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My Top 10 CDs of 2002

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To everyone, have a great New Year's and here's to a great 2003 for all of us!

Check out NME's top 20 CDs of the Year 2002

1. Coldplay - A Rush Of Blood To The Head
2. The Vines - Higly Evolved
3. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
4. The Coral - The Coral
5. Black Rebel Motor Cycle Club - BRMC
6. Queens Of The Stoneage - Songs For The Deaf
7. Doves - The Last Broadcast
8. Eminem - The Eminem Show
9. The Datsuns - The Datsuns
10. Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
11. The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
12. The Libertines - Up The Bracket
13. The Polyphonic Spree - The Beginning Stages Of…
14. NERD - In Search Of…
15. The Music - The Music
16. Beck - Sea Change
17. Boards Of Canada - Geogaddi
18. The Soundtrack Of Our Lives - Behind The Music
19. The Hives - Your Favourite New Band
20. Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around

posted by Fawaz at 12:52 PM

 
My TOP TEN CD's of 2002

>1. Coldplay - A Rush of Blood to the Head



What a excellent follow up to what was one of my favorites from 2000. Every song had something to like about it and almost every song could be a single. Showed great maturity and kudos to being excellent when played live. It's one of those albums that takes a few listens to really like and a few more to really love. I think I over played this album when it first came out, but it's one of those CDs where if you put it away for a while and then listen to it, you're like "I need to listen to this CD more." More kudos from continuing the tradition that Embrace, the Bluetones, the Verve, and Oasis have of releasing bsides that are as strong as album tracks.

My Favorite Songs: 3.God Put A Smile Upon Your Face, 4.The Scientist, 8.Warning Sign

>2. Doves - The Last Broadcast



Another excellent sophomore effort. These songs have that quality where they just pick up your spirits, surprising feelings from a band many people think to be very somber. The music has that 'inspired by dance' kind of rock sound to it. This CD took me a while to really love, but it really stands out as a great CD with great anthems.

My Favorite Songs: 9.Pounding, 12.Caught By The River

>3. The Streets - Original Pirate Material



This record blew me away when I finally listened to it. I read somewhere that Chris from Coldplay was really into it so I thought I would check it out - I had heard it was some UK garage CD, but I found that it was an excellent laid back hiphop slice of UK urban life. Mike Skinner has some excellent lyrics that let's us know exactly where he is coming from and even though I am nothing like him I can relate to. Cool beats (all made my Mike in his bedroom) and excellent lyrics about hanging out in the pub, adventures in Amsterdam, taking his first E, and general stories about day in the life of a geezer. It sounds so much cooler then the hip-hop out of the US these days.

My Favorite Songs: 12.Weak Becomes Heroes, 3.Let's Push Things Forward

>4. South - From Here On In



Never heard of these guys until this year, but I decided to look em up since I heard a cool song on XM by them and I had read that James Lavelle had produced them. That song I heard on XM "Paint the Silence" turned out to be my favorite song of the year and the album turned out to be excellent as well. Maybe the reason I like it so much is who their influences are - the Stone Roses - baggy/dance music - and trip-hop. the guys in South are very accomplished musicians and the music on the CD shows their talents off. Great grooves, cool hushed lyrics and James Lavelle's influence on producing this CD makes it one of my favorites of the year.

My Favorite Songs: 2.Paint the Silence, 3.Keep Close, 7.Run on Time

>5. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World


A Return to form from this very inoovative Welsh group. Scratch that - should read a contiued excellence with this CD. I've actually been listening to this CD since it was released in the UK during the late Spring of '01, but since I didn't publish my top ten list last year and since it was released in the US this year, and since it's such a great CD - I thought I should put it here too. Excellent catchy pop songs that ranges from the very Beatle-ly "Receptacle For The Respectable" to the Seemingly Ozzy Inspired "Receptacle For The Respectable." That's how innovative it is. Excellent techno freak-out at the end of "No Sympathy" and superb disco funk on the first single "Juxtapozed With U." The simultaneous DVD release was excellent visually and in full 5.1 audio quality.
My Favorite Songs: 6.(A) Touch Sensitive, 9.Juxtapozed With U, 8.No Sympathy

>6. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights


Great Debut from the coolest band out of NYC since the Strokes. A 2002 version of Joy Division. Beautiful soundscapes and lyrics sung in a way that you just can't figure out what exactly he is saying.
My Favorite Songs: : PDA, NYC, Obstacle 2

>7. Sonic Youth - Murray Street



After being one of my favorite bands in the early 90's SY feel off the face of the earth for me for quite a while, until this CD was released and reminded me exactly why I loved them so much.
My Favorite Songs:1.The Empty Page, 2.Disconnection Notice, 3.Rain on Tin

>8. Badly Drawn Boy - About a Boy Soundtrack



Another excellent pop record from Damon. Wonderful sing along lyrics and that quirky music that Damon is so good at making and making sound so good.
My Favorite Songs:: 3.Something to Talk About, 5.Above You, Below Me

9. John Squire - Time Changes Everything



Finally something new from Squire and it might not be what people expected. No obvious guitar heroics, but there is some might fine guitar on this CD. What is the most surprising thing on this CD is John's voice. Very gritty but at the same time very listenable. The lyrics remind me of the Roses. My Favorite Songs: 3.Shine A Little Light, 1.Joe Louis

>10. Richard Ashcroft - Human Conditions



While being a let down when compared to anything by the Verve and his solo debut, this is not a bad CD infact it's quite good. Is it good enough to be on my top ten list - maybe not, but it is Richard Ashcroft - enough said.
My Favorite Songs: 6.Science Of Silence, 3.Bright Lights

List of other CD's I loved this year: the Chemcial Brothers-Come with Us, Elbow-Asleep in the Back, Underworld-100 Days Off, Beck-Sea Change, and Groove Armada-Another Late Nite

posted by Fawaz at 10:32 AM

 

I downloaded the new (upcoming 02-11-03) Massive Attack CD, 100th Window last night. It is really good, I've only listened to it twice, but I can definately say that if you liked Mezzanine you will like this. Sinead O'Connor sings on quite a few tracks and they all really good. I'm so late in really liking Massive Attack. I remember actually being in London when Unfinished Symphony first came out. I heard it but it did nothing for me. When Tricky came out with Maxinquaye my mind was officially blown and I became a fan of may artists who got labeled trip-hop. I was down with Portishead and DJ Shadow, but I never thought to go back and check out one of the original groundbreaking groups who influenced many artists I was becoming a huge fan of. My cousin Mohib, who also loves this ambient hip-hop genre and who checked out Tricky opening up for PJ Harvey with me got Mezzanine. I heard it a few times with him and although he was raving about it I didn't fall head over heels like he did. I said it took me a while, but in the past 6 months they have been growing and growing on me. I got their whole backcatalog and have been venturing into it on a weekly basis.

Now I can officially state that I love Mezzanine and by the first few listens, 100th Window.

I was checking out some sweet MA websites (1) (2) (3) and found out that they might release the CD as DVD with a 5.1 mix and videos of each song. Damn that will be sweet since I love releases like this (Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World ring a bell?)

Robert Del Naja has an art book out and it's limited to only 150 copies, you can purchase one right now, that's right they are still available and only for $600.00. Check it out here and check out some of his art below.

Also many props to MA for their very sincere and active anti-war effort and do check out there amazing new album website. 100th Window

100th Windows Tracklisting
1.FUTURE PROOF (3D)

2.WHAT YOUR SOUL SINGS (Sinead O'Connor)

3.EVERYWHEN (Horace Andy)

4.SPECIAL CASES (Sinead O'Connor)

5.BUTTERFLY CAUGHT (3D)

6.A PRAYER FOR ENGLAND (Sinead O'Connor)

7.SMALL TIME SHOT AWAY (3D)

8.NAME TAKEN (Horace Andy)

9.ANTISTAR (3D & 2D)

I caught Die Another Day last night and I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's amazing how Pierce (as James Bond) at his age can pull of similar stunts that 'todays' spies make look so cool. But he does and he looks cool too. OK the plot was kind of hard to imagine - complete DNA transplants? and invisible Aston Martins? But the action was good as where the Bond girls and Villans. Brosnon was born to play this role and I'm sure the next Bond will pale in comparison. Can you imagine there was rumor that they wanted Cuba Gooding to be the next Bond - I think (and hope) Snow Dogs put an end to the even remote possibility) About every third line was pun and about 1/3 of those acutually hitting. The worst thing about this movie was Madonna - her song and her cameo. The song is not that great and her cameo is bad. After she delivers one of her one liners (she has about 5 in the 3 minutes on screen) something about not liking cockfights (which I highly doubt) someone in the audience yelled out "that's my girl" - huge cringe inducer. Rosamund Pike as the icey and at the same time hot, Miss Frost was a pleasant surprise.

My Top Ten Lists of the Year coming next week!
posted by Fawaz at 12:17 PM

 
My Condolenices to all of us, we lost a great man this past week. Joe, you will be missed but the music you created will live on!

My Top 3 Bands of all time (in no order since it these 3 change depending on which one I am listening to:

The Verve

The Stone Roses

The Clash

I need to start updating this blog once again, hopefully the new year will allow me to do that.

Coming soon will me by favorite records, movies, dvds, and significant pop culture moments of the year.

My favorite moment of the year has been the whole year of watching my daughter grow and finding out that we have another one on the way.

I've finally been able to see some movies in the past week. the Two Towers. One can one say about this movie? Since the exteneded Fellowship of the Ring DVD came out, I have in LOTR mode. I've been watching the DVD way to much, my wife is getting very sick of it. But I still want to watch it with the Peter Jackson and writers commentay. Also I started to read the books, they actually go pretty fast, but I'm only 1/30th of the way into it. Anyway needless to say, the movie was great (I can't wait until the third to watch all three in a row!) Gollum is absolutely amazing!!!

I also saw Star Trek : Nemisis, Please follow my advise and skip this movie, it sucked, and I even like the Next Generation cast. I feel asleep for the middle third and I was happy since I enjoyed my sleep much more then watching the movie. No props to my cousin for wanting to see this a second time!

Last night I watched The Gangs of New York, I bought a ticket to see Die Another Day and since it was starting 10 minutes after 'Gangs' I thought I would sneak in to 'Gangs' and catch the Kill Bill trailer attached to it. After not seeing the trailer I thought "what the hell this is Scorcese and he has been working on it for over 2 years and it's garnering critical acclaim" , so I decided to stay. I didn't like it that much, Daniel Day Lewis does do a great job, but the political sub plots and the fight for the immigrants story did not grab me. Hats off for not making the gang battles not too violent - imagine what could have been shown when people do battle with meat cleavers and battle axes in a movie that takes place in the real world - therefore making it all the more real. Cameron Diaz does a good job and looks good. I might be one of the few of my friends who actually likes Dicaprio. He does a good job in this movie, although his advisary steals the show. recommendation - skip it unless there is nothing else to see.

I saw some cool trailers when watching these movies. Stephen King's Dreamcatcher look positively freaky. I can't make out what exactly this movie is about, which I hopefully will continue into the movie - but it looks really f'ed up and it has a good cast - Morgan Freeman, Jason Lee, and Damien Lewis (Col Winters from Band of Brothers) who looks positively mad. I hope this guy follows up his amazing acting in Band of Brothers with some great roles - followed with what I'm sure will be more critical acclaim.

posted by Fawaz at 11:45 AM