The best albums 2000 - 2024, 9 of 10

Here we go from 90 to 81.

90. The Tower. Motorpsycho (2017)

From 2017 onwards the Norwegian band Motorpsycho, in action now for over 35 years, started pumping out a host of very strong records, where rock, symphonic, experimental, West Coast and a lot more, was blended in long(er) experimental songs. With a new, now ex-drummer, the band received a strong and powerful injection, not unlike Bettie Serveert received in the 2010s. On double LP The Tower the band does everything just a little more intense and better than on the albums that followed, until in the 2020s it started to pursue slightly different music. The Tower stands like, well, a tower.

89. If I Should Go Before You. City + Colour (2015)

Finally an album by a soft voiced singer, singing of love found, current and lost/the fear of losing. Singer Dallas Green really shows himself from a very vulnerable side and dug deeper because of it. He sort of bares it all and touches the listener immediately with his soft voice and honesty. I had never heard of Green nor of his band alexisonfire, but this album did it for me. A double LP to cherish.

 

 

 

88. Is This It? The Strokes (2001)

For me, The Strokes probably is the band that disappointed me the most this quarter of a century. Thrown into the world as the new The Velvet Underground the band surprised me in 2001 with its direct and dark songs. For circa three quarters Is This It? is absolute top before the quality slumps, by comparison. It was an indication of what was to come. The album's question is answered with yes. Except for maybe a song or three at most, the band never got back into my graces. Not as a band nor as solo artists. Those seven, eight songs, are really good though.

87. Places. Lou Doillon (2012)

Places is an album that I totally missed in 2012. It was the next one, 'Lay Low', that got to me. If I remember correctly, I bought Places in 2012 with Lou Doillon's third album, 'Soliloquy'. I was impressed immediately and played it a lot. Doillon is able to lay down a mood on her albums that is irresistible. A mix of French and English that almost no one else has, not even her half-sister Charlotte Gainsbourg. Places may have passed me by, it is an album I treasure today for five years now.

86. In Time To Voices. Blood Red Shoes (2012)

Blood Red Shoes is an English duo that rocks in the best style of The White Stripes but is very British. It has released several strong albums and circa two just under that. This is my favourite though. it is hard to explain why. It has to do with the songs of course but the band is not really doing something truly different. It is doing what it is good at, rocking out. Drumming like crazy, exploring the sounds in every stomp box in the world and alternating the singing, with the voice of Laura-Mary Carter. as the icing on the cake.

85. Love, Death & In Between. DeWolff (2023)

The album that Utrecht band DeWolff branched out and truly let in all its influences, and friends, while simultaneously doing away with all limitations. The result is a double LP called Love, Death & In Between. The album really contains it all. From classic rock to soul and southern rock combined with harmony singing in a true soul if not gospel style, DeWolff shows it all and to great success. This album is its best to date with no competition in sight.

84. Caesar. Caesar (2002)

Caesar's swan song, is also its best album. 'Caesar' is the album that should have made the band big, but the three members decided differently and packed it in. Honestly, I had forgotten all about the album, but playing, unfortunately after I scored all albums, I found it to still be tremendously good. It was my album of 2002 but had disappeared in that wall of music I've accumulated over the years and decades. Roald van Oosten's voice is one of the weirdest you'll hear in (alternative) rock music, yet it fits like a glove on top of his songs. 'Caesar' is varied and it rocks no little. Yes, it should have been at least 60 spots up, but alas.

83. Travels In The Dustland. The Walkabouts (2011)

Another swansong by what is one of my absolute favourite bands of the 1990s. The band I saw live so many times. A final album was made, in which the band returned to its heydays. where rock met folk and country. Chris and Carla were singing once more as if they were the couple they used to be. (I remember noticing during a show somewhere down the line saying to my, now ex) wife. They've separated. The whole band came out one final time in 2012 for a show which was a bit rusty, but hey, it's The Walkabouts, that is more than enough. Chris Eckman returns solo later on.

82. Simulation Theory. Muse (2019)

'Aye, sir", Chris Wolstenholme keeps yelling at the commands singer Matthew Bellamy keeps shouting at him. Simulation Theory is a huge album, where Muse does not hold back on anything. It's best in over a decade. The music is at big as Muse can get it, but more importantly, I just like most songs a lot. Muse is about being over the next top, after you thought you could not get higher. Simulation Theory takes you over several. 'Aye, aye, sir".

81. Maggie Brown. Maggie Brown (2014)

Another one of one of my favourite Dutch bands. Amsterdam based Maggie Brown came into my live with thanks to Erwin Zijleman. There are times I read one of his reviews and I think, you are for me and 'Maggie Brown' is one of these albums. Soft, alternative pop with a rock edge and rock with a soft, alternative pop edge. That sums up the music of the band. This is one of these albums that takes me on a trip to softly put me down on the other side. Singer-guitarist-songwriter Marcel Hulst has a second band, Mountaineer, that nearly made this list, somewhere around 115 is my guess. 'Lewis And Clark' does deserve a mention. There is one more Maggie Brown album to come though.

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