All Pearls, No Swine boldly march on...

...into the new millenium. The first decade of the Twenty-First Century was the decade I was the most implicated in music. When I started studying in the late 90s, I found this record store that was essentially only dealing in midprice and budget Cds, while maintaining a rigid quality selections. That's where I truly started to build my classic rock collection. But I also started to pay way more attention to the new music that was coming out, buying Rolling Stone every month and a bunch of other music magazines. For once, I was aware of all the trends that happened outside of the mainstream, from the rise of the 'The'-bands to trends like the Freak Folk revival. I heavily got into Americana and actually awaited new record releases from my favorites. I widened the spectrum of music I was listening to manyfold.

So it might have been a long time coming for the All Pearls, No Swine series, but I had little to no trouble compiling a series of favorites that not everyone knows, but most assuredly should. Some of my favorite songs of the decade had to go on here: Jackie Leven's fantastic “The Sexual Loneliness of Jesus Christ” (that I already mentioned in my write-up for a different Leven post), Nicolai Dunger's "Hunger", which in my book he never bettered, Midlake's mysterious "Van Occupanther, the almost title song from their fantastic sophomore effort. 

I mentioned getting into Americana in a big way, so you'll find quite a bit of that here, from traditionalists like Slaid Cleaves visiting the "Horseshoe Lounge" and Alison Krauss & The Union Station's moody, spellbinding "New Favorite" to...something weirder. The Handsome Family's "In The Air" was my introduction to weird Americana and its unforgettable narrator or story set to a Johnny Cash-chicka-boom beat impressed me mightily and is still great. The Handsome Family can get a little repetitive at times, but their highlights are awesome. So is The Gourds' "Dying Of The Pines" and the Drive-By-Trucker's "Danko/Manuel", not only a fantastic tribute to the fallen Band members, but also a somewhat autobiographical reflection on life on the road and its dangers, something Jason Isbell knew a thing or two about. This was my introduction to the finest lyricist of this century. 

Some are on the farthest edges of Americana and might equally be classified as folk pop or art pop, such as The Czars' dreamy album closer "Lullaby 6000", or Jolene's "Break", which sounds like Michael Stipe fronting a more openly countryfied band. I never got into The National as much when they broke wide open, and while most would champion their slower, moody work, I'll go to bat for "Mr. November", one of the more rockin' tracks they ever cut... "I used to be carried in the arms of cheerleaders..."

Some here are one-hit or no hit wonders. Jude Christodal got a lot of hype, signing with Madonna's Maverick Records for his major label debut, but while the follow-up King Of Yesterday is a worse album, the title song is great. Gary Jules is a one-hit wonder from the 2000s, doing the slow, moody re-imagining of "Mad World" for the Donnie Darko soundtrack that spawned a decade and a half of slowed down, atmospheric covers of formerly mid- or uptempo songs, but the short, lovely "Pills" shows that maybe he deserved a little more. And there's a veteran onehit wonder, Michael Penn, older brother of Sean, who is mostly remembered for his 1989 surprise hit (well, upper chart entry) "No Myth". But he continued making good to great music, as you will hopefully agree once you've listened to "High Times".  

I could go on and on, about Lucky Jim for example, an unjustly forgotten favorite from the period, but enough with the chit chat. Time to - sorry, Aerosmith - let the mudic do the talking...