2001 - The Idols Year



This was the year where I was filled almost unreasonably with anticipation for the return of my idols. It was the first post Velvet Rope Janet album, after all, as well as the return of the King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. While I still like All For You (a spring/summer album if I’ve ever heard one), I don’t think I’ve listened to Invincible since that year, actually. I loved it at the time, but I think I was just desperate for MJ to return to his 80’s prime (still am, actually). No Doubt’s return was alright, but they hadn’t remained the must-listen-to band that they were only a few years ago. Britney Spears, who I’m a bit ashamed to admit I was ever into, also released the only album of hers that I like this year, and yet I’m still ashamed to proclaim that.

Janet Jackson - Trust A Try
Michael Jackson - Invincible
Britney Spears - What It’s Like To Be Me
No Doubt - Detective

2000 - The Commercial Year



Here we’ve got the real onset of teen pop and crappy rap as well as the age of Napster (aka: singles rule, albums not so important). Looking back, the music I listened to here was probably the lamest of the past decade. I remember going to really crappy pop concerts put on by local radio stations and seeing all these horribly cheesy performers. Of all the albums this year I was most into Pink’s debut. It, along with Missundazstood, are still my favorite Pink records and I think that that album, along with Mya’s Fear Of Flying, were probably the best examples of that jittery space age r&b music of this era (well, maybe throw in Destiny Child’s The Writing’s On The Wallas well). I’m not sure if I’d like much of this stuff now, but I was sickeningly into it all back then.

Pink - Split Personality
Mya - Case Of The Ex
Shaggy - Keepin' It Real
Nelly Furtado - Hey Man

1999 - The International Year



1999 marked the first time I began to look beyond the narrow confines of the American music market and discovered some artists from the UK, Canada and Scandinavia. Sky and Bif Naked both released stunning Canadian albums that still hold up today and I also fell in love with the pure pop of Meja’s Seven Sisters record, but the big discovery this year was Robbie Williams. After hearing Millenium (my song of the summer, btw) I had to have The Ego Has Landed (his debut US compilation cd). Once I finally got it, I wore the thing out from so many plays. In the coming year, with the onset of, shall we just say “music on the internet,” I would search out the missing songs to fill in the holes in his discography. I am a completist, after all!

Robbie Williams - Millenium
Sky - Strange
Bif Naked - I Died
Meja - Seven Sisters Road

The Week of The Golden Compass!!

I meant to post this yesterday to kick off the week but forgot. I don't often talk about movies on here but I have been anticipating this one (out Friday in the US) for such a long time now. His Dark Materials is probably my favorite trilogy ever and I so want all three movies to be made. I've heard mixed things from reviewers (in general it seems like the UK ones like it a lot more than US ones) and I'm so scared that the controversy, reviews and changes to the movie are going to result in it being a failure and thus being the only one of the three books that makes it to the screen.
Nevertheless, I will be front and center Friday night basking in this fantastic, thrilling story. I hope I like it (and I think I will... I've never been too picky with adaptations, even from books this great) and just as importantly I hope others like it too, because The Subtle Knife, the second in the trilogy is probably my favorite and I'm aching to see it on the big screen. So who's going to watch it this weekend??

1998: The Rock Year



This year my favorite albums were predominantly dominated by guitars and I really found my footing when it came to music. I was fascinated by Marilyn Manson’s The Dope Show (video and song) and I remember feeling very rebellious when I bought that “controversial” album (the best by far of Manson’s scattershot career, btw). Looking back on it, that was probably the first “glam” album that I ever really heard. Both Hole and Garbage were huge for me this year as well, somewhat due to the tastes of my friends but also because they were both terrific albums. As far as Monifah? I guess she’s the black sheep of the group. Maybe the album served as a sort of post Velvet Rope hangover for me. I don’t know… I just remember being obsessed with it.

Hole - Boys On The Radio
Garbage - Push It
Marilyn Manson - New Model No. 15
Monifah - Touch It

In the lead up to my top 20 albums of the year (and all the rest of the fun countdown stuff) I've decided that for the next two weeks I'm going to take a look back. It was ten years ago (I'm totally going to show my youth here) that I first got into music. So, for the next ten weekdays I'll be posting tracks from the past decade that were benchmarks of my musical progression. I hope you guys enjoy it.

1997: The Discovery Year



I was just heading into High School and we had moved over the summer to a new, bigger house. At the tale end of my eighth grade year we had to do these stupid lip synch performances (the educational goals behind that I'll never know... yet we were graded on them) and I got stuck doing a lame version of Surfing USA with my friend. It was to be the last time I ignorantly listened to crappy music just because I didn't know that there was better stuff out there. Over the summer I discovered No Doubt and Savage Garden (still two of my favorite albums ever) and then in the fall I was introduced to Janet Jackson, my ultimate favorite for many years afterward. The Velvet Rope was such a landmark album for me... I must have listened to it hundreds of times. As for the Forest For The Trees song? I was just obsessed with the trippy video. The rest of the album pretty much sucked, but this song was stuck in my head for ages.

Janet Jackson - You
Savage Garden - Break Me, Shake Me
No Doubt - Sunday Morning (probably the best ND song ever... certainly the best video)
Forest For The Trees - Dream