During the pandemic shut-down, I was teaching my Rutgers University sport management classes remotely. I took advantage of the remote learning opportunity to bring guests into the Zoom classroom – guests from all over the country who work and compete in sports, from former students working for sports franchises in Miami and Memphis to former Yankees third baseman Todd Frazier and former Yankees pitcher and current Army West point Athletics Director Mike Buddie. The guests were all really gracious with their time and informative to the students by offering their perspective.
One of the best guests was someone to whom I reached out to
get the perspective of a professional touring musician who occasionally plays
in sports arenas, because the concert industry is a big money maker for sports
franchises who own and operate sports facilities. That guest was Roger Joseph Manning, Jr., who
was a phenomenal guest who gave tremendous insight into his career from playing
clubs in critically acclaimed (but financially unsuccessful) bands to playing Madison
Square Garden as Beck’s touring keyboardist.
At one point he had mentioned how homogenous pop radio
sounded today. I replied that I remembered
how great radio was in the 1970s, when you would hear a country song, followed
by a rock song, followed by a disco song.
Even the Theme from Star Wars actually cracked Top-40 radio, so
you even heard classical music! The
variety was incredible, and Roger agreed, having grown up on 70s radio.
Thus, as a mid-50s adult male who does not make a living as
a music writer, my Top 10 list of albums of the 21st Century does
not include any Top 40 pop artists or quirky “critics’ choice” artists. But it does include some really outstanding
music that is just great to listen to for a variety of reasons. So here is my Top 10, in no particular order
1. “Colors” by Beck –
I know Colors is Beck’s most pop-oriented album and it spawned a number
of singles and music videos, but it’s not a typical pop album. What it is, however, is freaking great. It’s so upbeat, yet quirky in the way that
Beck’s music is always quirky. Unlike
other Beck albums, the songs fit together perfectly as it sounds like it has a
musical theme, so the music flows well from one song to the next, but the songs
still sound different enough to make every song a great song. I know there are music websites that rank it
well, but not as well as Guero or Sea Change, but for me I have
been playing Colors pretty regularly since its release five years ago and I
never tire of any of it. I listen start
to finish. There’s a lot going on in every
song and it’s just a lot of fun, and the world can use more fun! While it’s hard to choose a favorite song from
the LP, Up All Night and I’m So Free are great songs that my kids enjoy as much
as I do. It’s one of my all-time favorite
albums and it probably always will be.
2. “New” by Paul
McCartney – I wrote an extensive review of McCartney’s “New” when it was
released in 2013 that I have reposted on my new blog here,
so I will not go on at length other than to say that this is probably McCartney’s
best and most diverse album since Band On the Run set the standard for his
post-Beatles band Wings. The songs are
very modern, well-written, expertly produced and feature McCartney playing
dozens of musical instruments layered together in a well-produced manner. It’s another album I managed to wear-out
without tiring of it. While the singles New
and Queenie-Eye are pure pop as only McCartney can write, my favorite
tracks are the more avant-garde Looking At Her and Road, which close
the album.
3. “Costello Music”
by The Fratellis – Scotland’s Fratellis released their debut LP, “Costello
Music,” in 2006. It featured 6 singles released
in the UK and each single featured two “b-side” tracks that were almost every
bit as good as the thirteen tracks on the LP, including my favorite non-LP track,
3 Skinny Girls. In other words,
The Fratellis had about 20 songs worth of great material for their debut album,
which is really impressive when you consider that only one guy in the trio
writes – then 27 year-old guitarist Jon Lawlor, aka Jon Fratelli. I was fortunate enough to see them on their
first four New York market appearances including an acoustic set at the Virgin Megastore,
a few ballroom shows at Webster Hall and Roseland Ballroom, and a gig at Giants
Stadium in support of The Police. They
were great no matter the size of the venue or the format of the show. Unfortunately, they’ve incorporated the piano
on subsequent albums and that dramatically changed their rock-punk sound. But that debut album was an absolute knockout.
4. “The Land of Pure
Imagination” by Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. – I mentioned my Zoom session with
Roger at the top of this piece and that experience really led me to explore his
catalog. He’s truly a musical genius on
keyboards – a collector, he has over 100 keyboards – but can play any
instrument well enough to record with competence. He’s best known for his work from 1988 to
1992 in Jellyfish and as Beck’s touring keyboardist for decades, but in the
interim, he’s released a number of solo and band recordings as well as some
real oddball stuff (Moog Cookbook, basically he and a friend covering famous
songs on 70s Moog Synthesizers. The
Cookbook albums were never intended to sell, and didn’t, but were probably a
lot of goofy fun to record). “The Land
of Pure Imagination” is pure retro power pop.
It’s absolutely brilliant and it was basically recorded by Roger over
time in his home studio. His other solo
album – “Catnip Dynamite” – is about as good as “The Land of Pure Imagination,”
but I give the latter the nod on this list because the track Wish It Would
Rain is about the best pure pop song ever recorded. It’s so good that I got my then 20 year-old
daughter into the song and she turned her friends on to it. How many 50-something fathers can get their
20 year-old daughters to enjoy obscure power pop? It takes a special song, and Wish It Would
Rain is truly special. Check out the
whole LP!
5. “Be As You Are” by
Kenny Chesney – For the early 2000s, Kenny Chesney had hinted at going coastal,
coastal country, that is. In the 90s, he
was a purely country artist but had discovered island life and began shifting
his sound. The shift was complete when
he released 2005’s “Be As You Are.” The
album marked the first time an artist out-Buffetted Jimmy Buffett. This collection of ballads with a little bit of party coastal
country is a perfect album from start to finish – there’s not a weak song in
the lot. It’s just a fun album for sitting
by the pool, having a cold one by the fire pit, or swinging in a hammock. I should know as I’ve listened to this album while
doing all of the above and more. Key Lime Pie is a personal favorite - the song and the dessert - as are Magic and Soul of a Sailor. The fact that those three songs are among the last five on the album give you an idea of how deep the album goes.
6. “On An Island” by
David Gilmour – Make no mistake, despite the title of this 2006 release, this collection
of music is nothing like Kenny Chesney’s island music. David Gilmour’s first solo LP in more than
two decades starts with a few light, ethereal songs that are so relaxing and
chill, but spacy, like classic Pink Floyd (the title track and The Blue).
He flexes his rock muscle a bit, too as
the LP progresses. His guitar playing –
he was 60 years-old when he released this album and still at the top of his
game – is outstanding, as always.
Gilmour makes my Top 5 all-time great guitarists and is so smooth on
this LP. Never a great lyricist, Gilmour
teams with his wife, Polly Sampson, who’s writing style fits Gilmour’s music
perfectly. There aren’t too many great,
young rock guitar players making great music like this anymore, so it is easy
to see why this album by an aging British guitar god makes this list, which
brings us to an even older British guitar god…
7. “I Still Do” by
Eric Clapton – I readily admit that I am biased toward this 2016 release
because this was Clapton’s first release after the greatest professional gig of
my career, robocam operator for Clapton’s 70th birthday celebration
concerts at Madison Square Garden and that gig set me off on a Clapton jag through
the release of this LP. There are
critics who’ve said that this album breaks no new ground and isn’t adventurous
enough, but at 71, what new ground is Clapton supposed to break? He helped bring blues to the UK mainstream, did psychedelic acid rock, southern rock, Midwest Tulsa rock, country, reggae, and pop. He's done about everything there is to do while always staying true to his blues roots. "I Still Do" is a fun album with some great original
songs and some equally great and fun covers.
Music for enjoying, and this album is enjoyable to me. There are a few excellent originals,
including Spiral, which features some fine rhythm playing by Andy
Fairweather Low, and some great covers. The
closing track, I’ll Be Seeing You, is a brilliant cover of a classic covered
by Sinatra, Bing, Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holliday – four of the greatest
voices ever recorded – and yet, Eric holds his own on his version. Upon its release many thought the song a
cryptic message that he was retiring, but less than two years later he released
a Christmas album that was also really good and has released some subsequent
singles. Thankfully, Eric hasn’t gone
anywhere.
8. “Annie Up” by The
Pistol Annies – Miranda Lambert is one of the most successful country artists
of all time, so she never needed to have a side project, but when you hang out
with Angeleena Presley and Ashley Monroe and wind up writing an album’s worth
of material in no time flat, you suddenly have a side project. And what a side project it is! These ladies can do three-part harmony with
the best of them, and they need no effects or auto tune – I saw them live and
they sound as good live as they do in a recording studio. Their music is what could be considered feminist
or liberating for women, but it’s also witty to any listener. They have a great sense of humor, tremendous songwriting
chops and those aforementioned incredible vocals. What’s not to like? Particularly good are Hush Hush, Unhappily
Married and I Feel a Sin Coming On.
Any of their three LPs could make this list, but I think “Annie Up” is
the best album, start to finish. As a
side note, Ashley Monroe posted to social media just last week that she has
likely beat an incredibly rare form of cancer that is considered
incurable. She’s been fighting it for a
year, so her announcement was exciting news, for sure!
9. “The Foundation”
by Zac Brown Band – The 2008 debut album by Zac Brown Band spawned 5 top
country singles and went five times Platinum, peaking on the Billboard album sales
chart at 9th overall. This is
something country albums simply don’t regularly do, but Zac Brown Band is not
your typical country band. From this
debut album, they’ve continued to crossover genres and take modern country in
new directions. This album marked a
change in the direction of country music – one old-timers hate but I absolutely
love. And these guys are extremely talented
musicians who are among the most entertaining live bands in America today. Toes and Where the Boat Leaves From are great summer tracks while Highway 20 Ride expertly tackles the delicate topic of the father who only gets to see his son two weekends a month.
10. “All The You Can’t
Leave Behind” by U2 – While this is not the best album by U2 and there is some
filler, this LP marked a huge comeback album for the band. The classic 1991 album “Achtung Baby” had
been a high point, selling 18 million worldwide (and went 8 times platinum in
the US). U2 only released two more
albums in the 90s - the experimental EDM Zooropa (4x platinum) and Pop (1x platinum)
and the band seemed to be fading into obscurity when they chose to return to
their rock roots and recorded the album with their 1980s production team of
Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. The return
proved to be a wise move. The album was
a tour de force featuring four singles, two of which were Record of the Year in
successive years. It sold 12 million copies
worldwide and went 4x platinum in the USA.
The best tracks are Beautiful Day and Elevation while Stuck
In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of is an outstanding tribute to INXS singe
Michael Hutchence.
That's it, my 10 favorite albums from the 21st century so far. What's sad is that most of these albums are from the first decade of the century. Maybe there's just not a whole lot of great music being made any more.
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