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Let the DiScussing begin! We’ve been racking brains – prior to pulverising each other’s – at the DiSopolis these past few weeks to come up with our top 66 albums of the past six years; the very best records to see the light of day during DiS’s lifetime (yes, six years). Arguments have been won and lost, a handful of frankly incredible artists have improbably missed the cut through forgetfulness and space constraints, and we’ve all got quite, quite drunk along the way. What other way is there to talk music ‘til you’re hoarse, bloody-eyed and black-and-blue of cheek?
Here we present to you the first part of our countdown, but don’t let those numbers wholly mislead you: every album below is a well-recommended release, a long-player par excellence. If you got the money, buy them all; if you own all of them already, you’re way cooler than us. The record at 45 isn’t fantastically superior to that at 66, and likewise there’s no tremendous gulf between the final entry here and our eventual winner (although our top ten are our top ten for a reason). To say that it was difficult trimming what was a list of many hundreds to just 66 is just about the most ridiculous understatement this side of suggesting that beer is pretty ‘okay’. We heart these records, and can’t possibly be absolutely objective about any of them. This is a labour of love, an undertaking that’s seen tears shed and marker pens tossed across rooms like burning spears. It’s been… emotional.
That said, in our minds these are the finest albums to emerge from their makers’ proverbial wombs during the past 72-or-something months – yes, six years. You’re welcome to disagree with our ordering and recommend that we pursue our callings as dustbin men rather than continue to joke around as ‘journalists’, but we know we’re right, right? You’re damn right: these are the records that comprise DiS’s foundations, they’re what gave the site life and continue to nourish it. They’re the lifeblood that courses through these virtual veins you see before you. They’re ours and yours to share, as is DiS itself. So, fire away with your commendations, critiques and cussing, but most of all enjoy OUR 66.
But before you do, know this: by clicking on any link, to either a listing or a review, YOU can both write a user review of the album in question and add it to your online record collection using DiS’s new ‘I own this album’ feature. Simply click ‘Who owns this release?’ where indicated and add yourself. Even if a record’s already been reviewed by a DiS writer, you can still submit your own opinions as a user review. So, that makes this a fairly interactive experience, no? We look forward to reading your reactions, dissatisfactions and congratulations in due course. The DiS team.
Oh, and only one album per artist was allowed, before you ask.
66
Ugly Duckling
Journey To Anywhere (DiS listing here)
(XL – released 2001)
Few hip-hop albums can truly lay claim to making a sizeable impression beyond a limited, often existing audience; nor do they often sweep people off their feet. Ugly Duckling’s debut full-length was different, though: it embodies aspects of the ‘old-skool’ that appealed greatly to this writer at the time. Fun, danceable and with a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards all things ‘gangsta’, Journey To Anywhere cemented my interest in hip-hop for years to come. CR
65
Mystery Jets
Making Dens (DiS review here)
(679 – released 2006)
The hype and hysteria that preceded the release of this, Mystery Jets’ debut long-player, was never meant to happen. The audience they were pitched at often didn’t ‘get it’, and many shied away due to high-brow acclaim. However, those that made the effort were rewarded greatly: soaring melody after melody after melody, caked in West London eccentricity and a homebrew of off-kilter lyricism, ensured Mystery Jets became an instantaneously joyous proposition. CR
64
Why?
Elephant Eyelash (DiS listing here)
(anticon – released 2005)
Is it folk, hip-hop, both or neither? Do such pigeonholes, such pre-determined hooks to hang a piece of art upon, even matter when the artist in question so brilliantly sidesteps everything obvious? No. They really don’t. Why?’s Elephant Eyelash is a joyous, Technicolor-drenched patchwork of cut-and-pasted this, that and the other. Unusual but immediate, it’s the creation of a truly maverick individual and many similarly-minded friends. MD
63
Wives
Erect The Youth Problem (DiS review here)
(Sweet Nothing – released 2005)
“I’m much too young to be unimportant.” That’s what they screamed, fuck-you passionately, on ‘Babies’; a few months after the release of their explosive debut, Wives had burned themselves out. They collapsed in a bloody mess in London before catching a flight back to Los Angeles and eventually regrouping, minus one, as No Age. For a while, at least, they were anything but unimportant to a select few punk-rock fans: Erect The Youth Problem is a lo-fi punk classic. MD
62
The Mars Volta
De-Loused In The Comatorium (DiS review here)
(Universal – released 2003)
This is the sound of skateboards grinding on the Wailing Wall and BMXs leaping over burning cars in Berlin. This is watching a war from space and setting fire to the Red Sea. It's a Gurkha in a turban juggling midgets whilst a beautiful belly dancer with no teeth laughs psychotically with her bruised face to the floor. It’s a Gurkha dressed as Father Christmas. It's bigger than hip-hop afros and more ridiculous than all the above. SA
61
The Lucksmiths
Warmer Corners (DiS review here)
(Fortuna Pop! – released 2005)
Is ‘twee’ a dirty word? Occasionally, yes. But rules are there to be smashed into pieces of insignificance, and alongside Belle & Sebastian, The Lucksmiths are one of few bands to take the much-maligned term and make it sexy. With pop songs to make your heart implode, but at the same time pulling your lips into that slightly unnerving grin usually associated with wind, this could be a guilty pleasure. But oh, what a pleasure indeed. CR
60
The Cribs
The New Fellas (DiS review here)
(Wichita – released 2005)
Pop, in its many forms, can at times be a hideous bitch goddess: unrewarding, dull and depressing. The Cribs’ ramshackle take on pop music, however, is everything that the genre should be: fun, served by the spade; an attitude that belied their oft-misplaced ‘scenester’ status (as addressed perfectly in the opening track); and a matching live show that brought the LP to life. A precious, sparkling gem worth discovering, if you’ve not already. CR
59
Howling Bells
Howling Bells (DiS review here)
(Bella Union – released 2006)
The fact that this record manages to take you on a voyage from dirty rock club to the shadowy depths of Atlantis is a wonder of its own. However, the proposition of a ‘new Interpol’ fronted by a beautiful Aussie girl with a glistening 'n' swooping sexual-organ-of-a-voice was a little too much of a dream come true for a bunch of wet indie geeks sat around DiS towers. Even after playing this repeatedly all year, we're still suffering from catatonic excitement. SA
58
Guillemots
Through the Windowpane (DiS review here)
(Polydor – released 2006)
Usually when an album’s ‘hotly anticipated’ it finally reveals itself as a disappointment beyond belief. A rare exception’s on display here: Guillemots’ debut long-player is a joy to behold. Its twelve tracks feature two of the most perfect pop songs ever written in ‘Made Up Lovesong #43’ and ‘Trains to Brazil’, and the record ends in a grandiose party of rhythmic and melodic glee, ‘Sao Paolo’. The most exciting aspect, though, is that they’re only just getting started… CR
57
Hot Snakes
Suicide Invoice (DiS listing here)
(Swami – released 2002)
Let the arguments begin: which, of their three studio records released within DiS’s lifetime, was Hot Snakes’ finest? No doubt there’ll be a few votes for Automatic Midnight, but we’ve selected Suicide Invoice simply because of the three-in-a-row riff-fest of ‘XOX’, ‘Who Died’ and the title track. Melody-drenched punk doesn’t get any better than Hot Snakes, and if you’re yet to make the now-defunct act’s acquaintance, do so immediately. MD
56
volcano!
Beautiful Seizure (DiS review here)
(Leaf – released 2006)
It’s often hard as a music journalist to lay a stake into something and stand by it throughout – especially if that record has no real way of entering the mainstream. With Chicago three-piece volcano!’s debut however, it was easy. A record so huge in vision and relentless in its execution, I’m still hard pressed to find fault in a record that sounds like Lightning Bolt hurling Omar Rodriguez-Lopez at a wall of Radiohead. Quite simply: genius. CR
55
The Dandy Warhols
Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia (DiS review here)
(Capitol Records – released 2001)
There's a fine line to straddle between indie-cool and credible rock 'n' roll superstardom, yet the Warhols manage to hump that line with massive TV ad hits 'Get Off' and 'Bohemian Like You' on an album full of trance-inducing droner-rock lullabies like 'Sleep'. Amid a shower of fashionista retro-rock, the Warhols were the real deal and Thirteen Tales... is one of modern rock’s most courageous and listenable adventures. SA
54
Patrick Wolf
Lycanthropy (DiS listing here)
(Faith & Industry – released 2003)
If you'd spent your childhood hitchhiking around Europe listening to a compilation tape of Julie Andrews, Cliff Richard and Aphex Twin, you'd have made Lycanthropy too. Patrick breathes the future but lives surrounded by London’s archaic cobbled streets and the timeless cliffs of Cornwall. The glitches of 'Bloodbeat' and the utterly amazing 'To The Lighthouse', not to mention the Dickensian darkness of 'The Childcatcher', make this an incredibly important record. SA
53
dälek
Absence (DiS review here)
(Ipecac – released 2005)
New Jersey-spawned hip-hoppers dälek are soundscapers of your wildest nightmares: their beats are matched for weight and brutality by screeching blasts of distortion and My Bloody Valentine-style lurches of alien wails and monstrous moans. MC dälek himself lays down rhymes as poetic as they are confrontational – imagine Saul Williams’ intelligent flow slowed and delivered with a vicious rasp. Punishing stuff, but also peculiarly beautiful and inspiring. MD
52
Lightning Bolt
Hypermagic Mountain (DiS review here)
(Load – released 2005)
Rhode Island duo Lightning Bolt already had something of a sizeable following, albeit at a purely underground level, prior to the release of their fourth proper album; that audience, though, expanded massively once Hypermagic Mountain pounded its way into consciences around the globe. Addictive and super-danceable, its blast-beats and wickedly magnificent bass riffs are simply too damn good to not make our list. This is a peerless noise-core – whatever – record. Get it. MD
51
Slipknot
Vol.3 – The Subliminal Verses (DiS listing here)
(Roadrunner – released 2004)
After the internal politics that surrounded the creation of their 2001 UK number-one album, Iowa, it was unclear whether Slipknot would make another album. Whereas their second record shattered barriers when the British public saw a heavy metal band topping their album chart, this record was eagerly anticipated by newly in-the-know sorts, but did not disappoint. Adding focus and power to their seething rage, lead single 'Duality' is still a hit with DiS today. RR
50
Ten Grand
This Is The Way To Rule (DiS listing here)
(Southern – released 2003)
Iowa four-piece Ten Grand’s name should have been burned into the brains of anyone with a penchant for the rickety punk-rock racket of The Blood Brothers and Les Savy Fav, but sadly their flame was extinguished early by the passing of singer Matt Davis. He died shortly after the release of this, the band’s should-be-seminal standout product of a career that began under the guise of Vida Blue. Fans of passionate and inventive punk NEED to seek this long-player out. MD
49
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fever To Tell (DiS review here)
(Dress Up/Polydor – released 2003)
One of the few super-hyped New York rockers that were actually worth swallowing, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s adrenaline-fuelled rip-roaring debut was a stream of storming foot-stomping dancefloor tear-ups, one after another. Well, almost: there was ‘Maps’, too, the most wonderfully tender song to feature in this entire list. Possibly. Expect it to feature as many a bride or groom’s first dance in the very near future, if that’s not already the case. MD
48
Múm
Yesterday Was Dramatic – Today Is OK (DiS listing here)
(Tugboat/Morr – released 2002)
Few debut albums come together this otherworldly. Múm (we think it's pronounced ‘Mooom’) prove with this album that there's more to Iceland than Björk and Sigur Ròs: they make the hairs all over your body stand on end with the gentlest of glorious electronica. The album is a magical brew of sentimental sounds from your childhood dreams, trickling and swirling in some kind of sparkling cauldron at twilight… with Moomins! SA
47
M. Ward
Transfiguration Of Vincent (DiS listing here)
(Matador – released 2003)
If you could pin-point M. Ward to any time or place it'd probably be in a train atop a smoky mountain drinking bourbon in 1901. He's an olde soul. You'd almost assume he's from another time, 'til the cover of 'Let's Dance' rolls in with the tumbleweed like the doppelganger of someone you don’t quite remember. Plus 'Sad, Sad Song' and 'Undertaker' should appear around the top of every single list of the greatest songs of our generation – factotum! SA
46
Low
Trust (DiS review here)
(Rough Trade – released 2002)
This is Low’s grandest scaling of what it is to carry the weight of the world. Trust comes across like it has achingly fallen from a gigantic, dark cloud, blacking out a sun whose optimism simply isn’t permitted to shine (although its presence is at least lightly felt, its faint touch like a light breeze through the listener’s locks). To some this could sound like a Nick Cave album backed by Spiritualized, but Trust is so much more special than that. SA
45
Mastodon
Blood Mountain (DiS review here)
(Reprise/Relapse – released 2006)
Simply the finest metal album of 2006, Blood Mountain pulled the genre into all sorts of impossible shapes, flexing progressive-rock muscles with give-a-fuck abandonment and alienating their earliest fans (the Remission hardcore) in the process. The band weren’t bothered a damn, mind, and anyone stroking their beard to the sound of The Mars Volta’s jazz-rock workouts should give this a spin, too – on a technical level, this is astounding. MD
The next instalment of our countdown will be viewable by your eyes around about this time next week. Also coming your way will be picks by some of the artists that have made our list of 66. In the meantime, though, DiScuss!
Words: Sean Adams (SA), Mike Diver (MD), Raziq Rauf (RR), Colin Roberts (CR)
