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Sean Howe's Chugchanga-L Poll 2001 Entry

Here's my list.
I'm not saying this was a bad year for music, but four of my top five
from last year (MF Doom's Operation Doomsday, The Clientele's
Suburban Light, Clem Snide's Your Favorite Music, and Joe Pernice's
Big Tobacco) were reissued this year, and if I counted them, they
would have held their spots. Of course, if I'd counted reissues, I
wouldn't have much new music at all.


ALBUMS LIST:
1 Avalanches, Since I Left You (Modular)
2 Spoon, Girls Can Tell (Merge)
3 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Tyranny of Distance (Lookout)
4 Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart (Beggars Banquet)
5 Hem, Rabbit Songs (Waveland)
6 Jay-Z, The Blueprint (Universal)
7 Clem Snide, The Ghost of Fashion (SpinArt)
8 Pernice Brothers, The World Won't End (Ashmont)
9 Lucksmiths, Why That Doesn't Surprise Me (Drive-In)
10 Shins, Oh, Inverted World (Sub Pop)



ALBUM COMMENTS:

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, The Tyranny of Distance (Lookout):
Spoon, Girls Can Tell (Merge):
I'm really hoping that at least some of the critics who hail the
tightly-wound rhythm loop of "Everything Hits At Once" acknowledge
the song's obvious debt to Hall and Oates' "Say It Isn't So." Even if
Girls Can Tell is a spot-the-influence LP, it's the only one I've
ever heard to engulf skinny-tie pop 45s and digest them as catchy,
crunchy power-trio anthems. And that whole "voice just like Gavin
Rossdale" thing is starting to not bother me. Does anyone else think
it strange that Spoon and Ted Leo both found ways of merging Thin
Lizzy and Joe Jackson? And made very different-sounding albums in the
process?

Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart
(Beggars Banquet):
After anthologizing their own version of American folk music on the
Blue Trees EP, this once-insufferable Welsh collective released this
Paul Buckmaster homage. In the fall, when the album came out, I
didn't much feel like listening to nostalgic yearnings. I wanted
music that commiserated with me, music that had been through what I
had been through: music that had been recorded last week, or
yesterday. Well, obviously, I didn't listen to much music for a
while. But when I returned to my stereo, How I Long To Feel That
Summer rang as true as anything. Strange, since it throws back to
those schlocky singer/songwriter records with which Warner Brothers
once flooded the market. And yet songs that sound like lost
Raspberries singles are garnered with organs, violins, and horns to
update the Hippie-Dream Eulogy Statement in a way that Mercury Rev
could only=8Awell, dream.

Clem Snide, The Ghost of Fashion (SpinArt):
Like Wilco, Clem Snide is a recently WEA-dumped rock band that's
slowly moving away from its country roots. Also like Wilco, they
recorded an album that's a "sonic departure", introducing new
instruments and hopping from genre to genre. And like Wilco, the
album sort of failed. But in Clem Snide's case, it wasn't because of
the songs.
(By the way: it's hard to imagine that the fervor for Yankee Foxtrot
Hotel isn't a bit bolstered by a sort of "I've heard it and you
haven't" exhibitionism. Let's see how the album's held up after 500
listens to "Heavy Metal Drummer.")

Shins, Oh, Inverted World (Sub Pop)
Stephen Malkmus and Preston School of Industry showed us the sum of
Pavement's parts; maybe George Harrison's death will scare some sense
into them. In the meantime, the throne of old-fashioned indie rock is
about to get a new ass-mark. While The New Pornographers write catchy
enough exercises, the Shins display a greater commitment to
inhabiting songs, as evidenced by "New Slang."

SINGLES LIST:
1.Ghostface Killah featuring Carl Thomas "Never Gonna Be The Same"
2. Mary J. Blige "Family Affair" (remix)
3. Eve featuring Gwen Stefani "Blow Ya Mind"
4. Fabolous "Can't Deny It"
5. Dido "Thank You"
6. Daft Punk "Digital Love"
7. Hope Sandoval and the Warm Intentions "On the Low"
8. White Stripes, "Fell in Love with a Girl"
9. Sunshine Anderson "Lunch and Dinner"
10. Christina Aguilera vs. The Strokes "Stroke of Genius"

SINGLES COMMENTS:
Ghostface Killah "Never Gonna Be The Same"
I know that the use of tabla makes "Get Ur Freak On" most people's
choice for iconoclastic hip-hop single of the year. But it can't
compare to this much-hated on Trojan horse, which uses every verse to
throws jaw-droppers at urban radio. A cuckolded gangsta with a broken
heart envisions all the ways his lady's been getting fucked. He
rationalizes his rivals' edge: "Bigger dick, I don't know." And how
does he sweet-talk? "Member those days I had you smellin' my boxers?"
All this goes down with a smooth Carl Thomas chorus, but one line
ensured the songs' commercial doom (and brilliance): "Fuck that, I
put a lot of money up-I'm hatin'!"

Dido "Thank You"
Can I include "Thank You"? I know it's been out for a decade or so,
but it got most of its airplay this past year. I'm kind of
embarrassed to list it, but Mr. Mathers appropriation of the song
gave it a sinister aftertaste; you couldn't hear it without
remembering how it fit in the context of "Stan." It wasn't until my
girlfriend and I were on vacation in Europe, and we heard it in
stores and on radios, that I started to let the song appeal to the
more innocent parts of my heart. It probably would have been too
saccharine, but it still had a lingering bite. So we held hands to
the song and talked about how happy it made us. Then we came back to
the States on September 8. Three days later, and the song's hook, "I
want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life," was tainted
yet again. But all that Rorschaching is the sign of a perfect pop
song, right?

Sunshine Anderson "Lunch and Dinner"
To date, this is the most nonchalant use of the term "chickenhead" in a ball=
ad.

Christina Aguilera vs. The Strokes "Stroke of Genius"
Who would have thought that the voice of Christina Aguilera could be
used to humanize a rock band? Julian Casablancas is a good singer and
all (and he does the best-ever imitation of Loaded-era Lou Reed), but
enough's enough with that distortion pedal or phone filter or
whatever they use on EVERY FUCKING STROKES SONG. This illicit remix
moves the Strokes to Boston and turns them into a very tight Motels
tribute band.



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