Top 25 Albums of the Decade part II

Top 25 Albums of the Decade. Part II.

The next Five, in our list of the Decades Best. 

15. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots – The Flaming lips are the musical version of Wizard of Oz; they brought color to 00’s  Rock n  Roll. Not only did they bring the fun back to rock With stage props like giant foam hands, alien masks, and New Year’s amounts of confetti, The Flaming Lips crafted a new breed of arena rock.

   Aside from their performance, The Flaming Lips also put together one of the decade most beautiful ballads. “Do you Realize” is an all time classic, with big chords, spacey ambiance, and charming vocals.

    Also…the album has a song about a girl who uses karate to fight evil robots…Awesome!

Key Tracks: Do you Realize, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots 1, Fight Test.

16. Elliot Smith -Figure 8 – For as long as there is depression and guitars the two will never be an album that balances despair and pretty better than Figure 8. Elliot Smith learn his melodies from John Lennon, buy his plight is all his own. However, there is something indelible optimistic in Smiths songs. For all the pain and uncertainly that Smith crafts in his songs, it’s hard to fret, when you know even in the darkness of his life something as beautiful as his art was still alive.

   Smith’s tragic suicide is still haunting, as his posthumous works continue to come out, but Figure 8 give us something wonderful to remember him by.

Key Tracks:  Stupidity Tries, Easy Way Out, Son of Sam

17. Beck – Sea Change – If there is one formulaic way to quantify the value of art it is to see how the artist work alters, when his life is in flux. Inspired by the loss of his long time girl friend, Sea Change is a venture from Becks traditional ironic and bizarre style. It’s not small task for an artist who became famous for lyrics like “Dog food stalls, with the beefcake pantyhose” to managed an album full of deep long melodies.

   Although Beck is at his best when he is flexing is bizarre style, his ability to make a heartbreak album as honest and beautiful as Sea Change make it one of the decades best.

Key Track: Lost Cause, Paper Tiger, The Golden Age

18. Radiohead – In Rainbows – Since the Beatles invented the idea of interalbummetamorphosis only one other band has been able to pull the trick off; and they did it twice. Not only dose In Rainbows exhibit the second major change for Radiohead, it also challenges one of Rock n’ Rolls maintains: distortion.

  Although Radiohead doesn’t abounded the machines that helped them revolutionize rock forever with Kid A, In Rainbows features a stripped down guitar section. Often lead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, famous for otherworldly leads is playing naked without his army of pedals. The distortion free Guitars and Yorke’s more hopeful lyrics and humming vocals syncopate into an album as colorful, dark, and unclear as the album cover.

    In Rainbows not only stripped the fuzz and crack of modern guitar from the progression of rock, it also change the way we receive it. In an effort we at The Vanguard applaud, Radiohead put the album online where fans could buy the album for whatever price they wished.

Key Tracks: The Reckoner, 15 Steps, Jigsaw Falling into Place

19. Cold Play – A Rush of Blood to the Head – It is easy to overlook Coldplay’s achievements. Their greatest album seemed like it came standard in Jettas, preloaded into iPods, and on auto repeat at Starbucks. But aside from the yuppies gushing, there is some real material to A Rush of Blood.

    Coldplay sounds like U2 and Radiohead. Their lyrics don’t revolutionize, and their style isn’t pressing. But still they are a great band. The secret to Coldplay’s quality is Chris Martins embrace of his idols. Coldplay’s art is collage, and there were no better examples of that craft in this decade than A Rush of Blood…well maybe one.

Key Tracks: Clocks, The Scientist, Green Eyes