Listamania II.V

Nothing sets off a good argument like music posts!

Re: Kyle. The problem with a lot of the artists I like from the 2000's is that I've never actually heard full albums from many of them. I've liked every track I've heard from Silent Alarm, but since that's only 4-5 songs, I couldn't include it over albums I've heard full on. Blame iTunes.

Funeral suffers from what I call Pearl Jam's Ten syndrome. Half of the songs on Ten (Release, Black, Even Flow, Alive, Jeremy) are of course classics. The other half are really forgettable. Funeral is sort of the same way, in that you've got the big hits and I'm actually sitting here struggling to remember the rest of the tracks and I'm not going to get the CD from my rack to look them up since it proves my point. I'm actually liking Sam's Town more and more than I listen to it, though the Springsteen comparison finally hit me right in the face when 102.3 played Read My Mind and Hungry Heart back to back a couple of weeks ago. Riddle me this: what would the critical reaction be to Sam's Town if the Boss had released it? Would critics fall all over themselves fawning over it, or would they write stuff like 'Bruce is ripping off the Killers!'

Coldplay's albums are sort of on the downside of Pearl Jam's Ten syndrome, in that their singles are the only bright side of their albums, but I'm not crazy about their singles much anyway. Coldplay is like if DJ Danger Mouse did a mashup of U2 and Radiohead's b-sides, and then the music was performed in concert by Marc "Walkin' in Memphis" Cohen. The other albums you've mentioned I haven't listened to, hence they just don't qualify. I'll make special mention of Broken Social Scene, since I've yet to hear a song from them that I've even semi-liked.

Re: Sarah. We can't talk about U2 anymore. We're at an impasse like the Penguins and the city of Pittsburgh. Atomic Bomb is an album I wasn't even crazy about at first, but it's definitely a grower. Had U2 not made the head-scratching move of leaving the two best tracks from the sessions (Mercy and Fast Cars, look for them on iTunes) off the album in place of lesser tracks, it might've been number one. If Atomic Bomb had been the first album by a new band, I'd still be raving about it. So yeah, I dunno. We need to agree to disagree on this one. It's like Kyle and I on Sufjan Stevens.

And hey, it takes a brave man to admit his admiration for Scissor Sisters and Elton John in the midst of a some-might-say-trendy list of albums. I'll take that Elton record to the bank, that was a terrific disc. Scissor Sisters maybe, in hindsight, could've been down a few notches, but it was still a fun listen.

Arctic Monkeys would've been in the list if it was a top 45, probably.