Daveportivo's Cultural Evaluation Facility

What is the story of this album, what does it really have to say? In short not very much, unlike Kanye's previous offerings Graduation doesn't have that fire in it's belly, you don't feel like your getting great stories, inspirational messages or scathing commentary instead what Kanye delivered was effectively a party record. This album is loaded with tunes from start to finish, it's positively stacked, and it's produced incredibly slicky, and that has always been Kanye's greatest gift, his albums sound amazingly, they flow perfectly from place to place and in many ways this may be his best in that respect. You've been taken on a musical journey what you were supposed to have learnt or uncovered from this journey? Who cares when its sounds this good, put Flashing Lights on and you'll forget all your complaints, Kanye's music already sounds timeless, because cool is forever, so we'll excuse the dissapointment of his collaberation with Daft Punk, apparently Genius + Genius = Bland Commercial Smash. Kanye would find his inspiration again but unlike Eminem when he ran out of things to say Kanye upped his game.

Similar to Black Holes & Revelations something in me really wanted to leave this record out of the top 100 but I couldn't it's just too important to the fabric of 21st Century music. The problem with this album is simply, when we heard American Idiot the single for the first time, it was like being punched in the face, it was urgent, it was immediate, at last a band with something to say and a tune to boot. Green Day were going to be Punks champions fighting off the Evil George Bush. However when it came to the album we found out Green Day didn't have much to say, superficial outrage and agnst. Their sentiments one dimensional and repeatitive, Green Day were the annoying bloke who when having a political debate, has his point counter argued and in responds all he can do is shout the same statements over an over. However Green Day had a trump card, social dissolusionment, tracks like Jesus of Suburbia ultimately spoke louder than American Idiot. When all was said and done Green Day failed to produce an epic and instead produced a bloated opus, but if Green Day forgot how to play all their other songs tomorrow they could tour on this album forever because at its heart were a series of monsterous pop songs whose immediacy cannot be denied.

In 2006 Thom Yorke strode out alone, leaving behind the cloak of Radiohead, he was garenteed a huge audience but could he pull it off alone, without Johnny Greenwood's outer spacial guitar and creative mind to bounce off, could he live up to the expectation? Of course he bloody could, he's Thom Yorke he is the strange creepy little musical superstar, this man just cannot fail. The Eraser certianly felt familiar, feeling like the heir to Kid A haunting and beautiful. Dark, cold and haunting yet beautiful and fragile, an absolute triumph. However unlike Kid A this was an accessible album that had it's great sweeping anthems none more powerful than the beautiful lead single Harrowdown Hill. The song written in response to the murder of Doctor David Kelly, it remains the best work of the Blair-Bush era paranoia. Brought in with a funky guitar riff before the sythetic beats are laid over the top with Thom's sublime vocals, an anthem for those who wish to reclaim their voice and their civil liberties, "We think the same things at the same time, we just can't do anything about it", talk about hitting the nail thoroughly on the head. Beautiful.

During the course of this list we've already talked about the regeneration of pop in this decade, coming out from the shadow of Michael Jackson and Abba and once again coming into its own. No album sums up this reinvention like St. Elsewhere its sychofrenic, it takes its infulences from funk, soul and motown and mixes it with beats and production so sharp it'd make Daft Punk blush (can robots blush anyway?). The big story of this decade in many ways was the rise of the music download, when the meaning and value of albums was degraded....blah...blah...bollocks! Danger Mouse and Ceo-lo spawned the first ever download only number one with the sensational Crazy. But people chose to not just pick and choose but bought this album in huge numbers and were rewarded in doing so with some of the slickest production ever, great beats, killer hooks and irresistable grooves. An album that makes you smile and makes you want to dance in equal measure, sometimes that's all you want in life, Gnarls Barkley know this, and they deliver, big time.

2001 was a tough year for metal, rap metal was still going strong, Limp Bizkit ruled the waves, Linkin Park were more paletable but infinitely more bland, and Korn were....well...complete arse and worst/best of all (depending on which side of the fence of you sit) five guys from New York who looked like models and rocked like the Ramones were about to put the final nail in the coffin. In the middle of this shitstorm lay Tool, loved by many but never quite accepted anywhere, Lateralus was well a Tool record, that's kind of a back handed complement but after 10, 000 Days the holding pattern of Lateralus feels like nirvana (the state of mind, not the band). It had everything you wanted from a Tool album big dirty dare I say sexy baselines, brooding epics that grew and grew and grew and of course Maynard warbling allover the place on whatever weird and wacky subject that is rattling around in his strange old head. It may be Prog that didn't really Progress, but Tool made a Tool record, and they made a damn fine Tool record at that (unfortunately it took Metallica nearly two decades to figure out that simple formula).

Many would consider this album a barmy choice, much debated at the time Uncut gave it a five star review and many high marks followed, but the record was derided by the likes of NME and Pitchfork for being heartless and the sound of selling out. However they really miss the point, this album isn't about making an artistic rock and roll rebelious statement, it's not about going main stream either, its simply music for a lovely sunny day. I defy anyone to walk through town (in my case Canterbury) on a summers day listening to Under The Back Light and not just drift away into a relaxed state of bliss. Musically it draws immediate comparison to Fleetwood Mac but beneath that the album has it's Motown moments, funk blasts, dances grooves, rock twangs, Latino vibes, country crooning and a sprinkle Beach Boys innocence, counter balenced with some more sinster themes. Now, was that list long enough? Well I could go on, this is a varied album, that rarely misfires, a contradiction, a jack of all trades that holds it together on an ethereal thread that floats like a cloud. Ultimately disregard the politicing, this album just feels right.

Isn't it just great when a bit of old fashion DIY dance smashes it's way into the charts and takes the nation by storm. When Over and Over finally took over the mainstream I think outsiders everywhere put there fists in the air and said "fuck yeah". So it was over played, in fact it was played "over and over" ha ha ha...etc. but it never really got old, it felt like a triumph, you loved seeing the same people who sing along with Basshunter or who thing Tiesto is the be all and end all, throwing shapes to Hot Chip. This was a bunch of lads in their room messing around and creating both art and music for the masses in one fell swoop. The new New Order? The latest post-post-post Kraftwerk band who cares, The Warning brought the electro album back, made by the un-cool kids, just like those four famous German's all so long long ago. However unlike Kraftwerk this album had a living breathing heart and soul, as shown on stand out single/track/anthem/whatever Boy From School, "We Try But We Don't Belong", fragile, tender, heartbreaking and perfect.

It restores your faith in music when some

one so different, creative and unique as Joanna Newsom can put out an album and be a star in 2006. Ys is made up of five tracks all very long of course, but they never over stay there welcome, they take you on a journey, they tell a story, and that is ultimately what this album is, five wonderful fantasy tales. Each story is told through the medium of a folk opera, with big brave bold gorgeous arrangements. Honestly this album is just tone perfect you feel like you could be walking in middle earth or have fallen into a Jack Vance novel. The star of the show however is Joanna's voice, it is the one constant, it emotes everyword, every action, every lush landscape and emotion. It's a very unique voice, both powerful and fragile, and perfectly suited to the stories she tells. Everyone will have a different favorite but mine is Emily, I never in a million years thought I'd catch myself singing "The Metoarite is the source of the light, And the Metoarite is just what we see, and the Metoarite is a stone that's devoid of the fire that proppelled it to thee" but I did, and that's as big a compliment as I can pay to Joanna Newsom's artistry.

Okay so I have to admit this probably won't be making many other critics top 100 hundreds, and to be honest if Humbug or Resistance are as awesome as their predecessors then this record will definitely be up for the chop but that doesn't dimmish just how dope this album it is. The Cool Kids declare themselves the new black version of the version of the Beastie Boys and quite frankly they are spot on. The Cool Kids brought back the funk, the play full fun, and quite simply the cool of Eighties hip hop. This album feels like the Beasties and Run DMC's nerdy offspring run a muck, and its fantastic, utterly fantastic. This is just an album dripping with club stompers and hot joints (no I can't hype that with a straight face) whether it be Mickey Rocks, 88 or the mind blowing Gold and a Pager simply put, in their own words Cool Kids are A Little Bit Cooler.

Now when compiling these lists you have to make some bloody tough calls, how do you weigh up your personal favorites, against importance and infulence, especially when choosing between brilliant albums. Apart of me feels dirty for putting this Shady's best album so low down but alas I must. Regardless of placing this was Marshall's last great album, before he ran out of things to say and went all shit on us. The Eminem struck the perfect balence between killer agry meaningful tracks (White America, Clean Out My Closet), pop sensations (Without Me, Sing For The Moment) and those fucked up stomping crazy anthems (Business, Superman), this is the album that had it all, brought all the best bits of Eminem, Marshall Mathers, and Slim Shady together into one killer collection of tracks. Everyone has their favorite lines when it comes to Em and I have to include mine "I wouldn't Piss On The Fire To Put You Out, Am I Too Nice? Buy You Ice, Bitch If You Died I Wouldn't Buy You Life" ah memories, if only we could have this Eminem back.

That concludes Part Two, not to sound cheesey but I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writting it, I'm just listening to La Roux's album, it might just sneak into my list.