2002 in music. • Page 2

1. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head
2. The Starting Line - Say It Like You Mean It
3. New Found Glory - Sticks and Stones

4. Box Car Racer - Box Car Racer
5. Damien Rice - O
6. Weezer - Maladroit
7. Eminem - The Eminem Show
8. Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends
9. The Used - The Used
10. Sigur Ros - ( )
11. Something Corporate - Leaving Through the Window
12. Oasis - Heathen Chemistry
13. Avril Lavigne - Let Go
14. Simple Plan - No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls
15. Foo Fighters - One By One

I had to delete my original list, I forgot about too many formative albums from this year!

 

I still think it's funny that I saw MCR on that tour and they were the first band of 4. It would be among my bigger 2000s feathers in my cap but tbh outside of Helena they never did anything for me at all, wild that they're perhaps the most prevailing band of the era.

 

I forgot about Sparta. I never fully bonded with this album as a whole, but there are a handful of songs that still blow me away. The first two and Collapse especially so.

 

I got into them through Three Cheers as well and didn't actually get into Bullets until after Black Parade. I think at the time I had trouble with the rawness in comparison to Revenge but eventually I was so in love with their other stuff that I just listened to it enough to really fall in love with the songs and now I couldn't imagine it sounding any other way.

Funnily enough I also didn't love the first Used album as much back then as I couldn't really get into the screaming, haha. I was more into In Love and Death. Genuinely can't fathom me not loving Bert's scream now.

 

It is a BIT of a top-heavy album but holy shit I connected with it SO much at the time. The back half of it definitely grows on you the more you listen.

Just wonderful blend of pretty and heavy and great dynamics. Jim Ward was the unsung member of ATDI in my opinion. I love this record more than anything The Mars Volta ever did.

I saw them at least 3 times between 02 and 04, all opening acts. Once for JEW, once for Weezer, and once for Incubus. I'll never forget at the Incubus show in Hershey PA my friends and I were the only people that seemed to know Sparta, we were in the second row and screaming the lyrics lol Jim definitely noticed - "CUT YOUR RIBBBBBBON!"

 

1. My Chemical Romance - Demolition Lovers
2. The Used - Pieces Mended
3. Frou Frou - Let Go
4. Gareth Gates - Tell Me One More Time
5. Busted - Without You
6. Damien Rice - Delicate
7. Taking Back Sunday - Cute Without the 'E' (Cut from the Team)
8. Coheed and Cambria - Time Consumer
9. mewithoutYou - Bullet to Binary
10. Eminem - Till I Collapse
11. The Mountain Goats - No Children
12. Box Car Racer - Letters to God
13. All American Rejects - My Paper Heart
14. Rilo Kiley - The Good That Won't Come Out
15. Thrice - Deadbolt

Favourite songs of the year.

 

Will > Gareth

 

I think you'd better leave right now.

 

haha I saw them on that weezer tour too. I remember being really bummed Boston was getting dashboard instead of the strokes. Ironically, despite my tastes trending much more indie in the following years, I probably still think those first handful of dashboard records are better than all but the best 2 or 3 strokes songs.

 

Alrighty, this year is insane. This is the year I start to be old enough to consciously choose the things I'm listening to. Oddly enough though, I didn't find my number one until almost a decade later.

1. Bad Religion - The Process of Belief

• This album is in my DNA on a fundamental level. I was not old enough to grasp how large of a comeback this was for the band when it was released, but even listening in chronological order in the present time, the burst of energy and songwriting tightness is palpable. Brooks Wackerman is one of my favorite drummers of all time and his performance on here is unmatched.

2. Sum 41 - Does This Look Infected?

• Had a hard time deciding what to put 2nd this week, so I guess it's this one just because I listened to it so much as a kid. Some all-time singles, some all-time deep cuts, and a few that are just ok. But one of those rare pop punk albums that plays well all the way through.

3. Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf

• Just re-listened to this last week, as luck would have it. Quirky groovy hard rock that somehow retains its accessibility. This and Rated R are the only Queens albums IMO that have the band firing on all cylinders and contributing in equal parts. I love Like Clockwork as well, but this is the best amalgam of musical powers.

Honorable Mentions:
The All-American Rejects - The All-American Rejects

• I like this album because it is basically just a bonus Fountains of Wayne album, albeit more juvenile.

Hot Water Music - Caution

• Pretty handily the best HWM album for me. A good blend of aggression and melody.

Cake - Comfort Eagle

• The best Cake album and the only one that isn't 50% filler. Shadow Stabbing has become a favorite of my family for some reason.

Bowling For Soup - Drunk Enough to Dance

• The front half of this album, albeit juvenile, could go down as the most underrated Side A in pop punk history. I Don't Wanna Rock? Girl All the Bad Guys Want? Surf Colorado? All bangers.

Sparks - Little Beethoven

• Sparks reinvent themselves for the umpteenth time and this time its repetitive baroque pop. Seems like something Phaynes would hate.

Weezer - Maladroit

• BIG RIFFS! BIG CHORUSES! BIG SOLOS!

Ok Go - Ok Go

• Unassuming debut from a perennially unassuming band.

New Found Glory - Sticks & Stones

• My love of this album has waned over the years, but the singles are a big reason I'm even on this website right now.

Good Charlotte - The Young & The Hopeless

• I actually think this has aged better than a lot of releases from around the same time. Wondering is an underrated song.

Foo Fighters - One By One

• The most "okay" Foo album. Was the worst until the last decade of releases.

Pearl Jam - Riot Act

• The final "classic" Pearl Jam album. Muscular but bloated.

Simple Plan - No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls

• I really only remember the singles from this album, but was a big damn deal. If you haven't cried to Perfect, why are you on Chorus?

 

The Young & The Hopeless was one I was super into at the time and I still really like most of it.

 

1. Taking Back Sunday - TAYF
2. The Starting LIne- SILYMI
3. New Found Glory - Sticks

 

1. Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Black Earth
2. Meat Beat Manifesto - R.U.O.K.?
3. Hella - Hold Your Horse Is

I think Bohren at their best elevate their sound, despite its really slow, sparse nature, in a way that works equally well being focused on as it does as background music. The deep bass, the intimate, cold drum sound, the melancholic saxophone moments, the close mic'd piano...the whole thing is the best mood piece for late night - 'zombie jazz' I once read someone call it.

I don't know how many people would pick R.U.O.K.? as the best MBM album and it's not really a standalone in terms of progression, but it hits a sweet spot for me. All the drive of drum-forward breakbeat music with these cool, funky bass and synth parts and weird vocal samples plucked from all over the place.

There's something so simple and playful about Hold Your Horse Is, even given how tight and frenetic it is, that I really gravitate towards. Sometimes I think of it and I just need to immediately play something from it. I'm a drummer but Zach Hill thinks in such an incredibly different way to me, to most drummers; I'm kind of awestruck not so much at his ability, as good as he is, but at his approach. The high-pitched can snare and the way he locks in with the guitar creates these crazy, spastic hooks over multiple listens that have lodged themselves into my brain.

Honourable mentions:
Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute
Hundred Reasons - Ideas Above Our Station
Silverchair - Diorama
Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi
Underoath - The Changing Of Times - pretty much my high school album. It's a rare album for me in that it's so tied to a particular time in my life that I find it impossible to just sit back and listen to it now. But it's worthy of mention.

 

1. Sigur Ros - ( )
2. Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky
3. Bright Eyes - Lifted...

Even for a band as alien as Sigur Ros, ( ) is particularly other-worldly, an album without an album title, song titles, and sung in a make believe language with no actual lyrics is quite an experience. Jonsi's voice here is truly just another instrument in the soundscapes they make - allowing each listener to take their own interpretations of the babble he sings. A beautiful record, unlike any others.

Blackened Sky is Biffy's first record, and a great piece of loud, anthemic grunge-esque rock, delivered with gusto and passion. This album has the hooks and pop structure of their later records, but wraps them up in bits of feedback and noise. Some of their absolute best work, and songs like 57 and Justboy can fit seamlessly into their more sleek pop-rock sets now. A great band, and while they're massive in the UK, I don't think they're particularly big elsewhere, so worth checking out if you're unfamiliar with the name.

3rd place was difficult, but just gave it to Bright Eyes' Lifted..., a sprawling and mature record (even though Conor was 21 / 22 when making this), covering various genres, with bits of folk, country and indie rock. Some of Conor's best tracks here, from the simple plaintive Bowl of Oranges, to the epic and wild closing track, Lets Not Shit Ourselves.

Honourable mentions;

Against Me - Reinventing Axl Rose: This could easily have been third, a low budget, lo-fi bit of folksy punk perfection. Despite the fact that it sounds so cheap and tinny and the vocals are all over the place, there's a huge amount of charm about it, that you could never capture on a more professional recording.

Bruce Springsteen - The Rising: A bit of a comeback of sorts for Brucey, a really strong album and his first with the E Street Band in nearly two decades, with just classic heartland rock that nobody does better than him.

The Streets - Original Pirate Material: A proper slice of British life in 2002, with spoken word, hip-hop and garage music combining, with Mike Skinner's satirical and sharp lyrics and observations.

Idlewild - The Remote Part: Losing a bit of the scrappy punk of their earlier records, this is a big sounding alternative rock album, leaning into their arena rock influences, but keeping their distinctly Scottish sound.

Johnny Cash - American IV: Hurt is the big one here that everyone knows, but the rest of the album is full of (nearly) equally great re-interpretations of tracks by Cash towards the end of his life.

Glassjaw - Worship and Tribute: A much more interesting record than the generic hardcore of their debut, taking in wider influences, while still managing to write some absolute rippers.

Taking Back Sunday - Tell All Your Friends: Been a while since I've listened to this all the way through (maybe I should change that, this week), but a classic teenage melodramatic record, perfect for singing along at the top of your lungs.

The Gloria Record - Start Here: A slightly forgotten emo band, and a side project of the Mineral singer, but this is a really lovely little record.

Tegan and Sara - If It Was You: Not quite as good as what would follow, but a big step up from their first two records, with some great folksy-indie-pop tracks.

Minus the Bear - Highly Refined Pirates: I don't listen to the album a huge deal, but "Absinthe Party at the Fly Honey Warehouse" is one of my all time favourite songs - a beautiful track about travelling, complete with French mispronunciations.

Thursday - Five Stories Falling: Might have listened to the full EP with the live tracks like twice, but "Jet Black New Year" is on here, and it's Thursday's best song.

 

Listened to Maladroit and liked it a lot more than Green, had a much more interesting sound and better songs overall. Looking forward to spending more time with this one.

 

Maladroit rules

 

I've liked this post despite this statement.

 

I think this is the first time I’ve seen a list in one of these threads and never even heard of any of the top three artists picked!

 

Yeah I'm firmly in the "The Used (& Taking Back Sunday)'s first album is better than MCR's first album" camp

 

Yes - cheers! Absinthe Party absolutely in my top 50 fave songs of all time.

The album does lose a bit of its flow I feel like from the 3-4 instrumental/interlude tracks.... even though that shouldn't be the case. But it just has sooooo many bangers.

 

I mentioned Bohren in the 2000 thread. Hella is one of the previous projects of Zach Hill from Death Grips.

Trying to guess if you'd like any of them. I think you'd maybe find Bohren monotonous.

 

Mark Lanegan, Screaming Trees and Queens of the Stone Age Singer, Dies at 57