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check out the composite album list here.ddd |
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For most indie rock magazines, particular
those that reside online, the year end list is something like the
Oscars. Records are reviewed all year long, many processing and
reporting on hundreds of albums, singles, compilations. The most
common year end list is the Top 20, which allows for a bit more room to
flex indie cred and obscure know-how than the traditional Top 10,
without having to extend too far into the territory of boredom. After a fairly solid year of releases in 2000, this year had a lot of catching up to do. While a few brilliant albums are always released early on in the year, it is the Fall crunch that usually provides the bulk of the year's top picks. With 2001, the Autumn was indeed stacked with releases by heavy hitters, but the releases themselves were fairly lackluster. In a year where highly anticipated albums by the likes of Weezer, the Dismemberment Plan and Sloan were all met with ho-hum responses, bands like The Strokes and Ted Leo & Pharmacists burst into the spotlight with new leases on classic pop craftsmanship. To say the year was a total wash would be a lie, as established acts such as Mogwai, Spoon, Tortoise and Fugazi returned in top form to release universally well received albums. And then, of course, there was the follow up to Radiohead's monolith, Kid A, with Amnesiac. But when it came down to tallying up a Top 20 for 2001, the task became rather daunting. With all of our individual lists overlapping in a few places and going astray most everywhere else, a list of clear cut winners and losers was hard to come by. A few albums took the top seats unchallenged, but after the Top 5 it was pretty much anyone's ballgame. Names appeared in ties for Top 10 positions that no one expected to see, and albums by the likes of Bjork and Steven Malkmus were pushed to the margins. What it came down to was that a lot of good records were released in 2001, but very few great ones were. As a result of the erratic voting and puzzling results riddled with three, four and five-way ties for Top 20 positions, I have elected to simply list all of the albums that received votes in descending order. As always, you can also check out the writers' individual lists to get an idea of how each album ended up where it did. I'm already looking forward to 2002. Eric J Herboth, Editor |