#30 Ratatat – Seventeen Years
Album: Ratatat
Year: 2004
Maybe you love Ratatat. Maybe you don’t. Maybe you did love Ratatat, but have gotten tired of them as their sound has failed to evolve. It really doesn’t matter. When you take their first LP, Ratatat, and cue up track one, you hear Young Churf boast about his (absent) rhyming prowess, accompanied by a tense instrumental squirming to break free from 0:04 to 0:12. Then?
The beat drops. The melody drops. The two are inseparable for the remainder of the track, as it hovers in total banger territory for a couple of minutes before giving you a long, slow fade-out that clues you in to their softer side. The sum is even greater than the individual parts – hearing this track for the first time is like having a bomb dropped on your expectations for music.
#29 Spoon – I Turn My Camera On
Album: Gimme Fiction
Year: 2005
Before this song, I really liked Spoon. I was a sucker for the faux-Pixies slapdash on A Series of Sneaks and the ephemereal minimalism on tracks like “Paper Tiger” from Kill The Moonlight. I had the impression, from the rhythmic delivery of “Everything Hits At Once” and the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ framing “Stay Don’t Go” that they were a pretty versatile band. “I Turn My Camera On” still completely caught me off guard. I loved the blue-eyed soul in Britt Daniel‘s usually raspy voice, and the abso-fucking-lutely bonkers James Brown strut of the guitar line (rivaling The White Stripes‘ “Seven Nation Army” for best proof that a brilliant guitarist can give you a bass line without a bassist – or a bass).
#28 Queens Of The Stone Age – No One Knows
Album: Songs for the Deaf
Year: 2002
Alongside anything by The White Stripes as by far the best thing to make it onto mainstream rock radio in the last ten years. “No One Knows” was the perfect update of QOTSA and Kyuss‘ stoner-rock riffs to come in and blow away the post-grunge riffraff. Nickelback? Creed? You’ll no longer be needed to fill the spaces between DJ Shorty-B yelling at some 15-year old caller about attending the Vans Warped Tour and practicing his ‘Monday, Monday, Monday’ monster truck announcer promo voice while spoon-feeding you hype for the new Metallica/Velvet Revolver/Billy Corgan/Axl Roses depressing comeback attempt. Now we have a real rock song, with sweet wailing courtesy of Josh Homme and I guess some drum-work by some guy named Dave Grohl? I think I could have liked The Foo Fighters more if it hadn’t been for this song. The first time he sat behind the drum kit for a recording band, Nirvana happened. Then he left the drums for The Foo Fighters and made a bunch of okay alternative music, and then he gets back behind the kit, and this! His militaristic, propulsive rhythmic accompaniment and masterfully tight drum fills are absolutely unbelievable, easily the most noticeable, most successful drum part of the decade.
#27 Deltron 3030 – 3030
Album: Deltron 3030
Year: 2000
The self-titled Deltron 3030 album is by far the most successful partnership to date of hip hop and science fiction, perhaps my two favorite forms of social commentary. While the wait is still indefinite (but they said sometime in 2010! But, they also said 2009, and 2008, and 2007) for Deltron Event II, the original masterpiece has lost nothing in ten intervening years. Study carefully, and you may be prepared for a future in which emcees like Del Tha Funkee Homosapien fight against mega-corporations, backed by DJs like Kid Koala and producers like Dan The Automater (each with their own sweet character), and vie for the title of Galactic Rhyme Federation Champion. Ultimately, the album is a cohesive piece that deserves a full listen, and other tracks like “Time Keeps on Slipping” are equally brilliant. However, nothing will take you forward a thousand years and put you firmly into Deltron Zero’s chaotic universe like the tropical funk and acrobatic rhymes of “3030″.
#26 The Postal Service – The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
Album: Give Up
Year: 2003
Producer Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel) and some guy who sings for Death Cab For Cutie (Ben Gibbard) did a mail exchange of beats and lyrics, under the cute pseudonym The Postal Service, with some vocals from Rilo Kiley frontwoman Jenny Lewis. A mildly-emo bedroom laptop-pop project? How good can it be?
Well, at its peaks, it’s good enough to forgive them for writing the template for Owl City. If you like Owl City… well, I’m surprised you are here and reading this, but please listen to this song, and this album, and delete that derivative crap forever. “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” gives voice to an impressionistic, heart-rending set of lyrics about the twin themes of alienation/displacement and, well, getting dumped. The real star here is the aural backdrop. Jenny Lewis‘ back-up vocals are gorgeous, and Dntel‘s beats scrape and stir, click and whir and sound absolutely unlike anything I’d ever heard prior. At the end of the day, a completely unforgettable song that will always recall the early aughts for an entire generation.
