The 50 Greatest Albums of 2001

50. N.E.R.D., IN SEARCH OF N.E.R.D.
Virgin
Hip-hop hitmakers go rock
As the Neptunes, Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams are the most successful production team in hip-hop. As N.E.R.D. (short for No one Ever Really Dies), the duo is a smart, groove-savvy rock band. Audacious, too — these guys scrapped the original album (despite reams of prerelease praise) to recut all the tracks with live players instead of taped loops. Real musicians? What a novel idea!

49. SUM 41, ALL KILLER NO FILLER
Island
Dude? Dude! Etc., etc.
The market for big-shorted lunks knocking out simple punk-pop seemed to have been cornered by Green Day and Blink-182. Not so. Canadian four-piece Sum 41’s debut album, produced by Jerry Finn (Green Day, Blink-182 . . . hey, wait a minute!), plows an oafishly catchy if not particularly experimental furrow. Tellingly, the single “Fat Lip” can be heard on the soundtrack to American Pie 2.

48. SHAKIRA, LAUNDRY SERVICE
Epic
What’s Spanish for breakthrough album?
This, her first English-language album, wasn’t her U.S. debut, as MTV Unplugged (cut for MTV Latin America) earned her a Grammy last year. But this disc, produced by Gloria Estefan’s husband, Emilio, establishes the 24-year-old Colombian as a genuine rock star — despite the Andean pan pipes that flavor the Alanis Morissette?ish single “Whenever, Wherever.”

47. JOE HENRY, SCAR
Mammoth
Erudite North Carolinian’s passionate return
Henry’s bank balance can’t have been hurt by having sister-in-law Madonna rework his song “Stop” (on this album) into the hit “Don’t Tell Me.” Still, his seventh LP saw him more gloriously down-and-out than ever. With free-jazz legend Ornette Coleman on alto sax augmenting the weather-beaten, Tom Waits?ish ambience perfectly, these 10 songs are as tuneful as they are smart and evocative.

46. LFO, LIFE IS GOOD
J
Abercrombie & Fitch pitchmen return strong
“Summer Girls” come and go, but this Massachusetts trio’s sophomore release proved they were more than a flash in the teen-pop pan. OK, innovators they ain’t. But they carry off their patchwork tunes with charm and — dare we say it — wit. The Sugar Ray sheen of the guitar-driven hit “Every Other Time” has the light touch ’N Sync’s more “mature” Celebrity frequently lacked — with hooks just as solid.

45. LUCINDA WILLIAMS, ESSENCE
Lost Highway
Intelligence is nothing to fear
It took Lucinda Williams three years to complete — lightning-quick by her tortoise-like standards — and Essence is a slow burner. Its pace rarely rises above a trot (the nifty single “Get Right With God” aside), but Essence’s glory is in the frank detail of the title track, the all-too-believable “Lonely Girls” and the worrying “I Envy the Wind.” A minor hit (it got to number 29), it’s not for the faint of heart.

44. LE TIGRE, FEMINIST SWEEPSTAKES
Mr. Lady
Feisty, feminist, ferocious and funny
Fronted by former Bikini Kill frontperson Kathleen Hanna, Le Tigre are not a regular indie-rock group, forsaking the purposeful thrash of guitar, bass and drums for looped grooves and lo-fi electronics. On their superb second album, sly tracks such as the lithe Tom-Tom Club homage “Fake French” and the chatty, ambient “Dyke March” are the best kind of agit-rock — the kind with humor.

43. ANGIE STONE, MAHOGANY SOUL
J
The afro revival gets bigger
This South Carolina soul revivalist’s second album takes on the knotty issues of the day in singular fashion. The warmly mellow first single, “Brotha,” unfashionably offers positive praise to the male of the species; “What You Dyin’ For” chides suicidal teens; and “Time of the Month” tells it like it is, menstruation-wise. Stone is so obviously an independent woman, it hardly bears mentioning.

42. SLIPKNOT, IOWA
Roadrunner
Man’s inhumanity to man: the musical
Despite new un-homemade masks and sharp new jumpsuits, the nine-headed hate machine out of Des Moines, Iowa, shows few signs of softening the second time around. The concert crowd-pleaser “People = Shit” offers a clue to the band’s mood, and the ensuing hour of brutality makes it clear the boys feel equally ambivalent about melody, choruses and generally playing nice. Now that’s extreme mettle.

41. ORLANDO “CACHAITO” LOPEZ, CACHAITO
World Circuit/Nonesuch
Brilliant Cuban jazz bass
The son of Cuban bass legend Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Buena Vista Social Club bassman Cachaito (“little Cachao”) is a jazz stalwart in Havana. Although this disc includes a cameo by Buena Vista vocalist Ibraham Ferrer, it emphasizes jamming over singing, offering enough deep groove and melodic improvisation to keep even jazz illiterates interested.

40. GORILLAZ, GORILLAZ
Virgin
Cartoon supergroup makes truly animated music
There are times when the debut from Gorillaz — referred to disparagingly by Blur bassist Alex James as “the Banana Splits” — sounds as if it were conceived under the tiresome effects of marijuana. Fortunately, and probably because of Blur frontman Damon Albarn’s pop sensibilities, Gorillaz’ music (especially the MTV hit “Clint Eastwood”) is as catchy as it is obscure, offering self-indulgence that’s controlled enough to be entertaining.

39. THE AVALANCHES, SINCE I LEFT YOU
Modular/EMI
Samplemania!
This Melbourne, Australia, collective was well-named — the torrent of samples on this debut amount to a free-falling pileup of pop’s grooviest moments. Throwing in the familiar with the obscure (the title track pillages “Everyday,” by minor ’80s R&B combo the Main Attraction), this psychedelic disco party suggests those lifetimes devoted to sample-hunting weren’t misspent after all.

38. IKE REILLY, SALESMEN AND RACISTS
Republic/Universal
The tuneful revenge of a jaded Chicago bellhop
Opening with the blunt self-assessment “Last time, I couldn’t make you come,” out-of-work hotel doorman Ike Reilly’s debut is a litany of vicious zingers aimed both at himself and the increasingly depressing world outside his door. Unloading the Everest-size chip on his shoulder, Reilly delivers his eclectic, vibrant rock & roll rant with a smart-ass sneer worthy of Paul Westerberg.

37. STEPHEN MALKMUS, STEPHEN MALKMUS
Matador
Indie-rock prince plays it straight
Pavement’s prettiest moments often felt like jokes listeners weren’t clever enough to get, but this solo debut from frontman Stephen Malkmus is less slanted and more enchanting than his past output (maybe that’s why it outsold so many Pavement albums). With loose-limbed guitar hooks and snarky lyrics, Malkmus isn’t wandering far off Pavement’s course; he’s just straightening it out a bit.

36. TENACIOUS D, TENACIOUS D
Epic
There’s something wrong with these freaky kids
The line between clever and stupid just got thinner. Comedians Jack Black and Kyle Gass simultaneously honor and mock suburban hard-rockin’ hesher culture. Sounding like a cross between Ozzy and Barenaked Ladies, the D focus on the essentials — sex, good bud, fast food and the advancing ag+e of Ronnie James Dio. In their own words, “It doesn’t matter if it’s good, only that it rocks.”

35. THE WORD, THE WORD
Ropeadope
Jam-band music goes to church
Originally a notion shared by jazz keyboardist John Medeski and North Mississippi Allstar guitarist Luther Dickinson, this fiery gospel jam band also introduced extraordinary pedal-steel guitarist Robert Randolph. A former law clerk by day, Jimi Hendrix crossed with Mahalia Jackson by night, the 24-year-old Randolph brings genius to The Word’s collection of traditional gospel melodies and blues-rock improv.

34. CHRIS WHITLEY, ROCKET HOUSE
ATO
Ex-street singer updates the blues
“Dobro and bottleneck” normally connotes scratchy blues records from the ’30s, but Chris Whitley makes, the combination strikingly modern. With turntables, looped beats and a cameo by label boss Dave Matthews, Whitley’s seventh album is more pop-savvy than last year’s critically acclaimed Perfect Day. But beneath its alt-rock veneer, it’s as lonesome as any blues.

33. TORI AMOS, STRANGE LITTLE GIRLS
Atlantic
An ambitious, unnerving covers story
In a career of bold moves, this Top 5 hit was Tori Amos’s boldest yet — a collection of covers that puts a provocative femme spin on 12 traditionally male narratives by everyone from 10cc to Slayer. Amos plays it fast and loose (OK, slow and loose) here, rewriting Eminem’s “ ’97 Bonnie & Clyde” and the Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” into harrowing goth oddities that become her own.

32. D12, DEVIL’S NIGHT
Shady Records/Interscope
Eminem and crew test strong stomachs
While the moral majority still fumed over The Marshall Mathers LP, notorious rapper Eminem was busy helping five of his old Detroit buddies into the platinum spotlight. Singles “Shit on You” and (a very cleaned-up) “Purple Pills” — “Purple Hills” on MTV — offered only a few clues that the album would be so committed to obscenity it was almost heroic. Minimum slack, maximum hurt.

31. CRAIG DAVID, BORN TO DO IT
Wildstar/Atlantic
Nutty beard. Awesome talent
Proof that at least someone remembers Terence Trent D’Arby, this debut from David found the British soul crooner retooling his idol’s proto-R&B vibes for the new century on an album that redefined omnipresent, thanks to “Fill Me In,” “7 Days” and “Rewind.” A huge U.K. hit, it went to number 11 here, landing David considerable MTV play. And he’s still barely out of his teens. Bastard.

30. DAFT PUNK, DISCOVERY
Virgin
They are the robots, apparently
A collection that improves on their previous album, Homework, and most other electronica records, Discovery shows that the French duo’s transformation into cyborgs has had only a positive effect on their work. Highlights include “One More Time,” the dance floor?filling “Digital Love” and “Aerodynamic” — house music’s first (and probably last) tribute to the fret-board skills of Eddie Van Halen.

29. JANET, ALL FOR YOU
Virgin
Successful singer seeks soul mate
Her marriage over, Janet’s back on the market, and the double-platinum All for You makes for a convincing and enticing personal ad. Exerting a lighter touch than on 1997’s kinky Velvet Rope, the queen of R&B-infused dance-pop balances slickly crafted groovers with breezy, pristine ballads. Best of all, Janet sounds sweet (as on the sublime title track) even when she’s aching to be dirty — the ideal pop come-on.

28. JIMMY EAT WORLD, BLEED AMERICAN
Dreamworks
Tuneful, retro alt-rock — brilliant!
This Arizona-bred foursome’s high-gloss third album chucked much of the soulful seething that made 1999’s Clarity an emo-punk touchstone in favor of tightly wound tunes in the Cars/Knack mode. Rife with references to Madness, Mötley Crüe and John Mellencamp, Bleed American is a minor alt-rock hit (peaking at number 54) with a “Totally ’80s” heart on its sleeve.

27. MANU CHAO, PROXIMA ESTACION: ESPERANZA
Virgin
A tasty worldbeat smorgasbord
Originally leader of Mano Negra, a popular (well, in France) late-’80s worldbeat combo, singer/guitarist Chao traveled South America and Africa to make his polyglot debut, Clandestino, in 1998. Now in Barcelona, Spain, he brings an urban flair to Proxima Estacion: Esperanza (Next Stop: Hope), fleshing out Caribbean and Latin tunes with dub bass, hip-hop flavor and leftist politics.

26. LUDACRIS, WORD OF MOUF
Def Jam South
Southern rap with a sense of humor
Since he’s not the handsomest guy on the planet, Ludacris probably learned early on that a sense of humor goes a long way. On his sophomore release, this motormouth rapper straight out of the Dirty South bites into every rhyme with loony zeal; he’s charismatic even when the songs slide into standard badass bluster, while the beats on “Saturdays” bounce, pounce, rock and roll.

25. THE COUP, PARTY MUSIC
75 ARK
Political rap, behind 2001’s worst-timed cover art
The original sleeve of this Oakland, California, hip-hop duo’s album was an eerily prescient depiction of the World Trade Center towers exploding. When life imitated cover art, the group quickly pulled the image. But the controversy couldn’t obscure the album’s virtues — cogent, biting political rap that raises issues and pushes unabashed leftist ideology without sacrificing the funk — or the fun.

24. SHELBY LYNNE, LOVE, SHELBY
Island
Grammy’s Best New Artist gets better
Surpassing last year’s Grammy-winning I Am Shelby Lynne, the new Love, Shelby paints the former country singer as a full-on rock star. Working with Alanis Morissette hitmeister Glenn Ballard, Lynne flirts with everything from slick, Marvin Gaye?style soul to a raw rendition of John Lennon’s “Mother,” and shines like gold on the Aimee Mann?ish “Wall in Your Heart.”

23. NEW ORDER, GET READY
Reprise
Triumphant return of electro-rock emperors
Described before its release by bassist Peter Hook as “pure New Order,” Get Ready proved just that, with its members (minus Gillian Gilbert, sidelined by family illness) combining to effortlessly recreate that distinctive electronica- rock matrix — acting, in other words, like people who hadn’t spent the last eight years concentrating on solo projects and bitching about one another to music journalists.

22. BJÖRK, VESPERTINE
Elektra
Björk’s back! Back! Back!
Having moved to New York and fallen in love (with arty filmmaker Matthew Barney), Björk swapped the crunching belligerence of 1997’s Homogenic for something altogether cuddlier, full of lush synths, clockwork chimes and cooing choirs. Vespertine, in fact, was originally entitled Domestica, reflecting its author’s wish to create “an album that sounded like it was made while someone was cooking pasta.” As improbable as that sounds, she just about succeeded.

21. THE WHITE STRIPES, WHITE BLOOD CELLS
Sympathy for the Record Industry
Believe the hype!
If not quite the acceptable substitute for a cancer cure that it has been called in some quarters, this third album from Detroit natives Meg and Jack White remains a fabulous approximation of what the blues would have sounded like had it been invented by Iggy Pop fans. It’s proof, too, that the importance of bass players in rock may have been somewhat exaggerated.

20. WEEZER, WEEZER
Geffen
The Weezers go pop
In 29 hot, Ric Ocasek?produced minutes, Weezer erased five years of uncertainty. Nearly undone by 1996’s difficult Pinkerton, songwriter Rivers Cuomo unleashed a shimmering passel of pop songs, full of ringing guitars and loopy harmonies. The juxtaposition of the lazy “Island in the Sun” and the creepily anthemic “Hash Pipe” proves that pop’s geek genius isn’t ready to be put out to the sandbox just yet.

19. CHOCOLATE GENIUS, GODMUSIC
V2
R&B auteur on a headphone trip
Had Brian Wilson grown up on Prince, John Coltrane and chamber music, he might have sounded like Chocolate Genius, the nom de studio of multi-instrumentalist (and sometime jingle writer) Mark Anthony Thompson. Going deeper and weirder than on 1998’s Blackmusic, the Brooklyn native builds a sonic hideaway of whispery vocals and jazzy grooves. It’s not pop, but the arty R&B of “Glorious” and “Love” is entrancing.

18. TOOL, LATERALUS
Tool/Volcano
Long songs worth sitting through
This chart-topping prog-rock experiment seems less likely to win over mosh-pit denizens than Tool’s first two albums — against the accessibility of the first single, “Schism,” are complicated songs about stuff like math, many of which clock in on the far side of eight minutes. Still, it’s everything Tool music should be — dark, intelligent and kick-ass. Expect album number four sometime in 2006.

17. THE STROKES, IS THIS IT
RCA
How to win fans and influence critics
They say posh people can’t rock, but the Strokes — whose five members attended New York City boarding and prep schools together — disproved this with their exhilarating, much-cheered debut album. They may look like models (no surprise, given that singer Julian Casablancas is the son of model-agency head John Casablancas), but they sound like punk’s Class of ’77 risen up to take revenge on the twenty-first century. Expect the Cars revival any day now.

16. STAIND, BREAK THE CYCLE
Flip/Elektra
They care so you don’t have to
Surprisingly sensitive singer Aaron Lewis and the guys’ third album — their second since Fred Durst signed them, and their first number 1 — saw the quartet turning woe into dough, thanks to the uplifting and memorable Durst duet “Outside” and the touching ballad “It’s Been Awhile.” But being able to feel their fans’ pain was only part of the appeal, for Staind also rocked harder and smarter than any of the year’s nü-metal bands.

15. MISSY ELLIOTT, MISS E . . . SO ADDICTIVE
Gold Mind/Elektra
Missy’s back. One-minute men, beware
The tabla-thumping lead single, “Get Ur Freak On,” signaled the return of the old, weird Missy, largely MIA on 1999’s sophomore-slumpy Da Real World. The status of her freak (firmly in the “on” position) thus established, Elliott spent the rest of the million-selling Miss E flexing her authority, asserting her sexuality, possibly extolling the rave drug Ecstasy and putting even the mighty Jay-Z in his place as a “One Minute Man.”

14. ELTON JOHN, SONGS FROM THE WEST COAST
Rocket/Universal
Back to basics, back to form
Having spent his recent albums messing around inconsequentially, Elton John has finally remembered that he’s at his best sitting at a piano putting soaring melodies to Bernie Taupin’s lyrics (like back in the glory days of the ’70s), rather than duetting with micro-celebrities. Taken as a whole, these 12 songs rank alongside his best early-’70s work; individually, the single “I Want Love” is a stone classic.

13. ’N SYNC, CELEBRITY
Jive
Beating the teen-pop recession
In their breakout bid from the boy-band ghetto, Florida’s finest headed for another kind of ghetto as the quintet’s sound turned more adult and urban. Of course, this third outing was still less MC than M-I-C-K-E-Y, but so what? The funked-up single “Pop” lived up to its title, while the Neptunes-produced groove on “Girlfriend” really did move. (As did the album, with more than 5 million sold.) Not just pretty faces, ’N Sync may be the only teen pop act to survive adulthood.

12. ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK, O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
Lost Highway
The Coen Brothers’ mountain-music primer
Breaking the rules of soundtrack-making by featuring songs actually in the movie, the double-platinum O Brother pushed hillbilly music to an unlikely place: the top of the country charts. Folk, bluegrass and gospel from old-timers (Ralph Stanley, Norman Blake) and new-timers (Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss) alike drives the story line, revealing history along the way.

11. BILAL, 1ST BORN SECOND
Interscope
R&B vocal prodigy makes hype believable
Raised on jazz and trained in opera, 21-year-old Philly native Bilal Sayeed Oliver is hardly a typical neo-soulman. 1st Born Second was one of the year’s most anticipated R&B debuts, thanks to a prerelease buzz fueled by collaborations with Erykah Badu, Jill Scott and Common. Amazingly, the album (a Top 10 R&B hit) exceeded the buzz, showing beyond-his-years confidence while suggesting a jazzier, rap-savvy D’Angelo.

10. SYSTEM OF A DOWN, TOXICITY
American/Columbia
Brainy, hard-rocking, political — and Armenian!
Don’t be fooled by System of a Down’s chugging guitars, shouty vocals and stupid beards — this is most definitely not nü-metal. Sure, the California quartet — Armenian in descent — is angry, but political and social injustice, not “haters,” is what gets them hot under the collar. Yes, their second album rocks — nowhere more so than in “Chop Suey!”, one of the best songs of this or any other year.

9. DESTINY’S CHILD, SURVIVOR
Columbia
Premier R&B girl group keeps scoring the hits
Three albums in, the God-fearing Houston-based minxes are well on their way to eclipsing En Vogue as the preeminent R&B girl group. Beyoncé Knowles coproduced the chart-topping Survivor with manager/father Matthew; Jam & Lewis couldn’t have done better. The glorious clatter of the title track and the waspish “Nasty Girl” suggest there’s much more where this came from. The world will be theirs.

8. BASEMENT JAXX, ROOTY
Astralwerks
The sound of swingin’ (south) London
One of those rare albums which not only inhales an impeccable array of influences (Chicago house, Prince, George Duke’s groovier moments) but actually improves on them. This second proper album from Brixton, South London, dance nabobs Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton kicks off with the ultra-infectious call-and-response single “Romeo,” and then sets about getting really funky.

7. ALICIA KEYS, SONGS IN A MINOR
J
Minor key, major talent
Her breakthrough single was called “Fallin’,” but down certainly isn’t the direction this 20-year-old singer-songwriter is heading. With pop-puppet looks but prodigal piano skills, the cornrowed New Yorker dominated the charts and was mentioned in the same breath as Roberta Flack and Aretha Franklin. Nü-soul has rarely sounded so soulful.

6. MACY GRAY, THE ID
Epic
Macy gets sexy and crazy
The follow-up to her 1999 Grammy-winning debut oozes sweat and Afrosheen as the Los Angeles soul stylist flies the freak flag of funkadelica. Her salaciousness recalls Al Green before he got religion, and she has the subtlety to wrap her raspy growl around tender ballads such as the smoldering “Sweet Baby.” The Id is a strange and badass bacchanal, one well worth joining.

5. MARY J. BLIGE, NO MORE DRAMA
MCA
Best Blige album ever!
Amazingly dense and consistent for an album that runs to 75 minutes, No More Drama combined bustling hip-hop production from Dr. Dre, Swizz Beatz and Missy Elliott with vocal styles from rap to scat to poetry. The Top 10 hit “Family Affair” shared its uplifting attitude with the rest of the album. Blige has never sounded stronger or more soulful.

4. RADIOHEAD, AMNESIAC
Capitol
Art-rock with tunes
Early rumors suggested that the world’s cleverest band would follow Kid A by returning to its guitar-rock roots, a scenario Amnesiac met halfway. Its contents — trailered by the alt-jazz of “Pyramid Song” — were some distance from Bon Jovi, but there was a spirit and solidity here that some feared Radiohead had mislaid. As their spectacular summer shows proved, they still rock. Kind of.

3. RYAN ADAMS, GOLD
Lost Highway
In his hands, Americana is beautiful
Few have emerged from a band’s wreckage as handily as Ryan Adams has from Whiskeytown (which he now claims to have “fucking hated”). Gold is slicker than his solo debut, Heartbreaker, but the songs are as good, with “New York, New York” and “La Cienega Just Smiled” offering a richly tuneful, hugely enjoyable alt-country tour through both America and Adams’s 26-year-old soul.

2. JAY-Z, THE BLUEPRINT
Def Jam/Roc-A-Fella
Surprise — he’s still a hustler, baby
Driven by the Jacksons-sampling hit “Izzo (H.O.V.A.),” the Brooklyn hip-hop icon’s sixth album went straight to number 1; the fact that it’s also his most consistently great record is gravy. The main ingredient is soul: “U Don’t Know” and “Heart of the City” flaunt vintage R&B samples as luxurious as Corinthian-leather upholstery.

1. BOB DYLAN, LOVE AND THEFT
Columbia
His best since Blonde on Blonde
Rarely — not, in fact, since the filler on 1990’s Under the Red Sky — has Dylan sounded so jolly. Always seeming as if caught mid-wink, he rocks (“Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum”), he rolls (“Honest With Me”) and he even swings (“Summer Days”). Where 1997’s widely lauded Time Out of Mind brooded over death and severed relationships, Love and Theft is almost frisky in its pursuit of romance. It’s enormous fun for both artist and listener. An album on par with Blonde on Blonde, it’s an appropriate standard for the Best of 2001.