Neal Block's Favorite Recordings Of 2002 <P>Neumu's Michael Goldberg writes: For the next few weeks we will be featuring a "best albums of 2002" list each weekday (with the exception of Christmas and New Year's) in the "Daily Report" area of Neumu. We'll be running lists until we run out of them. Today we offer up Neumu contributing editor Neal Block's fave recordings of 2002. <P>1. The Mountain Goats, All Hail West Texas (Emperor Jones): A continuation of John Darnielle's ongoing, bafflingly knowing dissection of human emotions. There's a humbling omniscience to his lyrics, tempered with real warmth â?? songs like "Riches and Wonders" and "Source Decay" are so full of life that listening to them is like stepping into your own imagined biography. <P>2. Spoon, Kill the Moonlight (Merge): For me, this was the most surprising and ass-kicking album of the year. Surprising because even though everyone knows Spoon's releases get better and better every time, who could expect something like this â?? an album that manages to be spare and bursting-at-the-seams simultaneously. Ass-kicking because Britt Daniel proves you don't have to have big (or any) guitars to make really balls-out rock. <P>3. Guided by Voices, Universal Truths and Cycles (Matador): Speaking of balls-out rock, Bob Pollard's balls have never been more out in his life. In a rousing, carousing collage of old and new GBV styles, Pollard shows that all those high-kicks and all that beer only make his songs better. <P>4) The Notwist, Neon Golden (Virgin): Dropping the jazziness of their previous album, Shrink, for carefully integrated electronics, the German band creates a campfire of an album: it crackles, warms, and hypnotizes. <P>5. Okkervil River , Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See (Jagjaguwar): Texas by way of New Hampshire melancholia â?? lush, literate, and devastating. <P>6. Bright Eyes, Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (Saddle Creek): Desperation, loneliness and agony never sounded so lovingly performed. A mature expansion and extrapolation of themes fundamental to Conor Oberst's oeuvre, Lifted... rocks and swoons, waltzes and floats, and confirms the young songwriter's effortless skill in making tragic, hopeful music. <P>7. Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (Nonesuch): Not the greatest album ever made, but certainly the greatest album Wilco's ever made. <P>8. The Mountain Goats, Tallahassee (4AD): John Darnielle's '02 output is worthy of a double mention. He goes hi-fi for this concept album, in which he moves his famed "alpha couple" into their own house in Florida. Darnielle's songs, which are so often about traveling, face the challenge in this album of confronting stifling, violent stagnation. <P>9. Doug Martsch, Now You Know (Warner Bros.): One of this era's great guitar heroes takes a break from his full-time gig to record an album of Southern bedroom blues, and retains the warmth and mysterious melodicism of Built to Spill's best work. Glowing, calming, and impressive. <P>10. Sleater-Kinney, One Beat (Kill Rock Stars): Carrie, Corin and Janet refine and refine, making this batch of songs their leanest and most vicious yet. The addition of subtle horns and keyboards keeps things fresh and mobile. <P>11. Interpol, Turn on the Bright Lights (Matador): Matador made two good decisions this year: re-signing Guided by Voices, and releasing this album of excellent, lonely, loud, danceable, catchy, direct, confrontational rock songs. <BR>
