A Rush of Blood or Considered Choice?

Number  20

'A Rush of Blood to the Head' by Coldplay

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 1 in 2002

UK Chart high : 1 in 2002

Just getting this out of the way first...we don't need to make any apologies for liking Coldplay (I did that earlier with 'Parachutes'!).  And you know I overthink music too much, right?  Well there's a favourite aspect to it that I look out for with any artist which this album probably epitomises more than any other - and that's when someone follows up a debut that you really liked with a second album that completely raises their game and takes you by surprise.  'Yellow' certainly had pointed towards a future beyond selling out Brixton Academy, but listening to the opener here - 'Politik' - with its bombastic opening chords and the 'Look at Earth from outer space' first line couldn't have widened Coldpay's reach any further if they'd tried.  Their live performance of this track at the Grammys (below) absolutely propelled them into the act we know today so its easy to forget they actually worked their way up from sticky-floor indie-dom to get there.  Relistening to 'Clocks' also reminds you of what a great painist Chris Martin actually is - and if he's any sense he should return to that strand with their next album.  Okay, this period also sowed the seeds of writing 'Fake Suede Deer' on your hand or something else I can't quite make out from here - now of course there's an app for that - and also the annoying vocal tick that Chris developed live by beginning every line with 'Singin'...'.  But, all the peripherals aside, this is one of the finest English albums made full stop and comes complete with one of the best album closers too, played and sung along to far too many times at the end of a drunken evening than I should probably admit.... so I won't.

Look at The Scientist ; Clocks ; Amsterdam (live) ; Politik (live at the Gammys) ; God Put a Smile Upon Your Face
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

Top Fifty Albums of the Noughties : 21-30

So here we are 60% of the way through and the latest batch of ten includes a couple of KoL's, two Mercury Prize winners and the last of the underachieving classes of 2006 and 2004 who have now been handed their P45's and told to clear their desks.  Fairly well spread throughout the decade although rather rock band indie in terms of musical styles.  And I do implore you all to give a bit of love to Tom Vek and Seafood too.  Next, the business end of the charts where I start to pick albums apart by identifying one duff track or a sound I don't like in order to separate their greatness (with hopefully a couple of surprises in their for good measure)

30 ‘We Have Sound’ by Tom Vek (2005)
29 'Fever to Tell' by Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2003)
28 'Only by the Night' by Kings of Leon (2008)
27 'Elephant' by The White Stripes (2003)
26 'When Do We Start Fighting...' by Seafood (2001)
25 'Hail to the Thief' by Radiohead (2003)
24 'The Hour of Bewilderbeast' by Badly Drawn Boy (2000)
23 'Because of the Times' by Kings of Leon (2007)
22 'Antics' by Interpol (2004)
21 ‘Whatever People Say I Am...’ by Arctic Monkeys (2006)

As well as the Spotify playlists with a selection from each album so far (21-30, 31-40 and 41-50), there's also a shorter one for those of you like me with short attention spans (Noughties Shorts) here.

Your name isn't Rio, but I don't care for sand

Number 21

'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' by Arctic Monkeys

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 1 in 2006

UK Chart high : 1 in 2006

Continuing a trend then, pretty poor year (2006 this time and only one other album from that year - Metric's - makes my fifty) and a Number One outside the top twenty (just).  This time it's Arctic Monkeys with their debut and if anything it falls just below the twenty for the simple reason that, on returning to it after a few years, it sags a tad in the middle.  Still - fantastic, abrasive, smart, confident-beyond-their-years, youthful rock from the north - with regional accents to the full and a massive impact that rejuvenated British rock and encouraged a new generation to pick up the guitar thanks to this vignette into British youths' tribulations.  Although the myspace/facebook legend was vastly overworked (through no fault of the band who owed their meteoric rise more to endless gigging and cd giveaways) they managed to outlast the hype and have settled into one of Britain's best current bands.  I'll say no more except laud Alex Turner's amazing, amazing lyrics by listing from a few of their tunes here:

There's a super cool band yeah
With their trilbys and their glasses of white wine
And all the weekend rockstars in the toilets
Practicing their lines

And yeah, I'd love to tell you all my problem
You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham
So get off the bandwagon, and put down the handbook

Well now then Mardy Bum
Oh I'm in trouble again, aren't I

Who's that girl there?
I wonder what went wrong
So that she had to roam the streets
She dunt do major credit cards
I doubt she does receipts

And he told Roxanne to put on her red light
They're all infected but he'll be alright
Cause he's a scumbag, don't you know

Don't get me wrong, oh there's boys in bands
And kids who like to scrap with pool cues in their hands
And just cause he's had a couple of cans
He thinks it's alright to act like a dickhead

Dint ya see she were gorgeous, she was beyond belief
But this lad at the side drinking a Smirnoff ice came and paid for her tropical Reef

Look at I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor ; Fake Tales of San Francisco ; The View From the Afternoon ; A Certain Romance (live) ; When the Sun Goes Down
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

Muppet in car crash

Number 22

'Antics' by Interpol

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 1 in 2004

UK Chart high : 21 in 2004

It's not that I now think I made a terrible mistake back in 2004, more that it was an absolute suck of a year proving the theory that the best art is always produced at the start and end of the decade.  (I think I just made that up, but it's probably true!) Soooo, we hit the first of my 'number one for their year' albums on this countdown, which I suppose had to happen sooner or later as the decade's top ten couldn't just be made up of the ten number one cd's from each year could it?  2004's other top ten albums included the likes of the Von Bondies, Secret Machines, Razorlight and Hope of the States..........exactly.  So 2004's contribution to this fifty officially ends here.  However, 'Antics' is still a fine album worthy of its spot.  In fact, those of you who know me fairly well were probably starting to think 'how can he have forgotten Interpol, considering he's borderline-obsessive about them?'  And to demonstrate that view witness a 32 year old queuing up in San Francisco in 2004 to get this cd signed.  On 'Antics' Interpol continued being very...well, Interpol-like.  Detached, stark, unapologetic rock delivered in that 'we're so cool we don't have to try to please you' manner whilst also managing to be exciting, mysterious, engaging and full of love for their artform.  My favourite track was never a single but 'Take You on a Cruise' as performed live is added below for you to marvel at (including a very un-Interpol drum solo!).  Their vids for the singles are also bang on too - no moreso than 'Evil' with its unsettling weird 'muppet in car crash' visuals - and there's a sentence I never thought I'd type.  I could go on and on about this wonderful band, including how fantastic it is to start a lead single ('Slow Hands') with the words 'Yeah but...' as if you'd been partway through a conversation with them when they disappeared after their last album, but I'll have more time to do that later....

Look at Take You on a Cruise ; C'mere ; Evil ; Slow Hands
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

A charmer on call talking to Jesus

Number 23

'Because of the Times' by Kings of Leon

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 3 in 2007

UK Chart high : 1 in 2007

So yes, this is my favourite KoL album, and as it turns out it happened to come out in the year that features the most in this top fifty - 2007 - though some entries below them in that year have ended up higher round these parts as we'll find out later.  So there you have it, the answer, if anyone asks you, as to which Noughties year was the best for music - and no arguing.  Ironically, at the time I did say it was 'not the best year to be honest' which just goes to show what I know (and means you should probably just stop reading now).  I'll no doubt be revising this top fifty completely in a year's time!  So if you're still bothering to follow, why is this album here?  For me, it represented the finest balance of KoL's bluesy-southern drawling and their stadium schmoozing (well, it actually probably started the latter but nevermind eh?).  It also contains their best ever single - the incendiary 'Charmer' with its heart-stopping guitar drop-out at two minutes in - and their best live track 'On Call' which was as wifully odd a lead-off single as you're likely to hear from such a band.  If it suffers from anything it's that it doesn't end at track ten 'The Runner' just when they tantalisingly pull back from melding their soulful rock with full on gospel choir 'talking to Jesus' and all that and instead tag a few extra tracks on the end - very frustrating.  Still, this is the album I'd recommend to anyone wanting to remind themselves of what all the fuss has been about of one of the success stories of the decade.  They also were sporting some serious rock star haircuts in these days too, and as we know, that's only just slightly secondary to sounding good in the first place!

Look at Charmer ; On Call

Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

An Overused Hat, Joan Collins and Wonderful Tunes

Number 24

'The Hour of Bewilderbeast' by Badly Drawn Boy

Trotter’s Top Ten position : Top Ten in 2000

UK Chart high : 13 in 2000

So when I started plotting out this top fifty I had BDB's debut pegged around the high 30's - then I listened to it again to figure out what I was going to write about (despite appearances, these things are actually planned!).  Things changed.  'Hour...' still holds up remarkably well, packed full of tuneful gems, tiny little blinding bits of sounds and half-formed ideas that last for seconds but could support whole songs (such as the first 20 seconds of 'Fall in a River').  Damon Gough clearly poured his heart into this record (it's actually just over an hour) and there's a weird charm running throughout all the various musical styles on display that hold the whole thing together.  Maybe as it's from 2000 it's just old enough to hit my nostalgia button - there's probably a cut-off date of June 23 2001, I dunno - but no other album on the list so far has made me smile as much as rediscovering this one did.  I'd also forgotten he won the Mercury with this - so kudos to them for that - and had Joan Collins star in the video for 'Pissing in the Wind'.  Of course he went on to rely too much on marketing that silly hat and talking waaaaaay too long at gigs and maybe used up a few too many ideas here, but hey, we've got a corker of an album to show for it. 'Once Around the Block' is an absolute gem and I remember exactly where I was where I first heard it (or more accurately twigged it was him that sung it).  Charming, inventive, witty and evoking simpler times - you could do worse than rediscover this too.

Look at Once Around the Block ; Disillusion ; Pissing in the Wind

Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

You Have Not Being Paying Attention!

Number 25

'Hail to the Thief' by Radiohead

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 1 in 2003

UK Chart high : 1 in 2003

I don't often feel sorry for multi-million selling famous rock stars, but I did spare a thought for Thom and the boys after they released 'Hail to the Thief' in 2003.  You see, although this was fairly well recieved already the music press had started to snipe that it wasn't as boundary-pushing and 'out there' as 'Kid A' or 'Amnesiac', depsite the fact that they'd previously sniped that both those albums were too experimental and had no guitars on them.  In other words, don't bother trying to give 'em what they want!  However, 'Thief' finely balanced their dalliances with electronic noodlings and guitar-driven tunes and even saw them getting sentimental on 'Sail to the Moon', with Thom postulating how his young son Noah might grow up, with all the hopes and fears of a new father wrapped up in a tender piano track.  You've also got the pounding 'There There' with its Beatrix Potter on acid video and the stand-out '2+2=5' which perfectly summed up the 'new' Radiohead sound with the wake up call from Thom of  'You have not being paying attention!'.  This set the tone lyrically for the rest of the album and would be built on in Thom's later solo effort - proof that good things did come out of the twilight Blair years after all, I guess.

Look at 2+2=5 ; Sail To The Moon ; Go To Sleep ; There There

Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

If there was one band that I wish had been more successful...

Number 26

'When Do We Start Fighting...' by Seafood

Trotter’s Top Ten position : Top Ten in 2001

UK Chart high : DNC in 2001

Look at that chart position Britain - DNC means 'did not chart' - and that's not just the top 100, that's the top 200 - jeez, what were we thinking?  Yes, there was more than a little Pixies, JAMC, Pumpkins homage going on - but when exactly has that ever been a bad thing, hmm?  This album always will have a special place in my collection as it was one of those 'like a song, never heard them before, risk buying the album, my god I love it' scenarios.  There's plenty more of these examples on this chart but I guess Seafood is made all the more frustrating because they never got anywhere near the adulation they deserved even on subsequent albums - not just commercially, but critically.  The lead single 'Cloaking', with its 'Get Up Soldier!' rallying cry positioned them as yet another loud-quiet-loud ambassador but the album is far, far more textured than that - case in point the heartbreakingly beautiful 'What May be the Oldest' collaboration with Madder Rose vocalist Mary Lorson or the starts-as-spoken-word-ends-in-cacophony 'He Collects Dust'.  What's even more annoying is how many seafood recipe videos you have to trawl through when searching for their video clips on youtube (shakes fist at universe!).  I can't even introduce you to them on Spotify for feck's sake, other than the 'Western Battle' track for some reason.  Do yourself a favour and just but this album FFS!

Look at Cloaking ; Splinter

Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

Dum...dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum...

Number 27

'Elephant' by The White Stripes

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 8 in 2003

UK Chart high : 1 in 2003

For a start, this is Jarvis Cocker's album of the noughties.  Do you need any more justification?  If you do, then starting an album with 'Seven Nation Army' should be justification enough, surely the riff of the decade, hands down.  The other singles from 'Elephant' should just about cement its place on here too, especially coupled with the seminal visuals of  'Seven Nation Army' and the genius of 'Button' from Michel Goundry.  With this album the White Stripes hit that sweet spot when bands start to inhabit their own universe, start to sound like no-one else on earth and then bring everyone else on board with them.  While it's true that it suffers a bit from being a tad too long, you can't deny the quality of this Elephantine beast - at times hard, harsh, caustic, sweet, innocent and charming and sometimes all of them at once.  Jack White certainly did plenty more this decade but he never hit as many home runs than on here.  Despite the limitations deliberately placed on the music in terms of the instruments and technology there's such a huge soundscape on offer to the listener that there's never a chance of being bored by repetition.  Kate Moss' pole dancing probably did no harm either.

Look at Seven Nation Army ; The Hardest Button to Button ; I Just Don't Know What to Do with Myself

Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version

Mind those Pigeons!

Number 28

'Only by the Night' by Kings of Leon

Trotter’s Top Ten position : 3 in 2008

UK Chart high : 1 in 2008

Now I know with this one I can't really win.  Some folk will decry it being on the list at all, calling KoL sellouts and saying they preferred their earlier stuff when you couldn't really understand a word Caleb was singing.  Others will ask why it isn't even higher with such massive hits, haircuts, assured vocals, production and world-conquering adventures behind it.  Well, partly that's why 'Only by the Night' sits somewhere in the middle (and partly because it soundtracked my west coast USA holiday).  I was getting a bit fed up with Caleb sounding like a deep south version of Vic Reeve's Club Singer ('Hello') and quite prepared for them to get some of the success they deserved on the main stage.  They did that in spades here, and okay, we all could do with not hearing 'Sex on Fire' for about five years, but you have to admit it's a great song (though I've kept it off the Spotify lists).  These first four tracks, including opener 'Closer' (paradoxically) and the accerbic 'Crawl', are as good a 'first half' to any cd you'll hear from this decade.  Put that together with the brilliant almost-hymnal 'Cold Desert' which ends the album and it well deserves its spot at 28.  To be honest, it's the tracks in between that let it down a bit though, fairly pedestrian 'plodders' that, if they'd waited more than the year between this album and their previous one may have been improved or quality-controlled off the record.  I said at the time I would have preferred to wait a few months for a whole great album than get this one early.  Unfortunately, they, their label or both decided a quick release would be best.  What's done is done, I'm sure they'll live with being at Number 28 on here.  And no, I don't think this is their best album.

Look at Sex on Fire ; Use Somebody ; Notion
Listen to a sampling of the Top Fifty on Spotify as we go or the 'one from each album' version