57. Steve Wynn, Here Come The Miracles (Blue Rose, 2001)
After nearly a decade of one good-but-not-great album after another, Wynn went for broke and came out of nowhere with this self-proclaimed masterpiece of a double album. People forget how ballsy Wynn can be (when he led the "Paisley Underground" '80s band The Dream Syndicate, he ironically denied any Lou Reed influences) but here he's got the tunes to back up such arrogance. Arguably the loosest and livliest stuff of his career, it effectively expresses nineteen sides of Wynn's personality without being pretentious about it. My favorites include the perfect power-pop "Shades of Blue" and the soulful, raggedy closer "There Will Come A Day", but none of these selections are weak or second rate. Here's to getting everything recorded in ten days, and making some of the best music of your career long after you were supposed to have peaked.
58. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars, 2000)
This exciting, near-revolutionary female trio from Washington state is the rare band that's more confident (and kicks more ass) with each album. Their fifth isn't a radical departure from the first four, but rather a successful amalgamation of everything that was great about those albums, especially Corin Tucker's and Carrie Brownstein's unprecedented, intricate but hookier-than-fuck twin guitar lines and vocal parts. This is a band that gets off on energy and fun, from the opening swagger of "The Ballad of a Ladyman" and the title track's surf drumming to Corin's incomparable caterwauling on "Milkshake N' Honey". When she can't hold back and practically yells out the title of the Who-tastic "You're No Rock N' Roll Fun" at its conclusion, you know S-K have successfully conquered the world and your heart, if not necessarily the charts.
After nearly a decade of one good-but-not-great album after another, Wynn went for broke and came out of nowhere with this self-proclaimed masterpiece of a double album. People forget how ballsy Wynn can be (when he led the "Paisley Underground" '80s band The Dream Syndicate, he ironically denied any Lou Reed influences) but here he's got the tunes to back up such arrogance. Arguably the loosest and livliest stuff of his career, it effectively expresses nineteen sides of Wynn's personality without being pretentious about it. My favorites include the perfect power-pop "Shades of Blue" and the soulful, raggedy closer "There Will Come A Day", but none of these selections are weak or second rate. Here's to getting everything recorded in ten days, and making some of the best music of your career long after you were supposed to have peaked.
58. Sleater-Kinney, All Hands On the Bad One (Kill Rock Stars, 2000)
This exciting, near-revolutionary female trio from Washington state is the rare band that's more confident (and kicks more ass) with each album. Their fifth isn't a radical departure from the first four, but rather a successful amalgamation of everything that was great about those albums, especially Corin Tucker's and Carrie Brownstein's unprecedented, intricate but hookier-than-fuck twin guitar lines and vocal parts. This is a band that gets off on energy and fun, from the opening swagger of "The Ballad of a Ladyman" and the title track's surf drumming to Corin's incomparable caterwauling on "Milkshake N' Honey". When she can't hold back and practically yells out the title of the Who-tastic "You're No Rock N' Roll Fun" at its conclusion, you know S-K have successfully conquered the world and your heart, if not necessarily the charts.
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