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Liam Carey reviews
Part Four
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.
Review copyright © Liam Carey, 2002. E-mail Liam Carey
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.