Music - Best of 2002

ArtForum, Dec, 2002

Dennis Cooper

Ben Ratliff

Andrew Hultkrans

Clive Bell

Steve Lafreniere

Dennis Cooper

1. Super Furry Animals, Rings Around the World Britpop suddenly produced its Sgt. Pepper. A shiny, intelligent, genre-pillaging, totally addictive stimulant.

2. The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Absolute sincerity plus unrepentant quirkiness equals (in this case) divine beauty.

3. Silverchair, Diorama With help from arranger Van Dyke Parks in full Smile-era mode, these severely underrated Australians finessed the most substantive hard-rock album in decades.

4. El-P, Fantastic Damage Cannibal Ox maestro El-P took a solo turn and made the kind of daredevil, forward-thinking, deftly deformed-sounding CD that hip-hop desperately needed and sorely lacked.

5. The Breeders, Title TK Easing out of their multiyear lost weekend, Kim and Kelley Deal and crew cobbled together a beautiful, goosebump-producing mess.

6. Guided by Voices, Universal Truths and Cycles After two noble attempts to contain his band's gigantic vision in a more radio-conducive form, Robert Pollard is God again.

7. Weezer, Maladroit I love how Weezer's genius evades the radar of so many otherwise savvy rock aficionados.

8. Eddie Ruscha, aka Future Pigeon, Dada Munchamonkey Still mostly unknown outside SoCal, Ruscha is a massively inventive, superadventurous composer, musician, DJ, and sound artist whose local gigs keep LA's music lovers on their toes.

9. Wire, Read & Burn 02 This sequel to Wire's R&B or EP is a harrowing return to form by the smartest gray-haired artists in rock.

10. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights These Joy Division/Echo and the Bunnymen loyalists subtly revised a dormant but extremely fertile style into something big, stormy, and vital.

Ben Ratliff

1. Steve Coleman (Knitting Factory, New York, Feb. 4) A nearly seamless set of improvisation, and after thickets of odd-meter funk chants, the band launched into Rodgers and Hart's "Bewitched."

2. Abbey Lincoln (Alice Tully Hall, New York, Mar. 7-9) Fela, Willie Nelson, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan have proved it, too: The best performers play basically the same number over and over.

3. Bill Charlap Trio (Jazz Standard, New York, Apr. 9) The control, the discipline, the variations on old songs and standard jazz forms: Wow.

4. Eddie Palmieri (Woolsey Hall, New Haven, CT, Apr. 22) A re-formed version of his two-trombone Latin-jazz band from the '60s, Conjunto La Perfecta, honored a great, adaptable concept.

5. Mark Turner Trio (Village Vanguard, New York, June 27) I guess it was jazz, but I'm still not sure; elastic and cool, with a strange combination of delicacy and confidence.

6. Super Rail Band/Orchestra Baobab (Central Park Summerstage, New York, July 14) The two great reenergized West African bands of the early '70s. A hot guitar hero in Djelimady Tounkara, a cool guitar hero in Barthelemy Attisso.

7. Hamiet Bluiett's Baritone Nation (Iridium, New York, Aug. 27) Elephant-herd blues, by four baritone saxophones.

8. El Gran Combo (Madison Square Garden, New York, Sept. 7) A three-hour fortieth-anniversary blowout.

9. Grandmaster Flash (MuseumsQuartier, Vienna, Sept. 14) A special mix of James Brown's "Give It Up or Turn It Loose" for seventeen thousand Austrian kids.

10. High on Fire (Northsix, Brooklyn, NY, Sept. 27) Matt Pike seems to be a sweet guy with bad teeth and some authority problems, as well as the absolute king of doom metal. And what did you accomplish by age thirty?

Andrew Hultkrans

1. Radar Brothers, And the Surrounding Mountains Clearly the result of bales of dope and an aural diet of country, Brian Wilson, and Dark Side of the Moon, these songs are lighter-waving codas of casual majesty--their beginnings and middles thrown out with the bong water, apparently.

2. The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Sure, it's sappy, inspirational sci-fi, but if it doesn't tug at your heartstrings, you're probably a robot anyway.

3. The Notwist, Neon Golden Kraftwerk's homeland spawns a band that merges psych-folk with electronica to arrive at something one could call organic digitalia. Best blend of banjo and electricity since the Monks.

4. Beck, Sea Change Boy Hansen channels Fred Neil, Gordon Lightfoot, and Serge Gainsbourg on this lush, uncharacteristically earnest breakup album. There's blood on these tracks.

5. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Life during wartime in a broke-down palace.

6. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights Forget electroclash, this is the only '80s knockoff you need. For those who wished Joy Division had been catchier.

7. Love, Da Capo Finally, a proper digital transfer of the most brilliantly unclassifiable LP side one of the '60s.

8. Television Personalities, And Don't the Kids Just Love It An apolitical Billy Bragg fronting early Guided by Voices. Indie rock/pop began here.

9. Various artists, The Best Bootlegs in the World Ever Salt 'N' Pepa pushin' it with the Stooges, Destiny's Child smelling Nirvana's booty, etc. There's a fine line between clever and stupid, and this illegal DJ collection walks it beautifully.