Thursday, January 03, 2002

HZA's Year End in Musak Pics. Since i'm not Geto Fabulous like The Wally Champ, my list is mostly Bleeding Heart Alternative types, and maybe some Hip Hop thrown in for good measure, so here goes:

10. Peter Yorn - Musicforthemorningafter. A mumbling, smart lyricist, Peter Yorn is the atypical post-folk alternative musician in the vein of Elliot Smith, Rufus Wainwright and many others. What made him stand out in the crowd? Well, basically because none of the other aforementioned released a decent album this year. Musicforthemorningafter is repetitous, but standout tracks include Strange Condition and Just Another. The album just screams of Bob Schneider failing Junior Year in College and picking up some more insightfulness.

9. Spiritualized - Let It Come Down. Jason Pierce proves that sonic noise and orchestra can coincide in Spiritualized's 2001 release. A little more personal and insightful in lyrics as their last album (and I might say a bit more chaotic in sound), Let It Come Down has become one of the albums you listen to when tremendous moments happen in your life, a landslide creeping furiously towards you and you can't do anything about it. Check out Stop Your Crying, The Straight and Narrow and Lord Can You Hear Me.

8. Weezer - The Green Album. As much as Weezer hates being labeled a emo-punk-pop band, that's exactly what they are. Unabashed in their harmonies and hooks, that's what makes a band like them so much fun to listen to. Even though I thought they're first singles release Hash Pipe was rather weak, standouts include Photograph and the catchy (well they're all catchy) Simple Pages.

7. Gorillaz - Gorillaz. Brain child of that guy from Blur (Damon something) and Jamie (whatever of Tank Girl---heheh), Gorillaz to me, oozes with imagination and cool. Four imaginary bandmates playing industrial pop. Too sweet. If you had a pulse this year, you more than likely heard them or heard of them.

6. Spoon - Girls Can Tell. Maybe i'm messing up my order here, because I'm not sure why Spoon is at #6 and Weezer at #8, but this is a very stripped down pop album, sometimes like Pavement, sometimes like The Archers of Loaf, but mostly themselves. If it wasn't for that darn Anything You Want track...

Well, i'll finish up the remainder of the list today. By they way, if you haven't noticed, the page changed. =P
posted by HZA | 11:06 AM | email | archive