The clocks turned to 12, and everything stopped. Yes, it was Y2K (and Kremlin Joe for you Futurama fans) that stopped everything. Y(orke)2k. Nobody cared about any of the music that came out “in the year two thousand” (Conan fans) because we were all on the Radiohead forums discussing what unreleased, once played as an encore, unbelievably interesting and oddly structured because I only heard it on someone’s mixtape that I couldn’t get a copy of, the song was going to be on the next Radiohead record. Just thinking about writing this list, I went a good five minutes before I could even name a record that came out prior to Kid A on 10/2/2000. But that was only half of it! The earth-shattering news on the album’s press release was that it was only part one! They had written so many songs they had enough for two albums! Amnesiac came out some seven months later. Because of that, and maybe because everyone kept saying the new millennium didn’t technically start until 2001, the two years will forever be jumbled in my brain as one, especially when it comes to music.
So, here we are. 11 years after I wrote my list of my favorite albums of 1999 (it was such an experience that I needed more than a decade of restorative meditation), to celebrate the 24th and 23rd anniversaries of both records, it’s time to compile the list of the best albums of 2000 and 2001! Continue reading “Every Kid Gets An “A” When They Can’t Remember Most of The Music From 2000 and 2001 Like An Amnesiac”
This ‘New York song and dance’ double feature is an obvious duet. On the positive side, both films surprised audiences (and critics) with an abundance of colorful energy, and on the flip side, both films feature male leads with some troubling choices in their personal lives. In any other year, or perhaps ten years ago, these two films would be atop the box office and Oscar predictions, especially the one where Steven Spielberg directs his first musical that is an adaptation of another movie that won Best Picture. This year they’ll both have to settle for being two overflowing-with-life musicals that will become more and more appreciated over time.
