My Top Ten Albums Of 2002

10. lnterpol: Turn On The Bright Lights

9. Saint Etienne: Finisterre

8. Wilco: Yankee Hotel Foxtrot�I had new appreciation for this album, and Wilco in general, after I saw them live. My favorite moment from that show was �I Am Trying To Break Your Heart� which was even more haunting and apocalyptic than the recorded version. Glenn Kotche was a mad scientist who went nuts on his electronic percussion and crotales.

7. Flaming Lips: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots�I think a lot of the songs here are very intelligent, very moving. Perhaps more emotionally engaging than any of the band's previous material. Supposedly, the whole album is an elegy for a friend who died. I can definitely hear this in "It's Summertime," which reminds the listener that simply because it is summertime, it does not mean she has to be happy. I saw them play at the Arragon this past summer, and I have never seen a man happier to be alive than Wayne Coyne during their too-short set. When he told the audience it was the best night yet of the tour, I think we all believed him, his blood-covered face looked so sincere. All the acid-drenched winking and nudging of their previous several albums seems to have been replaced by a touching earnestness as the band moves into its twentieth year, its members into middle age. The songs are still excellent, the sounds are still novel, but we don't have to feel so ironically detached from them anymore.

6. Alto Heceta: This Distance, This Weekend

5. David Cross: Shut Up, You Fucking Baby!

4. Spoon: Kill The Moonlight�How can you not love a band whose drummer's last name is Eno (and who, coincidentally, oversees recording in his home studio) and admits to having the hum of their window air conditioner appearing on a professional recording? How can you hate a band whose lead singer pronounces the lyric "car radio" as "karate-o?"

3. Underworld: A Hundred Days Off

2. R�yksopp: Melody AM�Just absolutely wonderful. I hereby extend an offer to anyone who reads this and can demonstrate, as a direct result of my gushing about them, a substantial desire to hear my #1 and/or #2 records: I will gladly buy you either one. They are that important to me. And, since my readership is so tiny, I can make such a bold offer knowing it�s not going to break the bank. This album passes my test for excellence in electronica: something you can dance to, but also listen to in the car late at night, but also chill out at home to. You can do all of those things to just about every track here. The strange phone call and subsequent wind-up into a criminal groove between the first two tracks pretty much sums up the album�s whole attitude: let�s go, let�s do it, let�s get out there and stay up all night looking for beauty and fun. �Remind Me� is a perfect little pop song; �Higher Place� marries etheral vocals to a dirty groove; we should be hearing �Poor Leno� in every dance club across the land. My offer stands. It�s important to me that you hear this album and the next one.

1. Neil Finn: One All�It�s hard for me to listen to this album when it�s not spring. But one of the reasons I wanted to post my Top 10 of 2002 is that I�ve been listening to this album again lately and singing along with it in the car and forming some thoughts about it. And we know that forming thoughts is a big waste of time if you�re not going to spew them all over the Internet. Try Whistling This was a more complete, more definitive statement, but this album is nearly perfect from beginning to end. He has the luxury of working with the best musicians, engineers, and producers in pop music. Not unnoticed is the fact that in the midst of an industry that can still be shockingly mysogynistic, a majority of the album�s writers and performers are women. My experience with the album: I bought the UK version in London last spring and it quickly became the soundtrack for that trip, and the subsequent turbulent months. Some of my favorite moments: The liquid vocal harmonies during the choruses of �The Climber� and the almost sinister guitar synthesizer at the end. The blistering drums and guitar of �Hole In The Ice,� the chord progression and triumphant vocal melody during its chorus, the wake the song leaves in its last forty seconds, the line your freedom is so precious that it makes me hurt / I learned that my teacher was my loneliness / and wisdom can be passed on by the one who�s left / and freedom is so precious that it makes it work. The Rhodes during the chorus of �Secret God,� and the double-time in the final verse. The surprise turn that the chord progression of �Turn & Run� takes and Jim Keltner�s elegant drumming throughout (on the UK version Keltner also appears on �Elastic Heart� and his snare sound, along with his playing in general, is so huge it�s frightening). The beauty of �Lullaby Requiem,� a song for his mother, who recently passed: The building blocks sometimes have to crash / not meant to last like a mother�s love / peace comes when fear is laid to rest / that�s when you�ll find what you�re looking for. The blustery cadence and admonishing tone of �Human Kindness� and its elegantly stated warnings against First World excess and wars against invisible enemies: There�s no address, no number listed for the one who took the shot / ready or not, this righteous and twisted crusade is over now / we need someone else to take away the aching in our hearts. The eerie and then comforting guitar synthesizer throughout �Rest Of The Day Off� and its sublime verse progression, the sort of thing most songwriters stumble upon, and geniuses write in their heads; the moment right after the first chorus when the verse picks up again, the guitar synth phases back in, and Finn�s falsetto glides away. The closer, �Into The Sunset,� which is beautiful in every way and acknowledges that modern life brooks no time for nostalgia, but it�s the best we can do for friends we�ve left behind, or who have left us behind: Here lies a place that won�t let me languish / hears all my footsteps and waits. Neil Finn did everything right on this album. Every song here resonates with that beautiful ache we get from music at its best. And it shatters me every time.

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