Why is Thievery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy on my best 1,000 albums ever list?
If I had to choose one word to describe this album, it’s swanky.
What does Thievery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy mean to me? What does it make me feel? Why is it exciting or compelling?
In the Before Times – meaning both pre-covid and in my slightly younger youth-type days – I’d enjoy heading out to an elegant wine or cocktail lounge of an occasion. Get dressed up a little bit, look spiffy, and meet up with some good friends to discuss and pontificate upon the issues and workaday philosiphications that one is wont to do over a cocktail or two.
I mention this because I can’t think of a better song than “Lebanese Blonde” to be greeted with when entering such an establishment. It’s a song – and all of The Mirror Conspiracy reflects this – that automatically qualifies such an establishment with the potential to be swanky. And it doesn’t get much better than that.
Not only does “Lebanese Blonde” bring that martini lounge style groove and great vocals from Pam Bricker, but the use of a horn section and particularly Rob Myers’ eastern-flavored sitar work take it next level.
The lounge-y electronica of “Air Batucada” perfectly sets the mood for relaxing yet lively chit chattery.
And I also really enjoy the softly electronic, reggae-ish, trance-y “A Guide for I & I.”
Have to note too that I appreciate the tongue-in-cheek nature of the band name itself, in addition to fun song titles like “The Hong Kong Triad,” which you can easily imagine slotting into a scene set in a fancy exotic lounge in a gangster flick.
This album also sounds like
I’d say there’s a nice range here of Massive Attack at their most lively to Jamiroquai at their most chill, with some Groove Collective, Soulstice, and Ursula 1000 thrown in there.
Personal stuff that’s somehow related to Thievery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy
Moving forward in time from the Before Times to the Now Time, The Mirror Conspiracy reminds me of what my “night life,” such that it is, looks like these days, stuck as we are (still) in the midst of a pandemic.
When we’re in the mood for a “night out in,” my wife has devised a wonderful set up where we’ll turn out the lights in the living room and instead deploy a cadre of candles, some electric and some real. With the lights of our neighborhood and the nearby Puget Sound to witness through our front windows at night, it’s quite a scene.
I’ve compiled a Spotify playlist called FuTure sTate LouNge for such occasions (the weird capitalization just makes it way more cooler, okay?) that’s filled with bands like Thievery Corporation, Underworld, Massive Attack, Ratatat, Zero 7, Sneaker Pimps, RJD2, and Portishead.
Add in a cocktail, and you know what? It’s pretty swanky.
Some stats & info about Thievery Corporation – The Mirror Conspiracy
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? Electronic Music, Trip-Hop, Acid Jazz, Martini Lounge, Lounge Music
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 4 out of 5 stars
- When was The Mirror Conspiracy released? 2000
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #971 out of 1,000
Thievery Corporation’s The Mirror Conspiracy on Spotify
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective take on what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.