December 17, 2000, Sunday
Albums Of
The Year
by Mark Edwards Chief
From Radiohead to Ruders and David Grubbs to
Guerrero, The Sunday Times critics select the
best CDs of 2000
1 TELEK
Serious Tam (Real World) Pounds 13.99
George Telek was born in New Britain,
Papua New
Guinea. When he came to old Britain
for the first
time, he headed straight for the
Abbey Road crossing
to get his photo taken. This may
explain why Serious
Tam is so beautiful. Haunting Pacific
rhythms and
harmonies combine with melodies
that have been subtly
informed by the best pop the northern
hemisphere can
offer. Sumptuous.
2 SINEAD O'CONNOR
Faith and Courage (Atlantic) Pounds 16.99
Forget the therapy-in-public years.
On Faith and
Courage, O'Connor has finally rediscovered
the
songwriting genius (not to mention
the sheer energy)
last heard on I Do Not Want What
I Haven't Got.
3 EMMYLOU HARRIS
Red Dirt Girl (Grapevine) Pounds 12.99
Unusually, Harris wrote all but one
of the songs
herself. Her timeless imagery and
the
in-the-room-with-you production,
however, give the
songs the weight of ageless folk
standards. The best
album of her 30-year career.
4 GRANDADDY
The Sophtware Slump (V2) Pounds 12.99
Unfocused? Certainly. Erratic? Indeed.
Overambitious?
Of course. Yet the unfeasibly bearded
post-slacker
rockers pulled it off. The mad,
beautiful spirit of
Brian Wilson permeates
this album.
5 JAZZYFATNASTEES
The Once and Future (MCA) Pounds 16.99
In this new golden age of female
R&B, the
Jazzyfatnastees trumped their better-known
rivals with
this collection of smooth, soulful
tunes. Got Macy
Gray? Get this.
6 LAMBCHOP
Nixon (City Slang) Pounds 13.99
Kurt Wagner's mission? To merge the
finest points of
country and soul using a 14-strong
band of part-time
musicians. On Nixon, the whole stupid
idea works
wonderfully.
7 DAMIEN JURADO
Ghost of David (Sub Pop) Pounds 14.99
Jurado explores the quiet, acoustic
world marked out
by Spring-steen's Nebraska. His
songs are lo-fi, grim,
honest, compelling.
8 SUPER FURRY ANIMALS
Mwng (Placid Casual) Pounds 14.99
The Super Furries have made their
finest album so far.
They've also sung the whole thing
in Welsh. Still, it
is their first language. And, apart
from the
wonderfully weird pop we expect,
I swear some of the
ballads will have Burt Bacharach
taking notes.
9 LORI CARSON
Stars (Restless) Pounds 13.99
Carson was once the singer with the
Golden Palominos,
and her latest solo album is a ray
of sunlight.
Impossibly pretty songs that quite
distract you from
the fact that she's singing lines
like: "I wish I had
your head in a box."
10WOOKIE
Wookie (Soul II Soul) Pounds 12.99
In the year of UK garage, Wookie
(aka Jason Chue) made
the genre's first great album. Not
content with
programming the best rhythms in
town, Chue also turns
out vocal melodies that Stevie Wonder
would have been
happy with back in the 1970s.