"He says I know you, you know me/one thing I can tell is you got to be free." - The Beatles, Come Together (Abbey Road)
Now, before I go sit like a lump in front of my parents giant tv for the rest of the day, I thought I would present the music I'm most thankful for in 2002. Now, I know it's a month or so early and that it's entirely likely that Common's Electric Circus is going to sneak it's way onto this list but URB already did their essential albums of the year so why not me too?
Exactly.
10. Waltz for Koop by Koop - What I said then...
You need this in your summer music collection. All of a sudden you'll imagine yourself in an old hollywood musical dancing in the streets for no apparent reason.
It really is the kind of album that you listen to when you want to be somewhere else. I feel like it's the 50's in a Parisian Jazz Club. Smoke is in the air. The smoky, shy dark haired woman in the corner is smiling at me and averting her eyes. I adjust my tie, check my breath, pat a friend on the back and walk over...it was my summer of love.
9. Duck Season Vol. 1 by Babu the Dilated Junkie - There wasn't much hip-hop that I was in love with this year. Babu's mix CD is a big exception. With most of the backpacker groups not hitting until late in the year, Duck Season is a banger featuring energetic hard beats and aggressive lyricists. How can you not love a hip hop album featuring a stellar return by Big Daddy Kane, Freddie Foxx getting angry and M.O.P. getting amped? Plus there's some quasimoto and De La just to put your mind right. It's hot sauce, playboy.
8. Verve Remixed by Various Artists - I feel like the Acid Jazz movement has finally grown up. What was so significant about Guru's Jazzmatazz project a decade ago was it's perfect mesh of Jazz with hip-hop. It stayed true to both and came out better for it. This compilation takes that idea to the next level. Classic voices, sounds and songs remixed with the sensibilties of master DJs and programmers. Could you imagine Billie Holliday at a Ministry of Sound throwdown? Well, now you can.
7. Daybreaker by Beth Orton - My dad just stole this from me last night while I was making this list. I'm a big fan of style mixes so the mixture of electronica and folk music is already appealing. Beth Orton has been making this kind of music for 3 albums and her ability to connect with the eclectic musical soundscapes that guys like William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers play in is outstanding. The truth though is that she could be singing a capella and still be Britian's best musical export. It's the worble in her voice, the innocence, pain and curiosity that resides there that makes her special. Daybreaker is a beautiful presentation of that. Plus she's cute and charming. Did I mention cute?
6. Justified by Justin Timberlake - If you're going to own a pop-tinged R&B album, might as well own the best produced one. There are comparisons that can be made between Justin's voice and MJ's but the style and vibe of this album reminds me of Bobby Brown's solo efforts more. It's a little more raw, there's a little more personality, there's the constant battle between his bubblegum roots and the man he wants to be. And there's just hot tracks. It's nothing new from the Neptunes- their usual danceable thumpers and standard string instrument breaks- but the Timbaland produced joints, especially the most emotionally powerful song Cry Me A River, are beyond everything currently hitting in pop music. It's great "get stuff done" "get your workout on" "dance unexpectedly" music. It's fun without being too corny. At least that's what I tell myself when I admit that I bought Justin Timberlake's album.
5. Phrenology by The Roots - I've only listened through the album once but it gets the nod. Water is amazing and Break You Off is the hottest song out right now. That's enough. I'll add more to this later.
4. Red Hot + Riot by Various Artists - what I said then... it still applies.
3. Reanimation by Linkin Park - Another group with the great ability to meld styles and be true to both. This remix collection makes Hybrid Theory into a completely different album. The addition of rhymers like Chali 2na, Motion Man and Pharoahe Monch add incredible depth and perspective to the songs the band recorded on it's own. I grocery shop to this album. People look at me funny when I'm air scratching and randomly mumbling the choruses.
2. In Between by Jazzanova - As far as electronic oriented music is concerned, I think it's the most important record of the year. Jazzanova's production and arrangement style will change the way people do things. One of my few knocks on downtempo and chillout artists, especially those in the Naked Music camp, is that you are aware that they are programmed tracks. There isn't any sense of it being an organic process. I don't envision a band getting together and jamming until something comes out right. I see one guy in a baseball cap sitting behind a pro tools rig turning nobs and switches and staring at a timeline shifting sound packages until it's got just the right amount of bass on the 18th and 21st beats and just enough airy noise to give it an ethereal feel as the vocals come in. This Jazzanova record may have very well been done that way but it doesn't sound like it. It sounds like musicians making music. Instruments are not always in concert with each other, sometimes they clash and challenge each other. The vocals aren't just another instrument on the screen, they flow above the track. And it just all comes together. Besides that Vikter Duplaix appears twice and drops one of my favorite tracks of the year, Wasted Time.
1. Simple Things by Zero 7 - Quite simply the most beautiful hour of music I've heard all year. There's nothing else I can say.
The criteria for this list was that it had to be an album I purchased or received that was released during calendar year 2002, it had to be an album that I returned to regularly and that I simply enjoyed. There's not much in the way of thinking about the music as a music critic per se, they just had to be my 10 favorites of the year.
The numbers - 46 albums in my library released/purchased/burned or gifted in 2002.