The Best of 2002 ---Ink Blot Magazine

The Year in Music 2002
Come now, you're spoiling us!

After all our bitching and moaning, we frankly didn't expect such lavish atonement for the musical limp handshake that was 2001. Two-oh-oh-two was more than we dared hope for, a kaleidoscopic explosion of great music from sources expected (Missy, The Flaming Lips) and unforseen (The Streets, FC Kahuna). Some corners cynically pushed generic trends (more garage rock, sir?) but the best music of 2002 wouldn't be circumscribed by any movement, real or imagined. Consider the brilliant records from every corner of the musical world that didn't make the list below: Doves, Sleater-Kinney, Brooks, Trio Mocotó, Lemon Jelly and Talib Kweli all made records that made us believers with every listen. So just imagine how good our winners must have been ...

SONG OF THE YEAR
The Flaming Lips, "Fight Test"
More than one cynical bastard wrote to tell us that Coyne and company borrowed liberally from Cat Stevens' "Father and Son" when penning the melody to "Fight Test." Which surely is missing the point of this song, of all great music, and maybe life. If "Fight Test" -- inspirational, star-gazing lyric, oceans-deep production, and yes, that remarkable melody -- didn't speak to you on some level, you just weren't ready to listen.

They also thrilled: "Work It," Missy Elliot; "Autobahn 66," Primal Scream; "Love of My Life," Erykah Badu and Common; "Machine Says Yes," FC Kahuna

MOST SORELY MISSED

We love you Joe.

Gravel voice and Rock teeth, spastic moves and radical views, bulletproof integrity and miles of cool ... Joe Strummer was the perfect hero for a kid in love with music, probably because Joe Strummer never stopped being a kid in love with music. The Clash did punk and funk, disco and dub, rockabilly and blues, but it was always rock'n'roll, because Joe Strummer was always rock'n'roll. The Clash made white kids dance, they made rich kids riot, they made bored kids care. Joe Strummer was the magnetic heart and soul of the band, arguably the finest lyricist ever to write words for rock songs, and the things his band did are eternal. They don't die. If you don't believe us, go buy London Calling or The Clash today. But first read Matt Cibula's We Love the Clash. It's still the best thing Ink Blot's ever published.

Joe Strummer didn't die with The Clash. Years after their split he continued to dabble amiably in his beloved roots rock and future dub. He never made another classic record but he remained the people's hero, descending every year on the Glastonbury festival like some patron saint of the punters, never bothering to ask for a spot on stage, just vibing on dance music and late nights with the kids around the campfire. Joe Strummer never embarassed us, he never reformed The Clash, he never sold out. Joe Strummer died before he got old. Despite what you may have been told, that's not a good thing. We'll miss you Joe.

BRIGHTEST HOPE

Girls on top

That 2003 will bring a New Feminist Dawn. That Missy Elliot announces her candidacy for the Democratic Party presidential nomination. That Le Tigre continue to reinvent the way forward. That great albums by Ladytron and Gus Gus open doors for truly gender-irrelevant bands. That DJ Lottie, Miss Kittin and Charlotte the Baroness burn down dance music's Boys Club and become the biggest DJs in the world. That good albums from Sleater-Kinney, Aimee Mann, and Dot Allison are answered by great albums from Joy Zipper, Erykah Badu and The Run for Cover Lovers. That 1991 happens again and this time it sticks. That the industry stops subsituting fake sex appeal for real charisma. That exploitation fizzles and respect blooms universal. Keep your head up, it could happen...

The Best of 2001
The Best of 2000
The Best of 1999
The Best of the '90s

Blackalicious Blazing Arrow
We could talk for hours about what Blazing Arrow meant to the way we saw music in 2002. In fact, we have -- just ask our friends. No album in recent memory offered so many possibilities and so many reasons to hope, and no group working today has so boldly attempted to fulfill its own potential in a single fell swoop. That they succeeded was a tribute to the fierce resolve, expansive vision, and enormous heart of the two young men who made this album. Chief Xcel and Gift of Gab, 2002 belongs to you. Remember it well when you train that arrow on your next target.

Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
With probably 50 magazine pieces and a feature-length documentary film dedicated to the story behind the making of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, the music has had almost no chance to speak for itself. Which is a shame, because as fascinating as Wilco's internal dramas and contractual odysseys were, the tunes were even more interesting. Neither as impenetrably experimental as its chroniclers would have you believe nor as universally accomodating as its significant impact would suggest, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was Jeff Tweedy at his best: honest, engaging, pleasantly contrarian and still, after all these years, in love with music.

3 The Flaming Lips
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

Review of Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

It's getting increasingly difficult to compare Flaming Lips albums with the records of their peers, mostly because they don't seem to have any peers left. The Lips are simply working on a different project, focusing on a Bigger Picture. Yoshimi was as much a work of philosophy as it was a pop record, and everything -- from the grandest lyrical theme down to the sound of the snare drum -- served a greater purpose. "All we have is now," they sang, and you could tell that they meant it. The question is, are we ready to believe them?

Gomez In Our Gun
If you record a perfect third album and nobody hears it, is it still a masterpiece? In Our Gun elicited little more than a shrug from music critics around the world, further proof that music critics are idiots and should be forced to get proper jobs. Ink Blot got it right, of course, and we're still shaking our heads at the depth of this record, a huge statement of dirt-under-the-fingernails maturity and wisdom that simultaneously recaptures the ambition and joyous energy of Gomez's beloved debut album. Still don't want to know? Fine, we'll keep it for ourselves then.

The Streets Original Pirate Material
Mike Skinner the vocalist thinks he's a rapper. Mike Skinner the producer thinks he makes garage bangers for pirate radio. Neither is true, and in fact, both notions are faintly ridiculous. As is Original Pirate Material -- a homemade album about many days and nights in the life of a 20-something UK suburban layabout. The mumbling spoken word, the awkward, jerky interpretations of garage and drum'n'bass, the complete disregard for convention and expectation -- it all sounds so wrong, but it's not by accident that The Streets' debut album ended up sounding so right. Skinner holds the whole mess together with the force of his personality and the unerring precision of his lyrical insight, and the result is an artifact that completely captures its moment in time while simultaneously staking a claim to timelessness. A classic debut, in other words.

Common Electric Circus
Common has been responsible for two of the great odes to hip-hop (this year's "Ode to Hip-Hop" with Badu and his own "I Used to Love H.E.R."), so it's telling that Electric Circus dispenses with the conventions of hip-hop completely. Only someone who really believes in the power of this music would ask it to reach so far, and much of the glorious music here proves the point and then some. As always, though, Common albums end up being about Common, and that's a wonderful thing, because he remains one of the most endlessly fascinating figures in music.

Paul Westerberg Stereo/Mono
If we're honest with ourselves, much of the time we'd rather that the heroes of our younger days not trouble us with the musings of their middle age. In 2002 Paul Westerberg finally proved that he wasn't going to become indie rock's embarassing uncle, that music not only still mattered to him, but that he could still make it matter to others too. The Stereo half of this double set was a fine pop record; the Mono half a glorious, ragged, home-grown reminder of what this guy can do with a guitar and that voice. Long may he rasp.

8 ...And You Will Know Us By the
Trail of Dead Source Tags & Codes

In many ways, Source Tags & Codes pulled the same trick that Blackalicious' Blazing Arrow did -- the leap to a major label, the expansion of musical horizons, the retention of integrity and everything that made the group good in the first place. If Trail of Dead's previous records left you wanting to like them more than you actually did, Source Tags & Codes very probably made you a convert. If you were already a fan, you got your new favorite record.

FC Kahuna Machine Says Yes
With dance music threatening to become every bit the soulless commodity the Acid House revolution turned its back on in 1988, FC Kahuna appeared out of nowhere to fire one last shot over the bow. Machine Says Yes, despite being steeped in 15 years of sweaty basement dancefloors and alien electronic sounds, sounded as thrillingly new as anything released in 2002. Even better, it had real tunes woven into its grooves, and the likes of the title track, "Hayling," and "Glitterball" will sound as good 15 years from now as "Phantasy Girl" and "Chime" do today. Perfectly sequenced, carefully crafted and viscerally thrillng, the year's most perfect debut had "classic" written all over it.

10 Extra Glenns Martial Arts Weekend

Not many side projects make it into yearly Top 10 lists. Not many albums that don't feature any drums, either. But there aren't many albums out there like Martial Arts Weekend: a record that effortlessly shed the trappings of contemporary pop, rock, indie, and folk in favor of timelessness and beautiful songwriting. At times Martial Arts Weekend sounded like it appeared from nowhere fully-formed, perfectly simple and simply perfect, unsullied by problematic human craft. It wasn't so, of course, but as John Darnielle and Franklin Bruno return to their day jobs, they may be happy to let you believe it.