Favourites in 2002:
American
IV: The Man Comes Around - Johnny Cash
Only
his Creator knows how he does it. We should just be grateful that Cash is still
around to make records as uplifting and entertaining as this.
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the full review.
Lifted
or The story is in the soil, keep your ear to the ground - Bright Eyes
Epic
tales of fractious love with far too many words; tunes that twist and writhe
on a whim; a title that's the most economical thing about the record. Persevere,
though, and Oberst is always fascinating. He's gifted, magnetic, excruciatingly
self-aware and brilliantly pretentious, and when he tries to defuse the latter
he's more pretentious still.
Read the full review.
Up
The Bracket- The Libertines
It's
an album of outstanding natural beauty, an organic, wholesome work. It's like
discovering a precocious nipper has grown into a handsome, questing adult.
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the full review.
A
Rush Of Blood To The Head - Coldplay
It's an album of outstanding
natural beauty, an organic, wholesome work. It's like discovering a precocious
nipper has grown into a handsome, questing adult.
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the full review.
The
Remote Part - Idlewild
Scottish friction, Scottish
fiction. A bold, bright, broken and bitter beast that sees the spanking new
Top Ten-shagging Idlewild burst out of their student-sheep's clothing.
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the full review.
In
Search Of...- N*E*R*D
A totally new version
with - shock, horror! - real instruments. Fundamentally and brilliantly, a loud
and sexy record that will get you up in the morning.
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the full review.
Yoshimi
Battles The Pink Robots - The Flaming Lips
Try to name another
band who have lasted ten albums, each one more visionary than the last. Can't,
can you? 'Yoshimi...' sets yet another benchmark.
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the full review.
Highly
Evolved - The Vines
Arty and hummable, gloomy but not scared of long lazy afternoons in the sun,
‘Highly Evolved’ is the sort of shiver-down-the spine debut.
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the full review.
Yankee
Hotel Foxtrot - Wilco
It's a gripping darkness that doesn't often lift. It's hard going, but it's
worth it, and that is undoubtedly their point.
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the full review.
Come
Get It I Got It - David Holmes
This should be the soundtrack to every
party this summer.
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Original
Pirate Material- The Streets
What we're dealing with here is an album
that owes a lot to garage, but also quite a lot to the all-night garage, too.
By turns dark, funny and heartbreaking, the songs are snapshots of ordinary
life as a young midlands resident: tales of love, going out, being skint, getting
drunk .
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the full review.
Handcream
For A Generation - Cornershop
'Handcream…' doesn't try to bludgeon you with a message. It tickles you with
it. This is happy music for hard times, a ray of warm and righteous sunshine
just when it was needed most.
Read the full review.
Holes
In The Wall - Electric Soft Parade
'Holes In The Wall' marks the moment at which that particular moment of genius
finally met a sympathetic match. It's got melody, it's got invention and it
rocks like a beast.
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the full review.