Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan

This is my favorite acoustic Dylan album. Focusing less explicitly on politics compared to its predecessor, he's at a new songwriting peak here. Songs like "To Ramona" and "My Back Pages" are slow ballads rich with lyrical detail."All I Really Want to Do" is a playful ditty that reverses romantic pop songs, and "Motorpsycho Nightmare" is a hilarious, surreal talking blues song. Much like the early Beatles albums, Dylan's early period sometimes gets relatively (stress: relatively) overlooked compared to the years after he went electric, but he had the presence and gravitas as a songwriter and especially as a vocalist to pull off an album alone. if there's one criticism I have, it's that "Chimes of Freedom" always sounded a bit like a re-write of "The Times They Are A-Changin'." But overall, this is one of the definitive Dylan albums, right down to many of the songs eventually turning up in cover versions by The Byrds.

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell

An overblown, amazing classic. Meat Loaf has a voice big enough to carry these songs convincingly, whether they're power ballads ("Two Out of Three Ain't Bad") or rocking odes to teenage sexuality ("Paradise By the Dashboard Light"). Everything here works precisely because it's so big and dumb. Take the title track, for instance. At the six minute mark, there's a false fade-out that leaves me thinking "I could go for more of this song" - but AH! There's another three whole minutes of rocking out. And like I said, it's all grandiose moments in the teenage identity - those moments when the big dumb this shit is the most important stuff in the world.

Angie Aparo - Out of the Everywhere

Angie Aparo, Atlanta-based singer-songwriter, has a deeply compelling voice. It soars at the high notes instead pf pinching. His songwriting isn't memorable lyrically, but the album is deeply affecting for his vocals, which stand out. The settings are basically unadorned, acoustic guitar and singer-style. He doesn't quite have the gift for hooks that eventually would get him noticed by Faith Hill, but this is probably the best distillation of his talents in his discography.

Jon Brion - Meaningless

Jon Brion has made his name on his distinct orchestrated pop productions (Kanye West, Fiona Apple, Rhett Miller, the score for Punch Drunk Love), so it's no surprise that he isn't the most compelling singer in the world. Meaningless presents a gorgeous low-budget version of his sound. It's all very laid-back, with his thin voice sounding a bit haunting. It closes with an unexpected cover of Cheap Trick's "Voices," which upon listening to the album again, re contextualizes the preceding songs. After all, this is pop, but it's also rock. It's not heavy, but it's a beautiful and spacey kind of carnival music worthy of the experimentation of the psychedelic era.

The Hold Steady - A Positive Rage

As previously mentioned, The Hold Steady are a great band. Having seen them live, they're a great live band, but this is not a great live album. It's not bad, but their loose playing comes off better in person rather than on CD. It sounds like a fun show, and it draws headily from Boys and Girls in America, previewing "Lord I'm Discouraged" and "Ask Her for Adderall" from the then-unreleased Stay Positive and featuring two non-LP tracks: "You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came With)" and "Girls Like Status." The old songs come off relatively well, but they lack the focus of the studio versions.

Paul McCartney - Driving Rain

This might be awful to say, but some of the best music from McCartney's (solo) career has come after the death of Linda McCartney in 1998. It has given his music more of an emotional center, which can sometimes be missing from the projects with Wings. The first two songs seem to address these emotions head on: "Lonely Road" and "From a Lover to a Friend." Each are simple returns to roots, with the former being a straight-ahead rocker and the latter being a lovely ballad. Both feel like songs that could have been written in the beginning of his solo career. Given that McCartney's greatest strength is his melodies, the greatest effect the album has is that it reclaims his strengths. Those first two tracks are knockouts, while "Driving Rain" sounds like something that would've happened if the Beatles had been together to this day. The closing track, though, "Rinse in the Raindrops," echoes the kind of long, multi-part songs that McCartney's favored in the most ambitious parts of his career and might be the best thing here. The worst is "Freedom," a hastily written 9/11 tribute song. So simple, grating and bone-headed, it spoils the greatness of everything before it.

Stevie Wonder - Songs in the Key of Life

Bloated, yes, but more Stevie Wonder is nearly never a bad thing. Looking back at it about 20 years later, it's helped by the fact that some recognizable hip hop has re-purposed and/or ripped off songs from here, with "Pastime Paradise" providing the backbone for Coolio's "Gangster's Paradise" and "I Wish" becoming (...*sigh*...) Will Smith's "Wild Wild West," proving if nothing else the durability of Wonder's compositions. Elsewhere, "Love's in Need of Love Today" is heart-warming and stunning opening song, a seven minute wonder of sheer bliss, and it's impossible to listen to "Sir Duke" and be unhappy. Try it. Impossible. And that's just the first LP. Side three has the hit "Isn't She Lovely?," featuring some of the best harmonica playing in Wonder's long career of excellent harmonica playing. If the second LP features some songs that are overlong ("Black Man" is a bit ham-fisted and overlong), the EP attached to the original album (tacked onto the end of disc 2 of the CD) has some brief but wonderful songs to make up for it.

AC/DC - Back in Black

I always preferred Bon Scott as AC/DC's lead singer. The man had a wit that made their kind of sex-obsession fun, even if it's always aggressively stupid. With him gone, AC/DC seemed to lose songs like "Whole Lotta Rosie" or "The Jack," which walk the "fine line between clever and stupid." That said, Back in Black is one of the top three AC/DC albums, no doubt, but the filler takes it down. "Let Me Put My Love Into You" barely counts as a single entendre, let alone a double, and "Givin' the Dog a Bone" isn't much better. The singles (the title track, "You Shook Me All Night Long," "Shoot to Thrill," etc.) are tremendous accomplishments in the realms of riffage and cock rock, though.

Amy Winehouse - Frank

On the album after this one, Amy Winehouse the personality would overcome Amy Winehouse the musician. In short, there's nothing as audacious as "Rehab" or "I'm No Good" here. Frank relies more on a neo-jazzy sound, leading to a very mellow album full of torch songs. Winehouse is in good voice, though. The songs have a very classicist bent, sonically, though something like "Fuck Me Pumps" obviously have modern sensibilities attached. There's a vague, subtle reggae undertone to some of this, too, which gives the rhythm a bit of a lilt. It's a strong debut that would be improved upon with its followup.

David Bowie - Lodger

Bowie takes on world music, at least on the first side. "African Night Flight" and "Yassassin (Turkish for Long Live)" seem to pillage a bit from the music of their titular countries. Of Bowie's "Berlin" trilogy, with Brian Eno, this is easily the loosest. It explores dance music in a way that foreshadows many of the best Bowie songs of the 80s. When compared to Low or Heroes, or even early triumphs like Hunky Dory, it's a minor album, but Bowie seemingly having some fun and being playful is notable in and of itself. He also still has a strong grasp on hooks and song structures. One of the strongest of his pop-centric albums.

Method Man & Redman - Blackout! 2

Delivers exactly what you'd expect. Some pot references, lots of great battle raps, well-chosen party beats. Meth has been on a winning streak since Wu-Tang Clan's last album, 8 Diagrams. His chemistry with Red is unparalleled, and it seems that hearing the two rap never gets old. "Mrs. International" is a fine R&B rap, while "Errbody Scream" is a great rave-up. Surprisingly, Redman squeezes a Christopher Reeve reference that doesn't feel like a labored cry for attention (eat it, Eminem) on "Dangerous Emcees" ("But I'm naughty like Tommy Boy Go back like Atari cords, still here, shit Superman ended up in a wheelchair"). It's those moments that make or break the experience, since this album's not all that different in tone or content than the original Blackout!.

Collective Soul - Afterwords

Collective Soul's a tough band to critique because they're consistent, arguably into redundancy. Their brand of slick radio-friendly 90s rock doesn't vary all that much from album to album - some fast songs, some slow songs, everything following the same sonic blueprint. Ed Roland's voice is a beautiful kind of baritone that sells the big choruses in a fantastically tuneful way. It's hard to even tell when they're on autopilot! Afterwords features all of these elements in a mix that's pleasant but unremarkable. It peaks in the middle: "Good Morning After All" and "Hollywood" are the best songs here. The rest: if you like Collective Soul, you'll like the rest. Their not the kind of band out to change people's minds, it seems.

Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball

Emmylou Harris is a legend with a gorgeous voice, an angelic whisper that is ethereal when coupled with Daniel Lanois' atmospheric productions. I'm not always hot for Lanois' work, which can occasionally come of as bland ambiance. Harris is a spectacular collaborator for him, though, as the otherworldly qualities of her voice embrace the ambiance rather than fight with it (as his Bob Dylan collaborations would later do), somehow making them more human. The versions of "Goodbye" (Steve Earle) and "Every Grain of Sand" (Bob Dylan) here are definitive. Her versions of Hendrix' "May This Be Love" and Lucinda Williams' "Sweet Old World" are also excellent, but it's the title track that is as catchy and beautiful as it is haunting.

Johnnie Taylor - Live at the Summit Club

Johnnie Taylor's live set is more song-based than Solomon Burke's Live at the House of Blues (I hate to compare, but I did just listen to each back-to-back). It's also more band-based, a funky blend that gives Taylor a perfect sound to back his gruff, raspy voice. Taylor plows through a high-powered set that should be satisfying to soul aficionados, whether it's the funky "Who's Making Love" or the blues-ballad "Little Bird." The closer, "Jodie's Got Your Girl and Gone" is a fantastic mix of howls, chanted backing vocals and wild playing by his band's horn section.

Gorillaz - Gorillaz

Damon Albarn and Dan the Automator's project sounds like something that would be halfway between their musical sensibilities. It has the tempered, subtle pop of last-period Blur, but with the hip-hop and electronic elements that construct Dan the Automator's resume. It seems that the Gorrilaz avatars have given Albarn the freedom to explore a varied field of sounds, but thankfully it comes together as a cohesive set of music. The result is an album that is a grower, but full of diverse songs that catch the ear, whether it's the dub track "Slow Country," the British hip-hop of "Clint Eastwood," or the punkish, well, "Punk." There are hooks everywhere on this album, but it rides along a slow tempo from track to track, which can feel tiresome due to the length, no matter how great all of these songs are.

Best of 00s: Those first three Hold Steady albums

From 2004 to 2006, The Hold Steady put out three of the best albums this decade. If I was to make a top 25 list, all three would be on there. If I were to do a top 50, a fourth (Stay Positive, 2008) might land right at number 50. Simply put, they were one of the best bands this decade, melding their Springsteen-infatuated style with the gung-ho attitude of a bar band (and I mean all those things as a compliment). While staying true to their core sound, they evolved from a brash brand of hard rock with poetry to Springsteen for the bookish indie crowd.

In 2004, The Hold Steady Almost Killed Me came out with little to no fanfare. The album holds up, though, as their best guitar album. Fills and riffs sear and stomp on "The Swish," the second track. Frontman Craig Finn is in full form, lyrics dense with allusions and their own internal logic "She said my name is Rick Danko but people call me one-hour photo... She said my name is Robbie Robertson but people call me robo/I blew red white and blue right into a tissue/I came right over the counter just to kiss you." It's hard to discuss the band without quoting lyrics - one of the things that sets them apart is Finn. His lyrics on this album set a standard for the band in terms of detail, and his half-sung drawl is one of their most recognizable noises. But that's not to say the band doesn't tear it up elsewhere - the coda for "Most People are DJs" rips something fierce, too.

But Almost Killed Me would be a prelude, seemingly limited compared to their followup; Separation Sunday suffers no kind of sophomore slump. While the former is mostly a party record, about parties and their hollow good times ("Killer parties almost killed me," goes a lyric towards the end of it), Separation Sunday fully establishes Finn's voice as a songwriter and marks a shift in their sonic makeup. Organ, courtesy of Franz Nicolay from here out would be increasingly dominant, but their second album finds the best balance between organs and guitars. It's a concept album, but in the sense that Dark Side of the Moon is a concept album: there's a story, but not at the expense of songs.

It traces the story of a girl named Holly, whose downfall into a dirty world ends with a spiritual awakening. The band sings from a distinctly Christian perspective without being preachy. The characters are full of doubt and contradictions. But more than that, Separation Sunday marks the moment that The Hold Steady's discography has its own mythology. Ybor City: the scene of the hardest parties. Holly: The hoodrat with a Christian kind of conflict. Charlemagne: a pimp. The characters continue to appear on the next album (but not as frequently) and were present on the last. It creates a thematic consistency that becomes its own language.

When it comes to judging which of the band's albums are the best, it's either their second or their third. Boys and Girls in America ditches a full concept, but is thematically centered on, well, boys and girls in America. Its thesis is laid out from the start: "Boys and girls in America have such a sad time together." Or: "Sucking off each other at the demonstrations/Making sure their makeup's straight/Crushing one another with collosal expectations/Dependent, undisciplined, sleeping late." The key is that the music's nearly always rowdy (exceptions: "Last Night," "Citrus"). The organs are expanded. A glockenspiel sweeps the intro of "Stuck Between Stations" into a grandiose statement of purpose. "Citrus" marks the first acoustic song the band had done to that point. While the band gets more diverse, Finn's songwriting becomes more structured. No less nuanced, his words finally seem to fit into the context of hooks and melodies.

If pressed, only The Drive-By Truckers could run with The Hold Steady as the best band of the 00s. I think I may have short-changed the music here, but it's a muscular kind of torrent or classicist rock that owes its richness to Springsteen, but clearly has some roots in the 80s punk scene. Like The Rolling Stones in the 60s, they don't do anything revolutionary - they just do it better.