The Strokes: "Under The Cover of Darkness"

Andrew's Best Albums of the Decade

So apparently the decade is ending. Have you seen this? Have you heard about this? Time Magazine says the 2000's were "the decade from hell." That's very rude of them! Shame on you, Time Magazine. I mean, the last 10 years gave us some pretty horrible things that were just the pits (9/11, Hurricane Katrina, Lady Gaga) but hey, I liked this decade a lot! I've really only been alive for two whole decades and just a smidge of a third, so the Naughty Aughties were definitely the best out of all the decades. I am very qualified to make such a statement. Moral of the story? You're a Negative Nancy, Time Magazine.

But more importantly, I made a list of my 50 favorite albums from the last ten years. Rather than painstakingly write about each one (that's what the forthcoming Best Of '09 list is for), I decided to try a little something different. Twist! I thought I'd let the artists talk about their albums themselves. It was really hard to get a hold of most of those dudes, though, so I had to do this in the form of their own lyrics. I picked my favorite lines that sum up each album's significance to me. Disclaimer: Because 10 years is a very long time, my tastes have changed tremendously since the start of the decade. But I still thought it was entirely appropriate to include albums that I dug eight, nine years ago. Even though I might not be into a few of these anymore, they meant a lot to me at the time, so that's why you'll find a few questionable choices. So enjoy this, because I did, and because it's kind of like looking through a SCRAP BOOK OF MY LIFE! Plus, lots of YouTubes. The list begins after the jump.

1. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002, Nonesuch)

"All my lies are always wishes / I know I would die if I could come back new."

2. Brand New: Deja Entendu (2003, Triple Crown)

"You are calm and reposed/ let your beauty unfold / Pale white like the skin stretched over your bones / Spring keeps you ever close / You are second hand smoke."

3. The Strokes: Is This It (2001, RCA)

"You say you wanna stand by my side / Darling your head's not right / You see alone we stand, together we fall apart / Yeah I think i'll be alright / I'm working so I won't have to try so hard / Tables they turn sometimes."

4. The Format: Dog Problems (2006, Nettwerk)

"Sometimes, when sailors are sailing / they think twice, about where they're anchoring / and I think, I could make better use of my time on land."

5. Radiohead: Kid A (2000, Capitol)

"You can try the best you can / if you try the best you can / the best you can is good enough."

6. Jack's Mannequin: Everything In Transit (2005, Maverick)

"Maybe we were made for each other / is it possible for the world to look this way forever?"

7. Relient K: Mmhmm (2004, Gotee/ Capitol)

"I've thrown away / so many things that could've been much more / and I just pray / my problems go away if they're ignored / but that's not the way it works."

8. Jimmy Eat World: Bleed American (2001, Dreamworks)

"If you were with me tonight / I'd sing to you just one more time / a song for a heart so big / God wouldn't let it live."

9. Nightmare Of You: Self Titled (2005, The Bevonshire Label)

"But I'm yours if you want it / I can be yours to spend your life with / I can be yours / we'll hide indoors / petrified of the world."

10. Death Cab For Cutie: Transatlanticism (2003, Barsuk)

"All I find are souvenirs from better times / before the gleam of your taillights fading east / to find yourself a better life."

11. Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin: Pershing (2008, Polyvinyl)

"Do people, when they're older / see distances on maps get smaller / and promises of happiness stalled? / I wanna see you again."

12. My Morning Jacket: Z (2005, ATO)

"Truly, truly we have become / hated and feared for something that we don't want / listen, listen / most of us believe that this is wrong."

13. Motion City Soundtrack: Commit This To Memory (2005, Epitaph)

"These are the things I think about / when I'm alone without you / I wonder of your whereabouts / and hope like hell / you're happy where you are."

14. The Postal Service: Give Up (2003, Sub Pop)

"I want so badly to believe / that there is truth, that love is real / and I want life in every word / to the extent that it's absurd."

15. Frightened Rabbit: Midnight Organ Fight (2008, Fatcat)

"When my blood stops / someone else's will not / when my head rolls off / someone else's will turn / and while I'm alive, I'll make tiny changes to Earth."

16. Saves The Day: In Reverie (2003, Dreamworks)

"To the sunlight shining on my cheeks / and the wind sweeping me away / far away from every memory / with your face in the frame / that'll be the day."

17. Brand New: The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me (2006, Tiny Evil/Interscope)

"Is it in you now? / to better hear the truth that you have spoken / twisted up by knaves / to make a trap for fools. / Is it in you now? / to watch the things you gave your life to, broken / and then stoop and build them up / with worn out tools?"

18. Say Anything: Is A Real Boy (2004, Doghouse)

"So now i'm forging ahead / past all the plutocrats who sold me out /go sob in your bed / if life is twice as pretty once you're dead / then send me a card / I'm still the optimist, though it is hard / when all you want to be is in a dream."

19. The Weakerthans: Reunion Tour (2007, Anti-)

"I see you suddenly alive / and nearly smiling / I stop and hold my breath / and watch the way you used to be."

20. Limbeck: Hi, Everything’s Great (2003, Doghouse)

"And if my fingers should start to crack or blister / I guess that's just what happens / don't you forget the things you're leaving."

21. Radiohead: In Rainbows (2007, Self-released)

"I am a moth who just wants to share your light / I'm just an insect trying to get out of the night / I only stick with you because there are no others."

22. Days Away: Mapping an Invisible World (2006, Fueled By Ramen/Lava)

"Now you've got me thinking I'm amazing / cause I've built this all on my own / go on, tell me what you think before you fake it / and I might believe you."

23. Dr. Dog: Fate (2008, Park the Van)

"Cause love that never leaves is never ever welcome back / and i'm running out of skin thick enough to hide in."

24. Animal Collective: Merriweather Post Pavillion (2009, Domino)

"Sometimes the sun will shine / yes I am just doing fine / sometimes I'm not aware / where I am or what I care / sometimes I'm well-to-do / but I don't know what to do / sometimes I don't agree / with my thoughts on being free."

25. Green Day: American Idiot (2004, Reprise)

"And in the darkest / if my memory serves me right / I'll never turn back time / forgetting you / but not the time."

26. Why?: Alopecia (2008, Anticon)

"I'm lucky to be under / this same sky that held / the exhale from your first breath / like a ring on a pillow of clouds / by you my tongue may stutter / but my gift heart screams clear and swells / to burst between the wrapped lengths / of its bowed ribbon cell."

27. The Avett Brothers: I And Love And You (2009, American)

"I wanna fit in to the perfect space / feel natural and safe in a volatile place / and I wanna grow old without the pain / give my body back to the earth and not complain."

28. The Shins: Chutes Too Narrow (2003, Sub Pop)

"Mercy's eyes are blue / and when she places them in front of you / nothing holds a Roman candle / to the solemn warmth you feel."

29. Cursive: The Ugly Organ (2003, Saddle Creek)

"Oh, please don't barrage me with the questions / to all those ugly answers / my ego's like my stomach / it keeps shitting what I feed it."

30. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (2006, Domino)

"Anticipation has a habit to set you up / for disappointment in evening entertainment but / tonight there'll be some love / tonight there'll be a ruckus yeah / regardless of what's gone before."

31. Kanye West: Late Registration (2005, Roc-A-Fella)

"Before you ask me to go get a job today / can I at least get a raise on the minimum wage? / And I know the government administered aids / So I guess we just pray like the minister say."

32. Down to Earth Approach: Come Back To You (2007, Vagrant)

"Don't be so forgetful / and just let yourself be happy for a minute / be forever grateful / that she changed your mind to a warm home from a prison."

33. Fleet Foxes: Self Titled (2008, Sub Pop)

"The world is alive now / in and outside our home / you run through the forest / settle before the sun / darling, I can barely remember you beside me / you should come back home / back on your own now."

34. Fountains of Wayne: Welcome Interstate Managers (2003, Virgin)

"And here is your reflection / in a building uptown / a ghost inside some Madison Avenue display / like water under bridges / you're slowly passing by / as you sail between the rooftops and the sky."

35. The Hold Steady: Boys and Girls in America (2006, Vagrant)

"I feel Jesus in the clumsiness / of young and awkward lovers / I feel Judas in the long odds / of the rackets on the corners / I feel Jesus in the tenements / of honest, nervous lovers / I feel Judas in the pistols and the pagers / that come with all the powders."

36. Ben Folds: Rockin the Suburbs (2001, Epic)

"Next door there's an old man / who lived to his nineties / and one day passed away / in his sleep / and his wife, she stayed / for a couple of days / and passed away / I'm sorry / I know that's a strange way to tell you / that I know we belong."

37. Northstar: Pollyanna (2004, Triple Crown)

"And there's God / there's me / there's Saturn / there's me / and forget everything in between."

38. Punchline: Action (2004, Fueled By Ramen)

"With the world in my hands / could I change it if I want? / and who are you to answer that for me / if by chance, or a cheater/ I'd leave it up to neither / confidence rules present tense / and it could shatter all my dreams."

39. Wilco: A Ghost Is Born (2004, Nonesuch)

"And the sun gets passed from tree to tree / silently, and back to me / with the breeze blown through / pushed up against the sea / finally back to me."

40. Midtown: Save The World, Lose The Girl (2000, Drive-Thru)

"Regrets are worthless / they misconstrue the past in sight and sound / and as lines recede / no one speaks a word of his lust / a word of dreams that've been left to rust / the TV's on and everyone stays calm."

41. Blink-182: Self Titled (2003, Geffen)

"My head is made up of memories / most of them useless delusions / this room is bored of rehearsal / and sick of the boundaries / I miss you so much."

42. Ryan Adams: Gold (2001, Lost Highway)

"Well, everybody wants to go on forever / I just wanna burn up hard and bright / I just wanna be your firecracker / and maybe be your baby tonight."

43. Rufus Wainwright: Poses (2001, Dreamworks)

"Can't expect the world to be your Raggedy Andy / while running on empty / you little old doll with a frown."

44. Vampire Weekend: Self Titled (2008, XL)

"Oh your collegiate grief / has left you dowdy in sweatshirts / absolute horror!"

45. Taking Back Sunday: Tell All Your Friends (2002, Victory)

"Think of all the fun you've had / the finest line divides a night well spent / from a waste of time / and think of all the days you spent / alone with just your TV set / and I / well I can barely smile."

46. John Mayer: Room for Squares (2001, Aware/Columbia)

"Friday evening we've been drinking / 2 AM I swear I might propose / but we close the tab / split a cab / and call each other up / when we get home / falling asleep / to the sound of sirens."

47. New Found Glory: Self Titled (2000, Drive-Thru/MCA)

"Here's to us fools / that have no meaning / I tip my glass to you / let's toast the night away to friends / and forget about tomorrow."

48. Audio Recording Club: In the End, We Are All Light (2007, Self-released)

"Doing 80 / down the highway / as Jim Adkins sings the lullabies into my head / he swears he’s one small instrument / and every car I pass along / is one more car closer to home / to everything I know and love / cause that’s all I’ve been thinking of."

49. Fall Out Boy: Take This To Your Grave (2003, Fueled By Ramen)

"My smile's an open wound without you / And my hands are tied to pages inked to bring you back / Tonight the headphones will deliver you / the words that I can't say."

50. Race The Sun: The Rest of Our Lives is Tonight (2004, Fidelity)

"Farewell pleasant town / hope you sleep well tonight / again we'll race back to you / fight to get lost in your streets / cheat toll booths as locals / engrave our names in park benches / we'll find an alias."

Little Joy Record Streaming on Myspace

Little Joy - "Keep Me in Mind"

It's no secret we dig the new Little Joy record featuring Fab from the Strokes. Yet, there have been some dissenting opinions in the Stark ranks about the quality of the record (we can't all agree people!). Thankfully, the good folks from Little Joy are streaming their self-titled debut on their myspace page, so you, the listener, can decide for yourself. The official release is Nov 4 on Rough Trade. Enjoy, or don't enjoy. It don't matter to the Jesus.

Little Joy

Little Joy (Rough Trade)
Release Date: Nov. 4, 2008
Rating 78%

Little Joy - "Keep Me in Mind"

With several tracks that sound like one-time candidates for the Room On Fire tracklist, and lead vocals that bear startling resemblance to those of Strokes’ frontman Julian Casablancas, (or possibly a more chipper Jake Bellows... anyone?), Little Joy is nothing you haven’t heard before. Still, if you’re like me, that shouldn’t cheapen your enjoyment of this strong debut from Fabrizio Moretti of the Strokes, Binki Shapiro, and Rodrigo Amarante (singer/guitarist of Los Hermanos) --production by the talented Noah Georgeson (Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom,)

According to the band’s Myspace page, Amarante and Moretti met through a chance encounter at a Portuguese festival in Lisbon -- both kept in touch while Amarante recorded with Devendra Banhart a year later. Binki Shapiro, L.A. native and musician, was introduced to the two through mutual friends and Little Joy was born. If the Strokes are quintessentially New York, Little Joy is their Cali counterpart; warm, happy melodies abound as the album channels beach fun and bare feet. Still, it’s not an incongruous release for November, and even strictly seasonal listeners will be able to enjoy this one with snow on the ground. Shapiro’s vocals on several tracks add a 40s-vintage feel while simultaneously reminding you that this isn’t a Strokes record after all.

There are many different reasons to love a record. I happen to like this album for reasons completely opposite from those that compel me to love Animal Collective records (sorry Andrew). In other words, people who love to hate on an easy-to-love, pop-rock record (you know who you are) might find this album an easy target, but that’s lame. Little Joy isn’t innovating, they just refuse to fix what’s not broken, and there’s no shame in that.

Tara McCarthy—Stark Contributing Writer

The Revisionist: Albert Hammond Jr.

The Revisionist is a new feature on Stark, allowing our writers to offer a new opinion on a recent record that may not have graced our attention upon its original release. Think of it as our chance to play catch up.

Albert Hammond Jr: ¿Cómo Te Llama?

"Inside me there's a sad machine that wants to stop moving," sings Albert Hammond Jr. on "Gfc", the lead single from Hammond's recent ¿Cómo Te Llama?, released in July via RCA. It's a telling lyric, considering Hammond has largely been the lone representative of The Strokes in the public eye since the band's First Impressions of Earth in 2006. In the last two years, Hammond has released his debut solo LP (2007's Yours To Keep), quickly released its follow up, and has opened for everyone from Incubus to Coldplay. In that same time period, Julian Casablancas did a Gap commercial and Fabrizio Moretti broke up with Drew Barrymore. So you can see why Hammond seems drained. Luckily, his music doesn't suffer from the same fatigue.

Lattanzi, Hammond, Romano, Eskanazi have but one question: "What's your name?"

There's an odd sense of half-assed urgency present on the album, but that trait helps play to its appeal. Hammond and his band of cohorts -- drummer Matt Romano, guitarist Marc Philippe Eskenazi and bass player Josh Lattanzi -- are four men confidently playing simple music, but you get the feeling that they never really believe in the songs themselves. "Bargain of the Century", "In My Room", and "Lisa" combine for a sluggish one-two-three punch out of the gate. They're pleasant displays in lo-fi craftsmanship, but they simply trot along, anonymously. The same pattern continues through the next ten songs.

Yet the more time spent with ¿Cómo Te Llama? erases many of its shortcomings. The aformentioned three songs that open the album emerge with time as three of the strongest, most tuneful tracks. "Bargain" and "In My Room" contain vintage Is This It Strokes moments, while the chorus to "Lisa" (...can we call it a chorus?) is a gloriously subtle, lilting melody. "The Boss Americana" and "Rocket" are two more that appear as one-and-done cast-offs, but with patience, their hooks become obvious and wonderful. Even a song as seemingly dull as "Victory at Monterey", which initially seems like an awful stab at Franz Ferdinand, comes off as haunting and complex with repeated listens.

Hammond described his songwriting process this time around as using placeholder lyrics on top of melodies, with real words coming later. "Lyrically, I tried to have the words flow out more freely and not try to write one song but many. I would just sing and sing and then arrange the words afterwards.” It's a glaring technique. A large portion of the lyrics feel like nonsense, intended as such as long as they don't jeopardize the melody at hand. From "The Boss Americana": "Oh can't you stay on my face/these stains you can't see/now have you gone/for a bit/I know you're not the same/It's hard for me to blame." And that's among the stuff you might possibly be able to interpret.

So, ¿Cómo Te Llama? is uneven. It's by no means a great album, but one must certainly give Hammond and his band credit for writing a handful of more-than-decent indie rock songs. But do they mean well? Hammond sounds bored singing most of his material, and the rest of the band plays as if they're in a hurry to finish each song. Hammond showed far greater promise as a solo artist on Yours To Keep, whereas this time, he's largely tentative, if not lazy. My advice? Al, take some time to re-hone your craft, and next time you'll come out swinging. In the interim, feel free to make a new Strokes record.

- Andrew Daniels