Albums of the Decade: The Moon & Antarctica (2000)

So, we’re almost at the end of the “noughties” and while top scientists try to work out what we can call the next decade (because the “tens” would just be shit) AGCS is ready to indulge in some nostalgia. Here’s how it works - one record from each year to create a list of ten awesome albums to remember these 3,653 days by.

2000 saw the release of Radiohead’s “Kid A”, Elliot Smith’s “Figure 8” and the S Club 7 album “7”, but ultimately the greatest record of the year has to be the brilliant “The Moon & Antarctica” by Modest Mouse. Because while it was Float On and it’s accompanying album “Good News For People Who Like Bad News” which first brought Isaac Brock and co. to my attention, it was tracks like 3rd Planet and Lives which made me think they were truly great.

“The Moon & Antarctica” remains one of the most complete albums I have ever heard. It is atmospheric, otherworldly, hypnotic; basically every wanky Pitchfork adjective you can think of. But how else can you describe album highlights Perfect Disguise and Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, the former ending with eerie chants of “Broke My Back” before echoing loops usher in the huge slice of awesomeness which is the latter.

It’s a record which doesn’t seek the listener’s approval - while there are some brilliantly simple, catchy songs in there (Wild Packs of Family Dogs comes to mind), the album as a whole is a rather unsettling proposition. Ominous centrepiece The Stars Are Projectors probably goes on 3 or 4 minutes longer than is comfortable, while Brock’s anguished screams on Alone Down There are truly haunting.

I could wax lyrical about this album forever, but it probably makes more sense for you to give it a listen yourselves. To get you started, here’s some choice cuts to download, although really, this is an album you need to hear all the way through. Spotify ain’t got it, so you might have to go out and buy it! Music wasn’t always free y’know, and this is an album which is well worth your money.

Jed. x