Here are my five favorite albums from the 2000’s:

1. Rooney – Rooney. Just a great album from start to finish. “You’ll be out milking cows before you cash the check… these are the words the popstars, these are the words of the unsophisticated money machines, for the killers of rock and roll…”
2. Phantom Planet – The Guest. Same as with Rooney. The OC kind of tainted California; Lonely Day and Anthem and others more than make up for any taint.
3. Taylor Swift – Taylor Swift. It is just that good. She is the biggest thing to happen to country music since Garth Brooks. And she deserves it — she is incredibly talented, and more as a song writer than a performer.
4. X&Y – Coldplay. I liked Coldplay. Then they released Viva la Vida, which was OK, but not great. Then UPop (the Pop heard around the world) on XM decided to play nothing but Coldplay for a month. It was an improvement over the occasional French songs that came on, but the end result totally turned me off Coldplay (that and Gweneth “Europe is better than America” Paltrow). Nevertheless, I cannot deny that every song on this album is catchy and good.
5. The Killers – Personal Compilation. I love the Killers with a caveat. But the albums are a hodgepodge of really great and really ok songs. Each of their albums have two or three gems, and two or three always fast forward. One thing about the Killers that I love is that many of the songs start off kind of bland, but have hooks buried minutes into the songs that are pure genius. Try:
   • Mr. Brightside
   • All These Things I Have Done
   • Glamorous Indie Rock & Rolls
   • Ballad of Bobby Valentine
   • Bling (Confessions of a King)
   • Read My Mind
   • Why Do I Keep Counting?
   • A Dustland Fairy Tale
   • Human

My five favorites from the 90’s:

1. OK Computer – Radiohead. Probably my favorite album of all-time. Except for Fitter, Happier.
2. The Bends – Radiohead. This album is what started me on my Radiohead oddessy.
3. Weezer – The Blue Album. I listened to this endlessly while playing the original Doom from start to finish.
4. U2 – Actung Baby. Freshman year of college.
5. Tom Petty – Greatest Hits. I know it is a little bit of a kopout to cite a Greatest Hits album. Nevertheless… Does anybody remember the Free Fallin’ video that was always on MTV and VH1 in the late 80’s?

I bought Viva La Vida on the strength of the iPod commercials, the reviews I read, and the fact that X&Y was a great album from cover to cover. This time, however, the critics were wrong, with the exception of Viva La Vida and Violet Hill, the album is pretty vanilla. The songs are a little contrived and, for lack of a better way of explaining how I feel about the album, Chris Martin et al., tried too hard to top X&Y. The result was forced, apparently hurried, and in many instances putting too much reliance on an overused hook, much like movies that rely too much on their special effects.

For example, the song Lost! (not to be confused of the excellent television show of the same name) repeats the same tired theme over and over again without enough variation to make it interesting. In fact, I got sick of listening to it 30 seconds into the first time the track played.

With the execption of a couple of good hits that will spice up the soon-to-be-released-I’m-sure Greatest Hits, Viva La Vida is a very "ehhh…" effort on the part of Coldplay. After listening, Viva La Vida takes a step backwards to the level of Parachutes and reinforces that X&Y was an anomoly that is unlikey to be repeated by Coldplay any time soon.