The Avalanches – Since I Left You (April 16th 2001, XL Recordings)
The wait for The Avalanches’ second album flatters Axl Rose’s reputation as a superb timekeeper, and when they produced a first album of such high quality as Since I Left You, it’s no wonder, really. The care and attention that’s gone into making this musical mosaic (crafted from approximately 3,500 vinyl samples) sound organic and authentic is a joy to behold. Sometimes the results are batshit crazy, like their radio and television superhit Frontier Psychiatrist. On other occasions, they’re ridiculously cool, like the opening combo of Since I Left You and Stay Another Season. It’s the aural equivalent of a round the world trip. Jules Verne would beam with pride.
Best track – Frontier Psychiatrist
Elbow – Asleep In The Back (May 7th 2001, V2 Records)
It was difficult not to put all four of Elbow’s albums in this list of fifty. However, the two albums that appear are slightly better than the two that have been omitted. Newborn (albeit in an abridged form) received daytime radio support (alas, if that were today it probably wouldn’t have been as easy) and the band were accidentally lumped into the New Acoustic Movement – a daft creation which forced them to share the same section of a musical Venn diagram with Coldplay and Turin Brakes (whose delicate debut, The Optimist, just missed the cut). But Elbow possessed more vision and bravery than that contained in any three-minute strumalongs, as demonstrated with the bold instrumentation on Bitten By The Tailfly, Presuming Ed (Rest Easy) and Any Day Now that would fast become their trademark. Even on their debut, they showed respect for dynamics and a wonderful knack for being able to conjure up a sense of atmosphere – which means they’re a permanent thrill live. Asleep In The Back is bleak, yet tender – and most importantly, it’s real.
Best track – Bitten By The Tailfly
Regina Spektor – 11:11 (July 9th 2001, Self-released)
11:11 is Regina Spektor’s first offering, and also her most interesting by far. Difficult to find, it’s reassuringly easy to get into once you have a copy in your hot little hands. Love Affair is classic Regina, a quirky, piano-led number, and the ever so cool hip-hop beat that backs Flyin puts it into contention for the title of Break-Up Masterpiece Of The Decade. 2.99 Cent Blues is great because it’s fast and furious and makes little sense, whereas the sentiment in the album’s slow, sweet closing track I Want To Sing is plain for all to hear. A fine debut, full of depth and variety.
Best track – 2.99 Cent Blues
The Strokes – Is This It (July 30th 2001, Rough Trade Records)
Love it or hate it, it’s impossible to deny that Is This It prompted a sea change. Instead of becoming bedroom producers, suddenly teenagers everywhere wanted to pick up guitars, turn up the reverb and piss off the neighbours. The effect of Is This It’s enviable NYC cool was immense: Rough Trade Records entered a new golden age, unsigned bands across the pond hastily renamed themselves to include the definite article as a prefix, Television fans across the globe welled up with misty-eyed nostalgia and the musical direction of the decade was irrevocably altered. And the album was alright, too.
Best track – New York City Cops
Ryan Adams – Gold (September 25th 2001, Lost Highway)
Ryan Adams’ best-selling album was a lengthy yet typically heartfelt piece – apparently Adams wanted it to be a double album but the record company disagreed, instead releasing five songs on a bonus disc (including the wonderful Sweet Black Magic). Those of you who know Adams solely by New York, New York or his chilling cover of Wonderwall by Oasis will be pleasantly surprised by the variety on Gold – those of you who know him for more than that probably already hold this album close to your heart. The album’s centrepiece Nobody Girl feels like it still has tales to tell after nine minutes and forty seconds, When The Stars Go Blue’s gentle lullaby is typically tender, and the heart and soul dripping from Touch Feel & Lose make it instantly memorable. But Gold’s undisputed finest moment is The Rescue Blues, as Adams tells tales of expectations, anguish and revenge in that wonderful voice of his.
Best track – The Rescue Blues
words: Kate Goodacre
Kate Goodacre is a freelance writer and photographer, and the founding editor of The Fugitive Motel. Her taste in music has been broadened greatly by her co-contributors over the years that the site and the Motel collective has been in business. Kate likes pink lady apples, recycling, open-wheeled motorsport, the smell of a well-kept park, the Today Programme and that strangely invigorating stillness you get in a city early on any weekend morning.