The Muse picks the best albums of 2002

SELECTED BY MUSE EDITORS

Joey Arak, Music editor

1. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights Every guitar pluck and keyboard note is meticulously mapped out, which helps to build an album that seems larger than what a typical guitar band could create. Interpol made the best album of 2002 by coming out of New York and sounding nothing like a New York band.

2. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Before the behind-the-scenes drama of Wilco’s 2002 got started, the boys managed to record the best album of their careers. How, you ask? Simple: they conceded the alt-country crown to Ryan Adams and decided to make a great American rock record. Jeff Tweedy and Co. created a luscious, sweeping collection of pop songs that add a bit of spacey experimentation to the mix.

3. El-P, Fantastic Damage The soundtrack to the world’s end. After the opener, which brims with piercing electronic hums and a frenzied explosion of bangs and scratches, El-P jumps in, rapping ferociously and cramming so many syllables into one line that he makes Talib Kweli sound like George W. Bush. An album like this allows for much-needed escape to a world without Ja Rule.

4. …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Source Tags and Codes The band with the best name on the planet finally decided to live up to its potential in 2002, crafting an impassioned album filled with shattering bursts of guitar and skull-pounding riffs as well as a statement that cannot be ignored.

5. Pretty Girls Make Graves, Good Health Pretty Girls Make Graves may have named their band after a Smiths song, but the Smiths stand for everything PGMG is against: modern indie elitists and pretentious music fans who’d rather be held than rocked. Good Health tries to make that mopey dude get the hell up.

6. The Mountain Goats, All Hail West Texas John Darnielle, who goes by the Mountain Goats, recorded Texas at home with nothing but a guitar and a boombox. The result is a furious acoustic collection that witnesses the disintegration of a fictional marriage. Lyrical bonus: ‘The best ever death metal band out of Denton / Will grow to outpace and outlive you / Hail Satan!’ Hail, indeed!

7. Missy Elliot, Under Construction In terms of ‘commercial’ rap, Missy Elliot and Timbaland are the most unstoppable duo since God and Jesus. Under Construction brims with Timbaland’s off-time snares, futuristic blips, old-school samples and break beats. Missy will never be the best rapper, but her voice and playful lyrics are the perfect accompaniment to Timbaland’s beats, which are the most adventurous thing going in mainstream rap. Sorry, Neptunes.

8. Ugly Casanova, Sharpen Your Teeth When band members go solo, it’s usually a hit or miss affair. For years, Modest Mouse had been making the finest indie rock aroundno frills guitar rock laced with Isaac Brock’s white trash introspection and lisp-addled delivery. Fear notBrock, rechristined as Ugly Casanova, has outdone himself with this wonderful solo album.

9. Badly Drawn Boy, About a Boy Damon Gough, otherwise known as that lovable Brit Badly Drawn Boy, accepted the challenge of creating the entire score to the adaptation of music-obsessive Nick Hornby’s novel. The result? The best original film soundtracks of the year.

10. Andrew WK, I Get Wet Just about the only person who takes Andrew WK seriously is the longhaired dirtbag himself. But perhaps that’s the point: AWK’s irony-free attitude toward his music results in the hard partying funfest that is I Get Wet.

Justin Conforti, MUSE editor

1. Sonic Youth, Murray Street Combining swirls of deconstructive guitar noise and eyebrow raising arrangements with some of Sonic Youth’s catchiest melodies in nearly a decade, Murray Street strikes the perfect balance between pop music and noise, between life and chaos. By paying tribute to the Murray Street recording studio, which was destroyed on 9/11, Sonic Youth has achieved the near impossiblethey’ve created a guitar-shaped band-aid for their home and muse, the greatest city in the world. They’ve made disaster livable.

2. Missy Elliot, Under Construction With the help of her creative soulmate, Timbaland, Missy has created an undeniably hot workout of an album, a touching love letter to lost friends and family and the perfect soundtrack for playing a mean game of Double Dutch on a funky, distant planet. And I dare anyone to resist the most slinky, soulful ballad of the year, in which Missy serenades her, well, private parts. You may not be a prostitute, Missy, but you always give us what we want.

3. The Breeders, Title TK Once upon a time, the Breeders, led by twin sisters Kim and Kelly Deal, were christened the would-be leaders of indie alternapop and saviors of the post-grunge music scene. After a decade in the ‘Where are they now bin?,’ the Breeders pulled their act together and released Title TKand thank heavens they did. Kim’s dry vocalsscratchy and hot, boyish and girlishconstantly grind up against the minimalist dynamics and warped pop sensibility of the Breeders’ unique brand of non-rock. Title TK signals a quiet resurrection, as the Sisters Deal gently rise from the musical ashes of the past and begin to make good on that promise to kick ass.

4. The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots Who wins when Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots, you ask? The Flaming Lips and their fans, without question.

5. Liars, They Threw Us in a Trench and Stuck a Monument On Top Finally! This is the esoteric funk-punk recordfilled with chunky riffs, foaming-at-the-mouth vocals and throbbing bass lines that make you want to shake your groove thingthat you’ve been waiting for.

6. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights You’ll have heard pieces of the riffs and rhythms beforethe Smiths, Joy Division and countless post-punks have visited this damned, glam, gloom-n-doom territory. So what? Interpol is the best thing to happen to rock ‘ roll in a long, long time.

7. Sigur Ros, ( ) Forget the Swedish garage movement: Iceland’s Sigur Ros is one of the most impressive international acts of the last few years. On ( ), they’ve crafted an otherworldly brand of new millennium head music as cold and lovely as their homeland.

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs What happens when three friends with a yen for all things sexy, kitschy and trashy decide to form a band? And what happens when one of said friends happens to be a punk rock force of nature, a lipstick smear of a lead songstress who may or may not be Joan Jett’s celestial goddaughter? You get garage punk all-stars the Yeah Yeah Yeahsand this year’s demented Cinderella story, front woman Karen O., of course.

9. Beck, Sea Change After years of various incarnations, Beck startled the world by adopting his most radical persona yet: himself. Who knows if this new ‘stripped down’ image is any more real than the other masks he’s worn? And who really cares when the music sounds this good?

10. The Hives, Vini Vidi Vicious In which five sweaty Swedes, outfitted in monochrome suits and retro punk attitude, gave the summer of 2002 a much-needed kick in the ass. Demonstrating an infectious energy and irresistibly catchy hooks, the band boasts delicious retro influences: think of the Stooges, if Iggy had gone pop.

Kerri Chyka

1. The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Behind the Music Hail the other Swede Successes of 2002. The Soundtrack of Our Lives’ October release refreshingly outdid the garage rock trends of the yearand hell, Noel Gallagher admitted their music is as good as his. We should listen when Lundberg tells us, ‘Yes, we’re taking over / And we might as well blow you away.’

2. Doves, The Last Broadcast Screw Coldplay. Doves can toy with one’s emotions far better than any whiny, wispy-voiced Englishmanand they’re subtle, genuine and smart about it. The Last Broadcast glimpses at the sincere beauty that can actually spring from rock music.

3. Tom Waits, Alice Tom Waits fans were ecstatic when they discovered the gravel-voiced artist would be releasing two albums on the same day, Blood Money and Alice. The latter stands as one of his greatest works yet, showcasing his bar room storytelling style. Between the singer’s soulful and resounding baritone and the rich, atmospheric textures of piano, strings and horns, the drama of Alice is twisted, vivid and pure Waits.

4. Pulp, We Love Life The old man is back again. Sixties icon Scott Walker came out of hiding in 2002 to produce Jarvis Cocker et al.’s latest album. With Walker’s help, We Love Life is an over-the-top, delectable album that features some of Cocker’s most wonderful crooning.

5. Neko Case, Blacklisted Neko Case and Her Boyfriends started off 2002 opening for Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds. In many ways, Case could be a female version of Cave: they both write murder ballads, their music is tremendously Gothic and their bandmates use upright string basses. For the most poetic, gripping alt-country around, don’t look to Ryan Adamslook to Case and her variety of noir.

6. The Flaming Lips, Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots After the Flaming Lips’ 1999 release (the nearly flawless The Soft Bulletin), indie rockers and music critics everywhere wet themselves with delight and then asked: could the band ever do it again? With Yoshimi, we got our answer: almost.

7. Hot Hot Heat, Make Up the Breakdown If Robert Smith, Elvis Costello and David Byrne fused into one person, the freakish, glorious product would be Hot Hot Heat’s lead singer, Steve Bays. Make Up the Breakdown is not quite new wave, (though one can easily hear XTC’s influence) and not quite punk, but a collection of bouncy, three-minute songs with ultra-witty wordplay. If anything, this album will inspire laughter and a desire to dance, dance, dance.

8. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs You want a female rock star? Look no further than Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. This New York trio debuted with a bang in 2002, assaulting the punk scene with frivolous fun, artiness, sarcasm, sleaze and impeccable style. Although not as good on an album as they are live, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs provide a musical experience as orgasmic as their name implies.

9. The Vines, Highly Evolved Some found the post-punk revival of 2002 to be a little over-hyped – bands that rock as hard as the Vines, though, deserve accolades. In Highly Evolved, these good-looking, shaggy-haired Aussie boys gave us an oozy, punky mess and one of the year’s catchiest albums.

10. Ladytron, Light and Magic Think of the sound effects on glorious, old-school Atari games like Pac-Man or Q-Bert, and you’d be somewhere close to the robotic synth bliss of Ladytron’s Light and Magic.

Robert Watson

1. Aimee Mann, Lost in Space Mann quietly delivered her finest work on this album, a tightly disciplined treatise on addiction and self-loathing. The gorgeous dichotomy between Mann’s lyrics, which tell sadly ironic tales of devastation and heartbreak, and her voice, an instrument that flatly avoids excess emotion, allows her music to move without ever descending into melodrama.

2. Beck, Sea Change The always-unpredictable Beck has made a dazzling tonal transition with this confessional break-up CD. Beck’s albums sometimes add up to more than the sum of their parts, but ‘Paper Tiger’ and ‘Guess I’m Doing Fine’ stand out as individually memorable tracks in a thematically unified work that’s cathartic and even kind of sexy, despite all that despair.

3. Missy Elliott, Under Construction While the unstoppable corporate juggernaut known as Eminem gobbled up most of the hip-hop ink this year, Misdemeanor proved that she’s the genre’s wildest, weirdest and warmest musical forceeven if drastic weight loss has left her with a little less junk in the trunk. Bonus: ‘Pussycat’ finds Miss E copping an Eve Enslerian plea to her nether regions.

4. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights One of the year’s sleepers, this gorgeously bleak debut LP conjures blissful memories of the heyday of the Smiths and the Cure. While lead singer Paul Banks practically begs for vocal comparisons to Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, watch out for the Neil Young falsetto he unleashes on ‘NYC.’ Recommend Interpol to those who complain that they just don’t make ’em like they did in the ’80s.

5. Elvis Costello, When I Was Cruel This was the I-can’t-believe-it-wasn’t-a-smash sales disappointment of the year. The tasty, sardonic shards, evident in ‘Episode of Blonde’ and ‘Tear Off Your Own Head (It’s a Doll’s Revolution),’ show a veteran who refuses to mellow with age. Indeed, he delivers his most piquant work in more than a decadean exciting comeback from that mushy Burt Bacharach stuff he was into in the late ’90s.

6. Sleater-Kinney, One Beat A band that delivers an excellent album every year or so, this all-girl trio is emotional, political, serious and pissed off without a trace of hysteria. Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker continue to use their shrill, authoritativeyet never unprettyvoices to unexpectedly harmonious effect, and their astringent approach to unique guitar riffs is often electrifying. And of all the response-to-9/11 music we heard this year, ‘Far Away’ made me cringe the least.

7. Coldplay, A Rush of Blood to the Head Rock-solid from start to finish, the sophomore effort from these critical and popular darlings places them right at the forefront of sensitive, British-guy rock. Whenever a band achieves consistent popular success with music this good over the course of consecutive CDs, it’s an event worth celebrating.

8. Tori Amos, Scarlet’s Walk Jumping off from a loopy concept – touring all 50 states in the wake of 9/11 – Amos has nonetheless created some of her most grounded work on Scarlet’s Walk, returning to the soaring melodies that made her a favorite in the first place.

9. Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Yeah Yeah Yeahs This bouncy, oddball New York trio proved that less is more in their debut EP. The collection is five songs of middling production quality, intoxicating vitality and not a moment of clutter. ‘Art Star’ is an amusing experimental rant and ‘Our Time’ is a masterpiece of adolescent rage. The only downside is an increased sense of anticipation for their full-length debut.

10. Weezer, Maladroit The suddenly prolific mid-’90s favorite delivered a richer album than last year’s platinum-selling comeback CD. The album is too odd to hook potential new fans and too much of a toss-off for those who prefer the puppy-dog heartache rock (can we not call it ’emo’?) of the band’s first two CDs. Everyone else, however, saw Weezer in peak form this year.