THE BEST OF:
2000
Tim Frommer
1. Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One
"It is important for us to be seen as multi-dimensional, as being a political entity, a feminist entity, a rock entity, a girl entity, a band entity, a punk entity, a pop entity, all at once." - Carrie Brownstein.
Promises kept. The band warned fans they weren't going to continue to remake Dig Me Out and they haven't. Grabbing the labels thrust at them by critics, they embraced those terms and defined them in their own fashion. I dare you to grab them back. "#1 Must-Have," "the Professional," "Was it a Lie?," "Male Model," "Youth Decay" kick against the pricks. And if you can't dance to "You're No Rock 'n' Roll Fun," you can't be part of the revolution. The one that's happening right in front of your ears. All this and my favorite musical moment of the year: Corin Tucker, visibly pregnant with the first Sleater-Kiddie, rocking out and beaming as the crowd sang "Words + Guitar" at the band's hiatus show. See ya in 2002, we'll be anxiously awaiting.
2. Versus: Hurrah
New York's tight quartet Versus add to the indie noise with their strongest release to date. The guitar-driven songs are still here, some sidewinding feedback exercises that indicate long afternoons listening to fellow New Yorkers, Sonic Youth. No complaints here. Doses of whimsy ("Your Eskimo's on fire/how will we find you?") are counterbalanced by doses of the out-of-the-frying-pan-and-into-the-fire nature of love ("I'm feeling paranoid/cut out and torn apart/ frustrated excited and maybe depressed"). The singing is strong, the production is clean. There's not a false step taken. The competition this year was extremely tough.
3. Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers
I guess it's cool to dis the Youth. I was always brought up to respect my elders. Yes, this record doesn't sound like Daydream Nation or Sister. Get over it! Recording engineer Jim O'Rourke's fingerprints are all over this and, hey, doesn't he have indie cred? Deceptively catchy, oft-repeated fretwork that then cascades into sonic mayhem. Beat poetry about the five boroughs. Social observation that crackles like autumn leaves underfoot in Central Park. Growing old gracefully? Nah, these fogies are still blazing a trail.
4. Death Cab for Cutie: We Have the Facts and We're Voting Yes
Teachers always say the chief benefit they receive is seeing the spark of learning. In a manner of speaking, the same can be said for a listener hearing the maturation of a young band. On last year's debut, DCFC impressed me with a certain Pacific Northwesterliness of their music -- primarily influenced by Built to Spill -- and the lyrical wordplay of Benjamin Gibbard. This year's model is giant steps beyond one of my favorites from last year. The sound is familiar but all Death Cab's own, and the songs are noticeably stronger this year, particularly the relationship tale chronicled in "Company Calls."
5. Lois Maffeo + Brendan Canty: The Union Themes
A short cycle of songs about the union of love. The themes aren't always happy but the songwriting is solid. Canty, Fugazi's drummer, puts all of his musical talents on display adding bass, guitar and keyboards to his subtle fills and brushwork on the drums. Lois's voice is resonant and clear whether she's singing about domestic violence ("You Love Your Wounds") or the strength to get up and move on ("Being Blind"). Her past lyrical efforts are nothing to dismiss, but she truly shines on this collection, the best in an underappreciated discography.
6. P.J. Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
I'm far from a PJ-ophile, so it's difficult to compare this album with its already critically-acclaimed predecessors. "Abrasive" is the first adjective that comes to my mind when I think of Polly Jean, though that may be much less applicable today than the "Yuri G" moments gone by. These songs are much more accessible and that's not meant disparagingly. It's welcoming to the listener, inviting a peek into a world where the whores and the hustlers have just as much space as the "you" and "me" who inhabit other songs, none more tenderly than in the wonderful "A Place Called Home."
7. Dandy Warhols: Thirteen Tales From Urban Bohemia
Courtesy of a CD sampler, I heard the irresistible "Bohemian Like You." I was smitten. A riff Keith Richards should receive royalties for wrapped around a slacker tale ("no I haven't heard your band/'cuz you guys are pretty new") and "woo-hoo's" in the chorus. This three-minute hero is worth the price of admission all by itself. (You should be in my car when this song comes on.) And, nothing else on the record sounds remotely close. The opening trio of songs -- "Godless," "Mohammed," Neitzche" - wouldn't feel terribly out of place if Radiohead was the name above the title. Then the band delves into a strain of mid-90s LA sound pimping from Beck (when he tries to be white) and Ethyl Meatplow ("Horse Pills"). Maybe nothing is original in music anymore, but even if I hear all these influences, I still hear an unexpectedly solid and creative album.
8. Aimee Mann: Bachelor no. 2, or the last remains of the dodo
The opening song is entitled "How Am I Different?" Coy Mann looking in the mirror. Let us count the ways: Smart pop. Intelligent even. Catchy hooks, easy-to-sing-along choruses. Wry lyrics, when you listen a little closer, and one of the best voices going. How is she different? Why isn't she huge is a better question? And why haven't you bought this yet? One never went broke underestimating...
9. Ida: Will You Find Me
Ida's songs can equally accompany a rainy afternoon or a summer's drive. A modern classic folk-rock quartet (figure that out) that expands with extended family members on additional strings, keyboards and vocals. Deliberate is the pace of choice giving cause to lean in closer to your speakers and pay attention. Three members write and sing bringing unique voices both to the tenor of the songs and the timbre of the harmony. Faith and trust, longing and lust all find themselves expressed in Ida's tunes. You will find me listening to them and this record regularly.
10. Kevin McCormick: Squall
McCormick's second release explores the vast sonic landscape where East meets West. A Texan who lived in Japan for nearly four years. A classically trained guitarist who is well-versed in rock's idiom. An unabashed Pink Floyd fan with a strong following among Talk Talk listeners. Live, his ensemble covers songs from sources as varied as the The, Van Morrison and God ("Amazing Grace"). On Squall, evocative instrumentals are shaped by oboe, strings and shakuhachi (Japanese flute) or are twinned with McCormick's understated poetry. All culminates in the uplifting "Heritage." (Squall is available directly from the artist's label Chocolate Records, or from Amazon.com.)
Rob Brookman
1. P.J. Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
If you've always admired her genius from a distance, here's where she invites you upstairs: Grab hold of her hand and sheâll take you to nirvana, to the end of the world, to bed.
2. James Carter: In the Cut
Honking, scatting and screeching his way through 47-minutes worth of dirty, funk-soaked grooves, one the best horn men working in jazz today and a band of likeminded firebrands cut seven tracks that make Bitches Brew seems positively unfocused by comparison.
3. Lou Reed: Ecstasy
From start to finish, the sound of rock and roll's great spiritual malcontent pissing on the plot of musical ground that almost no one working the form today has the balls to contest.
4. Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts & Flowers
Veering among majesty, cacophony and beauty -- often in the same soundscape -- Sonic Youth rebounds from the theft of their guitar collection with an impressionistic, affecting concept album that's as moving as an any music they've put on tape and belies the notion that an artist is only as good as his tools.
5. Handsome Family: In the Air
Chicago-based Harry Smith devotees make good with tune and tales that start in dark Appalachian hollows, stop for a while in your head and wind up in the pit of your gut.
6. Madonna: Music
Dispensing with the moon-calf spiritualism and tepid electronica of Ray of Light, Britain's biggest celebrity crafts perhaps the first dance album that sounds best on the couch.
7. Sleater-Kinney: All Hands On the Bad One
At once buoyant and cantankerous, pure pop and angular post-punk guitar sounds, Brownstein, Tucker and Weiss spend 13 tracks bemoaning the downside of rock and roll fun while convincing all within earshot that they're fibbing.
8. Steely Dan: Two Against Nature
As sly and insinuating as anything either man has done since the Nightfly album in 1982, Two Against Nature details not the enervated L.A. cynics who coasted through the late 70s with a couple obtuse singles and not much else, but the explicit and downright lascivious ruminations of two fiftysomething perverts.
9. Amy Rigby: The Sugar Tree
Bad love and small paychecks being as universal in Nashville as they are in New York, recent southern migrant Amy Rigby picks up her guitar and returns to the ground she knows so well: the unrequited lust, the jealously, the late and lonely nights, the desire for a pair of testicles. She dreams of romance and financial security -- introduce Shania Twain to "Wait 'Til I Get You Home," and the latter, at least, is within her grasp.
10. Elastica: The Menace
Anyone living and listening in the new century who can convince themselves that Pink Flag is recyclable material at least as valuable as Pink Moon will find plenty of love here, a post-punk love letter that proves Justine Frischmannâs tenure as the "It" girl of the parochial and cannibalistic UK pop scene hasn't dimmed her cool wit or her cocky intelligence.
Peter Gorman
10. The Handsome Family: In the Air
Gloomy slow songs performed in the distance. I like the one about the crazy milkman who crawls out on the roof to get closer to the moon. (I don't really care for folk music.)
9. Idlewild: 100 Broken Windows
Ragged guitars from Scotland played fast. Melodic punk, if not all that melodic or punky at times, with the vocals crisp and clear. Grunge bands got to be such a drag. These guys feel trapped and defeated too, but they seek release, which makes all the difference. (Only available by import in the U.S., so of course I'm thinking Obscurity = Brilliance.)
8. Grandaddy: The Sophtware Slump
Humane songs about machines. (Whenever I hear the singer I think he sounds like Neil Young, if Neil were really young and scared, stepping up to the mike, not sure what to sing.)
7. D'Angelo: DâAngelo
Finds his perfect groove via Green, Gaye, Prince and friends, and sticks with it. All the while listening to it I want him to take a chance, erupt or break down, anything. Finally on track 12 of 13, he makes good. And the final track - "Africa" - is one of the best. (I've never heard his debut album.)
6. Mekons: Journey to the End of the Night
Another album about life during wartime. Another great one too. On the last song, "Last Night on Earth", they dance on their own graves. Also some fine drinking songs. (Some of my best drinks are friends.)
5. Sonic Youth: NYC Ghosts and Flowers
Beat poetry with edges. A concept album without any dud tracks, what a novel concept. Not many jams, and it comes in under 45 minutes, which I appreciate. (I've never heard their debut album either.)
4. Lou Reed: Ecstasy
Peter says that "Like a Possum" is 8 minutes too long, but it's got a great riff, and "Future Farmers of America" has an even better one. Yet it's the slow songs, the sentimental Lou, that really make the record for him, those minuets and ballads. (I'm no rock and roll fun.)
3. Elastica: The Menace
This album's alive. Justin provides the driving beat, Justine provides most everything else. Mark E. Smith provides a guest vocal on a Fall ripoff track, and all's well in garageland. (Justine! Say no more.)
2. Sleater-Kinney: All Hands On The Bad One
Well they went to school in Olympia, (so far as I know)... They've come to storm your town again, singing "We're here to raise the stakes" and "Now is the time to invent," and other shouts of independence and joy. Don't know what's with the U.S. Civil War imagery, but it rocks off like the rest. (I wanna be your Corin Tucker.)
1. PJ Harvey: Stories of the City, Stories of the Sea
Exile in New York. (Number one? It wasn't even close.)
Burton Glass
1. U2: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Don't call it a comeback. Well, for a lot of U2 fans of the Joshua Tree-era, All That You Can't Leave Behind might be -- but it's no re-hash. Listen closer, because Bono, the Edge, Adam and Larry took the best of the past (catchy hooks, that signature guitar and spiritual bent) and their more recent work (modern production, dance floor beats and a few electronic flourishes) to create a new masterpiece. "Beautiful Day," the lead single, is a big song with big ambitions, and its bookend, "Grace," closes with touching intimacy -- with nary a misstep in between. "Walk On," an uplifting plea for human rights, and "Stuck In A Moment You Canât Get Out Of," friendly advice set to warm, gospel vibe, are only two of this album's many highlights.
2. Groove Armada: Vertigo
Heres a high concept: a DJ sample-and-paste act with classical music chops and love for live instruments. Then add this: they write songs. Groove Armada deliver this and more with their second LP, Vertigo, propelled by the Fat Boy Slim-mixed "I See You Baby" and the big beat "If Everybody Looked the Same." But Tom Findlay and Andy Cato have more weapons at their disposal: the chill-out allure of "At the River" and mesmerizing "Inside My Mind (Blue Skies)." Groove Armada was the top dance act of 2000 precisely because they were so much more than a dance act.
3. P.J. Harvey: Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
Polly Jean presents the world with her best album, by a nose over To Bring You My Love, in part because it harnesses the aggression and guitars of her earlier work with a dollop of discipline and old-fashioned songwriting. Winners are easy to find on this disc are plentiful, but certainly "We Float," and "Big Exit" stand tall at opposite ends of an album without a glaring weakness. The duet with Thom Yorke on "This Mess We're In" is especially gratifying. A clear case of an artist rising to meet the accolades.
4. Broadcast: The Noise Made By People
Is it too early for a trip-hop revival? Perhaps, but Broadcast's moody combination of moody beats, cinema splices and the haunting voice of Nina Persson is welcome anyway. Broadcast presents both instrumentals and vocals that seem to float from a 1960s phonograph, perhaps a soundtrack of a movie you saw a long time ago. The Noise Made By People could be filed in the experimental bin (or alongside Stereolab or Portishead) except that, damn it, so many of the songs are too catchy. Standout: the U.K. underground single "Come On Letâs Go."
5. Shelby Lynne: I Am Shelby Lynne
Nashville Country has long strangled its talent with small-minded orthodoxy. Thank God for artists like Shelby Lynne, who leaves her paint-by- number country behind for a mix of Dusty Springfield ("Your Lies"), neosoul ("Leavin'") and honky-tonk ("Life Is Bad").
6. Jurassic 5: Quality Control
Just when you thought the rap world had grown a bit stale, along comes Jurassic 5 to inject jumpy beats, humor and humanity into the mix. Akin to the Native Tongues posse (Tribe, Jungle Brothers, et al) but very much of the day, the J5 move quickly between styles, from swing on "Swing Set" to the De La beats of "Jurass Finish First." Short of savior status, but they will restore oneâs faith in hip-hop. No small thing.
7. Primal Scream: Exterminator
Bands that don't grow, die -- or at least they slink off to the has-been bins and second-city tour route. Primal Scream avoids the trap again with Exterminator, an album with a sound that borrows for the band's past (the soul of Screamadelica, the electronics of Vanishing Point) and then takes a mighty step forward. Thank the many contributions of alt-rock's best, including Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine and Bernard Sumner of New Order, and the Chemical Brothers, but band leader Bobby Gillespie remains the guiding force. The political lyrics are largely forgettable, but the sonic roar is not. Powerful, original stuff.
8. Travis: The Man Who
Radio-ready Radiohead? American-friendly Blur? Travis fits into a lot of peopleâs boxes, but this bandâs second album delivers enough heartfelt alt-pop to establish their own identity. A not-so-guilty pleasure.
9. Sleater-Kinney: All Hands on the Bad One
Tighter, but more fun. Tougher, but more thoughtful. Principled, but catchier radio tracks. Songs such as "You're No Rock n Roll Fun" (suitable for full-fledged youth anthem status) make me think that claims to World's Greatest Band are not too far off.
10. Jill Scott: Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol.1
Jill Scott pulls even with her Philly pals in the Roots with the self-assured debut. Scott deftly mixes hip-hop and soul sensibilities that slowly charm, especially the cocky "He Loves Me" and tell-it-straight "Getting In the Way."
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