Doves – The Last Broadcast (April 29th 2002, Heavenly Records)
The Last Broadcast is the pinnacle of Doves’ career. Richer in sound and in scope than their melancholy debut Lost Souls, almost every track leaves an indelible mark. Lead single There Goes The Fear, with its relentless drum outro, remains a live favourite. The haunting Friday’s Dust conjures up images of Manchester by night, and the triumphant choral bursts on album centrepiece Satellites send shivers up the spine. A beautiful album, and an absolute must-have.
Best track – Satellites
Queens Of The Stone Age – Songs For The Deaf (August 22nd 2002, Interscope)
It doesn’t quite reach the dizzying heights of Rated R, but Songs For The Deaf is still one of Queens of The Stone Age’s finer moments. With Dave Grohl behind the drumkit and a guest appearance from honorary member Mark Lanegan on three tracks, it travels at breakneck speed from the very first howls of You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire. Grohl’s drumming is at its best on Song For The Dead and Hanging Tree. Lead single No One Knows and Do It Again are glam-tinged, celebratory romps that make you wish Josh Homme had invited you to contribute to the album sessions, too.
Best track – First It Giveth
The Libertines – Up The Bracket (October 14th 2002, Rough Trade Records)
Up The Bracket disproves the theory that something can be greater than the sum of its parts – neither Peter Doherty nor Carl Barat have come as close since their ferocious debut album. Part knees-up round the old Joanna, part London Calling with a generous dash of Steptoe And Son, Up The Bracket is electric from start to finish. Doherty and Barat’s voices intertwine perfectly from Vertigo right the way through to the prophetic What A Waster.
Best track – Vertigo
words: Kate Goodacre
Coming up in 50 Albums That Made The Decade: The Walkmen, Amy Winehouse, 65daysofstatic and more Regina Spektor…
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.