Turns out, 2000 was more of a slog than I hoped it would be. It began with plenty of promise. I had a 5 star, new listen on the first day. There are 11 new listens all together in my Top 25. But, in the end, there are only two 5 Stars, six 4.5 Stars, 15 4 Stars, and two 3.5's. So, 2000 was a solid year, but not as loaded as it first appeared. Many albums I was looking forward to were quite disappointing. I almost bailed on the whole thing last week, but I was committed. I'm not sure if I want to continue doing these Deep Dives going forward. The discord group I'm in is either doing 1967 or 1979 next, so we'll see.
25. GREEN DAY - WARNING ( 3.5 STARS )
Truthfully, I wasn't expecting this to make the Top 25. I did buy it when it came out, and listened to it on the regular, but I'd kind of forgotten it over the years. Setting aside the last 20 horrible years of the band, Warning was the final salvo of Green Day's prime era. The title track, "Jackass", and "Deadbeat Holiday" are standout tracks, and "Waiting" is an all-timer. While it's no Dookie or Nimrod, it's really solid.
24. U2 - ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND ( 3.5 STARS )
At the time, I was down on U2. I wasn't a fan of their 90's over-indulgent nonsense. "Beautiful Day" seemed like a glorious reboot for the band. "Elevation" is a banger that presages their next album. "Stuck in a Moment" and "Walk On" are great singles. "Kite" is a fantastic album cut that features some nice guitar work from The Edge. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is mediocre, so I have it at 3.5 Stars. Over the years, I've been able to separate U2's 90's songs from their 90's marketing and can appreciate how great they were. But these singles still hold up quite well.
23. THE HELLACOPTERS - HIGH VISIBILITY ( 4.0 STARS )
In the Year 2000, The Hellacopters were not on my radar. They seem to have been lumped in with the early 2000's garage revival, but after listening to High Visibility they seem like the 70's classic rock revival I didn't know I needed 25 years ago. And they're from Sweden! This album rocks...hard. It's like Grand Funk or Foghat on steroids. The guitars are muscular and the riffs abound. It also has that 70's drum sound that I grew up on. I need to check out their back catalog. I don't know how I missed out on these guys.
22. THE DANDY WARHOLS - THIRTEEN TALES FROM URBAN BOHEMIA ( 4.0 STARS )
For some reason, I have never owned this album. I picked up their previous release, The Dandy Warhols Come Down, and it was fantastic. And one of my favorite rock documentaries is Dig!, in which the Dandys play the foils to Brain Jonestown Massacre's Anton Newcomb. It was a bad call on my part, because Thirteen Tales is really good. It's another album that makes me question why I hate The Velvet Underground, because their DNA is all over this, especially the track "Solid". Except, Thirteen Tales rocks considerably more than anything by The Velvets, yet is still hazy and druggy. The standout song is "Bohemian Like You", which was a minor hit at the time. The opening riff is very Stones-y.
21. J. MASCIS + THE FOG - MORE LIGHT ( 4.0 STARS )
More Light sounds like a Dinosaur Jr. album with Bob Pollard and Kevin Shields helping out. Sounds good to me. I love Pollard's backing vocals on the opening track, "Sameday". Mascis, once again, displays his lyric writing and guitar chops that made Dinosaur Jr. one of the great indie underground bands. The "hit" from More Light was "Where'd You Go", which features some amazing, woozy guitar pyrotechnics. Pollard returns on "All the Girls" and "I'm Not Fine", the latter of which is a bombastic tour de force. Good stuff. Peace.
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