beauty of Milk, Soft and Razz or whether it was the smash hit The Bucket it was clear that Kings Of Leon were destined for world domination. You could jump up and down, mosh, cry, put your arms around your best mates and sing along, shout your lungs out, or play it to your little sister or one of your Atomic Kitten loving mates and they could sing everyword. The stand out track was undoubtably Milk soulful and sublime even if it did borrow from Santana, Caleb's howl never sounded better or more tragic.

Back before he was the status quo Timberland was very much the outsider making delicious funky pop music. When he combined forces with Missy Elliott they simply created the best pop music in the world at that point in time. It would take five years before Nelly Furtado, Justin Timberlake and Madonna would catch on to the awesomeness of Missy's off the wall rap/dance/pop and Timberland's slick production. While I have to admit I rarely go around blasting out Missy Elliott records these days, but back in 2001 there was literally no alternate, Rock was wank, Pop was wank, Metal was wank, Dance was pretty good, and well the Strokes were just begining to catch fire. Thankfully we had Missy Elliott to provide the funkiest, catchiest, most danceable party tunes ever imaginable. Her style may seem dated now but after a decade of innovation Missy earns her place in this list with an album of monsterous tunage.

The late 90s weren't good for much but they were good for Dance music, Daft Punk were blowing up and redifining the very essence of awesomeness, The Chemical Brothers and Basement Jaxx seemed to come out with a brand new club banger each and every week, however in the back ground while all this was going on The Avalanches released Since I Left You. A landmark record at the time, as the art of sampling and creating a track out of basically nothing was just about to peak and the Avalanches did it better than any, while DJ Shadow made beautiful music the Avalanches said fuck that and brought you some stomping sing along fun, so what if it had more than just a little whiff of fromage, just remember back to when you first heard Frontier Psychariatrist and you'll damn sure know why this album makes the list.

So if your American you haven't really had much to shout about this century, all your best bands seem to have gone largely unappreacaited in America and instead come to the UK to play in front of huge crowds who sing back every word. Artistically however the US has had many triumphs an Animal Collective fall firmly in that catagory, working tireless producing a impressive body of work culminating in this most recent release. Psychodelia is back! On the one hand you have Panda Bear and Animal Collective turning out great albums and on the other you have MGMT bring their wide screen psych-pop to the masses and ruling the charts. It's once again cool to be a hippy. Animal Collective string together on Merriweather... one

of their longest and most impressive albums, but also one of their most accesible, the arrangements are constantly delightful, uplifting and incredibly well layered. It brings back fond memories of The Beatles or The Beach Boys tripping and laying down some wonderfully creative wacky but always catchy music. Complex yet Immediate, a staggering work.

So what was the most Pussy Whipped Genre of the noughties? Don't know? Times up....punk, seriously could there have been a more pathetic genre than Punk, it had lost all of its spirit and rebelious attitude that had been taken by Rap a long long time ago. So what did we have then? So Cal Pop Punk; Offspring were fading, Green Day were basically U2, Blink had the common sense to pack it in, and what was left.....Simple Plan, New Found Glory, Sum 41....ugh. Honestly give Sound Of The Underground by Girls Aloud a spin they conjure more punk rock spirit in a pre produce four minutes than any punk record had in ten years. So thank the lord when Gallows emerged from the dirty, sweaty, smelly abyss in 2006, finally some angry, agressive punk that was hardcore and best of all people loved it! They'd been waiting for a record like this for so long, Gallows went on to steal the show at every festival they attended with these ripsnorting anthems. One listen to the 3;41 seconds of Adbandon Ship and everything that had gone before was killed dead, Hardcore had its new Heroes.

The Strokes with Is This It had turned the world on its head and made New York City again the world centre of cool. But could there followers live up to the keep their torch alight? Of course they could enter Interpol and enter Miss Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Show Your Bones the Yeah Yeah Yeahs second LP truly showcased the greatest weapon in their arsenal Karen O's voice, going with ease from Haunting anthems (Gold Lion), Pop Stompers (Cheated Hearts), Disco Diverism (Honeybear) however this album was desperately lacked Karen's primal scream. Regardless Show Your Bones was a triumph a smoothing out of the rough and ready energy of the Yeahs into a smooth catchy and accesible album. Not their most exciting, but certianly one of their best loved, that's loaded from top to bottom with sublime tracks. And of course Nick Zimmer providing the coolest riffs in indie rock, not convinced? Check out the well...phenomenal Phenomena.

I do wonder how James Allan is still alive honestly, how can he have such tragic, depressing and heart wrenching stories swirling around in his head and not commit suicide. Because there has never been such a heart breaking debut in rock history this is just moving music. Stripped down, europhic anthems, heartbreak really never has sounded so good. The album is more than just one dimensional ballads however there's the U2eske monster rocker of Geraldine, has there ever been a better written throwaway single than this, the story of Social worker, it's loaded with jaw dropping lyricism "When You Said That I Am No Good Then I Felt Like Walking, I Hope You Know That's Just The Prescription Talking". Then there's the terrace romp of Go Square Go, but lets not kid ourselve this album is all about the ballads the brilliant Daddy's Gone, It's My Own Hearting Heart That Makes Me Cry and best of all the bravest single in modern musical history Flowers and Football Tops. Emotional, Visercal, Hearkbreakingly and anthemic, Glasvegas are a special band, how Starsailor can even exist after this is beyond comprension. Glasvegas are peerless.

So I'm back again with the second installment, and as of the last edition I can inform you that no new albums have yet forced there way into the pantheon of the GODS!!! Enough Dilly Dallying on with the show, away we go.

Keep in mind this is my list! I will try to be fair, I haven't listened to every album of the last ten years, and I will certianly pick albums that mean the most to me, but I while endeavour to pick not simply the artistically best album but also the most important, culturally, and those whose infulence spreads far and beyond their immediate peers. Also Historical significance will factor hugely, I'm sure that will give away at least two of the picks.

Just incase you weren't 100% sure whose list this is we start with a Morrissey record. The first decade of the noughties marked the triumphant return of Morrissey with I Am The Quarry he was welcomed with open arms and came out firing with two of his greatest ever singles Irish Blood and First Of The Gang. Yet it was not a great album, filler surrounding great singles, Ringleader was the first good album of his return, with lush operatic arrangements as seen on the blugdening Life Is A Pigsty, and some awesome singles most prominently You Have Killed Me. The album hung together nicely, and was suitably over the top, seeing Morrissey exploring themes of sex "I have explosive kegs betwixt my legs", funny stuff. A classic no, but the return to form of a nation treasure.

This was a tough call, I left out alot of albums, good albums, to give Vida La Vida its place, but ultimately it came down to a shoot out between U2's No Line and this album, and Coldplay won out. The two albums draw parrell not just because they have the same producer but because both albums showed two of the World's biggest bands attempting to flex their creative muscles, but not too much. Coldplay won out, because Vida La Vida was braver, bolder and frankly much more exciting. It had big arrangements with strings, african drums and a noticable lack of guitar hooks. But for all there experimentation their still the syrupy songwriters who brought us the limp but massively popular X & Y and Chris Martin just can't help but write huge pop songs. They may be chessey but unlike U2 they've shown genuinely revolutionary spirit and I'd rather hear Vida La Vida and Violet Hill anyday than anything by the fucking Script.

Here we have the first album that I don't particularly like that's made the top 100, infact it may be the only album I'm not a fan of in the list. However no top 100 list could be complete without it. This was the album that took all the hard work of the three previous efforts, which had got steadily more superb with each and every release, and turned Kings Of Leon into the biggest band in the world. Effectively this album turned King's of Leon from the Southern Strokes/Pixies (Strokies?) into U2. Oozing with massive stadium sized anthems Sex On Fire, Use Somebody, Crawl, etc... Whether they will continue to rule the world and slide artistically remains to be seen but this is the moment Kings Of Leon became a big fucking deal, and your kid sister probably started listening to them.