Our incoming music editor is one sassy cat. He's got great taste in music, too. Read on.
- Basement Jaxx - Remedy
The Basement Jaxx rock. By far the most fun music to dance to in the last year, Remedy drew upon house, techno, hip-hop, jazz and even some Latin spice to keep us going past sunrise.
- The Flaming Lips - The Soft Bulletin
Lush orchestration, fragile melodies and a weird fixation on medical themes-The Soft Bulletin was at once classically beautiful and wildly experimental.
- Mogwai - Come On Die Young
A dark, brooding post-rock opus. It's scary, but Mogwai will only get better.
- Dead Prez - Let's Get Free
Like Chuck D said this week in Wisconsin, it's not if you're old skool, it's if you're true skool. It's impossible to ignore the truths on this vital debut.
- Travis - The Man Who
An album so sincere and honest, it could become your best friend. If America doesn't embrace Travis, then we truly have no heart.
- Macy Gray - On How Life Is
She may sing like some forgotten character from South Park, but her songs have attitude and style.
- Moby - Play
On Play, Moby showed the world that electronica can have soul and a brain. America's first electronic masterpiece.
- Beck - Midnite Vultures
After ten songs of Beck's tongue-in-cheek funky come-ons, wouldn't you let him get with you and your sister, too?
- Laurent Garnier - Unreasonable Behaviour
This Parisian house artist is waging a one-man war on trance, and the first battle is a clear victory for the undeniable Unreasonable Behaviour.
- Super Furry Animals - Guerrilla
They follow a calypso song with an ode to mobile phones. Clearly, these guys are just too cool.
-By Robert Kelley
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