While Canada is considered an exporting nation, we've rarely been known for our cultural exports. And as anyone who has travelled abroad can tell you, the exports we are most known for -- Nickelback, Celine Dion, Loverboy -- are not exactly those we are the most proud of.
But a funny thing happened in the 2000s -- being Canadian suddenly became hip. For the first time since the days of Joni Mitchell and Neil Young in the early 1970s, Canada broke new ground in music, leading the scene instead of following it.
Canada's Pitchfork-approved indie rock scene, largely based in Toronto and Montreal, exploded worldwide. And while many of the Canadian albums on this list fall into that genre, the country's diversity in music began to shine through by the end of this decade with acts like Thunderheist and Drake showing we're not just about dudes with beards playing guitars.
Now, enough preamble, here's CTV.ca's top 25 Canadian albums of the 2000s.
25. Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs (2007)
This P.E.I. rock act's Joel Plaskett-produced album features one sing-a-long summer anthem after another. They may be lyrical lightweights, but who cares when the tunes are this breezy.
Key Track: "Heroes of the Sidewalk" (JV)
24. Metric - Fantasies (2009)
By 2009, Metric now fall under the 'veteran' rock act label and their fourth album has them at their synth-rock best. Frontwoman Emily Haines sings "We got stadium love" and if there was some justice, they would get a bit more stadium love back.
Key Track: "Help, I'm Alive" (JV)
23. Cancer Bats - Hail Destroyer (2008)
A female friend once told me that this album sounded like it could only be a hockey fight soundtrack. It was meant to be an insult, I think, but it's fairly accurate. One of Canada's best metal bands released a beast here, with one riff after another that wants to pull your sweater over your head and punch you in the face.
Key Track: "Hail Destroyer" (JV)
22. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (2008)
While this Toronto laptop-punk duo's offstage antics sometimes overshadowed their onstage ones, there's no denying this album's charms. While much ado has been made about the LP's use of noise, this record had enough hooks to make these two big stars overseas.
Key Track: "Courtship Dating" (JS)
21. Sarah Harmer - You Were Here (2000)
After years of almost going mainstream with Weeping Tile, Harmer's folksy debut album was a big, fat success. That her sound seemed to be an extension of Joni Mitchell or Harvest-era Neil Young doesn't hurt her chances of getting on any top-Canadian music lists.
Key track: "The Hideout"
20. Black Mountain - In the Future (2008)
This B.C. act does their best Led Zeppelin impression and delivers a number of stoner anthems worthy of their forebearers and their province.
Key Track: "Tyrants" (JV)
19. Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans - Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier! (2007)
So much is made of being "authentic," but Corb Lund is the real deal, an Albertan cowboy who plays roots country that sounds both 50 years old and startlingly present. References to the tragedy at Mayerthorpe are poignant, and the war in Afghanistan hangs heavy throughout. Most artists embarrass themselves when they try to talk about war and what it means to be in the military, but Lund does it right.
Key Track: "I Wanna be in the Cavalry" (JV)
18. Fucked Up - The Chemistry of Common Life (2008)
It may not be music for everyone, but the Toronto hardcore band's 2009 Polaris Prize winning album is smarter than their name implies and musically, exactly what their name suggests. How many albums start with a freakin' flute solo before knocking you over with densely layered My Bloody Valentine-esque guitar and singer (and sometime Fox News contributor) Pink Eyes' ferociously-growled vocals. It's pretentious art-punk that makes you want to hit something. Or dance.
Key track: "Crooked Head" (JV)
17. Tegan and Sara - The Con (2007)
The Quin sisters' fifth album may be a touch too emo for some -- "Maybe I would've been something you'd be good at" Tegan sings to an ex in the album's closing song -- but their vastly improved songwriting skills are in full display here (having Death Cab for Cutie's Chris Walla as a producer may have helped to.) Heartache rarely sounds so pleasant.
Key track: "The Con" (JV)
16. Sam Roberts - We Were Born in a Flame (2003)
Sam Roberts makes no bones about his classic rock influences here, and that's not a bad thing. Breakthrough single "Brother Down" was a clap along ubiquitous summer radio song, and "Don't Walk Away Eileen" has a groovy chorus worthy of any Rolling Stones classic.
Key track: "Brother Down" (JV)
15. Junior Boys - So This is Goodbye (2006)
Singer Jeremy Greenspan doesn't have to shout to get your attention; he simply has to whisper one of his gorgeous melodies in your ear. Backed by pristine production and enough ear candy to make Brian Eno green with envy, this record made music geeks around the world swoon.
Key Track: "In the Morning" (JS)
14. Shad - The Old Prince (2007)
It is a testament to Shad's skills as an MC that his sophomore album can feature a song like "The Old Prince Still Lives at Home" (about sponging off his parents at 26) but also "Heard You had a Voice like an Angel - Psalm 137" (about racism in the music industry.) Whether he's having a little fun with himself, or following in the tradition of socially conscious rap, Shad is at the top of his game, and his genre, here.
Key Track: "The Old Prince Still Lives at Home" (JV)
13. The Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (2007)
The only band featured twice on this list (more on that other album later . . .), Neon Bible, despite its massive critical success, is often neglected in Arcade Fire's canon. Yeah, there's some Bruce Springsteen-ish storytelling here, notably in "(Antichrist Television Blues)," but there are some big, beautiful songs here that only the Arcade Fire seems able to produce. Recorded in a retrofitted church outside of Montreal, the album landed at number two on the Billboard chart, a massive coup for a Canadian "indie" band.
Key Track: "No Cars Go" (JV)
12. Nelly Furtado - Loose (2006)
We thought all was lost when Furtado ditched pop for world beats back in 2003. But the Victoria-bred singer made a massive comeback in 2006 with the help of super-producer Timbaland. Maneater indeed.
Key Track: "Promiscuous" (JS)
11. Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood) (2008)
Whether it's lead singer Tim Baker's effortless vocals or the intricacies of the instrumental solos, Newfoundlanders Hey Rosetta! no doubt deserve their exclamation mark. The unpredictable movements in the songs will have you glued to every change in rhythm as quiet strums and subtle words cleanly mix with full out jam sessions.
Key Track: "There's an Arc" (Deborah Mensah-Bonsu)
10. Joel Plaskett Emergency - Down at the Khyber (2001)
The East Coast's favourite son arguably had three albums that could've made this list, but it's the Emergency's debut that slides in. Equally adept in writing a classic rock groove as he is in this album's quieter moments, Plaskett's heartfelt observations of home and love are both intensely personal but completely relatable.
Key track: "True Patriot Love" (JV)
9. Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine (2004)
These Toronto tough guys made more noise as a two piece than a whole busload of Creed copycats. While the record is chock full of raucous rock n' roll, other cuts like "Black History Month" proved these dudes weren't one trick ponies. Too bad the fun didn't last.
Key Track: "Romantic Rights" (JS)
8. The Weakerthans - Left and Leaving (2000)
The Weakerthans had an incredible 2000s, establishing themselves as the new Tragically Hip of Can-rock. Their breakthrough second album established what we've come to know and love, a touch of folk, a bit of punk - and lyrics, both personally and politically -- very Canadian. "Left and Leaving" sounds like what an Alice Munro short story would sound like if told by The Replacements.
Key track: "Aside" (JV)
7. Wintersleep - Welcome to the Night Sky (2007)
Wintersleep is a rare East Coast band that doesn't have that East Coast sound - though, its hard to actually quantify Wintersleep's sound at all on this record. The rockin' tracks (Oblivion, Archaeologist) hit like a heavier version of Interpol or The National. The closing track, "Miasmal Smoke and Yellow Bellied Freaks," is as epic as its name. But it's the out-of-nowhere organ-driven sing-along "Weighty Ghost," that vaults this album from hyper-accessible indie rock to Canadian classic.
Key Track: "Miasmal Smoke and Yellow Bellied Freaks" (JV)
6. Feist - The Reminder (2007)
Who didn't love this album? First-year hipsters played it on their iPods and soccer moms sang along in their SUVs and for completely different reasons. The mesmerizing video and Apple commercial for "1,2,3,4" may leave the impression of a light, dancey album, but Feist delivered an intimate, bare-bones experience that established her as one of the country's most thoughtful singer-songwriters.
Key track: "1,2,3,4"
5. Wolf Parade - Apologies to the Queen Mary (2005)
Wolf Parade's Dan Boeckner and Spencer Krug are the Canadian version of Lennon and McCartney, Morrissey and Marr, Axl and Slash. Two songwriters with competing visions, who somehow produced their best work together, rather than on their solo projects. Divergent songs on this album such as "This Hearts on Fire," "Shine a light" or "I'll Believe in Anything" may not be exactly cohesive, but they never feel less than epic.
Key track: "I'll Believe in Anything" (JV)
4. K'naan - The Dusty Foot Philosopher (2005)
The Juno-award winning Dusty Foot Philosopher established the Somali-born K'naan as Canada's top hip-hop artist. Almost uniformly about his childhood living on the streets of Mogadishu, his fiercely intelligent songs embarrass the clich� posturing of dozens of wannabe gangsta rappers.
3. The New Pornographers - Mass Romantic (2000)
The first album from the Vancouver-based indie "supergroup" is the musical equivalent of eating a box of sugar and washing it down with a barrel of Coke. Relentlessly catchy, "Mass Romantic" wants nothing more than to leave the listener with a big, dumb smile and humming along. There's more pop hooks here than an army of Timbalands could ever provide.
Key track: "Letter from an Occupant" (JV)
2. Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People (2002)
This record should not have worked. Half of Toronto, including members of Metric, Stars, Apostle of Hustle, Do May Say Think and others such as Jason Collett, Kevin Drew and the soon-to-be famous Leslie Feist played on it. Its sounds like it too, with one song hardly corresponding to the next. But this album put Canada, and specifically Toronto and Montreal, on the world's music map in the 2000s. It's hard to put a finger on what makes "You Forgot it in People" so special, but it's impossible to imagine Canadian music in the 2000s without it.
Key track: "Cause=Time" (JV)
1. The Arcade Fire - Funeral (2004)
If BSS was the band that kicked the door open for the Canadian scene to explode, it was The Arcade Fire that walked through. Not only is this the best Canadian album of the decade, it's one of the best Canadian albums ever made, period. Musically, it's grand and triumphant -- lyrically, it's sincere, raw and steeped in grief and loss. The death of parents and marriages created this album emotionally, but it never feels depressing - only bittersweet and life-affirming.
Key track: "Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)" (JV)
