10 -The Michigan Daily - Friday, January 11, 2002
FRIDAY Focus
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RECAPPING THE YEAR'S TOP RELEASES IN MUSIC
DAILY ARTS STAFF VOTES FOR
TOP ALBUM OF 2001
1. The Strokes - Is This It
2. Radiohead - Amnesiac
3. Tenacious D - Tenacious D
4. The White Stripes - White
Blood Cells
5. Bob Dylan - Love and Theft
6. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
7. Gorillaz - Gorillaz
8. Travis - The Invisible Band
9. Lucinda Williams - Essence
10. Our Lady Peace - Spiritual
Machines
177 pts (2)
169 pts (2)
133 pts (2)
131 pts (1)
128 pts
125 pts (1)
123 pts (1)
118 pts
117 pts
116 pts (2)
The Strokes
take care of
business at
St. Andrews
Hail Nov.17th.
JOHN PRATT/Daily
Daily Arts List was compiled via Arts Staff vote.
Albums recieved ten points for a first place vote (first
place votes are in parenthesis), nine points for a second
place vote, etc.
FRoM DUBYA TO DYLAN; 2001 IN REVIEW
The peculiar year in music of 2001
started off as strange as could
possibly be imagined. Our own
president George Bush took the stage
with Ricky Martin at the presidential
inauguration. A nation laughed at, and
not with Dubya as he danced a jig
with an ex-member of Menudo.
The sensuous and undisputed
queen of the pop world, Britney
Spears took the stage with Aero-
smith and N'Sync for January's
Super Bore fes-
tivities. It was a fine display of lip-
synching and skin.
The annual Grammy Awards contin-
ued their recent tradition of wasting the
nation's time right up until Eminem and
Elton John took the stage for a duet.
After their performance of Eminem's
Dido-career-launching single "Stan" the
two had a public kiss and makeup (in
the form of on* very
not only an acquittal, but shortly after-
word Combs returned to bachelorhood,
as latin siren Jennifer Lopez jumped
ship.
Music's powers that be seized their
day in court and shut down Shawn Fan-
ning's file-sharing brainchild Napster,
effectively damning the file-sharing
service.
Bob Dylan stole gold at the 2001
Academy Awards with his song
"The Way We Were." Dylan
also treated viewers to a per-r
formance of the Oscar-winning song
from inside a lunchbox in Australia.
The Strokes slipped a perfect debut
into the last quarter of the year with
their album Is This It.
Thankfully, there have been no whis-
pers as yet of a potential
Strokes/Ricky Martin tour, nor have
they invited George Jr. to take the
stage with them. But there's
always 2002.
- Luke Smith Daily Arts
Editor
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Nelly Furtado
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DAILY ARTS PICKS THE YEARS BEST
ROB BRODE
KEITH DUSENBERRY
GINA PENSIERO
DUSTIN J. SEIBERT
i
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1. OUR LADY PEACE,
SPIRITUAL MACHINES
Canada caught onto some-
thing we didn't with Our Lady
Peace. They certainly smelled
rose where our sense of smell
was considerably lacking.
2. NICKELBACK
SILVERSIDE UP
Instead of covering Pearl
Jam and Metallica directly they
stole their essence and produc-
tion values and came up with
one of the hardest rocking
albums of the year.
3. THE LAST HARD MEN
THE LAST HARD MEN
This collection of studio
stars featuring Sebastian Bach
may be hard to find but worth
the time if you search it out.
4. GREENSTREET
WEEKEND
This local band may be the
future of college rock. Weekend
takes a wealth of talent and dis-
tributes it evenly.
5. SUM 41
ALL KILLER NO FILLER
Snot-core canucks blend
elements of pop punk with
their early 80s metal heroes in
displays of irreverent goof.
6. JAY'Z
THE BLUEPRINT
The Blueprint rose to the top
of the pops on the shoulders of
the single; however, it is on the
rest of the CD where it stands
tallest.
7 JAY-Z
UNPLUGGED
Unplugged made listeners
wonder why he doesn't use live
musicians all the time.
8. PRINCE
THE RAINBOW
CHILDREN
Prince employs his old-
school mastery of dozens of
instruments on this jazz fla-
vored set.
1. THE STROKES
Is THIS IT (IMPORT)
I hope that one of two things
happen with the Strokes: 1)
their next record is a beautifully
Pinkerton-esque answer to the
impenetrable pop perfection of
this first album, or 2) they die
in a rock 'n roll plane crash.
2. THE WHITE STRIPES
WHITE BLOOD CELLS
If this album was as solidly
even as their last record, it
would be tied for the top spot.
3. JEFF MANGUM
LIVE AT JITTERY JOE'S
CAFE
This record captures a
moment; it's a snapshot; a
sepia-toned souvenir postcard
it's breathtaking. It's also hard
to find, so good luck you sensi-
tive, nerdy hipster.
4. Wilco
YANKEE HOTEL FOXTROT
Post-Alt-Country? This
record lets the genre out of the
barn and onto greener pastures.
5. CLEM SNIDE
THE GHOsT OF FASHION
Ghost weaves other musical
fabrics and patterns into alt-
country's tried and true cowboy
cotton plaid and scruffy denim.
6. RADIOH EAD
AMNESIAC
If Thom Yorke gets anymore
out of hand with this "genius"
electronic mad scientist stuff,
he might innovate himself right
out of my CD player.
7. JAY-Z
THE BLUEPRINT
Jigga's on top of this rap
game and he knows it - so
should you.
8. RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
POSES
Poses doesn't do anything
new in the gay-man-with-piano
genre, but it's well crafted.
1. RADIOHEAD
AMNESIAC
Touted as an album that was
going to be "more accessible"
than Kid A, they should have
said it was going to be better.
2. THE STROKES
Is THIS IT
Don't say no one can make
an honest-to-god rock'n'roll
album anymore. At times the
band ebbs vibes of The Velvet
Underground.
3. RUFUS WAINWRIGHT
POSES
Wainwright mixes pop, folk
and indie with a pretty boy
geek croon.
4. LUCINDA WILLIAMS
ESSENCE
Even those who hate country
can appreciate the songwriting
of Lucinda Williams.
5. STEREOLAB
SOUND DUST
.Somehow Stereolab man-
ages to be fun, experimental,
poppy, innovative and just plain
good all at once.
6. IDLEWILD
100 BROKEN WINDOWS
Idlewild is intelligent indie
with a dash of emo. Except
instead of crying about their
girlfriends leaving them for
their best friend/sister/dog, they
have lyrics like "and Gertrude
Stein said that's enough."
7. Low
THINGS WE LOST IN THE
FIRE'
Low makes the saddest
music you will ever hear. Nev-
ertheless, it is extremely high
quality.
8. ANI DIFRANCO
REVELLING/RECKONING
This double album is a nice
balance of the new experimen-
tal energetic funk DiFranco
sound and her trademark politi-
cal folk.
1. JAY-Z
THE BLUEPRINT
Hands down the most solid,
well-rounded hip-hop release of
the year.
2. GINUWINE
THE LIFE
R&B's "all-purpose" bal-
ladeer dropped album No. 3
with some very strong singles.
3. HI-TEK
H I-TEKNOLOGY
Hi-Tek provides a masterful-
ly crafted album, proving that
he is indeed in the lead as hip-
hop's illest up-and-coming pro-
ducer.
4. PETE ROCK
PETESTRUMENTALS
Probably the finest hip-hop
instrumental compilation ever
composed.
5. J-ZONE
PIMPS DON'T PAY TAXES
An extremely humorous,
entertaining album, it may well
be the most complete record
from an artist who emcees and
produces all tracks on one
album.
6. JAY DEE
WELCOME TO DETROIT
The Slum Village frontman
does not disappoint with his
first solo venture. His extremely
laid back production style is
perfect for late-night blunt ses-
sions.
7. THE ISLEY BROTHERS
ETERNAL
Hard to believe that you may
be getting busy to songs from
the same band that were being
played on 8-Track during your
conception.
8. NAs
STILLMATIC
While not completely up to
his par, Nas' lyrical game
makes his worst better than the
best of what most emcees have
to offer.
LUKE SMITH
1. THE WHITE STRIPES
WHITE BLOOD CELLS
Jack and Meg White's fre-
netic third album is one of the
dirtiest sounding records to
come out last year. That's a
good thing.
2. THE STROKES
IS THIS IT (IMPORT)
This much-clamored for
debut shocked no one. The
Strokes were all-hype, and
when Is This It hit, all rumors
were confirmed.
3. CLEM SNIDE
THE GHOST OF FASHION
Clem Snide's Ghost of
Fashion more than any other
record this year, knows both
when to be loud and when to
be quiet.
4. TENACIOUS D
TENACIOUs D
Comedy super-sized, just
like they order their McDon-
ald's. Half-Coca-Cola, half
Diet.
5. WILCO
YANKEE FOXTROT HOTEL
Wilco's career nearly hit the
can when their label unceremo-
niously dropped them this fall.
The band put Foxtrot on the
internet, and will properly
release the album in April.
6. RADIOHEAD
AMNESIAC
It could be called electronic
noodling if Radiohead does the
whole art-rock thing one more
time. It's not old. Yet.
7. JAY-Z
THE BLUEPRINT
This is the Stankonia of
2001. The record that it's hip to
be white and like.
8. THE MICROPHONES
"THE GLOw" PT. 2
"The Glow" Pt. 2 teeters
schizophrenically between
quiet folk and fuzzed-out noise
pop. It works beautifully.
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