Artist Opinion: Judah Dadone of the Freelance Whales
Judah Dadone of the Freelance Whales gives us his top albums of the decade.
Joanna Newsom – YS - The most lyrically ambitious record of the decade is Joanna Newsom's YS, whose elaborate meter would have made the bard himself (Which bard? Any bard!) blush and start looking for exit signs. The five songs on the record play like mini-epic poems that feel ancient, rural, seasonal and traditional. Vocally, she's transformed herself from the juvenile, shrill-voiced 'milk-eyed mender' into something womanly, weathered and dignified (as the record cover would suggest). The record isn't effortless, by any stretch of imagination. Actually, it feels steeped in emotional toil, and listening through feels like watching someone run a marathon to try to cure your diseases. I'll listen to this record ten times every winter for the rest of my life.
Burial – Untrue - I've never been to the UK, but whenever I listen to this record, it makes me think I'm a loner trapped in the London underground. I guess I love it because it's full of beautiful paradoxes; it feels fast and slow, ambient and syncopated, nostalgic and detached, soulful and robotic. I can't think of an electronic record, perhaps besides Radiohead's Kid A, that has challenged and expanded my love of music as much. It's a lush tapestry of organic and synthesized samples that coalesce into a strange, melancholic sort of pop music. It's as influenced by American soul music as it is by UK rave / dance and dubstep. The album's opener, “Archangel,” should be on a mix called “top 40 for the year 2222,” while “Etched Headplate” sounds like it comes from the voice of a lovesick android.
Bright Eyes - Lifted, Or the Story Is In the Soil. Keep Your Ear to the Ground - "Can I get a goddamn timpani roll?" I first heard this record in high school and I thought it was, amongst other things, a great lyrical achievement. But nowadays, when I listen to this record, all I can think about is the elaborate production. Through Mike Mogis' guile, the album seems to move through different spaces and contexts (listen to the transition between “False Advertisements” and “You Will” and you can hear Mr. Oberst moving from a bar-stage to a backroom, where he presumably works out a new tune before his encore).
Most importantly, though, it's not only an arrogant display of technical craft, but more so a vehicle for original, effective storytelling. At 21 years, Oberst had orchestrated his magnum opus, and mastered the Dewey Cox philosophy of "Get out of my life, or learn to play the fucking Theremin".
Liars - Drums Not Dead - When I heard this record in 2006, I couldn't stop asking myself, "How did human beings, who woke up in the morning, presumably put on clothes, go into a studio, and make something this horrific?" I'd never heard music before that sounded like alien natives, who seemed to be planning how to best make use of my body in their next sacrificial rite, were holding me hostage. And somehow, I found this not only pleasant, but also deeply pleasurable. This record feels like indulging a dirty habit, or itching a spider-bite. But beyond conjuring weird feelings, the record is a display of near-perfect pacing, and slow, deliberate sonic storytelling.
Animal Collective – Feels - Sometimes these guys get a bum rap for being 'too cerebral', but by my count, Feels is one of the most primal, visceral and (yes, certainly) tribal records that the naughts pulled to the surface. And as much as I enjoyed Merriweather this year, I would submit that this record achieves much more; I can't think of another record from this decade that so swiftly abolishes genres, and melds continents. If we're hearing more West African, Brazilian, East-Asian influence in popular recordings, these days, we can hold this record almost wholly accountable. The songs are strange (like “Did You See the Words” and 'The Purple Bottle”). The arrangements are patient, mature and delicate (like in “Bees” or “Banshee Beat”). And all throughout, textural palette is ambitiously wide but still harmonious.
Other Records from the '00's that are most obviously brilliant, and very hard to write about:
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Radiohead - Kid A
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It in People
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
The Knife - Silent Shout
Sigur Ros - Ágætis Byrjun
Posted by Wes Soltis on Jan 05, 2010 @ 9:00 am
