FAMKAB

I hate to admit it but my first contact with the Shins was on the Abercrombie and Fitch website and they had a little music player with 2 songs I distinctly remember being on there, “New Slang” by the Shins and “Getting Into Sinking” by AM/FM. Both are great songs but I really hate to credit A&F for introducing them to me. Either way I must say that I like a lot of the Shins work but by far my favorite is Wincing the Night Away. I’m no indie snob and yes, I knew about them well before this album but my credit really goes to the composition and production on this one. Every song is molds perfectly in to the next and its lyrically really interesting without being too pretentious. It didn’t get nominated for a Grammy for nothing.

I would still recommend their earlier work as well, even though the recording isn’t as polished it’s charming in its own right. Both Chutes Too Narrow and Oh, Inverted World are great and to this day “New Slang” is one of my all time favorite songs.

I guess a little introduction is in order.  So Brent was babbling on and on about his blog and how he didn’t know what to do with it when I came to the rescue.  I declared, “I wish to create a list of epic proportions,” his interest piqued.  ”We shall create a list of our top music for the decade we have just witnessed!”

I think it went something like that, I don’t know, don’t care.  What matters is I’m here, “gathering” everything I can get my hands on, checking out various review lists from the last decade getting ideas on how I want to do this.

So I’m still working out how this is going to work, I’m not really big on rules so much as guiding principles.  It has to have been released after December 31st, 1999 and prior to January 1st, 2010 (the future!)

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Lost Souls, for me, is really a masterpiece from beginning to end.  It is so well crafted, from Firesuite to Zither, each track seems like it was given so much consideration in its construction.  Great use of reverb, vocal harmony, interesting melodies that is very brit pop and so much more too.  Some of my favorites (even though I like the whole album) are “Fire Suite”, “Melody Calls” and “Catch the Sun”.  I think it’s funny that even though this CD only came out in 2000, some one covered “Catch the Sun” shortly after that.  I highly recommend anything Doves but this CD first and foremost.  This album was followed up with The Last Broadcast in 2002 which is really good as well but seems more hurried than their debut.

Doves released their fourth album (without counting Lost Sides) Kingdom of Rust in 2009

On a side note they remind me of Badly Drawn Boy who also has an awesome CD, The Hour of Bewilderbeast. The Doves were in direct competition with them for the Mercury Prize in 2000 and lost.

A long time favorite of mine, this duo from the U.K. has really managed to set the bar for instrumental down-tempo music. My favorite album is their debut one, Simple Things.  A couple hits from this album ended up appearing everywhere from Zach Braff movies to CSI episodes and more.   Mellow guitar, thick bass riffs and jazzy flute and some really incredible vocal performances are the highlights on Simple Things and for the band in general. Even though I like the entire album, my personal favorites are: “I Have Seen”, “Destiny”, “Red Dust”, “In The Waiting Line”.

An album that isn’t necicarily theirs but an awesome mix for parties or just to chill out to is Another Late Night. They do have one track on there which is a cover of a song called “Truth & Rights” which is an awesome reverbed out instrumental track.  This album is actually how I found out about Quasimoto who is a lyrically skilled, Jazz obsessed hip-hop artist from California.

Zero 7 is now on their 4th album which came out in September of 2009 called Yeah Ghost.