Old and Out of Touch: A 2001 Top 10 List
by Dan ZP
1. Jimmy Eat World, Bleed American
This isn’t just my number one album of the year; it’s what I’m all about. I’m all about: large recording dollars gone to making shit sound HUGE, good singing with harmonies, hooks the size of Florida–and unbelievably positive vibes. To wit: “Just try your best / Do anything you can / And don’t you worry what their bitter hearts / Are gonna say.” Is this the new U2? Here’s where emo “sells out”, I guess, but I see that as a good thing. How else is a sub-genre supposed to become simply, finally, kick-ass rock music?
2. The Emily Rock Group, Pop and Fade
This is the last album by Cleveland-area post-punk holdouts formerly known as Emily. Rhythmically tight like the Jesus Lizard, sans the abrasion-for-its-own sake ethos. Somehow, these three guys pile on a beautiful racket, and the impressionistic, rushing-outside-the-car-window lyrics are the icing on the gravy. Think Sebadoh circa Bakesale, with the ugly/pretty songs smooshed together more finely. A better half hour you will not find, aurally speaking. Bonus: They’re obscure!
3. Rainer Maria, A Better Version of Me
The previous album from these guys—1999’s “Look Now, Look Again”–made me feel kinda old. Such young players, such bleeding hearts–quite convinced that heartache matters. Thematically, “A Better Version of Me” isn’t quite as whiney as its predecessor, and the sound is more confident, too—gigantic shoegazing outroes, heftier hooks, tighter rhythms. So, quite a fitting title here. This is your basic emo music, but prettier and more expansive than you could imagine. Meanwhile, the lyrics retain a wide-eyed quality, while gaining an occasional toughness: “I’ve got to fight / Just not in the way I once thought right.” And by the way, they sing much better now. Well–she does, anyways.
4. The Strokes, Is This It
The CD got to my apartment before the hype did. I consider myself lucky, ‘coz this is simply wonderful–and wonderfully simple. It’s been a long time since I’ve been this happy about not knowing what the hell a singer’s going on about. Rock and roll.
5. Goner, Dollar Movie
Yes, I used to play with these guys. What are they? They are more emo than what is currently called that. They are solid songwriters, exquisite arrangers, and emotional dynamos. They rock quite fucking hard–which you know if you’ve ever seen them live. But the end of this record also has what is maybe the most purely bittersweet song this nerd has ever heard–”Lifer’s Lament,” a chin-up for anyone who leads The Creative Life. It’s kinda like if R.E.M.’s “Daysleeper” just spat it out: “In a room full of past-due bills / No, you don’t exactly feel blessed / But just give it time, you will.” Especially with bands like Goner nudging us along.
6. Whiskeytown, Pneumonia
What a surprise and yet no more than a reminder when I heard this one. After Heartbreaker, my opinion of the man was quite diminished (despite the 3 1/2 brilliant songs on that disc). But hey–Ryan Adams used to be in a band. And Whiskeytown didn’t just keep Ryan’s emotional flourishes in check–they pinned the music down, too: Caitlin played fiddle and sang better than a truckload of “guest stars,” and Jay (I think that’s his name) played the most tasteful guitar to be found anywhere in “y’allternative” music. This is easily their best album, and sadly, their last.
7. Dashboard Confessional, The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most
Rainer Maria would write lines like this if they didn’t check themselves: “The bottle is waiting / The cap is twisted, begging to be used / and so are you.” But Chris C’s not-checking is what you gotta love about him. Or hate, I guess. I can feel this album teetering towards something gross, like Sarah McLaughlin–it’s not as sincerely “confessional” sounding as the extremely minimal “Swiss Army Romance” from I think last year. But I can also feel where the hype is justified–Dashboard is like a misery-seeking missile. It will find it in you, and it will blow it up.
8. Weezer, “The Green Album”
If some band you’d never heard of came out with an album whose ten songs contained 8 completely unbelievably catchy-as-hell songs that were about nothing in particular, you could be into it, right? Well, just pretend that this is that band, that Rivers Cuomo never got all upset and made the stellar (and, yes, far superior) Pinkerton. And while you’re at it, recognize that “Hash Pipe” is one of the best “unlikely” singles of the past several years, and that it makes you wanna throw goats and do the nasty and all that shit Lester Bangs would have us do. Yeah.
9. Radiohead, Amnesiac
Whether or not or to what degree this music is “experimental” or “weird” or “obscure” is a matter of taste. The only reason people sweat Radiohead in regards to these qualities is that, amazingly, they sell records. All I know is that Radiohead channel and broadcast a music and a mood that is, to me, indescribably present-tense. That’s it.
10. The Rosenbergs, Mission: You
Often hailed for their staunch independence as a band, The Rosenburgs sport a sound that’s as cheerful and forthright as their views on the industry are dim and doubtful. At times, this album makes Weezer sound like Tad–it’s just that bubbly. Cars, Cheap Trick, The Knack all come to mind–with a new-millennium digital sheen and sweet harmonies. (I mean both old and new meanings of sweet, btw.) It was just getting warm last April when I got this, and I just swallowed it hook, line and sinker: “Summer’s here / And you appear / I’ll be fast asleep.” Awesome.
Also enjoyed…
Sigur Ros, Grandaddy, Centro-Matic, Dismemberment Plan, Belle and Sebastian (no more loud-mouth jokes from me in 2002), Nelly Furtado, Jeff Mangum, Jay Farrar, Oasis, Macy Gray, Five-Eight, Beachwood Sparks, the re-released full-length Johnny Cash prison albums, the Ride box set, Feelies, Kinks, Big Star–OH, THE SWEET AUTUMNAL MEMORIES!
“Enjoy the night.”
–Ronald Thomas Clontle
