PSA 2001

Natalie Rossetti's Top five list Top five list (trust me there isn't ten). This was a truly pathetic year for music...if your game to buy anything from the past year that isn't complete garbage (and remember, just say no to Christina Agulera...you might just catch an STD listening to her new cd) pick up some real tunes...

JJ72 ....I To Sky
The Best of Bjork
The London Suede...A New Morning
The Libertines...Up The Bracket
Pet Shop Boys...Release

Greg Douglass' Top Twenty

Beck Sea Change
How could most heartfelt album ever made come from a con-artist like Beck Hanson? When it comes to the circumambient amount of entertainment media that I've indulged in (hey, it's better than work) the only thing I've been cretin of is that Beck delivered the best album of the year. This album is, most specifically, for those who have been through a personal hell and live to tell (more like languish) about it. A very specific niche, granted, but Beck's new reflective/ folk /country /alternative rock etc. opus plays perfectly to the sallow, brooding chump who has been tortured by all you evil women out there☺and in what is perhaps the greatest commerce miracle since the invention of the G-string is the fact that Sea Change actually sooths the pain. I lost myself in this album more times than I care to remember and I can honestly say that this masterwork would have saved John Cusack's character from "High Fidelity." Not an easy task.
While listening to this smooth album one gets the impression that the once beguiling Beck is, for perhaps the first time, comfortable in his own scatological skin for the slurring artisan spins a form of infinite sorrow and regret with uncanny and un-ironic alt-rock ability. Not as brisk as his 1999 funk rock odyssey Midnite Vultures, not as catchy or accessible as Odelay but right up there with Mutations as Beck's highest reaching and most demonstrative effort. Where Sea Change differs from his past albums is that it seems to reflect the man's most truthful alter ego... perhaps this will be the only time we'll ever catch a glimpse of Beck with his guard down. Indeed, this recently heart broken/possible Scientologist is able to channel the folkey vulnerability of Leonard Cohen by way of the surreal soundscapes of Radiohead. He finds a spooky and beautify tonal cadence in blissfully sad songs like "Guess I'm Doing Fine" and the remarkably affecting "Sunday Sun." The album is cluttered with landmark moments where the artist formerly known as Ironic is nimbly able to transcend his alternative rock roots to deliver a once in a lifetime masterpiece.
Best track: "Lonesome Tears," the last few seconds of that song in particular. "Paper Tiger" is another great track.
2. Buffy The Vampire Slayer Soundtrack Once More, With Feeling
Obviously only Buffy fanatics can understand why this CD ranked so high on my list. Everybody else will think me a dork, or out of touch or (gulp) a tad gay by saying this but I'm afraid that since hearing OMWF far too many of my mourning shower singing sessions has begun with the words "Every single day the same arrangement I go out and fight the fight..." Oh lord, forgive me.
Helmed by creator Joss Weadon, the episode "Once More, With Feeling" took Buffy to new creative heights. More than being a stylish novelty, this episode contains some of the catchiest, most vibrant and foreshadowing musical numbers that I've ever heard. OMWF offers more than enough garishly produced tracks to keeps fans singing in their cars (or showers) like the freaks they are for years to come. And as far as I'm concerned, the entirety of "Moulin Rouge" takes a back seat to Tara and Giles singing their "Whish I could Stay" duet. From the album's (literally) killer opener aptly titled "Going Through the Motions" where Buffy laments her post-resurrection apathy, to Spike's Idol-esq "Rest In Peace" to the stirring ode to heroics "Walk through the Fire" and the gallantly fun yet slightly foreboding group finisher where the Scoobies get their koomba-ya-yahs out, "Where Do we Go from Here," Once More, With Feeling is in this reviewer's opinion, the best musical to ever grace the small (or large) screen.
Best track: A tough call but "Walk Through the Fire" edges out Spike's "Rest In Peace" by a peroxide shorthair.
Gomez In our Gun
The best album you never heard. Gomez, in their third and most rewarding effort to date have already established themselves in my eyes as the underrated indy rock gods that U2 was two decades ago before they became unabashedly commercial. If you took Blur and cross dressed them with a Cockneyed-out Beck then you have an idea what In Our Gun sounds like. This album is infectiously charming. A spry Blues-rock whirlwind of tasty melodies that radiate out with every listen. My joy from hearing the track "Detroit Swing 66" can't be described in words and with that excellent track and a handful of others like "Rough Stuff" and "Shot Shot," dual lead singers (the Jon Spencer sounding Ben Ottewell and Tom York sounding Tom Gray) want to take you for the ride of the year. There only goal seems to make us beam. Mission accomplished.
Best track: "Detroit Swing 66."
Andrew WK
I Get Wet
The pugilist album of the decade! Is he serious or is this one big joke? Party party party, puke puke puke then party some more sums up the furious yet jaunty tones of I Get Wet. Andrew WK may not be critically respected and he sure didn't sell many albums but I Get Wet, as a debut album, has all the makings of a hard rock classic. The abrasively catchy "Party Hard" was most clearly the best song I heard all year (possibly the best single I've heard since Matthew's "I Did It" or even NIN's "We're In this Together"). The first time I heard the song "Party Hard" I sang along to it before it was even half over-- Andrew WK's machinegun verse and repletion is quite simply a thing of beauty. WK brings vintage Kiss-esq 80's rock homages to the table yet surpasses that antiquated heavy metal crap (which, to me, always sucked because I loathe the 80's rock music culture) with a glorious, party-centric form of modern musical irony. So, yes, he's not being serious when belting out the album's "party till you puke" lyrics but even if he was sincere, who gives a fuck? This album rocks and that's all you need to know.
Best track: "Party Hard." "I Love NYC" kicks ass too.
Super Furry Animals
Rings Around the World
The Britpop invasion of 2002 continues! At this rate, by 2003 the Limeys will have monopolized my whole top ten. For now, SFA represents yet another in a long line of stellar British bands that put us Yankees to shame. Like Gomez, The Doves and possibly Pulp, this is the year that SFA delivered their best album. After being dazzled by the band's playful "Rings" album I took it upon myself to find everything this these Welsh boys have ever done--not as easy as it sounds because SFA is about as popular here as deodorant is in Europe. Four toe-tapping albums later and I am now a lifelong fan of the group. So come along with me and be one of the few proud Americans to yell out lyrics like "Sympathy, sympathy, if you want some don't come to me. Don't try me for sympathy, I don't feel sorry for thee... you disserve to DIIIIIIEEEE!"
Queens of the Stone Age
Songs for the Deaf
Exhilarating. Unforgettable. Fuck Creed, this is rock.
Best track: Too many great tracks to pick just one. I'll pick two then; "No One Knows" and "Mosquito Song."
Pulp
We Love Life
A friend turned me on to the great band we call Pulp (thanks Nat) and while first impressions of the band's recent We love Life (and earlier releases such as Different Classes, His and Hers, and This is Hardcore) seemed bland and didn't immediately leave a mark, their new album kept mysteriously gravitating back into my Discman until after, like, a dozen listens I realized that by default I loved this cheery album. On smooth tracks like "The Trees" lead singer Jarvis Cocker sings with the conviction of a lovelorn Nick Cave on ecstasy and no other music this year (except Beck perhaps) related to my sad sap sentimentality. As such, We Love Life may be the remedy to Beck's idyllic moodiness for it is a triumphantly positive and flat-out joyful album. The title says it all.
Dave Matthews Band
Busted Stuff and Live in Colorado
Dave Matthews Band has meant a lot to me these last few months. At school, I went two straight weeks listening to music from these guys.
After placing three DMB albums on my top five last year it's no surprise that two more made the list this year too-- my excuse then: "I'm white." I'm still sticking with that and despite the fact that all of us whiteys are all requited by law to love Matthews, this band is still just getting better with age.
Last year gave us the winning commercial coup named Everyday, their best live album ever (Live in Chicago) and a little something called Lillywhite Sessions that, after one short year, has transformed itself from a canned underground record that internet music junkies were grooving on to a national hit. The album was aptly retiled Busted Stuff and sounds more polished than the internet version and as a bonus, contains two excellent new tracks (the lackadaisical "Where Are You Going" and the intense "You Never New"). Though Busted Stuff album wasn't the crossover success that Everyday was, this is perhaps the album that will reunite old school DMB fans. It contains the classic DMB formula of soul searching melodies and playful arrangements. To paraphrase what my friend Chris said, "It's a great album... if you're into Jesus and alcoholics." He's right though the only regrettable thing about this album was that the song "Bartender" was cut short and robbed of it's epic coda in favor of a more accessible running time. The song shrank from 10:10 minutes to barely eight. Blah.
Also rewarding if your a DMB fan is yet another double live release that contains songs from Everyday and Busted Stuff. I may never tire of listening to the band's live version of the very best song of last year, "I Did It." Moreover, check this album out if only to see how in the hell the band transforms the once mediocre four minute Everyday ditty "Angel" into a sprawling sixteen minute gospel epic. Amazing stuff. Live at Folsom Field is the perfect cherry topping to what has been a tour-de-force two years for the band. After a much earned rest, I can't wait to see what's up next from Matthews and co. Being that I like their commercial stuff as much as their vintage (so sue me) I know I won't be disappointed. So I guess my answer to Where are you going is "I don't care" because I know it'll be good.
Best track: The speechifying grandeur of "Grey Street," the playful zing of "Big Eyed Fish" and a lumbering closing track titled "Bartender." Also, while "Where are you Going" received much commercial play, the band's other new track "You Never Know" was what dazzled me most. This one's for...
N.E.R.D.
In Search of...
Ah, yeah! Rock-rap from a band that's not comprised of five white bitches with asinine facial hair. In Search of... comes from a new band called N.E.R.D. (otherwise known as those talented produces, the Neptunes, that make idiots like Justin Timberlake sound as legitimate as humanly possible). Though this is Pharrell William's first album, his band's sound is so confident and seamless that the average listener would naturally assume these guys have been jamming since the glory days of Nirvana. The rip-roaring rock song "Lapdance" is an absolute must download. This album finds a perfect nice mix of funk, rap and rock and soul.
Sleater Kinney
One Beat
One of the most powerful rock albums of the year did not come from a band like System of a Down but this trio of PJ Harvey-sounding, hell raisin' chicks who speed through One Beat's twelve tracks with the immediacy of Garbage on a speed binge. Not having been familiar with Kinney, I bought this album on a whim after being wowed by the song "Combat Rock" when it played on local Indy station. That track sold me me because, like the whole album, it sustains a level of energy that can't be ignored.
Best track: The title track "One Beat." The song "Oh!" ain't bad either.

Note: In the interest of fairness I have given other music a chance. Normally, anything by Nine Inch Nails would hover at the top of my list and this year's excellent live album and bonus album Still (a small masterwork by Reznor) would be no exception.

11. The Doves The Last Broadcast
A stunning rock opus. From the serene "The Last Broadcast" to the melodious "There Goes the Fear" to the flat out great "Words," the Dove's Last Broadcast is the mellow cool musical event of the year. If Radiohead cared about their fans they would sound something like The Doves. And sure, everybody can jerk off to Coldplay's glib alien rock sounds but The Doves take this genre to the limits.

12. The Soundtrack of Our Lives Behind the Music
Wow.
Best track: Still Aging.

13. Eninem The Eminem Show
The Streets Original Pirate Material
Just when white rap seemed to be at an all time low comes two explosive albums from two very, Very VERY different artists. Em, well, we all know that guy. His album may not be half as good as The Marshal Mathers LP but even the quality of half of that album is good enough to qualify here. The Eminem Show is the album that deservingly solidifies Eminem as the Elvis

of our times. "Guess Who's Back," the first single released sums the album up... self aware, self congratulatory megalomania that can be forgiven if only because it's wrapped around great music. And on the other side of the tracks there's a new rapper called The Streets. This reclusive British teenager who rhymes about politics and Play Stations is worth listening because of the uniqueness held in notion that this is a British rapper. And a good one at that. His best track is "Don't Mug Yourself" a song about a guy who's being dogged by a chick.

14. Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot: I wouldn't have bought this album if Spin hadn't turned me on to Wilco by awarding them with the honor of being the second best album released this year (right behind those numb nuts, The White Stripes). But I'm glad that in this instance I was a conformist because Spin was right, this is a great and truly uncompromising album. So far from commercial that U2 shed a tear when they heard it. Jeff Tweedy's placid voice carries a world of pain and reflective loss in classic songs like "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart." Many call this band a grown up Radiohead but they forget to mention how sincere they are.
Best track: "War on War"

15. OK Go OK Go
The best Weezer album of the year did not come from Weezer but this Chicago band. OK Go may sound mainstream --and there's no doubt that one day they will be mainstream-- but this band will have to release a couple more power-pop gems like this to get the much desired MTV playtime during that one hour a day that MTV actually plays stuff called music. For now, OK Go barley even gets MTV2 air time and I like it that way--here we get mainstream sound and catchiness without mainstream attitude. This airy album is full of catchy riffs and perfect to listen to while playing video games. Which is something I would know nothing about.
Best track: "The Fix Is In."

16. Weezer Maladroit
The most rocking album Weezer has ever put out. Seriously, Maladroit kicks ass. Besides the elating sight of seeing a newly optimistic Weezer singing with Muppets on "Keep Fishing," the album starts off with a rush of blood to the head, "American Gigolo," and never looks back from there. Maladroit grew on me big time. I have listened to this album countless times this year and I can't stop smiling when I hear Rivers aggressively croon lyrics like "cheese smells so good on a burnt piece of lamb/ fag of the year who could beat up your man." The band's second best album after their first best was released last year. Talk about a comeback.

17. Tom Waits Alice and Blood Money
If a grizzly dog that hasn't had it's rabies shot ever got around to releasing an album it would sound like this. Waits brings atmospheric creepiness to his two concept albums, Alice and Blood Money by crooning lines like "I remember the showers but no one puts flowers on a flowers grave" with this unforgettable, leatherized Blues voice. He sounds like, as Bob Dylan said in the song "Things Have Changed," "40 miles of bad road" but that's just what we expect from Waits.
Best track: The song "Everything You Can Think" is perhaps the most odd and strangely appealing sounding song I've ever heard. That's a compliment.

18. Brad Mehldau Largo
Jazz for white people. Brad's piano version of Radiohead's Paranoid Android is a virtuoso piece of music.

19. Sigur Rios ( )
Along with Beck's Sea Change, Coldplay's A Rush of Blood to the Head, and Wilco's Foxtrot, Sugur Rios probably contributed to more teen suicides than any other year in history. But if you got to go out then what better way than to hear an album like this on the way down. The music this year has been polarizing. From manic, take-no-prisoners rock (Andrew WK) to completely ashen "sad bastard music" like this album on the other end of the spectrum. Sigur Rios' album, pretentiously titled ( ) contains no track titles and isn't even sung in a known language but with music this hauntingly melodic who needs words? (My guess: the "you saw a light" sounding lyric is repeated over and over throughout the fifty minute+ running time.) Sigur Rios disserves more respect but, honestly, I don't think they really want any. Now, whose up for some Sigur Rios karaoke?
Best track: The track ___ was good... but you know what, the track ___ was a little bit better. Oh, and how great was___? Wow; yeah I know, songs without titles rock.

20. Michelle Branch The Spirit Room
I have a dark secret. I often listen to Branch's alum. Seeing that I put Avril on my five worst, I understand that I have some splaining to do. You see, I find Avril and people like Vanessa Carlton or even Alicia Keys to be ragging phonies--all they are is Britney with Piano lessons and a handful of worthless Grammy nods. Puppets with an ounce of talent but no feeling behind their tunes. Michele, on the other hand, may be the one trendy female musician that's gotten exposure because she's comely, yeah, but in this rare case the looks match the talent. I'm betting that Branch outlives every teen pop fad to become the Tina Turner of the new generation. Or at the very least, a solid imitator of Fiona Apple. Proof of Branches durability is in the fact that no other young musician could upstage Santana like Branch did on his Shawmen album.
Best track: "If Only She Knew" and "Game of Love," the only good track on the overrated Santana's new album.

21. Thievery Corp.
World music that's not the pretentious drivel that Cusack's neighbor would listen to. A playful melting pot of national styles ranging from India to Spain, Thievery Corporation is full of wondrous eclectic sounds. A great typing album.

#1 Avril Lavigne Let Go
Further proof that whatever MTV wants us to listen to we will listen to. Avril Lavigne is not an inept, Barbie doll musician like Britney or Simpson or (see #3) but her sounds are as hollow as Christina Aguilera's new breasts. Avril's songs have this tepid rock girl verve that never seems to go anywhere and if Tori Amos' beautiful new album took us across the country then this POS couldn't even get beyond the mall parking lot. Blah.
Grade: F

#2 Garage Rock
The Hives, The Vines, The White Stripes
I wasn't aware of how annoyed I was with garage rock until I bought last year's Hives album. Now I can't even hear The Strokes without cringing a bit. Thanks a lot you dirty Sweeds. While I still acknowledge the raw rock talent of The Strokes' last album, to me The Hives and The Vines feel like pale shadows. A copy of a copy...or, rather, an mp3 version of what was once a cd file. Now, all three are bands come of with remarkably affable radio friendly singles. Yes, "Hate to Say I Told You So" is catchy as hell but none of these new garage bands' albums manage to sustain the fervor last year's The Strokes and certainly none toped the band's they were trying sooo hard to imitate-- the good name of Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground has being tarnished by a bunch of punks who think they're the shit when in reality, this trendy crap is just barley better than rock rap. So to the Hives, The Vines and even The White Stripes I say this: TREND.
Grade: D, C-. D-

#3 The Two Jennifers
Love Hewitt and Lopez
I suppose its logical for a good actress to make for a bad musician as in the case of Jennifer Lopez, but I now see why it makes even more sense for a bad actress to be turned into an even worse musician. JLH, with that voice that sounds like Mandy Moore-light makes me wonder how much effort the "artist" actually put into this album... she was, after all, busy making crapy Jacky Chan movies so I would understand it if music wasn't too high on her list of creative priorities. I would say that Hewitt should stick to her her day job but then that would imply that she good at that. If musicians like Moore, Madonna, Carrey and Spears are such abysmal actors that they shouldn't be allowed to be in movies then I say the same should be true with actresses who think they can sing. Lopez's J to the Lo and Hewitt's Striped are exhibits A and B. Here's my joke of the day: What do you call an annoying hot chick who you can't even see? Jennifer Love Hewitt's musical career.
Grade: F, F

#4 Nora Jones Come Away With Me
Not nearly as cool (or black) as she thinks she is. I'd rather listen to Ravi Shankar pass gas through his colostomy bag than hear "Don't Know Why" one more time. Nina Simone called, she wants her voice back.
Grade: F

#5 Justin Timberlake Justified
I'd rather hear the audio from the urban legend Michael Jackson/underage Macaulay Culkin porno tape than hear Justin sing in another gay-licious Michael Jackson musical "homage." Grade: D

#6 Red Hot Chili Peppers By the Way
I'd rather hear... ah, never mind. That's getting old. Seriously, this is the band's best album ever... which means By the Way is only the fifth worst album of the year and not the first like 2000's Californication.
Grade: D

#7 Kelly Osborne
No. No, I just won't except the fact that an worthless cash-in album like this sold better than Gomez and Super Furry Animals combined. Osborne doesn't even disserve her fifteen minutes.
Grade: F

#8 Jack Johnston
See review for number four except switch Ravi Shankar with Dave Matthews. This jack-hole is the biggest poser of the year.
Grade: C-

#9 John Mayer
See review for number six except switch Dave Matthews with more Dave Matthews.
Grade: C-

#10 Every other album released last year except what's on my top twenty... Because, really, everything else sucked ass.