Yeah, its not really political, they are just making an allusion to the War in Iraq, the bombing during the late 90s, and street terms of pulling out your gun or not, and that if you pull it out you best shoot it, and you shouldnt even fire it unless you aim to kill. They play a bit on this in The Wire, but not specifically to this song.

Yeah, those lyrics are not even in the song..But anyway, i wasn't quoting it verbatim if you have a problem of me translating it.

Don't pull the thang out, unless you plan to bang
Bombs over Baghdad!
Don't even bang unless you plan to hit something

Latest version of singles list. Probably will continue to change, but further revisions aside from the final one for Wanta will be on RYM instead of here: http://rateyourmusic.com/list/animalnit ... _the_2000s

yeah definitely

A HIGHLY provisional top 20 album list, but I was feeling a little inspired and promotey this morning.


1. The Microphones- The Glow Pt. 2 (2001): The great work of our time bros. What's interesting about Elverum's career within the decade is how everything he did before and after this feels like alternate variations of this. It all goes back to this vivid dream of an album, less surreal than it is an alternate reality, it carries the listener through true revelations of how our minds work through memory and perception. How does one create a world that feels both apart of ours as well as otherworldly?
2. DJ Sprinkles- Midtown 120 Blues (2009): This is Terre Thaemlitz's dream, a dream of house music and it's one that's more surreal than Elverum's, about how house music becomes essential to the soul. And here's my dream: I hope this album gets placed not just in edm circles, and along your Since I Left You's and Vocalcity's because it truly deserves it.
3. Smog- Rain on Lens (2001): Placeholder for one of the great artists of our time. This could have also have been Supper or Eagle too, but this is his most consistent offering. It's rigorous and concise and has this underlying intensity that feels more alive than anything Bill Callahan has done.
4. Stars of the Lid- And Their Refinement of the Decline (2007): Always wondered why this isn't put ahead of Tired Sounds as I find it much warmer and much more easily attainable at a personal level. This has become my aural go-to comfort blanket. Lotta listens have gone down while reading with it on in the background. This is totally essential to my being.
5. Panda Bear- Person Pitch (2007): One of the albums that I can truly call perfect. I remember the first time I heard Bro's in late 2006 and thought to myself that that was as good as pop music could ever get. Cliche to say, but I felt like I was listening to something so ahead of its time, and lo and behold, it totally was. Thank you for the great music over the years Noah.
6. Daft Punk- Alive 2007 (2007): My favorite live album ever. I've spoke recently about how it renders its preceding releases nearly obsolete. It was their plan all along to lead up to this.
7. Oneohtrix Point Never- Rifts (2009): I've recently converted to Lopatin's music over the past year and here you have an enormous package in all its experimental flowing noise ambient goodness. Its heftiness is less a daunting endurance test than it is a world you can come and go to as you please. A lot of people are afraid to just drift along, and with no end is sight, this may raise that apprehension ten fold. But you know what? Just go with it. I like to listen to sections of this album on a whim and there should never be a fear of not getting the full tr00ness breaking it up like that, I think that's the point. It's that giant doorstop that shouldn't intrude on your life, but you're glad its presence is always there.
8. Ricardo Villalobos- Fabric 36 (2007): An enigma of enigmas, this is a display of the highest order in storytelling that just unfolds and unfolds and unfolds. Electronic artist of the decade and I could easily put a lot of his work here, but this is the one that seems to give you the complete Villalobos package in the most entertaining way.
9. Radiohead- Kid A (2000): What can I say? Quit lying to yourself and put this miracle of an album back on your list faggot.
10. LCD Soundsystem- LCD Soundsystem (2005): Music that has come to define me as a person. I choose this album because of how much more alive than it is than his other work. It goes through a wide variety of tracks with an infectious nonchalance about it. Over time, it's become my favorite of his work for how willing it is to not seem so perfect, it just is.
11. The Dismemberment Plan- Change (2001): I'm not sure what the consensus is on this album around these parts but I know the E&I fans run aplenty. This for me is one of those mature records that transcend the typical mature record garb into something that maintains the band's idiosyncracies within its restraint. It's got a really seductive buoyancy to it that I keep coming back to.
12. Junior Boys- Last Exit (2004): An amalgamation of different sounds I've come to love over the years (IDM, garage, R&B, pop), mixed down into an icy cool, sexy night time exterior.
13. Lambchop- Is a Woman (2002): I've come late to the Lambchop love but thanks to the launching point of last year's great Mr. M, I'm hooked for life. At worst you will pass this off as adult contemp lounge music, at best this is understated life-affirming music at its most humble and graceful.
14. Kanye West- Late Registration (2005): A sprawling album that's equal parts funny and smart but also unexpectedly dark and sad in its self-reflexiveness.
15. James Holden- Balance 05 (2003): Immer may be the most perfect, but this tugs wear it counts in being inspired around every corner. Disc 2 may not be quite up to par, but disc 1 is better than Mercepian cleavage.
16. The Streets- A Grand Don’t Come for Free (2004): Proves that music can be a medium for storytelling as well. It's deftly entertaining to see how Mike Skinner dips in and out of its plot with characterization buildups on the side. It all leads to one of the most spectacular finales in recent memory (perhaps only competed with Guillemots)
17. Robyn- Robyn (2005): In an interview Robyn said that in Sweden, what separates producers from their American counterparts is that they care about melodies more than beats. Heard that.
18. Supersilent- 6 (2003): The best jazz album of the new century. And no Novick can persuade me otherwise.
19. Animal Collective- Sung Tongs (2004): Band of the decade. I choose this because it was my first album with them and when I first heard "Leaf House", I couldn't believe what I was hearing. More than any of their subsequent albums, this has their best balance of rewarding the listener with pop hooks integrated with interesting perceptive stretches.
20. Scott Walker- The Drift (2006): The most challenging record of the decade. You'd be making a grave mistake to pass this off for inaccessibility. This is the kind of music that opens your mind up to new experiences as a human being.


Currently crushing on: Ellen Allien- Sool (2008)
an album that will surely go down as Allien's 808s & Heartbreaks of her career that only got richer over time. Stripped down to the core, this is minimalism that pays back heaps if you're willing to be patient with it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc6UXxd9v78[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SF00deYKSoc[/youtube]

Apologies, and thank you. I thought you were saying the lyrics to the B.O.B. Also, I think there are a few times that they mention this issue in the Wire, but you're right about this and I should have caught it.

I've actually found this project a much easier ranking if you consider the artist more in depth with the album, which is particularly interesting in a not too far away hindsight of that aughts rearview mirror. Otherwise this just becomes the far too impulsive game of "what ever album I hadn't listened to in ages clicked with me again today"

yup, that's why I won't be putting caps on how many singles or albums and artist can have on either list.

I'm glad you mentioned Sung Tongs Wanta, quite a gem.

Other albums that I'm loving atm:
Islands - Return to the Sea
M Ward - Post War
Destroyer - Your Blues, This Night, and Rubies
Still on a Guillemots kick too

Well I've considered the artist highly but still have a cap on mine. I think there comes a point when an artist has so much solid material that it's either one representative work or all of them that makes sense.

I'm also trying to dig up a variety of artists who I've only really listened to their acclaimed work, and am now subjecting myself to their back catalog. I've actually had more fun following their trajectory from these "misstep" albums, which actually make them much more interesting and forgivable from their flaws.

Music critics tend to follow a trend, which limits what the public will listen to (nobody likes to listen to "bad" albums going into them). In other words, look everywhere you can for recommendations and find artists you really attach to and dig deep in their shit, they'll love you for it.

These 2 have been on my prior lists, but they're definitely my favorite of their material (tho I think Destroyer's best album was his last one of course). But "Notorious Lightning" always revs me up with chills.

truth!

Even with my cap there's a good diversity in my list. The most featured artist on my albums list is Animal Collective with four, and for singles it's Outkast with four.