Haunted House

96. Kanye West - Graduation

Kanye West’s pop album - fuck that sad-sack 808 and Heartbreak shit.  True, there is some unlistenable trash on this album (“Drunk and Hot Girls” springs to mind.)  But there are also some of the best melodies of the decade.  “Flashing Lights” is pop perfection, AND rhymes “paparazzi” with “nazi.”  “Homecoming” does its part to add a little bit of genuine emotion back into mainstream hip-hop.  And “Can’t Tell Me Nothing” earns its Zack Galifianakis and Will Oldham starring music video one overpronouced syllable at a time.

97. Natural Snow Buildings - The Dance of the Moon and the Sun (2006)

French post-rockers Natural Snow Building’s epic “The Dance of the Moon and the Sun” is twenty-five tracks, and two hours and thirty-seven minutes long.  I think I’ve listened to it straight through once.  It’s fucking exhausting, but also an incredible achievement.  Pick apart the pieces, and there are so many highlights.  Personally, my favorites are “Wisonsin” and “Tunneling Into the Structure Until it Falls” -which expand upon the complex instrumental builds of bands like Rachels and Do Make Say Think.  Also impressive are the short, melodic folk experimentations intersperced throughout, particularly the dream-like “Interstate Roads.”

98. Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP (2000)

In the summer of 2000 I was a pudgy thirteen year old at sleepaway camp in Western Massachusetts.  My camp counselor was an obviously alcoholic Scottishman named Stef, who, on more than one occasion, stumbled drunkenly into our bunk at 2AM, turned on all the lights, and  played the new Eminem CD at top volume, singing along and replacing the line “You don’t want to fuck with Shady, cause Shady will fucking kill you” with the equally true “You don’t want to fuck with Stef…”

Ten years later, that’s still badass.  “The Marshall Mathers LP” was all about Eminem pushing things as far as he possibly could - baiting his critics with lyrics about Columbine and beating up gays.  And, while neither Columbine or beating up gays is very fun - this CD is.  Come on - there’s a skit on here about the members of the Insane Clown Posse having sex with each other.  That’s high art!