#GreatAlbums2000s - #TheDrones - Wait Long By the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By (2005). Australia's noise lords channeled pure angst on this raw and powerful set of bloodcurdling anthems. Singer Gareth Liddiard is like Neil Young and Thurston Moore rolled into one manic presence, spitting bile-filled riffs from his Fender Jaguar like his soul were in peril. "Shark Fin Blues" was voted greatest Australian song ever by a panel of the group's musical peers.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #Gotye - Like Drawing Blood (2006). Wally De Backer, aka Gotye, would go on to score the ubiquitous hit "Somebody That I Used to Know" in 2011. However, the real grist lies in his second album, Like Drawing Blood, a homemade tour-de-force in which De Backer channels a half dozen genres with the ease of a musical shapeshifter. From chillout electronica to bristling dance pop, Gotye has something for every mood on this underrated classic album.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #Gurrumul (2008). The late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu was an inordinately gifted Australian singer-songwriter of Yolgnu Aboriginal descent. Blind since birth, the multi-instrumentalist created stark and startling narrative songs about his personal struggles and the plight of Indigenous peoples. Sung partly in Yolgnu, partly in English, Gurrumul's haunting tenor and harmonized vocals were unparalleled in modern folk music.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #Powderfinger - Odyssey Number Five (2000). This Australian band, fronted by the charismatic Bernard Fanning, refined their earlier alt-rock for a more arena-friendly set full of melodic rock bangers. "Waiting for the Sun," "My Happiness," and "These Days" all combined solid writing with the kind of relatable guitar-driven anthems that would become a rare commodity in the 2000s. A touch workmanlike? Sure -- but craftsmanship this solid deserves props.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #Powderfinger - Vulture Street (2003). This highly regarded Australian band stripped their sound back to basics on this set designed to bolster the group's hard rock chops for the international market. Frontman Bernard Fanning had the vocal chops to pull it off, while tunes like "Rockin' Rocks" and "(Baby I've Got You) On My Mind" kicked like a mule. Not the band's strongest album, but a fun rock and roll ride all the same.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #Wolfmother - Wolfmother (2005). This Australian power trio channeled elements of old school metal, psychedelia, prog, and stoner rock into a superheated blend that made them international stars in the mid-oughts. "Joker and the Thief," "Woman," and "Mind's Eye" were fuzzed-out slices of retro rock made convincing by strong songwriting and Andrew Stockdale's Ozzy-meets-Robert Plant wail. Louder than the White Stripes and more fun than Jet.
#GreatAlbums2000s - #DevendraBanhart – Cripple Crow (2005). Inspired by 1960s oddballs like Donovan and the Incredible String Band, Texas-born Devendra Banhart made music that whispered and tumbled far outside the loudness-obsessed bluster of the early 2000s. More melodic and exotic than its predecessor, Rejoicing in the Hands – drawing more upon on the singer’s Venezuelan heritage – Cripple Crow made Banhart a rare folk artist able to woo the mainstream.
My review in PopMatters of the album Lookaftering (Expanded) by the folksinger Vashti Bunyan. https://www.popmatters.com/vashti-bunyan-lookaftering-expanded
#GreatAlbums2000s - #BoardsOfCanada – Geodaddi (2002). The second album by this Scottish duo puts a darker shade over the brothers’ hauntological soundscapes, first popularized on 1998’s Music Has the Right to Children. “Gyroscope” and “Sunshine Recorder” are unsettling plunges into the brothers’ audio dreamscape. Snippets of old documentary narration on “Dandelion” and “Energy Warning” infuse the whole set with the dusty varnish of a half-remembered schoolroom.
Great_Albums