Music - The Topic!

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I give up.

I’ve spent most of the day thinking what’s the best British Rock record of the 21st Century and I can’t even work out what I think is the best album of the 21st Century! It’s the sort of question that deserves real thought behind it, and there’s so many different reasons that makes an album better than any other. Plus I do not have time to listen to all of them!!!

Ask me again in a few years what the best British rock album of the 21st Century up to 2024 and I may have caught up on the music!

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I think we can figure it out

this is the shortlist we came up with

Life Without Buildings - Any Other City
Richard Dawson - Peasant
Godflesh - Hymns (?) Post-Self (?)
Dean Blunt - Black Metal
Sleaford Mods - Divide And Exit (?) Austerity Dogs (?)
Broadcast - Ha Ha Sound (?) Tender Buttons (?)
The Fall - Country on the Click (?) Heads Roll (?) Imperial Wax Solvent (?)
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black
Nurse With Wound - Salt Marie Celeste (?), Man With The Woman Face (?), most of She And Me Fall Together In Free Death but maybe disqualified because of the perv track
The Streets - A Grand Don’t Come For Free

if we’re including NWW then why not Burial, Scorn, The Caretaker too. If we’re considering the streets then that invites other rap albums ofc.

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those are not even the best 21st century godflesh records!!

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look I’m just putting these ideas out there for the British people to consider. It’s called cultural sensitivity

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This is an interesting topic - want me to move it into the music one or maybe another new topic all together?

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I am going to throw the Ooz in here as well.

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okay, my nominations for best uk records of the 21st century. first, a few caveats:

  • i went for uk instead of britain so i could include scotland
  • i decided to drop the “rock” stipulation
  • influence and legacy were a big factor for me, but i also wanted to only include things i actively listened to and thought were good, otherwise it’d be like, u2 and coldplay
  • i tried to keep it to one entry per “genre” but broke those rules a few times
  • likely many blind spots as this was me brainstorming over morning coffee
  • the 21st century thing is hard! a lot of british artists i like seem to have peaked in the 20th century (did the uk fall off?)
  • this is unordered, but i kept it to 10

okay–

black midi - hellfire
easily the most qualified heirs to king crimson and the like. an unusually preternatural group of musicians. it’ll be interesting to see what they each do in the coming years.

david bowie - blackstar
a powerful last statement from a legendary artist ceaselessly driven by experimentation.

my bloody valentine - mbv
this blew me away when i first heard it. to this day, i’ve clocked more spins on this than loveless.

morrissey - you are the quarry
that’s right.

sophie - oil of every pearl’s uninsides
a monster of a producer who is still shaping pop in her image, even after her death.

coil - age of naples
there are a few picks on this list that “represent something” as much as they are good albums in their own right. this is one of them, but it does have an unusual effect on me.

godflesh - purge
though i really like the first godflesh comeback record, i like this one because you can see justin broadrick incorporating his other musical adventures over the years.

hongkong express - 2047
unfortunately it’s a bit of a meme now, but i think the genre known as vaporwave was once genuinely new and dare i say revolutionary.

dizzee rascal - boy in da corner
incredible grime record and uniquely british, though if i was going with my heart, this would probably be my pick.

aphex twin - drukqs
i had a hard time deciding between this and syro, but i ultimately chose drukqs because it has that singular blend of hostility and beauty.

honorable mentions:
wytch hazel - sojourn
pulp - we love life
brian eno - the ship
carcass - surgical steel
triad god - triad (special mention to this one as it almost made the list)
prefab sprout - i trawl the megahurtz
everything but the girl - fuse

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This is kind of a public service announcement - Great Britain includes Scotland. It’s the United Kingdom that includes Northern Island.

This is a great example of how we learn it:

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Also Blackstar would be a very good contender. While I’m not a big fan of David Bowie (I’ve tried for years and years. As a person I think he was a genius and one of the most interesting people to ever live, his opinions on the internet in the 90s are terrifyingly accurate to what it became. But his music, really struggle) I think that album is a true swan song for a unique career and person.

They’re all very good choices.

That’s a very good question as well!

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MBV is Irish !!!

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HOLY—

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The discussion above reminded me of a thread in a music-making forum I hop into from time to time where the prompt is “Music artists breaking new ground”:

It seems that very often it is connected to new technologies and instruments. Look at Subotnick working with Buchla f.ex. Or even the roots of this forum itself. So what are some interesting musical artists in the non-commercial electronic music scene that are really breaking new ground? Or that you just find very interesting.

There’s close to 200 posts on the thread and only a handful actually list any artists and arguments as to why they are “breaking ground”. A majority of the thread is a long (and sometimes overly wordy) argument/conversation about what it means to “break ground” in this day and age. I find this a bit funny but also indicative of what I think applies to any “best of” discussion: it’s more fun/interesting to interrogate our definitions of best/favorite/groundbreaking than just providing and defending a list.

That being said, having fun with lists is a very Insert Credit thing to do and I love that as well. I think taking that kind of thing lightly denotes a healthy relationship to media in general.

So with discussions like “best of X” or “most groundbreaking X” I usually shy away because 1) I usually have very little grasp of music’s linear history (who created what style, etc) and 2) I only know my particular corner of music so it’s hard to know what other people would define as best.

This is not me arguing against the discussion ITT just reflecting on why perhaps I tend to just spectate and I wonder if others feel the same!

And also, perhaps a “best of” list is an opportunity to give proper credit where its due especially for artists not normally considered “canon” or legit enough to be included, so there’s that too.

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as with all lists, i think it’s best to view mine with a silent (to me) after every proclamation

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another good thing about best of lists especially on IC: great way to discover new artists!

MoH you got me into Nourished by Time earlier this year. Erotic Priobiotic 2 especially is getting a lot of plays round here. (first time listening to black midi after seeing ur list too and im enjoying that too!)

From yeso: Life without Buildings

For the life of me I can’t remember who got me into Kali Malone but it was someone on this forum! Whoever it was, thank you. (edit: I believe it was @xhekros)

Plus, I vaguely remember someone linking to this album somewhere around here. I love it dearly.

You all have great and varied taste in music and its been a pleasure to get a sampling of that from the good morning/good evening music threads :)

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:smiling_face_with_tear: :people_hugging:

i’m seeing nourished by time in october. i haven’t really been into live music post-covid so this is a big deal for me lol. the new ep is really good too if you haven’t heard it.

also, satoshi suzuki is really good! i would also recommend hiroshi sato for a similar vibe but less laid back:

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Is it at them magdalena bay shows? i was trying to go after hearing that record but its down to resale and the resale is insane.

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no it’s a one-off at a local fest which i was kinda bummed about but hearing that i’m now grateful haha

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yeah its at like 100 bucks a head now

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My favorite song from probably the best British rock album this century. I can also get behind that first Arctic Monkeys album. Black Star is great but it’s so soul crushing to listen to I’ve only played it once. Silent Alarm by Bloc Party started out great and never really let up:

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sure enough i forgot what would probably be in my top 3 on the list lol

yuck - s/t

@freakscene you down with this rec?

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This record is an absolute safe hit if I am driving strangers anywhere and those first two tracks are so well sequenced. I also always assumed they were yanks for some reason.

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