December 20, 2001 by A.S. Van Dorston

I like year-end lists because critics are forced to re-evaluate their favorites and try to honestly put in order of preference their true favorites, which may have changed since they first heard and reviewed them (which is why Magnet’s practice of merely listing their top 20 alphabetically is a huge cop-out. Make a stand for chrissakes!) It gives everyone a chance to catch up on stuff they might have missed earlier in the year. Complete lists from these magazines and more (Q, The Wire, etc.) can be found on Julian White’s Rock List Site.

I think it’s ridiculous to have System of A Down at #1 on Spin’s poll, but it certainly makes me curious enough to hear them, and see if maybe they’re worth a top 100 ranking. I mostly look for surprises. I expected the usual grossly overrated albums like Bob Dylan, Tori Amos and Craig David. But I did not expect to see System Of A Down at #1. Do the editors really listen to that? I sense that they prefer their Garbage and Destiny’s Child, but are too chicken to admit it.

I’d written System Of A Down off as yet another mook rock/spice metal band in the vein of Slipknot, Staind, Disturbed, Incubus . . . you know, whiny pop/goth metal for kids suffering from arrested emotional (and aesthetic) development. But I figured I’d give ’em a chance. I’ve heard a few tracks and will wait until I hear the whole album to form an opinion. I’d have to say that the way they focus on their Armenian heritage is interesting, and they certainly seem far more intelligent than the rest of the mook/spice pack.

Basement Jaxx was at 3 and Daft Punk at 8. Am I still missing something? Is house not dead yet? Will somebody kill it, please? To be fair, I enjoyed some of Daft Punk’s first album. I’ll have to reconsider their follow-up.

The list (for those of you who would feel unclean actually touching a copy of Spin 😉

1 System Of A Down * Toxicity
2 Radiohead * Amnesiac
3 Basement Jaxx * Rooty
4 Bob Dylan * Love And Theft
5 Bjork * Vespertine
6 Gorillaz
7 Jay-Z * The Blueprint
8 Daft Punk * Discovery
9 Weezer
10 Tori Amos * Strange Little Girls
11 Richie Hawtin * DE 9: Closer to the Edit
12 Manu Chao * Proxima Estacio: Esperanza
13 Lucinda Williams * Essence
14 The Coup * Party Music
15 The Dismemberment Plan * Change
16 Tool * Lateralus
17 Macy Gray * The Id
18 The Strokes * Is This It
19 Craig David * Born To Do It
20 VA * American Pie 2

Editors’ ‘honorable mentions’:
Chocolate Genius * Godmusic
Cannibal Ox * The Cold Vein
Buddy Guy * Sweet Tea
The Avalanches * Since I Left You
Jude * King of Yesterday
Black Box Recorder * The Facts of Life
The Moldy Peaches
Atmosphere * Lucy Ford
The Shins * Oh, Inverted World
Arab Strap * The Red Thread

Magnet

Again, no huge surprises, other than Bob Dylan being listed. I thought Idlewild and New Pornographers came out in 2000??? Of their Top 20, I haven’t heard these yet (sorry, I ain’t gonna give it all away like I did for NME and Spin ;):

Frank Black & The Catholics * Dog In The Sand
Minders * Golden Street
Minus 5 * Let The War Against Music Begin
Varnaline * Songs In A Northern Key
Steve Wynn * Here Come The Miracles

And from their “Hidden Treasures”:

Acid Mothers Temple * New Geocentric World
Bigger Lovers * How I Learned To Stop Worrying
Capitol Years * Meet Yr Acres
Comas * A Def Needle In Tomorrow
Constantines * The Constantines
Noonday Underground * Self-Assembly
P.G. Six * Parlor Tricks and Porch Favorites
Walker Kong * There Goes the Sun

NME

It’s hard to take this fickle weekly seriously, but perhaps that’s not the point. I still skim their daily email updates a cross between tabloid personality-mongering and classic pop hype hysteria and it’s pretty entertaining. I rarely read reviews worth paying mind to, which is why it’s so surprising that their top 50 has so many good albums (Fugazi even made it to 19!). There’s of course the usual headscratchers, such as Destiny’s Child, Slipknot and Jay-Z (though there may be something to it. Simon Reynolds gave it a rave review). The only album I feel like I should have known about but didn’t is The Tyde.

The NME Top 50 of 2001 (http://microsites.nme.com/top50_2001/launch.html)

Uncut & MOJO

Interesting, two magazines that are usually fairly similar (though I prefer Uncut’s writers) have quite different lists. What they have in common is they vastly overrated Ryan Adams and Bob Dylan. Otherwise, albums that were near the top of one list (Avalanches, N*E*R*D and Pernice Brothers in Uncut, Super Furry Animals, Sparklehorse, Nick Lowe and Joe Strummer in MOJO) weren’t even on the other list at all. To my surprise, MOJO has a much better top 20, although 20-40 had some real stinkers (Alicia Keys, Moldy Peaches).

Albums I haven’t heard yet, and am still highly skeptical — Nick Lowe, New Order, Turin Brakes, Mull Historical Society, Human League, Zoot Woman. I don’t feel inspired.

The lists. (No I didn’t do this just for your punk asses, I’m cc-ing them to my friend Julian White to put on his Rock List site — www.rocklist.net).

Uncut
1 Ryan Adams * Gold
2 The Avalanches * Since I Left You
3 Bob Dylan * Love And Theft
4 N*E*R*D * In Search Of…
5 The Pernice Brothers * The World Won’t End
6 Hammell On Trial * Choochtown
7 Jim White * No Such Place
8 Basement Jaxx * Rooty
9 Mercury Rev * All Is Dream
10 Turin Brakes * The Optimist LP
11 Missy Elliott * Miss E…So Addictive
12 Spiritualized * Let It Come Down
13 Daft Punk * Discovery
14 Handsome Family * Twilight
15 Cannibal Ox * The Cold Vein
16 New Order * Get Ready
17 Lift To Experience * The Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads
18 Felix Da Housecat * Kittenz And Thee Glitz
19 Kevin Tihista’s Red Terror * Don’t Breathe A Word
20 Leonard Cohen * Ten New Songs
21 Elbow * Asleep In The Back
22 Ed Harcourt * Here Be Monsters
23 Aphex Twin * Drikqs
24 Lucinda williams * Essence
25 Joy Division * Les Bains Douches
26 Bjork * Vespertine
27 Tindersticks * Can Our Love…
28 White Stripes * White Blood Cells
29 Luke Haines * Teh Oliver Twist Manifesto
30 Mull Historical Society * Loss
31 Ladytron * 604
32 Whiskeytown * Pneumonia
33 Gillian Welch * Time (The Revelator)
34 Radiohead * Amnesiac
35 R.E.M. * Reveal
36 Future Pilot AKA * Tiny Waves, Mighty Sea
37 The Strokes * Is This It
38 Air * 10,000 HZ Legend
39 Shelby Lynne * Love, Shelby
40 Jay-Z * The Blueprint
41 Zero 7 * Simple Things
42 Prefab Sprout 8 The Gunman And Other Stories
43 Playgroup
44 Pulp * We Love Life
45 Le Tigre * Feminist Sweepstakes
46 Howie Beck * Hollow
47 The Czars * The Ugly People VS The Beautiful People
48 Mark Mulcahy * Smile Sunset
49 The Human League * Secrets
50 Squarepusher * Go Plastic
51 Stephen Malkmus
52 Laura Nyro * Angel In The Dark
53 Zoot Woman * Living In A Magazine
54 Four Tet * Pause
55 Billy MacKenzie And Steve Aungle * Eurocentric
56 Bobby Conn * The Golden Age
57 Mark Eitzel * The Invisible Man
58 Preston School Of Industry * All This Sounds Gas
59 Ben Christophers * Spoonface
60 Spearmint * A Different Lifetime

MOJO
1 Super Furry Animals * Rings Around The World
2 Bob Dylan * Love And Theft
3 The Strokes * Is This It
4 Gillian Welch * Time (The Revelator)
5 Rufus Wainright * Poses
6 Sparklehorse * It’s A Wonderful Life
7 Bjork * Vespertine
8 Nick Lowe * The Convincer
9 Ryan Adams * Gold
10 Radiohead * Amnesiac
11 Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros * Global A Go-Go
12 Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci * How I Long To Feel That Summer…
13 Mercury Rev * All Is Dream
14 The Shins * Oh, Inverted World
15 The White Stripes * White Blood Cells
16 Lucinda Williams * Essence
17 Nick Cave * No More Shall We Part
18 Low * Things We Lost In The Fire
19 Spiritualized * Let It Come Down
20 Bonnie Prince Billy * Ease Down The Road
21 Basement Jaxx * Rooty
22 Roots Manuva * Run Come Save Me
23 Macy Gray * The Id
24 Ben Christophers * Spoonface
25 R.E.M. * Reveal
26 Air * 10,000 Hz Legend
27 Alicia Keys * Songs In A Minor
28 Missy Elliott * Miss E – So Addictive
29 Moldy Peaches
30 Ben Folds * Rockin’ The Suburbs
31 Paul McCartney * Driving Rain
32 Pulp * We Love Life
33 Travis * The Invisible Band
34 New Order * Get Ready
35 The Charlatans * Wonderland
36 Elbow * Asleep In The Back
37 Simian * Chemistry Is What We Are
38 John Hammond * Wicked Grin
39 Thea Gilmore * Rules For Jokers
40 Otis Lee Crenshaw * Londond, Not Tennessee