Best Albums of 2000
Fester
This is the worst and best time of the year. Most of us are broke from
the holidaze, the weather is set to permafrost, everyone is moping
indoors, no one wants to come out and play, touring bands avoid
traveling north of the Mason-Dixon line. But for us music addicts,
those year-end lists almost make up for it. An excuse to get riled up
and complain about the fools who picked Eminem as the artist of the year
(Spin did that). And a reason to rush out and buy albums we may have
missed before. I'd like to think my list is, um, better than most,
because I cheat. Shamelessly. Days before my deadline for the Annual
Rock & Rap Confidential/Sonic Net International Music Writers Poll (I've
been asked to submit for three years now thankyuhverymuch), I
frantically dart to various used CD stores, snapping up or listening to
anything I might have missed that was ranked highly in The Wire, Salon,
AP, Uncut and the hundred or so other rags compiled in Julian White's
Rock List Site. I'm proud to say I catch most of the good 'uns about
when they're released, but there's always a few diamonds that slip
through the cracks, like The Kingsbury Manx. By the way, The Wire (a
London-based music magazine with nearly a million subscribers worldwide)
will be reviewing Fast 'n' Bulbous in its February issue!
This year, in addition to the 13 reviews, year-in-summary essay, I
included a handy little breakdown of the year according to genre. The
only thing missing on this email is the actual Lucky 13 reviews. For
that you'll have to click yer lazy butt over to the site --
http://www.fastnbulbous.com.
Fester's Lucky 13 -- The Best Albums of 2000
One would think, with the first year of the decade/century, there would
be a bit more revolutionary fervor in the air. Or at least some giddy
new school optimism. Aside from the political fire and brimstone of
Asian Dub Foundation and Primal Scream, 2000 made few waves. Not that it
was a bad year in music. If anything, there were even more high quality
releases than the previous year. But, like 1999, there doesn't seem to
be any explosive new trends. The potential is there, with the stirrings
of various fusions of electronic music, hip hop, Asian classical, Indian
and other ethnic music, the melting pot remains set at simmer. Many
critics claimed that hip hop was the most creatively healthy genre last
year, but reality showed much fewer great hip hop albums than '99. Many
critics turned cartwheels over the best album, Outkast's Stankonia.
While it is excellent, it's really no better than their previous three
releases, and doesn't even begin to capitalize on the promise of hip-hop
demonstrated four years previously by DJ Shadow. Where is Shadow,
anyway?
The boldest move was made, surprisingly, by the reincarnated version of
Pink Floyd, Radiohead. While OK Computer was grossly overrated, with its
overly dense production and pompous delusions of grandeur, Kid A
introduced the mainstream to electronica and "post-rock" with songs that
are engaging, hypnotic, even pretty. Queens of the Stone Age and At The
Drive-In proved that rock 'n' roll very well may never die, while
Sleater-Kinney bounced back from a lackluster album with their most
poetic, potent post-punk songs ever. Amon Tobin is proof in the pudding
that electronica can still be fun when handled by someone who actually
has a clue how to compose songs. Modest Mouse graduated from its twee
indie existence to expansive, grandiose statements without getting
tedious like U2. Sussan Deyhim paid homage to ancient Sufi poets with
music that is beyond modern. Sigur Rós was simply an inexplicable gift
from the cold depths of outer space and Godspeed You Black Emperor!
subversively disguised Beethoven as an indie-rock band from Canada.
16 Horsepower headed a group of artists who were oddly dubbed the "New
Americana" by the British press. Lord knows what caused the Brits to
fixate on this made-up genre, but heck, why not. Bands like The Black
Heart Procession, Calexico, Giant Sand, Handsome Family, Lambchop,
Willard Grant Conspiracy and North Mississippi Allstars often mix Nick
Cave's lyrical obsession with the Southern Gothic with an eclectic array
of influences, from Mexican mariachi music to symphonic Nashville
strings. The result is a body of music that is deep, dark, and more
creative and varied than any other genre right now. Speaking of Nick
Cave, Johnny Cash's version of "The Mercy Seat" is harrowing and moving,
especially considering the fact that the old man in black was on his
deathbed months before recording it. He had some horrible nerve disease,
contracted pneumonia, and had papers nationwide preparing his obituary.
Instead, the tough old gnome recovered and headed straight into the
studio to record his third installment in a trilogy of albums for Rick
Rubin's American label. Coming from a man who literally cheated death,
it's haunting stuff indeed, making the rest of the crop of
country-folksters sound like they need an extra five decades of hard
livin' to measure up, and that includes the crusty ol' Merle Haggard.
Nevertheless, Damien Jurado, Allison Moorer & sister Shelby Lynne, Neko
Case, Steve Earle, Ryan Adams, Emmylou Harris and Kelly Hogan managed to
make an enjoyable bunch of albums, despite not really adding much to the
genre.
I suspect that if Nick Drake were alive to meet Belle & Sebastian, he'd
push them down and chase them out of the playground. Nevertheless, wimp
pop is here, and while not always queer, its created a minor renaissance
that makes it hip to be fey for the first time since the Pet Shop Boys
ruled the charts and The Smiths broke up. With the obnoxious growth of
the Mook Rock tumor (white trash boys who think they're black -- Eminem,
Limp Biscuit, Slipknot, etc.), the mooning lovelorn songs of wimps
everywhere are a welcome, indeed necessary antidote. The surprising
return of Felt's Lawrence in Go-Kart Mozart was barely noticed, but The
Wedding Present's Dave Gedge made some waves in Cinerama, and the
reunion of The Go-Betweens with the assistance of Sleater-Kinney had the
entire indie world buzzing. Tahiti 80 showed that the French can do more
than disco, with its brilliant update of The Kinks.
While Peru's Susana Baca and Brazil's Virginía Rodrigues should be
filthy rich by now, the big crossover hasn't really happened. Global
music has overall gained a few inches in a wider audience, but last year
lacked the blockbuster like 1999's Buena Vista Social Club. That album
did spawn many successful individual careers, which continue to thrive
with new albums by Ruben Gonzalez and Omara Portuondo. Talvin Singh had
input in Bill Laswell's Tabla Beat Science project, and produced the
Master Musicians of Jajouka, but failed to live up to his promise from
when he first introduced the scintillating Soundz of the Asian
Underground. Judging from his incredible live shows, Femi Kuti seems to
be on the verge of recording an album that lives up to, or even
surpasses his father's legacy.
D'Angelo drew upon the spirit of Marvin Gaye to produce the best mash
album since Tricky's Maxinquaye, but the slew of soul releases by female
artists that emerged after Lauryn Hill's success has slowed down to a
trickle, with only Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and Kelis stepping up to the
plate. Better luck this year? 2000 was a welcome respite from the Big
Beat electronica that grew oh-so tiresome. Instead, Amon Tobin and David
Holmes created truly original music rather than club hits. The Iranian
Leila stepped out from Bjork's pixy-wings to establish herself as a
major new artistic presence. Bossa Nova continues to evolve into this
decade's version of lounge chill-out music with Thievery Corporation,
Bebel Gilberto and Suba, who sadly perished in a fire last year. Roni
Size & Represent and A Guy Called Gerald carried drum 'n' bass'
shrinking torch. Will anyone resuscitate drum 'n' bass this year, or
should it just be thrown back? There's been a lot of fuss about British
critics darlings Coldplay and Badly Drawn Boy. As usual, it's mainly
hype, though they could develop into worthy artists down the road.
Doves, Clinic and Grandaddy also show potential, but are also a bit
immature yet.
The overrated album award goes to Eminem. It was really disheartening to
see the major publications trip over each other to give props to this
shithead. Either they're all on crack, or there's some major payola
going on. Lips have been flapping about his clever lyrics and inventive
music. Puh-leeze. At best its passable, at worst, the production is
anemic and the beats are rudimentary. Eminem is the kind of asshole who,
in school, was too cowardly to challenge the tough kids, so he'd beat up
on the smaller ones. And judging from his lyrics, girls aren't spared
either. Nor gays. What this hateful bleached redneck needs is a good
spanking. Better yet, he should be locked in a small room with a dozen
lesbian boxers and sumo wrestlers for a night. After he's been
sufficiently pummeled into submission and given poppers, he needs to be
poured into a tight S&M outfit with assless leather chaps, and let loose
at a hardcore foam party at the Manhole.
29 of the top 100 albums were by female artists or bands lead by women,
which is promising. The best songwriter of the 90s hands-down, PJ
Harvey, of course, took the cake with her sixth and best album. It's
hard to believe there are people who still don't know who she is. Of
note was Eleni Mandell, a pre-rock chanteuse obsessed with Tom Waits who
sounds a bit like PJ Harvey. Her bold second album nearly made the top
thirteen. Patti Smith has reached her second career peak, with her best
album since Easter. Ironically, as PJ Harvey's spiritual godmother, it
seems things have come full circle and Smith in turn learned a thing or
two from PJ. Bjork's Selmasongs is the soundtrack to Dancer In The Dark,
which features her brilliant acting debut. It's a short, minor effort
for Bjork, who will come out with her true followup to '97's Homogenic
sometime this spring. Fellow Icelander Emiliana Torrini has a similar
vocal range as Bjork. She valiantly, and mostly successfully avoids
copping the more famous woman's style, but she has a ways to go in
songwriting chops.
My apologies for the lack of jazz albums. I just wasn't in the mood,
what can I say.
Despite the fact that I have to work full time, I've managed to hear a
few hundred albums so you didn't have to. I listed 191 of them as
likeable in some way. But don't depend on me (well, not completely!).
There's over 200 more albums that I have not gotten around to checking
out -- and those are just the ones that I read good things about!
There's probably a couple dozen more I haven't stumbled across yet that
are worth buying. Just in the last couple weeks, I discovered top twenty
standouts The Kingsbury Manx, Poem Rocket and The Russian Futurists. So
if you're the adventurous type, do some digging in the record stores or
Napster and discover for yourself. Now more than ever, the sheer volume
of good music is overwhelming. I can only hope to weed out the few dozen
truly great gems. If you're the type to um, have a life and no time for
the joys of music hunting, I'm pretty confident there are not too many
that I missed that would rank higher than my top 100. Enjoy!
A.S. Van Dorston,
Fast 'n' Bulbous
2000 Breakdown
Rock/Pop
1. PJ Harvey * Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea (Island)
2. Modest Mouse * The Moon & Antarctica (Epic)
3. Sleater-Kinney * All Hands On The Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
4. Eleni Mandell * Trill (Space Baby)
5. The Russian Futurists * The Method Of Modern Love (Upper Class)
6. Twilight Singers * Twilight As Played By the Twilight Singers
(Columbia)
7. Eels * Daisies of the Galaxy (Dreamworks)
8. Boss Hog * Whiteout (In The Red)
9. Patti Smith * Gung Ho (Arista)
10. Elliott Smith * Figure 8 (Dreamworks)
Avant Rock & Out Pop
1. Asian Dub Foundation * Community Music (London)
2. Radiohead * Kid A (Capitol)
3. Sigur Rós * Ágaetis Byrjun (FatCat/Bubble Core)
4. Godspeed You Black Emperor! * Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To
Heaven (Kranky)
5. Primal Scream * Xtrmntr (Creation)
6. The Kingsbury Manx (Overcoat)
7. Poem Rocket * Psychogeography (Atavistic)
8. The Dirty Three * Whatever You Love You Are (Touch & Go)
9. Pram * Museum Of Imaginary Animals (Too Pure)
10. Laika * Good Looking Blues (Too Pure)
Hard Rock & Metal
1. Queens of the Stone Age * Rated R (Interscope)
2. At The Drive-In * Relationship Of Command (Grand Royal)
3. Royal Trux * Pound For Pound (Drag City)
4. Built To Spill * Live (WB)
5. Entombed * Uprising (Threeman)
6. High On Fire * The Art of Self Defense (Man's Ruin)
7. Rage Against The Machine * Renegades (Epic)
8. Nile * Black Seeds Of Vengeance (Relapse)
9. Fu Manchu * King Of The Road (Mammoth)
10. Napalm Death * Leaders Not Followers (Relapse)
Wimp Pop
1. Broadcast * The Noise Made By People (Warp/Tommy Boy)
2. Go-Kart Mozart * Instant Wigwam And Igloo Mixture (West Midlands
Records)
3. Cinerama * Disco Volante (Manifesto)
4. Tahiti 80 * Puzzle (Minty Fresh)
5. The Sea And Cake * Oui (Thrill Jockey)
6. The Aluminum Group * Pelo (Symbiotic/Hefty)
7. The Go-Betweens * The Friends Of Rachel Worth (Jetset)
8. High Llamas * Buzzle Bee (Drag City)
9. Air * The Virgin Suicides (Astralwerks)
10. Belle & Sebastian * Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
(Matador)
Electronica, Techno & Dance
1. Amon Tobin * Supermodified (Ninja Tune)
2. David Holmes * Bow Down To the Exit Sign (Go Beat)
3. Leila * Courtesy Of Choice (XL)
4. Kid 606 * Down With The Scene (Ipecac)
5. Suba * Sao Paulo Confessions (Six Degrees)
6. Thievery Corporation * Mirror Conspiracy (ESL)
7. Roni Size (Reprazent) * Through the Eyes (Studio K7/Full Cycle)
8. State Of Bengal * Visual Audio (Six Degrees)
9. Add N To (X) * Add Insult To Injury (Mute)
10. A Guy Called Gerald * Essence (!K7)
Global
1. Sussan Deyhim * Madman Of God: Divine Love Songs of the Persian Sufi
Masters (CramWorld)
2. Tabla Beat Science * Tala Matrix (Axiom)
3. Susana Baca * Eco De Sombras (Luaka Bop)
4. Ruben Gonzalez * Chanchullo (World Circuit)
5. Virginía Rodrigues * Nós (Hannibal)
6. Bebel Gilberto * Tanto Tempo (Six Degrees)
7. Youssou N'dour * Joko (Nonesuch)
8. Marc Ribot Y Lost Cubanos Prosthizos * Muy Divertido (Atlantic)
9. Lucas Santtana * Eletro Ben Dodo (Natasha)
10. Alim Qasimov * Love's Deep Ocean (Network)
11. Rokia Traore * Wanita (Indigo)
12. Master Musicians of Jajouka * Featuring Bachir Attar & Talvin Singh
(Universal)
13. Femi Kuti * Shoki Shoki (UNI/MCA)
New Americana
1. 16 Horsepower * Secret South (Razor & Tie)
2. The Black Heart Procession * Three (Touch & Go)
3. Calexico * Hot Rail (Quarterstick)
4. Giant Sand * Chore Of Enchantment (Thrill Jockey)
5. The Handsome Family * In The Air (Carrot Top)
6. The Walkabouts * Train Leaves at Eight (Glitterhouse)
7. Lambchop * Nixon (Merge)
8. Willard Grant Conspiracy * Everything's Fine (Rykodisc/Slow River)
9. North Mississippi Allstars * Shake Hands With Shorty (Uni/Tone Cool)
10. Songs: Ohia * Ghost Tropic (Secretly Canadian)
Country & Folk
1. Johnny Cash * American III: Solitary Man (Columbia)
2. Damien Jurado * Ghost Of David (Sub Pop)
3. Allison Moorer * The Hardest Part (MCA)
4. Shelby Lynne * I Am Shelby Lynne (Island)
5. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends * Furnace Room Lullaby (Bloodshot)
6. Steve Earle * Transcendental Blues (WB)
7. Ryan Adams * Heartbreaker (Bloodshot)
8. Merle Haggard * If I Could Only Fly (Anti/Epitaph)
9. Emmylou Harris * Red Dirt Girl (Grapevine)
10. Kelly Hogan and the Pine Valley Cosmonauts * Beneath the Country
Underdog(Bloodshot)
11. Wilco & Billy Bragg * Mermaid Avenue Vol. II (WEA)
Hip Hop
1. Outkast * Stankonia (LaFace)
2. Blackalicious * Nia (Quannum Projects)
3. Common * Like Water For Chocolate (MCA)
4. Anti-Pop Consortium * Tragic Epilogue (75 Ark)
5. Ghostface Killah * Supreme Clientele (Epic/Razor Sharp)
6. Deltron 3030 (Seventy-Five Arc)
7. Kid Koala * Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (Ninja Tune)
8. Black Eyed Peas * Bridging The Gap (Interscope)
9. Quasimoto * The Unseen (Stones Throw)
10. Reflection Eternal (Talib Kweli & Hi-Tek) * Train Of Thought
(Rawkus)
11. Capleton * More Fire (VP)
12. Jurassic 5 * Quality Control (Interscope)
Soul
1. D'Angelo * Voodoo (Virgin)
2. Jill Scott * Who Is Jill Scott? (Sony/Epic)
3. Erykah Badu * Mama's Gun (Motown)
4. Kelis * Kaleidoscope (Virgin)
5. Sade * Lovers Rock (EMI)