"THE OFFICIAL" Guide to the Best Releases of 2001 (Accept No Imitation) (Top 10 albums of the year 2001)

Name: Pulsebeat

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Product:	Top 10 albums of the year 2001
Date:	01/03/02 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: They're the best albums released in the last 12 months

Disadvantages: So hard to decide

Well, what a year for music eh? Another one of those years where no real scene dominated the musical scene, but instead we had great albums arriving from all over the world. If anything, the American invasion of Andrew WK, The Strokes and The White Stripes, provided a loosely-knit collective of groups making assaults on the mainstream, but on the whole, they received much more hype than actual, recognition or sales. Anyway, let's get onto the music:

1. 'Discovery' - Daft Punk:

This was certainly one of the most anticipated albums in recent memory. Their debut LP redefined dance music in 1997, and so critical reception was mixed to their sophomore effort. 'Discovery' sunbathed in the aesthetics of the 1980's taking influences such as Herbie Hancock, Van Halen, Buggles and updating them (in a very 1980s 'Tron'-like manner) for the 21st century. The purists were frankly offended by 'One More Time', for daring to have a tune, and similarly they dismissed the rest of the album.

However, there were gems to behold here. 'Aerodynamic' was the first song to mix poodle-rock guitar solos with house music. 'Digital Love' was 'Video Killed the Radio Star' sung by robots. 'Harder, Faster, Better, Stronger' did things with the tired vocoder that you'd never believe possible; sounding like a mix between a video game and a Jane Fonda work-out video. 'Superheros' fired lazer beams across a punishing house beat. 'High Life' returned the robots to Earth for a slice of classic cut-up vocal house. 'Voyager' sounded like R'n'B genius Rodney Jerkins in a space suit. 'face to Face' sounded like a sampler-spitting out random pieces of different songs in the most melodic way possible, whilst garage legend Todd Edwards sang beautifully over the top. 'Too Long' was yes, damn long, but mutated excellently into a hypnotic house groove. And there w
ere a couple that sounded like Vangelis too.

What more do you want? A materialistic album, yes. But somewhere beneath those robot helmets, a heart was still beating, in time with the future. Stunning

2. 'Is This It'- The Strokes

Pretty, rich-boys from New York. "Best band ever" said the press. And they were so nearly right too. 'Is This It' is a great, great album. A great album. It’s no bona fide classic or anything, but it is very, very good. I think you all know the score by now. 'Is This It' is the Velvet Underground, Blondie, the Stooges and Television, with a pinch of Nirvana. Unashamedly retro, but no one had thought of being extraordinarily handsome and writing such good songs at the same time before. 'New York City Cops', 'The Modern Age', 'Hard to Explain', and 'Soma', were all gems that will be cherished for years to come. The rest of the album wasn't half bad either. These boys were converse baseball boots, burgers, bottled beer, drainpipe jeans and skinny ties personified. Easily amongst the best debut albums that have arrived in my lifetime. 'Is This It' reeks of cool and you need to smell it.

3. 'Vespertine' - Bjork

'Homogenic' was a largely unnoticed classic, which left me wondering how she would be able to follow it up. What Bjork did was collaborate with electronica duo Matmos to create a work of sublime beauty. 'Vespertine' is an album made up of minute glitches, and pulses, which sucks the listener into the detail of the music, making them feel warm and woozy. It was supposed to be Bjork's domesticated album, and for sure, she sounds much more balanced on this release than any other. There is much less evidence of the screaming pixie as she is depicted in the media. Instead, 'Cocoon', 'Hidden Place', 'Pagan Poetry' gurgled and gently twitched into a space-age groove, t
hat leaves the listener feeling pure and in love. That good.

4. 'In Search Of...' - N.E.R.D.

N.E.R.D are perhaps better known as super-hip-hop producers the Neptunes, responsible for such mega-hits as ODB's 'Got Ya Money', Kelis' two LPs and Jay-Z's 'I just Wanna Love You (Give It To Me), and many, many more. 'In Search Of...' is a very odd LP, one that grows in stature after every listen. It takes their minimalist staccato beats and synths and wraps them around, the last thirty years of American music. Rock, country, psychedelic blues, soul, funk etc. all get sucked into the vortex and 'In Search Of...' emerges as a mini-conceptual masterpiece. The lyrics shy away from the usual gansta cliches (though these are included too), and instead a politically-conscious narrative emerges, warning against deprivation, drug addiction, and political corruption (lead single 'Lapdance' compares politicians to strippers). This sounds like the past, present and the future all at once and you really need to seek it out. Great artwork too.

5. 'The Blueprint' - Jay-Z

For some reason, only known to unto himself, Jay-Z decided to go and make one of the best hip-pop albums of all time. There's nothing overtly remarkable about 'The Blueprint', but as a whole album it hangs together almost too well. The production is gloriously bright, using vintage soul samples to give the tracks an emotional resonance that the lyrics lack. On the face of it little has changed in Jay-Z's world: he still has loads of money, all the women love him, and he's the best rapper- the annoying bit seems to be that it's all true. 'The Blueprint' hits you with a combination move of sure-fire hits.

Virtually every track could be a single. 'The Ruler is Back' sets out the album's agenda, telling us that all that appear on this LP are just his thoughts, and that peop
le should stop trying to copy his style. Next, up is 'Takeover' which viciously cusses Nas and Mobb Deep, over a Doors sample in an amazingly puerile yet witty manner. Everything from the Jackson 5-smpling 'Izzo' (H.O.V.A), to the Timbaland produced 'Hola Hovito', to the outrageously misogynistic, but brilliant 'Girls, Girls Girls' is a smash. The lyrics are wittier and funnier than any comedian I can think of except Eddie Murphy in his prime. Many people write Jay-Z off as a tacky, commercial rapper, on the back of his novelty hit 'Hard Knock Life', but this album shows so much more than that. Jay-Z is currently the best lyricist in the world, and 'The Blueprint' shows him at the peak of his powers.

6. ’10 000hz Legend’ – Air

‘Moon Safari’ fashionably sat on top of the coffee tables of the nation, and it seemed impossible to escape its dreamy, easy-listening soundscapes a couple of years ago. However, by the time that Air decided to make their comeback wearing capes and dabbling dangerously with prog-rock, no one seemed to care anymore. It’s a shame, because, ’10 000hz Legend’ is a great LP, if a little pretentious. It almost totally ditches the ‘Moon Safari’ template, and moves Air closer to being a rock band. The LP deals with the articulation of emotions through synthetic and mechanical means, yet the cool detached French sense of irony, gives the whole album a good sense of knowing-fun too. It featured Beck, it featured many strange noises indeed, and most of all it featured stunning song such as ‘People in the City’, ‘Don’t Be Light’, ‘Radio #1’ and the year’s best song title ‘Wonder Milky Bitch’ which was about oral sex. If this isn’t enough to make you want to buy this album, I give up.

7. ‘Pause’ – Four Tet

If you were trendy as
hell, you’d know that the craply-titled ‘Folktronica’ genre was the “in” thing in 2001. Basically ‘folktronica’ takes pastoral and organic sounds and then whacks weird burbling electronics under it and a malfunctioning drum-machine. Anyway, Four Tet (the criminally talented Kieran Hebdan) created a record of quite astounding beauty. Folky guitars are gently picked around diced-up hip-hop rhythms, while the sounds of oriental bells, small children’s voices and electronic whirring creates a collage of sound that produced one of the year’s most consistent LP’s. This could almost be classed out as a ‘chill-out’ (evil, evil, evil genre!!!!) record for people who actually like music, rather than bland aural wallpaper. ‘Glue of the World’ is a great opener to the album, and it doesn’t falter once from this point. The far too talented and prolific git released another pretty good LP, by his band Fridge this year, and if you like ‘Pause’ then ‘Happiness’ is worth checking out too.

8. ‘The Cold Vein’ – Cannibal Ox

Hip-hop wasn’t all about flashy jewellery and sex in 2001. Cannibal Ox created perhaps the densest and most engrossing LP of the year in ‘The Cold Vein’. I’d probably have put it higher than eighth, but so intense is this album that I can’t listen too it all that frequently. Cannibal Ox resemble the sound of the Wu-Tang Clan, only very, depressed and on morphine. ‘ Grim tales of New York City (pre -11/09) littered with rodents, guns, drugs, prostitutes, dead children and pigeons and the desire to rise-up out of the darkness, formed the subject matter of ‘The Cold Vein’. The production by ex-Company Flow man El-P is a mist of electronic shards and processed loops that sounded totally new and totally now. Intensely, depressing, but too good to ignore…the spirit o
f independent hip-hop was alive and well in 2001 and going into uncharted territories, never explored before.

9. ‘I Get Wet’ – Andrew WK

This man is like Bill and Ted and Wayne’s world on a diet of steroids and beer. He appeared out of nowhere and had the audacity to mix all the best elements of 80s cock-rock (including the irony), turning it up past 11 AND THEN SHOUTING “PARTY”, VERY, VERY LOUDLY IN YOUR FACE. This album is actually so stupid that it’s the cleverest album released all year. Admittedly not the commercial success it was touted as being, probably due to the fact that only so may people can take bone-shuddering metal riffs, positivity, and tunes being smashed inside your cranium at 30000000mph. Note: This is the most masculine album released all year. Any man who gets compared to Meatloaf and Ugly Kid Joe in the 21st Century has to be doing something right. And boy he was.

10. ‘Aaliyah’ – Aaliyah

I didn’t just put this album in the top 10, because she’s dead. People just seem to be picking up on this now after they had slept on it for a good 6 months. ‘Aaliyah’ the album, stood out as a classy, confident and ghostly LP upon its day of release, has grown beautifully over time and takes on even greater significance in wake of the tragic death of its creator at the hopelessly young age of 22. The LP takes the r’n’b template, but instead of using it to copy Destiny’s Child badly, it takes it to new places that you’ve never heard before. Admittedly, if you’ve heard the singles ‘Try Again’, We Need A Resolution’ and ‘More Than A Woman’, then you’ve heard the best of this album. But seeing as these are some of the most innovative pop-singles in the last decade that doesn’t mean that the rest of the LP is mere filler. Tracks like ‘Rock the Boat’ verge near to
sounding like Portishead, and also ooze with a worrying amount of sophistication for someone so young. She even had time for an industrial metal element to her music. Destiny’s Child may be independent women and Missy Elliot may have got her freak on, but Aaliyah was literally one in a million, and will be sorely, sorely, missed.

Other releases that rocked:

‘We Love Life’ – Pulp
‘Reveal’ – R.E.M
‘Iron Flag’ – Wu-Tang Clan
‘Kittenz and Thee Glitz’ – Felix Da Housecat
‘They Don’t Know’ – So Solid Crew
‘Execute’ – Oxide and Neutrino
‘Gorillaz’ – Gorillaz
‘Stillmatic’ – Nas
‘Wasted Sunday’ – Ovuca
‘DrukQs’- Aphex Twin
‘Myloveilove’ – Bogdan Raczynski
‘Ease Down the Road’ – Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy
‘Whatever Mortal’ – Papa M
‘Gold’- Ryan Adams
‘Miss E….So Addictive’ – Missy Elliot
‘Survivor’ – Destiny’s Child
‘Rock Action’ – Mogwai
‘All is Dream’ – Mercury Rev
‘Alive 1997’ – Daft Punk
‘Rooty’ – Basement Jaxx
‘Free All Angels’ – Ash
‘Dark Days, Bright Nights’ – Bubba Sparxxx
‘Word of Mouf’ – Ludacris
‘Pain is Love’ – Ja Rule
‘Run Come Save Me’ – Roots Manuva
‘Bulletproof Wallets’ – Ghostface Killah
‘Weezer’ – Weezer

and so many, many more………………R 30;……..

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