Female sensation of the year was the exquisite Norah Jones. Her
soothing tones and penchant for old-fashioned and jazzily evocative love
songs recalled singers such as Patsy Cline and Billie Holliday among others.
The world fell under her spell, as the Come Away With Me album entrenched
itself in the best-seller lists around the globe. In a similar vein, Allison
Moorer's autumnal release Miss Fortune garnered rave reviews amid speculation
that her profile could soon extend beyond the Nashville set. Closer to home,
the third album from Kathryn Williams, Old Low Light, was well-received, as
was Night On My Side - the debut from petite Irish singer-songwriter Gemma
Hayes.
2002 was less memorable for some of the female acts who emerged in the 90s,
as they found their niche overtaken by younger imitators who were deemed more
viable in the ruthless pop marketplace. Thus, the third albums from Alanis
Morissette (Under Rug Swept) and Lisa Loeb (Cake And Pie), as well as Sheryl
Crow's fourth (C'mon C'mon) all struggled while debuts from Michelle Branch
(The Spirit Room), Vanessa Carlton (Be Not Nobody) and especially Avril
Lavigne (Let Go) prospered. Criticised in some quarters, this trio at least
based their music on recognisable skills in composing and performing…
ubiquitous as they admittedly became as the year wore on.
How long they
actually manage to sustain a career in these terribly fickle times is another
matter, and the odds appear to be stacked against any longevity with media
exposure for many acts focusing on one popular song to the detriment of its
successors. Carlton's first hit A Thousand Miles, for instance, spent several
months in the UK charts, refusing to loosen its grip on the Top 20, yet when
the follow-up was eventually released it entered at #56 before disappearing
completely.
More than ever, there were opportunities for nascent and brand new names to
get a crack at success, yet in reality very few of them lasted beyond one
decent-sized hit single. Rhianna, Aqualung, Dirty Vegas, Kosheen and Martin
Grech were the pick of 2002's brightest prospects, but none could really
build upon their initial (minor) breakthroughs despite no apparent dip in
quality with their next releases or consistently promising debut albums.
Frou Frou, the exotically-monikered project featuring Imogen Heap, didn't
even get its foot in the door. Intelligent, fragrant pop had no place in the
charts of 2002, as further evidenced by the inexplicable failure of Saint
Etienne's sixth and finest album Finisterre, as well as the #114 peak of The
Girl Who Fell Through The Ice by AIM featuring Kate Rogers, and Dot Allison's
complete chart no-show with either the pulsating single Substance or the We
Are Science long-player.
To succeed in any significant fashion there had to be an angle for a lazy,
hyperbolic media to latch onto, which explains how The Streets and Ms
Dynamite enjoyed endless column inches, award nominations and sustained sales
for their rather overrated efforts, Original Pirate Material and A Little
Deeper respectively. Both had their moments (Stay Positive concludes The
Streets' album in magnificent style, and Dynamite's sparky Afraid 2 Fly should
have been a single), but it's hard to see exactly what all the fuss is about
when so many other superior records sank without trace.
Thankfully, not all of 2002's greatest albums went unnoticed. The Flaming
Lips' sublime Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots found its way onto many a
year-end list, as did Out Of Season, which paired Portishead vocalist Beth
Gibbons and ex-Talk Talk member Rustin Man with awesome results. A second
contemporary album from film composer Craig Armstrong - As If To Nothing -
which included guests such as Bono, David McAlmont and Evan Dando, was also
deservedly acclaimed upon its release.
These were among the cream of the 2002 crop, but at the opposite end of the
quality spectrum a handful of eagerly anticipated releases proved to be
crucially lacking. Step forward Oasis (the lumbering Heathen Chemistry),
Morcheeba (Charango's pleasant but uninspired muzak),
Moby
(whose 18 was Play not so much revisited as recycled),
Goo Goo Dolls (losing their melodic
stride with Gutterflower) and, most surprisingly of all, the normally
excellent Aimee Mann (her Lost In Space hamstrung by leaden production and
predictable arrangements).
As per usual, Greatest Hits fever gripped the schedules towards the end of
the year. A mixture of the timely (Manic Street Preachers, U2, Lighthouse
Family, Pulp), the slightly cynically updated (yet another Bowie compilation,
an umpteenth Elton John retrospective) and the outright mercenary (rehashed
Best Ofs for Level 42, Fleetwood Mac and INXS). The most essential, however,
was Les Mots; a comprehensive 30-track collection of French icon Mylene
Farmer's distinguished career to date. Little-known in this country, where
the 2CD Les Mots has been given no promotion whatsoever since its European
release in January, Farmer at least made the UK top 10 during the year as
co-writer and producer of Alizee's Moi.., Lolita.
Other artists achieved the same feat from beyond the grave. In January, there
were consecutive posthumous UK #1 singles (George Harrison's My Sweet Lord
followed by Aaliyah's More Than A Woman), then in June an overhauled, obscure
Elvis song from one of his long-forgotten 60s films - the JXL remix of A
Little Less Conversation - stormed to the top.
Harrison also had his final
album, Brainwashed, released almost exactly a year after his death from
cancer in December 2001. Arriving a mere 14 years after Cloud Nine
resurrected his commercial fortunes, Brainwashed was completed by Jeff Lynne
and George's son Dhani, working to strict instructions. Meanwhile, a second
Eva Cassidy collection of untouched, unreleased material hit #1 on the album
chart. Imagine provided the doubly eerie scenario of a late singer (Cassidy)
covering an iconic song by another dead artist (John Lennon).
Overall, 2002 was an above-average year for singles, if not the UK charts
themselves, with an impressive list of one-off dancefloor-friendly pop gems:
DB Boulevard's Point Of View (how a Geri Halliwell/M People collaboration
might sound), Puretone's Addicted To Bass, and Christina Milian's cute but
shameless Aaliyah rip-off AM To PM.
A fair few future classic albums appeared as well…although most of those were
between June and November, giving a rather lop-sided feel to the year for
those looking for genuinely consistent albums.
Quite how 2003 will shape up is anyone's guess. Will the public tire of yet
more manufactured, predestined pap before this time next year? The major
record labels, reduced to nervous marketing executives by rapacious global
conglomerates with little interest or experience in selling music and
creating long-term acts, certainly need to show more integrity and artistic
initiative than they have done in 2002. Otherwise, pop's future role really
will be nothing more than one giant, homogenised vehicle for peddling all
manner of products to impressionable children.
Pop can still be a thrilling genre, even in such a bland era as this; it
deserves to be more than muzak for the retail therapy and recreational
activities of a generation.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
