Uncut's albums of the year 2002

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Ryan Adams outside the top ten shockah! Regard:

1 The Flaming Lips ~ ‘Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots’
2 Bruce Springsteen ~ ‘The Rising’
3 EL-P ~ ‘Fantastic Damage’
4 Wilco ~ ‘Yankee Hotel Foxtrot’
5 The Streets ~ ‘Original Pirate Material’
6 Lambchop ~ ‘Is A Woman’
7 My Computer ~ ’Vunerabilia’
8 Beck ~ ‘Sea Change’
9 Suicide ~ ‘American Supreme’
10 David Bowie ~ ‘Heathen’
11 Tom Waits ~ ‘Blood Money’
12 Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man ~ ‘Out Of Season’
13 Ryan Adams ~ ‘Demolition’
14 Solomon Burke ~ ’Don’t Give Up On Me’
15 Warren Zevon ~ ’My Ride’s Here’
16 Badly Drawn Boy ~ ’Have You Fed The Fish?’
17 Jeff Buckley & Gary Lucas ~ ’Songs For No One 1991-92’
18 Robert Plant ~ ‘Dreamland’
19 Eminem ~ ‘The Eminem Show’
20 Jesse Marlin ~ ‘The Final Art of Self Destruction’
21 Steve Earle ~ ‘Jerusalem’
22 Boards Of Canada ~ ‘Geogaddi’
23 The Mendoza Line ~ ‘Lost In Revelry’
24 Radio 4 ~ ‘Gotham!’
25 Sparks ~ ‘Lil’ Beethoven’
26 Interpol ~ ‘Turn On The Bright Lights’
27 Doves ~ ‘The Last Broadcast’
28 Paul Westerberg ~ ‘Stereo/Mono’
29 Edwyn Collins ~ ‘Doctor Syntax’
30 Rob ~ ‘Satyred Love’
31 Queens Of The Stone Age ~ ‘Songs For The Deaf’
32 Gemma Hayes ~ ‘Night On My Side’
33 Dan Bern ~ ‘New American language’
34 Brian Wilson ~ ‘Presents Pet Sounds Live’
35 Neko Case ~ ‘Blacklisted’
36 Ladytron ~ ‘Light & Magic’
37 Bryan Ferry ~ ‘Frantic’
38 Jim O’Rourke ~ ’Insignificance’
39 Wondermints ~ ’Mind if We Make Love To You?’
40 Roddy frame ~ ’Surf’
41 Lewis Taylor ~ ’Stoned part 1’
42 Spoon ~ ‘Kill The Moonlight’
43 ESG ~ ‘Step Off’
44 The National Trust ~ ‘Dekkagar’
45 Dungeon Family ~ ‘Even in Darkness’
46 Schneider TM ~ ‘Zoomer’
47 Shelly Devoto ~ ‘Buzzkunst’
48 Josh Rouse ~ ‘Under Cold Blue Star’
49 Jackson Browne ~ ‘The Naked Ride Home’
50 Cornelius ~ ‘Point’
51 Papa M ~ ‘Whatever, Mortal’
52 Saint Etienne ~ ‘Finisterre’
53 Pony Club ~ ‘Home Truths’
54 Fog ~ ‘Fog’
55 Brendan Benson ~ ‘Lapalco’
56 The Notwist ~ ‘Neon Golden’
57 Ian Dury ~ ‘Ten Machine Turnips From The Tip’
58 Sleater-Kinney ~ ‘One Beat’
59 The Silver Jews ~ ‘Bright Flight’
60 Subway Sect ~ ‘Sansend’

Saint Etienne at 52? A disgrace.

― DavidM (DavidM), Saturday, 7 December 2002 10:52 (twenty-three years ago)

"Bubbling Under"
61 Polyphonic Spree ~ 'The Beginning Stages Of...'
62 Hayden ~ 'Skyscraper National Park'
63 Sonic Youth ~ 'Murray Street'
64 Cornershop ~ 'Handcream For A Generation'
65 DJ/Rupture ~ 'Minesweeper Suite'
66 Position Normal ~ 'Goodly Time'
67 Coldplay ~ 'A Rush of Blood to the Head'
68 Paul Weller ~ 'Illumination'
69 Bright Eyes ~ 'Lifted... '
70 Liars ~ 'They Threw Us All In A Trench... '

― DavidM (DavidM), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:03 (twenty-three years ago)

< Saint Etienne at 52? A disgrace

dunno 'bout that (is their new one any good?)
but DJ/Rupture, Cornelius and Papa M seem to be sunken dishearteningly low

and,mm, musin' on the 3rd position,
if 'nsteada EL-P (against whom i got nuthin really) there'd been E,L&P, it would've'n rather funnier
...albeit not as Uncutty, admittedly ...that'd been rather more Mojoesque, yes

― t\'\'t (t''t), Saturday, 7 December 2002 11:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Am I a very bad person if I point out that this is the whitest 2002 list I have ever seen? Does that open up some kind of debate about "hey man what's your beef anyway" and "you have some nerve black and white don't mean anything anymore and plus we have Solomon Burke at #14 and El-P and Eminem are both hip-hop guys so there you hypocritical Irish/Slovak/Swedish/Slavic fellow who lives in fucking white-ass Wisconsin"? If so, then good. And is music only good when English-speakers make it?

But I admire the list for not being afraid of music with a blues influence.

― Matt C., Saturday, 7 December 2002 12:01 (twenty-three years ago)

I have 5 of them, but none of those 5 are particular faves of mine.

― jel -- (jel), Saturday, 7 December 2002 12:16 (twenty-three years ago)

god, why do I keep buying this magazine. Once upon a time, but fuck. springsteen and plant and bowie - is this 1985?

― Queen G (Queeng), Saturday, 7 December 2002 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Ladytron, though. And Sparks! And at least St Etienne snuck in somewhere. Obviously it's brimful of shite but there are gems lurking within. I can't think of any other music mag who are likely to come up with a less-rubbish list than this.

― alexfack (alexfack), Saturday, 7 December 2002 13:38 (twenty-three years ago)

(Ladytron and Sparks and St Etienne constitute GEMS rather than shite, clearly)

― alexfack (alexfack), Saturday, 7 December 2002 13:38 (twenty-three years ago)

Good to see My Computer up there. "Vulnerabilia" is definitely one of my top 20 albums of the year.

― phil jones (interstar), Saturday, 7 December 2002 13:55 (twenty-three years ago)

The My Computer album is also tremendous, as is the Rob one at number 30. I really like that the Pony Club thing is in there also, not quite sure why this pleases me so much.

― alexfack (alexfack), Saturday, 7 December 2002 14:01 (twenty-three years ago)

"don't trust anyone under 30!" (hell, 40)

― scott pl. (scott pl.), Saturday, 7 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-three years ago)

So is every single thread about every single magazine's year-end list going to be like this or what? "This list is shite because [band not a lot of people have heard of]/[overrated, inconsistent album that is only liked because there's some good singles on it] is at [position worse than #10] and [band or album that, to the complete shock and horror of anyone who has been living on MIR in the last year, has been getting tons of acclaim] is #1!"

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 7 December 2002 15:27 (twenty-three years ago)

(note that "[overrated, inconsistent album that is only liked because there's some good singles on it]" does not apply to Ladytron et al.)

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Saturday, 7 December 2002 15:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Nate - best post in months.

I read one of these lists, go "yay, I like the Flaming Lips & Wilco too" or something along those lines and then scroll down the thread to read about what an idiot I am.

― Brian the Snorf, Saturday, 7 December 2002 15:58 (twenty-three years ago)

34 Brian Wilson ~ ‘Presents Pet Sounds Live’

Come on.

― Mark (MarkR), Saturday, 7 December 2002 16:03 (twenty-three years ago)

The list is no great surprise as, if you have been reading the mag all year, you'll know that these are they that have been given attention in it's pages. Even so it comes as a surprise to see Springsteen at #fkn2. But it's fine and it's very Uncut and I can't see too many end-of-yearses finding [prominant] space for the likes of Sparks, ESG, Pony Club and, yes, the fantastic 'Vunerabilia' in the top ten.
Even so, I was hoping for a higher placing for 'Finisterre', many are going to ignore it completely I know but I thought I could rely on Uncut to get behind it, but the #52 placing is disappointing - Badly Drawn Boy is at #16 for goodness sake! Ah well.

― DavidM (DavidM), Saturday, 7 December 2002 18:05 (twenty-three years ago)

15 of these reside in my household. It's a good enough list. Uncut's list ignores what's had the "biggest impact", and remembers albums Q and NME would forget. That's why I like it. Whither Beachwood Sparks? I thought I could rely on alt-country-loving Uncut to have my personal fave in their list somewhere. Pah!

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Saturday, 7 December 2002 19:04 (twenty-three years ago)

52 is a bit generous for saint etienne, there has to have been at least 347 records released this year that are better.
i only have two of the records, i need to get more in step with the times as i never have anything on these lists.

tom waits love is so bizarre.
there mus tbe a typo, sleater-kinney is not on the list, i thought they qualified automatically by right of being 'important'.

― keith (keithmcl), Saturday, 7 December 2002 22:03 (twenty-three years ago)

'52 is a bit generous for saint etienne, there has to have been at least 347 records released this year that are better."

Tosh and you know it.

"sleater-kinney is not on the list"

Your eyes, like your ears, decieve you:

58 Sleater-Kinney ~ ‘One Beat’

― DavidM (DavidM), Sunday, 8 December 2002 00:01 (twenty-three years ago)

is the Pony Club album any good? i think i heard one track that sounded ok. didnt he used to be in the lightning seeds?

― Wyndham Earl, Sunday, 8 December 2002 00:58 (twenty-three years ago)

That list is absurd.

― Sean (Sean), Sunday, 8 December 2002 01:02 (twenty-three years ago)

you can hear pony club snippets on the setanta website. he wasn't in lightning seeds, but was AFFILIATED. he WAS in Bawl and Fixed Stars. i don't have the album but i quite like what i've heard and i like the idea of it.

― alexfack (alexfack), Sunday, 8 December 2002 04:22 (twenty-three years ago)

The Robert Plant album isn't bad, you know.

― sundar subramanian (sundar), Sunday, 8 December 2002 04:53 (twenty-three years ago)

oh crikey. was he the singer in Bawl? that makes sense.

i used to love Beyond Safeways. for my sins..

― Wyndham Earl, Sunday, 8 December 2002 05:46 (twenty-three years ago)

We bought this yesterday to amuse ourselves on the train - didn't really work. We all noticed the thing Matt C noticed, too. I think a thread on every year-end list is pointless for the reasons Nate gives but I don't think that means the lists are secretly good and we're just whining about what got left out.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 8 December 2002 09:35 (twenty-three years ago)

The real question is: why are we so fucking obsessed with year-end lists? Shit almighty. I mean, I know I am, with my own, and I'll read them all. But anyone who knows anything about anything knows that the best records of the year are the ones on YOUR list and that everyone else's list is k-rub. The only thing that one can glean from anyone else's list, as has been mentioned before, is that overlooked gem that we never heard, or that we never heard of, or that we were going to pick up but never did. That's the thing that seems wrong about Uncut's list: who DIDN'T hear a lot of these records?

Oh, yeah: me. But I heard ones that I'm going to say are better than many of these. Hopefully, someone will read my list somewhere and say, "Hey, sounds cool, I'll hear that," and not hate it too much. That's all we can ever get out of this as list-makers.

That having been said, any list without Buffalo Daughter on it makes no sense and is crap-covered shit.

― Matt C., Sunday, 8 December 2002 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

Crap-covered shit? You mean, meta-shit?

― Nate Patrin (Nate Patrin), Sunday, 8 December 2002 17:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Notice the distinct lack of THE VINES! HURRAH!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 9 December 2002 16:06 (twenty-three years ago)

That's the thing that seems wrong about Uncut's list: who DIDN'T hear a lot of these records?
er, me? I've got 7 of these, have listened once to a couple of others. And not so long ago I would have considered myself part of Uncut's target readership.

― zebedee, Monday, 9 December 2002 17:40 (twenty-three years ago)

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