1. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot - Simply the most amazing album of the year. If it had come out in 2001 when it was originally supposed to, it would have been the best album of that year too. The best of the decade? The millenium? Eh, who cares? If you like good songwriting, or if you just like off-kilter, unpredictable, heartfelt music, you'll make this album a part of your life. America has a Kid A to call its own.
2. Mr. Lif - I Phantom - Thought-provoking hip-hop that could change your life. Mr. Lif is the most important MC rapping today.
3. Liars - They Threw Us In A Trench and Stuck A Monument On Top - Punk rock? Noise rock? It's brutal, but it's not macho. It's dirty, but it's not lo-fi. It's rude, but funky, and incredibly fun if you can let yourself go and just dance to it.
4. Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi - Another masterpiece from the Scottish duo. This is music that gets inside your head and brings back memories you never knew you had. This time around, though, they're not all good ones.
5. The Roots - Phrenology - Chuck D. has said that hip-hop is not a single musical genre, but the embodiment of all musics. The Roots make a good case for his statement with this album, which mixes rap, soul, r&b, drum n' bass, and even punk into an amazing album that somehow holds itself together over its 70 minutes -- that time doesn't include the hidden bonus tracks.
6. DJ Shadow - The Private Press - Not as astounding as Entroducing..., but another great tour of Josh Davis' ever-expanding record library. This time we're whipped from vinyl postcards dating back from pre-WWII days to 80's electro and early hip-hop samples, handbell choirs and hundreds of other sounds that could be from almost any record. Only the Shadow knows...
7. Underworld - A Hundred Days Off - They've never been a trance group, a big-beat group, or an "electronica" group. Underworld have always been...well, Underworld. They exist in their own world and that's why they can still make albums as fully-realized and unique as this. A fine dance album, but there's something more to it that will keep you coming back to it wherever you are.
8. The Streets - Original Pirate Material - Is it hip-hop? UK garage? No one can agree on what this album is, but it's one of the most original things you'll hear from 2002. Don't call him the British Eminem. This goes deep...
9. Mad Capsule Markets - OSC-DIS - A ridiculously fun mash-up of punk, metal, drum n' bass, and noise rock, made by a Japanese skate-punk band. How to describe them? Um...imagine the Ramones meets Atari Teenage Riot meets System Of A Down, or something like that. This band could and should be headlining the Warped tour, yet they haven't broken in North America.
10. Imperial Teen - On - Fun, catchy power-pop. "Ivanka" could be the best album-opener of the year.
11. Sleater-Kinney - One Beat - Not their best, but topping Dig Me Out and Call The Doctor is a tall, if not impossible order. One of the few albums that addressed the terrorist attacks of 2001 with any amount of intelligence.
12. El-P - Fantastic Damage - Hip-hop so raw that it'll break all your Nelly CDs.
13. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights - Dark and somber music in the Joy Division vein. Deeply moving and introspective songs for when you're feeling depressed, or want to feel depressed.
14. Broken Spindles - Broken Spindles - Please send me your unwanted Macs and DV equipment, as this album has filled me with tons of ideas for AMVs.
15. Tahiti 80 - Wallpaper For The Soul - French pop (in English), but less electronic than Air or Mellow. If you like Luna or The Cure, you might like this. No, wait, you WILL like this.
16. Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots - Their most ambitious album yet, and if you know anything about Zaireeka, that's saying quite a lot!
17. Various Artists - Urban Renewal Program - Eclectic compilation featuring rap from El-P, Mr. Lif, Aesop Rock, Mos Def, and Diverse, with new music from Miho Hatori and RJD2. Contributions from Tortoise and Prefuse 73 are merely slight revisions of older tracks, but it's a minor complaint. A great introduction into the sounds of now.
18. Jucifer - I Name You Destroyer - Equal parts grunge and shoegazing, Jucifer wabble between Mudhoney/Nirvana rockers one moment, and airy Lush/Cocteau Twins songs the next. And they come from Athens, Georgia, so you know they can't possibly suck.
19. Sigur Ros - ( ) -
20. Pedro The Lion - Control - Heartbreaking songs about the state of the family at the turn of the millenium. A bleak state of affairs, for sure, but David Bazan never gives up hope, and neither do we.
21. Sonic Youth - Murray Street - From the beginning, it's clear that this isn't going to be another experimental mess, as "The Empty Page" is one of the best singles the band has ever penned. A new chapter in the life of Sonic Youth begins.
22. ...and You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Source Tags and Codes - If you're tied of whiney, self-effacing emo rock, this should fix you up real good. Powerful music.
23. Aluminum Group - Happyness - The best gay band since The Pet Shop Boys? Actually, no, Frank and John are brothers, but their keyboard-crafted art-pop and ambiguous lyrics still make you wonder. "Two Lights" has AMV written all over it.
24. T.A.T.u. - 200 KM/H In The Wrong Lane - Speaking of gay...nah, too easy. This is one of the best pop albums of the year, and you'd better get used to it. Britney, Christina, and J. Lo have stripped as far as they can go, and they're simply not going to take their acts into territory this risque (although T.A.T.u.'s songs themselves are somewhat wholesome compared to most of those girls' hits). When was the last time you head any music from Russia on the radio or in a club? Incredibly fun.
25. We Ragazzi - The Ache - New wave/no wave indie rockers that doesn't rely on Gang Of Four-style basslines, but makes songs so infectous and funky you won't be able to stop shaking your ass. Download "I Want You 2 Love Me So Much I Can't Stand Up".
26. J-Live - All Of The Above
27. Primal Scream - Evil Heat
28. The Apples In Stereo - Velocity Of Sound
29. The Soft Boys - Nextdoorland
30. Ikara Colt - Chat And Business
31. The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of...
32. Chemical Brothers - Come With Us
33. Yakuza - Way Of The Dead
34. Large Professor - 1st Class
35. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Yanqui U.X.O.
36. Ruins - Tzomborgha
37. The Breeders - Title TK
38. Amon Tobin - Out From Out Where
39. RJD2 - Deadringer
40. The Hives - Veni Vidi Vicious
41. Beck - Sea Change
42. Floetry - Floetic
43. Moby - 18
44. Missy Elliot - Under Construction
45. Nautilus - Are You An Axolotl
46. Public Enemy - Revolverlution
47. Stratford 4 - The Revolt Against Tired Noises
48. The Jungle Brothers - All That We Do
49. Add N to (X) - Loud Like Nature
50. Suicide - American Supreme
Best EPs (shortplayers)
1. Mr. Lif - Emergency Rations
2. Autechre - Grantz_Graf
3. Wire - Read & Burn 1 / Read & Burn 2
4. Prefuse 73 - The '92 vs. '02 Collection
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Yeah Yeah Yeahs / Machine
Best re-issues (old stuff re-released/repackaged)
1. Boards Of Canada - Twoism
2. The Driving Stupid - Horror Asparagus Stories
3. Coldcut - 70 Minutes Of Madness
4. Smashing Pumpkins - Earphoria
5. Elvis Presley - Elv1s #1 Hits
Didn't get a chance to hear these, which could be one reason you're not seeing them on the list:
Tom Waits - Blood Money / Alice
Peter Gabriel - Up
Yo La Tengo - The Sounds Of The Sounds Of Science
Beth Gibbons and Rustin Man - Out Of Season
Kinky - Kinky
Neko Case - Blacklisted
Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
George Harrison - Brainwashed
Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil Keep Your Ear To The Ground
Eminem - The Eminem Show
Venetian Snares - Winter In The Belly Of A Snake
So...what do you think? What were your favorites from 2002? Post, post, post!
