Today’s entry is a good test of my basic musical preferences. I like to think of myself as a well-rounded music fan, one who can find enjoyment in many different genres and many different sounds. But one genre I have never liked, and suspect I never will like, is hard rock/heavy metal.
Sure, I’ve enjoyed some harder-edged detours by otherwise “quiet” bands (R.E.M.’s Monster comes to mind) but those are definitely exceptions.
The rap album with the best showing on critics’ 2002 lists was Missy Elliott’s Under Construction, her fourth and most successful record.
I have no real association with Elliott’s music. I’m familiar with her as a pop culture fixture, through commercials and television appearances, but I can’t say I’ve listened to any of her songs in full.
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.
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 