The 12 Best New Artists Of This Decade

This topic was suggested by reader “kicknz” and I thought it was a great idea. Like Z, I find myself listening to the old-reliables more and more, while it gets harder with each passing year to suss out the great new bands from a sea of chaff. But I’ve been keeping one ear to the ground, one eye on the music mags, and I’m never afraid to ask friends and acquaintances about music – so I actually have an opinion on this…

The ground-rules were pretty simple: to qualify, the artist must have released their debut album after Jan 1, 2000 (I made one noted exception). There are plenty of artists who emerged during this decade, but didn’t technically debut, most notably My Morning Jacket, Queens Of The Stone Age, The Coup, The White Stripes, and Spoon. If your favorite new artist isn’t listed here, I urge you to consult a trusted record almanac for release dates before ripping me a new one.

The Strokes exist in a unique category. They just don’t really belong here, because it seems like their career arc has already played out. Nonetheless, their debut album Is This It appeared in 2001 and love ‘em or (more likely) hate ‘em, it stands as one of the best albums of the decade. It was tempting to include them here, but more fun to talk about why I didn’t. Alas…

Ditto Amy Winehouse, who has crammed 10 careers worth of disheveled photo opps, bad tattoos, drug busts, and bustiers into a scant couple of years. Back To Black is a brilliant album, and hopefully not the last we’ll hear from her, but I’d like to discuss artists whose careers are on an upswing. So Amy, please have a seat in the green room with The Strokes.

Here then, in no particular order, are a dozen of the best new artists since Y2K:

Josh Ritter (recommended album: Golden Age Of Radio)

Ritter technically shouldn’t be on this list – his debut appeared in 1999. But 2002’s Golden Age Of Radio just may be the best album of the entire decade, and yet he remains relatively unknown, earning a waiver into this discussion. His followups haven’t been quite as powerful as Golden Age, but there’s no denying that Ritter is a talented singer-songwriter with a bright future.

Listen: Me & Jiggs

LCD Soundsystem (recommended album: LCD Soundsystem)

Clever beats, sly humor, superb music. But like a dude moonwalking around the room in a disco suit, it’s hard to tell if LCD Soundstystem’s James Murphy is just wildly kitschy, out for some laughs, or completely on the level. I suspect it’s a bit of all three.

Listen: Losing My Edge

Lyrics Born (recommended album: Same !@#$, Different Day)

East Bay MC supreme Lyrics Born (aka Tim Shimura) has mad flow, can sing like a 70’s soul star, and has put together a great live band. A longtime part of the Blackalicious/Quannum posse, LB has made a number of high-profile guest appearances recently, suggesting his career is on the upswing. He’s also a gentleman: The P and I spotted him at an Oakland taqueria and he was as polite as could be.

Listen: Do That There (The Young Einstein Hoo-Hoo Mix)

M. Ward (recommended album: Transfiguration Of Vincent)

Matt Ward has only spent this decade making one great album after another, touring relentlessly solo and with a variety of musicians, and establishing himself as one of the great ones. A once-in-a-generation talent, Ward has the voice of a 65 year old blues singer, the guitar stylings of a John Fahey disciple, and the courage to take chances.

Listen: Helicopter

Bon Iver (recommended album: For Emma, Forever Ago)

Jeff Buckley proved that sometimes one album is all it takes to achieve greatness. It doesn’t happen often, but Bon Iver’s (aka Justin Vernon’s) debut found aching, haunting and beautiful new terrain to explore within song. Like the best albums, For Emma, Forever Ago is utterly original, yet suggests dozens of musical references. It’s a work of art that lives in a time and space of its own devising, and it marks Bon Iver as a major talent.

Listen: re: stacks

Kings Of Leon (recommended album: Youth & Young Manhood)

Kings Of Leon came roaring out of Tennessee with their 2003 debut Youth & Young Manhood. Reviving the best aspects of 70’s Southern Rock, this group makes Lynyrd Skynyrd-sized songs that feature plenty of guns, girls and good times. Their recent albums have become more experimental, but this is still the sound of a hot summer night down South.

Listen: Red Morning Light

The Black Keys (recommended album: Thickfreakness)

Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney have been so amazingly prolific and consistent that it’s hard to believe their debut album appeared in 2002. This year’s Attack & Release saw them move beyond raucous blues and develop a more layered sound without compromising their core principals. It’s an album that proves there is still some exciting unexplored territory left within the blues.

Listen: Thickfreakness

Iron & Wine (recommended album: The Shepherd’s Dog)

With his 2007 release The Shepherd’s Dog, Sam Beam (aka Iron & Wine) fully realized his potential as a songwriter and music-maker. I&W’s previous albums were incredibly spare – just Beam and guitar – but Shepherd’s Dog added a host of textures, instruments, and sounds to the mix. With baroque lyrics laid against shimmering electronica and acoustic guitars, it’s an album that’s both retro and futuristic – a modern masterpiece from a musician coming into his own.

Listen: Lovesong Of The Buzzard

TV On The Radio (recommended album: Return To Cookie Mountain)

Good luck figuring out who influenced these guys. TV On The Radio sound like they sprung fully formed from thin air, without hearing any modern music whatsoever. This formula is wildly imprecise, but TVOTR = (Prince + Doo Wop + Peter Gabriel + No New York) with a splash of Jamaican dub and Curtis Mayfield. It looks like a train-wreck on paper, but it’s actually powerful stuff. Bonus points for the fact that their major label debut (Cookie Mountain) is also their most challenging album…

Listen: Wolf Like Me

The National (recommended album: Boxer)

Because Matt Berninger’s deep vocals are full of resignation, this group has found itself repeatedly compared to Leonard Cohen, of all people. As Berninger explained to Chimpomatic.com in 2006, “A lot of the lyrics are little pieces of embarrassing inner dialogue with a mixture of awkward melodrama and overconfident swagger.” The group’s last two albums (2005’s Alligator and 2007’s Boxer) are a pair of gems that successfully strip-mined beauty from loneliness and despair.

Listen: Mistaken For Strangers

The Black Lips (recommended album: Good Bad Not Evil)

Atlanta’s Black Lips (not to be confused with Akron’s Black Keys) make glorious music that sounds like it was conceived in a garage in 1967. Most of their catalogue could easily be mistaken for songs that just missed making the cut for Lenny Kaye’s legendary Nuggets compilation. In other words, loud, raw, and fully addictive. Their album Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo (reportedly recorded in Tijuana) just might be the best live release of the decade.

Listen: It Feels Alright

Cee-Lo Green (recommended album: Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine) Danger Mouse (recommended album: The Grey Album)

It would be easy enough to whang Gnarls Barkley in here and call it good, but you deserve better. Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse may have become well-known under Gnarls, but their individual work is much more interesting. Cee-Lo Green Is The Soul Machine is the rarest kind of hip-hop classic – an album that sounds better as time passes. Meanwhile, Danger Mouse has been involved in many high-profile projects, including his landmark mashup The Grey Album, and production work for Gorillaz and The Black Keys. Regardless of the duration of Gnarls Barkley, Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse will be making good music for years to come.

Listen: Living Again [Cee-lo Green]

Listen II: My 1st Song [Danger Mouse]

*****

Honorable Mention…

Arctic Monkeys
Black Mountain
The Kleptones
Living Things
Girl Talk
Spank Rock
Mylo
Kanye West
The Arcade Fire
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

*****

Obvious Question #1: Who did I miss??

Obvious Question #2: Got any suggestions for future articles?

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Tags: Amy Winehouse, Bon Iver, Cee-lo Green, Danger Mouse, Iron & Wine, Josh Ritter, Kings Of Leon, LCD Soundsystem, Lyrics Born, M. Ward, The Black Keys, The Black Lips, The National, The Strokes, TV On The Radio