Originally Posted by music_phantom13 Thank you for the dark jazz bit there. I found Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation earlier this year, checked out Succubus and it was good, but I felt it was just a little bit off and didn't quite click with me. I was disappointed because it seemed like a type of music I could really dig, if there were more bands like them. For some reason I never bothered to actually look into the sound any more, and just forgot about them over summer. Now I will most certainly be looking into all of these bands Keep it up, I'm really liking most everything on here so far - the Amorphous Androgynous album was fantastic too. I had completely written of Future Sound of London after hearing Dead Cities, it got boring way too fast and I didn't like it much. This was much much better, I love the psychedelic dance feel and will be checking out other stuff under this moniker for sure.

Originally Posted by Bulldog Thanks buddy, glad you're digging it You got any of this stuff yourself at all, or is it pretty new stuff to you? By the way I'll be preparing a non-review or genre-related post in the near future. Depends how long it is 'til I get bored of sitting around pretending to work.

Originally Posted by music_phantom13 Thank you for the dark jazz bit there. I found Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation earlier this year, checked out Succubus and it was good, but I felt it was just a little bit off and didn't quite click with me. I was disappointed because it seemed like a type of music I could really dig, if there were more bands like them. For some reason I never bothered to actually look into the sound any more, and just forgot about them over summer. Now I will most certainly be looking into all of these bands Keep it up, I'm really liking most everything on here so far - the Amorphous Androgynous album was fantastic too. I had completely written of Future Sound of London after hearing Dead Cities, it got boring way too fast and I didn't like it much. This was much much better, I love the psychedelic dance feel and will be checking out other stuff under this moniker for sure.

Albums That Defined My Decade
#1: David Bowie - Heathen (2002)

genre: rock
1. Sunday
2. Cactus
3. Slip Away
4. Slow Burn
5. Afraid
6. I've Been Waiting For You
7. I Would Be Your Slave
8. I Took a Trip On a Gemini Spaceship
9. 5:15 The Angels Have Gone
10. Everyone Says "Hi"
11. A Better Future
12. Heathen (the Rays)

And here it is; definitive album of my decade of music. David Bowie's 2002 effort, and penultimate album before his hiatus/retirement/whatever it is, is easily among the most influential musical products of the 00s on my good self primarily because, as I'm sure I mentioned before, I've been a ranting David Bowie fanboy for quite a number of years now. Although I wouldn't say I'm anywhere near as blindly obsessive about the guy's music as I once was, the largest volume of CDs in my hard-copy music collection consists of Bowie's official albums, bootlegs, compilations and so on. Plus, if truth be told, I do still listen to an awful of his stuff these days, so I guess it's right that he gets a mention here. I'll get further into exactly how Heathen defines my musical decade a bit later after the old song-by-song bit, as this also gives me the opportunity to review one of my very favourite albums of the decade.

As you may or may not be able to tell from the album's title, the main theme running through this album stylistically is a very wintry, bleak and cold one, as the slowly-building, synth-led and powerful opener Sunday will testify. While this album is a bit heavy on the cover material to be seen (there's a total of three on this album), each of them, starting with an efficient, chilly rendition of the Pixies' Cactus, are all well fitted into Heathen's stylistic theme through some great performances like this one.

A good enough album so far, but nothing truly extraordinary, at least not until Slip Away comes around. It's a totally stunning, soaring ballad led by a sparse use of piano and a pounding, repetitive drumbeat, with the marvellous vocal performance from Bowie really taking this one up a few notches. The following Slow Burn, though much more up-tempo (featuring a few Pete Townshend solos underpinning the whole thing as it does), boasts the same kind of ambitious vocal performance and makes for another highlight, as the frenetic, string-laden and riff-led Afraid.

A little stretch of brilliance on the album is ended by a not-so-interesting, hard-rocking cover of Neil Young's I've Been Waiting For You, another one to feature a guest musician, this one being Dave Grohl on guitar. It's all more than made up by the fact that it's followed up by I Would Be Your Slave - quite possibly my favourite David Bowie song ever ever ever. Have a go with the video below, listen to that beautiful little bassline and see for yourself I guess. It's probably my personal favourite point on the album and is bookended by covers, the other being the ok-ish synth and drum machine-led rendition of the Legendary Stardust Cowboy's I Took a Trip On a Gemini Spaceship, which itself is bookended by slow-burning, emotional ballads, the one to follow it being the gorgeous 5:15 The Angels Have Gone - another cold, wintry number to feature a truly sublime vocal performance from Bowie.

The closing trio of songs are definitely among Bowie's very finest, the first of these being the sole single release, Everyone Says "Hi" - a masterclass of composition and performance, and a deceptively chirpy and upbeat little number given the grim and sorrowful lyric it supports. A Better Future is another tune which doesn't sound a whole lot unlike a song you'd find on Low, being a maze of heavily-treated guitars, synths and robotic rhythms over an infectious melody as it is. Pretty sure it was the one of, if not the first Bowie tune I ever heard as well (it was on some compilation CD that came free with a magazine - I think it was Q). The title track, Heathen (the Rays) serves as the fittingly haunting, synth and effect-laden album closer, encapsulating the overall mood of the album perfectly.

All in all then it's a complex, chilly, brooding and moody work of music which, for all the weird little synth effects and overdubs there are to be heard, all held together nicely by some typically Bowie-esque catchy hooks, melodies and memorable choruses. As I say, it's a massively influential album on my good self too when, while it wasn't quite the first Bowie album I ever bought, and getting it didn't exactly introduce me to a world of music I knew little to nothing of at the time, it did help to get me started on one of the more exhaustive musical ventures I'd ever take on. Also, looking back at the time I got it myself (around the time of release), it was also quite possibly the first 21st century album I ever got and truly loved. Generally speaking, this one's definitely up there with the best of the decade too, personal influences aside and that.

So then, this album...

Originally Posted by Bulldog 10 Albums That Defined My Decade Something else to keep the thread on the run here. True, the way I'll be doing these at least, this section will consist of reviews just as usual, but whereas there are plenty of good albums I can say this decade's spawned without the mainstream audience of music listeners' noticing, only a handful of them I could say have been truly influential on my taste in music. So, what we should have by the end of the day are 10 albums which opened up whole worlds of music to me and basically helped to shape my taste as it now is, however brilliant or not-so-brilliant they may be in hindsight. Basically, this part of the thread will not only give me an opportunity to show you folks a few landmark albums with me, but it'll also give me the chance to go over some of the less obscure parts of my music library with a fine tooth comb. All 10 of these will be from this decade too. So then, the first one will be up later this evening. Stay tuned!