Music fans: it's time to get those "Best of 2002" lists turned in. By my rules, it's a 2002 album if you bought or downloaded it in 2002. Please try to say something about each entry, so this doesn't become just a dry list of titles. Most readers are unlikely to have heard of your favorites. ((( Linked between Agora and Music conferences. )))33 responses total.
One of my favorite album's from 2002 was The Eminem Show.I think it's his best work yet, and......
Moby: 18 (or is that a 2001 album?) At least I bought it at the brink of 2003
Japan For Sale Vol. 2: A great compilation of J-Pop music. Vampyros Lesbos soundtrack: This is the first stereo recording of this wonderfully psychedelic music.
Patty Griffin, 1000 Kisses
Not really much released in 2002 that I'm keen on, so I'll post a 2001 album that I purchased in 2002. Marillion - Anaroknaphobia, probably the best album they have knocked out in the best part of five years, download Seperated Out or else Quartz, two fine samples from the album. :) Shaun
johnny cash: the man comes around
I don't know when it was released, but my favorite album acquired in 2002 has turned out to be expatriate jazz pianist Ronnie Lynn Patterson playing two Morton Feldman pieces: Piano, and Palais de Mari. It's on the "l'impreinte digitale" label. According to the CD booklet, it was recorded at Studio La Buissonne, in Pernes-Les-Fontaines, on 12 Juine 2001, so it's possible it was released in 2002. Palais de Mari would be my favorite song of 2002, I guess.
My music buying has slowed down a lot lately. But I think the album I most enjoyed of those I bought last year was "The Legendary Marvin Pontiac".
Coldplay - "A Rush of Blood to the Head" Alison Krauss and Union Station - "Live"
I'm lusting after a number of albums, including new releases by Brad Mehldau and Joshua Redman. But I'm not buying anything unless I can get it for less than the nose-bleed RIAA list prices. If those albums were going for $10 instead of $18 they'd sell like mad, but people are buying other things because a CD for $18 does not give value for the money. Which reminds me, I need to pick up a new copy of "Stick Figures", since I still can't find my original. Greg Howard's web site had halfway decent prices last time I checked. And I want to try to fill some of the gaps in my collection of Passport. Just picked up some Johann Strauss today - $2.99. Can't beat that.
Who pays $18 for a cd? Jesus, if you can't find it for less, you don't deserve it.
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Luckily, because of my discount, I get cd's for $12 which is about what I am willing to pay for them. I think if I change jobs and have to start spending $18, I'll stop buying cd's.
I don't often buy CDs for $18, although I *have*. I've also bought them for quite a bit more (imports, alas... tend to be pricey). But most of the time, I try to find a cheaper way.
I have too - but usually I'll catch it at Costco for $12, or around that at Best Buy.
That's a great solution if you enjoy the mega-selling pop acts whose work is sold at Costco or can find your favorite music among the somewhat wider selection at Best Buy but many of us enjoy music you simply won't find offered for sale at either of those two stores.
(But then perhaps we don't "deserve" the music we like if it isn't sold at Best Buy or Costco.)
OK, I'm going to put on the drift police hat and ask people to stick to their favorite music acquisitions of the year, and not how much they paid for them, OK? I'm sorry I'm dragging on my own list.
I did my list already! :-) With 'splanations and all. I'll have to ask if I can recycle, since it's been published.
The kind of music I like is only a bit more likely to be carried by outlets like Best Buy than krj's favorite fare, and that's not saying much.
I didn't buy a lot of new music in 2002, but here are ten of the
albums acquired last year to which I spent the most time listening.
I believe only one of them was released in 2002 and the bulk of the
list dates back 25 years or more..
In no particular order:
King Tubby and the Skatalites - "The Legendary Skatalites in Dub"
Townes Van Zandt - "Our Mother the Mountain"
Aimee Mann - "Bachelor No. 2"
Sigur Ros - "Agaetis Byrjun"
Joni Mitchell - "Blue"
The Kinks - "Face to Face"
Miles Davis - "Kind of Blue"
Love - "Forever Changes"
Moodswings - "Horizontal"
Various Artists - "Cap Vert: Anthologie"
Who shot King Tubby?
I don't know that they ever found out..
It was the bald head...
must be: By the way/ RHCP
Making this list for 2002 was like pulling teeth. I've stalled it for three months, but this is the last chance to do my list and have it read in the Agora conference. There were a lot of good albums for 2002 but I don't think anything got the emotional response I expect from a *great* album. Altan, THE BLUE IDOL Veteran Irish folk band's album was the best of their long career in the view of several critics, and I concur. Their duet with Paul Brady on "Daily Growing" was my favorite song of the year. Chumbawamba, READYMADES Loaded with British folk samples and guest vocals. "Jacob's Ladder" was my other favorite song of the year. Kate Rusby and Dick Gaughan are among the guests. Coope Boyes Simpson, TWENTY FOUR SEVEN Three harmony voices on excellent leftist political material. The title track is my third and last favorite song of the year. :) Linda Thompson, FASHIONABLY LATE Ex-wife of Richard Thompson comes up with her first album in 17 years. She and co-writer son Teddy Thompson show a great talent for touching traditional sounds in contemporary songs. This was the unexpected treat of the year; I was sure she was retired from music for good. (Item from interviews: Linda gets Botox injections in her throat to control the spasms which shut down her career in the 1980s.) Mary Gauthier, FILTH AND FIRE A singer-songwriter who is approaching the level Richard Thompson reaches at his peak. Steve Andre, who does not like most singers, startled me by singing along with some of this album. She's so intense this is scary to listen to sometimes. Shine, SUGARCANE Sunhoney, NOVEMBER Alyth McCormack, AN IOMALL All three albums feature Scottish Gaelic singer Alyth McCormack. Individually probably none would make my list -- maybe the Shine album would, with its two-harp, three-singer lineup -- but altogether they make an impressive body of work and I need to boil down one killer highlights CD from them. La Volee d'Castors, VDC High-energy, rhythmically complex Quebecois folk band. Bruce Springsteen, THE RISING First mainstream rock album to make my list in years. I'm not even that much of a Springsteen fan. Kapela Ze Wsi Warszawa, WIOSNA LUDU (The Band from the Village Warsaw, THE PEOPLE'S SPRING) Open-throated eastern European singing, lots of drumming. The band's web site calls it "bio-techno," whatever that means. :) Faintly reminiscent of Hedningarna, though not as complex in instrumentation. From Poland. Some sort of honorable mention goes to three albums from the Scottish folk-techno scene: FAERIE STORIES by the Peatbog Faeries, and both HARDLAND and GLEN LYON by Martyn Bennett. 2002 was the year for my happy discovery of the BBC Radio shows via the internet: well over half this list was discovered through Real Audio listening to Radio 2, Radio 3 and Radio Scotland. Did I forget anything?
Ken, you have to let me listen to the Wiosna Ludu. I lost my copy of Filth and Fire before making up my best of list, or I bet it would have made the list (We shared Altan and Linda Thompson.)
I thought Altan were Welsh, but maybe I'm confused.
No, Irish. Definitely.
There was a noted Welsh band whose name was one word beginning with A, though, or did I dream it?
Ar Log, maybe? Welsh bands don't have the high visibility in the US that Irish and Scottish bands have.
I can't think of any other Welsh bands beginning with A besides Ar Log, oh wait -- the Alarm! At least, they were Welsh and begin with A. (I have one of their single Cds with a song in Welsh on it.) They aren't folk, though, but standard 80s rock.
It must have been Ar Log. Two words, then.
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