Over the last two weeks I counted down my ten favorite albums of 2002. Over the next two, I’ll feature ten critically acclaimed albums from the same year that somehow escaped me.
Spoon is an Austin indie rock band that’s been recording since 1996. I first learned about them following the release of 2005’s Gimme Fiction, their fifth album. Since then I’ve picked up 2007’s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga and 2014’s They Want Me Soul, somehow missing out on 2010’s Transference.
Here’s a favorite track of mine from Morrissey’s 1992 album, Your Arsenal, his best solo record.
This is the quintessential Morrissey track: morbidly depressing and self-pitying, but quite lovely.
An interesting tidbit I learned when Googling the lyrics of the song today is that they are loosely based on a Joni Mitchell song called ‘Silky Veils or Ardor.’
Brad Paisley’s 2013 album Wheelhouse was a rare miss for the artist (and best remembered for the laughably ill-advised track ‘Accidental Racist’) but opening cut and lead-off single ‘Southern Comfort Zone’ is a keeper.
The track’s theme epitomizes Paisley’s appeal as a bona fide country star whose creative purview extends well past Nashville.
My #1 album of 2002 showed up in the top spot of plenty of critics’ lists as well. Beck’s Sea Change was just that, a complete change of direction for an artist better known for hip-hop beats and stream-of-consciousness lyrics.
This album, inspired by the end of a relationship, supports the theory that heartbreak is often the best muse. Beck is in full wallow mode here, drowning his sad-sack lyrics in waves of ambient strings and acoustic guitar.
Counting Crows are one of the world’s most unjustly maligned bands, so I wasn’t surprised that their fourth record — Hard Candy — didn’t show up on any of the critics top ten lists I studied when preparing this collection of 2002’s best albums.
Still, it’s a mystery to me why even this incredible album went unappreciated by tastemakers. A deeper analysis showed that the record wasn’t panned. It received solid reviews — a B here, three stars there — but nothing that would put it in the conversation among the year’s best.
Meet Me In Montauk 