The 100 Greatest Albums of the 00's

1. The College Dropout - Kanye West

2. A Rush of Blood to the Head - Coldplay

3. Continuum - John Mayer

4. The Rising - Bruce Springsteen

5. The Spirit Room - Michelle Branch

6. The Grey Album - Danger Mouse

7. The Lillywhite Sessions - Dave Matthews Band

8. Gold - Ryan Adams

9. Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King - Dave Matthews Band

10. Wreck of the Day - Anna Nalick

11. Final Straw - Snow Patrol

12. Only By the Night - Kings of Leon

13. Bible Belt - Diane Birch

14. American IV: Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash

15. I and Love and You - The Avett Brothers

16. Back to Black - Amy Winehouse

17. Heavier Things - John Mayer

18. White Ladder - David Gray

19. Hot Fuss - The Killers

20. Room for Squares - John Mayer

21. Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends - Coldplay

22. Plans - Death Cab for Cutie

23. Magic - Bruce Springsteen

24. All That You Can't Leave Behind - U2

25. Eye to the Telescope - KT Tunstall

26. On and On - Jack Johnson

27. Cardinology - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals

28. White Blood Cells - The White Stripes

29. Attack & Release - The Black Keys

30. The Renaissance - Q-Tip

31. Parachutes - Coldplay

32. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - U2

33. Late Registration - Kanye West

34. Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World

35. Alright, Still - Lily Allen

36. Musicforthemorningafter - Pete Yorn

37. As I Am - Alicia Keys

38. Songs About Jane - Maroon 5

39. Hotel Paper - Michelle Branch

40. Whoa, Nelly! - Nelly Furtado

41. Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! - Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears

42. Heartbreaker - Ryan Adams

43. Get Rich or Die Tryin' - 50 Cent

44. Stand Still, Look Pretty - The Wreckers

45. The Odd Couple - Gnarls Barkley

46. Narrow Stairs - Death Cab for Cutie

47. Extraordinary Machine - Fiona Apple

48. Get Lifted - John Legend

49. A New Day at Midnight - David Gray

50. Brushfire Fairytales - Jack Johnson

51. The Diary of Alicia Keys - Alicia Keys

52. Audioslave - Audioslave

53. Graduation - Kanye West

54. In Between Dreams - Jack Johnson

55. Phrenology - The Roots

56. Fearless - Taylor Swift

57. O - Damien Rice

58. Love, Save the Empty - Erin McCarley

59. Stand Up - Dave Matthews Band

60. Songs In A Minor - Alicia Keys

61. Easy Tiger - Ryan Adams

62. The Way I See It - Raphael Saadiq

63. Room Noises - Eisley

64. Twenty Three - Tristan Prettyman

65. Songs for Silverman - Ben Folds

66. Taking the Long Way - Dixie Chicks

67. Closer - Better Than Ezra

68. Busted Stuff - Dave Matthews Band

69. Eyes Open - Snow Patrol

70. Be Not Nobody - Vanessa Carlton

71. Hello - Tristan Prettyman

72. Emotionalism - The Avett Brothers

73. Some Devil - Dave Matthews

74. Riding With the King - B.B. King & Eric Clapton

75. Game Theory - The Roots

76. Kamaal the Abstract - Q-Tip

77. St. Elsewhere - Gnarls Barkley

78. Musicology - Prince

79. To the 5 Boroughs - Beastie Boys

80. Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga - Spoon

81. The Blueprint - Jay-Z

82. Afterglow - Sarah McLachlan

83. Stillmatic - Nas

84. Me and Mr. Johnson - Eric Clapton

85. Sleep Through the Static - Jack Johnson

86. Try! - Live In Concert - John Mayer Trio

87. Be - Common

88. This Is the Life - Amy Macdonald

89. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend

90. Before the Robots - Better Than Ezra

91. No Line On the Horizon - U2

92. The Fall - Norah Jones

93. Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not - Arctic Monkeys

94. Shaman - Santana

95. Rising Down - The Roots

96. Taylor Swift - Taylor Swift

97. Amanda Leigh - Mandy Moore

98. Troubadour - K'naan

99. Back to Then - Darius Rucker

100. Little Voice - Sara Bareilles

The 50 Biggest Disappointments of the 00's

1. Bud Selig letting baseball become unwatchable (Big Head Barry becoming the home run king, A-Roid getting a ring, letting the Red Sox roid themselves up to break The Curse, the All-Star Game tie, etc.)

2. The death of Napster

3. The CW thinking shows like Farmer Takes a Wife, 90210, Melrose Place, Life Is Wild, The Pussycat Dolls, High Society, and Fly Girls were better alternatives that Veronica Mars

4. The football team formerly known as the Browns winning a Super Bowl in the second year of The real Browns expansion, who only won three games that year

5. Kanye West going emo

6. The rise of Ringtone Rappers and auto-tune

7. Here is something I could not understand: how Landry Clarke could just kill a man

8. The Writer’s Strike

9. Dave Chappelle going crazy; ending Chappelle's Show after only two seasons

10. Bill Belichicken cheating his way to multiple Super Bowls wins

11. Fox canceling The Lone Gunmen, Undeclared, Firefly, A Minute with Stan Hooper, Keen Eddie, The Jury, The Inside, Point Pleasant, and Reunion after (and sometime before) just one season

12. Having to constantly hear about American Karaoke

13. The entire Heroes series, and having Kristen Bell slum it on such a horribly written / acted show

14. The Steelers winning two ref assisted Super Bowl

15. TV Guide going bigger

16. Basically everything after the season one finale of Lost

17. 50 Cent deciding to make music for suburban white teenage girls

18. The Jay Leno Hour

19. Fergie joining the Black Eyed Peas

20. Having to wait fifteen years for the mediocre Chinese Democracy (and Dr. Pepper not delivering on their promise of a free can)

21. MTV deciding to cater to teenage girls who were too busy texting to care about their crappy shows

22. The Democrats unable to nominate someone competent enough to even beat George Bush

23. Superman Return

24. X & Y - Coldplay

25. The shrinking Rolling Stone

26. The Pirates of the Caribbean sequels

27. Y2K

28. Hollywood ruining my childhood (Transformers, Dukes of Hazard, etc.)

29. Trapped in the Closet; Chapters 13-22

30. Kate Bosworth Going Skelator

31. No Detox from Dr. Dre

32. U.S. Basketball Nightmare teams

33. Sam's Town - The Killers

34. Christina Aguilera starting to look like drag queen version of her Genie in a Bottle self

35. Bionic Woman reboot

36. Jay-Z’s Un-retirement song

37. Survivor All Stars

38. Smashing Pumpkins reunion

39. The Hockey lock out

40. The Shins not changing my life like Natalie Portman promised

41. Janet Jackson’s nipple

42. Working On a Dream - Bruce Springsteen

43. Joe Rogan version of The Man Show

44. Any celebrity documentary style reality show after The Osbornes first season

45. The XFL

46. Brett Favre in a Jets Vikings uniform

47. Jerry Springer banning fighting

48. Lindsay Lohan

49. Austin Powers in Goldmember

50. Tara Reid somehow being able to ruin Wild On

Recasting We Are the World

When Michael Jackson passed away, like most people I went back and listened to the music of his on my iPod which included We Are the World. That got me to thinking it that there was still plenty of poverty in Africa and it may be time to remake the song for a newer generation (especially considering Do They Know it's Christmas? is already on it'd third version). While doing research, I realized the twenty-fifth anniversary was this year so I sat on the suggestions I made at the time so I could release it to coincide with the anniversary. Then new came out last week that the co-writers of the song Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones (along with Jackson) were planning on doing so after the Grammy’s next week to benefit Haitian relief (so I guess they will be renaming the group USA for Haiti). So here are my suggestions next to those that did the original part. And as a point of reference, here is the original song:




Lionel Richie – Ne-Yo

Stevie Wonder – Maxwell

Paul Simon – John Mayer

Kenny Rogers – Taylor Swift

James Ingram – John Legend

Tina Turner - Beyoncé

Billy Joel – Norah Jones

Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson

Diana Ross – Christina Aguilera

Dionne Warwick – Alicia Keys

Willie Nelson – Keith Urban

Al Jarreau – Justin Timberlake

Bruce Springsteen – dude from Green Day

Kenny Loggins – dude from Fall Out Boy

Steve Perry – dude from Maroon 5

Daryl Hall – Robin Thicke

Michael Jackson – Michael Jackson

Huey Lewis – dude from The Fray

Cyndi Lauper – Lady Gaga

Kim Carnes – Kelly Clarkson

Bob Dylan – Dave Matthews

Ray Charles – Jamie Foxx

Stevie Wonder – Stevie Wonder

Bruce Springsteen – Bruce Springsteen

Dan Akroyd – Adam Sandler

Jackson Family Chorus – Jonas Brothers and other Disney stars Chorus


Naturally the hardest singer to recast was Michael Jackson himself and came I up with three alternatives; Bono, who technically is not American; Prince, who was actually supposed to duet with Jackson in the original but didn’t show up the first time; or have a chorus do all his part. But maybe it would be best to just pipe in his original vocals. And even though I recast their earlier parts, I still have to bring back Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Wonder to recreate their duet which was the highlight the orginal. Not bringing them back would have been like not asking Bono to sing "Tonight thank God it's them instead of you" for the new Do They Know it's Christmas? versions.

Christmas Just Isn't Christmas Without...

They say Christmas is the most wonderful time of year and it is hard to argue with them (aside from the freezing temperatures) and that is thanks in part to the soundtrack of the season because you really have to try to make a horrible Christmas song especially if you pick from the ten songs below which is just not Christmas if I don’t hear these songs multiple times. I have also listed the definitive versions of the song if you are downloading them for yourself:


1. Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) (Definitive version: U2)


2. O Holy Night (Definitive version - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip)



3. Santa Clause Is Coming to Town (Definitive version: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band)


4. Christmas in Hollis (definitive version: Run-DMC)
5. All I Want for Christmas Is You (Definitive version Mariah Carey)
6. The Christmas Song (definitive version: Nat King Cole)
7. Silent Night (Definitive version - Boyz II Men)
8. Children Go Where I Send Thee (definite version: Natalie Merchant)
9. Let it Snow! Let it Snow Let it Snow! (Definitive version: Harry Connick Jr.)
10. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Definitive version: Coldplay and Conan O’Brien)

Honorable Mention: Do They Know it’s Christmas because Christmas just isn’t Christmas without Bono telling me to “Thank God tonight it’s them instead of you.”

Have You Ever Seen a One-Legged Man Trying to Dance His Way Free?

Just when you thought Obama inspired music couldn’t stoop any lower than Ashford and Simpson reworking their classic to go Solid as Barack, Bruce Springsteen, voice of a the working class writes the worst song of his career, the overtly sappy Working on a Dream in honor of the man who would be president. Here is a guy that once sang, “Wherever somebody's strugglin’ to be free, look in their eyes Mom you'll see me,” and now he palling around with the machine instead of raging against it.

At least I thought Working on a Dream was the worst song Springsteen ever record, and then I listen to the whole album of the same name and found Queen of the Supermarket which is as cheesy as the title of the song would suggest and sounds like The Boss was trying to make a more serious verion of Lunchlady Land. And the explicitly cheery tone of the title track overspills into My Lucky Day (which is almost saved by a Clarence Clemmons sax solo) This Life, Tomorrow Never Knows, and Surprise, Surprise.

Thankfully it isn’t all happy, happy, joy, joy on Working on a Dream. The eight minute opener Outlaw Pete manages to merge the folk of The Ghost of Tom Joad with the arena rock of Born to Run effortlessly. The result is an opus about a baby already with a rap sheet whose life intertwines among mustangs (of the horse variety), Irish bounty hunters and young Navajo girls. Many artists have written this type of song before, even Bruce, but it still sounds fresh here in 2009. Good Eye, with its harmonica and scratchy vocals also has that down home feel to it and these songs may have made for a better template for a full album.

Springsteen has noted of 2007 album Magic that this was the first time he wanted to continue writing which was what spawned Working on a Dream. The result was his most scattershot album of his sixteen studio records. Even though it resulted in one of his best work in Outlaw Pete, the rest of the album just playes like and B-side or outtake compilation rather than a proper Springsteen disk. Hopefully for the next album, Bruce tears everything down and starts anew because it worked well on the previous fourteen times.

Song to Download - Outlaw Pete

Working on a Dream gets a on my Terror Alert Scale.

2009 Winter Music Preview

This is a somber music preview, no not because of a lack of music (well fairly abundant compared to previous first quarters) but this will be the first music preview with out the obligatory “maybe this is the season when we actually get Chinese Democracy” on account that it came out last November to surprisingly little fanfare. At least we still have Detox to wait for. But here are the albums that you may expect to be released while you are waiting for the weather to turn warm, many of which will be reviewed on the 9th Green. You can pre-order the album through Amazon (where available) or download currently available music by clicking on the artist name. (Release dates subject to change)


January 20
Noble Beast - Andrew Bird


January 27
Working on a Dream - Bruce Springsteen (iTunes pre-order)
Tonight:Franz Ferdinand - Franz Ferdinand (iTunes pre-order)
Whisper House - Duncan Sheik
Ray Guns Are Not Just the Future - The Bird and the Bee (iTunes pre-order)


February 3
The Fray - The Fray (iTunes pre-order)
Before I Self Destruct - 50 Cent
Willie and the Wheel - Willie Nelson
Sea Sew - Lisa Hannigan
Changing Horses - Ben Kweller
I Think We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat - The BPA


February 10
It’s Not Me, It’s You - Lily Allen (iTunes pre-order)
Everything Comes and Goes - Michelle Branch
Keep It Hid - Dan Auerbach
Paul's Boutique (20th Anniversary Edition) - Beastie Boys


February 17
Just Go - Lionel Richie
Hold Time - M. Ward
Spirit of Apollo - N.A.S.A.
Uncle Charlie - Charlie Wilson


February 24
Padded Room - Joe Budden
The Ecstatic - Mos Def
Roll On - J.J. Cale
Neil Young Archives, Vol. 1: 1963-1972 - Neil Young


March 3
No Line on the Horizon - U2 (iTunes pre-order)


March 10
Scream - Chris Cornell


March 17
All I Ever Wanted - Kelly Clarkson


March 24
Back On My B.S. - Busta Rhymes
Ten (Deluxe Edition) - Pearl Jam


April 14
TBA - Dave Matthews Band


April 20
Sounds of the Universe - Depeche Mode


You may also expect albums something new by Beastie Boys, Green Day, Eminem, Jay-Z, Gorillaz, Big Boi, and at least one of the three albums Prince promises in 2009 by Spring. If there is anything I left off, feel free to let me know in the comments.