Wot? No Limp Bizkit? (Top 10 albums of the year 2001)

Name: stoffy

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Product:	Top 10 albums of the year 2001
Date:	11/03/02 (780 review reads)
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Time for another list I think. 2001 wasn't really a vintage year for music, but there were still a couple of albums worth shouting about. You made not of heard of some of these, but they are well worth checking out? but before I list them, I will just quickly run through some of those who didn?t quite make the big golden envelope marked 'Stoffy's Choice'?

The nearly pile?

Bjork - 'Vespertine' - not her most accessible work to date, it nonetheless marks her as the most original singer-songwriter in the world right now?

Aaliyah - 'Aaliyah' - more successful after her premature death last summer, this is a truly different RnB album, with the edgy 'We Need A resolution' being a stand-out.

Macy Gray - 'The ID' - not the triumph of 'On How Life Is', but nonetheless featured some outstanding tracks, such as the singles 'Sweet Baby' and 'Sexual Revolution'. The Queen of kook still rules?

Alicia Keys - 'Songs In A Minor' - Multi-Grammy winning Keys became a big star in 2001. The song 'Fallin' was never off the radio, and she deserved her huge success. A bit more variation in the album would have been nice, but still, a great debut.

India.Arie - 'Acoustic Soul' - A brilliant minimalist album, Arie showed humour and wit in her song-writing. A refreshing change in RnB, she sounded like Tracy Chapman on Prozac after meeting Arrested Development?

Kylie - 'Fever' - pure pop at its best, it was the one everyone was talking about last year. Having gone from strength to strength, it joined 'Light Years' in being her best album ever. Charlene who?

Then there are the albums which weren't as good as they should have been?

The not so near pile?

Air - '10,000 Hz' - Having loved all of Air's previous material, I was expecting something special. Instead, 10,000Hz
seemed to be something of a parody, and was a real letdown. The general public thought so too, and no-one seemed interested in Air anymore.

Kelis - 'Wanderland' - Not a terrible album, but following the outstanding 'Kaleidoscope', we were expecting a little bit more. It failed to reach the Top 75, and it looked as though Kelis had burnt out before she had truly arrived. Hopefully, she will return to form later this year?

The compilation pile?

Tracy Chapman - 'A Collection' - Tracy's blend of acoustic melancholy won her many fans worldwide, and her debut remains my favourite song. Also some of her later work failed to live up to expectation, this collection shows off her talents to the full. A huge seller worldwide, it is incredible to think that in her 15 year career, she has only had one UK Top 40 hit?

Deee-Lite - Greatest Hits - Most known for 'Groove Is In The Heart', Deee-Lite were the multi-national hippy dance group that could have been so much bigger than they were. With many other outstanding tracks other than 'Groove?', the album should be able to be snapped up at mid-price from all good record shops!!


Anyway, (deep breath), here is my top 10 selection of last year. They are all original albums initially released in 2001 (so no Bent or Dido), and exclude compilations and Greatest Hits. Oh yes, and also excludes Limp Bizkit?


10 - Daft Punk - 'Discovery'

Daft Punk were previously best known for their videos, 'Da Funk', which featured a man which a dog's head searching for love in New York, and 'Around The World', featuring various people dressed up performing an intricate dance routine on flights of stairs? An improvement on their debut album 'Homework', 'Discovery' almost gave them a number one hit, with the initial release 'One More Time', a retro 70's disco anthem. This is on
e of the albums highlights, although subsequent singles such as 'Bigger Harder Faster Stronger' and 'Aerodynamic' also helped their album become one of the biggest selling French acts ever.

For me though, the best track is 'Voyager', a short instrumental track with an unforgettable melody. So unforgettable, that Channel 4 make a habit of using it on their Top 100 week-ends? oh well, I suppose the royalties must help towards making those videos?

Having now established a massive fanbase, many people are waiting with baited breath for their next album. Hopefully this will be as good as 'Discovery'. #

Buy this if you liked? Cassius - 'Cassius'
Top track? 'Voyager'


9 - Avalanches - Since I Left You

The most original song released in that dull period between Christmas and Spring last year was the Avalanche's 'Since I Left You', a spectacularly beautiful song, sung by Cerys Matthews on helium from the sounds of it. It gained massive airplay, and gave the Aussie band a surprise Top 10 hit. The album didn?t leave fans of the song disappointed. A whole myriad of samples and elegant loops, it was like De La Soul had reinvented themselves Down Under and lost the ability to rap.

Without a weak track on the album, it flows together with no obvoius joins, and the album is structured so it sounds as if you're listening to a bizarre radio mix. With allegedly over 1000 samples on the record, most of the sleeve is taken up with acknowledgements. With these samples being taken from a whole variety of areas, it makes for and eclectic and truly original album.

One stand-out is 'Frontier Psychiatrist', which possessed the best video of last year (this is extremely hard to describe, but think of late night Channel 4 'Trip' programmes, and you're getting close). It features a number of spoken word samples, ranging from 'Yo
u're crazy in the coconut' to 'He was white as a sheet, and he also made false teeth'. Mad, but it works.

However, my favourite is 'Love in 3/4 Time', a beautiful mix of sounds with a simple 'la la la' vocal layered over the top. Blissful?

Buy this if you liked? De La Soul - 'Three Foot High and Rising'
Top track? 'Love In 3/4 Time'


8 - Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Read My Lips

Possibly the most hyped artist of the year, Sophie had a bit of a struggle in shaking off the 'Groovejet' tag. Aiming for the sophisticated pop market, she released an interpretation of Cher's 'Take Me Home', which became an instant success when it was released in the Summer of 2001. Despite 'only' reaching #2, she was delighted with the result. The same position was reached with the dancefloor filler 'Murder On The Dancefloor', where she set about sabotaging a dance event in the video. The vid also spawned the habit of foot-stamping and clapping at various points in the song, that everyone now repeats whenever the song is played in a club.

The album as a whole features a number of catchy numbers, including 'Lover', which will probably be the next single. Although the album was critically panned, I think it was a really good effort for a solo album, and she resisted the temptation to create 'Groovejet Part 2' as many people expected her to. Now she has made such a name for herself, more success is sure to follow.

Buy this if you liked? Kylie - 'Fever'
Top track? 'Murder On The Dancefloor'

7 - Emiliana Torriani - 'Love In The Time of Science'

Iceland's second most famous female solo singer, Torriani struggled to escape from Bjork's shadow when she was marketed over here. She failed to gain much success over here, despite one of her singles, 'To Be Free' being promoted h
eavily on TV and radio. However, her album is a mature and reflective one with some killer tunes. Another favourite is 'Unemployed In The Summertime' which was also released as a single, and particularly touched a nerve with me last summer?

Despite being compared to Bjork because of her Icelandic origins, she is not quite as eccentric. Instead, 'Love In The Time of Science' is a delicate album which is well worth investigating. I only got the album after finding a copy for £1.99 in my local second hand record shop, and was pleasantly surprised with quite how good it was?

Buy this if you liked? Beth Orton - 'Central Reservation'
Top track? 'To Be Free'

6 - Basement Jaxx - 'Rooty'

Unmistakable and unavoidable, Basement Jaxx established themselves as the UK's premier dance band with this collection. Although some people were left a bit disappointed with this album in compairson to their debut, 'Remedy', I thought it was just as good, if not better. A bit more diverse and disjointed, 'Rooty' starts off with the first track to be taken from it, the Indian-flavoured 'Romeo', which features Kele Le Roc on vocals. The song wasn't promoted as much as it could have been (I think there were problems with Le Roc and the amount of credit she got from the song), its Bollywood video helped it to become one of their biggest hits.

It was followed up by the slightly disappointing 'Jus 1 Kiss' (used by UK Play on their 'Latex Lunch programme', and 'Where's Your Head At?', which is famous for its monkey video (Brit Award nominated, no less).

Hailing from Brixton, the band managed to come high up in most polls to find album of the year. A must for any dance fans, 'Rooty' is an outstanding blend of beats and vocals, that they will struggle to better.

Buy this if you like? Basement Jaxx - 'Remedy' r>Top track? 'Romeo'

5 - Destiny's Child - 'Survivor'

The world's premier girl band, Beyonce, Kelly and Michelle have overcome the line-up changes to stamp their own blend of RnB onto the music scene. Their stacatto style of singing marks them out from their predecessors such as En Vogue, SWV and TLC. After the magnificant 'Writing's On The Wall', they scored their first number one, 'Independent Women' in late 2000. The title track off this album repeated this success early last year, although ex-members LaToya and LaTavia have now begun a law suit with reference to the lyric 'Thought that you would fail without us, sold 9 million', which is apparently in breach of a clause of their break-up agreement.

'Bootylicious' narrowly failed to make it a hat-trick, despite being one of the best songs of the year. Sampling Stevie Nicks, it signalled that the band were here to stay. 'Emotions' was also released, although this was quite weak in comparison to many songs off the album. My favourite track is 'Sexy Daddy', which is in the same vein as 'Bootylicious', and would give them a massive hit if they released it. I don?t think any more songs will be taken off the album, but you can guarantee that the band will become even bigger when they release their next album. Can they handle it? You bet?

Buy This If You Like? Kelis - 'Kaleidoscope'
Top track? 'Sexy Daddy'

4 - 4Hero - 'Creating Patterns'

4Hero have remained fairly anonymous, despite gaining critical plaudits left right and centre. Having been nominated for their album 'Two Pages' in the mid 90's, they have never established themselves as a singles band. The album 'Creating Patterns' was released last summer to great critical acclaim. The first track to be taken from it was 'Les Fleur', which featured the vocal from a
song by Minnie Riperton (famous for the octave-busting romance song 'Loving You'). A spectacular epic that features a 2 minute instrumental before it gets going, it sounds as if it's straight from an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. An exhilerating 6 minutes?

The rest of the album is all together more laid back. A fusion of beats and jazz, the band were lumped together with the 'trip-hop' bands of the mid 1990's. In truth, they are impossible to lump with another genre, such is their diversity. However, this album comes highly recommeded for those lovers of sophisticated dance music.

Buy this if you like? Roni Size - 'New Forms'
Top track? 'Les Fleur'

3 - Lina - 'Stranger On Earth'

It could have all been so good for Lina. An original look, fantastic style and superb songs? I had the fortune to see Lina live last year. Expecting your run of the mill RnB fodder, we were instead confronted with a confident and strident performer who looked way more experienced than her youth indicated. Her 'Playa No More' single borrowed heavily from the 1920's dance, the Charleston. Her album contained more throwbacks, but updated with her blend of moderrn singing and rapping. Whilst it sounds a bit ambitious on paper, Lina manages to pull it off with this consistant collection of songs that is 'Stranger On Earth'.

Looking and sounding a bit like Billie Holliday, Lina failed to sell hardly any units in this country, and I think her record label gave up hope on her. Instead, her glory was stolen by Blu Cantrell, who had a big hit with 'Hit 'Em Up Style', a song in a similar genre to Lina. Lina also recorded a copy of the song, although this doesn?t appear on her album. One of the stand-outs is the attitude packed 'Don't Say Nothing At All' - class all the way.

Hopefully she will return, although in an RnB market wanting unifor
mity, I think she may just be too different?

Buy this if you like? Blu Cantrell - 'Hit 'Em Up Style'
Top track? 'Don't Say Nothing At All'

2 - Nikka Costa - 'Everybody Got Their Something'

Who's Nikka? That's the question posed by one of the fillers on her album. Nikka is, in fact, an American performer, who like Lina, failed to make it big in this country when she really should have done. Possessing a style half way in-between Alanis Morrisette and Janis Joplin, her album is a mixture of catchy dancable songs ('Like A Feather' and 'Everybody Got Their Something'), to more downtempo and reflective numbers, such as 'Push & Pull'. I think that her nasal voice may have put quite a few people off, but she really did offer something a little bit different in the stale singer-songwriter category.

This was another random purchase on my part, as I hadn't really heard much of her material. I managed to buy it for only £1.99 at Vinyl Exchange in Manchester (just like Emiliana Torriani?), so it's worth a look if you can find it as cheap as that?!!

Less annoying and superior than Alanis, Nikka Costa's legacy from this album seems to be providing the intro sample for the music sections on UK Play. Too bad. Everyboidy should have known who Nikka was by now?

Buy this if you like? Alanis Morrisette - 'Jagged Little Pill'
Top track? 'Like A Feather'

1 - Royksopp - 'Melody AM'

This band might be unknown to most people, but their music won't be. Used on numerous adverts, it looks set to become the new 'Play' (Moby). A largely instrumental album, the Norwegian band have gained huge critical acclaim for 'Melody AM'. It has sold reasonable well of the back of this, although they have yet to score a Top 40 hit.

The best track from the album is 'Eple', a collecti
on of beats. So simple, but so effective, it gets buried deep into your mind the first time you hear it, and can now be heard being whistled in most places. Whether this is because they like the album, or because BBC2 use it on their adverts a lot is, of course, another matter?

Another top track is 'Poor Leno', one of the few tracks to have a vocal. A bit depressing maybe, but it adds to the effect of the album. Perfect chill-out music, I'd say it surpasses even Air's 'Moon Safari' as being the essential chill-out album. This is no mean feat considering how highly that album is regarded by the press.

Buy this if you like? Air - 'Moon Safari'
Top track? 'Eple'


Thanks for reading? do any of you own these albums?!