Artist of the Decade: Radiohead

It’s hardly surprising I chose Radiohead as artist of the 2000s – despite formidable competition from Kanye West, Daft Punk, Jack White, the whole Montreal broken social scene (Arcade Fire, Feist, Stars, Wolf Parade), The Strokes, Animal Collective, Beyoncé / Jay-Z, Arctic Monkeys and I’ll even throw in both surf-rock muse Brian Wilson and house DJ extraordinaire Kaskade. But, no one matches the near-worship level that Thom Yorke et al managed to reach over a full decade’s worth of recording, philosophizing and music-industry reshaping. It didn’t look as promising for the band in 2000, the first year of the millennium and a time of greater optimism (and gratitude that our computers didn’t fail after all! Take that OK Computer...). While U2, the former biggest band in the world, released the inspiring All That You Can’t Leave Behind (with hopeful lead single “Beautiful Day”), Radiohead responded with the dreary, polarizing, radio-unfriendly Kid A. I was one of the people who just didn’t want to hear those songs at the time. In retrospect, I wasn’t ready, and perhaps few of us were. In those 10 years, the world turned colder, darker and less hospitable. And “Everything In Its Right Place,” “National Anthem” and “Idioteque,” just to mention the biggest tracks from Kid A, grew in relevance. Amnesiac, Hail to the Thief, pay-what-you-want, TV On the Radio, Dead Air Space, In Rainbows, Thom Yorke at Copenhagen, and Pitchfork documenting every bleat and bleep from Camp Radiohead, followed. I know they once scrawled Clapton is God on subway walls in London decades ago, but that was just because he was a great guitar player. What does Radiohead deserve?

Radiohead: These Are My Twisted Words (from RCRD LBL)
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Song of the Decade: Kanye West “All Falls Down”

Picking my favourite song of the decade is a near-impossible task, especially because no song clearly differentiated itself from the pack. So forgive me if a few years from now I change my mind and pick Peter Bjorn and John’s whistle anthem “Young Folks,” or The National’s elegiac “Fake Empire”; Ida Maria’s frenzied “Oh My God,” or Outkast’s overplayed but brilliant “Hey Ya!”; U2’s sparkling “Beautiful Day,” or Kaskade’s super-sleek “Steppin’ Out”; Radiohead’s penetrating “Everything In Its Right Place,” or Madonna’s disco classic “Hung Up”; Basement Jaxx’s thumping “Where’s Your Head At” or ... see my problem? For now, I’ll make the case for Kanye West’s 2004 pre-fame treatise on self-consciousness “All Falls Down,” a duet with Syleena Johnson (who subbed in for Lauryn Hill, whose original sample couldn’t be cleared – bet the powers-that-be want that one back). I just love everything about this song – its killer hook; its sparse, acoustic production; and especially its sharp lyrics, filled with rage and vulnerability (even some humour: “pass that Ver-say-see”) – and for me it announced a major talent that would go on to dominate the rest of the decade.

Kanye West: All Falls Down (ft. Syleena Johnson)
from the CD The College Dropout
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Album of the Decade: Stars’ fire-starter SYOF

Stars: Set Yourself on Fire

Before I launch into my year-end list of top songs and albums, I thought I’d do what every man, woman and critic has been doing as well, compile a list of my top tracks, CDs and artists of the decade. I begin with the easiest selection, my favourite album of the 2000s: Stars’ immaculate 2004 collection of Rumours-style breakup songs, Set Yourself on Fire. There were other albums I considered, including Kanye West’s celebratory Graduation, Sufjan Stevens’ epic Illinois, The Strokes’ seminal Is This It, Arcade Fire’s trend-setting Funeral, Daft Punk’s ahead-of-its-time Discovery, U2’s uplifting pre-9/11 CD All That You Can’t Leave Behind, the self-titled dud-free debut of Vampire Weekend, and even Craig David’s overlooked pop masterpiece Born to Do It (yes, masterpiece), but none spoke to me as deeply as Stars’ third album, a record rich in raw emotion and five-star songwriting. Sure, I went through a massive breakup at the time this record came out, and it helped get me through it in the way classic art is supposed to help us humans, but I still come back to SYOF almost weekly even after my personal trauma has long since finished. It’s a brilliant record, with fist-pumpers (“What I’m Trying to Say”), protest songs (George W. Bush is the “he” in “He Lied About Death”), nostalgic rockers (“Reunion”), ageless beauties (“Your Ex-Lover Is Dead”) and the best, dewy-eyed album closer ever (“Calendar Girl”). It’s rare when you feel like someone gets exactly where you’re coming from, and hard to believe when five disparate musicians from Montreal put it on record. And always, when there’s nothing left to burn, you have to set yourself on fire.

Stars: Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (Final Fantasy Remix) (from InSound)
adapted from the CD Set Yourself On Fire
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And for more new sounds, make sure to subscribe to my latest podcast, JeffMix2009.12.19 (also on iTunes), featuring music from Vampire Weekend, Annie, Cold War Kids, and Sloan, among others.