Best arts of the decade: Music

1. ‘Burn, Piano Island, Burn,’ by the Blood Brothers (2003): The first few times I listened to this, I thought it was the worst thing I’d ever heard. Once I gave it a few more chances, it slowly started to occur to me that this music wasn’t horrible – I simply wasn’t ready for something so different and so ahead of anything I’d ever heard before. It sounds like ‘just noise’ at first, but close attention unveils the tremendous choreography of these dense songs – the chaos seems intimidating, but with time, the intensity of the album becomes euphoric. It’s unlike anything released in this or any decade. The closest comparison I can think of is Captain Beefheart’s ‘Trout Mask Replix00x00x00’x00x10’Jx00x00x00’x00x00x00x00x00x00x1cxb8