In the year of Kid A and Stankonia, some great music still went unheard
Image: Graphic: Natalie Peeples Music Features Off The Charts
The Year: 2000
Billboard Hot 100’s Top 20 Songs Of 2000
1. Faith Hill, “Breathe”
2. Santana featuring Rob Thomas, “Smooth”
3. Santana featuring The Product G&B, “Maria Maria”
4. Joe, “I Wanna Know”
5. Vertical Horizon, “Everything You Want”
6. Destiny’s Child, “Say My Name”
7. Savage Garden, “I Knew I Loved You”
8. Lonestar, “Amazed”
9. Matchbox Twenty, “Bent”
10. Toni Braxton, “He Wasn’t Man Enough”
11. Creed, “Higher”
12. Aaliyah, “Try Again”
13. Destiny’s Child, “Jumpin’, Jumpin’”
14. Sisqó, “Thong Song”
15. 3 Doors Down, “Kryptonite”
16. Pink, “There You Go”
17. Madonna, “Music”
18. Janet Jackson, “Doesn’t Really Matter”
19. Christina Aguilera, “What A Girl Wants”
20. Brian McKnight, “Back At One”
The dam sprung a leak the year before, but nobody paid much mind to the water gathering at their ankles until 2000. That was the year Napstermania really took hold, a state of mind that manifested as both rapturous downloading zeal and righteous litigious fury. “Your hard drive” was the album of the year. Overnight, anybody with a CD burner (or, what luxury, an MP3 player) became the coolest record dealer and DJ in town. Computers with broadband internet access were declared public enemy number one by the major labels.
For music as a business, 2000 was last call at the open bar. According to the Recording Association of America—a professional organization that was about to face its biggest moment of public awareness since the introduction of the Parental Advisory Label—the year’s revenues from music sales totaled $14.3 billion. Zoom in on the compact disc’s contribution to that income, and you’ll find that Y2K marked the CD’s peak as the industry’s most lucrative format. Of course, one of the factors driving those figures was also one of the keys to Napster’s appeal: Over the preceding decade, consumers had grown begrudgingly accustomed to purchasing whole albums just to hear the one or two songs they heard in their cars or saw on TV, an intentional effort on the labels’ part that kept coffers and used-CD bins overflowing. Along came the peer-to-peer services asking, “Why buy the cow when you can get ‘Cryin’’ for free?” and, well, the RIAA website allows you to trace what happened next.
But the fascinating thing about this point in pop music history is that, artistically, there were a ton of reasons to buy CDs by the ton in 2000. Not that you’ll see it reflected in the top slots of the year-end Hot 100, populated by inescapable Faith Hill and Carlos Santana cuts that spanned charts and calendars. The year’s biggest albums tell another story: one that still has a role for Santana’s Grammy–hoarding comeback, but also spotlights long-playing documents of creative evolution like Oops!… I Did It Again, The Marshall Mathers LP, and No Strings Attached. The last of those releases shattered first-week sales records in March of 2000, though you didn’t have to be a Florida boy band severing ties with your management in extremely public fashion for your latest album to make an auspicious debut. You’d be hard-pressed to find something as adventurous, challenging, and ultimately influential flying off the shelves the way Kid A did on October 2, 2000—until a few weeks later, when Stankonia was doing the same. Everything in its right place, indeed.
Napster and its cohort were making it easier than ever to cultivate eclectic and informed musical tastes, but as critic Sasha Geffen points out, a lot of that groundwork was laid not online but over the air. Just take a look at the survey of the year’s Billboard hits that preceded this article, where pop-punk goofballs, weirdo R&B, and precision-tooled bubblegum written and produced by Swedish hired guns sounded right at home with pop royalty that was both on the ascent and keeping its ear to the underground. (There was also a song about thongs!) Blink-182 clowned on ’N Sync and Britney Spears in the “All The Small Things” video, but when they’re all showing up in the same Total Request Live countdowns, who was to say that one artist was better, or cooler, or more talented than the other?
Such a monumental year throws a wrench into the way this feature is supposed to function: The tracks that climbed to the top of the charts in 2000 are just as worthy of celebration as the ones that barely scraped the bottom. Perhaps that’s why this edition of Off The Charts is so largely defined by the authors’ personal tastes in guitar music—though you could also chalk that up to a rock mainstream that had found some interesting strains of nü-metal but was also skulking through the wreckage of Woodstock ’99. Our selections encompass a handful of next big things, reinventions and reclamations from seasoned veterans, enduring cult favorites, and one top 40 act inviting Spanish-speaking listeners to come on over. And odds are we first came across most of these tracks on a burned CD-R—though we swear we eventually bought the deluxe vinyl reissue.
Songs: Ohia, “Lioness” (January 17)
Any Jason Molina song is best appreciated lying on your back on a hardwood floor with the lights off, but if you’re not careful, “Lioness” will rip your guts out like the huntress of the title. Against a death march of shuffling cymbal and raw acoustic guitar, Molina finds himself caught in the tractor beam of a magnetic, cruel woman, inspiring this masochistic plea: “Want my heart to break, if it must break, in your jaws / Want you to lick my blood off your paws.” Dark and somnambulant, the song equates lust and longing with self-destruction—reflecting not only Molina’s eventual, sad demise, but also the miserable sexuality of Arab Strap’s Aidan Moffat and David Gow, both of whom guest on the album. [Katie Rife]
Appleseed Cast, “Fishing The Sky” (February 9)
Mare Vitalis is the post-hardcore scene’s enduring ode to the sea, and “Fishing The Sky” is the song that sweeps you into the deep. Yeah, “Forever Longing The Golden Sunsets” has the better chorus, but The Appleseed Cast’s starry-eyed vision of melodic rock is never so inspiring as it is during those opening waves of guitar. “The falling skyline is washed away,” Christopher Crisci shouts during the song’s brief vocal break, conjuring the image of a sky as glimpsed from beneath the water’s surface. Like the red heart that bobs on the LP’s cover, “Fishing The Sky” embraces both the romance and the grandeur of being adrift, the world’s natural wonders consuming all. [Randall Colburn]
Dashboard Confessional, “Again I Go Unnoticed” (March 1)
Before Chris Carrabba became emo’s resident heartthrob and the subject of stupid arguments about “authenticity,” he was just an awkward Floridian playing acoustic weepers before Snapcase shows. But, hushed as many of The Swiss Army Romance’s songs are, a whiff of South Florida’s hardcore scene can be heard in “Again I Go Unnoticed,” a storm of self-pity that rages on string-snapping acoustic strums across two and a half minutes. Its lyrics about a partner’s waning passion are as on the nose as it gets, but Carrabba nails the near-pathetic desperation of blinding oneself to inevitability. “I’ll wait until tomorrow,” he sings. “Maybe you’ll feel better then, maybe we’ll be better then.” Spoiler: We won’t, but at least we’ll have songs like this. [Randall Colburn]
Alkaline Trio, “Radio” (March 14)
Alkaline Trio’s devilishly snotty “Radio” gives you a permission that few breakup songs do: to wish the person who ruined you would just fucking die already. Forget the hurt, the longing, the stride toward self-betterment—Matt Skiba would like nothing more than for you to take his radio into the bath, plugged in and ready to fall. Skiba’s red-hot yowl cuts like a razor blade, while his melodramatic talk of “red eyes on orange horizons” and sailing off the edge of the Earth (you know, “if Columbus was wrong”) gives the song a comic hyperbole that speaks to the high-stakes drama of youthful romance. Still, for all its gleeful immaturity, there’s perhaps no more satisfying chorus to bellow while alone in your car. We’ve all had “a big, fat fucking bone to pick” at one point or another. [Randall Colburn]
Broadcast, “Come On Let’s Go” (March 20)
In a year that had for so long been a shorthand for the future, Broadcast forged an alternate vision of the past, one where BBC science-fiction scores and mass-market paperback cover designs were among pop music’s biggest influences. These qualities would get their own shorthand a few years later; until then, there was Broadcast’s debut LP, The Noise Made By People, and its second single, “Come On Let’s Go.” It’s an invitation to retreat from the madding crowd and into the world the Birmingham act had built across a series of acclaimed singles and the two-years-long Noise Made By People sessions, a place where mellow baroque-pop horns and chittering Motown guitars are patched into an analog synth swirl. “It’s hard to tell who is real in here,” Trish Keenan sings, and it’s both the emotional core of the song and a description of Broadcast’s essential mystique. It’s music for a false memory, the theme to the greatest spy thriller never made—even though you distinctly recall hearing that placid voice wafting over psychedelic projections on bare torsos. (Well, “The Book Lovers” was in the first Austin Powers movie.) [Erik Adams]
Death Cab For Cutie, “Photobooth” (March 21)
You could (and should) listen to Death Cab For Cutie’s We Have The Facts And We’re Voting Yes, an artistic breakthrough of snaking guitars, major-league atmosphere on an indie-label budget, bad habits, spinning wheels, and inopportune feelings. Or you could (and should) get all of that—minus some of the six-string complexity, plus additional earworm potential—on “Photobooth,” the first track from the EP Death Cab released a scant seven months after We Have The Facts. Coming into his own as a lyricist who works best in recollection and memento, Ben Gibbard stacks the Forbidden Love opener with the debris of a fling that dared not speak its name: meaningful (yet secret) snapshots and party garbage juxtaposed like the song’s rinky-dink Casio intro and the lush Chris Walla production that blooms out of it. The picture that emerges from the evidence is one that’s about a fleeting romance, yes, but much more so about recognizing when it’s time to stop measuring life by hookups and fluid ounces. [Erik Adams]
The Hives, “Hate To Say I Told You So” (April 10)
An unwashed, Converse-and-Camels look came to define the garage-rock revival of the early-’00s—ironic, considering the stage wardrobes of the bands who were already putting out records while The Strokes were still gigging at Mercury Lounge. Looking like they ought to be trading blows in a Dutch tilt with Adam West and Burt Ward, The Hives took a “Biff! Pow! Sock!” approach to proto-punk on Veni Vidi Vicious—though it’d take two years and a reissue for “Hate To Say I Told You So”’s punches to land. Technically, the 11 weeks it spent in the lower quadrant of the Hot 100 in 2002 should disqualify it from Off The Charts consideration. But who are we to punish the song’s hook—where Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist earns his stage name over “My Sharona” drums—for calling its shot? More than the sharp suits or the spotless shoes, oversized confidence is the most important part of The Hives’ costume, which comes through loud and clear as the Swedish five-piece smashes through the fine line between stupid and clever in the songs’ fevered final 40 seconds. [Erik Adams]
Clinic, “The Return Of Evil Bill” (May 1)
Clinic burst onto the indie-rock scene in the twilight of the Britpop era, jittery and fuzzy as if they’d climbed out of the static noise of a scrambled Blur video. The group’s debut, Internal Wrangler, encompasses a number of retro musical styles, all performed with a sweaty exuberance on beat-up instruments to give them that signature Clinic sound. Beyond a general sense of mischief, however, “The Return Of Evil Bill” is a difficult song to classify. Is it pop? Is it rock? Is it an arcane ritual designed to summon the spirit of Spring-Heeled Jack’s cousin, Evil Bill? It’s distinctive, whatever it is, and a twitchy, demented good time. [Katie Rife]
Aimee Mann, “Red Vines” (May 2)
Bachelor No. 2 is full of musical portraits of disappointing men, but it’s the world that’s letting down the subject of “Red Vines.” Film director Paul Thomas Anderson, who used six songs that would later end up on Bachelor No. 2 in his 1999 film Magnolia, has confirmed this interpretation of Mann’s lyrics; according to Anderson, the song is about him, and Mann is the friend “on the sidelines / With my hands tied” worrying that mainstream recognition would be as fleeting for him as it had been for her. Even the catchy ascending chorus has a cynical edge to it, considering that her label was pressuring Mann to come up with something more commercial after the failure of her second solo album, I’m With Stupid. That pressure led Mann to break up with Interscope Records and release Bachelor No. 2 on her own label, Superego. How ironic, then, that the album ended up revitalizing her career—even without what a music executive might deem “radio-ready hits.” [Katie Rife]
Sleater-Kinney, “You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun” (May 2)
Building on the ode to a roadie “Ballad Of A Ladyman,” “You’re No Rock N’ Roll Fun” is Sleater-Kinney’s version of Pavement’s “Range Life,” a snapshot of the male musicians the trio encountered on the road who’d pay them lip service with “whiskey drinks and chocolate bars,” but are too self-important to “hang out with the girl band.” Not that the “girls” give a shit—they’ve got hooks that are better than anything these navel-gazing pricks could ever come up with, and they know it. Fighting condescension with condescension, it’s an infectious nugget of impeccable pop songcraft that delivers sugar-sweet harmonies with a punk sneer. [Katie Rife]
Deltron 3030, “3030” (May 23)
It was a good year for concept albums and alter egos in hip-hop. Madlib pitched his voice up over jazz loops and kitchen-sink samples for the first Quasimoto album, The Unseen; before introducing the world to Gorillaz via “Clint Eastwood,” Del The Funky Homosapien and Dan The Automator teamed with DJ Kid Koala to create the 31st-century epic Deltron 3030. The album’s seven-and-a-half-minute opener, “3030,” introduces a world of battle rap and battle mechs in dizzying verses where Del cherrypicks dystopia’s greatest hits—Gibson, Bradbury, Akira, Ghost In The Shell—in the same way his Deltron Zero persona raids the post-apocalyptic landscape for musical artifacts. It’s a lot, but it’s utterly enveloping, a sense helped along by an orchestral swell lifted from French composer William Sheller. [Erik Adams]
Bright Eyes, “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh” (May 29)
“I know not who I am!” Conor Oberst sings with a vessel-popping yelp on the final chorus of “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh.” Bright Eyes made its name on emotional outbursts, but it was its songwriting chops that established Oberst’s foothold among the third wave of artists to shrug off the “emo” label: the literal and the metaphorical details of “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh,” as vivid as any of the heartbreak and self-loathing the song articulates on the way to its ironically bounding bridge. Producer and bandmate Mike Mogis captures the doomed lovers’ frozen breaths in curlicues of pedal steel and vibraphone, essential elements in the strain of Americana that became Saddle Creek Records’ calling card. (Jenny Lewis tells of sharing Fevers And Mirrors with the rest of Rilo Kiley, and you can hear this song’s influence all over the records they’d make with Mogis.) The Oberst of “Haligh, Haligh, A Lie, Haligh” might not have known who he was, but the same was true for most people outside of Omaha. But that was bound to change, thanks to everyone who saw themselves reflected in Fevers And Mirrors. [Erik Adams]
Queens Of The Stone Age, “Feel Good Hit Of The Summer” (June 6)
There’s no mistaking what Queens Of The Stone Age are getting at with “Feel Good Hit Of The Summer”—it’s a song about getting as fucked up as possible, on as many drugs as your body can handle, all at the same time. The serendipitous addition of Judas Priest’s Rob Halford on backing vocals further cements the song’s party-hearty credentials, but even if altered states aren’t your thing, the energizing, propulsive tempo of this heavy metal-tinged rock ’n’ roller should put lighting in your veins all on its own. [Katie Rife]
Modest Mouse, “Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes” (June 13)
Modest Mouse didn’t truly break through (or sell out, depending on how committed you are to ’90s-style DIY ethics) until 2004 and “Float On.” But the Pacific Northwest indie kings releasing an album on a major label was enough to make some fans throw their trucker caps down in disgust. But it was their loss, because while Modest Mouse’s sound did get more polished on its third studio album, The Moon & Antarctica, it got weirder—both musically and lyrically—as well. “Tiny Cities Made Of Ashes” perfectly encapsulates this shift, pairing Vonnegut-esque lyrics about a nicotine-stained road trip with a rubberized bass line, bewildered electronic flourishes, and, of course, Isaac Brock screaming at the top of his lungs. [Katie Rife]
Dillinger Four, “Let Them Eat Thomas Paine” (June 20)
Few punk bands can balance humor, politics, melody, and incredibly loud guitars like Dillinger Four, the raucous Minneapolis rockers that dropped four fiercely beloved albums between 1998 and 2008. Versus God is arguably their best LP, and “Let Them Eat Thomas Paine” a contender for their best song. The riffs roar, the gang vocals soar, and the title taunts with a smirking sense of subversion. And then there’s the lyrics: “We act like we didn’t know / Then kids shoot kids or community defies its role / Then of course it’s everyone’s fault / Except for anyone we might know.” That nearly every 20-year-old Dillinger Four song sounds like it was written yesterday speaks not only to their prescience, but also to the irreparably broken system they relentlessly railed against. [Randall Colburn]
The White Stripes, “Apple Blossom” (June 20)
In 2000, stadium-rock stardom was still a few years off for The White Stripes, who opened for Sleater-Kinney on the All Hands On The Bad One tour that year. And Jack White wasn’t stacking the amps quite as high on the group’s second album, De Stijl, as he would on future hits like “Seven Nation Army.” But his fondness for blending blues guitar and Beatles-esque melodies is already fully formed on the sweetly romantic “Apple Blossom.” Drummer Meg White’s brilliantly stripped-down (and underrated) drumming sets the tone for this nostalgic number, where White offers with a childlike innocence to “put your troubles in a little pile, and I will sort them out for you.” [Katie Rife]
The Weakerthans, “Aside” (July 25)
Left And Leaving is an album about the liminal space between here and there, that place where one’s identity and relationship to place becomes fluid. “And I’m leaning on this broken fence between past and present tense,” John K. Samson belts on “Aside,” a power-pop anthem that doubles as Left And Leaving’s thesis statement. It’s not the LP’s best song—we’ll let you argue about that—but its big chorus and electrifying power chords make it the most accessible, not to mention a natural bridge between Samson’s early work in Propagandhi and his more melodic songwriting. [Randall Colburn]
Goldfrapp, “Human” (September 11)
Goldfrapp’s impeccably cinematic debut album, Felt Mountain, has a stylishly aloof quality that would make even Andy Warhol jealous. But while being unattainably hip may open doors, it doesn’t sell records. The British duo rebranded with a more danceable sound on its sophomore record, Black Cherry, but it’d be a mistake to count out “Human,” off of that first, less commercially successful record. Sure, it brings to mind a tango and not a crowded club, combining mysterious strings that fall like icicles with a shimmying beat and futuristic electro flourishes. But as the soundtrack to an imaginary Blade Runner spin-off where Rachel runs off from the Tyrell Corporation to open an android nightclub—or perhaps a sci-fi Bond sequel set in the year 2167—it’s dance-floor perfection. [Katie Rife]
At The Drive-In, “One Armed Scissor” (September 12)
Of course the Trojan horse is on the cover of Relationship Of Command. Recorded with nü-metal architect Ross Robinson, preceded by a touring spell that saw At The Drive-In go from splitting club bills with The Get Up Kids to opening arena shows headlined by Rage Against The Machine, the album was heavy and aggressive enough to slip past alt-rock-radio programmers whose tastes favored watered-down variations on Korn, Slipknot, and other Robinson-produced acts. What’s inside “One Armed Scissor” was something else entirely: a road-tested post-hardcore ferocity and prog-rock technicality that’s cerebrally and physically electrifying—particularly if you first heard the song during the acrobatic late-night spots At The Drive-In did to promote Relationship Of Command. The band initiated its own self-destruct sequence a few months later, but not before throwing the gates open for everyone exposed to “One Armed Scissor” between spins of “Butterfly” and “Outside.” [Erik Adams]
Christina Aguilera, “Falsas Esperanzas” (September 12)
Not every song from the late ’90s/early 2000s Latin pop boom was a winner. For every hit by Ricky Martin and Enrique Iglesias, there was an odd fit like 98 Degrees’ “Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche).” Christina Aguilera, whose father was an Ecuadorian immigrant, learned Spanish in preparation for recording Mi Reflejo, her Spanish-language follow-up to her eponymous debut. Filled with translated versions of “Reflection,” “Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You),” “Genie In A Bottle,” and “What A Girl Wants,” Mi Reflejo also included some new songs (including a duet with pre-Despacito Luis Fonsi). Among the best of those original creations is “Falsas Esperanzas.” Backed by a brassy horn section and piano by Miami Sound Machine collaborator Paquito Hechavarría, the uptempo track leaned into the roots of traditional Latin music much more than most of Iglesias’ and Martin’s U.S. radio offerings. Just try and not move your hips while listening to it. [Patrick Gomez]
The New Pornographers, “Letter From An Occupant” (November 21)
It takes a certain kind of chutzpah to call your new band a supergroup, despite none of its members being even close to famous. Sure, Neko Case was a rising alt-country musician at the time, but with all due respect to A.C. Newman and Dan Bejar, the label spoke more to The New Pornographers’ confidence than the renown of any of its individual artists. With the exuberant Mass Romantic, the can’t-lose collective of Canadian indie rock musicians came out of the gate at a sprint, piling hook upon hook and layering enough pop melodies and vocal harmonies to make Brian Wilson green. The album is loaded with certifiable bangers: the title track, “My Slow Descent Into Alcoholism,” “Letter From An Occupant.” Front to back, Mass Romantic nearly demands listeners sing along, but you could seriously hurt yourself trying to hit the high notes on “Letter.” Neko absolutely wails on the track, throwing her voice around like she’s trying to hurl herself across a canyon. Twenty years on, Mass Romantic is still one of, if not the group’s best album, its reckless abandon proving the “supergroup” moniker was less bold posturing than ecstatic statement of purpose. [Laura Adamczyk]
139 Comments
How did Faith Hill beat “Smooth” for #1? I thought Smooth was one of the top singles of all fucking time or something like that.
“Smooth” came out in June 1999 and its run at #1 started in October ‘99 and ended in early ‘00. That it was *still* #2 in 2000 is a sign of how ubiquitous it was. According to Wikipedia, it was in the top ten for 30 weeks, which has only been beaten by LeAnn Rimes’ “How Do I Live” and records that came out in the very different chart universe of the last few years.
Ah, that makes sense!
I saw the Hives live back in the day. Man, did they ever embody the old James Brown ethos of “Kill’em and leave …”
Never seen them live outside of footage, but yeah, they seem to really put on a performance. With Almqvist seeming to channel Mick Jagger’s youth, or as you say James Brown.
I saw them at Maxwell’s (R.I.P.) in Hoboken. They had fantastic stage presence, even for a venue of 200 people.
I saw them back in 2012 or thereabouts at Terminal 5 on their last US tour and honesty it’s one of the most fun shows I’ve ever seen. A band that is/was completely attuned to its audience and knows how to give them exactly what they want – but, like, x1000. Just blew the fucking doors off the place. Really makes me wish they toured the US more frequently.
That’s where I saw them!
I saw the Hives as an opening band playing in front of 300 people at most. They played the entire ser pretending they were playing a stadium. They kept thanking the people sitting in the back of the second level. “EVEN THOUGH WE CANT SEE YOU, WE CAN HEAR YOU!”
I DJ field day at the school where I work. Right before the first game I play Come On and the kids get pumped as hell.
Saw them at Punk Rock Bowling last year and they absolutely slayed. How they are not bigger than they are is a total mystery to me.
The Clinic album is great – none of their other stuff has ever really done it for me, but I still love Internal Wrangler.
I don’t know if New Pornographers ever had a flat-out great album, but they’re pretty much all very good. Neko Case also put out Furnace Room Lullaby that year, that’s a strong one-two punch.
I’ll shout out The Museum Of Imaginary Animals by Pram for more in the Broadcast mold.
I 100% agree with your assessment of Clinic.
Yeah, I liked Internal Wrangler too. I remember being excited about the follow up and ended up thinking it was fucking awful after I finally bought it. I don’t think I listened to it more than twice. Wonder how I’d feel now.
Walking With Thee is more blah than awful, which may be worse.
I feel like the followup wasn’t awful, just kind of the same song ten times in a row.
It was, and if you don’t like the song, like me…I agree with you on the Neko Case record by the way, even if I do like Blacklisted more. Blacklisted is on my top ten of all time though, so it’s hard to compete with that.
weed and bach and bach and mono
Deltron 3030 is a nearly flawless album. Still one of my all time favorites.
Such a great album and it was so perfect and weird that it’s kind of the high point of both Del and Dan the Automator’s careers. I kind of miss that era of (somewhat) underground hip-hop, lots of cool post trip-hop and soundscapes with eclectic sampling, deep lyricists, and still the element of turntablism before everything got more electronic.
Still listen to it and the instrumental album very frequently.
Missed it back in the day, but found it a few years later in the mid 2000’s.
If I ever gain access to a time machine, and I have no loftier goals than to go back to elucidate my younger self with great music I missed at the time, Deltron is near the top of that list.
I played The Mastermind on heavy rotation. Stone cold classic.
I still watch this all the time.
Great list! I love Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, but I think 3rd Planet just edges it out. As for At the Drive-In, their best tune of 2000 for me was Extracurricular.Some other tracks I’d add:Badly Drawn Boy – Once Around the Block
Elliott Smith – Happiness
Hot Snakes – Automatic Midnight
Johnny Cash – The Mercy Seat (Nick Cave cover)
The Murder City Devils – Press Gang
Yo La Tengo – You Can Have It All
oh man, that Yo La Tengo album (And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out) absolutely ruled my 2000/2001. dare I say it’s one of their most best and most consistent records? either way, it’s still something i listen to all the way through regularly after 20 years!
“Happiness” is one of Elliott Smith’s very best. it’s accessible without ever losing his distinctive beautiful style of songwriting
I didn’t have my ear to the ground at the time and I can tell you that pretty much everything here was squarely between the college radio and public radio poles at the time and hardly went unheard . Sleater-Kinney were already old news while Goldfrapp and Aimee Mann were both definitely parent rock. The New Photographers and The White Stripes were well on their way to being the bands everyone was sick of hearing about while Modest Mouse and Death Cab had already achieved that honor. Good old A.V. Club, you had the lowest wattage radar around.
Meee-OW
Goldfrapp was considered “Parent Rock” in 2000? Their debut album just came in September 2000 and they had only formed the year before…
This is just anecdotal, but I first heard of Goldfrapp from my Dad a couple of years later (not saying this disproves your point, just thought that it was funny). That being said, Goldfrapp is about as far from stereotypical Dad rock as I can think of.
The first Goldfrapp album was trip hop with strings when that kind of trip hop was already dead, buried and forgotten, so dinner with friends music. I like it though.
Trip-hop will never die! Portishead forever!
I miss trip hop like the deserts miss the rain, mostly when it mixed with other styles like the first Nitin Sawhney productions or when it got dark and experimental, but it was a style that was killed by both the pomposity of many offerings at the end of the 90s (the cinematic trip hop ballads with full orchestra) and being replaced by “chillout”. Portishead still kicking in though. I mean. Look at my username.
Oh, nice! I missed the MA reference until you mentioned it–love Mezzanine. As far as the full orchestra trip-hop deal goes, for my money Portishead live at the Roseland Ballroom is the high-water mark for trip-hop. I love that album.
doooood! Everyone was sick of New Photographers, White Stripes and Death Cab in 2000? They where all on their first album!
It almost sound like they’re confusing 2000 with like 2003 or 2004.
even then…
It happens a lot on these articles.
Nearly burned myself on that hot take.
Love The New Photographers.Nothing like those old news losers, The New Pornographers
Careful there, you might cut yourself on that edge.
To commemorate 60 years of the Billboard Hot 100, Off The Charts revisits each year since it was established to spotlight songs and artists that didn’t make the cut, yet still made a significant impact.
that’s the premise of the feature. artists that made a big impact but didn’t chart
I think the problem is that the headline doesn’t match the feature. Nothing on this list is really obscure or “unheard,” it’s good music that just didn’t chart.
Relatively unheard songs at the time, which is the premise. This isn’t reddit, not everything has to be hyper-literal.
I don’t even know how to process this comment. I mean … wha? I think you are subjectively wrong on every single take, and I’m fairly certain you’re actually objectively wrong on most of them too.
I am printing out this edgy reply so that I can shave with it if I ever go back to work.
I didn’t have my ear to the ground, but no mention of the Buzzwazzers, Hairy Henry & The Hens, or B*Witched? This is just mainstream crap!
No B*Witched?Well… C’est la vie
Wow! You were into being into things before being into things was a thing.
Meh, there’s enough right in this comment that I’ll upvote. I think it was all downhill from here for Sleater-Kinney–All Hands On the Bad One got great reviews but I don’t think it was the breakthrough everyone expected. I don’t think Goldfrapp did much in the US until they got lumped in with that electroclash bullshit; I don’t remember Felt Mountain doing much at all. Other than that, yeah. Especially Modest Mouse, Epic promoted Moon & Antarctica to death and I was sick of it before the official release date
What the fuck are you talking about? Almost everyone you mentioned was on their first album. Contrarian assholeness only has a hope to be relevant when you’re at least factually correct. Which you’re not.
You’re the person people are mocking when they sniff “I don’t even OWN a television.”
This article could have been another 30,000 words and I’d just keep. on. going. Love this era of music. Controversial opinion: AHOTBO is the best Sleater-Kinney record
Spotify recommended “You’re No Rock ‘n’ Roll Fun”, I was not disappointed.
It’s a fucking banger
I’ll go to my grave saying that Hot Water Music’s cover of “Radio” is better than the original.
The Hives look is spotless, and spelling your bands name out in buttons on your guitar strap is the icing on their black-and-white cake.
Goldfrapp’s Bond-theme-in-another-timeline was either Human or Utopia. I can see Pierce checking his cuffs to either.
Thank you for reminding me of The Weakerthans. My Favorite Chords is still my favorite off of Left and Leaving but I hadn’t thought of them in probably 10 years.
my favourite bit in “Letter From An Occupant” – at 3:13 when the producer says “right here!” to cue Neko back in. Also omg they’re all so young….
Neat, I must have heard that song five hundred times but I never noticed that bit. Fun!
Pretty much ALL of All Hands on the Bad One is amazing (even “Milkshake ‘n Honey”, which I didn’t like at first, has imprinted on me). It’s probably has probably the best harmony, to be sure, of all their album. It also reckons with the whole “being a woman in this world and also in a male-dominated industry” issue in a real, tangible way, rather than just the standard riotgrrl provocation seen in earlier tracks.
I’m going to resist the temptation to point out that Neko Case released her sophomore and arguably best album in 2000.Instead I’m just going to leave this noisy little treasure from never-was band Jejune.
All from 2000:The debut album from The Damage Manual;
Einsturzende Neubauten’s Silence Is Sexy, most particularly the track Sabrina;the Ellipsis Arts compilation OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music;the Faust box set The Wumme Years;the long germinating ‘race issues’ Frogs album Racially Yours;John Moran’s oddball take on the Egyptian Book of the Dead, narrated by Uma Thurman: https://johnmoran.bandcamp.com/album/the-egyptian-book-of-the-de;John Prine’s post-cancer re-recording of some of his back catalog, Souvenirs (very much a desert island disc);
Hey! The Damage Manual!
I was in my mid-teens only really listening to industrial and post-hardcore, while still hanging with the metal kids, so I hadn’t found my musical taste yet, but I liked that Damage Manual debut. I haven’t really given them any thought since so, glad to hear they did more.
Mass Romantic is a great album that utterly exhausts. me. There’s too many hooks, the pace is frenetic and the sound is too trebly. I do love the record, but I need a break about 2/3rds the way through.
That sounds about right. It’s an album I tend to listen to a few songs at a time, rather than all the way through.
That Sleater Kinney album is so good! Somehow I don’t like any of their other music though.
LMAO what was it on the horrible Katy Perry article last week; somebody said “clearly an album that sold a lot is meaningful.”Look at the top 20 here. It’s almost entirely trash. Commercial sales do not equal quality or importance.
I’ll stand up for that Santana lick on Smooth. I just wish it was attached to a better song. Everything about it screams, “shut up Rob Thomas.”
oh, hell yeah. The song really is that… smooth. I’ll see myself out.
Mass Romantic is still an album I play somewhat regularly, and, though not much of a concert person, have seen them live 3 times, each time amazing. I love The New Pornographers so much
YES.
my favourite was seeing them with neko.
with immaculate machine and destroyer as the openers.
That sounds like simply the best! I’ve only seen them once with Destroyer in the band sadly, but they’re great regardless of who’s playing with them
i was fortunate to have been pen pals with someone in the band, talking about music and music business and all that stuff- and they would hook me up with a ticket anytime they were playing my area. i never asked; they were just really really nice.
I am the most jealous of you right now! I’d be over the moon if I was on speaking terms with any of them.
Human on Felt Mountain is a better Bond theme song than all but … maybe 1 of the past 10 actual ones?
Trish Keenan was such a loss.
100%. Tender Buttons is on my desert island list. wish we’d gotten a proper follow-up. as much as I enjoyed the “witch-cults” craziness, it needed MORE Trish.
holy shit she caught swine flu?!?
Ok two things re. The New Pornographers: (i) there is no debate … Electric Version is their best album; and (ii) A.C. Newman doesn’t get the credit he deserves in the world of pop songwriting. These albums are so good because of the skills he brings to the table. He wrote (and writes) nearly all of their songs. His solo album, The Slow Wonder, is as good as their best album. The dude is a pop virtuoso.
I think he’s a great songwriter, but a kind of bad singer unfortunately – there’s a reason most of the best-loved New Pornographers songs (setting aside the Dan Bejar ones) have significant vocal presence from Neko Case. As far as their best album, I think their first three are pretty interchangeable and I might stick Whiteout Conditions at the same level.
Being a “great songwriter” massively outweighs being a “bad singer” in importance in my book, though.
not to mention his stuff with Zumpano, which is stellar.
i prefer ‘twin cinema’ as an album, but ‘the laws have changed’ is probably my all-time favourite NP song.
he has solo albums too, sometimes the lyrics are EVEN MORE obscure and elliptical“Encyclopedia of Classic Takedowns” might be too much of a New Pornos song, I’d recommend “Secretariat” “Like a Hitman” or “Drink to Me, Babe, Then”
Although, contrarywise, I would say Shut Down the Streets is his most lyrically direct work ever. Not confessional or anything like that, but as close to clearly autobiographical as Newman has ever come.
yes, lyrically direct. He’s like the anti-Mark Kozelek (a good thing to be right now), The Slow Wonder could be so autobiographical it’s about what Carl had for lunch and we wouldn’t be able to tell the lyrics are so oblique! I did think Shut Down the Streets was confessional, at least the title song definitely. I thought it was other people who called them a “supergroup” and they made fun of it, but shit dude, A.C., Dan, and Neko are three of the greatest songwriters on the planet, that’s my kind of supergroup. One thing I would like from them next time they tour (if that ever happens) is to have Neko write for the group or at least have them take a crack at New-Pornoizing some of her songs. They probably tried and it didn’t work but I’d at least like a peek at an outtake of that attempt.
(i) The debate is usually between Mass Romantic and Twin Cinema. Electric Version rarely gets a visitors pass to that debate.
Yeah, but From Blown Speakers is definitely in the conversation for one of their best songs.
Their most recent, “In the Morse Code of Brake Lights,” is right up there with those first three.
get out!
I mean, I like what you’re saying, but Twin Cinema is their best album.
I’m so proud I only know like 4 of those top 20 songs :)The was the first S-K album I listened to, not their best but got enough into it to die for One Beat. I’ve boycotted them since they ratfucked Janet Weiss.
That’s a weird thing to be proud of. “Man, I hate popular music so much, I don’t even go to the supermarket where I might hear it by accident.”
Is it weird that I can look at a top 20 chart from any year in the seventies and instantly call each song to mind, but for 2000, ostensibly MY era, I blank on all but about 3?
…my tastes were just more underground, I guess, as I knew almost every song posted in the article itself.
It’s the year, 3030. And here at the Corporate Institutional Bank of Time, we find ourselves reflecting. Finding out that, in fact, we came back. We were always coming back.
I reckon the best music released in 2000 was the underrated Stereolab EP entitled “First of the Microbe Hunters”. Broadcast is cool too.
Nickel Creek’s self-titled album came out in March, and I think both that record and what they went on to do fit the spirit here.
The Sophtware Slump, GrandaddyThat is all.
I’m actually quite surprised that there was no mention of Belle & Sebastian’s “Legal Man” or Grandaddy’s “The Crystal Lake.” Those seemed like no-brainers for the indie-oriented set.
SOOOOO much good stuff in 2000, but I’m also gathering there’s some under-representation of the UK/dance/gay/club demo in the ranks there.While these often charted in the UK, they either did not chart in the US or were not released in the US at that time.
The biggest movement of the year in the UK was the mainstream success of 2-Step/UK Garage, the foundation of dubstep and grime. So Solid Crew released their debut single “Oh No (Sentimental Things),” laying the groundwork for grime, which would ultimately crossover to acknowledgement in the US with Dizzee Rascal.One of the most prolific artists and remixers from 2000 was MJ Cole. His debut Sincere was released in late-2000 after a string of remixes and singles dating back to 1998.Angel Lee – “What’s Your Name? (MJ Cole Master Mix)”
Angel Lee’s vocals showed up altered and uncredited in Huxley’s 2019 track “Freekon” that made a splash earlier this year, but this is the original remix. that brought attention to this track.
MJ Cole feat Elisabeth Troy – “Crazy Love”
While “Sincere” the title track to his 2000 album was released in 1998 and he had many remix credits, “Crazy Love” was the first taste of what MJ Cole had been up to as a solo artist. It represents the quintessential mixture of crisp beats, jazz keyboards, and soulful vocals that defined his sound.
3rd Core – “Mindless And Broken (MJ Cole Master Mix)”
The closest UK Garage had to an “Unfinished Sympathy.”
But the award for most transformative remix would have to go to another UK Garage act: The Artful Dodger.
Gabrielle – “Rise”
The original was based around a sample of Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and went on to top the UK charts for 2 weeks in early 2000. The album Rise would eventually become one of the biggest sellers of the year.
Gabrielle – “Rise (Artful Dodger Above Board Vox)”
For the remixes featured on the album’s CD and 12″ singles, Gabrielle gathered one of the most ambitious slate of remixers. The remixes were so noteworthy that they were eventually compiled on a vinyl-only release called Rise Underground which included exclusive mixes of the album’s tracks.
The Artful Dodger’s remix of “Rise” is one of the best, giving the song a different chord progression and changing its tone considerably.
Black Box Recorder – “The Facts Of Life”
Although I’d go with “Start As You Mean To Go On” and “Brutality” for their pointed commentary on turn-of-the-century mores, “The Facts Of Life” was the track that brought them mainstream UK attention. Sarah Nixey’s dispassionate delivery drips with the detachment of a health sciences instructor delivering “the talk” to a classroom (which was actually the concept for the official video). The explicit remix done by Pulp’s Jarvis Cocker and Steve Mackey as The Chocolate Layers goes even further down that path.
Saint Etienne – How We Used To Live
“How We Used To Live” was the lead single and centerpiece of Saint Etienne’s 2000 release Sound Of Water, an experimental album which saw them working with former Stereolab collaborator and High Llamas founder Sean O’Hagan and German post-rock, electronic outfit To Rococo Rot.Taking its name from a British educational history television series that ran from 1968 to 2002, Saint Etienne took listeners on an almost nine minute journey through three distinct styles to create, as band member Bob Stanley put it, their “Paranoid Android.”The song begins with stream-of-consciousness observations of humdrum small town life set against a gentle folk-electronic background, but 3 minutes in the song builds to an exhuberent, shimmering mid-section filled with the hope and promise of leaving it all behind for a life in the big city (especially if a boy gives away your record collection!). The song concludes with an ironic, melancholy lament for the life left behind. We live in cycles of dreams and regrets, hope for the future and longing for the past, and this song perfectly captures that feeling.Lemon Jelly – “Page One”
From their 2000 EP The Midnight and later included on their debut Lemonjelly.ky. Takes about 3 minutes to reveal where it’s headed, but it’s SO worth the wait.
Kylie Minogue – “Spinning Around”
Kylie’s comeback single after being dropped by Deconstruction in the aftermath of the commercial failure of Impossible Princess (the marketing of which was scrapped in the wake of Princess Diana’s death, leading to the album being renamed Kylie Minogue—her second album with that title). This was a massive hit in the UK and Australia, but Light Years, the album from which “Spinning Around” was taken, went unreleased in the US.
Interesting sidenote: Co-written by Paula Abdul and Kara DioGuardi who, later in the decade, would both be judges on American Idol.
Moloko – “The Time Is Now”
After the worldwide club success of the “Sing It Back” remixes, Moloko fully leaned into the dance floor with this flamenco-infused single.
Melanie C – “I Turn To You”
Sporty Spice came into her own with this UK chart topper. The Hex Hector mix was absolutely unavoidable at any gay club in 2000.
Spiller – “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)”
Speaking of Spice Girls: Victoria “Posh Spice” Beckham’s first solo single was a UK Garage track with True Steppers and Dane Bowers called “Out Of Your Mind.” It was on track to top the UK charts in August 2000, but was thwarted by this club track featuring former Theaudience singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor who would go on to continued pop success with subsequent singles “Murder On The Dancefloor,” “Get Over You,” “Music Gets The Best Of Me,” and her remake of Cher’s “Take Me Home.” But “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)“ is where the world first became aware of her popstar potential.A Guy Called Gerald feat Louise Rhodes – “Humanity”
Acid house legend and drum and bass pioneer Gerald Simpson formally followed up his groundbreaking 1995 album Black Secret Technology with the 2000 release Essence. Second single “Humanity” featured Lamb’s Louise Rhodes on vocals.
Primal Scream – “Kill All Hippies”
The opening track to Primal Scream’s 2000 album XTRMNTR, the final full-length release on the incredibly influential Creation Records, “Kill All Hippies” (featuring a sample of the recently deceased Linda Manz from the film Out Of The Blue) is the thesis statement of a blistering manifesto. Primal Scream warn that fascism is on the rise and flower power won’t be enough to destroy it. Direct action will be necessary to stop what’s coming, so get ready. It was about 15 years ahead of its time.This was Primal Scream’s first album with former-Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield joining in on songwriting duties (he had played on 1997’s Vanishing Point but had not written or co-written any of its songs). A number of bass-driven tracks highlight his contributions in that regard. Also joining in various capacities: My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields, New Order’s Bernard Sumner, Sabres Of Paradise’s Jagz Kooner, and The Chemical Brothers.
Doves – “Catch The Sun”
Though subsequent albums would chart on the Billboard album charts, Doves’ debut album Lost Souls did not. “Catch The Sun” seemed like an outlier from their previous singles “The Cedar Room,” “Sea Song,” and “Here It Comes,” but it was the final piece of the puzzle that clicks into place to define Doves as a band with a lot on its mind. Moody introspection, shoegazery epics, piano-led psychedelia, AND summer stadium rock anthems.
Oasis – “Let’s All Make Believe”[Technically, it wasn’t released on a Top 100 Album; it was only on a UK-released single.]Probably Oasis’ finest moment…relegated to the b-side of half-assed comeback single “Go Let It Out.” Go figure. Works as insight into the animosity between the Gallagher brothers and the inevitable failure of our reality to live up to our hopes and dreams.
Cousteau – “The Last Good Day Of The Year”
The Burt Bacharach/Scott Walker vibe, the melancholy, the strings, the trumpet. Pure class.
Great call on St Etienne. Good Humor was my favorite record of 1998 but I was happy to hear they went in a different direction for Sound of Water. ‘How We Used To Live’ is epic, and you describe it perfectly. Unfortunately I think the reason that I never got into Black Box Recorder or Broadcast was because hearing them always made me want to listen to St Etienne. Someday, maybe.Yes on XTRMNTR too. As you say, ahead of its time (though I think it’s received better if it comes out in 2002) and certainly out of step with the time, committing to neither Britpop nor electronica, meaning that it wouldn’t find an audience in 2000. It would not surprise me if people rate it higher than Screamadelica now.ETA: that Mel C record was low-key good, certainly the best solo record by a Spice Girl.
I don’t love Sound Of Water but “How We Used To Live” is indeed great.And yeah, Light Years is a great album. “Disco Down” is an all-time favorite song of mine.
I will never understand why “Disco Down” wasn’t a single. I’d have gone with that for 2nd single, then “Your Disco Needs You” for 3rd single.I don’t love Sound Of Water as is (“Boy Is Crying” is just a spot below “Soft Like Me” for the most inexplicable misstep in their catalogue). But if you like the sound they created for the album, I’d suggest giving my retrack a listen. Back in the days of 2-part CD singles and loads of b-sides, I used to reorder album tracklistings using songs from the same sessions to create what I felt was a stronger album and the Deluxe Edition reissue provided two additional tracks.
So for Sound Of Water, I have1. Late Morning
2. Heart Failed (In The Back Of A Taxi)
3. Sycamore
4. Tony Jacket
5. Just A Little Overcome
6. Empty Shop
7. Aspects Of Lambert
8. Don’t Back Down
9. Downey, CA
10. How We Used To Live
11. Thank You
12. Shoot Out The Lights“Thank You” and “Shoot Out The Lights” were originally supposed to close the album based on an early promo.“Shoot Out The Lights” is one of my faves. If you’re not familiar with it…
“Go” off that Mel C album is a great song.
Thank you! Good to know I’m not the only one.I was a fan of The Three Sarahs (aka Sarah Cracknell of Saint Etienne, Sarah Blackwood of Dubstar, and Sarah Nixey of Black Box Recorder). Though they share some musical similarities, they each represent vastly different points of view that align with different aspects of my personality.Saint Etienne – largely optimistic, with a foot firmly planted in music history and an eye toward the future (just looking at their remixers from the start is a who’s who of people who became BFDs)Dubstar – boldly sexual and confrontational (which Sarah Blackwood would later take to the extreme with Client)Black Box Recorder – cynical and detached with a particular distaste for sexual hypocritesXTRMNTR and Screamadelica are so different. I almost wonder if someone happening upon them today would believe they were the same band. Following them through the 90s and 00s, the shift was gradual and their evolution seemed logical, but it’s still quite the leap.I was a fan of Emma Bunton’s 2004 album Free Me with its 60s vibe. The lead single’s video referencing Bob Fosse’s film version of Sweet Charity didn’t hurt.
I remember being a little disappointed in Dubstar’s Goodbye when it came out in the States, aside from ‘Stars’. It was pushed as an 80s-style synthpop album but to me it did sound like a moodier St Etienne. But Client, that’s the good stuff. Primal Scream never settled on a sound (C-86 pop, Rolling Stones-y blues, Madchester-ish dance, dub) and I think that really hurt them. It’s my understanding too that they weren’t really keen on the dancey stuff that got them attention, and that the Stone-y stuff was more their seam. XTRMNTR splits the difference nicely, I think.That Bunton track is really good. It kinda reminds of what The Bird And The Bee were trying to do around the same time.
“Stars” is unimpeachable and can pretty much survive anything. But that US Frankenstein release of Goodbye is a hot mess. Not quite as bad as the abominable US release of Saint Etienne’s Tiger Bay, but it similarly changes the tone and intent of the original. The original versions of Dubstar’s debut Disgraceful and Goodbye are both very different animals and mixing the two does not work. To put them together was…ahem…disgraceful.The US release left off “Elevator Song,” the single which allegedly got them signed to Food/EMI, and excluded one of their best tracks “The Day I See You Again.”I think Disgraceful is a stronger album in its original form, but “No More Talk” and “I Will Be Your Girlfriend” are incredibly strong singles, the latter of which is like the blueprint for Client, and there are some very strong b-sides (“This Is My Home” on the Cathedral Park EP and “Goodbye” on the No More Talk EP).Ultimately they just may not click with you, but I’d at least give the original albums in their original form a listen, especially Disgraceful.If you’re in the UK, they’re both on Spotify in their original form here: Disgraceful
GoodbyeRE Primal Scream. Yeah, they were all over the map and I think you’re right about their Stones fetish. I mean, they did Riot City Blues after the one-two punch of XTRMNTR and Evil Heat. Like…uh…wtf? But Primal Scream on the Give Out But Don’t Give Up tour was the best of both worlds. One of the best shows I’ve ever seen in my life (R.I.P. Denise Johnson). XTRMNTR tour Primal Scream was a million miles away from the earlier tour, way more intense.
Glad you liked the Emma Bunton track! That album is pretty great all the way through.
Yeah it’s been decades since I’ve listened to Dubstar so it’s a good time to check out the early CDs with fresh ears.I know that U.S. record companies always butchered albums from UK acts by adding and removing tracks, remixing, reordering them etc, but in the 90s they seemed really bad at it. I always thought it was a major mistake throwing together tracks from Robbie Williams’ first two records to make The Ego Has Landed. I mean c’mon just release Life Through a Lens and put out ‘Let Me Entertain You’ as a lead single and he would have conquered the US.
By the way, I’m going through your videos and enjoying the garage stuff, particularly “Mindless and Broken”. Sweet Female Attitude’s “Flowers” is also from that year and is a banger.
I just started watching I May Destroy You, and in one of the early episodes, the lead is at a club of today and “Flowers” by Sweet Female Attitude comes on. IDK if that’s year 2000, but I immediately jumped up and was like MY JAM and then everyone in the 2020 club (or I guess pre-pandemic) was like BOOOOOOOO! I miss the garage days. I’m in the US, but my friends and I would go to London for parties and record shopping and what I wouldn’t give to be back there in that time..(And can I just say, Sunship remixes were always amazing. I dont remember a bad one.)
Yep that was 2000! Sunship were absolutely fantastic as well.
I had to cull my list, and “Flowers” and “Overload”both got cut, so here’s a way to honor them both. The original Sugababes line-up recently did a cover of this for the Garage Classics album.
Here’s some additional Sarah Cracknell magic from 2000 courtesy of trance producer Paul Van Dyk. I absolutely love this track although it never seemed to get much airplay in any of the clubs I was frequenting whilst backpacking round SE ASia and Australia.Sadly 2000 was the beginning of the end for trance. A lot of it seemed to be segueing into Hard House. This track which was absolutely everywhere at the time seemed to bridge the gap (to be fair it’s never left us, if spin classes are anything to go by):I’m surprised nobody’s posted up anything from PJ Harvey’s Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea? Admittedly I didn’t buy it until 2001 but I remember Good Fortune getting a lot of airplay on Australia’s JJJ when it was released back in October 2000 and the album’s been a solid fixture in my listening ever since. It also wouldn’t be 2000 without this:and finally, whatever happened to Anastasia? That bint was everywhere in Oz and then she just vanished like Keyser Soze
“Tell Me Why” was on my list (as was “Face To Face” from Out There And Back), but I cut it to avoid being too long of a post (in retrospect, lol).Other dance tracks that deserved to be mentioned were Dubstar’s “I (Friday Night) [DJ Jurgen Radio Edit] and Chicane’s collaboration with Bryan Adams “Don’t Give Up” which remains the only thing I own involving Bryan Adams.
PJ Harvey charted in the US so I think that’s why she hasn’t been mentioned. So did Bjork’s Selmasongs.
It’s been years since I’ve listened to Doves. I just started listening to Lost Souls again a few weeks ago. Even though Catch the Sun caught my attention back in the day, the more shoegazy tracks like Break Me Gently made me fan.
Tonight on Quantum Leap: Sam is a small town sheriff who has to restore when a blackout hits on midnight New Year’s Day 2000, causing everyone to think Y2K is ending the world.
I wouldn’t say Modest Mouse “sold out” by 2000. I will say nothing they’ve ever done compares to The Lonesome Crowed West though. It’s a perfect album.
It took me a while to appreciate The Moon, but my favorite from them will always be This is a Long Drive… I also wouldn’t say they “sold out” at all. I continue to like Brock and company to this day. Good News and We Were Dead hold up pretty well.
I find the career trajectories of Modest Mouse and Built to Spill very similar. They both started with bleak soundscapes (This Is a Long Drive…./Ultimate Alternate Wavers), followed up with near-perfect indie albums (Lonesome Crowded West/There Is Nothing Wrong With Love), then signed to majors so they could use every last dollar making space rock masterpieces (The Moon & Antarctica/Perfect From Now On). They then made more accessible label-pleasing records (Good News…/Keep It Like a Secret), before closing it out with a few albums of varying quality, but never anything as good as the first half of their discographies.
Actually surprised by some of these picks. I’ve never seen The Appleseed Cast mentioned in a mainstream site.
on the subject of The Weakerthans: surely we all know “This is a Fire Door, Never Leave Open” is the best song on that album. even if “My Favourite Chords” is my personal, well, favourite
anyway Weakerthans are fucking great, Left & Leaving is probably a top ten album of all time for me, and “Aside” just rocks.
Samson’s solo albums are just as great, particularly Winter Wheat. Basically a Weakerthans album, and a good one too.
I somehow had no idea he had put out a solo record after provincial. Listening to winter wheat now.
Oh my god. You didn’t tell me he wrote another song about Virtute the cat. Crying.
I guess I should have warned you! So many great songs on there. ‘Alpha Adept’ is my current fave.
The Lioness was the first Songs:Ohia record I fell in love with. It was moody in a vicious in a way that I couldn’t quite fully handle as a teenager, but its vibe was intoxicating.It’s a little weird to reflect as an adult on how appealing art about alcoholism, self-destruction, and depression is when you were a teen. I know I could feel my own struggles at the time reflected in Molina’s work, but the things I’ve read about his life posthumously put all of that in a much darker cast.
Aimee Mann’s Bachelor No. 2 was my favorite album of both 2000 and 2001. Saw her at the Carnegie in Pittsburgh over the holiday season in 2001 and it was easily one of the best shows I’ve been to. Audience interaction, plays to the crowd, knows how to read the folk in the seats…it was great. And also took requests when coming back for encores.From some dude on the main floor: “Play ‘Ray’”Aimee Mann: (deadpanning it) “…No.”It was awesome and brought the house down.
The year 2000 was also a fantastic time for electronica. It was in the middle of the clicks cuts and chops from Force Tracks, the beginning of the microhouse movement (dubby beautiful house that gave way to a really boring minimal in the mid 00s) and the mixes between indie and electronica (Notwist, The Books, Hood) that Postal Service would assassinate by overexposure later. Many producers that now are comfortably into house were doing experimental wonderful records (Four Tet, Caribou, Apparat), and while drum n bass started to being hated by journalists, it started another era with producers like Calibre or Klute. And that is what I was listening to at the moment: “organic” house was still very much on the mainstream, uk garage – later hated and forgotten and a bit later loved again – was still going strong, while all the downtempo “cafe del mar” stuff was also on the rise and a bit replacing trip hop (the only 90s style that died and I miss with all my heart). And more. That, plus what you said here that happened on the more straighforward indie scene.How music stagnated after the 00s is something that still hurts me so much.
Low Level Owl hooked me on Appleseed Cast, all the way. Working backward, Fishing the Sky is my fave song outside of their double album opus.
good shout with the BROADCAST pick. one of the best bands ever. they could have kept making that 60s inspired sound that’s on their debut but they were always evolving.It was really sad when the lead singer died at a young age, 42.
Honory mention goes to ‘Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea’ by PJ Harvey. Great album featuring 3 guest spots by Thom Yorke.
Fu Manchu’s “King of the Road” topped the year for me.
You gotta hear, The Style Council
Former member of Jellyfish, the great Roger Joseph Manning Jr. formed another band this year called, The Lickerish Quartet. It’s an EP their first release with 4 tracks, but each track is great! If you love Jellyfish you’ll be right at home.
Also check Roger Joseph Manning Jr. solo albums. They’re the closest we get to new Jellyfish albums.
This white man sounded like an R&B singer and it was amazing.
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