Best of 2001 | Music

Top ten of 2001

Albums

Shins – Oh Inverted World Beautiful melodies and even more beautiful words. Think the Zombies updated for the 00s. The only record this year I felt a need to really spread the word about.

Pernice Brothers – The World Won’t End In a perfect world, you'd be hearing every song on this album on Top 40 radio. But since that won't happen, they've mixed this as if it was. Not since the Fountains of Wayne's first album has there been pop this perfect. Minus half a point for sounding too much like ELO a couple times of the record.

Stars – Nightsongs Delicate tunes, sensitive lyrics and production that seems right off a Pet Shop Boys album. What's not to like?

Sloan – Pretty Together Sloan are so smart that they reinvent themselves on every album out of sheer boredom. Still trolling the 70s, this time they have melded KISS and Fleetwood Mac and yet they still sound like Sloan. Not as good as Between the Bridges, but really excellent nonetheless.

Grant-Lee Philips – Mobilize GLP isn't as Americana-sounding as he was in his Grant Lee Buffalo days and has embraced technology. That's a good thing. His songs are still great and his voice is amazing. Plus he's on the Gilmore Girls, not that that's a reason to put his album on a top ten list.

Hefner – Dead Media Songwriting-wise, Hefner's Darren Hayman is doing the same thing he always does -- arch, literate odes to love, sex and breaking up. On Dead Media though, almost all of it is played on old analog synths with some slide guitar for good measure. Smiths fans will like it.

Stephen Malkmus -- Stephen Malkmus SM ditches Pavement and makes his most enjoyable record since Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain. He's also aiming for guitar-god status, with some boogie-rock solos mixed in with his Lou Reed fixations and songs about Yul Brenner.

Zero 7 – The Simple Things Yes, it sounds like Air meeting Morcheeba is some hip London club, but so what? Both those bands suck now. Somebody's got to fill the void and The Simple Things does it very, very well.

Animals that Swim – Happiness from a Distant Star I was initially dissapointed with ATS' third album, but have come to really like it. Singer/drummer Hank Stars' songs are like little movies about the seedy side of London. All of which are set to jaunty little tunes with plenty of trumpet.

Kingsbury Manx – Let You Down Be it Luna, Acetone or the early days of the Verve, I love the indie stoner rock. The Kingsbury Manx do the dreamy, languid, hazy thing better than just about anybody these days. That they write really good songs with Beach Boys harmonies doesn't hurt either.

Best record of 2001 that didn’t get released: Wilco – Yankee Hotel Foxtrot

Also-rans: Super Furry Animals – Rings Around the World, New Order – Get Ready, Pulp – We Love Life, Chameleons – Why Call it Anything?, Rufus Wainright – Poses, Echo & the Bunnymen – Flowers, Human League – Secrets, Radiohead live, Mercury Rev – All Is Dream, I Am Kloot – Natural History, American Analog Set – Know By Heart, Trembling Blue Stars – Alive to Every Smile, The Strokes – Is This It, Weezer – S/T, Kings of Convenience – Versus, Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci - How I LongTo Feel That Summer In My Heart, Travis – The Invisible Band, The Avalanches – Since I Left You, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – BMRC, White Stripes – White Blood Cells

Best live show: Sloan, Bowery Ballroom 11/19/2001

Songs

Travis – “Sing”

Jimmy Eat World – “Bleed American”

Belle and Sebastian – “I’m Waking Up to Us”

The Chameleons – “Miracles and Wonders”

Shins – “New Slang”