Editor’s picks: Favorite albums of 2002
Publishing a short list of albums and claiming that they are the “best” of any given year is a common practice, but a pompous one at that, as music is, by its very nature, subjective. Instead, we present you with one editor’s list of the albums that spent the most time in his CD player, and why.
Publishing a short list of albums and claiming that they are the “best” of any given year is a common practice, but a pompous one at that, as music is, by its very nature, subjective. Instead, we present you with one editor’s list of the albums that spent the most time in his CD player, and why.
Audioslave - “Audioslave” (Epic/Interscope)
The debut from ex-Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell and former Rage Against the Machine members Tom Morello (guitar), Tim Commerford (bass) and Brad Wilk (drums) lives up to the nearly two-years-worth of hype and anticipation that preceded its release. With a group comprising one of the greatest voices in rock music and the power trio behind Rage Against the Machine, the chances of a bomb were slim at best. The album’s first single alone--"Cochise"--was worth the wait.
Click here to read our review of “Audioslave.”
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Korn - “Untouchables” (Epic/Immortal)
Korn’s fifth full-length is its best album to date, hands down. The quartet’s uniquely twisted metal delivery is as brutal as ever, with frontman Jonathan Davis’ demonic vocals sounding their best yet. The album rises above its predecessors thanks to the band’s more-evolved songwriting style, which marries catchy hooks and melodies to the group’s well-honed metal chops.
Click here to read our review of “Untouchables.”
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Nine Inch Nails - “and all that could have been” (nothing)
On his group’s first official live album, Trent Reznor continues to demonstrate his incomparable creativity and perfectionistic approach to everything that he does. As if the exceptional-sounding live CD--recorded during NIN’s 2000 Fragility tour--isn’t enough, the real gem is the limited-edition’s bonus disc, which features Reznor performing acoustic versions of several of his previous works, as well as several previously unreleased tracks.
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Jerry Cantrell - “Degradation Trip” (Roadrunner)
Nothing can lessen the blow that the rock world suffered earlier this year when Alice in Chains frontman Layne Staley died of a drug overdose, but some solace can be found in this sophomore solo release from fellow Alice founder Cantrell. The guitarist-singer fired off everything in his arsenal, which resulted in an album that sounds like the second coming of AIC.
Click here to read our review of “Degradation Trip.”
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Foo Fighters - “One By One” (RCA)
It is hard to imagine that, had Kurt Cobain lived on, Dave Grohl could have gone down in the annals of rock history merely as “the drummer from Nirvana.” With a set of pipes like his, and the ability to write so many hit songs that he makes it look easy, Grohl clearly belongs front and center. He continues to show off his uncanny rock sensibility on his group’s fourth album, as evidenced by the blistering first single “All My Life.”
Click here to read our review of “One By One.”
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John Mayer - “Inside Wants Out” (Mayer Music/Columbia)
John Mayer hit the big time with his 2001 major-label debut, “Room for Squares,” but his work on this acoustic EP buries the comparatively too-polished sound of its predecessor. Nowhere is this disparity more pronounced than on “No Such Thing,” one of several tracks featured in electric form on “Room for Squares” that comes across as infinitely more powerful and substantive as a stripped-down acoustic cut on “Inside Wants Out.”
Click here to read our review of “Inside Wants Out.”
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Jeff “Tain” Watts - “Bar Talk” (Columbia)
What I know about jazz could fit in a thimble, but only a deaf man would have trouble recognizing the talent and musicianship found on drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts’ latest, which features a cast of musicians that includes saxophonists Ravi Coltrane (son of jazz luminary John Coltrane) and Branford Marsalis. One listen will sour you on just about everything that mainstream radio plays these days.
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Tribe of Judah - “Exit Elvis” (Spitfire)
Singer Gary Cherone rises from the ashes of Extreme and Van Halen with this debut from his rock quintet, which features former Extreme bandmates Pat Badger (bass) and Mike Mangini (drums). The production is stellar, the industrial-tinged rock is refreshingly un-’80s/’90s and Cherone’s voice has never sounded better. If it wasn’t for the stigma that hangs over most ‘80s- and ‘90s-era artists, you’d have heard this on the radio regularly.
Click here to read our review of “Exit Elvis.”
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Branford Marsalis Quartet - “Footsteps of Our Fathers” (Marsalis Music/Rounder)
Slightly less accessible and more cerebral than Jeff “Tain” Watts’ “Bar Talk” (see above), “Footsteps of Our Fathers” features Branford Marsalis and company--including Watts--reinterpreting classic jazz compositions by John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, John Lewis and Sonny Rollins. Like “Bar Talk,” the musicianship displayed on this set will make you scoff at the comparative lack of talent that most mainstream pop and rock artists get by with.
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Filter - “The Amalgamut”
Richard Patrick, who cut his teeth as a member of Nine Inch Nails during the latter act’s first tour, continues to make huge-sounding, amazingly well-produced industrial rock. His work bears the same type of perfectionistic flair that Nine Inch Nails founder Trent Reznor is known for, but is less eclectic and more radio-friendly than that found on Reznor’s albums. Music to get a speeding ticket to.
Click here to read our review of “The Amalgamut.”
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