My 30 Best Albums of the Decade: #5

A twinbill Friday, why the hell not?

#5. The Eminem Show - Eminem

I don’t remember when exactly I had my first exposure to Eminem’s music, but I do know that by the time I did, I had already formed my opinion of him and it wasn’t too rosy. In terms of pop culture, there’s a general formula I often follow: The more coverage and exposure you get, the less talent you likely have. It’s almost like a bell-curve, and it was foolproof for the likes of Brittney Spears, Joe Buck, and anyone and everyone affiliated with or “competing’ on American Idol.

But Eminem defied the Exposure/Talent Continuum. Before even giving the music a chance, I thought he was a spoiled, whining, no-talent homophobe who sang borderline controversial lyrics simply to get notoriety and push record sales. My opinion was one based of turdlets of info from the mainstream media. Big mistake.

After slowly warming to him earlier in the decade on a song-by-song basis, a co-worker and friend burned me a copy of The Eminem Show upon it’s release in 2002. After a few listens-through, I was in absolute awe of just about every track (save for the stupid skits, a disturbing but tolerable 21st century development). For the next year, it seemed everyone I knew had come to the same realization as I did and this album seemed to always be on the stereo (or in some cases, they were much quicker than I to realize the man’s talent).

Taken on the surface (which is pretty much all the media bothered with) yes, the lyrics and visuals on The Eminem Show could be considered offensive, childish or obscene. However, when you take into consideration that (A) it’s the 21st Century and (B) what younglings were listening to before Eminem, you start to see the layers of genius buried beneath the unpolished surface.


Consider…


“Drips” – While it features descriptions of procreation you wouldn’t even hear in a locker room, it’s much more likely to educate someone about the perils of unprotected sex than 1950s-style health class lectures or having students carry around an egg for a week. Sure, you won’t be able to eat Sour Cream Dip for a while after giving it a good listen to, but I don’t recall spam like Brittney Spears or other early-decade best sellers warning people about the perils of AIDS. For all the campaigning Bono does, I don’t remember U2 ever telling it like it is.

“White America” – the ultimate Eff You to the hypocrites and those who prefer to put certain people and arts in certain boxes and cultural boundaries. You can break the song down line by line but there’s one that resonates and says it all: “Hip-hop was never a problem in Harlem, only in Boston, After it bothered the fathers of daughters starting to blossom”

“Without Me” – a simple ode to the media, critics and detractors. You hate me but you can’t live without me. I save you the effort of having to find something else to bitch about. You should thank me.


“Cleaning Out My Closet” – the one thing I do try to avoid is the drama about the dude and his mom and ex wife, but “Closet” is a powerful, soul searching, angry recount of the family drama that’s at the genesis of not only select songs, but his overall persona. And unlike some of his other maniacal and homicidal rants, this remains above the fray. The anger is there, thankfully, but the emotion is pure.

And my personal favorite track off the album:


“Square Dance”. A lot of people have painted over their 2002 selves through some pretty rosy revisionist history. A lot of people don’t remember the post-9/11 tension in the country, between the torch burning masses demanded the blood of all people brown, and the Fifteen Percenters who either didn’t see bombing the third world to smithereens as viable justice, or, who didn’t trust the “leadership” in place at the time to effectively execute such a plan. I remember saying to my wife “Where are the Bob Dylans? The Joan Baezes? The Byrds?”


It seemed like even music was following dehr orders in lockstep, nobody would simply call it like it was. Where was the dissent? Then there was Square Dance:


Yeah the man's back, With a plan to ambush this Bush administration,.
Mush the Senate's face in and push this generation,
Of kids to stand and fight for the right to say something you might not like

Amen Slim. Amen

My 30 Best Albums of the Decade: 20 - 16

Moving along, I wish I knew who the hell Taylor Swift was, so Kanye West could chime in and deprive her of a place on this chart.

#20: Encore - Eminem: Simple: If an album samples Martika, and also contains the lyric "Fuck Bush", I'm in all likelihood going to enjoy said album. Not my favorite Eminem disc, probably because it's a little muted in comparison to his earlier recordings. He's obviously an enigma and few musicians can spark as much love/hate opinions as him (really, do you know anyone who thinks "Eminem is OK"?), like everything else these days - likely fashioned by the media. But I'll get into that a little later cause methinks he'll be appearing on the countdown again. This album rocks because of the track "Mosh". It should have been released around Labor Day (not 10 days before the election), because it caught the essence of the 2004 election: We're not coming out to vote for John Kerry - We're coming out to vote because Bush/Cheney is the most dangerous threat to our democracy since the day before the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. John Kerry was a hard guy to get behind, but the vitriol for Bush that Mr. Shady put forth here summed up the motivating factors behind George Bush receiving the most "votes against" ever by a President running for re-election.

#19: In Between Now and Then - O.A.R: The first of three bands I really got into this decade makes it's debut. Now, O.A.R studio is a far cry from O.A.R live - which is much more enjoyable music. Still, of all their studio work, this one seems to rise above the rest in terms of quality of the tracks. Their lyrics are a tad sophomoric and I think they try a little too hard to be like other tour-bands, but at the end of the day, they're a fun band to throw on the machine. Hey Girl and Dareh Meyod highlight the album and also translate very well on their live discs. Never been to one of their shows, as scheduling conflicts seem to arise every summer as our time gets burglarized by commitments we'd really rather not honor, but one of these days, I'll hit them up. Guess I should start collecting party beads now.

#18: Broken Boy Soldiers - The Raconteurs: Jack White was to good 00's music as Ryan Seacrest was to annoying, poppy, fluffy, tabloid supermarket crap this decade - He was everywhere. I chose Ryan Seacrest for the analogy because he was pretty much the anti-Jack White. While White was involved in near-iconic albums throughout the entire decade, Seacrest was fluffing up his overexposed resume with such tripe like A Celebration of Heroes with George W. Bush and of course, the decade's septic tank: American Idol. He even took over for the indestructible Dick Clark on New Year's Eve, although Clark still made his appearances and I was supposed to not crack up laughing at them after 20 beers. Riiiight. Anyway, Broken Boy Soldiers is pretty much everything rock'n roll should be, rock at its roots. Intelligent lyrics that capture the essence of just being a human, along with solid intros and exceptional music. Really can't say a bad thing about it. And America didn't have to vote via text-message to approve of it.

17: Float - Flogging Molly: Of all the things I'm grateful for this decade - you know, stuff like getting married and Eli Manning - few things have impacted me the way that the music acquisition practices have changed. I've always felt that the Irish do 3 things better than any other culture: Drink, Make Breakfast, and Play Music. For most of my life, Irish Music was limited to the traditional folk songs and some rebel rock like the Wolftones. Because that's what I had access too. And then came the internet music explosion. And then came Flogging Molly. Formed in LA with a frontman from Dublin, they pretty much encompass everything I've always loved about music. And their subject matter touches all bases: relationships, war, peace, politics, rebellion, family, and of course, the unique Irish perspective on alcohol. Float is their most critically acclaimed album, probably because it's their most mature. A worthy investment, the album's perfect for a big party, a solitary commute and everything in between.

16: Modern Times - Bob Dylan: Something tells me that if I were to rank the top 30 albums of previous decades in my collection, this would make it the 5th consecutive decade that the Legendary Bob Dylan would rank in the top 20, as The Freewheeling Bob Dylan was probably the greatest album of the 1960s, Blood on the Tracks would hold the exact same honor for the 1970s, Infidels would have some stiff competition but would rank among the 80's best, and Time Out of Mind would do the same for the 1990s. What else is there to say about a man who continues to impress and amaze as he pushes towards his 6th decade in the spotlight? Modern Times basically takes a little bit of the definitive "Dylan Sound" that we're all accustomed to - from classic folk, to rock, to blues, sometimes all blended together - and adds the wisdom of a lifetime of experience by the greatest lyricist in American History. It's also the 23rd consecutive album to disprove the common misconception that "All Dylan sounds the same" yet the fallacy lives on.

One of the true enigmas of the last 50 years, I can't even begin to explain what my life would be like without Bob Dylan so I'm not going to bother. It's no wonder Dylan's favorite ballplayer is Derek Jeter.