2000 lists

This is part one of a three part issue - the top 40 albums of the last year (or two). Part 2: The Top 100 Tracks Of The Year Part 3: Other 2000 best-ofs: music, TV, whatever Introduction Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Great Divide. My aim when writing this e-zine is to try to bridge the gap between... ah fucket, you don’t care. Just read this, it’ll give you the idea. ALBUMS OF THE YEAR Note: Quite a lot of these are actually from 1999, it’s just that New Zealand (where I live, if you haven’t figured it out yet) is a few months behind the rest of the world, and I’m a few months behind the rest of New Zealand. Note: Next to each album is my star rating, which’ll hopefully help get you used to my rating system. In short, 2 stars is average, 3 stars is good, 4 stars is superb, and 5 stars is “holy shit”. I grade to the nearest quarter star because I’m a geek. But you probably guessed that already. 40 Tosca - Suzuki Star rating: ***1/4 Well, this is #40, which means of course there’s no way in hell it would’ve made the list if I had got to listen to all the music I wanted to this year. But I doubt that would bother Richard Dorfmeister, even if he knew who I was, largely because nothing seems to bother him. If he ever got excited about anything this album would probably be twenty places higher. So take this for what it is: a very downbeat/chill-out record that’ll keep us occupied until the next project with that slightly more excitable Kruder chap. 39 Asian Dub Foundation - Community Music ***1/4 One that everyone was raving Julyish, but everyone calmed down a bit come end of year list time (NME and Melody Maker put them at similar positions to me), so I don’t have to carp about how overrated they are. Suffice to say they have some really good ideas which sometimes work and sometime don’t. “New Way, New Life” was a fine single, but when the next best track from a band feted for their political insight is the instrumental, you know they’re not quite there yet. 38 De La Soul - Art Official Intelligence - Mosaic Thump ***1/4 Once the hardest of hip-hoppers to peg, these days you know what to expect from De La Soul - if you don’t like ‘em by now, you never will. And if like me, what you loved about 3 Feet High & Rising was its sense of non-stop fun, you’ll see this as one of their better efforts. Apparently this is just part 1 of a trilogy - can’t wait for the rest. Guilty admission: my favourite track was the one with Redman. 37 Indigo Girls - Retrospective ***1/4 The Indigo Girls seem to float in and out of credibility from year to year, but I’ve never had a problem with earnestness, as long as it’s spirited. Pretty self-explanatory - all the faves and a couple of new tracks are there (but nothing pre-’89); if nothing else, it convinced me Emily’s (the folky one) tracks are on average a little better than Amy’s (the punky one), and that the McGarrigles are better still. Cheap asses should consider getting 1992’s Rites Of Passage instead (for half the price) - not only has it got their one truly great song “Galileo” on it, it’s also got Amy’s version of “Romeo And Juliet” - which trounces a weak field for the title of “best Dire Straits cover ever”. 36 Various - Music From The Tea Lands ***1/4 You have to be deeply suspicious of this compilation of Asian music from the shiny happy people at Putumayo World Music: the Tatarstani singer is Australian, the ehru player lives in Canada, and the leader of the band on track 9 has the distinctly Asian name of Matthew Mountfort. But it’s all very good, standouts being the Indian American (as opposed to American Indian) guitarist Sanjay Mishra, and the through-and-through Pakistani ghazal singer Ghulam Ali. Even Mountfort’s ensemble Ancient Future far exceeds the “oh God, no” expectations their name suggests. The Indestructible Beat Of Calcutta it ain’t, though, and Asian musicians still wait for a saviour to help them rake in those elusive US sales. 35 Bjork - Selmasongs ***1/4 Only heard it in December, so the rating’s subject to change - it’s more likely to go up because of some subtlety I may have missed. What I’ve worked out so far: wonderful weirdo singer pays post-modern homage to Hollywood musicals. That is, it’s a Bjork album that’s too short by half to achieve all its aims, particularly since I haven’t seen the movie. 34 Green Day - Warning ***1/4 Did someone buy these guys a bunch of Randy Newman records or something? Not that they’ve become cynical or anything, but suddenly they seem to be crafting songs instead of solely relying on their natural pop sense and the Californian sunshine. And crucially, the slow songs don’t suck. Sadly, all those songs about masturbation mean they’ll never be listened to as open-mindedly as they deserve. Only heard it in December, so subject to change. 33 Mary Timony - Mountains ***1/4 If “too hippie” or “too Joni” (1) are among your list of perjoratives, this isn’t for you. For everyone else, the solo debut from the former lead singer of Helium (a band who no one I know has ever heard of, never mind heard). Sparse arrangements focus attention on the lyrics, which are hit/miss, but while you can’t escape the occasional “there will always be weak and always be strong”, there’s a series of wonderful images, most of which seem to involve poison for some reason. And if the Flaming Lips could write melodies this good, well, they probably wouldn’t bother with their symphonic arrangements and no one would like them. (1) There’s a bunch of people who want to crucify the critics who compare every female singer-songwriter to Joni Mitchell (I don’t - well, only the good ones), so how about Philip Glass? (Good, now while they’re busy looking up their music encyclopaedias to see whether or not I made up that last reference, I can skip town). 32 Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now ***1/2 And speaking of The Great One (a nickname I believe she made up for herself), for the first time since I was born, Joni’s made an album that wouldn’t be embarrassed to come from the same planet as Blue, Court & Spark and all those other great 70’s albums. Still almost unbearably pretentious, of course, but the decades she’s spent honing her voice come through in this song cycle on love and relationships and how the life story of an affair mirrors the progression of human development blah blah blah... All you need to know is that the version of “Both Sides Now” on this kills the original. 31 Roni Size & Reprazent - In The Mode ***1/2 Only heard it in December. If this was MC Dynamite’s audition for Wu membership, Roni’s gonna need a new rapper. Not as sonically groundbreaking as New Forms, but perhaps more substantial. 30 Blink 182 - Enema Of The State ***1/2 Released ’99. They should be thankful that Limp Bizkit have taken their place as modern rock’s critical whipping boys for writers who’ve lost their sense of humour (i.e. the people who liked Kid A. And yes, before you ask, Kid A is on this list). It’s uncertain whether they’ll do a Green Day - but I’ll be quite happy if they don’t. 29 Cesaria Evora - Cafe Atlantico ***1/2 Released ’99. One of only two African albums of the list, which is surely an injustice. The best way to sell something to me is to put a big sticker on the cover saying “sings like Billie Holiday”. Or better yet, make that the title - if there was an album called Adam Sandler Sings Like Billie Holiday, I’d buy a couple of copies. Anyway, they say Macy Gray and Erykah Badu sing like Billie because of the tone colour, which is nice, but Cesaria captures what made Billie really great (the greatest?) - the rhythm. Unfortunately, I don’t have translations for the lyrics to what I understand are South American party songs, but just listen to that voice for the happiest damn morna you’ll ever hear. 28 Latin Playboys - Dose ***1/2 Released ’99. “I am now announcing that Ironsides is now ready for boarding for our trip to the movie show starring Ricardo Montalban and some hueras!” What else can I say? Well, quite a lot actually, given most of you have probably forgotten who Los Lobos are. A couple of Los Lobians teamed up with uberproducers Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blade in ‘94 to huge acclaim from ageing dean of rock critics Robert Christgau and no one else; this is the sequel, and the innovation is apparent - all the bells and whistles, they’re just distorted. It’s experimental and fun; who else can you say that of? (Answer: Most of the people on the list) 27 Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica ***1/2 In the old days lazy writers like me could sum up 90% of indie rock releases with “sounds like Pavement except...” Now that Pavement appear to have gone down the gurgler, it’s become “sounds like the Flaming Lips except...” Anyway, this is the Interactive Age, so fill in the blank yourself: this album sounds like (insert name of generic indie band here - Grandaddy may be closest), except better. It’s because instead of throwing a series of loaded phrases against a string section and seeing what sticks, they bother to arrange those phrases into actual songs with actual ideas - must be something in that Nor’western water (see: Sleater-Kinney, Le Tigre). 26 Basement Jaxx - Remedy ***1/2 Released ’99. I generally prefer “house music” as a style of production rather than a style of song - if house is all you bring to the table, it’s gonna be hard to stand out from those other 1000000 house tracks released last week, whereas if you work in a genre with fewer rules, like downbeat or big beat, it’s easier to display the gifts that you have. But this does prove that such music can be an end in itself. The Jaxx don’t always stick to four-on-the-floor, but the best tracks (“Rendez-Vu”, “Bingo Bango”) prove the house formula can be brought to life with some talent and effort. Now, if only someone could do the same for trance... 25 A Tribe Called Quest - Anthology ***1/2 Released ’99. Never liked these guys as much as some, so this recording’s perfect for me. I think it was the sound that people fell in love with, with the lyrics merely support. Which isn’t to say their wordplay couldn’t be fun - “Bonita Applebum” is still the premiere chill-out track in all hip-hop - but some acid to go with the jazz would’ve helped. Q-Tip seems to be rapping a lot smarter since he left. 24 Sonic Youth - NYC Ghosts & Flowers ***1/2 You know it’s the third millennium when you can refer to a Sonic Youth album as “traditional”. It’s just like all those other Sonic Youth albums, in all-around feel if not exact style: there’s the Obligatory Intricate Guitar Jam, the Obligatory Kim Feminist Anthem, the Obligatory Pretty One, the Obligatory Try-To-Put-Them-Off-Buying-The-Next-Album Song... Yup, it’s just another Sonic Youth album, which means it’s the most original album of the year. 23 Radiohead - Kid A ***1/2 So what’s up with all the US mags who said this was the best thing since sliced bread, then didn’t make this their album of the year? And the UK mags who gave this middling reviews, then put in their top ten albums of the year? In the first case, it’s “well everyone else gave this good reviews, so if we make this our album of the year, we’re too predictable”. In the second, it’s “well people might think we’re stupid and we don’t understand if we don’t put this high up on our end of year list”. Hell, I understand that opinions vary widely on this one, and I don’t ask that you agree with me, but you at least have the guts to say what you really believe. Oh, and if you care what I think about the actual album, check out my review at SoundsNZ. It’s a bit showoffy, but it was for a competition. Brownie points if you spot the incorrect reference. More on Kid A later. 22 Blur - The Best Of Blur ***1/2 If you’re at art school in London, Blur are the best band ever. Me, I’ve never expected genius from them, which has helped me enjoy them a lot more that I would’ve had I taken the NME as fact. Supplements Parklife and Blur nicely. 21 M2M - Shades Of Purple ***1/2 _ A DIVERSION _ On Britney Spears, and why she’s beside the point. If you’re not interested, come back in 800 words. Britney, Britney, Britney, she’s everywhere, you don’t need me to tell you that. But you might need me to tell you that where it really matters to her, the Billboard charts, Britney’s in the shadow of the true champions on teenpop: N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys. N’Sync’s No Strings Attached topped the Billboard end of year chart - Oops... I Did It Again only managed fourth. No Strings Attached has already got a diamond award (for ten million sales); Oops... has amassed a mere 8 mill. Admittedly, if you factor in overseas sales, where N’Sync’s profile is not nearly so high, Britney may well come out on top. But the Backstreet Boys, whom many were ready to write off after amassing “only” a million and a half in first week sales, have come back to ship as many records in five weeks as Britney did in 32. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the Spice Girls are struggling to avoid becoming the punch line to every ten-year-old’s joke, while those nice young Irish boys Westlife quietly (veeery quietly) notched up seven straight number one hits (but missed out on an eighth thanks to the less plastic and more animated Bob The Builder). In NZ the old farts make a big deal about our culture becoming to Americanised, but if Westlife is the alternative... So why does Britney get written about more than those who outsell her? The answer’s really simple - the media’s run by middle-aged men, and middle-aged men are perverts. As I said, simple. OK, then why, despite higher profiles and better music (than N’Sync and Westlife, anyway), why do Brit and the Spices get consistently outsold? Come to think of it, who actually likes Westlife? There’s an Australian magazine called Dolly that was my sister’s Bible from about 11 to 14. The thing is, the cover model was never a Britney type (and certainly never as old as a Spice Girl). She was always a 13 to 16 year old Aussie girl. Girls in this age group do want role models - but more often than not, they’re older sister, “girl-next-door” types. And Britney is most definitely not the girl next door, unless you live next door to a brothel. The girls who are interested in something more raunchy sure as hell aren’t gonna be listening to teenpop. As for the boys, they’re too busy looking staunch to help the Soundscan numbers. Sure, they spend their nights downloading the infamous Britney-oral sex clip over the Net, but taking Oops... to the checkout counter at their local music store would be far too embarrassing to do. A&R men are forever looking for the best possible balance between sexuality and safety. In retrospect, they probably realise that a little too much sexuality cost Brit a few million in sales - but wait for the next album, I bet it’ll be almost all ballads. Westlife, on the other hand, are the kind of band that make you want to sit down and knit a woolly jumper - far too safe to ever succeed internationally, although their nice bland ballad approach does widen their potential demographic to include octogenarians. Really. But the masters of the genre are N’Sync and the Backstreet Boys (hereafter referred to as the BSB). It’s a bit disappointing to see the top of the Billboard charts so male dominated once again, especially after all the progress made by female artists of varying talent during the 90’s. I mean, the Spices got it so right back in ’96, but having kids makes you look old, which is the ultimate no-no. And that’s what’s happening to the BSB right now - one of them ever got married, for crying out loud. Teenpop, like most genres, places great value on novelty and youth (no one wants to listen to the same bands as their older brothers or sisters), and there’s nothing else Nick and AJ and whatever the hell the rest of their names are can do about it. Even if Max Martin hadn’t screwed up “Shape Of My Heart” through overproduction, they still wouldn’t’ve matched N’Sync’s first week 2.4 mill. In these tough times, the BSB have had to fall back on their trump card - singing. And it’s come through for them. “Shape Of My Heart” has had just enough life to convince the fans who bought their last album and actually played it more than twice that the Boys still have it, that the singing and songs on the record will be sufficiently appealing to them to reward repeat listening. It does wonders for your faith in the ideal that quality will win out in the end. _ NORMAL TRANSMISSION RESUMES HERE _ And if M2M had even Britney’s wardrobe budget, they’d be huge. But not huge huge, because they’re Norwegian. At the very least, they should be aimed not at 7 to 10 year olds who bought the Pokemon Soundtrack, but at their optimum target audience, which extends up to at least 14. The proof of the quality of these midteen girls is “Don’t Say You Love Me”, which they cowrote? (which might actually be true), and the best chorus of the millennium so far: “Don’t say you love me, you don’t even know me/If you really love me, then give me some time/Don’t say you want me, not before I’m ready” and then the killer: “Don’t say your hearts in a hurry/It’s not like we’re gonna get married”. The rest isn’t anywhere near as good, but it’s more than good enough. 20 Sleater-Kinney - All Hands On The Bad One ***1/2 I hadn’t even heard of S-K at the start of the year - gee, thanks mainstream music press. Now that they’re firmly entrenched in my top 5 rock bands (and I haven’t even heard Call The Doctor yet), this record doesn’t quite bring me the same rock-is-not-dead relief I got when I first heard it, since it’s obviously not their best. Still, it’s really good. “You’re No Rock ’N’ Roll Fun” has been the critics’ choice, producing various guesses on who’s the butt of the joke (my opinion: everyone who isn’t a Sleater-Kinney fan). But I like the title track even better, a see-you-in-hell song ten times better than anything Manson’s even done. 19 Spiderbait - Grand Slam ***1/2 Released ’99. Another song that restored my faith in whatever was Spiderbait’s “Glokenpop”, which I first heard on bFM, our alternative station (meaning there are lots of jokes in the ads and none in the music), after 20-odd minutes of run-of-the mill house tunes. Needless to say, I never heard the song on the station again. Like the Chills’ “Heavenly Pop Hit”, it’s a great pop song about great pop songs. Unlike in “Heavenly Pop Hit”, the cynical side of “Glokenpop” is deliberately placed and unavoidable - “think of the cash you can make when they all sing along” - but it seems more like self-protection to retain their credibility, what with critics not too keen on happiness in music these days (and decades). But the sunniness of the song, which no amount of snideness can kill, is music’s best vindication of optimism over cynicism since the Pet Shop Boys’ “Go West”. By the way, the rest of the album’s not half bad either. 18 Various - Magnolia Soundtrack ***3/4 Released ’99. Although I preach tolerance of all genres and rally against pop snobbishness, I sure as hell wasn’t gonna download the Supertramp songs when I compiled this record (full pretentious Paul Thomas Anderson title, Magnolia: Music From The Motion Picture) on my hard drive. And though I quite like that Gabrielle song, I only got the Aimee Mann ones. The cover of “One” is much better than I had heard (and about 600 times better than Filter’s version), the rest is excellent, and it’s a relief that for the first time in over a decade, Aimee can write songs that aren’t about Jules Shear. But it’s not the all-time great album that many of us think she has in her. 17 Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP ***3/4 If you think two songs make an album (as Melody Maker did- no wonder they went bust), here’s your album of the year. No other album this year has two truly great songs (OK, the Beatles’ album might) - but “The Real Slim Shady” and “Stan” make the grade. Well, although I come from the CD age and thus don’t mind having to skip the occasional track, I still demand a certain level of consistency. So why it isn’t higher is easy, and it’s nothing to do with morality - well, everything on this album has to do with morality, so I mean it’s not to do with my rejection of his morality. It’s just when you depend on going over the top for your impact, you’re gonna have a lot of misses - “Drug Ballad”, “Amityville” and “Kim” are just three which are too forced to be any fun. Maybe the critics who like this the most miss the days when they didn’t have to be responsible journalists and could act like dicks, whereas I’ve always acted like a dick, so I take it for granted. Everything else I want to say is said pretty well by Chris Herrington here, except that when I listen to this, I get that whole In Utero “accident waiting to happen” feeling. If the guy stays alive (which he probably will) and stays out of jail (more iffy), the great album will come. Oh, and Steps put this at number four on their year end list. 16 Le Tigre - Le Tigre ***3/4 Released ’99. Shocking news: Kathleen Hanna has fun... Even more shocking news: Sampler-based music is fun. I’d say something about a woman’s touch, but Kathleen tends to take these things the wrong way. 15 Cassandra Wilson - Traveling Miles ***3/4 Released ’99. It’s hard to make an average album when you’re the best singer in the world, and when you’re doing a tribute to Miles (Davis, for those of you who aren’t on a first name basis yet), it’s impossible. And “Right Here, Right Now” just kicks the asses of all those other end-of-millennium songs. 14 Shihad - The General Electric ***3/4 Released ’99, and only my cheapness stopped me from getting it then. One of two New Zealand albums on the list, which is surely a case of under/overrepresentation (depending on your geographical location), but there’s no do7 Against The Machine, and they play better too. 13 Sleater-Kinney - The Hot Rock ***3/4 Released ’99. Beats the tighter All Hands mostly on the basis of lyrics. Case in point #1: the beautifully intense love-as-terminal illness ballad, “The Size Of Our Love” - “Put the ring on my finger, so tight it turns blue, a constant reminder I'll die in this room if you die in this room.” Case in point #2: the gentler, better still “A Quarter To Three” - “The photo booth strip, and the letter you wrote, they feel like nothing I could hold.” Don’t ask me for point #3 - listen. 12 Jay-Z - Vol. 3 - Life And Times Of S. Carter ***3/4 Released ’99. Sleater-Kinney would undoubtedly be pissed off at losing to this guy. But just as Cassandra Wilson is the best singer in the world, Shawn Carter is the best7responsibility lifestyle that’s the dream of so many (don’t tell me you wouldn’t like to at least try it) been portrayed as attractively as this, while the production might be the best of the year. But the real question is: You’ve got millions of dollars and no responsibilities. If you wanted to stab a guy, why the hell would you do it yourself? 11 James Carter - Layin’ In The Cut ***3/4 If you’re a rock fan who’s done Bitches Brew and wants to move on to something more recent, you can’t do better than this. You might think his simultaneously released Chasin’ The Gypsy too difficult (my back-covering euphemism for “crap”), but this is fresh, funky and not a tribute to Django. 10 Moby - Play ***3/4 Released ’99. Yeah, you know all about this one. Can’t give it the elusive full four stars (maybe if he had used Harry Smith samples instead of Alan Lomax), but it’s the most accessible non-cheese electronic record ever, meaning you can dance to it but you don’t have to. 9 John Prine - In Spite Of Ourselves **** Another best-album-of-my-lifetime type effort, with folk-country legend Prine teaming7up with a bunch of female vocalists - Iris DeMent on four tracks, plus Emmylou Harris, Trisha Yearwood, Lucinda “Queen Of The World” Williams - for a series of old country standards (none of which I’d heard of) turned into duets. The singing’s as good as you’d expect, and there’s just enough time at the end for John to prove he can still write, with the title track, as Iris sings to him: “He ain’t got laid in a month of Sundays/Caught him once, and he was sniffin’ my undies”. 8 King Kapisi - Savage Thoughts **** No one in music has as much to say as the King. He’s a Samoan New Zealander, and he has a pile of chips on his shoulder - against racism, colonialism, but mostly against Christianty, which he sees as enslaving his people. It comes off best in “Reverse Resistance”, which in retrospect is one of the best singles of recent years - for the first time ever, atheism and rhythm in the same song! Now, so often the guys with the best lyrical ideas can’t find music that’s good enough to match them. But Kapisi’s flow is exceptional - better than Eminem, nearly up with Jay-Z, and well along the long road towards his model Rakim. The album isn’t flawless, so can he improve on it? 7 Primal Scream - XTRMNTR **** It’s been an age since Screamadelica, the album which more than any set the tone for the decade (I’ve heard this a lot; guess they forgot about that Cobain guy). It’s a different decade now, have Primal Scream (alright, PRML SCRM) done it again? The answer: how the hell should I know? As far as I can tell, this one’s as original and good as Screamadelica, but no one’s noticed this time around. Kid A is the most obvious and best comparison, if only to show how brilliant this album really is. In terms of depth, certainly, the ideas expressed on these two records are carefully thought out and at least self-consistent. But Kid A, more than any of Radiohead’s previous work, is an admission of defeat. Where Radiohead offer an escape that wasn’t worth the effort, Primal Scream offer defiance, with at the very least the promise of a good fight. Kid A’s only defence is that it’s prettier, and if that’s enough for you, that’s fine. Me, I’ll take the exhilaration of The Bends or XTRMNTR. I say Kid A is Radiohead’s Give Out But Don’t Give Up, a brave stab outside their natural genre, pretty good but paling in comparison to their previous work. But where the Primals were pilloried for sidestepping their true talents, Radiohead receive even more praise. Sucks to be Primal Scream. 6 Magnetic Fields - 69 Love Songs **** Released ’99. Short review: this album consists of 69 love songs, some of which are brilliant. Long review: This album consists of 69 love songs. Only a few people heard it, but of those who did, a lot of them got really excited. It’s pretty unlikely it’ll ever get a proper release around these parts - in the shops, I’ve only seen disc three, and it was $NZ40. So I had to download the whole fricken thing, over a period of about three month, but it was worth it. That said, I don’t think it’s for everyone. There’s a top chance you’ll love it to bits, but it might not touch you at all; I don’t think it’s a work you can merely like it (although NME put it at #46 in their 2000 end-of-year list, go figure). It depends on how much you like filling in the gaps. Disregard the half-dozen funny-once novelties (“Punk Love”, “World Love” etc.) and you’re left two song types - “fleshed” and “skeleton”. The fleshed songs are the longer ones, and the longest is “Papa Was A Rodeo”, which at five minutes is an absolute epic by Stephin Merritt’s standards. It draws a basic setting and vividly sketches the narrator - a travelling man (although gender doesn’t matter) who’s “never hung around long enough for a one night stand”. For a song this long, there’s even a plot as well, which I suppose I shouldn’t give away for those who haven’t heard it (who should download it now), but suffice to say there’s a happy ending which Merritt has time to be cynical about. From this you can draw out the usual themes, like “fate is kind” and “there’s someone for everyone” (add your own favourites). These fleshed songs are approximately equal in number to the skeletons (no, I’m not going to count them), such as “Grand Canyon”, which is short enough for me to reproduce the entire lyric here: If I was the Grand Canyon I’d echo everything you’d say, But I’m just me, I’m only me, And you used to love me that way So you know how to love me that way. If I was Paul Bunyan I’d carry you so far away, But I’m just me, I’m only me, And you used to love me that way So you know how to love me that way. If this is all you get, you’ve gotta use your imagination. [The game, part one.] Start by imagining Stephin in his home studio, saying to himself, “Shit, I wanted to do 100 love songs and I’ve only got 28. What’s an angle I haven’t covered yet. How ‘bout a song that uses lots and lots of reverb? Now what would that sound like? Like the Grand Canyon.” Imagine Stephin scrawling a couple of verses on the back of an envelope, recording the song with megareverb, deciding it sounds stupid and switching to a different sonic trick, a somewhat more comforting bed of voices underneath. [The game, part two.] Now we go through the “what does it all mean” phase. Your imagination should be nicely warmed up now, so use it. Got it? Well, I pictured a middle-aged, middle class couple in a failing relationship, taking a holiday in Arizona. While marvelling at the beauty of the surroundings, the partner who’s still in love makes their final attempt to save the relationship by admitting his humanity with the verses stated above. Buggered if I know if it worked. No doubt you came up with something different, and you may well have been right. To me, the real difference between “Papa Was A Rodeo” and “Grand Canyon” is that for the former, Merritt makes the game optional, and for the latter, it’s mandatory. I try to approach different songs in different ways, but having something specific to latch on to will increase my reaction greatly. If your listening works this way, and you can’t overcome this through imagination or otherwise, then you’ll be frustrated by every other song, and you won’t think this is a wonderful album. But obviously, I did. 5 Fela Kuti - The Best Best Of Fela Kuti: The Black President ****1/4 Released ’99. Sick of depressing rock music and depressing dance music, I started dabbling in African pop. Refreshingly I found something downright upbeat. Fela Kuti was a Nigerian dissident who criticised military governments, had 27 wives and died in 1997. More importantly, he made some of the funkiest music of the last three decades. James Brown was his model, as can be heard in the charging horns and aggressive vocals (in English), and since, sadly, most of you don’t know anything about the Godfather, I’ll throw in a Bob Marley comparison for free. Both he and Marley fused the beats of their homelands with Western instrumentation, both injected deceptively simple political insights into their work, and both smoked acres of pot. Some of Fela’s political beliefs might not translate well to this part of the world (e.g. the whole 27 wives thing); but hell, the sax solos more than make up for this. This collection is the centrepiece of a comprehensive series of reissues. About half the songs here are shortened versions, which is great for short attention span types because Fela could go on - he was in the habit of filling up one side of an album with one track. Focus may have been a weak point, but if you want to reaffirm your belief in the human spirit, it’s hard to go past this album. 4 PJ Harvey - Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea ****1/4 Until very recently, I dismissed PJ as hype, as nothing more than a more cultured Alanis. Shit, was I wrong, and to make for it, I’m willing to carry Ms Harvey’s boots when she comes to Auckland in a couple of weeks. I only heard it a couple of weeks ago, which has been long enough for me to figure out I really, really like it, but not long enough to figure out why. Everyone says this is a more mellow album - is this why I like it more? Well, my favourite track is the Obligatory Reference To Prostitution, “The Whores Hustle And The Hustlers Whore”, a rocker that’s the most traditional PJ song on the album. So I dunno, maybe I’m just getting older. Or maybe she is. 3 Blackalicious - Nia ****1/4 I think this was released late ’99. This low key release was criminally overlooked; you’d think that getting DJ Shadow in for a couple of tracks would get them some attention. Or else they could’ve pulled guns on their wives or something. Or got Michael Jackson’s disease and changed their names to Whitealicious. But Chief Xcel (previously best known for being on the Endtroducing... cover) and the Gift Of Gab are far too nice for that; they respect women and gently rail against the gangsta mindset. Their main weapon: common sense, something not always apparent in rock ’n’ roll. Witness “Shallow Days”, where Gab defends their low kill count “because I don’t live that way”, then recall a conversation with a gangsta rapper, who defends his genre with “I didn’t make the ghetto - the ghetto made the man”. Gab then gets the last verse to sum up their raison d’etre - they work for peace because “kids look up to what you’re portraying and mimic what you act like”, even though they may written off by some as ‘unreal, something they can’t feel, while they keep yellin’ “murder murder murder, kill kill kill”’. Gab’s voice has a sorta yearning quality during this section, yet he still makes his point so calmly and logically that it’s impossible to dispute. If you’re into fireworks, you won’t find much here, aside from DJ Shadow’s contributions, and “A To G”, where like many underground crews, they use big words (first they use big words beginning with A, then B, then C... you get the idea), but unlike most underground crews, the big words actually mean something. But this is mostly that rare beast, a quality hip-hop album that exercises self-restraint. And only non-humans get iced. Obligatory WWF Reference on track 12. *Note: This is where the Beatles’ 1 would’ve been if it was eligible, but it’s not because it’s too much like the red compilation (16 tracks in common), and I like the red compilation much better. Here’s an album which I’ll give five stars to if anyone ever compiles it: “Please Please Me” - “She Loves You” - “I Want To Hold Your Hand” - “Twist And Shout” - “Money” - “A Hard Day’s Night” - “I Feel Fine” - “Ticket To Ride” - “Help” - “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” - “In My Life” - “We Can Work It Out” - “Norwegian Wood” - “Eleanor Rigby” - “Yellow Submarine” - “Tomorrow Never Knows” - “Strawberry Fields Forever” - “Penny Lane” - “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” - “A Day In The Life” - “All You Need Is Love” - “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” - “Here Comes The Sun” - “Hello Goodbye”. And before you start complaining that I left out “Hey Fricken Jude”, I left space for 3 of your favourites. 2 OutKast - Stankonia ****1/2 Only heard it in December, but I’ve listened to it a helluva lot since then. No self-restraint here. These guys have got rave reviews everywhere, yet they still can’t get any damn album of the year awards. Maybe if instead of apologising to Ms Jackson for having a failed relationship with her daughter (Erykah Badu?), they apologised for killing her daughter... Better not give Eminem any ideas. It’s not to say that Andre 3000 and Big Boi ain’t gangstas, they’re just gangstas with brains, and “You can't discrimi-hate cause you done read a book or two”. They want to “burn American dreams” and stand against materialism, or at least ostentatious materialism - you gotta buy your kid shoes or pay child support. That’s what you’d expect from guys who proclaim “the world is movin’ fast and I’m losin’ my balance”? But they’re even better when they forego politics for the personal, and sexuality in particular. If “Ms Jackson” isn’t proof enough, how about the oddly sympathetic joke “We Love Deez Hoes”? Or “I’ll Call Before I Come” - “Do you really know what it feels like to have no control over the G spot? It's like a brand new pair of Reeboks or a junkie freshly detoxed.” And then there’s the sound - taking Snoop and Dre’s mid-nineties G-Funk as a starting point, Dre and Big Boi double the Parliament, add some Southern juices from their home town Atlanta, mix it in their hard drives and come out with the electrofunkiest record ever (Roni Size must wish “Bombs Over Baghdad” was on his album). And if that sounds bewildering, well, it may be dense, but the next hook is always only a chorus away. Aquemini was wonderful, but this puts them among the all-time great hip-hop crews. 1 Aimee Mann - Bachelor No. 2, Or The Last Remains Of The Dodo ****1/2 And this is the all-time great album many of us thought she had in her; it’s just one top track after another. I didn’t get it for a while because I was under the impression that it was almost the same album as the Magnolia soundtrack, but in fact there are only 3 tracks in common. On this there’s “Deathly”, which is on Magnolia, which has the wonderful opening, “Now that I’ve met you/Would you object to/Never seeing each other again?” And “Red Vines”, not on Magnolia, which is equally cynical about young love: “Am I the only one who knows that Disneyland’s about to close?” But the absolute killer is “Ghost World”, where she draws the character of a kid who’s a nerd but not very good at it, who’s just finished high school and now has not so much no future as no plans. Amateur musicology time: Aside from her drawl, I think what gives her voice that world-weary, languid quality is her habit of staying off the beat. She lags behind it, or else she sings on the half beat, and the latter technique dominates the verses of “Ghost World”. It’s about those long summer holiday kids in America get, and how they’re so easily wasted. It’s about watching other people growing up around you: “Everyone I know is acting weird or way too cool,” and wondering whether it’s worth it. But most of all I take it as the ultimate anti-Spice Girls song, with the closing “so tell me what I want” saying that many of us reject the materialism of the Spices (or Jay-Z), but then suffer from losing that as a goal or a focus, leading to aimlessness. We don’t what others have, but what does that leave us with? As a boredom song it’s almost up with “The Dock Of The Bay”; as a lack of motivation song it surpasses it. And if you think that was sacrilege, you’ll hate this: Aimee’s “Ghost World” vocal is every bit as good as Otis’s on “Dock”. Is there hope? Well, in the closer, “You Do”, she sings “I'm the one who tells you he's another jerk” and “But though there are caveats galore/You've only got to love him more”. Do you buy it? Next: The Top 100 Tracks Of The Year  News: The Grammy nominations are out: best album is between "The Marshall Mathers LP", "Kid A", "Midnite Vultures", "Two Against Nature" (Steely Dan) and "You're The One" (Paul Simon). So it's guaranteed to go to a decent but overrated album, which I suppose is better than Santana. Latest update: Jan 11th, 2001 Finally worked out how to get links to work. Minor errors corrected, blatant product promotion added. Name of website seems increasingly predictible and lame; will probably change it. To read the current (and only) issue, click here. If you get linked to a page belonging to Ron Williams, or a page in Finnish, let me know... Make me some goddamn money. Click below and buy something expensive.

CDNOW  Forgetting the obvious question (has everybody forgotten Aimee Mann already?), the leading omission from the 2000 best-of is OutKast’s Stankonia. Taking Snoop and Dre’s mid-nineties G-Funk as a starting point, Dre and Big Boi double the Parliament, add some Southern juices from their home town of Atlanta, mix it in their hard drives and come out with the electrofunkiest record ever. Lyrically, would anyone else write a song to an ex-girlfriend’s (Erykah Badu’s?) mother (on “Ms Jackson”: check out the bars of “Here Comes The Bride” at the end)? And their flow kills the Jurassic 5’s.  Not much here, as I haven’t been round long enough to have a decent number of questions asked. Q. Who the hell are you? Brad Luen, resident of Mangere Bridge, Auckland, New Zealand, Chinese, early 20’s, student. Q. What makes you think you know anything? Well, I won a medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad. At school I was in teams that won Auckland Championships in debating and chess, and I’m currently holder of the Sir David Beattie Cup, as the best public speaker in all New Zealand Universities. Q. So you’re just a nerd with no actual qualifications? Right on.  Other 2000 bests I’ll add some comments eventually. Best movie: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ****1/2 By miles. Top ten TV series: 10.Duckman *** 9.Promised Land *** 8.Dragonball Z ***1/4 7.WWF Raw ***1/4 6.Buffy The Vampire Slayer ***1/2 5.South Park ***1/2 4.The West Wing ***1/2 3.Futurama ***3/4 2.Pokemon **** 1.King Of The Hill **** What can I say, I like cartoons. Top five wrestling shows: 5.Wrestlemania 2000 **3/4 4.Royal Rumble *** 3.No Mercy ***1/4 2.Summerslam ***1/4 1.Fully Loaded ***1/2 Yes, they’re all WWF - that’s not a mistake. 1

Singles

#20 Le Tigre "Hot Topic" - I notice they didn't mention Courtney Love.

#19 John Prine & Iris DeMent "In Spite Of Ourselves" - "Ain't got laid in a month on Sundays/Caught him once & he was sniffin' my undies..."

#18 Wheatus "Teenage Dirtbag" - "Creep" with a happy ending?

#17 Blackalicious "Sleep" - Hip-hop as lullaby.

#16 Morphine "The Night" - Goodnight, Mr Sandman.

#15 Modest Mouse "Third Planet" - For the record, the universe isn't actually shaped exactly like the earth.

#14 OutKast "Ms Jackson" - Dig the bars of "Here Comes The Bride" they throw in.

#13 M2M "Don't Say You Love Me" - "It's not like we're gonna get married..."

#12 Magnetic Fields "Grand Canyon" - Almost complete lyrics: "If I was the Grand Canyon/I'd echo everything you say/But I'm just me/I'm only me/And you used to love me that way".

#11Sleater-Kinney "All Hands On The Bad One" - Best "see you in hell" song ever.

#10 Shihad "Pacifier" - Suck on this...

#9 Blackalicious "Shallow Days" - Hip-hoppers as positive role models?

#8 Sonic Youth "Free City Rhymes" - Would be better if Thurston let Kim write the rhymes.

#7 Eminem "Stan" - Dido's gonna be huge - shame that.

#6 "I'm Fricking Awesome" - Ha! If you want to know the top 5, or read my other stuff about music and the arts, you'll have to visit my website at www.skybusiness.com/jadetree/index.html - sucked in.

#5 Sonique "It Feels So Good"

#4 Asian Dub Foundation "New Way New Life" (?)

#3 Spiderbait "Glockenpop"

#2 Aimee Mann "Ghost World"

#1 Eminem "The Real Slim Shady"