Radiohead's Kid A? PJ Harvey's Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea? On year-end Top 10 lists? Sure, but those weren't the only great albums released in 2000. The year was as good for music as it was bad for movies, with more outstanding albums than usual and more means than ever of obtaining them. Here are some of The Onion A.V. Club's favorites.
Joshua Klein
1. PJ Harvey, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (Island)
2. Allison Moorer, The Hardest Part (MCA)
3. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP (Aftermath/Interscope)
4. Lambchop, Nixon (Merge)
5. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On The Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
6. Marah, Kids In Philly (E-squared/Artemis)
Bruce Springsteen's recent reunion whetted appetites for more Jersey Shore magic. Marah hails from just a hair north, but the Philly band has the Boss' mid-Atlantic working-class mythology down pat. Some might dismiss its members as talented mimics, but the raw, honest passion captured on Kids In Philly is unmistakable. The disc enthusiastically and energetically tips its hat to Springsteen ("Point Breeze"), string bands ("Faraway You"), and Motown ("My Heart Is The Bums On The Street") while never straying far from stellar bar-band territory. It even makes yet another song about Vietnam ("Round Eye Blues") ring with relevance. Also check out the "Point Breeze" CD single for a rollicking run through Springsteen's "Streets Of Philadelphia."
7. Radiohead, Kid A (Capitol)
8. Grant Hart, Good News For Modern Man (Pachyderm)
Hüsker Dü featured one of the greatest songwriting teams of all time, but after a vicious implosion, Bob Mould was generally lauded as the band's creative force while Grant Hart contended with an unfair smear campaign. Mould's commercial success in the '90s further overshadowed Hart's contributions to his former band, but a cursory listen to any of Hüsker Dü's albums indicate that Hart is just as much of a genius. He waited 11 years before releasing his second solo album, Good News For Modern Man, and the disc bears the mark of a patient perfectionist: Hart wrote and played nearly everything here himself, and the quality often reaches the heights he attained in the Hüsker days. "You Don't Have To Tell Me Now" and "A Letter From Anne Marie" are classic Hart ballads, while "Think It Over Now," "In A Cold House," "Nobody Rides For Free," and the epic "Little Nemo" showcase his effortless way with anthems.
9. Badly Drawn Boy, The Hour Of Bewilderbeast (Twisted Nerve/XL)
10. The Delgados, The Great Eastern (Chemikal Underground/Beggars Banquet)
Best Waste Of Time
Canada's MuchMusic
The Canadian equivalent of MTV lacks the reach of its American cousin, but offers enough unfamiliar surprises (dance-music shows, indie acts, Canadian bands no one has heard of) to make it worth checking out at random channel-surfing intervals. All the major acts feel compelled to participate, but MuchMusic has a refreshingly off-the-cuff public-access feel to it. Check local listings, though you may require a satellite dish to indulge in its charms.
Best Napster Find
Eminem & Britney Spears, "Oops!…Slim Shady Did It Again"
Some brilliant geek with a lot of time on his hands seamlessly merged the music from Britney Spears' sublime "Oops!…I Did It Again" with Eminem's clever, fan-hating, teen-pop-trashing tirade. Not only does the altered track drip with irony, but it also works perfectly. No one will miss Spears' voice, while Swedish production whiz Max Martin makes a fine substitute for Dr. Dre, bringing together the best of both worlds and killing two Top 40 birds with one stone.
Biggest Inevitable Breakups
The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, Pavement
This year, Robert Smith finally followed through on the threat he's made since forming The Cure in the late '70s, and left for a shot at solo fame. Tormented mastermind Billy Corgan promised to pull the plug on The Smashing Pumpkins and came through with a pair of big-ticket Chicago blowouts. And, after years of purported dissent and even a few months of a supposed "indefinite hiatus," Corgan nemesis Steve Malkmus at last told the world that indie-rock mainstay Pavement was through for good. Meanwhile, Wu-Tang Clan somehow soldiers on.
Best Newcomers
Badly Drawn Boy, Nelly Furtado, The Kingsbury Manx
Damon Gough (a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy) has an ego to rival the Gallagher Brothers', but the casually ambitious music of his pastoral The Hour Of Bewilderbeast backs up his claims. Canadian-Portuguese singer Nelly Furtado might best be described as TLC crossed with Beck, except that Whoa, Nelly! is much better than that odd coupling implies. Chapel Hill's The Kingsbury Manx channels the folksy side of mid-'70s Eno so well that Low and Ida fans would do well to check out its self-titled debut.
Keith Phipps
1. PJ Harvey, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (Island)
2. Radiohead, Kid A (Capitol)
3. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP (Aftermath/Interscope)
4. Lambchop, Nixon (Merge)
5. Blackalicious, Nia (Quannum)
At one point on "A To G," Blackalicious lyricist Gift Of Gab, free-associating on the letter F, promises "funk for the future." Though the line sounds tossed off, the rest of Nia makes clear that Gab isn't boasting idly. Chief Xcel provides the beats, Gab the rhymes, but the two couldn't be more in step, combining the spirit of Native Tongues' heyday with the sound of the contemporary underground. Six years in the making, the album arrives with its kinks already worked out, providing funk for the future and, just as importantly, for right now.
6. Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Matador)
7. Dead Prez, Lets Get Free (Loud)
Militant Afro-centric socialism you can chant along with, celebrations of the pot-smoking vegetarian lifestyle, and some of the most irresistible beats of the year? This works on countless fronts.
8. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On The Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
9. Jurassic 5, Quality Control (Interscope)
10. The Apples In Stereo, The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone (Elephant 6/spinART)
At a time when Elephant 6 offshoots have begun to rival affiliates of Wu-Tang Clan in number, it's become increasingly difficult to sort the worthwhile from the dispensable. The Discovery Of A World Inside The Moone, the latest from alpha E6 outfit The Apples In Stereo, is the former, as essential as inhumanly ingratiating pop gets. Accessible enough to be snagged for a commercial and weird enough to never bore, the bastard children of Brian Wilson, The Beatles, Robert Pollard, and The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown have always sounded good, but never this good.
Best Alt-Country Song Recorded By A Native Of London
Peter Bruntnell, "You Won't Find Me"
A standout from the solid Normal For Bridgwater combining the classic country themes of yearning and defiance, "You Won't Find Me" could just as easily have come from the banks of the Mississippi as those of the Thames.
Best Alt-Country Song Recorded By A Native Of Tacoma, Washington
Neko Case And Her Boyfriends, "Thrice All American"
A love song to a dying city from Furnace Room Lullaby, it's the perfect anthem for the age of Starbucks and Applebees, sung by one of the purest country voices around.
Best Artist To Record Exclusively For Soundtracks You Didn't Buy
Pete Yorn
Check out the soundtrack for Me, Myself & Irene or Songs From Dawson's Creek Vol. 2 (or, better yet, Napster) for "Strange Condition" and "Just Another," two gems from an immensely promising singer-songwriter yet to make his album-length debut.
Best Argument Against The Supposed Death Of Rock 'N' Roll (Old)
The Who, BBC Sessions
Anything that still sounds this good can't be dead.
Best Argument Against The Supposed Death Of Rock 'N' Roll (New)
Sleater-Kinney's live cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Fortunate Son"
This song said a lot about 2000's election season, and nothing about the company that used it in a commercial to sell slacks. In the hands of Sleater-Kinney, there was no mistaking the message.
Nathan Rabin
1. Aimee Mann, Bachelor No. 2 (SuperEgo)
2. Dead Prez, Lets Get Free (Loud)
3. OutKast, Stankonia (La Face/Arista)
4. Talib Kweli + Hi-Tek, Reflection Eternal (Rawkus)
5. Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP (Aftermath/Interscope)
6. Black Eyed Peas, Bridging The Gap (Interscope)
Black Eyed Peas' criminally underrated Bridging The Gap illustrates just how potent accessible, dance-floor-friendly hip-pop can be when invested with intelligence, craft, and ambition. Aided by deft cameos from Mos Def, Esthero, Macy Gray, Wyclef Jean, and De La Soul, Bridging The Gap seamlessly blends pop, soul, hip-hop, and funk to create a heady but immediate sound that's breezy, pop-savvy, and just plain fun. On "Bringing It Back," the group even promises to do the running man and the cabbage patch to re-affirm that it's bringing back the good-time vibe of old-school hip-hop. Honestly, what more could you want?
7. Quasimoto, The Unseen (Stones Throw)
After making a striking impression as a producer and rapper with Lootpack's promising but monomaniacal battle-rap opus Soundpieces: Da Antidote, Madlib underwent a Bowie-worthy transformation into Quasimoto, a demented, helium-voiced hedonist with misplaced aggression to spare. A wigged-out sonic journey more obsessed with textures and vibes than songs or lyrics, The Unseen somehow feels at once homemade and extraterrestrial. It's inner-directed hip-hop weirdness at its most inspired.
8. Zion I, Mind Over Matter (Ground Control)
Perhaps the most overlooked hip-hop debut of the year, Zion I's Mind Over Matter is overstuffed and overlong, but it's passionate, ambitious, and imbued with a sense of purpose. Whether soul-searching alongside The Grouch ("Silly Puddy") or trading battle raps with Planet Asia ("Critical"), MC Zion's lyrics are eloquent and passionately delivered. But it's 418Hz's sure-handed production, particularly its fusion of hip-hop and drum-and-bass, that makes Mind Over Matter important. Like many debuts, it could use some editing, but it's a vital, socially conscious album that looks toward a better tomorrow for both hip-hop and mankind.
9. Deltron 3030, Deltron 3030 (75 Ark)
10. Common, Like Water For Chocolate (MCA)
Best Unreleased Album (Indie Hip-Hop Division)
Blood Of Abraham's, EyeDollarTree
Eazy-E's favorite orthodox Jews could have easily scored the biggest hip-hop comeback of 2000, if only their long-awaited second album hadn't been postponed indefinitely due to the financial woes of the Internet-centric label Atomic Pop. A swirling, psychedelic concept album based loosely around the corruption and phoniness of modern life, EyeDollarTree should eventually establish Blood Of Abraham's rightful place in progressive hip-hop. It's an eclectic, conceptually rich instant classic that ought to reach the adventurous audience it deserves.
Best Signing (Indie Hip-Hop Division)
75 Ark's signing of The Coup
The Coup's Steal This Album was one of 1998's most deserving success stories, becoming a major independent hit despite its release on a gangsta-heavy label (Dogday) that didn't effectively promote the irreverent Oakland Marxists. In 2000, Boots Riley and Pam The Funkstress signed with a much savvier indie, 75 Ark, which has proved its skill for marketing iconoclastic hip-hop through its work with Anti-Pop Consortium, Dan The Automator, and Deltron 3030. A single pairing The Coup with the dour but equally brilliant socialists in Dead Prez comes out early in 2001, followed by The Coup's fourth album.
Trend Most Likely To Play Itself Out
Rap-metal
From the comic posturing of its acts to the massive glut of product on the market to the obnoxious overexposure of its biggest stars, rap-metal looks to be where hair-metal was in 1991. Unofficial poster boy Fred Durst is doing his part to rid the world of its enthusiasm for half-rapped, half-howled frat-boy angst, abusing his considerable power and picking fights that would embarrass C.C. DeVille. Honestly, kids, aimless rebellion doesn't have to be this stupid.
Most Welcome Career Downturns
Master P and Marilyn Manson
Last year wasn't good for Master P's flimsy empire, as the over-ambitious, under-talented mogul proved himself to be every bit as hapless a sports agent as he is a rapper and actor. But P's house of cards really began to fall in 2000, with Mystikal and Snoop Dogg (and his Eastsidaz) finding success outside of No Limit and P's abysmal new Ghetto Postage being released to an indifferent public. The only question now is how long it'll be before P is making 'em say "Uhhh!" on Hollywood Squares. Manson, meanwhile, struggled to keep America outraged, but even his fiercest detractors seem to have moved on to bigger and more interesting targets. By the end of the year, Manson was reduced to spouting right-wing political beliefs (ooh!) in an attempt to generate interest in his flagging career.
Stephen Thompson
1. Clem Snide, Your Favorite Music (Sire)
Many records broke more ground or had more to say than Your Favorite Music, the appropriately titled second album by the New York band Clem Snide. But none seemed warmer or more inviting with each passing listen. After a while, "Bread," "Exercise," and "African Friend" feel less like songs than like cherished traditions, while "I Love The Unknown" perfectly captures the motivation of restless spirits everywhere. At first, Your Favorite Music sounds like little more than resolutely likable alt-country, but it evolves into much more, inspiring not only admiration but a strange feeling of friendship. That's an amazing feat in any genre, in any year.
2. Pinetop Seven, Bringing Home The Last Great Strike (Truckstop)
The brilliantly cluttered, indefinable art-country of Chicago's Pinetop Seven is somehow both ragged and orchestral, pairing Darren Richard's obtuse lyrics and soaring voice to instrumentation that's constantly, restlessly inventive. Following the departure of Charles Kim, Pinetop Seven was reduced to little more than Richard before Bringing Home The Last Great Strike was recorded, and the album is his masterpiece, a swooning epic that's so artfully assembled and riveting, it's almost difficult to take in one sitting.
3. PJ Harvey, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (Island)
4. Pedro The Lion, Winners Never Quit (Jade Tree)
The term "Christian rock" tends to be inherently derogatory, implying the simplistic self-righteousness and hubris that can accompany attempts to co-opt the kids' music in the name of God. Pedro The Lion is a Christian-rock band—more overtly so than the likes of, say, U2—but there's nothing simplistic about its beautiful, thoughtful songs. Winners Never Quit is as conflicted as it is catchy, highlighted by "Simple Economics," which may be the best song ever written about money's corrupting influence on politics.
5. Radiohead, Kid A (Capitol)
6. Death Cab For Cutie, We Have The Facts And We're Voting Yes (Barsuk)
7. Travis, The Man Who (Epic)
8. Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Matador)
9. Coldplay, Parachutes (Nettwerk)
10. Andrew W.K., Girls Own Juice EP (Bulb)
Ten More Great Albums
Aden, Hey 19; Cat Power, The Covers Record; Deathray, Deathray; Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven; Ida, Will You Find Me; Damien Jurado, Ghost Of David; Josh Rouse, Home; The Twilight Singers, Twilight; Versus, Hurrah; Dwight Yoakam, dwightyoakamacoustic.net
Whatever You Do Seek Out These Songs
Clem Snide, "African Friend"; Coldplay, "Yellow"; Pedro The Lion, "Simple Economics"; Talib Kweli + Hi-Tek, "For Women"
Most Riveting Hit Single
Eminem, "Stan"
Best Music DVD
Jeff Buckley, Live In Chicago
Fans need to own this simple, you-are-there presentation, which compensates for its shortage of dazzling extras with pristine sound and a characteristically mesmerizing performance. It's an even more powerful testament to Buckley's ability to connect on stage than his other posthumous live document, this year's Mystery White Boy album.
Most Unsettling Trend That's Probably Good
Great music in TV commercials
From Handsome Boy Modeling School and De La Soul to Nick Drake's "Pink Moon," to a new Gap campaign featuring songs by Low, Badly Drawn Boy, and Red House Painters, good music is everywhere except on the radio.
Most Unsettling Trend That's Certainly Bad
The de-evolution of so-called "modern-rock" radio
Decrying the abysmal state of commercial radio is nothing new, but when did modern-rock stations become so difficult to differentiate from their new-metal brethren down the dial?
Best Side Effect Of Napster
You can download the least familiar music on these lists before deciding to buy it.
Worst Side Effect Of Napster
The lousiest bands (Limp Bizkit, The Offspring) have been the file-sharing software's most vocal and progressive supporters.
Most Entertaining Song That May Be A Brilliant Postmodern Satire Of Rock Music's Stylistic Excesses
Andrew W.K.'s "We Want Fun"
Least Entertaining Song That May Be A Brilliant Postmodern Satire Of Rock Music's Stylistic Excesses
Creed, "Higher"
Scott Tobias
1. PJ Harvey, Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea (Island)
2. Lambchop, Nixon (Merge)
Nashville's 13-plus-piece orchestral country outfit Lambchop has been creeping toward a masterpiece since its inception, refining an unwieldy clutter of instruments into a spacious, heavenly sweep. With Nixon, its beautiful fifth album, the band finally reached that pinnacle, incorporating the Curtis Mayfield-inspired dynamics of 1998's What Another Man Spills with singer Kurt Wagner's newfound emotional intensity. Lyrics that were once evocative but teasingly abstract are more direct and flush with feeling, and Wagner's voice, normally flat and guttural, now melts into a dripping falsetto. The title suggests a song cycle about the disgraced former president—unlikely, since it wasn't settled upon until after the album was recorded—but track by track, it hits much closer to home.
3. The Delgados, The Great Eastern (Chemikal Underground/Beggars Banquet)
4. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On The Bad One (Kill Rock Stars)
5. Grandaddy, The Sophtware Slump (V2)
A hypnotic walking tour through a post-technological wasteland, Grandaddy's ambitious and frequently witty third album meanders across an unnatural environment strewn with yesterday's outdated, unloved gadgetry. Grafting vivid lyrics onto fuzzy synth lines, humming guitars, and computerized blips, The Sophtware Slump openly invites comparison to the similarly themed OK Computer, but frontman Jason Lytle delves into odd obsessions of his own. On "Jed The Humanoid" and the self-explanatory "Broken Household Appliance National Forest," Lytle explores humanity's fickle relationship with technology, which is cruel enough to lead a once-cherished family robot, sad from neglect, to drown itself in booze. In constructing a dense future sound, Grandaddy appears to have rescued at least a few old keyboards from the scrap heap, but at the same time, it doesn't entirely excuse itself from fascination with the new. Like the half-rusted cars and teeming junkyards of the industrial age, Lytle's images of decay are often beautiful in spite of themselves.
6. Marah, Kids In Philly (E-squared/Artemis)
7. Yo La Tengo, And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out (Matador)
8. Radiohead, Kid A (Capitol)
9. Versus, Hurrah (Merge)
10. De La Soul, Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump (Tommy Boy)
Scrapping most of the lugubrious beats and acid-tinged lyrics that led some to check out on the underrated Stakes Is High, the hip-hop elder statesmen of De La Soul return with a relaxed, high-spirited, flavorful sampler, the first in an ambitious trilogy. While Art Official Intelligence lacks coherence, it more than compensates with varied sounds, nimble wordplay, and abundant,
memorable cameos. As always, Posdnuos, Dave, and Maseo traffic in statements of purpose (social, musical, and otherwise) alongside quirky digressions, clever skits, and impressive verbal acrobatics. But the best moments showcase their ability to craft songs around a guest's strengths, supplying an anthemic frame for Redman's rants ("Oooh!"), a chaotic tangle of percussion for the ubiquitous Busta Rhymes ("I.C. Y'All"), and plenty of vocal space for an inspired Chaka Khan ("All Good?"). At a time when "your pop culture needs a diaper change," De La Soul seems content to take the high road.
Best Unheralded Artist
Josh Rouse
A modest, unassuming singer-songwriter in a wasp's nest of corporate country, Nashville's Josh Rouse was practically born to be an opener, in the best possible sense of the word. The delicately crafted folk-pop songs on Home, his stellar second album, would never stretch to the far corners of an arena, but, as the title suggests, his music perfectly suits the warm spaces of more intimate environs.
Best Music For A Soundtrack
Air, The Virgin Suicides (Astralwerks)
Clint Mansell & Kronos Quartet, Requiem For A Dream (Nonesuch)
Björk, Selmasongs (Elektra)
A great soundtrack not only enhances a film, but becomes integral to it. The dreamy ambience Air brought to The Virgin Suicides floated along the wispy pastels of Sofia Coppola's visual design while dropping eerie intimations of the tragedy to come. The repetitious string phrases in Clint Mansell's beautiful musique concrète score for Requiem For A Dream are at once hypnotic and maddening, much like the obsessive allure of a heroin fix. Lars Von Trier tailored Dancer In The Dark around Björk's raw, emotive wail, which hits peaks of intense joy and anguish en route to the year's most wrenching moviegoing experience.
The Fall Of Rome Revisited
Tommy Lee's segment on MTV's Cribs
MTV's weekly look at lifestyles of the nouveau riche and famous, Cribs warns of the garish catastrophes that can happen when stunted adolescence collides with giant piles of freshly minted cash. But no one personifies class like Tommy Lee, whose excesses make his former Mötley Crüe bandmates look like Quakers. Among the highlights deemed "off the hook": an entire Starbucks franchise, complete with mugs and other merchandise, in his home studio; a Zen garden for Eastern meditation; a disco floor for all-night parties; and, best of all, an unobstructed view from the bed to the shower. God bless rock stars.