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kozy21-blog · 6 years ago

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Favorite Films of the Decade

As it is the end of the 2010s and tomorrow starts the 2020s, here are a few movie lists I made. I love movies, especially science fiction and comic book films so I made a top 20 overall with some honorable mentions, a top 10 for sci-fi and comic book films and a list of guilty pleasures that aren’t necessarily objectively good films that I love anyways and watched a lot.

Top Films Of The Decade:

1. Arrival

‪2. Mad Max: Fury Road‬

‪3. Interstellar‬

‪4. Blade Runner 2049‬

‪5. The Grand Budapest Hotel‬

6. Whiplash

‪7. Inception‬

‪8. The Social Network‬

‪9. Guardians Of The Galaxy‬

10. Logan

11. Annihilation

‪12. The Martian‬

‪13. Paddington 2‬

14. Warrior

15. Inside Out

16. Deadpool

17. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

18. Dunkirk

19. The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty

20. Rogue One

Honorable Mentions: Wonder Woman, The Revenant, Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse, Moneyball, The Hateful Eight‬, Skyfall, Toy Story 3‬, Thor: Ragnarok, Midnight Special‬, Snowpiercer‬, Cloud Atlas‬, Edge Of Tomorrow‬, Big Hero 6, Isle Of Dogs‬, Predestination‬

Top Science Fiction

1. Arrival

‪2.Interstellar‬

‪3. Blade Runner 2049‬

‪4. Inception‬

5. Annihilation

‪6. The Martian‬

‪7. Midnight Special‬

‪8. Snowpiercer‬

‪9. Cloud Atlas‬

‪10. Edge Of Tomorrow‬

Top Comic Book Films

‪1. Guardians Of The Galaxy‬

2. Logan

3. Deadpool

4. Wonder Woman

5. Spider-Man: Into The Spiderverse

6. Thor: Ragnarok

7. Big Hero 6

‪8. Scott Pilgrim vs The World‬

9. Avengers: Infinity War

10. Black Panther

Top Guilty Pleasures

‪Pacific Rim‬, Ready Player One, Warcraft, Baby Driver, John Wick, Alita: Battle Angel, Chappie, Fast Five, Super 8, Tron Legacy

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kozy21-blog · 7 years ago

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youtube

New Vampire Weekend single is fantastic. When you wait 6 years to release another album, it better be good or at least I hope it sounds like you put 6 years of love into it.

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kozy21-blog · 7 years ago

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The Aughts. My Top 30 Revised.

So last week I posted my top 30 albums of the Aughts from from a list I made on January 25th, 2010. The Aughts for me is from 2000-2009. I guess an argument could be made that it’s 2001-2010 but where does that leave 2000... the 90’s? Anyways, a good portion of my favorite bands as an adult come from this era. My top eras of music are 1966-1974, 1987-1994, and 2003-2008. Why, you ask... I’ll save that post for another day but I think there’s a certain level of prior generational influence for each era.

On to the list. I made this list from about 110 albums. It was easy to dwindle down as there are quite a few albums on the original list that I haven’t listened to in a decade. Some bands fell victim to the simple fact that they haven’t made a good album since then and I don’t pay as much attention to them like Death Cab, Kings Of Leon, Bloc Party, Our Lady Peace, Shearwater, The Hold Steady, Daft Punk, and The Avett Bros. Other bands have since released better stuff like Bon Iver, Okkervil River (The Silver Gymnasium & Away are my favorites), and Ryan Adams (I love his new stuff). Then there are bands like The National and Spoon who haven’t deviated much from their formulas and have 2 decades worth of good to great albums each. I digress. This revised list will include 10 honorable mention, a 30-11, and then my top 10 with a brief (I’ll try) write-up for each.

Honorable Mentions:

Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American; Thrice - Vheissu; Passion Pit - Manners; Matt Pond PA - Several Arrows Later; Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago; The National - Alligator; The Decemberists - Her Majesty The Decemberists; Lovedrug - Pretend You’re Alive; The Killers - Hot Fuss; Peter Bjorn & John - Writer’s Block

#30 - 11

30. Band Of Horses - Everything All The Time

29. Pete Yorn - musicforthemorningafter

28. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix

27. Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines

26. Ryan Adams & The Cardinals - Cold Roses

25. TV On The Radio - Dear Science

24. Sigur Ros - Takk..

23. Death Cab For Cutie - Plans

22. Silverchair - Diorama

21. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible

20. Radiohead - In Rainbows

19. Okkervil River - The Stage Names

18. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm

17. Spoon - Gimme Fiction

16. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

15. The Hold Steady - Boys & Girls In America

14. Death Cab For Cutie - Transatlanticism

13. Wilco - A Ghost Is Born

12. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga

11. Say Anything - ...Is A Real Boy

The Top 10:

10. The National - Boxer (2007)

Boxer begins with what I feel is the best opening track of the decade in Fake Empire and just builds from there. They don’t have a merely good album in their catalogue and this is their best.

9. Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)

Funeral will go down as one of the best debuts ever. This is my second favorite Arcade Fire album with The Suburbs being their masterpiece in my opinion. This album is big with songs like Neighborhood #3, Crown Of Love, and Wake Up being among the best of the decade.

8. Sigur Ros - Agaetis Byrjun (2001)

Agaetis Byrjun is the first of 2 Sigur Ros albums in my top 10. Agaetis Byrjun (translated A Good Beginning) was the first stateside release by the Icelandic band. With ethereal sounds from guitar played with a cello bow to a well represented xylophone to singer Jonsi’s falsetto voice. They sound like no one I’ve heard before or since.

7. The Decemberists - Picaresque (2005)

The Decemberists are another one of my favorite bands. Oftentimes, the album that got you into the band is your favorite album and Picaresque is it for me. I love The Decemberists aesthetic with their folk-rock and renaissance/medieval stories. Picaresque is their most consistently great album.

6. TV On The Radio - Return To Cookie Mountain (2006)

I actually got into TV On The Radio with Dear Science which their third album but their second album, Return To Cookie Mountain, is my favorite. I saw TVOTR in concert in 2011 and they blew me away. That’s when I really started digging in to them. They have a great mix of ambient classic rock ala Pink Floyd crossed with Funkedelic and 80’s Dance Punk. They have grown into one of my absolute favorite bands in the last decade and Cookie Mountain is the album I return to the most.

5. The Postal Service - Give Up (2003)

Give is Ben Gibbard’s (Death Cab For Cutie) 3rd entry on this list and the highest ranking side project. Aptly names because Ben Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello recorded the album by sending tracks back and forth through the US Postal Service. Full of some of the most optimistic lyrics Ben Gibbard ever wrote and some fantastic electronic melodies, this is an album I’ve repeatedly returned to over the years.

4. Explosions In The Sky - The Earth In A Cold Dead Place (2003)

I’ve listened to this album more than anything else in the past 15 years. It’s the only instrumental album in my top 30. It’s 5 tracks total over 45 minutes. Highlighted by The Only Moment We Were Alone, it’s epic in scope and immerses you in the story it’s telling. This has been my soundtrack to many a dark night on the road.

3. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2001)

Wilco is one of those bands that has grown on me as I get older. With A Ghost Is Born going from unranked to #13 and this rising from #18 to #3. Wilco have released many fantastic records but have never been as good. This is one of those albums where your favorite song changes every time you listen it. It’s both bleak and hopeful and is socially relevant without being preachy and I love that.

2. Sigur Ros ( ) (2002)

This is far away the biggest grower on my list and the third entry for Sigur Ros in my top 30. Sigur Ros have seemingly reinvented themselves with every album. Every album sounds nothing like anything yet they always sounds like Sigur Ros... if that makes any sense. ( ) is an album with no title, no song titles among its 8 tracks, and no lyrics in spite of there being vocals. All vocals are in a made up language called Hopelandic where the vocals are simply another instrument. The album is entirely left open to interpretation. With 2 distinct sides, tracks 1-4 being more ambient and piano driven and tracks 5-8 being bombastic and guitar driven, it is an album meant to be experienced as much as listened to.

1. Radiohead - Kid A (2000)

No surprises here. Pun intended. This is the gold standard. It’s my favorite album of the past 25 or so years. It’s the Blade Runner of albums. It gets better on every listen and you get something new out of it every time. I’ve spoken about this album already ad nauseam. It’s practically perfect.

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kozy21-blog · 7 years ago

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The Aughts

So my main musical influences are the 90’s and “The Aughts” (2000-2009) as I affectionately call them. I spent most of the 90’s listening to radio play alternative rock music. My tastes started to shift in my early 20’s around 2001. The internet age gave music fans a lot more access to indie rock and vice versa. I also tend to think that good mainstream rock radio died around 2000. If I were list my top 10 for each year from 2000 to 2009, you would see a gradual shift in what I was listening to and enjoying. There could be a myriad of reasons for that and I could speculate until I’m blue in the face. Interestingly enough, my tastes today are much different from what they were a decade ago just as they were a decade before that. That’s partly the reason for this post. I found a post I made on Facebook dated January 25, 2010. It was a list I made documenting my top 150 (yes, 150!) albums from 2000-2009. There were quite a few albums on that list that I revisit today but there are also quite a few albums on that list that I haven’t listened to in a decade. For time’s sake I am only posting the top 30 but in the coming days I am going to post a revised top of the aughts. Again, this is my top 30 of “The Aughts” from January 25, 2010 at age 28.

Interesting to see. There are even some albums on this list I haven’t listened to in years. Stay tuned for my “Top 30 of The Aughts Revisited”...

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kozy21-blog · 7 years ago

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Top 5 Radiohead Albums.

Well, I’ve been horribly bad at posting on here. I’ve been on paternity leave for the past 4 months as my wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl. I had plenty of time to post in that timeframe and thought of many subjects to write about but just didn’t. I started this to write about new music but to be honest, I haven’t really gotten into too many new artists in the last year or two. The 90’s was the last decade for popular radio music and the aughts saw the rise of indie music but even that has gone a little stale. Anyways, I wanted to talk about one of my all time favorite bands that started in the 90’s and is still making great music today. That band is Radiohead.

Radiohead falls into a “love ‘em” or “hate ‘em” category for most music fans. The funny thing is that they are hugely popular worldwide and sellout arenas, yet they somehow don’t have a lot of mainstream visibility. They are also at the dead top of my list of bands I’ve never seen in concert. I did have tickets to see them way back in 2002 but had an unfortunate scheduling conflict with a college final exam and had to give up my ticket. 16 years and a hundred or so other concerts later and I still haven’t seen them. One day...

This post today is specifically about my top 5 favorite Radiohead albums. They released 9 albums overall. 2 albums are all time great classics; 2 are great, best in the decade types; and the other 5 are still better that most bands’ best albums but your mileage may vary.

1. Kid A

Kid A, released in 2000, is Radiohead’s 4th album. It’s far and away, Radiohead’s most divisive album. To me, Kid A is the single best album released by anyone this century. It’s a masterpiece from beginning to end. I so often lose myself in it. To that point, it’s actually difficult for me to comment on individual songs because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts in this instance. From the moment “Everything In Its Right Place” starts to when “Motion Picture Soundtrack”, you’re taken on a journey. It completely re-defined to me what an album was capable of and opened my mind to a whole new way of thinking when it came to song structure (i.e. The National Anthem). “The National Anthem” might be my single favorite song on the album. It consists of the same baseline and drum line for the entirety of the song and very few lyrics. What makes it some specials is the abundance of other random instruments (especially horns) playing along the way that build to a crescendo like a crashing wave. The album tackles themes of isolation and trying to find your place in this world brilliantly with music that is both equally isolating and endearing.

2. OK Computer

OK Computer, released in 1997, is Radiohead’s 3rd album. OKC is their most critically acclaimed and beloved album. It’s widely considered the most groundbreaking album of the 90’s. Well, why isn’t this my #1? Honestly, I just like Kid A better. It’s a tighter album to me. OKC actually has a little bit of filler and 2 very distinct sides to it. To use a Led Zeppelin reference, it’s more Physical Graffiti than anything else. It peaks at track 6, Karma Police, but those first 6 tracks are epic. After that, there’s a definite shift in the album, although it ends strongly with with the trifecta of No Surprises, Lucky, and The Tourist. For me, where this album stands with you depends largely on tracks 7-9. Back to those first 6 tracks though, Airbag and Paranoid Android is the best 1-2 punch to start an album this side of The Joshua Tree. Actually, there is an apt comparison. This is Radiohead’s The Joshua Tree and Kid A Achtung Baby. One might be the more memorable but the other is just better.

3. The Bends

This is where it all started for. The Bends, released in 1995, is Radiohead’s 2nd and most accessible album. It’s the one I’ve listened to the most. It’s so easy to listen to. I’d argue that it’s their most complete album. If Kid A is Revolver and OKC is Sgt Pepper’s, than this is Abbey Road. Not quite as masterful but it’s so damn enjoyable and it gets better as you go deeper into the album with back 6 being better than the front 6. My Iron Lung and Bullet Proof..I Wish I Was are the standouts but there is really nothing close to a skip over track to be seen on this album. Also, it ends with the best closing track of the decade in Street Spirit (Fade Out).

4. In Rainbows

In Rainbows, released in 2007, is Radiohead’s 7th album. It’s most remembered for being dropped out nowhere digitally with Radiohead telling the audience to “pay what you want” for it. I paid $5 for it and then subsequently bought the vinyl. Don’t let that detract you from the music cause it’s their best album since Kid A. If Amnesiac is Kid A’s confusing Irish twin, then In Rainbows is Kid A’s crazy younger cousin. Many songs, including Nude and Reckoner were written and performed many years prior to its release. What separates this from other Radiohead releases is that most of the songs are of a personal more relational place. Whereas, prior Radiohead albums tackled social and political themes along with technology and isolation, this actually has love songs on it. Even though it does follow a similar formula to Kid A, it is easily their most accessible album since The Bends. Standouts are Nude, All I Need, Reckoner, and Jigsaw Falling Into Place.

5. A Moon Shaped Pool

A Moon Shaped Pool, released in 2016, is Radiohead’s 9th and most recent album. I struggled between this and The King Of Limbs for the 5th spot and ultimately chose this. It’s probably Radiohead’s most restrained and ambient album. It started frenetically with the standout “Burn The Witch” but immediately digs into more piano driven acoustic melodies. Similar to Kid A, it’s tough to pick a standout track as it really is incredibly cohesive with the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

If I were to rank the other 4, it would probably be:

6. The King Of Limbs

7. Hail To Thief

8. Amnesiac

9. Pablo Honey

Pablo Honey, ironically enough, has Radiohead’s biggest radio hit in Creep but is far and away their worst album. Granted, it’s not a bad album, but it’s the one I least revisit. Amnesiac is essentially a Kid A b-sides album and it’s probably better than I give it credit for but I constantly compare to its superior older brother. Hail To The Thief is Radiohead’s longest album at 14 tracks and 56 minutes. It’s their most overtly political which alienated me at the time but has grown on me over the years. The King Of Limbs is Radiohead’s shortest at 8 tracks and 37 minutes. It’s also probably their most underrated album. It was released to very little fanfare and no singles and probably their most abstract album which is saying something.

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kozy21-blog · 7 years ago

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Top 5 Grower Albums

To specify, a “grower album” is an album I’ve grown to love over time that I initially wrote off or just didn’t give a chance. These are my Anchormans and The Big Lebowskis Of The music world. There are entire bands/singers I wrote off and then one day decided to dig into and eventually grew to love. For this though, I’m focusing on specific albums. There are certain bands like The National and My Morning Jacket and Okkervil River that release growers in general so I immediately have an expectation going into the album that it will be a grower. In that instance, I am taking expectations based on prior albums into account. This ranking is in no particular order. I’ll try not to put in full blown reviews and instead attempt to describe why I didn’t get into them at first and what eventually changed my mind.

Radiohead - Kid A

It’s probably funny to see this here considering it’s considered a classic a this point but when it first came, I found this quite jarring in relation to The Bends and OK Computer which are both top ten 90’s albums for me. The Bends was an incredibly cohesive melodic Brit-rock album and OK Computer took what The Bends had and added an electronic & ambient experimental element to it and it was amazing. Kid A went straight for the electronic & ambient element and for a 20 year old year kid at the tail end of the grunge/alternative era, I didn’t know what to think. I didn’t give it much of a chance at first but the film Vanilla Sky perfectly included “Everything In It’s Right Place” in its soundtrack and I decided to revisit it. It was there that all the little nuances started to hit with me. This album is incredibly eclectic but also flows effortlessly. It’s grown to the point where I consider it the single best album of the 21st century.

Wilco - a ghost is born

Coincidentally, I’ve always joked that this was Wilco’s Kid A. Following the brilliant Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, I just couldn’t get into this. It was slow. I was listening to Bloc Party and Kings Of Leon (old, good KOL) and Say Anything and The Killers among others and this just didn’t fit into that. Ironically, they would release Sky Blue Sky next which is slower and I loved it immediately. It wasn’t until a good 8 years and 3-4 albums where I started revisiting it. There was something about the flow of the album. I would be listening to a Wilco playlist on random and a song from A Ghost Is Born would come on and it would end and I found myself wanting to hear the song after it on the album so I just kept going back to the album. It’s long, it’s big, it’s got Wilco’s best guitar solos, it’s virtually single-free, and it’s grown into my favorite Wilco album.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Someday I might be referring to their 4th and 5th albums, Reflektor and Everything Now, the same way I think of The Suburbs. This is Arcade Fire’s middle child. Funeral and Neon Bible are 2 of the best albums of the last 20 years. Songs like Wake Up and No Cars Go are some of the best songs ever written. The Suburbs came along and felt safe. I listened a little but didn’t give it a lot of attention. It even won the Grammy for Album Of The Year in 2010. Now I really don’t take the Grammies seriously and I thought they were just throwing indie rock a bone and maybe acknowledging Arcade Fire for their overall catalogue. Again, this album is about flow. There’s a recurring theme on this list. It doesn’t really have any standouts but what it lacks for in peaks, it makes up for in for an overall consistently excellent album and I didn’t realize it for about 3 or 4 years when I started going back through their catalogue prior to the release of Reflektor. It was then that I just couldn’t stop listening to it. It still their 3rd best album but it’s way better than I ever gave it credit for.

Volcano Choir - Repave

This is probably the least known artist on my list. Volcano Choir is a side project fronted by Justin Vernon of Bon Iver. It’s their second album. Their first, Unmap, feels like the weirder parts of Bon Iver’s Blood Bank ep on continuous loop. That being said, Repave fits perfectly in between Bon Iver, Bon Iver and 22, A Million. It just took me listen to a self made Justin Vernon playlist at work for me to notice. The songs from this album started to resonate with me and I revisited the album and could not stop listening. It’s 8 tracks but it feels like one long song that ebbs and flows perfectly. The sea in the album cover is very fitting. With Vernon’s falsetto and accompanying music, this album achieves any amazing amount of ambience. It’s become of my favorites of the last 10 years and one I revisit frequently especially in colder weather.

Say Anything - Hebrews

This is by far the most stylistically different album on this list. Say Anything are one of the few punk rock bands I listen to and I love them. I just didn’t love Hebrews when it first came out. It’s a punk rock album with no guitars. That in and of itself seems odd as guitars are typically a defining characteristic of punk rock. I gave this a listen and for whatever reason, it did not resonate with me. About a year or after it’s release, I put it on while commuting on the subway in Philly. I’d play it loud to drown out the noise from the subway and it rocked. It’s all synthesizers and strings and it’s punk through and through. Again, it has incredible flow to it. Max’s songs about being raised Jewish and wrestling with faith are earnest and you relate to him even if your experience was different.

So there it is. My top 5 “grower albums”. There were others I considered but these are 5 that have become favorites and repeat listens for me.

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kozy21-blog · 8 years ago

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Music listening habits

I’m still kind of dabbling with exactly how I’m going to approach this blog. I listen to multiple albums almost daily since I have a desk job underwriting mortgages and my employer allows me to listen to music. My daily selections range anywhere from from new releases I’m into to a band’s discography or even a playlist I made. Some days I’m just in the mood to list to a 90’s alt rock playlist, some days I listen to Radiohead (or someone else, but recently it’s been a lot of Radiohead), and some days I just want to listen to the same album on repeat all day like the fantastic new The War On Drugs album. Today I listened to The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place by Explosions In The Sky about 3 times through before moving on to Bon Iver’s debut album For Emma, Forever Ago. At this point I have now moved on to ...is a Real Boy by Say Anything which is a large change of pace from Bon Iver. I’m very passionate about music as it calms me and helps me focus throughout my day. As a 36 year old adult though, I notice a lot of people my age aren’t nearly as passionate about music as they used to be whether it be they don’t have for it, they just don’t care, etc.. I’ve also noticed many people tend to just stick with the music they listened to as teenagers. Those are the same people that complain music isn’t what it used to be which I vehemently disagree with but is a post for another time. I say all this because I always have something to say about music and would like to post daily whether it be simply what I’m listening to or a specific topic. Maybe I’ll just be random which is how I typically am anyways.

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